randomness

Every once in a while I find that there are a whole bunch of tidbits collected in my head, little things that I want to mention on the blog but they just sort of pile up and wait until I get around to it. Today I'm getting a round tuit. In no particular order:

1. Even when I expect it, I always get a little surprise to see myself (green shirt, first The Good pic), the Goob (2nd shot in the young knitters section), some of our fave peeps (front row, 2nd The Good pic), or stuff we've made pop up on the Internet.

2. We ordered red wiggler worms for vermicomposting. I am looking forward to having them turn our food scraps into nourishment for my house plants. Scott and Jesse are looking forward to their arrival for an entirely different reason.

3. Free summer concerts are so much fun. Especially when they're Motown.

4. Yahoo Photos is shutting down, so they make it easy to move pics to Flickr, but my captions seem to have gotten lost in the transfer. Did any of you have the same thing happen? Am I SOL or would a re-transfer solve the problem? Meanwhile, I've updated our travel links in the sidebar to reflect the new Flickr location of the albums.






5. When we decided to see Comedy of Errors performed by a bawdy group of Shakespearean performers whose performance we enjoyed very much last year, it was especially fun to discover that the setting for the play is a place we've visited recently, Ephesus. It was even more fun to have the follicularly-challenged husband picked out of the crowd to participate in a portion of the play that talks about the benefits of being hair-free, including "The one, to save the money that he spends in trimming; the other, that at dinner they should not drop in his porridge." Bwahahaha! Among the audience, we spotted a knitter in the wild. Upon chatting with her, we learned that she was knitting stockings on size 000 needles for Old Sturbridge Village, which was right up the road and where we spent the remainder of that weekend.

6. One day recently, there were two people in this family who both needed to use the sewing machine for their projects du jour. Both were happy with their results and both are under age 13.

7. Cliff's Upholstery in East Hartford is a good choice if you need reupholstery of some furniture. They did our sofa, loveseat, and chair with ottoman in two weeks. As soon as I choose fabric for one more chair, they'll get that one too and I will breathe a big sigh of relief to have those projects moved to the "finished" category on my mental list. I cannot stifle my glee at being able to sit on real furniture in our living room for the first time in six months.

8. We stopped using shampoo almost two months ago, switching instead to a baking soda and vinegar no poo option. We expected a transition period of ratty hair, but that didn't happen. Our hair is as clean as it ever was and healthier than before. A box of baking soda and a bottle of white vinegar (works just as well as cider vinegar) will last us a Very Long Time. No chemicals, minimal product consumption, and the baking soda box will eventually feed our plants (see #2 above). It is amazing to me that the entire shampoo and conditioner section of the grocery store is unnecessary. As usual, simpler fits us better.

9. A scoop of gelato and a rambling walk around the town center with the Grandma can make for an outstanding summer evening outing when you are in the 9-12 range (and beyond, for sure).

10. We have discovered a new addition to the category of home improvement follies that we've come to call Guntherisms, in honor of this house's previous owner, Gunther. Upon beginning to beef up the ceiling joists, we slowly and painfully began to realize that every single current joist on the porch is 1/2" narrower than standard sizing. Why, oh, why?! So, as usual, it's two steps back before we can take one forward here. Every single 16-foot board on our porch is in the process of being trimmed 1/2". We're trying to focus on the positive here. For example, "Well, at least Jesse's getting lots of practice with the circular saw." Yippee?! :::rolling eyes:::

11. The Friends of Counted Embroidery group apparently has meetings at our library on occasion. If two stitchy type people just happen to be visiting the library during that time, they may be unable to resist a detour into the meeting to ooh and aah over other stitchers' finished objects. We spent over half an hour enjoying our time with the women of this group and all the while I was thinking that I *used* to be a stitcher, but it's been such a long time since I did anything with a threaded needle. It wasn't until I was almost asleep later that night that it occurred to me that I actually did quite a bit of stitching just a few months ago. D'oh.





12. When there are 30 work hours added to an already full work week, not much knitting is accomplished, but I did manage to finish a pair of socks and am happy to report that it's possible to get a kid-sized pair and an adult (shortish) pair out of one skein of Opal 6-ply, which we like very much.

13. In the past week, I have heard from three out of my four bridesmaids and two high school friends, and hung out with someone I've known from LaLeche League for >10 years. Nice!

