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.

Heels Turned

The zippered pouch with Hmong applique holds crochet needles and knitting accessories

I must admit I've lost enthusiasm for the split nine-patch project since failing to find that piece of batik I planned to use for a moon. And I still needed to clear space on the worktable in order to go ahead with finishing the Stack n Whack top. So my mind has been occupied instead on knitting: projects in the queue and the project on my needles. I hunkered down over the instructions for turning the heel, knowing I would have to concentrate to get it right this time, and I can report that I think I managed better, not seeing any holes that will need closing up later. Yeah!!!! Now I'm moving up the leg, first with some rounds in pattern to establish it and then changing the stockinette stitches to ribbing to match the ribbing on the instep. I honestly don't know how some knitters knock out socks so fast; these will take even longer than my last pair as I am making them kneehighs. But I really like working on both socks in the pair at the same time, alternating between them as I move through different sections.

I use cardstock for the covers, using a photo from her website

Clearing a space on the table meant catching up some things I wanted to add to my gratitude journal and gathering up printouts from some of Angela Walters' machine quilting series. Sometimes I think I like organizing more than I like actually making things; I'd found a stack of these printouts buried on the floor with a panel I'd bought in order to practice stitches from her "Fillers" series. Well, they won't do me any good there, and I'd thought that as I collected more and more printouts from her series, I should "bind" them using the Arc Notebook System as I had with my Handmade Books printouts. As much as I enjoy binding books, I have yet to run across one that will do what this system does. It works a bit like a spiral binding except that you can add and remove pages at will. It requires a special punch which I decided to invest in plus the plastic discs that hold the pages, and I have not regretted that purchase. Now that I have these organized and at my fingertips, it would not be a bad idea to get that panel out and layer it up. It would make a great warm-up piece; just doing one small section before starting a session on the Stack n Whack quilt.

I don't know about you, but I am having a terrible time adjust to the time change. That, and all the disturbing news bombarding us on a daily basis here in the states is enough to make me want to hide away with my knitting and quilting and reading or just curl up on the couch. Snuggled under a quilt, eyes shut, has always made me feel safe - the ultimate escape, But it's not the only thing, which is why I was gladdened to run across what I share with you below. Hang in there, fellow "hobbyists" and artists! We have a built-in safety feature. 💖

  

True Confessions

As the weekend approached, I realized I was experiencing some "Olympic Fatigue". i.e. as much as I was enjoying watching the various competitions, my enthusiasm was beginning to wane (confession one). How many more short track speed skating heats do I have to watch until the final A & B races? Aren't the bobsledders done yet? I couldn't even bring myself to watch the figure skating gala yet, recording it for when I'm not tired of watching these same athletes strut their stuff. I was beginning to look forward to the start of motorcycle roadracing season at the end of the month. I hadn't caught on to the fact that the weekend would see the wrapping up of the Olympics AND the start of Superbike racing until Thursday when an e-mail alert arrived in my mailbox. Maybe it's a good thing the two overlapped, giving me the fresh excitement of a different kind of sports watching to get me through the last of the old.

At the same time, I'd been tracking an order from Denmark (!) that came quickly enough to New York, but sat for days before showing up in San Fransisco where it also sat for a bit (weather?). An order that originally was projected to arrive by February 13 blew past that date, not being delivered into my mail locker until last Thursday. I was amused at how on pins and needles I was about getting it, excited when the key to the package locker showed up in my box (along with delivery confirmation e-mail), then highly frustrated when I couldn't get the key to work. A note to the postperson produced the package at my door the next day . . . at last! And what was in that package?

3 yarn "cakes" plus a sweet treat

Yarn! I'm not supposed to be buying more yarn until I use up what I have on hand, or at least put a big dent in the stash. But as is often the case, I was lured into the purchase partly because of a sale (confession two). It all started with my downloading of free patterns that I hoped to pair up with that yarn on hand.

I'm discovering, though, that many of the new patterns aren't designed for use with the worsted weight yarn that was popular back when I was learning to knit. But they are beautiful so I download them anyway, and in the case of this pattern called Autumn Waves, I thought it possible to substitute my worsted wool for the cotton/acrylic blend called for. And of course, since I'd downloaded this pattern from the yarn company's site (Hobbii). I started getting e-mails from them. I'd look at what they were offering (always enticing) but blanch at the prices, and eventually question ordering from them at all when I discovered they were based in Denmark. Then came the sale e-mail with the yarn for this sweater 40% off. Ok fine, I'll give them a try. And I was able to use Thank You Points from my credit card to bring the price down even more. Sold!

And at least for now, I am not disappointed. This cotton yarn is so soft, unlike the 100 percent cotton yarn I knitted into sweaters years ago. Must be that addition of acrylic which should also give it more stability than that cotton I used that produced a sweater that was not only heavy but stretched under that weight. I still marvel at my excitement waiting for this yarn to arrive. It's not like it's something I will start right away. In fact, there are at least three smaller projects ahead of it on the knitting priority list once the current socks are done. Which, by the way, are progressing in spite of all the sports watching. Sock one is at the heel turning point, and I've switched to sock two to bring it up to the same point.

