take a walk on the wild side

I've been watching and waiting for the Young at Heart chorus to do a show that fits with our calendar and yesterday was finally the day!

It was a sold out show, as is the case with most of their performances, I think. Lots of people knew they were in for a treat!

We laughed so hard that we cried. We sang along with some rockin' tunes. We clapped wildly and whooped up a storm. If you ever have a chance to see this group of octagenarians sing Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, The Ramones, and songs by many other well-known bands, do yourself a favor and go. So. Much. Fun!

echoes

Remember a few days ago, when Scott and Leah were spinning one evening? Here's what they were spinning (L from Sereknity, R from The Painted Sheep):

And when I walked into my mom's room at the rehab place (for therapy after total knee replacement) the next day, here are the flowers on her windowsill:

Kind of cool how the colorways echo each other, isn't it?

And tonight I will be holding these handspun skeins close to my heart, staring out the window, and dreaming of my dear family, so far away at a friend's beach house in Rhode Island. :::sniff sniff:::

bwahaha! They really are having a blast with friends for a sleepover at a beach house, but anybody who knows me knows my evening is more likely to involve Magic Hat #9, rockin' tunes, and doing whatever the heck I want, without interruption or anybody requesting anything of me. YaHOOOOOO!

rockin' the free world

Finally, the parade of post-vacation finished objects. Believe it or not, there are still more FOs to come!

Just Enough Ruffles scarf, knit by Debbie. The luscious angora yarn was purchased at Spa Knit and Spin last Feb. Leah was going to make this pattern, but it became my project instead when I needed another vacation knit. Entirely easy and quick to knit, but I think the result is pretty fabulous. This yarn, we paid for, but it occurs to me that everything else in these four pics was free or pretty darn close to it!

The scarf pin is a stick pin made by our friend Leslie Wind and received as a gift when we shared a booth at Franklin County Fiber Twist this fall. The stick travels through the back of one of Scott's glass buttons for a little more decoration where it holds the scarf ends in place.

Didja notice the cool cascading earrings Leah's wearing? Inspired by Sassafras Creations' knitting needle jewelry and our stash of aluminum straight knitting needles (which we rec'd as hand-me-downs, but don't use for knitting and were thinking about giving away), she used our pipe cutter to slice some needle shafts into loops. She then used chainmail rings to attach these to a small length of chain salvaged from who knows what. She also added a couple of rings with crystals on them, for sparkle, then hung the whole shebang on ear wires. They make just the slightest happy jingle when she walks, are colorful enough to go with everything, and the fact that they're made from knitting needles gives her a giggle.

Next up, mittens I knit in twined knitting technique. I've always been curious about this way of making extra thick and squishy fabric by knitting from both ends of a skein, alternating strands with a twist behind each stitch, so when I won two skeins of Crystal Palace Yarns Taos and saw that it was well suited to stranded knitting, it seemed a good time to give it a try. I got a Twined Knitting book from the library and really liked some of the patterns in it, but when it was time to cast on, I wanted very straightforward and simple instructions. Lisa Ellis' basic twined mittens pattern was a perfect introduction. Twined knitting is slow going and needing to frequently untwist the yarns is a little tedious, but I really didn't mind it and think the results are pretty cool. My tension was tight with the twisting of yarns, which is probably not uncommon with beginning twined knitters, so these turned out child-sized and will be donated somewhere. Another perfect opportunity to pay it forward.

In between bigger projects, Leah decided she wanted another snood, so she used weaving thread received (a big box of it, in many colors!) as a gift from a weaver to crochet one. She attached it to a headband that was in a bag of hair things received as a hand-me-down from my sister a couple of years ago.

Our lives are chock full of little gifts like these and a million more intangible kindnesses too. We are thankful for every single one of them and how they enrich our lives every day. Happy Thanksgiving to those of you in the States!

a break in the action

After many days of swimming (beach, ponds, stream, friends' pools), outdoor performances (Aztec Two-Step; a Macbeth show that got rained out but we enjoyed the pre-show Ecofestival anyway; and Talcott Mountain blues fest),...

free movies (Silver Screen, Bookworm Wednesdays, and cashing in a xmas gift card for HP flick), and spectacular skies as intermittent sprinkles and storms rolled through,...

it's time for again embracing the good stuff waiting for us at home. We've been (happily) socializing non-stop for a while now, but I'm working extra this week and Jesse has a bit of a summer cold, so we're now (equally happily) spending more time with our library books, back yard, and projects at home.

Leah recently joined a children's textile arts online group. In between the fingerless gloves/gantlets she's been making (pics to come soon), she's also doing the monthly knitalongs through that group. Each day they send a few more rows of a pattern that can be knit in cotton as a dishcloth/washcloth/lightweight afghan square or, as I did with the Dragonfly and His Food pattern above, knit in wool as an afghan square.

