More Catching Up: Paper Roses Shawl

 In the August 2025 post I mentioned that I was spinning a yak/silk fiber in the colorway "Paper Roses" from Greenwood Fiber works.  I had bought it without realizing that I had already spun and knit a shawl in that color way (2020 brain fog).
In the first one, I had just spun the colors randomly.  To be different, this time I separated all of the colors, carded them into little rolls, and spun them in color order as a gradient, going from light pink to dark pink and then to green.

I started knitting it, using half pi shaping, and dropping in the "Ghosts and Gravestones" lace pattern from Ravelry.  And then, I just sort of stalled out.  Although the lace pattern is different, it would still be very similar to the earlier shawl.  And just how many fancy lace shawls do I (or anyone I know) need?  I *really* need to remember that for me, it's about the process and not the product.  Anyway, it sat there for a year or so (I see that I started in August 2025).  I had come to the decision that I should just rip it out, return it to being yarn, and think of something else to do with it.  I didn't get around to that.

Then on October 4 I was going to listen to a zoom lecture on puppets.  This would be the perfect time to unzip that shawl.  I got it out, looked at the remaining yarn on the ball, and realize that I had stalled out with about four rows and the bind off to go.  So I knitted while I listened instead.

I am always amazed at the transformation when a lace piece is blocked.

So there's another one added to the collection.  Maybe if I'd ever go anywhere other than the museum and the grocery store (still in my museum clothes) I'd have a chance to wear them.  And if the weather would cool off.

Once again catching up: Dragon Fire

 Last post was August 2025.  Now it be November 2026.
I don't know why I post so compulsively on my other blog, Return to the Swamp, about every aspect of my life except making stuff.

August 2025 I said I wanted another Dragon Fire shawl.  It got done.  It morphed from "Dark Academia" to "Forest Walk."

Did I take notes?  Yes, extensively. Can I find them.  Nope.

The fleece I got was a natural light brown blue-faced Leicester that was given to me by a woman who inherited the sheep along with some land that she had bought, and it hadn't been sheared for two years so was pretty cotted.  It didn't help that I experimented with the washing, using Ecos laundry soap instead of my good old Dawn.  The small sample I did seemed fine.  Alas, over time, the rest of the wool just sort of felted.  I did manage to pull apart and comb enough to make this project (about a pound.  The rest, alas, was mulched).  I blended it with 25% tussah silk.

It was at the end of August that I was walking by my stream, trying to think of a color scheme, when I took this picture:

Green leaves, sandy brown dried leaves, and sunlight on the tannin-rich water.  I had my color schemes. I spend quite some time making color samples, and then a ridiculous amount of time dyeing the yarn.  The problem is that I wanted long color runs.  Normally to make a yarn with lengths of color, you make a skein and paint the dyes on.  But I wanted color runs of about 5 yards (dammit- I want my notes) so it would have to be 20 yard skeins, which would be a bit unwieldy.  So I ended up making little balls of yarn and laying them (still connected) in rows, then pouring on the dye and setting it in the oven.  Then I had to carefully roll them back into one big ball again.  It worked, but never again.

But the yarn was beautiful.

The knitting was fascinating, watching the colors swirl.  Because I had to dye in batches, even though I was careful with my measurement some skeins were less saturated than others, so what the heck - I turned it into a design element by having both end the least saturated, with the most in the middle.  I had planned on making a 7-panel shawl - about 3/4 of a circle, but it took less yarn than I thought (I made a lot because I certainly didn't want to run out after going through all that).

Although the pattern is a bit complicated, with every row being a short row (you knit part of a row, then turn around and knit back) I loved working on it because it was like having an earth-toned kaleidoscope on my lap.

 And it looks very much in place in the landscape that inspired it.  Suitable garb for a swamp witch.

Random August

Random August

 Maybe I've figured this blog out.  I kept thinking that I should have one page or section for each project, and then that seemed too complicated.

So what I'm going to try to do is just post what I'm currently working on, or thinking about, and then if I ever finish gather up the bits of information and put them together.

We'll see.

Stuff done.  Two super simple sewing projects.  I hang around the house in a tank top and jersey shorts - but I thought that at the end of the day, post shower, that I would just like to have a simple tunic (I refuse to think house dress) to slip on.  I had some blue  linen from a skirt that I had made and promptly got ink stains on, so I made a simple scrubs style pajama top (about mid thigh in length because that's how much linen I had.  Then I got a little silly, because while I could have finished the seams and hems in about a half hour on my machine and serger, I instead opted to flat fell all the seams and handstitch the hems.  It took hours (that's what TV is for).  But we live in a world where "faster is better" and I love the look of hand-felled seams.  I also remember my mother's comment when I was first excited about getting my serger: "Oh, that's so nice.  Now your handmade clothes can look like they came from KMart."

