Raiding, looting and pillaging

At least that's what it felt like this morning, when Hill Country Weavers (probably the best yarn shop in Central Texas) had a sale and invited their customers to come and set up tables to sell off the odds and ends in their own stashes.

Knitters, I suppose, think in terms of multiple balls of yarn, and haven't much use for one ball or worse, part of one ball of yarn left over from a project. For me, a single ball of yarn is like a lifetime supply; I may use a couple of yards to embroider with, a few more yards to couch to a surface, a few more - especially if they're glitzy - to loop over the surface of a jewel scarf. So here were all these lovely ladies selling off their leftovers at bargain-basement prices, and I felt like a kid in a candy store. I filled up a shopping bag with odds and ends of fantastic yarn and fiber, and my friend Vivian did nearly as well scoring interestingly colored yarns to quilt with.

(It's not that I don't like knitting. I love freeform knitting and crochet. But in central Texas, what's the point? I already have a Good Wool Sweater, and I haven't worn it since I got back from Ireland in the summer of '97.)

Defining the SolvyLace border

So far we've been making ragedy-edged bits of SolvyLace that are fine for making bowls, or appliqueing to a solid fabric to make an interesting base for embroidery, or setting a lacy window insert into a dress or a quilt. But suppose you want to use the SolvyLace on its own - for a scarf, for instance? You might trim the edges with a rotary cutter and hope they stay even. You might bind the trimmed edges to make sure they stay even.

Or - and this is my preferred method - you might start making your Solvy sandwich by laying down a wide ribbon all around the outer edge, and then make sure your stitching goes into the ribbon so that it'll be well anchored to the rest of the grid.



That's how I bordered this sample, as well as the "Jewel" scarf to be seen here.

And that, I think, is quite enough variations on the Solvy sandwich; and a good time to end the series, because tomorrow and Thursday I'll be out of town.

Color Blended SolvyLace

Select a collection of fabric scraps (as usual, I prefer sheers, but it's up to you) and blend across the spectrum like this:













When I put this piece together, clearly I was thinking too much "blend" and not enough "lace."
So to get a lacy look afterwards, I heat-distressed it just like the previous piece. This almost worked, because nearly all the fabric was synthetic. I had, however, used some hand-dyed green/aqua silk to make the transition from green to blue. That's the big ugly brown spot in the lower left. And that is why it pays to think about what you're going to do next with the piece, and what type of fabrics you want to use, before you get the wrong stuff neatly stitched into the grid!