And here’s the last of my catch-up entries, representing an amazing amount of time spent in late winter and early spring. The thread is size 30, hand-dyed, a small sampling of the dyeing I’ve been doing, though the colors are unfortunately washed-out by the flash – they’re much more intense than they appear. I dyed at least 200 skeins in various color variegations – mostly size 20 but also quite a bit of 30 and a dabbling in 10. I’ve done some tatting with these and I like the result – and when I took them with me to several tatting events people seemed happy with them.

They’re sitting on a layer of crocheted wash cloths / or dish cloths I’ve been making for the joint purpose of putting a dent into my cotton stash and trying to do some early preparation for Christmas. The dish-cloths are mindless crochet, and were perfect to take with me to Cleveland this winter – they were about all I had the wits to work on during Bill’s heart surgery and hospital stay. But because a few years ago I was gifted with a crocheted dish-cloth and found it quickly became a favorite to use in the kitchen, I thought these could be a gift appreciated by others, as well. I think it will be fun to put these together with a few other goodies – I’m not saying what in case my family is reading this!
Today was a work-day, but before I went in, I did some garden digging, made some soap (melt and pour, but it was fun anyway!) and planted two rows in the garden, doing some digging to prepare a bit more. This evening I planted the eggplant and peppers, transplanted some cosmos and marigolds, and hung up my shovel as having done enough for now.
At least outside. Inside, in the studio, I’m trying to usefully diminish another stash – by making quilt squares. Why is it that umpteen pieces of fabric may be put together with a lot of energy and effort – and the pile of fabric diminishes not at all?

Catching up – it seems like I’m always trying to catch up a little – comes in many forms. Today, under the impetus of two inspirations, I finally finished the sweater I began in February. I seem to have over-estimated my own size; also, as the sweater grew, I shrank a little. I wanted it to be oversized anyway, in part because it’s cotton and linen and could hypothetically shrink in any direction (though cotton tends to get shorter and wider with washing). I could also hypothetically shrink in any direction, though actually this isn’t happening quite as energetically as I’d like it to! The two goads to completion are related – tonight is the first in our library’s “Women in Wine” series, a fund-raiser for the library’s future expansion, and one I wrote about for the local newspaper; among those present at the event should be Heidi W., who started the same pattern sweater using different yarn – and I promised to model my finished one for her benefit.

You didn't think I'd take a photo with myself in it, did you?
Of course, I’ve also started another sweater already, hopefully one I’ll finish faster, because I intend to wear it this summer. The next one is white, made of a cloud-soft silk/bamboo combination I’ve got in the shop (in fact, it’s called “silk bamboo” and the back is already 1 ½ inches high. This will be a lace pattern with short sleeves and slightly larger needles – size 5 instead of size 3. Occasionally I read knitting blogs whose writers seem to finish a sweater every week or two. How do they do it? Don’t they have lives? Mine has me writing or completing five articles this week. Three down, two to go, not bad for Wednesday (they’re due Friday).

Catching up

There are reasons – good ones – for the long gap in postings. Here are – in short – the two biggies. One was Bill’s open-heart surgery in early March, which entailed months of getting ready beforehand, with important preparations like making reservations, doctors’ appointments, that earlier-mentioned dental work (apparently necessary before open heart surgery, and 30 years of accumulated neglect added up to a bit of it) collecting the things we needed, making arrangements for the cat… then we made the long trip to Cleveland for tests and surgery. This was a harrowing adventure, as heart surgery can only be, with a fortunately happy ending in the form of a potentially successful outcome – a heart remodeled by the best heart surgeons in the universe to last for a longer, healthier life. There are no photos of that experience – a good thing, too!

Back home, my complex career as care-giver, chauffeur, appointment-scheduler, prescription-courier, gourmet chef, wood-carrier and fire-stoker eclipsed my more usual pursuits except for one important commitment requiring almost-as-compelling attention: organizing the Tatting Seminars in Hector. There are multiple organizers and inspired contributors to the event, including conference attendees who simply pitch in and make things happen – but being the person who actually lives in Hector adds that boots-on-the-ground excitement, as well as making it more practical for me to be the person who acquires some of the bulkier supplies, coordinates a few extra details, acts as the message-center, etc. Add to that the challenge of being a conference teacher, vendor, dyer and purveyor of hand-painted threads, and life becomes complicated.
We all survived the weekend, even Primrose the scaredy-cat who surprised everyone, including herself, by allowing a houseguest to approach and actually touch her. Can’t show the threads here – they came out beautifully, but now they’re gone. More threads will follow… eventually. Today was a time to partially catch up on bills and with Bill; tonight is dedicated to catching up on sleep, and tomorrow, the skeining begins again.

The photo shows some of the conference attendees – quite a few were hiding in the back row behind other people, a few stepped out of the photo entirely to capture whomever was left on their own cameras. I’m there too – at the far left in the back row, wearing green (behind Jeannie Z in red).
Now the fun is over – at least, for the moment – and it’s back to work.

