In Stitches

 That's it for April. That block has been a done deal for a while.

 May is not looking good for a finish this month. That's a lot of watering can to stitch.

 My skate project is coming along after I made peace with the fact that it's not going to be perfect. My fabric stitches aren't really perfect either but I guess I'm just used to looking at them.

Now it's time for the bead part of the stitching. I have never done this before either. This should be good.

On Edge

 Daddio's tumblers quilt has now taken up residence on the dining room table. It's all together but it needed an edging to square it off.

Digging through his stash did not yield a lot of the fabrics originally used but it gave me enough to work with.

It's fiddly work. I have to make half pieces. I don't make paper pieces as nice as Daddio did. He had the magic touch.

Thankfully I only have two sides to do and the first one is almost done. I know it's insane but I am actually thinking of putting another row of solid color rectangle pieces all around the whole thing for a border. As I said, this is an insane amount of work but I'm seriously giving it a serious thought.

Even More Card Crazy

 I haven't got my new kit of the month yet but I did get some supplies I ordered that were on sale last week.

My bling selection was pretty bad so I had to remedy it. Now I have a box full of sparkly stuff.

My new stamp and die set is adorable.

As for my current card kit, I've done it all this month and then some. Come on May. I'm ready.

Meet Peanut-Again

That mystery fiber I spun last Monday was Peanut, a Texel X. I bought her/him only last year at the MDSW. Goodness. I should have remembered that. That's not good.

He/she was one of my 2015 TdF projects for crying out loud. I really should have remembered that.

I had dyed fiber all over the place for days. You would have thought I would have at least remembered that.

 I have already carded bags and bags of it. How could that have slipped my mind?

Those batts aren't here anywhere so they must have already been spun. I went looking for the evidence and I didn't have to look far to find it. I feel so stupid.

How could I not remember I already had two skeins of it in the handspun stash?

There is even a pretty little swatch. Doh....I must really be losing it. I'll be in the room next to Daddio before you know it.

Regina Marie

 Look what's done! My 2016 MDSW shawl is finally in the history books.

I can honestly say that the only reason I managed to get it done in time is because of the pattern. It's brilliant and fun. The knitting part flew by so much faster than the spinning part. I even loved the bind off. I've never done an icord bind off before. It looks great and gives the top edge a nice solid feel. 

  I'm not totally crazy about what the colors did in some places but sometimes it just works out that way.

I'll wear the thing for about 10 minutes at the festival and then it will live in my basket for the rest of the weekend. 

Back at home it will be tucked into the ever growing pile of festival shawls never to be heard from again. In the meantime I will be fretting about next year's shawl.

It's all good.

Before Regina Marie was dry I had already pulled out another lace WIP to take her place. Aubade is back in production but I have to say it took me a good while to figure out what was going on.

An End of the Season Proposal

 Daughter had been keeping a big secret for a couple of weeks.

 She had a favor to do at work and it took a coordinated effort among her co-workers. The Zam guy made a quick ice cut to give Daughter and our other team coach some alone time on the ice to try out some new music before the public session started on Saturday.

 That music turned out to be a very special song. The coach's boyfriend skated out with a ring-a gorgeous ring. He had been hidden in the first aid room until just the right moment. In the middle of the ice he got down on one knee and proposed.

There were lots of cheers and tears. Awww......

 The next day we had our last rehearsal for the season. In the center of the group hug is our newly engaged coach-the girl of the hour.

More cheers and more tears. Win or lose at our last competition next weekend, it's been a great year!

Sunday Soap: A Winner!

Yesterday at noon I made a list of all the entrants in the April giveaway. There were 17 this time around. I used an online random number generator to find the winner.

The grand prize winner is:

Charlottek!

Of course I had too much fun making the card so I made three.

I also had too much fun making lotion bars, so I made three. We all know I have more soap than God so there's plenty to share. Soooooo......I randomly generated two more numbers. The second and third place winners are:

Sgobrien and Mereknits!

The grand prize winner will get all the things I showed in the original blog post (and then some) and the second and third place winners will get a surprise package. All three of you need to message me on Ravelry with your mailing details and tell me if you spin. 

Now that all the fun stuff is taken care of, meet Oatmeal, Milk and Honey. This is a re-do of one of my very favorites. It's made with creamy goat's milk, colloidal oatmeal, honey, lanolin, tussah silk and kaolin clay. I gave all of the last batch away except for a small sample and was so sorry. This is a big batch made in my new 2 pound mold so there will be plenty to keep-and plenty to share in my May giveaway so stay tuned. I've got plenty of new soaps curing that will all need a good home.

Epic

 That complicated warp I've been working on is done. There were only three ends to each color so it was as fiddly as could be. Someone asked me in the comments a few weeks ago how I keep it all straight. Counting threads. In this pattern, every nine threads, which were a color repeat, got bundled.

It was touch and go at the end.  My hairbrained idea about tying it on the rod while it was still on the warping board tripped me up. It worked great up to a certain point but then the last several inches kept popping off due to the angle I created between the pegs.

I had to use ties and even clothespins to hold it on. It was excruciating. I could only do a few colors at a time before I was ready to throw it all in the trash. I won't be doing that again.

 Now it's all tied down and ready to go to the loom-but I'm not ready. I need a day or two to face the fact this may all be a disaster once I try to pull it off the pegs.

This is what the kit looks like now that I'm done. The turquoise I suppose is the weft but what's that hiding underneath?

I just noticed there is hem thread. Cool. I hope I get to use it.

Purple Rain

I spent a lot of time studying Prince last year.

 If you remember, we did a Purple Rain number in last year's skating production.

For months my sewing room was awash in purple while I tried to capture his royal princeliness.

 It was a challenge. There was a lot of ruffling involved.

I even spent weeks sewing purple raindrops on three huge pieces of scenery that were camped out in my living room.

We won two gold medals capitalizing on his genius.

Lately it seems like we lose someone special almost everyday.
I'm still not over Bowie.