Two Firsts

I have never knit a garment. I knit very loosely, so I've always been worried about making something that would fit. So yesterday I knit my very first swatch for a hooded vest, and blocked it, along with blocking the scarf I finished the day before. (The blocking is also a first.) Here you can see the scarf and the swatch pinned to some foam matting:

Jake was intrigued all night by this new addition to his house and kept sniffing it... but nothing smelled like supper. By this morning everything was dry, so I unpinned it.

The scarf turned out beautifully:

I already liked the color and the pattern (above you can see the knit side and the purl side, both are very interesting) but the blocking changed the texture of it to be very soft and drapey. I am very pleased with it, but I don't know if I will be able to wear it until it gets cooler! I have a new top it would go very nicely with...

Here is a close-up of my swatch. I found the pattern last fall (October, I think) when I went to the knit expo in Schaumburg. The yarn is Lion Brand, bought at JoAnn's. It is undyed, and the label says it has natural oils. I didn't really notice that when I was knitting. Now I am in unknown territory. I stretched this when I blocked it... quite a bit, and now the gauge is off. I am supposed to have 20 stitches in 4 inches, and I have 15 1/2. So, can I block it again and hope it will shrink a little, or do I have to try again with smaller needles? I am already using needles 2 sizes smaller than called for.

Our spring is still accelerating. Today the daffodils are out and all the maples are flowering. I guess tomorrow we will see the tulips!

This and that

In Arizona my dad was telling the story of a visit to southern Mexico for his work. His host had a meeting that did not involve him, so dad asked to visit the local ruins. While he was there exploring a lady started following him around trying to sell him some woven shawls. He was not too interested in that kind of stuff, so he declined, but the lady kept dropping the price, from $12 to $3, at which point he bought the shawl, with very mixed feelings. She must have been in quite a bit of need to drop the price so far, but did he take advantage of her? To this day he is not quite sure.

It would be wonderful to be able to put people with beautiful handwork into contact with people who want, appreciate, and can afford beautiful things. That is happening more and more with fair trade items around the world, but there is a long way to go yet.

After my dad told the story, we were getting ready to leave the house, and my mom came out of the bedroom with the shawl in question. The weaving is amazing! The yarn is a little bit coarse, but this is a very warm shawl. When I admired it, my mom gave it to me. Isn't it beautiful?

A few days ago I receive a package from my mom with something I had forgotten (my scissors earrings). She wrapped and padded them in this apron:

It is old and faded, and has a few holes, but my mom told me her sister, my aunt Marcia, made it for her when she was a child. I can just see my aunt making it, and my mom bustling around the kitchen helping out with her apron on. Thank you mom, for sharing it with me!

Weather-wise we have skipped right from early spring into mid-summer. The plants are all bursting out to catch up. Yesterday when I went outside there was one crocus:

Today they are all up:

I planted a dozen crocuses in this spot probably about 30 years ago, 4 yellow ones, 4 purple ones, and 4 white ones. The yellow ones were the first to disappear, and the purple ones lasted several more years. I don't know if you can see, but a couple of the white ones have some purple tinge to them. I don't know if these are a blend between the original white and purple ones, or if they are the purple ones that have lost their color. All I know is that I love it when they come up every year.

Have you ever heard of a vegetable called romanesco? I hadn't until last Friday. Our food pantry got a donation, and we were all amazed at how beautiful (and strange-looking) they were. This color is not accurate, they are a much brighter yellow-green. The pointy spirals are very interesting, and when I looked in wikipedia they did confirm that these heads demonstrate fractals and Fibonacci numbers. So cool!

We were a little nervous to eat it, but I went ahead and cooked it like cauliflower. The verdict is it tastes like cauliflower, but it feels like broccoli in your mouth. We would definitely eat it again, if we ever saw it again!

It was so much fun!

VIP day was a lot of fun! C and I got to sit in the rocking chairs, while everyone else had to sit on the floor. I was amazed even before I started one boy asked if I had been knitting ahead of time (I had!) and two boys knew that some clothes come from wool. Another girl knew about silk worms.

Everyone was very interested in and excited about the cotton bolls.

I did go a little long, but the kids were interested through the whole chat.

It was quite an interesting peek into a whole kindergarten world.

VIP day in Kindergarten

This week C is VIP in her kindergarten class, and she has invited me to be her guest! I feel so honored! The guest is expected to provide some entertainment, so I thought I would talk about something dear to my heart that kids that age might not have thought about. We are going to talk about where clothes come from. We will be starting with a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, and deciding they are made from cotton.

I have cotton bolls to give to each one, so they can pull them apart, look at the fibers and feel the seeds.

I have pictures of a cotton field, a cotton gin, spinning machines, and I have my spindle with some wool roving. (I have been learning spinning such a short time that I do not think I can spin cotton yet... that takes a special skill.)

At least this time my wool thread is thread, and not a bulky weight yarn.

