All the Things

This summer, the birds at my feeders have also planted sunflowers -- especially under the feeder in my front yard, where I can watch them flutter and fly around, and have a perfect view of that sunny little impromptu flower bed.  It always makes me smile.

While they've been busy doing their things, I've been doing mine.  Some days there have been more unexpected "things" than I'd like, and other days, I'm the captain of my ship, and get to do that which I like most -- making something out of fabric, fibre or floss.  

"September Startitis" (per my last post) has resulted in some actual starts of new projects, the finishing of a few and the continuation of others.

Let's start with knitting, shall we?  While Mother Nature (or El Nino, or whoever) has brought us some Very Warm Days this week (in the mid-to-high twenties Celsius, or high seventies to almost eighties Fahrenheit), we are in a brrrr month, and in no time, things will cool off again.

So...about that shawl I cast on over the Labour Day weekend: I'm now nearly finished the first section, and it looks like this:

Pattern: "Always Better Together"
Designer: Brenda Brayfield
Yarn: Red - Sirdar Harrap Tweed DK
Natural - Custom Woollen Mills
Mule Spun 2-ply

I think it's going to be very pretty, and a really interesting knit!  

I've knit another inch or so on my "Sea Haven" pullover (JST Designs) but it's not worth a photo at this point!  And I finished the Ross Hat:

Pattern: "Ross"
Designer: Ross Rochester
Yarn: Schoeller + Stahl Limbo Mexiko Color
Colour #2583 - "Green White"*

*Yes, I know it looks grey. It's a very dark grey-green!

I thought I was going to be playing yarn chicken with this but I managed to finish it with about 50 metres left!

The hat, of course, is for my Warm Things Box. My practice is to alternate making hats and mittens; so far there are more of the former than the latter, so I think I'll be making at least 3 pair of mittens in a row before I turn the box in to my church for distribution to those who need a Warm Thing.

Thus...I found 2 balls of Schoeller + Stahl Big Print in my stash (colour #7942) -- and cast on another of The World's Simplest Mittens (Tin Can Knits) in an Adult Medium, in hopes of using them all up:

In the Gift Knit department, I've been enjoying a return of my sock 'mojo', and finished the first sock promised to my son.  

Pattern: Blueberry Ribbed Waffle Socks
Designer: Sandy Turner
Yarn: Condon's Yarns 2-ply fine 100% wool
(long discontinued!)

Since this photo was taken, I've not only cast on the second sock, but finished the leg and the heel flap!  I'm aiming to have a pair counted in "Socks from Stash" on Ravelry for the September challenge!

And one more new start...

Since my last post, I went to the Prairie Fibre Festival, 10th Anniversary celebration, in nearby Lacombe (Alberta).  In addition to browsing the wares -- and buying some yarn for my rug-hooking project -- I had a wonderful time meeting up with old friends.  One of our Knit Night companions from the old Crafty Lady yarn/craft shop days, is moving north to Edmonton, so 1/2 dozen or so of us gathered at Anna Maria's cafe (in the same building as the Festival) and had a grand reunion. Many of us hadn't seen each other in five or six years.  

One of the gals showed photos of all she'd been knitting. She's fallen in love with the designs of Caitlin Hunter, aka Boyland Knitworks.  

Well! That inspired me. I knit Ms. Hunter's "Tegna Top" some years ago (finished it in 2021) and enjoyed it.  Around that time I bought the pattern for her "Navelli" top but was a bit intimidated by the colour-work.  No more!  

It took me some time to find just the right yarn in my stash -- and in the end it came down to only two colours.  I decided that would do.  It's going to be a bright and sunny piece, as I'm knitting it in hot pink and cream, with the pink being the colour-work at the bottom.  It's a lot of stitches -- I'm using a 40" ChaioGoo Lace circular needle -- and even doing the first inch of 1:1 ribbing is a challenge (I will not twist the join. I will not twist the join. I will not twist the join!!) but it's going to be a great winter knit with a view to wearing it for Easter in the spring. Here's my wee start:

See what I mean about 
all those stitches?!

In terms of yarn, yes...I bought two skeins of 100% Alpaca 4-ply from Love's Grace Alpacas at their booth at the Festival.  I had a specific purpose: find a dark navy yarn with which to finish the night sky in the piece I've been hooking, "Singing to the Choir".  Love's Grace had just the right colour in the right weight!  

