Spring Startitis

 And some finishes...

March has long been considered a fickle month, weather-wise, and this year's no different!  I've had 2 or 3 days outside, spinning at my wheel in the sunshine -- and a whole lot of other days watching it snow while I pieced quilt blocks or knit or stitched.  And then there were sunny days too cold for sitting out -- but just right for shovelling said snow, or trying for a brisk walk on streets patched with ice.

Such fun, eh?!

At left: the latest bobbin of 2-ply "Mystery Mauve" from a batt I was given years ago. All of it's spun up now, thanks to those few days earlier this month, when I could spin outside, which is my preference.  There's still a teeny bit to ply up, but as you can see, this bobbin was full!  

That bobbin was one "finish" this month.  Another was a small Lizzie Kate cross-stitch piece that I've backed and will stuff as a wee pillow to go in my glass bowl of such things.  I need it nearby for frequent inspiration and reassurance:

I also finished the lo-o-o-ng ribbed socks I started a few weeks ago; they're going to my friend's daughter to wear under work boots as she treks around the farms she visits and around her mother's ranch:

Pattern: Simple Ribbed Socks 
Designer: Angela Law
Yarn: Estelle Yarns Highland Alpaca Fine in "Gold"

Yes, I could have knit them without a pattern, but as you can see from the length of leg and that of foot, I wanted some guidance as to size.  I was hemming and hawing about number of stitches, size of needle (2.75 mm in the end) etc. I think they turned out well; they're now washed and ready to wrap and put in the mail after this holiday weekend.

I managed to finish one of my WIPGO calls for March: the 7 days work on yet another Advent hap -- but still no photos, as it looks like scrambled eggs on the needles.  Suffice to say I moved from row 98 at the beginning of this month, and have now completed row 129.  There are 369 stitches on every row, so even though I've only 25 rows to go until I cast off, it's going to take a while.

As for the other WIPGO call -- to work on my oldest cross-stitch WIP -- alas...I didn't even make the attempt.  Too many other more interesting things going on to bother with a hem stitch/weave stitch I'm not keen on.  I'm not ready to ditch the sampler as a UFO; I just need to come up with an alternative motif for that space!

The Spring Startitis really kicked in about mid-month.  I've had some blood pressure issues (better now) and around that time developed some sort of dermatitis or eczema that's been making me very itchy.  The earliest I can see my doctor about it is April 17, so I'm living with it -- and need distraction!  (That's my story as to the Startitis, and I'm sticking to it!)

Summter Bower

On the stitching front, the above-mentioned Lizzie Kate stitch was a start and finish within days.  I also joined a SAL (Stitch-ALong) with Carmen of the Cardemen Pins floss-tube.  She's an avid fan of Jacob of Modern Folk Embroidery, and invited stitchers to pick one of Jacob's early designs, something that's not (yet) popular, and stitch it -- calling the project the "Jacob Sleeper SAL".  I love his designs and reproductions too, having finished "Here Be Dragons", as well as the delightful "Summer Bower". 

 And I'd made a start on a fairly new design -- his miniature "Vierlande" sampler entitled "Remember Me", even getting the Roxy Floss Co. hand-dyed floss in the 'Vierlande' colour-way.  In fact, I stitched on that yesterday for Good Friday:

For the "Sleeper SAL" I picked one of his little patterns that was actually part of a SAL a few years ago:  "Light a Single Candle".  I'm doing it on a little scrap of linen using some dark red floss -- unlabelled -- that I resurrected from a long-abandoned UFO kit, and I'm praying I have enough of that red to finish!

I'm doing  this as a Sunday Stitch.  However, with Spring in the air, and the new WIPGO numbers out, I had to dig out a "floral" -- it's my "#18" that was one of the numbers called for April.  Now, I have more than one stitch with flowers on it, and it's not April -- yet -- so I decided to start a new one to add to the mix!  (What?  Don't look at me that way! 😉  Don't tell me you've never done that...!! 😆)

This is "Buttercup Alphabet" by Cathy Jean at The Victoria Sampler.  I bought it -- with thread pack! -- at a retreat Thea Dueck gave back in October 2008, in her then-home in Victoria, B.C. -- and wondered why I'd never stitched it up.  I'm using a piece of 28-count "Toile a broder" from DMC -- a rather light-weight fabric, but it seemed to me to suit -- and I'm using 2 threads of floss over 2 of fabric.

