Violet’s Cape

Violet was still tiny when my daughter asked me to make her a cape.

I had crocheted Aurora a hooded baby cape that we used a great deal that first year when babies aren’t really shaped to be bundled into warm jackets with their round bodies and short arms that stick straight out when stuffed into a thick winter coat. I mentioned it to her.

Her reply? “Not crocheted. Not lacey. Toggle buttons would be great.”

The right yarn caught my eye while visiting a year store. Soft, lofty, washable.

No patten arrested my attention so as winter deepened visions of what I wanted were slowly etched and tried. By the third attempt ideas jelled, the dimensions and gauge settled.

Finished on time for her 1st birthday.

It was very handy during the early Spring cold walks riding in the backpack,
And the car journey between Grammie’s and home.
It’s cuddly soft,

but best of all, there’s plenty of room for growth
now that we’re well into a barefoot warm Spring.

 

Lots of cables

The past few weeks have not been ordinary for two homebodies who typically do not go out in the evening, other than our one night per week commitments. And then there’s been knitting! A few late nights and I was able to finish up the Hiking Scarf and give it a wash and dry in time to pack it off in the mail before d-i-l’s birthday. The worsted, loosely spun alpaca took its sweet time drying, even draped near the wood stove.  With the clock quickly ticking to closing time at the local PO desperation called for the hair dryer aimed directly at it. Whew, dry with minutes to spare for wrapping it in birthday wrappings and tucking it in a box along with a lovely shawl pin Ed purchased last month.
Finished size, 60″ by 6″. The picture is a bit washed out, the alpaca was a lovely warm gray/brown. (Actually I’m suspecting the camera has been bumped too many times in that past 3+ years – it’s been frustrating getting it to capture true colors.)

Other than knitting a pair of socks with simple cables a couple of years ago, I hadn’t done any other cabling. At first it was very slow going and felt cumbersome but as the inches began building up welding a cable needle and working the twisted stitches became easier.

Aurora has been given two baby showers, both necessitating gifts, of course. The Norwegian Baby Cap and a soft cocoon that, without a baby in it ,doesn’t look like much so no pictures until there’s a wee baby snuggled in it. Another shower is scheduled in 10 days – decent progress is being made on another wee garment. With the cabled scarf successfully under my belt I felt ready to tackle a pattern I bought several years ago that had long seemed too challenging:Pattern: Baby Yours by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill, Superwash Merino 4oz/420 yards Colorway: Jade
Needles: #2 – Ed’s needles

The back (pictured above, partially worked) is now finished and I’m about 3 inches along on the left front. While working on the scarf I discovered the perfect cable needle.An old Clover maple double-point that had been broken. I love using this slightly under 2 1/2″  needle with one end sanded into a sharp point, the other not quite so. It easily tucks under my last two fingers when not in use, but handily available when working across the cable row. On the return row it gets stuck back into the ball of yarn.

I have two more items I’d love to finish before little one is born but there’s other things also needing attention so we’ll see if they’ll be finished.

We are so blessed by lovely friends! Twice in January we were surprised at the PO with unexpected parcels.
First this beautifully knitted lace doily by Grannie Linda.
Seeing all the tiny, soft pink stitches brought tears to my eyes. My grandmother had crocheted and knitted many doilies in her lifetime and as a child my mom had some of them on the backs and arms of chairs and under her violets. I have one large one – also with pink! that I’ve treasured. I wonder whatever happened to the others. Grannie Linda’s resides in a place of honor in our living room, yes with pink frog.

A couple weeks later another very light parcel appeared in our postal box. What in the world? Ah – another familiar name – Valerie, weaver extraodinaire. What could it be? Restraining myself from ripping into the box then and there, I ran home (literally – you can ask my neighbor who is often on his porch watching the world pass by) for the scissors.

What a sweet surprise on a deep-winter day, roses!
Isn’t this the best presentation of silk hankies you have ever seen? Each roll of hankies (Matawa) is dyed with lively pinks, greens and yellows – such cheerful colors. I have yet to decide what they’ll become. Someday the perfect project will claim them.

