Home Again

 My trip to California was great. How can it not be? We drove up to Mendocino, which is just gorgeous. I could listen to the surf hit the rocks all day. (Thinking of you, Kim!)

We stayed in a very vintage cottage. It was adorable, but we were afraid to use the stove, which had no pilot light. We just used the microwave and ate out.

The best part was hanging out with Joni.

We both enjoyed working on the embroidery kits I made up for us.

We were not amused by the antisemitic pamphlets that were placed at homes in Berkeley and six other cities. Scary stuff. 

Sadly, bad news dominates, doesn't it? You may remember that I went to Ukraine a few years ago when my daughter was a bridesmaid at a wedding outside Lviv. My heart bleeds for the country and the wonderful Ukranians I know.

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Pandemic January

 I hoping to have a photo of my Seth and his partner, Clara, because I spent a few days in Chicago last week. Unfortunately, before I got around to it, both Seth and I got sick. I had the worst GI bout I've ever experienced. And it wasn't fun to be away from home. When things began to subside around 1:30 a.m., I drove home -- almost 3 hours!

I don't regret the trip, though. I had a couple awesome days seeing people and visiting the Art Institute, which featured Barbara Kruger. I had never heard of her, and her social justice themes are perfect for our times:

The temperatures were almost as low in Chicago as they are in Madison, so sketching was out of the question. However, I found an alternative. I know that pandemic life is harder for some people than others. I am a homebody, so I think that I've fared quite well. It seemed appropriate to do a home sketch:

Later on I was warmed up by Kola. I think she missed me!

NOTE: Dane County, where I live, has the third highest rate of Covid in the entire country! It's a good thing I like being home.

On Sketching

 Sketching is one of the things I want to focus on in my retirement. I even went out with a friend when the temperatures were skyrocking.

Here's a photo of the scene. As you can see, accuracy is not my strength -- or even my goal. I like things that are wonky.

Last week, Keith drove me to Baraboo, a cute little town, so I could sketch and he could bike on some different roads. It's the home of Circus World, birthplace of the Ringling Brothers Circus, so there are painted elephants all over town.

I was drawing some of the old buildings downtown there when this man, about my age, came up to me and said, "Someone has a hobby."
"Keeps me out of prison," I joked.
"I did nine years in the big house," he replied. And he did. Told me his entire life story. It's a very friendly town.

But the best part was when a middle-aged woman came up to me and told me she owns an art gallery. She looked at my unfinished sketch and asked if I'd sell sketches of Baraboo at her gallery. Of course I would!

So, here's the sketch. It has a major mistake, but I can trace it onto a new piece of watercolor paper using my lightbox and correct it. Then I'll add watercolor.

Neck update: I got the neck brace off yesterday. They warned me that my neck would hurt for a few days because the muscles are out of practice -- and it does hurt! More worrisome. I have some signs of kidney damage from the mistakes in the ER, so they ran tests. I'm sure I won't hear anything over the holiday weekend.

Tiny Needle Tuesday Plus My Weekend

 This is what my tiny needle has. been up to:

It's a small piece of a project that I finished on Sunday-- just in time to submit it to a challenge from Quilting Arts Magazine. The challenge was to make a scroll measuring no more than 40".  I had to cut a panel so that I didn't go over 40".

Here's the finished project:

It's bits and pieces from my trip to Colorado. It will seem very random to the viewer, but my new-to-me fiber group -- the Memory Cloth Circle -- liked it. I'm not sure it was worth the time, but it was kind of fun.

My weekend also included having friends over for dinner on Saturday. I invited my favorite co-teacher, John, and his wife Michele, who is a special ed teacher. Not team-teaching with John is one of the things I'm going to miss the most this fall. We practically had a comedy act going in a long-running debate over which decade had the best music, the 1970s (my choice) or the 1980s (his choice). I hope we'll stay in touch.

Michele is the chairperson of the Union's Subcommittee on Special Ed, so we have quite a bit of history, too.

And Michele made me the best mask ever:

For those of you who aren't massive fans of The Office: The mask features Dwight Schrute, one of the main characters. I gave John a vintage Chewbacca mug, seeing as he is a Star Wars fanatic.

Madison Urban Sketchers met Saturday at a local park, where we all drew the beautiful bathroom structure -- built by the CCC during the Depression. It was a small but talented group. Mine is on the top right:

Last, but not least, I went kayaking on Sunday with my friend Tracey. What is it about water that is so soothing? When my ankle heals, I am going to beg Kathy for a paddle-boarding lesson.

It was a busy weekend for me -- but now I have all week to relax!

Randomness on a Wednesday

Taking a little break to breathe and say hi.

There were some question about my last post. First, yes, my MIL used to make Navajo rugs. She got all the wool from the Navajo people and even dyed some of it using their techniques. She dyed one batch with urine -- but said she'd never do that again. Apparently it was quite "aromatic." The patterns are all authentic and traditional. She used one of those big floor looms. She has one small rug she's trying to finish. At age 86, she thinks this will be the last one.

Another question asked if I go up in needle sizes when I knit hats. I do, unless the pattern says not to. When I improvize a worsted-weight hat, I do the brim with size 6 (96 stitches), then increase to 108 stitches and switch to size 8 needles.

