Mid Month Summary

I'll just post a summary of what I'm working on right now, no in process pictures today!

I attended Camp Stitches at the Coeur d'Alene Resort in Idaho.  What a lovely resort, right on the lake. My room faced south so I got to see lovely sunrises and sunsets, and the mist on the lake in the morning was amazing. Even more amazing was my teacher, Anna Zilboorg; I took Anna's Panels class, which covers her design as you go and knit in panels methodology. I've taken it before, years ago, the first time she taught it, and the class has gotten a lot better. She does teach the Austrian traveling twisted stitch, which takes a whole day to figure out, as far as I can tell.. but I think people get stuck on the idea that you have to do panels of that for a sweater, and it's not true. Anna had garments with regular cables, lace stitches, and textured knit/purl stitches. I started a couple of bands of Twisted Stitch, and looking forward to exploring this modular technique more!  And what a treat to be in a small class with Anna, equally lovely to share a sunset glass of wine with her after class.

Speaking of modular, I started a modular vest in garter stitch with some yarn from a friend's destash. I'm about 1/3 of the way done, so far not bored of garter stitch.

I combined some half width pin woven squares (so rectangles) and garter stitch into a cute pair of fingerless mitts to go with my pin woven shawl.

And I'm starting to work on my school projects; I'm about half done with a short sleeved yoked/princess seamed shirt in fabric I ordered from Spoonflower.com; it's my lab project.

I also warped up the loom at Deer Hollow Farm, which is a demonstration farm at Rancho San Antonio Park.  The room housing the loom is used to talk to children about how cloth is made; I've done spinning demos there.  Now instead of telling the kids they can make cloth on that loom, there's a warp and tshirt yarn weft on it. It didn't take long,  I really enjoyed it, and the docents are thrilled; so a triple win!  Weft is carpet weft from my rug, warp is cram dyed tshirts cut in 1/4 inch strips. The LeClerc loom is lovely to weave on.

The table top is done!

I grouted the poppy table top today!!!  DH put pieces of wood on the back to hold it in place on the wrought iron aquarium stand which we'll use as a side table next to the BBQ. It still needs sealer, but I'm much too excited not to declare it done. I learned a lot about color placement, and keeping pieces level. And what a difference the grout makes!

 I'm playing with choices for the two tables on the sky deck... Hoping to start those in a couple of weeks and complete them quickly.

I also made this cute little purse with a super short handle as a demo item for the 4H group I'll be helping teach to weave. The body uses T shirt yarn weft, and the handle is thrums from the rug I made. I have no idea what it'll be useful for, but it's darn cute.

I'm nearly done with the knitted shawl I was working on; I bound off early without the picot bindoff, but I think I'd like the picots better, so am debating ripping out the last two rows and redoing it.

I also started a baby sweater... I need it for a class I'm taking in October on how to make sleeves. I might as well finish it after the class is over, as it'll be roughly 1/2 done...

It's about 68"x24"

The pin woven shawl is complete as well!  Here it is blocking...  I thought perhaps that I didn't care for it but it's cute on and easy to wear. I'm knitting up a couple of fingerless mitts with the leftover yarn.

I'm stalled on my two school projects, and the loom is naked... On Tuesday, I'll be warping up a loom at a local demonstration farm with a colorful but basic plain weave, and Thursday I'm leaving for an Anna Zilboorg class in Idaho! So it's unlikely that I'll get anything else done for awhile.