More Intimidation

The crochet cardigan has been waiting patiently for me to add the finish stitches around the armholes, fronts and neck, but it required learning a new stitch plus "guessing" I was adding the right number of stitches "evenly" along all those edges since the pattern didn't give exact number and placement. I indeed was feeling intimidated. But eventually, I had to face my fears, look up how to do that new stitch since it wasn't in that booklet I've been referencing, and trust I could get the right number of stitches everywhere. The new stitch was a little tricky because it required going in from the front behind the "post" and back out the front while the next stitch did the opposite. It's a clever way to make a finish that looks like knitted ribbing. I often think that crocheters feel like the red headed stepchild of yarn manipulation so are constantly working to make their results look more like knitting that is held in higher esteem. I really like this ribbed looking edging. 

Here's it is finished and how I hope to be wearing it - over sleeveless tops and dresses. I'm of an age when cap sleeves look better than short sleeves on my arms, and I'm hoping this will help extend my current wardrobe. I learned quite a bit making this cardigan and, like with my knitting, stay interested in working on projects because there ARE new things I have to master. And apparently that's a good thing as we age, according to this tidbit I ran across:

What the hands do for the head

A Mayo Clinic team followed around thirteen hundred older adults and found that the ones who made things — knitting, quilting, that sort of thing — were meaningfully less likely to show signs of mild cognitive impairment than the ones who didn’t.

That’s an association, not a promise, and we’re not about to suggest a scarf is medicine. But it makes sense when you look at what knitting actually asks of a person: planning, counting, sequencing, catching your own mistakes, holding a shape in your head that doesn’t exist yet. Plus two hands doing different jobs at once.

Here’s the part we didn’t expect. A Harvard neurologist who studies this makes the point that the benefit lives in the learning, not the doing.

When I bought the kit for the crochet cardigan, I also bought a kit for a crocheted bag. Before I forget all my crochet skills, I decided to move it up the priority list and am hoping for a relatively speedy finish. The kit included this ribbon "yarn" which is worked double using a really big crochet hook, hence my belief this will go quickly. You make the base in the round first, something I probably haven't done since I tried a doily pattern from my reference booklet when I was first learning back in the 70's. And I learned yet another new trick of the "magic ring" that the first stitches are made in which allows you to pull up the stitches tight into a ring, leaving no hole in the center as other methods do. It's been a bit tough going, pulling that doubled ribbon through the tight big stitches, but I can see this will make a very sturdy bag.

On another note, I had a birthday this week. Nothing special this year, just not feeling up to my usual tracking down of a take-out dinner and bakery dessert or going someplace special to spend the day as we are still dealing with enough smoke that I shouldn't spend time out in it. However, I did remember that I'd bought a box of fudge brownie mix on sale when I had a chocolate craving, then left it there because I'm constantly trying to get my weight down. Well, birthdays are great excuses for splurging so I bought some icing like you put on German chocolate cake and baked it up. Good lord, what a sweet treat! With a banana and plain yogurt on the side, it's been my lunch all week.

I did make one other splurge with a trip the day after my birthday to the local yarn shop that carries Marlabrigo yarns. I'd been looking at one in particular via their website and was teetering on the edge of treating myself when an unexpected birthday check from a brother arrived. He said he had a feeling a needed a nudge to do something special, so off I went. I bought more than his check would cover, but it was the deciding factor in my taking the plunge. Enough there for a sweater I have the pattern for (the "buy with intent" method) plus an impulse buy of a single skein of the variegated one called Fire Agate, the colors of which kept calling out to me as I studied the various choices on the wall (might have been my choice for the sweater except there was only a single skein which I'm thinking will end up a scarf or shawl). Susurro yarn is particularly soft as it is 50% Mulberry silk,25% Merino wool, 25% linen. This color reads a beautiful dark brown but changes to something almost dark purple in different light, which the store owner attributes to the silk. Longtime readers will no doubt remember that I have a difficult time passing up anything with silk in it! This is going to be so lovely to work with and then to wear, but I have three other sweaters on the needles to finish first. Still making steady progress on all of them but this new yarn waiting in the wings . . . THAT should push me along - lol

 

Knitting Update

The purple yarn denotes where front and back body joined

Several of you commented on my last post regarding the pieces of the antique quilt I had left, the suggestion being I could turn them into a needle case. Brilliant! I'll get right on it, I thought. but you know me - I seldom get right on anything lol. And the week has gotten away from me so all I have to show is progress on my Watermark Cardigan. I'm still very pleased with myself that whatever else my happen, I knit those two rows every day. Slow progress but steady progress, as you can see how far down the body under the armholes I am - about half way to where the ribbing will start. 

