Tuesday...07/28/2009

A couple of days ago I was trying out the idea of free motion quilting on my machine and used a couple of small pieces of scrap that I had lying around. It took a bit to catch on, but I finally did and finished quilting the whole thing. It seemed such a waste to just throw it away, so I decided to make a book cover with it. I dutifully came inside and got a book, measured carefully, sewed it up and... voila'! ... it's too small... deep sigh

Not to be outdone by a measuring stick...



The book cover will now become a dpn knitting needle roll... VOILA' ! .... Of course, there is a little to be done. The divider seams for the different dpn sets have to sewn and another ribbon will be added on the other side so it will close properly.
There is another piece of this in my workroom that will be made into a book form with pages to hold my circulars. That idea just popped up, so we'll see how that works out... ;o)

The truth is that I have been wanting to make one of these for a while. I have been slowly gaining dpn and circular knitting needle sets for a while now and have had to continually hunt in my little case to find the sets that I need. So this is a good thing...



We finished the window film on the master bedroom yesterday...which also has lots of window space on the west and south sides of the house. After all the climbing to reach the tops of the windows and bending to do the cutting, I was ready for a sit down...

So...after supper I finished the spinning of the bamboo batts that I bought a year or so ago. There were two batts, but one was of a color that seemed more mud than anything else and I really did not like it when it was spun. I pulled as much of the brightly colored bamboo fiber out of it as I could (it was a wool/bamboo mix) and spun it in with the other batt. Getting the single onto the knitty noddy was as far as I got last night. It will be double plied, but that will have to wait until this evening.

It rained some yesterday and when I went out to take some pics of the flowers in the back yard it was very much like a really bad sauna. It is supposed to rain again today and tomorrow... and that's good as long as I am putting up the window film. (It keeps the windows from being too hot and the film holds better)

As for the pictures...


The trumpet vine is outdoing itself this year. It makes a perfect rounded top to the 10 foot tall stump we left of tree that died during the drought three years ago. It's a wonderful draw for the hummingbirds that swarm around it during the day.













The crepe myrtle is not as showy this year as it was last year, but it is still one of my favorite plants.


"All the abundance you want is already here. You just have to tune it in." ...

Everyday Wisdom by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

Deer Antler Nalbinding Needles

Here we are on Friday... can't believe it's been a week.

Have I told you about my uncle who can whittle anything... and I mean anything... from wood just using his pocketknife. Well... he whittled a bas relief sculpture of his granddaughter from a piece of wood at least 8x10 and I think more like 11x14... Talk about being wowed.. I was! Anyway, I digress.

I sent an email to my Aunt Edna to see if Uncle Bobby might whittle me a nalbinding needle. She emailed back and said yes, he would and he was out looking for a piece of cedar. I spend the next couple of days thinking about how pretty the red color of the cedar would look in a needle... with the added plus of cedar needle stuck in wool... hmm.. no moths.. You can't imagine my surprise when I received this photo in my inbox of two deer antler needles... and asking me which one I would like to have!

I recall once upon a time in a land far away trying to whittle a bone... it was a stew bone and I wanted to try scrimshaw. I could not do it. Couldn't even make a scratch. And here he is ... made two needles in no time from deer antlers... I need lessons in whittling..obviously.

What a treasure this will be. I can hardly wait to hold it in my hand.

Naalbinding Primer and Patterns

Wow! It's finally happened..grin

Alix's Nalebinding Page

has brought together an easy primer on 3 naalbinding stitches with free online patterns for hats, gloves, flowers and the amazing Coptic Sock.

Alix announced her new web page on the Yahoo Nalebinding Group and of course all of us had to rush right over and see it..grin Thanks Alix!

Take a look... you'll be glad you did!

From Roving to Pouch...

Well, here is the first thing I have completed using my hand spun since I had the spinning lesson. I can't begin to describe how much softer and how much easier this yarn is to work with than the first yarns that I was spinning. Wonderful. Hand dyed yellow yarn.

It is naalbound using my oak needle that I made from a scrap of oak in the shop... The pouch is made using the Oslo stitch with an edging at the top using the blanket stitch. The drawstrings are twisted cording from the same yarn.

I have about 800 yards of handspun and am working toward having enough for an afghan. But.. couldn't resist making something small because the yarn felt so yummy..grin And I wanted to see how it would work up in naalbinding. Love it....