bee creative

full moon in the clouds

The lenten moon, the last full moon of winter.  

Playing with layers a bit.  Moon and lenten rose. 

collecting color

Looks like something from the murky depths.  Wool roving and eucalyptus.  The house smelled...strongly. 

Swatch of the day.  The gray in the white section is where the wool in one of my hand knit socks was felting.  I pulled it loose and tossed it on the carders with the white wool.   There are little bits of thread in this one too.  It's occurred to me that creating little strips like this could be a form of a journal.  Colors and fibers chosen to represent the day. 

 

Trying hard to not buy anymore primroses.  The pansies are coming....

Window was a recent gift from one of my brothers.  He brought it back from California.  Might be safe to say that I now have a window collection. 
 

knit a nine square

My goal today was to finish something I'd already started.  Instead I started and finished a little something:

A nine square.  Carded, spun, knit and crocheted. 

A little closer look.  The square is made of three knit strips.  The blue to white transitions in each strip were made while carding the wool and by spinning the colors together.  I like that they are essentially seamless. Different, but the same piece... 

The three strips were crocheted  together to make the block.  Three separate pieces joined.   This could be done (and has been I'm sure) by knitting or crocheting nine separate blocks and then connecting them. 

I will probably make more squares and make a pillow. 

under the almost full moon

This may be as close to seeing the full moon as I'm going to get if the weather report is right.  90% full tonight. 

Sometimes just to see what comes up, I put words like "moon" in the search engine for my music program and then just see what I get.  I created a "moon" play list doing this.  Recently I did "blue."  The first five songs that came up were:

James Taylor, "You Can Close Your Eyes" (album title has blue in it, I'm also putting this is in my moon play list).  For anyone who likes Sting, this is an interesting version I found. 

A song by Kelly Joe Phelps, a performer often classified as "blues".  There is a sample here, a song called "Piece by Piece."   

"Cat Fish Blues" by Taj Mahal and Toumani Diabate

"If I had a Boat" by The Holmes Brothers (classified "blues")

"It's Alright with Me" Tom Waits from the album Red Hot + Blue: A Tribute Album to Cole Porter.

This morning I happened to look at the strips I've been knitting with my hand spun and realized I had a subtle nine-patch.  Which made me think, what if I spun yarn in two color groups and knit strips that formed squares and then stitched them together to make a nine patch?  

"The moon is slowly rising" (James Taylor) and I'm off to knit the blues.... 

garden wisdom

Three plants in the garden  (two roses and a winter clematis) looked like they were probably dead.  I left them on the slight chance they might come back and they have.  (For those that know roses, the roses are on own root stock and will be the intended roses.)  Gardening is a great teacher of patience and of possibility. 

I am enthralled with carding fiber, spinning and then knitting what I've spun.  Resisting the urge to post picture after picture of yarn....  I find myself considering colors everywhere:

A pumpkin that didn't quite make it to the compost. 

seasonal knitting

The latest bus project. I'm taking a break from socks and making fingerless mitts.  A nice spring weight.  Thinking a lot about usefulness as I card wool and spin.  I need to come up with projects for my hand spun yarn.  Useful is important to me.  Maybe baskets, hats and scarves for now.  Don't think I'm up for making sock yarn yet, but it will come. 

The plum blossoms are a little over a month earlier than they were last year. 

never grow up all the way

One of my most prized plastic items.  Bought before I made a don't buy plastic if it can be avoided pledge. 

Play, play, play.  I did manage to prune the grapes and plant peas today.  It was too beautiful to stay inside.  Funny thing though, carders can go outside...  And interesting things can be added to roving, like threads.  I was warned this was addicting. 

Another fortunate/unfortunate discovery:  leftover crisp topping that I put in the freezer.  Toss a handful of frozen blueberries in a small baking dish, top with a handful of the topping and then put in the oven until bubbly.  Since everything was frozen, I started with a cold oven and set it at about 375 F.  Topped with a little honey sweetened yogurt.  

Better go check the laundry now. 

what I like today

I don't always know what I'm making when I start.  Hand spun and knitted.  The dark blue is indigo dyed.  Might make a head band with this. 

I need to return the top whorl spindle I've been borrowing so I bought one today.  It's made locally, from local wood.  I like that. 

nana's blanket

One of my great-grandmother's tucked this blanket around me when I was nine years old.  We had come to visit for Christmas and were on our way back home.  She was worried about us getting cold.  This blanket has moved from place to place with me ever since.  Only fragments remain at this point.  I think this blanket was the beginning of my love for polka dots.  Thinking about the sense of security some blankets give and how they can be love made visible.  

both sides

I was recently inspired to cut up a piece of fabric I've had in my collection for about ten years.

 

I love both sides of this fabric and wanted to make something that would show off either side.  And although I didn't intend it, these fabrics are both from the east.  One from the east coast of North America and one from the Far East which is actually to the west of where I live.  Directions can be kind of convoluted at times....