Thank you dear friends!!!

January/February often bring a sense of withdrawing and depression. Fortunately we’ve not had everlasting grey days of rain as we do some years. January had days of sunshine and blue skies. But still, the feeling settles into my bones, marrow and psyche. I want to be around people, but stronger is the desire to be solitary. Withdrawn. Quietly doing handwork, going for long walks, reading, though in truth I haven’t managed to work in long walks, I mostly dream about them and wonder how I can fit them into the day’s routine.

Last Sunday I took the dog for a walk out to the cemetery. It’d been several months since I’d walked that way. The almost daily walks Ed and I take to the school and back have taught Lilydog to stay close by without being on a leash. She’s good about staying right at our heels for the most part, or if her nose entices her to check out the bushes a short command brings her right back.  So, on Sunday when I set out with her it didn’t cross my mind to grab her leash. Spindle and wool in hand we made it up to the cemetery and had turned back when I saw three dogs gamboling at the far end of the field across the way. There was no way we could walk down the open road with out them spotting us but I hoped that they were trained to stay close to the farm buildings. We made it halfway down the hill and just past a long driveway when the terrier and golden lab spotted us. Alerted they barked and headed our way. I considered whether  my Turkish spindle would make a good weapon. Deciding, no, it was tucked it in the walking pouch. Instead I put a handful of gravel into my jacket pocket and a hefted a rock in my right hand. By then the terrier was sniffing along our back tracks while the lab was charging towards us. I climbed a wire fence post and said in my sternest voice, “GO HOME!” He slowed about 50 feet away. Hesitating. Uncertain. Again I commanded him to go home. He wandered up to where the terrier was still sniffing out our earlier passing then they headed back into the field.

Lily and I continued along the lane keeping a vigilant eye towards the dog.  The lane makes a sharp turn to lead past their farm and out to the main road. At the bend there is a grove of trees on the side we were walking. I found a good stout branch for the dogs had more or less paralleled our journey and now that we were coming close to their home turf they were acting more aggressive again. Near their place the lab swooped towards us then circled out around Lily dropping back only when I shouted at him. Three times he charged, the last time he came in too close for my comfort (HA! I hadn’t been comfortable since first spotting him across the way) and I brandished the stick at him while telling him to go home. Poor Lily was doing her best to ignore them but she also kept about 10 feet away from me as though she were trying to lure them away from me. I have no idea if that lab was more bravado than bite but I’m not keen to try walking past him again. Finally he seemed to lose interest in us and we made it out to the main road.

A few hundred yards farther down the road a couple men were working on a truck. They’d been there earlier when we first walked past, along with a little granddaughter. This time one of them was holding a boxer in the back of the pickup. As we approached, on the opposite side of the road, he called out not to worry that he had a hold of his dog, and even if he didn’t hold her she’d just want to play with us. Great, just hang on to that dog!  We’d made it past the house when I heard barking and turned to see the boxer blazing towards us, in a non-friendly way. I lifted my stick and told it to Go Home as the owner shouted, “Sadie, get back here.” She wavered a moment then turned and went grudgingly back to him.

After being bitten by a dog six years ago I can no longer feel friendly and trustful of dogs. I need to buy some pepper spray. I should also leave Lily at home. Having a dog along with me seems to bring out dogs.

Well, this post certainly went off on a different direction! I’ll try to post again soon and tell about the showers, and the two events that Ed and I recently attended – one this afternoon.

I’m so woefully behind on blogs. I have forgotten my dear cyber friends, it’s just that , other then brief forays to FB, I’ve been pretty much avoiding the computer during my non-working hours. The weekend is coming with continuing rain in the forecast. Perhaps I’ll be able to get in some serious blog reading time.

 

High Water

The rain pounded down for a couple more days following my last post. Ed and I took up walking to the local county park before and after work each day to check out the creek level and see the water rushing over the Scotts Mills Falls. Thursday afternoon we dropped off parcels at the Post Office as we headed up to the falls stopping in route to look downstream from the bridge.

