All Strung Up

Hiya from a.,

It was Thanksgiving this week, which we enjoy but are still fundamentally confused by.  Apparently by going to the house of a friend, we were at an "orphan" Thanksgiving.  A good time was had by all, and we did some minor shopping the next day.  This has nothing to do with what I am planning to show you today, just thought I would share.

The first thing up is more of what I did, rather than what I made.  As you know, faithful readers (hi to the moms and woolwine!) I have been on a hat kick recently.  The problem is that they can get tossed around and go missing easily.  I am a resourceful person however, and what you can do with a couple nails, smooth wire, and a level is quite nice:

I at first just had the top tier, but then realized how easy it is to lose one glove, so decided to string them up as well.  Now everything is easily accessed, and nicely presented as well.

The other thing that I have to show you is a tote bag that I made for a friend.  I regularly make tote bags for myself, my mom has commissioned a half dozen from me at this point, but they tend to be simple and straightforward.  For this bag, I wanted to do more.  I wanted something interesting, but not over the top, and I did my second patchwork/applique kind of thing.  Here is the broad shot:

It is a simple brown pinstripe base fabric, but I added petal/flower work in the corner to add colour and pop.  here is a close up of the main patch area:

I cut out three different sized petals, and then used fusible webbing stuff to hold it together in the pattern, so that it would be more stable for sewing onto the bag.  Of course because I tend to be a little over ambitious, the bag is capable of being fully reversible so that instead you could have it looking like this:

As you see the fabric that created the petal corner on the one side, became a patchwork pocket on the other side.  This bag was a lot of work, from planning, to cutting, to putting it together, but it was worth it.
That's all I have this week, enjoy.

I Promised you Hats

Hiya from a.,

So I do believe that I promised you hats.  The first up for your viewing pleasure actually has a name - it is called "Many Moons"  This is me wearing the hat:

This is a bulky weight yarn so the hat is going to be super warm and cozy.  This is actually the "wrong side" of the hat, but I thought it looked cute.  The other reason that I flipped the hat inside out, is the reason it is called "Many Moons"

As you see, the thick pink yarn makes the front loop only half double crochet look like a thousand little butts.  Funny, but not what you want to wear on your head.

The second hat I have to show you is one that I made for r.  I made it a little bigger than I might normally, but since he isn't going for regular hair cuts, I wanted to give him some room inside.

It's good old James Brett marble, and for an acrylic it is really soft and pretty.  Hard to tell in the photo but it does have a brim to add extra warmth to the ears and it matches a scarf that I made r. a couple months ago.

Finally we have a hat that I am rather please with.  This is because I made it with handspun.  Now it was an earlier handspun, so there are some lumps and uneven bits, but I think it came out pretty (and it ended up matching a scarf I made a year or so ago).

Handspun when worked always feels soooo squishy and nifty.
Those are the hats.  I thought I'd leave you with a picture of b.b. as well it is an always enjoyable way to close a post.

That's all.

Bunch of Scarves

Hiya from a.,

So if you know me, I am sure that you are just shocked, SHOCKED, that I have a few different scarves to show you today.  In my defense to of these were commissioned by my parents, and one if for myself.

Here is the first:

My mom wanted something simple yet bold.  This is all chunky yarn and what I did was a stable black centre and built a ruffle around it with the chunky white that had a grey/black thread throughout it.  I had enough left over to make a sort of matching broach:

It's nothing fancy but should add a nice punch to a coat of bag.

The next scarf was made for my dad.  Now a year ago he bought purple that just kicked my ass.  What I did was buy a heavier weight alpaca in a similar heathered colour (and he was pleased with the results, which means that my friend woolwine who likes thin yarn gets to reap the benefits of this substitution):

It can be a little hard to see in a photo but there is a v-cable running up the middle to add some depth and character to the scarf.  It came out really pretty, and the yarn is so soft.

Finally we have the scarf that is just for me.  I lucked out and got some Noro Silk Garden (sock weight) on Bella Lana's sale wall.  Now it was still crazy pricey but soooooooo worth it.  I've been working on this for a few weeks and am pleased with the results.

It is a little darker that the photo shows, but not by much.  This is about 1.5 balls of the yarn and the colour variety ranges from a purple/black to a searing orange.  Here is a close up of the stitch work:

I lightly blocked the scarf just to open up the lacework as it was too pretty not to show off.  I just love how this turned out.
That's what I have for today, I am pretty sure that my next post will be all about hats!