What insomnia can lead to!

 A couple of weeks ago I had a very bad case of insomnia.  I was not able to fall asleep, so rather than the torture of tossing and turning, I got up and went wandering around on the web.

I have a number of friends who cross-stitch and although I really enjoy stitching temari, I never thought that cross-stitch would catch my fancy.  Boy, was I wrong!  I prefer geometric designs, and in my mind's eye I always see cross-stitch as samplers with letters and numbers and figures that I just do not care for.  In my wandering while not being able to sleep, I came across blackwork, and better yet, modern blackwork!

I ended up on the website called Peppermint Purple and here I found patterns combining cross-stitch and blackwork in modern designs.  I like Zentangles, but I have not had a lot of success drawing them, but these patterns reminded me of them, so why not stitch them instead of drawing.

I proceeded to do some research on how to stitch both cross-stitch and blackwork, then did a bunch of research on stitching frames.  A friend of mine stitches in-hand, but that did not appeal to me.  I settled on Q-snaps as the way to go.

I went back to Peppermint Purple and found a free Stitch Along (SAL) that was combining both cross-stitch and blackwork.  I joined.  The irony is that it is the same SAL a friend in Texas has been doing and posting pictures.  She also stitched last years.  Once I took a close look at the pattern, I realized it was the one that B was doing.

All this happened the night of no sleep, and I knew I was going to go down to Black Cat Stitchery once they opened and get myself set up for the SAL.  Black Cat is a wonderful shop in Winthrop Harbor, IL, and it is only about a 20 minute drive from my home.  It is great having a really nice stitchery so close at hand.  I like being able to look at all the colors in person, and the shop has a very wide selection of threads, fabric, and material.

Knowing I was going to buy an 11" x 11" Q-snap, I pulled out some leftover linen fabric from a dress I made awhile ago and made a grime guard for it.  Once it was late enough for the store to be open, I went down and bought thread, Aida 16ct fabric in Icelandic Grey, and an 11" x 11" Q-snap.  I came home and started stitching.  Here is Peppermint Purple's SAL through week 7.  This SAL will go through to November with a weekly fill being released every Wednesday.

I was having so much fun with the SAL that I did not like waiting a week for something to stitch, so I went back out to Peppermint Purple and purchased the pattern "Reflections".  I was planning on meeting a friend down at Black Cat a couple of days after I bought the items for the SAL, so I got what I needed for the new pattern.  This is the one that really brings Zentangles to mind for me.  Here it is so far:

It sure is a fun thing to stitch, and I had to make another grime guard.  It sure is handy having way too much fabric in my stash!

Now out on Ravelry, on the forum Weaver's who knit...., one of the members posted a link to another really cool SAL.  This one is comprised of 36 tiles of folk designs from around the world.  Well, I just couldn't resist that!  I am starting this one about 19 weeks behind, so it's just been catch up for me.

It is upside down on the stitching stand.  It is easier for me to stitch that way.  It is going to be really pretty when it's done.  This one is from Cliffside Stitches, there is also a blackwork SAL available as well.  Both of the SAL's that I am doing are provided from the designers for free.  That is a mighty fabulous thing.

I stitched for a couple of weeks holding the frames in my left hand and just stitching with my right.  I decided that I wanted a stand and so I ordered one on Sunday and it came Wednesday.  I think that it is going to really work well for my needs.  I sit in my recliner when I stitch so I wanted a stand that would work with the foot rest up or down, and this one does the trick.  It is well made, nicely finished, and very adjustable.  I am now learning to stitch with 2 hands, my right hand keeps wanting to come up from underneath, but it is getting better.

A stitching friend recommended using a laying tool to keep the threads parallel when creating the crosses with more than one thread.  Since I was ordering stuff left and right anyway, I ordered a Trolley needle.  It does what it's supposed to do, but I feel like Edward Scissorshand ✂️ using it!  LOL  Also I am using small rare earth magnets to hold the cloth rolled up and as a needle minder and when my hand gets too close, the magnets grab my finger.  Makes for interesting stitching sessions.

So that is pretty much what I have been up to for the last couple of weeks.  I am still working on the mosaic blanket, I am about 2/3 done there but stitching seems to have me in its thrall.

A bit of a knitting frenzy

 So last week or so, I finally finished a pair of lined wool mittens for myself that I started back in 2019.  What pushed me to finish was taking a walk while wearing gloves and my fingers got cold.  And I thought to myself, finish those darn mittens, they will be great for walking.  I always planned for them to be my snowshoe mittens, but fortunately for my procrastination on finishing them, we have not had a lot of snow the last few years.

So here are the finished mittens:  

The pattern is called Northman Mittens by David Schulz.  The pattern is available on Ravelry which is where I originally saw it when one of the weavers on Warped Weavers posted her finished mittens.  When they were done, I took them for a walk with my mom.  She eyed them and I asked if she would like a pair and she said yes.  When I came home from the walk I went through one of the tubs of wool and found a couple of skeins of knitting wool that will work well.  

Mom is not crazy about wool next to her skin, so I ordered some Rowan Cotton Glacé for the lining.  I picked up all the stitches and started knitting with the cotton and decided I just did not like the way was knitting or feeling.  I then went and ordered a couple of skeins of Galileo Merino/viscose from KnitPicks.  I think that the blend should be okay, plus its not like she will be wearing them for hours on end.

