Around The World Blog Hop

Yep, it’s my turn to post as I follow darling Dixie of With Needle and Brush. She is always sewing up delightful garments, often with fine details including piecing and stencilling with fabric paints. To dye for! Thanks for asking me, Dixie! (And please don’t forget to go check out her blog.)

1. What am I working on?

Ummm…more like what am I not working on! Currently I have 2 knitting projects on the go: a shawl from silk yarn that I hand-dyed (the Silken Haruni):

I did one extra repeat of Chart A and just starting on the border Chart B which is easily half the shawlette. And also a Secret Gift from handspun. This is the yarn that I spun from Aurelia’s Boysenberry Glitter and chain-plied:

Hope you can see at least some of the sparkles in the sunshine. This stuff is really hard to photograph! I’m not telling what I’m making until after it’s been gifted so you’ll just have to wait for the big reveal. And there’s a weaving project: placemats in many variations of Summer & Winter weave:

No, they haven’t gotten any further since the last time I posted about them but at least it’s a new photo! And there’s a spinning project I mentioned yesterday: a NZ RomneyX fleece in a very pale warm gray for a sweater for Thom:

This photo is different from yesterday’s because it’s not in the sun. The yarn sample was spun using Ann Field’s “spin to the crimp” technique though I didn’t quite reach the 3 twists per inch to match the fleece’s wide crimp pattern but got a slightly tighter 4 tpi instead. Good enough since it’s quite as airy as I’d want it anyway and a bit fuzzy which surprised me. The sample swatch was knit with 2 different needle sizes, 5mm and 4.5mm. I like the fabric of the tighter stitches (top half, above the white cotton tie) better and the stitches are more even. Now I need to tease, card, spin and ply another 1.5 lbs or so of this stuff before I can choose the pattern and get started knitting. Whew!

And several sewing projects: a T-shirt (my own pattern based on MariaDenmark’s Kirsten Kimono Tee, cut out and ready to sew), a pullover sweater for Thom (Thread Theory’s Finlayson, pattern ready to cut out), and pants (Today’s Fit V1411, pattern needs to be traced and fit adjusted). This is the current chaotic state of my big work table and you can see more stuff that I pitched over to the sewing table on the top right to clear space:

We will not speak of the bajillion other items waiting in the queue!

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

Of which genre in particular are we speaking? General fibre crafts? I think I’ve tried nearly every one of them at one time or another. And I prefer not to compare myself to others. I just makes ’em as I wants ’em! Everyone else is totally free to do the same. Go. Create. Just do it. It’s good for you.

3. Why do I create what I do?

Because I can’t not make stuff! My hands get twitchy without something to do and when I’m not actually doing it, I’m thinking and planning and documenting it. I just want to surround myself with me-mades and T-mades (that’s the stuff that Thom makes). And perhaps a few somebody-else-mades too. It’s comforting and special and I just like knowing the who and the where and the what of my possessions. It’s an ongoing lifetime project. And somehow I never end up with too many finished objects. I use what I make every day so things always eventually wear out and need replacing.

4. How does my creating process work?

See something. Get an idea. Hunt down the materials. Make. Record. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Gee, wish I knew how to write something profound in artspeak here! However it doesn’t seem to be part of my WYSIWYG personality to obfuscate with high-sounding concepts. Mostly I just follow my inclinations. It’s the path to happiness! Also I like to talk about what I’m doing so here I am - 9-1/2 years of blogging later.

OK, that was fun! Please follow on the blog hop with the very talented Myrna Giesbrecht who will be posting next Monday (Dec 1) with her take on the four questions. Myrna sews artful garments and knits and blogs about her creative process in an extremely thorough and insightful way. Enjoy!