The Crofting Life

I have this moving to Scotland

Outer Hebrides or Shetland Islands

Living on a croft dream

Where I raise sheep and Highland Cattle

Live off the land with the wind and the sea
Outside and a warm fire inside.

It's a distant and unlikely dream but a dream nonetheless.

In the meantime I'll make my own village out of rustic bits of wool

While sitting by my electric fireplace heater next to the Christmas tree
Hoping for snow

Here is my basic Croft recipe
It's a great way to use up bits of yarn

Cast on between 18-25 stitches with worsted weight yarn on size 7 US needles, stockinette for as tall as you want your croft to be, switch to the roof color, stockinette for 1/3 - 1/2 the height of the front wall, do one knit across a purl row to make the peak, then stockinette to make the back wall match the front.  Another row of knit a purl row to turn the edge for the bottom then about 1"-2" of stockinette for the floor depending on how tall you made your croft.  Pick up stitches on the left and right "floor" edges to make the sides stockinette stitch until they're just a bit longer than the height of the house.  Stitch all of the seams, the chimneys are wrapped around the edges of the roof as they're stitched, this is all four layers of chimney and roof with the chimney wrapped around the roof like a taco.  The windows and doors are duplicate stitch.  Some of my crofts have more detailed stitching, that's because my duplicate stitch has become increasingly tidy so I can now add detail.  Next round I think I will add more embroidery, perhaps some flower boxes. Enjoy and stay cozy!  

Longing.

Another Outlander inspired piece...

My original sketch

My intention was to make an embroidered piece. Until I went through my fabric stash and found this beautiful scrap that looks like a sunset.  The fabric is dyed this way and looked like a stunning and somewhat foreboding sunset.

Tea and planning and more planning.

All the fabrics are scraps from sewing projects, in particular here a cloak (the plaid) a shirt (the pink linen) a bag (the yellow and green) and last but not least an old sheet.  The challenge was making the pieces fit into a landscape with the sizes and odd shaped.  

Placement decided and placed in an embroidery hoop.

The fabric is all held with embroidery stitches to look somewhat like flora and inspired by many pictures of Scotland on Pinterest.  The figure is felt applique, mostly because I was at a loss of how to effectively trace out the shape and embroider over the appliqued fabric.  The skirt and the bodice/head are two separate pieces.  I embroidered the stitches for the tartan and the shawl before appliqueing the pieces to the background...and the hair...I'm pleased with how it came out for a first attempt, just don't look at the back.  The stitches for the hair are just under then wrapped over the flat piece so that non of the felt shows through and to give it dimension.

I decided to leave the stones and the house out of the finished piece because the sunset fabric captures that feeling of being alone, longing, and looking toward uncertainty much better than the rather literal representation of the standing stones and the warmth of the house.

For the full feeling hum the Skye Boat Song.