odd things happen....

I finally dug out my carbon fibre "sticks" to do some blocking. yes, I know, it's necessary, I just don't like doing it all that much. it wasn't so bad for the Kringel shawl, I folded it in half and it fit the jigsaw mats nicely.

as I said I changed the fringe slightly. in the original pattern they are added one by one, which means that you have to sew in lots of threads. I didn't fancy that, so I worked them all in a row, just chain stitches and working back along those with slip stitches. they don't look quite as airy and light as the original ones, but this way I saved all the sewing in:)  maybe I should skip more than 7 stitches next time though, the little circle at the end of the fringe is barely visible....

the "in the pink" however wasn't as accomodating as the Kringel! whatever I tried, I couldn't fit the whole shawl onto my mats in one go. eventually I decided to work from the middle to one wing, block that - and do the other wing separately. the good thing about the CF sticks is that they keep the round shape, even if they are only pinned down here and there. you can jump across a short bit without mat, no problem. I do like the very original shape a lot - so much so, that I am going to make another one at some stage. it's too small for me though, so I plan on making one much larger than this.

shouldn't be that much of a problem. first I'll enlarge the circle and then I can work the wings from there. I esp. like the feather-like looking side parts and the wide bottom border. which of course could be used on many other designs. all in all I have to say that the shawl is far easier to knit than it looks at first - as a matter of fact the blocking was the most fiddly bit of all:) thanks to the designer for such a nice pattern!

this here shows a little visitor we had yesterday... during one of the (very short!) breaks in the rain a little rabbit came in by the front gate and started to explore the garden in front of the porch (where my chilli peppers are starting to set fruit). it nibbled here and there, until it found some nice daisies - which it beheaded mercilessly:) he (or she?) must be a flower-power rabbit - because today I saw that it had actually eaten all the nice dark purple viola flowers as well (see header pic)! now, I do find rabbits cute, but I don't want them to eat all the pretty flowers in here! but then I'd say it was only a short visit - having Dobby, the rabbit-eating (in her dreams, they are much too fast for her:) dog monster following you can't be such a nice feeling.... I left her out all day today to keep patrolling the entrance - and anywhere else in the garden - and hope that mr or miss rabbit won't come back any time soon! this is the odd thing I mentioned - at first I was stymied about the sudden disappearance of my pretty viola flowers in the stone trough...

this is another newcomer in my garden. we have loads of interesting plants down in the bog and because there were literally 1000s of them, I transplanted a pinguicula into a pot up here. they don't look like much most of the year, but the blue flowers are very pretty, I think. but there is far more to it than being pretty. they are actually a carnivorous variety! unlike sundew they don't have petals or leaves that trap insects through movement. they excrete a sticky substance on their leaves, which makes small flies and insects stick to them.... as they grow on very poor soil they can improve their nourishment with this. I find carnivorous plants fascinating - must be the morbid side inside me:)

a few finished projects

at the moment I have to try and cram as much gardening time into each day as possible - lots to do and the weather often doesn't want to play:( it's not great to stand outside in rain or even just drizzle and pot and prick out etc... of course that means that time for textiles is cut short accordingly! I did finish a few things though.

this is the finished "Kringel" scarf. in real life the purple is darker, and right now the scarf is being blocked - but I think it should be finished by tomorrow. couldn't resist the see-through effect though:) this is the one I tried in silk yarn first, which was too slippery and didn't result in a nice "round" kringel. I love the colour way and would like to try to do something similar on fibres for spinning. it's purple, but with a bit of madder red and some green here and there. I did change the fringe of the pattern very slightly - more about that, when I'll show the finished scarf! 

