High Fiber--Sampling Cross-stitch

We had a rare treat at Vintage Stitchers this week:

Carol picked up this great cross-stitch sampler in a silent auction. It's worked on evenweave. What a lot of work must have gone into it! Here's a closeup:

Lucky Carol! We were all drooling over it. Coincidentally, Barbara was working on a cross-stitch of her own. It's a Christmas stocking, but she's going to frame it instead of making it into a stocking.

The two cross-stitch projects reminded me of some I have. This one was made by my mother when I was 1 1/2 years old:

My brother was four and had just entered his wild stage. I don't know how she managed to do this with two of us! That may explain why there's a mistake in it, though. Can you find it?

When she gave it to me it had a big stain in the lower right-hand corner. You can just see a little of the stain left. I tried washing it, but it didn't take out the stain. Then I tried soaking it in water with a little bleach, checking it every five minutes. The stain came out (mostly) and the floss didn't fade. I don't recommend this with today's floss, however. They use more environmentally friendly dyes now, and they aren't as stable under this kind of treatment. At least test it first.

I enjoy an occasional cross-stitch project, too. This one went with me to Ireland on our hiking trip in 2005.

It was a great project to work on because each row was challenging at the beginning, then got easier, was fun to do for a while. Just as the row started to get boring, it was over. It sort of reminds me of my current knitting project, my version of the Dogwood Blossoms Cardigan. Here's a photo of my progress, showing a little bit of the design that goes around the chest.

To the upper right you can see the armscye steek area. I bound off 18 sts, then cast on an equal number on the next round. You can do fewer, but that pulls it in, and I wanted it to look better while I was working on it. You can also just put the sts on waste yarn instead of binding them off. I'm also starting the V-neck decreases at the front steek. I hope to have more progress to show you next week. I'm feeling the urge to finish it, now that the weather is turning colder.

If you're making this pattern yourself, I should point out that besides making the cardigan version, I'm making drop-shoulders rather than the cap sleeves and rounded armscyes. Drop-shoulder sweaters look better on my shape, so it was a design decision. You can see more of this project in previous blog posts.

The bathroom remodel is coming along. They start the tile work today. We have spent the last few days painting. We were amazed how much paint it took.

Bathrooms and closets have a lot of surfaces! (Looks like someone needs a new sweater!)

In the meantime, six-month-old Zachary is crawling! And he's starting to enjoy vegetables. Here's a photo of him, as promised last week:

How much longer will my Dogwood Blossoms take? The bathroom remodel? Stay tuned!

What's on my needles: Dogwood Blossoms, of course.
What's on my wheel: Still the Full Circle Roving in "Pigeon."
What's on my iPad: Still Dean Koontz's Odd Apocalypse.

What's in my wine glass: Nathanson Creek Merlot--perfect for knitters; it has a froggy on the label!

Note: This blog post was produced entirely on the MacBook. Photos were prepared on the iPad. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for or cleaned.

High Fiber--Busy Days and Nights

My head is still spinning from the week's activities! However, I had lots of time to work on the Dogwood Blossoms cardigan:

In the center at the top, you can see where I bound off for the armholes and cast on sts for the steek (look for the green st marker). The front "opening" (another steek) is to the right. If you're new to my blog, I should tell you that both sleeves are done, so I'm sort of coming down the home stretch. I'm hoping to get to wear it this winter!

On the bathroom remodeling front, the sheetrock has gone in and we're texturing the walls today! We will be doing the painting ourselves, probably on Wednesday. We have the color picked out. The photo shows the master-bath section of the remodel. The doorway leads to the new closet hall, which used to be just a closet. We used to joke that we were visiting Narnia when we went into the master bath. Also in the photo, to the left of the doorway, is the vanity/sink area, which will have two medicine cabinets. You can see the space for one of them. The dark area to the right is the wall of the shower, which is backlit, so hard to see.

It's getting fun now, because we're starting to see what it will look like finished!

With the construction, we haven't been able to run the upstairs furnace, so it's a little chilly. DH has been chopping wood for the fireplace, which has been in use for the past couple of nights. We're sleeping in the downstairs guest room, though, and it's toasty there.

If you're wondering why I had so much knitting time in spite of a busy week, I made another trip to Colorado to register voters and canvass. We took my car this time, but I conned my passengers into taking turns driving, so I only had to drive a couple of hours out of the entire 12-hr. round trip!

