Emerald City

A week ago my parents reached their 50th wedding anniversary, and the whole family met in New York City to celebrate. We went to see Wicked on Broadway. The play was wonderful.

This new scarf is called Emerald City. The green and gold tones reminded me of the play. For the warp I used a thread with gold, green and apricot tones. It looks solid gold in the photo of the fringe, but there is a lot of subtle color in the yarn. The weft is an emerald green that plays off of the thread beautifully.

Meadow

This scarf reminds me of a spring meadow filled with flowers. The photo doesn't do justice to the colors, but it is a soft bouquet of lilac and peach.

I made this scarf with a deep purple thread for the warp, and a baby boucle for the the weft. The scarf is very textured, incredibly soft, and warm. I think it came out very well, and is quite pretty.

Swaddle-a-doo for more than two

Marine Corps Kids is getting ready for a set of triplets, so I made these three swaddlers to send to the new mom. I don't know if the babies will be boys or girls, but I hope these are basic enough to be usable.

I'll be packing these up with gifts from other donors for the new babies.

Swaddle-a-doo

I felt like crafting tonight, but after days of long meetings at work, I didn't have the energy to take on a big crochet or weaving project. On days like this, Edgerydoo is the best! I can make something cute relatively quickly.

I love all the baby cocoons that I've been seeing online lately, and decided that I could make a fast swaddler with the Edgerydoo. Here's what I came up with. It took less than 2 hours to complete!

I need a new mom to tell me if it's practical, but I think it's cute if I may say so myself.

This will be donated to Marine Corps Kids.

Blue Baubles

This woven scarf was made with a dark blue and red thread for the warp, and Bernat Super Chunky for the weft.

From a distance it looks like a dark blue solid, but close up it has a lot of color woven in.

I added some blue and clear beads to the fringe for a little extra sparkle.

I have a dear friend who is a very talented and accomplished jewelry designer. From now on, I'll leave the beading to her!!! I love beads, but they're tiny, and stringing beads onto thread takes more patience than comes naturally to me. In the end, I love the look of the beaded fringe, but I don't have what it takes to sit and string beads very often.

Tuscany

Just finished weaving this shawl which I'm calling "Tuscany" because of the warm red and apricot tones. The photo doesn't show the subtlety of the colors, but there are a lot of apricot, soft green and blue tones in the shawl.

This will be donated to Marine Corps Kids as a nursing shawl.

Color Weaving

One of the things that I'm really loving about weaving is how different yarns work together. When you mix yarns in crochet, you pretty much know what it's going to look like. When weaving, the colors combine in surprising and delightful ways.

I just started a new project, and it took me some time to figure out what yarns I wanted to use. For the warp I used a thread that is a mix of apricot and green shades (sounds odd, but it's nice). For the weft, I'm using Patons Shetland Chunky Tweeds in Deep Red.

I really wasn't sure how these two yarns would blend, and I was afraid that the red would make the thread look like mud. Instead, it brings out the warm yellow tones, and is blending beautifully!

In the photo, the colors appear more harsh than they do in real life - perhaps its because of the flash - when the project is done I'll have to photograph it in natural light. I'm hoping this will become a nursing shawl for Marine Corps Kids.

Weekend Projects

We had guests this weekend, but I still managed to work on a few projects.

Yesterday I made a Moebius Shawl. It was fast and fun to make and it turned out well. Unfortunately, it didn't look good on me. It did, however, look great on my sister-in-law who was visiting, so I gave it to her. I didn't take a photo of it, but it was made in shades of blue, purple and green - great colors for her.

I had some yarn leftover, so today I made a Butterfly Cap. This is such a cute hat and a simple pattern. It works up quickly. I'll be donating this one to Marine Corps Kids for the Holiday Family Gift Drive.

Strawberries and Cream

This tiny blanket was "interesting" to make.

The yarn is very textured and stuck to itself, so it was challenging to work with. This blanket has more visible mistakes than any woven project I've made yet, and that annoys me to no end. I almost quit in the middle, but that would make me a quitter.

I finished it, and am glad that I did. Despite the mistakes in the weave, this is the softest blanket I've made. The fabric drapes beautifully and is very silky.

It's machine washable and really "appropriate" for a baby. The mistakes really bother me, but what makes this yarn so hard to work with, also helps to hide the errors. Hubby thinks that this is too soft and sweet to not belong to a baby, so I'm going to donate it to Marine Corps Kids and hope that the baby who receives it enjoys the softness.

Purple Passion

I wove this shawl using a very chunky soft purple yarn, and a color change yarn for the warp. I wasn't sure if it would work. After I warped the loom, I was afraid that the thinner yarn wasn't sturdy enough to hold up, and that it would fray or break. Luckily, it didn't, because I just love the way this one looks.

I wish I had made it just a tad longer. I used a complete skein to warp the loom, and I could have used 2 skeins. I may go back and buy more and try this one again. I really like the way the thick yarn looks, and because it's so thick, it worked up really quickly.

It was fun!