The Rainbow Project

 It being Pride month I guess it’s a good time to write about the project I’ve been working on for the last few weeks. 

For some time I’ve been struggling with my creative mojo - you know, you want to make something but you don’t know what.  Pick up a project, even buy a pattern and some supplies, get it out and…. suddenly it doesn’t seem so interesting anymore.  What is wrong with me???  I am so lucky to have the time and money to make anything I want, why don’t I get on with it???  I think it’s a case of  possibility overload. 

We have so much choice, so much we could do, that choosing something seems so arbitrary.  Then there’s the FOMO;  the next idea looks so much more interesting.  Somehow it’s easier to get started (and to keep going) with less choice, not more. When your options are restricted, your distractions are fewer.

So after many months of soul-searching, and barely started projects, I realised that what I enjoy is the process. And the learning.  New skills and techniques, discovery.  So what I  needed was a project to focus that energy, that drive I get from learning. 

So came up with the Rainbow Project.  Weave a cloth made from hand-spun fibre blended from roving in primary colours into all the colours of the rainbow.  Learning along the way - carding, blending, long-draw wooden spinning, chain plying and rigid-heddle weaving - all new skills for me. 

And so far so good.  I’ve spun and plied the wool.  Now I need to decide what form the weaving will take.  

This has been a word- heavy post.  More instalments to follow, with pictures, of the stages in the project so far. 

But in the meantime… this is where we are, today.

And PS: Thank you Pete, for the encouragement to blog about the project.  I hope to see more of your writing, on or off the web, sometime soon....?

What have I been up to?

So, the last post was about the Doris Chan top in King Cole Mirage...which I never finished.  Too much alteration to the pattern needed, it was a stretch too far for me.  But I have completed quite a few other projects in the meantime...

So I’m planning a few posts showing what I’ve been up to.. here is the first.

Mug rugs for friends and family 

And a few more I forgot to photograph!  I love making these mats, it is quick to do, I usually have the fabric in my stash (if not I enjoy going out to choose it) and you can personalise the colours and patterns.  Spot the ones for my guitar-mad son and husband..

I have been thinking about making myself another jumper for a while but was waiting for inspiration to strike.  When I saw this wool in the local charity shop (at 50p!) I decided that fate was calling me.  It is King Cole Mirage, sadly discontinued.

Fun at Fibre East

Hot day but a great show, lots to see, and lots to spend your money on...

Saw a sheep shearing demonstration, and much more, from the guys at the Sheer Sheep Experience 

Tried my hand as spinning, both on a wheel and with a spindle (and came home with a  basic beginner's spindle!)  then bought some un-spun wool to try with it.

Saw lots and lots and lots of beautiful yarns, knitted, crocheted, woven items galore.

And bought some home with me, this is my stash from the show:

Note the hand-spun wool on the new spindle :)))  next job to make it up into something, watch this space.

Mandala Love

Made this from the pattern on Lucy's blog, is off in the post this weekend for the Yarndale event she is organising. Lucy's mandala

I love the colours, just scraps of what I had leftover in the acrylic I made my first two blankets out of, but together it reminds me of a stained glass window.  Lucy is right, they are addictive, I shall be making more for myself....

I followed Lucy's pattern except on the very last round instead of double crochet I made a narrow border by slip-stitching into the back of each stitch from the row below.  I like this finish with the stitches facing you on the the edge and have used it before.  

First crochet garment :)

I did it!  Crocheted and finished without too much pain.  Doris Chan short cardigan, from her book Everyday Crochet.

Modifications: extra row of pattern under the arms to give more room in the  arm hole, length is longer than the Mei Mei pattern, shorter than the Soft Serve, short sleeves and a different shell edging along the bottom and front edges.

It was too small when just off the hook  but I knew from my swatch it was going to stretch with blocking - and it has!

So happy!  Here it is, still blocking, more pictures when it is dry.

Vertical Stripe - finished

I haven't posted any pictures of the wip but but here it is finished already!  Started on 15th 

November, finished on 5th January it is my quickest blanket yet, but the pattern is so simple it is excellent TV crochet.

Facts:

8 colours, (shades 132, 140, 117, 142, 137, 118, 181, 149) Jarol Heritage dk yarn 100g balls, I bought two of each colour but didn't start the last two balls, total weight 1250g. Size 5mm hook.  It's 55% wool (not 30% like I thought) and 25% acrylic, 20% nylon so I am hoping it will wear and wash well.

Pattern - 204 stitches, 40 stripes, each made up of 3 rows of US half double (UK half treble) stitches, I think this is my favourite stitch.  It gives texture and thickness while growing quite quickly.  Two rounds of colour in the same stitch as a simple non-fussy border for my teenage son.  About 25,000 stitches in all ( scary!)

Size 150cm x 100cm  (that's about 5 by 3ft) so not massive but large enough to snuggle under.  

I used a foundation single crochet for the first time with this blanket and I think I will use it again.  It gives a neat foundation row, neater than my usual chain stitches anyway which can vary in size if I'm not careful, giving an uneven edge.

It's been a bit grey and rainy today so yet he pictures aren't great, the colours are closest in the first picture if not quite right in the the others. But here you are: