ALERTS

Snowfall warning for Lacombe Co. near Clive Alix and Mirror

So says The Weather Network for this part of my world -- and up into Edmonton -- for the weekend.  I could pout, as it means I won't be able to get up there to the Deep Freeze Festival (I have four pieces -- count 'em! -- four -- in the DF Gallery, as one of only two textile artists in the weekend-long show)...but I choose not to.

Yes...my client has lo-o-ong feet!

Instead, I am staying home to happily work on the argyles (Sock #2 is under construction), and I promised Linda  I'd take a page from her book (pun completely intended) and spend some time tomorrow working on my sketchbook for TSBP.  Goal: to get it into the mail on time, so it can go on tour with the rest of 'em.  My (chosen for me by request) theme is "In Flight"; I'm now looking on my little bird as one that needs to wing South through the Canadian snow and blow, to join the rest of the flock!  (Maybe Canada Geese should be on the cover...)

In other knitting...I finished the Tobermory Bay Scarf for my friend J, and it's packaged and ready to mail before the snow flies.

I've begun a Pretty Thing for my friend P, who's going through a tough patch (likely longer than shorter) caring for her aging mum.  For this I'm using Peruvian Baby Cashmere, an alpaca/merino/cashmere blend, in a deep blue-green, that I bought from Elann.com several years ago now.  I'm also using 4 mm Addi circular needles (16" long) -- but they're not specifically lace needles, and I fear I may run afoul of the  pattern without appropriately pointy tips.  I've already had to frog it once...so I feel a trip to Crafty Lady coming on Monday if the process doesn't improve over the weekend.

These two projects (Tobermory and Pretty Thing, that is) are my 'listen to my inspirational podcast' knitting.  During this 25 minues or so of knit-listening each day, I aim to work on a project that will bring comfort and joy to someone I know who seems to me to be in need of a little lift.  They don't know it's happening, and there's no deadline for finishing, but this bit of steady work on a small project produces results in an amazingly short period of time.  It also gives me a lift -- and a change from all that fine sock yarn on my argyle commission!

01-01-11

Happy New Year!

Being a Morning Person, I was asleep before 2011 actually arrived here in my wee hamlet.  As I type, it's 5:30 a.m. Mountain Standard Time and all the revellers are fast asleep.  I'm sitting with one lamp lit, just here on my desk, enough to type by, enough to work on some knitting in a few minutes. The lights of my little tree glow behind me, reflected in the window before me.  Beyond this cozy spot, all is calm, all is night.  It is enough: this day, this hour, this moment; daybreak 3 hours away, and already I am full.

Work on The Argyles continues apace...I have finally reached the heel/instep part of the work on my first stocking.  The pattern calls to me, egging me on to find out how it's going to shape up.

But first...breakfast.  Steel cut oatmeal is bubbling away on the stove-top; I'm about to have a second cup of coffee...

"Watch now, how I start the day/in happiness, in kindness." - Mary Oliver, Why I Wake Early, 2004.

A Bit More Progress

A bit more argyle - front of cuff

Over on Ravelry, there's a forum entitled "Argylers Anonymous" -- where they hardly ever post any messages.  I'm beginning to understand why.  After several more hours on this cuff, I have managed to get to Row 20 of 25 on the Argyle pattern (that's after 32 rows of stockinette in the blue-green marl). That's 80% of one cuff -- with ends mostly sewn in.  So near to the actual leg portion of the pattern....and yet, so far. I tell you, weaving in the ends as I go is going to save my sanity -- there' d be far too many of them to secure later.

And just think: I have to do this twice!

And back of cuff....most ends woven in

That said, there's a kind of 'hook' in this work -- much like making socks with self-striping yarn, or working Fair Isle, I seem to want to keep going just to see how it'll turn out.

Prezzies!

My birthday thus far has been absolutely lovely.  First, I received an amazing number of "Happy Birthday" posts on my Facebook Wall.  Then, I got two delightful e-cards from good friends, to add to the cute and funny cards given me by my sis and my friend D.  Yeah, it arrived by *real* mail!  What's not to like?

And I have these two great -- and very different --gifts.  The gift my sister gave me is decidedly high tech -- a digital photo frame!  Thanks to my daughter, who helped me get it up and running the other evening!  For now, I'm using a wee photocard (just holds 10 photos) to produce a slideshow of detail images from my art quilts.  I figure this is the perfect vehicle for marketing at an exhibit booth -- as long as I have a plug-in!