The only other thing to report is a bit sad. I'd come downstairs to find two beautiful fawns right by my deck. I seldom see them that close. Where's mom, I wondered, looking up and down the space between my place and the green belt - nowhere to be seen. That's not good, I thought, wondering if something had happened to their mother.

I decided to go upstairs and grab my camera to see if I could get some pics. By the time I got back down, the fawns had moved closer to the greenbelt and mom finally appeared. But I soon could see that she was not alright. Limping heavily, hardly able to put any weight on her right front let. But she continued down the way, fawns following. Was she hit by a car, attacked by a predator? I'll never know. And I probably will never know if she healed or not, and if not, if her fawns could survive without her. 

Smoke and Knitting

Taken from my front steps - what "unhealthy for sensitive groups" looks like

It's been on national news for days so you may know about the devastating fires along the northwest part of Spokane WA. That's a little over an hour's drive away from me, maybe 70 miles as the crow flies, so not endangering me per se. However, the prevailing winds funnel the massive smoke plumes right into our valley, so air quality has been dicey. I think we also get smoke from some of the big fires in Oregon. My friend Sherrie has a daughter who lives in a safe part of Spokane and put up an excellent post summarizing the magnitude of the event. So rather than me reiterating, I'll just direct you to her post here.

This is from a few days ago

I generally use airnow.gov to monitor the air quality so I know if it's safe to take my walks since I have respiratory issues. It may be hazy and in the moderate range most of the time but the last few days there has been little wind to clear the smoke out. Good for the firefighters, not so good for moving the smoke along. The fires (yes there are more than one) are far from being contained  let alone out so this no doubt will be what the rest of our summer will be like - heat and smoke. 

Sleeve stitches on waste yarn, back joined to front to knit the body

So not spending time outside, masking up if I do, and glad for my knitting projects to keep my mind off the feeling of doom the smoke and news about the fires has hanging over me. I'm happy to report that I stuck to my goal of knitting on my Watermark Cardigan knitalong every day in July. Well, almost every day. On the last day of the month, I was set to tackle a major part of the pattern where you remove the sleeve stitches onto waste yarn for knitting later and join the fronts and back at the underarm of the sleeve to knit the rest of the body. But I soon realized something was amiss with the directions - I had directions for the pullover sweater inserted here instead of the cardigan. I e-mailed support but it was late on Friday and figured I wouldn't hear back until Monday. Dang!

Rather than mope, I decided to grab the Autumn Wave sweater sitting right there next to me and substitute knitting a few rows on it to keep to my daily knitting until I heard back about the wrong page of directions. Here you can see the wave pattern emerging beautifully. Then with corrected directions in hand, I did the sleeve divide and have knit a couple of inches down into the body now. I watched the wrap-up zoom session and was encouraged by how many participants were at the same stage as I am, and still awed by those who were already done and showing off their finished sweaters. Well, I'm sure they were sitting there knitting row after row each day whereas I usually knit just two. I'm guessing if I keep that rate up, I won't be finishing this up until late September, maybe longer. But it will NOT be languishing!

One last thing, when stepping out on my deck to water plants, I saw a lot of movement in what is another one of those buckthorn trees down the way. If it was a bird, it was a big one, but after watching for a bit, I realized it was the squirrel again, so I grabbed my camera, cranked up the zoom and tried to get a shot.

One thing that kept confusing me was I could see light flashes through the leaves that turned out to be its tail and body. He wasn't crawling along a branch but was hanging upside down and stretching out to reach the berries! 

Incoming!

I want to say "don't ask" but I'll try to give some sort of explanation for what's in this package from yet another Danish yarn company.

I've returned to an obsession I've had off and on over the years: yarn and knitting patterns. Add to that the trend for so many in the knitting community to have Youtube channels where they share what they buy and make, often along with critiques and helpful hints. I've mentioned before that there are several of these knitters I've started to follow, learning so much, and I kept hearing about Drops Belle yarn. Never heard of it but soon learned it was a cotton/linen blend with apparently good qualities. I started hunting for it and couldn't find any U.S. distributors. That's why I ended up at Rito where they were having a ridiculous sale on an already reasonably priced yarn. There was a bit of tariff to pay but I still wound up paying around $2 a skein - a fraction of what I pay for my wool blend yarns. Risky doing this sight unseen on the recommendation of strangers, but I decided to load up. 

I'd been looking for a very long time for a cotton/linen blend yarn for a mobius shawl, so that was the main reason I wanted to get some of this. It's another cotton yarn that is not twisted but which construction is called chainette. It seems to make for a sturdier yarn - cotton does not have the same strength and "stickiness" that wool does. Picture's a bit blurry but perhaps you can spot the chaining.

There's also some viscose in the blend, exactly what my mobius pattern was recommending.

I ended up choosing four colors - 4 skeins each of the off-white and chocolate, 10 of the lilac and blue. The 4 skeins of off white should be what I need for the mobius shawl, but not sure what I will do with the four chocolate at this point. The others should be enough for a short sleeve or 3/4 sleeve top, and I've already picked out a pattern for the lilac. But starting on any of these is way down the road. Just couldn't pass up that incredible sale.

Another incoming was this picture from my favorite nephew. I'd given him the Tetris quilt when he showed an interest in it during a visit. I could tell he would not only take good care of it but actually use it too as he asked questions about if it could be washed. He has a fiance now who decided it should be placed on the back of their couch and I'm so happy he sent me a picture of it - perfect!

The last incoming is new information on that berry-filled tree behind my place. Pat took issue with me calling it an elderberry and with good reason, so I did more research, finding a plant identification site on-line that would scan my photo and give me a name. It came up with a kind of Buckthorn, which I must admit was one I'd seen when doing some searching before and wondering if it fit. Now I went to Buckthorn specific sites including this one if you're interested, and started adding up the evidence, starting with this thorn-like protrusion at the end of branches that gives the tree its name.

I'd not actually got up close to the tree before this but needed to in order to check out the leaves. One variety has smooth edged leaves while another has slightly serrated leaves. I thought mine were smooth until I had one in hand. 

Between the wind blowing and the birds making noise showing how upset they were that I was messing with their tree, I struggled to get a good shot of the third thing that identifies a buckthorn - white lenticels on branches, which is what I think is on these branches. Added up, I think what I have here is a Common Buckthorn. According to several sites I studied, there are different kinds of Buckthorn, some native to an area while others are considered invasive and are being actively stamped out. Not sure of the situation in my area. No matter the variety, the berries are toxic for humans but a feast for the birds and a very large squirrel that I caught feeding on them as well. Mystery solved!

Slow Summer Wind

Kind of an odd week as I look back and am not sure of how I filled the time. Knitting, of course. I do two rows each day on the Watermark cardigan, first thing after breakfast, a little reading, and every other day some yoga. I've learned that this is how I actually get things done creatively rather than plopping down in front of the computer first to check mail and favorite sites. It takes 20-30 minutes to complete a row, depending on its complexity and if I have to track down where I'm missing a stitch. I'd completed row 58 I think when I took this picture. All that pattern lace makes this look and feel so luxurious.

There were days when I could have squeezed in some studio time, but I've put the tote bag on hold as I think through how I want to construct it. Questions like should it have a lining, and will it be deep enough if I create a bottom by sewing across the bottom of the sides? Straps too need contemplating as well as how to finish around the top. I'm almost there. In the meantime, I finally got over avoidance of seaming the crochet cardigan together at the shoulders. I'm always uneasy when facing a technique I've not done before. In this case, it was suggested to use a slip stitch for the join. Ok, it can't be that hard. I used those Clover Wonder Clips to hold the pieces together. Boy, do they work slick for something like this.

