Mom brought me a couple skeins of sock yarn last time she came, and I knit up these Rose City Rollers sometime in January--in less than a week!  Vanilla shorty socks make for quick knits. This is Premier yarns Cotton Collage in the Sunshine Multi colorway, which is a very nice wool cotton blend.  I do like wool and cotton together, great for summer accessories.  I did 72 sts on these instead of my usual 64, can't remember why. They still fit fine, which is the beauty of knit fabric.

Oh, the joys of trying to photograph socks on your own feet!😆 I guess I need to acquire some sock blockers-or some manikin feet to assist me. 

Anyway, these are an everyday kind of sock so I'm going to run them through the washing machine to see how they hold up, and hopefully they'll make a nice little gift for mom when she comes next weekend.

Weave, Weave, Weave me the sunshine....

  Remember that song from Puff the Magic Dragon?  I'm dating myself, but that is what comes to mind when I hear the word "weave."
      Yesterday I spent at least seven hours experimenting with woven stitches.  I. Can't. Stop.  It is amazing how versatile they are. Basically you are creating a mini loom on your fabric, setting up the warp and then weaving in the weft- fascinating.  I came up with all kinds of things, but the possibilities are endless. Now the cool part will be applying the different ideas in an actual project.
   I've used an old tablecloth I got on a trip to Sweden (❤ Swedish textiles!) to practice my stitches on, and it is getting quite messy.  But that is the point.

    I wish, however, that I had watched Susan Spargo's  embroidery class before I got started, because I would have learned quite a few things that I ended up figuring out on my own.

A little summer banner

I'm probably late to the party with these little banners that people have been making and decorating with for several years now, but I got this idea when I was strolling through the craft aisle, and saw the blank canvas ones.  They were calling out to be stitched on, and I thought it would be fun to experiment with and something to hang across my new mantle for some summer-ish decorating.

I did these all freehand, without any planning ahead of time, and some are a bit wonky.  I'm still experimenting with woven stitches, and also dipping into my yarn stash to enhance texture. Here are a few close-ups:

So for my fortieth birthday I treated myself to subscriptions to Skillshare and Bluprint, and I've already spent several hours watching people create and share tips and techniques. All very inspiring, even if I'm not currently working in the same medium as whatever class I'm watching.
    I watched a short class on making machine wrapped cords, and started making them on my machine.  I was having all sorts of fun going through my stash and combining yarns and threads and getting inspired--and then disaster struck.  I wanted to give some glitz and glamour to my cord, so I stuck a spool of machine embroidery thread on and happily started stitching, ignoring the really tight tension  the machine was warning me with.  Sure enough, the plastic-y thread broke off somewhere in my machine (I think it was in the tension discs), and now I'm afraid to use it until someone (hopefully an expert) surgically opens it up to remove the detritus of my ignorance about machine threads.
  So for now I am back to working with my own two hands, having gained a little more respect for the rules of machine sewing.  I'm hoping the Genius can perform surgery when he gets home next week.
    Meantime I finished up my freehand embroidery project.  I learned a lot and am fairly pleased with the result.  But of course it only fueled the fire to do more of them.

  Hello!  My name is Rachel, and I am diving into the world of blogging.  I've always loved writing and creating, and I hope to use this as a way to share my thoughts and creations with the world. At the moment I am enjoying working with fabric and stitching, so look out for postings about my current projects.