Finds - First Snow

It snowed here in Colorado, and the trees have slushy bits of snow clinging to their changing leaves. It's a welcome sign after one of the hottest summers on record, and a step towards the winter weather. Today's Finds post has Colorado artist and our favorite subject - Snow!

An early Autumn snow, captured by MistyPhoto

Fabulous hair Kanzashi from MountainMusings, imagine wearing them on a snowy day!

Great note cards with sparse winter tree branches from MichelleMach.

A brilliant piece of tactile textiles, MelodyMoneyDesigns handmade this art quilt, and I'd like to believe finished it on a snowy night...

Add your own little winter touch to your holiday decor by making a Snow Bunny Ornament, FancyTiger's kit has everything you need, and you can make it as cute as you want!

This is the view I'm looking forward to, snow capped mountain slopes in the moonlight. Can it be Ski Season yet? Lovely Painting from CreatedbyStorm

The only thing better than stuff that reminds me of snow, is stuff that keeps me warm in it... Fluffy yarn by WildeThyme waiting to be a warm fuzzy for you!

It's not full on winter yet, but us Coloradans can be inspired by snow year round - there are places that get snow year round after all. The sun will soon melt this snow fall away, but I'm looking forward to the cold dark winter. What's the weather where you are?

Piecing a Banner

My sewing machine has been quiet lately, school and other duties are getting in the way of my crafting! Fortunately I try to take on duties that include crafting, so the other day I spent some hours creating a banner for the local ADF Grove

 I tried to take inspiration from our logo for the fonts, and the runic font lends itself nicely to sewing, but the more Celtic style letters were quite the challenge.

 Notice all the white lines? I added lots of guide lines to make sure there would be straight and even letter placement. I also pinned all the letters in a word at once so nothing was sewn down and moved later.

Here it is! I'll be adding a branch and horn soon, and perhaps an ADF logo, but I'll be painting that logo on, too complicated even for this seamstress! Are you keeping busy?

Off the Needles, On the Needles

 I started this sweater back in February, and after diligently finishing yoke and both sleeves in a matter of weeks, I set it aside for the summer in favor of lighter smaller projects. July is not a time to have a wool sweater sitting in your lap.

 It's a Ysolda Teague pattern which means there were lots of options for customization. The collar, front, and cuffs have a cute leaf pattern. I tailored the bust to a gradual slope instead of the sudden gather in the pattern. It's cozy and colorful, made with a vintage yarn that isn't real soft but does have a touch of sparkle.

 I've been resisting the urge to wear the sweater every day... So I cast on another Ysolda pattern I'm revisiting. I bought some lovely handspun heritage wool in Paonia last May, listed as Black Welsh. I used it for the edging, with much larger needles to give it a lacier feel than my first one. This is the difference between size fours and size eights! I bought some nice dark Shetland wool to be the center.

 And while on my Shetland craze this weekend picked up some awesome yarns from Piñon Wood. The center one has a fine maroon thread with maroon beads plyed into it, I'm going to use the three together for something warm and wonderful.

It's the season for warm fuzzies, what are you crafting?

Shetland Sheep = Shetland Yarns!

 This weekend Fancy Tiger has these young rams from Piñon Wood Ranch. Their owners came along too, with lots of lovely handspun yarns! They keep alpacas as well, so  there were alpaca blends in a rainbow of natural colors and some bright ones too! Shetlands I'm told, come in 11 different natural colors.

Shetlands are bread to be small, so these guys are almost full grown, a perfect size for house pets don't ya think? They were very friendly, and Jamie and Amber of Fancy Tiger had no problem giving them a walk around the block. Even their poop is small and cute. (Remind me of that when I'm mucking, please.) They will be there all day today, fortunately sheep are well equipped to handle cold rainy weather. Go visit so you can squee! And pick up some awesome yarns while you're at it...

Harvest Season Salsa Verde

 We had our first snow the other night, and now we're on frost watch with all the plants draped in blankets and sheets. That means there was a big harvest of all the big fruits, ripe or not. Our tomatillos are choking out the rest of Mom's garden, so there was no worry about having enough for salsa!

 I chopped enough  to fill my food processor half way, then added copious amounts of fresh cilantro from my farm share, a few cloves of garlic, and some salt.

Pulse gently, not a full mush puree, then eat with crispy chips for a refreshing snack. Easy, and very freezable so you can enjoy it all winter if you like. Have you been preparing for the changing weather?

Quilting the World.

 First the patchwork goddess made the sky, and the poofy clouds.

 Then she made the earth, rising in gentle hills.

 Then she grew a mighty tree up from the earth...

 With colorful textured foliage. Then she framed it in bright purples and quilted the stink out of it!

This is a large wall hanging I made for my Grove's fundraising auction. The clouds and leaves are textured with undulated quilting and the colors pop off the wall. To see all our fundraising items click here, and check back all month as new items are added!

Baby Sweater Done!

That's right, cast off a few hours before the shower started. But that wasn't the end of it naturally, because anyone who has ever tried to shove a shirt over a toddlers head knows - Cardigans are the way to go.

 So I washed and blocked it, laying it in the sun to hurry the process (Physics has no respect for crunch time!) The blocking fortunately smoothed out the lumpy colorwork bits, I guess my tension was a bit wonky.

 Then, using the techniques I learned in the class the day before I sewed two lines on either line of the center row. The sweater was knit with a pair of purl stitches in front to be guides. I learned the hard way that it is tricky to capture the carried threads, and that many knitters simply use all their yarns at once on these "steeking stitches" I'll have to do that next time!

 I crocheted the edges and added buttons. A trick from Joyuna - split a multi-ply down to use as thread for sewing the buttons on.

 I then went back in for another row of double crochet on the other face, with single crochet loops for the buttons. (Confession - I intended to use a zipper, never thought to get a separating zipper instead of one bound on both ends. Duh.)

And done! One hour before leaving for the shower! Now I can get to the matching hat I was supposed to have finished as well...