hi y'all

I have not post for a while, sorry, but I am away for a golf vacation in sunny Myrtle Beach. While here I had a moment to stop in and visit the gals at Knit`n`Purl. I only had half an hour between golf and dinner, but did a bit of damage to my Visa, and was more than impressed by the variety of yarns, especially the cotton and linens, perfect for the warm weather.

I bought some denim colour cotton, and some of the self rouching fast knit scarf yarn that is all the rage.... Wait till you see what I want to do with it!!

The pink cable sweater is done and I will be posting the pattern when I get home to all my notes... more about that tomorrow (I am tired after a long day of golf and sun and yarn shopping, and walking on the beach)

I leave you with this photo of a cute sand castle on the beach.

Quick Idea Pad Cover!

Really fast pattern! Knit with chunky Wool Ease Thick & Quick. This fits my 7 inch Lenovo idea-pad. (7" by 5") .....
Uses less than one ball of chunky yarn. Knit on 6mm needles (bit smaller than recommended on the ball band, but we want a tight stretchy cover!)
Cast on 12 sts. Knit every row until 7.5 inches. Cast off all stitches loosely.
Repeat above for other side.
Sew three edges together, leaving only the cast OFF edges open. Done.
Sorry this one's blurry, but you get the idea (pad).

More Felt Art

This new felt piece is designed to hang on a wall, and was made by wet felting the background, including the "rocks", then forcing the rocks to bubble out with small rocks! Once dry the rocks are removed and more yarn and fleece and felted bits are then needle felted into place. The bulrushes are boucle wool, needle felted into shape then needle felted onto the piece. The flag stick is placed in a hole in the green. And of course there is a felted golf ball in a very favorable position on the green. The piece is inspired by the eighth hole of my golf course, with a creek in front of the green. Natural tree branches, found in the park after the most recent wind storm, make the frame and the whole piece is laced into place.


Detail of creek and rocks and bulrushes.

Dragon Vase - Wet Felting Art

This piece stands 2 feet high and uses wet felting, sewing, and bead work. I call it a Dragon Vase, but it certainly won't hold water! I think I was influenced by reading the Game of Thrones series of books, where there is a fascinating dragon plot line...
The body of the vase is wet felt in one piece around a bubble wrap resist.
There are wet felt spikes and balls, including a white center - black outside ball that I cut in half after felting and drying. Large balls support the bottom, like feet, to keep it really steady.
There are dragon scale beads on the back end, and large crystal beads at the neck that peak through slashes in the fabric (the slashes also show the various colour layers that make up the vase.

The overall pebble texture make it look a bit like pottery, but touch it and it is as soft as a lamb!

Felting a Vase

I wanted to do an art piece. I thought a vase may be interesting. It's an abstract shape and about 2 feet high (started about 3.5 feet high before felting). This is wet felting around a template, all sides worked at once. It was a tremendous amount of vigorous manipulation and I am exhausted and sweaty (I need a cold beer!).
I have plans to add details to the outside, like spikes and balls and crystal beads peeking out of slashes in the fabric. Sounds cool right?
But that will wait for tomorrow at least. I need it to dry now, and it is a whopping 10 layers of roving, so it could take a long while!
More photos to follow. If it turns out anywhere like the image in my scattered brain, I will be entering it into a local art contest.... wrinkly fingers crossed (hours of hands in hot soapy water will do that!)

Pink Cables

Here are a couple of photos of the merino cable sweater underway. I love the traditional look of 4 stitch cables over and over all over the sweater! It is such a simple repeat, I think even beginners can master this pattern. It also makes such a stretchy fabric, it should fit really nicely. The photo below shows the back, and the raglan detail. The four stitch edging will be stitched to another four stitch edging from the sleeves to create a wide diagonal band to contrast the vertical cable lines.
This merino superwash wool is so soft but really holds the cable details. Perfect.

I also love the single purl row that divides the ribbing from the cables. It also hides the 10 stitch increase in that last row before the cables start. Details!