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Sunday 18 September 2011

a bit of progress....

.. and a few more things started:))

I finished my first piece of bunting, with the stylized letter O. a lot of twisting and turning to follow the circular lines - I think the R will be easier to do! and faster hopefully, because the due date would be next saturday. nobody is ripping my head off if I am a bit late, but I find it rather embarrassing to set a date for the rest and not finish in time myself.


this is the R - I painted the green with textile paint, it would be too time consuming to fill it in with embroidery. actually the few dark flower-like shapes in the O were done the same way... when I have finished the embroidery, I'll add small beads on the outside. my first idea was to make very fine i-cords and fix them as three-dimensional lines. but the silk yarn is simply too fine to knit with, so I'll embroider along the lines.


I was going to show you one more finished thing - but for some reason the picture does not want to be pulled up here:(( ok, I finished some things, but as some of you said: there's always something unfinished around! our group was contacted by a farmer with milk and jacobs sheep, if someone wanted his fleeces. don't ask - I know it was madness, but here are some of them.... there are several more boxes underneath and 2 large bin bags full in the porch. I hope I'll be able to hand some of them along to another spinner, but even so, there's a lot of washing and drying and carding in those boxes:))

so, here is another finished "item", part of a silk brick I dyed with cochenille. it's not quite as startling bright in daylight, and I am going to fill another bobbin, this time with black alpaca, to ply the silk with. or not - I am not quite sure yet if I'll like the strong contrast. anyway - I need the bobbins free soon, so one more tick on the list!

I also received a nice present in the mail (can't show you some of the other things - I ate most of the liquorice:)). the maker was a bit late for my birthday - but all is forgiven, as it is a really nice cover for the hot water bottle she sent me earlier this year (because it was cold and my birthday still far away:)). it's nice woollen felt, decorated with a patchwork band of "flying geese"... to pretty to be used really, but luckily washable! winter can come now - I am prepared:))

in the garden department there are a few more finished bits - all plums are used up, the picked rosehips de-seeded and the raspberries - eaten. I hope I'll have a few days without foody jobs, but very soon the crab apples will be ready and it's time to do a lot of juicing!

7 comments:

Renate said...

Sag mal, machst du auch noch etwas anderes als irgendwelche Handarbeiten oder hat dein Tag mehr als 24 Stunden? Wenn ich das alles so lese, sind meine eigenen bescheidenen Werkstücke ja direkt mickrig. Wahnsinn, was du so alles schaffst. Und solche Geschenke wie diesen Wärmflaschenbezug hätte ich auch gerne.....;o)
Dann viel Spaß beim Apfelsaften!
LG
Renate

Nina said...

I love the finished embroidery O. You've got a good start on the R. Hopefully you'll get it done in time. The cochineal silk is simply divine. I can't wait to see what you ply it with.

What a fabulous haul with the fleeces! I've seen a wide variety in the quality of Jacob fleeces around here, so hopefully you've got good ones. I've not yet had a chance to try British Milk Sheep. Please give a report back on it when you've had some time to play with it!

Woolly Bits said...

Renate - ich mach auch manchmal was anderes, ja:)) aber ungern! naja, ich geh ja auch nicht ausser haus arbeiten, sonst haett ich auch viel weniger zeit dazu... aber wenn was spass macht, geht es ja sowieso besser von der hand, oder? fuer den waermflaschenbezug -hm, da muss man eben gaaaaaanz lieb sein, dann kriegt man sowas vielleicht:))

Nina - thanks, I even managed to work a few lines this evening on the R! it's much faster going than the circles and I am hopeful to be finished in time - just!
and yes, the jacobs can be very different, but the did look quite good, not too dirty and reasonable in length. the milk sheep is called "frisian" (originally from germany, I believe?) and has quite a long staple in parts. I just have to see if it's better to separate from the shorter fibres or how it will turn out if I blend it all together! plenty to play with in any case:))

Delighted Hands said...

Nice work you are finishing up-you can make the deadline for the embroidery! The fleeces sound great-nice to stock up! Time to get a loom-the Fresian and Jacob would be great in a woven rug! The pink silk would work great with the black-stunning in fact!

Nina said...

what a coincidence as I'm spinning some East Friesian fleece right now! It's quite long and I'm using a flicker to process the locks. I'm hopefully spinning embroidery wools with it.

Woolly Bits said...

Cindy - I have a loom:)) actually I have several rigid heddles (which aren't sturdy enough for rugs) and one old weavemaster 4shaft... unfortunately they don't come with bags of time attached:))
I think you're right about the silk - I plied a small sample and I think I like the contrast after all:))

Nina - yes, you're right, the frisian is quite long! I washed a first sample just now and I quite like the looks. it's not as lustrous as teeswater or wensleydale, but probably much easier to card! I could spin tons of embroidery yarns with my fleeces:)) don't forget to show pix when you're working with yours!

Die Fadenwirkerin said...

Deine Stickarbeit ist der Oberhammer! Sooo schön! Ein Traum. *seufzl* Das möchte ich auch können.

Schmachtgrüße von Juliane