Sunday morning

The view from my desk


Hemming the behemoth

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faves

busy beavers in our new favorite hiking area

busy knitters in our favorite lys

a lifelong condition

My mom's retiring soon and getting ready to move south. It's interesting what little time capsules she's digging into, things that have been stashed since my sister and I were little girls.

Further proof that this little yarny obsession o' mine is a lifelong condition.

Eh. There are worse obsessions!

This week: wayyyyy too much work
(not that I'm complaining)

Tonight: knitting and chillin'!

not knitting

Very little knitting going on 'round here, but there's been lots of sewing. You see, Leah's going to a vintage dance event next month, so she made this:

Without a pattern.

Or any help.

Sewn entirely by hand (her choice not to use the machine).

Total cost: <$14. I am told she will also use a handknit reticule that night. I didn't know what a reticule was.

Well, okey dokey, then! ;-)

hold that thought

:::beep::: We interrupt your regularly scheduled knitterly and glassy program to romp in the woods, soak up the sunshine, cook over a campfire, and marvel at how long the daylight is lasting and the accompanying return of our energy levels.

There's still yarny goodness going on, but the sun's out there again today and the calendar offers plenty of good options, so off we go.

More to come. Shine on!
:::beep:::

Meanwhile, here's something wooly just for the fun of it:

well-worn

This is the scarf I grab most often
when I'm heading out the door.

Makes me think of that proverb about
the shoemaker's children. :-)

have yarn, will wait

Scene from the parents' waiting area during one of Leah's activities yesterday evening:

Am I following the knitters
or are they following me?

mocs that rock

After four years of wear, Scott's felted clog slippers are worn through, so this time I made him a pair of felted moccasins.

You saw them in pre-felted stage here. After a couple of cycles through the washer in hot water, I stitched on some suede soles to make them less slippery, threaded shoelaces through the appropriate places for snugging up the back end, and...ta da!

Mocs that Rock!
Pattern: Felted Moccasins by Bev Galeskas, from Felted Knits
Yarn: Paton's Classic Wool
Another excellent pattern that works up quickly,
with great results.

You see those nicely stitched on soles? Those and half a sock foot are the grand total of my progress on projects in the past week. :::sigh::: And now, since the guys are at a rocketry conference (where Jesse won a $50 gift cert and they're hooking up with a bunch of friends for a party this evening!) and Leah has a friend here for a sleepover, I'm going to spend the evening getting reacquainted with a certain green sweater that's calling my name.

Leah is a blockhead

One of Leah's pals in the ukulele band was having a birthday this week. During the winter, he complained about his gloves not keeping his hands warm enough, so she whacked together stash wool yarn, a basic mitten pattern, and a star chart pulled from an Elizabeth Zimmermann book. She ended up with some lumpy mittens that had potential.

Knowing the transformative powers of blocking, especially on stranded knits, into the soak water the mittens went with a bit of Eucalan. Dried overnight on a fluffy towel, the stitches settled in together to make a nicely smoothed fabric, so she ended up with a gift from the heart, fit for a friend.

The whole uke band sang happy birthday to him. Every rehearsal is like a party for those guys. Leah's thrilled to be a part of their group and I'm thrilled that we found them.

then and now

Among the countless amazing things we saw at the American Museum of Natural History and Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC last Saturday were, of course, some textile-related exhibits that caught my attention.

Weaving loom from Africa. Jesse tells me the loops at the bottom would go over the weaver's big toes and tilting the feet up or down would raise and lower the...heddles? shed? (Oh, I'm so not a weaver. Need to go ask my guys, but they're busy working outside.) So cool.

Woven spider silk from Madagascar. I kid you not. Natural color. There's a video here to tell more about it. 96 strands to make a single thread. Mind-boggling.

Then, Sunday included a visit to the USS Nautilus/Submarine Force Museum (where it was clear that submarines are not built for the likes of my 6'3" son) and historic Avery Copp Museum, which is basically a 19th century time capsule. Some of the beauties that caught my eye there were a full-size crazy quilt,

scads of knitted, crocheted, tatted, and Hardanger lace,

and an old set of wooden sock blockers resting on top of a wringer washing machine that's similar to the one I remember my Gram having in her basement when I was a kid!

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Yup, I Spy 3 is a pic from All About Eve. It's funny how those connections keep popping up in movies we watch.

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I'm hoping to get those fruit loop necklaces up on Etsy soon. Thanks for your patience and interest, everybody!

on the train

I grabbed a sock-in-progress for a small and simple traveling project yesterday. It's certainly not the prettiest sock I've ever knit, but it'll do. Also helped to keep me focused on the knitting, instead of looking out the side windows, which would've caused me motion sickness.

Made it through about half a sock on the train ride to Grand Central and back to Connecticut. I didn't see any other knitters on the train around me, but I spotted somebody reading Kate Jacobs' book, Knit Two!

More to come, but we're out the door to a historic home-turned-museum and submarine museum today.

I Spy 3

In what movie did this guy turn to Bette Davis, just before departing on a journey, and dramatically say,

"Knit me a muffler?"

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Hey, check out the Terror Fish and its silly fisherman over at Splityarn.com!

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The calendar is clear for two of us and the forecast is almost spring-like, so I'm off to wake my boy and pop down to NYC for the day. Psyched!

seasons

Oh, how I love having a little more light in our days.

Makes more time for after-work walks in the woods,

swinging at the playground -- whee !!!,

and still squeezing in a little knitting before bedtime.

These slippers are for Scott.
They'll be size 9 after felting.
Shown here before felting,
way too big on Jesse's size 13 feet.
Leap of faith!

sweater 3

Pattern: Vermont Fiber Designs' Cabled Cardigan #173

Yarn: Mystery wool from the weavers' guild tag sale bonanza stash.
Used 3 cones of the 5 seen in the last pic of the bonanza blog post.

Cast on: early Jan. 2010
Cast off: late Feb. 2010

This is the third sweater knit by Leah
(1st: wrap sweater 2008, 2nd: Cece 2009).
It's definitely her favorite to date.

spa 2010

Just a few highlights from a fabulous knitting/spinning/weaving-filled weekend in Maine for New England Textile Arts' Spa Knit and Spin:

Fashion show full of incredible work.

Customers who could not have been more pleasant.
Oh, the fun and challenge of choosing
buttons/earrings/stitch markers!

Scott helped a new spinner get started.

Leah debuted her cabled cardigan
among hundreds of people who understood
what an accomplishment it is.