The End of a Busy Week

I have had a quiet weekend, but a rather busy week overall.  The details for Lámhdhéanta/Handmade are coming together.  We have instructors for Crochet, Felting, and Patchwork.  We have space at Aiseanna na hOige, the local community centre.  Funding for marketing is underway and I just need to sort out the insurance issue.  We are in pretty good shape for September 25th!

I spend yesterday afternoon getting started dyeing.  I received a nice Merino lace weight wool and a lovely blend of Merino/Alpaca/Silk in a chunkier weight.  I am really happy with the colours!  Today I over-dyed a vest that I felted on Thursday a deep red, but the light faded and it is now a misty, dirty rain so there will be no photos taken now.  I am so delighted with the dyeing process.  I love mixing the colours and testing out new fabrics.  I spent the morning on the Internet and YouTube.com trying to figure out how Chad Alice Hagen dyes her wool so beautifully.  I think she must use encaustics somehow, perhaps the new technique of using soy wax?  I am going to try that and see if it works.  It can't hurt and the soy wax washes out with simple soap and water, so it doesn't involve chemicals and messing around.  Chad Alice's notebooks that she makes are sooo gorgeous.  I would love to be able to dye pieces with such vibrant colour and texture.  I am perhaps light years away from that!  But I have my Wollknoll order to play with and new dyes that came this week.  I mostly use Jacquard Acid Dyes, but Arty's little pen liquid dyes for microwave dyeing (from www.rainbowsilks.co.uk)  is handy because you can quickly space dye pieces with the pen tip.  I got some prefelt from Wollknoll, as well as a kilo of undyed Merino, some cotton gauze for nuno felting, and the Merino knitting yarn for dyeing.  That will keep me busy for the next week.

 I also made the rest of the appliques for my brother and sister-in-law's wedding blanket.  Or rather their wedding present!  Here are a couple of the appliques that I felted and machine stitched.  I decided not to add too much ornament to the appliques because this blanket will need to be washed and glitzy stuff will most likely fall off with normal wear and tear.  This blanket is 100% wool and will last a very long time, possibly the rest of their lives, if they take care of it.  It feels like it has been hanging off the arm of my chair, patiently waiting for me to complete it, for a very long time.  I crocheted nine panels and the stitched them together like a traditional nine patch quilt.  The rest of the quilt is simply filling in the gaps, but the variegated purple wool is a nice silk and merino blend that's baby soft.  All of it should be nice and soft.  I hope they like it because I have spent about 70 hours on it so far.  Sewing a traditional quilt would have taken far less time!

Must go rescue dinner!  Free range roast chicken, one of my favourites, with roasted onions and garlic and spuds and broccoli.  Life is good!

Sneak peek: almost finished!