More back to normal

Center pull ball wound the old way

I'm busily trying to get back to normal, whatever that is... which means I'm off and running on a hundred different things.

The cardigan I mentioned last post is called Lake Breeze; this is the yarn I'm making it from. Like all Donegal tweeds, you don't really appreciate the nuances of color until you see it in the sunlight; it's glorious. I'm knitting along with only one misfire on my cabling (which I'm leaving, it's not that noticeable), and have knit from the top down nearly to the armholes. Check out my center pull ball finely wound by hand the old way on a notespinne.

Summer and Winter baby blanket; loving the grey

I went to my spinning guild yesterday and should have started the second braid of the blue wool silk that I was plying a couple of days ago... But instead I started spinning silk that I dyed years ago in a Camp Stitches class with my sister. No pics yet but it's looking decidedly pastel, or maybe slightly opalescent. I'll also need to be thinking about what to do for the CNCH  2020 spinning contest; everyone who enters starts with the same fiber and it's up to us to spin something clever from it.

Won't be done for Christmas

I've finished the grey baby blanket for little Elli Price, and have moved onto the green one; hope to take them off the loom before Thanksgiving so I can get on with the Warp Rep project I'm doing for the study group.

I also promised myself I'd get a quilt going again. The Christmas quilt was a little easier since I lost the color chart for the pub quilt. I'll resurrect that and get it going as well soon enough; but I'd like to get the Christmas quilt done and basted and I can make it my TV project. I think my current issue is how to carry the darn thing around? I'm going to ask the restaurant at knit night tomorrow for a pizza box, that should do quite well.

Back in the studio, getting caught up

Sheep to Shawl fabric closeup

I'm finally back in the studio and wanting to post some photos of stuff I did but did not post...

The first weekend of October I was in the Dixon Lambtown Sheep to Shawl contest as a spinner and we won! Too much fun, and it felt a lot easier than it did the other two times. Here's a close up of the fabric; with an natural off white warp and natural grey-brown weft, it was lovely.

Whoops! This is ungrouted.
I need to replace it with a grouted photo

The substrate class I took with Wilma? I came home with a few substrates, lots of ideas, and two finished objects. One is here,  molded in an ice cream mochi tub and featuring money. This was a total pain to grout. The other was molded in a toilet paper tube and features leftover glass from some of my fellow students past projects; it feels nice to have something that reminds me of them. We laid out the pieces on contact paper and rolled it on just to see if we could do it.

About the size of a toilet
paper tube

I've also been knitting on the sleeves for my woven jacket while being terrified of the next steps; I now have silk organza for the underlining, a zipper, and a lovely batik for facing, so really no more excuses other than I'm unsure if I want pockets.

I'm also weaving two baby blankets; I'm about 1/3 done with the first of two on the loom, woven in summer and winter.

I started knitting a cardigan from yarn I bought in Ireland; it's a top down raglan sweater with a slightly funnel neck and a big cable down the back. I started that as "easy knitting" after I got my sleeves to a certain point but turns out it won't be idiot knitting until I get past the armholes... Luckily the worsted weight wool knits up fast and is feeling lovely in my hands.

I'm not sure if I listed the reason I've been away from the studio... For a variety of reasons we've had to do a major yard cleanup including removing brush 10' from flammable fences, removing a lot of foliage from next to the house, and cutting the trees back from the roofline. Most of the work has been done with others, but I was spending 4-6 hours a day doing some of the finer work (cutting out deadwood, etc) while the guys tackled the larger tasks. I did do a fair amount of sawing down brush and hauling it around, some with a handsaw and some with my brand new battery powered reciprocating saw; it was exhausting. The landscape, both visual and aural, has changed so much that I find it very disturbing, but it's finally starting to settle down again and the cats and I are making peace with it. I am feeling pain and grief for the loss of bird habitat.