It's May 💮🌸🌼🌻

 Quick check in this May!

Currently Reading: Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson (finally over halfway)
Other Enjoyment: Watching Leena Norms on youtube.

I am overwhelmed with my ongoing textile projects:

1. Jumper for C (90% done)
2. Cardigan for dad (15% done)
3. 200g DK yarn shawl for me (20% done)
4. Draught excluder to be stuffed with non-compostable scraps and clothing waste (1% done)
5. Spinning up a sheep fleece from ~2021-2022 (??% done, working on it bit by bit)

Languishing projects:

1. A dress which just needs a neckline adjustment and bias binding
2. Some trousers needing a new waistband

Projects I want to start:

1. Sewing the pomona pants in some checked or patterned fabric (basically I want some Mabel trousers from Beyond Nine but they are out of my budget and also probably a bit wider than I'd like, anyway
2. Sewing another Rae skirt - a very beginner friendly pattern, I sewed one in checked linen and it's had a lot of mileage

Some pottery progress:

I'm finally able to make cylinders large enough to be [hopefully] decent sized mugs. My dream pottery project is a sports direct sized mug... one day. 

One of the good things about pottery is the pots live at the clay studio, and each item is fairly small as a project, so they don't feel overwhelming like the textiles projects I listed above!

Art Progress

I've done sketching here and there, and I've made progress on that dress up game prototype I mentioned previously; mostly just making the base body image onto which clothes will be added. I also made a start on some clothing as well 😌 And on top of that I started on the Unity junior programmer tutorials.

textile project audit

Just a little look into what's on the needles and wheel...

We are not here for beautifully staged photos

Charlie's Jumper

Superwash merino yarn because I wanted to have some nice BRIGHT variegated yarn to enjoy watching the colours change. I know that I can get non superwash yarn with lovely colour changes too but I didn't know a non-indie yarn that provides this (please share if you know!) - and the budget was a bit tight since Charlie's an adult man and requires larger sizing.

Pattern: Worsted Basic Drop Sleeve Sweater by James N Watts

Charlie's Socks

Non superwash 4 ply yarn from Telling Yarns, which is spun by John Arbon (another favourite), both UK companies using UK wool. I'm over halfway through but it takes aeons as Charlie's feet are a lot larger than mine. I expect to be mending these repeatedly as well as they are not only nylon free but nylon or not I'm finding that my mending pile just keeps growing.

Pattern: None, improvised

Small foot in the corner

Shawl in Marina Skua Yarn

Marina Skua dyed some lovely non superwash slightly variegated 4 ply yarn. Again another company who use UK wool and fibre (as far as I'm aware for all of the yarn bases). This used to be a kerchief designed by Aimee from La Bien Aimee (yarn company in France), but I found that I didn't really wear this triangular shape. So now I'm doing a bias shawl which is a bit of a longer shape - it's the free pattern, Linus shawl.

Sweater Spin

I bought a special merino fleece for myself a little while ago, admittedly it's from the USA (something I won't be doing in the near future, but I won't rule it out as there's some amazing shepherds in the USA breeding wonderful fibre flocks). I've carded batts with some sari silk for extra interest. I'm spinning it all up as a 2 ply yarn, quite bumpy and varied in thickness at times. I am fighting the urge to be precious with this special fleece, because otherwise it will simply not get done. And I need to work with what I have. I'm treating it as a 'sampler' spin, thinking in the vein of cross stitch samplers. A batt here which is dark, one that's variegated, one that's light, all with varying sari silk percentages. And then I will craft something that honours all the variety - at least that's the hope.