Longer Post with nifty WIPs

Well, today's post will be longer because work was cancelled. We are having some icky spring like weather here in Buffalo, which doesn't work well when one works at an ice cream shop. Oh well, more goodies.

First up is going to be the project for my mother that I mentioned yesterday. I have actually been mentally thinking about this for more than about 6 month or so and it is finally really coming together in my head, on paper, and on swatches.







This is my swatch so far. The bottom area is just regular stockinette stitch, then lace stitch I will be using for the background (most of the shawl), part of the chart I made for a frog (you see his toes and the bottom part of his legs), and then the top portion is where I am trying out the lace edging I intend on using (haven't gotten very far on that section though).

Here are a couple of close-up pics of the swatch.












The yarn I am using is lace weight Knit Picks Shadow in Basalt (100% Merino wool) with 2.25mm (1US) needles. I really like how the yarn looks. I was a little iffy when ordering it cause I know how colors can change from monitor to monitor, but it is beautiful. The gray is really made up of different colors that can be seen when you look closely. These pics kind of suck because I couldn't get any good light outside because it started getting really icky outside.


I also wanted to share with you my latest yarn that I spun. It is wool roving that was ordered off the internet. I dyed it with wiltons cake dyes as roving and then spun it. I am calling it Pacific Northwest, because that is where I am from and it reminds me of home. These pics are of it just after it finished drying . . . my technique of wrapping it around a large water bottle . . . blame living in a smallish apartment. It was navajo plied, also on a spindle.










I have a couple other spinning WIPs right now, I'll try to get some pictures of them up. I spin with a spindles right now although I do hope to one day own a wheel. To be fair though, there are many craft items I hope to one day own, so . . . it could be a long time coming. Maybe once I am done with school and get rich off of being a teacher . . . ha ha ha ha ha! Oh well, we all have our dreams.

The last thing I am going to show you today is a journal that I am working on for my mother. Yes, I realize I make a lot of things for my mother, but it's easy to make things for her when she actually does appreciate hand-made items since she does a fair amount of crafts herself. Anyways, the outside of the journal and spine are matte board, while the inside are pages taken out of a composition book(3 notebooks worth). I am in the middle of making the "tile" pieces I need to make the design on the outside. The "tiles" I am using are really sculpey and fimo rolled out, cut into little pieces, and baked. I like this way better because there are no sharp edges for her to cut or snag on.













Well, that's all for today everyone. I need to go do some tidying up and work on some crafts. I am sure you will learn quickly that I have many WIPs going on at one time and this is needed due to my short attention span and boat load of ideas.