CONFESSIONS OF A FIBER HOARDER

Lots of people at our EGA chapter meeting yesterday were talking about cleaning out, organizing and donating stuff, going thru WIP's and UFOs and I guess that is normal for most people to look at how they can meet goals for their needlework in the new year.

Me - nah !  I have a very project oriented job as an IT director and I don't do "goals" in my needlework life.  I just float thru doing exactly what I want to do when I want to do it.  I do like to challenge myself and I had fun doing that last year with an online shop I like called The Loopy Ewe - they have challenges all thru the year to keep knitters motivated and in my last post I showed a lot of knitting projects I finished - I was happy with the results.

Stitching - ahhhhh - not so much accomplished last year - maybe this year will be better.

I am also going to make an effort to post more to my blog and maybe just not wait to have big finishes but just pop in with a few photos more frequently.  Today is one of those days.  I just wanted to pop in with a new years post - say hello and thank all my blog followers - tell each of you how much I appreciate your support and comments thru the year.  I've been blogging for a long time and I still find it rewarding - more intimate than FB which scares me somewhat and I don't know why.

Anyway - I finished a beautiful knitted hat in late December but I just couldn't get a good photo of it at night in my house so today I snapped a decent photo of it.

This is knit with Louisa Harding Grace Hand dyed which is a 50/50 silk merino and now discontinued.  I fought with the yarn in the beginning but liked the finished hat so much I ordered some more off ebay.

More woolly goodies came in the mail - this is chunky yarn Rowan Drift which will become a vest I hope.  I could use it now with this arctic blast coming our way.  Funny but today it's going to be almost 70 here in the deep south - hard to believe it is going to plummet to 18 on Tues morning.  I know some of you are scoffing at this comment but remember our homes here are not built to withstand those temps.  We have rooms with entire walls of glass and in our master bedroom it feels like you are outside when it is that cold.  No way can our house be heated in 18 degrees so all the wool will be coming out to keep us warm.

Plundering the stash last night - when a visit to my beautiful antique needlepoint rug canvas was in order.  I don't work on it very often anymore - actually - I bought this rug from the former owner of our LNS many years ago before I started rug hooking.  She got it from a friend of hers who was a long time needlepointer and shop owner in New England and had a vast stash of personal treasures.  Upon her passing away her daughter was so overwhelmed with her stash she started calling everyone in her mothers phone book to see if they wanted to purchase any of her beloved stash.  That is how my friend got this canvas.  She let me look thru what she had obtained and I was so taken with this canvas.  She figured based on the linen and style that the rug was at least 50 years old at that point and that was at least 15 years ago that I purchased the canvas.

  I collected the Appleton Tapestry wool over a few months time making frequent trips to a shop in St Simons Island Ga that actually carried this beautiful yarn.   Sadly that shop is gone now.   

This is a large rug - it is on linen backing and was line drawn and then painted on the canvas. 

I think I have 100 skeins or more of the tapestry yarn.  You can't see from the photo above but it is being worked in a cross stitch because 1 strand of tapestry didn't cover the canvas and we decided that it was less expensive to do a cross stitch than to have to use a double strand of tapestry wool.

 

It is a project I will probably never finish in my lifetime because when I want to work on big huge rugs - I am usually hooking them not needlepointing them.  However when it is very cold - I always gravitate towards this project.  It is warm on my lap and covers me up while I'm working on it.

 

OK who's ready for the Downton Abbey season premiere tonight ME ME ME !!!!!!!!!  Another shop I like Jimmy Beans Wool is doing  a Downton KAL with a specially dyed colorway called Bated Breath - HA - it is a manly type of color and I didn't order it but I think I will pull out my Christmas at Downton a special colorway dyed last year for this same KAL by Lornas Laces. I'd like to start a new shawl which I will work on each work during the show.  Since I always have startitis big time in January - what the heck !!!  what's another project on the plate.

 

Now I must rush off to peruse my RAV library and find a shawl pattern to use. 

 

Hope you are all happy with the start of the new year.  Friends in the cold country please be safe.  Sending you warm and wooly-thoughts !