Xmas Knitting: Work Editions

Last year I knit loads for my family & Kenny's family, but this year I wanted to put the most work into my work colleagues. At some point I decided to try to knit for every single teacher/administrator/assistant at my school, and I so almost made it. It was fun, it was satisfying, but I have to admit, at times... it was stressful. I think I might take next year off from that particular kind of guerilla gifting.

In any case, here's what I managed to produce! Thanks belong to my little ones at school who got to practice modeling knitwear. You never know where that might take them.

1. Socks for Vickie


2. Socks for Sandy (yep, two pairs squeezed from the same ball! Luckily, one pair is a size 6. Teeny tiny.)


3. Scarf for Elizabeth: modular diamonds in a fancy Noro angora blend)


4. Scarf for Beverlee (a fiery Chevron scarf- so addictive to knit!)


5. Scarf for Mary-Lou


6. Scarf for Kristen (pattern is My So-Called Scarf, which for some reason I found really boring.)


7. Scarf for Nicole- longways Noro stripes, anyone? SO much fun.


8. Shawl for Holly (my 1st lacework, and totally a pattern I want to make again)


9. Cowl for Katie


10. Ballband dishcloth for Charlotte (see group pic above; somehow I missed taking an individual shot!)

11-12. Hat for Shannon (middle) and hat for Lisa (right). [I'm keeping the one on the left for now]


13. Beret for Angela


And somehow none of these got photographed, either. Boo.
14. Polymer clay bookmark for Ann*
15. Polymer clay fridge magnet Rhonda*
16. Polymer clay fridge magnet for Eve*
17. Pin for Claire**

*technically not knitted, but still handmade.
**I ran out of time/ideas/energy! Aughh! Oh well. Her sister is a knitter.

So, that huge self-assigned hurdle took up a good chunk of physic energy, albeit in a positive way. I loved picking colors for everyone, thinking about what they might like best and what they could actually use. I have to admit, though, once I was finished I sort of... didn't feel an immediate urge to cast on anything new. I've got the beginnings of a NaKniSweMo sweater that I'm lugging around, plus a super simple sock that needs a mate, but besides that... I think I'm going to take it easy for awhile. Plus, I may or may not have received a brand-new RIGID HEDDLE LOOOOOOOM!! for Xmas. So, you know, I might just focus (read: drool) on that for awhile. Joy!

Xmas Knitting: Family Edition

Aaaand I'm back! Since Thanksgiving break, I've been sick over and over, first with some terrible bronchial snotty thing, than the stomach flu that all the elementary schoolers got at once, and then back to major bronchitis (plus a fever that just wouldn't quit until I beat it down with antibiotics) over Xmas week. So here we are, just one day away from the end of the year, and I finally feel well enough to do the standard-issue FO posts, which are a very, very long time in coming seeing as most of these gifts have been done for weeks. If not months. I planned real good this year, thanks in large part to Marce's brainchild, the Year-Long Gift-a-Long. (Knitters! Crocheters! Sign up for '09!)

1. Socks for Mom. Basic stats: two at a time, toe up on one 40" circlular needle, size 2 (I think). Heelless! No heels! I like this.


2. Hat for Chris L. Basic 2x2 rib, 100% wool sent to me from Sera Star almost a year ago. Nice and wooly warm for his cold life in Madison, WI.


3. Scarf for Chris M. All the best in browns, tans, charcoals. Suave. My 1st foray into the madness that is the Noro striped scarf; there shall be more in my future.


4. Shawl for Keto: an absolute dream to knit in Cascade Venezia Worsted. Within a few rounds this yarn had shot up to somewhere high on my favorites list. (Thanks to one of my 5th graders for modeling!)


5. Felted Bag for Karen: I wanted to make this for so long. Last Xmas, I rushed out and bought the book from Charlotte Yarn, and it took me until Election Day to cast on. I bought all the findings at the Windsor Button in Boston, which was almost as fun as actually knitting it.

