still knitting and stitching

these two photos show detail of the "sampler shawl" above is the shawl being blocked. below is the finished hardanger embroidery piece called" icing on the cake".

 we have started a learn to knit socks session here at camp.
four of the women are new to knitting and one of the four is new to sock knitting. it should be an interesting fall at the sock club!

Crazy Dream is done!

all done but the stuffing as this will become a cushion top.

The End is Nigh

Almost finished! this makes three pillow tops in Carolyn Mitchell's "Dream" series. I still have two more to do to finish up the series. When I am done this one "Crazy Dreams" I'll take a break and get knitting on the Sampler Shawl. I also need to finish the Hardanger project I started last winter.

progress update

I have been working on the "Crazy Dreams" cushion cover a fair bit of late. i enjoy very much choosing the colours for the next section I will stitch. I like working on small sections and then moving on to a new stitch and new colours. Below is a close-up of the area recently finished. I was discussing, with a close friend, the possibility of incorporating this canvaswork stitching into a jacket or vest. I have brought some smaller pieces of canvas out to camp to "doodle" on. I already have some ideas swirling about in my head I just need to let them flow out onto the canvas.

I have finally started to knit one of the shawl patterns from "Folk Shawls" by Cheryl Oberle. I bought the book awhile ago and at last have decided to try my hand at knitting a lace shawl. the pattern i chose is "The Sampler Shawl". This makes sense to me as I will be learning several lace patterns as I knit.  Below is a close-up of the stitching. It won't look very lacy until the whole shawl is blocked.

I have been remiss in finishing the variation on the "Bookworm Vest". I have one pocket to finish and have not been able to drag my attention from the canvaswork or the shawl long enough to tackle the final stitches required to end this project. I will blame this on the warm weather which doesn't necessitate the wearing of new vests. I did decide not to buttons  for the vest but instead to buy fancy hair pins/shawl pins. Below is a close-up of the pins.

more embroidery

i have started working on the "crazy dreams" pillow after at least a years hiatus. i am enjoying playing with the colours and different threads. i think there will be a knit night sometime this week so hopefully i will get the pocket done on the bookworm vest. i have been procrastinating on the knitting front for almost a month. too long. here is a photo of  the "crazy dreams" progress.

finally!

well it has been too long since my last post. i have finished the beautiful bargello cushion cover. i have to admit i became quite manic about finishing this project. i enjoyed very much stitching this piece. i wanted to to see how the colours i chose would work in the different patterns.

here are some close-ups of the different sections.

back again

i have been very busy with my crafts in the past month. i finished spinning the aldo/polworth yarn. i will ply it with some lovely green silk that liz and steve brought back from Laos many years ago. i will be using this blend along with the aldo/aurora yarn to knit a gansey. pottery has been going very well. the last two weeks were spent glazing the pieces i have made this year and some strays from last year as well. i'm excited to see how they will turn out. one of the reasons i have been glazing instead of throwing is seen below. i started a new canvaswork class called "Beautiful Bargello" designed by Kit Gates. i have become rather obsessive about this stitching project. progress is slow but very rewarding. i do love to embroider on canvas.

i haven't worked on the Bookworm Vest since i started working on the bargello piece. prior to starting the class i did get a fair bit done though. i have picked up the stitches on the front right for the button band and will start back at it when i get ahead of the game on the bargello.

i also stopped work on the hardanger piece. i have the four corners to finish before i can cut the piece out. this will likely get finished this summer.

still plugging away...

where to begin? first with the "icing on the cake" hardanger
embroidery piece. i got caught up on the homework and have
all the kloster stitches and the ship motifs done. at the last class
we learned how to make eyelets and the buttonhole stitch.
now i have a lot more homework. i am pleased with how it is coming along. the next class we will be cutting the threads in the squares at each point of the piece which will be very exciting!
i have also been working on the "bookworm vest" and have finished
knitting the two fronts and am almost finished the back. i'll post a picture when the back is done.
i had a great pottery class last friday unlike the previous class the week before. the previous class was a disaster! i tried to learn a new technique for the initial opening of a plate. my mind knew what had to be done but my hands did not respond well at all. i ended up with two rather small plates and a bowl instead of the larger plates i was trying to form. well the class last friday proved that determination to "get it right" can produce the desired results. i was able, with guidance from suzanne, to throw a lovely large dinner plate! i also got the plates and bowl from last week trimmed ready for the bisque kiln. all in all a very good class.
i have been spinning up the last of the first batch of the aldo/polworth blend. i'm not sure yet what i will ply it with as i am quite distracted by all the other projects on the go at the moment. i will take some time this week to spin and think about projects for what i am spinning up. this will help to decide what to ply together to come up with the yarn desired for the new projects i will be knitting. so much to do! so little time!

new year new project new classes

this vest is my first project of the new year. i was madly knitting before christmas trying to get all the presents done so i took a short break from knittting after christmas. i bought this beautiful cotton/silk yarn last january to knit up the bookworm vest pictured at right. i hope to have it finished by next weekend. we shall see...
the first class i started last week is a hardangar embroidery centerpiece/doily called "icing on the cake". i stepped outside the box a wee bit and chose a gorgeous christmas red fabric with matching #5 and#8 cotton floss and an equally gorgeous watercolours skein called "claret". i am very excited to get started on this project. while i was at ELA last summer i learned some of the hardangar stitches from a book. i got bored with doing the small samples so put it away for awhile. i decided to take this class and see if i would enjoy making a larger piece. loving the fabric, floss and pattern is a good first step to a successful start and eventual finish of a project.









i also started pottery classes again. this bowl is from last winters classes. i was surprised to find another finished piece. i had been checking in at the studio over the summer, when i was in town from ELA, to see if my pottery from last winters classes had been fired. i thought i had picked all of it up but no. not only did i find this bowl but also found two pieces glazed and ready for firing in the glaze kiln and three pieces that need glazing and firing.








i bought more danish white clay and started in with wedging four pieces of clay. two for small shallow bowls for zeke's cat food and two for larger bowls. i was pleased that the muscle memory kicked in and although the first bowl i threw ended up mooshed and set aside for another day the other small bowls worked out nicely in the end. i then put a batt on the wheel and prepared to throw a larger bowl. fortunately i had warmed up on the small bowls and i was able to produce a splendid bowl. i'll take pictures next class and post them next week.
all in all a very good start to the new year!