Sunday 31 August 2008

Sushi yarn WIP


Sushi yarn WIP
Originally uploaded by snowberrylime
Hello again, I seem to have been quite quiet recently, although (or maybe because) I did lots of spinning. I have accepted my stash problem and am working on it. Plus of course I am preparing madly for the craft fairs I will be attending this year. I have been to many, many craft fairs all over the world, but have never sold at one. I have once sold at an antiques market though, so that experience might come in handy.

Quite a while ago my lime green yarn with beads has been featured on this blog.
I like the way Sassa presents her etsy finds, they generally look like a themed treasury, either with similar colours or an overarching theme. So go check it out!

My current work in progress art yarn is this delightful Sushi extravaganza. It features the most amazing little Sushi beads, handmade by Fancyguppy (who doesn't seem to be around at the moment, but her beads are truly fantastic!). I am combining it with red wool handcarded with lots of red Angelina sparkle, handprocessed black Alpaca and bright white pure Tussah silk. I chose these colours to represent Japan, the homeland of Sushi. The strong contrast should set of the beads quite nicely as well...

Other than that I have made a few more fibre orders and the first one has arrived. It consists mainly of organic cotton in two natural shades and organic linen in white and a natural brown/grey. So these fibres are likely to pop up in my new yarns. :)

Thursday 21 August 2008

Bobbin lace pillow and more


bobbin lace pillow
Originally uploaded by snowberrylime
Here is my great find from last Sunday on the Belgian flea market. It makes a little more sense if you read my last entry... I like lace, no secret there, nice, old, cotton or linen lace.... I also love antiques... plus I love trying out every possible technique textile arts have to offer. Well, and the combination of all of these led me to purchasing this beauty of a bobbin lace pillow. Going to the bobbin lace museum in Brussels and seeing demonstrations probably didn't help either. Originally I planned to renew the top fabric and actually use it, but it would be such a shaaaame..... :(
We'll see what happens, but isn't it also just the perfect decorative item? ;)

On other news I did lots of dyeing and am starting to accept the fact that there is lots of pink in my colour palette - who would have thought!?
I also tidied my fibre stash, which was a terribly bad idea - I couldn't quite believe how much there actually was and how many things I had deleted out of my mind. This includes knitting yarns - hopefully I will have time to knit a few jumpers this winter, it would help. :D

There was also a beautiful frontpage treasury on etsy today created by http://lisahopkins.etsy.com, which featured my tree bark silk yarn.

In general all my thoughts are currently related to some upcoming craft fairs, I have made some pretty organised plans (now putting them into practise is another thing... hehe) and ama lready busy knitting some things as well from smaller skeins which never made it into the shop. :)

Monday 4 August 2008

Belgian lace


Belgian lace
Originally uploaded by snowberrylime
Souvenirs? Why yes, of course! :D
Whilst in Namur/Belgium, I of course had a good look inside the boxes of the local flea market. Always on the lookout for gorgeous old things, and especially for fabrics and laces I have developed a bit of a radar for the promising boxes... well, this was definitely one of them, I picked my favourite laces out of it, as many as I could afford, really. Already more than delighted I continued and stumbled into an old woman's stall with probably many kilos worth of old lace and ribbons. She also had many old cameras, but I really don't need another obsession, although I do like looking at them.

Another really great find were those massive bobbins, one of them to be seen underneath the laces. The lady who sold them to me told me they were from a ribbon factory which closed down in the 1960s. I can see them working very well on craft fair tables, or just as decoration in general - the tattered feel of the wood is just gorgeous!