Hat Magic

Earlier this week I began to tell the tale of "Three Hats" One was too big, one was too small and there I was wildly waving my magic wand to conjure up one that's just right. Well, failing the magic wand, I reverted to my more usual techniques. I mixed up a dye pot of Landscape Grevillea for a skein I'd spun many moons ago. There's a fair bit of yarn there, so once it had gobbled up all the Grevillea colour, I gave it a bit of Kangaroo Paw for afters. Here's the result: I rinsed it; spun it out in my salad spinner and hung it out to dry before bed last night. It's not quite dry yet. That's OK, I'm still without a car and so I'm anticipating several hours of public transport over the weekend. I'll have the makings of a hat to keep me company.

Postscript

Last year's Feather and Fan Scarf story ended with the completion of the knitting and grafting two halves of the scarf together. But I had a little bit of the yarn left over. Since it was such a special yarn--Finn Cashmere, drop spindle spun and dip dyed with love--I didn't want it to just disappear into the odds and ends box. On the other hand, there really wasn't enough there to make anything much. I decided to just play with it and see what came up.

I've been thinking a fair bit about the boundary between jewellery and textile accessories lately. I'm about to teach a couple of sessions of jewellery making. Add to that the light and airy Northern Hemisphere patterns coming out for their summer season and I have lots of food for thought. I decided to crochet a little neck band with the yarn I had and then see what inspiration comes to embellish and add to it.

This is where I'm up to so far:

• a few rows of crochet, long enough to drape around the neck;
• a tab with a button hole--on the right;
• a reinforced strip to hold a button or bead-- on the left.
• loose ends which haven't been woven in, dangling in case they're needed to attach something or other.

Now I have no more of that yarn. I'm going to improvise with other materials until I come up with something I like. But first, I'd better do a little more of the spinning for my folio and take my morning walk before it starts raining again.

Delicious, Deceptive

Just look at this silk!This is a macro shot of some of the silk cap I've been spinning recently. Silk cap is the degummed cocoon of the silk worm, which is then stretched out on a frame. My task is to stretch it out still further until I can spin it into a yarn. It's beautiful and I love both the sheen and the irregularities that come with this form of silk. But this is tough stuff! I've been told that gram for gram it's stronger than stainless steel. And after a day or two of working with it, I'm ready to believe that story. The fibres are very long, so the secret is to get as much distance between my hands as I can when I'm pulling it apart. Even then it takes quite a strong grip. My fingers hurt. My wrist hurts. It's time to take a break for a bit. But I know I'll forget the pain quickly and come back to this gorgeous, shiny, lumpy bumpy unpredictable, irresistable scrap of natural goodness.

End in Sight

Here's the checklist I'm working from to finish my Spinning Certificate Folio requirements. I got myself a bit more organised over the weekend and checked off the skeins I've already completed. There are a few more silk blends to do on this page. I'll happily tackle those this week. I love working with silk and I've already done the fine smooth ones last year. Now I'm looking forward to some interest textures and colours with the various forms of silk waste. The next couple of units were felting and dyeing--I got those all done at the time. Then there's a section on various cellulose fibres: bamboo, tencel, soy etc. And that's it!

Fairytale, Please

Once upon a time there was a teenager who loved hats. One day, while walking through a tulip festival, she spied a bag of hand dyed alpaca fibre. "Oh, I would love a hat made out of this!", she cried. Do you remember the story? I can't say the magic quite ends there, but as her fairy godmother I have to admit to a great deal of human fallibility. I spun up the alpaca, and some merino, plied them together and crocheted a lovely little hat. Please note, a lovely little hat. Now, in my defence, I will say that I also designed and crocheted a lovely cap as well, and it was not so little. To cut a long story short, the hat was too small. Back it came in the mail and I've made several attempts to stretch it a little. I don't think I've been very succesful. In my frustration, I took 100g of burgundy wool I had lying around and crocheted up a nice big baggy hat. Here are the two: The hat at the top is done in treble stitch: it's loose and floppy--it could look very good on a teenager with attitude, but I won't know until she tries it on. The one at the bottom of the pic is the original, done in double stitch: quite firm . . . quite, quite firm! I'm hoping it's a little bigger than it was when it arrived, but I can't be sure unil she tries it on. So, as the author of the tale, and the supposed author of textile magic, I'm planning to make a third hat. According to the fairytale formula, this one should be "just right". Oh, please!

Another Cutey

My mind is full of so many textile tasks and possibilities that I don't know what to write about. So, rather than agonise over the complexities, I'm going to keep it short and simple. This fabric was the wrapping for a surprise gift I received the other day: Cute blue paw-prints. I love blue, I love my dogs, I love cute and I love receiving gifts. It's a smile all round. And I get to decide what to do with another fat quarter of irresistable fabric.

Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat

One of the local Quilting Shops is in the midst of their big Sale. With fat quarters at $2 each, it didn't take much convincing for me to pick up this little cutey:I've been promising to make some pot mitts for a cat-loving friend. A little bit of sewing today and the job will be done. I don't need to add anything to these feline characters. They carry the story all on their own.