experimentation

Leah has an astounding number of projects in motion right now, worked on in the quiet times in between all her other activities. Since Christmas is coming, many are secrets, but I know there's cross stitch, sewing, knitting, and embroidery among them. I find bits of other experiments scattered about occasionally -- leftover lace from a scavened dress she took apart to make into something else, a zipper for a leather boot she's sewing, a bit of knitting made from drop spindle-spun yarn. Among the projects that have emerged from her studio bedroom lately are:

A felted amulet pouch, made on commission. She knitted and felted the bag, needle felted the kanji for Strength onto it, and made a twisted cord from the yarn and roving she used. I suggested using one of Scott's glass buttons as a closure, but she rejected that idea, saying it would make the pouch too busy and that the flap is long enough for gravity to keep it closed.

A wee sweater, the design for which flowed straight from her head to the needles. The flared skirt is because she wanted it to be like a riding jacket. She knit it top down, morphing her understanding of thumb gussets into shoulder shaping. And then she threw it away because it was just an experiment.

An abandoned start to a Laminaria shawl. It, like all lace, would look a million times better after blocking, but she felt she was in over her head on this one. I think she was just using needles that were a little too small, but she was already moving on.

Now she's using the same yarn doubled up for a Forest Canopy shawl. Bigger needles, more satisfying rate of progress. Beautiful yarn received as a gift from Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer.

This morning, I saw the beginning of a colorwork sock, one solid colored yarn and one wildly variegated. As I looked at my friends' activity on Ravelry, I noticed that she favorited some incredible colorwork socks yesterday. I suppose this would explain why I saw her taking the entire sock yarn stash bag into her bedroom yesterday afternoon...