Finished!



(click for bigger)

So happy. Can't wait to install it over the front door. I do love playing with color, and stained glass is just another permutation of that, I think. So ... on to the next window. Not exactly sure what it will be yet, but I do have some ideas.

Other than finishing this window, I am also in the final throes of finishing dyeing for Sock Summit, for Morgaine's booth. I'll also be attending Sock Summit, to help Morgaine out in the booth and generally hang out and watch. I'm looking forward to walking around the market a bit, seeing people I know and meeting new people, too. So many dyers! It should be way cool.

And, I get to stay with Shelia, meet her yaks and sheepies, too! So fun!

That's all for now, til I get back from Sock Summit and life resumes at a more relaxing pace (oh, wait, I have to start getting ready for NYS&W when I get home!).

Project Update ... Hawk Stained Glass Window ~


(click the photo to see it bigger)

Last night I finished all the copper foiling. I love copper foil. Next week, soddering commences. By the way, the window is 34" wide and 17-1/2" tall. Which is not really big, but seems alot bigger when you're cutting, grinding and fitting a little over 100 pieces of glass (needless to say, right now my stained-glass-shredded fingers are not the right appendages to be spininng bombyx silk with, but lacking other appropriate appendages, I shall persevere).

This window is a melding of present and past (did I mention this already? If so, forgive my frazzled redundancy). In highshool, I took alot of art classes. For one of my classes, the final project was a drawing incorporating three different images. I drew a rather large picture, in pencil and colored pencil, of an American Indian warrior, with a buffalo's face behind and sort of coming through his own, and this hawk flying down above his head (it was called Dream Spirits) (if I can get a good photo of this drawing, I'll post it someday).

Anyway. When I was close to finishing my last stained glass window, I started thinking about what was next. I wanted to do a window for the semi-circular window over our front door, and I wanted to do a bird. One evening, I remembered this drawing I had done way back when I was 16 years old. So I went down to my parents barn, where it's stored with alot of my other drawings in my father's architectural flat file.

The bird from my 16-year-old drawing became the template for this window. Perfect melding of past and present, and I also really like how the drawing became reincarnated in another art medium.

On the fiber arts front, I am still spinning the white 100% bombyx silk for my project. The 100% silk is taking way longer to get through than the 50/50 silk/merino, and I'm not sure why this is since I've spun quite a bit of both in the past, but there it is. Not loving the bombyx silk too much right now and looking forward to finishing it, getting it plied, and starting to knit.

And, even more looking forward to spinning something with color, and I have alot of options. One that is particularly calling to me is an autumnal blend I purchased at MDSW that I'm considering plying together with some really lovely Jacob in a light tweedy brown ...

Other than that, I am partaking in "Fran's 10 Minute Rule" on Knitter's Review and knitting on a sweater I started, oh, quite a while ago. It's taking a long time. Partly because I keep burying it in the bottom of my knitting basket, and partly because it's on size 3 needles and takes about 10 minutes to knit a row (I'm working in the round with a steek up the front, in not-a-small-size) and about 8 rows equal an inch. So, I tend to work more than 10 minutes on it at a time. I'm almost up to the armpits now.

This is the only photo I have of it so far (it's knitted in a yarn dyed-by-me, unfortunately discontinued by my supplier ~ a wonderful, lightweight bluefaced leicester that I dyed in oranges, salmons, creams, and a sort of pinky-orange but not really pink like the photo):



It's a sweater I'm designing as I go (and trying to remember to write down). It has (obviously) a rather wide ribbed edge along the bottom, which will be mirrored in the sleeves. At this point, I am thinking to add an i-cord edging around the front and neck, with a zipper (it will definitely have a zipper, but the rest is yet to be determined). Not sure what the neck treatment will be. Not a V-neck for sure ... we'll see as I get to that point.

I am pleased to present: Beautiful Hedgerow Mitts!



I love this pattern!! It's easy, it's fun, it has great stretch, it's a quick knit, it looks beautiful ... the list goes on. I love them. They're a present for a friend, and I know I have at least three more pairs in my future ~ one for my daughter, one for me, and one for at least one more friend (maybe more).

Check out the pattern here: Hedgerow Mitts by Amy Ripton

I knitted this pair with my favorite new yarn, Frija in the color "Redwood" (which, yes, happens to be one of my yarns, which I haven't had the chance to work with until now). It's wonderful knitted up ~ 80% superwash merino, 10% cashmere, 10% nylon, sort of a heavy fingering weight. Yummy. It's amazing how much that 10% cashmere affects the overall feel and behavior of this yarn.

And check out the yarn here: Spirit Trail Fiberworks' Frija

Other than that, I've worked a little on a project which has been languishing in my knit bag ... a simple, lightweight sweater I'm making up as I go along. It's just a bit slow and rather boring right now, as I'm at the stockinette portion of the body.

I've also been spinning for another project, which is also a bit boring because I'm spinning white. First a pound of white silk/merino, and now a pound of white silk. I'm longing for some color, but am working on being disciplined and finishing this before I start something else.

Workwise, I've been dyeing ALOT of yarn and fiber. Mostly for Morgaine at Carolina Homespun for all her summer shows, but yarn also just arrived for another order going to The Loopy Ewe, which I'll be working on in the coming weeks, and my club dyeing.

I also have scads of fleece to work on ... scouring, dyeing, processing. Here is one that just arrived from the Falkland Islands (the most wonderful Falkland Islands Polwarth):



A little over four inches, and over five when the crimp is stretched out. Lovely, springy soft stuff.

Some of this polwarth I'm going to send out to have blended with cashmere, baby alpaca, baby camel, yak and some other exotic fibers. I did a blend like this a while back and it was wonderful. The rest I'm going to dye.

I also, finally, obtained some Gulf Coast and Santa Cruz fibers. Very exciting, and I can't wait to work with them. Then I have more CVM to dye, more Wensleydale, more Rambouillet, and others buried in the pile that I can't remember. All to be done in time for NYSW in October.