8.31.12

GRANDMOTHER'S CHOICE--THE PREQUEL

Here is a photo of my QOV doll! My ArtyQuilty friend photographed it for me. 

Also: Today is the first day of the rest of my diet. I will be tracking sodium and carbs and recording + or - for pound loss at the bottom of some of my posts. I will put the subtitle DIET UPDATE and record the previous day's data. That way you can stop reading at that point if you find it boring. I can already predict that I will miss candy corn...

DIET UPDATE--day 0
sodium--not recorded, target:  less than 2,000 mg daily
carbs--not recorded, target:  less than 20 grams daily
weight--starting date, no change recorded, first target:  5% by October 1

8.30.12

I have been dollmaking.  I didn't remember to photograph the doll I sent to the Mountain Heritage Festival for the QOV booth, but never fear, I have 11 more in the makings. Well, 10, since I lost one of the heads somewhere... I am planning to draft a simple angel pattern for use by the QOV. I have had it rolling around in my head for quite some time now. 

If I did not already have enough going on, I will be joining a BOW which means Block of the Week. I plan to hand piece each block but we will see how long THAT idea lasts. I need to get some muslin because I have chosen 30s reproduction fabrics which I will show you tomorrow. I want to put a badge on my blog for participating in this BOW but have not figured out how to do so yet.

8.29.12

Husband and I are reading a book called

Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It

We go to the same MD and he suggested it. I have a feeling if we decide to follow this plan, my delicious coffee with real sugar and fake cream will be a thing of the past and I will be drinking tea in the morning as well as the afternoon.  I have not read the book yet but Husband says it is similar to Atkins and I do remember what that was about. My difficulty will be in convincing him that we must only eat those proteins which have NOT been treated with growth hormone since I think that is the REAL reason we get fat.

8.28.12

Tea Time Tuesday

Care for a cup of tea? You can find this pot HERE.

8.27.12

Last week's mantra was KEEP GOING KEEP GOING KEEP GOING KEEP GOING KEEP GOING, which I thought very appropriate for my dear husband's birthday! 
"If you are going through hell, keep going." Winston Churchill.  
 
Thought for this week: I will try to do something from my list everyday.

My chant: I can do it.

One Monday, I wrote about my thoughts leading up to having a personal mantra/affirmation phrase handy.  You can re-read that post HERE.

8.26.12

I am SUPPOSED to be working on my section of the three artist photo interpretations. I have actually started and then stalled a little. I think I have solved a problem of getting a frosty effect for my grapes. Bleach pens were NOT the answer. 

I pulled THESE fabrics

while looking at THIS photo taped to my window just above my workspace.

8.25.12

Angela's Kniestrumpfe are coming along, don't you agree?

I am ready for the decreases but have been distracted by scarves and dolls and BEARS, oh, my!

8.24.12

Well, I DID say I had been full-on knitting. I have finished a number of scarves and here is one.

You can read about it HERE , at least , I THINK you can. I do not know if you have to be a member of Ravelry to look at different pages posted by members.  This scarf was made when I found two balls of all-too-easily feltable wool and decided to use 'em up in something not likely to be "over"washed by a recipient. Who washes a scarf? It looked a little plain until I put in some garter ridges of Chunky partly acrylic wool by Berrocco. I think it might have been Tonic. It was not awful, like most acrylic blends, but I should just NEVER buy acrylic, even on spec, no matter how pretty the colors are or how great the price is. I just do not like acrylic. Yarn Snob.

This just in:
OH, OH! Think I crossed over to the DOLL SIDE. I am busy all day today making dolls I hope will benefit QOV (GO, REGION 8!) at the Mountain Heritage Festival on Labor Day.

8.23.12

Did you miss me? I have been up to all sorts of things. Cleaning out the studio always distracts me back to a previously started project. 

I thought I was full-on knitting and suddenly found myself working on DOLLS! These are parts from an elinor peace bailey angel. I have about five, maybe six in process.  The first link takes you to her business page but THIS shows you her blog.

This headless wonder is one of two witch style dolls using patterns designed by Julie McCullough. You can barely see the one in the background. It is shades of tan, brown and black.

