Meanderings of a Mermaid

Hello Friends; This spring and summer has been quite rainy and it's meant a fair bit of time is spent in the studio. I love it! A lot is getting done and new hobbies are being added to the retenue, much to Mr's chagrin.  So here is one of the second pair of Lithuanian socks I knit up this summer. Both are knit and all the ends are now darned in. I do need to block them though. They are for Mr, which might explain why they are like skis.   This quilt top was in a box of things I inherited from my late husband's mother. I am finishing this quilt now, and learning to quilt as I go along. It will be a surprise gift for her daughter, who loves purple. Close up of my first attempts at hand quilting. I am having fun with it for sure. I think I will only quilt the pink and the purple pieces. This is a picture of the pattern I followed to make the blue booties below. They went together surprisingly quickly, but of course, being for a baby they are tiny and the sea...

Hello Dear Friends: the long silence does not mean that I have floated away like so many unfortunate Canadians due to flooding. I am here, just busy being a crafty hermit. First off, I have a new wheel! Yes. And no, I do not need another wheel. That's not the point. It is a tool, and like most tools, there are specialty ones. And that's what this is. This is a Canadian Production Wheel, probably made by Mr. L.S. Laurence of St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, between 1830-1850. Isn't it lovely? This wheel has a grand 30.5" diameter wheel and is designed to spin a very thin wool, very fast, hence the "production" name. I cleaned and conditioned the wood, made two temporary pegs and put leather shims in at the axle, and it spins like a dream. My resulting singles are very fine indeed. The only fibre I have here in any quantity is a neppy Polwarth. It spins up nicely on this wheel but has lumps. There are way too many nepps to stop and remove them. This fibre was bou...

 So today was the day. The calendar was wide open and no commitments. So I leapt into this project with all my fins flapping. The Rambouillet fleece needs to be washed to remove the lanolin and the suint. Suint is sheep's sweat. And a lot of other dirt still needs to come out. So the top picture is where we left off after the skirting and manual picking. This was very time consuming.  Wash Number One. All throughout I am using nine lingerie bags to contain the fibers. The detergent of choice is the blue Dawn dish detergent (do not use the type with enzymes!). I cranked up the hot water tank to 160 deg F and am doing this in the tub. For each step the time is set for twenty minutes. Enough for the lanolin to dissolve and for grit to fall to the bottom, but not enough time for the water to cool and the lanolin to re-deposit onto the wool. First water quite murky.  Wash Number Two is noticeably cleaner. Between washes I am gently pressing out as much water as ...

 Yesterday I was extremely lucky and got the call to come pick up a freshly sheared fleece. The owner told me it was a Fine Wool Type and my amateur investigations suggest this is a rambouillet fleece. The ewe was a huge gal, lovely in her Hill Country home range. The first photo shows the conversion of my laundry/clothesline platform to a skirting station. The fleece is in the green bag and must weight between ten to fifteen pounds.                                       Here is a random photo of the raw wool, straight off the sheep's back. All kinds of debris and dirt. What you can't feel or smell is the lovely lanolin that permeates all the fibers. Can you see the gorgeous crimp of the fibres?  In skirting, one has to throw away the parts of the fleece that are too dirty or too damage...

   Okay so a person shouldn't be this happy about buying a set of dishes. But you don't understand. This is the first set of dishes I have bought. Sure there were the four plates on an insurance claim, and the partial set (with few pieces) bought to support a charity. All my dishes have been hand-me-downs.  I have been meaning to buy dishes for years now, and today I found the set that turned my crank.      Made by Metlox in California, this pattern is part of their Vernon ware and is called Florence. Little fruits and apple blossoms and leaves lie in relief around the outside. Why do I like them so much? I guess the colours, the playfulness and the way it all reminds of the spring time that is bursting out all over the place here.   I was in a resale shop and found this set of eight. It's nice that they are made in the USA and not overseas like so much these days. It's a vintage pattern, but I don't know what year it was produced. I ...

First off, here is a bench cushion I made from the first fabric that came off the loom. All the pieces are from different variants on that first twill I played with. I do have some leftover pieces and as soon as I can get some more interfacing, I will make a tote bag from the remainder, plus a little wall hanging to remember Project Number One. Now this is the second fabric I wove. It is also a twill pattern, but is a Point Draft and irregular. It was definitely more fun to weave. I had to concentrate more to follow the treadling pattern correctly. It was easy to see if I made a mistake in treadling and I learned how to repair mistakes! I also had threading mistakes and had to fix those right at the start. I am learning lots! This third photo is just a close up of Project Number Two. It is off the loom now and is destined to become a table runner. I will put it on the counter between the dining room and family room, when we have our dinner parties. I will need to make a bi...

Check out this beautiful Spindle. I received it as a gift this week from a friend, MS. She is in my little knitting and spinning guild that I started in my southern home town. She appreciates the classes I teach. MS drew on a mermaid and then wood-burned her onto the whorl of the spindle. The mermaid's tail wraps around the side! Isn't she fantastic?  I love it when art meets practicality. I was needing a nicely balanced spindle too! This is my first time trying a top whorl spindle and I quite like it. I am practising with pink blue-faced leicester.  Now this charming little dress is something I designed for our barrista at Fuel where I go weekly to knit with the gals. More precisely the dress is for an infant that is due in April. Since I was about to teach a class in intarsia knitting, I did the colour change and leaves in intarsia. Then the daisy is knitted as separate petals and then sewn together, then sewn onto the fabric. Being a superwash wool, I hope this wi...