Looking Back

Over the last week or two I've been digging around. This summer has me in an experimental mood, and I wanted to do something I haven't done in a while. After picking up Jacqui Carey's Japanese Braiding: The Art of Kumihimo at the library I remembered all those hemp necklaces I used to make. So I decided to go for it, working a three strand split weave with these painted porcelain beads.



While digging for the beads, I found these carnelian rounds and oblongs. I honestly don't remember where I got these, but they don't seem to have been graded. There are some great quality pieces in here with perfect color/opacity contrasts, yet they were strung together with some lower quality ones. I isolated the rounds to make these two necklaces, using the oblongs for the backs. I didn't string the rest of the oblongs though, prefering the fruit-like brightness of these irregular rounds. They remind me of pomegranate seeds and giant orange cells.

These make me glad that I save things. These are materials and techniques I was using over fifteen years ago.

First Bloom

So I'm geeking out about this the past few days. This is the first bloom on a cutting I took about a year ago. It's called Autumn Splendor. I ganked it from the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden thinking it'll probably die like the last time I tried propagating a cutting. But no. This one sat under a mayo jar and rooted in about a month. No problem. Once I got it outside I thought it would start blooming, but all it did was get leafy. For the past year I've been watering it and keeping it in a nice, sunny morning spot waiting patiently for the magic to happen.

Autumn Splendor blooms into a bright orange with red tipped petals. The flowers tend to cluster which is what drew me to this particular rose in the first place. I like orange, and clustering minis like this one have a dense look to them that I like. One interesting thing I've noticed is that aphids don't attack it. I guess that's a good thing.

It was about a week ago that I noticed this bud pop out. Yay! So now I've transplanted it into a larger pot for the summer, so this ought to be the first of many orange explosions to come.

Skew Foxtrot

For number six in the Skew series I wanted to try some consecutive transitions. Nothing major, really. I worked the transitions in the same direction as usual, with shifted 6x2 ribbing creased by a thin transition of stockinette to accentuate that characteristic parallelogram shape.

The yarn I used was recycled from an H&M sweater consisting of lamb's wool (50%), Nylon (38%) and angora(12%). At twelve percent, the angora content adds a very sparse furriness to this piece, and the nylon anchors the fibers quite securely.

It kinda looks like I hugged a rabbit with it.

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Reflect Zero

I do this a lot. I'll work on something until it's the way I want it, even if it means it's too much work, too meticulous, or takes too much time. So now I finished Reflect Bravo Zero, and clocked so much time on it that the selling price would dwarf all my prices. So I'll be hanging onto this one. Whether I'll end up selling it is still up in the air.

These multiple speed transitions have occurred before on Pyramid Charlie, which I gave to my sister. The variations create a nice break from the standard angles of single speed groupings. As a second attempt at this technique, I found it easier to keep up with. I remember having to frog back or dig down a few times on Pyramid C, yet this time I understood the dynamics well enough to juggle four simultaneous multi-speed transitions.

A 2x1 rib starts it all off, dropping out to stockinette before angling into the alternating seed ribbing of the central diamond section. All the multi-speed stuff happens at the middle. I did this to tighten up the position of the resulting second diamond. The numerous transitions basically translate to more length, and I wanted that diamond section to sit high in the design.

The native weight of this recycled shetland wool is in the neighborhood of DK, but I split it into lace weight. (The original yarn weight can be seen on Carve Bravo.) It's the kind of yarn that some would consider scratchy, but I happen to think that's a good thing, especially for a hat. Coarser wools repel water better, and with proper care they last for fricken ever.

So yeah. I think I'm gonna pack this one away until I decide what to do with it.

Skew Echo

Skew Echo is the fifth in the Skew Series. I took this opportunity to cross over into another pattern I've done, applying stitches from one series into this one. The stitch elements first occured on the soon to be released Reflect Bravo. It consists of a seed stitch column alternating with a knit column within the ribbing.

The stitch setup has been applied to the Skew pattern structure. 2x1 ribbing transitions into seed/knit alternations to form the characteristic parallelogram shape with stockinette stitch at the crown.

The yarn is a charcoal gray lamb's wool which recurs with frequency in my work. I like it because it goes with just about everything. It's been recycled from a Gap men's sweater.

I might just do this for all the Echo versions.

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