I also received a nice surprise in the mail from a "fibre friend" in wales. a long piece of a handspun "coil" yarn, doubled up like a cord. the idea was to use it as a necklace (very long) or belt (don't wear any). but when I dug through my bead box I stumbled across the base for a bracelet. it's made from metal and somehow I couldn't get the idea of a "woven" piece out of my head. eventually I used fine cotton crochet yarn in green to crochet around the edges and the small middle bars. but I couldn't just weave the yarn through or the bracelet wouldn't have looked rounded, because the yarn would have drawn in between the two short bars. eventually I used two more yarns in pink and yellow plus the green and crocheted chain stitches as "short rows" between the outer bars. could have saved on the effort of using three colours, because the coils are so soft and chunky that the "warp" is nearly invisible:) I do like the result though, it's soft but strong enough to be worn a lot - actually I think this could be the base for another adapted wrist watch!  the bracelet base is open and bendable, so one size fits all.... I hope the spinner of the coil yarn likes what happened to her gift:)

this doesn't really belong into the "finished projects" section - it's only halfway done! those are four of the five bases for my fairy-tale yarns. I'd say they are self-explanatory, the green-brown one on the bobbin is meant for the dwarf, the rest are rose red, snow white and the prince. they'll look quite different once I have them all finished, right now they are just colour blotches on balls - not really very enticing:)

I am going off now to spin some grey marled yarn - which will end up as the second ply for the dwarf - to represent his long beard, which gets stuck in a piece of tree trunk in the tale.... decision time: will I trap some bits of silver fox fur in between the plies - or not?

rain, rain - go away....

for once the forecast has been right - rain all day, sometimes very heavy! yep, you could say that - if there were a few dry seconds today, I must have missed them. and more to come for tomorrow. together with 12 deg. C it doesn't exactly give a summery feeling - more like end of october and winter at the front door.... the good thing is that I don't have a bad conscience sitting at my spinning wheel! I did a spinning demonstration in Ballyhaunis (the small town close to our village) last sunday, where I (or rather we, all the participants alike) were very lucky. it was quite cool, but the fine drizzle stopped later in the morning and it dried up nicely. not much in the way of sun, but better than nothing. anyway, last year I had to hide in a shop entrance to escape the rain. this year I asked for a small stall and got one. I only demonstrate, I don't sell, so the guys who put up the stalls took the "table" board down and fixed it to the back of the stall. I knew from last year that it can be quite gusty (the stalls are on the parking "lane", along the town's mainroad), so I bought a cheap shower curtain, which I tacked to the stall and weighed it down with the little bags I normally use for my garden tablecloth. not perfect, but better than no wind shelter at all! I strung up some of my handspun skeins for decoration, put my wheel down, a basket with fibres beside me and off I went. I spun for seven hours - and managed to fill two (large) bobbins on my Louet. I've had the idea of spinning "fairy-tale yarns" some time back and finally put together some mixed bags for this. the fairy-tale is not very well known in english speaking countries, I think it's called "Snow-white and Rose-red". there's only one dwarf in it, and a mean one at that. but of course there has to be a bit of drama and a prince, too:) snow-white and rose-red are two nice girls, who live with their mother close to the forest. one winter night they hear a knock at the door. when they open, there's a bear standing outside. he asks for shelter from the cold and they let him in. he comes all winter, but in spring he has to leave. he tells the girls that he has to go and find his treasure, because a dwarf stole it all. the girls meet that dwarf in the woods several time, and even though they help him out of trouble several times, he is very mean and curses at the girls. (no red hat for that fellow!). when the girls meet him for the last time, the bear comes too and kills the dwarf, because not only did he steal the bear's treasure, he also told him that he should eat the girls and not him! of course, the bear isn't really a bear; the dwarf cursed him - he really is a prince! and because every fairy-tale has to have a happy ending, the happy prince marries snow-white - and as luck will have it, he has a brother, who marries rose-red. and of course - they all live happily ever after:)

to make a long story short - I put together 5 bags full of fibres, lots of  white of course and "rose reds", brown and wild for the bear, blue and gold for the prince and lots of earthy colours with grey for the dwarf. I plan to ply them with beads and gold etc... but so far I've only finished three, so pix will come, when I've done all yarns. not sure what I'll use them for - I just liked the idea to follow the characters of a story and make a yarn for each of them.

