a weekend in the 'burgh

Leah wanted to celebrate her 9th birthday with her Great Grandma in Pittsburgh this year. It ended up that was also Mother's Day weekend, so my mom joined in on the fun and we all headed to Pittsburgh. There was fun for the knitters and fun for the glassy guy and a Pirates win for Gram the Fan, meals with extended family, and an all-around good time. Click the album for many pics and captions. My favorite of these is our traditional height comparison between Jesse and Gram. The boy has grown a bit between 2006 and 2007!

Pittsburgh 2007

When we got back home, Leah used some of her birthday money to buy herself a pair of Crocs. They're fine shoes for showing off handknit socks. :-)

More kitten pics coming soon!

since we last talked

Whoo boy, I feel like it's been forever since I wrote a blog post. I suppose that's because there was a 5-day trip to Pittsburgh tucked in between, for my Gram's memorial celebration (which was perfect in every way) and dismantling of her apartment. While my mom, sister, and I were working on clearing things out, Scott and the kids also managed to hit up a Pittsburgh Pirates game, the always fabulous Carnegie Science Center, and the new-to-us Sportsworks, where they climbed and soared and bounced and flipped!

Hey, when this family spiffs up,
it's worthy of a snapshot.
We're not really in as much pain as it might appear;
just rushed and a lot going on around us.

Now we're back at home and gearing up for the summer farmers' market season. Leah finished sewing one of her outfits for her work at the Nathan Hale Homestead. Skirt, top, scarf, apron, bloomers, and chemise, all handsewn and ready to go! The skirt used to be a duvet cover, the apron and bloomers a sheet, and the top was some nearly-vintage fabric she found in my stash. Now she's working on a lighter weight top to wear when the weather gets warmer.

BTW, the seamstress is turning 12 years old today. Woot!

We're also making a square each (mine on the left, hers on the right) to contribute to a friendship afghan that will be sent to a member of the New England Textile Arts group who owns a yarn shop and has supported the group's charitable efforts for years. This generous woman suffered a stroke recently and many people wanted to do something for her, so what better than to wrap a knitter in knitterly love?

on turning 90, the crafty bits

Some of you may remember a year ago, when we all (along with some of our New York relatives) trucked to Pittsburgh to celebrate my awesome Grandma's 89th birthday. Well, that was just a warm-up for this year's festivities. You see, when lots and lots of people love you and you are turning 90, that's good reason for a whole weekend of celebration! There was a pool party and open house, Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game with concert by O.A.R. (I didn't know of them, but sure did like them) and outstanding fireworks show, a church service in which the pastor referred to Gram as his girlfriend Jessie and a reception in the church's welcome center afterwards, and a lunch out for the friends and relatives who could stick around for it.

So now you know the big pic of how the weekend went, but since this blog's focus is on our creative stuff, here's a bit more detail on how the handmade things fit into it all.

Leah cross stitched and framed a little pic of her Great Grandma's favorite bird.

I, along with help from my sister, made Gram a pillow. You've previously known of this pillow as the "secret project." It was inspired by The Pillow of Sei Shonagon (scroll halfway down the page), but of course I complicated the heck out of the thing.

My version contains the signatures of ~250 well-wishers, including old friends, overseas penpals, her doctors, garden club pals, church members, relatives, and Historical Commission members. These signature snippets of fabric were then fused onto strips of muslin and woven into a background of holey handknitting and sewn to a purchased pillow.

There have been hints in past blog posts about what an epic undertaking this project was, including multi-state travel, dealings with pen companies, stuffing a zillion envelopes (earlier on the very day that we found out Gram had a mild heart attack!), help from people in other states (thanks, Nancy! thanks, Irene!), finding a pillow that was the right size/shape/color, soooo much secret communiction, knitting the background...oh, and Gram has so many friends that this originally one-sided pillow turned into a two-sided project, so back to the knitting again! Either I cast on the wrong number of stitches or my gauge changed along the way because the 2nd panel isn't as big as the first, so I was sick about it for a while, but finally made it work. Then, at the very end, I discovered that PERMANENT marker is not necessarily waterproof, but Scotchguard to the rescue to help get me over one last big bump in this road. An album with some more pics of the process can be found here.