With all that going on, rest assured I've not forgotten the Wedding Sampler I'm doing for my friends' 50th Anniversary in late May.  I'm about 2/3 finished -- coming down the right border.  The other three borders are finished and so is some of the text.

"Arabesque Wedding Sampler"
Designed by Birgit of The Wishing Thorn

I'm working it on 36-count "Grey" from Weeks Dye Works, using the called-for DMC and one silk from Caron Watercolors (the variegated thread you see there.  There's Kreinik "Old Gold" to come, as well as beads from Mill Hill...but those will be done last.

There've been knitting starts too. A couple are so new there not ready for photos yet.  I mean, who needs to see a photo of two rounds of 1:1 ribbing?!  😆  

First, a pair of mittens for my next-door neighbour, who helped me repair a collapsed shelf in my laundry room a few weeks ago (don't ask!)  When I asked how I could compensate him for his hard work, my neighbour asked for a new pair of mittens because the ones I'd made him a few years ago had worn through the fingertips.  He wears them under other mittens when he's shovelling/blowing snow or doing other sorts of work outside in the cold.   I'm using stash yarn -- a self-striper -- and the Tin Can Knits pattern, "The World's Simplest Mittens".  I've made these many times and they're just right. 

Next a couple of cotton-based chemo caps for my UK friend who's still having treatments for cancer, and will need something lighter than wool/cashmere to wear this spring.

And then...another hap, because, why not?  The Woolly Thistle -- an online yarn shop in New Hampshire -- is having its annual Shawl KAL.  They're purveyors of 'woolly wool', which I love, and of which I have quite a bit in my stash.  While I drool over the stuff TWT sells, I can't afford to buy it (exchange rate) and have it shipped here (exchange rate), and I don't need to -- when I can get some of the same brands locally, and others, besides.  For this KAL I'm going local -- as in Western Canada:

Top: Heritage Black Welsh Mountain Fingering
from the Alberta Yarn Project;
Centre: Gotland/BFL Lamb Fingering dyed 
with logwood, from Riverside Farm, Brisco, B.C.;
Bottom: Hill & Down Fingering from Kalea
the Luddite, Edmonton, Alberta

The KAL began yesterday, so here's my wee start.  The pattern is a hap created by Julie Kabitsky for an Advent KAL in 2018, which I never joined at the time.  Better late than never! LOL!

Finally, on the quilting front -- no new artwork, though I am going to be giving a short Artist's Talk at the Viewpoint Gallery in Red Deer on April 5th.  

Piecing continues apace, though.  I finished the March Block of the Month (BOM) from A Quilting Life.  I'm using Thimbleberries fabric from deep stash, and I make two of the same each month, 8" finished, just using whatever takes my fancy from that fabric collection.  They all have the same background fabric (I have scads of it!) and all have that same outer border, though not necessarily with the same contrast fabric:

And I'm working in earnest to create about 100 "Four Patch Fun" blocks from Bonnie Hunter's 'Addicted to Scraps' column of a couple of months back.  I'll need that many because I've trimmed them to 6", so they'll finish at 5 1/2" in the quilt.  The photo below was taken a few days ago, when I'd completed 34 blocks; I'm up to 51 blocks now, and more prepped!

I clip them in batches of 10 to make them easier to count!

While some may "match", in reality they're a very scrappy bunch indeed.  No idea how I'll set them yet.

And as "leaders and enders" I've been working on two other projects: assembling four-patches for one of Bonnie's "Easy Breezy" quilts, and assembling rows of postage-stamp blocks -- five per row -- with which I hope to make a set of curtains for the west-facing window in my living room.  I've got 12 rows of five blocks each assembled, and blocks for at least two more rows.  

I figure if I just keep my hands busy, it'll take my mind off my physical challenges.  I'm thankful too, that I'm still mobile and relatively healthy -- and hopefully will find out soon what to do about this dermatitis!  The best way to scratch this itch is to keep my fingers and my mind otherwise occupied!

And so...it's time for a walk in the brisk, breezy sunshine.  I'll leave you with the usual link to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday.  She's been exploring improv piecing and having great fun with it!  

Thanks for stopping by, Gentle Readers -- and blessings for Easter to all who observe.  Until next time... a bientot!

New Year, New Work

In my last post, I shared with you the last of my new artwork for 2021: a diptych entitled "Scattered I" and "II".  This week I finally completed hand-stitching the binding on that pair, and they're ready for hanging sleeves.

Since then, I've surprised myself -- and made two more!  