I don't think I've ever used this method to seam my knitting or crocheting, but it work like a charm. It left a perfect clean flat finish on both the right and wrong sides, and it was easy to line up the stitches on the panels and run that slip stitch through them. Sides seams are next, clipped and ready.

It's been very hot here, smokey too. and that smoke really has an affect on my overall mood which starts leaning towards feelings of doom even though no forest fires are threatening me. I've only gone out after the sun has gone down and it has cooled off a bit, and had to resort to wearing a mask a few evenings when I wanted to get a walk in because the air quality was in the high moderate range or unhealthy for people like me range. Several days I just skipped it. I do have air conditioning but have been trying to use it sparingly because I'm pretty sure it pulls in outside air without a lot of filtering, and I've discovered that I am quite comfortable sitting in front of a fan most of the day as long as I've cooled off the house overnight. So not any sitting on the deck time. However, I can look at my container garden blooming from my livingroom, and out beyond that, everything looks fairly lush. I'd noticed a while back that one tree - the one the arrow is pointing to - had developed some small green berries on it, a first. I wondered if it was a mountain ash tree which is common in this area, showing off red berries later in the year that often make a mess of sidewalks when they fall off!

However, the berries have now turned purple, and I'm getting a laugh watching the robins and even a squirrel land on the long bouncy branches to feed. I'm thinking it may be an elderberry tree. My mom always got a faraway look in her eyes when elderberries came up. She had fond childhood memories of picking them for jam. What do you think they might be?  

 

Muse Still Up To Her Tricks

Wellll . . . . my week of seclusion did not go as well as it has in past years in that I struggled to settle on a single focus. I knew that I'd be knitting on my Watermark Cardigan every day, and I did. I'm now on row 42, bearing in mind that every other row grows longer by 8 stitches so takes longer to complete, and have started on my second ball of yarn. I've looped the handles of the big tote bag where I keep the yarn and knitting in progress over the arm of my office chair which is working well as I concentrate on the pattern directions laid out on my desk. Things ARE moving a bit quicker as I finally memorized how to do those left and right "make one stitch" increases as well as mostly memorizing the sequence of the pattern stitches on the row I am working on, having to look at the pattern less often. Still, I'm making a few errors here and there leaving me with not enough stitches upon completing a row, and having to backtrack to see what I've done wrong, sometimes unknitting to the spot, other times being able to fudge in a stitch where it is missing when I knit the next row. As the pattern designer says, we all make these errors - even she - and rather than beat ourselves up over it, think of any visible ones as design features. Sound familiar? By the way, I've left Venetian tiles hanging on the wall where I pinned it for photos, right next to my computer, and I've just noticed that the color of my yarn is nearly identical to the green in that quilt!

Beyond the knitting, I felt I should do something in the studio but couldn't decide what. Early in the week I'd finished the last panel of the crochet cardigan, scanned the directions and realized it recommended a light blocking before attaching the front panels to the back panel. In a recognizable procrastination move, I decided to get that done before starting anything else, crawling around on the floor as I smoothed and stretched the panels to size. I'm getting too old for that much crawling around and getting up and down from the floor - I paid for it with a lot of stiffness and soreness the next day!

While messing around with that, I suddenly had a lightbulb moment of what I could work on the rest of the week - making a couple of tote bags to hold my various knitting projects. I've had that piece of antique quilt the person who'd cut it up to make a jacket had sent me for quite awhile, finding it difficult to let go of my anger at her, and not having a good idea of what to do with it, until now. I think I was inspired by Angela Walters who did a video not too long ago of how to turn quilted panels into baskets and totes (watch the video here). So I got it out, folded it this way and that, and decided there was enough for a bag.

But I did notice a large area with some light brown staining, very typical of old textiles, and remembered I'd bought a product quite awhile ago which is supposed to remove that sort of thing without damaging the textile - Retro Clean. I'd meant to use it on some heirloom handkerchiefs but as usual, had not got around to it. There was an area I could cut off to use as a test piece to be sure it truly did not disintegrate or fade an already aged quilt so got to work. 

