Time on My Hands

Ah, the gift of a few days off from work. I spent yesterday cutting fabric for a quilt that will actually fit our queen-size bed. I discovered I don't have enough fabric, so I've ordered some bleached muslin to fill in. It's a simple pattern -- thirty different homespun patterns in cheerful colors. I cut 180 6-1/2" squares. I'm going to outline those with 2" strips of muslin then outline the whole base of the quilt with a solid yellow strip and bind it with a yellow and gold plaid cut on the bias -- I love plaid binding cut on the bias!

Today I'm going to make some glass beads for my niece Abbey. She and I are fellow jewelry makers. I'm thinking white with various colors of swirls. I may make some stringer out of the wonderful frit I have -- just to see what happens.

First, I need to do something productive. For one, I'm going to put the charms I received from the Cloth, Paper, Scissors Charm Swap on the charm bracelet I bought in Hot Springs. It already had silver crosses on it and I'm also going to add some of my beaded charms. I finally e-mailed the people who made the charms I received to thank them. I've already heard back from one of the ladies! Overall, this has been a most "charming" experience. I've been humbled and delighted by the charms I've received, the responses to my work, and the conversations that have begun as a result of this swap. I can't wait to read the magazine article this fall.

My other choices for the moment are work in the yard or clean up the craft room. I'm leaning toward the craft room, knowing full well I'll get distracted into craft -- not a bad thing, right?

Return to the Blog Spot!

My spinning is better now. I'm almost finished with the first project I've knitted with yarn I have spun myself. The pattern is Carol's Clever Little Shawl from the KAL at the Sheep Shed Studio forum on Ravelry. I have pictures of my fiber and yarn on the Sheep Shed Studio forum. Watch for pictures of the finished shawl soon!

I'm currently reading The Black Swam: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. The next books I'm ordering will be The Peasant Prince and the first book in the Warriors series.

I'm journaling about my parents' 60th anniversary celebration. The working title is "What You Can Do in Sixty Years" and it will probably wind up being a mixed media piece.

first spinning

Beginning a new hobby is one of the most exciting things I can think of doing. There's so much possibility and forgiveness because you're just learning. Terry and i put together my spinning wheel (Kromski Prelude) a week or so after it arrived, and a few days later I tried my first spinning. I mostly worked from memory of my brief exerience at Knit and Spin Day. Now that I've spun this roving, I'm reading more and looking at posts and videos.

This fiber should make other spinners feel really good about their first effors -- I know it's not the greatest, but I still love it. I don't know what I'll make with it yet, but it was fun.

I had a nice day shopping in Little Rock yesterday. I made friends with Fred the Cockatiel at Cockatiel Glass & Beads. I bought some toggles to make stitch markers and some beads for my Cheshire Cat shawl. I started the shawl, but I think my yarn is more sock weight than lace weight. I can't remember if I bought 4 oz. or 8 oz., so I'm slightly worried about running out before it's long enough. Time will tell . . . . It's a lace pattern, I'm going to use lifelines, and I'll figure out what to do with it when it gets finished.

I finished Margaret's goddess doll. I even made her (the goddess) a prayer shawl. I tried to name her, but she wouldn't tell me what she wanted to be called. Maybe she'll tell Margaret. Margaret and I spent a happy couple of hours knitting and talking and drinking coffee. We talked for the umpteenth time about forming a regular group for knitting. Maybe we will this year.

DH just came him. We're going to lunch at the mighty Wagon Wheel.

New Year's Day

Ok, so I need to learn a little bit more about felting. I had felted a piece of I-cord from some woold I had used to make a hat and mittens. I just threw it in with some other laundry and it turned out pretty cool. So I made some I-cord and a couple of small swatches from the Paca Paints that I'm using for the bag and threw them in with some random laundry. Oh no! It was the biggest wadded up mess I've ever seen! The swatches looked like lint balls and the cord was equally awful. At least I just ruined those before I threw the whole bag in.

My problem now is that seeing how those pieces look, I've lost interest in finishing the bag. I'm sure I will at some point, but at the moment I can't bear to think of a full skein's worth of knitting stockinette in the round only to have a potential disaster at the end of it. I know felting is unpredictable, but think my only choices were "great" and "total destruction".

I consoled myself by knitting some more on the pastel cardigan and starting a tiny shawl from some handpainted, handspun, beaded stuff to go on a beaded "doll" for Margaret. I'm also working on a double-point case from hand-dyed silk for Terry and assorted charms for the Cloth, Paper, Scissors charm swap.

Hmmmm, maybe I do have enough going on that I can live without felting!

First Day

Ravelry is the reason I'm writing in a blog for the first time in my life. Though I have a good group of knitting friends locally (and quilting friends and lampwork friends and . . . . ) , having the world as a knitting group if fascinating.

I'm typing with a great deal of trepidation. This act feels like opening my journal for everyone to read. That's not something I would ever do and so blogging is correspondently uncomfortable. Maybe if I think of this as a public supplement to journaling, I'll become more at ease.

Knitting is one of my hobbies. I spend most of my "leisure" opportunities with needles and yarn in hand. Most recently I made two shrug-style sweater for my youngest granddaughter, mittens and hats for all of the grandchildren, and several hats for Knitting for Noggins.

I have plans to make sweaters for the grandkids for Christmas 2009. I have yarn for two of the sweaters and have started one of them. The sweater was coming along nicely until I got side-tracked yesterday on a bag for myself. It's my first intentional felting project. I'm not using a pattern either. I started from the bottom up and I can't decide how I want to do the handles -- ribbon or I-cord or beads? Right now I'm thinking ribbons for handles and beads around the top for embellishment.

So . . . time to go knit!