J is for Jolly

I really like this piece of embroidery and I think it is very JOLLY, hence the use of it here. I loved doing it, all the bright colours and the playing around with patterns. It creased up a bit when I put it on the scanner but I rather like the effect, so I didn't rescan it. It is perle cotton on black felt. 

Reporting on my Yarn Diet, and other trifles ... mmm, trifle....

My yarn diet is going great guns. As explained in a previous post, this is a yarn diet with a difference, or a cop-out if you like. We can buy yarn on one day in each month. I have joined a sock of the month club and that is being my one purchase for the month at the moment. I received my sock wool in April, and that was my yarn purchase for the month. This month's hasn't arrived yet but I am sure it will during May, and that will be May's purchase. And likewise for June - I signed up for three months. I am not counting the sock stuff I got from Sockmonster (see my sidebars) because I had ordered it in March so it didn't come under the auspices of this yarn challenge (run by Rebekah of Knit Knack, again see my sidebar). I am proud to say that I haven't fallen off the wagon once, though it was a near thing a couple of times.

Wombat is off school yet again. He has had ongoing problems with his ears all term. This was the third syringing and the doctor said that any more problems and he will need to see a specialist. At least once the wax was flushed out, there was no sign of infection, which is good - last time, when it was in the other ear, there was infection under all the gunk. He has been rather fragile this week and so I have pulled him out of school for a couple of days. This means that I have not had one full day at home on my own for what will be four weeks come the end of this week - there has been a child at home or George working at home every single day, or else I have been at TAFE. It is driving me mad and I am threatening to move into the shed for some peace and quiet!

I have been working on my course work like a lunatic the last couple of weeks. I now have my folios 95% complete, ready to be checked over by tutors on Friday, and leaving me three weeks to finalise anything that is missing or wrong. (I know I am missing one large handout, and therefore haven't labelled two weeks work on one subject because I know the descriptions of all the exercises are on the handout). I have prepared the fabric for the reverse applique we are doing in class on Friday. I have revised my ideas for my two Major Projects. Heck, I've even made a start on one of them! Sewing and everything! As I will be stuck at home with Wombat all day tomorrow I hope to get that piece well advanced by the end of the day - it definitely won't be finished but I hope that enough will be done to make me feel that I have broken the back of it. Despite being shattered (I am also having a fibro flareup) I now feel that I will get everything finished in time and it will be all right - this time last week I had my doubts about that!

I might try to take some pics over the weekend.

Project Colourswap

I have just posted my May green parcel to Celia. In fact, two parcels, as just as I had sealed up the main parcel securely I saw the last present sitting forlornly on the coffee table waiting to be asked to the party. I had lots of fun putting together green things and I hope you like them, Celia!

I still have not posted pictures of my April colourswap gifts - I took photos of them last week but a certain someone who shall be nameless deleted them instead of downloading them for me. I will try again!

Despite leaving a comment on Morgan's blog to thank her for the bueaitufl things she sent me, that comment has never showed up, nor have I heard from Morgan to know if she received the parcel I sent her. Morgan, if you are reading this, I hope everything is OK with you.

I went out and bought a blue card and wrapping paper today, and I haven't even received my June partner!!!

Project Spectrum - April - Green

 

Happy Mothers Day!!

I know I'm a bit early there but won't get another chance to blog until Monday at the earliest. We personally don't make a BIG fuss about Mothers Day but we do a little bit, and it's always nice. We are going to spend some time with George's mum and sisters and I am really looking forward to that. I will knit a sock (my Project Spectrum project for the month as it is multi shades of green, dyed by my fair hands) on the way down, and while we are there I will work on this week's stitch homework which is a textured piece on canvas. (It was meant to be on rug canvas. I didn't buy any rug canvas as a kind person in class had a big roll of plastic rug canvas to share around. I tried and tried but I just couldn't use it, it hurt my hands, so I am using a much finer piece of canvas which was the only one I had under the bed). I made her a little bag to keep wool needles in, with a couple of packets of them inside. I;m rather proud of it, it's a Humbug bag in the medium size and big enough to keep sundry sewing supplies in. It was very easy to make and took me an hour from start to finish, not counting quilting the fabric - I ad two patchwork fabrics I wanted to use and I decided to take the plunge and machine quilt them. This is important because I tried machine quilting some years ago and made a horrible mess of it and threw it away and vowed never to quilt again. But I have been teaching myself to do free motion machine embroidery recently and thought that machine quilting is the same technique, more or less, so I would give it a go. And I conquered my fear of machine quilting! I was so proud of myself.