14. The xmas knitting has begun. :-) There is a shark hat on Ravelry that makes me laugh every time I look at it.

Random stream of consciousness blog post, over and out!

peeps

Not a peep out of the Goob as she made super secret plans to hang with her Grammy on Sunday afternoon, but Grammy is an incredible quilter and the Goob is increasingly sewing-obsessed, so I figured there'd be fabric and thread in the equation. Also Grammy has a fantabulous sewing machine that's probably worth more than my car and, of course, that's like the holy grail for a 9-year-old seamstress wannabe. She was nearly bursting with pride when she came home later that afternoon and presented me with this beoooooootiful drawstring bag. Perfect for holding the sock-knitting project du jour and/or whatever else I fancy. It's lined and everything. We are especially tickled by the fancy swirly stitch added to the edge of the top cuff in coordinating variegated thread.

Much of the weekend was spent among my peeps -- crafty homeschooling moms. Works in progress included knitting, spinning, felting, quilting, cross stitching, scrapbooking, and one preparing her photographic prints for sale. Conversation meandered to include freeform crochet and hardanger, so I thought I'd post a pic of one of my past hardanger projects here, in case Gretchen follows up to see some of what I was talking about. This is yet another Emie Bishop design, mostly plain ol' cross stitch, but with a touch of hardanger and some drawn thread work and other stitch variations too. Since this one is mounted with muslin behind the linen, it's probably more difficult to see the hardanger and other cut thread work, but maybe clicking for the big pic will help.

And since I'm talking about peeps today, I just couldn't resist putting up the most recent I Can Has Cheezburger post. I cannot tell you how many times that goofy site has made me laugh until I cried, causing my family to rush into my office to join in on the fun.


see more crazy cat pics

reporting from The House of Halters

Ever since the Goob discovered the cool comfort of wearing halters in the summertime, she can't get enough of them, so this week I cast on for the fishtail lace from the Lelah pattern and followed the same basic procedure as the Goob did for her Halterrific top.

This halter just sort of appeared out of nowhere. I cast on one day, followed the pattern for a repeat of the lace, and then it was intuitive enough that it became the social knitting du jour. Other than one error in my positioning of a yarnover, which is screamingly obvious in the photo above, the lacy fishtail repeats just magically flowed from the needles. Blink -- another repeat done! Quickie, quickie, quickie. Blocked only a few days after it was cast on and worn with glee on this beautiful summer day, it's another winner.

If there's another halter in my/Leah's future, we'll make the top triangles with a wider base or slower rate of decrease for more side coverage, and I might add a crocheted edge around the triangles of this one, but for now, this'll most certainly do.

flounces

As has been the case for so many days this winter, yesterday's weather conditions caused plans to be scrapped, so the kids and I shifted to Plan B, which included a romp around NYC. We visited a science center that had a traveling exhibit we specifically wanted to see, then met up with one of my old friends for a visit with his family (baby snuggles!) and then out to lunch at an Indian buffet. While wandering around his neighborhood afterward and taking in the sights, sounds, and scents of businesses of many ethnicities, Leah ducked into an Indian sari/fabric store.

Ooh, the silks, the beadwork, the colors, the light-as-air cottons, the textures!

After a few more hours of cruising around the city, back onto the train for the start of our trip home. I did some more knitting on the Lacy Baktus du jour while the Goob oohed and ahhed over the lovely blue satin evening gown of our trainmate-in-drag. He was a totally pleasant guy who was entirely decked out for a big evening in the Big Apple, including pearl earrings, a fur jacket, and vintage evening purse.

When it was his turn to get off the train, the elbow length blue satin gloves he pulled on completed the entire ensemble. Leah admired his dress. I admired his chutzpah.

Here's a gown Leah's presently working on, made of velvet rec'd in a swap with our Rav-friend Michelle.

It's far from being finished. As a matter of fact, she's unhappy with enough aspects of it that she hesitated to let me post this pic, but I think it's beautiful, and I think she's beautiful, and, well, there you go. Seamstress, age 12. Verklempt mom who definitely needs more sleep and less work, age 44. :-)

fair isle february

psst...we're over at Fair Isle February.

Come on over to see Leah's work in progress...

and my own obsession du jour...