Getting my gear in gear

It's hard to believe that it's been almost a year since I decided to make every staff member at my school a hand-made present. The months have ticked by and the stitches have added up by the hundreds, then thousands, and now probably hundreds of thousands. I'm so itchy to blog about them all, but I have one week and two days until I can hand them out, so I've had to make due with holding an official photo session with my after-schoolers who have now been sworn to secrecy that they won't run to their respective teachers and describe all the wonders they have seen.

It's even harder to believe that amidst all the knitting for co-workers, I've managed to make things for a few friends, a few family members, and even a few things for myself. And as far as I know, I haven't failed out of grad school yet. We won't talk about the things I did have to let slide... Let's focus on the pretty, pretty knitting!

Something I can show you now:

All the hats, get together now!

We had so much fun doing the photo shoot. I had to explain that the point of shooting knitwear is not to focus on the model, but on the knitwear. Thusly, I would be chopping off a lot of their heads... in the photos, of course. Almost everyone wanted their twenty seconds of modeling fame, and it was really fun to designate a "props mistress" (a highly cautious 5th grader with clean hands) and a bouncer (a loud, bossy 2nd grader) to keep things running smoothly in the library. It's times like these that I'm really glad I have a supportive assistant who is content to watch the footballers outside while I take the artistic types on these crazy crafty journeys.

One of the things that has kept my impatience at bay is the designing and ordering of my MOO minicards: you can design up to 100 different fronts, and they all have the same backs, and they're just so glossy and smooth and the colors are so saturated that I just want to pet them:



The fronts are all variations on "made by me for you," and the backs have places where I can write in the recipient's name, the materials I used (i.e., superwash wool) and how to take care of it (i.e., throw it in the washer! but probably lay flat to dry!). I love, love, love them. And you get 100 cards for under $20. Rock and roll. I bought a fancy Martha Stewart brand hole puncher to make tiny holes at the corners so I can string them like garment tags. Surely, that will get me through another week... you better believe there will be a big fat blog post after our staff holiday party next Friday.

I've had this one saved for awhile

This is an extraordinarily long meme, but Sknitty did it, so I figured I would, too. Plus, I'm sick and I feel slightly less than awful, so this will feel nice, I think.

Things I’ve Done are in Bold
Things I Want to Do are in Italics

1. Started my own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than I can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sung a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched lightning at sea
14. Taught myself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown my own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught myself a new language (bits of Vietnamese, Ukrainian, Russian, Spanish)
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (doesn't take much, honestly)
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had my portrait painted(I worked as an art class model in college)
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason(Thanks, MRE)
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy("Uh Oh" the puppet is still at my Dad's house somewhere)
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book(working on it...)
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had my picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous(we know Dan, the guy who played Rolf in the Sound of Music)
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Rode an elephant

Hey, that's dumb!

This article from the Chicago Business News made my teeth clench. Talk about misleading! The only redeeming thing about it was that the comments immediately offered appropriate smack-downs, and two of the comments are written by famous knitters. So there, Laura Bianchi, whoever you are. Go look at the other shelves in the yarn store, whydoncha.

Dumpling Hat: a free pattern

Named after the delectable little khinkali from the Republic of Georgia, which have a handy knot of dough at the top for easy grabbing.

A new pattern: the Dumpling Hat!
Yarn: Noro Kureyon, 1 ball
Needles: Size 8, using whatever method you want for knitting back and forth (I use circulars, but straights are good, too). Or use whatever needle size gives you a nice, drapey fabric—not too dense and not too loose. It’s wool, so you can go looser than usual and still be quite warm. Gauge is so not important here.


Cast on 40 sts, leaving a tail about 8 inches long.
Row 1 (WS): Purl
Row 2 (RS): Knit
Row 3: Purl 30, turn work, wrap next st on R needle
Row 4: Knit
Row 5: Purl 25, turn work, wrap next st on R needle
Row 6: Knit
Row 7: Purl all 40 sts, picking up wraps & purling them with the st they’re around
Row 8: Knit. 1 wedge completed!
Row 9: Knit
Row 10: Purl
Row 11: Knit 30, turn work, wrap next st on R needle
Row 12: Purl
Row 13: Knit 25, turn work, wrap next st on R needle
Row 14: Purl
Row 15: Knit all 40 sts, picking up wraps & knitting them with the st they’re around
Row 16: Purl. Another wedge completed!

