Springtime Colors

Not much stitching going on here these days, but I'm slowly knitting this scarf, the free pattern is Different Breeze by Sachiko Uemura.

The yarn is a discontinued long color change single by Loops and Threads.

But if you want to see some real eye candy, here are the step-grands, smiling after their Easter egg hunt in our back yard. 

Butterflies

I've got the layout for my butterfly quilt.  This design is inspired by one I saw in Glenna Hailey's book Sugar Sack Quilts, which features more modern-looking design for vintage and reproduction fabrics.  I really wanted to minimize the white backgrounds in the applique blocks, and to add some primary colors to the pastels.  White and light-colored bed covers just don't fit in my cat-enriched life.

I'm cutting down the blocks and then bordering them with contrasting prints.

The butterfly blocks are 9.5" finished, and the sashing is 1" finished.  It's been fun to cut prints into large triangles by bisecting 16.75" blocks.  I had a stack of fat quarters, but sadly, a lot  of them were smaller than the 16.75" I needed.

...So I got to buy some half yards, which also will allow me to add more variation to the prints.  As soon as I can set aside more time, I'll finish the cutting and designing.

Two Looms are Better Than One.

I'd been thinking about adding a small loom to my tools for a long time.  My original loom, an Ashford Rigid Heddle loom, is 24" wide, the perfect width for towels and shawls.  You can make narrower projects on it too, though it's a pain to stretch across that frame if you don't need to.

I though about getting a Sampleit Loom, or a Cricket.  But I couldn't justify adding one more thing to the supplies I currently have.  Then, one day on Ravelry, someone posted a practically new used 10" Cricket for sale at a price I couldn't refuse.  It included all the heddles, 5, 8, 10 and 12 dpi, and lots of shuttles.  This smaller loom is easier to warp and it's perfect for scarves and for experimenting with warps and with fancy weaves I have yet to try.

So now I have the Cricket.  That's a sheet of paper inside the frame, so you can see the size.  To keep the karmic balance in my stash, and to make space in the Closet of Doom, I passed one of my old Singer sewing machines to a friend who needed one. 

This scarf, made with some fingering weight yarns, was a fast and easy getting-to-know-you project.  Now that I've given my back yard its Spring spruce up, I have fantasies of sitting out there and weaving with the Cricket.