The water was the highest we’d seen it since the ’96 floods – when the park was completely flooded. The water didn’t get as high this year, only partially flooding the park.

It’s mesmerizing to watch rushing water roaring past, churning over what is normally a 12′ – 15′ waterfall in great swirls of chaotic motion.

We were chatting with the mayor who’d joined us, talking about water levels and flooding when he spotted a small row boat in the rapids upstream. We caught sight of it just as it snagged in tree limbs hanging over the water.See the blue boat tucked back under the black leaning tree? At first we were worried that someone might have been in it but zooming the camera at it I could see no one and we decided that most likely it’d come loose from some mooring upstream. It was caught in the branches for some time and we were just about to turn away to leave when the currents freed it and carried it towards the falls. I was snapping pictures when the mayor asked if my camera could record. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of recording it sooner. Fingers fumbled in my excitement and anxiety not catching it in time. Barely.

It’s uploaded here. Ed’s voice is the one that mentions “… could be worth five dollars!”

Most of my free time has been consumed with knitting. One is for a birthday present. I started the scarf on the 7th of January and was making decent headway when the niggling thought that there might not be enough yarn sent me to the scale to weigh the partial scarf and remaining alpaca then do some quick arithmetic. The original pattern, Irish Hiking Scarf by Hello Yarn (please take some time to check out her great patterns!), is three cables wide. My d-i-l loves wide, long scarves and so I had decided to throw in two extra cable repeats for a wider scarf. Without stopping to figure out if there was enough yarn for such a large increase. There wasn’t. At the rate of yarn being used the scarf would end up being about 42 inches long. Argh! Or rather, rippet. Deadline is now only two weeks away and I’m not yet to the half-way point. I have meetings to attend in Newberg this Friday evening and Saturday morning so have high hopes of making serious headway on the scarf. In the meantime…

I was sidetracked.

A wee alluring cap pattern has been calling my name and when I found just the right yarn for it I cast if on the needles last week.
Pattern: Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap / Djevellue  by Gro
(The pattern which I printed a couple years ago, has a photo of a cap knit with alternating light and dark pink yarns.)

Yarn: Cascade Yarns – Cash Vera DK  55%Extra Fine Merino, 33% Microfiber acrylic, 12% Cashmere.

Needles 2.25mm & 2.75mm (each one size smaller than called for in the pattern since the pattern hat fits a 6 month old.)

What a fun knit! I immediately wanted to cast on for another one, this time subtracting a few stitches from each triangle for an even smaller hat. The pattern doesn’t call for a pom-pom but I couldn’t resist adding one.

Less than two months until Aurora’s due date, there are a couple more items I’d love to knit before the baby is born.

 

 

 

 

Snizzle. The fog had been thick from our place through the valley to Salem where suddenly everything looked snow covered. We were truly puzzled, a micro-climate of snow in a small three-four block area near the heart of Salem? We barely had time to debate whether or not it was snow when we were back to fog drenched world, driving over the Willamette River, winding through the western side of the valley with stretches of wildlife and bird refuges, and finally climbing over the coast range into bright, glorious sunlight.

The evening weather report talked about Snizzle – yes, there is such a word, as well as snizzling. It happens when the fog is so thick with moisture that it has to release it and it becomes a dense drizzle (oh, so common in Oregon!). When the temperature is low enough the drizzle actually turns to a form of snow: snizzle.

Three days away from home hanging out with our kids and family in the middle of last week. Last year our son arranged time for our families to celebrate a combined Thanksgiving/Christmas at Black Butte in Central Oregon, this time he secured a house on a hill overlooking the ocean south of Lincoln City. Normally December shrouds Oregon in either pouring rain or heavy fogs but this year the Oregon coast has been kissed by the sun.
View of the ocean from the kitchen window early afternoon.

