Fiber Fool

August, despite all the craziness, has ended up being a rather productive one in terms of Project Spectrum. As I mentioned on Sunday I found I enjoyed looking at items and deciding if their non-neutral hues were desaturated enough to be a neutral. At what point is a sage green a neutral? How about the amber color of beer, neutral or orange? I suspect I wasn’t so consistent, I think it depended upon my mood a bit. In fact, looking at the month’s mosaic that is darn colorful, isn’t it?

I had to sneak in another 9 photos that I captured between Sunday and now. There are images there of some handspun. That does mean that I did get those singles plied yesterday. The Jacob (the light) needs washed and the twist set yet, but they got done. There is also my ancient car (a 1993 Probe) that has been quite trusty as of late (knock on wood). Oh, and we had Thai food early this week and that involved the very neutral Thai custard with sticky rice and the white flower was on every table there. Oh, and the locker room at the Senior Center pool where I do water aerobics is very neutral except the really bright lockers.
Further progress has been made on my to-dos for this week. My skirt is done except the hem. The directions recommended letting the dress hang overnight to let the bias stretch out before hemming. Anyone have good tips on placing the hem when you don’t have an extra set of eyes or hands to help? One of the many books I have checked out from the library mentions pinning some chalked string in a doorway at the height from the floor you want your skirt to be and then you brush against it to mark the hem level. Any thoughts on that method or a better option?? I’ve love to hem it this evening so I can wear it for a knitting lunch tomororw… And, then I would have an FO Friday too!

Well, this is the last Sunday of August and it is not only the last Sunday of neutrals, but also the last Sunday of Project Spectrum, at least for now. There appears to be some talk of another round with perhaps some different twists to it in the future.

The mosaic above contains mostly things that I came into contact with this week that were neutral, though I did throw in a few other items that are older and didn’t get share due to the traveling this month. I kind of enjoyed having a “neutral” month because it made you analyze are what point something crosses over from being neutral to being a “color.”

In honor of the neutral month of August we went to the Odell Brewing Company’s tasting room yesterday to sample their beers with our friends Anne and Rod. We hadn’t been since January, but I had been itching to go back because I had taken a fun shot of the taster tray with our friend, Eric’s, camera and I’ve been wanting some of my own. It seemed a good excuse to make sure we went before the end of August so I could capture the images for Project Spectrum :-)

I’m not a big beer drinker, but I tasted all of them. I preferred the nitro versions of the Cutthroat and Levity. I liked the Easy Street Wheat and the 5 Barrel Pale Ale as well. Anne and Rod came over afterwards and brought a growler of 5 Barrel and we cut into one of DH’s cheddars and ate our bread machine Poolish (the starter and final loaf are featured in the top mosaic). Then they introduced us to the hilarity of Venture Brothers. It was a good day.

For more info on the photos in the mosaics see the following: 1. Condenser Mic, 2. Wood, 3. Computer Keyboard, 4. Planer, 5. Wood Mallet, 6. Sparrow, 7. DK Gentleman’s Socks, 8. Sun Catcher, 9. Poolish, 10. Bread Machine Poolish Bread, 11. Candle, 12. White Good ‘n Plenty, 13. Gelazzi Light Fixture

1. Full Odell Taster Tray, 2. Odell Brewing Company Glass of Water, 3. Nitro Cutthroat Porter, 4. Empty Taster Tray

This is just a sampling of the neutrals I came into contact with this week (there are of course many others that I’m in contact with daily). I’m amazed at the colorfulness of these neutrals!

Just click on the image to get access to the individual photos and their descriptions.

Well, for some odd reason I’ve been bit by the sewing bug recently. Perhaps it is all the sewing going on for the KSKS going on around blogland. I’m not a seamstress. I can do okay with a sewing machine and I’m not afraid of it by any means, but I really haven’t had any formal training with one other than 8th grade home ec. But, I decided I really wanted a portable sock project bag to make Trek-a-Longs a bit easier but the budget is *very* tight so ordering one was out of the question. Well, what is a girl to do? Go stash diving of course!

Now, I don’t have a very large stash of fabric and the vast majority of what I have is fat quarters because I mostly use fabric for mixed media collages or bookbinding. So, I needed to devise a plan that used fat quarters. I had three fabrics that I thought were kind of fun together and as a bonus fit into this month’s Project Spectrum and stitched up this 5-inch diameter and 8-inch tall drawstring bag. I kind of used the details of a commercially available bag for inspiration. I made a roughly 8 inch loop with a snap closure on the outside so it could be worn around my wrist, through a belt loop, through the strap of my day pack etc. I put this loop opposite of the drawstring opening so the two would balance each other and could be carried by both loops if so desired.

Inside, there is a large pocket that was split into three sections. The first section holds a Chibi case *very* nicely. The middle section is just the right size for the smaller retractable tape measures (and my thera gloves if I’m needing them). The final section will hold a set of 5 DPNs so if you do two circs and do the heel and gusset on DPNs you are set or you can carry extra needles in case you are like me and drop them or loose them. Oh, and there is a snap-close loop on the inside for a yarn guide. I’m not sure I need that. We’ll see how it goes. I like the fact that it snaps though so you can fully remove or put in a project in progress. It seems like many of the bags on the market with yarn guides require the project be started in the bag (or at least at a change of balls of yarn) and stay in the bag until completion.

There were problems with this bag. Definitely problems. I had no idea how to sew a coulmn of fabric to a circle. It was a good thing I started with the lining! I knew about snipping fabric for the curves, but didn’t think about needing to do so *before* sewing around that circular bottom! But, after the lining went so poorly I Googled and came up with this great video. I do wish that video included how to sew shut the column because while the bottom of the outside of this bag is much improved over the lining there is a gather where the vertical and horizontal seams came together. Anyone have some tips for me??
It was a great learning experience and I’m ready to dive in on a few more. I’m going to try lengthen it to be a spindle bag too and change some of the dimensions a bit! Once I’ve ironed out some of my issues I’ll be sure to put up a pattern and/or tutorial!