I have several crafty type things that have been going on. I've been spinning and plying some pretty yarn. I finished plying some beautiful Polwarth that I got from Wolf Point, MT from Nancy Ortmann. It had to be combed or spun from locks but it is soft and beautiful. Many colors of grays and dark browns. I also have spun up some beautiful soft green and lavender silk and merino - it's plied and finished and sitting in the stash. Right now I'm plying more hogget that I got from Etsy. It's 8 ounces - more soft greens and lavenders. I think there's a pattern here. I'm a bit surprised though that the hogget isn't softer. It really feels like a med grade wool.
I think the biggest thing I've done recently though is to almost finish a shibori dyed short kimono jacket. It took quite a bit of rethinking as I went along. Luckily I had extra fabric that I was able to form new pieces. I got the pattern out of the Clothing from Hands that Weave book and took the measurements from it. It was supposedly one size fits all and I just trusted that it was going to work out. Wrong. It was made for a miniature person. I needed to double the size of the front band in order for it to come together in the front. I also needed to lengthen it by about five or six inches. The jacket ended at that bad spot right above the largest part of the hips. All a jacket does at that length is cut you in half and accentuate the size of your hips, not so good. So now, it appears to be in proper proportion. All I have left to do now is to hem it for miles and miles - both the lining and the jacket. I'll probably tack the sleeve lining to the sleeves because the sleeves are floppy.
I have a project in mind for little Ella, Jim's son's daughter. You could say that she's my grand daughter but since Jim and I aren't married, it just seems kind of weird. Although my daughter's children call him grandpa sometimes. Anyway, Ella is 2-1/2 and wears a 4. It shouldn't be too much bother to knit her a sweater for xmas. I've tried knitting her hats before but they either came out too large or too small. It's hard when you are knitting for someone who you can't try things on. They live in Washington state.
My friend Charlotte came over Saturday and we spent several happy hours crocheting beaded bracelets. I don't know why I selected green as a color because I have very little green clothing to wear it with. It is quite pretty and very comfortable to wear. The color is not true in this. It's actually a dark green. The flash does weird things with color.
I've been listening to books on my Zune that I've checked out from the library. I'm finishing book 5 of the Game of Thrones. They are extremely long - probably 40 hours of listening per book. It's taking me months to listen to them all. But I would highly recommend them, they are great books to listen to while crafting.
I'm also working out quite a lot - spinning at the gym for an hour, 3 times a week and walking with Jim for 2 miles 3 times a week and intermittently going to Curves when I have left over energy. Jim thinks I'm the energizer bunny because I can't sit still, maybe he's right.
