Yesterday

Yesterday was the Inspirations Needlecraft show. Although Kate and Kate were women on a mission and I was invited along, it was one of those rare days when DH and I didn't have the step-kids in attendance, and I wasn't going to let him out of my sight. Besides, he truly enjoys these shows.

So off we went. It was mid-day on the second day of the show before we got there, which meant things were a little picked over... however, there were still lovelies to spare. What a treat, having quilting, knitting, cross-stitch and sewing vendors all in the same room. I thought my head might implode from fiber overload.

I was good. I was very, very good. I didn't purchase a thing! However, DH, in his infinite wisdom and love, bought me two of the sweetest balls of yarn I will ever own. I don't know if I'll knit them or just fondle them. Yes, they're that good.

We were just about to leave the show, when his cell phone rang, with the news that I had been expecting and dreading for some time now. It was still a surprise, though, 'cause when I saw Dad on Monday he looked strong and like he might live for a long time yet.

Tonight I made good stout German comfort food for supper... a dish that our family has indulged in time and again, a variation of potatoes and dumplings. This is, in my family, traditionally served with cheesecake for dessert. Don't ask me how these things get started, but there it is. Of course, the step kids are a little mystified by the total lack of greenery on the plate, or the lack of variety... but I needed a way to feel closer to my mum and brother out there on the West Coast, and that dish did the trick.

I used a week of compassionate to visit last week. I can go out again, but at the cost of giving up my math course... I am allowed two absences before I am given the boot, and I used them last week. The course is run again in January, but then when I apply for university in the spring it will necessarily be a conditional acceptance, as I will still be finishing the course during the consideration process. I already feel a little behind the eight-ball for missing the two classes last week, especially with mid-terms coming up this week.

Last night I cast on for Millicent, and royally screwed up the first round of lace for the cuff. I'll have to rip back at least a row to the ribbing and try to figure what went wrong.

The Plain Wintery Socks are finished. I think I will re-name them "West-Jet Socks" as I know now that I can finish a single sock in the time it takes me to fly to Vancouver and back. The woman in the seat across the aisle from me was watching in amusement as I scrambled to finish the toe (save for grafting) before the wheels touched the runway back home.

I will also wear them and think of daddy... he held and admired them last week before jokingly asking me if I'd make a pair for him. (Joking 'cause he had no need for a pair; he lost a foot... well, leg, to the complications of diabetes some time ago.)

I'm sorry. I'm not fit company tonight. Thanks for listening, though.

Still Thankful

I have reason to be thankful for many things, this week after Thanksgiving. I flew out to Vancouver Island to be with my family as my father was placed in a hospice, and I have seen some of the best of human nature this week.

I am thankful for the kindness of strangers, and volunteers... people who selflessly give of their time to make someone else's life just a little bit smoother. The hospice workers, always ready with a cup of tea and a kind word, ease some small sting. Dad is surrounded by family and friends, but I can imagine their worth to those who face this journey without such support.

Dad worked before his illness in this same hospital as a shift engineer. He touched many people through the years with his good nature, crazy humour and his willingness to work, and now all those chickens are coming home to roost. The nurses who he once helped look out for him, and even moved him to a private room yesterday. Kindnesses to others never go unanswered, whether in this world of the next.

I am grateful as well for that same sense of humour. It has not deserted him, and he is still funny and irreverant about everything, including his own death. With the constant laughter, we are by far the loudest room on the ward, and I bet we make everyone wonder what's going on. When he is so joyful and accepting of his choice, how can we who love him best do otherwise?

RTFM

DH took his eldest daughter to the hockey game last night, which left me alone with the youngest and her "play date." Seriously. That's the term the "date's" mother used when she called to ask if her daughter could come over. I'm not sure how to take the phrase but I do know when I went over to one of my little friend's houses to play, it wasn't a "play date." That's like calling a garbage-man a sanitation engineer... tarting up something with words. Calling me up and asking if her daughter and mine could run like a pack of wolves in the basement is much closer to the truth.

So we did a little build-it-yourself pizza for dinner, and while they were downstairs, doing whatever it is that little girls do without direct parental supervision, I was upstairs, utterly indulging. I had a glass of Bailey's, a bowl of popcorn (what? That's a balanced dinner, isn't it?), the entire first season of The Tudors (Long live Henry VIII!) and just a little wool. This is what I built.



