New shawl, old problem, ancient solution

I’ve had so many things going on over the last few months that I’ve mostly failed to blog about any of them. I’d like to say it’s because I’ve been too busy doing to be writing, but mostly, it’s been more a matter of failing to organize my thoughts well enough to write them down. [...]

Read Full Post »

Do I sense a theme?

Maybe it’s just the autumn – all those fallen leaves – getting into my brain, or maybe it’s been the leaf-blown, cobewebbed, windswept state of my tiny garden (with one brave fuchsia hanging onto blooms) but I’ve been in a bit of a groove over the last week or so. May I present my latest [...]

Read Full Post »

Look: I made a bronze-age artefact

In fact, I made, or at least completed, several things today. First up, the mystery knitting I started just yesterday. I can tell you almost nothing about this yet: it’s under wraps. Embargoed. But I can show you the yarn it was made from (in an astonishingly short time – it took longer to block [...]

Read Full Post »

Just what I didn’t need

Another obsession. I’m not going to let it happen. I’m not. Really. OK, I know it looks likely from here, but frankly, no. I love my glass, I love my wool, I love my only-slightly-poisonous dyestuffs. But that’s where I draw the line. So the silversmithing course I started last week will be a mere [...]

Read Full Post »

The combining of obsessions

Apparently it is possible after all. A while back I made a few swatches of different yarns, sandwiched them in glass and baked them in the kiln. None of them were a rip-roaring success, but one showed possibilities. The problem was that is was knit from a deeply unpleasant pink acrylic with a metallic thread [...]

Read Full Post »