My conclusion: I'm insufferable when it comes to these things! But I can't deny how they excite me. 😊

The Quilting Has Begun

I was daft to start the Joy banner in December. Here I am, well into week three of working on it with much left to do. The completed top looks rather good though, don't you think?

I know there are some who are into adding lots of quilting to every piece, but I want to keep this one simple. All three prints do have metallic gold accents so I'm using gold metallic thread. That's a very old spool of Coats metallic thread on the left that I'd really like to use up, now that I have a more reliable YLI gold metallic thread on hand. Wondering what I should use as a bobbin thread, I discovered I had multiple spools of Sulky 60 wt PolyLite thread which I must have gotten in a grab bag special on Superior Threads website, and which I'm not sure I've actually used. But there was the perfect color (matches more closely than the photo implies) and the description that came with it does say it is perfect to use with metallic threads.

This combination is working well as I do a slow crawl stitching in the ditch around the borders and sashing. Slow because these stitches really show and I need to stay right in the ditch and because I don't want to put stress on the metallic thread such that it will suddenly fray and break on me. So far, so good.

Tried to video the way that thread really does sparkle, even in the ditch but it didn't capture very well. Click for a larger view. But if you listen closely, you can hear the Christmas music I'm listening to while stitching, compliments of The Jazz Groove. I think I may have to pause work on this for a few days to work on Christmas cards, but I am determined it will be done. at least enough, to hang on the wall by Christmas Eve.

Zentangle Break

3" x 3" accordion sketchbook

Back in May, the Zentangle people offered a 21 day "Be Well" series which I was interested in but didn't want to do at the time. I just recently took a look at the video from day one and saw that all the tangling would be done inside a leaf-like shape set on the diagonal. I've been doing a lot of my Zentangling in one of my commercial sketchbooks but didn't think it would work well for this. I also didn't want to use up the individual tiles I have on hand. I got to thinking that placing those leaf shapes in an accordion style book might be just the ticket and I thought I had something I could trace around to make those shapes uniform. Yeah, I'm a LOT about uniformity.

So I took a break from my house cleaning for company to make a simple and quick accordion book. Well, nothing I make is quick but at least it would be simple. I took a look at a couple of videos in my Handmade Book Club to refresh my memory about folding and joining strips together, and I was off. Quick calculations showed that cutting an 18 x 24 inch piece of mixed media paper would give me strips that would fold into 8 panels, and three strips joined would give me the number of panels I would need and a few extras. With the video instructions in mind, I just folded that big sheet in half, then folded the sides to the middle and used a blunt knife to tear along the fold lines. I'd only need three of the four strips.

As I started folding the strips, I momentarily puzzled over the fact that the panels were turning out to be rectangles instead of squares, the planned dimensions for my book being 3" x 3". Oh yeah, dividing the width of the big sheet of paper into fourths yielded strips 4-1/2 inches wide. Oops . . . I quickly trimmed off the excess 1-1/2 inches and continued folding. More scraps for another project. Does this sound like quilting yet? ;-)  The two small rectangles will be used to join the three strips. The bone folder run over the folds makes them crisp.

To make sure I joined the strips correctly - valleys and mountains in proper order - I paper clipped where I'd be adding the joining strips on the back. The rectangles are folded lengthwise and that fold positioned flush with the end of the adjoining strips. My bookclub directions showed this done using PVA glue but I wasn't keen to deal with the messiness of glue and was happy when I remembered that I had Scor-Tape on hand in a half inch width which was just what I needed. Accordion booklet almost done. 

I wanted to attach some kind of cover on the first and last panels for stability but didn't need anything particular thick or heavy. I decided to look through my various papers, settling on this mulberry paper one. Does the design remind you as it does me of trees? Again, I didn't want to fool with glue so cut 3 x 3 inch squares of Scor-Tape from a 6 inch square sheet. Scor-Tape is sort of a one and done tape meaning you have essentially one shot at getting your item positioned correctly before the adhesive makes it impossible to remove. Fortunately, the mulberry paper lined up without a hitch and along with the Scor-Tape, stiffens up the mixed media paper just enough to work as "covers". The bone folder comes in handy to burnish for a good adhering.

Now to draw the diagonal leaf shapes on the panels. There's the thing I thought would work well to draw around, some kind of end plug from packaging that begged me not to throw it away. Hopefully you can see now why I thought an accordion book would work well.

I penned the title on the first panel (and as an after thought added my initials chop after I'd taken the picture). Each day has a theme to meditate on (day one is Embrace not Erase) and a related quotation so I am adding those in the negative space around the leaf shape. To be honest, I wasn't too excited about this first zentangle and less excited with the way mine came out but at least I've started!

When filled, it can be displayed open to show off the undulating zentangle designs.