I've been planning this project since the ride home from Gram's birthday last August,

actively working on it since May of this year,

and it has consumed my spare moments and my thoughts for the past two solid months.

And I'd do it all again in a heartbeat.

Love you, Gram!

back home

Had a great visit with Gram in Pittsburgh for a few days and have been trying to get our feet back under us since. I'll put up a photo album from the Pittsburgh trip soon, but there are a few other things I wanted to mention too, so when this beautiful creature roamed across our yard this morning and Kodi never made a sound, I was lucky enough to capture a picture for today's post. It's blurry because it was taken through the glass and screen of the window - chilly this morning. We enjoy a good variety of wildlife here on our tiny patch of land in the 'burbs, thanks to the nearby pond and the stream through the woods in the ravine across the street.

Jen at The Woollen Earth asked for proportions in my Beauties and Beasts blog entry about baking soda and peppermint oil toothbrushing powder. I can't be any more specific than to say it's to taste. I use a handful of baking soda and a barely a drizzle of peppermint oil, more if I feel like it. There are many recipes online for various toothbrushing concoctions that can give more details. I've tried some of them over the years and narrowed it down to the simplest as what works best for us. I'm going to use wintergreen oil for flavor the next time I refill the container.

Since a few folks have followed up on the CitizenRe solar power program I mentioned last week, here now is the link to sign up for a site evaluation so I'll get a discount for referring you if you eventually have a free system installed. Even if you sign up now, the only commitment you're making is for one of their people to evaluate your site, so I encourage you to read up on this option if you've ever considered solar power for your home, but been discouraged by the usual up-front costs of having a system installed.

There's been lots of work to catch up on this week, but we took a much-enjoyed break for a thunderstorm Wed. evening. Dinner was already nearly cooked by the campfire outside anyway, so when the power went out, it barely mattered. We ate dinner on the porch by natural light, as we often do, and then all spread out on the wide open floor (furniture currently out for reupholstering) for family games and conversation and playing with the dog. As usual, we talked about how pleasant the evening was without electricity and options for using even less in our home.

Oh, there's been some knitting and glassy goodness too. I don't have pics now, so I'll get them up here soon, but in the meantime, looky what I found, not too far from home: Mocha's Fiber Connection . I don't need anything, but figured I'd share the link anyway.

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Edited to add: Here's a little something that I love: How To Disappear. (Keep clicking on the drawings to move through the pages.) Apparently my family has been in the process of happily disappearing for years. :-)

when Gram comes to town

My grandma has been here from Pittsburgh for the past week, so we've been enjoying as much time with her as possible. Much excited chatter from all of us about her upcoming trip, cruising with a bunch of friends in her AARP group to visit most of the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea -- Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia! Go Gram!!

This is Leah with her GiGi (short for Great Grandma) watching backyard fireworks from my mom's deck after lobsterfest - mmmm.

And here's a pic of Gram with her great grandkids (Zach 7, Leah 8, Jesse 11), to document how fast they're growing.
And here she is, celebrating her 87th birthday (with a lone 2 candle?), the ever-present crossword puzzles within reach.
We took her to the airport this morning, so she's back in Pittsburgh by now and looking forward to a day at Kennywood amusement park tomorrow. Always something interesting going on, always something fun to try!

you can take the family out of Pittsburgh...

...but you can't take the 'burgh out of the family.

Oh, the things you might do with bedsheets and fabric glue in 1995, after having grown up in Pittsburgh in the 1970s, era of the Steel Curtain, with a somewhat warped father who referred to himself as Coach Kenny Noll. (Chuck Noll was the Steelers' Head Coach and Ken was my dad's name. See below.)



Here's a group shot from our annual Super Bowl Bash, 1996. (Sorry for the quality -- picture of a picture from the pre-digital photography world.)



And if there's a heaven, here's one guy who's dancing around it with a Terrible Towel in one hand and an IC Light in the other. Go Steelers!

swirls and squares

After having a no good, awful, terrible Thursday last week, we skedaddled out of here for five fabulous days in Pittsburgh with my grandma. Relaxing and fun, and always good to spend time with Gram!

