Friday's Projects

Today was supposed to be a cleaning day. Yeah right. Scrubbing the oven can always wait when creativity strikes!

My wonderful in-laws visited a few weekends ago and while they were here, changed Ryan’s bike tire. We were left with an old tire and inner tube and I just couldn’t bring myself to throwing them away. I knew they had some potential.

Sure enough, I went to a craft fair a couple weekends ago and found a few artists who were creating accessories with bike tire inner tubes! (For example) I’m not quite sure what I’ll do with the inner tube yet, but I’ve decided to use the tire itself as a frame for a giant embroidery.

So far, I’ve drawn the image to be embroidered and I've dyed the muslin. Hubby forgot his coffee today, so I put it to very good use as a subtle, pretty dye.

Given the enormous size of this embroidery, I think I may use yarn instead of embroidery floss. I’ll do a few samples to see if it gives the look I want. So excited to see how it turns out!!

I’ve been helping out at a yarn store nearby! I met Lisa, owner of Sifu Design Studio, about a year ago when my department “yarn bombed” (also see here) a bus shelter on State Street in Madison. Lisa was a visiting artist who spoke on the topic of the handmade/DIY revolution (or comeback in my opinion).

Anyway, I’ve been helping out by knitting store samples! My first project is the Felted Bracelet Trio by Imperial Stock Ranch. It uses this awesome yarn that reminds me of dense, soft, squishy roving.

Here are the bracelets knit:

Then into the sink for some hand-felting. I’m sure my roommates will never forget how much I looove hand-felting. (translation: yuck) Something came over me though and I had to felt them by hand instead of letting the washing machine have all the fun.

They’re a lot tinier now! I can’t wait to show them to Lisa. I might even be teaching a class on how to make these! I really hope I get the chance to do that. I’ve already been practicing.

I suppose I should get back to that oven now, shouldn’t I?