Wednesday, September 07, 2011

Rainy Days

This latest project is quite reflective of our weather lately. Rain, rain, cloudy skies and more rain. I am overjoyed at the cooler temperatures, but a little sun here and there would be nice.

I decided to dig out a crochet hook and try my hand at a larger crochet project. Eva's Shawl seemed like the perfect pattern to start with since there are no fancy stitches and I had yarn on hand that I could use. The yarn I picked is a hand-dyed lightweight sock yarn that I purchased in my early days of knitting. It is beautiful, but a bit splitty and definitely on the thinner side of what I like to use for socks, so I was happy to be able to use it up on this little shawl. While I did have almost a full skein, it wasn't enough to make a full-sized shawl, so what you see here is more of a shawlette. I think I like it better as a scarf, though.




Friday, September 02, 2011

Hootie Hoot-Hoot-Hoooooot

We have an owl. Well, we don't own an owl. It's not ours, nor does it live with us. I guess it's more of a local owl. A neighborhood owl, if you will. And it seems quite fond of the tree outside our bedroom window. It isn't there every night, but when it is there I'll admit that I enjoy drifting off to sleep to it's repeated calls of "Hootie hoot-hoot-hoooot! Hootie hoot-hoot-hooooot!"

Speaking of owls, I finally got around to rehabbing the owl napkin holder that I picked up at Goodwill a few weeks ago. In the interest of frugality, I decided that I would use some of the few paints I already had on hand. I gave it a good prime with white paint, but it didn't cover very well. It was good enough for primer, but I could tell that if I really wanted solid coverage it could be a challenge. Thankfully, solid coverage wasn't what I was after.

BEFORE



I put on a coat of aqua paint, but that particular paint had a very matte finish and it didn't look right at all. Since I decided to let the white of the primer show through in the recessed areas, I decided to do a very light wash of white over the color. It was trial and error at its finest, but in the end I mixed a little bit of the white paint with a little water and lightly brushed it all over with a foam brush. It took the edge off the matte finish without lightening the aqua color, which was exactly what I wanted!

AFTER:

Thursday, September 01, 2011

New Page

For those looking for the Jacobean Socks pattern, I have now added a new "Patterns" page to the blog. If you look to the upper left, you should see the link. Please let me know if you have any trouble with it.