Projects

I feel I've been neglecting this space! My ongoing crafty project, though, isn't too interesting to blog about. I'm still working on my sweater--I'm ready to begin the bottom ribbing.

Beyond that, I've been taking Diane's e-book class (highly recommended, if you're interested at all in that sort of thing), planning a map-making/sense of place class for ages 6-9 for our spring session of homeschool co-op, and working on a new series at my other blog, aimed at encouraging and mentoring adults to create a family art habit. It's called Art Together, and I'm pretty excited about it.

Actually, I'm excited about all of those things. I'm less than excited about all the international travel my husband has coming up; he's leaving for Thailand at the end of this week. I managed to schedule a day for myself before he leaves again though. I'll be back later this week to report on it.

Happy March, y'all.

Things Finished, Things Begun

Remember I said I had a Blizzard List? I really wanted to finish my son's sweater.

This is a case of not letting Perfection get in the way of Done. I'm not quite so happy with the center garter stitch at the neck opening. The last time I knit him this sweater, I did seed stitch there. The pattern calls for garter, but I like the seed stitch better. Too late now though, although at some point I am probably going to snag it back from him so I can try to neaten up the bottom of that panel, at least. Otherwise, this is a comfy sweater with room to grow. It's his second Wallaby, as the first was really getting too small. I used the same yarn, Spud and Chloe Sweater, and again, he picked the colors. As he said, the first one (which is two shades of blue) is a cool sweater, and this is a warm, fiery sweater. (This is the kid who identifies strongly with colors.) Details on Ravelry here.

I also wanted to finish my little embroidered trees for hanging. I knew I wanted to incorporate the selvedge, and I decided to stitch it to a backing, ready for hanging, rather than try to frame it somehow. This is what it looks like from the front.

The backing is red wool burel. I sewed on loops on the back for the dowel to slide through:

...and I'd hang it by balancing the dowel on a nail on each side. I'm running out of places to hang my stitching, though, which makes me think maybe it's time to try to start selling it? (I gave the birch trees, by the way, to my sister for her birthday. I'm a pretty awesome sister.)

Finishing my son's sweater means I could finally start mine. This is a dodgy photo I took this morning with my cell phone.

I'm making Tang, from Custom Knits, but without the turtleneck, because post-having-children, turtlenecks make me feel like I can't breathe, even though I used to wear them all the time and am still a very chilly person. The yarn is Dream in Color Classy, a total splurge, but it's so nice.

And finishing the hanging method/backing for the little trees means I can start on the next embroidery project, but all I've done thus far is transfer my drawing to the fabric. Oftentimes the first stitch of an embroidery piece is the absolute hardest for me, because, I think, embroidery is so very important to me.

Finished Knit: Baby Blanket and Hat

I finished the Easy Eyelet Baby Blanket with some yarn left over, so I decided to make a hat. I'm quite pleased with the hat, actually. I carried every 11th and 12th purl stitch from the ribbing up through the stockinette as garter. Then I decreased one stitch on each side of those purl stitches every other row, which resulted in a little star shape at the crown.

Just a little something extra for knitterly interest. The baby is due next month, so I figure even if this hat only fits at the very beginning, it'll be useful. I have a hard time with baby head sizes. My first baby had an enormous head. Of course that was the only baby that wasn't a c-section. I remind him of this when I get a chance. And then my next baby was six weeks early. I think my third and last was of an average baby size, but like I said. I have a hard time with baby head sizes. The mother-to-be works with my husband, so this will be ready for him to deliver next week, when he returns stateside from his latest business trip, so she will have it, hopefully, before the baby is born.

The details are on Ravelry here. I used Cascade 220 Superwash because I don't know the new mama well enough to say whether a fussier-to-wash yarn would be okay. My younger two children pet it and remarked how soft it is and how much a baby will enjoy it. My kids are fans of my knitting, which is nice.

And that's about it! Easy knitting, soft blanket. I'm a little behind on Art Every Day Month but hope to post on that soon...ish. I discovered you can download USGS topographical maps online. Holy moly. Old ones, too. Down a rabbit hole, I fell. Just dig down through the maps, and you'll find me...

Garter Stitch

I began this blanket a few weeks ago--it's intended for a baby due in December--but I made huge progress on it this past week. It's a simple garter stitch blanket that grows out from one corner, then decreases down to the opposite one (Easy Eyelet Blanket). I've knit it numerous times, including one for each of my own children, which are still on their beds. It's a blanket that well outlives the baby years. And, as the name says, it's easy. And there is nothing like garter stitch to soothe a knitter.

I knit loads on this blanket while waiting for Sandy, during the storm, and after. I worked on it during my middle child's allergist appointment. It sat in my lap while I kept him calm during the scratch test. This blanket grew so much this week, it's almost done. I hope none of the anxiety transfers to the baby. I may have to give it a wash first, just to be sure.

We are fine...far enough from the coast that we didn't need to evacuate. We lost power for much of Tuesday--it stayed on all through the storm, but then they shut it off while they were making repairs in the area. A huge tree was down, all tangled up with wires, not too far from here, and I think our power went out when they began working on that. Truly, we were lucky in Rhode Island. Damage to coastlines and buildings but not people. I've signed up to help with debris clean-up this weekend (I'm waiting to hear if/where I've been assigned), and I've donated online to help victims further away. And I keep knitting, because it soothes my anxiety, which seems to have increased, generally, with age.

Garter stitch, garter stitch, garter stitch.

I hope all of you and all those you know and love are safe, every day. It's what we all hope for, isn't it? Every day.

Finished Knit: Sparkly Pink Sweater

You can't really see the sparkles, but they're there. The yarn is Dream in Color Starry; the pattern is Daisy Cardigan; the full notes are here on Ravelry. I began on US 5s, took it out and started over on US 6s. Much better. I'd forgotten how much this picot bindoff curls up, especially with wool, but when I asked the girl if I should try to block it out a bit more, she said, "No! I like the curl!" She wore it for a bit, but it's not quite sweater weather, not yet. Not for her, anyway. She's still wearing shorts and sandals half the time. Who am I to argue? She lets me know if she's cold.

Anyway, the pink sparkly thing? Kinda freaking adorable. The other day she was rummaging through our dress-up basket and informed me, "This house needs more sparkles." She wants to have jewels for Halloween. She suggested gluing them to herself. I suggested we go shopping for some costume jewelry, but in the face of her idea, I felt boring and a bit, well, lacking in a certain sparkle, no? Her sneakers are silver and sequin-y. She definitely brings sparkle to my days.

I'd have been done with her sweater slightly sooner, but partway through I took a short break to knit some baby things.

The yarn isn't quite this dullish; it was a dull grey day. It's quite pretty, actually, with some violet in there, so I when I went stash rummaging I thought this would work okay for a baby girl, the granddaughter of someone I know. The yarn was, I'm quite sure, a gift from someone, and I'm not sure where the label has gotten to, but I'm pretty sure the colorway was Passionfruit and I know it's merino with some nylon in there. Never mind all that; who can resist wee bitty baby socks?

I have So Many Big Things I want/need to knit, so instead of starting any of them when I finished the pink sparkly sweater, I cast on for a pair of socks. Knitterly avoidance, I guess. I'm not wrapping my head around some of the Big Things just yet.

I'm still grumpy about it being autumn, but knitting while watching football and drinking hot coffee isn't terrible, so there's that.

Up Next: Pink With Sparkles!

So, those of you who remember me from long ago, when I had two boy children and was sure I was a Boy Mama through and through and perhaps not at all cut out for being a Girl Mama, and then I found out I was having a girl child, and remember I said I wouldn't dress her all in pink and frou-frou until and unless she asked for pink or frou-frou?

Behold the yarn for my next knitting project:

That's Dream in Color Starry. The last time we visited the yarn store, my three-soon-to-be-four-year-old was just bowled over by the sparkly yarn. She has been for a while, actually, drawn to all the sparkly bits, some of which aren't anything I want to knit with. But when she admired this one, I told her we'd come back to get enough for a sweater (I wanted to figure out how much that would be exactly before buying it). After viewing some pattern choices, she settled on another Daisy Cardigan, because she has finally outgrown her first one (look at that adorable toddler--go click!!). We went back today, and I pulled all the colors with at least two skeins and from those she picked this pink sparkly yarn with hints of purple.

And you know what? I kind of like the pink sparkly yarn too. Look how far I've come!!

Finished Knit: Luscious Lace Scarf

This was supposed to be finished August 12, so I'm two weeks late as far as Olympics Knitting goes, but it's very, very pretty, so who cares?

The picture on the pattern shows a straight edge, but mine really wanted to ripple, so that's how I blocked it. And while I hate blocking and actually thought, I would pay somebody to do this, it wasn't really all that hard in the end and I'm just a lazy complainer.

The yarn is Aurora by Jill Draper Makes Stuff, a wool/silk blend. It was a peer-pressure purchase at the Squam Art Fair in June, and it's gorgeous. The two photos taken against the chair, indoors, show the color better than the one outside.

In fact, it's a little too gorgeous for me, all knit up. I don't know where or when I'd wear it, and how I'd manage not to snag it on something.

A few more details: I knit 19 repeats, and it's about 60 inches long. I used US size 5 needles and as much of the skein of yarn as I could. I have a wee itty bit left, and I meant to take a photo of how little, but I forgot. This is very simple lace, a 24-row repeat which is really two 12-row repeats, offset from each other, which accounts for the zig-zagginess. By the end of it I was comfortable knitting with spiderweb thin yarn, and I might even knit with more lace weight, at some point. You get a lot of mileage out of such thin yarn, if that's your goal. I began this while watching the Opening Ceremonies on July 27 (5 hours later than the rest of the world watched them, of course) and completed it on August 24, but there was a break there in the middle where I didn't work on it daily. Stuff happens. The knitting, lucky for us, waits patiently.