Late in the afternoon I took the grandkids for a walk down the road which lead to the house as a perfect way to burn some energy before a potato soup and french bread supper. (Had a hard time capturing the steepness of the hill.)

Rising early Wednesday morning I made a batch of yeast rolls to rise in time for the mid-day celebration dinner. Gus eagerly waited for them to come out of the oven.

We played fun “Minute to Win” games.

Feathers tried on the sweater that had been started when we visited them at the end of September.

She loved it. But, the arms were too tight for her liking, and she wanted lots of butterflies. Sigh. It’s not a wasted effort, there’s a young girl cousin who will be born in March who will likely inherit it.
I did have fun making it and learned a few things:
1) Stranded color-work benefits from a size larger needles, especially stranded knit/purls (the lower sleeves) which draw in even more.
2) Even though the item nicely fits a dummy model of the child, the child has undoubtedly grown in the 2 months.
3) Each time a sleeve is frogged it knits up even quicker.
4) It’s time-consuming trying to chart the pattern/design while knitting. (Frogging and redesigning left such efforts in the dust.)
5) At my stage in knitting sweaters (having previously knit only two other sweaters, one for newborn Feather, one for when she turned 1), I really should stick with a pattern instead of stubbornly trying to go it without a pattern.
6)  Lene of Dances with Wool is a tremendous font of inspiration! The butterfly patch is a nod to her. I cut a small piece of thick cotton muslin for tracing and embroidering the butterfly.

A walk on the cold beach before heading back home to work.

 

Not gonna make it

I measured young Feather and quickly cast on for a birthday gift. Knit a garment for a five year old in 22 days? Sure, plenty of time for a small item with short sleeves. Never mind that I didn’t have a proper pattern. Figure out which size needles worked well with the yarn (#4 /3.5mm, as big as reasonable for speed!), get gauge, do the math with her measurements and knit the thing as fast as possible.About this point in the process the niggling worry that I hadn’t cast on quite enough stitches across the shoulders, either that or I hadn’t made properly spaced increases.  A detour to the Frog pond was necessary. Feather also let me know that she really likes purple best of all. I knew that, still, I fell hard for this exquisitely colored yarn  in The Sanguine Gryphon‘s booth at Sock Summit.  What’s a grandma to do? Go shopping!  We’d already planned to hit up the wood store in their nearby city and so, of course, I asked if there was a yarn shop in the area. After scooping up some lovely wood for spindles we all went to the yarn shop where JJ and Wes were dazed by all the fiber, Ed talked with the store owner and MJ found some yarn she fell in love with. (Score on knowing what to knit for her birthday!). Feather and I had a harder time finding a superwash sockweight yarn with purple that would work with the mango/apricot? yarn but we managed to leave triumphant.

No way could I get far enough to be certain the shirt would fit decently while still visiting the kids and remembering a post by Charity  some time ago, I persuaded Feather to let me duck-tape her to make a form.She was a good sport about it, except for the taking off of the one strip of tape that I accidentally taped to her arm. Ouch!

Originally I’d planned to make a small version of the Buttercup shirt (pictured above) but completely veered away from it once the shirt started taking shape again. I wasn’t in the mood to be chained to reading/following a lace pattern. Besides, with an October birthday a long sleeved shirt was more sensible!

These past two weeks I’ve been a knitting fool. Every spare moment has been consumed with knitting. During the knitting I’ve listened to books on Librivox:  “Whose Body” by Dorothy Sayers, “Little Lord Flauntleroy” by Frances Hodgson Burnett, followed by “Pollyanna” by Eleanor H Porter – two books I’d missed growing up – and more appropriate stories to listen to when knitting for a child!
The opposite shoulder came in dandy for storing the ball of yarn used in the body while working on the sleeve. (Picture is way off on the color, the yarn is not orange though there are bits of light orange here and there in the colorway.)
One sleeve finished I began the lower portion the body feeling fairly confident that I could finish the sweater with enough time for the washing and blocking/drying to mail it on the 18th. (This pic, below, best represents the color.)

