done - just in time...

ok, I admit I didn't have all that much time left - but I finished the projects just in time, i.e. yesterday afternoon for today. I've been on night shifts before to finish something, so for me that was quite alright:)

and today at our May meeting we had lots of gorgeous projects to see, because it was agreed to hand in all our textile projects for the exhibition in september/october. the museum has to prepare the things and needs time to do so, and to be honest, I am rather glad to have this one out of my way! to make a long story short, here are my finished "Fuchsia cottage" socks:

the flat cardboard inlay isn't ideal for presentation, but my dummy feet aren't here yet, so they have to do. on the left there are two large yews (very common over here, no wonder, with the name Mayo = Maigh Eo in irish or plain of the yews). there are flowering shrubs in front, done with beads. the one on the right shows the fuchsia bush on the left, and a wall, path and gate to the right... both have a silk crochet fuchsia flower and a leaf dangling from the i-cord closure.

on the other side you see the round tower of Turlough and also a fuchsia bush - and on the right side the fuchsia cottage.... both feet are of course done in the famous 40 (or maybe not quite:) shades of green!

 a detail - the path to the right of the tower (purely fictional!) is covered in dandelion - the gardener must have been lazy:)

this is my favourite bit of the socks: the cottage garden. of course there are lots of flowers (done with beads) and even on the wall in front you can see a few weeds and flowers... I was briefly tempted to add some moss by needlefelting - but decided against it, there can be overkill in a design:)

I have to admit though that the front garden of our cottage doesn't look quite so charming:

but then it wasn't meant to show the real thing!

a contrast to the very fancy socks is the second pair, knitted from handspun jacobs wool, undyed. they stand for the countless simple socks the women of ireland (and I am sure in many other countries a century ago!) had to spin and knit for their large families. simple in design, but warm on the feet and much faster to make than the picture socks!

the museum also asked us to provide a few samples for the public to touch - to avoid ending up with grubby or even damaged projects we'll lay out some bits and pieces to feel.... I used three of the wool/silk blends of the fancy socks and one of the jacobs wool. after three squares I was bored and made a circle for the last one:)

this is the fuchsia flower hiding away in a bush - maybe it'll lure it's real cousins out soon? from afar it does look like the real deal - and I am looking forward to the first flowers, because I love the very exotic flower shape. they look like pagoda roofs to me, dainty and pretty and not at all as tough as the plant really is! I still have a bit of the silk left - and I think I'll crochet two more to make little earrings with....

this is what I have been doing during the last few weeks, i.e. apart from gardening etc. I also spun a skein of dark blue silk, finished three more skeins of cardinal red wool for a cardigan and made another pair of simple socks as a present... of course the next birthday is never far away - knitting needles, here I come (lace this time, I think it's a table runner in the making...)

but right now I am not keen - it's too warm for me to do any knitting. I spun some more silk in the museum today, but couldn't really find my rhythm and only managed a very small amount after all. first we have may temperatures lower than in winter - and now it's so warm that I'd like to spend my days in a bathtub full of water:) of course, those of you who have 30 deg. C most days - it's probably a nice fresh day - but for us here it's a veritable heat wave:)