August

This week, the one that begins with my mother's birthday on July 29 and ends with the anniversary of her death (five years this year) on August 5, has the potential for being rocky every year. I say "potential" because these things vary. Some years it's okay. Others, not so much. Sometimes bracing yourself for it just means it pops up somewhere else. I still have a lot of big, yucky feelings, understandably. To add into that, my 96-year-old grandmother was discharged last weekend from the hospital to a nursing home--the same one, actually, in which my mother died. When I visited my grandmother in the hospital I really thought, well, I thought I'd better tell her whatever I needed to tell her, and I did. Last weekend we brought the kids to see her in the nursing home--this is her third rehab stint there, all after hospital stays--and my oldest looked drawn. He remembers just enough of visiting my mother there. But we visited again on Thursday and he noticed right away how much better she seemed. She sat up and visited with us, enjoyed the kids, and she and I joked and laughed together. I felt so much better after that visit with my grandmother.

And despite the sneaking feeling that I spent a goodly part of the week lying on the couch in a heat- and inertia-fueled stupor, that's just not so (although there was some of that, too). We began the week by taking the kids to Watch Hill's Flying Horse Carousel. This was my daughter's first ride on the carousel.

While she was riding she was almost solemn. She smiled when we waved to her, but otherwise, I think she was just quietly soaking it all in. After her two rides were over and I went to help her off her horse, she didn't even say anything (unusual for this talkative girl), she just wrapped herself around me and hugged me tightly, so overcome, I think, with absolute excitement and joy. That ride was just so wonderful she was rendered speechless.

Later in the week I took the kids to the zoo, and later still, the oldest, youngest, and I painted rocks. My daughter had been asking to paint rocks again so on a hot hazy afternoon, we did. My oldest and I took our inspiration from an activity in My Art Book, which I borrowed from the library. It's based on Australian dot paintings from the Balgo Community--but really it's just taking the technique of painting dots and transferring it to rocks, not trying to reproduce the traditional paintings (which would give me pause). My son opted to paint a turtle but without the extra layers of dots; since he was painting a local turtle that already has spots, he kept his dots to the shell. I decided to paint a snake and go all out with my dots.

This was just super fun to make. And since I have acrylic varnish on the shelf (what don't I have, I wonder), I made it shiny. I want to make more--and even though we have rocks aplenty, I couldn't help but bring more home from the beach today, to become more animals, more shiny rocks, more brightly colored happy things.

Which is why I also painted this:

It's on a 6x6 gessobord, in need of a frame. It's a fragment from a favorite poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot. (I have also embroidered this fragment on my jeans.) I was trying out some different Pages + Paint techniques here, although no collage. It's just a happy piece, created to make me happy.

In the same vein as beach rocks and mermaids, this week I received a sweet little package of sea glass and driftwood from Cameron at Paint Myself Pretty.

The bag is shiny so it's hard to get a good picture of all the goodness inside, but it's also so pretty with that sticker and all that I haven't been able to make myself tear into it yet, even carefully. I'm just enjoying looking at it the way it is. But soon I will pour the sea glass into a little bowl and put it on the table so I can just look at it and enjoy it all. Thanks, Cameron!

And I've been working on my Ravellenic Games lace:

I've been trying to do a repeat per day (64 stitches times a 24-row repeat). The pattern says it took 15 repeats to get a 60-inch scarf, but my gauge must be different, because even with stretching, I don't think that will happen. That length right there is eight repeats. So while I may meet my Olympic goal of a repeat per day, I don't think I'll be done with the scarf at that point. I want to use every bit of that skein of lace weight. It's really pretty stuff, too. Here's a close-up; unblocked, of course.

So that's been the week, pretty much. Posting may be spotty for the rest of this month; we'll see how it goes. Pages + Paint had me in the computer a bit more than I wanted to be in July, trying to contribute to the discussions on the blog, in the Flickr group, and in the private forum. I'm feeling I need to counter-balance that and step back a bit (so much so that for two days this week, the laptop was not only off, but shoved under my bed so I couldn't even see it). Summer feels like it's slipping through my fingers, and I'm not quite ready....no, not quite ready.

What good things snuck into your days this week?

Finished Knit: Fallberry {Filler} Mitts

My niece requested I post already, and she's right, it's a longer gap than usual. I've been spending my evenings, which is also my blog-posting time, downstairs painting the ugliest stuff ever. Okay, maybe not ever, but it's pretty blech. Our Pages + Paint assignment this week was to play the two-minute prompt game (if you have her book, Painted Pages, it's on page 18). I have my theories on why this isn't quite working out for me, but this post is about knitting.

