Stick a Fork in It...

It's done!
Happy dance--my Shedir, the OOPS KAL for the month of January, is done.

Finished.

Ready-to-wear.

Whee!


The good news? It's not my first FO of the year.





But isn't it purty?? (Ok, I don't know where the bad spelling has come from. I SO don't talk that way!)







Look at those little decreases. When it's on a head, it really doesn't look that pointy.

Pattern: Shedir from Knitty.com
Yarn: Berocco Pure Merino in ecru, 2 and a skosh skeins. Love the color, love the texture. It is a bit splitty to work with, though, especially with the super-pointy Knit Picks needles. Size 3. Only did 3 pattern repeats and it's more than big enough. Might have to do another one, go down a needle size or two and see what happens.

Blogger is playing games with me, so you'll please have to make allowances for the rather wonky layout today. The next picture should be the Jiffy Comfort Shawl--but it might be Anne's quilt instead.
I guess I'll find out when I hit "publish" won't I?

Anyway, the shawl is my first FO of the year, and the first of the MP08 goals to be crossed off my list. Almost 6 skeins of Lion Brand Jiffy, in two different but semi-compatible colorways--the yarn had some old Wal-mart labels ($1.27) on the bands, and since I have never bought yarn at Wal-mart (I've been inside one exactly once), I figure this is a yard sale or similar purchase. Or a "legacy" from someone else. The completed shawl is about 6' long which ought to be enough to wrap around someone who can use its comfort and cheery coloration.

I do think the color separation is more obvious in the pictures than in real life.

Anne's quilt:

And Anne with quilt #2.

The floral multicolor is a charity quilt for our guild--the fabrics were a packet of pre-cut rectangles. She trimmed them all to the same size, added "windowpanes" and assembled it. She got most of the quilting done on it at class on Tuesday night.

As well as sewing the binding down on the lavender quilt, which is going to a benefit auction for her community, I believe for Cinco de Mayo.


Gail was working on this wonderful wall hanging. The circles are machine-embroidered and then appliqued to the blocks; the center block is also appliqued.
Here's the layout of the borders, ready to be assembled.
And here it is, at the end of class, bordered and with a narrow fillet of piping, pinned and partly quilted already.

She's going around some of the flowers in the outside border, which gives a nice effect especially on the back.

Made for a very productive night!

Now I've Seen Everything!

Spotted at a rest stop on the way home from the out-of-state trip:

Who on earth travels with a pig in the camper?

Yes, it's a pig. At a rest stop. Eating out of a saucepan.

Another view of the piggywig:





Garrett wasn't quite sure what to make of it, but he certainly took it in stride much better than the older folks.
Oh, it was cold and windy. Very windy. Very chilly, and we could see the mountains (Big Bear/Arrowhead area mountains) which were covered in snow. But the weather held, and we made wonderful time, and got home just before the deluge hit.

Nate has been held and cuddled by his aunties and uncle and has met his cousin Audrey--it was a mutual oblivion-fest. Just wait till they are older, though! As the 12th cousin in our family, he has lots more family to meet--and we know they will love him as much as we do.


Warning: if you haven't yet received your BMFA STR shipment yet, don't keep reading.

You've been warned.


Spoiler alert!!

I mean it!

Don't blame me...












There it is. I luv luv luv lurve it!!

Probably love it too much to make socks out of it... but isn't it purty??

Yeah, I think so too!

Good Things

Friday Eye Candy:

sleeping baby!





Shedir in progress:


Family picture--to give you an idea of the size of the two boys!
Finally, Birch and friends.

My travel buddies, Bear and Lamb.j

Hush. Doesn't everyone have a mascot to travel with??



Too tired to write more. Hope to have another post tomorrow, as there may be lots of knitting time...

Meet Nathaniel

Seems to be a tradition for D3 by now:
1) phone call in middle of a busy day
2) pack up car and head lickety-split to another state
3) pick up new baby boy

In this case, he's definitely a LITTLE boy. With the typical post-natal weight loss, he's now exactly 5 lbs.

Yeah, I said FIVE pounds. But healthy. All he needs to do is keep on eating well to gain some weight, and he'll be just fine.

He sleeps a lot. Which is what newborns do. Sometimes he just needs to open one eye to find out what his nutty family is up to now, especially that big brother!




Add another item to the list:
4) Grandma (Memere) follows


Do go over to check on d5's blog, too, for the latest Sweet Pea pictures.

And, as always, clicking on our Flickr badges will take you to lots and lots more pictures.

Knitting has resumed. Shedir is cast on, and will be posing for her first photograph shortly.

Hey, a grandma's only got so many hands, and baby cuddling comes first! There was a little rhyme that I had embroidered which hung on my wall for many years:

Cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
For babies grow up, as we've learned to our sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep,
I'm rocking my baby, and babies don't keep.

Picture Day

What do you think a wee little mehitabel would have looked like? Would you guess this:

the funny story attached to this picture is that the photographer apparently liked it well enough to display it in his window. Last I heard, it was there almost 30 years after it was taken.
I mean, would that entice you to bring your child in?