A pretty, pretty swatch for the Kauni cardigan. My first experiment in colourwork, and it's obvious by the puckering that I need to learn not to carry my stranding so tightly. Also, I didn't get gauge, so I tried again (after RTFM'ing and discovering gauge was with plain knit, not the colourwork.) (RTFM= read the friggin' manual) I moved up to a 3.75mm needle from the 3.5mm and got perfect stitch gauge. Not overly concerned about row gauge, as it will be on circs and I can try as I go.



Does it show that I am just a little bored with Wintery Socks and alpaca scarf and am looking for a little something something special in my knitting life?!

I am so going to have to develop a knitter's callus on my throwing finger. The Kauni yarn is pretty darned scratchy after a while. (A fatal flaw for a knitted undergarment, but something I am prepared to live with for a cardigan.)

This will be one hell of a long, but amusing, project.

My Friend, the Harlot

Dear Harlot;

There's something that's been bothering me for the last few days.

It all started with Ravelry. I entered a few projects, photographed some yarn, and had fun with the site. The trouble started when I went to the "friends" tab. You know how it shows you pictures of people who did the same projects as you, and suggests that you might be friends? Well, having cooked up a couple of socks from your Basic Sock Recipe, I saw, amongst the other happy sock knitters, a small black and white photo of you. I didn't even think twice. I added you as my friend.

I immediately had second thoughts. Let's face it... you don't know me. We're not even in the same city. You could ride past me on your bike and not know me from any other muggle. Sure, we met at a book signing, but you've met a significant portion of the knitter population in this country and the next, and I don't flatter myself that you'd remember my face out of the thousands. Considering those facts, adding you as my friend on Ravelry seems a little... presumptuous. Possibly even stalker-esque. Or just plain juvenile.... like the people who just add everyone to their "friends" list on Facebook, thinking that might make them seem loved and popular.

I wondered what you'd think when you got that notification that you'd been added as my friend. "Who the hell...?" you'd think, then probably shrug it off. I suspect I'm not the only one, but all the same, I was uncomfortable with you thinking that I presumed friendship. I very nearly removed you from my friends list.

Then I thought a little about it all. And here's how I see it now.

I make time in my busy life for you almost every day. I can't wait to hear what you, your family and the squirrels are up to. Your stories have made me laugh, made me cry, made me mad, and made me act. "Knitting Rules" is a constant companion, and from it I draw the courage to be the boss of my own knitting, the technical know-how to make what I want to make, and no end of amusement. Even my family knows you... the household activities come to a screeching halt when you were on CBC TV and I am forever stopping someone to read aloud a choice excerpt from a book or blog entry.

Though I think my husband sometimes regrets that you hang around the house so much. One night as we sat in a darkened theater together, I muttered and cursed over the fact that there simply wasn't enough light to knit by. "But the Harlot knits in theaters!" I exclaimed, frustrated. "If the Harlot went to movies naked, would you do that, too?" my husband growled, exasperated with this whole knitting obsession.

I'd have to give it some thought.

I think "friend" actually is the wrong word for it. I think "role model" might be a better fit. I know you're probably surprised at that, but there it is. You make being an "ordinary" mother, wife and knitter look pretty damned good. The humour through which you see the world, the patience you exemplify towards your family (and sometimes even your knitting), the way you're not afraid to stand up and do something to right a wrong. Even the fact that your hard labour with needles and yarn sometimes turns out looking like ass is terribly, terribly endearing. You are a quiet heroine for the everyday woman.

Steph... can I call you Steph?... Please don't think I'm stalking you 'cause I added you as friend. It's just sometimes, you're more helpful then the in-the-flesh people around me. And let's not forget, you are personally to blame for the fact that I am now obsessed with string and pointy sticks. You must be held accountable for that; it alone earns you the epithet "friend."

Respectfully,

your admirer,

Susan

PS. See what you made me do?



Plain Wintery Socks, Basic Sock Recipe (Knitting Rules), Austermann Step yarn. One to go.

