A Little Bit of Everything!

With two college classes and all the other classes I've been taking, it's been busy. I'm feeling a little recklessly hectic! I'll try to catch up on the highlights here...

My denim colored singles are now all 2 ply yarn. I need to wet-finish it and I want to try steam blocking it; then will publish photos. I've done so many demo days on this yarn, I've got basically two different weights... At this point I'm debating whether to pin weave it into a shawl, like I'd originally thought or weave a blanket out of it for the TV room; the colors match in their perfectly. Pictures will come once the yarn is wet finished.

Stephenie Gaustad's workshops were stupendous. The first day, we spun wool and talked about spinning for weaving. I learned the basic characteristics of a good warp (it can't drift, not one little bit) and how to figure the sett for a yarn. Apparently there's this formula called the Ashenhurst formula, which relates the yards per pound (YPP) to the number of warp threads per inch for a balanced weave; Stephenie says it's spot on about 90% of the time. I'm so excited to try this! The second day was cotton, linen, ramie, etc... I can spin cotton a lot better now.

Clamshell quilt color layout

I took a Judy Niemeyer Quilt class at Scruffy Quilts in San Mateo; what a lovely little shop!  The class was one Sunday near the beginning of January and another Sunday about a month later. I worked very very hard at getting almost all of the blocks done in time for the class so I could get instructor help with the color balancing the layout. The other student cancelled at the last minute so it was just me and the instructor; she not only helped with my layout, but also did a lot of the repetitive tasks for me. Thank you Gretchen! It's like getting a bump up the hill on a bicycle. I've still got a long way to go but I'm so much closer...

Speaking of classes, my two academic classes are Intermediate Sewing and Fashion Illustration. I'm loving the Intermediate Sewing class... Our first project is a pajama top, which I'm making from light blue flannel. I bought some spray dye and darkened the hems. It's either going to look great or look silly; we'll see.  I've started working on the second project, which is a sleeveless shirt; I've been looking at this for some time and I'll be able to get instructor help to fit it! The pattern has a number of necklines and sleeve lengths, so if I can get one to fit...

Time for Tams!

We had to do an exercise for class that involved a closet clean out. I've done this recently, before we moved... and probably still could clear out more but I'm pretty much there. So I used it as an exercise in determining a personal style, then identified holes in my wardrobe. I like the look of a skirt, jeans or slacks, paired with a shirt and a short jacket or a shawl, leaning towards art clothes. I also decided I can't slouch around in sweats every day, and made a resolution to try to look nice when I leave the house. We'll see how that goes.

On the knitting front, it continues to be a slow slog on skirt, I'm ready for ball #3. I also cast on and knitted the corrugated ribbing I wanted on a tam for a class I'm taking at Stitches.

These want to be my spring garden

Finally, I took a one day class on planting for the spring garden; these are food crops that will be harvested before the summer crops go in. I'm going to try covering them with a cover cloth to see if I can protect them from the rodents. Meanwhile, the peas are decimated but the Brussels are finally sprouting; they're so darn cute, and who knew they'd be at the bottom of the stalk!

What's up next? Honestly, at this point I'm just staying ahead of what's due! But having a blast doing it...