Only the body to finish, the second sleeve and some ribbing at the neck and it’d be ready for a bath.

Except. The 1×1 colorwork on the sleeve prevented it from being elastic. On closer inspection (with protesting groans in my head) the entire lower sleeve seemed too skinny. I wanted a snug fit along the arm, but with enough ease for growth. Ignoring the sleeve for the time being, I finished the body.

Hearing our six year old neighbor out playing I gathered up the shirt and ran over to ask her to try sticking her arm through the finished sleeve. It was fine until her hand encountered the cuff which was too tight. ugh
Besides by then I wasn’t thrilled with the two contrasting color bands on the upper arm followed by three rows of seed stitch in the main color which didn’t seem right for this sweater.

I’m re-knitting the sleeve with fewer decreases, different designs, ending again with the 1×1 stranded color knitting. Then on to the other sleeve, intentionally unmatched in design for this granddaughter who loves wearing unmatched socks, and then the ribbing around the neck.  It won’t be made in time for Feather’s birthday but she’ll see it when we Skype on her birthday. In the meantime, I refuse to be such a slave to knitting. But it sure has been nice listening to books!

 

 

Old and New

One dilemma of not blogging regularly is forgetting to post finished items, at least in a timely manner, then overwhelming someone’s bandwidth with trying to catch up.

Having struggled to the end of Llama I recently dug through my stash for something soothing and fun to spin and found just the bundle:  Holiday Yarn superwash BFL – colorway Empire Apple, that Tsock Tsarina and Gywniver, aka Lisa and Jennifer, gave me at the end of Sock Summit ’09.
A few evenings from this to

406 yards of 2-ply yarn. What’s it going to be?

We’ll see!

Remember the Phang spindle I wrote about early in December, the hand spindle that a certain Janet had carved, using onlya simple knife,  whilst walking in the woods? The spindle is her interpretation of the Ladakh phang – pronounced to closely rhyme with song, if I understand correctly. There’s a great discussion about them on the Spindle Lore forum in Ravelry. (Speaking of which, does anyone else get so far behind there that, other than a quick dash to grab a pattern or a link, you avoid stopping by Ravelry for fear that a day will blur into oblivion trying to catch up?)

I finished spinning the wool Janet had sent with the phang. Wanting to keep the length of the single, I wound it off onto a bobbin for ease of plying. Pam  gifted some grey Pygora to ply with the wool single. Brilliant! Pygora and phang were a happy union of fiber and spindle. I’m stunned to realize that I don’t have a picture of the finished yarn on this computer.

With these two yarns finished and quietly waiting to be made into something, the spinning bug continues to whine in my ear. How could I resist when I saw this for sale? Even lovelier in real life. This will be the next fiber on my wheel. Seriously, it’s taking all the self-control I can muster not to dive in and spin it.

Knitting this shirt has taken top priority.

Pattern: Buttercup by Heidi Kirrmaier
Yarn: Abstract Fiber Mighty Sock, Koi Pond
I fell in love with the cheerful colors and drape of this 50/50 superwash merino/tencel yarn. It pleasantly slips through the hands and along the needles.

The Grandkids, Faith and Wesley will be arriving tomorrow for a week long stay with us. I need to get busy and clean the house, tidy up project areas and put tempting needle items out of reach of young hands, then do some last minute meal planning and shopping. A busy week ahead is in forecast!

 

Flurry of scarves

A couple posts back, appallingly more than a month ago, I wrote about taking piano lessons as a child. When my brother, DL -  Dan, read the post it set his mind reaching back through the years. Memories of lessons with Mrs Messerlee surged to the front, most notably her maddening habit of dozing off with her pencil still on the music. As the erstwhile student continued playing the pencil would scribe tiny scribbles along the music staff leaving her marks throughout our music books and sheet music.