I finally painted this interior. I did the drawing during a Zoom with my drawing buddies a few weeks ago. It's the interior of a house that was for sale. And those are the real colors.

I came across my Little Kiddles during the ongoing decluttering. I wasn't sure I still had them. I loved them when I was little. They're in pretty good shape -- but not worth much without the original containers -- so I'll hold onto them for now.

As I write this, Keith is at the new house with the cats. Kola, who likes to spend her days napping in "my" chair, turns out to be a scaredy cat.

While Nagi is exploring, Kola is hiding under the twin bed that Keith has already moved there!

Some Happy Things

  As winter hovers, we Midwesterners are eking out every outdoor activity we can. My Urban Sketching group met at the UW Arboretum on Sunday. My sketch is the ugly one. I can't seem to get the hang of trees.

I'll sure miss seeing these folks over the winter.

I finished a project that is making me happy. 

Of course, it is: It's a coffee-themed mini quilt. The background is from cotton scraps left on my cutting board from a throw I'm quilting. The cup is felted wool, and the "steam" is made from beads.

I am also happy with these mitts that will be making their way to my daughter in Denver.

The pattern is Align Mitts. It's free and well-written. I zipped through these with a Madtosh speckled yarn.

And there are some good things about working from home. Sometimes I have company while I'm teaching:

She slept all through a Biology class!

This and That

I can't believe it's been a week since I posted. I suspect that has something to do with going back to work -- even part-time work interferes with the fun parts of life! I suspect I will be glad for the human contact once winter arrives -- so I shouldn't complain. Still, I am beginning to mourn the end of my summer break.

I apologize for boring knitting content. I am making good progress on my 3rd (and last) Kate's Poncho.

I can hardly wait to cast on something new!

My Summer Quilt (for lack of a formal name) is coming along. It was looking kind of dull so I added more appliqued leaves. And I just love the hand-quilting because it is so meditative.

There has been a bit of sketching. There is little part of my neighborhood that has modern, really expensive homes (every house is expensive in Madison!), so I tried drawing one of them:

Next time I'll pick a house that isn't a big brown blob! It's a lovely house, but not much fun to paint!

Sketching and Covid

Recently, my friend Tsela and I decided to draw in downtown Middleton, a suburb of Madison. We planned to get beverages at a coffeeshop, Helbach's, but it had closed early. Instead, we sat at one of their outdoor tables and drew:

Now we are glad we didn't spend any money there.  The owner actually posted a sign a few days later that said: "This is a Mask Free Zone. Please remove mask before entering."

Middleton is in Dane County. We are required to wear masks when we are inside a public place, including businesses. This is a county order. Someone took a photo of the sign and it went viral (pun intended). 

When county health officials showed up at Helbach's to investigate, the owner called the police and complained about being harassed. Of course, the police backed up the health officials. I assume that they are requiring masks now, but I won't be going there to find out.

There is an excellent coffeeshop a block away, in case I'm out in Middleton again.

Nature and Messes

Do not be fooled by this sweet-looking animal. She seems to be driven by nature to play with yarn. 

I should have taken a photo. However, I was distracted by having to untangle miles of yarn and roll it into balls for my Hitchhiker.  She must have had a fabulous time winding so much yarn around the chairs and table on our screened porch.

Untangling it was not so much fun. Since she had gone into a knitting bag and dragged out the whole project with its many yarns, I decided that I needed some larger project bags that I could put in my tote. Shopping was fun.

I found these darling and sturdy bags on Etsy from a seller called Whimzee Stitches. 

Here you can see that a medium bag easily fits a nearly finished Hitchhiker and a good cake of yarn.

Nature -- as in the weather -- has been frustratingly unpredictable here, with scorching heat alternating with frightening downpours. I took my mom to the airport this afternoon (she's flying to Virginia to see my brothers). Much to my surprise, the sun was out as I drove back through town, so I stopped to do some sketching:

I ended up working even more slowly than usual because I was joined by three, talkative street people. They were passing around bottle of vodka, which I didn't mind; but they were also smoking cigarettes, which I do! They were very nice and told me I am very beautiful for an older lady. Is that a compliment?

Then I took a little stroll and saw this guy:

Last Friday, I was planning to meet up with Kathy B and Mrs. Macawber. Kathy and I agreed that the weather was too bad -- terrible storms, downed trees. But Sue (Mrs. Macawber) wasn't intimidated and she made it just fine. I should have gone -- the storms ended (which is not what the forecast said!) -- and they had a great time.

We'll have to try again soon, ladies!

Lots of Beginnnings

 The best beginning was the one that began yesterday -- the beginning of summer vacation. I have plenty of work to do, but at least it's on my schedule. On my very first morning, I was able to join the Plein Air painting group at Donald County Park, where I painted an outcrop:

I think it needs a few finishing touches.

Later, I started in with some summer reading. I usually avoid popular fiction, but this has gotten so much publicity, I had to find out for myself if it's worth all the buzz.

If you've read it ... no spoilers, please.

