It's spring!

Yes, spring!


J and I took a walk on Saturday. It was one of those guide-book walks with tidbits of information that you have no recollection of after.


As per usual we enjoyed the architecture.

A cemetery was part of the walk itinerary. Supposedly there were some mildly famous people's graves in this cemetery, but we didn't go searching for them. Instead we pondered the meaning of life, and thought about how at one point in time the local gravestone salesman must have been pushing obelisks:



And I took more pictures of flowers.




We also visited the Dean Gallery in Edinburgh.


When I got home this felted bracelet was dry.

It's made of dyed merino, the white streaks are bamboo fibers I added.

Right now I'm working on some felted flowers.

They aren't done yet. I'm still not sure what they'll look like when they're finished.

A felted vase with a rolled brim. I'm quite pleased with the brim (had to needle felt that).


I'm also now caught up with the crochet along. I tried to follow Rocky's advice and stick with one color range. And I think it helped a bit. But it still looks like it's been hit with the ugly project stick.


And, to top off the nice weekend, I just made some shortbread (bakealong).

Ugly, weird, and nice

I'm glad I'm doing the National Crochet Month Freeform Crochet-Along (CAL). I haven't done crochet in a while it feels like, and I'm learning some new stitches (I really like the crochet rings for March 9th).

Only thing is, the scrumble is turning out really ugly.

Now I ask you, what am I supposed to do with that? There's still 20 more days of the freeform along left, but I'm kind of doubting my ability to make it pretty in those remaining days. Perhaps there'll be a rip-out along on April 1st?

I took another felting class on Tuesday, we did felt pods this time.

We're doing 3-d objects next week, so maybe soon I'll have an insect or bird or something to accompany the pod.

The studio where I'm taking the felting classes also has a spinning wheel, so I've been going into the Wednesday drop in hours and teaching myself to spin.

tah da. This is from my second try at a spinning wheel. Hopefully in two more weeks I'll have a bit of plied yarn to show off.


Two weeks ago I tried to make a cloth headband, but failed completely. I blame it on the fact that I don't wear headbands. I put interfacing on it. That was a mistake because it didn't want to lie flat on my head. I also had measuring problems, and had to sew on more lengths of fabric to make it longer. I also didn't have any elastic in the house and thought I could just use a snap. Nope, bad idea.

Then I made this.

A bit of sheer ribbon, on the back is some black elastic (learned my lessson). The blue part of the flower is wet felted, with the middle needle felted on.

If you're interested in wet felting Felting Lessons has some excellent beginner videos. And check out how she organizes her the wool (in the background)!

Along (s)

This month is National Crochet Month. I was considering crocheting some amigurumi, and I will probably still do so, but then yesterday I saw on ravelry the National Crochet Month Freeform Crochet-Along (CAL).

I had a little bit of catching up to do this afternoon, but I'm now caught up with the pattern until the 6th, and I'm ready for the "along" part.


Another along, a cheesecake:


Made for the Bake Along on the Let's Cook ravelry group, though it remains to be seen if anyone else was really interested in this week's project.

I think I've made a cheesecake before, back when I was living in SF over 5 years ago, so I don't really remember the process. I did however feel a bit silly buying 5 packets of cream cheese at the store. The cheesecake turned out good, despite the fact that the recipe and reviews/hints stressed to not overmix, which resulted in a few (small) blobs of egg whites amid the cheesecake goodness.

On Saturday I went to IKEA for the first time in over ten years. They have everything there! Including an English breakfast, and I was very amused that the occasional loudspeaker announcements about store products were done by someone with a Swedish accent. Is it like that in American stores as well?

Just in case you were wondering what an IKEA looks like over here: