Odds and Ends

Well, I had hoped to have a little finish to show you today, but it didn't happen. So here is my work in progress. This is the "Paintbox Scarf" that I mentioned a little while back, and this is my progress on it so far. I am really enjoying knitting this. It is not so complicated that I have to have complete silence when I am working on it, but it is involved enough so that it is not boring. I am enjoying the color changes. By the time I get tired of one color, another one starts appearing. I must say, though, I am not crazy about the mustard yellow. (It will change soon enough.)

This is the other side... don't pay any attention to the edges on the purple section. That is where I started, but the edges are getting better and better as I go along.

I was given a box full of yarn, all of it wool! There are at least 1/2 a dozen cones like the green (all in guy colors), a couple of cones of boucle, several spools of the white, in 2 and in 3 ply, and 2 spools like the mohair on the left. I have plans for that one!

Any suggestions for what to do with them? They are not soft and cuddly. I think they were originally for weaving. If I cannot think of projects, they will be very gratefully used to wrap temari.

Thank you Lore (and Jane)!

Dorky new hat

I was reading blogs, and found a pattern for a hat made with bulky yarn on the Purl Soho website, and since I happened to have a lump of bulky yarn sitting on my footstool, I decided to make it. As usual, I was running out of yarn, but ended up with about 24 inches of the blue left over at the end. (The green is from my floor doily.)

I am having issues with my gauge... this hat turned out way too big for me. It fits DH, but he says it looks dorky. It is Very Warm, so if you need a warm hat, and don't mind looking (a little) dorky, let me know, and it is yours. If no one chimes in, it will go to a charity.

Who knows, if this is a cold winter, I may make this again with new yarn and smaller needles, because I like it!

Temari SAL, Anne W

I finished this temari this week, and I really like it. It was a stitch-a-long (SAL) through Talk Temari lead by Anne. Thank you Anne!, it was a very fun stitch.

I didn't follow the color recommendations exactly, because I thought it would look nice in flower garden colors, with the obi being the flowers, and all the other stitching being the greenery. There is a little metallic on it, but even in person it is hard to see.

Check out the pole!



You can see a guild project I am working on here.

Cozy shawl

I recently subscribed to Interweave Knit, and Interweave Crochet. I always like those magazines when I scan them at the store, so I was interested to see what the new patterns would look like (plus, I got quite a good deal).

There was a shawl in bulky yarn, knit in a lace pattern in the first issue of Knit that I received. With the recommended yarn, it was going to be pretty expensive, just for fun, but JoAnn had a pencil roving that looked like it might substitute. Of course, I didn't stop to knit a swatch, because my yardage was going to be close, and of course, once I started knitting I decided that by following the pattern I was going to get a shawl that was too small. First of all, I knew I was going to have to buy another skein of yarn. I stopped in at a different JoAnn's, and found the yarn, but in a different dye lot. I decided to take a chance, and pick it up... if it was too different I would be able to return it. (It was fine, I can't tell the difference with the other 2 skeins I had.)

Then I decided to add in extra rows in the middle section, repeating the 2 offset rows of leaves one more time. Of course, without a pattern for guidance, you can see here that it did not turn out perfectly symmetrical:

But when I am wearing it, I don't think anyone will be able to tell.

Isn't it pretty? It is the perfect size, too, to drape over my shoulders when I am sitting in my stitchy chair. I picked the color to go with jeans. It only took a couple of days to knit, even with all my uncertainty.

When I finished it DH admired it, and said "I thought knitting big things took a long time. Didn't you just start that?" (He pays attention!) I didn't think it was going to go quite that quickly, but the people from knitting group all said "With that bulky yarn, it didn't take too long, did it?"

So I started a project I picked up this summer, with double knitting, called Paintbox Scarf. That is going to take a while. (Click the link to see a picture.) My yarn started with the violet, and I am moving into purple! It is really fun to watch the colors change.

Busy Friday

My Friday was very busy, but I only got a couple of pictures, that really didn't have anything to do with the day.

In the morning I was so wound up about the day, that I was not successful in completing my shawl knitting. I ran into a mistake in the first row and did not take the time to fix it. I left my knitting knowing I would have to tink (knit backwards) before I could go forwards again. (You will be happy to know that I picked the shawl up again this morning, and it only took about 5 minutes to get back on track. I was working on the pattern change-over, the hardest row, but I could take out all my incorrect work, because that is also the row where I put in my life-line.)