PSS: Can you spot the difference?

It's Just My OCD Talking...

So I was sitting outside at lunch, working on the alpaca scarf, thinking about binary code and how it can be turned into knitting (ASCII.) A knit to represent 1, a purl for 0... you could turn any text into knitting. 8 characters per letter... 110 0001 for a small-caps "a"... two knits, four purls, a knit. Some multiple of eight for the row count. It would be the ultimate scarf to be stuck on a desert island with... or to accessorize a well-dressed spy.

I was thinking of a scarf made from the Qur'an, with a lovely little lacy inset, as similar as possible to Arabic calligraphy as possible, to give the pause for the Bismillah's at the beginning of every chapter. Since each chapter in the book is arranged from longest to shortest, the lace would be closer and closer as the scarf progressed... I can see it in my mind and it's rather lovely.

So. There, in one short post, you get to feel the impact that taking philosophy and math courses at the same time are having on my mind when combined with the knitting bug. Freaky stuff.

Picture Perfect

To distract you from the lack of new knitting or quilting progress pictures, I bring you PhotoBlog Tuesday.

This is the Apple Pie "Fan and Feather" scarf I made for my mom, Linda. It's been done for some time now but needed blocking. Here it is on the wires:











Blocking is such a minor miracle. It turns "nice" into "wow!" Wish I could find me something to do that to other areas in life! :)

A kitchen "wow!"... Home-made pad thai. I've never made it before this week, but have now made it twice because it's so delicious and fun to make. Everyone loves it, too, which is the larger surprise. (My wok can only handle two servings at once, so I make a batch of comparatively bland pad thai for the girls, and a more zippy one for DH and I.



To finish off, two pretty leaves I came across on Sunday. My husband's brother has some property out in Lanark, and we went out there to take the air. What a perfect day. We even found a little fibre festival at Almonte, and finished our trip by admiring some quilts and alpaca fur from Victory Alpaca Farm. Nice man, nice yarn.

Lovely weekend.

Kind of Funny

I ran into the other gal on station who knits today (the chunky acrylic lover), and she asked me if I had finished my socks yet. I couldn't bear to have her patronize my slow knitting again, so I exaggerated. Okay, I flat-out lied... said that one was done and I hadn't yet cast on the other.

All to no purpose, though. Her face got all pitying and she said "Slow and steady... keep on going!" like she was encouraging a mentally deficient child. I smiled the kind of smile that said child might smile... full, toothy and overly optimistic, and walked away, leaving her to her pity.

I can't be angry. I think it's kind of funny, actually. Those socks come with me to night school, so the only time they get worked on is about 15 minutes before class, and during the 15 minute break. So I'm working on those socks for about an hour a week, and still am making what I consider good progress. I am finished the gusset decreases, cruising along towards the happy toesies.

Kate and I had this discussion at the last Tuesday SnB. We concluded that I am a process knitter, and I am happy with this. If I only had one ball of wool to knit for the rest of my life, I would knit it 2,000 different ways and happily rip it all out to try the 2,001st way. I am not in this to win races as to how fast I can crank out a pair of socks... I am still pretty amazed about the fact that I can knit anything at all, let alone clever socks on tiny needles with fine yarn. I don't think Chunky Acrylic Girl would understand this, even had I taken the time to explain.

On to quilting. The ever-helpful Adriana at Quilter's Choice where I first bought this fabric has confirmed (with the manufacturer, no less) that the green paisley focus fabric is not available any longer. I think I will attempt to find fabric that is a close match instead to the sashing... this dark caramel crackle.

It will look lovely both with the green paisley and also against the burgundy bed skirt. I'll get enough fabric to make pillow shams, as well. (DH suggested that I get still more fabric and make a new skirt out of the same. I kinda like the multi-coloured theme that green, caramel and burgundy offer, but DH usually has pretty good colour/fashion sense. Any thoughts, or do you need pics to get an idea of what the girl is rambling on about?)

Speaking of colours. Gillian left a comment on my last entry, informing me that my blog is hard to read on Bloglines. Having never used that program, much less read my own blog on it, I had no idea there was a problem. I checked it out on Google Reader and found it okay (though admittedly, not optimum)... I would also appreciate your comments on readability issues, if any. I love my black/orange scheme but certainly don't want to leave anyone behind 'cause I'm hard to read.

