Now it's a holiday!

It really is the start of summer break if I'm sewing at my mother's dining table!

Basics

Basic math:

Too much work + too little time = Busy.

(Breakfast at home + two packed meals)x 7 days = Really want to eat dinner at home some day.

9 stitches X 11 rows = a reasonable square.

Wonky squares - blocking = Mystery.

I'm basically very busy right now and have no right to pretend this blog is active or that it is a link to friends.

But basically, I am an optimist.

(Oh, and I did finish this scarf.)

This Would Be the Problem

See the vine that travels center, starting at bottom, curving to right and then left?
See the curves on the lowest green section and the middle green section?
See the break in the top green section?
Skipped a couple rows.
Starting over.

This Would Be Before

Not sure the stripe will do. I can foresee changes in the yarn that won't mesh with this.

What's that they say about rest?

Do not know what possessed me.

Had wrestled my way through the little bump of red wool from mittenfarce over a summer knitting camp weekend or two. (Spindle from adriennec.)

Had begun to tackle the handdyed little bump from adriennec last summer, and even got past a single weekend of camp spinning, working on it during a visit with to my mother's.

Last night I finished AND decided to try to ply.

Next step, mini skein and bath!

Hard to figure, except a change IS almost as good as a rest.

An indulgent late night

Friday Night Fun

Simmering on a back burner

The blog is on the back burner. I've not lost interest - I do fear, however, that in terms of blog-years* I've neglected it as long as this quilt.

*(rhymes with dog-years, get it?) (I'll be here all week. Tip the waitstaff.)

Started when my niece was anticipated, blocks completed when I was freelancing, I am revisiting the stashed (long stories, not all mine) quilting project. For graduation. That's right. High school.

The blog absence seems not nearly so extended. Just simmering, waiting for attention.

(Meanwhile, in successful soup simmering, I made for the first time jjigae, a Korean kimchee soup with a recipe featuring tofu and spinach. YUM.)

It Was Fabulous

Goodbye, Big Button.

Knitting shall resume in 10 ... 9 ... 8 ...

Trying to be productive and focused.

Knitting takes a back seat.

(Okay. That was my break. Back to work.)

(Note to the knitting: You're lovely. It's not you, it's me.)

Messages from the Universe

I had, this week, my fair share of Messages That Shall Not Be Ignored.

No surprise to me, I subsequently finished this massive loop scarf and discovered it is not for me. The color is nice. (I will find a way to snap a truer tint.). The yarn has merino and silk and was on sale.

Proportionately too big for my needs. It needs a slimmer or younger.

However, I will not hold it for maybe or for another mood or for convincing myself or for frogging or any such nonsense. Universe has spoken: Gift time!

Happy Day

This day has

Good coffee,

Playing pantomime games with third graders,

Leftover lunch from lovely dinner with friends yesterday,

Lovely dinner plans tonight, complete with a snow plan,

Tickets for Race at the Goodman Theatre,

And a little time to get things done in between.

I may even knit a little.

Now

Past:
I didn't catch up on posting holiday knitting pictures. Captured a couple for Ravelry. I knit some unassuming and manly hats for all but one of the male adults in my close extended family. I knit a hat for my mother and the previously posted entrelac hat to my newest cousin (she married my cousin, but we're all family).

I put the pause button on the placemats - having made some excellent progress, mind. I will be finishing those in the next month and packing them into the gift box for sending out in November. This of course makes them past and future projects.

Future:
I have some ideas of what I'd like to knit this yearI assembled some knitting requests for the coming year. I have vast ideas of some sewing I'd like to do. I also have some graduation quilts I need to get rolling on. The blocks of the first one are done, at least, having been done for some time past. A future and past project, that one.

Now:
I am working on a quick bulky scarf loop. Call it what you will, and infinity is high-minded, but it is just a loop. Georgeous warm brown, this wool from Australia is a warm, cozy blend of merino and cashmere, happily a sale, happily also stash that has been sitting around awhile. It is not a gift. It's for me, and it's to wear now, now that we are having some winter for winter. I have knit through half the wool - more than half - and have hopes of finishing this week.




