Beethoven, Binding and Birthdays

The performances of Beethoven’s Ninth on Monday and Tuesday went well. Here’s a photo from Monday’s performance.

We were in Berlin for Christmas in 1988 and attended a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth with Herbert von Karajan conducting. It was a very moving experience. The wall would come down less than a year later and was celebrated by a big celebration that included Leonard Bernstein conducting the same orchestra. I never thought I would get to sing this great piece with a real orchestra. It was truly the high point in a couple of difficult weeks. (If you want to find me in the photo, I'm in the front row of the choir, far left. That's house left or stage right, if you're savvy.)

Common Threads met on Thursday at Lynda’s. Kay had returned from her four-month cruise. She had a good time, in spite of a leg fracture caused by a fall in the shower. She got to practice her Spanish and worked on this afghan:

Karan showed us photos of her grandson, who will be a year old in July. (You may remember the hot-air-balloon mobile she knitted for him.) For once, everyone was knitting.

Margareth is working on a hooded sweater for her new grandson. She couldn't figure out the placket join, which was made with four stitches on each end of the section knitted flat. You overlap the ends of your knitting and then knit the first two with a third needle, the way you do a three-needle BO, only without the BO. (I was up-to-date on this technique because I had used it in my Everyday Play doll dress pattern.

Georgette is working on the Tahki Yarns Fire Island Fringed Shawl by Irina Poludnenko, who coincidentally designed the Vicenza (my “Lovejoy”) Lace Shawl. It’s very pretty, but the pattern is giving her fits. She had to rip out and start over.

Lynda is working on a sock. She isn’t crazy about the stripes, so she says the socks will go in her “gift drawer.”

I worked on my “Sunny’s Socks,” using this yarn, sent to me by a dear friend in honor of Sunny and to cheer me up. 

The yarn is Knit Picks Stroll “Sunny Afternoon” hand-painted. How appropriate. I CO on Wednesday using Charlene Schurch’s “Baby Cable Rib” pattern. It's a perfect pattern for breaking up the pooling and not detract from it or get lost in the busyness of a hand-painted yarn. After Common Threads I had this much done:

Friday, I was required to do the H-word, which, as you know, I always put off as long as I can. We had an appraiser coming to look at the house, so we can refinance and make some much-needed repairs, mostly to the exterior. I worked flat-out, only stopping for a 15-minute lie down after lunch. I was certain I was going to be in a lot of pain on Saturday, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought. I wish I had thought to take a before photo in my fiber studio, because I had pretty much just been throwing things in there since Christmas, but here’s the after, not perfect, because I ran out of steam about 5:10, and the appraiser was coming at 6:00 PM.

It helped that DGD1 is in California visiting friends and to do some photo shoots, because I had access to her bathroom and all of the rest of the downstairs to clean. We have company coming to spend the night tonight, and he will be staying in the loom area, so I had to clean up for him anyway. I plan to host Common Threads on June 2nd, so now I just have to keep everything tidy until then.

I’ve started spinning my Waimea Rooster roving. (I have more coming, so I should be able to make something nice and big with the yarn.) This is the Merino/Tencel blend.

Also under construction is my “Seeing Stars” quilt. I’m sewing on the binding. I hope to have it finished and ready to show off next week. Sewing on binding is one of my least-favorite quilting chores, but I’m always so happy when it’s done.

Finally, my “Lovejoy” (Vicenza) shawl went to DDIL1 for her birthday, which is today. Happy birthday, Patty!

What's on my needles: Still hand-quilting the “Delectable Pathways” quilt and sewing binding on the “Seeing Stars” quilt. Working on the “Sunny’s Socks.” Still have Aran sweater for Daphne Jr. and “Trickle Sock”s on needles. Swatched for “So Not My Palette” cardigan and got gauge. I’ll probably CO when I finish the binding on “Seeing Stars.”

What's on my Featherweight: Waiting for the next project.

What's on my wheel: Waimea Rooster Merino/Tencel from AlohaBlu.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt. Reading Dragon Rose by Christine Pope on the Kindle app. However, they have given me the WhisperSync version for free, so I may listen to it instead. I had just started, so I don’t know how good it is yet.

What's in my wine glass: Bohemian Highway Merlot. On the bottle it says, “This package is recyclable. Protect your karma.” Recycling protects more than your karma, if we all do it. DH is combing the state liquor stores as I write this, hoping to find another bottle or two.