Happy Autumn!

Not as much time spent in the sewing room as I had wanted this weekend, but I felt a little guilty letting these gorgeous days of Indian summer pass me by without frolicking in the sunshine. Okay, I suppose I didn't exactly frolic... but the weather was enjoyed nonetheless.

I did accomplish something, though... I spent about an hour on my hands and knees in the living room, pin-basting "Oh Tannenbaum" together with its backing and batting. That wasn't a fun process, but I think it's largely square and wrinkle-free. I'll take another look later before I lay it under the machine to begin quilting.

DH and I tried out the duvet cover on the bed. Distressingly, there's a significant gap between where the duvet cover ends and the bed skirt begins. This really shouldn't be a surprise as the duvet cover is the same size as the duvet. To my mind, a duvet that hangs well over the edge just draws insulation from the rest of it... you end up with 5 pounds of feathers in the edge and not much anywhere else.

So I've decided to sew a ruffle about 1.5' around the sides and bottom of the duvet cover, to hide the potential messiness of sheets and blankets. The fabric of the border, the green paisley, would be perfect for this... however, it was purchased at least 2 years ago and I imagine finding some more will prove problematic (particularly since I don't even know what it was called.) I'll try to pursue this angle but expect no luck... I will settle for another colour, I suspect. There's lots of options to pick up in the quilt... brown, cream or even that same olive green would be lovely. (Burgundy would work, too, but the skirt is burgundy, and it would have to be almost an exact match to work.)

Herding Cats

You've noticed how quiet I've been lately. I knew this would happen. I began my math course last night, and of course philosophy is still ongoing, so there's a pile of time out of my life right there. Not to mention now that DH and the girls are back in the house, I am obligated to stomp around the house with a cleaning cloth in hand, wiping unidentifiable substances off of walls, doors, fridges and floors, muttering and cursing under my breath while doing so. Part of me mourns the beauty of the self-cleaning house I had for those solitary six months...

And then there's the meals to prepare, trying to corral the girls into helping in some capacity with clean-up afterwards, even though the exercise seems as futile and pointless as herding cats. I think more energy is expended in hounding everyone to do their chores, but I live in perpetual hope of having something I say stick in their heads.... so I keep trying. I am nothing if not stubborn.

So my life has been tipped into a blender set to "frappe". Part of me really gets off on the crazy pace, and another part of me wants to take the first part of me out to the back pasture and put a bullet through it. Conflicted, am I. (I was going to blame this sentence structure on Kate at first, but then I realized it's more Yoda than Gollum. Carry on.)

Crafty update... I have about 15 inches on the Fluffy Alpaca Scarf... I am switching colours as the mood strikes me and throwing in random stripy goodness... it is still amusing despite the relative monotony of the brioche stitch. I think a large part of the appeal is the heavenly texture of the KnitPicks Andean Treasure alpaca that it's being knit from... nothing that excruciatingly soft can get annoying. (I say that now, but ask me again when I have 3 feet of that sucker knit up. My tune may be different.)

I am done with the machine sewing on the duvet cover... the binding is attached as is one side of the snap tape closure. I have about 8 hours of hand-stitching left to do to sew the binding to the back, and the reverse side of the snap tape. Good thing Survivor starts tonight and Grey's Anatomy next week! That be prime stitching time, friends. (They had last year's season finale for Grey's on tonight, and I was crying just as hard as I did the first time around. Somehow, knowing what's all going to happen makes it worse, not better.)

In closing, here's a close-up of the free-motion quilting I did on the duvet cover. It gives you a bit of an idea of the texture that the quilting added to the lovely paisley pattern.

Small Sunday Sadnesses

I have the duvet cover laid out in the middle of the living room floor in order to pin the finished back on. There's still binding to be cut, but the project is coming along nicely. Next weekend it will be finished? Close, at least.

I've spent a minute every day for the last few days going over to Ravelry to peek in on the Waiting List Checker, trying to guess when I'll get in. As the numbers got smaller I'd check more than once a day.

Now that I received the invite, I feel a little let down. I have no waiting list to top anymore...

