Tools for my daily journal.
Hope in the World
A Brief Detour
A parental health crisis has brought me to Ohio for a month. Traveling light, I left my laptop at home. Because of these two facts, updating this blog is awkward and not currently a priority. I am continuing to read the work of those I follow. My ever present knitting gives me comfort.
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Friday Finish from the Stash
A few weeks ago, I cast on a cowl using two skeins of soft yarn found in my stash.
The pattern is called Spinal Twist.
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/spinal-twist
It has interesting construction. After a provisional cast-on, the first half of the lining is knit in stockinette stitch. Then the second color is joined and the spinal twist stitch is worked for six inches. At that point, color two is cut and the second half of the lining is completed. Leaving the needle in, the provisional cast-on is removed, the stitches placed on a needle and the two edges are turned to face each other. The two sets of loops are sewn together with Kitchener stitch – All 95 pairs of loops.
It’s not the most good-looking Kitchener I’ve ever worked, but it’s finished. And since the facing is turned to the inside, the join will not be visible.
Today this cowl would look very out of place draped over my T-shirt in the hot afternoon sun. I have photographed it on a hanger, hooked up on a tomato cage.
This garment will get tucked away to wait until gift-giving season. It’s nice that the style is gender neutral, easily worn by any adult.
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100-Day Project: Days 36,37,38
I could have called this post Wednesday WIP. But since I worked from three of Bill’s photographs to create this panel of the dragonfly art quilt, I prefer to focus on the inspiration.
As noted above, I am still working with dragonfly photographs. In this installment, I selected two images of the same dragonfly……….
…….plus one photo of some bougainvillea blooms.
The three images will be combined in a horizontal panel measuring 12 x 24 inches.
On the first day I painted the background. I dipped the scrunched white cotton into two different pigment baths, wringing it out in between soaks. After smoothing the fabric onto my dry erase board, I placed two dragonfly shaped masks, several sprigs of dried leaves, and a sprinkling of dried peas. Next, I dropped on a little bit of purple and magenta paint, then set the board outside in the sun to dried.
It didn’t take long.
I took my time painting the dragonflies. Today I finished up by drawing the delicate wing veins. Next the background got more attention. I enhanced the leaf shapes with color, then painted a long line across the panel – my interpretation of the wire plant support seen in the photos.
A closer look…………
another…….
Again I used Micron pens, watercolor pencils and a little white Gelli pen for the finishing touches.
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Cast-on Monday, She Shrugged
I pulled one of my stash project bags out of the yarn closet for today’s cast-on.
This group of yarns is mostly sport-weight cotton. The marled white is left over from my husband’s sixteen-thousand-stitch pull-over (aka jumper to the Brits) made more than ten years ago. The Berocco Remix yarn was purchased two years ago to make a summer vest for Lu. I ended up using only the red and blue. The yellow seemed such a dreary color. I couldn’t think of who would want to wear it. Then I came across this charming pattern by VersaciKnits.
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sequences-shrug
It is knit with the broken garter stitch in two colors. I began to see how the yellow yarn could be a background to more interesting hues. With cuff-to-cuff construction, the stripes would be vertical while the textural changes ran horizontally. My enthusiasm for the project rose quickly after I worked up a swatch.
Other elements of this design include I-cord edgings and button closures on the sleeves. To make it even more interesting, the garment can be worn three ways: shrug, shawl or scarf. I couldn’t wait to cast on.
I like what I see so far. This could be a good travel project, assuming I can manage the constant switching between purl and knit stitches while riding in the car.
Daily Fiber 