Defying Gravity!

Here is the very first ball of hand-dyed yarn I've ever made *grin* It's pure silk, unbelievably soft, and beautiful. It's a very shiny blue/green/silvery mix and is stunning. We call it Defying Gravity, in honour of both its colours and witchiness, and that it represents a new period of creativity for Elana and I, and we're breaking out of traditional 'workaholic or invalid' modes and trying to find our own path. Wish us luck!

With the flash, the shine was quite intense, so it's a tiny bit darker than it looks on the light picture, but a lot lighter than the one without the flash :-)





Here's to many more!

My first illusion knit!

The dyed silk looks fantastic, but am waiting until I have my ball winder before I post pics of it ;-) While untangling a mess of yarn waiting to be dyed, I decided to make Elana a fleur-de-lys illusion knit - it'll feel nicer than the brand she wants..

I started last night and finished this afternoon, while watching a marathon of Grey's Anatomy and 24..





She liked it :-) Shame it was in pink instead of black and gold, but I needed yarn that was the same and for some reason only had it in shades of pink (?!).

Was lots of fun to do - I can totally see how it works but it amazes me that someone figured it out. I think a Dark Mark scarf for Jo is calling...

Woooo! My first attempt at dyeing...

So, finally bit the bullet and, since I am cursed with an allergy to wool and so can't use cheap dyes like Koolaid and food colouring, I bought a bunch of Procion MX dyes and the related bumpf. I found a really pretty pattern the other day that I wanted to make in silk, so I bought out the silver Debbie Bliss Pure Silk sale stuff from John Lewis.

Here it is soaking:



Elana and I took turns soaking it, cause it just didn't want to not float (silk is a witch, apparently). Then we mixed up Turquoise, Ultramarine and Emerald Green :



And then the fun part! Splashy Splashy!











Here's Elana and I looking slightly mental with our rubber gloves, while poor Doug had to leave his SSC raid to come take pics for us (I'm on the left, please excuse lack of make-up and bra ;-)).



It's now wrapped up like a sausage in the bath, and will be washed out tomorrow... wooo!

Wow - the kindness of strangers humbles me :-)

A few weeks ago I happened upon the forums of the website that helped me learn how to knit really well - http://www.knittinghelp.com/ - it's an incredible site with videos that take away all the sophistry and teach you just how to make beautiful things. And so I joined up on the forums, looking to further my knitting a bit, and for some inspiration.

I happened to ask about variegated yarns one day, that weren't made from wool or other animal yarns - I'm horribly allergic - and got lots of helpful replies and some beautiful links to yarns I wish I could afford, among them the Handmaiden Seasilk, made from Silk and seaweed. It appeals to the mermaid side of me ;-)

And a wonderful lady sent me a private message, offering to send me some that she wasn't going to use, as her first internation RAK - Random Act of Knitting. It arrived this morning, and is the softest, silkiest yarn I've ever seen - it's so beautiful I can't wait to work with it. But more than that, I'm humbled by how kind she was - I'd only been on the forums a couple of days, it's expensive yarn and I know how difficult postage can be, and she'd taken to time to find a perfect card to go with it, that's sitting above my computer desk now.



This is what she sent, beautifully packaged, and here's a close-up,



And a close-up of the card - pefectly chosen :



So thank you Gail, for giving me the inspiration to be a better knitter, and a better person :-)

Aron

Today would be my baby's first birthday.

Photoshop Fun

I've been playing about with CS2 - trying to teach myself that too! Luckily my boy is very useful with these things and has taught me bits and pieces to get me started. This is my pretty picture I made, using stock photos from burningwell.org and a brush set from Miss M (http://missm.paperlilies.com/01_news.html). I'm hoping to branch out into more complicated artwork, but have to start somewhere!

Hmm... First Post

I just wanted to see what a post looked like!