Work is really ramping up on the course and I am starting to panic. Considering that I don't even have a paid job, you'd think I;d have time enough compared with all the others, but I guess the down time of CFS and fibromyalgia takes up a lot of time. At least I can often get stitching homework done when I am too flaked out to do anything except loll on the couch. This week I have to do the canvas work and write two design briefs for next Friday. One of them will be from scratch (except that I have already pretty much thought out the basics of the design I want to do), the other one I have already done all the research for and just have to put it all together. Plus I have to deliver stuff for sale at The Highway Gallery on Thursday to go into their Come For A Yarn exhibition in a couple of weeks - all the stuff is made, except for some patterns I need to print out, but I need to price them and fill in the consignment form. I have also agreed to teach two scrumbling classes during the exhibition. So am feeling a little panicky at the moment! I was going to exhibit three things as well as the stuff for sale, but I think it is only going to be one thing now as I haven't finished the other two and it is unlikely at this stage that I will finish them.

Plus we have some stress going on at the moment which I won't go into right now, we're in a difficult situation with one of the kids and we have to make some tricky decisions quite quickly. Teri, who left a comment on my previous post - when I have some time I will email you and continue the conversation you have started!

I hope you are all spoilt by your kids, if you have kids, and spoilt your mothers, if you are lucky enough to have mothers!

I is for Iridescence

OK, so this picture isn't technically iridescent, because that can't be captured properly using conventional (digital or otherwise) photography. But I played with the colours to brighten it up and I quite like this picture, and I have been in a funk over my ABC along pictures recently and I just have to break the cycle and get on with them!! 

H is for Hats

It was a cold day in Melbourne, and Wombat could not decide which hat to wear ... Good thing he was wearing a Project Spectrum green scarf for the month of May. 

First the Grumbling...

Wombat has been off school all week with a heavy cold, and now I have it and I feel like death warmed up. He is VERY demanding when he is sick, understandably so, but it means that I am spending time defending myself in Pokemon battles when I really want to sleep. I also have a pile of homework to do for Friday - I have done most of it, bar the sticking down and captioning, plus an embroidery piece that will probably be finished by tonight - but i would have prefered to do it in a less fragmented way.

Baby Bear had her parent-teacher interviews on Monday. I couldn;t go because I had to stay at home with the hacking, spluttering Wombat, so George went along. NOT HAPPY, JAN. It turned out that our happy, cheerful child who is having such a wonderful year is indeed having a very happy and cheerful year but at the expense of things like schoolwork and music practice, and is spending most of her time talking and not paying attention. Poor child has the misfortune to be 'gifted' both academically and musically, so of course we expect a certain standard of work from her (not an exaggerated one, and we are always careful to praise what she does, but we do expect her to work to something approaching full capacity, not slacking off like she has been doing). So we have had to take the cruel and heartless parent line and re-establish some very firm ground rules. I think it really hit home when one of the teachers showed George a classroom test that had nine questions on it, which everyone else in the class had completed but she had only done one question. And no, it wasn't particularly hard, and it was in a subject she likes and is capable at. More stress that we could, frankly, have done without.

