what a pretty hell this is

It was such a gorgeous day I had to spend most it outside. But now I'm paying for it with watering, itchy eyes, constricted throat and chest, etc, etc. The dry, breezy weather is making this one bad spring pollen season. It's great to see the trees coming back to life and unfurling their leaves but I'll be thankful when those pesky maples and birches are done with it!

Flowers and Vines Variation

This punchneedle embroidery version of the hooked stool is done I think. I may rearrange the vines a bit. It's done on hand-dyed wool, using 2 strands of embroidery floss. The loop pile is fairly high. I applied woven interfacing to the back of the wool in order to punch through it successfully. I think I'll make a handbag out of this; still thinking about the bag design.

Dying with Bonnie

My sister, Bonnie, had to come into Cambridge Saturday to drop off one of her pieces of art at the Cambridge Art Association for their upcoming National Prize Show in May. Afterwards she came to visit and we dyed some of her wool yarn. One skein came out a brilliant terra cotta and the other a yellowy-gold. Unfortunately we weren't paying attention when rinsing out the gold and it started to felt! Cascade 220 yarn really is a great felting yarn. Later, I tried out some Pro-chem dyes I got. I used a new washfast acid dye color, golden pear which I used on a natural wool. I love it - mottled some and very pear-like. I also tried a new one shot dye, Autumn, on a dark oatmeal wool. It's nice, a bit darker than I wanted. And definitely not as delicious as the homemade pumpkin bread Bonnie gave me! I also got to see in person many of her beautiful perfectly knitted pieces that I covet. You can see them for yourself on her blog, Towards the Blue Peninsula, in the sidebar.

Cover Up

Another punchneedle embroidery gets a permanent home. The cat gets to grace this address book cover. This was quick and easy to put together!

Spokes and more spokes

On the left is the punchneedle embroidery sample I made for the spokes stool. It's 2 in x2 in, worked with single strands of embroidery floss. I think I'll use it on the front of a needle case I have been thinking about making. The other photo is the hooked rug stool as it stands so far, based on the pne sample. Have a super weekend, and a heartfelt thank you to each of you for your extremely nice comments!

Apron

So what did I end up doing with the turnip embroidery? It became decoration for the pocket of this apron I made. The patterned material is from a (Gap I think!) shirt I stopped wearing because it shrank too much. And as you can see, I added a little clip for hooking scissors and such on. Almost too crafty a project for me!

Color Sandwich

Sunday morning I did some dying. I'm trying to use up most of my Cushing's dyes before getting some Pro-Chem dyes. These are Old Gold, Dark Green, and Terra Cotta dyes straight up - no dye recipes used this time. Now, time to run the gold through the cutter and start hooking.