Peaseblossom

The other gift is...well...low tech: yarn and roving, brought back from Nova Scotia for me by my dear daughter when she visited in July.  Now that's thinking ahead! :-)   The roving is white Shetland, 4 ounces, from a sheep by the name of "Peaseblossom" -- apparently named after one of Titania's fairy servants in Shakespeare's A Mid-summer Night's Dream.  :-)  Lovely!

The yarn is from Tanis Fiber Arts, which Gina really suspects is from Montreal, not Nova Scotia (the website neither confirms nor denies this) -- and it's a luscious blend of 80% superwash merino and 20% nylon, fingering weight....for the perfect pair of socks.  Mmmmmmmmm!





Speaking of knitting, I'm am making slow but steady progress on the first stocking in my commissioned Argyle kilt hose.   It's been a case of one step forward, 2 steps back, as working with 2 strands of each colourway, with yarn that has been a bit split-ty, has been rather a pain!  I abandoned bobbins early on due to tangling, and have taken up Kaffe Fassett's  technique of using lengths of yarn instead.  I ended up frogging the first 6 rows and knitting them back again; I'm now about to start row 10.  I have to admit I prefer the two-handed Fair Isle of the Christmas Stocking project , but I wouldn't be averse to trying Argyles in single strands in future.  (Somebody shake me!) 




A third 'sort-of-prezzie' arrived this morning as well: my new iPod Shuffle!  It's a tiny wee thing -- even smaller than the aforementioned yarn bobbins I abandoned -- but it holds all the walking work-out music and podcasts I  care to load on to it at once (it's a 500-song size; I have no idea how many songs' worth equals half an hour of podcasting).  The ear buds are new to me too -- with the volume control on the right cord.  (What if I were left-handed; could I request one with controls on the left cord?)  It wanted to download everything in my music library almost as soon as it was attached to my computer; I managed to stop it, and clear out what I didn't want -- for the most part.  It also loads in "playlists" -- part of the new control gizmo, rather like file folders on a computer.  Thus I have my 'music' file, my 'podcasts' file and my 'workout music playlist' file.  I rather like that.  We'll see how easy it is to manage these as time goes on.

Oh yeah -- and the colour was picked by me, too, and if you look ver-r-r-ry closely at the bottom of the silver-coloured clip on the back, you can see my "custom" inscription: "Bloom where you're planted."  The things They come up with these days to tickle one's fancy!

I've Also Been Quilting


Thought I'd posted somewhere in an archive about the first piece in what I'm calling my "Spirit" series -- but I can't find the link.  Ah well.  The piece is called God, of Your Goodness, and is inspired by the first line of a prayer from Julian of Norwich:  

God, of Your goodness, give me yourself,

for you are enough to me,

and I can ask for nothing else that is to Your glory.

And if I should ask for anything else,

I would still be in want,

for only in You have I all.

Robe - Right Front Section

"Heart Paisley" Detail

I'm at the quiltiing stage with this piece, and decided to do some "Heart Paisley" (per Leah Day) filling stitches on the sleeves of the robe belonging to the God-figure.   This resulted in a great deal of procrastination on my part, but I finally bit the bullet and practiced, practiced, practiced.  On Saturday afternoon, I went for it on the actual piece, and am quite pleased.  Onward and upward!

As my friend A poiinted out, this sort of McTavishing can result in a fairly firm fabric.  This means that on the sleeves, where I want to show 'flimsiness', I am going to quilt much more lightly.  I am also undecided about quilting the lame lapels of the robe; I'll leave that decision until I have finished the other front, and the centre panel.  

Lesson Learned: there's a place for dense quilting, and a place for not-so-dense quilting!  :-)

On the knitting front, I posted a query on Ravelry about how many strands to use in the single-colour section of the argyle (my second kilt hose commission), when you use 2 strands for the marl section.  It was generally agreed that I should use 2 strands throughout, which has me fussing about whether or not I have enough of the main colours (blue and green).  Think I'll order more, just in case.  I can always use this basic sock yarn for something else if I don't need it for the kilt hose.  I swatched the first 32 rows of the cuff, 75 sts on #12 CAD (2.75 mm) straight needles -- and got 15 sts and 20 rows to 2', when I should be getting 11 sts and 17 rows.  Sigh.  Pulled it out (recycle!) and will try with #11 CAD (3 mm) straights.  Yep, these hose are intarsia -- knit flat and seamed before working the foot.  Every minute with them is a learning experience, so I'm still having fun. :-)

Now back to the sewing machine!