Heart

I'm working on my contribution to a quilt for a friend who has recently retired. We share a love of dogs amongst other things. The design is quite simple with different people embellishing or signing a heart block. Yep, those are doggy paw prints on the fabric.

I've just been browsing through boxes of fabrics to choose other relevant motifs.

Random Rose

What to do when presented with an unexpected, unknown quantity of pink fibre that's had a bad start in life?

A pink rose, of course! Mothers' Day is coming up and later there will be Pink Ribbon Day. Meanwhile the worst bits have been set aside to liven up some felting.

Score!

I went to the Sunday Spinners group at the Handweavers and Spinners' Guild yesterday. It's been way too long since I'd been there and it was great to catch up with some old friends and meet some new ones. It's rare for me to get away from the Guild without adding some fibre to my collection, but this time it happened without any outlay of money.

One of the spinners had bought this bag pink merino blend tops. She wasn't having any luck with it and finally got so frustrated that she gave it away. Maybe I should've left a moment of polite silence, but I didn't. I quickly said, "I'll have it!" I did then offer to split it with anyone else and I offered it back to her once she'd calmed down, but in the end it came home with me. I'm sure it will behave for me just fine. I'm looking forward to plying it with some different shades of pink to see how it will come up.

Unusual

I don't normally fuss too much about my fingernails. As long as they're reasonably neat, I like to leave well enough alone. But lately they started chipping, breaking, flaking and SNAGGING ON MY KNITTING. Suddenly I had a problem to deal with. I browsed the unfamiliar aisles of a local beauty warehouse for a solution.

With a name like "miracle cure", how could I go wrong? Two weeks and half a dozen applications later, I'm a happy knitter again. And occasionally I catch sight of my newly shiny nails and smile. As for the future, who knows? My guess is that my temporary aberration won't last that long--as long as my nails go back to being fuss-free when I eventually stop using the cure.

Ready

The mystery project is now a pretty package.

I had some japanese lawn which seemed to be suitable wrapping. Now I'm off to breakfast with the birthday girl. I hope she likes it. 

Detail

I've just unpinned the mystery project from my make-do blocking board. I was thinking I'd eventually post a pic of the whole thing, but that's going to be difficult. Here's a detail:

It's a handspun wool-silk blend--not quite black knitted in a simple feather and fan design long-ways. The overall effect is like a long ripple with motif repeated along both long ends of the scarf. I'm afraid an overall pic would just give you a dark blob to look at.

Noro Continues

I'm still knitting the Noro Sekku in odd moments of patience. Here's how it looks now.

The colours and texture remind me of the surf-wear of my teen years--not that I was the surfie type--it's a strange feeling. As you can see from the ball there's still a lot of yarn to come and all sorts of unexpected colours, so it's still a journey into the unknown.