Livin' La Needle Loca

...last one for July! With the drought, it's harder and harder to find things to photograph in the backyard. Even with the drip irrigation system, some of our flowers are just drying up. Our cilantro plant bolted and now we have some nice coriander seeds growing: Our Asian Pear is doing OK: The Lion's Tail is blooming, just now as much as previous years: And our crazy berry plants are setting blossoms again. They haven;t realized it's almost August: In the F.O. (Finished Object) category, here is Santa Fe #5: Specs: Started 5/25/15 Finished 7/25/15 Painted canvas by Tish Holland DMC floss; DMC Medici wool; Kreinik metallics; Needle Necessities overdyed floss I also finished the stitching for the Happy Wishes scissor fob: Specs: Started 7/14/15 Stitching completed 7/30/15 Happy Wishes Fob kit from Shepherd's Bush It's now joined the other items that need finishing. There are 2 other fobs to finish, so now I can do all of them a...

...sorry, no Finished Object photos.  I ran out of time this morning! With Tour de Fleece completed for this year, it's time to get back to my normal WIP rotation plan. The primary thing I need to do is work on the commission quilt. To do that, I need to get my studio back in order--my work table/ironing surface is deconstructed and I can't easily get to the things I need to work on the quilt. Reality says that it won't happen until the weekend. After working all day, neither the Husband or I have the energy to haul the futon mattress back upstairs! In the meantime, I'll work on a cross stitch piece or my knitting. WIPs: Worked on: Beyond Antares, aka Equatorial Nights (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Working on row 28 of 62 Empress handspun [ Ravelry ] Working on first copp on a KCL Woods spindle Happy Wishes Scissor Fob (cross stitch) Completed the front; working on the back Stealth Commission project (quilting) Need to cut the borders and sew them on. Still need t...

 ...and the last F.O. for the Tour. Tour de Fleece, Last Day (7/26): Squeezed in one last art yarn. This is Clear Skies, from a batt by the Yarn Wench: and the close-up: Specs: Started and finished 7/26/15; Wild Card Bling Batt (4.3 oz) from the Yarn Wench; 55.8 yds, auto-plied with rayon thread; bulky Tour de Fleece, Finale: For the first time, I did not meet my goal of spinning every day. Life and house guests interrupted my normal TdF schedule. With my studio doubling as a guest room, my spinning wheel was in an inconvenient location. On Sunday, The Husband and the house guests went to San Francisco for the day so I was able to pull out the wheel and do one last bit of spinning. Total output: 6 art yarns, 2 chain-ply, 1 2-ply, 1 WIP Total fiber spun: 25.7 ounces Total yardage: 941.85 yds. Here's a collage of my TdF spinning: In the midst of rearranging our house, having house guests, etc., I managed to do a little stitching. I finished Santa Fe #5 ...

...first, the update: No significant progress, at least for spinning. However, reorganizing at home is going well! We are replacing our big tube TV with a gently-used flat-screen TV. While there is nothing wrong with the old TV, it's incredibly heavy. The Husband and I are both getting older and we figured we should replace the old one while we can still lift it! The new TV had been wall-mounted in its previous home and we want to use it as a table-top TV. We found a universal stand at Amazon that works. Next, we will rearrange the living room so we can use the new TV. The new TV has been leaning against my fabric wall in the studio. Once we can finally move it our of there, I can finish rearranging the studio to accommodate two of our four weekend guests. I hope it doesn't take too long to get things in place in both rooms! On to the eye candy. Our garden is in one of those in between times: not a lot of new flowers blooming, but the vegetables are doing OK. We have ...

...spinning progress has slowed down. We are trying to get our house in shape for my niece and her family.  They arrive Saturday so we are rearranging my studio as temporary sleeping quarters. My work table can be easily reconfigured to fit against the fabric bookcases because it is two small bookcases and a desktop. One of the reasons that I never permanently connected them was so I could move it by myself. That was a good plan! Turning part of the studio into a guest room means that I can't easily access my spinning wheel. I'm spindle spinning for now. Tour de Fleece, Day 17 (7/20) and Day 18 (7/21): Spinning the singles for a 2.0 oz. batt from Purlescence Yarns. I received this batt as a prize for participating on Team Spinning Purls in 2013. It feels right to spin it during Tour de Fleece! This is Empress handspun [ Ravelry ] so far: I might not be able to finish this one by the end of the tour, but I'm going to try to squeeze in one more art yarn. We'll...

...and my vacation is over. Sigh. It was really nice being able to play all day! Tour de Fleece, Day 13 (7/16): Spun the singles for a 3.8 oz. Yarn Wench batt. Tour de Fleece, Day 14 (7/17): Plied the singles with rayon thread and sequins. This is Wild Nile handspun [ Ravelry ]: and the close-up: Specs: Started 7/16/51; Finished 7/17/2015; Wild Card Bling Batt (3.8 oz) from the Yarn Wench; 215.9 yds, plied with rayon thread and green sequins; 12 WPI Tour de Fleece, Day 15 (7/18): Spun the singles for a 2.0 oz. Faerie Mountain batt. Tour de Fleece, Day 16 (7/19): Wound the singles into a plying ball and made a 2-ply yarn. This is Faerie Purple handspun: and the close-up: Specs: Started 7/18/15 Finished 7/19/15 Merino-Silk batt (2.0 oz) from Faerie Mountain 117.25 yds. 2-ply, 14 WPI My spinning output will be considerably less now that I'm back to work. In addition, we have family coming for the weekend, so I don't know whether I'll h...

...I ran out of day....too busy spinning! Our Starla Red Pentas have been going nuts again: This hummingbird followed me around while I tried to find something to photograph: Up this weekend: Spin-In tomorrow...hooray! .