Winter Break!

Winter break is here! And it feels great, even though it will be busy. I am frantically baking cookies and working on decluttering. Keith and I have looked at two houses in the past couple weeks, and they are selling very fast. So we need to get our house in order!

I finished the mitts I designed in Isaac's honor, and I need to write a note and drop them off for his mom. Writing that note will be the hardest thing I do during break

I do have some good news. My mom is recovering from Covid. It is a slow recovery, but 4 weeks after she got sick she is able to go to the grocery store. She is very tired and has some other symptoms, but it looks like she'll be OK.

I finished Rachel's mittens. They are simple, but very squishy and warm.

With the leftover yarn, I was able to make a matching hat.

We have been having pretty mild winter weather with high's in the 30s, so at least I can get out and walk with my buddies. Keith was able to bike 26 miles last week, which brings his yearly total to 7,000 miles. Impressive, huh? And it is cold enough for me to wear my hand-knits:

The cats are definitely in winter break mode:

Like all sane people, we are planning on a quiet Christmas with just the two of us. I will deliver plates of cookies on the 24th, but that's as close as I'll get to family and friends. It's a small price to pay for staying alive!

Finishes on Friday

I'm pleased with this mitered-square blanket. I made up the pattern to use up the colored yarn, which is the now-discontinued Julia yarn by Kristen Nicholas. The gray is that workhorse: Cascade 220. I crocheted the edges, which is a new skill for me. It's a bit wonky.

I know I should block it, but it's cold and rainy here, so I'm just going to start using it!

I finished my second coffee-cup mini-quilt. I think that having two cups is more satisfactory, 

What do you think?

I finally finished a sketch I started a month ago, when it was warm enough to draw outside. This is a gorgeous house on Lake Monona.

 And here is a very special finish I'm looking forward to:

 I eat one candy bar on the 1st and 15th of every month. When this is empty, the school year will be over! 

And since it's Friday, here's a feline. Kola enjoying HBO's "Succession" with me

Trying to Focus

I hope that everyone had a lovely Mother's Day. Keith and I made brunch for our mothers.

I've been trying to be more focused on fewer projects so that I can actually finish a few things. After brunch on Sunday, I finished this quilt, which Keith calls "the ugly one."

 It's not my favorite, either. I was trying to use colors that aren't in my usual palette. I learned how much color inspires me. I think that part of the problem with this quilt is that it didn't emerge out of joy -- and I think that shows. This was a useful experiment, but I don't think I'll do it again.

On the other hand, I am thoroughly enjoying my Hitchhiker. I have come to the place in the skein where the dark teal is beginning to occur more frequently.

I spent quite a bit of time working on it this weekend and listening to a fascinating podcast from Slate about Randy Weaver and Ruby Ridge.

And I'll leave you with a photo of my grandkitty telling Rachel that it's time to turn off the computer:

One Done; Two New

It's been a weird weekend. Snow on Saturday, but then a glorious walk on dry sidewalks with my friend Denise today -- didn't even need a sweater. Crazy! At least we didn't have to cancel dinner out with my Mom Saturday. She took us to a very nice Italian restaurant.

As promised, here is my finished quilt:

So, what I don't like about it is that it is largely based on commercial fabrics: the rooster, the eggs, the words. It was fun to make, but I don't get the kind of satisfaction that I would from something that was more original. 

The next quilt is already under way. This time, I decided to force myself to work with a different set of colors.

And do you know what this is? I bet many of you recognized it right away. It is a sprouting Hitchhiker. I didn't think much of the pattern until a saw a few of you do it with gradient yarn. Now I'm a fan. As you can see, I am doing the Line 6 variation (yo, k2tog) to spice it up a bit. 

It is going to go through quite a dramatic color change before I am finished. That should keep it interesting.

31 more days of school. Not that I'm counting.

Back to Stitching

On Monday, we had torrential rains in Madison like we've never seen here. Many businesses are closed; lots of basements are flooded. So far, we haven't had any water in our house. And the levels of the four lakes in the city limits are still rising. 

This is one of the roads that Keith bikes. It's hard to believe so many people don't accept climate change as real. 

With more rain predicted for tomorrow, the danger is far from over. I plan to stay home, do some cleaning, and hopefully have creative time

I do have a knitted FO to share with you. This is my second Quill, a Taproot pattern, in Cascade 220. It's a pretty fast knit.

 I just love the gansey texture.

And my workshop quilt is officially done. This is the first quilt I've successfully quilted on a machine, and I am very proud of my crooked lines.

It's not a crooked as it looks. Some of the crookedness is the way I took the photo.

I've been working a lot on this embroidery piece. It may look familiar. Actually, it's new; but its partner is being framed. One just wasn't enough.

When I'm done with the color, I'll fill in the rest with white. I love the look of fabric that is 100% embroidered.

I go back to work full time on Monday with mixed feelings. I enjoy the students and the teaching, but there's always the paperwork hanging over my head. It reminds me of being in college and having homework all the time!

All About Sweaters

Life has been busy here. With my travels coming up soon, I've been working, seeing our parents, trying to finish a project for a show.  And, most importantly, trying to set up travel knitting projects! Even summer vacation is busy.

I have finished the cardigan for my daughter, Rachel, with just over a week until I fly to Florida. I'll give her the sweater then -- and hope that it fits!

It's the Windchill Cardigan by Melissa LaBarre. The pattern is easy and well-written. I used Valley Superwash DK, which was lovely to work with and is a good value for the price. I really like the waffle-weave edging.

With that done, I have tracked down my Vodka Lemonade sweater, which I'm knitting in Cascade Sport-Weight. 