Last week when I requested ideas on what to do with a skein of Socks That Rock Mediumweight, my sister suggested mitts. So I searched Ravelry for a free pattern for mitts using sport weight yarn, and I decided upon Fallberry. Then I realized I'd already queued up this pattern almost a year and a half ago. Well. Obviously it was time to knit them, and here they are.

All photos are, once again, taken by my ten-year-old, this time in a quick window of time with a dodgy background before it began raining again. (No real rain, just apathetic sprinkles, alas.) I wove in the ends this morning, giving me one knit-less evening before the Olympics begin tomorrow. (Just as well, I'm going to try to paint something that's not ugly tonight.)

I used US size 3s for these and did 2 1/2 repeats before beginning the thumb gusset, for a nice long-armed cuff. At the top, the pattern can only end at a certain point in the repeat, so I went for a little long rather than a little short. I can always turn down the tops, thusly:

I like that option with my mitts anyway, so I can turn them down to finagle car seat buckles and then flip them up so my fingers don't have to touch the steering wheel. The stitch pattern was easy and intuitive and I really, really like the end result. I knit most of these while watching the Tour de France finish up (what a great race this year; I'd watch it all over again).

I have enough yarn to make at least another pair--I forgot to weigh these before dunking them in the sink, and now they're wet and weighing will have to wait. (Socks That Rock has an odd, almost chemical-ish smell to me, I assume from the dyeing process. It's really bothersome and anything I make with it gets washed immediately. I have to wash my hands after knitting with it, too.) That second pair will go into the gift closet.

As for my lace project, I decided upon Luscious Lace Scarf. I'll cast on tomorrow. Is anyone else going to be doing any Olympic knitting? I'm not sure how much Olympics I'll actually watch, but I'm really hoping NBC shows us the bicycling events to help with my Tour withdrawal.

Finished Knit: Long Saroyan (Two)

Remember this? (Project details here.)

Once I finished my Azami, this became my only knitting on the needles, which means it's done now. It's just about 90 inches long, so I lay it out on the floor so you can see: this long!

That wee bit of yarn underneath is all that's left over from a skein of Malabrigo Sock. I like how this pattern (Saroyan) allows me to use as much of the yarn as I can--and in the end I have a nice long skinny scarf that I can wrap around my neck a few times.

I took a photo outside, too, to show you how much the color changed within this skein.

When I started (the left) it was much more blue. By the time I ended, it was definitely heavier on the green. I like it. I bought the yarn because the colors reminded me of the ocean, and that's exactly what the beach water does, too--changes color.

And no, I didn't block it. I blocked my first one, and what a hassle, to try to block 90 inches worth of scarf. Where do you lay that out? And it didn't take anyway. Experience taught me that in this yarn, anyway, it's just going to curl no matter what. I don't mind. The leaf edging is like a sweet little secret. I know it's there. You might get a peek of it while I'm wearing it, just enough to make you think, hmm, there's a little something extra about that scarf....

But now I'm bereft, with empty needles. Completely unprepared. The Ravelympics Ravellenic Games (curious about the strike-through? Google will help) begins in ten days, and I was thinking I'd make something from this skein of lace weight (Aurora by Jill Draper Makes Stuff) because I have only knit in lace weight once and so yes, it would be a challenge.

I'm not sure what to knit with it though--any suggestions? Funny story about this yarn. I left the Squam Art Fair with no yarn--I know, none! I did have fiber, as a gift for my sister-who-spins. But no yarn. Then one of my cabin-mates wanted to go back for more of Jill Draper's yarn, and I offered to keep her company, and next thing you know she's whispering into my ear like the devil on the shoulder in cartoons, and I end up with a skein of lace weight, of all things. I'm fine with knitting lace; it's the lace weight yarn that crosses my eyes.

What I really need right now, though, is a project that will take no more than ten days--or that I'll be okay abandoning for a while in ten days--and uses yarn I already have. Any ideas for a skein of Socks That Rock Mediumweight? I have one left over from making baby sweaters. Really, truly, I need something to knit right now.

Finished Knit: Azami

Oh, boy. I started this sometime in May. Several times, I started it. I finished it this morning, and my ten-year-old agreeably came outside to take photos for me. He doesn't even ask why or anything.

I really like this pattern (Azami by Carol Feller). I really hate this yarn (Southwick by Valley Yarns, which is Webs' house brand). This is disappointing, because I almost never use the exact yarn called for in a pattern, but I wanted to do this sweater right, so I decided to order the Southwick. It seems like a mismatch between yarn and pattern to me. Plenty of people love this yarn, and I am admittedly biased towards wool and wool blends, although I've knit with cotton and linen before and enjoyed some of those yarns very much. But I found this to be slippery, splitty, and extremely unforgiving. Picked-up stitches look like, well, crap. I also fear the yarn won't wear well, since the yarn I unraveled (sigh, I had to do this quite a bit) looked shabby just from one knit and redo. It is so frustrating to spend lots of time on a project and end up disappointed in the materials, especially when using the suggested materials. I wish I'd subbed.

