Yarn bowl

I have been wanting a yarn bowl, so when we went for another round of ceramic painting and there was an unpainted yarn bowl, I took the leap.

Photo description: green ceramic yarn bowl with holes for yarn or a hook carved in the side for yarn
Photo description: inside of the yarn bowl painted with a spiral of white and black dots

Yarn bowls are a solution to round wrapped balls of yarn. They keep the ball from rolling all over the floor. They work with other yarn preparations too.

Ruffle scarf, 4 vs 6

One more comment on ruffle scarves knitted from machine lace “yarn”. Here are two scarves, one using six stitches (purple) and one using 4 stitches (faded glory).

Photo description: two ruffle scarves, “Faded glory” red, white, and cream on the left is longer, the purple scarf on the right is shorter and thicker

Really it is a matter of personal taste when choosing how many stitches to use.

Photo description: in progress work with four stitches on the needle, picked up from the edge of the machine lace

Throwback Thursday: wrap bracelet

This is a wrap bracelet that I made for my sister in April of 2015. It is made from red leather cord, 4mm garnet and quartz beads, and beading thread. The remarkable thing about it is that it was sitting next to my chair next to the fireplace when the house caught on fire in March of 2015. I had been working on it and it was in a project bag. I needed to give everything a rinse to get rid of the ash, but I was able to complete the bracelet.

Photo description: red wrap bracelet with four wraps of natural garnet and quartz beads sewn between two leather cords

I really missed an opportunity to do a morse code message in the beading.

Another round

We’ve done another round of ceramic painting. This time I tried for flowers, daisy on one side and a sunflower on the other for my mother-in-law.

Photo description: ceramic mug painted with a white daisy on a blue background, before firing
Photo description: other side of the same ceramic mug painted with a yellow sunflower on a blue background, before firing
Photo description: sunflower side after firing, same camera angle

It was interesting how the flowers changed after firing, and something to consider when painting again with glaze.

The other interesting thing is the apparent shape of the mug. In the pictures above it looks like a standard straight sided coffee mug, but it isn’t.

Photo description: same mug, but photographed from the side showing the sloping angles of the sides better
Photo description: daisy side of the mug, after firing, photographed straight on

My favorite part is the ombre interior. It really amuses me to have the inside painted like a patina of coffee has already built up.

Photo description: inside of the mug showing yellow to brown glaze gradient

Bag progress

Photo description: loop and twist bag in progress next to flax fiber

After about 14 hours of riding in the car, I figure I have put about 12 hours into my loop and twist bag that I am twining from flax fiber as I go. I like the work because I can enjoy the scenery as we drive. I can both twine and loop mostly by feel (I do look when I join in new fiber.) I’m drawing my fiber from the center of the bundle, which I don’t think is the best way, because I’m getting tangles that have to be pulled out. I tried from one end, but the tangles were worse. I should lay out the fibers like flax spinners do, but space in the car is limited, and flax fibers can be over three feet long. The plan is to continue to twine until I run out of untangled fiber, then clean up the tangles and twine the string for the closure.