Before we left, Leah crocheted another Malabrigo Swirls Cap, this one to keep for herself. Still needs buttons.

I knit a couple of Turn A Square hats for charity, using handspun wool and alpaca yarn. Thick, warm, soft, quick, easy. Yay.

(I asked the kids to sit here for this pic, but the whisper and the arm around the shoulder were not posed. :-)
Leah spun this alpaca skein, again for charity. She tends to under-spin/under-ply, so this skein was a breakthrough for her.

Plenty of quiet early morning knitting time for me while we were at Gram's -- during which I thanked RebeccaZ/Maniacknitter every single day because she suggested subbing out P2togTBL for slipping the two stitches knit-wise with the yarn in front, and then purling them, like a SSK. This made the La Novia scarf infinitely easier to knit! Thanks, Rebecca! Pics to come.

hoeing the rows

Thanks to everybody who entered our contest at Glastonbury Glassworks! We used the random number generator to choose the winner and have emailed Dee to ask her to browse the site and let us know what she'd like. It was a lot of fun to read the entries and the messages that came with them this week. We'll definitely be doing more giveaways in the future and will list them both on Glastonbury Glassworks and this blog, so please visit often or subscribe via your favorite blog reader. Tell your friends -- the more the merrier!

I'm still happily hoeing the rows, knitting along on the Garden Patch sweater from Philosopher's Wool. In wearing my first Philosopher's Wool sweater, the Tradition cardigan, I've noticed how much softer the yarn has become with wear and how beautifully the stitches have settled in together. This Garden Patch sweater should transform considerably when I block it so the purl rows will flatten down and I'm looking forward to seeing all those yarn colors become one cohesive knit fabric over time. Already I'm daydreaming about what might be the next fair isle sweater I'll knit... :-)

Since a few people have asked, I wanted to mention that, no, we're not going to make it to NH S&W next weekend. It's Leah's 9th birthday and she requested to spend it in Pittsburgh with one of her favorite people in the world, her Great Grandma. We're aiming for MA S&W, though, and would be psyched to run into you all there!

odd, that.

I grew up in Pittsburgh in the 70s. Ties to and love for that city continue to run strong and deep.

The last pic in this post is one of my favorites of my dad. He died a little over eight years ago. Lung cancer in a lifelong heavy smoker. No surprise. No major tears. Love him a lot, but okay with it all, y'know?

But I cannot read this essay or others like it without the tears flowing. In a good way. But it surprises me and makes me laugh every time. 

I spent much of last weekend alternating between choking up and laughing out loud as I transcribed many ESPN interviews as a rush job for a Super Bowl documentary that will air this weekend. I liked the Cardinals interviews. I LOVED the Steeler interviews. 

My dad would've been 68 today. Tomorrow, I will pin Steelers buttons from my childhood onto my shirt and the rest of my family will wear their Steelers paraphernalia as we gather with old friends to watch the Steelers in the Super Bowl, again :-), and remember one of their biggest fans, whose shenanigans and Steeler-love live on. 

Because even though we packed the Pinto and the U-Haul and physically pulled away from the 'burgh 30 years ago, our roots clearly still reach all the way back there and the Steelers Nation is not bound by geographic location. 

crochet mode

I just love a morning like this. By 7:20 a.m., I had:

1. Rec'd notice that an exciting book is waiting for me at the library
2. Made hotel reservations for Spa Knit and Spin 2010 at discounted group rate -- w00t!
3. Printed packing order for a set of silly sheep stitch markers on their way to Australia.
4. Spread the word about an upcoming event that I'm setting up (more on that soon).
5. Written to someone with whom I'm swapping soap/buttons/beads for enough teal roving that I can spin a sweater's worth of yarn for myself.
6. Checked out our options for awesome fun in Pittsburgh this coming weekend.
7. Downloaded much of the day's work that supports this family.
8. Rec'd confirmation of two custom bead orders.

All while still in my jammies and sipping the day's first cup of coffee. We lurves the Internet.

