Feeling Better

I'm finally feeling better after being sick as a dog for the last week. Oh, how I hate being sick.

The laundry didn't get done, but a lot of stitching and spinning did. I'm almost done with one of the pillowcases for the swap and I ran through all of the wool I had dyed. It was strange, for the first time all week, my fingers hurt after a day of embroidery. Somehow, I managed a few hours every day of steady stitching last week...no finger pain. But, I'm making great progress.

I dyed some more wool yesterday...green, sky blue and a Blue Jay-colored blotchy mess. Well, not a mess...I really like the colors. My acid levels were too high again, apparently.

I Dyed This Week

I spent a lot of time this week dyeing and spinning. So much fun! I mixed up every color of Wilton's food coloring that I had and even combined a couple. I learned an important lesson about acidity and food dyes...and now I can experiment with fractured colors! In fact, the 'purple' that I dyed ended up looking like a Blue Jay's feathers. So pretty! I can't wait to see how that spins up. I had to re-dye the red. It was neon pink after the first dye, and far too difficult to look at. I added some blue to soften up the red a bit the second time around. I'm intending the roving I dyed green/blue/purple for doll hair on a mermaid that I'm working on... It matches my fabric almost perfectly. =)
And, I spun up the extra yarn that SSS threw in my order. Some awesome black wool with turquoise and white mohair accents.

(I'll post pictures once I make them smaller... =/ )

Self-Doubt

I spent my long weekend coming up with ideas, tracing, sketching and finally transferring embroidery designs onto a pair of pillowcases. (Can't share, 'cause it's for a swap.) I use my coffee table as a light-box and I'm a Catholic, so I did a lot of kneeling this weekend! Well, I needed everyone's opinions on my designs before stitching...I asked my Aunt, my mother-in-law and my niece - they all loved it. I asked my mom and she loved it. However, my mom also asks me if I really think I can get it done in less than four weeks. Am I too ambitious? I think not. But, now she has me second-guessing my ability to get things done. It's kind of a downer. I think I'll just try to ignore her and start busting my butt to get done early. =/

On a separate note: I hope my wool gets here today! and that I have vinegar in my cupboard...

Update: I got my wool (^-^) and bought some vinegar. I also got stitching on the pillowcases...love how it's looking.

The First Word

I've been wanting to start my own blog for a while now...I tried using MySpace, but I didn't want my profile to be public just so that my blog could be...so many creepy people on MySpace...and, I just wanted to be able to chronicle my craft-room adventures without posting it all to Craftster.org...taking up all of their bandwidth...boring them to death... =)

So, here I am. I'll be sharing some ideas, works-in-progress, finished objects and whatever else I see fit to talk about...'cause, it's my blog and I'll do what I want. haha