I also received two new books:

this one is very inspirational - and comes with a dvd to show how to spin those fabulous art yarns. it's not very hard to tempt me into making more yarns, but even a friend of mine, who barely spins these days, got itchy fingers to try some of the yarns out:) thanks, Uli, for giving this to me!

this is a german book about basket weaving. I wanted to try this out for ages, but I esp. like the book, because it shows how to use lots of materials, not only willows. we do have a lot of stuff growing here, such as iris leaves, blackberry vines etc... which can be used for making all kinds of baskets. now I just have to find spare time to try out a few of the new ideas!

this is a felted dog I received from a friend. when I saw the title of a british magazine (mollie makes) I told her that I'd like one of those dogs shown on the cover. I didn't expect to receive one, but here it is - Dobby with a purple hat. our real dog Dobby doesn't like this dog, she seems to think that it is competition for her:) she did try to chew on the felted bone, though...

before the rainy season set in here, I managed to pick a few flowers in the garden. blue geraniums, and white, frilly aquilegias. very pretty, though they tend to shed their petals everywhere at the lightest touch. I do hope that they spread out a bit more - usually they self-seed everywhere (not always in nice colours though, some tend to be rather "wishy-washy"). the rose is the highlight though - it fills the whole kitchen with a heady scent - lovely, even though the variety doesn't have a very pronounced rose shape.  and if we do get hungry, we could even eat the sweet cicely leaves I put in:)             

I hope there are a few flowers left after all that rain, but in the meantime I'll go back to my knitting and spinning. but before that - I have to start baking a bread, because we ran out of that - and who knows, if I can go shopping tomorrow - maybe I should invest in a rubber boat?

honestly....

...sometimes I am amazed about the things people knit or crochet. ok, who am I to talk - given the recent sock madness:) but when I saw these two designs in very old  machine knitting magazines I recently "inherited" I couldn't believe my eyes:

new car seats anybody? not just any old blanket to cover them, no, properly upholstered and with an extra pillow to boost! amazing! I love knitting and I do all kinds of projects, but making new car seat covers - would be going too far even for me:)

and I know everybody's taste in fashion is different. and times have changed. but this? no thanks, I'd rather knit golf club covers or apple cozies:) couldn't resist showing you these beauties - but if anybody feels drawn to either pattern, just let me know - I am sure I can part with the magazine - don't want to hinder you in knitting your secret dreams *eg*

 back to one of my new projects - a crochet scarf called "Kringel". the first test in silk didn't convince me - not because of the pattern, but because the very smooth silk yarn distorted the pattern and I thought this wouldn't improve after blocking. I started over again in a wool/ramie blend, which made a big difference: the stitches stay where they should be and the slight variation in colour adds interest, but doesn't distract from the pattern. pictures tomorrow - at least if I can take any good ones in this too brilliant sunshine (I know, I am complaining - again:))

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:)

the end is near

that sounds dramatic - but I only mean my sock project:) I finished the pair of simple socks knitted frrom handspun jacobs (why didn't I take a pic of them?). and I have just one picture sock and a bit of the foot of the other sock to do. plus of course the finishing, i-cords, fuchsia flowers and embroidery. I think I'll manage - but not with a lot of time to spare. note to myself: do try and start projects earlier.... will I ever listen to myself?:)

those are all the batts - finished to singles, not totally even, but nice and soft. I decided to use not the carded blend of blues and white, but the one I spun from pieces of top. all the rest (apart from the gold on top and the white) are lightly blended on the drum carder.

the sky, worked in rows, and a little bit of the roof - upside down! I didn't really like the long narrow stripes in the test sock, so I knitted clouds with short rows... typically irish: blue sky, but not without a few clouds, and even a bit of grey here and there....

 this is my hand drawn chart and the leg part of the sock - what a mess, lots of ends everywhere and threads dangling. I used quite a lot as longer pieces without a ball to feed from, because most of the colours, e.g. from the cottage parts, didn't use much at all. and it's so much easier to pull loose threads out of the mess than trying to disentangle several balls of wool! btw, if you want to make your own picture sock, you can download a grid here.

 this is the leg of the first sock finished... the knitting part at least. it still looks a bit bare, but I decided to add window frames, flowers etc. in embroidery. knitting them into the fabric would have meant even more threads, tangles and jittery nerves:) I thought for quite some time about the colour of the windows, but decided to choose "sky" colours - they reflect the good weather instead of being dark holes in the cottage wall. the upper edge still rolls of course, because the cast-on is done over a row of chain stitches - I'll add the i-cord edge last.

this is the "other side" of the sock, in the middle a path, walls in grey on either side and on the far left the fuchsia bush, which will carry the beady flowers when finished. I will also add an embroidered garden gate across the path. the foot will be all green, which makes for quicker knitting at least. I might still add a few embroidered stitches in yellow and white, for dandelion and daisies, but beads don't work so well on the foot, even if they are only small seed beads. it should still be a wearable sock and not a work of art - but unusable!