The directions said to soak for 24 to 48 hours - I was NOT expecting it to take that long - and preferably to set it in the sun to keep the water warm. Ok, if you say so. Even though it's very hot here, the water was cool when I brought it inside after the sun went down. I decided to skip that part on the bigger piece. It did seem to lighten the brown area but not harm the fabrics in any way. Time to soak the large piece for the full 48 hours, followed by rinsing and washing (by hand). Although I think I can still see some staining it is definitely almost gone. And in wetting this piece of old quilt, I immediately could spot tiny seeds here and there in the very thin layer of cotton batting. In fact, the batting was so thin that it had shifted in some areas to leave places of no batting at all. Another bit of evidence to the old age of this quilt.

So much for whipping up a quick tote bag from this already quilted remnant. However, I also had in mind a couple of tote bag patterns bought ages ago and once again, never made up. Time to hunt them down. These two I found right away, hanging on a cork board. Technically not totes but I thought the Two-Hour Tulip Purse made in the largest size would be perfect to hold a knitting project. I'd seen it made up with a flap at a quilt show and thought it would make a perfect purse, hunting down the pattern locally, but I now have plenty of serviceable purses on hand. Better it be a tote bag. But I laugh at the "Two-Hour" designation. I know darn well it will take me longer than that!

What I really wanted to find though was a tote pattern that used that black plastic screening and as a sample showed, combined with batik fabric. I pictured myself picking up purchases at quilt show vendors and tucking them into my see-through bag, so bought the pattern and the batiks the sample was made with. I still have those batiks, but do you think I could find the pattern now? The muse apparently thinks it's funny to hide things from me. I searched in so many places, through piles again, and in drawers, and in old pattern keepers, as well as in binders where I'd filed ideas and patterns for clothing and other items. As I scanned the labels on the spines, I felt the muse nudging me to open the binder labeled "Mariner Compass" where I've filed so many ideas for mariner compass blocks and quilts. Now why would that tote pattern be in there, but shrugged and took it down. Ohhh, the muse had decided to give up where my Judy Mathieson Mariner Compass books were! When I was hunting them down expecting to find them among the other titles on my shelves, it never occurred to me to look in this binder. It has pockets in the front and back covers and there were the books, one each in each pocket. Thanks muse, but now give up that tote pattern!

By now the week was pretty gone and I settled into a weekend of watching multiple motorcycle races, deciding to be content with what I HAD gotten done, disjointed as it was, and the daily knitting. I think Allen would be ok with this. I'd changed my computer wallpaper to this picture of Allen such that when I fired up the computer each day, I'd see him smiling at me and reminding me to not dilly dally too much here but get to work creating. That's all he ever wanted of me, to be happy making things and making progress on them more days than not.

Off And Running

Olive Knits' 2026 and final Knitalong has begun. The complete Watermark Cardigan sweater pattern downloaded Tuesday night and I dutifully printed out the relevant pages and marked my size-specific numbers throughout. The next day, July 1st, I cast on and started knitting while I waited for the inaugural zoom video recording to drop, and watch it I did while continuing to work my way through the first 4 rows of the pattern. It was taking me a bit to navigate through unfamiliar or seldom used stitches but I could still manage while listening. Much of that video was introductory, things she'd already talked about in e-mails and on a special Tips and FAQ page on her website. Still, there were a few helpful things to hear and a reminder that instructional video clip links are sprinkled throughout the pattern. I'm working on this upstairs next to the computer so that I can quickly access any of those links as I progress (and I definitely have looked at a few of them more than once). I also got the explanation behind the advertising that this was to be a 4-day event while also saying it would last all month. Apparently, previous knitalongs were indeed conducted over 4 days, but she got so much feedback about knitters getting stressed trying to keep up that she decided a slower pace was in order for this last one while keeping the 4-day time for consistency sake. Anyway, every Monday of July she'll be holding another zoom meeting to take questions and see how it's all going for participants.

