Contrasts

If you read last week's blog post, you will remember that I finally got the loom dusted off and warped for placemats. Not a lot of progress has been made, but at least there's something new to show, which should give you an idea of what it will be like. After a few picks of grey cotton waste yarn, I started weaving with the turquoise yarn for the edge. There will be a fringe formed by the warp, and the grey waste will be removed at that time. Now the weft, 1/2" wide cotton fabric strips, will make the body of the placemat. I had some commercially cut strips, inherited with my loom. They are cotton batik. The label says "Princess Mirah Designs" from Bali Fabrics, www.balifab.com, but they don't seem to be around anymore. I'm also using fabric strips made from my stash.

When I reach 19" from the beginning of the turquoise, I'll stop using the cotton strips and finish the first placemat with another inch of turquoise, finishing with fringe. I'll have to put in some kind of spacer between the placemats. When I made the trailer rugs, I used cardboard strips.

I'm making quilts for the grandkids' beds, starting with Soren and Johan. They each have one wall in a special color, and I'm using these color samples as my guide.

I planned to use the "disappearing hourglass" and the "disappearing pinwheel" as patterns for the blocks, just because it's fun. There's a tutorial for the first block here, but I came across it first in a Missouri Star video. The second one is also available online.

I had a lot of fabrics that would be compatible with these colors, but many of them are very busy and more medium than light or dark, so the contrast doesn't show up very well. I like to take a photo and switch it to black and white to show the contrast. This is what I was getting. That could make the quilt very interesting, as long as some of the blocks are easy to make out. 

I think the quilting could make the design show up better. I will need to see what I find out about the quilting when I find a quilter to do it. In the meantime, I'm having fun putting things together.

I've started on the colorwork section of the Kultainen Käki Cardigan. My Ravelry page for the project is here. The pattern is for a pullover, but I'm knitting it as a cardigan by adding steek stitches in the center front. As with the quilts I'm working on, there isn't a lot of contrast between the fabrics, but I think it will show up well enough.

In this closeup, you can see three tan stitches. When there are a lot more rows, it should become more obvious. It should go faster, now that the foundation row is laid down.

I had a little help in wasting time this week from Sandy, who snatched my ball of the tan yarn, right from under my nose just as I was starting this row. He would have pulled my knitting out into the yard, but I quickly broke the yarn and let him have the ball of contrast color. When I finally got it back, it looked like this.

You can't really tell, but there was a lot of dirt, grass and other vegetation mixed up with the yarn. It took me half a day to get it untangled. It took forever to find an end, and it turned out that there were four ends, as there was another break in the yarn.

Here's a mugshot of the culprit. (I didn't bother with fingerprints.)

Sandy has grown like a weed! I weighed him on Friday, and he was up to 14.6 lbs. Just for kicks, I decided to measure him, too. He's now 15 3/8" at the shoulder, so no longer officially a miniature. As you can see from this photo, Dusty is still taller, but not by a lot. You can also see how much more hair Sandy has, even though they were groomed at the same time. Puppy hair grows faster. They both go back to the groomer on Tuesday. I'll try to get a photo of them then.

Sandy doesn't need as much supervision as when he was younger, and both dogs are now on the same mix of kibble. This has simplified our lives a lot. Sandy found out that, although I'm the one who fills his bowl, Daddy is the person who fills the canister. He thought it was very interesting to watch.

We dismantled the big playpen. We were expecting the Oregon grandkids to come to visit, and all the playpen was good for was keeping Dusty out of Sandy's kibble. Charlie had a difficult time figuring out how to fold the playpen up. It took him longer to do that than it did for me to straighten out my tangled yarn. (It's like one of those raincoats that come in an envelope.)

I did some tidying and cleaning in preparation for the kids' arrival. The chest of drawers in the guest room is useable now, so I put some freezer paper down in the drawers, so clothes could be stored there without coming into direct contact with the wood.

The kids didn't come his week, though. One of them had a digestive upset that would have made travel difficult. They will try to come soon, though. Cleaning the house should be easier, since it has been done so recently. That would be a nice contrast!

We stopped in Eugene on Tuesday on our way back from Florence, to have another look at the trailer we think we're going to buy. We're pretty sure it's what we want, and we put down some $$$ to have a first right of refusal, in case someone else wants to buy it. We mostly just need to figure out if we want to finance it or pull money from savings to pay for it.

We managed to walk every day after our return from Florence. 

I have a lot of difficulty responding to comments to my blog posts because of technical issues beyond my control (my lack of understanding of how things work). Message me on Facebook, Ravelry or Spoutible if you need information.

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon and B&N and search for "Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart" in Children's. Every click on the page for the book makes it more likely they will keep a good supply in their warehouse and stores. If you are outside the US, you may have a separate website for these retailers. If you have a copy of any of our books, including Emil and Mariah, please leave an honest review on the websites, especially if you bought from them.