"Why was this a surprise?" you might be thinking (or not!).  Well, as I mentioned in that very same post, like many most probably all of you, Gentle Readers, I'm finding it's a daily practice to Keep Things In Perspective.  As Kate Jackson of The Last Homely House suggests, in these pandemic times it's rather a good idea to "get out of one's head and into one's hands"; thus I'm making time and space to make something every day.

My copy of the Winter 2022 edition of Quilting Arts magazine arrived not long ago, and I made some time to go through it.  In there, I found Canadian textile artist, Anni Hunt's  second of a trio of articles.  The first -- in the Fall 2021 issue -- was about printing on fabric, which isn't something I do often.  This second one, though, was about collage.  This is a technique that I struggle with -- especially when it's practiced in a free-form sort of way.

New Directions 2*
(c) 2019

Yes, much of my work involves some sort of "collage", in that I layer pieces of fabric into some sort of artistic coherence -- but that's not what I'm getting at here.  What Anni and so many other artists seem able to do with assorted materials has always challenged me.  I get so darned hung up on trying to "make it look like something" that I diddle around, fussing about where and how to lay down whatever it is I'm working with, whether fabric or paper or something of both.  The work might end up looking rather attractive, but even to my eyes it comes across as rather stiff and formal.  *In the photo, the flowered background is the paper on the wall on which the canvas is hung, not part of the artwork!

Still, Anni's article piqued my interest, so I thought I'd give it a go -- try to play for a change.  So...I dug out some batting, some light-weight backing, some neutral scraps of fabric and some tea bag papers.  And bonding powder, because I'd not "played" with it in ages, and was running low on fusible web.   After all, I was just making a background, for pity's sake -- just as she was suggesting in her article, "Fabric Collage: New Beginnings" (p. 96 in the magazine).  

My base fabric was very light and a slightly irregular shape; I left it that way.  I layered it over some "franken-batting" (i.e. two pieces zig-zagged together to make a larger piece), and then sprinkled on the bonding powder, before applying a layer of fabrics and tea bag papers.  The powder was an adventure.  With our very dry air (humidifier or not), it was a challenge to keep it from getting everywhere but where I wanted it.  Still, I persisted!  Eventually I had all the layers together, and zig-zagged the scrappy collage:

Collaged background - linen scraps 
and tea bag papers

Collage close-up

Well now!  That wasn't so hard, was it?!

What next?  The part of me that likes "order" and prefers it to "look like something" was on the verge of an attack of acute anxiety.  

Okay then!  Make something of it!  

So I did.  First, I added "trees" from scraps of painted/printed fabric, using matte medium.  And I saw that "it was good" -- so I signed it!

And then I mounted it on a 12" square stretched canvas, which I painted in an attempt at a dark brown -- having no brown paint on hand. (I can't remember the last time I wanted to use any brown paint!)

Eventually, it will be framed.  The title is "If We Were Not Here", after a line in a poem from Wendell Berry in his book A Small Porch (Counterpoint Press, Berkeley, CA, 2016 - Part VIII, "A Small Porch in the Woods") --  a Christmas gift this past year:

The pattern for keeping this place

we must take from the woods, if

the land is to thrive in our using.*

If we were not here, Nature

would give this land to trees...

*An Agricultural Testament, pp. 1-4

In the mood for more "play" I took out a good-sized piece of fabric that I'd thought at first I'd make into a whole cloth piece with free-form linear quilting.  It's more grey-browns and grey-greens than the photo shows, because the photo was taken with it sandwiched and quilted, and lying on my ironing board.

I'd decided to see if I could construct an old tree from some of the gazillions of dark brown "bonus triangles" I had from a former project -- ones I'd not turned into half-square triangles.  Below you see the beginnings of piling up the tiny scraps -- small triangles I'd cut up into even smaller ones:

I liked the effect, but how to put these together?  I created the tree trunk, layered it with MistyFuse and fine grey tulle, and, beneath a pressing sheet, gave it a good press:

Aaaargh!  What a mess!  The photo shows only one corner of the piece, and the darned tulle hadn't merged into the background as I thought it would.  ICK!!  Now what?!

Well, I sliced the large piece in half (or thereabouts) and then I cut out the tree.  Yep.  Got out some fine-tipped applique scissors and cut every tiny nook and cranny,  Then I placed it on the remaining half of the quilted background -- pinned -- and stitched it down with a dark variegated thread (Superior King Tut #979 - "Obsidian"):

Well now!  That's better!  I faced it, and signed it -- calling it finished at 10" W x 21" L.  May I present Venerable (c) 2022:

As for the cut-out scraps from the other half of the quilted piece, they've been saved for later use -- they'll make great hills and fields sometime in the future.

