Take 2

Hello! Hope things are cooling off there, and that the start of fall is going well for you. We're in the midst of tomato harvest (yep, lots of the garden is slow because of our cool summer) and adjusting to school. My house is strangely quiet during the day now. I'm doing a lot of jobs around the house to celebrate (??) my "freedom." I still feel busy but my stress level is going down!

I had to restart my felted bag because it was using way more yarn than I thought it would. I decided to go with a single-strand of yarn rather than the double I was trying and use a simpler color pattern to get the most mileage out of my handspun. I'm now making Hermione's Magic Knitting Bag from the fun book Charmed Knits. I also started my first real lace project! It uses laceweight yarn but on size 6 needles (whew) and is from the All New Homespun Handknit; it's called the Prairie Scarf. I got the book on ebay and it came with some alpaca/silk laceweight (not handspun, but it'll be eons before I have the skill the spin enough consistent laceweight to make anything). I don't have pictures of those yet, but I did update my Ravelry projects page with pictures.

Bye for now, love, Cindy

You may be right, I may be crazy

Well, despite the collective wisdom of you, me, and L, I am partway through the 2nd stripe of my Sonoma Mountain Wrap and loving it. [here's a link to a blog I found when I googled the wrap so you can see it close up] It's done in a 2-row slip stitch pattern that is easy and fun to do. If you look on ravelry, there are 3 in progress with pictures.

I am working the ends of the stripes in as I go because L also reminded me of the pain of doing them all at the end of a striped baby sweater she recently whipped out. A big rectangle with pretty stripes . . . I'm hoping it'll be a good project for mindful knitting because I've been wanting to get that meditating thing going!

Committed (or maybe I should be), Cindy

In progress

How I became an odd duck

Yes, Alene, I'm an odd duck . . . although I doubt that's a surprise to you after all these years. I am unusual among knitters (textile crafters in general, I imagine) in that I only have one or two projects in progress at a time. Right now, it is the Cactus Flower sweater and some felt mittens (not knitted & felted, but recycled shrunk sweater felt to sew up). Doll clothes likely after the mittens.

How did I get this way? When I was pregnant with DD, I sat down and took a hard look at all the stuff I'd started and not finished for various reasons. I knew my time would be more limited with two kids, and I am always aware that overdoing leads to RSI. So I decided that if I wasn't loving making something, then I wouldn't do it. I am still surprised at the effects of that seemingly simple conscious decision. I found it very freeing (no UFOs to weigh me down) and feel that my creativity has only gone up!

I still find it thrilling to start a new project, but now I finish a lot more of them. I love contemplating my next project, considering colors, researching patterns (like Dumbledore, I love reading knitting patterns), imagining everything about it. By the time I get around to the next one, I may very well have considered several different projects and chosen something entirely different than what I might have if I had started right away, so that stops me from buying yarn before it's time to start or "on spec" [more on my stash soon]. I had no idea that all this thinking could be so much fun! Quack, Cindy

I love mittens!

Hi Alene! Here are the mitten samples for my fall class; they are done in bulky wool on 2 needles.

Wow, last day of August. For September, I plan to finish the quilt, spin some silk (tee hee, oh yeah, wasn't that how this all got started . . .), start some painting around the house, complain in writing about my faulty toaster oven, sell some old pattern books and magazines on ebay, lose 4 stinking pounds, and think about making friends with my sewing machine (yup, I peaked back in Family, Fashion and Foods). Hmm, looks like my enthusiasm is once again greater than time available ;) Cindy

I should be knitting me an ark . . .

It has been raining so much here this month, yikes! I plan some posts on my WIPs soon and want to get back to the silk spinning. I simply can't believe it's only ~2 weeks until school! Do I sound like a broken record yet?

DS came by and says to tell you he loves you and wants to visit. Well said! Cindy

Zafu

Hi Cindy,

A zafu is a cushion used in meditation. In the picture it is the round one in the center. The large square one is a zabuton. I bought DH the zafu for our anniversary here but the zabuton he bought here as part of a starter package. He actually has two zafus This one is filled with kapok, a cotton-like fiber that is actually hydrofillic, and the other is filled with buckwheat hulls. The plan is to fill the new one with kapok if we can find a source for it that isn't too expensive.

Here is the initial stages of sewing together the new one. I used 2 felted sweaters, one in brown-gray-blue stripes and the other with black and gray blocks of color. It is a little hard to distinguish the two colors in this picture but the striped portion is the side and the blocks of color are the top and bottom. I used the width of the sweater as the main body of the side but then had a slit covered on the inside and outside by a 8 inch wide piece cut from the sleeves. I'll probably end up stitching the internal one down on one side so it doesn't pook out as much.

Here is the finished piece stuffed temporarily with recycled fiber fill from an old pillow. I ended up hand sewing it all together because I wasn't sure if my old Kenmore would go through all the layers. While most of it was only 2 layers thick, it was 4 layers over the slit with a little section of 5 layers in the very middle. I have one small (1/2 inch) section of the 4 layers where I missed the outermost layer. I'll have to tack that down when I finish it up. Right now it is a bit tall but it will squish down when it is filled and sat upon. I'm pretty happy with it at this stage although I may press the seams out before we do the final filling. and I may add some kind of internal tie under the carry strap on the side. It gets the stamp of approval from the spinnin' kitten but she hasn't attacked it like I thought she would.

Take care, A

ps: Think good thoughts tomorrow (Thursday) as DH has an interview.