I Want to Make *All* the Things!

We had snow a few days ago.  It began as our usual "First Snowfall" does: with rain, then wet snow, then "regular" snow.  It's melted off the streets and sidewalks now, of course, but when it first fell, it decorated everything with a sparkling covering of white - including the trees.  The photo at left is of my double willow in the "Meadow" lot next to my house.  It lost many of its leaves before the snowfall, but had enough on its branches to look like it was wearing a fancy gown, on its way to a "Snow Ball"! 😉

The snow is off the trees now, too, but still all over the grass.  It's likely here to stay until spring, and will, of course, receive a fresh covering from time to time.

The computer craziness about which I wrote in my last post continues, with a faulty power port (in the computer, where you plug in the cord), and a need to retest the battery now that the port has been replaced.  It wasn't charging properly, even with the new cord.  It's still in the shop, so I'm here again on my old (2013) machie that's serving me rather well, actually, despite its age.  I will still be happy to have the newer (2021) model home again.  

I'd have given up on computers of any and all kinds by now, if they didn't provide me with such pleasure -- communications near and far, music (radio and otherwise) -- and the ability to share my making with whoever cares to see it.

And my making is what is keeping me from tipping into...well, as I've said before, creating beauty and texture, and making art for me and comfort for my friends, family and others -- that's what gives me a measure of peace, a dollop of joy, and helps me sleep at night.

With the coming of the colder weather this year, my usual Autumnal Startitis has ramped up several notches!  As the title of this post says, I want to make ALL the things!

BUT having a rather over-active conscience, I had to finish some things first.  On the knitting front, I finished the third of three Simple Gift Cowls for my son and his family:

Pattern: Simple Gift Cowl
Designer: Amy Curletto
Yarn: Schoeller & Stahl Limbo Mexiko Color
in "Mango" colour-way

I also knit up two pair of baby socks for a young neighbour and his partner, who are expecting their first baby a few days before Xmas.  In my last post, I'd just started the first sock of the first pair; now that pair is finished (newborn to 3-month size) and another larger pair (3 to 6 month size) too:

Pattern: "Baby Socks"
Designer: River City Yarns
Yarn: Knit Picks Sock Landscape
in the Rocky Mountain Dusk colour-way
Newborn - 3 months - shown with cuffs standing up

Same pattern, same designer
Yarn: Pro-Lana Golden Socks 4-fache
in the "Fashion R" colour-way
Three-to-six months size, shown with cuffs folded down

The remaining 'Christmas Knit' is the Back Bay Boomerang shawlette/scarf that I started some time ago.  It's simple garter stitch, but in a light fingering, it's been taking me a while.  It's my 'car knitting' -- for waiting at the train crossing, or for knitting while enjoying coffee with friends -- so it hasn't had quite the attention the other projects have, but rest assured, it will be finished in time to send away for Xmas!

Here's what it looked like when I last showed a photo:

And here's what it looked like as of last evening:

Pattern: "Back Bay Boomerang"
Designer: Susie von Reyn 
Yarn: Queensland Collection Perth
 in Colour #107 - "Tasmanian Bay"

I've only about 15 grams left of the 100 gram ball, and when it's finished, the shawlette will be too!

Three cowls for Xmas gifts and 2 pair of baby socks finished, plus one vest 2/3 of the way there ought to permit me to start a new knit, right? 😉

And what did I want to start?  Yes, I know; I have at least 3 two pair of socks, two shawls and at least 3 sweaters on the needles already, plus a vest.  But I've been watching assorted knitting podcasts, and have kitted up some new starts from my stash. 

The gals at The Woolly Thistle and at A Lovely Yarn have me hankering for a cardigan.  A colour-work cardigan.  Steeked, if possible.  So, yesterday I caked up 3 skeins with which to make a start on the "Stranded and Steeked Knit Cardigan" designed by Katherine Poole-Fournier for Patons Yarn and Yarnspirations.  It calls for a main colour and 4 others, but I'm using only a main colour and two others.  

The maroon is Briggs & Little Regal; the white/cream is Briggs & Little Heritage 2-ply and the teal blue is Gathering Yarn Haynes Creek Heathers Aran.

All have been set aside for a bit, because having read the pattern, I realize I've got to finish at least one mind-bending project before starting another.

The current "mind-bender" is the aforementioned "Presto Vesto" I've been constructing for my daughter for Xmas/her January 2025 birthday.  In my last post I showed you the finished back and right front (the two-thirds accounted for above).  The final third -- the left front -- is now on the needles, its ribbed hem finished, and I've split for the pocket.  You can see that in this photo if you look slightly right of centre and notice the second ball of yarn attached there.  