Mention of the little statues sent Dan digging through his belonging to this triumphant find. I am so tickled that Dan saved one of the composers to have for sharing a small token of a time that shaped our lives:

Ideals of posting weekly lay in the dust-motes of vanished weeks. So much has happened: the grandkids visiting; a couple of music gigs; traveling to Madrona Fiber Retreat; spinning demo/mini lessons at a yarn store during the Portland Yarn Crawl; getting waylaid for over a week by the flu. It’s most logical to start where I left off but don’t worry, it’s not all happening on this post.
First, the concentrated effort of finishing scarves to give to Mandy, Feather & Wesley. I hadn’t intended on knitting Feather & Wes scarves. Happily knitting on my very own red Cat’s Paw Scarf , entranced by the rhythm of the pattern and the subtle variations of red, the idea pounced: “Knit Feather a scarf. Now. With the colorful yarn from the roving Mandy gave you. ” Immediately I tried to stifle the nonsense. “Insane! I’m too slow!” But, “Feather would love a cat’s paw scarf!” So, I dug out the yarn, which I had decided to 2-ply (pictures and the debate on how to ply it in the January 10th post). Knitting needles in hand I started the scarf on Feb 3. Three days later it was finished! Whoot, that tops all records for me. Granted, a four year old doesn’t need a very long scarf.
Wheeee. Since that was finished sooo quickly I must make a scarf for Wesley too! But not Cat’s Paw.

On Feb 4th I saw on the knitdaily newsletter a simple ribbed recipe which I had the presence of mind to write down on a scrap piece of paper:
Row 1 : *K3, Slip 1* purlwise with yarn in front, Repeat, K last 3 stitches
Row 2: K1, *Slip 2, K3* Repeat to last 2 stitches, Slip 1, K1
Repeat Rows 1&2 until desired length. Bind off. Easy peasy! (Always slip stitch purlwise with yarn in front)

The needles had barely cooled before I was casting on with some yarn from my stash. No time to spin for this scarf… next time little guy.
Without the blinders of a weekend to give me long knitting hours this scarf didn’t slide off the needles until the 13th, just in time for a soak and blocking dry before the kids left to go home on the 14th.

Meanwhile I was also spending any spare moment at the loom to finish the three rugs. The last one was also for Mandy’s birthday and I wanted to give Feather & Wes the chance to weave on it before taking it off the loom and finishing it. The grandkids were with us all day Friday. They seemed to enjoy weaving on the rug, especially the beating part. Sadly we didn’t think to get any pictures of them helping me.   Saturday I tied the fringe, tossed the rug in the washer then dryer and was pleased with the overall results. (Lilydog tried to claim it for her own.)

Mandy seemed thrilled with both the scarf and the rug.    The kids also seemed to like their scarves but they were already seatbelted in for the long journey home and didn’t get out.

Oh, and remember the bunkbed Ed was making for Feather? Back home, installed in her room.
Goodnight everyone!

 

Cat’s Paws Scarf

Last week I’d planned to write about a frosty outing to the Oregon Garden but the evenings were swept away in finishing two more projects and working on another one which should be finished before starting another knitting project.

 

First the finished Northern Lace Cat’s Paw Scarf by Elizabeth Lovick.  A Free Pattern.
50 grams Schoppel Wolle roving gifted to me by my son and d-i-l, M for Christmas ’09, Spun into 3 singles on Lark and plyed in May.
Needles: Jenkins #10/6mm
Began knitting on Nov 30 with intention of giving the scarf. Wove in ends and washed on January 1st.

This scarf is so light, just a wisp around the neck. It’s going to be hard to part with it. M’s birthday is Feb 14th so I have a month to fondle. The sooner I cast on for one of my own the sooner I’ll get over wanting hers. Right?

 

 

 

 

 

Along with the blue/green/black roving M & J also gave me 50 grams of roving in bright rainbow colors. I had immediately test spun a bit of it on the wheel then put the bobbin and roving in a zippered bag and set it aside to dive into the 800 yard challenge. It was unearthed just last month. Minus identifying band. I think it also is a Schoppel Wolle roving. This week it was divided into three strips and spun on three bobbins. They’re now ready to ply together. (Vanity speaking – it really bothers me that the final bobbin-full, the one on the left, is so messy and uneven. I was on a mad sprint to the finish line last night.)

