I come from sturdy English and Scots stock -- "stiff upper lip" and all that -- but I have to say, the last 3+ weeks have me hovering between weepy/wobbly and purple-in-the-face angry.
My country's been threatened by a madman -- who has equally mad minions around him. What's a civilized, educated, sensible person of the female persuasion to do?!
Well...hmmm...
I've decided the best I can do is to keep making. Creating beauty every day, as Deanne Fitzpatrick says. Making items for those in need of warmth and comfort. Making gifts for friends and family. Selecting items I no longer need or want and giving them away. Filling the 3 active winter bird-feeders in my trees. Tending to my yard and garden in season. Making jams in season and giving jars away to friends and neighbours for their enjoyment. Donating books to the local libraries (yes; one here, one in Alix, AB -- but mostly here, as it's not part of the wider library system). Donating to causes in which I believe -- or in memory of friends who have died.
My friend Dave died a couple of weeks ago. He was a United Church of Canada minister, a handyman, a fisherman, an appreciator of art, and a beloved husband, father and friend. In his 'handyman' role, he renovated my bathroom 16 years ago, and upgraded my kitchen counters about 8 years after that...and with a skinny accomplice, figured out the source of the frozen pipes under my kitchen floor -- and fixed it.
His wife is a potter, and I have one of her mugs. We met years ago at a small-town 'Art Walk' in which people understood her work but couldn't fathom mine. I hope she knows (as I've tried to communicate) how much I appreciate her work.
And so...watching my friends and family (by marriage) refusing to come home (some of them have Canadian citizenship -- born here, grew up here, and our government hasn't challenged their birthright) -- but somehow the fear of 4-6 months of snow keeps them south...
I don't understand.
What I DO understand is making and giving...so since my last post, here's what's on the table -- finished:
Hooked Art:- A 12" square piece for the "Piece by Piece" fundraising auction to support the Lacombe (Alberta) Centre for the Performing Arts (LPAC). I finished it -- fully -- yesterday and will deliver it to the Centre next week:
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| "Prairie Gold" - 12" x 12" Hooked yarn; mounted on canvas |
- A small piece for sale later this spring (I hope):
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| "January Moon-set" - 6" x 6" Hooked yarn on burlap Mounted on canvas |
I've another idea percolating -- a reprise of my "Blue Pot" done in fabric several years ago -- so stay tuned!
In all of these things, the attempts to create Order out of Chaos are evident. In hooking mats, it's the hand-over-hand motion. This is true, too, of cross stitch. I've been working on 3 pieces this month, all with deep Canadian connections.
The first two feature Canadian designers -- Thea Dueck of The Victoria Sampler, and Jeannette Douglas of Jeannette Douglas Designs.
I love samplers, as many of you know, and so this month, I pulled out Jeannette's reproduction sampler, Ann Perrin 1841, and picked up where I left off during "Sampler September." I love all the little motifs inside of that fabulous border:
Hankering for a new start, too, I dug out a pattern -- with accessory pack of threads and beads -- I'd bought in the fall of 2008 when I went to a retreat in Victoria, B.C., hosted by Thea Dueck and her Victoria Sampler staff: "'S' is for Stitcher". I found just the right piece of fabric in my stash -- an unlabelled 28-count mystery linen that's a Zweigart base (it has the famous orange stripe in the selvedge), and have managed to do the first few bands of this sampler:
In the gap you see above the "S" is a cut-work feature I've chosen to leave out; I'll go back and put my initials and the year in there later. I even have Thea's blessing to do that! 💜
February 11 this year was rather special for me. Those of you who follow me on FB will note that I posted about it: the 50th anniversary of the day my DH and I announced our engagement! I decided a special piece was needed to honour the day and his memory. No; not something lovey-dovey. Rather, something simple in construction but complex in over-all effect. Something that makes order out of the chaos of married life marred by long-term illness and in the end, his death.
I've chosen "A Quilter's Dream", designed by Jacob de Graf of Modern Folk Embroidery -- using the paper pattern, fabric and floss I purchased from Evertote, the wonderful Canadian cross-stitch suppliers of select patterns, and Roxy Floss Co. fabric and floss. I'm using Roxy Floss' 40-count 'Porcelain' linen, and Roxy Floss "Greater Porpoise" and "Pippy" hand-dyed flosses, 1 strand of floss over 2 fabric threads.
I began with the border, starting in the upper left corner, as is my habit:
By this morning I'd done some of the border across the top too, and decided to add a bit of the red:
It's a lovely, methodical, meditative stitch -- creating comfort, beauty and order out of chaos.
There's been progress on the quilting front too. On Friday, I finished 168 "Easy Breezy" blocks -- 4 1/2" (unfinished) -- and have arranged them into 12 columns of 14 blocks each. Here's what a stack of those rows looked like, laid out on my ironing board!