Now:
I have leapt from holidays to very busy January. Three road trips already since the holidays, I am feeling a little like I need some down time. However, I'm trying to sleep now, whenever I can, with the earliest bed times and most frequent naps in two weeks than I recall. I am getting a fair bit of work done, besides, and am teaching a class that I love. The class is half a day long, and it calls for being immediate, to be there now. I'm looking forward to resuming it on Tuesday.

Now:
Having indulged my at-the-desk-break by posting here, I need to walk a few flights of stairs and stretch so I can get back to some good desk time.

Warm Greetings for a Happy New Year!

This weekend I have been shifting into the New Year.
Nothing unexpected in it. Tidying and regrouping. Preparing and resting. Well, not so much resting as not racing.
Enjoying homemade soup from the freezer.
Leftover holiday treats disappear over bits of leftover and mostly crossed-out lists. Didn't finish the placemats. Will keep at them along the way this month.

This past year seemed over full and wrung out by May. Summer was a good turnaround for me. More calm. More doing of the things I used to do. The rest of the year profited, and the holidays were quite pleasant. No drama, little stress.

Now? New starts, new lists, swatching, sweeping - they are just little things.
Turns out that little things do matter.
Here's to a year filled with small, pleasant moments!

Tidings of a Season

My little corner has been a busy one. Had the fun of welcoming my little family of mother, sister, kids for the Christmas weekend. Enjoyed - not kidding - some advance preparation, cooking soups and pfeffernuss, cleaning and decorating over the past weeks.

We had good times, good giggles, good games, good visits, good church, good music, and Oh! Good Foods! I knew there was football in the air, but the kids didn't turn the television on all weekend. (I suppose the Bears lost?)

Some travel this week. I will be tackling a little more knitting and sewing today. (Of course I am, my sister would say!)

I wish my knitter friends joy, in whatever forms please you.

(My dear aunt, much loved and much missed, made the Joy I propped onto the hall mirror. She was a proper maker of Christmas!)

Surprises

How'd I go this long without trying entrelac?

Same thing goes for spaghetti squash, which I tackled for the first time this fall. The second half of the one i baked this week made a fine squash & tomato gratin this evening. (Leftovers from that, one more lunch tomorrow.). Yum.

Similarly yummy, this hat. As I followed a recipe and not a pattern, I will have to write down the details right now. I tried on the hat and I love it.

The hat is a Christmas present I will be proud to give. I will have to make another one soon, though. I have made two caps for myself recently that are nice looking, but they are not so spectacular on me. This entrelac hat? A very nice surprise.

Workshop in Holiday Mode

Hardly ever happens: I am in a holiday making mode. Early December usually finds me worn, frazzled and behind.

Since I am not entirely worn, frazzled, or - well - since I am getting at least some things done ahead, I am making time for me. Perversely, I am enjoying that me-time by doing some holiday gift making. Pulled out the holiday fabric amassed over time (and at sales) and began with some placemats for two of my cousins with young families.

Whee! It's going to be quite a stack. Brought it into the shop, where I factor in a bit of me-time sewing early and late.

Cooking on a Sunday

I planned to cook.
Then I started this hat, following an in-store pattern, picked up with this yarn.

Turned out the pattern was a recipe.  Several rows of entrelac rectangles, it said.   There were specifics for the left leaning triangles.  There are specifics for right leaning ones shortly, followed by two recipe options for the decreases. Nothing about the rectangles in between except a number of rounds of rectangles done by the author. Now that I know the pattern is a recipe, I am at least prepared for the next surprise, as I suspect the decreases aren't what I remember of the shop sample.

Could be I just don't remember.  Could be the scramble to find guidance for the rectangles placed other hat images in my head.  Did I mention that this is my first entrelac foray?

So I will be considering multiple sources for the top if this hat.  Good thing I was planning on a creative day-off challenge.  

Doubly good there are containers of soup and ratatouille in the freezer.

December!

Here's to a December which includes some textile fun!

Finger Puppets

A friend of mine makes adorable little finger puppets and sells them on Etsy. She makes custom orders as well.

Adorable.

Sh! She doesn't know I posted this.