snapshots from Saturday

Oh yeah, yesterday felt good.

One stop along the way was an art museum

where I noticed a few
fibercrafty tidbits within the art.

(Yes, the spool is carved from the pencil's wood
and the needle from the graphite!)

A little raucous Shakespeare and
some good knitting in the sunshine
to round out a glorious day.

Ahh...

tweaks

The Goob sewed herself yet another 18th century outfit, which she wore at the farmers' market last weekend.

Her junior docent job for the day was to take payment from people who wanted a horse drawn carriage ride, but in between tending customers, she did a good bit of spinning.

Each time she makes another outfit, she tries a little tweak -- changing the pleats, adding some tucks, inserting a ruffle. This time, she chose to do a pleated ribbon edge.

While at the market, I got a visit from a blog reader. Paintermom :::hi Susan!::: and her daughter popped down from Massachusetts because they know a fun time when they see pics of it.

Meanwhile, since knitting myself a sweater seems kind of silly right now, I got an itch to make something else. I didn't want to buy the 17 skeins of yarn it calls for, so I challenged myself to come up with a similar color scheme from my stash. I started with the recommended color names, matched them with skeins that I had, and then tweaked things a little bit (my camel/bark is more of a light and medium gray than browns, for instance).

Any guesses what this project will be?

With that, I'm off to knit for the remainder of the evening, as there are entirely too many WIPs on the needles for me to be comfortable with starting yet another project. Need to clear a few projects out before casting on for this new one. Luckily, a coral reef documentary awaits.

weight loss surgery

ha ha. No, not for me. I'm losing weight the old fashioned way. This is weight loss surgery for my favorite bag!

I wear my everyday bag (which pretends to be a purse, but is really just a place to carry a sock WIP, phone, and wallet -- what else does anyone need?) with the strap diagonally across my body and have noticed recently that, since there's less of me to go around, the strap is now too long and the bag is hanging too low on my hip. The bag is commercially made by Faded Glory, but it's just basic single crochet, so I figured I could perform surgery and get more use out of it. It ends up that I didn't need my mad crochet skillz after all, but since I took pics of the process, I'm posting them here anyway. After 25 years of medical transcription, I can't help but think of it this way:

Preop. Evaluated risks and benefits of procedure.
Received informed consent.
Bag as it was, strap with a safety-pinned flap so I could try it on and see how much excess strap needed to go away before putting the scissors to use.

Incision, debridement, excision.
Picked apart the seam where the strap was sewn in place. 3" of strap was tucked between the bag and lining. Snipped the extra 6" of strap a couple of inches from my pin marker. Whip stitched around the raw edge to prevent unraveling.

Anastomosis performed without complications.
Wound and portals closed with interrupted 3-0 cotton mattress sutures.
Tucked the new end back in place. Secured it well down inside with doubled sewing thread, then stitched it securely in place along the top edge, then a row of stitches to secure the lining/zipper back in place.

Prognosis: Excellent.
Bag back to hip height, not bouncing off my thigh with every step!

(p.s., for those who have asked, 60 so far. WooHoo!)

calypso haiku

Park with steel drum band.
Rose and mixed flower gardens.
Walking path. Nice night.

Shakespeare, shots, and shrooms

The weekend in pictures:

Friday, Shakespeare's The Tempest, performed on the pier in New London, shown with my current sock-in-progress, which I think is just about ready for casting off.

Saturday, Rebels to Redcoats at Old Sturbridge Village. One of my kids was there for the military history and one for the textiles/fashion history. Leah was in full costume and fit right in with the many, many reenactors who contribute to the weekend. She had just finished sewing a bag on commission for a reenactor friend, so she gave it a test run on Saturday and it worked out well.

It was also the biggest number of attendees I think I've ever seen at Old Sturbridge Village. This is a portion of the enormous crowd gathered for the battle (you can see gunsmoke to the left) on this spectacular day. It's like old home day for us too, running into people we know from high school, from being longtime members at OSV, from hanging out with reenactors, from participating in military history miniature gaming groups, from here, there, and everywhere. Interesting conversation about whitework embroidery and spent a good while chatting with the man who was the leader of the British troops x 16 years.

Sunday, Fungus Festival at the Coventry Farmers' Market, including all sorts of mushroomy foods, a surprisingly large group of mycologists offering and participating in lots of mushroom-related activities, and a steady stream of happy customers.

Today, back to work. So I can rest. ;-)

Paying it forward

Donated to a children's knitting circle at a local library. I'm only using circs lately, so happy to pass these on to future knitters!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

girl+ hooks + needles

The multicraftual kid is going in many directions lately. She sewed herself another top for wearing when she volunteers at the Nathan Hale Homestead. Since her reenactment wardrobe is outgrowing her current day wardrobe and she has been taking orders for reenactment clothing, there is talk of opening an Etsy store so she can make things to her heart's content.

She crocheted these thick yarn spirals and sewed them together in what she hopes will become a rug for her bedroom. No idea how this will hold up, but she's having fun with it and says it's a good experiment.

She's almost done knitting a neckwarmer/dickey type thing that spreads out to cover your shoulders, made from some super soft Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted. I remember seeing her winding the yarn into cakes, but otherwise knew nothing about this project until she was working on it while we watched a post-farmers'-market-tired-family documentary last night.

She just came home from errands w/ her dad, happily clutching a bag with new supplies from the fabric store and paint color cards for the walls of her bedroom. There has been much Ravelry browsing lately too, while she decides what sort of pillows/blankets/accessories she wants in her room. Totally cool: Fox's Peace Out 7x7" squares.