The garden is done, but here’s the tribble harvest (so far). They were perfect Thanksgiving knitting. No one actually asked “what are you doing?” because I was obviously knitting something with a great sense of purpose, even if it was little. Each time I finished one, I started right in on another. I need them for giving to members of my exercise class (at least a dozen there) and to various other people for presents (at least a dozen more.) I brought them to work with me, I took them with me to a crafts fair, where I knit them standing up. They’re wonderfully addictive – like potato chips, you simply can’t stop with one!

And what are they good for? These double-sided, knitted powder-puff-sized objects can be used for washing faces or dishes (choose one or make several tribbles). the pattern is someone else’s brainchild and can be found here. There are still tribbles going on…and um...other things. (Don't ask me what, I've been wrapping all morning.)

Of COURSE I’ve been involved in other creative endeavors, most of which I can’t show yet - a monster amount of hats and mittens, some for craft shows, some for Seneca Santa- these all left home before I could photograph them. Also work, but that's another matter. Suffice it to say the tatting shuttles have been laid aside for the moment – but the knitting needles are smokin’!



Here’s a closeup - the yarn used was Bernat Handicrafter cotton in a color called "Psychedelic" and a link to the pattern http://1870pearl.typepad.com/TRIBBLE2.pdf
And now, to wrap these beauties ...

This morning I picked up my friend June for breakfast. We drank tea, ate lots of pancakes, talked about all the important fibery things in life, and then after I wrote all the names on pieces of paper, folded them and put them in a box, June pulled two winners, first asking me whether the pieces were identical in size and fold. Of course, they were.

Then we did a quick fiber tour of the studio and the barn and came up with three bags of yarn June could take home, and one I’ve got to wash before she’ll touch it. The “gotta wash” pile is part of a larger stash I inherited from a neighborhood knitter with an old dog, non-opening windows, a smoker in the family and some other issues compounded with the birch pollen it acquired while it was being aired this spring. Most of the stash is in five large tubs in the barn, also in three double-bagged black plastic trash bags, with dryer sheets and mothballs, which didn’t improve it much. The freshly-washed yarn gets mailed to her when she returns to her winter home.


Robert asked about the lime marmalade. I started with 9 limes, a grapefruit and a lemon. Sliced it all very, very thin – 1/16 inch strips are ideal, but most of them were a shade thicker. Put it all in a 6 quart pot with about 2 cups of water and started to cook it. After about 15 minutes, I checked the recipe on the Sure-Jell light box – nothing like doing things in the right order. However, as luck would have it, I did begin with the 6 cups of prepared fruit (they suggested 5 ½) but because I was doing a Seville-style marmalade, I hadn’t done the fancy stuff about separating fruit and rind, peeling off the pith and boiling it separately and so forth. I just went ahead with the directions. As soon as the Sure-Jell entered the mix, it began jelling beautifully. I added the sugar, brought it back up to boil as directed, and it was done. The jars are mostly olive jars- one held jam, about 12 years ago; another once held maraschino cherries, which we couldn't quite bring ourselves to eat. I washed them in the dishwasher, then sterilized jars and tops in boiling water. They all sealed… though I had my doubts about one of them, so I suppose I’ll make the ultimate sacrifice and keep it. It’s very, very good.

Oh yes, the winners are Jennifer and Martha. Congratulations! I’ll be doing this again, by the way. Thank you all for reading and also for the nice things you-all said.

As of today, the last issues of the November Tatting Times are in the mail. Every issue, I’ve got a favorite pattern, and this “Christmas cookies” design is the current fave. It uses the ‘wandering wheel’ technique and was simply a pleasure to tat. I’m thinking I’ll do it again in a variegated, just for the fun of it. It looks smaller than it actually is because it’s sitting on a large dinner plate – it’s actually a little more than 6” across.


The magazine went out in three increments – this is the batch that went out Friday.



And here’s what I was doing when I wasn’t tatting or knitting (or working) - the jam is on the top shelf, then heading downwards, tomatoes and peaches, more peaches, more tomatoes, plums and the last two jars of last year’s sauerkraut, then a full (unseen) shelf of sauerkraut beneath that. You also can’t see the six market baskets with more canned tomatoes, applesauce, Catawba grape jam (though it might remain as a sort of sauce)… and no one can see the lime marmalade I’m planning to make on Friday.

Back to tatting and Tatting Times – I’m starting a major winter de-stash. If you are a Tatting Times reader, add a comment below and you have one of two chances to win a batch of tatting goodies including (among the goodies) a skein of my hand dyed thread. Winner will be chosen at random November 6 in the early morning.

Nervous knitting is the thing to do when you can’t think of anything else you want to do, ort he knitting is happening when there’s other things going on, or any other time one wants to knit without paying close attention to what’s happening on the needles.