But, you know, moving on. Here's a shot of the back, so you can see the hood.

(Didn't my son do a great job? He asked me how to zoom the camera and this is his original shot, no cropping on my part.) I made the hood a little shorter than called for, because I think this yarn is going to grow. Yes, I swatched, but I didn't swatch and soak and hang and beat the heck out of it to see if it would turn into some other fabric entirely. I think it might, though.

As for details, this is the 32.5" size with no waist shaping. I originally began the next size up, but when I pulled it out after one of my numerous errors (I forgot to switch to stockinette after completing the first lace repeat), it looked enormous around. I don't have as much waist as I used to, and I thought the fabric was clingy enough without adding in shaping. It's all a moot point because this is probably going to pill within four wearings. So it's a good thing my son took such nice photos...

Changing Rhythms {And Some Knitting}

It's summer. Rhythms are changing. All my kids are home--hurrah!--and we sat down to brainstorm what we might like to do this summer. We engage in cooperative list-making twice a year, for the summer and for the Christmas holidays. It was a suggestion I saw in a book on simplifying Christmas, the idea being that if you don't sit down as a family and talk about what you want to do, the family planner (me, in this family) might end up doing a lot of unnecessary work planning things that nobody would miss. Better to put the effort into activities everybody really wants to do. So together, the kids and I talk about where we want to visit, what we want to make, and what we want to do over the summer. This year, I decided to make the list a little prettier.

As you can see, there is room to add more as we think of it (we already have!). It's okay if we don't do all of this. Sturbridge Village is a carryover from last summer; we still haven't made it there. And we already have circus tickets. Not everything is big, either, or costs money. Some things are hopeful thinkings out loud. Everybody's ideas are on here.

We've already had our first of many beach visits--that's where we decided to spend a goodly part of the solstice, since it was predicted to be quite hot. We visited the barrier beach that has a salt pond side, too. The pond is shallow, with no waves, and I felt comfortable, this year, knitting a little bit while the kids played in the pond. My youngest is old enough for that now. (Still no knitting on the beach side, though.)

This is my take-along knitting, a second long, skinny Saroyan (since I liked the first one I made so much). I bought the yarn in December as a pick-me-up, the week my husband was away and the cat killed the TV and I finally went to the doctor and ended up diagnosed with Lyme. The colors reminded me of the ocean. It doesn't get serious attention, this knitting. I rarely work on it at home. It's the knitting I bring with me, mostly stockinette so I can hold a conversation, with just that bit of lace edging, and I can usually figure out where I left off in the repeat even if I forget to mark it down. I think it's entirely perfect that I was able to knit a few rows on a saltwater shore.

I'm linking up with my creative space, even though my creative space feels a bit sparse this week. It's all about (happily! so happily!) adjusting to new rhythms.

Squam Stories: Knitting on the Porch

Hey, y'all. I'm back. After thinking it over, I decided the best way to share about Squam was by periodically showing a photo and telling you the story behind it. It's hard to summarize the entire experience, but I can say that the biggest gift of this short time away was mentally handing the responsibility for the kids over to my husband. I realized that my brain quieted in the woods; I was responsible for nobody but me. My cell phone didn't even work in my cabin. I called my husband to check in once or twice each day, walking the path towards the dining hall with my phone in an outstretched hand, triangulating for a bubble that AT&T reached. But before I left I made sure school knew to email and call him, not me. Whatever was going on, it wasn't my responsibility. I didn't realize how quiet my brain had become until the drive home. It had switched back on fully by the time I reached Boston. That quiet in my head, what a gift.

So, this photo. I love it. It was taken by a cabin-mate who was also a classmate in Fiona Ellis's class, which we took split between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. I was sitting on the porch knitting the same wee triangle over and over, trying to get what I wanted and failing each time. I look so relaxed, but in truth I was just about ready to throw the yarn into the lake--which I could see through those windows right there. As the afternoon wore on I was feeling worse and worse, with an upset stomach and a descending brain fog that made me feel thick and stupid. Something not-good had sneaked into my lunch somehow (I felt better by about 8 that night, although I skipped dinner). Luckily I am aware enough of symptoms to realize that my stupid-feeling was just that, a symptom, and not evidence that the class was beyond me. I was able to approach the second half the following morning with a much clearer head. In the meantime, I just knit that same triangle over and over, knitting and ripping, knitting and ripping, and what better place to do it than on the porch of a cabin, looking at a lake, sitting next to someone who made me laugh all weekend?