I started a hat pattern, Hoopla, from PomPom magazine. I have a small collection of these beautiful magazines, but I haven't actually knit anything from them. Their patterns tend to be a bit complicated. 

This hat, for example, has a Latvian Braid, something I've always wanted to learn. I did learn in a class a few years ago, but I've forgotten everything from that. It turns out that You Tube has some pretty good tutorials.

Wah-Lah! I did it! The pattern is from this issue:

 And, I've found some time to hang around with one of my favorite girls:

Now, I just need some sunny weather for sun-dying cloth, and I'll be all set.

Hooked on Hitchhiker

It's been a dreary weekend: cold, windy, rainy, gray skies. I'm not complaining because I needed to rest and this weather definitely helps with that. I went to Torah study yesterday and then had a nice long lunch with my mom. Last night, Keith and I started the third season of The Man in the High Castle (Amazon), and it is as good as the first two.

Today I started cleaning up my studio and then went out to lunch and Urban Sketching. I ended up drawing one of our sketchers:

The blue sky is just wishful thinking. It was quite gray.

I'm pretty happy with this sketch. The woman sort of looks like Jean, the sketcher, which is a rare accomplishment for me! I need to find some time to just play with my watercolors. It's a challenging medium and I don't put enough time into it.

This is good knitting weather. I finished my first Hitchhiker, and I love it. It only has about 39 teeth (it's supposed to have 41), but it is long enough right off the needles. After blocking, it should be a decent length.

I like the way the gradient works out when it's around my neck. I think it came out well enough to be a gift.

It was such a fun and relaxing knit, that I just had to do a stash dive and start a second one.

I have no recollection of where I got this skein of yarn. It's going to be an adventure. It's a magic ball with 15 colors of sock yarn tied together with square knots and wound into a cake. I haven't come to a knot yet, but I'm hoping that I can just leave the knots in place and have a rustic sort of shawl. Strangely, there is no company name or brand. All I know is that there are 525 yarns of Merino superwash sock yarn. 

For dinner tonight I made a delicious red lentil dish from the Oh She Glows Every Day Cookbook. The dish called for homemade mango chutney, but I cheated and bought some. I'm not vegan, but I do make a lot of Oh She Glows recipes. They are healthy and reliably good.

I noticed that the photo of my most recent quilt in my last post was fuzzy, so I just had to go on record with a better photo:

How was your weekend?

Deep Winter

After a frighteningly mild start, winter has arrived with a vengeance. I am home for a second snow day in two weeks. And it looks like we may call off school for another day or two this week because of frigid temperatures.

This is not a good thing. We only budget for two weather days per school year, so we have to add minutes or days if we have three or more weather days. Not that I'm complaining today. A three-day weekend is always nice!

However, after I post this, I need to take a walk. The temperature is around 0 -- and that is about as warm as it is going to get for this week. And then I need to do some paperwork for school. Those special ed deadlines do not shift for snow days!

I've started a second Dewberry cowl with a skein of Sun Valley fibers. The yarn is super-soft and the perfect shade of blue to wear with denim.

I finished my Soundwaves Shawl and I'm not sure I'm happy with it. It hasn't been blocked, but it looks like the outer edge isn't going to accommodate the top edge smoothly. I looked at Ravelry, and I'm not the only person to run into this issue. We'll see if blocking helps.

On the first snow day, I went skiing on the bike path with some friends. It wasn't too bad. And it was nice to ski without driving Up North. 

I have been finishing up small art quilts, so I have a stack of them that need quilt labels. I spent about an hour this morning making some. I am just very slow with a sewing machine. I don't mind hand-sewing them onto the quilts.

Yesterday, I went over my friend Tsela's house and we drew. I am quite pleased with my sketch:

It really does look like Tsela. However, her couch is gray. I just wanted to get some more color into the picture.

These cold, snowy days make me happy (yes, I know that is not normal). It is just so cozy to be inside with a fun knitting project and a cup of tea when the weather is so bad. 

I hope you are enjoying the weather where you are!

I'm a Meme and Other News

We had the Special Ed Department Holiday Party Friday night, and I won some pretty awful stuff in the White Elephant exchange, including a really awful hat. I was goofing around in it and one of my colleagues turned me into a meme:

This afternoon I went drawing with my friend Tsela, who included me in one of her sketches.

 Tsela is much faster than I am and she completed two sketches in the time it took me to do one. We always think it's fun when we draw the same thing. The results are always quite different (mine is on the right):

We were drawing at Madison Chocolate Company (highly recommended!) and saw a celebrity there. I know he's shy so I settled for taking a photo of the back of children's author Kevin Henkes. 

I started a hat with some Cascade 220 from my stash. The Antler Hat pattern is free from Tin Can Knits. I have never been disappointed in a Tin Can project. This is a very easy cabled pattern, and it's going quickly.

I am making a recipe from my new cookbook for dinner tonight: Lemon-Fennel Chicken in a pot.

I love Dorie Greenspan's baking recipes. I swear by her pie crust. She is the co-author of Julia Child's baking book; I can't imagine a better credential! I also made one of her chocolate cake recipes for dessert. I hope things come out well because my mother is coming for dinner!