It always starts with an egg/Am Anfang war das Ei

I've been doing so much spinning and knitting lately, that I've almost forgotten about the embellisher -

though I still think this is a most remarkable tool for 'painting' with wool and fibers, instant and direct, using all kind of fibers and recycling materials ...

Last week I sat down and played a bit with different shades and sorts of whites, 'drawing' up one of my absolute favourite forms - the egg:



I used wool and fabric, laces of all kinds, yarn and thread, beads and stones - there's even a knitted part integrated, and I embroidered some words on it as well, and crocheted and sew around the edge:



(German summary: Mit dem vielen Spinnen und Stricken habe ich ja fast auf den Embellisher vergessen - dieses dolle, unmittelbare und faszinierende Werkzeug, das Materialien aller Art auf problemlose Art miteinander verbindet - hier ein Ei, meine Lieblingsform!)

Hooked on those colourful African flowers/Kleines Häkelprojekt zum 'Drüberstreuen' ...

Oh dear, I can't help that I just have to start this little extra project as well ...



I read about the 'African Flower' pattern on Sara's blog and followed her link to the South-African Moxycrochet Project - and then I thought I'd try out just one of those little colourful flowers myself ... and I was literally hooked! The only comfort is that I can re-use some of those stashed yarns and yarn ends of mine ... (By the way, I think the only thing I'm not using my sock-wool for, is for knitting socks ;-)!

I don't know yet what it will turn out to be - thought of some kind of jacket, maybe ... if I can stick to it that long ... Or a fancy bag ... But seven of them, sewn together, would look nice as a small potholder - for a teacup or so - too, wouldn't they?

But faster than I can de-stash, I'm up-stashing again: I made the 'mistake' to have a look at Dornröschen's online-shop right after she'd done some new dyeing:



Well - what can I say? This parcel arrived yesterday! There will be plenty to spin and to knit now, during the long autumn evenings ...

(German summary: Tja, was soll ich sagen - diese kleinen bunten Blumen sind so entzückend, daß ich einfach ein kleines Nebenprojekt noch starten mußte ... aber mit 'lagerndem Material', zumindest! Und dann kam noch die frische Lieferung von Dornröschen ... da hab' ich auch noch ein paar Ideen für die langen Herbstabende ...)

A bunch of shawls/Drei Tücher

Well, I haven't been quite as lazy as it may seem: Three shawls have been knitted during the last few weeks, and today the weather was fine enough to make some photos of them - my daughter Emily is the model with the beautiful back!



This first one (above) is knitted with a Schoppel Crazy Ball (Colour: Frische Fische) in a simple pattern, starting at the upper middle and proceeding as long as your yarn ball allows -



the second one is a variation on the same pattern idea, but this time knitted with a self-dyed yarn, one of my first experiments on variegated sock wool -



and for the third one, I chose a multi-coloured, hand-dyed silk- and wool roving which I bought from Dornröschen and then spun myself. This shawl is knitted in stockinette stitch from one side to the other, increasing (and after the center: decreasing) on one side only. As half of the fibers are Tussah silk, this is an extremely soft and delicate shawl!

(German summary: So, endlich sind meine drei Tücher fotografiert, die ich in den letzten Wochen gestrickt habe - einmal Schoppel Crazy Ball, einmal Selbstgefärbtes, einmal Dornröschen's Seide/Wollfasern, die ich dann versponnen habe! Sehr angenehm, sowohl zum Spinnen als auch zum Verstricken!)