This was the most fun of all the trips (five so far)! We always have great hosts to stay with, but this time we got a couple who have had a B&B. They treated us like paying guests! What fun we had with them! We also encountered some delightful people while canvassing, as usual. It's interesting as well to see the variety of neighborhoods in Grand Junction. 

In one of the neighborhoods we spotted this sign in front of a church. Love it!

I did have to miss church, because we drove back on Sunday.

Other interesting events of the week included the appearance of this guy in our neighborhood on Thursday:

He apparently wasn't interested in socializing...at least not with us!

I think he might have been looking for this lady friend, a single mother with twins:

On the baby front (and I know how some of you love the baby front), Soren turned three months old on Friday!

And Zachary is six months old today! He's crawling now, so I predict Mom will be losing weight in the coming months. Happy six-months birthday, Zachary! (I'll try to have a photo of him next week.)

What's on my needles: Dogwood Blossoms, but looking toward more baby projects in time for Christmas.
What's on my wheel: Still the languishing Full Circle Roving in "Pidgeon." I found a new spinning buddy while phone banking, though, so I may be meeting with some spinners soon, which will get me to spin up the rest of the fiber. I'm so close!)
What's on my iPad: Still Dean Koontz's Odd Apocalypse. I'm looking forward to being able to just listen to the rest of it soon!
What's in my wine glass: Fisheye Shiraz 2010, in the big bottle. I think I deserve a couple of glasses after this busy week!

Note: This blog post was produced entirely on the MacBook. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for or cleaned.

High Fiber--Vintage, Volts and Votes!

This week was Vintage Stitchers. We met at Rebecca's.

Rebecca is our appliqué queen, as you can see from this quilt mounted on her living room wall. It's from Kim Diehl's book, Simple Graces.

She is putting the binding on her embroidery quilt:

Julie did a great job quilting it, as usual. Here's a closeup of one of the embroidered blocks:

I guess it's safe to say that Rebecca is also an embroidery queen!

Brenda has been busy working on her applique quilt. This is from Edyta Sitar's book, Hop To It! You may recognize the bunny block, which I used in Daphne's baby quilt.

Vintage Stitchers is always an inspiration! It can also be very "vintage." Not only are some of us getting up there in years, but among us we have a variety of vintage quilts, including this one of Rebecca's:

It's clearly from the '30s, as you can tell by looking at the fabrics and construction. Rebecca is going to try to replicate it using appliqué instead of piecing. It's always fun to see a quilt that's older than our oldest members!

Before my busy weekend started, I took a photo of my progress on the Dogwood Blossoms Cardi:

I put the body on two circs to try it on. It will fit perfectly! I think the point in the pattern where the sleeves ended will be about right for the armholes. I'm actually about 1/2" further along than in this photo. I got lots of knitting done on Friday afternoon during the long car trip to Colorado. More about that in a bit.

On the construction front, our electrical system is complete except for the fixtures (outlets, switches and lights). Here Brian, our sparky (construction parlance for "electrician"), discusses outlet placement with DH. We're getting outlets put inside the cabinets of the vanity for electric toothbrush, shaver and hair dryer, so they can be kept out of view.

I accidentally startled Brian when I started taking photos. He didn't see me with the camera and thought when the flash went off that something had shorted out. Good thing he doesn't have a heart condition! From then on, I was sure to notify him when I was going to take a photo. Yikes! Nothing worse than a dead sparky!

If you read last week's blog post, you'll know that we had been concerned about the big pipes going right through the middle of what is supposed to be open space in our bathroom. Tom says, "No problem!" The plumber (or as cherylbwaters says, our "drain surgeon") will be here today to fix up the drains and supply pipes for water in the sinks, shower and toilets. He'll also adios the vent pipes in the middle of the master bath and find new routes for them. The insulation will go in next, and then the sheetrock.

Here you can see where our vanity will be. The rectangles are where the medicine cabinets are going to go. To the left in the photo, you can see through the "walls" to the broom closet, which will be in the powder room, and the hanging closet in the new hallway leading to the master bath.

It has been a busy weekend! I spent part of the weekend registering voters in Grand Junction, Colorado. Here's fellow Park City volunteer Joyce, ready to hit the neighborhoods:

 

The 5 1/2-hr. drive down allowed me to get a lot of knitting done. We stayed overnight in the home of a Grand Junction campaign supporter. Saturday morning, volunteers fed us a nice breakfast before we went out to canvass and register voters. We were going to the homes of people who had put in a change of address with the post office but had not yet registered. The trip back Saturday night was in the dark, so no knitting possible. I nodded off. I got to bed at 2:00 AM.