I also printed out a handy guide to making a particular increase stitch that is made differently depending upon whether the stitches will slant left or right, something that is used here to widen all sections as one works down from the neckline. I simply couldn't remember the sequences so printing the directions with such good visuals was a smart move (you can see it above the regular directions page). The pattern isn't particularly difficult as much as it is complicated because of the neck shaping at the beginning (which I finished yesterday) and all that repeating lace pattern  (which I started today). I simply cannot work on it at the moment except in silence. Even background music would be distracting. Just look at all that text telling me what to do (using a bookmark to follow the proper line)! I have to say though, this is so well written and all the text is keeping things nice and clear along with all those stitch markers slipped on the needles. Green ones delineate the boundaries between front, back and sleeves while the orange ones delineate where lace pattern repeats start and end. The lace pattern is an eight row repeat and I'm only through half of it but I can already feel the rhythm and familiarity of it from making the gauge swatch. I'm starting to relax into it! Maybe soon I can even turn on some music while I knit. Not exactly running per se but I'm definitely off!

Third Time's A Charm

I'm still working away on the crochet cardigan, but I've really been itching to start the Autumn Waves sweater using that cotton/acrylic yarn from the Danish company Hobbii - see this February post. While I've almost always had more than one quilt project going at a time, at different stages of completion, I've never tried that with my knitting and crocheting until now. I follow a vlogger, Amo at https://www.youtube.com/@PawfectPastimes, who is a well-rounded crafter who not only knits and crochets, but sews and does a variety of needlework too, while occasionally sketching with watercolors, tending a large garden, regularly golfing and volunteering for a dog rescue group. Sounds like me (minus the golfing, large garden and dog rescue volunteering!), She shows her progress mostly weekly and I am astounded at her knitting/crocheting output, even more astounded that she rarely has less than four projects on her needles, and maybe a crochet one in addition to that. They range from socks and cowls to shawls and sweaters with the occasional blanket thrown in. I commented to her about my inability (or perhaps unwillingness) to start another knit project until the current one was finished, but she assured me that I could. She pointed out that hers in progress are of varying degrees of concentration needed, and she could pick and choose deciding on how much time she had, how tired she might be and how well her brain was working. Ahhh, that made a lot of sense. Also, I've gathered over time that she has various places where she knits/crochets, unlike me who seems to always do it in front of the tv in the livingroom. This was when I made the connection that I often watch videos and interviews on-line at my upstairs computer, things that did not require my eyes on screen at all times and could allow me to "multi-task" doing other things at the same time; i.e. I was wasting time that could be spent knitting.

So when one of those videos was playing, I pulled out the pattern and yarn and cast on stitches. This pattern is worked in the round from the neck down, and to be honest, I was just a little cocky and distracted by the video working the first row. I misread the instructions and had to start over. Thinking I had it right this time, I knitted quite a ways until I realized I'd gotten the ribbing pattern wrong again. Unraveling goes so much quicker than removing piecing stitches. 😁 Now the pattern had my full attention, video off, until I was sure I had the setup right. And thus, third time was a charm. At its current stage, it is easy enough to pick up and knit a row or two at a time while I watch a short video.

Encouraged by this development, I turned to yet another sweater pattern I've been anxious to start. This is another kit from Lion Brand called Three Season Pullover and reminded me of a long gone favorite red cotton sweater I wore for years during those times of the year when it wasn't winter weather. The kit provided a cotton yarn called 24/7  that is inexpensive compared to so many other yarns and the fibers appear to be braided or chained rather than twisted together. It's not a soft yarn - that braiding seems to make it feel a bit rough - but it has the stability when knitted up that I think I will really like for this sweater. Except for that wide rib hem, it's a basic knit one row purl one row pattern, with some shaping at the armholes and neckline, the back, front and sleeves all knitted separately. So a no brain strain project where I don't even often have to look down at my hands. This one sits by the couch for times when the tv program I'm watching demands I pay more visual attention to it, something I can't readily do without totally stopping when I'm crocheting on the cardigan and doing a lot of counting. I'm really pleased with the progress I'm making on both of those sweaters.

But wait! This return to knitting has become as bad as when I was more avidly involved in quilting in terms of temptations, rabbit holes and information to absorb. As I watch two favorite knitting vloggers, check stitch instruction videos, and am bombarded by ads from yarn companies, I am learning so much about types of yarns and their weights, a new way to cast on stitches and do a ssk stitch (really, I had no idea it could be done in 4 different ways), I'm even learning how to use a chart - something I've always avoided in lieu of written out instructions. I am falling victim to buying more beautiful yarn (rather than my stated goal of using up what I have), downloading free patterns and even purchasing a few. And most recently, falling for a knit-along conducted by Olive Knits that's been going on for ten years now but this is the last one. I remember looking at last year's pattern for the knit-along and not caring for it but this year's had me weak in the knees. So I signed up and bought the pattern.

