Sunday 19 August 2018

Wonderful plumage

Having been distracted by all that embroidery, the Pincha shawl has had most of the work on it done while out and about. It joined me on holiday to Sweden last month, has been seen on trains and in pubs many times, and had to have two whole feathers ripped back when I realised the reason the counts weren't working is that I'd dropped three whole stitches.

So it's not gone as quickly as it might if I'd concentrated on it (probably my mum, who is a) a faster knitter than me and b) only works on one thing at a time, would be able to finish one in under a week while I've taken 3 months). It's done at last though. The yarn stretched to 20 feathers and would almost have done 25 but there wouldn't be quite enough for the cast off row.

And Bristol University Botanical Garden was the perfect place to take pictures of the finished product.


I think this is going to be one to wear with only neutrals just because it's a lot of colours to handle, but oh goodness it is soft and warm and two total strangers said they liked it while we were out so I'm marking it down as a success.

Vital stats:
Pattern: Pincha Shawl (20 feathers)
Yarn: Devon Sun Yarns Sprightly Sock (% Merino, % Nylon) from a colour club subscription box
Needles: 3.25mm HiyaHiya bamboo circulars.

And now on to a pink hat in merino handspun.

Thursday 9 August 2018

Posting about posting

I said last month when I last updated (July got out of hand) that there was a project in the works and the ball is rolling.

I organised a little gang of strangers on the internet to exchange handmade journals with each other as a fun pen-pal activity.

I sent out one of these little books to Ohio:

(the Chamomile one, from 2:47 in the video)

The one I got in return is this cutie and I've got underway with filling it in.


Having just got back from a holiday it seemed appropriate to include a little about that. I took my instax camera along, in spite of the danger airport x-ray scanners apparently pose the film (I've got away with it so far but I've heard bad things). In Stockholm's old town I took two pictures of this charming bit of architecture, and managed to not change the lighting settings for one of them, so it got overexposed.

A creative person has ways of making this work as a souvenir of course, I raided the sharpie stash which lives in my year nine pencil case and really? I'm quite pleased with the result.


In other news, we roped in my mother in law to be for help with the wedding invites. Those will be secret til after the event (unless you're invited, of course), but I might share some of the process. The aforementioned parent has quite a knack with watercolours so I'm hoping her help will turn my smudgy, illegible work in progress into something I can happily send out to all my loved ones.

Also in the works, more embroidery, and the pincha shawl should be finished in time for the worst of the summer to wear off!

Stitch this?

It's harder for me to find time to write about what I'm making than it is to do the making, but while of course it sucks for those o...