This company isn't on Ravelry, and their website doesn't show every colour of yarn they supply. I've bought their blended medium worsted before, though, and enjoy hooking with it.  That said, this pure Alpaca yarn was so luscious, I was hesitant to cut it up for hooking so...I wound one skein into a cake and pulled off lengths as needed!  I might hook with the rest...or not...After all, I'm a knitter and have a knitter's heart...😉

So here's what my finished piece looks like, just off the frame:

Pattern: "Singing to the Choir"
Designer: Deanne Fitzpatrick Studios
Kit of the Month Limited Edition
Won as a door prize - March 2026

I've not started a new hooked piece yet, because I want to do a large one on my Cheticamp frame, using input from two of Deanne's classes -- "Working Big" and "Wildflowers in the Glen".  The latter includes a pattern which I may adapt to suit the landscape of the prairies around here.  It's going to take me some time to think through how to design this project and how to create the colour palette I want. Stay tuned!

And yes, there's been a bit of spinning.

I'm a very sporadic spinner.  I particularly like to spin outside, and the weather this summer was just not conducive to doing so.  It was either too cold, wet or windy (sometimes all at once!) or too hot.  However, we did have a few perfect days, and when those occurred and I was home, not doing Yard Work, I took an hour or so to spin.  I'd wanted to participate in the Two Ewes Fiber Adventures Summer Spin-in but, alas, it wasn't to be, as I didn't do enough to feel it counted -- and the deadline was Labour Day.

It took until Friday this week -- well past Labour Day -- but I finished a bobbin of single-ply alpaca, part of a braid I won after that Spin-in a few years ago.

It's really more peach -- with a fade to peachy-yellow -- than the orange that's showing in the photo.  I'm not sure what I'll spin up to ply with it (I'm rather fond of two-ply handspun) but that can wait until the next Perfect Spinning Day.

Then, yesterday, a sort of madness came over me.  There I was, innocently knitting on my son's second sock, watching a podcast. I think it was Jen from "The Stash-down Diaries". I'd watched her latest episode and then went back to one she did a year ago, about some of her favourite Canadian yarns.  She mentioned several that she'd used in a Stephen West shawl a few years ago...and that took my mind down a rabbit hole.  I'm not a Stephen West fan, but I've knit his Boneyard Shawl twice, and wouldn't mind doing so again.  I love the look and the texture. And...thinking of texture, I've had the pattern "Architexture" for a long time, hemming and hawing about knitting it, because it's a scarf, and I'm not fond of knitting scarves.  But...all that texture is tempting.  

Both of these patterns are illustrated in a lovely soft grey...such a soothing colour.  Did I have any in my stash? Nope. Not in any weight at all. A single skein of a darker grey that I got in Ontario years ago from a shop that I believe is now long closed.

Sigh.  But wait! I have just the right yarn...in a natural beige:

Filature Lemieux Eco-naturelle
Sport-weight; colour 464 - Lt. Beige

And I have five hundred grams of it -- a total of 945 metres, or just over 1,000 yards.  Beige. Hmmmm....

I've not dyed yarn in a couple of years but I know how, and I had the supplies. A woman possessed, I dug them all out -- including ages-old black dye.  I could do this...but would I get grey or...black?

I did the math for a 1% dye solution and a 0.1% dye solution...and then, in complete madness, used the stronger formula.  Oh well. I now have five skeins of a glorious charcoal black 100% wool yarn, shown here, drying outside yesterday afternoon:

My eyes are such these days that I eschew working with black yarn...but these are calling to be made into something. Maybe that shawl or scarf, or maybe in colourwork? I'm not sure.  I could hook with them (though they're a bit light-weight) but for the moment...I have them ready for when The Right Project comes along.

With September's cool mornings, I've also been back in the quilting sewdio, working on three projects: the "Fun with Bricks!" top from Bonnie Hunter in her Free Patterns collection; the 2026 Block of the Month (BOM) from A Quilting Life; and just now...preparing to sandwich and quilt a top I made last year which has been waiting to be quilted as a gift for just the right person.

My "Bricks" top is moving right along.  The full block consists of four units: two 'all bricks' and two 'bricks-and-squares'. I need 30 full blocks at 12 1/2" (unfinished) to make the top.  Currently, I've finished 10 full blocks, and have enough of both sets of units to make 6 more, so...almost half-way there.

