Monday, May 05, 2008

(the post you have been waiting for. it is long, but has mostly photos)
Stash.....


My stash is like most other folks stash.
It starts out with stuff in zip-lock baggies hidden in all different places around the house.
It is worth lots of money.

Probably more money that I should spend on a habit.

And I feel sooo good after I have spent some time absorbing it into my brain.

Yep I can see your eyes glaring now!

But my habit is not illegal. It is of a creative nature....

So now I will show you my stash:


My stash arrives in the mail or in a bag from a shop. It is high end fibre.
You see Fibre is the name we use....not wool or yarn.
It comes in skeins or balls and I might have cut of a hank or two for my patterns.
This is my latest aquisition.
Pure wool fibre in bright colours. These are hand spun and hand dyed making them completely unique.
The purple blend on the left will be for a top for me. It is called Irises inspired by Van Gogh. The Balls are Labrador Yarns I will use with the the bright coloured skeins to do felting projects.


Sometimes the fibre is by the bag.
This yarn is designated for a hoody sweat shirt for me. It is 100% cotton.
I have alot of stuff planned for me because I am losing so much weight I need new clothes.


When the fibre comes in a skein I have to wind the skein into a ball, and I use this nifty set up to wind the yarn.



And to the best of my ability I organize my stash in a solid fashion.
Yarn that is already measured and organized for projects can be found in zip-lock bags in specific drawers in my studio.

Specialty fibres are stored together.
All of these are designated for clothes for me.
The silky wool is for a shadow knit scarf in the Linux penguin design for Alex.

This is all 100% cotton fibre wound in project sizes to make dish cloths, face cloths, and towels and spa cloths and soap bags. I keep the patterns for these in the drawer with the yarn.
These are great quick knits for gifts and for waiting room time-filling on appointment days.



The drawers seem endless, and filled to the brim. Every yarn whore has the same huge stash. Why? Because if you know what you want to make and can get a bargain, take advantage of it...
It means there is plenty of bargain fibre in many a knitters closet just waiting to be made up into a designated project.
This top drawer is baby yarn. All for my kids. I will soon begin making projects to put away in their hope chests, just in case I am not up to knitting when they have their families.

The lower drawers are sock yarn and shirts yarn.
I got these yarns on a by the bag sale before the distributor stopped carrying them in Canada.

Knitters don't usually just knit.
The other part of my studio is for scrapbooking and jewelry making.

The last stash drawers are for holiday and craft yarn.
This is yarn in primary colours, and festive colours.
These fibres will be a synthetic yarn so it is easy to maintain.




This antique dresser was mine as a little girl.
Carl and I had it refinished 25 yrs ago.
This dresser contains every leaflet knitting pattern book or magazine I own.
Some are very very old.
I keep the most current and hard cover books in my bedroom on a bookshelf.

Any visitor here would find a basket or two with current projects tucked away in them

And there is always one or two projects near my chair, where I watch TV.
This is a cardigan I am finishing for me.


Just Carded Sliver is here too. Waiting to be made into miniature felted toys.

The collection of crocheted doilies my Mother-In-Law, who is 95 yrs old, has made for me to sell on ebay. Soon these will be put up on the Motivated Motion dot com and dot ca sites and sold on ebay.

This is a tank I am making for my friend.



Teddies Teddies Teddies

Below is how I made my first needle felted teddy.
Needle felting is a technique of matting pure fibre into a toy by poking it with a barbed needle, felting the fibres...ever-shrinking the teddy to a miniature collectable.


Here is the beginning of a teddy body, and I am attaching his arms
follow along in the photos to see him come to life and finally become my Mom's present.







This is a felting needle. It has a sharp triangular tip with barbed sides.

This is the book I got with my first kit

My little ball of fluff is already looking bear!






He is the same size as the scoop of a teaspoon!




I have really small hands. They are the size of a 10yr old's hands.
He is the same height as my thumb. My thumb is not quite 2 inches high.


Here he is holding a Toonie coin.


I am beginning to shape one paw.


The right leg is poked dencer than the left. Soon the left will be the same.



To fatten his belly I add more fluff.





Cam loved the first teddy so much. He asked me to make a miniature of his own teddy bear Pinky. Pinky is a GUND bear. This is the beginning of my Pinky miniature.


The two bears sit together. You can see Pinky is even smaller than the first bear.



I embroidered the nose of the bear, and I sewed in glass eyes. They are soo small.....these eyes.


Grum's Birthday and Mother's Day Combined

Every year we have a day with my Mom just before Mother's Day. We do a combined Mother's Day and birthday celebration. My Mom was born on May 6th, 1940.


With Mom's gift I gave her the bear.
She loved it.
She named the bear Sandy Bear.
My Mom wanted a bear with a name like her's, Sandra.


We got her a card with a video of newsreals from 1940. It was really interesting to watch.



My Mom loves slippers. She like a specific kind, so we got her some. Plus the video "The Golden Compass" and some moisturizing cream.


Alex and Cam and I had a great time with their "Grum" (what they call her instead of grandma). Mom and Dad also had a celebration dinner of Swiss Chalet chicken and cake!

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