It fits like a sack, and it's nothing much to look at - but dang, that thing is so comfortable ( I adore linen) that I practically live and sleep in it.  So I found another chunk of leftover linen and made another one (not quite as outsized) and spent another ridiculous amount of time hand felling that one as well.

The gargoyle head seems to be on hold.  I want to learn something new, like putting in blinking eyes, but I'm not sure if I made the head large enough for my hand, mouth plate, and eye mechs.  It's been so bloody hot and humid that even though the Wicca House does have AC it's just hard to motivate myself.  If I decide that I need to make a bigger one I think I'll go with the much simpler pattern from SKS props.

I saw on Thingiverse (free 3D print patterns) that someone had the file to make molds for Viking style spindle whorls.  That looked like fun, and I found a guy in town who was willing to print them (of course, he lived on the opposite side of town from me, but that's how things go).  I tried Sculpy.  It failed.  The molds are hard plastic, so it was impossible to get the whorl out (most Sculpy molds are silicon).  I thought I would try air-dry clay next.  I had a block that I bought in 2019 and then sort of forgot about when things went south.  I got it down - and even still wrapped in plastic in the box it turned into a brick.  I set it aside to toss - but when I finish writing this I think I'll go put it in a bucket of water and see what happens.

I had treated myself to a braid of yak/silk (I love that stuff) in Greenwoods Fiberworks paper roses color way.  I dissected it and spun it as one long gradient.  Then what?  Is there a limit to how many lace shawls one needs?  Maybe - but I like making them, so who cares?  Except that I realized that I had already made one in the same color way.  But that one I had spun I the hospital with just random color mingling, so now my justification is that I can made two similar shawls of the same fiber/color way and show how different they can be.  I'm doing a half-pi shawl, dropping in patterns from Ghosts and Gravestones (I have a cowl in that, and I like the pattern, and it's easy).  Hmmm, easy.  That's how I knit lace.  There are wonderful complicated patterns out there, and maybe I should challenge myself.  But honestly, while they're impressive when you hold them out, once you're wearing them complex looks about the same as simple.  I knit to relax.

In the planning stages.  I mentioned last time that I wanted to make a dark academia version of the dragon fire shawl.  And I had that boatload of wool that I had gotten.  I've done samples - two problems.  One is that it's too dark; unlike my ruana where I dyed brown wool with colors and it looked amazing, colors don't show up at all on this.  I tried blending in 10% silk, but that wasn't enough to help.  The other is that this Columbia/Rambouillet mix is very robust.  It's odd - it's not scratchy at all, but it's also not soft.  It's also way too bouncy to make a drapey shawl.  I think it would be perfect for a sweater if I ever get the gumption to do that.  Or great socks.
So I dug out the brown Finn fleece and I'll spin a bit of that and do a dye sample.  I love Finn, but this has a couple of problems.  One is that instead of washing with my usual Dawn I followed a suggestion online and used Ecos laundry detergent.  I don't know if it was the soap's fault, but the fiber doesn't open easily.  The other is that the sheep had scurf (mite-caused dandruff) which sort of glues the base ends together.  So it will be a bit of a fight.  But, again, that's what TV is for.

OK - caught up.

Current Project

 Two years since an entry, blah blah blah.

But currently.

Possibly another puppet.  Yes, I did finish the Griffen (Mervyn) from two years ago.

And I also made Anthea the Swamp Guardian (lying on the lounge because I can't take a picture of myself holding her.

This time I'm wanting to do a gargoyle.  I was thinking of doing it in time for the Infinity Con but that's day after tomorrow and I've barely started.  Actually, I wasn't going to go at all (I didn't go last year) but Rob and Zeke have both gotten into gaming and want to go.  So far I have the skull.  I used a wolf skull pattern from Kamui Cosplay.  I love her stuff, but it's so complicated - 38 pieces in this one, many of them beveled.  It really didn't help that my contact cement has gone gummy.  My frugal side kicks in.  The problem with contact cement is that as soon as you open it, the clock starts ticking - you have a few months.  In Ye Olde Days, I would buy it in small bottles, about four (or six) ounces, for 3-4 dollars.  Now - a 3 ounce bottle is $12.  For that, I get the quart can at $24.  But I didn't want to go buy another quart for the ounce or two that I need for this, and don't have another project planned.  So I dealt with it - and the end result was pretty rough.

Fortunately, I do have a supply of foam clay, and putting a couple of layers of that on smoothed things out nicely.

As long as I don't have any deadline now, I'm going to see if I can make a blinking eye mechanism.

Spinning.  A bit ago I got a braid of yak/silk (my most favorite thing in the world to spin) from Greenwoods Fiber works in "Paper Roses."  

