Friday Fluff

 

How it started: It was two ounces of Polwarth and silk that was dyed by some ladies who bring fiber to sell at our monthly beach block party.

How it went: Transferring all those skinny singles onto a Ladybug bobbin was a hair raising experience. There was breakage.

How it ended: Chain playing those delicate singles was equally hair raising and there was even more breakage. Chain plying was not the best idea but I wanted to keep those colors as intact as possible. Don't ask me what I'm going to do with this pretty little two ounce skein. I have no idea. 

Up next for the drop spindles is this BFL that's been in my stash for years and years. It's very pretty and since it's a subtle gradient I won't be tempted to try and chain ply it in order to keep the colors together.

And....now that the Ladybug is free again, I dug out this beauty. It's a cormo/silk blend in the It's Complicated colorway from Hipstrings. It's purple with pops of orange. Speaking of orange, as you can see by my Crocs, I'm ready for Taylor Swift's recently announced orange era. Now I've got to go make Taylor Barbie an orange dress so the search is on for some sparkly orange material that gives definite showgirl vibes. 
 

Color Blind

 

Can you see the difference between these two colors? Apparently I couldn't. All those big dots behind the Funky Flower were supposed to be in the yellow NOT the orange. 

Here they are again on the pattern's photo. Don't those dots look orange? I realized I had it wrong when I noticed that I wasn't going to have enough of the orange to finish all the dots. Argh....

In my panic, I thought about just buying another kit but there is only one available on eBay and they want a fortune for it. Not happening. I tried to match colors with yarn I could buy online but that's risky. So....there was nothing to do but pick out all the orange stitch by stitch. It took all night and there was no way to save it. It's a big pile of orange fluff now. 

Now I have to stitch those dots all over again. The orange was only being used on two small flowers so I did order some DMC wool in different colors now that the orange is mostly gone. In my defense the chart for the pattern is pretty terrible. It's very easy to mix up symbols but I'm still kicking myself. This was very stupid mistake and the SECOND time I've got the colors wrong.  

Wednesday WIPs

 

Since our Grand sitting adventure is over, we're back to doing a lot of this. We have a lot of finishing touches to do in the bathroom not to mention the kitchen and staircase that we re-did several years ago. We're not very good at getting trim and transitions done in a timely manner.

That means that I've been following The Mister around doing a lot of this. I've got three pairs of socks all needing toes at the same time. I should hopefully have them all done by next week. 

Thanks to the unexpected addition of three new Barbies in the past weeks, I had to make room on the shelf where some of them live. Chestnut was taking up room in a box there so it has now come out of storage. I haven't started working on it just yet. I'm still trying to figure out where I am in the pattern. My notes don't make sense to me. It's a very complicated pattern and I had to modify it to work with my brain. 

That means that I've got to get back to weaving in all those ends on Bon Ami so it can be steeked since it's the trial run for Chestnut. I'm just about to finish this sleeve but I have one more to go. I hate the idea of doing it but whenever I pick it up, it turns out to be a pleasant way to pass the time. 

Tiny Needle Tuesday

 

I really thought I could whip through this border and have it done but it's been slow going. Those little flowers in between the scallops will be the death of me. 

Funky Flower's background is still being worked on. I've decided that I like needlepoint. Big needles, big yarn. You can make a lot of progress in a little time. 

Dear Jane's block E3 looks like this now. All the paper pieces are covered. I just need to assemble them. No applique on this one, thank goodness. 

And....Taylor Barbie finally got her wedding guest dress finished. This was my second attempt. The first one had wonky gathering on the skirt. What she really needs are better shoes. Those pink pumps aren't right but my collection of shoes is horrific. Whatever happened to those dainty little shoes from Barbies past that always fell victim to the vacuum? 

Midnight Madness

 

I spend too much time watching people do things online late at night when I should be sleeping. 

Exhibit A: I saw someone using their Gelli plate to make botanical prints so I ordered some acrylic paint so I could try it on my beat up old plate. 

There's a lot of ways to do it but this particular video used a "hinge" method of securing the paper for multiple passes. I found a small hosta leaf and a piece of a fern right outside my door. I wasn't all in on this yet so foraging wasn't going to happen.

My first attempt ended up in the trash but my second attempt showed some promise. This could be fun.

Lost and Found

 

The new Connecting Threads catalog came out the other day and while perusing my way through it, I remembered I had this scrappy hexie table runner in the works somewhere.

I found it stashed away in a bag in the sewing room still in the hoop where ages ago I had started hand quilting it.

I do recall the issue was not having the colors of quilting thread I needed. I was in search of a sage green and a dark brown and put the thing away while I went looking and then forgot about it. I've got more thread on the way now that might work. My great grandmother would have laughed at how ridiculous this was. No matter what her quilts looked like, she used one color and one color only to quilt it. White. The difference is that her tiny quilting stitches were exquisite and mine look like those of a drunk monkey. I need all the camouflage for those misaligned stitches as I can get. 

Back on Track

 

With a huge sigh of relief, I wove the first few inches of that darn dishtowel. So far, so good. Since it took me forever to get to this point, I hope it stays that way. 

And....we have another birthday today. Daughter is turning 42 today. I didn't realize how much she looks like baby Grand until I dug out this old photo of her. They could be twins.