I finished the blue cotton weaving I did as place mats and decided that I like it better as a runner. I didn’t wash it in the washing machine, but I did handwash it in very hot water and soap, wringing it out before hanging it on the line. It did shrink a little… which is good… it needed a little fulling to tighten the weave a bit. It did not shrink excessively and it did not fade. The colors did not run. I had read in one of the forums that Lily’s Sugar and Cream yarns were very bad about both..shrinking and having the colors fade and run… Not so in this case…
I am still working on this scarf… just not very quickly…lol I’m not quite sure where I want to go with it and with naalbinding you can’t just pull out the stitches and start again from a certain point. Naalbinding backwards to remove the stitches is not my favorite thing..lol Anyway, I am looking forward to seeing if this turns into a real scarf or a skinny minny because I am too afraid to mess it up… ;o)
The EZ Pi Shawl is what I work on while watching television at night. It is growing ever so slowly now that the each row is 624 stitches. I finally used the last of the first ball of mixed wool singles. These last 2 balls did not dye quite as dark as the first one so I will have to re-dye the entire thing when I am finished. In the mean time, I am excited to see it growing and wondering how far this ball will go.
This card weaving was started yesterday. The story behind this is… I am forever leaving my purse somewhere..usually miles away before I miss it. Not good…
After looking into wrist wallets I have decided to make my own. That’s where this comes in.. as the wrist band to hold it on if I decide to make one that will fit like a wrist watch and have the wallet dangle. I am not very good at card weaving yet, but I guess it’s like most things…with a little practice I will figure out how to remember which direction I am turning the cards..lol And the edges… well we won’t discuss that at this stage.. But I do like how it is turning out even with the
imperfections. I find card weaving to be completely fascinating. And the strength of this band is amazing. I am using a red and a variegated green crochet cotton #10 thread for this and I truly believe this could be used as reins for horses or even saddle straps. I don’t think there is anything that could break this band. Amazing. And from cards cut from cereal boxes and a bit of string… wow…
I really love naalbinding, but I get tired of the solid (but very warm) pieces of fabric that it makes. I’ve seen a lot of things…doilies, tablecloths, etc… that have shown up on the net that are lacy and wonderful…and quite possibly naalbound. So I decided to try it using the Oslo stitch, my antler 
needle, and the last of the mixed wool homespun. It seems to be going to work. I’m using the basic crochet formula… chain a long chain…turn back…single into the stitch…then chain 3…then single into the next stitch… in this case instead of crochet singles I am doing Oslo stitches… When I finish the length of the chain, I will turn back and attach in the center of the three chain lengths .. I have no real idea what I am doing… but will let you know if it works out to be the scarf I am hoping it will be…
way to come up with green… you know… blue and yellow make green. Well..believe me…grape kool aid and lemon kool aid do not make green..lol And just to add more yellow to the mix when I saw that the purple was overwhelming, I added about a tablespoon of Rit yellow dye to the mix. Immediate rust/burgundy color… I was so shocked! I am still shocked every time I look at it!
)
so am down to spinning the alpaca and wool that I bought over a year ago that had more VM in it than I thought it should. I have since learned that unless the wool is bought from a professional source, it will usually have a bit of VM in it. It does (for the most part) come out as it is spun, but I still find it to be a hassle… don’t like it. 
The placemat weaving is continuting. I have decided to cut out most of the floats since I want the plates to sit flat on the mat. Don’t want the cups of tea to tip when I (graceful that I am) put the glass down with tip of the glass on the raised weave… Anyway, this is how it is coming. I am thinking I may just weave a really long piece and then wash it to see how much this cotton shrinks…then cut and hem. That way I will have accurate measurements.
my grandmother used to wear when she was hanging out clothes. Well… that’s all well and good, but this project all of a sudden turned into a larger reversible apron to wear while cooking… how does that happen? Anyway, it did and everything went along really well until I started to sew the top to the bottom and realized that I had not left a seam allowance to do that..!! It was put on the shelf until today since I was just not in the mood for a seam ripper at that moment…. If you are in an apron making mood, try looking at all the 50+ free patterns that 
So I came back inside and decided to double ply the last …sob!… of the Chocolate Merino Lamb pencil roving that I had finished spinning the night before. It was on the Niddy Noddy so I rolled it on my thumb into a center pull ball and began to try to ply it… but something seemed to be really out of kilter with my spinning wheel. When I couldn’t find the problem, I got out my Ashford beginner’s spindle and started to ply it with that. Then sweet DH came along and… wondering what I was doing…checked out the spinning wheel. It seems that when I put the bobbin on I did not check it and had left a rubber band on the whorl end of it. (I use a rubber band on the top whorl ends between two bobbins to put a little tension on them when I am plying using two bobbins. ) Anyway, at long last it is finished, washed with shampoo and condidtioned with conditioner… Can’t decide whether to be happy or upset that it’s finally all spun up…lol
Now I’m back again to that flax… deep sigh. I think I have figured it out, though. It would really be nice to have a spinning whiz around to ask questions…but alas…not. Anyway, I have read that as it is finished and washed it becomes less stiff…and I certainly hope so because this stuff is like soft wire! This is all I had time to do last night before bedtime, but will try to fill this bobbin today. Can’t wait to see how it works up. Since this is a vegetable fiber and not protein, I don’t know for sure how I will dye it. Kool Aid won’t work with vegetable fibers…
I worked on the quilted border all the way to Arkansas, all the time we were there and finished it the morning we were to leave to come home. The edging border I finished today. Whew! All in all, I am very happy with it. Now it will be wrapped and will be taken to Arizona in May…
This is the wool fabric that was woven on my Kromski Harp using the wool that was spun on my homemade and Bosworth spindles and my Kromski Prelude spinning wheel. The warp is mixed wool… the weft is Icelandic wool. Triple fold closed it is 4 1/2″ x 5 1/2″. 
some quilting fabric that I had in my stash. The thimble holder was crocheted from #10 cotton crochet thread. The blanket stitch around the edging is more of the Icelandic yarn that was spun last year. 