Well, maybe if you permed her hair into oblivion and added a bow almost the same size as she!

This was age 3, taken to send to my dad who was still in France with the Army.

Or maybe this, with the "baby brother" which pegs the date at mmummble-mumble? He doesn't look too sure about this whole deal, but isn't he a cutie?

Rather more recent pictures, of the Grandcarrot at almost 20 months, with his new "friend." Hey, when you are stuck in a hotel, you amuse yourself the best you can, right?

Right.

Look, I remembered that this is supposed to be a knitting blog!

Birch is found and actually got worked on in the plane on my way to the latest destination.

There will be news, I hope, of a very good kind. Please cross your fingers, say a prayer, make a wish, send good thoughts out our way.

Pretty please??

Thanks!!

K.O.

Don't know if it's a stomach flu or food poisoning, and I guess it doesn't matter. Let's just say it wasn't the best companion for a day of flying!

However, I'm home, I'm (I think) much better, and hopefully will be back to posting and knitting and generally LIVING life instead of hiding out from it!

Snowballs!

Or, actually, yarn balls: direct from Webs! Well, I had to go, didn't I? I had a commission from a friend and fellow knitter, to pick up some yarn for her. While I was there, I overheard a conversation between a couple of the employees about the big push they've got on to ship all the orders they got during the sale. They are really working hard, and are almost caught up. However, I'm sure that having a "personal shopper" will mean she'll get her yarn sooner, even if she does have to wait till I get back to SoCal!
I had thought about going to their Thursday night knit-in, but the weather forecast was pretty dire: more snow, turning to sleet, freezing rain, and ice. It's been too long since I've driven in that stuff to want to tackle it at night, with a bum shoulder yet.

Snow:
this is the back yard. Can you see that birch over on the left, arching wayyy out across the yard?
This pine is next to the house. I loved the way it looked with a freight of snow on its branches. At one time, this house was surrounded by pine trees, but in the 52 years since my family moved in here, many of them have succumbed to disease and old age. Or my father's temper at having to rake tons of long pine needles--which leach acid into the soil and kill the grass.

Front yard, with snow piled up by the plow. That yellow spot on the grass is birdseed from the feeder.
The birds love the feeders, and so do the squirrels.

Funny how the squirrels here have much fluffier coats and much bushier tails than the squirrels in my yard. Oh, and they're grey squirrels--my SoCal squirrels are brown.
Just after the storm, the birches at the end of the driveway had the whole thing blocked off. This generally only happens with a heavy, wet snow, so I guess we know what kind this was.
That's the same bird feeder as in the plowed photo.
There is more snow coming down.

Here's a bit of a change of pace: Anne made this for the "coffee corner" at her place. Tuesday night she got it backed and pinned, and it's ready to quilt and hang. My guess is she got it quilted already--she's been amazingly prolific with her quilts!

I'll leave you with one more yarnball picture:
This is destined for my Shedir, for the KAL that started Jan 1.


I know, I know. Several people have already finished. I will cast on after I get back.

Time zone changes play havoc with the body clock, so I'm going to be trying to reset it tonight. I thought for sure that getting up at 4 am to get to the airport on time would help a lot--after all, that's 7 am EST, right? What I apparently didn't take into account is that it meant I was short of sleep, so consequently I've been a real sleepyhead here. Let's see if I can counteract that with--gasp!--real sleep!

Progress?

I certainly hope that you won't get tired of pictures like this:

because I'm planning on posting one every time I get a truckload of goodies to take to the thrift shop! Now, granted, this isn't as big a load as some of the others, but I've been working "wounded." That's 5 bankers' boxes and a whole lotta magazines gone, outta here!

More progress: Montrose Monday yielded some incentive to bring along the CPH.

The shoulders are now sewn, and I'm about an inch into the hood. I'm planning to carry the cables from the center back right up the back of the hood; the reason they look a little wonky in this picture is because they're ready to be crossed. For some reason, one of the front cables didn't get crossed when it should have, so after I had finished the shoulder seams and picked up the stitches for the hood, I had to drop back down a few rows and re-cross the cable on the right row.
Worth the effort, though. The color on these pictures is much lighter than it is in person--it's a nice deep red with lots of tweedy dryer lint...er, flecks. Yeah, flecks, that's it.When my kids were little, they had a cute little book called "My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes."
There were rhyming couplets (with adorable sketches to illustrate each one) like, "The cat from France likes to sing and dance," always with the refrain, "but my cat likes to hide in boxes."
Simon says, what? Doesn't everyone like to get all snug in a box?

Go. Here. Now.

Just found this via Crafting Morrighana and have to share! (One of these days I'll figure out how to make the picture into a link. Not today, too much to do! But I did want to put the link out there for you!)

Now, who's going to do this for the quilters?? Inquiring minds want to know!

Mission: Possible 2008

Yes, I'm definitely a joiner. Like Madgik, I've joined a couple of Ravelry groups dedicated to Stash Management and Depletion and the Completion of Projects Mired in Terminal Cobwebbiness. Just to keep me honest, I'm going to post my goals here as well. I hope that it will lead to nudges and pokes in the ribs (not the sore ones, please!) and encouragement to get some of this accomplished.