I hope I can finish this sock tonight and start with the second tomorrow - but depending on the weather I still have a lot of work to do in the garden!

looking at the last picture I saw just now that the sky looks a bit like sky, clouds along the horizon and the sea at the bottom! not intentional, but maybe it's a cottage close to the beach?:)

nearly may!

it's nearly may - and the countdown is running to finish my "museum" socks! I've nearly all yarns spun and started knitting the first sock today - finally! it's a good thing I didn't plan for a sweater, because I doubt that I'd be able to finish that in time! I also put the test sock on hold, for once because the all green of the foot is boring to knit - and also because I'd run out of time with the "important" socks if I continued.. I still have the second "old-fashioned" sock in handspun jacobs to do for mindless knitting anyway.

 those are the blends I carded for stone walls, grass, path, sky and shrubs. plus a bit of purple to make the corolla of the fuchsia  and a few beads. I had planned to knit in tiny flowers, but there is just not enough space to do that in socks. the downside of faster knitting is not enough space to knit in special features. I'll add some beads instead.... I might also add a few other colours such as yellow and white in beads for flowers in the cottage garden, but I'll decide that on the hoof while doing the embroidery....

the fuchsia flower (crocheted) is in the middle; I spun some fine silk and plied it to make it more stable. it can't be too big, so I used a crochet hook in 1 mm.... the other yarns are all singles to avoid too much muddying of the colours. and even though I blended some blues/whites and greys for the sky - I decided not to use that finished yarn, because it was too well blended. in the end I just grabbed light blue, added white and very little grey for clouds and some darker blue for streaks of blue in the sky. I like it better now and to make the clouds in white stand out a bit I started to do short row parts (in the leg part of the sock) in garter stitch, so that there is a bit more "depth" in the sky part.... no pictures of that yet, because I could only show you about 10 rows:)

I also finished all the fibres I dyed with the leftover easter egg dyes.... all of them are plied with fine cotton, also remnants, which I dyed last year with procion mx dyes. I didn't have enough blue to ply the two skeins on the top left, so I finished half of the second skein with a dark pink... I like the greens best and the one on the right side, because the rosewood cotton worked so well with the rest of the colours. I've no idea yet what to do with the parrot colours bottom left,  so it all goes into the stash for now.

I also finally picked my wild garlic - and used it to make a load of pesto. given that I started out with only 3 little bubils about 15 years ago - I think it multiplied nicely under the leafy trees:) I managed to fill 6 kilner jars - and probably DH will finish it all by himself (actually, he already emptied 2 of the jars....). of course those jars will not last for more than maybe another month, but then I don't really like the idea of having everything available all year round! I think we appreciate certain foods more if we can't have them 24/7! I don't eat strawberries in winter or asparagus, so when the time comes I am really keen on them and indulge with more gusto! same for the wild garlic pesto. maybe I'll start freezing more of the wild garlic, once I have enough that it really is worth it. the pesto does not last a whole year, so I'll have to find another way to store it - provided the plants self-seed freely some more:) I also "help out" with propagation by collecting the ripe seeds (when they have turned black) and sowing them immediately. they need the cold in winter and germinate readily the next spring! I read somewhere that the green fruits can be used like capers, but if I try this I won't have any to spread out, so this has to wait, too....

I also finally updated my link list a bit and figured out why the page for recipes didn't show up! it helps if you click on "showing" instead of "hiding":) not that there's anything in it yet, but I do plan to put in bits and pieces during the next few months... if I can bring myself to write them down, I might even add a pattern page in time - but don't hold your breath:) still more to do - I have read more than just 3 books and there are more interesting textile books on my shelves, too....