It remains a project that is anything but "presto" to knit!

To fulfill my hankering for new sweater starts, and for something a bit less challenging than multiple cables or colour-work with steeks, in the past two days I've cast on the following:

• The "Basic Pullover" by Sally Melville from her book, The Knitting Experience. Book 2: The Purl Stitch which I've had in my library since 2004.  Again I'm using yarn from stash: Gedifra Ombretta  in the colour-way #4402: "Midnight Wine".  Here's my start:

It's all wines and deep blue-purples -- yummy!  And perfectly mindless to knit.

• In the slightly less mindless but still simple category, yesterday I cast on the "Crayon Etching" pullover from Natsuko Iida for NORO yarns.  I'm knitting it in Noro Kureyon in colour #40 -- a blue/green/purple colour-way.  It's knit top-down (simple enough) in Linen Stitch, which is simple enough but I'd never used it before and the first dozen rounds of the neckline included short rows.  Riiiiight. Linen Stitch while doing short rows. That's why I consider it "slightly less mindless".  Blessedly the short rows are finished and I'm simply on the body/raglan increases...!!!

Yes, there's still quilting, stitching and art-mat hooking, too.  I've sandwiched and pin-basted the Pink Pinwheels top as that little blankie will go with the baby socks to the new parents.  The new parents-to-be are experiencing some financial challenges as the business the prospective father was working at is...um...not doing well, and in the last week he's either been temporarily or permanently laid off (I'm not sure which).

As I finished the twelve blocks for my son's birthday quilt, I began the sashing -- which is pieced.  Quarter-square triangles (QSTs), that is.  Pieced.  To make enough to go between the blocks, between the rows of blocks and around the outside as an inner border -- per the pattern -- I've had to cut 206 squares, put them in random pairs and create QSTs. 

QSTs under construction

QST sashing - 6 block units per sash
to go between the blocks in each row

Not quite as complex as the "Presto Vesto" project, but still a labour of love.  The things we do for our kids! 😉 💗😊

My stitching in the last part of October was focused on Christmas gifts too.  I started -- and finished -- a couple of small items.  One was autumn/Hallowe'en themed, for a friend of mine who loves both coffee and holiday decor and has been having a bit of a rough time lately:

Pattern: "Brew Haha"
Designer: Plum Street Designs
Done 2 threads over 2, in 28-count Cashel linen
from Zweigart in "Light Mocha" -- a scrap, really
Cotton floss - over-dyed and DMC, some called for,
some subsitutes, all from stash

The next one is finished -- but not fully.  I want to put it into a 7" wooden embroidery hoop, but have yet to do that:

Pattern: "Precious Friend"
Designer: Bent Creek
Done 2 threads over 2, on 28-count even-weave
or perhaps Lugana (no label) -- a scrap
Cotton floss - some over-dyed and some DMC,
some called-for, some substitutes, all from stash

The spacing for that one is a bit 'off' (it is for "Brew Haha" too) but I fudged it (per usual) as I refuse to let Perfect be the enemy of Good!  I enjoyed both of these stitches.

Once these were finished I started another Christmas gift stitch -- one of Jeannette Douglas' smalls, which I fell in love with when Caroline of Evertote.ca announced them.  Jeannette collaborated with Evertote/Roxy Floss on these projects: two small wooden spools, one which was designed to hang as an ornament and the other, to be used as a scissor holder, covered in motifs from Jeannette's reproduction of the Margreat Meadows sampler.  I chose the latter, and I'm stitching this up for a stitchy friend.  Although tiny -- I'm using 1 thread over 1 on 36-count Doubloon from Picture this Plus.  It's a mottled (but not splotchy) caramel linen, and this photo of my start doesn't do it justice, really, as it has more character than that:

I'm working from left to right; what you see above is the first two sets of motifs -- out of a total of five.  Yes, it's really tiny: about 2 1/4" high and about 4 1/4" long on this fabric.  That tells you how small the spool is that will be wrapped with it!  I had the fabric at home, but bought the kitted pattern and Roxy Floss threads -- yummy!  And Evertote's "Floss Boss", Hannah, gives the floss colours such wonderfully punny names.  I smile when I pick up each one!

For November, my focus will be on finishing the Margreat Meadows spool cover, and fully finishing it along with the "Precious Friends" piece.  For other stitching, though, I've dug out a 'black sampler' -- a Vierlande-style sampler from Jacob at Modern Folk Embroidery: "When This You See, Remember Me".  

