Day 14 - Fire

 Over 1/4" of rain last week, and the fire ban was lifted.

My son made the fire pit ring.

All the best!♥︎

Day 13 - An Evening Bike Ride

 Drone photos of our evening bike ride.

All the best!♥︎

Day 12 - Sleeping Cat

 I had to wait to make the bed this morning because someone was still sleeping.

All the best!♥︎

Day 11 - A Sweater

My Mom knitted a sweater for me (my part was finding buttons to match and sewing them on).

The pattern is Lady Sunnyside by Tanis Lavallee (there is also a free child's version - Sunnyside).

The yarn is Merino wool that I spun about 5 years ago.

This was the starting fibre - half a commercial dyed red and the other half I dyed. I drum carded the fibre to blend the colours.

 All the starting handspun yarn.

I started 3 different projects with this yarn over the years, even finished one (I am surprised the yarn didn't wear out from all the ripping out). The finished piece I made was a large vest that I felt like Fred Flintstone in - you can tell why I took that one apart. I had told my Mom that I was done with the yarn - it just didn't work for me, so she kindly offered to try making something with it. The pattern is one that I bought years ago - my Mom made one, my sister made one, and now I have one!

Thanks Mom! It's perfect.

All the best!♥︎

Day 10 - Tatting

Last month I finished a piece of tatting that I started about 12 years ago (as a piece of handwork to take on a trip).

It is about 13" across. The pattern is from an old tatting pattern book. I used a very fine cotton for this one.

I started another piece of tatting too. This is also from an old tatting pattern book. This time I am using a #10 cotton thread (Knit Picks Curio in Copper).

All the best!♥︎

Day 9 - Bees

This spring my son became a beekeeper!

They are fascinating to watch, and sure are busy.

Here they are bearding, something they do when it is hot.

Miss Maggie finds them interesting (we don't think she has been stung but the dog has - she was fine).

The bees have swarmed a few times (it was so noisy).

We started with two hives, now we have five.

This is the first frame of honey, and probably the only one we will have this year - the hives need quite a bit of honey in the hive to make it through the winter.

The honey is delicious.

All the best!♥︎

Day 8 - Spinning then Knitting

I spun yarn and then knitted a few things recently, from fibre that I had dyed.

This one is merino/nylon blend that I spun a 3 ply yarn for socks.

And the knitted socks (my regular toe-up, two-at-a-time socks to use every bit of yarn).

This one is an alpaca/merino/silk blend, that I spun into a singles yarn (so the colours would remain clear).

 And the knitted shawl (really a scarf). 

The pattern is one I have made before and couldn't resist knitting again (Entrelac Shawl with Tassels by Eva Martinsson).

All the best!♥︎

Day 7 - Piecing

I haven't been quilting this summer (summer's are just too short here), but back in May I kept up with piecing the Laundry Basket 2021 Mystery Quilt.

The blocks are 4" (it is a 15x15 block layout, but some of the blocks are plain fabric).

It was lots of fun.

 The blocks are now waiting to be sewn together, but that will wait until the fall.

All the best!♥︎

Day 6 - Woodcarving

 Trying my hand at woodcarving again. Today I made a little spreader out of basswood.

All the best!♥︎

Day 5 - Dog Training

We have been working at getting Miss Molly used to rides in the car and seeing different sights.

 She did really well today - treats help.

Someone asked me how my dresses from yesterday's post look on me - I think they look nice, but one of the first thing people say to me is that they look so comfy - I think it might be another way of saying "are you wearing pyjamas?"

All the best!♥︎

Day 4 - Sewing

I have done some sewing lately - all from the same pattern. This one is the Sydney Designer Dress from Style Arc.

It is a super comfy cocoon dress. The first one I made was the blue cotton one on the left. I followed the pattern, but the dress is too long and the pockets too low (I should have listened to all the reviews). So the second one (the red flowery rayon one on the right) I made the necessary adjustments.

The fabric for both these dresses come from the fundraising sale at the Costume Museum of Canada (the pattern cost more than all the fabric).

The dresses were lovely to make and went together so well - a great pattern.

 I had a metre of fabric left over from the red dress, so I made a top using the yoke/sleeve pattern pieces, and just lengthen it into a top. I put an elastic in the bottom hem and added a tie just for fun.

All the best!♥︎

Day 3 - From the Air

Today the field around our home was harvested. It is oats, and was cut a few days ago and left to dry. We are in the second year of a drought, so every thing is very dry, I am amazed that anything grew. The air is smoky because there are so many forest and grass fires around. The green field is canola. My son took these photos with his drone.

All the best!♥︎

Day 2 - Tour de Fleece 2021

Last month was Tour de Fleece (an online spinning event that takes place at the same time as the Tour de France).

My goal was to spin everyday.

I didn't get as much spun as in previous years, but at least I met my goal.

314g of fibre spun, 2135m of singles spun, resulting in 793m of yarn.

The first is a 3 ply sock yarn (a BFL and nylon blend).

This one is just the start of a large spin, with some local fibre that I blended some sari silk and silver angelina into one of the plies.

All the best!♥︎

Day 1 - Weaving

Over the past 2 months I have woven a few things.

The first started out as fabric for a ruana, but once the fabric came off the loom I decided against that.

It is about 4 yards of 22" wide fabric.

The warp is all leftover handspun, in shades of purple, blue, pink and red.

The weft is a commercial lace weight 100% Merino yarn, that I dyed shades of pink and purple.

There is also little pieces of handspun in the weft too.

I don't know what I will sew with it, but it is nice fabric.

The next thing was on new-to-me loom that I bought back in December, but due to COVID just received last month (it was in a neighbouring province).

The loom is an 8-shaft Mighty Wolf loom by Schacht, with 36" weaving width (about 14 years old).

(My old loom is a 4-shaft Nilus by Leclerc, with a 27" weaving width - about 60 years old.)

Tea towels from a pattern from the May/June 2020 issue of Handwoven magazine (North Light Meets Southwest Dish Towels, p26). In 2/8 cotton.

Putting on a striped warp really helped to make sure all 8 shafts were threaded properly.

I had added a bit of extra warp to try out something different. With the leftover I tried a tie-up and treadling pattern from the book '8-Shaft Patterns' by Carol Strickler (#315-4, p85). It ended up being big enough for another tea towel.

Fresh off the loom.

Hemmed and finished towels.

For one of the towels I used some leftover cotton boucle for the weft, and am really happy with how it turned out.

On the loom now is the start of a table runner (or maybe it will end up something different). With commercial fingering weight wool for the warp and tabby weft, and handspun for the pattern weft.

All the best!♥︎

May Update

This past month I finished a few projects that had been in the works for a long time!

This is a Baby Jane (small Dear Jane) quilt that I started in 2012. I made blocks here and there, and finally decided that there was enough to make a wall hanging (I never had the intention to make the full size quilt). The blocks are about 4" and the quilt is 33"x39".

It fits perfect with the wall quilts in the sewing room.

These are small art quilts that I made in 2013 (I challenged myself to make a small art quilt every month for a year - each one reflects something that happened that month). They sat on a shelf for years. I always intended to make something with them, and I finally figured out what to do them. 

I used wire and beads to join them together into a wall hanging (there is lots of wall space in my new sewing room/craft room/weaving studio/happy place...).

Next are a couple of more recent starts-

I wove a piece of fabric out of mainly handspun yarn. - silk, linen and merino, along with some silk ribbon that I had dyed.

I sewed the fabric into a poncho. More details on my Ravelry page. 

Finished another pair of socks - with handspun yarn too.

All the best!♥︎