Then we will talk about what to do with threads: weaving and knitting. These are the samples I worked up, hopefully they will be able to see the structure.

Then I have pictures of sheep and wool, kids spinning and carding, flax fields for linen, the silk worm life cycle, and pictures of man-made fibers. To finish off I made tassels of cotton, silk, wool and linen to feel. They are amazingly ugly, but they do give a chance tell the difference between the different fibers.

All this in the 15 minutes I have been allotted! LOL

DH thinks the boys will be bored, so I included pictures of the machines and inventions that make our clothing possible.

I found out about this day in November, and have been planning what to say ever since then. I am so excited about it that I had trouble falling asleep last night! I was going to get some raw fleece, and some flax twists, and some silk cocoons... and make some polyester right there in the class until I found out about the time limit.

I will have my knitting along, and I have the supplies for a weaving project that I think kindergarten kids could do, but I will only bring it up if invited.

The whole subject is so interesting, how could anyone stop after only 15 minutes! But I guess learning to read is important too... can't take time away from that.

My dear friends from knitting group are helping me out with my chemo cap project. The green cap with the pansy button (isn't that darling!) was knit and finished by my friend Carol. I knit the other green one, but haven't embellished it yet. I knit the blue one as well, but Char knit the flower, attached it, and wove in all the ends.

Thank you friends!

Blog Giveaway

Check the cool stuff in the give-away at An English Travel Writer. My grandpa fought in WW I in the Netherlands, I think the book of pictures would be very interesting. (He moved to the US shortly after that, but did not live until WW II.)

WIPs

So, I'm feeling a little scattered lately... and I was wondering why. It couldn't have anything to do with too many WIPs (works in progress) could it?

Knitting:

started:

chemo caps (I have 8 balls)

1 skein scarf (over 1/2 way)

desert colors scarf

hat, scarf and mittens for cousin

hydrangea bag

green hobo bag (needs to add zipper)

black lacy shawl

stash bought:

world and US map afghans

shrug

hooded vest

yarn for hexagon scarf

sewing projects:

smocked outfit for C

amp cover

needle book from NANI (just have to stitch in the felt pages)

Stitching:

beading heart HEG project

sudoku HEG project

angel ornament NANI project

Springtime in Holland mandala

hidden names alphabet sampler

12 face calendar temari

12 mari for HEG class next Monday

knitting, weaving, and spinning samples for presentation to C's class on VIP day

I keep working on one project and then another for a couple of hours, without finishing anything (to have anything to show you).

I was hoping to have a whole stack of chemo caps to take up to Rush Pres Hospital when I go to my annual check-up at the end of May, but I keep on giving them away! So far I have made 6, and given away 4. I found a new pattern that uses the same thread too, except it uses 2 balls. If I get bored with this pattern I will try that one.

Tuesday at the Zoo

So on Tuesday, when we got up, we had to take the rental car back. All of us were a little sad, because that meant the end of our vacation. There had been discussions about what to do... some talk of going to the Heard Museum, but dad and DH were not interested, and we didn't want to split up on the last day. We ended up going to the Wildlife World Zoo, only about 15 miles from home.

It is a private zoo, and reminded me of the zoo in the movie "We Bought a Zoo." After getting over the sticker shock, we had a wonderful day. The ground is hard enough so that even though there are not too many sidewalks, it wasn't too hard to push mom's wheelchair.

They have an aquarium with interactive displays. I touched a starfish!

And a manta ray, but didn't get a picture of that. The starfish didn't feel like anything in particular, but the mantas were soft but muscular. Quite amazing!

These frogs are about 1 inch long! I love the colors.

There were many, many birds.

This was one of the highlights: I fed the giraffes! This guy knew his way around a feeding station, and he would wait for me to put a little food in my hand and hold it out, then he would grab my hand (with his tongue) and I would pour it on there. I don't think he dropped a morsel. I did it 5 or 6 times, because we wanted pictures on all media. We e-mailed a picture to DD2 and C and P, and heard back very shortly that C was jealous and wanted to be there! It would have been a lot of fun to have them.

DH and I went on the overhead tram. It was very nice! It was quiet, restful, and gave you a good overview of the whole park.

Can you see mom & dad in the above picture? No? Okay, here:

They are in the bottom left corner, resting and waiting for us to return. The weather was lovely, warm in the sun, cool in the shade. There was enough shade that I didn't even get sun-burned.

Here's a view of my feet and knees, above a resting kangaroo. The ride is so quiet that it doesn't disturb the animals at all.

After enjoying the animals we went to the restaurant attached to the zoo. We sat out in the patio and had this view from the edge of the patio.

And this view from the table. I kept catching something black out of the corner of my eye, so I pulled out the camera, and we discovered that the back edge of the flamingo wings is pitch black! (You can see it on the 2 pairs of outstretched wings.)

We had a lovely day! and a great vacation! We are going to have to start saving our pennies for next year! Getting 10 days of sunshine in February lifts me right up out of the blues, and that could easily become a habit.