And to cap it off, it turned out that she had not bothered to tell us about the Victorian Flute Guild Competition which is being held this Saturday, at which she is expected to be all day. She entered it last year and I happily spent the time there, knitting a sock in between sections, and enjoying a very high standard of music. We think she did not tell us because she knew there was a birthday party on that day (of one of the girls who should be in the competition, no less!) I got really annoyed about this because we had already planned out the day for Saturday, because we all had to go in different directions and then go out in the evening. George is doing a working bee at the primary school; she was going to and from this party, quite a longish drive away; and I was going to spend the afternoon slowly chopping and simmering and organising an elaborate dish that I am taking to the dinner party on Saturday night. Now I have to make the thing on Thursday and refrigerate it, which means doing an online shop for tomorrow because Wombat is still sick, which means that they almost certainly won't send something vital because they ALWAYS run out of the most amazing things; I;m always exhausted after school on Friday, and as I am quite sick that will be even worse; and now I have to spend the whole day at the flute thing and then be the sparkling life and soul of the party on Saturday night. If she had told us in advance we could have at least preplanned something to reduce the pressure on us both. Snarl, snarl.

On the up side ... i got my parcel from Morgan today for the Project Spectrum colourswap and I am so thrilled with it! No pics till Sunday, probably. It included some amazing sock wool, stitch markers, some patchwork fabric and an ornamental hook for the wall, all tucked into a bright orange knitting pouch. I felt truly spoilt, and goodness I needed it!

Use What You Have Month

I haven't written so far about my Use What You Have Month. I have managed not to buy any craft materials except for a few bits I needed for my course (and for this Friday I genuinely don't need to buy anything new! I really will be using What I Have). However I haven't managed to stop buying magazines, naughty me. I did also buy one book - I really wasn't going to buy any craft books this month but this one on art quilts was exaclt what I had been looking for to help with my two major assignments due at the end of semester :)

I have made a number of things Using What I Have. For my April colourswap I sent off some sock yarn from my stash, plus I made something out of yarn and beads also from my stash (she hasn't got them yet so I won't post any more details just yet). I made myself a pair of orange (and pink) socks from yarn I had dyed at the start of the year; and I am halfway through another pair of socks also from yarn dyed then. I have knitted my mum a scarf out of (shock horror) eyelash yarn (for Mothers' Day) and I;m knitting myself a short keyhold scarf out of the same stuff for myself, all from the stash. And I think I will knit my mum a short keyhole scarf in another eyelash yarn from the stash, and use the rest of it for a long scarf for myself. I don't like novelty yarns a whole lot but this is really soft, long eyelash yarn that actually feels rather nice against the neck. Photos eventually. So pretty much all month has been spent using stuff from the stash, which I am pleased with.

I have also gone on a longer term Yarn Diet. See that ticker at the top of the blog? I'm in a challenge being run by Rebekah of Knit Knack blog (see my sidebar) which is a yarn diet with a difference. (Or you could call it a cop-out if you were feeling sarcastic!) We try not to buy any yarn for three months EXCEPT we have one free day per month (which can be cumulative). All participants donate some yarn, enough to make a scarf or pair of socks, and at the end of the three months the winner (or winners) get a share of the pot, so to speak. So far I have really not bought any yarn at all and I am so proud of myself! I even passed up the quite good and very cheap printed sock yarn I saw in Lincraft last week. I am expecting a big haul of sock yarn from Sockmonster (see sidebar) soon, but I ordered that halfway through March so I think I get let off that - anyway, I still have my free day for April. I had also signed up for a sock club but I;lm happy for that to be my yarn buying day each month over the next three months, anyway.

Project Colourswap

Project Colourswap is an offshoot of Project Spectrum (see my sidebar for a link). I have just about finished putting together my parcel to send off for April - I had to wait for some glue to dry on something before finishing it off, which I will do this evening.

There is a new questionnaire for the project which I will post here now:

Are you crafty? YES!!!!!

Would you enjoy things like: Buttons, ribbons andembellishments? Buttons and embellishments, not so enthusiastic about ribbons

Do you dye your own wool? One of my favorite things! I;m especially interested in dyeing sock wool right now.

