Zipping Right Along

 We got home the other day. Both of us were glad to be back. Our little furry friend is a great little guy, but he is hungry for attention all the time. If I was sitting down, he was on my lap. If either of us got up, he wanted to play ball. He kept us on our toes. But now the Finnball season is over for us for now and we resume our normal, quiet, simple life. 

I didn't do much stitching while we were gone (see above regarding my lap companion), but I did bring some kumihimo supplies, which are few--my foam disk, some yarn, and scissors. I was so glad I shoved the yarn and disk into my bag at the last minute because it was what I worked on the most while we were there. No small/sharp needles or yarn balls rolling around. Once the yarn is cut and put on the disk, that's all you need. I used some thin yarn, so the braid I was making took a while and I was glad to have something mindless and simple to do, given the situation. Yesterday afternoon I sat at my kitchen table, took the braid off the disk, coiled it and sewed it into a circle, added the embellishment, and sewed on a brooch pin.

The leaf is from a deconstructed necklace I picked up at a charity shop a few years ago. I might cut the fringe a bit shorter. These braids can be very elaborate and different patterns can be created depending on how many strands of cord and where colors are placed. There are some gorgeous beaded pieces that I've seen. They're very impressive and the artists who create them very talented. That's not how I work, though. I'm more of an improv person. I'll just try stuff and see what happens. One of the things I find so enjoyable about this technique is using yarn scraps of all kinds and colors and seeing what results. In this case, I did an 8-strand braid with 6 strands of the gold wrapped with a metallic thread and two of the variegated Christmas colored yarn. I'm really happy with how this one came out. My experiments sometimes end up rubbishy but that's ok. There's always something to learn and I do enjoy the process. And I'm just using yarn scraps so it's perfect.

My book list has gotten longer as it always seems to do. Once we got closer to our return date, we both started putting in our requests at the library. I had a few in which I picked up today when I went to the yarn group. It was nice to be back and to catch up with the yarny women. There's an art gallery right next door to the library (in the same building) and one of the other women and I stopped to look at the current exhibit on our way out. Then as we were leaving, the woman from the gallery stopped me and wanted to chat about the possibility of doing some kind of a Christmas ornament workshop. I said I'd be happy to do that. Then she asked about the possibility of doing a longer series of classes in the new year. She'll be applying for a grant. So I'm now tossing around ideas in my mind for both of those things. This was unexpected, but I'm quite happy about it. I was planning to start one of the books I picked up this afternoon, but now my head is full of crochet ideas so I'll save the reading for later.

I hope November has been a good month for you so far. I can't believe we're almost to the halfway point already!

Share