And Then There Was Some Sewing Time.................

This house is one total disaster--furniture is moved away from the walls; some has been moved into other rooms--pictures have been taken down--it's a land mine waiting to happen!  We have the painters in....................and they are painting downstairs, which has high high ceilings.  Scaffolding has to be used to reach the water leak problem.  While the painters are working downstairs I found time to sew!  Yes, I could sew in my studio upstairs!!  And stay out of the way of the painters!  Here is the fruit of that progress.............

This is April's pattern from A Quilting Life

I'm using greens and pinks from a layer cake

I bought some time ago.  Not my favorite

colors, but it will be a charity quilt and I'm

sure someone will love it.

I found that I hadn't finished last week's pattern

from Pat Sloan's Solstice Challenge

And this one was on the ironing board--just needed to press on 

the petals and do the blanket stitch around each.

Estonian Knitting

It's hard to photography this knitting--but, trust me,

I'm knitting away and finished the April pattern

for Elizabeth Ravenwood's Estonian knit along.

Here is the second Estonian pattern from 

a different knit along--this one designed by

 Toni L. Lorenz--both patterns are on Ravelry.

It is also April finish!

I've enjoyed both of these knits and with the addition

of beads, the scarves will look smashing.

Traditionally, Estonian knitting uses nupps--which

are not for me!  I tried them once--that was enough

to know I don't like them!

If two Estonian knits wasn't enough, I signed up for a third--

this one is also designed by Elizabeth Ravenwood and

it will give me patterns that that the other two do not.

I'm using Knit Picks lace weight yarn in an icy blue--it's

Alpaca/silk blend and feels really good.  I'm just on the

fifth row; had to stop to look for beads to use--still no

nupps for me!

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!