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: Still the Kultainen käki cardigan and the EmPower People Kerchief (hibernating).

What's on my loom: Placemats, but I had to dust my loom first.

What's on my sewing machine: Disappearing whatever blocks.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: We revisit Jolena's first month after she was released from her box in Adventures of a Busy Doll. It's another rerun, but I'm working on some new stories.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to White Silence by Jodi Taylor. I thought I had listened to it before, but I don't remember any of it, so I must have marked it "finished" by mistake. It's very good. I love Taylor's snarky dialog!

What's in my wine glass: Viña Crostata Macabeo 2020 from Valencia (Spain), a nice, crisp white.

What's my tip of the week: Puppy kibble make great treats for any dog except the puppy who eats it all the time. It's small, tidy, doesn't need refrigeration and doesn't add empty calories.

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with a few changes. 

Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is available from BookBabyBookshop and other booksellers worldwide. The stories are Little Green Greatcoat, The Boy Doll Who Cried Wolf and Lost in the Woods.

Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook and Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are also still available from booksellers. The link for Book Baby is here. The three stories in Emil are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

The three stories in Mariah are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less. 

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 or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

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Finishing, Fulling and Phones.

My favorite project for this past week is still my woven bag, now with lining and in use as my handbag:

There’s even room for a small knitting project and my iPad, but the bag itself isn’t heavy. The handles came from Joann’s. The homespun lining came from my fabric stash.

Common Threads met at Julie’s this week. Julie showed us her woven placemats:

Here’s the yarn she used (and the same thing in white):

Lynda’s baby sweater is coming along. This is the back. The back and fronts are worked all in one piece:

She used the white fleece from her angora bunny “Chablis” for the sheep.

“I couldn’t just leave it there....” That was Julie’s justification for buying all this $3/skein silk yarn on sale at a yarn store:

Now that she’s a weaver, she goes through yarn a lot faster.

Karan made this coaster set:

Here are some of the individual coasters:

She uses a “stack-and-whack” technique, so all the coasters are different.

I finished the knitting on the top to Daphne’s Bunny Suit:

I still have to sew the underarm seams, darn in the ends and sew on the buttons. Then off to the pants to the suit.

The big family event for this week (maybe for this month) is the expected arrival of my new iPhone (4S 16G). Of course any expected arrival requires a knitting project. I made this cozy on Friday out of some wool worsted from my stash, to felt/full and let dry in time for the iPhone’s arrival later today. It also works for my ancient iPod:

The yarn is Wool of the Andes Worsted in Coal from my stash. I have been wanting an iPhone for some time, partly because our land line has become a playground for solicitors, some of whom are ignoring the "Do Not Call" list. If I lie down (with the pups on top of me) I can count on the phone ringing just as I'm dozing off. Or I'm sitting, listening to a nice audiobook with a dog in my lap, or counting sts, or at my sewing machine a room away from the nearest phone. Or we sit down to dinner and the phone rings. I told DH I'm just not answering it anymore. The kids and my close friends know to call my cell phone. That means I'm going through more minutes on my Tracfone, which is loaded with minutes up front. I also want to be able to use the phone to navigate around town when I have to find a place I didn't know I needed to find before leaving home, or to take photos and send them directly to my various social media without having to wait for Internet, then load them onto my iPad and send from there. The phone had to be ordered, but it has made it as far as Salt Lake City and is due to be delivered today. Yaaay!

My Craftsy class project is coming along. Here’s a look at my class project:

This is the first of three pillows, all from one warp. Lower right of the photo shows where I learned to add new yarn. I’m waiting to see what the teacher is going to have us do with the tails. Upper right is adding-machine tape that helps me keep track of how far to weave the various patterns. I’ve been having trouble keeping the twill even, but I'm sure it will improve with practice. Because it goes over three and under one it doesn’t take as much beating as the plain weave, and certainly nothing like the weft-faced rugs I’ve been weaving, because they require extra beating. The cloth will be fulled when finished, so the loose places should close up a bit. The yarn is Wool of the Andes Worsted in Hyacinth, Camel Heather, Currant and Bare.

In quilting news, here’s my progress on the Delectable Pathways second appliqué panel.

You can see, I have to sew the stems down first, and in the right order (stems that are covered by other stems go first), before I can sew down the leaves and other images that go on top. I like to start at one end of the applique and finish everything in that section before moving on, but you could just as easily sew down all the stems first, then all the leaves of the same color (saving time threading needles). I prefer to work from one end to the other, just as I prefer to knit one sock at a time, rather than two at once. I find watching the progress more enjoyable that way. I'm also enjoying sitting out on the deck, now that it's sometimes warm enough. A good place to knit, sew or spin.