I began it on Good Friday this year (in March), not long after it was first published, and posted about it then, but set it aside as I knew I'd want to work on it again this November.  I'm working it 2 threads over 2 on 32-count Vintage Smoky White (a printed linen) from Zweigart, using Roxy Floss hand-dyed cotton floss in the 'Vierlande' colour-way especially commissioned by Jacob for his Vierlandese designs.

Here's what it looked like when I set it aside:

Stay tuned for progress towards month-end!

And yes...there's hooked art!  In September, I joined the Inspirations Sessions at Deanne Fitzpatrick Studio, for a year only, and am enjoying them immensely.  They've really been a source of encouragement as I've been preparing new work to put into the 2024 "Under $100 Art Market" in Lacombe at the end of this month.  To date I've finished five miniature landscapes, each 6" square, and mounted the first one on painted stretched canvas, which I showed in my last post:

"Turning" (c) 2024
6" square, hooked, mounted on canvas

Here are the latest additions to the "collection", also 6" square, which have yet to be mounted:

"Little Shed on the Prairie" (c) 2024

"All That Blue, Green & Gold!" (c) 2024

"Harvest Hills" (c) 2024

"Winter Sunrise" (c) 2024

The ideas for these came in part from current scenes around me and in part from pieces I'd made as "matted minis" (small art quilts) some years ago.  I was pleased to see that I could translate them from fused applique, thread-painted and quilted fabric, to hooked wool yarn, and wool or silk fabric strips.

I'm now in the process of painting some canvases and some wooden panels (shallow boxes, really, which I'll use "upside down") for mounting, and should have that work done in the next week or so.  I have to wire them for hanging, so picked up some more small 'D' rings and some more picture wire at the hardware store yesterday.  And I have to deliver them to the exhibit venue in the last week of the month, priced and ready to hang -- so I'd best get going!

So, Gentle Readers, you're now all caught up with my exploits, and I'm about ready to take a brisk walk in the wintry sunshine that I can see out my window.  As usual, I'll leave you with a link to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday.  When she posted her linky party, she admitted that she was handing out Hallowe'en candy that evening -- getting a dose of creativity in the costumes being worn by her little neighbours.  I hope you all had a happy time of it that night -- if you observe those festivities -- and I wish you more creative delights until we meet again.  A bientot!

Is it Spring Yet?

 In my last post, I reported that I had "Spring Startitis" and wanted to start all the things -- especially knitting.  I was soooo optimistic that Spring was just around the corner, but Mother Nature's been fickle in this part of  Canada.  We long for rain as we're in a drought here, but aside from an over-night drop of sleet and wet snow Tuesday night, we've had only empty skies and, especially in the last few days, cold, bitter winds that sucked up all the moisture and made fools of us for thinking the sunshine was warm.  Hah!

The dry air has wreaked havoc on my skin.  I've been struggling with an extensive bout of eczema that my doctor thinks is a combination of the drought and stress.  I'm slathering myself with unscented lotions, and have a prescription for a steroid cream to apply sparingly to the most seriously-irritated areas.

Sigh.

This has affected my mood, leaving me "dumpy, frumpy, and grumpy" -- the phrase I used to describe myself when I saw the doc earlier this week.  Otherwise I'm fine -- but if this continues beyond another month, I'm thinking I'll have to go back and see if he has any better ideas.

To add insult to injury, last week I had a major security threat on my laptop, and had to have Windows techs clean it up.  I ended up purchasing Symantec security soft-ware, having learning that an anti-virus program isn't enough protection from the nefarious souls out there with too much time on their hands, who spend their days dreaming up ways to complicate the lives of others.  Symantec was the company we used in the financial services offices in which I worked for over a decade, so I'm hoping the $$$ I spent on that will be worth it.  It's a 5-year plan, so over time, it really works out to be not that costly -- and MUCH better than an invasion of cyber-idiots.

Meanwhile, distraction is the name of the game!  I'm listening to an abundance of calming music available on YouTube (I can minimize the window and not watch the screen) and on the radio (classical on CBC), and have turned to my most repetitive activities: knitting and cross-stitch.

First, the stitching.  This week I had the satisfaction of finishing the piece I'm doing for my friends' 50th Wedding Anniversary, which is next month!

"Arabesque"
Designed by The Wishing Thorn

Beading close-up #1

Beading close-up #2

Beading close-up #3

Beading close-up #4

This is really a very small piece, as I stitched it on 36-count "Grey" from Weeks Dye works, using a combination of 1 strand over 2 threads and 2 strands over two.  That was really unintentional, but when I'd discovered I'd done so, I decided not to frog it and just work the pattern so that it was balanced.  My friends don't stitch; they won't care -- if they even notice!  (The flosses were the called-for DMC plus 1 Caron Waterlilies floss -- the variegated sections you see in the photos.)