Of course, I had to buy yarn for it too as I had nothing in my stash of the right weight, but shopped the sales. Still, good quality yarn is expensive and this lovely sage extra fine Merino wool/silk/yak yarn feels worth every penny as I worked up a gauge swatch. I'm not totally sure how this knit-along works except that we got the initial info on yarn amounts and the pattern repeat for the swatch, will receive the actual pattern instructions on July 1st along with additional info about zoom calls over four days. She says some may actually be able to finish their sweaters in 4 days but that she will be checking in with weekly zoom calls throughout the rest of the month for the rest of us slow pokes - lol. I see myself spending a leisurely July working on this sweater whose pattern repeat is very soothing. 

But wait again! I was back in my studio closet the other night, searching for something to send a friend venturing into adding silks to quilts, when my eye spotted something peeking out from between a little stack of . . . well I'm not sure what. Hah!!! It's that circle of batik I've been looking for - not in a bin, not in a box, but very nearby, where I wouldn't have thought to look. 

Follow the arrow to where the batik circle was hiding.

I think my muse decided to play a trick on me. I joke about how when I can't find something, I blame it on my muse hiding it. She resides in my studio, looking over my shoulder and sometimes giving good advice, other times sitting in the corner, idly flipping through a magazine and ignoring my pleas for help, sometimes deserting the studio altogether for long stretches of time. I've decided she didn't want me to work on that split-nine patch quilt back when I was deciding between it and the Venetian Tiles quilt. Nope, she decided, not time for the split 9-patch; she wanted to see that Venetian Tiles finished first. And now that it is, she pulled out a tiny edge of the batik for me to spot to let me know what she thinks my next quilt project should be. So be it, although I may finish those Mariner Compass blocks into pillows first. She can't have the last word on everything!

How I envision my muse.

 

Another Finish!

With more diligent knitting this week, the blue knee high socks are finally finished. And I have mixed feelings about them. I measured, and measured, and measured again the distance from the floor to my kneecap and consistently came up with the same measurement as suggested in the directions. And yet once on, the socks could easily be an inch or more longer to actually reach the knee. Plus the ribbing really stretches out over the calf which looks a bit weird to me. However, the knee high bit is for warmth, not show, and close to the knee is close enough for this pair. I'll make a note on the pattern should I try this again. I'm also finding the yarn doesn't feel as soft when knit up as I thought it would, but I do still need to block these, and they may soften and "bloom" once I do. But they are done and I can move on to the next project.

I pulled the wrong yarn for this pic. This "tape" yarn will be for a bag.

And that would be a crochet project? It's been quite awhile since I've done any crocheting, but just like my knitting, there was a time when I did a lot of it, mostly to make baby blankets (that lovely ripple pattern) and throws (including a variation of the popular granny square block for a throw that I made for my dad). Back in the 70's - 90's, I never liked the look of crocheted wearables that couldn't hold a candle to ones I could knit with a more sophisticated look. But here I am, ready to give crocheting a summery cap-sleeve cardigan a go, all because I'd been looking at something similar in a catalog and found myself saying, surely I could make one myself for less. And then I ran across this kit on the Lion Brand Yarn website, liking it better than what I'd been seeing in the catalogs. I do think I will make it shorter though so that it hits mid hip - about where my summer tops end. It calls for a size G hook and uses a bamboo viscose yarn which I've not dealt with before but is supposed to work up light and drapey; hopefully it will work up quickly. Bear in mind I bought this to have to wear LAST summer but a knitting project didn't finish up in time for me to start it. Wish me luck!