That's the story of this favorite photo and of Friday afternoon.

Honoring My Crafting Needs

I am a selfish crafter. Not because I don't make things for other people--quite the contrary, I make things for other people all the time. But because, for the most part, I only make what I want to make. I don't need to worry about what color might be trending next year or whether I have enough items to stock a shop or for craft fair season or whether foxes are the new owls (or is the other way 'round? I can't keep that straight). I just make what I please and what I need to make--not "need" in terms of the finished product but "need" in terms of soothing my soul.

I've noticed this month that all I really want to do is sew and knit. Possibly this is because it's Truly Spring, and it's a good time of year to sew skirts for me and my daughter, and that knitting pattern I chose to try and finish for Squam is very spring-like, too. But I think it's more than that. I think, in this very chaotic and anxiety-inducing month that May has become for us, I am instinctively turning to the very basic acts of making something serviceable out of nothing more than cloth and thread, yarn and loop.

Yarn through loop, over and over, until a sweater emerges.

I wasn't consciously thinking these thoughts when I began sewing my daughter's skirts, of course. I just thought, It's time to sew a skirt. And then another. And now I'm working on another.

It's just a pile of orange at the moment, but it's supposed to end up as an a-line ruffle skirt. Kim posted in the Ravelry sewing group that she was looking for test sewists for a pattern she is planning to sell, and I volunteered. I think the sole reason I volunteered is because I have always avoided ruffles; they look complicated and difficult. And I know if I've promised someone that I'll make this, I'll deal with my ruffle intimidation. (My sister, who can sew anything, told me ruffles deserve their pain-in-the-butt reputation and the way to deal with ruffle fear is to not make any. But I'd already committed by that point.) I'm supposed to have this done by Saturday, but all I've done is cut. I decided the sewing will have to wait until my husband is home, because I am so tired by the time evening comes when he's away. (Yup, he's gone again, but he's coming home late tonight.)

So I cut the pieces earlier in the week, after my younger two kids were in bed but my oldest was still up. Instead of reading his book or playing his DS, he decided to hang out with me while I traced and cut. He didn't want me to be all by myself--even though, if his dad had been home, he'd have been upstairs with him and I'd have been by myself anyway. It was very sweet, and he asked about the rotary cutter and why my clear ruler had lines on it and what a selvedge was and he marveled over the disappearing fabric marker--no doubt pondering its possible applications in the spy trade. I thoroughly enjoyed having his company while I worked.

While I was rummaging around in the fabric stash for something my daughter would like for the ruffle skirt, I came upon this.

There's three yards of it, and it's part of what I gathered from my mother's sewing room after she died. I didn't sew at the time, although I felt it coming (I bought a sewing machine just over a year later, eight months pregnant with my youngest). So I've had this fabric nearly five years, and I have no idea how long my mother had it before that. It was still folded up from the store, with the cutting tag stapled on. It's a big, all-over-the-place pattern, isn't it? I want to make a long, a-line, drawstring skirt out of it, hopefully before I leave for New Hampshire.

I know I'll be coming back to embroidery soon...I had my camera out at the playground today, wondering if I could capture, with fabric and floss, the sensation of being enclosed by the big tree that the kids call a fort. And I have lots of mixed media/painting in the future in the form of a class and a workshop. But for now, I follow my desire to cut and sew and press, to run yarn through my fingers and around my needles, to make exactly what I feel I must, something out of nothing, comfort out of cloth and string.

And because I couldn't walk by the delicate veins of the iris petal, the softly clinging raindrops, without taking a photo, I will share it with you. I hope you are crafting some soul happiness, too.

Shared with my creative space...

May Check-In

The irises have begun to bloom.

Remember how my goal this month was to remember to breathe? Well the kid-stressy thing that was originally scheduled to be over and done with by Mother's Day was rescheduled and then rescheduled again, and is now at the very end of the month. So my original plan of thinking about the rest of May once that was over and done with obviously had to be abandoned. I realized this at about 11:30 last Thursday night, like this: Oh, we can't wait to plan details of X's birthday party until after Y, because now it's two days BEFORE Y. Oh no. We have to plan it RIGHT NOW RIGHT THIS MINUTE. Do you realize Memorial Day weekend is NEXT WEEKEND??

Deep breath...these smell like grape.

So maybe right then I wasn't breathing too well... in general though, I've been making sure to spend time outside, listening to the birds. We have a stream, too, that you can't see through the scrubby but you can hear, especially in the evening. The kids and I have been checking on the phoebe nest. No change in the number of eggs, but she rearranges them a lot. We don't often see her on the nest, though. I think maybe she's incubating them? And she's just very skittish? But we're not sure.