After all that "play", it was time for a break -- and I returned to 'piece peace, order and good government' (pun intended)...making several more wonky log cabin blocks from crumbs and strings (I'm closing in on 60 but need 90 for something of any size), making a few more pinwheel blocks from "bonus" HSTs, and finally finishing the assembly of the last rows of the "Easy Breezy" (a Bonnie Hunter leaders-and-enders pattern) piece, started long ago as a 'quilt-as-you-go'.  Those rows now have to be joined together.  There are 9 rows of 9 blocks, and I'm putting them together in pairs, thus:

Five of 9 rows ready to put together

I've not enough of the red print to do all 8 long sashes, so row #3 and row #6 will have solid red on the front, instead.  And all the sashing on the back is a solid royal blue that picks up on the blue in the print of the fabric.

Still with Bonnie, my 2021 "Rhododendron Trail" units are coming along -- for Clue #3 ---no! Clue #4* which (she warned us!) is rather labour-intensive...

About 2/3 there!

*I discovered I'm farther ahead than I thought!  Here's what Clue #3 -- now finished --  looked like in process!

"Rhododendron Trail" - Clue #3 units

For a change of pace, I've also been stitching -- and have finished the first 'mini bouqet' in Jeannette Douglas' *free* 2022 informal stitch-along, which I mentioned briefly in my last post.  On 28-count linen, the design area is about 3" square; I'm using DMC threads for the most part -- with a few hand-dyes mixed in:

In my last post, I also mentioned another of Jeannette's designs, Mon Coeur, which I decided to start early -- as a "birthday start" in honour of my daughter, who turned 41 on the 13th of this month.  I'm just working on the border, which is being done in "Perlee Creme", a rather slinky, slippery cousin of perle cotton.  It's going to be very pretty, but it certainly requires concentration!

And of course, Gentle Readers, there's always knitting!

The baby socks are finished and mailed.  Here's the second pair, with a rolled cuff, which I'd not even started when I last wrote:

And my daughter received her two headbands in time for her birthday.  Yes, two.  The first one is in her chosen colour and pattern:

Pattern: DROPS 114-4-a - Alpine Twist
Yarn: Berroco Vintage DK in Cracked Pepper
Shown here before washing & blocking

Pattern: Braided Cabled Ear Warmer
Yarn: Red Heart "Heat Wave" in the "Passport"
colour-way

The "Heat Wave" yarn was give me by a friend last summer.  I'm trying not to work with 100% acrylic...but thought this was worth trying out.  It's soft and much nicer than any Red Heart worsted I've used before.  AND it's supposed to "warm up" in the outdoors -- even if it's cloudy.  My daughter was willing to try it out -- and this weekend will provide the perfect opportunity!  The Deep Freeze has moved east, so in our more moderate winter temps, she's planning some hiking photography out in the mountains...and will report back on the quality of the respective "ear warmers".  Stay tuned!

It wouldn't be January without all of this "Startitis" -- new artwork and stitching, and now knitting.  Yes, I'm working away on the body of my "Ranunculus" pullover, but I also started a cowl in an odd yarn from my stash -- "Icona" from  Bertagna Filati.  I'm using a Tin Can Knits pattern -- the "Simple Yet Effective Cowl" -- because it adapts to pretty much any weight of yarn.  There's not enough done to show you a photo, and it's knitting up rather stiffly (per the yarn's unusual construction) but I'm hoping it will soften up with washing later.

On that hopeful note, I'll leave you with wishes for a quiet, comfy, cozy, creative weekend -- and with a link to my friend Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday.  TTFN... 😊

A Serious Case of 'Startitis'

It happens every year around this time: I catch "startitis".  You know, the urge to start something new...but not just one 'something'.  No.  Multiple somethings! 

It hit me when I was roaming around YouTube, clicking on video podcasts from yarn shops.  The first one I looked up was at the recommendation of a customer who was in the Shop last week.  She and her daughter were joining a Mystery Knit-Along (MKAL) originating with the gals at Cozy Up Knits out of Grande Prairie (Alberta, not Texas; you can tell because of the "e" in "Grande" 😊)  I checked it out and decided to take a pass, but if you're interested, it's not too late to join in.  You can catch it on YouTube HERE.