Except now, I’m eyeing the 64 grams of spun soft-grey alpaca left from what I spun to go with the Mohair, thinking if I were to ply a strand of alpaca with a strand of the rainbow instead of 3 plying the colors together, it might give my a colorful heather. I’m reluctant to test spin much of it for I spun with the intention of maintaining the color sequences. I’m not a huge fan of chain-ply but am considering it as an option as I look at Bobbin #3 (left). Decisions! Feedback most welcome.

Saturday the sun was out and I finally did a video of my method for winding onto the flatter armed Aegean spindle. A lot of yarn can be packed onto an Aegean with this method, and I find it’s quicker than the traditional over 2, under one.  For all those who are interested, here you go.

 

Christmas Goodies

After spending close to two hours weighing and writing on spindles I took a mini vacation and spent the rest of the day making Ed’s grandmother’s Sour Cream Sugar cookies and his mom’s divinity. Playing in the kitchen was a good stress reliever, even better are the tasty results to share with family and friends. The old recipe uses 5 cups of flour so there are plenty of cookies for everyone.

Instead of the traditional frosting decorations I used a decorating recipe from King Arthur’s cook book.

2 egg yolks, 1 teas water and food coloring painted on with a paint brush. The only one I could quickly find was a cheap brush that was in a child’s watercolor set. These were done as fast as possible to get them in the oven and out in time to cool before tucking in a box and sending off to Idaho this afternoon in hopes they arrive on Friday.

My elementary ways with paint and brush produced nothing fancy but it was a most enjoyable outlet. Somewhere around 3rd grade I became keenly aware that there’s a disconnect between what I picture in my mind and what my hand can produce. Long have I longed to be able to capture people, animals, things, beauty… with pencils or paint. We lived next door to an art instructor at the local state university at our last house in Portland. He firmly believed that everyone has the ability to draw well, that the most wretched of students left his class at the end of the semester well on the way to a decent ability to draw. That was the year I learned to weave and had no additional time to take a formal art class.

Monday mail contained a most delightful surprise. An unexpected box containing a lovely hand-sketched card and a hand-whittled-from-an-alder-branch support spindle.

Ed admired both the card and the spindle then handed them over to me. I’ve done a bit of support spinning using a Tabachek Russian and a small handy sized Bristlecone one but hadn’t seriously spent the time needed to really get the feel for it. I love the rustic beauty and the feel of this spindle, plus there was some fiber included. How could I resist?

I still have a long ways to go before I can claim ease and proficiency but it is an interesting way of spinning, plus it’s forcing me to be more mindful of drafting. The past two evenings I’ve stayed up way beyond my bedtime playing this this Scanlon spindle. Thanks Janet! We are touched and feel very blessed!  Please take a look at Janet’s great bag designs! They’re quick projects and a great way to use your handspun yarns.

After 6 weeks of pushing hard (excepting the Black Butte Ranch break) Ed has basically gotten caught up with most of the individual orders and has started pushing to make headway on the neglected store orders. But periodically he gets a bad allergic reaction to some woods, ebony most notably but this time he’s not sure what triggered the symptoms which starts out sort of like the flu but then he breaks out in hives and gets quite congested. Whatever it is it usually takes 10 days to run the course with the 4-6th days the most miserable. Sometimes he’s able to continue working through it but he decided to work only partial days yesterday and today.  He plans to spend the next couple of days making a batch of hairpin lace looms.

Last post I mentioned meeting up with a customer from Canada. Meet Allison! Check out the sweater she made. The pattern had stockinette sleeves but Allison carried the cable motif in the body to the lower arms making it uniquely hers.
It was so fun to finally meet her and hang out the better part of 2 hours. Part of it standing outside under the store awning after the yarn shop closed at 4. My huge regret is in not thinking clearly (I blame the cluster headache that had been pounding all day) I so wish I’d thought to find a phone and give Ed a call to ask him to join us at the Thai Dish which was only a few doors down the block. But somehow, with the darkness gathering it seemed time for her to drive back to her husband and relatives.