Here's what the some of the first blocks look like, laid out on my "design bed":

And here's what each set of units looks like. (This photo was taken about a month ago; I have many more sets now!)

As you can probably see, the 'bricks-and-blocks' units shown don't have much contrast.  Since this photo was taken, I've mixed up the pieces a bit more and like how that's going.  I'm trying not to be fixated on colour combinations and just let them be really scrappy!

As for the BOM, I surprised myself by finishing the September block on the day it was released.  We had a rainy Labour Day Monday here, so the timing was perfect!

And then...there's the pending quilt.  A close acquaintance of mine will be losing her job at the end of November, as the company whose store she manages is closing the branch of that store.  I just figured she needed a bit of comfort, so I went into my collection of quilt tops and found this one, which I call "Batik Stars".  Yesterday I pieced together the backing, which is from the same fabric as the background of the top, and laid it out to ensure it was large enough:

Pattern: "Jewels & Jumbles" 
Designer: Laurie J. Shifrin
Source: "Batik Beauties: 18
Stunning Quilts" - published by
Martingale Co., 2001

In the next few weeks I'll quilt, bind and wash it, in order to have it ready to give to my friend some time in early November.  😢

And yes, last but certainly not least, there's been cross-stitch. Since my last post, I've made progress on all three of the projects I mentioned for Sampler September, including a new start.  Only dear Emeline Hotchkiss has been left waiting in the wings.  It's just not her turn to dance yet, but there's still time.

Priority has been given to these three, the first being my Birthday Stitch from (I think) 2022: "Memories of the Past" from Hands Across the Sea, which I chose to mark my 70th birthday.  I thought I might finish it this month but no -- there's far more stitching involved than I'd remembered. Still, I am making progress and enjoying it very much, as the colours are so beautiful.

I just love that little strip of vine/flowers along the bottom.  There's more of it to go, but I've decided to go back up to the top and extend the piece farther to the right first.  Thus far, I've stitched it only in September each year -- my birth month -- but I might have to begin to take this up again in March, to mark the half year and get it finished more quickly!

As for the "Blackbird Academy", I'm moving right along with this month's "subject" -- a Black Bird Design that includes birds:

"Keepsakes of Spring" from the
"Heart and Home Patchwork" pattern
Source: "A Heart Remembers"
from Black Bird Designs (c) 2022

This is on 28-count fabric, so is a bit faster to stitch, using 2 threads of floss over 2 fabric threads.

A relatively new start, mentioned in my last post, is 'The Swans at River House' from Maximum Cross Stitch (Ellen Reid), which I started recently as an anniversary gift for some dear cousins of mine. I've finished more of the left border, plus the large star/snowflake motif in the upper left, and have started the roof of the large house:

It's a very pretty design but the counting is a challenge, as the hand-dyed linen is very soft, with threads of uneven thickness. Still, I will persist!

And then, though Emeline is waiting, I've started another new Canadian sampler: Isabella Carter MaClean - 1799.  This was reproduced by Margriet of The Essemplaire, located here in Alberta -- in Red Deer, just an hour's drive southwest of here.  

Sadly, a few days ago my stitching this piece was given another purpose. Not only am I stitching it because the original was stitched long ago, in what was Lower Canada, before Confederation, but also, now, I am stitching it in memory of the talented Canadian woman who reproduced it: Margriet Adriana Johanna Bekker-Hogue.

Her family posted on the Essemplaire's Facebook page that Margriet passed away on the morning of September 14th. The stitching world has lost a teacher, a lover of antique samplers, and a fine stitcher, sampler historian and reproductionist. You can read her family's announcement on the Facebook page HERE. 😢

So I've begun the bones of the border on a 40-count mystery fabric, using DMC floss, 1 strand over 2 fabric threads:

Rest in peace, Margriet. May your memory live on as a blessing through the work of our hands.

And so that is a bitter-sweet note on which to end this long litany of all the things I've worked on in the last couple of weeks. In the wake of Magriet's passing, it's occurred to me that our creativity, our seeking peace and light in our making, is what lives on through the work we leave behind us, whatever form that work may take. Thus it's important that we constantly bring to mind the value and worth of those labours of love -- affirming that as Nina-Marie suggests in her Off the Wall Friday post this week.

I leave you with a link to that post, with wishes for a week that finds you well, safe and creating beauty every day. A bientot, Gentle Readers. A bientot!