deja vu

Leah started weaving the triangles for this wrap about a year ago. 

She had only three pieces done on her triangle loom at the time and wanted to wear it for her character in a play she was in, so we kind of cobbled together an oddly shaped shawl then. She was in another little play last weekend and her character again was someone who could wear a shawl, so she dug out another ball of Scott's handspun yarn and wove a fourth segment on her triangle loom last week. We took apart the old one and put together the four triangles for a 6-ft. wingspan shawl that softened and bloomed beautifully upon fulling and blocking. Worn with the spiral shawl pin rec'd as a gift from our friend Leslie Wind a couple of years ago, it was perfect for her character on stage and apparently also perfect for her character off stage, as I noticed she wore it for a little extra warmth while reading a book yesterday afternoon.

Here I'd like to introduce you to my newest favorite knitting tool. 

Yes, it's a wood stove. How does it have anything to do with knitting? Well, see, its dry heat made it possible for us to block something overnight. Helpful, since there was a deadline for the project and we were cutting it close! And how does it have anything to do with the deja vu title of this blog post? That would be because it was installed in a new location in our house recently, but it was actually here when we first moved in. We removed it many years ago and passed it to a neighbor. The neighbor never got around to installing it and we decided this summer that we'd like to have a wood stove again. Neighbor (who is rarely home and had admitted that he would likely never get around to installing it) happily helped us move it back over here. Scott slowly but surely figured out how to install it properly and safely, so now we have a nice heat source and a convenient addition to our blocking processes!

The last deja vu of this post is a picture you saw only a few days ago.

Leah decided at the last minute that she wanted to knit another cashmere neckwarmer, since we had a second skein in the stash (purchased just in case we needed a little extra yarn for the first neckwarmer), this time for the director of her play, who is always cold. She set to work on it late Fri. afternoon and cast off by bedtime. It blocked overnight near the warmth of the wood stove. Buttons were sewn on Saturday afternoon and it was in the recipient's hands by Saturday evening! Same yarn, same stitch pattern, similar mother of pearl buttons, but we didn't snap a pic of the second one before it was wrapped and out the door.

Wait till you see the hat she's working on. I think she's on the crown decreases now, so pics soon. It's a winner!

tis the season

This is a quickie because I am Not. At. Rhinebeck. and, even though it makes perfectly good sense for me not to be there, I'm just a wee bit pouty about it. As if I need more yarn and to burn a tank of gas to hang out with sheep. D'oh. Luckily, I can do the same thoroughly irrational things on a smaller (and closer) scale next weekend. :-)

Meanwhile, 'round here there's been sewing of the Halloween costume in time for yesterday's party...

and team weaving of Scott's handspun yarn with friend who was here for a sleepover. This and other similar woven triangles will be made into a shawl for Leah to wear in her role as the...wait for it...weaver in a play she'll be performing next month.

Leah has often asked how I learned to knit. I can't remember the first stitches exactly, but I was under 10 and I'm sure my mom or my Gram taught me. I remember the first things I knit were some little pumpkins.

Zayre's orange acrylic purchased on sale for $0.99/skein, a few garter stitch rows, a few stockinette rows to make the pumpkin sections, sewn up the back, stuffed and gathered top and bottom. Glued-on felt face. I made a bunch of them because they were small projects. See, I didn't know how to fix mistakes, so when I screwed up, I'd just throw it away or tear the whole thing out and start over. It was fun to be at my mom's to celebrate nephew Zach's b'day this week and notice one of those old pumpkins out among the decorations!

And that brings me to the end of today's post because there's a stealth UFO that's about to become a FO!

needles flying

Jesse recently got a set of fatigues to wear during his two Airsoft leagues' games. The previous owner's name patch said Jordan, which obviously needed to be re-done. So Jesse dug out the embroidery floss and some appropriate fabric for a patch, stitched his name, and sewed the patch to the jacket.

As he was putting away the embroidery floss box, he pulled a small photo album out of the drawer. "What's this?," he asked. Oh, that's the blog before I had a blog!

It's a photo album of many of my projects from the late 80s and here's the facing pages that just happen to show two projects I mentioned in my last blog post -- my brother-in-law's sweater and one of my uglyblankets, much of which was crocheted during a trip to Ohio to see the Grateful Dead. See, my friend Jim and I drove in a blizzard to get there, only to discover that the first show was canceled because of the weather. It was a doozy of a storm, so we basically camped out in a hotel room for three days with a bunch of friends. I crocheted through all the yarn I had brought with me, but there was a store within walking distance that had acrylic yarn (which is what I was using at the time), so off I went to get more. You can crochet a lot of granny squares while laughing with friends for a few days. We finally did see a show or two, then headed back home, from Ohio to Connecticut, via back roads because the interstates were all closed because of the storm! See? Good times and good memories stitched into these projects!