Do you like to scrapbook or make homemade cards? Not really

What are your favorite scents? Floral scents, but either pure ones (like rose scent that actually smells like roses, or lavender, etc) or floral and/or green scents that are not too sweet or too spicey. NOT VANILLA OR TEA TREE OIL, they make me feel sick.

Do you like stationery and cards? Love cards, don't really use other stationery

Do you like to sew or embroider items? Just become obsessed with this!

Do you like beads? MMMM BEADS.... Yes, in other words :)

What kind of candy do you like? Not a big candy fun though do like chocolate and toffee.

Do you like hand lotions or soaps? Love 'em!

Do you like to wear costume jewelry? Necklace,earrings, bracelets etc. Yes, love it!

Do you like to make/or use stitch markers? Occasionally use them, don't make them, but love gorgeous ones.

Do you collect anything? Tiny teddy bears; things to do with wolves, bats or polar bears, or pharoah hounds; I also like dragons and Celtic and medieval things

Do you have any allergies?: Smoke, food, fiber, pets,etc. Smoke, most definitely. Can't wear mohair around my neck but can tolerate it otherwise, no other fiber problems.

Do you have any hobbies? All fiber related ones! Knitting, crochet, emrboidery, patchwork (sort of), textile art. Currently very interested in collecting variegated embroidery threads, of any composition or thickness.

Do you like scented or unscented candles? Don't like candles, sorry.

Are you a fiber snob? A bit - I don't like really plasticy feeling acrylics.

Do you like to play cards or board games? Only a little bit.

Do you like neon colors, pastel, light or mediumranges in the color of the month? Any and all! I LOVE COLOUR!

Do you like kitchen magnets or key rings? I do, indeed.

Do you like picture frames? Yes, sort of - I do like them but I don't really have any nor am I sure if I would use them.


I will finish off my thingy that I am making to send - which will be accompanied with a few other, colour appropriate things - to my pal on Saturday.

Project Spectrum - April - Orange/Yellow

I did this applique for my course a couple of weeks ago. We had to draw still lives with fruit and/or vegetables in charcoal - something that put me off art at school and which I still loathe to do (the still life, not the charcoal particularly, though goodness it is messy!). This is my stitched version of sweet potatoes. Each potato is layered organza using different combinations of red, orange and yellow, and then details stitched in using a variety of orange, green and beige threads. The painting around the outside was a moment of desperation when I couldn't decide how to finish it, and then I added a few orange blobs to the sweet potatoes too. It was surprisingly good fun, considering how much I hated the drawing process. Interestingly, I chose all the materials in daylight, and when the finished product is viewed under artificial light it doesn't work nearly as well, as the organza is quite sparkly and that's what you end up focussing on. This photo looks like the piece does in daylight. I have never done this sort of thing before and I am quite pleased with myself. 

Project Spectrum - April - Orange/Yellow

 

The Endeavour - or, What I Did on My Holidays Part 2

We went around the Endeavour, which is a replica of the ship was Captain Cook was sailing when he discovered Australia. This replica was made for our Bicentenary in 1987. It is a very faithful reproduction and it is a rare treat for it to be docked in Melbourne, so it was great fun to see it. We spent a couple of hours crawling around it - quite literally in the part where the clearance was only 4'!!! George took a couple of most unflattering pictures of me getting down to crawl through that bit. They are NOT in this picture collage!!! 

The Buddy System - or, What I Did In My Holidays Part 1

It's nearly two weeks since the end of the school holidays and I have pictures still to post. The Buddy System was an interesting interactive art happening where we became part of the exhibition. Participants crocheted a flower, which was then pinned to the wall. The flowers are then posted on to your nominated Loved One at the end of the exhibition, extending the reach of lovingly made craft pieces into the outer world. Non-crocheters were taught to do chains in green wool that became the connecting pieces. I had Baby Bear (12) and her friend C (13), who is a crafty male who already knits rather well. They were both very enthusiastic about learning to do the chains. It was a fun half hour and C found himself the centre of attention as EVERONE wanted to see a 13 year old boy crocheting!! It was fun, though admittedly the crochet lessons were a bit sketchy and all the yarn was the most disgusting plastic acrylic - I understand why, as they were supplying it, but I HATE using the stuff! I also felt a bit incompetent as I could only remember one flower pattern, but the wall was full of gorgeous flowers made off site by other people who obviously had access to patterns. I could have done a great one with a pattern! I really liked the interactive approach and it will look very pretty when it is finished - and I like the ephemeral feelings about flowers and about this exhibition - but there was something about the atmosphere that I still can't my finger on that I did not enjoy.