Repeat rows 1-16 as many times as you need for the hat to wrap around your head. I just knit until the Kureyon looked like it only had a yard or so left.

Idiot-proof seaming technique: Bind off, leaving an 8 inch length of yarn. Using the tail from your cast on, start seaming the cast on edge and the bound off edge together. Halfway up, quit and start seaming from the top, using the piece of yarn that is hanging out up there. Seaming from the top and the bottom ensures that you won’t be off at one end.


Dumpling top: using a length of the same yarn doubled (or different yarn, it’s up to you), wrap the short-rows section at the top of the hat firmly, but do not draw the hat completely together. It will end up looking too puckered. Tie off the yarn and using a darning needle, draw the ends into the inside of the hat and weave in. You can leave the ”knot” up or fold it down, as pictured.

Procrastination

Hokay! I have a huge piece of my thesis draft due on Monday (in 48 hours), so what better time to blog? I do have some stuff to catch up on. As usual, click any photo to embiggen.

Oldest first: Halloween. We didn't do much, but there was a spontaneous creation of dead hands (old gloves) dripping blood (pasta sauce), which scared the trick-or-treaters (teenagers not even in costume traveling in packs).




Next up: just in case you wanted to see my ring, here it is! I think Kenny did a great job picking out something that is thankfully blingless, with a great pattern that reminds me of fibers, combed and braided:

And a congratulations card from two Upper Elementary students (sweet!)


I've also been feeling the all-too-familiar itch of Startitis, that classic malady of knitters with way too much time on their hands, or in most cases, not enough time at all. I figure it's not as if they'll go bad if you start them early, right? I can finish later. Much later. I have been finishing things, but they're all Xmas gifts, so I can't blog them yet. Alas. Here's what I've been starting:


Top: a longways scarf in Noro Kureyon and the very soft Cascade Pastaza. I plan on dropping a few stitches at each edge before I bind off to make easy fringe (one of my favorite new techniques, which I learned from making the Loop d'Loop Hat from Chris Bylsma).
Bottom: the amazing Phiaro scarf, which I fell in love with as soon as I saw the pattern, and then found some perfect yarn at 40% when I was in Arizona last weekend. You just cast on 195 stitches, knit stockinette for 22", then do this stitch dropping thing which you should probably buy the pattern for. Yay. :)

Wonderous, and wonderful

Two things happened in the last 24 hours that made me extremely happy, and grateful, and excited:

1. Obama WON! I'm so proud. I'm so glad that I can hope and be proved right, and really believe in what I know to be true and important and see that reflected in (imagine!) our government. Hallelujah, hallelujah, and thank you SO much, Barack, for being willing to take on this mess. I gave you what was left of my hope for this country and you helped us make it happen. I am so, so glad. I feel like we are safer. I feel like my gay friends, my multiracial friends, my future itself can breathe a little easier. Also, McCain's concession speech was honorable. I wish your followers really listened and I hope they can get over this loss and, well, loosen up. I mean hey, I'm a liberal for a reason.

2. Kenny and I are ENGAGED! He surprised me with a totally romantic dinner, said perfect words, made me remember why I'm so excited about being in love with him. We're pretty thrilled with ourselves right now. :) Don't hold your breath for a ceremony, though; it's gonna be awhile! It's our style.


Man, it is so great to be right here, right now. You have to keep your eyes open to all the unfortunate horrors of the world, yes; but you also have to focus on what's good and be true to what you know is right. Barack (and Kenny): I'm with you 100%!

Before and After: An Organizational Contest!

(I've been meaning to start this thing for weeks now. I wish I could say it's the school work that's been keeping me busy... but no. Just life. So I'll just post this, and then I'll get down to some school work. I'm just sure of it.)