Not so interested in the Cozy Up project, I checked out Must Love Yarn -- shop owners in Vermont, who have an hour-long (or so) video podcast.  No MKAL that I could see, but their friendly chatter is pleasant background entertainment for quilting or knitting or whatever.  From there I hopped to The Knot House Podcast -- another video podcast from a yarn shop: this time, from Maryland.  These clips last only about 1/2 hour, which I found just right, because I can use them as timing devices.

Say what? 

Well...one of the symptoms of startitis is that not only do you have to start multiple new projects, but also you find yourself compelled to work on each one all at once.  Having a 20-to-30-minute video to enjoy while you work makes it easier to do this -- especially if you have a series of video 'casts lined up that you've never seen, so you can watch them one after the other.  You simply spend one video's worth of time working on one project; when that 'cast ends, you switch projects!  You have an opportunity to get up and stretch -- get more coffee or a glass of water or whatever -- and move to The Next New Thing. 

Pattern: Stepping Stones - Clara Parkes
Yarn: Jawoll Magic Degrade
Colour #85.0074

There could be one fly in this ointment, though.  I've been commissioned by my daughter to make a pair of socks as a birthday gift for one of her friends.  I have to have them finished within the next ten days or so, to get them into the mail to my daughter on time for the birthday gift exchange near month-end. 

Uh-oh.  They're not a New Thing.  I began them a few days before Xmas.  😞

But wait!  I finished the first sock of the pair last night!  That means I can start the second sock today.  And technically, I could consider the second sock a New Thing!  Reprieved!

So...start it I did.  As well as starting a Plain Vanilla sock in an old yarn from stash -- because, yes, when startitis hit, I rejoined "Socks from Stash" as a way to satisfy some of the urges, while simultaneously using up stash yarn.  And that's a Good Thing! 

Yarn: Fortissima Colori "Socka Color" - Colour-way: 9070.
Pattern: my adaptation of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's "Good Plain Sock" from her book, Knitting Rules. 


Between the two pair of socks -- and the latest two clues in Bonnie Hunter's 2019 Mystery Quilt, and the fact that I've resolved to start at least 2 new art quilts come Monday (January 6 being the official end of my self-imposed "holidays") -- you'd think my startitis would be cured...or at least tamped down! 

But no.

One more thing.  I needed one more thing.  After all, the birthday sock was really only Somewhat New, and the Mystery quilt has been going on since American Thanksgiving (near the end of November) so...yes.  One more thing.


The gals on the Knot House podcast had me looking at patterns they'd made up for their shop, including Eowyn Mittens by NeedleRogue, and "Bonjour/Hi" from Espace Tricot (yes, the shop in Montreal that I couldn't get to when I was there in June because it was closed for some sort of emergency). 

Smitten by both, with thanks that they were free patterns that suited yarn I own, I've downloaded them. But...I was also reminded I needed to look at my Ravelry Queue.  And there, near the top (for ages) was a Nora Gaughan pattern I'd lined up -- with the yarn, a cotton in shades of red -- the "Rhodocrosite" wrap from her Volume 7 collection.  I'll be using "Lara", a cotton yarn from elann.com's Endless Summer Collection, colour #335...bought in another place (Calgary) in another time.  Both the pattern and yarn had been lined up for far too long.  It was time for them to be used!

As a result of this hefty dose of New Things, I've managed to put my startitis under control.  With the ongoing quilt mystery, and new artwork on tap for Monday, I should recover nicely by mid-month, don't you think?  😉

I'll close with a few photos from the quilty side of things...

First...from the Mystery Quilt project:

Clue 4 finished

Clue 5 finished

Clue 6 -- in process!

And...some photos I'm considering as inspiration for new art work...to be sorted and printed and planned out come Monday...

And there are more to come.  I've got a SAQA 2020 Spotlight Auction piece to create, and then a series of small pieces (6" square up to 12" square) plus another larger piece -- painted whole cloth, already auditioned...

So you can see I won't lack for New Things to keep my startitis at bay!  How about you?  Do you suffer the same affliction at this time of year?  Or ever?  Let me know how it affects you...and what you do about it!

I'm linking this to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday...and turning my attention to casting on that Nora Gaughan pattern through a third episode from the Knot House.  Later there'll be another walk in the winter wonderland that surrounds my wee hamlet.

Here's to startitis, to inspiration, to New Things in a New Year!  May we all be so blessed!