A later note - George read this entry and said that every time he wandered into the room (he was keeping Wombat entertained elsewhere in the gallery) he felt completely frozen out and very unwelcome. And he is someone who schmoozes with women of all ages/sizes/shapes/nationalities to an almost embarassing extent. He and I are both very sensitive to atmospheres and the 'auras', for want of a better word, of people, and it's interesting that we both apparently had similar feelings. And no, we hadn't discussed it at the time.

My Beautiful International Scarf Exchange Scarf

A little late, but no less beautiful, this is my International Scarf Exchange Scarf from Tina. Tina has no blog or website and barely posted to the ISE blog, so I know almost nothing about her, but she sure knows how to pick the most beautiful colours. This is a gorgeous thick and thin yarn, fairly coarse but I just adore the way the colours meld into each other. I have emailed her to thank her and to ask what the yarn is, but I haven't heard back. Whatever it is, I just love it! 

G is for Green

 

G is for Green

 

G is for Green

Green is one of my all time favorite colours! (The others being pink, blue and purple - in no particular order). Green is the colour of nature and it soothes me and makes me feel at peace. I've made a collage of sundry green images that I liked and I feel good just looking at it. Most of the plants are in my garden; the skeins of yarn are from Lorna's Laces and will become lacey scarves or shawls one day; and the tub full of yarn is my Green box and it is overflowing! 

Project Spectrum - March - Red/Pink

 

Project Spectrum - March - Red/Pink

Sirius says that her collar is in honour of Project Spectrum this month!! Notice her pink nose and lips - Pharoah hounds blush when they are happy!

School Holidays

We are slowly reaching the end of these unseasonably early school holidays here at Chez Sheep Rustler. They were brought forward by four weeks to coincide with the Commonwealth Games. This meant that first term was a headlong, breathless rush, and everyone has to cope with a 12 week term starting next week. Easter will at least give us a long weekend soonish, but we think we may take the kids out of school for a couple of days mid term and give them another long weekend, just so that they can make it to the end of term!

Wombat came down with an ear infection three days before the end of last term and so started his holidays earlier than I really wanted him to. It meant I had to miss my TAFE Classes on the last Friday as George was in Sydney. George's mum did offer to come down but as I have to leave at 8.30am she would have had to have caught a train at 6.30am and that would have been just too cruel! Besides which she then got caught up in a real family drama which has resulted in her having to hare off to Broken Hill for a month to care for her sister-in-law.

Poor Wombat took a good ten days to get over the ear problem, including three visits to the doctor, antibiotic eardrops, oral antibiotics and an ear washing out session. It left him very clingy and I am, I;m afraid, looking forward to some time without him following me from room to room all day. Yes, he gets plenty of attention from me, but it would be nice not to have to be in the same room as him all the time.

Baby Bear usually spends a week in Moe during school holidays, but that hasn't been able to happen this time. So she and Wombat have been at each other's throats half the time. And because she is used to having that week of one-on-one attention during the holidays, which I just can't give her with Wombat around, she is getting clingy too and I have trouble getting any time to myself at all. All of this plus the fact that George, despite repeated promises to sort things out and stop doing it, is still going up to Sydney at least every second week and the people in the Sydney office are now treating him as a Sydney employee who should be there whenever they say Jump. (Not that they have given him an office, or a desk, or a computer, or a phone line...) And whenever I complain he says he will talk to such-and-such and it will stop - and they have the conversation and he tells me that it will stop, then nothing happens and he tells me I don't understand the politics of it. What I do understand is that it is wearing him out to the extent that I am afraid he is going to have a heart attack, and driving me into a depression that eventually I won't be able to climb out of.