Before and After: A Contest!

(or: my 1st meme)

What: a little something for crafters of any persuasion, or writers, even. Anyone who has a stash, or a drawer full of tools, or a shelf where you just keep tossing all the bits and pieces of paraphernalia that go with your chosen line of crafting.

When: Now until the end of November. That's right, one month. You can do it next weekend, if you want, or the day before (American) Thanksgiving. Or on (American) Election night, to keep yourself distracted. Sorry this is so Ameri-centric so far. hang on... (googles Canadian and British holidays in November). Okay, do it for Remembrance day on November 11th!

How: Go snap a photo of what your work space looks like right now. Then, give it an overhaul, be it major or minor. Get those needles arranged by size and rubber-band them together! Refold and restack all your fabric! Arrange anything by color, and get rid of anything you're never really going to use. Really, you can take this as far as you want. Think of it as an airing of the stash, or an investigational search into stuff you've already bought (since the economic times, they are uncertain).

AND THEN: Take a picture of your shiny new organized life. Comment here, on this entry, and provide a link to your before and after pics. Enjoy yourself.

THE PRIZE: A brand-spanking new calendar by Franklin Habit: that's right, it's Guys With Yarn!

And now, to show you my own before and after shots.
Before:


Ahhh! It's a snake pit! And how many size 2 Addi Turbos are in there*?


And after:

Sooo much better. And look what I got myself:

Neat, eh? *The answer: three. Oops! Wish I had organized before buying... all three times...

Now, go organize!

Six months in the making!!

(Well, minus the whole summer, when I did absolutely no work on it whatsoever).

May I present:

My Silky Wool Cardigan.
Yarn: Silky Wool by Elsbeth Lavold, just over 5 skeins
Pattern: My own, just simply based on my measurements
Needles: KnitPicks Options size 6 (circular, but knit back and forth)
Buttons: bought in the fabric market in District 5, HCMC, Vietnam (a few years ago)

It fits perfectly. The Silky Wool did block out a bit bigger than i thought it would (didn't wash my gauge swatch... ahem) but it's okay. Longer is better. The button holes did prove to be a little wonky in their placement, but who cares. I like how the blue makes the orange seem a little more red and the result sort of reminds me of long underwear, for some reason.

Yay!

Why does my neck hurt so much?

The answer is this:

The xray on the bottom is a sample of what a healthy neck curvature is supposed to look like when you're just looking straight ahead. The top three slides are my neck, and what it looks like (from left to right) when I'm looking down, looking straight ahead, and looking up. Notice that the one on the right, when my chin is lifted to the sky, is almost like the normal "straight ahead" slide. Oh, dear.

This also answers the questions "why are car wrecks bad for you?" and "why should I go to the chiropractor?" [The car wreck was almost 10 years ago now, and I had been going to the chiropractor... just not recently. And not with any amount of frequency.]

So, I guess I'm back on track, now that I'm going again (ca-ching). I do feel a heck of a lot better already, after only two visits. I'm not going to whine about how much it costs, because many people have it a lot worse than I do-- I've never broken a bone or had any major illnesses (knock on laptop). I am giving up going to LEAF, though, in solidarity with my checking account. Le sigh. But it's beautiful here now! I can, perhaps, camp out in my own backyard and blare my Duhks CD (love!!!) and make myself a pesto crepe and pretend that I'm there. Anyone want to come to a contra dance in my kitchen?

A grand wedding

A lesson I've just learned: even though Western NC is quite far away now, even though there may be a gas crisis, even though your car floods itself like an excited baby whale... it is always worth it to make the trip. This weekend we gladly packed up some pretty clothes (and a gift I've been working on for months) and drove south west to Asheville for Nathan & Suzannah's wedding. I didn't know much about what to expect, but there was no doubt in my mind that we were in for a beautiful, heartfelt, profoundly lovey-dovey wedding. And I was right!