Funny.

The house is infused with the faint liquorice scent of French Tarragon... last night's frost warning has me harvesting and dehydrating my herb garden in a panic. I feel ripped off... it seems like the growing season and summer in general was five minutes long. I haven't even really properly enjoyed any of the summer, and now it's almost passed. I feel so sad hearing the first of the geese fly overhead.

Self-Confessed Fiber Snob

I knit at work... well, just at lunch, to be more precise. I want to knit all the other hours in the day, but that one hour is mine to do what I will with. I eat early so I have free hands for the needles, and I sit in a common area of the shop, and endure the stupid comments of the (usually) men that see me.
Now, I love me a bit of conflict. I love the juxtaposition of my colourful yarn, my tiny needles, and my "girlie" past-time against my CADPAT uniform and black combat boots. I knit, I enjoy it, and I tacitly dare people to say something stupid. Go ahead. I'm waiting for you.
Generally, they know when to keep their mouths shut. I have a certain reputation for being a bit intimidating, attitude wise, and they just know not to mess with me. (There was the fellow who asked me if I was knitting socks, when I had 4 feet of the Scarf That Never Ends pooled on the floor at my feet. Okay, bonus points to him for even thinking socks, but... dude, look at what I'm doing before you say something totally retarded.)

However, I recently got smacked down from an unexpected quarter. There's a new female in the section. She's seen me knitting a time or two and has stopped to chat. She, too, is a knitter. She watched me for a couple of moments, working on the Plain Wintery socks with 2.5mm needles, and said...

"You knit slow!"

I'm a big girl. And, as a new knitter, I am perfectly willing to acknowledge that this indeed may be the case. However, I was completely flummoxed by what happened next. She wanted to demonstrate twisted rib, so I surrendered the yarn and needles. After some fumbling, she knotted up the yarn a little... squinted at the mess, and said "The yarn is so fine I can't even feel it!" and handed the needles back to me.

I am wondering now if she would recant her declaration that I knit slowly, considering she couldn't even feel the yarn and needles.

She told me later that she buys her yarn at Sears. I think no further explanation is necessary.

Bulky acrylic yarn knits up real fast.

(Yes, I am a fiber snob. Is it showing?)

Do you Feel It?

I was in the groove, I was in the zone, and I was feelin' the love, baby... I was feelin' it.

My duvet cover has been quilted within six inches of its life. I found The Pattern that it needed... nay, demanded, to be quilted in... a simple dipsy-doodle around the paisley designs on the fabric. (Yes, dipsy-doodle is a highly technical term.) Once I figured it out, I just ran with it.

I would have finished all the quilting tonight, but my needle shattered into three pieces with six inches left to do. I'll take that as a sign from God that I am supposed to take a step back from the machine, work out the kinks in my shoulders and the twitch in my eye, and finish it off another night.

As to why the needle shattered? Besides being on the old side and used for (obviously) one too many projects, the tension on my sewing machine has been a little off since I took it in for a tune-up. Even on the lowest tension setting, it's hard to pull the top thread... I probably need to take it back to the shop but it wasn't so bad that it would stop me from quilting, you know.

Pictures? Soon. Though they'll be tricky... dark brown quilting on dark green paisley patterned fabric is not, I think, going to show up that well.

There's not much left on this duvet cover. Trim the top, cut the backing to size, sew backing to quilt, make and attach binding, sew on snap strip, and finish the top edge. Does that sound like a lot? After the hours and hours spent quilting this massive project, believe me... this is nothing. With concerted effort and a good wash, this could grace our bed next weekend.

I always listen to audio books while I sew, and somehow, they get sewn in to the project. I have a table runner in the front room that I sewed while listening to Dune... and now I think of Paul Atreides every time I see the runner.

This duvet cover will carry emotional baggage from The Thorn Birds. I will feel the heat of the forbidden love between Meggie and Father Ralph de Bricassart when we snuggle beneath its weight.

I like that.

Knowledge to be Gained

I've made a lot of progress on a number of projects, but nothing that is interesting, photographically.

