January 7, 2009

 

I’m finally emerging from the black hole of the holidays.  Towards the end of December and into the first few days of January, I’ve been in the process of clearing my environment of clutter.  As we speak my work table, which is usually filled with scrap yarn, beads magazines etc, is actually able to reflect sunlight on its surface.  

 

 

There are a lot of things I would like to work on this year that have been pushed into the background for a while, like patchwork and weaving.   Last Tuesday was my first day of class for :  “BEGINNER’S FLOOR LOOM WEAVING”!!!  This has been on my “to do” list for 3 years.   It is a sacrifice-an hour’s drive each way, but most of our desires never come rolling up to the front door.  

 

Most of the women in the class were in the intermediate stage and brought in beautiful hand woven shawls (some with beadwork!), hand dyed scarves, resist dyed fabric, etc...fiber heaven.  I started to feel inspired but a little nervous until finally, in walked  another pure hearted beginner like me.  The teacher took us aside to explain the basics and  afterwards we began to prepare the warp for our first project.  In the meanwhile the more advanced were excitedly chatting and dressing their looms with personal projects.   The room was a buzz with nothing but fiber talk.  I could not keep count of my threads to save my life, but it was all good in the end.  I’ll have pics some time in the future.  Speaking of pics, down below is the landscape of Kush Kush.  Yes, it’s finally finished.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The bottom left hand corner picture shows an additional yarn I threw in at the very end of the scarf.  This yarn has been on my radar for a long time,  I pick it up and put it down  every time I visit the LYS, but finally it had a real purpose.  I could not resist blending it into the scarf.  It really gave it an organic aura.

 

I did not follow the traditional pattern which called for changing needle sizes at various intervals and a light silk/mohair blend took the place of the wool.

 

 

 

 

It is very light weight, practically sheer, but amazingly warm.