High Fiber--Coming Down the Home Stretch

The big news on the fiber front this week is my Dogwood Blossoms. The steeks are done.

In the photo, you can just see the front is cut open. The armscye steeks are also cut. I used my sewing machine to sew on each side of the cutting line before I took the scissors to it. I'm getting pretty relaxed about cutting steeks now. My first one was the Classic Lines Cardigan. I "watched" a number of other people cut theirs before I dared do mine. Now I've done five sweaters that required steeks. I'll be picking up stitches all along the fronts and around the neck to make a button/button-hole band and sewing the sleeves in.

As I expected, the sleeves aren't long enough, which is why I put them on waste yarn. I'm adding to the top of the sleeves. Afterthought pockets are also planned. I'm hoping to wear this sweater this winter.

I'm just recovering from a bad cold, which kept me from knitting or quilting for a couple of weeks. Yes, I was so sick I couldn't enjoy my usual fiber fun, but I'm almost back to normal. We had planned to have friends in for Thanksgiving, but didn't invite anyone after I got sick, so we had a quiet dinner alone together, which was nice. I felt good enough to cook by then. I had no plans to shop on Black Friday, so I just took it easy, and we had leftovers.

Saturday I participated in the Shop Small movement by visiting a small yarn shop and a quilt shop in Salt Lake City. At the yarn shop, I bought some buttons for my Dogwood Blossoms sweater. I can't talk about my other purchases, because they are intended as gifts, and the recipients might read my blog. However, I was aiming for 50% or my purchases to be Made in the USA. I was able to hit 67%, which is good, because it will balance off some items I had already bought.

The bathroom remodel is making progress. The powder room is finished enough to use. All that's left to do is put on the trim around the doors, stain and finish the doors and add the towel ring, a toilet-paper holder and a small shelf over the toilet to hold items. The broom closet still needs shelves and hooks to hold the brooms, mops, brushes, etc.

The master bath is coming along, too. The vanity is done except for the knobs and pulls. Just to remind you of what we had before, here's the old master vanity:

Here's the new one from almost the same spot. As you can see, we moved a wall to add all this room for a two-sink vanity, a bigger shower and a new closet.
This was the old shower, barely as big as a phone booth:

Here's the new shower stall, nice and roomy!

We still have some things to do in the master bath, too. Just as with the powder room, we need to add the trim to the doorways, and stain and finish the doors. Then the hardware needs to be installed on all the doors, as well as the cabinet doors and drawers. The toilet-paper holder and towel racks need to be installed. We have rods for the closets, and those have to go in before we can put clothes away. My job will be to paint the ceiling and the walls where the changes were made, including the enlarged attic access.

Today we get new insulation in our attic. I'm looking forward to being toasty this winter for a change! Well, I'm off to check out the Cyber Monday sales....

What's on my needles: Dogwood Blossoms
What's on my wheel: Full Circle Roving in "Pigeon."
What's on my iPad: The House of the Deer by D. E. Stevenson from Audible and Odd Interlude by Dean Koontz from the iBookstore.
What's in my wine glass: Copper Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon. Nice choice!

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.

Helping Others at Thanksgiving and Christmas

It's Thanksgiving time, and I'm feeling grateful for the roof over my head and food on my table. Not everyone is so lucky. When I drive to Salt Lake City, I often run into people with signs that say, "Homeless. Please help."

Friends have told me that they are reluctant to give money to these people, because they are concerned that it won't be used for food. Even if they use it to buy food at a fast food restaurant or convenience store, they won't get much for their money.

Here's what I do instead: I keep a bag of nonperishable food in my car, just in case I run into someone who is homeless.

I include a can opener, canned food, packaged food (like granola bars), napkins, plastic cutlery, etc. Nice to add are antibacterial wipes, toothbrush and toothpaste, "Space Blanket" (to keep warm, available at Walmart), a list of soup kitchens and anything else you would want if you were living on the streets.

I try to make the food more or less a balanced diet; including vegetables, fruit, a starch and a source of protein (beans or tuna). A small piece of candy is nice to include. I save samples of cereal or other packaged food to put in the bag.

I gave one of these packets away in Wisconsin during a visit there. The man who received it saw my license plate and said, "Thank you, Utah!" Other responses have been amazed expressions, looks of wonder and effusive thanks.
I've never had a homeless person seem disappointed to get one of these, and if your car breaks down in a deserted area, at least you won't starve while waiting for help.

While we're talking about Thanksgiving, I found this hat on Facebook. I wonder how to make it in Tofurky? Use Soy Silk?