I would have loved to spend a lot more time getting to know Allison. Next time we’ll   plan to eat Thai food and maybe hike at Silver Falls Park!
I’ve been working on a Cat’s Paw scarf since Black Butte. It’s an easy pattern that I’ve enjoyed working on here and there but for some reason there have been numerous errors necessitating innumerable tinking. With all the knitting it should have been done 2 weeks ago. I took it to the yarn shop to meet Allison. Everyone there agreed that the most recent error, which had gone unnoticed until I picked it up to tuck in my bag, should be left and made into a design element. What do you think?Disregarding their empathetic advice I frogged back to the beginning of the wayward part (no need to tink that many rows!) and set about correctly knitting on the knit side, purling on the purl. And I still like knitting this scarf! Pattern: Northern Lace Cat’s Paw Scarf by Elizabeth Lovick 2006. Her notes tell that Cat’s Paw is an old Shetland pattern.  Yarn: My 3-ply handspun from the Schoppel Wolle roving Mandy gave me for Christmas last year. (picture of it while still in the spinning stage on the May ’10 post) Size US10 / 6mm needles
I’m happy to report that the scarf has progress far beyond that point is well down the last half.

And last, but certainly not least, I leave you with a picture of Ed and grandson.

 

Making tracks

Taking a break from knitting and spinning this evening to post a bit. What a full past month plus it has been! Evenings and spare moments have been spent working on Christmas gifts. The first week of December we joined our son and family for a few days at a vacation house he was able to secure through his work at Black Butte Ranch on the East side of the Cascade Mountains. Our daughter and her family, plus Ed’s dad and wife also joined us for a combined Thanksgiving/Christmas celebration. It was one of those mixed blessing times: wonderful to have a breather during a very season and to spend a couple days with family but we’ve been stepping double-time since to get items made and sent before Christmas.

Son and family arrived at the rental the day before and had scouted out the territory finding, to the kids’ great delight, scores of rabbit tracks dotting the snow. Shortly after we arrived I took the children for another walk but the day was somewhat warmer and the tracks weren’t as sharp. Still, we had lots of fun chasing down rabbit trails.

Hmmm, tracks…

Rabbit Tracks

Many Tracks

Wesley was more enamored with this treeI made Wesley and Faith each a pair of socks and knitted/felted clogs, the latter turned out too big.  We had so much dark weather before we left home it was impossible to get a picture that shows the true colors – they’re brighter in life.  Both of the kids were too antsy when they tried them on to get good pictures.  I also bought other yarns with the intention of making clogs for Aurora’s two daughters Autumn and Abigail in the near future, and eventually socks for them also.

Wesley’ socks                                                                       Faith’s socks

(Ed is wsearing clogs which I bought  at OFFF – someday I may be clever enough to make such a fancy pair)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Faith and Wesley were visiting us in August I laid out these six skeins of yarn from Drachenwolle – gifted to us by a wonderful German friend, Juergen, via his friend Christine who is the dyer. Juergen is a sock knitter extraordinaire as well as a fantastic spinner – and told the kids to each pick a skein for me to knit them a pair of socks.

Faith immediately picked up the one on the far right while Wesley zoomed in on the one right next to it! They both were in an orange stage of life. I feel so richly blessed with these yarns! I haven’t yet decided what to make though the other day I was fondling them all and dreaming of socks, scarves and shawls.

By bedtime they were tired out and quite happy to listen to Aurora read a bedtime story. (Oldest daughter, Autumn wasn’t able to take time away from school due to mid-terms. In fourth grade! Disappointing though we’ll have our Christmas together at the proper time.)
Another busy day ahead tomorrow and I need to tuck into bed too. Have more pictures and stories to share from Black Butte, as well as telling about a wonderful visit with a spindle customer from Canada! Stay tuned