Yesterday I finished the last two columns and began to sew the columns together in pairs, randomly sewing one column to another. I've now got 6 pairs of them to sew together. That should measure about 48" x 56" before borders -- and once borders are on it'll be a good throw-sized top. "Easy Breezy" is one of Bonnie Hunter's "Leaders and Enders" projects, and this is the second one I've made. The last one I did was a QAYG (Quilt As You Go), finished in March of 2022:
I love the scrappy look of these quilts!
I've made a total of eight blocks now in the "Old Town" pattern -- Bonnie Hunter's Mystery 2025. It's now released as a pay-for pattern, if you missed getting it during the weeks the Mystery was being posted. I need 25 before I can put them into a top, but I've enough of them now that I can tell they make an interesting pattern without worrying about the sashing. That's a good thing, because I'm running very low on fabrics from my stash in the colour palette that I've chosen!
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| Just one of eight "Old Town" blocks finished |
And as always, there's knitting. It's what my hands love most when I'm trying to make sense of the world and my place in it.
I finished the second "Mash It Up" hat, using two strands of assorted fingering-weight wool odd-balls. And yes, I used exactly the same colours (or pretty close!) to the ones in the first Mash It Up I made, last November!
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| Pattern: Mash it Up Designer: Babs Ausherman Yarn: assorted fingering wool left-overs |
I finished another pair of mittens -- these in an Adult Small size, using up some "Bravo" DK (100% acrylic) from stash:
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| Pattern: The World's Simplest Mittens Designer: Tin Can Knits Yarn: Schachenmayr "Bravo Originals" in colour #8355 |
I finished the "Guernsey" socks -- and discovered on wearing them that the fabric is rather thin. I probably should have used a smaller needle size from the get-go. Ah well...I'll wear them -- maybe they'll be okay for spring and early fall.
And I finished the first of the pair of "Twizzler Socks"; the second is now on the needles:
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| Pattern: Twizzler Socks Designer: Tangled Bekah Yarn: Lana Grossa Melleinweit "Cotton Fondo" in "Greens" (Colour #6507) |
These are a pleasure to knit -- easy pattern and I'm enjoying the yarn, which is a blend of cotton, wool and nylon.
Finally, I made progress on my "January Blanket" -- finishing a total of 12 of the 34 pattern repeats, and I've been plodding away at the increases on a sleeve for an over-sized tweedy pullover that I'm converting from an 'in pieces' pattern to an 'in-the-round' pattern. Slow and steady...
But all those finishes called for a couple of new starts, and I was inspired by the knitting podcasters I watch.
First, I decided that I could use a new hand-knit hat. I have only one, and it's pretty light-weight. The regular 'Deep Freeze' weather we've been having this winter calls for something more substantial.
For Xmas 2023, I was given a gift card to Arcane Fibres, an indie dyer in B.C. I bought two lucious skeins of a DK weight in the colour-way, "For All the Trees":
Once of them should do for a nice cabled hat, and the other, perhaps, for a cowl to match. so I've cast on the hat and am about 1/2-way through the 4" brim, which is deep because it's meant to fold up for double thickness:
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| Pattern: Lake Reed Designer: Asita Krebs Yarn: Arcane Fibre Works Merino DK |
Ribbing is lovely and mindless when one wants to be quieted, calmed, slowed down. It's an orderly stitch, too, which clearly fits the theme of "Order Out of Chaos"!
As if that weren't enough, one of the podcasters I watch -- I think it was Linda of the "For the FUN of Knit" podcast -- mentioned the 'Missoni Accomplished' pullover as a project she wanted to start. It has optional colour-work which she plans to do. Now, I've had that pattern for some time -- I got it when it first came out and was free (it's a pay-for pattern now)...so...why not?!
I'm not going to make it with its wide zig-zag stripes, though. I'm built like a box and those would not be flattering! Another stash dive -- and I found a sweater quantity of single-ply DK/light worsted weigh yarn I've had for a good 20 years. It's dyed in a mix of blues:
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| Yarn: Classic Elite "Waterspun" 'Felted' 100% Merino Wool Colour-way: #2549 - "Periwinkle" |
I wasn't sure how this would knit up, but I cast on yesterday and discovered it's got a lovely self-striping thing going on -- in stripes that are far more narrow and subtle than the colour-work in the pattern:
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| Pattern: "Missoni Accomplished" Designer: Espace Tricot |
It's knit top-down, so you can see I've finished the nect and am on the rows of increasing moving downward. I'm making a size 4, which will give me a bit more than 10 inches of positive ease -- and that's intentional, per the pattern. Again, it's simply knitting 'round and 'round -- mindless, soothing, rhythmic, hand-to-hand...Order out of chaos.
Perfect for this frigid, wintry weather. Perfect for the still-short days. Perfect for uncertain, shaky times.
So that's where I leave you today, my friends...with my usual link to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday. This week she's seeking solace in creating too. How about you?
Until next time, Gentle Readers, thanks for reading, for your support, and for sharing the ways you create beauty, peace and comfort -- every day.
A bientot!
