creative reflections

Dyeing Easter eggs with onion skin is a long-time tradition at our house, coming from family roots in Europe.  You can wrap eggs in string to make patterns, use wax to limit dye uptake in some spots, or place small flowers, leaves, etc. around the egg. surround the egg with pantyhose so the plants stay in place and dye their shadows onto the eggs, so had fun doing some of that.  Then I thought, I have the dye, why not try to dye some yarn?  The onion skins I'd collected for months dyed nicely with a little vinegar in a variety of shades of brown/orange/yellow (colors I like), depending on how long they were in the dye, and lighter with subsequent items.  Wool seemed to take the dye better than cotton.  Then I thought to try red cabbage, which started a glorious purple red (I was really excited with that color!), but it didn't dye well.  Pieces that seemed to take the dye when squeezed dry lost color, lost more color when rinsed, and ultimately faded when dry to a greyish color.

Pandemic=stuck without other people=what to do.... The hands needed to do something.  I happened on a sale of wool yarn (you need 100% to felt for nalbinding).  The stars seemed to align, so why not nalbinding?   At the suggestion of my wonderful fiber mentor, I started practicing nalbinding from a round start and to cement the skill doing it repeatedly.  But why waste the effort on a bunch of circles--keep going and make something, right?  So I made little baskets--maybe for holding smaller items, or they could be pouches (just add a drawstring), or taller ones could be used as can coozies (cool or warm--wool's a nice insulator & can help keep your hand cooler or warmer too).   I made baskets in different sizes and patterns so none would be quite the same (sample below).  I even tried felting one for kicks.  It felted easily and ended up looking like a small hat (see below, grey, center right, inverted).  Hmmm....    I tried roving as well.  Had tried roving in the past, but f

It was bad enough before the pandemic motivating to complete projects and post something here, but with the added disruptions and stress... well, enough said.  In summer I learned there was a need for toys for young ones dealing with their own pandemic worlds.  Not feeling particularly able or crafty, I wasn't sure what to do but eventually decided on small stuffed animals that could fit in a pocket and be easily taken (or mailed) somewhere.   So, where to start?  Had some felt, polyfill for stuffing, and embroidery floss at the house, purchased forever ago with the general intent to make things, so went online to look for ideas.  Thanks web friends, you're always there for us at times like this!  Found some great, creative examples and sketched and cut out some patterns.  Thanks to a friend who's an amazing embroiderer who invited me (quite some time ago) to give her craft a try and who gave me some resources as starting points, I was armed with a variety of stitches and s

Happy new year!  It’s especially happy since I finished my first online video where I teach the Oslo nalbinding stitch!  Wow.  Not something I’d envisioned doing, but since being in SCA there have been a lot of those moments (thanks SCA friends!).  See it at the “Concordia of the Snows” YouTube channel ( Nalbinding - Beginning the Oslo Stitch - YouTube ). Been thinking I should be documenting more here, but time’s a greased pig that keeps getting away and then you forget what you’ve been doing….   So here’s a quickie about the video experience. I’m not high tech, familiar with creating videos, or self-promoting, so not my comfort level.   That said, many people have made videos and they’ve been getting easier to make.   My other half recently invested in a camera on an arm for something he was doing so I benefitted from having that and from his experience (thank you!).   First, the arm and camera were clamped to a table and the camera focused at a good distance to show my hands.