I've also started the quilting on Venetian Tiles by doing a lot of stitching in the ditch along the burgundy sashings, with burgundy thread so I can't really show a picture of it, it hides so well. I'm generally not into showy quilting, so have been auditioning threads for areas where the stitching really will show but where I don't want to "hide" the beautiful patterns in the kaleidoscopes. From the very start back in 2003 I thought I would use the pink and/or blue Oliver Twist hand-dyed threads and pulled them out to see how that would work. Hmmm. By chance, I'd picked a dark brown bobbin thread to pair with the burgundy thread and it helped me see that behind those pink and blue motifs in the fabric was a golden brown. And yes, I have 3 different Oliver Twist browns to choose from so that all the quilting in those blocks can be done with a single color, no switching back and forth from the pink to the blue. Finally, the green variegated King Tut thread will be perfect over the scroll-like patterns in the green fabric around the outside of the top. 

An Interesting Week

I pause from watching a ton of motorcycle racing this weekend to update you on my goings on. I'm delighted that blooms have finally burst forth in my neighborhood. The first that I noticed were forsythia bushes - how could you NOT spot them with their bright yellow blooms.

Days later I spotted flowering trees along the next street over from me. (My street has maples and choke cherry trees that won't bloom until later.) These were taken on a cloudy day with my not very good cell phone camera so difficult to see some of the pink blooms.

My neighbor had set out a pot with bulbs pushing up which I'd been anxiously waiting to see just what they were. Finally they have opened up into beautiful daffodils. 

I had reason to be downtown one day last week and was delighted to see white blossoms on some of the trees there. I was due for a haircut and my safari hunting stylist had two pieces of Kudu hide left over after mounting by her husband. The Kudu was actually taken by her dad after he'd shown interest in her first safari adventure. It was a special trip for this hunting father-daughter duo and I'm honored that she thought to offer these to me. I have yet to do anything with the first pelt she gifted me but the wheels never stop turning. It's mostly that I have no experience working with leather and continue to research.

In the meantime, back to the familiar. Time to layer up the Venetian Tiles top. I definitely considered skipping a few steps like pressing the major creases out of the backing, but decided I'd no doubt hate myself at some point if I didn't do it. The top had only a slight single fold line so yeah, may as well press that out too. I flipped it right side down and sighed a heavy sigh as I saw so many frays along the raw edges of seams. Very nearly skipped trimming those away too, but decided again that I'd be kicking myself if I could see any of those threads showing through to the front as I quilted. Not a quick process but cleaning up the wrong side is always a good idea. Look at the pile of threads!

All layered and safety-pin basted although I still need to hand-baste around the edge of the top and turn the backing/batting to the front to be pinned down for a nice neat package for machine quilting. So fascinating studying the variation of pattern in the blocks cut from the same fabric.

I also spent time digging through those bins and other piles around the studio for the missing Stack-n-Whack book, and also my Mariner Compass book that I wanted to reference before finishing up those class sample blocks and cannot put my finger on. You know you're in trouble when you look in the same places for the third time with the same result. Running out of places to look, although I did manage to unearth two books I don't remember buying plus two that I think I'd pulled off the shelf to reference quite awhile ago when I was working on stamping and linocutting - much piled on top of them. Those went back on the shelf as I'm not stamping or linocutting at the moment. The two I didn't remember got put away properly too. Is the dragon guard doing too good of a job, hiding things from me?

Suddenly I remembered a file box in the garage that holds info for the classes I taught while still in Wisconsin. I've tried several times to break down these files as I'm not planning on teaching any of these again, but as I look through it now hoping to find the lost books, I was reminded why I keep putting the lid back on and shoving it aside. Copies of class handouts and patterns easy enough to get rid of but there's also fabric from samples and partial blocks used to demo steps - as if I don't have enough leftovers and orphan blocks to deal with, I just can't face taking these things out and deciding what to do with them yet. They are from over 20 years ago; will they be helpful in making a quilt years from now as in the meme?  However, I was right about finding a lost book out there. I vaguely remember teaching the basic Stack n Whack method and sure enough, that first book was filed with my class notes. But the Mariner Compass book was not there, even though there was a Mariner Compass class file. Sigh. It no doubt will show itself when I least expect it. 

I'll soon have another finish to share, by the way. I've been much more diligent this last week putting in time on my sock knitting. I am literally 2 inches away on each sock from being done with them.