WISHES

I wish you all a very happy new year 2010. May it bring you health, inspiration and joy!

For my part, my family and I had a very nice Christmas with my parents.
My DM brought her latest quilts for me to see and of course I show them here too.
The first one is a present for my aunt.

And the second one was a quilt along project in my DM´s quilt group.
My mum hand-appliquéed the border. I especially like the use of the purple/white fabric for the binding. It is just like another frame.

As it was freezing cold here lately, I decided to knit a cloche for myself ( after having knitted hundreds of hats for my sis!).

I like it so much, I knitted another one for my mum which she took away so sorry no picture!




P.S.: I bet my sis will make a comment and beg for another hat!

4 WEEKS BEFORE CHRISTMAS

I know, the post title is not original! Just to remind you and me that we don´t have that much time left to make presents.
Today I will show all the steps from rovings to shawl.

First the two wool braids, dyed by me.The left one is blue faced leicester and the right plain German domestic sheep.

Then the one ply on the spinning wheel.
And then the finished object, a shawl with one detail below.
It was an enjoyable project and I learned a lot during the spinning.

Next is a small shawl I knitted from a sock yarn that I had dyed some time ago.


Maybe that one will become a Christmas present for someone (dear sis, don´t worry not for you!)
I will go back to my knitting now as I have had some special requests ( not only from my sis but from my niece too, like mother, like daughter I would say!)

I wish you a peaceful first Advent.

GWEN

7 WEEKS BEFORE CHRISTMAS

Things are getting repetitive here:

Yet another picture of my confetti blocks. I want to add one more row and then I can start thinking about the border.


These are the second pair of mits I knitted for my sister as she lost the first ones!



And this afternoon I made some jam like last year at the same time. This is pumpkin, vanilla and caramel (that´s just because the sugar burnt a bit!). It tastes nice though.
I ordered some wool from the UK so that I can dye and spin more. So expect some colours in the next post!

I wish you a nice week.

KNITTING, KNITTING AND MORE ... KNITTING!

It is mid-term over here and we used our free time to spend some days there.
It was fun, especially for my DS and we had wonderful sunny weather if only a bit too cold.
In the meantime, I knitted and knitted and ...
First I made a bolero thingy. It is very light (only a bit over 50 gr or 2 oz) and a nice blend of kid mohair and silk. Pure luxury!

Then I knitted a wrap out of wool which was given to me (always the best!)
It is the right thing to wear right now as it is very chilly in the mornings when I go to work and it fits well over a suit.
Then with the yarn I had shown last time (the thick one), I knitted a bowl which I felted. It is practical to put some more yarn and if the weather gets really cold I can wear it as a hat! ( it reminds me, my sister wanted a hat, I wonder if ...!)

In the two free days I still have, I intend to spin, to dye and to sew more confetti blocks. I wonder if I will manage all that.

I wish you nice autumn days with sun , sewing and knitting.

BACK TO THE SEWING MACHINE

I stumbled on this the other day and as I love using bits and pieces I had to try a miniature too.

This is the result. It was fun! It was fast (one morning) and it won´t be the last.
I just need to find some more frames!

I did not stop spinning in between and I managed to get a thicker yarn. This one is VERY thick and is about 110 meters for 100 gr. I haven´t got a clue what I will knit with it ( there would not be a sister around here who has an idea per chance!)
That´s all for today as I have to get up at 5.00 tomorrow.

I wish you nice weather and time to enjoy your hobbies.

FINALLY!

I have got one, I have got one!
And I find it really nice. It is small, silent and works wonderfully.
It is an Ashford Scholar, good for beginners they say.

Well, the beginnings were very funny as the lady who sold it to me, could not show me how it worked as she had forgotten. At her place we tried for one hour and only got very short pieces of rope like yarn out of the spinning wheel, all the while eating a lot of Haribo sweets because of the stress. I thought, well if it goes on like that at home, I will put on weight before I can achieve anything near a knitting yarn.
But I took the wheel home all the same.
And then, after fiddling with the tension, pushing the pedal for 30 minutes to get a feeling, that´s what I got:

Yarn! And a fine one at that!
I love it and I can´t stop now. I have filled 2 bobbins with a Blue faced leicester top which I had dyed before.


The only problem I see is that I thought I would make thicker yarn with the spinning wheel than with my spindle, but I can´t!
So I have to get back to it and spin some more and more and more,...

You know where to find me in the next few weeks!

I wish you a nice new week.

STILL NO SPINNING WHEEL

Was I complaining 2 weeks ago that it was too hot?! Well it isn´t any more. Just the right weather to start thinking about socks, scarves, mittens (that´s for my sis!).

