Meanderings of a Mermaid

On the Wing. This is the name of the lace pattern from Vogue Stitchionary 5. Although it doesn't look it, right now this is a simple rectangle. The decent amount of reverse stockinette stitch background means the variegation in the yarn colour has a chance to show. My camera work here isn't the best. It is dawn and I'm in a dark room, using the flash. The colours are most definitely washed out. But you get the beginnings of an idea of where I am going with this. This panel will form the front or back of a summer tunic. I think I will run it up pretty much straight, no shaping. I am intrigued with making it a boat collar, therefore not disrupting the lace pattern. And I think it will drape nicely at the neck. Then I will knit up side panels in the same yarn I think, but a different pattern. And so waist shaping will probably be incorporated there. Sleeves I will determine as I approach the end and see how much yarn I have left over. It is Auracania Silk, (will get the tag n...

This one may show the front a little better. Sea Starz Shawl.

Ta Da!

The efforts of my recent Weaving 1o1 class. We worked up scarves? /tablerunners? (let's call them practice bits) on a rigid heddle loom. While I have experience weaving, it was on frame looms and floor looms. So this was a good refresher plus an introduction to the rigid heddle loom. Most of the time was spent preparing the warp threads and getting them onto the loom properly. A great class!

The time has come for me to take on another challenge. I bought an antique spinning wheel made in about the mid 1700s. With it I hope to learn to spin wool and other fibres. I was reflecting on why I am attracted to the antique in everything. I know for one thing that I am in awe of how technology and processes are developed and deeply respect how my ancestors made their way in the world. My Lithuanian heritage is strong with flax spinners who would've spent all day on a wheel exactly at this one, passing their spun linen fibres off to another person sitting at a large loom. And with everything in my life it's been "The School of Hard Knocks". I seem to need to grunt and get dirty and curse and shake my head a lot; learning all the while. This 1750s wheel will be finicky I'm sure and limited as to what it can do compared to the new jewels out there. Maybe in the future I will deserve one of those new ones. For the time being, I'll walk in the footsteps left b...

I've been beetling away at my Sea Stars shawl project. A couple of hours and the whole thing will be done. I am just completing a border edge now. After which you will get to see the completed result. My girlfriend C is calling it Sea Starz, modified after the stitch pattern name, Sea Stars. So I have adopted this name for the past few days. And then a happy little coincidence came along. Yesterday had three really obvious freaky coincidences occurred but I'll just tell you about one. I found out that a very creative jeweller, Dalan Hargrave of Spring Branch TX will be designing and making my next piece of jewellery. I've been lugging around quite a few cut stones for years. I profess to being a collector and I do eventually have most made into jewellery that I design, or my late husband designed and made. It was time to get some of the blue-green stones assembled into one art piece. It will have something to do with a mermaid - I think that's all I'm going to tell...

Do you remember the ads from way back when: The brassiere that was to Lift And Separate the girls.?? Well this is a good explanation for why it never rains in this part of the Hill Country. As the weather systems approach from the west they encounter the rising topography. Geologists have termed this area of exposed Precambrian rocks the Llano Uplift. It is a remarkable landscape feature that can be seen with some decent road tripping. As the warm wet weather reaches the slopes it begins to rise and cool. Some rain will come down as the clouds cool and carry more moisture. That's the lift. But then there is the separate. As the winds continue to push the weather eastward the systems split in half and veer around this north part of the Hill Country. It's remarkable to see on the weather map radar; happening over and over again. So because this region is "well endowed" it's a perpetual challenge for livestock and ranchers. You have my sympathies.