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:

The finished granny blanket

Finally found time to take some pics, bit of a grey day but at least it isn't raining, for once.  We've had floods the past few weeks round here and never-ending rain.  Back to work today, and it was dry ... Typical!

Here's the stats:
64 granny squares, joined -as-you-go.  Total size 115cm square  (45 inches)
Yarn -same acrylic I used for the ripple, left over colours from the ripple plus a couple of new ones, pink and turquoise.  8 colours, 600g in total.

I made all the squares up to the last round, then joined them using the colour of the second round one row of squares at a time.  Bordered with a simple shell edging  ie (US) 5DC, Skip 2, SC, Skip 2 repeated

It has seen some use and has kept its shape and washed well.  I am a little disappointed it has gone a bit flat. The blanket I'm working on now is 30% wool so I will be interested to see if it keeps its bounce.

And just cos they are so cute, here's a picture of the chickens we have staying at the moment....

Still Here!

Just a few things I have been working on:

Finished - granny squares blanket, lap sized.

Cowls, three or four, various yarn all from this lace pattern http://marthastewart.lionbrand.com/patterns/L10159.html

Amigurumi bunny for a new baby, I enjoyed making it so much I made two!  

Shirts, one fitted in a stretchy fabric, the other a light cotton in more of a smock style

Started -  vertical stripe blanket, this one in a wool mix, so much more bounce than the acrylic.

Just a taster of the granny squares, finished picture to follow

Finished

One double quilt top, a present in greens, golds and reds for my mother. The pattern is simple, a square-in-square, but the sheer size was very daunting. One hundred and sixty five of them!

Binding and backing, then quilting, still quite a lot of work to do.

There was a stage where I wasn't sure about the colour scheme and the fabric, but together I like it and I hope she does too.

Linking up to Amanda Jean at finish it up Friday

They don't call it rocket for nothing

The first seedlings of this year's crop are pushing through all over, the fastest of which is always the rocket. Here are the seeds planted exactly two weeks ago, next to lettuce planted at exactly the same time.

This will be ready just in time to replace last year's rocket, which we are still eating (albeit after a period of inactivity in the coldest weather). It is absolutely the best thing to eat in bacon sandwiches by the way - forget BLT, try BLR, delicious!

Elsewhere in the garden, lime green is dominant. I love that my garden goes though distinct changes over the seasons, first early spring with yellows and pale blues, then it moves to this brighter phase, beautiful as a foil to the other colours emerging, the oranges and reds. I could (and do!) spend hours poking about in the borders, spotting the tiny details that make up the whole. The whole is not perfect, definitely not a show garden, but made up of such fantastic cameo performances, changing all the time.

Mothers' day in the Rusty household

Being elder child's birthday last Sunday, this obviously took precedence over the somewhat arbitrary modern custom that is Mothers' Day. The children decided to celebrate a week later instead, so yesterday was my day for tea and toast in bed, my choice of what to do for the day and Sunday roast cooked by teenagers with a little help from their dad.

My choice of activity was an afternoon at the allotment - family weeding you might call it.

A job shared is a job halved, or in this case quartered. We got a lot done, and the weather couldn't have been nicer.

In other news a little crafting has been going on.

Crochet heart bunting for the birthday girl

Instructions from Marie at Marie's Making


Lace trim on some cheap cotton pillowcases, hand sewn in less that an hour, so pleased with this:)

And wherever I am taking pictures, a cat always appears!

Tromboncini

Is my husband's favourite Italian word. And here are the first home grown tromboncini of the year, I inherited them on my allotment, the previous owner had planted them around the compost bin. I rarely pick flowers for inside, they look so lovely in situ, but these will be appreciated much more on my windowsill.

And elsewhere on the allotment, all is very weedy. I know, I know, I've left it very late ( again!) to get on top of the weeds and get planting. But when it comes down to it, I am not an all-weather gardener and that is that. So when the weather tempts me outside it is already too late to get on top of everything. So like last year, and the year before, I will be weeding and planting as I go. Oh well, there are worse crimes...

So I cleared and sowed my first bed of the year. You can just read the label, it says 'carrots'

And a little snapshot of a couple of other beds. Not the worst ones!

Black currants. Just looking at the bushes with their tiny buds makes me remember the juicy berries we had last year.

Asparagus - this will be year 2 for the asparagus, so hopefully we should have some spears to eat this year. It is difficult soil here for this crop, heavy clay, but here's hoping I put enough grit in for the plants to thrive.

And new life, amazing how this has sprouted since I last inspected it, only a week or so ago. Won't be long till we can start picking :)