We try to respect her privacy but she did build the nest right under the deck, which we, you know, use. For playing and grilling and sitting in the sun reading a book. She also flies away as soon as I round the corner of the house on my way to fill the bird feeder, which I do every morning around 7 am. It's nice to walk through the wet grass in the quiet morning hush, listening to the birds. I photographed these irises, the first blooms this year, on Sunday morning after filling the feeder.

My favorite of these photos: a top-down view

So I obviously can't wait until the end of the month to start getting ready for Squam, either. My to-do list is random and all in my head (always a dangerous thing). Everybody's bathing suits are sorted out. And I ordered Mini-Moo cards.

I've wanted some since I first heard of them, but couldn't justify them. I don't have an Etsy shop or anything I'd need a business card for. But did you see how inexpensive these are? I decided I wanted something to tuck into packages that I send to Internet friends, and something I could hand out if anyone asks for my contact info. These are so cute, and they have cropped bits of my own work on them. The cuteness and prettiness of these cards is much more satisfying than just writing my email address on a scrap of paper and handing it to someone.

I also decided I needed a backpack. I have a backpack, of course, pre-packed with mostly kid stuff, and it'll be staying home so my husband can just refill as necessary and take it with him. After looking 'round lots of sites, I decided on this Timberland backpack in stone, which was on sale when I ordered it. And then I threw in this slingable tote bag in blue, also on sale, because it also looks supremely useful.

And I finally called the folks at the camp where Squam is held, to talk about my gluten cross-contamination concerns. (That had been on my mental list for...oh, a while.) The food services manager called me back, and the good news is that she seems well-informed on how to avoid cross-contamination on buffet lines and as far as such matters as preparing the gluten-free food before the gluten-containing food. Also good news, she seems willing to work with me in whatever way she can. The not-so-good news is that while breakfast and, often, lunch are being prepared, the baker is in the same small shared kitchen, baking. She told me that the areas only have one exhaust fan and flour is definitely in the air. I really can't safely eat anything prepared where there's flour floating around.

It seems I'm extremely sensitive to cross-contamination. My thought on this is that it forces me to be vigilant. Did you know someone can have celiac and experience no symptoms at all, while all the while their body is attacking itself quietly? My opinion is that it's not safe for anyone with celiac to eat food prepared in a floury kitchen, whether they feel a reaction or not. So I can look on the bright side and say my sensitivity is like the canary in the coal mine, letting me know there's something dangerous going on at a very low threshold. While having this conversation I definitely had to remind myself to breathe. I quietly said, Oh no, I'm not going to eat for five days, am I? But there's a cold kitchen separate from the other kitchen, so as long as I don't mind cold salads and such, which I don't, I should be okay. And I'll be bringing lots of food with me, too. Like I said, they're willing to work with me, and I feel better for having called ahead and not being surprised when I arrive to learn about the simultaneous baking. This way I can come prepared.

And look how far I've finally gotten on Azami, after eleventy-fifteen false starts:

I'm done with the side lace panels and now it's just stockinette for a while, which, one hopes, I won't mess up. After pulling it out the last time--I'd gotten as far as the top tier of the lace panel but I'd forgotten to switch from garter to stockinette--I decided the size I was making, 35.5", looked very big around, so I went down a size but decided to eliminate the waist shaping. My entire shape has changed since I stopped eating gluten and started gaining weight. It's good I'm not underweight anymore, I just have to think a little bit more about what flatters me, since my body is different now. I'm still learning how to outfit this new shape.

So that's a skimming recap of May thus far, because, of course, not all of life is bloggable. How's your month going?

Knitting + Some Birding, Too

{I announced the giveaway winner in that post--congratulations again to Naomi! My son has a fever but as soon as I can get out of the house during the PO's office hours, it'll be on its way!}

Friday night I did some clearing-the-decks knitting, getting the current, almost-done project out of the way so I could start a new one.

I finished the Branching Out mitts from Coastal Knits. I used Cascade 220 for these, which is a worsted weight, not the called-for sport weight, so they're a little off, but I thought they'd be okay, considering the total number of cast on stitches is only two less than what I cast on for my favorite worsted-weight mitt pattern (Evangeline, of course). These are still a little big on, though. (No cables pulling them in, of course.)

And the thumb is funny. Pouchy, almost. But it looks that way in one of the photos in the book, too...I probably should have adjusted it a bit for the heavier yarn...although I think partly it's that the gusset starts right after the cuff, instead of a few rows up, like I'm used to. You know what fits your own hand, you know? But even still, I'm happy enough with these gloves, and I love the purple against the light grey.

I was clearing the decks, of course, so I could begin Azami.

Which I did, Saturday night, several times. Don't ask. I think I've got it now. (ETA: Nope, I frogged it again.) The yarn--I'm using the called-for yarn, Valley Yarns Southwick--is very soft but loses its twist easily and then it's just a bunch of strands. Sigh. I do like wool best for knitting with.

