Dyeing Naturally

Check out VH's latest dyeing adventure. She used natural dyes including turmeric and coffee.

http://vickiehowell.blogspot.com/2008/08/beet-le-juice.html

Cuke Beetle!

I had zero, zilch, none, nadda cukes this year. Cucumbers are easy, they do well in Texas, this is very sad. I had many lush plants, slowly they wilted to a soupy mesh and this is one of the only pests I could find. It's a cucumber beetle. I think he had help in this melee. I spotted another bug, maybe identified it. I can't remember the name at the moment but its MO is to inject digestive juices in the leaves which causes the aforementioned soupy mess. ARRGGGG!! This is WAR!

Latest knitted hat

This hat was easy, fast and soooo much fun! This is a bunny hat from 'Itty Bitty Hats'. This book is fabulous. I am NOT an advanced knitter and this book was easy for me to understand and I really love ALL of the hats in this book! I even bought the companion book 'Itty Bitty Nursery'. What fun! Here DD has benefitted from this latest knitting fury.

What has David been up to?

It's always fun to see what beautiful types of wood David is working with. He recently divulged that he now knows what it's like to accumulate stash. He feels the same way about wood as I do about fabric and yarn. Here he made a potpourri vessel out of Cocobolo wood. The design on the top is of irises.

Here is a new design for a nosteppine. This style was a special order request from a yarn spinner. She wanted a WPI feature in the nosteppine and David was able to make it happen. What a great idea! He is now making a few of these nosty's with this feature for spinners.

Rocket Man and Knitting

Rocket Man has expressed an interest in the fiber arts and is enjoying the yarn experience. He first dyed his own wool worsted weight yarn with Kool Aid. He thought that was fun and Kool. Then he learned the knit stitch and he is on his way to making a the famous garter stitch scarf! What a young lad he is*

Sew What!

Whenever I feel the need to create I peruse the too many craft books of mine for inspiration. It didn't take me long to get inspired once I opened one of my sewing books called Sew What! Skirts. The next day I headed to a local fabric store for a fiber fix and came home with this. It's actually home decor fabric but has the right weight and design for the 'Meandering Vine' skirt in the book. It was also 30% off and was cheaper than the thinner weight regualr fabric. I won't be able to start on this for a couple of days but I am really looking foreward to making this. I'm also in the mood for a scrap quilt for 'Rocket Man'. This can only mean one thing......my yarn stash will gain a few more dust balls as I put off knitting a little longer.