I’ve started watching Mary Sorensen’s “Learn to Love Needleturn” DVD and enjoying it. A good reminder of what I learned several years ago in her class at the Quilt Fest, although I have no doubt I'll learn a few new things, perhaps the tips from her advanced class, which I was unable to get into.

Tour de Fleece starts on Saturday. I’ve signed up for Team Knit Picks Lovers 2013 and Team Kromski 2013. My plan (in case you’ve missed earlier blogs) is to spin up all my Full Circle Roving in all the available colors to weave a blanket.

I should have a report and a photo or two next week.

What's on my needles: Daphne’s Bunny Suit.

What's on my loom: Class project for Craftsy class “Floor Loom Weaving.”

What's on my Featherweight: More pillows for my deck furniture.

What's on my wheel: Full Circle Roving, “Espresso.” Gearing up for TdF.

What's on my iPad: Just finished The Fire Rose by Mercedes Lackey from Audible. Sort of Beauty and the Beast meets Jane Eyre. Also various podcasts. I’m looking forward to reading more of Lackey’s novels. Now I’ve started Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Played With Fire from the library. I enjoyed the first of the trilogy and the two films made from it, so I’m looking forward to this novel, and it's interesting so far. Also various podcasts, including the Knit Picks Podcast and the Fiber Hooligan Podcast.

What's my app of the week: With a new iPhone, I may be adding some new apps. Watch this space.

What's in my wine glass: Lindeman’s Shiraz-Cabernet 2012. The big bottle. Very nice.

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

High Fiber—Progress on All Fronts

I've been spinning some Knit Picks Full Circle Spinning Roving in various colors. Currently, I have "Pigeon" on the wheel. Here are all the colors together:

All that's missing from the photo is the fiber currently on the wheel (although you can see some of the pale-gray "Pigeon" already spun in the basket), and the "Fawn," that was drying while I took this photo. Here's the finished "Fawn," all washed and dried:

There has also been progress on the Ocean Placemats:

I'm making four in a row using the same warp and using a stick shuttle as a spacer:

The third placemat is almost done. I'm so happy with these, I decided a few days ago to make another set using Dishie in "Fiesta Red," "Clementine," "Conch" and "Creme Brulee" with just a touch of white in the same pattern as the Ocean Placemats. Then I learned about the Dishie sale! Well, I had planned to wait until I finished these to order more yarn for the other set, but you can't pass up a sale, so I ordered more Dishie for more placemats and some for a bath mat for the new master bath. What's a girl gonna do? It was on sale!

While I'm waiting for the yarn to arrive, I can be working on the blocks for my "Delectable Pathways" quilt. I made some progress this week, although I realized I had more blocks to make than I thought. Back to work:

I'm getting anxious to finish this quilt and get it up on the wall that it was planned for.

Speaking of quilts, the charity quilt is finished, all except the label. 

Here's the story to this quilt: While we were living in Indonesia, I asked a group that teaches women how to sew and markets their quilts to the public make a quilt top with these colors. I was going to hand-quilt it. When it was delivered, I didn't like it enough to put the time into it. Partly it was because the fans are light and the bases of the fans are dark, and the background is dark. The bases stick out too much. Part of it is the texture of the fabrics and the fact that the dark fabrics are too thick to hand-quilt through easily. Partly it's because it looks too coordinated. That was about 14 years ago. About three years ago, I decided to offer it for a charity project and enlisted three friends to help. Our now-extinct quilt guild has some batting to use for charity quilts. Ellen bought the backing for it at a garage sale. Julie did the quilting on her long-arm and did the machine sewing on the binding. I finished the binding by hand. Now Karan is going to make a label for it. We have a charity in mind for it. I'll try to get a photo of the entire quilt when someone can hold it up for me.

Miss Daphne is getting a little big to provide a "gratuitous baby photo." I can't believe she will be three in a couple of weeks. You might get a kick out of this, though. Her mother got out her flag from her days in the Pageantry Corps. Looks like Daphne already has the technique!

 

What's on my needles: Daphne's Bunny Suit, front done through part of the bunny pattern, and Dogwood Blossoms. 

What's on my loom: "Ocean Placemats," third placemat nearly done.

What's on my iPad: Listening to Katherine's Marriage by D. E. Stevenson from Audible, and various podcasts, including Seyne Mitchell's Weavecast and Benjamin Levisay's Fiber Hooligan podcast, new episode available today.

What's on my wheel: Full Circle Roving in "Pigeon." Well into the first bobbin.

What's on my Featherweight: Delectable Pathways, some progress this week, and finished the binding of the charity quilt.

What's in my wine glass: Charles Shaw (Two-buck Chuck) Chardonnay, a white, to celebrate spring, which we have had already for a few hours.

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