8.20.12

Happy Birthday, My Darling!


Last week's mantra was COURAGE, HOPE, HEALTH.  

Thought for this week:

"If you are going through hell, keep going." Winston Churchill.  So, my friends, keep chanting: KEEP GOING KEEP GOING KEEP GOING KEEP GOING KEEP GOING

One Monday, I wrote about my thoughts leading up to having a personal mantra/affirmation phrase handy.  You can re-read that post HERE.

8.17.12

FREE MOTION QUILT CHALLENGE--AUGUST EDITION!

The August tutor is Wendy Sheppard. She is widely experienced and has been published in many magazines. She surely is a teacher of note. She taught us "jester hats" and Fleur-dis-lis variations. I enjoyed myself so much, I almost did not want to put away my machine but I had to do other things that day. 

 

I used Aurifil thread and found it to be the best so far for my machine quilting experience with the Schmetz Microtex Sharp Needle size 60/8 that I used in my machine. I used pink because I would least likely use pink in regular sewing and quilting so I would not notice the lack of pink in my library of usable thread. Unfortunately, pink did not show up very well on gold of the same value so I fiddled with photo editing AND the first featured photo is of the back of the sample.

8.16.12

Ach! Sie möchten lieber auf Englisch zu lesen?

My Grundrezept Kniestrumpf (translated means: Basic Recipe For Stocking) is actually about 3 inches or so at this point. In fact, I have TWO of them at about the same progress point.  

What you see in the back ground is an email to Angela Mühlpfordt of http:bestrickendes.de, the designer. Highlighted in blue are her directions in German and below that, highlighted in lavender is my interpretation. I use Google translate and chunk out little parts at a time. I am amazed at how much I can understand before translation. I took no German in school but English is an amalgam of several languages, German among them so some things just make sense.

I am at the point where I will begin thinking about decreasing for the under-the-calf curve.  I did not ask Angela for permission to post the picture from her design so you will just have to click HERE to see for yourself. Remember to look at the lovely heel.

This is a free pattern and I can tell you how to knit as far as I have knit if you are interested.  She used Knit Picks'  STROLL yarn for hers and used about 130 grams. There is a website in Germany that carries Knit Picks so it is just as easy for her to get the yarn she likes as it is for us to order from our own domestic Knit Picks site.

8.15.12

I am back. Knitting. Knitting some more. Loving it.
The other day, after two and a half days of window (internet) shopping for yarn, I dove into my yarn stash. I found pounds and pounds of yarn and even a few Works In Progress.

I am working on a scarf because I was intrigued with Christmas Lace by Julie Sprague. Luckily, while stash diving, I found two skeins of Cascade Lana D'Oro, which I bought to make into a Lava Flow Cowl by Dixie Norton. When I bought it, I wanted Ruby or Vermillion and was determined to support a local business but they did not have it. Because I intended for it to be a gift to a green loving person, I bought the RAINFOREST colorway.
  

Christmas Lace--looking good!

As a knitting project, Lava Flow did not turn out and since I have gone back on Ravelry, there was an errata/update for it, but too late for THIS yarn! It was great fun to do the cables for Lava Flow but as I remember, the counts were off for joining. It would make a fun scarf but I am already hooked on Julie's pattern. 

Look, it is pretty right side, wrong side, blocked, not blocked! First time I have ever liked knitting the "back" side of a pattern more than the front.

I am enjoying working with this yarn SO MUCH. 50% Alpaca / 50% Wool, it handles as beautifully as llama. Click the Cascade Lana D'Oro link and see all the colors that are available!

8.14.12

Lisa Devlin is an amazing photographer. She started photographing music artists in the music industry and now says she has caught the wedding bug. I found her by using my favorite time waster--er, my favorite Google search: TEAPOTS.

If I receive her permission, you will see quite a nice little teapot right here.

Happy Tea Time Tuesday!

8.13.12

Last week's mantra was I can choose happiness whenever I wish no matter what my circumstances. With a child in the hospital (yes, at age 23, he is still my child although I try not to say he is MY BABY too often) my personal chant was foreshortened. Mostly I just said, "I choose happiness" over and over. Most people don't think of happiness as a choice but as a life-long optimist, I gotta tell ya, somedays ya gots to WORK at it. 