These are mom's mittens, the green is a needle cozy holding the DPN's that have the cuff stitches picked up on.  

Since I was waiting for the KnitPicks yarn to come and I was in knitting mode, I pulled out the leftover yarn from the outside of both pairs of mittens and knit a scrappy hat.  That went really fast, so I knit another, and another from some other bits of yarn.  They all had to be washed and blocked, and since I was doing that, I finished weaving in the ends of a vest and washed and blocked that as well.

So here is the results off a weeks long frenzy with knitting needles:  the vest finished, 3 hats knit, and the outside of mom's mittens.  The vest and hats are for WoolAid, I just need to package it all up and send it in.  There is also another vest on needles, so once that is finished I will send it all off.

I wove some holiday towels again this year, and also made some holiday temari.  This morning I finished stitching the 3rd temari, so it is nice to have that all finished up.  Temari are so fun to do so I am glad that I have another blank all ready for stitching.  I just have to decide on the pattern and colors.

There was a thread about sizing a warp out on Warped Weavers on Ravelry that really had me thinking.  For quite a while, I had been messing around with some fine hemp yarn and Romney singles that I had spun.  I finally decided on a draft and the number of ends and so forth, and wound the warp.  I sized it using Sta-Flo liquid laundry starch and dressed the loom.

When I started to weave, I was having broken ends all of the place.  It seemed that with every pass of the shuttle an end broke.  I was not going to deal with something like that, so I just cut it all off and tossed and chalked it up to a bad experience.  Now after reading the sizing thread, I realized I over starched the warp making it very stiff and brittle.  No wonder I was having the issues that I did.  This was a wonderful thing to figure out because I really wanted to use this yarn in this project.  I am planning on refiguring the weaving draft and wind a new warp and give it another shot.  Time will tell!

Back to it.....again

 Well I am back.  I cannot believe how long its been since I posted here.  Let's see if I can actually stick with it for a while.  Looking back I have not posted since November of 2019.  A lot has happened since then!

I am still weaving, lately not as much as I once did, but the looms are still in action.  I retired from work as of August 1, 2020 and I have mostly just been playing in Fiberland ever since.  It is a real pleasure to be able to do what I want, when I want to but the downside is that I have little to no structure in my life.

I have learned a few more art forms that I find fun and fascinating.  In January of this year, I started to learn to play ukulele.  I have never played a musical instrument before, so it has been an interesting and sometimes very frustrating, and sometimes very satisfying thing to do.  Unfortunately I found with ukulele, they are a lot like looms and vintage sewing machine, way too easy to accumulate them.  I probably have a few more than I really should, but it is just so darn fun and they all sound different.  

When my oldest brother learned that I was messing about with stringed instruments he gave me a McNally Strumstick and a mountain dulcimer kit to build.  I did actually build the mountain dulcimer.  It was an interesting and different experience and while it was okay to do, I do not need to do it again.  It really does not have a very sweet sound and it is hard to keep in tune.....which led me to ordering a beautiful Ron Gibson cherry mountain dulcimer.  I also wove a very cool strap for it on the Gilmore Mini Wave using a pattern from one of Laverne Waddington's wonderful backstrap pattern books.

It is a lovely, sweet sounding instrument that I really need to play more often than I have been.  There is an online class offered in January that I am kicking around the idea of taking.

A couple of years ago, I learned to stitch temari.  Temari is a form of Japanese embroidery on a sphere.  One actually makes the ball, which is a multiple step process and stitches a design on it.  I have been using DMC Perle 5 for the design threads, so that meant adding a new yarn stash....sigh.....  I now have 4 floss boxes full of various colors of DMC.  I tried using the 5/2 perle cotton that is in my weaving stash, but the twist is different and does not lay the same way that the DMC does.

Here are a few I wove last December for the holidays along with the holiday run of towels.  It's been fun weaving towels to go with temari and vice versa.

I also learned to shuttle tat.  I have known how to crochet lace, but never learned to tat.  I just couldn't resist those cute little shuttles!  And believe it or not, my favorite shuttles are some of the most reasonable, the Clover tatting shuttles that can be picked up at Joanne's in a 2-pack.  This also led to another type of yarn stash - because of course the twist on both the DMC perle and the weaving cotton is not right for tying a zillion little knots.  Crochet cotton is quite different from weaving cotton.

And as crazy as this sounds, playing with tatting cotton had me dyeing tatting cotton!  I always said I would not go down the yarn/fiber dyeing rabbit hole, and there I was this summer with bottles of dye and little skeins of cotton.  Here is a bracelet and anklet that I tatted from yarn that I dyed.  I have lost my mind!

I am also still knitting and spinning.  I actually finished a pair of wool mittens for myself that I started in January of 2019.  I also knit for Wool Aid, mostly hats, vests, and mittens.  One of the weavers I know from Ravelry weaves and knits for Wool Aid and I found it to be a good organization to become involved with.  I like to knit, but I do not really need a lot of knitted goods, so this is just a win/win for me.

It is amazing all of the different fiber pursuits that I am involved with.  I just bop from one to another to something else.  I guess that is why I feel I have no structure but I do not seem to be in a big hurry to do anything about it.  It satisfies a creative need in me that I never realized I had or that it was so strong.  Making things, either with fiber, music, or even in the kitchen just is so pleasurable.  Now to see if I can make blogging a part of my creative outlets.