Cutting the cake. Baked by Becah, photographed by Lola, and cut open by the happy couple:


The ceremony was awesome. We made a mansion of ribbons, each representing their loving intentions, for them to be married under:


We all worked to cook and lay out the main meals:




And at the end, we all threw origami balls up in the air and smacked them, releasing hundreds of paper butterflies.


Many more pictures of the whole dang first day (didn't bring the camera on day two) on Flickr.

Musings on a Wednesday evening

I have two big political blog entries stewing in my head, but now is not the time to write them. For now, I have a bowl of fat free ice cream (say nay all you like, naysayers, but it's good treat for me right now), and I just came back from Ellen's house and our grad-school-girls' knit night. Ellen has a hedgehog, which pooped on me (!). How many of you can say your left thigh has been the landing pad for a hedgehog turd? Anybody? That's what I thought.



Also, I coached a lot of kids through lots of grief today. Someone's best friend wanted to play with other people today, and many tears were shed. I felt like a very calm, wise saint as I gently rubbed backs and spoke softly of new friends who were surely right around the bend. Also, someone attempted to go across the big kids' monkey bars today, and almost made it, but fell right at the end. I did the same back rubbing routine while speaking softly (with much praise for simply trying!) about how big risks can come with great rewards as well as great sorrows.



I'm really liking the simple combination of me, my iPod, and my bicycle in the mornings. i finally figured out that I don't have to bike to work in my actual work clothes (which renders me sweaty and embarrassed when I arrive at work), and the freedom of biking in gym clothes makes me bike harder, faster, better. It feels awesome. Plus, the weather is finally showing mercy and cooling off-- oh my god, Fall, I can feel you right around the corner. Please, come soon.

I just stumbled across photographer Jenny Jimenez's website. If you live in Seattle, you should hire her, because I wish I could.

You're free, little pictures!

Oh my god. That took forever. Please, go look through my Ukraine pictures and make me feel like all that work was worthwhile.

Week 1: Arrival in Kiev, traveling to the Carpathians, rehearsing and playing around in Verkhovina


Week 2: Moving it back to the center of Ukraine, living in Kovalin and roaming around to lots of small "museums."


Week 3: Finishing up our homestays, moving to Vorzel (outside Kiev), big times in the big city

Back from Ukraine!

A month of no posts can only mean great adventures have been had. Right? I'm in an internet cafe in the Detroit airport, and my head is appropriately swimming with those pseudo-profound thoughts that come from being half way between big things in your life and also halfway in between actual days. Our trip to Ukraine offered all those classic bonding opportunities that get a group to really come together-- feeling quite moved, feeling lost, feeling gratitude and excitement and working hard to make good music together and all the other things that happen when you travel-- and I know that at this point, I really wouldn't be doing anyone any service by attempting to offer a summation of the trip, mainly because I'm not yet feeling fully back yet and one needs a bit of distance to know what one really came away from the experience with, you know? Hmm, that was a long and complicated sentance. The woman across from me is wearing a pink zipper jacket with "Mrs. Dessert" in calligraphic script across the back. Maybe I'm still in Ukraine...

There are a few reflections I can attempt to put down now, since I've done explored this side of the airport already and I still have at least an hour to kill in this sunny little corner before flying back to the city of my birth. Hokay! Let's see. I already wrote to Asa and told him this, but I shall say again: earlier this morning/last night on the overnight flight, I woke up in a daze to the comforting sound of him & Diana gossiping together in the seats behind me, and I sort of smiled to find myself back on the Sheep Mobile, heading to another concert... until I realized that it was not them, that they weren't there, and that I wasn't back in the van (that part wasn't so sad). But I sort of realized that what being home means is that I won't wake up to find my 12 friends wandering all over whatever series of homes we've invaded and trying to suss out the plan for the day. I miss you already, friends.

[and can I say, just quickly, how much more compounded my thoughts are due to this Ukraine experience following an intense 5 weeks of summer camp? It's been a long, nomadic summer full of all sorts of interesting and shifting social situations.]

