The Man Hat and other gifts

Just added a new hat to Wee Ball Yarns. Note the grey colour...perfect for the man in your life! It is an alpaca/icelandic wool blend that was spun to a 2-ply DK weight, plying one strand of black alpaca with the icelandic, which has some flecks of very subtle colour. I kept thinking of it as my "man hat" as I knit it up.



Here is a shot of some of our dyeing we did last week, more subtle shades, although in the back of the rack where you can't see it is some firetruck red. I tried dyeing some tussah silk I bought at Rhinebeck just to see how it would work....not perfect but I learned a lot. I can't wait to start blending it up on the carder. That is the treat I have set for myself after I get all the holiday knitting done.

And remember The Dress? A project created by Mariana Frochtengarten, who is an artist living in Halifax and completing her MFA in textiles at NSCAD. She has made five dresses and she is inviting artists from around the world to work on them, each one having a theme and each one having five artists, including Mariana, working on it. The dress I selected is called "The Gift". Given recent events, I was even more happy about choosing that particular theme. Here are a couple of pictures of my response;



An experiment on using crochet to write words, not in my usual filet crochet style. I chained the letters then went back in worked single crochet over the chain. Here I am starching the final piece in the hope it will be legible. Can you read it?



Here is my contribution...the words "Breathe In" and eight small mirrors hung from the hemline. I was the fourth artist to work on this dress. Now Mariana will take it with her to her native Brazil for the last contribution. I am looking forward to seeing her project when it is all assembled into some kind of presentation.