Random Colors

Yes, I know, it's been a long time, I've been busy. Busy playing. I've spun up all my yellows and light greens. Not everything is plied yet though. In anticipation of receiving a package of 3 more bobbins and a nifty mega-sized bobbin for plying I filled all my bobbins. Now I have to sit and wait, the package has not arrived.......sigh

I did have great fun last night when the urge to spin was too much to ignore and the only empty bobbins I had were of a much higher ratio. It was good to challenge myself like that having found a comfortable (stagnant?) speed with the bobbins I usually used.

I've also made some progress on the knitted slipcover for my chair. Oh yeah, I didn't tell you, but as you can see I decided to cover the green chair.



I decided since this is most definitely an accent chair, it would need lots of color. I also wanted it to have a geometric pattern that was totally mindless in execution. Mindless execution is a must when working materials that are not dreamy to work with. All the fibers used in this chair can only be described as upholstery grade wools, cottons, and wool/cotton blends. Most are the same weight, some I had to beef up by using multiple strands, with others I've had to split some plies.

There are 16 colors in all. The seat portion that is shown above is 15 squares wide. Each square is 8st across and 10 rows deep, thus making 1.5 inch squares. I'm using #3 needles so the fabric is pretty tight, not too tight, but it is dense. The easiest way I could think to do this was to measure off lengths of each color that would be long enough to make one single square (about 65 inches), I couldn't imagine the nightmare it would be if I have 16 cones of yarn hanging from the back of this thing! YIKES!

Wanna see what the back looks like?



Agreed, it's kind of scary, but IMHO in a really cool way. :o) I've left the tails longish cuz I'm not sure what I'll do with them. I am NOT going to work them in, but I just might do a little random embroidery on the front with them, ala Debbie New. Or maybe I'll just forget about them trim them up a tad and think of them as added padding. lol

I'm thrilled with my choices of color, pattern and chair, so is Joe. It's been a real struggle for both of us these last few days, should I spin some more or should I work on the chair more? I really think Joe is nearly as thrilled with these two endeavors as I am. Imagine that. Yes, I DO know how lucky I am.

Two more pix to help you envision what this chair will ultimately become.



Now, what to do today? It's time to pre-cut some more lengths of yarn for the chair, the mail-lady just came but did not deliver the bobbins...sigh, but she did leave the Amazon box. Hmmmm within that box are 3 books. EZ's Opinionated Knitter...that's a no brainer it is a must read ASAP but on the other hand the other books are calling to me as well. There's been yet another new adventure begun here at the Hermitage. With plans/hope/dreams of a trip to Germany and Austria in the next year or two, or three (when will Gillian be done with school???) Joe and I have begun teaching ourselves German. It's going better than I anticipated, but it's only been a week. Perhaps I have already scrounged up all residual knowledge of the German language that was lurking in the dusty recesses of my brain from High School days and we will soon hit a wall and all the 'oh yeah I remember that's' will cease. Time will soon tell. In anticipation of the arrival of the German books, we bought a stack of post-it notes yesterday. Maybe when Joe comes home from work tonight he'll be greeted with post-its festooning the house...der Badezimmer, der Brot, die Stehlampe, die Wanduhr, das Fenster, das Hemd......