WIP

Working with Floss

| Annie

Everything has fallen apart with our home buying and selling. Our buyers lost their financing, so we are back on the market. Mike and I left town for the weekend and lots of people looked at the house while we took in three different zoos in three different states in three days! It was fun. We saw a ton of animals and I even got pooped on by a bird—what more could you ask for?

I am starting to go a little bonkers not having all of my supplies available to me. I have started making a lot of small things with crochet thread and embroidery floss, which is not something I thought I would ever do. It just seems so little and tedious, but I am actually having a good time with it. Here’s a photo of the freeform piece I am working on right now with some pearl cotton:

Freeform Pearl Cotton Work In Progress | Annie Webster | Webster Fiber Arts

I tried starting with a frame on this one and working in to the center with this piece, instead of making the scrumbles first then building out. I think the later method works better for me—you can see my perfect 5″ x 5″ square is becoming misshapen as I work. It will all work out in the end, which is something I have been saying a lot lately, not just about crochet, but about life in general.

Until next time,
Annie

Some Bright Scrumbles

| Annie

It looks like we’re going to be in our empty house for at least another week. Since all of my dyeing supplies are packed away deep in a storage space, I went to JoAnn to get some new yarns to play with while I am waiting to move.

I’ve been doing so much work with the subtle golds, yellows, greens, and browns of natural dyes lately that I decided to go in the opposite direction when I picked out my yarns. I went for a bold and bright rainbow. I’ve been making scrumbles with my yarn, little freeform bits that will eventually be stitched together into…something:

Some Bright Scrumbles | Annie Webster | Webster Fiber Arts

I’m having a good time playing with these guys while I watch TV on the laptop, but I am ready to have a real place to sit while I work and, more importantly, better lighting (I don’t know why I let the movers take my work lamp).

Until next time,
Annie

Another Flood

| Annie

Hi folks,

Ugh. I have been trying to write this post for the better part of a week now, and I just have not been able to get it done. Our basement and garage flooded yet again on August 21 (Eclipse Day!) and things have just been a mess around here, both in the house and in our brains.

We had two and a half feet of water in the garage and basement. If you are keeping track at home, that is half an Annie! It is also higher than the water has ever been before, and higher than any of the stands or tables we had all of our things on to keep them from getting wet.

So, we’ve been spending the last couple of weeks cleaning up and figuring out what to do next. This is our third flood in eight years, and second within a year. We are exhausted from them, and from the worry we go through every time it rains. I’ve spent time just wandering around the house, not knowing what to do next.

Crochet has saved my sanity a few times since the 21st. I started a wrap with a giant hank of yarn I picked up at Fiber U. It was a special colorway for the show called “Ozark Sunrise” by Interlacements. I had 1,200 yards of Ozark Sunrise to work with—when I wound it into a ball it was the size of a baby’s head! Maybe even a toddler’s head. I’ve been working it into the wrap using a diagonal stitch pattern. Here’s a not so great work-in-progress photo:

The Ozark Sunrise Wrap WIP |Webster Fiber Arts

My cell phone flash photo doesn’t do the yarn justice. It is a beauty of a cotton yarn with shinier bits of rayon and nylon throughout.

I am getting close to finishing this one. I need to figure out what I am going to do for an edging on it, but that is a little bit too much for me to think about tonight.

Until next time,
Annie

WIP: The Rainbow Thing

| Annie

Hi Folks,

I have several pieces I am working on right now, and several more that need to be photographed. Today, I am working on this one:

WIP: The Rainbow Thing | Webster Fiber Arts

This one doesn’t have a real name at this point, so I’m just referring to it as “The Rainbow Thing.” I have been working on this piece on and off for a few months, but this week, I started piecing all of those colorful blobs together.

The yarn in this piece is all scraps from other projects, or yarn from projects that never really got off the ground. It is a mix of acrylic and wool, cheap and pricey, hand dyed and commercial dyed, smooth and novelty, and tiny bits and longer strands.

I am now in the process of filling in the holes where my randomly created blobs (they are called “scrumbles” in the freeform crochet world) don’t line up perfectly. I filled in between the orange and yellow sections and the yellow and green yesterday and this morning.

Once I get all of the holes filled, I’ll begin squaring off the edges. When finished, this freeform piece will be mounted on a 24″ x 36″ felt covered canvas for hanging.

I’m pretty in love with this rainbow thing!

Until next time,
Annie