The bathroom remodel continues. The shower enclosure is supposed to go in today. DH is finishing the doors himself. Just the doors and a few touches, and it will be done...for now. Here's the broom closet, which is in the powder room:

Besides the door, it needs shelves at the back to hold cleaning supplies and to store other items. The brooms, mops, etc., will go on the wall, and the vacuum cleaner in front of the shelves.

Here's the new closet in the master bath, with the doors up and ready to be stained and finished:

There's a laundry chute in the floor of the closet. It will deliver dirty clothes directly to the laundry room on the floor below. We're still waiting for the end panel on the vanity and the trim on the medicine cabinets, which are hinged to open from the outside edges, so they can be used together to see the back of your head.

For the baby fans, here's a shot of Miss Daphne, showing off her smile, and baby brother Zachary in the background, looking on.

The Dogwood Blossoms sweater is almost ready for the steeks. I've been recovering from a cold, so haven't had much energy for knitting, but should get back to it soon.

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--Back to Normal Again.

After the long trip home from Golden, Colorado, I had to get up in the morning to go to Vintage Stitchers. It was worth it, though. Brenda had this wonderful tesselation quilt to show off. She's putting the binding on now.

Rebecca has started a new appliqué project (of course)! She has all the pieces glued on and ready to appliqué down. 

Carol made some witch shoes to go with her witch cross-stitch:

Then she brought out this great sampler quilt she's making for a friend. She just needs to put a border on.

Meanwhile, back on the ranch...

The sink and toilet have been installed in the powder room, along with the doors and the door to the master bedroom.

I made some progress on the Dogwood Blossoms Cardigan on the trip home, but was too exhausted to work on it steadily. I will be ready to do the steeks in just a few more rounds. The day after Vintage Stitchers I came down with a bad cold and haven't felt like knitting.

We had a major snow storm the last few days. There was a tree down across the road yesterday. We got about 3' of snow over several days. This is very unusual weather for us.

On the baby front, here's Soren, ready for his first half-marathon:

And Zachary can pull himself up to standing. He'll be walking soon! Daphne is enjoying having a little brother. (Just wait until he starts getting into her stuff!)

What's on my needles: Dogwood Blossoms Cardigan, almost ready to steek.
What's on my wheel: Full Circle Roving in "Pigeon."
What's on my iPad: D. E. Stephenson's The House of the Deer from Audible
What's in my wine glass: Fish Eye Merlot 2011. (Not a very appetizing name for a very nice wine.)

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--Canvassing, Cabinets and Cutting

Common Threads met on Thursday at Jean's. She has made progress on her blanket made of leftover sock yarn:

While we were there, a couple of moose paid a visit.

As soon as I got home, I had to pack for the trip to Colorado to canvass for the election. This time I got to go to Denver on a bus with lots of other volunteers:

The long trip from Utah to Denver gave me lots of time to work on my Dogwood Blossoms cardigan. The body is almost done. Then I will have to try it on and see if I need to make the sleeves longer. (See previous log posts for information on this project.)

We stayed with the brother of one of our local volunteers. It was fun getting to know new people. The brother's wife is a knitter. I'll try to share some of her knitting next week.

We had an surprise job Sunday night. Utah volunteers were among those selected to work the president's visit to Aurora. I took this photo:

The people who worked the event got places in front, so I was also among those whose hand he shook after his speech.

While I was in Colorado, some progress on the bathroom occurred. Here are the cabinets for the vanity:

This is the new linen cabinet:

In baby news, Soren had his first haircut:

He was so good! I guess he's too young to be afraid of a haircut, I guess!

Tomorrow is election day. Be sure to vote. If you don't vote, you can't complain.

What's on my needles: Dogwood Blossoms. Coming down the home stretch.
What's on my wheel: Full Circle Roving in "Pigeon."
What's on my iPad: The House of the Deer by D. E. Stevenson from Audible.
What's in my wine glass: Amberhill Secret Blend 2010. I think I have a new favorite!

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

We've had some progress on all fronts here. First, we finally got our first snowfall of the season. This was my back yard:

The resorts are happy. Now if it will stay cold enough, maybe they can keep some of it to form the base they will add to when they make snow. (All of our local ski areas made it into the top 10 ski resorts this year.)

The cold weather, even temporary, is hard on our wildlife. Not that Squeeky is wild. He depends on his "welfare check" to get him through times when food is hard to find. We have watched him put some aside, though, just in case. His favorite handout is peanuts, which come pre-packaged in squirrel take-out boxes.

We were glad to have our bathroom remodel progressed to the stage where we don't have to worry about ventilation or being warm enough to dry out the materials. The tilework is almost done. The grout still has to go in (today), but you can get an idea of how it will look.

The floor of the shower is pebbles, so we will get a nice foot massage while we shower. The old shower stall was smaller than the shower in our little trailer, so this is an improvement.

