A new year

You can't reflect on this past year without talking about Covid. I have been very fortunate to be able to work from home and have the means to have groceries and other items delivered rather than go out to purchase them in person, so my exposure has been limited, and to the best of my knowledge I have not ever contracted the virus. However, a work colleague died from it just two days after Thanksgiving. He was due to retire at the end of the year and had a family. I was looking over some computer code he wrote for me just yesterday (very well written, too), and it saddens me greatly that he passed away too soon from his life. He was a really nice guy. 

Another sadness is that we lost our beloved furry buddy, Felix, in early December. He lived a good, long life and we so enjoyed having him in ours. 

Felix Shag-a-ferocious Tuggle-rumpkin
2003 - Dec 2, 2020

Moving on...

I had a very crafty-filled year, most of which I wrote about in this post, so I won't repeat it here. I splurged on a number of new "toys" - partly out of retail therapy because of feeling cooped up but mostly because I wanted them.

And believe it or not there were things I didn't own yet. This Cricut Maker was a Christmas gift that arrived this week. Not a great picture of the machine, but the picture was more meant to show off the snowflakes I made - my first project after cutting out the sample blue bear. It's fun! I think my next project will be to cut out some lettering to label some drawers that store sewing supplies. It'll dress them up a bit more than boring label-maker tags. I'm also excited to use this to cut small fabric pieces, either for quilting or machine embroidery applique.

The rest of my Christmas gifts were mostly either items to sew with, like bobbins, sewing machine feet, embroidery hoop, or books on knitting. Two books on Norwegian-style knitting!

And speaking of knitting, I finished one sock today:

Last week I finished sewing a Christmas-themed potholder. Another one just needs the binding. Maybe I'll get to it tomorrow.

I've always wanted to crochet snowflakes, so I gave it a go. I don't know that I'll ever make all 100! Haha! 

And on this New Year's Eve, I also spent some time spinning:

So what's in store for 2021? Well, one things for certain, I will do more knitting, sewing, embroidery, spinning, and weaving. And now that I have this new Cricut, I might do a little scrapbooking. I still have plans to do some fiber dying with natural materials - I received an indigo dye kit and some madder plant material at my spinning guild gift exchange. 

Happy New Year!!

Fiber arts

Last month the Huntington Library and Gardens had a Fiber Arts Day and members from the weaving and spinning guilds from the Los Angeles area gathered in the rose garden to demonstrate. 

It was a beautiful day and the roses smelled so good too!

The spinners and weavers were eager to chat.

When I got home, I was inspired to get out my spinning wheel.

At the Fiber Arts Day I learned there's a weaving guild that meets on the second Saturday of the month and a spinning guild that meets on the fourth Saturday (and the American Sewing Guild meets on the third Saturday of the month - convenient that they all meet on different Saturdays but I don't know that I can devote nearly every Saturday to fiber arts!). I did attend the spinning guild meeting last month and made a few new friends. Tomorrow I'm going to the weaving guild meeting - my first time attending.  I haven't done any weaving since I've moved here but I think I'll start a project soon. I have an idea for a band I want to weave on my inkle loom.

I also found out about the Weaving and Fiber Festival, held every year in May, and was just in time to go to it this year. I may have made a few purchases at the festival...

Fiber to spin, yarn and yarn kits to weave, and new tools for weaving and spinning.

 Add this to the haul from the LA Country Yarn Crawl in April:

The yarn stores in the area offer free patterns and 10% off the yarn for it.
Of course they choose the luxurious yarns that are too tempting to pass up!

I have to juggle my interests, doing one for a little bit of time and then moving to another, but I still manage to do work on a little bit of everything.

The little quilt has turned from pieces...

into an almost completed project.

I'm learning to crochet granny squares using some cotton yarn I purchased in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Not sure what I'll make with it - maybe a bag or something.

I finished knitting some scarves, from the pattern book Curls by Hunter Hammersen. I'm working on a third one using some of the yarn I bought from the LA Yarn Crawl. 

Full shape while being blocked

A lot of orange!

I also have a sock knitting project, but I keep it at work for my Tuesday lunch time knitting meetups with co-workers.

And today I did some more sewing. A coworker wanted to make a costume for an upcoming Cosplay convention and I offered to help her. So she came over today and we found a pattern in one of my sewing magazines, traced it, made a muslin, made some changes to the pattern to match the character, and sewed up this vest:

She wants to be this character from a video game (it's Barbarian Armor from Zelda - I had to look it up!)

I think that brings my project tally up to date!

A completed crochet project

I finished my first crocheted clothing item: a scarf.

 

 

A nice project for when I had a cold and couldn't go skiing.

Pattern: Wonderfluff Cowl from Knitpicks.com (free pattern!)

Yarn: Wonderfluff yarn from Knitpicks.com -  70% Baby Alpaca , 7% Merino Wool , 23% Nylon

Colorway: 1 skein of Atlantic Heather (blue) and 1 skein of Wellies Heather (black)

Crochet hook: 10 mm

 

My two skeins were free with Knitpicks orders last fall as a promotion for the yarn, which is new. The yarn is super soft with whisps of fiber in it, almost like a mohair. Since I had two different colors, I decided I'd just make a bold, two-tone look and crocheted with one skein until it ran out and then picked up with the other one. 

 

I'm a beginner at crochet. Two years ago I picked up a book to make Amigurumi (Japanese crocheted animals and toy figures) and I've made about six or seven of them since then. I recently crocheted a basket, which I haven't photographed yet, and I made a hat, but I frogged it because it came out too small. Eventually I want to learn to read charts so I can make some doilies and snowflake ornaments. This scarf was quite easy and a great beginner project.

Happy Easter!

I saw this book in a downtown craft supply shop and the urge to crochet hit me.

Yes, it's in German. I figured since I was learning to crochet I might as well learn in German, and it's been a fun way to learn the German words for animals too.