Yarnification

I finished these last month sometime. They’re sort of an attempt to get back into sewing. I never did enough sewing to be really good at it, but then I barely touched the sewing machine for several years apart from mending things. I wish I’d gotten a photo of one of them on my niece, but I was too busy being killed dead by how adorable she is so there’s just this one with the funky lighting.

Both were made using the quilted patchwork bib tutorial from Sew She Sews. One is quilted and the other is done with iron-on vinyl. I had no idea that iron-on vinyl stuff even existed — it’s fantastic.

I’m really only barely competent with the sewing machine at this point and these have a multitude of issues, but my sister thought they were awesome, so good enough. I’m going to make a few more, which should be good practice. I have most of a second quilted one done already, but the sewing machine and I had words with each other and it’s having a little time-out right now. (Also, I think I need to oil it.)

I wonder whether anyone’s still subscribed to this thing. I’m thinking no, but I’m okay with just talking to myself here.

So in 2007 I moved and started a new job, then started school not long after. Crafting of all kinds fell by the wayside for a while between new demands on my time and an injury that made it hard to knit or crochet. But about a year and a half ago I got back into it, and now I’m happily attempting to do way too many things at once.

I have some knitting and crochet things going on, and I’ve been learning embroidery and attempting to learn how to spin.

The embroidery is interesting. I noticed after I’d been doing it for a bit that I was using my right hand. I’m left-handed, so I figured maybe this was why I was doing so poorly at it, but not so apparently. I couldn’t make it work at all left-handed — go figure. I’m only on my second project here, so I’m not especially good at it yet, but I’m steadily getting a little better, I think. I’m thinking of redoing that bit of orange outlining in the top section with a slightly mellower orange.

And my first bit of profoundly uneven and lumpy handspun:

(Don’t ask me how the dog managed to shed on my embroidery. His superpower involves ejecting tufts of fur everywhere he goes, and he decided that the middle of January would be a super time to start getting rid of that warm winter coat.)