Everyone be sure to register and vote! If you have moved, you will need to re-register. In some states you are dropped from the mail-in ballot rolls if you didn't vote in the last election. Volunteer for your favorite candidates, too, if you have time. It's fun! Phone bank is at my house Tuesday evening, if you have time to drop in. It's interesting, working around the construction these days! We have a functional bathroom downstairs, but there's a "Honey Bucket" outside, just in case.

On the baby front, Zachary and Daphne have had colds. They're on the mend now, but here's a photo of one of the invalids:

 

Soren is learning to roll over, and Zachary is learning to rock back and forth in preparation for crawling. Who knows? Next week's blog may have new reports on both! Check this spot next Monday!

 

What's on my needles: Dogwood Blossoms Cardi, moving along.
What's on my wheel: Full Circle Roving in "Pidgeon," not moving along. Too much stuff going on!
What's on my iPad: Still Dean Koontz's Odd Apocalypse. I'm looking forward to getting back to it!
What's in my wine glass: Alice White Shiraz vintage 2011. Always nice! (I don't tell you about the bad wines, do I?)

Note: This blog post was produced entirely on the MacBook. The iPad was used to process photos. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for or cleaned.

High Fiber--Nice Days, Cool Nights

The colors are changing at our house. Here's what our street looks like:

It still isn't cold yet, but we take the basil plant in at night. We often get a light snow in September, but it hasn't happened yet. Maybe soon.

The demolition continues. Today Tom is putting up a barrier to keep the demo/construction dust on the "job" and our of our house.

It will have zippers to allow us access to the part of the house behind the barriers. We have moved into our guest room downstairs.

During the demolition, we discovered this iron pipe and another one. May be a problem:

Common Threads met this week. Here's a look at Karan's latest quilting project:

Her son got married recently. She passed out pieces of fabric for people to sign, and the patches are going into an Irish Chain quilt for the newlyweds.

Janet made a quilt for a friend who had to go through chemo. She's doing better, but the quilt will still be a comfort. The fabric and star blocks were left over from earlier years.

She often puts Minky on the back, and this one is no exception. The plushy fabric really shows off the machine quilting.

In the meantime, my Dogwood Blossoms is coming along:

The BO for the armholes will come right about where the sleeves stop. Then I will check the sleeve length and add some if needed. The armholes will be steaks, which means cutting the knitting. It doesn't make me nervous anymore, thanks to the Classic Lines Cardigan, which was my first steeked project. (Note: I have deviated from the pattern to make a dropped shoulder, rather than the cap sleeves. This style looks better on me.)

Missing baby photos? Here's a pic of Soren (and his mom) taken during his first trip to the Farmers' Market!

Stay tuned for the answer to how we deal with the surprise pipes, more crafty projects and baby photos.

What's on my needles: Dogwood Blossoms, coming along slowly.
What's on my wheel: Full Circle roving in "Pidgeon."
What's on my iPad: Still Dean Koontz's Odd Apocalypse.
What's in my wine glass: Crane Lake Malbec 2011. Nice!

Note: This blog post was produced entirely on the MacBook. The iPad was used in processing the photos. No Windows were opened, waited for or cleaned.

High Fiber--Quilting Extravaganza!

OK, you quilters who have been patiently reading my blog and seeing nothing but knitting and babies, hold onto your hats!

My Vintage Stitchers group met Thursday and the ladies had a lot to show off. Here's Carol's star sampler quilt (above) and the lovely batik backing.

She also had a dissected 9-patch. The Blocks are cut in two directions, sashing strips added, and then the blocks sewn back together. I think the cornerstones just make it. Love her color choices!

Guess what Carol has on the back: cheater cloth. I thought it was pieced from jelly roll strips.

Barbara brought her finished red and gray quilt. The pattern was one she saw in a quilt shop. It had been made using completely different fabrics and colors. I think this is a great combination.

Janet had this quilt on the wall. It's one she had seen at Whimsy Cottage when the store was in Heber City, years ago. When the store (then in Salt Lake City) closed down, this gem became available for sale.

She also picked up this great Christmas tree skirt:

My workroom is full of stuff from our closets, so no quilting for me. However, the Dogwood Blossoms is coming along. I have about 4" to go on the body until I reach the underarms.

I had a question last week about the colors I used for my version, as I had made some substitutions. I replied in the comments section, but thought it might come up again, so this might be a good place the "store" the information.