Meanwhile, Leah seems to have swung back 'round to crochet mode. A couple of evenings ago, she printed directions for a granny square. I offered to show her how to make them, but she wanted to do it on her own, so off to her crafting studio bedroom she went, emerging the next morning with this:

(wonky because she used whatever yarns happened to be within reach, one wool and one cotton, of different gauges)

By yesterday afternoon, she had the beginnings of what will be a granny square scarf that's long enough to wrap multiple times around her neck.

Even at this shortish length, she wore it to ukulele band practice last night and rec'd many compliments on it, as well as a surprise birthday celebration from her friends there! With the sound of the band in the background, I had a thoroughly delightful conversation with a new friend and also had the pleasure of helping someone take her first few knitting stitches.

We lurves the real life connections too. :-)

budgie and not budging

Still sick, so just tying up some loose ends, literally and figuratively.

I knit most of this little Budgie baby sweater when we were on vacation last April. Got it all the way to only the neckband and button band remaining, then set it aside. It only took one evening of knitting, sewing in buttons, and weaving in ends to call it done. Blocking it really caused the yoke stitches to settle in nicely and evened everything out. It has no destination, but I'm happy with it and even happier to have cleared out another WIP.

Rec'd a sweater's worth of yarn, assorted lovely trims to make a seamstress squeal with delight, and handpainted yarns in another barter this week. Yahoo!

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Flashback: 1970s, winter weekend afternoon in Pittsburgh. Me, age 8-12, draped over an overstuffed chair, crocheting, usually with this hook, for hours while happily watching Steelers football and the antics of one of their biggest fans.

Fast forward 30+ years to yesterday afternoon.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. :-)
As a matter of fact, I'm feeling cruddy enough and that felt excellent enough that I will do the same today, only with the Patriots and Jets as the backdrop. First, I'll take a good walk to make the most of the bright sunshiny day out there, but otherwise I'm not budging.
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I updated my projects on Ravelry and also Leah's, to reflect our late 2009 and 2010 projects. Always a good feeling to get those up to date and see how our work has changed over the years. I especially get a kick out of how a browse through Leah's projects illustrates how far her skills have come in the past few years. I can't believe we both have over 100 projects recorded there!

mountain o' merino

I'm not quite sure how this gansey for Scott has come so far with barely a mention on the blog, but it has.

Using a honkin' cone of tweed scored at this year's stash swap, knitting two strands at a time, I'm within an inch of moving into the patterned top portion of the body -- and thank heavens because I've had more than enough of the stockinette slog, thankyouverymuch. One sleeve is knit to approx. the shoulder and the other one only has a few inches to go. Here's a sleeve detail that will also be the central part of the body patterning.

Must stay focused on the gansey, but ooh, it's tough because look what arrived at my house yesterday afternoon!

It's a mountain of merino sliver in the deep teal color that has me all atwitter lately. Yes, I buried my face in it like a big soft pillow. Scott will probably spin this luscious goodness into a 3-ply yarn that I'll knit as any one of the excellent patterns in A Fine Fleece, maybe Flyingdales, with a different neckline. I rec'd this happy-making pile in an awesome barter for soap and glass beads/buttons. The dollar bill is there for scale. Yes, it's red money, received at CT S&W, probably from a dyer, don'cha think? ;-)

Thanks, Rachel, for the offer of hooking us up with your LYS on this weekend's road trip, but our itinerary already includes one Pittsburgh yarn store knit night, an art glass destination, and a living history event, so I think we're good to go! In preparation for the road trip, I cast on a new project last night and made an emergency run to our favorite LYS for another set of Addi lace needles because P2togTBL was nearly impossible otherwise. So now we're good to go!

Gram rocks the 'burgh

When you think of somebody's 89th birthday party, there may be a rocking chair in the imaginary scene, but for my Gram's 89th birthday party, the entire city of Pittsburgh was rocking! Family and friends came in from three states for a surprise celebration that included a baseball game overlooking the fantastic city of my childhood...

followed by a concert and fireworks (with full moon!)...

and gifts of homemade peach chutney from Jesse and a cross stitched and beaded pin made by Leah.

Next day, food and festivities and a visit to the zoo, complete with a live band and baby elephants and, as always, lots of love for my supercool Gram!

critterknitter, part 3

Sheesh. Remember last week, when I said we get a bit of wildlife here on our teensy patch of land, less than a mile from the business center of a 35,000-person town? First it was Bambi; then Winken, Blinken, and Nod; and today we had another encounter with this none too friendly guy.