Fanfare and flourish! Here goes:

1. Map of the World Sweater. Started in 1991. Needs to be sewn up and have a neckband knitted, about 8 rows I think. Caitlin still wants it.
2. The Sorbet Ab Fab. It’s my 6th or 7th one and I think I’m sick and tired of Colinette mohair.
3. The Mushroom Ab Fab. Maybe I’ll do a different design on this one, instead of the Feather and Fan I did for the others.
4. Audrey’s blankie. It’s gorgeous yarn, Lotus Knits’ Lullabye colorway. Needs to be done before Audrey goes away to college–she’s 8 weeks old already.
5. Laughing Carrots sweater for the Grandcarrot. I even have carrot-orange yarn to make it in.
6. Yet Another Endless Comfort Shawl. This one is half done. It’s LB Jiffy and will be colorful and cheerful, although the two variegated colorways are not even remotely siblings.
7. The Damn CPH. Needs to be sewn together so the hood can be knitted. Meighan wants it. If it doesn’t fit her, it’s going to Conn. and I’ll start another one for Meg.
8. Lady Eleanor I. Needs blocking and fringe.
9. Lady Eleanor II. Needs blocking and fringe.
10. Lady Eleanor III. Still knitting. Still loving the Rowan Tapestry.
11. Birch. In KSH no less, in luscious Liqueur. On its way to being my second-oldest UFO. Or third. Who keeps track? I can barely remember my kids’ birthdays, let alone my knitting’s.
12. Paris Scarf–Sea Silk in the Paris colorway. Started on the way to Paris, France, and looking really pretty. Just needs some TLC and time to remember the pattern. (Doesn’t help to get something done when you leave the pattern on a BA flight and break the needles in Nice. It’s now on a pretty rosewood circ and should get its share of time in the rotation. Ought to be good plane knitting for my trip East next week.)

There it is. I didn’t include the things that are done except for blocking, and I’m sure there are more things lurking out there in the stash. Especially the stash that’s in that OTHER ZIP code!

See that back there? That's More Yarn and it lives in storage. It has lots of company there--I counted 6 tubs, and that's just what's on top and easily visible.

Now do you see why I need this Stash Intervention Year??

Quilt Night

Here are a couple of projects from quilting class:
Louise with her strippy scrappy Lone Star.
I'm encouraging her to finish it and enter it in the big guild quilt show--it's very inspiring to see what can be done with small pieces!
This is Charlotte's big project. She's been working on it for quite a while now. Up close, you can see all the little squares--there are 24 different shades of blue in this one, to get the proper shading.

It's from a photograph of her granddaughter Tori, which through a fairly complex process was transferred to a graph and coded for assembly. The white "ruffle" is actually the interfacing it's been pressed to. Without going into great detail, the squares are laid out on fusible interfacing, ironed to adhere them, then the seams are sewn down. There's a book on the technique and I'll see if I can track it down--I'm blanking on it right now!

It was amazing when I took the pictures--the photographic aspect doesn't really show up unless you get a good distance from it. In the camera, it really came through. You might need to squint a little to "see" the image!
Anne was finishing the quilting on her "Divine Felines." This will go in her new home.
We don't know what her two dogs will think of it--but then, I don't think they are very critical of fabric cats.
And Gail's table runner. She was just getting ready to sew on the binding--so please imagine this with a narrow edge of dark green.

Well, that was some of what was going on tonight. We had a good class and a nice group of people. I'm crossing my fingers and toes that we can keep it up!!

I even got to knit a little tiny bit tonight, in between helping out with various projects. Yay for Tuesday quilting!!

Recipe Box Redux

Just to reinforce my cred on the whole recipe box issue, here is the thing in all its vintage glory.

Now, I ask you: is this not '60s chic at its finest?



Just look at that fruit salad-y lid! Not to mention the fingermarks and grime from many years of use!

What's in it, you ask? What does one keep in this little treasure, now that the recipes have gone to a bigger and more complex box?



Voila.
This, my children, is how we kept track of yarn in the days pre-Ravelry. Pre-computer, even. Index cards, with the yarn data on the front and a nice little piece Scotch-taped to the back. Filed in a little tin box.

And if you're a cat, this is what you do on a sunny January Monday while your peeps are hard at work. You supervise the traffic on the street, or you snooze. 'Cause your buddy is on guard.

When the knit content is low, I can always count on a flower photo or two for distraction, right?

The camellias are blooming. These first two pictures are of the same bush: it has both speckled and white blossoms. I'd say it's because it was grafted, but sometimes the two different colors are on the same branch.

It's pretty--reminds me of peppermint candy!

Then we have the other pink-and-white variety. This is the one that grows out of the hole in the deck off the back door.

In case you were wondering how ol' Padua is doing after his (expensive) traumatic holidays, here he is, doing what he does best:

keeping the sofa warm. He seems to be doing fine. He eats up a storm, drinks water by the gallons, and still begs for treats. He probably should go back for a checkup soon, just to make sure his numbers are on track.
Do you think this boy has enough fur to keep him warm?