Surprises, Ravelry Meet Up, and Ongoing Projects

I'm slowly catching up with all that I need to do. My internets were on the blink over the weekend, so I fell a little behind, but I'm going to get it all done eventually.

First thing I'd like to show you is something I've been hiding for several months. It has to do with babies.

NO! Not any of mine. I'm done with that, thank you. But Sharon isn't. She's just a couple of months away from welcoming her new little baby girl into the world. Del and several other lovely ladies came up with the idea of an online baby shower, and I helped. I made the Rowan Elly jacket for the new baby using the Manos Silk Blend Sharon helped me pick out at Purl Soho.


For Monkey, I made Kimberly Chapman's Knitted Banana. Get it? Monkey/Banana? I used assorted acrylic worsted for this. It's really cute, and I have a couple of my own monkeys who want one.


Sharon was really surprised. It was hard to keep the secret, but so very worth it in the end. If you'd like to check out the Fiber Baby Blog, just click here.

Last weekend, a bunch of Mississippi Knitters, many of whom met through Ravelry, came down to my neck of the woods to visit a LYS, The Yarn Basket. I met them at the shop and led them to a nice restaurant for a late lunch. It was fun to meet everyone and to put faces to the Ravatars.

First we have Teresa in orange, the owner of The Yarn Basket, Petal, MS, and Chanda in green.


Next we have some Mississippi knitters doing what we do when we get to a yarn store:




And finally, we all went to a downtown restaurant, Brownstone's and had lovely Cajun food.



Yay! It was a blast! Now when I go to Jackson, I'll know some knitters. It's like being in a club or something. Ravelry is so great.

I guess many of you know I teach college art classes, and last semester I taught 2 sections of Design 2. It's basically color theory and application. The application part involved cutting colored paper and pasting it into designs that fit a certain set of requirements. I have also mentioned somewhere in this blog that I got facinated with felting sweaters I purchased from the Salvation Army. I kinda went crazy with it for several weeks, buying the sweaters, felting them, then cutting them up. I didn't have any project in mind, but I knew I had something I could work with.

Then it occurred to me, that I could blend several interests together using this one medium. I love teaching, am fiber obsessed, am interested in traditionally female art forms, and love the idea of collaboration. I devised a group project that involved all these interests as well as recycling of material.

First I cut as many 9 inch squares as I could get out of the various sweaters. I saved all the scraps. Late in the semester, I assigned my students a project where they had to make a 9 inch square design based on the colors of felt I had available. They cut and pinned their designs onto the 9 inch squares and put them in baggies. Now all I have to do is hand applique' all the designs, then sew them together somehow, and put a backing on. A breeze, I tell you...yeah, right! I know it's a lot of work, but I have been thinking about this and I simply have to do it. It's gonna take a while, as there are around 40 squares and even though I told the students to keep them simple, some of them have a different idea of what simple means.

But there were some lovely designs. Here are 2 that I particularly like. Please excuse the fact that they are still in the baggies.




I'll keep you all posted on the progress the felt quilt as it moves along.