Rough time but still crafting

It's been a month™ but somehow against all odds, I've been busy! My mental health may have tanked more than ever before, but I've still been trying my best to create. My crafting took a little bit of a different turn once I gave the wheel back at the beginning of this month. I focused on doing a little bit of digital work, and heavily focused on making mini stars for Paradise Rose Shop. This allowed me to create sets for Lacemarket which are available now, and have pieces ready to ship without having to make them every time there's an order. These always take me a rather long time when I am making over 200 of them. I'm happy to say I've sold a few already, and it's made dealing with orders a lot easier.

 My pink variety set, currently available on Lacemarket

Spinning was quite a trip. I had the wheel for all of March and tried to use it whenever I was able to. I got heavily invested especially towards the end and spun a lot of the roving that I had since 2010. I didn't get through quite all of it but most of it. 

I thought this would be my favorite one but it turned out to be rather scratchy and faded looking. 

I thought this one would be meh but it turned out to be such a joy to work with and the final result is so gorgeous.

Purple variant being spun.

This blue one is a dream! I've gotten so much better at spinning thinner.

Here it is in non spun form. It came out beautiful.

I ended up doing a cable ply aka 4-ply on these, and I have a *ton* of it. 

It was supposed to be for a scarf for a knitting class, but that class unfortunately got canceled. 

I've successfully washed all of the yarn that I've made. I did not twack any of it as such. Instead I used wool appropriate soap and water, and used hand operated spin dryer to spin out the water, them hung to dry. 

Wool yarn soaking in rinse bath.

I've also started making something with the yarn, besides the hat I made in the previous post.  A lot of people have suggested I make pieces of clothing with the yarn, but I may just stick to accessories. I have very little experience in crocheting and knitting, and don't have the means to get looms to weave. But I do like hair/head accessories, and belts. So I think I will stick to making different hats and belts with these, as I will actually use said items. 

I did start making a knitted cord via my mushroom loom with some of the random pastel yarn I spun last minute. It was the very last thing I spun in the middle of the night, and very quickly. I had no idea what the fiber was but it was very difficult to work with and felt like acrylic. So the ply ended up being a bit of a mess. The cord ended up ok though, and I may stitch it into a little bowl.

Weird acrylic-like unlabeled roving turned into a pastel cloud. A messy pastel cloud. 

Messy pastel cloud turns into a messy knitted cord via mushroom loom.

I also started making hats with the green/brown yarn that I spun. I've thus far made two! I need to take a photo of the second one still but I've already worn it out. For the two hats I used a pattern from a magazine that I was able to get scans of online.

Hat in progress. Learned a new way to make hats for this one. Bless the stitch markers and row counter, without them I would be lost. 

Finished hat using the scratching green/brown faded yarn. I may redo this completely, because it's a tad small. 

Since last I wrote, I did have two classes in needle felting and Sashiko, though I have yet to take photos of the finished product from the Sashiko class. Considering how many online classes I used to take, it's a bit shocking that I haven't really been taking many. But I'm trying to heavily focus on finishing a collection of crafts first before jumping into any more. I may, however, take some watercolor courses, because I find that I only really do it nowadays if I have a course to do it during. 

Part of the steps for the Sashiko I worked on this month with Sashiko_lab.

My first needle felting course was in making a little spring chick using wire. I may finally be getting the hang of making round shapes instead of flat ones. Thank you to soft_tako_felts and Spacecraft for a successful class!

He watcheth.

My finished felted birb! First time using wire in needle felting.

The kit from soft_tako_felts

I did something a little different and took a needle felting landscape class to see if I could make something similar with the scrap pieces of wool that resulted when spinning. The course was offered via Jenny Lemons and Faye Kendall. I wasn't the biggest fan of how the online classes were handled, as they did not send a link to me before class and it took me a long time to get a hold of them and actually *get* an invite link into the class, but luckily I wasn't the only one and Faye was great waiting a good while before starting. Nevertheless it was a bit stressful and dampered the class a bit for me. They offer a lot of interesting classes but I'm weary. I may give a watercolor class a go though through them. Faye was a great teacher though, and it made up for the stress. The final product's style was based off of a piece by Georgia O'Keeffe. Faye even included a window box for us for the final work. I definitely like felting flat more than 3D I think. It was fun to "draw" the lines with the felt. I don't yet know what I will do with my felt scraps but hopefully may come up with another landscape. 

Felted night landscape

I've been working on some tatting too and have been improving. Now I'm making a bunch of squares and joining them as I go. I've only made one new square but am working on a second. 

Finished the first square from class finally, and switching gears with different colors- green and purple. I was able to successfully wind the shuttle

First finished square of a series of multiple squares.

I have yet to talk about my crafting bonanza at the end of February, but I'm spending this week finishing up those projects so I can have something to show on this blog, and then I shall share those finished projects. 

On the bright note, I'm streaming on Twitch more often, trying to make an actual habit of it. I've recently gone Vtuber, both to do something fun with my streams and to get myself out there more, because it allows me to stream without being worried about how I look/makeup/all that. I'll still probably stream IRL but for now, I'm having too much fun with it!

From my debut. To the right-my current model, which I had commissioned for me. 

So the plan for the next two week at least is to finish two Sashiko projects, open up my Sashiko lucky pack from January, and finish two embroidery projects that are half finished. For Paradise Rose Shop, finalizing and starting resin for the next event is the main goal, followed by replenishing stock for my fuzzy bear ears and fuzzy stars, as they are very much in theme with the next event. Most I plan to do on stream on Twitch, especially given that last night I decided it's time to commit to a full schedule to keep myself on track (and actually commit to streaming because it *is* enjoyable and a good way to not feel so damn lonely). 

So yes, check me out on Liliana Avriel on Twitch

LilianaAvriel @ Twitch Schedule for 4.27-5.4. barring schedule changes due to health. Any updates will be announced on the official Twitter!