After that fiasco, I worked in our church pantry, packing bags for Saturday. We serve 130 families a week in the village our church is in. Some of the bags were a little light. Most of the food we give comes from the Chicago Food Depository, and even their inventory is low. If you have a chance to support your local pantry, or even a regional food depository, please do! It is a very rewarding service to the community. Working at the pantry is fun. The company is good, and we always tell new volunteers that it saves them money as well: you get a very good work-out without needing a gym membership.

I had to leave the pantry just a little early to join Barb, Karen, and Helen on a field trip for the Homewood Embroiderer's Guild. I had to apologize for arriving at our meeting spot late, but we were soon on the road to La Porte, Indiana, to visit House of Stitches. It is a very well stocked local needlework shop (LNS) except it is an hour away for us. We had a lovely time visiting on the way, and a lot of fun shopping once we got there. I had an order of fibers waiting for me, and I knew I would be over my budget the minute I walked in the door, so I was not able to do too much shopping, but it was still fun looking at everything, and catching up on some of the seasonal magazines that I like to look at, but not necessarily buy.

When we were done there, from the parking lot we espied a chocolate shop across the way... well, we could not let that pass by. We went there and each got some very nice chocolate. I got 3 pieces of dark chocolate, and it was delicious.

After that, we headed to Michigan City, looking for a place to have lunch the whole way. We didn't find a place until we reached our next destination, and then parked next to Maxine's. It was a very nice place... good service, and good food. We brought our own good company. After lunch (and a chocolate) we walked down the block to Threadbender's Quilt Shop. It seems to be quite a new shop. There was a good selection of fabrics, but there were no nooks and crannies in the shop to explore.

From the quilt shop we went to the Lubeznik Center for the Arts. The main gallery was off limits because they were installing a new show, but they allowed us to peek through the door. The portion of the show called "String Theory" (check out the link) looked very interesting, and was going to be interpreted in a couple of days in dance (!). The gallery upstairs had an interesting installation of artwork using re-purposed textiles: several fish used old quilts, a grandmother's flower garden, a wool crazy quilt, and one other.

After that we went home. I would have loved to have stopped in the outlet mall in Michigan City... we were almost in the parking lot, but I had to get home for the cherry on top of the day.

DH and I, and a friend, went to the choral concert put on by Chorus Angelorum in Gary, Indiana. It was a free concert, but I think it is one of the best concerts I have ever been to. Choral music is my favorite, and the centerpiece of the evening was A German Requiem by Brahms. It was wonderful! During a couple of the sections I had goose-bumps, during another I had tears in my eyes, it was so moving. It was sung in German... we had to follow the program very closely, but we all enjoyed it immensely.

Completed Project

I promised pictures of the upright bass, and of the cover when I finished it. Here is DH playing and talking at the same time. (He's so talented!)

Here is the bass in all its uncovered glory:



And here is the cover. I wanted it to blend into the background, so I made it as plain as possible. It does need a couple more stitches, where I got my seam allowance a little too narrow, but I am very happy with how it turned out. The outer layer is cotton duck... which is why it looks a little wrinkled, and the inner layer is a tan fleece, to protect the instrument. It is much easier to slip on and off than the gig bag, which takes two people.

On my way to an appointment yesterday I passed Tomorrow's Heirlooms, a very nice needlework shop in the Chicago area, that I have not been to in years. I decided to stop there on my way back, just to see if anything would grab me, not thinking that I would find too much... maybe just a gift for my secret stitcher. Well, I should have known better.

They had balls of DMC #5 pearl cotton! Drawers of them! DMC stopped selling #5 on balls several years ago, and now we have to depend on skeins. Each skein has less thread than a ball, and the skeins tangle. I went a little nuts. Still, I got less than 1/2 the colors she still had in stock, even though I wanted one of each.

When the shopkeeper saw me loading up on these, she asked "Do you make temari?" Umm, yeah! You need long threads for stitching temari, and these are fantastic.

If you would like me to pick some up for you, let me know! The shop is not too far from DD2's house, so I will be back there.

A beginning Stitcher

I have time each Sunday morning to stitch on my Advent Calendar. It has been several months now that C has been referring to it as "our" sampler. I usually let her pick what I will stitch on next, and she can follow along on the pattern what I am stitching.

This past Sunday she plopped down on my lap, and took over (most of) the stitching. We had an area to fill in, so it was straight stitching. She would take each stitch on the top, and pull the thread through on both the top and the bottom stitches. She stuck with it for almost an hour!

In the car today I was stitching on a different project, and she was very curious about it. She studied the pattern and approved of it: "It has lots of pretty colors!"

I think I will have someone to eventually take over my stash! I'm so happy!