Now that I have these new "friends", I've put one to good use modeling the Jane Thornley inspired shawl that I made a few weeks ago. I used a different yarn for almost every row, some wool, some handspun by me, some fun fur, etc, etc... It was just knit stitch on large needles-I cast on 110 stitches-and knit a couple rows of each yarn. There are a few rows of the Feather and Fan stitch which turns out really cool. I hope to make another one but in all shades of grey. These are so fun and easy. I'm working out ideas for scarves like this, too. I'm not a very accomplished knitter, so this is a big deal for me, and I guess I'm patting myself on the back a bit.

Gift of Thanks

So, this morning as I was playing around with my new sewing machine, making tons of little quilted squares to sew into little gift boxes, I took notice of a copy of a picture I had thrown in my garbage a few days earlier. Now, this was a poor quality copy of an old photo of my mother when she was young that I discarded from another project I was working on last week. Something about the picture made me want to take it out and try a little quilted frame around it and jazz it up a bit. I began sewing, add ing lace and bits and pieces of scrap fabric. one little scrap was a little print of music notes, and since my mom loved music I figured it would be perfect for the piece. It was upside down when I stitched it in place, so when I turned it over to admire my work I got a huge jolt when I noticed that the letters on that little scrap are my mom's initials- m p -for Myrtle Pecor--At that very moment I felt her presence (she's been gone for many years now.) I cried a bit because I miss her so. She loved Thanksgiving, with all the wonderful baking and setting of a beautiful tablewhere we all could gather and enjoy our family.

Today I am thankful to my mother and this wonderous gift of her memory, and all the memories of Thanksgivings past. Thanks, Mom, I love you and miss you.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

fun colors

I had some fun with a little color this morning-I had read somewhere that there was a Mexican equivalent of Koolaid out there, and just happened to find some at the local PicknSave. It's called Klass and comes in several flavors-but my store only had Tamarind, Pineapple and Mango. So I just grabbed one pkg of each. I had no clue what Tamarind could be-but really needed to find out-so it was first. I just used a canning jar, and poured in the powder and some water. It smelled very strange-and I had to try a teeny bit---eeeyukkk--but it was a light shade of brown that could be nice. I put in a glug of vinegar, and 1 oz of wool. Then I "cooked" it in the microwave for a few minutes. I did the same with the pineapple and mango, and they all took turns for a few spins. I then let them sit for a bit to cool-but not long, cuz I was too anxious to see what I got. Well, let say for some better color it would be a good idea to put several pkgs of tamarind to get a nice brown-but I'm ok with the pale tan I got. The same goes for the pineapple-its a very very pale yellow-but pretty. The mango turned out the best. It's a pastel-but definitely the prettiest of the lot.

So what did I learn from this adventure? The taste of tamarind is hard to rinse out of your mouth, I need to find the other flavors of Klass, and I need to get many packs of each kind to get a more saturated color.

All in all-I learned a lot today.

Last week I checked out the Fiber Arts Friday blogs and read about cardboard looms for weaving. I searched the web like crazy for more info and found all kinds of fun stuff. So I proceeded to snag some huge pieces of cardboard from the garbage at work to make all kinds of looms. I started small-first a round loom to make a beret...then I figured out how to make one to make a nice long scarf-I finished the beret-its cute but I don't look good in a beret-so someone will be getting it for Christmas--and the scarf has only just begun-but I'm lovin' it so far. I plan to use up all my practice spinning stash. The next project will be an attempt at the big triangle loom. Cross your fingers for me.