The Sweater Is No More

Yeah, the top-down seamless sweater with the cowl neck. I undid it all on Sunday, for several reasons:

• I didn't like the way it was going
• I wanted to make this shawl
• The only yarn I have enough of to make it is what I was using for the sweater
• Buying more yarn is so very not in the budget right now.

So, the sweater had to be sacrificed. The shawl is coming along nicely, though.

What Flower Are You?

I am a Hydrangea What Flower Are You?

Today, it's all about the Fabric

A couple of weeks ago, I scanned a huge stack of my stash into my computer, so I can use it when I play with EQ6. Then, I started washing and pressing it and putting it on the shelves in my soon-to-be studio. This takes awhile, as I wash each piece separately in the sink before pressing it dry. I use the hottest water I can handle, because if it's going to run or shrink, I want that to happen before I use it in something.

Anyway, I still have a good-size stack of scanned fabrics to wash, so that's what I'm working on today.

Monkey Shines update

This is one of the Monkey Shines blocks. As you can see, I've done the Monkey Wrench in four colors instead of the usual two. It looks really cool, but I realized when I started setting some of the blocks next to each other that it kind of messes with the secondary pattern. Now I'm doing more of them in just two colors. I'm still using all four colors, but only two per block.

Monkey Shines

I haven't finished my sweater yet (I still have about 12" to go on the cowl neck), but I'm starting a new quilting project. I mentioned last week that I've been playing around with EQ6 again, pulling up some traditional hand piecing patterns to use instead of paper piecing as I usually do. Right now I'm working on a bunch of 6" Monkey Wrench blocks, which I'm calling Monkey Shines because I'm doing it in four colors instead of two. I'll scan a block later this weekend (when I finish some) so you can see them.

Catnip Mousies!

I went to the Natural Foods store yesterday, and bought (among other things) some buckwheat hulls and some catnip, so I could make some catnip mousies for my kitties. I also bought some lavender, to stuff a sleep mask for me.

Anyway, today I got out some flannel scraps that I got from a coworker, and made myself a mousie template from an index card. I drew it about the size of their favorite non-catnip mousies, forgetting that those mousies have their little skins stretched over a hard body by a machine. I came to that realization after sewing four of them and turning two right-side out. These were way too small to stuff with anything but a cotton ball, and we don't have any of those. So I tossed them, and the cats are going to get little square pillows instead.

Back to stitching!

The Sweater Progresses

The cowl neck is now about 10 inches deep. I did a lot of it while watching the week's recorded crafty shows (hooray, Tivo!), and then I did more this morning while watching movies with Honey.

I still need to do at least another 10 inches - I want to make it big enough to cover my head.

Sweater Progress

Well, I did finally finish the second sleeve, and started on the neck. As I said before, I have plenty of yarn to do a nice deep cowl. So far, it's only about 3 or 4 inches, but it will get there.

Frogging the sweater

Yesterday morning, I spent hours hanging out with Honey, and working on my sweater. I was almost done with the second sleeve, when I realized that it was a good two inches shorter than the first one. So I had to "rip-it" out; and since I'd been decreasing at a pretty good clip, I had to rip almost back to the elbow. sigh

So I picked the stitches back up and got back to work on it. I haven't gotten nearly so far on it, though, because I also got busy doing other household kinds of things.

In the afternoon, my neighbor across the street took me to the Natural Foods store (called Harvest House) about a mile-and-a-half from here, and then to the produce market that's near it. Harvest House is a treasure trove of grains, flours, herbs, teas, and all kinds of such goodies, including all the stuff to make salves & ointments & such. Oh, and buckwheat hulls for herb pillows. Needless to say, I'll be going back there often!

Shortly after I finished putting away my purchases from that foray, Dee came home and gave me a ride over to Safeway to pick up more mundane things, like prescriptions and cat litter.

Today, after I finished going through this week's craft-show recordings (I love Tivo!), I did a load of laundry in the kitchen sink (which makes a wonderful washtub), and hung it out to dry in the back yard. I do love having a yard where I can stretch a line to dry things in the sun! Now it's a bit too warm to sit with a lapful of wool, so I'll get back to my knitting later.

