Before my DSIL passed away in October, she gave me her one and only UFO: an Aran Cardigan she had started for her DH, using wool from Kilronan on the island of Inish Mor, one of the Aran Islands. The pattern is the same as the one I used for my blue Aran cardigan. She had the back done and had started both fronts. I had to swatch to figure out how to match her gauge and then twist my pea brain to figure out which size she was making. The pattern is in Galway Heather Family Aran Book 1. It was published in 1981, and I don't know if it's still in print. We bought the yarn together during our hiking tour of Ireland in 2005.
The cardigan will be fun to work on. I'm a little past this photo now. I have the pocket lining made and installed. This photo shows the color more accurately, too.
I'm late starting work on it because there wasn't enough yarn. I tried to find a suitable contrasting yarn, which took a while, just to do the sleeves. That finally accomplished, DBIL brought me an envelope with a lot more of the original yarn, so it will be all one color. Then I had to match her gauge, so I was in Swatchville for a while.
Common Threads met this week at Ellen's (well, actually the home of her daughter, Carol). She may be returning to Florida soon and wanted to host. Lynda came and brought her finished Warren Jacket. This jacket can be worn two ways, just by turning it upside down. Here's the long version:
And the other way, the short version:
She had almost finished her red pullover:
She made the cap sleeves longer, which she thought would be more aesthetically pleasing on an "older" woman. She borrowed some of my KP needles for the neck ribbing, which she has now finished. She needed a size 4 circular and had every size but! The pullover is Cotillion from Tahki Stacy Charles "Garden Variety" booklet, featured on Ravelry here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/tahki-stacy-charles-garden-...
Ellen finally finished the black Aran jacket she was making for her daughter, Carol:
She said never again black! She had to get under her Ott Lite to be able to see the sts. She did a great job, though! I'm sorry I don't know what the pattern is.
Carol had a project, too. It's an afghan you make in strips and then sew together. She has been working on it for a long time. Some of the strips have been around the world, because she is a flight attendant. Ellen is helping her make the last strips, but she was lamenting the sewing-up process and didn't really need another afghan. Her tension varied, too, depending on whether she was under stress or relaxed. The group thought the strips would make great scarves. She could put some embellishments on them and furnish a bunch of her friends with Christmas presents. She seemed to like that idea.
Ellen always has a quilt she's working on when she visits here. This is her latest.
It has a pieced border, and she's ready to sew that on, so I should be able to get a photo of that before she leaves town.
I had a disaster this week with my new HP printer. The Airprint feature stopped working. I could scan and print and I could email myself and print but couldn't just tell the printer from my iPad to print. I called their tech support, and the nice tech man tried for two hours to resolve the problem. He finally gave up and sent me a new printer. The new one has arrived (it works) and the old one is on its way back to HP for an autopsy.
I'm trying to straighten out my fiber studio, too. I'm getting rid of old magazines and recycling papers that have no value anymore. My quilting friend Tina picked up the quilting magazines. The magazines I'm keeping are nicely stored in plastic sleeves, all the same magazine together. I will be glad to have only eMagazines from now on! My plan is not to renew any magazines, but rather to get eSubscriptions to all of them I can. Still more work to do on the fiber studio.
Saturday took Joanie, Ellen and me to Ogden for the Acorn Antique Fair. We saw lots of good stuff. I managed to escape with only a $4 purchase (a ceramic poodle for DH for next Christmas...a tradition). Ellen didn't spend much, either, but Joanie spent more than $300, mostly on a basket and some bone carvings, all from native Americans or Eskimo artists. We saw this gorgeous and intriguing quilt:
Then we went to The Needlepoint Joint, where I talked with two of the employees about Mitts of Steal. One of the ladies promised to get her church group working on the mitts, and I will pick them up after June 20th to bring to Oregon for the second delivery to dialysis patients. I plan on talking with the manager about sponsoring our charity with a display with a pattern and recommended yarn. I picked up a couple of skeins of Picabo Lean Sport Weight Organic Wool, which is produced in Idaho. (This is the only place that sells it.) I also got a 200 yd skein of Lorna's Laces hand painted Shepherd Sport superwash wool. I'm hoping to get two pairs of fingerless mitts out of it for Mitts of Steal. (Like I need more yarn, right?)
The big surprise was the beautiful weather all day Saturday. Ogden was almost summery! Needless to say, we didn't get raptured. I'm willing to wait, though. I'm happy with the fun I'm having!
We finished off the week with a performance of Falstaff at Utah Opera Sunday afternoon. Next week should be busy. We'll see how much knitting, spinning and quilting I get done! Maybe not much, but I have a field trip planned for Wednesday with Common Threads. We will be visiting a quilt shop and a knit shop. I will have my camera handy!
What's on my needles: DBIL's cardi and a felted bag for my MacBook
What's on my wheel: The Louet Olive Green Corriedale, bobbin #2
What's in my hoop: The languishing hand-pieced quilt.
What's on my iPad: Now listening to the audiobook Three Weeks To Say Goodbye by C. J. Box. Next I plan to listen to Audible's Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. We watched the movie on Netflix the other evening, and I enjoyed it, so now I'm reading the audiobook.
What's on my iPod: Various podcasts, including The Sweater Quest by Adrienne Martini, read by the author. She's putting the chapters out one at a time as podcasts. Interesting!
What's my app of the week: Skype. Again? Now I'm using it for long-distance phone calls. DH bought three months of the service. It was cheap.
What's in my wine glass: Stone Cellars by Beringer 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon.
Note: This blog post was produced partly on the iPad. My MacBook was used for the rest, but no Windows were opened, waited for or cleaned.
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