And the next generation of silly stitchers keeps moving along. Leah made another snood/slouchy hat this week. Same pattern as the first one, this one longer and slouchier, made from leftover yarn from a toddler dress my mom knit.

As I was snapping this pic, I noticed that she's wearing a handknit snood, a shawl that she wove out of Scott's handspun yarn, and earrings made from some of the very first glass beads I ever made. (Yes, first beads *I* made. Did you know I had an interest in glasswork first? I took the first couple of lampworking classes and Scott later became interested.) Accessories R Us. :-)

busy hands, warm necks

Leah's been knitting like crazy, trying different stitches and cranking out neckwarmers. You've seen a pic of her table of them at the farmers' market, but we finally got around to taking some individual pictures, so here are a few:

Chunky malabrigo, vintage button, stockinette.

Fleece Artist roving, handspun by the Mom, vintage button from the Great Grandma's button box.

Malabrigo with silvery (pewter?) button, stitch pattern from My So Called Scarf.

Alpaca in a basketweave stitch pattern. Deep red glass button with blue/white spiral swirls, made by Scott. This neckwarmer grew tremendously upon being blocked, so Jesse suggested this style for it, with the shawl collar.

Congratulations to Artinreality, who won the A Few Of My Favorite Things stitch marker set by leaving a link to one of her favorite projects, a crocheted kipa with gold hand-stitched embellishments for her Pappa. She has some other one-of-a-kind kipa works of art on her Ravelry projects too. She's living in Israel right now (sometimes also Norway), but the mail isn't very reliable where she is, so I'll mail the stitch markers to her relatives in the U.S. and they'll get them to her safely. It's fun to know our little glassy things have reached the U.K., Australia, and Turkey so far, and eventually some will be in Israel (and/or Norway) too!

the evil plan, she is working

Ah yes, you wouldn't know it from the blog entries this week, but the creative stuff continues. I made a felted bag on Tuesday. Leah's 2/3 of the way done with Bren's knit scarf. Jesse has wisps of smoke coming out of his ears as he's building all sorts of inventions with his new, fully functional steam engine model. The art of sheetrocking continues to be practiced in this ol' house, so now the upstairs hall is ready for paint. And I have a couple of pairs of socks that are heading for the finish line.

The Steelers banner is hanging in its new location, an old folks' home in Pittsburgh, not far down the road from Gram and Pap's old house. Mom's in the 'burgh for the game right now and it's been fantastic to hear from so many old friends who are thinking of my dad (as are we) and cheering for the Steelers today!

A biggie here this week was yesterday's Nutmeg Spinners Guild meeting. This was Leah's first time there and she was treated like royalty. There are probably 75-100 folks at the meetings and they're all enablers! She was showered with compliments, encouragement, kindness, and goodies -- including a handknit vest, a shawl pin that doubles as a hair ornament, a fistful of knitting needles, some llama fiber, and a big ball of angora/cashmere roving to spin! Oh, and then there's all the yummy fiber we bought -- handpainted Autumn Maples, a pound of natural Montdale to dye, handpainted Springtime, and a reference book about spinning. And also a pile o' magazines borrowed from the group's lending library. Wowza! And on top of all that, we also ran into some folks we know from the Newington SnB, Madley Spinners in Colchester, and Adams Farm, plus met some new people, so all in all it was like a big happy fibery party. Proclaimed "best day ever" by the little Goob, who makes such proclamations about once a week, but really, it was an incredible day for any fiber fanatic.

So then we came home last night and everybody was excitedly sharing the stories of their day (Scott and Jesse equally had a blast of a day, romping with Rich McDonald and his kids and then going fishing) when Scott piped up with the words I've been waiting to hear: "I guess I better learn how to spin, huh?" Yes, dear, that's a fine idea. :-) So off to the new spinning wheel we went for a quick demonstration and he set to work on the Springtime roving. He stuck with it until time to make dinner, then came back again after dinner and spun until bedtime. Leah critiqued his first yarn as overspun, but we all know that's totally to be expected, and he does seem up to the challenge of mastering this little contraption, so....bwahahaha...methinks we'll have some fresh Daddy handspun in the stash soon!