The color in this picture isn't quite right - what looks grayish is actually dark green.
I've pulled it apart and am spinning three tones separately - the light pink, darker pink, and the green.  Then I'll ply them into one long gradient. This blend can be very slippery to spin, so I've taken the time to deconstruct it using my cotton cards to make small rolls ("fauxlogs").   I'm spinning while watching the old FaceOff series - just trying to jog my creative mojo.

Then to decide on a pattern and actually make something.  I've got so many skeins of silk and silk blend yarns hanging around; I need to use them.

Although I have a ridiculous amount of raw wool, I couldn't resist an almost black Columbia/Rambouillet fleece.  Thing is - those beasts are huge, so it was a 9 pound fleece.  Opening the box was fun because she really managed to pack it in there.

In more innocent times that was referred to as a wool bomb.  It's been sorted and washed.  I love the look of dyed dark wool - Like the ruana I made  - it gives the finished fabric an almost antique look.

But this wool is even darker than the dark brown I used for this, so maybe I'll blend in a little silk.  I want to make a dark academic version of this shawl I made years ago (oops - no picture of my own but here's the pattern)

Or - there's that slightly lighter Finn fleece that I got a couple of years ago.

OK - that's it for now.

The Griffin Begins

 Or is is Gryphon?  Somehow, that sounds pretentious, like people who spell vampire "vampyre."

Some people have to have something completely designed and built in their heads before they start.  That's not me - I have to start, and then see what happens next.  I used to think that doing it like that was somehow inferior.  But I remember that one day Tolkien pick up his pen and wrote "in a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit" when he had no idea what a hobbit was.  He had to write the story to find out.  The same with Ursula K. LeGuin - one of her books started just with a vision of two characters struggling in the snow, and she had to start writing to see who they were and why they were there.

So - to start.  I need a head.  Bird head.  My most comfortable medium is foam, so I'll be fabricating out of that.  I think about sculpting a head out of foil, and taking a pattern from that (that's how I did my pig skull mask).  But then I wondered.  I started the dragon with a marvelously detailed dragon skull pattern from Kamui Cosplay.  I wondered if she by any chance had a bird skull pattern.  She did!  It looked somehow familiar.  I already owned it - it was in the same pattern collection as the dragon skull.  Duh.

Her patterns are very detailed.  This one had 34 pieces to first cut out of paper, and then the craft foam (I sprayed the pieces with adhesive and stuck them down.  It's much easier than transferring all the markings).  Many of the pieces have miniscule darts to shape them.  

Pattern cut out and arranged ("knolled")

The pattern pieces on foam

I cut all the pieces out, made those tiny darts, and glued it all together.

The eyes will be made from one of those plastic Christmas tree ornaments that you can pop open and put stuff in.  I had to cut them down to size (I used a soldering iron to melt the cut line.  The plastic is brittle and I was afraid it would shatter if I used a dremel cutter on it).

I'm sampling the fabric for the body.  I'm using the long-haired Icelandic fleece for the mane, and I wanted the body fur to be similar.  I have about a pound and a half of the wool roving I got to weave the blankets for the waulking at the Scottish games - it's a natural gray.  I wanted some color variation so I carded it with some black alpaca and white mohair (23 grams wool, 4 grams each alpaca and mohair).  I felted it into a flat sheet this morning as a sample.

Then I had to stop for awhile because the cable people are coming to try to improve my internet so I have to be back waiting at the house.

But I only started this on Sunday, and I had to work and do errands yesterday, so it's coming along rather well.  I think I'll use the same body pattern that I did for the dragon.  I'll need to figure out how to make lion paws for the back feet and eagle legs for the front (maybe Worbla for the eagle legs?

It's a start.

Another Shirt; Starting the Puppet

 Only a month gap this time.

I did finish the pink pirate shirt.  For some reason this one seemed to take longer than the first to hand fell the seams - but I love holding that lightweight linen, so that's OK.  I also spent a few hours doing a bit of fancy latticework smocking on the sleeves.
Someday maybe I'll get a full-length mirror and put it somewhere other than the bathroom.

And the fancy work on the sleeves

And now on to the puppet.  I'm really going to try to write this up the way I planned on doing this blog - a place for all the fussy details that don't really belong in my life blog.  We'll see.

As I mentioned in my last post, I've felt the urge for another puppet for a long time.  I've been able to visualize myself working on it - I just couldn't visualize the puppet itself.  All I knew is that I wanted to use the other Icelandic fleece that I have to make fur like the varafell I made.

The clock is ticking.  About the only place I have to take a puppet is the Infinity Con - and that's coming up July 8.  In 2019, I took Lurlene, my little post apoc girl walking puppet - who disturbed the hell out of some people.

The con didn't happen in 2020, because Covid.  In 2020 I took the dragon puppet, which was a huge hit.