I wasn't the only one making things this weekend. Friday I noticed a bird flying back and forth under our deck. I didn't see anything there when I looked, but Saturday morning I saw some vegetation, by Saturday afternoon it was definitely nest shaped, and this is what it looked like Sunday morning.

The orientation of the photo is funny because I basically just stuck the camera up there and clicked blindly. The nest is built on a crossbeam underneath the edge of the deck. I'm pretty sure it's a phoebe who's building it; I've gotten just glimpses as she flies back and forth, but she looks phoebe-like, and the nest site is consistent. (The rest of this post is about birds, so you can skip it if it's not your thing!)

The birds in our yard are making me so happy. This is the first year I've put out a feeder; the advice in heavy deer tick areas is not to have a bird feeder because it draws mammals into the yard, and they bring ticks. Well, we have ticks in the middle of the grass where they have no business being anyway, plus I hung the feeder off a tree on the edge of the grass, near the scrubby, figuring it would make the birds feel more comfortable if they didn't have to leave the shelter of the trees. The result is that we are seeing more of the birds that we hear every year. If we want an even closer look, we still need binoculars, but this is the first year I've seen, for instance, a red-bellied woodpecker. (No, it's belly isn't red. Don't ask me.) I saw a pair of downy--or maybe hairy, I can't tell them apart at that distance--woodpeckers on the bird-feeder tree, too. The towhees like to walk around at the base of the bird-feeder tree or sit in the branch and sing. And the white-throated sparrows (Oh, Sam peabody peabody peabody!) are at the feeder all the time.

This is in addition to our usuals: titmice, cardinals, chickadees, goldfinches, and nuthatches, who visited the feeder all winter, too; the goldfinches have packed away their dull winter feathers and replaced them with their bright yellow ones. They travel in a mob, flitting and chasing each other all over the bushes. Mrs. and Mrs. Cardinal visit the feeder together. The veerys (veer-veer-veer) and woodthrushes (eee-o-lay!) are back, but deep in the scrubby, where I can only hear them, not see them (yet, anyway--maybe I'll see them this year, too!). There's something that sounds maybe like a worm-eating warbler, but I'd like to get a look at it. My younger son likes the teakettle song of the Carolina wren best, and the catbirds are back, mewing away.

I don't know what it is about them--but whenever I'm near a window on that side of the house, I look towards the feeder. It feels pretty special to catch a glimpse of these creatures going about their business and deigning to do so where I can see. When we're waiting outside for the school bus in the morning, the birds provide a raucous, cheerful soundtrack. I don't mind hearing them when I'm still in bed (or the barred owls at night, either, and I'm hoping the whip-poor-will comes back, too, they're so cool to hear at night). The birds are part of why I love where I live, and loving where I live is a big part of who I am and what inspires me.

Do you watch the birds? Do you have any favorites?

Weekend Creativity + One Last Poem

Happy Monday morning! Lots of photos today, sharing some of what I was up to this weekend. First off, my younger son and I went to the Hera Gallery's Postcard Fundraiser, to which I donated two pieces. He's a good companion for these sorts of things. Together, we looked at all the art for sale; I decided we could each pick out one. We discussed and deliberated and came home with these.

My son picked out the one on the left, which is by Susan Hayward, an artist with the gallery. I chose the one on the right, a print by Mary Kudlak.

Also this weekend, my kids and I, inspired by William Steig's Rotten Island, drew some monsters of our own. Do you know the book? It's a fun read, with vivid pictures and description of the island and its inhabitants. I drew several monsters, but this one makes me laugh.

On Sunday, I took a found hour and made the most of it, bouncing between a couple of projects:

Ready to begin carving

Carving complete

Still not finished with this.

Yes, I seem to be a bit stuck on trees lately, even with the knitting:

This is a Branching Out mitt from Coastal Knits, using Cascade 220. It calls for a thinner yarn than that, but it'll work just fine. I knit a complete mitt (minus thumb) in some sport weight I've had lying around since last spring, but I don't. like. that. yarn. At all. I'm going to use it for felting, since it just wants to stick to itself anyway. (That's what I get for being kindly disposed to unknown yarn--it was bought at the silent auction at my kids' school.)

And finally, I'll leave you with some happy baby pigs (trust me, they're small; I don't have a mama in this photo for scale) that we saw when we visited a local farm this weekend. I could do a post just of animal pictures--sheep and lambs and chickens and the chickens' guard dog. It was very spring-y there.

But truly, the baby pigs? Were adorable. This picture doesn't do them justice. And for the month's final poem, I decided upon straightforward. Poetry Month makes me happy.

Happiness
by A.A. Milne

John had
Great Big
Waterproof
Boots on;
John had a
Great Big
Waterproof
Hat;
John had a
Great Big
Waterproof
Mackintosh--
And that
(Said John)
Is
That.

From When We Were Very Young.