Challenge! Join In!

Devan Alana has a challenge for us--

her knitalong began yesterday--April 17th 

there is no reason why we can't join in today

or any day this week or next.  This is the Elena Shawl

KAL and will be featured on Ravelry or here on her

website.

She proposes to finish May 13 in Sevilla--would I like to

be there to knit along with everyone else!  

She has instructions in English and Spanish--

it goes to prove Knitting language is universal!

What To Do With Leftover Easter Dyes

Do you shop the after Easter sales?  Not just for the candy--which is fun--I shop for the leftover dye kits for eggs!  They usually sell cheap and I hoard them throughout the year.  They can be used to dye eggs later in the year, but I like to use them to dye my fiber.  I have dyed silk yarn in the microwave with dye mixture.  I came upon this cool way to dye a 'cake' of yarn--

Have fun!! and dye away!!

Happy Easter!

May your day be filled with family, friends and much love!

Happy Easter! 

And a free stitching pattern for you 

from Elefantz

Just Keep On, Keeping On!

I'm working on my Intarsia, which is the next adventure in the

Techniques for the Year project.  At first, I thought I wouldn't like

knitting this--but.....................

I like it!  And I want to just keep knitting and knitting.............

to find the time to just sit and knit on this project!

The yarn is so soft and cuddly and the pattern is

easy to follow along.  

You notice the orange markers--well, I forgot to put regular markers

in my bag and I wanted to knit--but we were away from home base--

what could I use?  I walked around looking for something to

slip on the needle and low and behold, why not a plastic straw!!??

The plastic straw markers work okay--just need to be careful

when I slip them from one needle to the next--sometimes

they pop off--I still have plenty of straw left though to

cut more little slices.  Here I've added the third yarn--there

are five yarns to be added--this is fun!

I just want to sit and knit and knit and knit,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

life gets in the way!

Go Play In The Mud!

Years ago, I took a workshop with on mud painting on cloth--mud cloth, 
a rich looking fabric that is also called  Bogolanfini.  

In the Bambara language, spoken in Mali, the word bògòlanfini is a composition of three words. Bogo, meaning “earth” or “mud,” lan, meaning “with” and fini, meaning “cloth.” The word is translated as “mud cloth.

We had a super day we had playing in the mud!  Just like kids!--we collected different colored soils from the region, added soy milk as our mordant (stabilizer), and painted away on our treated cloth. 

Recently, I thought of this cloth when we were at a wine function and the ground was soaked with early morning rain--we had mud on our shoes, our jeans, in the truck, on everything--

I have my shoes sitting outside the door to dry--love that color though--

will make a nice mud cloth painting!

I had seen an excellent exhibit at the Denver Art Museum one summer--

and a past blog showed some mud cloth a friend brought to

share.

Here I have found for you a couple of interesting features on mud cloth.

This one is for kids who like to play with mud!

And this one is for those who would enjoy painting on canvas!

and here is the ultimate feature! Painting with soil (mud, if you please!) on walls!

Weavers! Weaving!

WOW (Way Out West) Weavers study group met early April--

bringing members together to discuss the past month's 

weaving adventures.

Finished!  Yes!  Finished! Rep Weave Mug Mats for

CHT (Contemporary Handweavers of Texas) conference 

to be held in early June in Houston

Our group volunteered to weave 175 + for one of the

meals--and this mission was accomplished by some

dedicated weavers!  It was not necessary for

each mat to be exactly alike--a design process for

the weaver.  These are Karen's mats in which she

used rag strips for her weft

I like the look of the warp all fringed out

Karen bundled them nicely too!

Tracy is donating this lovely towel for the raffle basket

She had made one for a gift and donated this one for

the basket--some lucky person will enjoy this addition

to their kitchen

Here is Karen I with her recently finished rag rugs.

The one on the right was featured in the latest issue

of Handwoven by Interweave Press

Look up the issue to get the recipe--you too can

weave this!

Both of these rag rugs will go to her new house

Her brown and blue rug can be used in any room.

 Karen is featuring "Workshop in a box" in her Etsy shop.

Jump over to her blog and read how she can help you

make a handwoven towel.  Her box includes the warp, weft,

all the instructions plus link to her tutorial videos--

she posted only 5 boxes at a time

Gretchen missed our March meeting--so she

brought and shared her color warp from the recent

guild workshop.  She chose more pastel colors (so like her

in fact!)

Here is plain weave--look at the tracking

Here she did summer/winter weave structure

side by side to see the comparison. 

She left the weft sides so she could remember

which color she used in each section.

Never a dull meeting when you gather with weavers!

Playing Catch-up...............

It is a treat to be away from home base occasionally, but

when we return it is time to play 'catch-up' on the quilt

blocks I have missed.

I  cut the fabrics for each block before I sit to sew--to me,

that's better than cutting and then sewing for each block.  The black and

white blocks are from Pat Sloan's Solstice Challenge--

begin winter solstice and end summer solstice.

I decided on black and white as a challenge to myself--

it's not easy to work with these values; need to determine

light, medium and dark in these fabrics--some are

successful, others not so much!

Jacob's Ladder--a popular block--this is an

oversized block in the plan.

This is also an oversized block--goes together quickly when

you cut large squares!

Odd man out--this is year long quilt along is designed by

Sheri of Quilting A Life.  She always has helpful hints and

tutorials.  I decided on pink, green and tones of reds for

this quilt--this will be girl's charity quilt.

Anyone for bright colors?!  This is from Pat Sloan's free 2017

Mystery block "Children's Library"--this is April's block--

since this is a quilt for kids, I decided they would like

a hamburger right in the middle!

Caught up till May 1st!