Meanderings of a Mermaid

How can it still be winter? There was no snow this time around and winter was very mild. And except for last week, no rain either. So much for El Nino. Wildflowers are carpeting the land. But I have been keeping busy with my crafts and my teaching.  The new window is installed at the Fibernaculum. This is a renovated cistern building. I am now using it for fiber preparation and dyeing. The window frame and trim is painted. There are even pretty curtains on the inside. A good thrift store find were these heavy duty curtains. The stack of fleeces has piled up higher in the Fibernaculum,  Oh boy. I could be busy a long time here. Underway is a blue baby blanket. I am using acrylics to make a simple patchwork style blanket. I like how the very easy cable looks like links in a chain. This is a portion of the last fabric that came off Gintaras, my large loom in The Mermaid Lounge. It is an eight shaft twill. I used a thin black cotton warp that caus...

 So here is the beginning of a wool baby blanket I am doing. The pattern is from an old Mon Tricot magazine from 73/74. The brown frame will be throughout as will the white central square. I will switch up the middle colour from olive green to light purple to light brown to navy blue. This just happened to be wool I had in my stash. A relatively soft polwarth I believe. It will have a modern checkerboard look to it when the strips are pieced together.  This is a poncho that can be worn with the point hanging down in the front, back or, heck, even at the side. It is a deep rich purple wool/acrylic. The stitch pattern is from an old stitch dictionary and was called ladyslipper pattern.  Here is another view of the poncho. It stretches nicely to go over the shoulders. Here is the finished shawl I knit up using my own hand spun wool. It is immensely gratifying to do the design, the spinning and the knitting. This started out as two rectangles. Each was knit of a...