When the weather is iffy and the sort of in-between weather we have now, too chill in the morning to go out with uncovered hands but not-yet-ready-for-gloves weather. In the chill depths of winter, they’re great over magic gloves. As you can see, I made a dozen pairs by the time the photo was taken. I then made four more pairs; took them to the work… and brought only 10 pairs home. Or maybe I should say 10 ¾, because I was knitting in the quiet spaces and almost got another pair done.

Want to make your own? You’ll need a quartet of double pointed knitting needles, sizes 9 to 10 ½, depending on whether the thread used is super bulky, really bulky or simply sort-of chunky. Actually, I pay less and less attention to the size of knitting needles if they’re sort of in range. Using the same considerations, you’d begin by casting on 24-30 stitches on three needles, knit around in a K1, P1 rib for about 20-26 rounds, then bind off 7 stitches, immediately casting on 9 more. That’s the thumb opening, and you’ll knit the first and last cast-on stitch with the first and last stitch of the original group on the needle. Continue knitting around for 8 more rows, bind off and sew in all ends. Make another exactly like the first.



Actually, I’m not only knitting right now, I’m also tatting the final designs for the November issue of Tatting Times… but tatting does not come to work with me on a busy day!

And really, you don't want to know all the other things I did in September and the first part of October - it would just make you tired! But, okay, here's a little of what I did since I last posted - attended two conferences, one teaching tatting, one learning more about writing. Bought a lot of yarn, some for the shop, a slightly embarrassing amount for me. (But hey, a lot of it is turning into fingerless gloves!) Sang with the band, Mayhem, at various religious services... and rehearsed. Wrote a batch of articles. Picked apples and made applesauce and bought cabbage and made sauerkraut (not yet finished fermenting). And, oh yes, work - welcome extra work because it's the busy harvest season, which is followed by a long winter of less employment.

Friend Julia gave me this gorgeous and useful creation, initiating me into the Sisterhood of the Basket. Acceptance of this beautiful basket also heavily implies (according to Julia) a dedication to Finishing Projects. I’m all over that. In fact, I was already dedicating this pre-fall time to heavy-duty finishing of all kinds of things.



Installment # 1 – three pairs of socks. The center pair is one I started some time ago and decided to finish differently, thinking I had only the single ball of sock yarn. Then, when I was looking for another small bit of yarn to finish the dark socks on the left – made from handspun yarn, by the way – I discovered the primary-colored socks. The knitting required to finish them clued me in on why the yarn hadn’t sold – by the time I finished knitting them, I couldn’t stand the cutesy brightness. “But they’re so YOU!” someone said – mercifully, I’ve forgotten who uttered this. So yesterday I dyed them green – a little too enthusiastically – meaning I used way too much dye for a project that small. Which meant I rinsed them about 40 times, then put them through the wash.



So here they are now. Please note the woodpile posing in the distance behind the socks. I was pretty quiet for a few weeks because I was stacking it – it started out about the size of a small schoolbus and ended up also about the size of a small schoolbus – only slightly more organized now. Not shown is the newly weeded garden – the removed weeds completely fill the compost pile. Nor do you see the results of days of tomato canning and pickle –making. You didn’t think I was sitting on my hands, did you?

book publication!

Here it is, for the culmination of my summer. I worked on it a bit more in the past few months in preparation for publication. There's always a little more tinkering and fine-tuning. “Voices Like the Sound of Water” was officially released last Saturday. It’s my first collection of poems.

I read from the book on Monday night at the Harvest Café in Montour Falls, and if you were there, thank you! There were too many people present to hug and thank you all individually, but it’s a gift to be heard, and I appreciated all the people who turned out to listen (and buy books).

In answer to some of the questions people asked later… Even though poems are short, the collection took about 15 years to write and assemble. They take a lot of editing, rewriting, sometimes re-thinking. There’s humor in them because life is funny, even the serious parts. At least, sometimes. No, I didn’t pay to have them published, nor did I print them myself. The publisher did the design, then invited me to select the cover and end-paper color.

Will there be another poetry book sometime? I hope so. No immediate plans for one, though.

And, most important, Bill does sing off-key, but not in the shower; and he stays – that poem wasn’t about him. Those who know us well, know this has been a pretty difficult summer for Bill, health-wise - so whether he sings or not, I'm extremely grateful he's part of the shower landscape!

Second in importance – the book is available from me or from the publisher. Find information and a sample poem here. http://www.foothillspublishing.com/2011/id28.htm

Here is what a lot of love looks like - 33 hat and mitten sets ready to go to needy children. This summer’s weather, so far, has been a great reminder of winter. 30 of the mittens were made by June; hats were made by Judith, Calina, me – and some came from the estate of marathon knitter-and-hat-maker Dianne (two ns) G. Tomorrow these go into Seneca Santa storage in Watkins Glen.