Snowy Day

Yesterday it snowed all day, episodes of squalls, spitting snow, ice pellets and straight up-and-down white-outs, laying down layers of hazard and keeping us strictly indoors. This morning we have not yet gone out to survey the driveway and paths, which were less than ideal previously – we have not seen bare ground in more than a month! So it was definitely time for a mental health day and an opportunity to finish a few more things and, why not? Start a few others.
The doll in the middle of the photo taken on the chair was begun in 1983 for a crochet book I wrote and sold – that never got printed. There were a few unfinished projects from that book that still needed to be photographed before the book went to press, and as we know, that didn’t happen. This project was tossed into boxes, found at intervals and tossed into different boxes. She finally got finished yesterday. Like me, she’s become more substantial than she was 26 years ago, particularly in the lower half (she was constructed top down, extemporaneously) and she seems to have also changed eras – well, so have we all. To her left, elbowing in front of her, is a diminutive grape basket, a present in kit form for my birthday several years ago, from a talented basket-maker who doubtless thought this would be an easy project.
To say I was all thumbs trying to weave it is understatement, in fact, I could have used a few more thumbs. The instructions had cheerful directions like “weave 20 rounds with fo” I had barely a clue as to what THAT meant. By the time I got to “lashing the rim,” it didn’t seem like further punishment would help much. I may have invented several basket techniques a veteran of this craft would surely cringe at. It is the intended decoration that gives this basket its name – it isn’t supposed to be large enough to hold even a small bunch of pinot noir. But I think it would be a dandy place to hold spare shuttles as I liberate them from tatting projects as they get finished.
Last – though this took up most of the day – are the two brown balls of Shetland/alpaca wool spun while I listened to news programs. This is only two ounces, but spun finely, there’s a LOT of hours in it – at least half an hour and closer to 45 minutes in the plying alone. Then it was wound and re-wound to divide it neatly into two balls of roughly equal size. Are those knitting needles peeking around behind one of the balls. Well… um… yes. I did start another project. And true, I have not yet finished the third pair of socks. But I worked on them during Bill’s dental appointment on Monday, and at writer’s group Monday night, and Bill’s got another dental appointment – a long one – next Monday, so the end is in sight.

The quilt is for sweet Tanya, one of the youngest tatters in our group. She’s received it, so I can show it off now. It was started three years ago, one of those projects where you know the general intention of it, but don’t know quite why you began. When Tanya recently shared some good news, I knew it was for her, and finishing it became a pleasure. I’m not a great quilter, but every now and then something comes out really well, and this was fortunately one of those times.