A New Year A New Start

Here we are a new year and a new start. It feels good to begin something different, my plan for the foreseeable future is to work on small scale portable projects, the main reason behind this is of course that I have a lot less time to dedicate to my passion. With working part time it is amazing how little time I end up with to create….with hearth and home and everything else, no complaints just observations!

I have been busy making  eco prints, when the weather has allowed. I do this outside because I do not as yet have a pressure cooker to do the “cooking” part of eco bundling. I have quite a few lovely pieces of fabric with various designs of  leaves and flowers from our garden, some I love and others not so much. My plan is to take small pieces of eco printed fabrics  and start working embroidery stitches, use other bits and pieces to embellish with and see where the path leads me!

I hope you are feeling creative as well and I wish you joy and passion with your endeavours.

Solar Dyeing

Trying my luck to-day with a little solar dyeing. Easy peasey! just put your choosen flowers, leaves or other into a glass jar fill with (rain water if you have it) tap water. Place your piece of fabric inside with the flowers and water screw on the lid and leave in the sun for at least a month….let the magic begin.

 

Birthdays, Sunshine and Flowers

Although I do not really have much to say to-day, I wanted to show you some wonderful pictures from a recent trip to the Sunshine Coast here in B.C only a short ferry ride away. The weather was perfect, the company grand and I spent a lovely day in Gibsons B.C on my birthday puttering around funky little shops and admiring the boats in the harbour. The sky was blue and life was good!

A big thank you to all those who sent birthday wishes, I really loved them 🙂 Last but not least I wanted to share with you two presents that I received and have amalgamated. The lovely green teapot was a great thrift shop find by my dear friend Sue, she knows how much I love this colour, and the flowers came from my boss at work…don’t they look great together ?

I hope you are having a lovely summer whatever the weather and keep on being creative! Yes I am knitting when time allows…only it is a surprise so I cannot share it just yet.

De-Stashing Yarn A Knitted Project

My latests de-stashing project is a knitted cardigan using various odd balls of yarn. I used to buy yarn one ball at a time, I would see something great and think OH! goody what can I make with one ball from this gorgeous colour. Also it was affordable BUT not very economical or smart. Nevertheless I have a few balls to use! so begins my side to side knitted cardigan. I have admired other knitted side to side projects that I have found on Ravelry and thought surely I can do this too ! I have knitted from the top down, making a sweater with Barbara Walker’s helpful guidance. So I felt sure I could use a little help from Debbie Bliss to make my side to side cardigan. This is it so far…

I am surrounded by these colours in my world…the greens of the garden, the blues from flowers, sea and sky and the purples from the flowers in our garden.

Are you inspired by your surroundings ? what have you made ? would you like to share ?

Inspiration

Most of my inspiration comes from the natural world, our garden and the surrounding beauty of Western Canada. We are fortunate to live near the ocean which can be a place of great serenity and chaos. I love colour and texture.

Knitting for me is a kind of meditative therapy that enables me to quiet my mind and explore my creative abilities. No matter what happens creatively, I feel a little magic comes into each design. I make every effort to create earth-friendly items for my shop. I like to use re-purposed, gently loved t-shirts and re-cycled natural and sustainable materials wherever possible in my work.

My favourite yarn is wool of any weight depending on the project. One day I hope to learn to spin and weave.

April

I am currently working on some new designs and hope to have lots to show you in a week or two. I have chosen some lovely felted fabrics and will be using more recycled items as I go along. I plan to keep knitting and felting as well but will make just change purses lined and unlined with minimal embroidery.

So to-day I will leave you with a great quote: The winds of grace are always blowing but you have to raise the sail.

and some garden abundance pictures.