Here's what I did: Everywhere "Almond" was used (except rnds 89, 90 and 91), I replaced it with "Nutmeg," which is no longer available. You could probably use "Toffee," a new color that looks similar. On rnds 28, 29, 33 and 34, I replaced "Orange" with "Turmeric." On rnds 30, 31 and 32, I substituted "Sweet Potato" for "Rose Hip." Rnds 89, 90 and 91 "Almond" was replaced by  "Turmeric." At first I thought "Rose Hip" was too pink for my taste, but by reducing the amount of it, and eliminating the grayish "Almond," which seemed to intensify the pink, I find it a nice touch. I haven't gotten to the big dogwood blossom pattern yet, but I think I just substituted "Nutmeg" for "Almond" in my swatch. 

The bathroom remodel is still in a holding pattern. The plumbing ran over budget, so we have been looking for places to cut costs and still keep the impact. While we are waiting, DH installed a ceiling fan with light on our front deck, so we can sit outside when it's warm.

The old light was broken. It was ugly anyway. We got this installed just in time for snow, although we might have a few warm days yet. Oh, well, it will be great next summer. In the meantime, we will be able to see to unlock the door when we come home after dark.

No baby photos this week. I think we all overdosed on all the extreme cuteness!

Will the remodel get underway again? How far will I get with the Dogwood Blossoms by next week? What will the pups be up to before I write again? Tune in next week to find out!

What's on my needles: Dogwood Blossoms, coming along.
What's on my wheel: Full Circle Roving in "Pidgeon."
What's on my iPad: Dean Koontz's Odd Apocalypse.
What's in my wine glass: Charles Shaw (Two-Buck-Chuck) Shiraz, one of our favorites, from Trader Joe's. (Trader Joe's is opening up a store in Salt Lake City before the end of the year, but no wine, sorry to say, because of Utah liquor laws.)

Note: This blog post was produced entirely on the MacBook. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for or cleaned.

High Fiber--Wool, Work and Wonders

It was a busy week! Sunny and I went to visit clients in the nursing home as usual on Tuesday.

Then we had Common Threads on Thursday. My friend Ellen is working on this French Braid design for a quilt top (above). Kay finished a baby blanket for her cleaning lady, who is expecting (below).

Kay does a lot of knitting and crocheting for others. She makes baby hats and chemo hats. These are crocheted:

Margareth came and brought her latest weaving project. The colored design is done in cross stitch:

I showed off Soren's finished Jasper Hoodie from Vintage Baby Knits by Kristen Rengren. Now it's on its way to Soren.

I got a few more rounds done on my Dogwood Blossoms cardigan.

We took some time Friday to go for a hike. It has been very dry. I think that's why the maples are turning already. It hasn't been cold yet. Still, it was beautiful!

The pups enjoy running on the trail. We have heard rumors that the owners of this beautiful canyon might make it into a nature preserve. That would be nice, because we were afraid they were going to fill it with multi-million-dollar homes. There are a lot of moose, bears and coyotes who live here, so we keep the pups close.

The little pond at the base of the canyon was pretty low, but there was still enough for a drink of the cold, running water. It's a nice place for the pups to get a drink, because the bottom is gravel, not mud.

DH took a photo of me with the pups at the Fairy Tree, our usual turn-around spot. It's always fun to see what new trinkets have been left for the fairies.

On the grandchild front, we see Soren with his eyes open, enjoying his Bumbo chair. Don't worry, in case you heard about the recall. The repair kit is on the way, and in the meantime, the 'rents are keeping close. Soren is two months old now!

Zachary also hit a milestone. He's five months old now. Those eyes look bluer than ever! (Good thing he doesn't find pink too unmanly. He's living with leftovers from his older sister.)

Speaking of Zachary's older sister, Daphne is growing, too. Here she shows off her new warm-up suit:

In the meantime, we have been making some decisions on our bathroom remodel. The choices we made will take it over budget, so we're "downsizing" our selections. Better to know now than later, after we're already committed. 

What's on my needles: Dogwood Blossoms, but I need to CO another BSJ for Soren in a larger size, and I have a project in mind for Daphne, too.
What's on my wheel: Still the Full Circle Roving in "Pigeon."
What's my iPad: Still Dean Koontz's Odd Apocalypse.
What's in my wine glass: Copper Ridge Merlot.

Note: This blog post was produced entirely on the MacBook. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for or cleaned.