Shibori experiment

I've been experimenting with shibori knitting. I did a pillow top first, and I loved the results. I am still working on beading the pillow and choosing a backing.

The scarf turned out really fun. At first I wasn't sure if I liked the results, but once I added the holes...fabulous! I tied in buttons from my vintage button box to create the bobbles. I was so excited to see how it turned out I sat in front of the washing machine for 20 minutes waiting for the end. Then I used a hair dryer to speed up the drying. I could hardly wait to pull out the buttons and see the final results. I'm very pleased with the end product. I think I will be doing more shibori. I have ideas for several other projects.

reuse and recycle

A couple of months ago I made a total failure of a bag. The colors didn't work. The design distorted in the washing machine. The yarns did not felt evenly. Everything went wrong. But never throwing anything out, I shuffled it around while I tried to come up with some way to salvage this disaster. Then, an epiphany on Wednesday! (que angelic choir)

On Monday I made a little turquoise bag to go with some lining I had bought in a random moment at the fabric store. I happened to set this new bag down on top of the disaster, and there was a Bob Ross moment ~ "In my world, there are no mistakes, just happy accidents". I cut up the disaster purse to make applique flowers, and suddenly a plain, little purse with okay lining, made perfect sense design-wise. Woo Hoo! And...I got to use some of the vintage buttons I dug out last week!

The good purse mojo continued this morning when my first box of wholesale yarn arrived. So, I off to grab my needles and go crazy.

Button Box

Glad to say my shoulder is back to normal, and I am knitting again! My recovery prompted a visit to my mother's button boxes for some inspiration in finishing the little, cream purse that has been sitting dejectedly on the dining room table for a month.

My mom and I spent an enjoyable couple of days sifting through all of the buttons. We found some really interesting vintage finds that may be inspiring some new designs in the near future. I am please with the little collage we came up with after several failed attempts at embellishing this latest bag.

The name is not really what I was going for, but it works. I wanted to name it "Lunch at Woolworths", but everyone said that was too obscure. I guess the bright red buttons reminded me of the red of the Woolworths decore. But "Dancing Barefoot" was a pretty good compromise. The buttons reminded me of Mom making me a new dress when I was little and the excitment of getting to model it for Dad before church on a Sunday morning.

Now I am back to knitting. Working on something new ~ a neck warmer made from some of my handspun yarn. I know it isn't the time of year to be thinking of winterwear, but the mood struck me....

Roots

Keith and I went for a drive one evening last week and ended up on a winding dirt road far from our usual trek. Around one curve we came upon a broken down barn and an overgrown farm yard. Back in the brush was what was left of the farm house surrounded by an over-grown garden of flowering trees and bushes.

It made me wonder about that homestead. Who had built the house? What hopes did that farm wife have when she planted her yard with forsythia and roses? I wondered about their dreams for a good life, their family, their marriage. I wondered why a home that had been so obviously loved had been abandoned and not passed on.

It made me realize how blessed my husband and I are to live on the farm my grandfather and grandmother purchased in 1930. We live in the house my aunt was born in, my great-grandmother died in, we have all gathered in for holidays and birthdays. We preserve fruit from the orchard my grandfather planted. We grow and can vegetables just like my mother taught me. Even my love of the homely arts comes from my grandmother. (Someday I will learn to weave baskets in her honor, since it was something she always dreamed of doing.)

Keith and I have our own dreams of a more self-sufficient and sustainable life, but those dreams are built on the dreams of others before us.

No Great Flash of Artistic Insight

Keith and I went for a walk though the back fields this morning. The sky was a perfect springtime blue. The turkey were parading through last years bean-stubble. The wild apples made the fence rows a strip of white lace. I was feeling very poetic and creative. Ideas of yarn wrapping into perfect confections swirling through my head....and the pain shooting through my arm, reminding me that knitting or beading are out of the question for the next few days! My body and my brain are not in sync. I have tons of new ideas, but can't do much about it for a while.

So the above pictured purse may be the last listing for a week or so. I am pleased with how this purse turned out, but it was not some great flash of brillant, artistic insight. Orange is my favorite color, and I wanted to use up the Squiggle fringe in my stash. I found the beads on sale at the local craft store this weekend. Sometimes using up odds and ends brings about very satisfying results. I am sort of proud of the name too, Fawks in Felt. A little tribute to J.K. Rowling.

Hopefully my arm will be better in the next few days.

New purse and new pain

Finished "Purse Formerly Known As..." last night. Remember going to see "Purple Rain" when I was in high school. We all piled in to someone's clunker and went to the drive-in in St. Johns. The projector wasn't working, so we actually didn't get to watch most of the movie, but had to listen to it instead! I even remember that I had nachos with pickled peppers that night!

The drive-in was torn down years ago. Our little group has been spread all over; I've lost tract of several of my high school friends. So this purse is a little tribute to a random memory that has stuck with me for some reason.

The Beginning

Even though I've been knitting, spinning and making felted purses for several years, this seems like the beginning, all over again. It is exciting to be creating again after several months off with a pinched nerve in my shoulder and a little bit of designers block thrown in for good measure.

Last week I spent lots of time sewing and knitting, coming up with new ideas, shopping for supplies, all that artsy stuff I love. But this week has been different. This is the first time I have really looked at how I can use the internet to get my purses out there. It is all kind of overwhelming... FB, Twitter, blogging, creating my site on Etsy. Everything is coming together, but my brain is getting tangled!

In my ideal world, I would spend my day doing all that artsy stuff, but this is the real world. And there are pluses to living in the real world. I have met some very interesting people via twitter and facebook. I enjoy getting feedback from other artists I would never have met without a computer. And the internet is opening up a new market for my bags. So, jumping in with both feet into cyberspace....