What's my tip of the week: When sewing on folded binding, I like to put my right forefinger between the binding and the quilt to keep both layers together and slightly stretched. It keeps the top layer from sliding past the bottom layer. It’s a little unwieldy until you get the hang of it.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals were harmed during the production of this blog post.

Spinning and Piecing

This week was taken up in part with quilting. Here is the third Pine Burr block:


And the fourth:

And the fifth:

I ended up taking Joanie to a couple of doctors' appointments on Monday and Tuesday. She was well enough to come to Vintage Stitchers when we met at Wasatch & Wool on Thursday:



We had some nice pastries, coffee and juice, and shared our latest projects with each other and the shop owner, Margaux, and one of the employees. Janet had made good progress on her Mystery Scarf KAL:


Brenda has been appliquéing the October "Bertie's Year" block:


Barbara worked on her Dresden Plate blocks. She brought her "Disappearing Hourglass" quilt top to share. She's trying to decide on whether to put on a border or not.


The store got some business from the ladies, which was good. My purchase was more spinning fiber, which I purchased with this past weekend's spin-in in mind, although I knew I wouldn't get to it during the event. It was lovely sitting with friends among all the yummy fiber and notions, and watching the snow fall outside. (Although the resorts can make snow when it's cold enough, we haven't seen much natural snow this year.)



When I got home, I got out Rocky's Sheep Sweater, which he had bitten a hole in while chewing on a toy. Here's what it looked like before the "incident."


The hole was right in the middle of the top band of pattern. I had been meaning to turn the neck ribbing into a turtleneck anyway, because the ribbing wanted to fold over, exposing the inside of the sweater, so I decided just to remove the whole neck and everything. I picked up the sts in the bottom round (top round in the photo) of solid blue, cut the yarn in one place above that round and picked out the cut row. Then I started knitting a new top pattern band. The sweater was knit from the neck down, so my pattern sts in that pattern band are upside-down in relation to the others, but I don't think it's too noticeable. After finishing with two rounds of the background color (Swish DK in "Lava Heather") I changed to the smaller needles and knit 3" of neck ribbing.


In the photo, you can see the new sts, which are right-side-up And look like this: v. The original ones, knit in the opposite direction, look like this:  ^. His other sweater really needed a wash, so it was good to get this done.

While waiting for the spin-in to start on Friday, I installed the new cord for my Featherweight, which had come in the mail on Thursday. It required opening up the foot pedal, removing the old cord and screwing in the new one. The old cord had nicks in it, and I discovered that there must also have been a break in the wire, because while I was using it the light (brand-new LED bulb) went out and the machine wouldn't run until I jiggled the cord. It probably wasn't safe anymore, so it was good to replace it. The new one came from April 1930s Featherweight Shoppe.

With the cord replaced, I started the fifth block of the Pine Burr quilt (see above).

This weekend was the Spin-in in the Knitting Community. I spun up the Greenwood Fiberworks hand-painted roving in "Lavender Hedgerow" that I had picked up at Wasatch & Wool on my birthday. It was great to be spinning again!

Finally, we had a visit from a couple of neighbors this past weekend: two adolescent moose. I only captured one of them on pixels, though. The other one had already run down the hill and across the back.

What's on my needles: Brick Cardigan, making progress on the yoke...still. Also the second Martha Washington's Wreath appliqué block for my First Ladies quilt.

What's on my Featherweight: Pine Burr, sixth block in the planning stage.

What's on my wheel: Back to the Full Circle spinning fiber in "Pigeon" I was spinning before the spin-in.

What's on my loom: Still some warp for another scarf, but still folded up.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished A Second Chance by Jodi Taylor. Looking forward to reading the next of the series of "The Chronicles of St. Mary's." Then listened to to Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson, and now on to Zero Day by David Baldacci, also from Audible. Also finished reading Charlotte Collins by Jennifer Becton on the Nook app and have gone on to reading Beyond the Cliffs of Kerry by Amanda Hughes on the Kindle app.

What's in my wine glass: Lindeman's Cawarra Shiraz-Cabernet 2013, a nice, acceptable wine.

What's my tip of the week: When paper-piecing, set the sewing machine stitch length for very short stitches. It will make the paper easier to remove.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals were harmed during the production of this blog post.