I took it again last year (that's what this picture is from) and while again it was a hit, I also got too much of what ever Maker doesn't want to hear:  "I remember that from last year!"

I dig out my Spiderwick Press books and start thumbing.  And there was the griffen - half bird, half lion.  I could give it a mane.  

And now he's going to get his own blog entry.

Another Update

 And I'll have to come back later and put in pictures.

I'm feeling scattered.  I seem to have a lot of stuff going on.  Possibly because I have a lot of stuff going on, to wit:

My new couch cover.  This I actually got done.  I kept seeing ads on FaceBook for a linen couch throw - and with my obsession (fetish?) with linen I would just look at the picture and feel my blood pressure go lower.  I wasn't too enamored of the $400 price tag, especially without being able to see/feel it first.  So, for about a third of that, I ordered 10 yards of natural linen.  It was a bit awkward to cut it in half crosswise an then sew it together lengthwise and them hem the whole thing - but I did.  To most people it's just a big piece of beige cloth - but I love it, and linen soothes me.

Here's the comparison - the old green polyester stretch one, and the new linen one.

                               

At least that got done.  Works in progress:  A scarf/shawl from a yak/silk yarn that I spun in the hospital.  For some reason, although I used to knit compulsively, I haven't knit much at all since I came back.  This yarn (Greenwoods Fiberworks, color Apple Cider) is of greens and pinks.  I just spun and plied it, without worrying about the color, and honestly, it's a little muddy.  And I don't seem to have the dexterity that I used to in knitting lace, possibly because I'm out of practice.  It's now at the "each row takes forever" stage.

I'm knitting three samples.  I got some autumn colored silk and have spun some of it.  I'm trying to decide if I want to ply it with itself - probably not, because I don't have that much of it, and I don't want to muddy it up like the apple cider.  So I've done a sample with gold eri silk, fawn yak, and now am working on one with dark brown alpaca.

I started a year or so ago using a gotland/silk blend for my "spin while walking".  That will go on until I run out of the Gotland.  I did get some more carded and blended today.

Doing a project I hadn't planned.  My friend Christy from the feed store put out a call wanting fleece - some for a friend to use for house insulation, some for friends to insulate beehives.  That gave me a good chance to pass on some of my "guilt" fleeces - fleece that isn't bad, but still not good enough to warrant the time needed to process it.  While I was digging through the stash, I found some black alpaca that a friend had given me awhile ago - like 2008.  I knew I had "some" nice black alpaca - I hadn't remembered that there are at least 3 pounds of it.  And gasp! horrors!  Some of it had moth casings!  It didn't look like an active infestation (no moths) and there weren't many, but enough that I felt compelled to pick, fluff, and rewash it all.  That took a few hours.

Over years of spinning here and there, I had accrued about a pound of various cotton yarns (which is a lot).  My original thought was to put on a mixed color warp and then spin a consistent weft - but a lot of the yarns weren't strong enough for that.  I like vertical stripes in clothing, but not horizontal.  I thumbed through pinterest, and saw several saori inspired garments made of narrow strips used on the bias.  So I put on a 9-yard warp, 4 inches wide, and I will weave in random patterns (plain weave, twill, pick and pick, clasped weft, basketweave, whatever else comes to mind).  I got it on the loom a couple of weeks ago but haven't woven much on it yet.

I loved the linen pirate shirt so much that I wanted another one  When I ordered the fabric for the couch cover, I had the choice of paying the pretty heavy shipping fee, or buying enough cloth so that shipping was free.  Well, duh.  So two more yards of handkerchief linen in a color somewhere between pink and gray.  Just a shirt like that last one isn't enough, though.  I decided that instead of just gathering the sleeves in that I would lattice smock them.  That's going to add only a few hours of handsewing to the project.  The problem is marking the 1/4" grid.  Trying to draw lines with a washable marker went wonky (and my marker is about empty).  Trying to do 150 dots a quarter inch from each other is crazy making.  What I ended up was machine basting the grid - the distance from the needle to the edge of the presser foot is 1/4 inch so that gave me a guideline.  Of course, if/when I ever get the smocking done I'll have to go pick out the basting lines (or not - I made them with thread to match the fabric)

So, if I count on my fingers:

Couch cover - done (with arm and back covers to protect from the cats)

Rewash black alpaca - done as of this afternoon

Spinning autumn silk - in progress

Knitting samples with silk - in progress

Lace shawl - in progress

Narrow cotton weaving - in progress

Carding, blending Gotland/silk - ongoing

Pink linen poet shirt - in progress

So it's no wonder that I feel a bit scattered and unfocused.  And what I really want to do is make another puppet.  The Infinity con is in July, and I've taken the dragon puppet for the last two years.  I've been having the puppet-making urge, but that's as far as I've gotten.  I don't have any design ideas yet, other than using my remaining Iceland fleece for fur.