Friday, April 18, 2008

Cotton and Wool

The weather is getting warmer and that only means one thing for knitters: cotton. Beautiful, soft, reliable, pure cotton. It's almost impossible to make a hat or mittens out of cotton because of it's notorious lack of stretchability. Also, you really wouldn't want to because it's not all that warm. However, it's perfect for spring and summer shawls, cardigans, loose sweater, and especially bags. I'm knitting this one with some beautiful Egyptian cotton hand-dyed by this lovely company in Chile. Only most of one side is done, but hopefully it will be as beautiful as the yarn itself.




Also, in light of the sad but undeniable fact that it is no longer winter, I must put my creative efforts toward something other than knitting. So, I've started making some felted necklaces and stuff. I started out by knitting things out of wool, but then started adding needle felted elements as well. Needle felting is very fun if you remember not to stab yourself too much. The way it works is almost like magic. You don't really fell like you're doing anything, and then, poof, you have a necklace, or a pendant, or a full grown koala bear (this can really happen!). It's pretty great.


In other crafty news, Prairie Dog Inc (www.prairiedog.etsy.com) will be selling her wares (okay, I'LL be selling MY wares) at the Athens Indie Craftstravaganzaa in Athens, GA on May 10. So, if you're in Athens, or near Athens you should come and check out all of our awesome local crafty people and their oodles of talent.

Oh, and here's a picture of my cat Rilke just because . . .