odds and ends

This weekend was spent finishing some projects, starting a couple of new ones, all in an attempt to keep myself busy and focused on something other than things I have no control over.  After finishing the blooms for a bouquet of crocheted flowers I am sending my friend,  (a picture will be coming once I get the stems on them) I worked for awhile on two pieces of hoop art.

I still need to finish the backs on both of them.  The first is an exploration in needle weaving and uses recycled needlepoint yarns and scraps of fabric for the background.  The floral is simply a crocheted circle centered with a vintage button. Leaves and stem done in satin stitch on a bit of hand-dyed jobelan that I had left from a cross stitch project.

I also wanted to see what I could crochet with a skein of my hand twisted fabric yarn.  I chose this skein...

And this is what I whipped up last night...

Very loose, mostly triple crochet stitches and lots of knots and texture. When my daughter gets home, she is going to wear it so I can get a picture of it.  I really enjoy crocheting. Almost as much as stitching (something that I need to get back to as soon as I finish this post!) I have another skein that I was quite drawn to when I had finished twisting it.  It is cotton muslin that I hand painted in grassy watercolored greens. There is a lot of natural taupe twisted in too, and a thin strand of metallic gold.

I had recently purchased some wool roving to make felted beads with, and so I made a few this morning...

I plan on embellishing them, most likely with little gold seed beads, and they (hopefully) will be worked into the next scarf I am going to make with the green fabric yarn. 

I participated in a craft show yesterday, and it was fairly successful, but I came away from it with something I had not expected beyond the sales. I talked at length with several other artisans there, and I realized that I really do like making the things to be used by others in what they do. But...

I really miss creating pieces myself. 

I guess maybe I am evolving in my work. I am not sure. I guess we will just see where I step from here.

More needle weaving and a trip to the thrift shop...

I have continued to work on this piece and it is starting to build up a bit. It has been fun so far, and a nice departure from my structured needlework.  Finally, a place to use up so many bits of this and that, fibers that are too small to use in other work but couch nicely in this. More as we go!  

I mad a trip to the thrift shop this morning as well. It was on the way home from the post office after all!

I found a few sweaters to pull apart, some of which were wool and others a blend. I found a few cotton linens as well that will be ripped up for more of the fabric yarn.

Yesterday was spent merging my two Etsy shops. This is something I had thought about doing for some time, but just wasn't sure if I should. After a lot of consideration, I thought it would be easier for people to find my things if they are all in one shop.  fuzzystitches is now the one stop shop for my fabrics and recycled fun.

CM Designs still operates under its own website, www.carolynmanningdesigns.com 

Needle Weaving

Some years ago I use to play around with heavily textured needle woven pieces using scraps of whatever I had on hand. I picked up one of my old books the other night and began paging through, and feeling as organic as I am right now, I thought I would lay something out and just stitch, letting my needle do whatever it thought to do.

The lighting on the last image was a bit off, the piece is a little cooler than the colors of the close up might indicate.  This has been a fun experiment and a good review of some of the stitches I once used in work so long ago. More tomorrow!