January Waning

Goodness gracious!  My mother was right; she told me decades ago (she's been gone for 21 years) that "Once you reach (age) 21, time disappears."

Yep; she was pretty much right.

So here we are nearly at the end of the Longest Month of the Winter (because it doesn't have 10 days of holiday in it).  I'm in the Northern Hemisphere, as most of you probably know by now, so it's been a very January January.  Snow.  Blowing snow.  Freezing rain followed by snow. More blowing snow.

The good news about that?!  I get to stay inside and make things!

And the good news about that?!  Making things helps me cope with all the STUFF going on in the Outside World.

So...what have I been up to since my last post?

First, a bit of "housekeeping".  Full disclosure: after I wrote that I used my Indigo/Chapters gift card to pre-order the paperback version of Deanne Fitzpatrick's Making a Life: Twenty-five Years of Hooking Rugs, I found it when I was sorting the bookshelf on the headboard of my bed.  And yes, I'd read it -- in 2023!!  (See what I mean about time?!)  Sigh. 

Well here's what I did: first, I cancelled the pre-order and got a full refund (a new gift-card) from Indigo/Chapters; second, I took down the hard-cover copy I had and began to read it again.  And yes; I thanked Indigo/Chapters profusely for their understanding.

Don't tell me that's never happened to you.  Just sayin'! 😉

Now then...back to our regularly scheduled Blog Posting...

As we're talking about hooked rugs as art...I've managed to finish that new piece I showed on my last post, when it was still in the early stages.  I've called it "Restless Sky"  and now need to take it to be framed:

"Restless Sky" (c) 2025
17" W x 10 " L before framing
Hooked yarn and wool fabric

There is a word hidden in the sky.  Can you find it?

I've now answered a Call for Entry for a fundraising Art Auction to benefit the Lacombe Performing Arts Centre (the folks who run the Under $100 Art Auction in late November)...and I await the results.

And the call for artists for the annual Encore! Lacombe Art Show and Sale is up.  I was last there in 2023 -- as Featured Artist.  I took 2024 off, but am gearing up to enter again, with new work that is hooked -- and some art quilts that really need a new home.

The other making continues, of course.

I spend a great deal of my morning time knitting.  I've just finished another hat to give away (sorry, no photo; the ends aren't sewn in yet!), and am working on another pair of simple mittens -- that would be the third since I last posted, for I've finished these:

Once again...The World's Simplest Mittens
Designer: Tin Can Knits
Size: child.
Yarn: red wool/synthetic blend - no label
Machine wash, hang to dry

I also finished the socks I started in December for the Advent Mystery KAL -- the "Christmas Smorgasbord Socks":

Pattern: Christmas Smorgasbord
Designer: Becky Greene
Yarn: Patons Kroy FX in "Clay Colors"

I know they look like they're not the same size but please note: due to the nature of the "smorgasbord" of stitch patterns used in the Mystery KAL, each sock has different textured stitch patterns in it.  This means that unless I photograph them on my feet or using a sock blocker (I don't own blockers), they look oddly mis-shapen in different.  They've been washed now, though, and I can attest to the fact that they are the same size! LOL!

I'm really focusing this winter on two kinds of knits: those to give away to folks who need them, and WIPs (Works In Progress) that have been lingering for far too long.  Finishing three projects has left me time to return to these items:

1. A pair of cabled socks I first cast on in 2009.  Yes; you read that correctly: 2009.  I finished one sock and then...well, all I can say is, I must have been visited by the Squirrel! 😃

Here's the first finished sock; the photo 
dates from April 8, 2009!!
Pattern: Guernsey Socks
Designer: Amy King
Source: The Knitter's Book of Yarn
by Clara Parkes

Second sock on the needles.  
Progress as of January 22, 2025.

Please note: the colour of the yarn in the second photo is much closer to real life -- probably because I took the photo against a clean white background.  It's a lovely deep blue-green.  One ball had a label -- Regia 3-fadig.  

2. And I've gone back to the "January Blanket" I started a year ago.  When I picked it up again on December 24, 2024, here's what it looked like:

Photo taken January 10, 2024

Here's my progress as of January 15 (I've knit another 2 1/2 pattern repeats since then, for a total of 10 repeats, 8 rows each):

Pattern: January Blanket
Designer: Leslie Weber
FREE on Ravelry
Yarn: Diamond Select 'Stonewash'
in the colour "Chalk"

The yarn is a nice blend of acrylic (not my fave option but...), wool and cotton.  It's chunky, so I'm using 5.5 mm (US 9) on a nice long cord.  And even though the inter-changeable tips I'm using are wooden (from Knit Picks), the stitches move nicely along and don't stick to them. (That's probably due to the plastic and wool in the yarn blend, off-setting the cotton, which can be hard to knit on wooden needles.)  I got it in 2016 at the LYS I worked at part-time -- the long-missed Crafty Lady in Lacombe, Alberta, which closed in February 2020, because the owner went online and on the road.  She's now retired altogether.)  Sigh.  I still miss that place!

I'm focusing on those for the moment, but there are several more items in project bags that are lined up...just waiting to be worked on (or may finished) -- not to mention the bags of projects that are on the "Start Me, Please!" list, kitted up with yarn and patterns, waiting for time and needles to be available to start them!

On the quilting front, I've made or prepped all the units for the "Old Town" Mystery 2024/5 from Bonnie Hunter.  I've only enough of the fabric for 20 of the called-for 25 blocks, which is fine; it'll make a nice-sized throw, or perhaps something a bit bigger.

So...I've made 5 blocks thus far, and they all look something like this:

"

I'm using "dusty" turquoise, red-brown or rust, pale grey or grey-white, and very pale peachy fabric.  The photos of some of the units might show this better:

Flying Geese for the inner star

Fabric for the central square-in-a-square

I really like the blocks - but the sashing and the borders are too "busy" for my taste, so I'll be simplifying those accordingly.  To each her own, eh? 😉

While constructing these blocks, I continue to make small "Easy Breezy" blocks as my leaders-and-enders project.  I've got 154 finished and plan to do another 14, so I can make a throw that's 12 blocks wide and 14 long.  Each block being 4" finished, that'll produce a top -- before borders -- that's 48" x 56" long, and borders will take it up to a nice throw size -- 54" or so by 62" or so.

Although this has been my focus this month, next month I've vowed to the Quilting Gods that I'll return to the Celtic Knot project and get those last 7 blocks made -- ones that are extras to "up-size" the top from queen to king-sized, as requested. 

Quilting takes up a good chunk of the afternoon -- and then I usually head out for a walk, depending on the weather.  On my return, and on into the evening, it's time for cross-stitch.

I'm still working on The Swan Sampler which, as I mentioned in my last post has been a very enjoyable stitch -- but it wasn't a good choice for a Blessing Sampler, one that is to be started and finished in January, in order to "bless the year ahead".  Ah well -- I'm still enjoying it and have made steady progress, even if it's not close to being finished!

Pattern: "The Swan Sampler"
Designer - Birgit of The Wishing Thorn
Using the called-for threads (DMC & Kreinik)
2 over 2 on 30-count mystery linen

As a palate cleanser of sorts, I finished two small pieces.  The first, "Winter Gingham", I started a year ago (January is a month of "startitis" after all!):

"Winter Gingham"
Designer: Ruth Sparrow Gendron
Publisher: "Twisted Threads"
Kit fabric - 28-count Cream/Natural Gingham
2 over 2 with DMC floss from stash

This is the last of a trio that included "Fall Gingham" and "Summer Gingham". Why there was no "Spring", I've no idea.  I bought them -- with the fabric -- on sale from Traditional Stitches in Calgary a good twenty years ago -- it's not even in their online inventory any more!  I haven't finished them, but they might make cute pillows, or an insert in a journal cover or something. They were just fun to stitch. 😊 

Then there's this little piece that I started in December as a possible Xmas gift (changed my mind).  Some days it really suits my mood! LOL!

"Say You Have"
Designer: Brenda Gervais
2 over 2 on 28-count
Antique White lugana
Floss from stash

Next month I'll be taking up a new start, to honour the fact that in February, fifty years ago, my love and I announced our engagement.  More on that later, so stay tuned!

That's really all my news for now -- at least, in this space.  I remain closely attuned to what's happening in the Wider World, and may speak on that here some other time.  Meanwhile, I take refuge in fabric, fibre, floss and colour -- trying to live out Deanne Fitzgerald's recommendation -- to create beauty every day.

I'll leave you with my usual link to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday.  She's got the winter 'greys'...and could probably use a visit -- and a hug!

Till next time...a bientot!

Socks and Hats and Sweaters -- Oh My!

I started this weblog back in February 2003 (!) and at the time, it was entitled "The Lady Who Knits on the Bus".  Yep.  It was a blog focused on knitting -- even though I'd been quilting for almost a decade, and had begun to take lessons from a local quilt artist that would eventually move me into the world as a textile artist myself.

I learned to knit about age 8 -- so over 60 years ago -- and have essentially never stopped.  Every year around this time, my knitting ramps up, because Christmas is coming.  And -- new to me this year -- October is Canadian Wool Month.  That takes my knitting up a notch, particularly as it overlaps with Shetland Wool Week 2021, which runs through October 3.  

Here's a little clip showing the state of my "Yarn Studio" (aka my living room).  I move a bit in slow circles, so if you think you might get dizzy, sit down to watch.  It's only 1 minute long but... 😉

You can see there's lots on the go!  I'm currently working on the second of two pair of baby socks for a little fellow born this past May.  He and his parents have moved to British Columbia, so I knit the first pair (6 month size) in a wool/nylon blend, which should keep his feet cozy for the damp winter there:

The second pair, cast on yesterday -- I'm now on the foot of the first sock -- is in a 1-year size, so I chose a cotton/wool/nylon blend that also has a small amount of elastic in it -- it's Patons Stretch Socks in the "Kelp" colour-way:

Here's what the finished pair will look like -- this photo is of a pair I made with the same yarn for a different baby, last December:

My favourite pattern for these socks isn't on Ravelry; it's one I bought from River City Yarns in Edmonton -- and I don't know if they still have it for sale or not.  I always make a 2:2 ribbed cuff, though the pattern offers rolled cuff and a 1:1 ribbed cuff options.  They're fast and fun to make, and use up scrap sock yarn (well, at least some!)

This month in the Socks from Stash group on Ravelry, we had to post a selection of stashed sock yarn -- three to five balls or skeins -- and create a poll.  The other members voted on your selection, and you have to knit a pair of socks using the winner of the poll.  Here was my selection:

(L) to (R): Opal Regenwald/Rainforest 4-fach in
"Docktorfish"; Meilenweit Cotton Fondo in
colour #6507; and Patons Stretch Socks in "Licorice"

Even though, in the intro to my poll, I said I had no preference, in truth, I did...but the voters chose my least favourite colour-way.  Can you guess which one?  Regardless, given the number of items I have on the go, I'm planning on knitting a simple ribbed pattern -- the Colonial Rib from Katie S.  These will be given away -- but not to anyone I know!  😉

Meanwhile, the Canadian Guild of Knitters is holding a Knit-ALong (KAL) over on its blog and Facebook page -- and on Ravelry!  It started at 10 p.m. last night and runs through October 14.  There's even a free hat pattern -- a ribbed toque designed by "Kye" via the Woolmark Company.  (Yes, in the pattern it's called a "beanie" but in Canada, it's a toque!)  

I need to knit a hat for Xmas -- but it will be out of acrylic yarn, and so not fit the criteria for the KAL.  That said, I also have some Canadian wool from "CloseKnit" which I bought at a wee shop in Stratford, ON a few years ago -- so I'm going to knit the (ahem!) toque out of that.  

Last week, via Shetland Wool Week 2021,  I took a class on thrumming from Helene Driesen -- making mittens using a pattern Helene created; I was in it for the technique.  I gathered the materials:

I chose a ball of stash yarn -- 100% superwash worsted wool from Ella Rae -- and my thrums came from Louet, a Canadian company -- from wool sample cards given my by my former employer, the Crafty Lady. 

The thrumming technique is simple but not easy at first, simply because you have to get into the rhythm of it.  It helps, too, if your thrums aren't too thick.  

 

I managed to make a sample:

And yes, my thrums are too thick!  I took it all apart, thinned my thrums by half, and decided to make a hat instead.  I'll be casting on another of Helene's patterns using Berroco Vintage Chunky, and recycling the now-thinner thrums. If it turns out, I'll wear it on my winter walks this year -- and if it's really warm, I'll wear it shovelling!  😉

Berroco Vintage Chunky in
"Elderberry" (#6159)

On the sweater front, my Turtle Dove II hasn't grown at all, but I've finished the yoke on my first Ranunculus pullover and am well along on the first sleeve.  I decided to leave the body until the sleeves -- which I want to be 3/4 length -- are finished, just to ensure I have enough yarn, because I also want to make the body longer than called for in the pattern!

But have you done any quilting?

Yes -- artfully, but not studio art.  Confused?  Well, I'm working on a commission -- a throw-sized quilt for my client to give to her adult daughter.  The recipient is in her late thirties, as I understand it, and likes grey and turquoise.  Hmmm.  I chose these fabrics, blessed to get them from Caroline's Homespun Seasons in nearby Stettler:

It's tough to get on camera, but the "white" has a fine grey pattern on it:

It'll measure about 58" x 66" and is in a variation on the Rail Fence. I decided to make three different strip-sets, using 2 1/2" strips, so that each block will finish at 8" in the quilt.  This allows me to make a 'random' arrangement of blocks which I hope will suit the young woman's contemporary taste.  Here's the layout before sewing:

I've got the first four long rows sewn together, and the last two, and just have to join them to finish the centre of the top.  Then I'll add a "zinger" cut from the darker turquoise, and put on a border made from the rather "pebbly" grey-brown batik (top fabric in the stack above).  The backing is a grey-aqua-black gradient fabric, shown underneath the fabric stacks in the photo above.  It's a wide backing so glorious that I purchased a bit extra to enjoy for landscapes in the future.  The binding will probably match the outer border.

And what about your yard and garden?

Well, Gentle Readers, the yard and garden are just about put to bed for the winter.  I have some tomatoes to uproot, some roses and peonies to prune back, my baby apples need a bit of pruning and I need to put out some fresh soap sacks to ward off the deer...but that's about it.  All is turning green and gold in these parts...providing fodder for artwork as the winter sets in:

Aspen along the edge of town

Just a few greens and golds

When I Look Up in the Autumn...

Surrounded by colour, I'm entering October with strong, active hands and a full heart.  Though it's a challenge daily to resist the Pity Party that the fourth wave has ushered into our province, there's nothing quite like a walk in the woods and fields, a steaming cuppa (make mine coffee -- black, please!), and yarn or roving or thread or fabric in ones hands to rise to that challenge, choosing comfort, hope and gratitude.  

As Nina Marie quotes today, over on Off the Wall Friday, people remember how you make them feel -- and there's nothing like giving a gift from hands and heart to make others feel good. 

Till next time... have a great weekend, Gentle Readers -- stay safe, stay creative and stay cozy!

Slip-sliding Away...

 I've lost count -- but I think we had four long heat waves, interrupted by brief bits of cooler weather (a day or two) and then...BANG! We're in "mid-September".  Except that we're only just finishing the third week of August.   Not even close to Labour Day.  Not.  Even.  Close.

Sigh.

It's been a tough summer -- especially for those in wildfire areas, such as British Columbia, Oregon and California.  To top it off, we're all still in the midst of a global pandemic, making fire, flood, earthquake and tornado rescue even more perilous -- especially for those who insist they won't get vaccinated (even though they're eligible) and "You can't make me!!".  

Sigh.

So...all of this noise has been rather dispiriting.  It's certainly put a dent in my "Get up and go!"   What's a person to do???

I decided on a few options -- all designed to "spark joy" with colour and freshness.  It's the only way to go when the skies are grey -- literally and figuratively -- as they often are these days.

• Yard work.  We're in a drought here, so my rain barrels are low, but I've managed to carefully, judiciously use my watering cans with my hose to manage the flower/veg beds.  (I don't water my lawn; I'm not growing a golf course.)  And so...at least some of the plants have come through and produced veggies!  

You can (almost) always count on zucchini...

And sometimes you can find beans...

And broccoli...

And even raspberries...

and of course, more zukes!

I had leaf lettuce too (now finished -- the photo below was taken 2 months ago...)

So it's been a pretty good year for the garden.  (We won't talk about the cherry tomatoes, started from seed in early March, and only just now producing tiny still-green fruit.)

• Long walks.  If I've not worked out in the yard (mowing -- which has slowed considerably as the grass isn't growing in the drought), I try to walk 45+ minutes on any given day.  During the heat waves, this would be about 6:30 a.m., when it was just daylight enough, and definitely cooler, but nowadays, it's more like mid-to-late afternoon.

On these walks I continue to encounter new-to-me wildflowers.  These are a couple of the ones I came across in the last week or so, and need to identify.  Both resemble clusters of tiny daisies -- and I've seen a yellow version of this too:

Whatever they are, their tiny points of colour in the aging grasses is very cheering!

• Quilting.  Not much of this lately...but I've returned to "Grassy Creek" (the Bonnie Hunter Mystery for 2020)...and am making slow but steady progress in putting the 4 rows together, with all of the complex sashing.  (I'm making it approximately 2/3 the size of the original).  Here are a couple of shots;

Last 2 rows on my ironing board

Close-up of a block/sashing combo

I also finished a small (maybe 30" x 40") quiltlet for charity -- without a home as yet.  It was a UFO from a pattern in an almost-forgotten quilt magazine (I found the magazine after I finished the top) and it turned out rather well, considering its chequered past!  😉

Pattern: "Beautiful Batik Leaves"
Designer: Debby Kratovil
Quick Quilts #52 - 2005

Quilting detail - photo taken after washing,
so all the quilty goodness shows! 😊

• It's been harder to activate my "art mojo", but I did spend some time playing with paint, stretched canvas, 'canvas paper' and a recycled plastic window blind!  I was inspired to do this when Soraya Silvestri, a colleague in the Artists in Canada Art Facebook group posted about "Dip & Squish", a fun technique she was using with acrylic paint and ceramic tiles.  (The link is to her YouTube clip about it.)  I decided to try it out -- with fabric! 

First, I poured a few colours onto a recycled Styrofoam "plate":

White background, red-orange next, then blue,
then a bit of Jacquard Lumiere in metallic copper.

I then took two 4" x 4" stretched canvases -- one at a time -- and "dipped and squished" them into the paint until I got the 'look' I wanted:

This was fun!  So...I cut up a canvas page from a pad of it I bought a while back, and I cut up a piece of textured, recycled plastic window blind and dipped those (all close to 4" square).  This was a bit tricky because they weren't attached to stretcher bars or any sort of backing I could hold, but I managed:

Here they are on my design wall

And some close-ups:

(L) on plastic recycled blind; centre and (R) - on canvas

(L) on canvas; (R) on plastic recycled blind

More on the recycled blind

And on a strip of the blind

Except for the pair on stretched canvas -- which I've signed and propped up as home decor, I really have no idea what I'm going to do with these pieces yet.  I have some card stock I could use to mount them; time will tell.  For now, they remain on my design wall, where every time I look at them, they make me smile.

• In the embroidery department...I've set aside the little Glasgow roses I was cross-stitching, because I fell in love with a sentiment.  It was on a sampler designed by Blackbird Designs especially to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of one of my very favourite stitchery shops: Traditional Stitches, just west of Calgary.  I don't do much of this sort of design nowadays, but I couldn't resist; I was smitten with the text:

 "What remains is love"

Photo from Traditional Stitches

I had a piece of hand-dyed, 28-count linen from some long-forgotten, never started project, so I ordered the pattern and the hand-dyed cotton threads:

I began to stitch 10 days or so ago, and am farther along than this photo shows, but it gives you an idea.  (The fabric is darker in colour than the photo shows.)

Working on this is very rhythmic and soothing, especially with some quiet music in the background.

• And of course, there's always some knitting!  Right now my focus is on the Socks From Stash August Challenge -- "Knit a Free Pattern".  I'm making a pair of "Thermal Weasleys" for my daughter (a Harry Potter fan) for Christmas, in a hand-dyed merino-nylon blend from the "odd lots and one-of-a-kind" folks at Gathering Yarn -- sold by my friend and former employer, The Crafty Lady. I've finished the first sock and am well away now on the leg of the second.

"Velino" hand-dye from Gathering Yarn

#1 sock finished -- longer leg; no ribbing on the sole!

Pattern texture close up; easy to memorize!

I'll be happily working on all of these 'fabric, fibre & floss' items over the next little while -- as at last we've had some welcome rain, and I'm lying low indoors with what I hope is only a cold (sore throat, cough, sniffles).  A test for What Shall Not Be Named is booked for Tuesday afternoon.

So I'm linking this up with Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday, and wishing you all a good week or two as we slip-slide into September.  Hugs!