The political campaigns will be done soon, too. I'll be glad to be free again to knit, quilt and spin! (Once I get the house cleaned up, though.) I completed my mail-in ballot on Friday. Rocky made sure I filled it out properly. 

If you haven't voted yet, be sure to do so, regardless of the candidates you support. The important thing is to inform yourself and vote!

You may have noticed Rocky's sweater. I finished it for him nearly a year ago, and he has been enjoying it tremendously! It's great that it can go through the washer and dryer and still look nice when it's done.

The pattern is Biscuits and Bones by Patons. The yarn is Knit Picks' Swish Worsted in "Hollyberry."

Progress has also been made on my Dogwood Blossoms cardigan:

In case you're seeing this project for the first time, I made some changes to the sweater. I threw out one color and added several others. I also changed the design to drop-shoulder. You can read what I did here.

The grandkids are coming for the Christmas holidays, so I will be cleaning up and getting ready. Both grandsons are expecting to see moose! Here's Soren's request, received Saturday:

Then Zachary seconded the motion on Sunday:

We're ordering salt licks!

Everyone who's in Sandy's wake, please stay safe!

What's on my needles: Dogwood Blossoms.
What's on my wheel: Full Circle Roving in "Pigeon."
What's on my iPad: Just finished Odd Apocalypse by Dean Koontz, from Audible. Great book, as usual!
What's in my wine glass: Charles Shaw (Two-buck Chuck) Shiraz. One of our favorites!

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--Talented Friends and Craftsmen

Common Threads met at Julie's on Thursday. Julie had this Halloween quilt on the wall:

The blocks were pieced, but the "appliqué" squares are cheater cloth. (For non-quilters, cheater cloth is cloth printed to look like pieced or appliquéd fabric.) Jean made one just like this, her first quilt! She backed it with Minky fabric (sort of a plush fabric, good for backing quilts for babies, young people and pretty much anyone else).

You may remember Karan's wedding quilt blocks from a couple of weeks ago. She has finished piecing the quilt and has it ready for machine quilting.

Julie also showed off one of her Crazy hearts quilts. She and some friends made these for couples getting married. The couple gets to pick the colors. She says the men cut, and the women (and some of the men) sew the blocks together. This one has some raw-edge machine-appliquéd hearts added.

Julie has a long-arm quilting machine, which she uses to machine-quilt her own quilts and those of others for hire. It takes up most of what would have been the living room in her home.

Common Threads members also knit. Jean's making a sock-yarn blanket. I'll show her progress in a year or two. (Actually, she stays with one project at a time, so she tends to get things done.)

Speaking of getting things done, Lynda was making socks using a self-striping yarn she liked but a sock pattern she realized wasn't any fun to knit. She had the first sock almost done, when she frogged (ripped out) the entire thing and started over with a new pattern for some simple, fast socks. She's wearing these now!

I've been making some progress on my Dogwood Blossoms Cardigan. I've finished the Dogwood Blossoms motif and am working my way toward the shoulder. In this photo, you can see the completed row of flowers, and the armscye steek stitches slightly right of center. There's another armscye steek on the other side. This is where I will cut the fabric and insert a sleeve.

I should mention again that I have changed out a few of the colors and changed the pattern to drop-shoulder, which is more suited to my figure. Thanks go to Elizabeth Zimmermann and her books, as well as the Knit Picks Knitting Community, for giving me the skills to make adjustments to knitting patterns!

In the meantime, the tile installer has been working on the bathrooms. The powder room floor is finished, and he has this much of the shower stall done. Quilters will appreciate the extra effort of placing the tiles (blocks) on point. 

You can just see two of the square holes that will contain Kokopelli-themed decorative tiles. Next week we should have a photo of the finished shower stall. We should get the floor tiles in this week, too. The heating wires are already installed and covered with cement, ready to have the tiles on top.

Last week I showed Soren in his Jasper Diamond Hoodie, and although it was a cute photo, you can see the sweater better in this photo:

The yarn is Knit Picks Stroll sport in "Stream Heather." My experience has shown that items made from this yarn come out of the washer and dryer in excellent condition, something new mothers appreciate!

I don't want to overwhelm you with adorableness, but there will be more coming. Stay tuned!

What's on my needles: Dogwood Blossoms, progress described above.

What's on my wheel: Full Circle Roving in "Pigeon." There probably won't be much progress until after the election, due to phone-banking and canvassing trips.
What's on my iPad: Still Dean Koontz's Odd Apocalypse. Interesting story, as usual!
What's in my wine glass: Concha y Toro Frontera Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot 2011. The big bottle. It will last a couple of days, but tasty!

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--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.