I like this small 3 x 3 inch little book but accordions can be awkward to work in. I need to find a bit of decorative elastic I think to wrap vertically around it to hold this closed when I'm not working in it and to hold together the springy pages not in use when I'm trying to zentangle on a panel - it's already proven to be an issue. And wouldn't you know it, no sooner did I finish this up and readied myself to complete the remainder of the cleaning and straightening than I got word that my company has had to postpone their arrival. So a relaxing weekend I wasn't counting on in a mostly clean and picked up house!

 

 

Quest Completed

I've been working on the orphan block tote bag in fits and starts, most sessions ending with "my head HURTS" from all the working out of dimensions and figuring out construction sequences. But it's all together now, my quest for a big bag for my knitting over. I said I wanted a big bag and it is BIG: 10 x 16 x 16 inches tall. 

The headaches were of my own making as I tried to be clever about hiding the seam allowances on the inside rather than just making a separate lining. My solution not only "encased" the seam allowance but eliminated additional seams on either side of the blocks. Not sure you can what's going on here but basically I pinned a piece of fabric on front and back of the blocks' sides and turned inside out after stitching - look ma, no exposed seam allowances.

 

The bag is so big because I decided on a two inch border all round the 12 inch blocks. I'd sewn a two inch strip to the bottom of each block before adding the side fabric that had an extra 2 inches on each end to form this border after pressing. I'd been mulling strap attachments when I noticed another bag of mine had straps that did not feed through a top seam of the bag but extended down the fronts. Aha! So I sewed a band along the top that when turned to the inside would provide that two inch border on the top of the blocks.

I'd considered some kind of stabilizer on this band but abandoned the idea since I'd not stabilized the sides, counting on the double layer of fabric to be enough. I turned under a seam allowance and pinned the turnover to the inside, attaching it with machine stitching in the ditch from the outside. The inside of the bag is on the left. I also ran some stitching along the folded edge to stabilize it.

I made some straps that would finish two inches wide to fit in that 2 inch border space on either side of the blocks, its raw edge ends to be caught in the bag bottom's seam. Again I'd wondered about using stabilizer inside the straps but was beyond being interested in fussing with that. (So ready to be done with this!)

I used the same narrow topstitching I'd used around the top of the bag to attach them and stabilize the parts becoming the handles.

Now on to the last step, the dreaded setting in of the bottom. I really did think long and hard about this step from the beginning, but because of my other design choices, I couldn't opt for an easier way. And my "clever" way of encasing raw edges of the seams was not going to work here. I also had to trim the pieces I'd already cut for the bottom, the dimensions arrived at when I'd thought I could extend it like I had the sides to form the bottom border of the blocks. I made a bit of a mess of the 90 degree turns needed to set in the bottom section but close enough for my needs.

With the bag essentially sewn together, my speculation about needing to add a really stiff stabilizer between the inner and outer bottom pieces was spot on. And the easiest way to hide the bottom seam allowance might be to wrap the inner fabric piece around the stabilizer. Here I've used a Roxanne marking pencil which I'd found out does not easily erase as advertised. This was a good place to use it up where it will never show, marking the quarter inch seam allowance for a guide to placing the stabilizer.

I cut some Stiff Stuff interfacing left over from the Eisenberg Fountain quilt. It hadn't worked as I had hoped on that quilt but it worked perfectly for this bag bottom. I applied Heat and Bond to the fabric (normally I don't use this fusible except when making books but I didn't have large enough pieces of either Steam a Seam or Wonder Under on hand), centered the Stiff Stuff within the lines and carefully turned the edges over the Stiff Stuff and fused. Turned it over to complete the fusing to the Stiff Stuff. There, a nice stiff insert for my bag.

Oh how I wished that I could continue fusing but I decided it would be much easier just to run some glue over the seam allowances and plop my stiffener into place. I had a box that was the right width but not quite as long as the bag bottom but better than nothing for having something solid to turn the bag inside out over. I had a narrow strip of the Heat and Bond that I decided to use to at least partially fuse the two bag bottoms together. Here it is with its protective paper removed before adding the stiffener bottom.

Still a bit tricky but not as tricky as fusing would have been, I worked my way around the seam allowance applying some Fabri-Tac old enough to refuse to squeeze out of the nozzle so applied with a glue spatula and pressing the stiffener in place. To my relief, it fit and held. Turning the bag right side out, I could now make that final fuse of the inside and outside bottoms.

I loaded up the yarns and knitted sections of the eyelet cardigan and the bag is more than big enough. In fact, it might hold all the yarn I have waiting to be knitted up.

Knitting projects lined up - need another bag?

It really could have used either some stabilizer or extra padding in the sides, band around the top and straps, but on the other hand, I like that it so easily flops closed to keep the dust out since most big knitting projects take a lot of time. I'm satisfied and rather pleased to have these old blocks out where I can see them. And I'm reconsidering what I said about not needing more pillows . . .