Happy hands, happy feet

Christmas socks – finally finished! Waiting at Bill’s third dental appointment yesterday – this one with an oral surgeon – brought the socks to the home-stretch. Likewise, the two ounces of Shetland/Alpaca wool became fingerless mitts and a neck cosy. Also shown – three of five hats discovered unfinished in a brief clean-up binge.
Here’s the pattern for the neck cosy, knitted with a scant 21 grams of fine wool – because why waste even a small amount of fine handspun? I knitted it on size 9 needles to get the fully lacy effect.

Neck cosy: Cast on 20 stitches. ** Knit 2 rows (garter stitch). On third row, (K3, YO, K2 tog) THREE times, K5. Repeat from ** for length needed. If possible, try to end the scarf with a knit row. Unstretched, the knitting should be at least 20 inches long. I turned the bound-off edge before sewing to the cast-on edge, to make a sort of moebius twist. When finished, I had eight inches of spun yarn left over. I think this would be a quick, easy and slightly unusual winter present to make and give when one is needed. It stretches to fit over the head and sits nicely, like a cowl, around the neck.

And now the effort moves to two sweaters – one begun last year (and re-started yesterday); the other also begun last year, to keep a knitting student company – meaning we’d encourage each other. These could be long-running projects – they do NOT, either of them, use large needles - though at least one uses part of the stash. And of course, I’ve got a few littler projects to keep them company. More on those soon.
If the groundhog failed to see his shadow yesterday, does that mean spring is coming sooner?

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.

January's Hat Harvest

The photo is a partial "list" of completed projects from the first part of January. There's a common thread - most use more than one yarn held together. The fuzzy yarns seem to be improved when they're joined to other, heavier, more substantial yarns - even other fuzzy ones; the little socks are a combination of a light knitting worsted and an acrylic sock yarn I bought on a whim at the dollar store. Using the pinky stuff with brown meant it would work for a boy.
I finished a few other things before and since taking the photo - not seen are a pair of socks destined to be mailed to a friend, another pair of fingerless mitts that hid out, camera-shy, while I planned to take the photo; another scarf, a lot of tatting, experiments and finished things that wound up in Tatting Times, a bit of clean-up here and there.
Many needlework blogs end up sounding self-congratulatory - "Look what I did! Look at me!" - but these few finished things are such a drop-in-the-bucket of the started, currently still-incomplete projects. I finally got the courage to count how many sock projects remain unfinished - I believe the number is currently four pairs, because two are now finished. (And that's just socks - I'm not yet ready to mention the multitude of tatting, crochet and other knitting projects "in progress" - but often not making any progress at all!) The past few days I've worked on knitting the pair of socks I began on Christmas - it's very fine yarn and still very, very far from finished, though I've been carrying them around with me. Knitted while I listened to the inauguration, even knitted at the restaurant when we went out to eat. And I've just barely turned the heel on the first sock. Some things move slowly.
These little socks were fun - I used size 5 needles, 28 stitches; it was more a matter of applying myself to the project of making sure they got done than taking time for them. And last Friday I had the satisfaction of seeing them on the little feet they were made for. You're looking at youngest grand Caleb, chocolate cake in one hand, determination to figure out my Louet hatbox spinning wheel uppermost in his mind. He alternately declared "Gramma, I WUV you!" and took, "I love you, Caleb!" as the starting gun for going back to have another try at stomping the wheel into submission. For the moment, the wheel won.

Keeping to the resolve... so far

Four finished projects are shown here - a fifth remains invisible. The two red scarves were knitted to use up yarns I discovered in my stash that needed using. More red projects are planned, but I needed a break so there's one on my needles now in shades of turquoise. Today my "twin" Wendy came for lunch, but I first dragged her to the stash and demanded she pick three yarns so I could knit her Christmas present. The result was the green scarf (there are also threads of purple and black in that) which looks smashing with her newly auburn hair. She left wearing it, layered with the black scarf she'd worn in. To the right, on the pinker of the red scarves is a Beaded Romanian Point Lace project designed by Canadian bead designer Brenda Franklin. Brenda taught this class at the Fringe Elements Fall tatting days last September, which always has a non-tatting class or two. Her instructions were superb, and I'd wanted to learn this form of lace, so I took her class when it coincided with a free period, and got the project partly finished. Brought it back and dropped it on my desk, where it sat tantalising me through the fall. I don't have a very large desk, so it seemed a good idea to begin the New Year by taking at least a few things off it. I finished this New Year's Day. It's very beaded and fairly heavy. I'm afraid if I hung it up as the ornament it's meant to be, the weight might pull it out of shape. For right now it will be packed away with the instructions for a few others of her designs, to be (maybe) tried at a later date. Maybe. Not shown in the photo is the disastrous felted bag project. I've made quite a few felted totes this year - at least eight others, but this one behaved like no other felted bag. It started out wide and long and felted narrower (as expected) but also longer than its pre-felted state. This one looks rather like a wooly pillowcase folded in half lengthwise. Only the handles came out as planned. I'm now considering how to finish it - turn it into TWO bags, perhaps? Line it and quietly give it away>