Shovel included for scale
We've run into this dude before and I even mentioned him in a blog post last October, in the paragraph below the pic of Jesse soldering stained glass stars. I don't know if he's gotten any bigger, but he definitely hasn't become any prettier and his attitude is just as grumpy as ever. Since that curb he's on is at the edge of a fairly busy intersection, we can only assume that his primary care physician has not prescribed him the proper medication to date and he remains suicidal as well as belligerent. Scott bravely picked Sir Grumperino up on a strong, long-handled shovel and gave him a lift back toward the ravine across the street from us, where we presume he belongs, in hopes that he will find a happy place and it'll take him another six months to climb the hill and ponder venturing onto the asphalt to become a turtle pancake...with attitude.

Just so the knitterly aspect of this blog isn't totally hijacked by the critters, here I present a pair of socks knit for my mom for Mother's Day. She only received one on Mother's Day, but I knit most of the other one on the ride home from Pittsburgh. They're my usual toe-up, Widdershins gusset, mindless 2x2 ribbed socks in Cherry Tree Hill squishy soft yarn, received by me as a birthday gift from...can you guess?...my mom! Isn't it fun how things go 'round like that?

Today I will watch for the flock of turkeys from the woods or perhaps the fox who nests in the neighbor's slope, or maybe I'll actually get some work accomplished. Y'think?

out there

This young knitter is psyched to get herself and her passion for fiber arts out there. She knit this hat for her oh-so-loved Great Grandma's (Gigi) 88th b'day a while back and shipped it off to Pennsylvania.



This is the Madison Hat, the same pattern that she made for herself last winter. She happened to have her own version of this hat with her when we were in Greece this spring and it was mighty windy up on Acropolis Hill, so she loaned her hat to Gigi to keep her toasty. Since this hat is made of mohair-merino and alpaca yarns, it's soft, fuzzy, and very warm. The last time we visited GiGi, she mentioned that she would like Leah to knit her a hat like that someday. And so she did. Exactly like that, since we had plenty of both yarns.

Leah is also getting her knitting out there by becoming an entrepreneur. The owner of a boutique in Pittsburgh has commissioned her to knit gauntlets/fingerless gloves. She knows it goes against copyright protection to sell knitwear made from someone else's pattern, so she made her first pair with an online pattern and gifted them to a friend, and she is now choosing cables and stitches from stitch dictionaries as she designs her own fingerless gloves. She's on her fourth of five commissioned pairs and having an awful lot of fun with the design possibilities. She even came up with a name for her little knitting empire, Cotton Hollow Creative, named after one of our favorite swimming holes. I just have to smile at all of this because I know somebody who earned a tidy sum, starting at around the same age, by selling crocheted clowns, taking orders of up to 30 at a time!

On her urging, we have started up a new group called the String Thing as a way to connect with other homeschooling fiber artists and those who might like to be. Through this group, we've already made some new friends, hooked up with known fiber junkie friends, heard about some cool events, and discovered some older friends with similar interests. Perfect.

She'll be demo'ing spinning and knitting at Burgis Brook Alpaca Farm at their open house this Saturday as part of National Alpaca Farm Days. I'm looking forward to the knitting time while we're there too and am hoping that the blanket-in-progress will be finished by then so I can start the project that's next in line, assuming the yarn arrives in time. The more mechanically-minded members of this family will be on a romp full of steam-powered contraptions and primitive technology that day, so when we hook back up in the evening, there will undoubtedly be a lot of enthusiastic chatter! We're all looking forward to an inspiring day out there among our peeps.

And at long last, this young knitter's Ravelry invitation arrived this week. I wasn't home when she got the invitation, but apparently she has already set up her account as cottonhollow. She hasn't added any projects or details yet, but she most certainly will, as soon as she can get the momperson to help her. Now I can quit razzing her about surfing the Ravelry goodies under my account and she can add her favorites to her own notebook, which is good because once you've been bit by the bug, there are a fantastic lot of project temptations out there.