I stitched for a couple of hours on Wolfie, while Lisa was over, using my sewing machine to learn paper foundation quilting. I finished machine quilting all the blocks on my duvet cover, and even was brave enough for a little free-motion goodness... I actually went over the blocks I quilted by hand. Let's pretend that was a design feature added as a nod to the way things use to be done. Let us never speak of hand quilting again... :)

I am now faced with quilting the border of the duvet cover. I'll free-motion it, too, but have been in a quandary as to what pattern to use. Finally I came to the realization that it is, after all, a sampler quilt... I learned two types of appliqué, paper piecing, using templates... there's a lot of new knowledge represented in the blocks. So, appropriately, there will be knowledge gained throughout the quilting process, too. I'll try a little stippling, maybe some floral patterns, some happy vines and leaves... I'll doodle all over the border and call it art and education and fun. I think my OCD soul can stomach having the quilting different all over, and now that the decision is made, I have gone from dreading the process to looking forward to playing. No matter how the quilting turns out, this has to be a good thing.

I'm mid-heel in the Wintery Blues, and have swatched and cast on a few rows on the two-coloured brioche-stitch alpaca scarf. Wait a minute... maybe that deserves a picture. Here's the swatch... done in cottons just so I can understand the mechanics of the stitch.




And the actual beginnings of the scarf.



(This reminds me of Charlie Brown's shirt...)

The ribbing isn't coming up clearly but I intend to keep going for a few more rows. I am also not sure about this needle size; the fabric is very dense. I'll play a bit more and then decide. I am loving the stitch, though... it is soft and cushy and perfect for a scarf.

Seven and Eight... Did you think I had forgotten?

I finally got the pretty Project-O-Meter going on the right side-bar, so we can all track my progress, or lack of it, together. As I was setting up the bars, I realized I only had six of them. Huh? I've been blogging about 10 Projects for two months now and had only introduced you to six projects?
Time to fix that forthright. Here's Number Seven.


Sunflower Star, from the American Quilt Collection (canvaswork)

I'm about 80% done; there's an intricately patterned double border around what I've got so far and then it will be done.

Here's Project Eight, which requires a little more explanation.



These blocks are from a quilt block swap I did with the wonderful ladies over on RCTQ last year. Each participant sends in turn a square foot of their chosen fabrics to the other participants, who then turn that fabric into whatever they want... using any style and any other fabrics they wish.

I adored participating in this swap, and played the game for a full year. I found it really stretched my horizons as a quilter; at times I worked with fabrics that I absolutely could not stand... but when I was done, I always had a lovely block that I was proud to send back to the originator. The blocks that came back to my mailbox were always wonderful, too... each as individual as the woman who laboured over it.

This specific collection is for a very patient friend of mine. She chose the focus fabric, and I told her I'd make the quilt for her. She's been waiting a year now... but seems content to wait upon my creative process and busy workload in the sewing room. Thank god for patient friends!

This will be a wonderfully autumnal quilt when completed.

Plain Wintery Socks

I just knew there would be some good knitting done yesterday.

This is about three inches of progress... I know some people could have got the whole darn sock done in that period of time but this for me is pretty good. I'll probably take them another inch before I begin the heel.

I'm getting some vicious laddering on these, and I can't seem to make it go away. I've tried making the stitches before and after the cables really tight, but that's had minimal effect. These are my first plain-janes on circs; with the monkeys, laddering wasn't an issue at all. Weird.

Today is for quilting. My husband has gone "out to the bush" with his brothers to beat his chest in a manly fashion, or whatever they do out there. He's taken the girls, too... the house is mine. I think I'll call up a girlfriend and sew away the afternoon. What a terrible way to spend the day! :)

I got the marks back this morning for my first unit in Philosophy. Although I got a diploma in BC, I'm upgrading my Grade 12-level courses. Physics last term, Philosophy over the summer and fall, and Advanced Functions beginning mid-September.

I absolutely agonized over this unit, taking twice as long as expected to hand it in... every question was something I had spent years thinking about, and now all the sudden I needed to come up with a hard answer! Wow, it was tough, and I felt my efforts were very juvenile.

Not so, apparently. I received a glowing evaluation and it was suggested that I perhaps *am* a philosopher.

Mom, you were right. :) Can you call it, or can you call it?