I Just Love Looking for Shells
It’s been years since we had a vacation on Galveston Island, but I hope it won’t be so long next time. We were there last week with my husband’s family in a lovely house right on the beach. The kids (including my husband) built sand castles and swam. I strolled along the beach and looked for shells.
Hermit crabs occupy most of the entire shells, and that’s fine, because I like shell fragments just as well if not better. These are broken moon shells. Don’t they look nice all grouped together?
Here are stripey fragments, which I feel certain are destined to become a piece of art for the bathroom. Same for the worm-eaten pieces below.
The grouping exercise reminded me of Seveness Knitting. The principle is the same: putting similar items together (like colors, patterns, shapes) results in a pleasing composition. The composition is pleasing, because the variation makes it interesting to the eye, and because the similarity gives it continuity, which makes our brains happy.
Now I have another bag of stuff to add to my stash of crafty stuff. Collecting is so much fun!
Crafty Daughter
Have I mentioned that I’m proud of my daughter? She will be 10 in about a month. Even as a small child, she amazed me with her ability to observe and her eagerness to try new things and test her own ideas. We were cleaning out her room recently, when we found this little felt crab she made when she was probably six years old.
It’s a gem, isn’t it?! She is good at capturing the essence of a thing.
Lately, we ran across the idea of decorating flip-flops with Lion Brand Fun Fur. We bought the necessary supplies and even found free instructions.
“Says here that you can wind the yarn around the straps or crochet over them,” I said. We agreed that crochet would be better. She figured out, on her own, how to single crochet over the straps, and decorated flip-flops for herself and her little sister.
“I’ll do some for you, Mom,” she said. Alright! And here they are.
Taos: Alternative Tassel and Trim
Bullion or twisted fringe is just one or more strands of yarn that have been twisted so much that they twist back on themselves. You can make your own, twisting by hand or using an old-fashioned, hand-cranked egg-beater. You can buy a special hand-cranked twisting tool that has hooks to hold the strands of yarn. . .
OR
You can take my workshop at Taos this coming fall and learn how to use your spinning wheel as a twisting tool. You need yarn (plain or fancy), decorative sewing threads, beaded strands, or almost anything flexible that will pass through your wheel’s orifice. See the Wool Festival workshop descriptions for a complete supply list.
Once you have a bobbin full of overtwisted yarns, I’ll show you how to use the hardback book and a tapestry needle or crochet hook to make fringe. You can make it fancier with knitting or crochet. The trim pictured above is made from a dark wool yarn and a copper-metallic decorative sewing thread. I crocheted a simple edging on top of the basic fringe.
A tassel skirt is just bullion fringe, wound around itself, with a top added. We’ll use more of the fringe we make in class, and turn it into a tassel with a knitted or crocheted top. This one has a crocheted top, and is accented with coppery beads.
KnitRedKAL Done
Last night, while listening to a book on tape, I stitched the sleeves into the body of my KnitRedKAL cardigan. Here it is!
The photo makes the sweater seem harshly stripey, but it is a very soft, fuzzy sweater. Can you tell in this close up?
The three KALs I joined have been great for keeping me focused on projects. Thank you to the organizers of all KALs and CALs. Here’s a page that shows buttons from lots of KALs. They look so pretty all together like that. I even found one or two that I might want to join.
Now I need to find a WAL (Write ALong) to keep me from procrastinating on some stories I want to write. Also, I need a KUWYBAL (Keep Up With Your Bookkeeping ALong). Making
Creepy Crawly Foolishness
Nine-year-old Eva has loved insects and other creepy-crawlies since she was a toddler in England. She made elaborate snail houses and playscapes for the many snails she imported into our garden, and their progeny. She fed them old lettuce, and sometimes fresh lettuce, if I wasn’t watching.
When my husband turned the vegetable garden, she rescued the unearthed earthworms and made them comfortable in shelters festooned with flowers. She cared for fallen bees and wasps, too. During that time, I crocheted her a toy bee. She loves it still, even though it isn’t very good.
This time of year, the Texan wasps gather food for their young. They sting other small creatures, which immobilizes them, but doesn’t kill them. Voila!—Fresh food for the wasp babies. Sometimes the wasps sting big old spiders, but they can’t lift the spiders to their nests. Poor spiders. They’re alive, but they can’t move.
Eva found two stung wolf spiders, and ensconced them in this beautiful, portable, paper home. They will live out their unmoving lives on the comfort of a folded tissue, enjoying the colorful interior decoration.
In other news, the sleeves of my KnitRedKAL cardigan are finished! The ends are darned in! I am working on the button bands! The end is in sight.
Week Off?
After many weeks of working way too late at night to meet a couple of publication deadlines and prepare for a teaching gig, then spending nine intense days with our friends from England, I decided to take a week or so off work.
I am knitting on my KAL projects, sewing some shorts for my older girl, and posting–all the important stuff, without the time pressure. My daughter Eva loves insects, so I machine-embroidered this fabulous beetle on her shorts. She can’t stand the rough embroidery against her skin, so I placed it so that her pocket will come between her and the embroidery.