Despite all this we have had some nice times over the holidays. George took a day off on Monday and we went into the city and went to the Museum to see the props used during the Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony. Only unfortunately instead of going to see them straight away (it being the supposed reason for out visit) George insisted on us going round most of the Museum first, until Wombat was on a verge of a wobbly, and then we had to race around the exhibition in five minutes flat. It;s a great museum (I hadn't been to it since it moved into the new building) and I really enjoyed it, but I think we should have done things the other way round. We took three boys who are friends of ours and it worked really well, as everyone had someone to keep them company without fighting. The alarming thing is that these kids (they have a little sister too, who we didn't take as the car only has seven seats) and our kids look sufficiently alike to pass for siblings, and the various heights (more so than the actual ages) made them look as though they could just be all the one family. Scary thought!!

Knittingwise - I am three quarters of the way through a second sock; I have been working on my Project Spectrum project for March, the pink Kid Silk Haze Trinket scarf; the Diamond Patch jumper has not been touched for about four weeks; I am making a hat for Beyond Blue, or rather the Blue Hat Project, which is an exhibition and then charity auction for our deperession charity; and I have made a turquoise curly whirly for Baby Bear which i must photograph. I probably won't finish Trinket by the end of March because we are having a late burst of hot weather and KSH is horrible to use in hot weather - and I can't even use it sitting in front of a fan because it is so featherweight that it blows around and annoys me!! But I have vowed to start and mostly work on a project for each month of Project Spectrum in the relevant colour/s.

And now to get the pizza dough out of the breadmaker and make pizza!!

Use What You Have

OK, this is going to be a hard one. Inspired by Simple Sparrow and Whip Up (see my side bar for URLs) I am going to endeavour to use the month of April to Use What I Have. No craft purchases FOR A WHOLE MONTH and to use things that I already have to make something. I will only buy stuff if I absolutely need it for the course (every week we are given a list of things to bring for next week, some of which I have and some of which I don't). I was momentarily worried about Project Spectrum for April, which is Yellow and Orange, becasue they are colours I don't normally use. But I will take photos of appropriate things around the place, and I do have some mostly orange sock wool that I was planning to use anyway.

What a challenge!!!

F is for Fabric

Over the years I have accumulated quite a lot of fabric of one sort and another. I used to make most of my own clothes. I don't really now, because I have branched off in other directions and found that I was resenting the time it took me to do dressmaking. So now I buy most of my clothes and have pretty much decided to have a holiday from dressmaking.

I used to dabble in patchwork. I have a goodly accumulation of patchwork fabrics. But I discovered that I hate, and am not good at, quilting, so I gave up on patchwork. That fabric won't be wasted though, there are lots of smaller projects that don't need proper quilting that I plan to do in good time.

And lots of that fabric can find other uses, too. I am now constantly on the lookout for interesting background fabrics for embroidery - which is what this lot of four is for.

The funny thing is, when I started the Studio Stitch course I went in there not really wanting to do embroidery - I wanted to use scrumbling as much as possible. But I have rapidly become quite obsessed with embroidery and keep reading books about it and even dreaming of projects I could do.

F is for Fleece

I have lots of greasy wool fleece stuffed away in the shed. My MIL has lots and lots and LOTS more greasy fleece waiting for me to use. I adore dyeing my own yarn. My spinning is not great but I like to use the results in scrumbling, whre it doesn't matter if they are even or perfect.

This is the first dyed fleece that I have bought. I dom't know if I will spin it or use it for other things. I also bought a couple of needlefelting needles at the same time. I would like to try needlefelting, both to make 3D objects and to try putting down stuff on fabric to embroider over.

Project Spectrum - March - Red/Pink

I've decided that for each month of Project Spectrum I am going to take photos of things in the appropriate colours - as already posted - as I have found this to be a great way of starting to look at the things around me. (The course is starting to make me look at EVERYTHING differently!!)