So what will it be for this week? I have another child on my mind.

 COURAGE, HOPE, HEALTH

I have been chanting that in my head since Saturday.

One Monday, I wrote about my thoughts leading up to having a personal mantra/affirmation phrase handy.  You can re-read that post HERE.

8.12.12

I am actively knitting a pair of knee socks designed by Angela Mühlpfordt. I found them on the Ravelry.com website.  You can knit a pair for free if you belong.

I am using Cherry Tree Hill fingering yarn in the Green Mountain Madness colorway. I just got a third skein in the mail from Handknitting.com, run by Laurel and John Murphy and the color lot is NOT VERY CLOSE and I am thrilled! I expected it to be more different from the original two skeins then it really is.  In fact, I had expected to work in DUSK, an entirely different colorway but I think it might have gone well. These will be socks for me and every time I wear them, I will see where the dyelots did not quite match up and I will remember how happy I was FINALLY finding a place that even carried CTH in fingering--let alone the colorway I hoped to buy.

8.11.12

Arachno Shawl Completed! 

It is a pattern by Jennifer Dassau. If you ask me for a copy, I will direct you to where it can be purchased. If I give you my copy, I will feel morally obligated to pay her a second time and don't you want her to know you would like to make one of her designs?

Remember my sherbety sock yarn that would not be socks? 

I finished it off,

dropped the stitches, 

blocked it, 

  
and now it is ready to wear!

8.4.12

HospitalSon is HomeSon again and doing fairly well. I will be back in a few days when things sort out around here.

Sorry, nothing for a few days. HomeSon is HospitalSon this week so I will see you in a few days.

8.1.12

Here are some pictures of Grandmother's Flower Garden. It is surprisingly easy to do. My pieces are 3/4 of an inch so I cut fabric strips 1 and 7/8 inch wide. I have a template  that is suited to fit right on those strips. Usually I stack up some strips, trace a series of hexes on the top strip, pin each hex...Might as well make a tutorial. I will try to do that for tomorrow's post.

7.31.12

You can get these HERE.

And who would not want to? They remind me of Beaker from the Muppets. And Beaker reminds me how the Muppets are supporting some recent legislation in the news in Boston. Insert smiley face here.

7.30.12

I can choose happiness whenever I wish no matter what my circumstances

I chose that saying because the week before last had me stalled. Not much was accomplished. I tried last week to cross things off my list and I finally feel the creative spark rekindling. I work this week to remember that I am responsible for how I feel in response to situations and the people in them. No one can make me feel small unless I let them.

Last week's mantra was I will make conscious effort each day to do something from "my list". I did pretty well and still managed to meet obligations that interrupted my "flow". 

One Monday, I wrote about my thoughts leading up to having a personal mantra/affirmation phrase handy.  You can re-read that post HERE.

7.29.12

Remember the Arachno Shawl from yesterday? Here is where I got to by Thursday.
It does not look like good knitting because there are several times to knit through the back leg of the stitch which makes it look a little twisted. 

 It will all work out when I drop the correct stitches and let it ravel down. I could be knitting the transition rows before I get to the shoulder rows right now but when I take a computer break this is what I do. I read these.

 I have it in my mind that I need to teach myself to crochet. I thought I might start with some of these motifs. I remember Granny Squares from the 70s. I have a bajillion crochet hooks and plenty of yarn. I even thought I might take that second book, the one by Suzann Thompson, and do all the leaves in white and off white in very fine yarn to put on my crazy quilt. Seems like a good idea. Maybe I will.

7.28.12

I am at the Georgia Mountain Fair again today. I am missing the Green Bean Festival in town but it is no doubt too hot to walk around and look at other people's crafts.

Still knitting away and doing some quilting, too. At the Fair Wednesday, I worked on my Grandmother's Flower Garden miniature quilt. My hexagons are 3/4 of an inch and I will probably have 12 or so flowers. It is an entirely hand worked project and extremely portable. I worked on it last time we went to Florida and back. It travels well and is easy to do unless we are on the mountain roads. Then I can rely on "dummy" knitting--you know, round and round on size 8s.