Thanks to Lori at Of Faith and Fiber blog for including me in the Rockin' Girl Blogger awards! I don't do orange, but her Socks Formerly Known as Sizzle most DEFINITELY rock!

ultimate stashbuster scarf

I had so much fun making the Waterfall felted scarf, and still had more ladder yarn and assorted scraps, so I decided to do another one, this time with a springtime flower garden color scheme.

It occurs to me that this type of scarf is The Ultimate Stashbuster -- just a couple of hours and multiple balls of random leftovers can be turned into something pretty and useful! As requested, I'll give some more details of how I did it here, but there are better tutorials elsewhere on the Web -- just Google nuno felting tutorial and you'll get some more specifics. There are also plenty of books, probably available at your library, with felting info.

Here's what I started with:

I cleared off a long span of my kitchen counter and laid out a long piece of this plastic foam packing stuff that I have lots of (another option: bubble wrap). Leaving space clear at each end for the fringe (which I didn't want to felt), I laid out wisps of Firestar fiber for a bit of sheen, then wisps of well-drafted roving, then strand after strand of yarn, then roving, then Firestar. I ultimately made it about twice a dense as you see here, scooting everything a little closer together.

Covered the whole thing with a piece of nylon screen, wet it down with slightly sudsy water, and gently rubbed in circles so the fibers could mash together. Carefully lifted the screen so the fibers don't felt through it, tucked loose wisps under around the edges, replaced the screen and did a bit more light rubbing in circles. Removed the screen and carefully rolled the whole thing, including the plastic foam stuff, around a foam noodle (you know, those fun floaty things for use in a swimming pool) and tied the bundle in place with strips of fabric from an old t-shirt.

Next, I opened a beer and turned on some good rockin' tunes. Yes, this is a required step for all feltmaking and soapmaking fun 'round here. :-)

I rolled the bundle back and forth on the counter about 100 times ("50...glug glug - ahh...50...glug glug - ahh"), then turned the bundle around and rolled in the other direction, same amount. Opened it up to see how it's doing. The fibers were starting to felt together, as determined by pinching a bit and lifting to see if it's all attached. I put another layer of the foam stuff over top and folded it in half, then in quarters, then rolled it around the noodle perpendicularly to the previous time. Repeated the rolling, glugging, flipping, rolling process.

When it was all well adhered and could be picked up as a single item, I removed it from the plastic foam, folded it up, and dunked it in hot water. Squeezed out, placed in open plastic bag and gently dropped on the counter a few times. Repeat the dunks in hot water, squeeze out, place in bag, and thwack on counter a bunch more times for it to shrink and felt together more firmly.

Hang to dry and wear with a smile.

up, up, and away

Last weekend, Jesse and I hung out in upstate New York with a bunch of rocket scientists.

Hundreds of launches, most as expected, some spectacular catastrophes at take-off.

I took advantage of the time in the sunshine to take a long walk around the perimeter of the enormous sod farm, have a rockin' good ATV ride, and finish the Lacy Baktus for my sister.

I'm now halfway through the ribbing on the body of the Ingrid cardigan. Will be home tonight for the first time in something like 2 wks, so might be able to finish that up after a run, then only sleeve ribbing to go!

between the lines

In the past week or so,

Leah decided that sewing another hoop skirt entirely by hand, mid 1800s style, was just a little bit nutso and turned to a modern day convenience to move that job along a lot faster.
Scott's b'day, raw gourmet dinner, spinach manicotti, linzer torte.
Pre-game Super Bowl bash at Webs.
Super Bowl with the Steelers Fan Club of CT at a restaurant near here.


Scott made some more orifice hooks with glass bead handles, partially as experiments and partially to include in a swap.
More work than I've had in a long time, holding at this pace x 3 weeks now.

Sledding.

Blood donation.

Pottery class.

Leah finished her second iteration of African Flower Hexagons. We think there's an error in the outermost round, so she tore that back and, instead of DC, sc, DC where the points should be, she did sc, DC, sc. Much better. I think this is planned to be a pillow.
Laser tag.
Two afternoons spent lending a hand at a client's office.

Visited an exhibit of 19th century clothing.

Evolution of a remote-controlled rocket-powered 24" snowmobile, made from the bizarre collection of things in Jesse's room.

Sleeves separated out, I'm only about 10 rows away from waist shaping on my Ingrid cardigan. Loving it. Also missing it, since I haven't touched it in over a week.
To NY for lunch at Pure Food and Wine, a dance performance, quest for durian, and approx. 14-mile trek with some of my favorite peeps.
Reached what I weighed when I was 17. Culled one-third of my current clothes for the donation bin. Again. :-)
To Northampton with my three favorite kids for Ukes and Yoyos, ice sculptures, and a rockin' good time.