As they live in another province, my plan is to lace the piece to acid-free mat board, and let them frame it to suit their decor.  I think it's beautifully exotic, and really hope they like it!

I've also made significant progress on my #JacobSleeperSAL ("Jacob Sleeper Stitch-ALong") piece.  The SAL was organized by Carmen of the "Cardamen Pins" YouTube podcast, to encourage those who love Jacob's Modern Folk Embroidery designs to stitch one of his lesser-known or earlier pieces.

As I mentioned in my last post, I selected a piece that was a free pattern -- a section from one of Jacob's annual SALs from a few years ago: "Light a Single Candle".  I've been using it as a weekend stitch, and am now approaching the bottom border:

The remaining word is 'darkness' -- and then there is a lovely border that echoes the one at the top.  I'm using a piece of unlabelled scrap linen and working 2 strands of floss over 2 of linen.  I began with some leftover unlabelled red cotton floss, and when it ran out, I found some DMC 815 that works perfectly.  I've just enough of that to finish the piece.  I could make it into a little pillow, but I think I'll find a small frame for it instead.

Discouraged about Spring's 'non-arrival', I've not done much on the "Buttercup Alphabet" piece from The Victoria Sampler; more on that when I get back to it.  Even though it suits the "Something Floral" (my #18 from WIPGO that was called for April), I've just not been inclined to work on it of late.

The other WIPGO number this month was 21 -- and for me that could be a plethora of things that are "under 50% complete".  I've focused on the hap I'm making for the Woolly Thistle's Shawl KAL (Knit ALong).  I finished the central piece and have moved on to the first part of the lace border:

Centre: Heirloom Fingering - Black Welsh
Mountain - Innisfail, Alberta
Border #1 - Gotland/BFL Lamb Fingering,
Riverside Farms, B.C.

Close-up of the first border colour

There are 93 rows (!) of lace border, which I've decided to divide up so I can use four colours.  In my last post, I'd shown you only three neutrals: the black, the grey and a natural cream...

BUT on April 6 I went with some friends to the Rose City Fibre Festival in Camrose, Alberta, and came home with another yarn from Riverside Farms: this time a glorious skein of North Country Cheviot/BFL, hand-dyed with cochineal!  Yum!

So now I have a plan to inject a pop of this colour between bands of the natural cream, which in turn will be banded by the grey, and -- I hope -- ended off by more black on the outer edge.

In other knitting, I've finished the first of two mittens for a neighbour (except the thumb), and have completed the ribbing of the second.  

Pattern: "The World's Simplest Mittens"
Designer: Tin Can Knits
Yarn: Schoeller & Stahl "Limbo Mexiko" in
colour #2586 - Mango

And I've finished two more chemo caps for my UK friend -- something a bit lighter to wear if needed, before the heat of summer arrives:

Pattern: "Eyelet Rolled Brim Hat"
Designer: JoAnne Turcotte, from 
Knitting for Peace 
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden, colour #415 - "Rainbow"

Pattern: The Martine Hat
Designer: Lisa R. Myers
Yarn: Queensland Collection
Uluru 'Rainbow' in colour #1010 -
"Waratah Bouquet"

They're packaged up and will be mailed off to her later this afternoon.  😊

There's been "Happy Mail" in the last few weeks too -- which adds to my supply of Delightful Distractions:

First, the two braids of spinning fibre I won last September in the "Summer Spin-in" from Two Ewes Fiber Adventures arrived at last!  (Sorry, no photos as of now, but as I spin it up...stay tuned.)  One is 100% Falkland; the other, 100% alpaca.  Both are hand-painted in shades of magenta through peach through light grey to dark grey.

I decided that I want to marl one of them and simply two-ply the other.  At the Rose City Fibre Festival I found a reasonably-priced package of natural off-white alpaca roving -- 100 grams -- so I'm set to give that a try through this year's Summer Spin-in:

Next, I received the goodies I bought for stitching, with some of my annual tax refund.  The first is a pattern, fabric and hand-dyed floss that I planned for when Jacob of Modern Folk Embroidery introduced "A Quilter's Dream" as a new pattern several months ago:

Pattern from Modern Folk Embroidery
Fabric: Roxy Floss - 40-count "Porcelain"
Floss: Roxy Floss "Pippy" (red) and
"Greater Porpoise" (blue-grey)

The second is the pattern, floss and hardware for a scissors holder that Jeannette Douglas has designed to be kitted with Roxy Floss.  Those of you who've followed me for a while may remember that I used to do office work for Jeannette when I lived in Calgary, and consider her a dear friend as well as one of my favourite designers.  For this project, she selected small motifs from a larger sampler reproduction.  When Caroline of Evertote showed this new kit on one of her floss-tubes, I fell head over heels.  I have a piece of fabric that's perfect for this tiny thing, too.  (NOTE: in the photo, the scissors displayed are my own; they don't come with the kit!)

