I've been cheating.

On quilting.

I've been on a knitting/dyeing/spinning/crocheting bender. I'm starting to find more pieces of wool than pieces of thread stuck to my clothes. I never thought this would happen.

Can I admit though that I've been enjoying it? Who knew that dyeing yarn, knitting, crocheting and spinning would be so fun? I previously didn't think it could hold a candle to quilting. Taking pieces of fabric, cutting them up and then sewing them back together in glorious patterns and color schemes. And let's not forget the joy of shopping for fabric.

Of course, this was when I only knew how to knit items in squares and rectangles. In the past 12 months I've learned to knit in the round. To make hats, socks, blankets, etc. Now I've even crossed a line I thought I'd never take, and that was to try spinning my own yarn. Now that I think of it, knitting has sort of the same fascination, which is taking something simple and making it into something beautiful. Especially when I can dye my own wool. And again, I'm enjoying the shopping for yarn/fibers. (That seems to be a common thread here.)

I have a TON of photos from the things I've been working on the past few months; this even includes a little quilting. But until I stop feeling so guilty (I just accidentally typed in quilty) and start posting again, I'm going to show off my recent accomplishment: My first handspun yarns! I love, love, love them.

From this (my first attempt): To this: From this (second attempt): And this is my next bunch of fiber. So pretty! I hope to get it started this weekend.
[null, {"document_url": "http://fuchsiadreams.blogspot.com/2010/07/", "unformatted_src": "http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4138/4799144190_c8a538b5be.jpg", "src": "http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4138/4799144190_c8a538b5be.jpg", "formatted_filename": "c a b be", "alt_text": "IMG_0845", "rendered_width": 400, "rendered_height": 275}, null, {"document_url": "http://fuchsiadreams.blogspot.com/2010/07/", "unformatted_src": "http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4113/4840738976_759f9dbfdf.jpg", "src": "http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4113/4840738976_759f9dbfdf.jpg", "formatted_filename": "f dbfdf", "alt_text": "IMG_1001", "rendered_width": 400, "rendered_height": 275}, null, {"document_url": "http://fuchsiadreams.blogspot.com/2010/07/", "unformatted_src": "http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4149/4834262770_09d60d2ac4.jpg", "src": "http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4149/4834262770_09d60d2ac4.jpg", "formatted_filename": "d d ac", "alt_text": "IMG_0972", "rendered_width": 400, "rendered_height": 275}, null, {"document_url": "http://fuchsiadreams.blogspot.com/2010/07/", "unformatted_src": "http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4105/4840738726_c957cdf348.jpg", "src": "http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4105/4840738726_c957cdf348.jpg", "formatted_filename": "c cdf", "alt_text": "IMG_0997", "rendered_width": 400, "rendered_height": 275}, {"document_url": "http://fuchsiadreams.blogspot.com/2010/07/", "unformatted_src": "http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4113/4840738366_581233ab23.jpg", "src": "http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4113/4840738366_581233ab23.jpg", "formatted_filename": "ab", "alt_text": "IMG_0992", "rendered_width": 400, "rendered_height": 275}, null, {"document_url": "http://fuchsiadreams.blogspot.com/2010/07/", "unformatted_src": "http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4115/4799144314_ab78ddb85d.jpg", "src": "http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4115/4799144314_ab78ddb85d.jpg", "formatted_filename": "ab ddb d", "alt_text": "IMG_0848", "rendered_width": 400, "rendered_height": 275}, null, null, {"document_url": "http://fuchsiadreams.blogspot.com/2010/07/", "unformatted_src": "//1.bp.blogspot.com/_ILWeoK-Hnao/TM3vQxguSbI/AAAAAAAAAGM/v_O6znmEC7k/S220-s80/christy.jpg", "src": "http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ILWeoK-Hnao/TM3vQxguSbI/AAAAAAAAAGM/v_O6znmEC7k/S220-s80/christy.jpg", "formatted_filename": "christy", "alt_text": "My photo", "rendered_width": 80, "rendered_height": 60}, null, {"document_url": "http://fuchsiadreams.blogspot.com/2010/07/", "unformatted_src": "http://quiltinggallery.com/images/quilting-bloggers-180.jpg", "src": "http://quiltinggallery.com/images/quilting-bloggers-180.jpg", "formatted_filename": "quilting bloggers", "alt_text": "Quilting Bloggers Logo", "rendered_width": 180, "rendered_height": 70}, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null]