Another thing I want to get down, mostly for my own sake, is this newfound motivation I feel to make lists and then get them done. Just a general life-organizing and the desire to (in Deva's words) ban the words 'I used to be able to' from my vocabulary. So I'm really going to try to get a Rosetta Stone program, try for a higher level of fluency in any of the languages I've half-assedly started to learn; also get back into belly dance; also join the yoga studio down the street; also send more letters and mix-tapes and care packages to friends (I started that one already this summer, to great satisfaction. Right, Jordan and Lauren?). Also travel more within the States and see the people who(m) I miss. Granted, this is all sort of laughable with the omnipresent Thesis looming ahead plus having a full time, 5-days a week job, but at this point in my sleep-deprevity (is that a word?) I feel like making that list anyway. I guess what I feel is a great sense of potential re: the nearish future.

Um, what else. I rediscovered through traveling again that yup, I still really do like myself. A work in progress, certainly, and there are lots of nit-picky details I could get into, but overall I'm pretty proud to be who I am. So, that's something. Surely, if one can pick up and land in another place with a bunch of strangers and come out the other side with warm fuzzy feelings and a greater sense of self, one is on the right path. Right?

Okay. Off to the plane. Lots of love and LOTS of pictures coming soonish.

Just quickly

Chilly, quit commenting on my blog and go make me my free mix already. And as for Dr. Horrible, may I just say that I've been singing the soundtrack for a good week now?

Bad horse, bad horse, bad horse, bad horse!
He rides across the nation, the thoroughbred of sin...

Ok, off to the beach.

Musings on being done with camp (for the year)

Hmm. It's sad because:
1. I'll miss my friends there.
2. I'll miss having funny/moving/wacko conversations with kids.
3. Truth be told, as much as I moan about it, I love having meals prepared for me, and now I have to cook for myself again, which also means buying groceries again, which brings me to...
4. I'll miss not ever, ever touching my wallet all week long. Nothing to buy, no bills (well, kinda), no real-world worries.
5. I kinda like forgetting about my cell phone, and now that it's back in my life I'm feeling a bit begrudging of it.
6. No more mountain air, mountain sunrises and sunsets, mountain trails, or campfire smells. :(
7. No more tie-dyed hands!!!

It's okay because:
1. I know I'll be back again next year.
2. Now I can eat or not eat, depending on when I'm hungry or not, instead of being all Pavlovian and just salivating at the sound of a bell.
3. I'm back in the world of Movies! iTunes! Free time!
4. Also, a Boyfriend!
5. I get to finally shut up and work on getting my voice back before I head off on...
6. My 3 week trip to Eastern Europe to study folk music! Tre exotique!
7. No more tie-dyed hands!!!

So, because I can, and because (frankly) I find all-text entries to be boring and a bit undermining of the magnificent MacBook I currently have superheating my legs, please enjoy a few choice photos documenting my time at camp this year.

How about some stuff I made?
A batiked top, in plum, wisteria, and midnight blue:


A detail from a batiked bandana:


The discovery class that I led, polymer clay, made things to stick to glass votives:


And I made the perfect cerulean blue flowers to stick to these wasabi-colored beads:


I found a camp bed-sized sheet and batiked leaves down each side. Then I was extra warm at night.


I batiked a skirt! My first real successful 2-layer batik. First wax on white, then dye the whole thing bright-ass orange, then waxing new lines and dyeing the whole thing a slightly darker orange. I looooove it.


Ah, Shibori headscarves. The staple of the crafts world at camp. The one on the left is shibori-dyed rainbow stripes (I didn't twist hard enough), the one on the right I dyed in greens and then waxed like crazy and dyed deep navy.


HOORAY for my 1st semi-solid yarn dying job! I really like how these came out. Did you know you can order undyed Wildfoote yarn from dharmatrading.com? And tons of other brand name yarns as well, come to that. I mean, I already know what I'm doing next summer.


And I only finished one knitted project while at camp. Presenting a scarf for one of you men in my life, but you won't find out who until Xmas. So quit thinking about it.

Click on the title of this entry to go to my Flickr stream and see more, or larger pics.