That picture is a snippet of the Arachno Shawl by Jennifer Dassau. See a better photo of it at THIS BLOGGER'S SITE. I bought the pattern electronically and I have used some yarn that has tried several times to be socks but just does not want to cooperate. It should have been very nice socks. It is two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in a color that makes me think of summer ice cream on my grandmother's porch. 

Here is another blogger who made the Arachno Shawl. If you explore what she has on her site, you will see she may have a little bit of a shawl obsession...just sayin'...

7.27.12

I think these chefs are hilarious.  This is a fabric panel I won at the Retreat.  I have fabric similar to what borders each picture. I am not sure what the designer had in mind but they look like they would make cute kitchen curtains, decorative potholders, and aprons one would want to hang on a decorative hook on the wall.  The squares are pretty big, probably about eight inches (more or less, they are upstairs and I am down right now). I think one on each of two cafe' curtains would be kind of cute. I am tempted to make them for our kitchen but the window area in our kitchen is not suited for curtains.

7.26.12

One of our hummers. We have plenty this year, and, just as always, when the feeders are empty, they come to the window and look in as if asking for the feeders to be refilled. Part of me enjoys seeing them up close but at the same time, part of me thinks it is wrong to feed wild animals.

7.25.12.2

Oops. I had trouble with Blogger's date system. AGAIN. I must be doing something wrong when I schedule a post ahead of time. My success rate is about 50%. Anyway...


Today, I am at the Georgia Mountain Fair, in the Quilter's Cabin. Our Guild (Misty Mountain) has a quilting frame set up and we are working shifts demonstrating hand quilting. I have to take a project with me to work on since some of the visitors to the cabin like to sit down and do a little quilting. Plus, when we prepped the quilt for the frame, almost half of it is already finished! I do another shift on Saturday. Wonder if the quilt will be done by then.

Since this post came out on the 22nd and you already read it and saw my blocked scarf picture, there is nothing to do but show you another picture.

This is Kraemer Yarns Tatamy Tweed in the birch colorway. It was almost an entire tee-shirt but got frogged. Now it is on its way to being the Bistro Shirt from Oat Couture. See the picture below?

I checked with Ravelry and made some changes. Then, when I was almost half asleep, I decided on some other changes that this shirt might need to fit me, well, to a T. I will probably put in some ribbing along the sides and do some short rows at the bust. We will see. 

Just noticed, this is my 500th post! If I was like all the bloggers I follow, I would host a contest and giveaway. There really is no point since I only have about 4 followers but 500 is still a mile stone. At least, I THINK this counts even if it showed up at the wrong time several times. I deleted the "wrong" ones and the count is 500!

7.24.12

Yup, Tea Time Tuesday.

Found it HERE. How do you suppose they fill it?

7.23.12

I will make conscious effort each day to do something from "my list".

I chose that Saturday night and acted on it Sunday, decided it would be a good one for the upcoming week. Check again NEXT Monday and see how I did.

Last week's mantra was I am willing to try new things courageously. I Well, I did NOTHING last week and that was a new thing for me. I just wasted most of my time, starting with four days in which I took four hour naps. Maybe that counts as something new for me. I finally came out of my stall and I will have to revisit last week's thought.

One Monday, I wrote about my thoughts leading up to having a personal mantra/affirmation phrase handy.  You can re-read that post HERE.

7.22.12

This month's Free Motion Quilt Challenge,  run by SewCalGal, is tutorialed by Angela Walters. She is VERY VERY good. My piece, above, shows my first attempt at her Tiles Technique.  I thoroughly enjoyed it. I recognize that I will need to graph out my tiles and use my Frixion Pen and RULER to draw straight lines. 

Unfortunately, I got so excited about doing this I dove right in and did not bother to step back and see if my tile outlines were straight.  Angela shows examples of her tile work that include some interesting triangle tiles. Well, not really triangles, more jagged and irregular like a box of tiles was dealt like a hand of 52 Card Pick-Up.

Well, anyway, I have broken through my stasis and will probably return to regular blogging. I have a mantra all ready for Monday, a picture for Tea Time Tuesday, and maybe even something for Wednesday.  See you tomorrow.