Sunday 24 April 2011

Easy Peasy!

Happy Easter to you! Hope you are enjoying the holiday weekend. We've had some unseasonably warm spring weather, and have been making the most of it, getting out and about. It was 25 degrees yesterday, although it's cooler today, and a sea mist keeps drifting in off the North Sea. It was lovely outside first thing - we could hear the local Salvation Army band playing in the distance. They always hold outdoor services once the holidaymakers start arriving. We don't make a huge thing about Easter in the josiekitten household. But I took the opportunity of being home for Easter to dig out our decorations, bought mostly in Germany and Poland. Our family in Germany always put up decorations, and as you walk around, you see lots of houses with painted wooden eggs hanging from the branches of trees. It's very pretty!

Easter 2011 011

I love these wooden eggs - they came from one of our trips to Lodz in Poland, where Mr JK's family lived for many years. Egg decorating or pysanky is an Eastern European tradition, still very much in evidence today. We saw some amazingly intricate patterns created using hot wax and dyes. You can read more about how it's done here, if you're interested.

Easter 2011 012

I finally finished my Peasy cardigan yesterday, and blocked it today. I do love it - so simple but beautiful too! I know that I'm going to get lots of wear out of it. I found some shell buttons from the Natural Dye Studio that go well with it, I think. I had to steam the bottom edge quite hard to stop it from curling, so I hope that isn't going to be a problem. Time will tell. I ended up making full length sleeves, as I had enough yarn, and am glad that I did.

Peasy (1)

Remember my spinning disaster that I blogged about recently? The single very nearly ended up in the bin after I'd over-spun it so spectacularly! There was so much twist in it, I don't quite know what went wrong! I ended up with pinky/purple fingers too!

spinning disaster (2)

Anyhow, common sense prevailed, and I wound the single into a skein (with many breakages en route!) and soaked it for a couple of hours, before hanging it up to dry with a heavy weight on it. I then wound that single into a yarn cake, and plied it from both ends, to create a 2-ply yarn. All things considered, it's turned out pretty well. The colours are very soft and delicate, reminiscent of lavender fields on a summer's day. It's about 18 wpi, so I think that's about a 2-ply laceweight, and I have approximately 250 metres to play around with.

Lavender fields handspun

I'm planning on spending time this afternoon working on Spriteling. I'd like to try and finish clue 1 today, if at all possible. So I shall love you and leave you, with one more picture of Easter in my little bloggy corner. My Easter Day breakfast - hot cross buns and English strawberries - deeeeeeelish! See you soon! xxx

Easter 2011 009

9 comments:

Unknown said...

I love pysanky decorated eggs. We don't "do" Easter in my house but I love seeing everyone's colorful decorations.

Happy Easter and I'm very impressed by the cardigan.

Lynne said...

Oohh!! Your cardigan is lovely, I've just had to favourite the pattern!

I do like all the little eggs, they're so bright and cheerful.

Happy Easter! Lynne

Stadtwaldvogel said...

Your eady peasy cardigan is wonderful, Helen! I would wear it every day. Simple and pretty, too. The hot cross buns must be delicious!
Have a warm week!
Yours, Julia

Northern Monkey said...

Your peasy looks fantastic, it's such a pretty pattern and those buttons go beautifully with the yarn, an excellent choice!

The painted eggs are lovely, we don't do any decorations for easter but I do think painted eggs are so special.

kathy b said...

Your cardigan is amazing>
LOved reading all about your Easter doings

Anonymous said...

Your Peasy looks great! (And very like mine ;) )

And well done for rescuing your spinning, I might have been tempted to just give up on it.

pinkundine said...

Your Peasy is beautiful. I also love the colour of your spun yarn - so pretty :)

melissa said...

oh my, everything is so beautiful... where to begin?
let's start with peasy - oh goodness, is she ever gorgeous! looks like the perfect comfortable beautiful sweater!
your handspun is gorgeous as well, i love the soft tones. completely worth the purple fingertips :)
and i love your painted eggs from poland! they're beautiful!
there, i think i got everything!
glad you had such a lovely easter!!

ButtonMad said...

That's a great little Easter setting...
Will be interested to see what you do with your spun yarn...beautiful colours....
Greetings from south africa