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A Few Photos

I actually took a few craft-related photos, earlier this week!  (It's hard to believe, I know.)

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A few doilies...

Peony Doily

Peony Doily

...including two of the same pattern. This is the Peony Doily, which is a free pattern. There are a few issues with the pattern, but nothing too bad, and it gives a pretty result. 

Then there's an Octoberfest doily:

Octoberfest

I've made this one before, too, but I seem to have forgotten to take a photo before I gave it to my grandmother...

I blocked and photographed another doily at the same time as those, but it's a Christmas present, so it'll have to wait.  :o(

I think the two Peony Doilies are the first I've shared here that I made from my stash of Cébélia size 10.  I've had it for a while, now, but was waiting for "the right pattern"-- or to finally feel that I was accomplished enough to do it justice, somehow.  Then we had to plan for our trip, and my inner drama queen / worrywart / worst-case-scenario-ist thought-- what if the plane crashes and we die?  Blah-blah-blah, all the things I've put off doing, etc., etc.  Well, darn it all, one thing I'm going to start doing right now is using my good craft supplies!  I don't want to be the woman who dies with all her best clothes unworn, left "like new" in the closet.  Nope, gonna start using it now, while I can enjoy it!

And it is really nice stuff.   It has a twist and a sheen and a weight to it that is different from the America's Best Country Cotton (discontinued, bought on clearance) that I used for the purple doily.  (It was really noticeable when I was handling the blocked doilies to take the photos.  The Cébélia has a more substantial feeling.)

I'm not going to refuse to crochet with anything else, but sure, if I find a good sale on Cébélia, I'll take advantage of it-- and once I use up my stash of lesser threads, maybe I'll think twice about the quality of the thread I buy to replace it.  I'll most likely pass up Southmaid from now on, knowing that there are threads I like so much better-- though I might go ahead and use the few balls I've already bought (at a thrift store, for very little)... if I find the right projects.  :o)

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Other recent craftiness in photos...
Food-color dyeing!  It's so much fun! 

First, I overdyed some yarn that I wasn't crazy about. (I dyed it the first time around, too, but had since decided that it was too pastel.) Now it looks kind of swampy... (g) But I like it! I think of it less as "duckweed and oil-rainbowed swamp-water" than as... "magical, enchanted fairytale forest".

Overdyeing

That same dyeing session, I dyed some "Soft White" Serenity Sock Weight yarn with blue, green, and yellow food coloring. I have a specific project in mind for this yarn. I just hope it'll work... The pattern calls for fingering, while this is marked "light fingering". It looks pretty skinny.

Hand-dyed Sock Yarn

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And last, a couple of thrift store finds.

I may have mentioned this one before-- can't remember.   Several months ago, I found three skeins of Uruguay Chunky (originally marked $7 each) plus a small amount of mystery wool for $2.99. The Uruguay Chunky is 70% merino wool, 20% baby alpaca, 10% silk-- and $2.99 is not much more than one skein of bargain acrylic at sale price-- so yay for that!

Uruguay Chunky

I'm leaning toward this pattern for the yarn-- Antro-Inspired Scarflet. Or maybe the Burberry Inspired Cowl Neck Scarf?

Then last week, I found a 99-cent bag of what I think must be wool roving.  I've been getting curious about using a drop spindle to spin my own yarn.  I've even... been thinking about spinning some of Trixie's fur into yarn.  I know, I know!  I'm turning into one of those weird people who want to make dog-fur yarn!! ;o)  But... it could be kind of neat.  It would be a "souvenir" of a beloved pet... And she doesn't really have a "doggy smell", except when she's wet (one of the many benefits of the American Eskimo Dog)... And Eskie brushings look a lot like some of the other animal fibers people traditionally use to make yarn.

Here's the roving (or whatever the correct term is):

Wool Roving?

Of course, that's pretty far down the line... I'd have to either make or purchase a drop spindle, first.

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I'm still plugging away (very slowly, not at all diligently) at the "Under Glass" doily.  I've finished the cowl I was working on, though I've yet to weave in the ends... (The pattern is very nice.  I want to make it again-- but in wool next time, so I can block it and really open up the lacy sections!)  And I've dyed some more yarn in the meantime-- very light laceweight unraveled from an $1 thrift store sweater.  It's cloud-soft lamb's wool and cashmere, ooh la la!  I'm planning to make a Glam Cowl with it.  (Yeah, that's right.  Another cowl.  ...I think I may need help.)

...Autumn better hurry itself on down here, because I don't know how much more I can take of the mid-90s.  And I've got some cowls and scarves and hats and things to wear out so I don't have to feel (quite so) guilty about the ones in my Ravelry queue!