Embroidery, anyone?

It's been all crafting, all the time over here lately. Two days ago I was flipping through an old Marie Claire Idees magazine when I came across a project for an embroidered bag in linen. I thought I'd just dive in and make it. I had some linen but it was cream colored and I wanted mine blue, so I dyed that with some Procion dye I had (only in blue, as it happens). I didn't have all the colors of yarn I would need, but I did have a bagful of wool/mohair fleece samples from Kid Hollow Farm, so I got those out. Look at the colors! (there's also some other handspun, regular yarn and roving in this pic)


So I've been spinning up little batches and combining colors to use for the flowers and stems.


Here's where I was yesterday, but now I'm done with the big flower and have started spinning fiber for the smaller flower. You can get a glimpse of the finished bag in the magazine here.


I've done very little embroidery and very much have Kaffe Fassett in mind as I do this--his main focus seems to be on color and not technique. If I had to do it the right way I might never begin. But it's been going so well I'll probably finish the embroidery in the next day or so. Then I can sew the bag together after finding something nice for a lining (hmm, maybe a Kaffe Fassett fabric).

On the knitting front, I got a nice surprise when my LYS worked out a deal with Knitting Fever to reimburse me for the cotton yarn I used in a striped sweater that bled and ruined the sweater. So today I decided on enough Bamboucle yarn in the same dusty rose color to make this:


It's also Elsebeth Lavold yarn. I hope it goes better this time!

Boogie boogie hedgehog

I'm still trying out things on my new sewing machine today so I thought I'd make this hedgehog softie using the tutorial from Molly Chicken. He's done with linen and some scraps I had around, with the nose in felt and eyes embroidered on. His little pocket on the back will fit a Starbucks card perfectly.


I love hedgehogs, but they will forever be linked with this silly YouTube video (thus the title of this post). Warning: The song may get stuck in your head all day.

Have a great day everyone!

Loot bags

Today I spent some time at a friend's house working on sewing projects. She's making a baby quilt for her sister, and my son had asked me to make him a bag using some dolphin buttons he had.

Five-year-old boys are into treasure and the bags and boxes to carry it around in, so I thought he might like a loot bag with a drawstring. It's nearly reversible with a nice lining in similar fabrics. They were reject blocks from a quilter friend, put to good use.

And here is a loot bag of my own--a sewing basket given to me by my friend, who, when I said I wished for a sewing basket, brought out this one she wasn't using. Hurrah, I'm happy to have a place to organize the odds and ends of sewing.


And I started another Maddalena! There were other designs in the Venezia: Felice Mai Dopo book that I would have tried, but they all required more yarn. A few calls to local yarn shops told me it would be impossible to find, and I was a little concerned about the difference in dye lots, anyway. Since I know and like this sweater, I thought, why not make it again, and right away while the pattern is still fresh in my mind. Now it really qualifies as mindless knitting. Oh, I did look for different ribbing patterns online and didn't find anything interesting enough to substitute.


This one from her book Rajasthan would have fit the bill, but I don't have that one.

Mad about Maddalena

I finished Maddalena this afternoon and here she is. I'm very happy with this little cardigan. It turned out the right size (that's always a relief) and is comfortable to wear. I need to find a cute top to layer underneath, but that would require me to go shopping and I don't enjoy shopping.


I rethreaded the ribbon to match what was in the book, and I think it looks better this way.


Right now I've got 10 of the 11 buttons. I bought all they had at Joann's and found a matching leftover one from my Charlotte sweater. The top buttonhole's there, I'll just add it later.

As I may have said before, Louisa Harding's patterns are some of the best around. Everything is clearly written and works out like it should. The sewing up on this was very easy, and sewing up fitted sleeves isn't my favorite job. I really like her yarns, too, so I guess I can't say enough about her!

Now I also have more of this yarn in my stash in another color:


It's enough to do something about the size of this project. I may use it as a template and do a different type of ribbing. We'll see!

Wips everywhere

Maddalena is alive and well. I finished the second sleeve and started on the back. It's going along quickly, as there are fewer rows of that twisted rib to do than on the sleeves. Plus, I've gotten used to it and it's easy enough. I should finish the back in the next day or so if I keep at it, and then I have the two fronts to do. This sweater will be quite short, which means I might need to look for some nicer tops to go with it since a lot more will be peeking out. I just marvel at the colors in this yarn. Doesn't it look like the patina on this brass?

I also have a drawing WIP as well. I've gone back to Prismacolor pencils for this one, and it's great to be working with them again. Not much to show today, but I thought I'd take more in-progress photos and show more of the steps I do. This one will be only about 8 x 10" with two kitties in it, so each one will be pretty small. Lots of detail to get in though, and two different kinds of fur, so it will be fun!

Vintage knitting

There has been knitting going on here, and I have a new project on the needles to post about. I know, I've been very bad about starting new things before finishing others, but that's how it goes sometimes. It's from the book I've mentioned a lot lately, A Stitch in Time. The original vintage photo of the sweater is below.

I have no idea how my version will turn out. There are just too many variables--small gauge, unusual construction, not used to knitting close-fitting things, etc.--to say right now. But I do enjoy the work. Here's the lace part:

And the yoke:

I'm using Rowan Yorkshire Tweed in the color Enchant. This color is pretty hard to photograph. It is a purple, but quite muted, so it tends to look gray in photos. The yarn itself is rather dry to knit with, and the tweed is devoid of the multicolor flecks that make tweed fun. A disappointment, but at least I'm using stash yarn to make this! It does become softer with steaming.

I really like the idea of short sleeved sweaters. The knitting goes much faster but you still get all the interesting parts of a good design. Since we do a lot of layering in the Pacific Northwest, it may be just the thing. The sweater seems to be going as fast on US 2s as some of my things on larger needles. Don't know why that is!