The last bit of "Happy Mail" is adding to my 'Dreaming of Shetland' collection.  Some weeks back now, Misa Hay of Shetland Wool Week and Shetland Knitting Tours fame, offered back-issues of the Shetland Wool Week annuals at fifty percent off!!!  I decided to take a look, and see if -- after converting the British Pound to Canadian dollars and figuring in shipping -- I could afford one.  Yes!  That discount was large enough -- and the Brit's flat-rate shipping for certain items, like books, of a certain size and weight -- meant that I paid less overall than what the book at full price (before shipping) would have cost!

So...now I am savouring Wool Week Journal #3 with it's patterns, articles of the isles, history, geography, recipes and gorgeous photography.  

And...to add to that same collection, along with my friend Anne, I've registered for a class on knitting Shetland lace -- which will take up the day at the Prairie Fibre Festival down the road in Lacombe, in mid-September.

Ahhhhhh...

I've not done any quilt piecing for over a week, but now have well over 60 "Four Patch Fun" blocks finished, and another 3 prepped.  I also finished the April blocks for the Block-of-the-Month project from A Quilting Life:

As I think I've mentioned before, there are options for an 8" finished block and a 16" one.  I've chosen the 8" finished block -- but decided to make two per month.  I'm using up Thimbleberries fabrics, and have plenty of that background neutral, I'm sure, to get through the rest of the year.  The outer star border colour is currently dominated by red star points but that may change as time goes by.  These are fun, and require a certain accuracy which, despite 30 years of quilting, I still struggle with.  That said, this designer's patterns, like those of Bonnie Hunter, make my piecing look great! 😆

On the art front, my Artist's Talk at the "Craft and Care" exhibit in Red Deer's Viewpoint Gallery went very well; it was an enjoyable evening.  I began by talking a bit about my start as an art quilter, and showed four of my landscape pieces, made between 2012 and 2022 -- moving from "pretty" to "statement" work.  Of the three pieces I have in the exhibit, of particular interest to the viewers seemed to be my piece, "And It's Only June", a wholecloth done on raw tussah silk from MAIWA in Vancouver.  

The show comes down April 26th -- how the time has flown since it went up in mid-February...

April 26 and 27th are the dates, too, for this year's Lacombe Encore! Art Show and Sale.  I'll be taking it in as part of the viewing audience this year for the first time in over a decade.  

I confess...I've been thinking for some time now of just letting go of the original work -- or, at least, the pressure I've been feeling to keep trying to make original art work when my heart just isn't in it.

I've let go of my Quilting Arts magazine subscription, and will pick up an issue here or there only if I think there's enough in it to interest me.  I've finished my term on the SAQA committee on which I served for 3 years.  I've not found the SAQA Journal to be all that interesting (for me) for over a year now -- and this year's online SAQA Seminar (for members) held little fascination for me.  Ditto for the topics at the 2024 conference, which is currently going on -- also online, because it's being hosted by the UK, Europe and the Middle East Region.  I just felt my money would be better spent elsewhere.

Even the SAQA Members Only Facebook group is holding less of my interest.  Blessedly I am friends -- in person and across cyber-space -- with several of them, and I don't think that will end if I retire from the organization.  

I'll never stop making -- with fabric, fibre, floss, yarn, and in my yard and garden, where I'm "making" a meadow.   

The only thing that gives me pause, Gentle Readers, is the thought that after taking years to acknowledge that I was an artist, will 'retiring' from making original work mean that I no longer am?  Or -- worse to contemplate -- that I never really was?

That's a rather pitiful note on which to leave you, though, so cheer up!  I'm linking to Nina-Marie's wonderful Off the Wall Friday blog, where this week she reports on a "Sewing and Quilt Expo" she recently attended.  

Her post brings up thoughts of my trip to Red Deer in early May to see the Central Alberta Quilt Show, and later, in June to go to Quilt Canada, being held in Edmonton this year.  There I'll be taking in a lecture by Lucie Heins, a curator at the Royal Alberta Museum, and author of Alberta Quilters and Their Quilts, a beautiful history book that I purchased when it was first published (I might take mine and ask her to sign it!)

Those events are so full of colour and life, good ideas, new fabrics and notions, fabulous displays by those creative with fabric, thread and stitch -- and so rich with connections to friends old and new.

Maybe being an "artist" will be whatever I decide it is.

A bientot!