Although I still don´t have a wheel, I want to spin so I dyed that SW merino top,

I spun it on my spindle,

and made a 3ply out of it:

The last picture is most colour-true. It is very soft and a bit thicker than sock yarn.
I could make very comfy, thick socks out of it.

I dyed some merino yarn I received. I tried to go for fall colours and
fashion winter colours. Grey and purple are everywhere here in the shops.
To finish here is a link to a smart way to make cotton yarn. We all have tens of those in the cupboards so that´s a possibility to use at least the old ones. I could imagine one could knit the yarn into bathroom´s mats.

I wish you all a nice week-end.

HAS SOMEONE GOT A FAN?

It is just hot here, too hot to do anything apart from gaping at the garden getting dry!


Fortunately the house is more or less cool (depends on the floors) so that we can still sleep and move around.
My confetti quilt is growing. I am thinking of adding 3 more rows of squares, add small white sashing in between and then ponder for a border.

As you can imagine I am not wearing these at the moment although they are very comfy and soft. I am proud to show my first ownmade handspun socks and I must say they won´t be the last!
I received some rovings from England and I started dyeing them (they dry so fast in the heat, it has to be good for something!) so that next time I will present some more homespun.

Till then I wish you a cool breeze and a nice refreshing drink on the patio.

BACK FROM A LONG HOLIDAY

We have been back for a few days yet but it is only now that I find some time to post.
This is where we spent some of our time. My parents have a house there and even if the water was quite cold (so cold I did not get into it but my DH and DS did nearly everyday) and the weather on the wet side, it was a very nice holiday.


We did not do much apart from hanging around and sleeping but we still managed to visit a local fair where I had an interesting chat with these nice ladies. And before you ask, no, I have never worn such a costume myself!


I took a picture of my mum´s lattest work. It was a mystery quilt at her local quilt group.
Although my mum is not very fond of it, she was very brave and finished it!

No UFOs for her!

Since back I have been working on my confetti quilt and at some spinning.
Pictures of that will be next time.

Till then I wish you some nice time and hopefully warm weather.

SUMMER IN WOOL

I am sorry to post so little in the recent past. Especially sorry for my dear sis who can write any silly comment!
Anyway, I have been working a lot in the last weeks and with the summer holidays approaching fast (in fact they have already started!) there was still a lot to organise.
But of course there is a life beside working and that´s what I have done with mine in the last 2 weeks.

I dyed sock yarn:

I spun some roving I had dyed before. I still don´t know what will become of that skein as the wool is not very soft.


I spun some more:

And I knitted bowls out of the yarn. They are felted after being knitted.

Next week we are going on holiday in France to see the family and to rest.

I hope you have a nice summer too.

GWEN

P.S.: I have not been commenting on other blogs lately. I am sorry about that. I still read your blogs though and I appreciate each comment you leave here. I hope to have more time after the holidays to resume the commenting.

TUTORIAL FOR CONFETTI BLOCKS

As promised to some of you, here comes the tutorial for one confetti block.

You need stripes, all 6 1/2" x 1 1/2" and squares 1 1/2" x 1 1/2".
4 stripes for background fabric (in my case white), 4 stripes for biggest round, 3 stripes for next round, 2 stripes for again next round and yes 1 stripe for last round before center.
1 square for center and 4 squares for background.

Sew the stripes as shown below and iron the groups with the seam allowances for first group to the right, second group to the left and so on.
(if you do it the other way round it is not that important, just take care that they go on opposite direction, for group 1 and 3 in one and for group 2 and 4 in the other).


Cut each group into 4 stripes 1 1/2" wide. There will be some fabric over, just discard!

Then arrange as below with the center square in the middle.
Sew that center square to the stripe lying under it.


Then sew the stripes with one another ( the stripes from the above group with the stripes of the underneath group) without cutting the thread inbetween (kind of chain piecing). It is helpful to keep the stripes in the right order and it goes faster that way!


Then sew the stripes with one another. The seam allowances should lock everywhere but for half of the center stripe (the one with the center square). Add the last 2 background squares and iron.


Once all the blocks are done, you can square down the blocks (see first picture) to 7 1/2" x 7 1/2".

Well that´s done. I hope it is clear enough and you will have fun sewing the blocks.
Questions are welcome!

Only 3 weeks to go before the holidays and a good thing too!
As there are still thousands of things needing to be done before, I expect time will fly.

In between work and other chores, I spin, knit and sew a bit.
I hope to show some of it next time.

I wish you a peaceful sunday.