I was able to slip it on today, and I think it's going to fit. I have broad shoulders, so I added some length to the raglan shaping. It's a very sweet little pattern, but I'm not sure it was smart to make it in wool. It's more of a summer sweater. 

Maybe I'll make a second? I don't know. That seed-stitch collar took forever!

Two Finishes

I think this took me about a year, but I finally finished my Spindrift Shawl by Helen Stewart. I have no idea why it took me so long. It's a simple and elegant pattern.

Here it is, unblocked. I'm sure that lace will really open up after a good soak. 

The yarn is a speckled fingering weight from KnitCircus. I seem to have lost track of the ballband. And I had barely enough yarn to finish the picot bind-off!

I also finished this Fair Isle hat of my own design. It came out huge, definitely a man's hat! I'm going to make some changes, downsize it and write it up as a pattern, I think.

It feels good to have accomplished a few things in the past week and a half since my surgery. I'm going to have to work quite a bit in the next weeks. Most of it will be on my own schedule, which makes it feel less onerous.

I hope most of you are having summer. It is so cold and rainy here that I am wearing jeans and a wool sweater!

Recuperating

The recuperation from my surgery is not as painful as the doctor had predicted, so of course I'm relieved about that. I am housebound and not really up for visitors, but I can manage knitting. 

I pulled out these three colors for my Free Your Fade shawl. 

I'm not sure if I'll use all three or just the gradient and the blue. I'm going to see how it looks when I get to the first "fade." So far, the gradient is just gorgeous! And it matches the project bag -- one of the many that my sweet MIL has made for me.

I set up another Tchaikovsky Hat before my surgery. It's such an easy pattern and I had the perfect yarn: a skein of Casual Fashion Queen in Bohemia. 

This might be my favorite colorway of all time.

While I'm not up to visitors, I do appreciate it when Nagi and Kola keep me company.

It's actually been cool here so I've enjoyed having them on my lap.

At the rate I'm recovering, I'm going to have to start doing useful things soon, but I'm trying to enjoy this "vacation" while I can.

FO Friday; Bits and Bobs

Most of you are either reading this between errands and cooking -- or reading it after Christmas. Either way, I hope you are enjoying your holiday. I just put a Brisket in the oven because we are doing family Hanukkah at my mom's apartment tomorrow. Next up, some baking.

I finally got a photo of the Through the Loops Mystery Shawl 2017. As you can tell, it is huge and I haven't quite figured out how to wear it. But I like it anyway. I'll figure out something.

I generally love my Knitting Guild, but once a year, the speaker is from Lion Brand Yarns, and it's not my favorite meeting. Instead of being informative, it's just a long commercial for their yarns.

They do give out a great giveaway package, but I'd rather be entertained or informed or both. I will say that I do like the Jeans yarn that they gave out this year, and I'm looking for a cowl pattern to use it for.

But Marsha and I had a good time wearing the matching ponchos we knit.

Nancy asked in a recently comment if I am going to use a library sale book to learn to do a portrait of my house in needlepoint. I'd like to! But it's actually super complicated to prepare the canvas. I might try just a plain old embroidery version first.

Double FO Friday

When you are under doctor's orders to sit around all day, you can get a lot of knitting done! As a result, I have two finished hats to show you.

This first one is the Toboggan Run I was working on earlier this week. Details are here. It's a great pattern if you don't mind miles of seed stitch. I think it's worth it. I love the yarn and tried to get more online, but I don't think it's possible😞. It will be a holiday gift. One down!

This is Maayan's Hat. My own design. There are lots of baby hat patterns, but I couldn't find a colorwork style that I liked, so I made up this one:

I don't think it qualifies as a Fair Isle design because some rows have three colors. I've wanted to figure out how to do that. My method is clunky, but it gets the job done. I used Encore DK yarn because it's inexpensive to experiment with, hard-wearing, and washable.

Now I need to get the model over here to see if it fits!

FO Friday: Harvest Sweater

It took four attempts, but I finally have a sweater that I knit that fits!

I finished my Harvest Sweater at Knitting Camp and even Meg Swansen approves:

She liked the way it fits across the back:

Yep, I'm pretty proud!

This Tin Can Knits design is a great pattern. Not only is it free, but it is designed to be a first sweater so it comes with clear, detailed instructions. Even I could follow them! The yarn is Cascade 220 in a heathered pink. It took five skeins, meaning that the sweater only cost me about $45.

(The first three sweaters are in landfills somewhere.)

Have a great weekend. I'm headed to Chicago for an Urban Sketching workshop.

Friends and Finishes

It was gray weekend, but I'm not complaining because I had a lot to do to get ready for two upcoming exhibits. Besides, there were enough breaks from working to make it seem like a weekend.

Friday night Keith and I had dinner with my parents. It was Greek Night at their community and the food was quite good. This morning my friend Marsha had a little gathering at her house.

Marsha, left, had a very color-coordinated table today. Next to her is Tsela.

Mimi wore with her birthday socks. (Sorry about the blurry photo. I'm blaming the cloudy day and lack of light.)

On Saturday, Tsela and I made pendants from a recent Bead & Button magazine. This pattern is a bit tricky, but I figured it out in the end. Tracking down all the supplies was actually the hardest part. There are all these new shaped beads and no local store carries all of them.

I'm happy with how it turned out. This photo doesn't do justice to the colors. It's mostly blues and purples, with some gold accents. I'm sure I'll make a few more.

I did a little knitting, but more importantly, I wove in ends and produced two FOs:

I have searched Ravelry and cannot find the name of this market bag. It's a quick knit and cute, so I'd like to share the pattern!

And here is one of those little projects that got lost in the shuffle for the months, waiting to be seamed. Just another washcloth to put in the gift box.

I like quiet weekends like this. During the school year. I need to recharge and get a few things done before plunging back into another week.