Making use of down-time

At least, it was supposed to be down-time. I went to bed at 10pm. When I still wasn't asleep by 11:30, I decided I might as well get up. So I turned the TV back on and got out my knitting. I got the second sleeve of my sweater 1/3 done between midnight and 4am, when I finally did go to sleep.

Sweater Progress

I've been working on (and off) this top-down seamless sweater for quite awhile, so I thought I'd give you an update. I haven't had as much time as I would have liked to work on it lately, since I've been working all this insane OT. But the other night, I made time to sit and watch a movie with Honey, and knitted while we watched. I now have a third of the first sleeve done, as well as the body.

And now, back to my busy life.

Smacked by the Muse

Earlier this week, I was looking up origami patterns online, because it occurred to me that doing origami on my work breaks would be a good remedy for typing so much - an alternate hand activity. Anyway, I wound up on WikiHow, and one of the other articles listed in the sidebar was how to Create an iPod Tarot Deck. Not only is it a really cool article, and an idea that makes great sense when you think about it (or at least when I thought about it), it reminded me that I used to read Tarot cards and that I want to again.

I haven't read the cards in years, but I still have 8 different decks (about half of the collection I once had), and I remember wanting to design a deck. So that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to refresh myself on Tarot, and start designing my deck.

My overall plan for that is to translate card proportions up to the biggest size that will take an 8.5" by 11" sheet of paper and use that for a template to make a mini-quilt of each card. As I finish each one, I'll scan it so I can show it to you, and so I can reduce the image back down to card size. My goal is that at the end of the project (which I expect will take several years), I'll have a full deck of Tarot cards and some really cool art as well.

Each piece will be mixed-media, with beads, embroidery (the TAST project will come into play here), and whatever else seems right for that card. This is going to be fun!

inaminuteago - the blog » Take a Stitch Tuesday

inaminuteago - the blog » Take a Stitch Tuesday

I figured I should link to the update, so everyone can see how far behind I am.

Hopefully, I'll be able to start catching up sometime next month.

What I've been up to

When I have time to knit, I'm working on the seamless neck-down sweater. I've got the body done, and I'm onto the first sleeve. I'll take pics of it when I have it done; it's too big to scan.

Besides, I haven't finished unpacking and setting up my office/studio; I haven't had the time or energy for it.

I've been really busy working overtime, coz we need the $$.

Life is, eh?

Yarn Harlot: Dear Daughters

Yarn Harlot: Dear Daughters

Helpful advice for when one of the parents is out of town.

Hi honey! We' re home!

We found a new place - a sweet little cottage on a quiet street, within walking distance of everything. It has lots of big sunny windows, a gas kitchen, a fenced yard, and lots of closets and cupboards. We only have one bedroom, so I don't have a separate room for my studio, but the living room's big enough that I'll be able to set things up in there. That is, once the landlord gets in here to finish painting (which is supposed to be sometime this weekend). Then we can actually put the furniture where it needs to be, and get things unpacked and put away. I don't want to do as I have with so many other moves, and live out of boxes most of the time, never able to find anything.


One of the many good things about this place is that there are laundry hookups, so once we can get machines in here, we'll be able to do all our wash here instead of going to the laundromat. Yay!

Well, I'd better get to unpacking the kitchen - at least there's no painting needed there...

Take a stitch Tuesday progress

Unfortunately, I haven't had time to work on it at all.

You can read on my other blog, Samildanach, about how the shit has hit the fan, and we're currently playing a frantic game of "House-Hunt Scramble" (or "How Much is That Window for a kitty?").

I'll post when I have bits of time here and there, but I'm gonna be pretty busy for awhile.

Take a Stitch Tuesday - Week 1

This week's stitch is Herringbone. Sharon shows all kinds of ways to play with it. I'll do some later this week and post scans on the weekend.

I finished the mitered square scarf

So I started a sweater. This is a really easy pattern; custom fit, knitted in the round with no seams. I started it yesterday evening, and I've gotten about 4" down from the neckline so far.