This beetle was part of the design sampler that came with my Husqvarna Viking Designer I. What a wonderful machine! Then there are the rayon embroidery threads, which come in a dizzying variety of colors. And what about the metallic threads of every description? It makes me want to embroider everything.
Less than 60 rows to go on my KnitRedKAL/Personal Challenge cardigan. At three rows a day, that’s less than a month. Darning in the ends will take a few evenings. The button bands and neck edge will take another few evenings after that. I sure will be glad to get that thing finished.
I have taken up a new sideline as a scanning contortionist in order to bring you this picture of my JustForMeKAL scarf and my hair. Don’t they look nice together?
Many compliments to Evelyn Clark, who designed this scarf for FiberTrends. The pattern is extremely well-written. The instructions are very complete. I really enjoy following someone else’s instructions from time to time—so relaxing! All the work has been done for me.
See the bumps along each edge? Those are the picots. They are my favorite part of this project. Can you see how beautifully the point of the scarf is engineered? The point, the picots, and the line of yo’s along the edges were what sold the pattern to me. I love that the scarf is only gently blocked. Clark recommends just soaking the finished scarf, smoothing it onto a flat surface, and stretching out the picots by hand. It’s a lovely look.
Taos Wool Festival Crochet Flowers
Crochet flowers and leaves are surprisingly easy to make, and they can be used to such great effect! We will make several kinds of flowers and leaves, discussing how to alter the basic pattern for different effects. We will talk about ways to use crochet flora, and I will bring along one or two wall hangings as examples.
And in case you’re thinking about taking my Design Skills Workshop, crochet flowers and leaves translate very well to seaweed, coral, and other marine life.
Bring leftover yarns in flower and leaf colors (real or imaginary!) and your crochet hooks.
Here are some of the pieces we will make.
Here are crochet flowers and leaves in use on a couple of my knitted, quilted wall hangings. See more wall hangings at the Gallery link in the menu above.
UK-TX Connection Benefits Comanche County
Our daughter, Eva, went to school in England with a similarly smart, fun, and silly young lady named Freya. They were a couple of sad little girls when we left the UK in 2003.
We were thrilled when Freya and her dad arranged to visit us in Texas. After some major fits and starts, they arrived on June 9. Freya and Eva picked up where they left off, and had a good time. Ian Boyle, Freya’s dad, is a professional builder of dry stone walls and other dry stone structures in Sheffield. He wanted to do a project while he was here, if possible.
Amazingly, about the time we knew Freya and Ian were coming, my mom spotted an article in The Comanche Chief newspaper, describing the new hiking and equestrian trails at Lake Proctor in Comanche County. The article acknowledged the hard work by volunteers to develop the trails, and it mentioned that more work was needed to provide things like rest areas and benches. Did it say benches?
Ian liked the idea of building a stone bench in Texas, so we contacted Park Ranger Brad Campbell. An outcrop of sandstone along the lakeshore was perfect for the purpose. In the heat and humidity of June, Brad and other rangers loaded the stone and brought it to the proposed bench site. They also provided tools. Later, my husband Charles joined the ranks of stone haulers, to bring up pieces for the seat and the side extensions.
Ian’s bench seats three people. It sits in a shady spot, where three trails meet, and it looks out onto a wildflower meadow.
During their nine days in Texas (which included side trips to Austin, to Eva’s softball games, and all around the countryside), Ian also completed a stone pillar, which is the first part of what looks to become an international project. Charles’ photo captures the setting sun through a pipe that is built into the structure.
Now I just need to figure out how to work some textile art into this project!
Testimonial
Here’s a lovely e-mail that I got from a lady who has taken a couple of my classes. I’m pretty sure she won’ t mind my reprinting it here. When she finishes her vest, she’ll send a photo, which I will post at Suzann’s TextileFusion.
Dated Thursday, 16 June 2005
Hi Suzann,
I wanted to thank you for teaching this year, and I hope you will come back next year to camp. We always have such good fun in your classes. I’m still working on my vest. I haven’t had much time to give it with Liz having left Saturday, and having surgery on Tuesday. All is going fine now, and since I have to take it easy for a couple of weeks, I’m going to give my attention to the vest so I have it finished by next year. You will have to return in order to see it. I’m planning on taking more of your classes. Your are so inspirational.
Thanks,
Fern
This letter will keep me smiling for a long time.
ReKAL Project Finished
I did the last bit of sewing on my ReKAL project a few days ago in a hotel room. My husband turned the air-conditioning way, way low, and I was freezing. I kept dozing, there in the cold, and sewing the binding whenever I woke up. Finally, the last stitch was done. Hurray! This is a dual-duty project, for ReKAL and for an article I’m writing for Sew News magazine. It will be out in November.
Here’s a detail. I always take my knit/sew projects to Joy’s Fabrics in Stephenville, Texas, because Joy helps me find the perfect lining and binding fabric. She knows her stock very well, and she’s willing to take down bolts and bolts of fabric until we find just the right one.
Oh, I just realized that I never published a picture of the original sweater! It was a wool sweater I found at Goodwill in Houston:
