A Quick Update

What a lovely weekend we had - and I took advantage with a Sunday walk at city beach with a friend I haven't gotten together with in a very long time. Seventy-five degrees, light breeze, people splashing around in the water or steering a boat back to a slip - it was so delightful. Sorry, did not think to take pics but trust me, it was beautiful. Before heading there, I sat with my crochet bag and did a few rounds at the top now that the pattern part is finished. Next round starts the handle! It feels so close to done.

I'm equally excited about the progress on the Watermark cardigan. Suddenly I was at the ribbing along the bottom. 

When I took this picture I still had more rows of ribbing to knit and today I got them done. Next row is binding it off, then on to the sleeves.

I have several smaller knitting projects I'd like to make for Christmas gifts, and once that crochet bag is done, I can get going on them. I also need to get on with a small dye session to produce a particular blue fabric for that friend who gifted me her dye supplies. I put that off all summer and am hoping I haven't in the process stalled progress on a project of hers. She didn't really indicate if she needed it for what she showed me she was working on, just that could I dye it up "the next time you dye some fabric." Well, I really don't dye up fabric anymore unless there's something specific and that hasn't happened since I did that big dye session for her last fall. I make too big a deal out of it and put it off when actually I only need to dye up a few pieces of fabric. Just need to get organized and get it done!  

Project Progress

Robert Benchley once said: “Anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn’t the work he is supposed to be doing.” Yeah, that's me, and what led to my foot dragging about a few things that then led to it being a stressful week as I could no longer put them off (multiple tries before rental insurance document successfully uploaded to renter's portal, getting over dread of seeing NP re suspicious moles, etc.). Still, I actually got quite a bit done on the "fiber" front.. Sometimes it doesn't seem that way because I am doing small bits on more than one project, but I have managed one finish and marked major turning points in others. Let's start with the leftovers from the antique quilt. To refresh your memory, above is what I had to work with, more than I wanted to just toss, less than would make for an easy way to use them.

Pieces overlapped, pinned and ready for stitching

Zigzag stitching hardly shows

Several of you suggested I make a needle case, which I thought a great idea. I fitted the pieces together like a jigsaw puzzle, overlapped slightly and zigzagged together with white thread. Nothing fancy here. Not terribly pretty either, but I forged on. After squaring up, I had a piece 11" x 15". Way too big for a traditional needle case. But you know what I really need? A needle case for my circular knitting needles.

I took up knitting as a teen, and once my mother saw how into it I was, she found a beautiful zippered case for my growing collection of straight needles. It had one wider slot that would hold my first circular needles, bought so I could make a poncho (it was the 60's, what can I say?). But once I discovered Mobius scarves that required different sizes and lengths of circular needles, and started finding sweater patterns requiring them too, my circulars no long fit in my case. I've been stuffing them in the front pocket of the binder where I keep patterns, and although it sort of works, a separate case for them would be much better. I spotted this piece of hand-dyed fabric left over from my business days with friend Judi, and decided why not? Matching old with new would perk things ups a bit and the hand-dyed tightly woven fabric would make a sturdy lining for my case.

I decided a layer of batting would be a good idea and sandwiched a piece of Thermore between the patched together outside and the lining folded to create pockets. I found a piece of red twine for a closure and caught it in the line of stitching down the center.

I finished the edges that holds the whole thing together with the same blanket stitch I used on the tote bag. 

Front

Messy back

And that's it! Here's the front and back - again, not the prettiest but very functional. I may decide to run another line of stitching down the center of one side - some of my needles are packaged such that they would fit in the smaller pockets that would make - but I'll wait until some of my circulars currently in use are freed up and ready to store. 

So that's my finish. A partial finish could be that I completed the back of the red sweater (which unlike the other two sweaters is knit in four pieces that will be sewn together later). Lots of curling in this unblocked piece so it was difficult to get it arranged, but there IS a little shoulder/neckline shaping at the top, but not much - it's a drop shoulder design. Sitting on it is the crochet basket which, once the base was completed, magically started up the sides with the change of a stitch. When I worked that first row, it felt a lot like when I made my first coiled fabric bowl on faith and found that the slight tipping of the flat base made the sides appear. As for my other knitting projects, the Autumn Wave sweater is past the yoke "wave" pattern and sleeve stitches have been put on waste yarn for later while front and back are now joined and worked down an inch or so. The Watermark sweater continues its slow progress but I was excited to get out the measuring tape and realize I'm only a few inches from starting the ribbing at the bottom. Now that cooler weather has arrived, I'm very anxious to get these done so I can wear them! 

THIS is Different

I've been waiting all summer for this plant to flower. I'd wintered it over inside because it still looked so good right up until we were due for a freeze. But the blooms on it were such a dark purple that I couldn't really see and enjoy them unless I was right next to them. As August went on, I saw that it had half a dozen buds so I waited anxiously for the flowers to reveal themselves. To my surprise, this first one is a lighter, prettier purple than last year's. Looking forward to enjoying these into fall. Still waiting for the zinnias to show buds but the geranium continues to put out blooms.

Also different, this cluster of delicate pink blooms that showed up in the big pot by the front steps. When I first saw the clump of leaves, I nearly pulled them as weeds, but then decided to wait because they didn't quite look like any weeds I'd been been removing from this pot. Very glad I didn't but I don't know where these came from, just like the violas that have taken root out of nowhere. What a lovely end of summer surprise.

An update on my fawns, who showed up again this week . . . but with mom! I'm relatively sure this is the same group I was worried about when I saw the doe limping so badly and the fawns showing up on their own later. I'm going to go with that and am very relieved. Also relieved that our weather has turned fall-like with some rain that has cleared the wildfire smoke from our skies (although fires still burn north of me). It has allowed me to go back to daytime walks while the sun is still up!