But I am also going to do at least one project per month that also corresponds with the relevant colour/s. This is Trinket by Kim Hargreaves, which is going to be so beautiful when it is finished! I lashed out and bought the kit, which is the only way you can get the pattern. I will probably use other yarns to knit it again and again as it is so pretty. It's easy to knit, too, and once you have memorised the pattern (quite quickly!) it is perfect TV knitting, but it looks so clever because it is on the diagonal! However, I have a confession to make. After lusting after Rowan Kid Silk Haze for the past couple of years, and taking out a second mortgage to buy this lot plus another three balls of a different colour, I am forced to admit that I don't think it is worth the money!! It is very nice, certainly, but when I put it against my neck it itches. A bit of a disadvantage with a scarf! But I can wear scarves so that they don't touch the skin on my neck (it doesn't get cold enough here to really need them wrapped tightly around for warmth). It is a sweet yarn and comes in delectable colours and looks cute knitted up - but I don't think I will be buying it again. I can just see this pattern knitted up in a lovely laceweight that doesn't have mohair in it. I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that I just can't wear mohair against my skin, no matter how expensive and desirable it is!! 

Project Spectrum - March - Red/Pink

 

Project Spectrum - March - Red/Pink

 

Project Spectrum - March - Red/Pink

 

Project Spectrum - March - Red/Pink

 

Project Spectrum - March - Red/Pink

 

My I Cord So-Called Scarf

I am feeling a bit embarrassed about my ISE scarf. After being so late in sending it off, I'm not even sure that the lovely recipient likes it! I suppose it was a bit left of centre. It was an experiment and I don't personally think it was a very successful one. I didn't even take a photo of it myself, as I had taken so long to organise to send it off, and at the last minute the camera battery was flat and I didn't dare miss the posting opportunity.

Just in case anyone else wants to reproduce my experiement and maybe make a better fist of it than me:

My I Cord So-Called Scarf

Choose a selection of yarns in a colour scheme that you like. I put ten I cords into this, each one in a different yarn. They can be all the colours of the rainbow, or harmonising, or complementary, or clashing - I made it a good mixture of colours and textures but some people (including, I fear, poor Marji!) would find it too busy that way.

Choose an approximate length for your scarf, erring on the generous side. You could make a short one, of course, buyt you won't be able to do as much with it afterwards.

Make ten I cords in approximately this length. Don't have them all identical. I used 5mm dpns (US size 8) and six stitches for each one, and as the yarns were not uniform this gave different thicknesses of I cord. You could use an I cord machine but I think they only take fine yarns - which would be lovely, too!

When you are done, lay them out flat on a large flat surface like a bed. Play with them, arrange them, intertwine them, until you like the arrangement. Then catch them together carefully in quite a lot of places with a few stitches using sewing thread, and make some of those intersections with beads or buttons, if you like. You want it to hold together, but to have plenty of gaps left over.

Now you can wear it as you will. Wrap it around, pull one end through a hole, pull the other end through another hole, wrap it around your head - decorate it more, scrumble all over it, whatever!

I am going to be making myself one, so when that is done I will take photos and demonstrate some of the ways it can be worn. In the meantime, look at Marji's picture and imagine!!

Playing with Picasa 2

This is the four photos that went into the spooky montage.

I feel a desire to play with photo software coming on!!! 

Playing with Picasa 1

I thought I would experiment a bit with Picasa's collage functions. I really like this result, it looks a bit spooky! 

E is for Embroidery

This is the first stitched piece I did for my course, a couple of weeks ago. It is the first time I have ever done this type of embroidery - I have done squillions of cross stitch and woolwork pieces, and know how to do most embroidery stitches, but I had never done this sort of 'free' embroidery before. I am actually quite pleased with it and I'm glad to say that my tutor was too! We are now doing a stitched piece every week - the next one is appliqued, as is the one I have to finish off this week. And I think the next assignment is an applique too. Can you tell I am having fun!!!