A Resin-ating Weekend

I spent the weekend at the Bead and Button Show in Milwaukee, crossing off something on my bucket list with this lovely lady:

That is Jen Cushman, business partner of Susan Lenart Kazmer. If you've ever poked around the jewelry section of a Michael's Arts & Crafts store, you've seen her Industrial Chic line of components, really fun and intriguing stuff. Anyway. I've always wanted to work with them because their aesthetic and their products are so amazing.

I spent a day learning how to use ICE Resin and ICED Enamels on Saturday. Jen is a great teacher and fun to hang around with. She is more than generous in sharing her experience and know-how.  I'm afraid this post is going to sound more like a commercial than a blog post, but honestly, these are great products! ICE Resin is a low-toxic, crystal clear resin. ICED Enamels allow you to get the look of torch-fired enamels without a torch or kiln.

Here's what I have so far. Only the second one down is completely finished. I'm going to add more layers to the other three.

You can't go to Bead & Button (hosted by the same people who put out Bead & Button magazine) without exploring the marketplace, but I think that is a separate post!

FO Friday: Happy Feet

I have finished the first pair of slippers:

Are they adorable or what. Not that I take credit for the adorableness. The folks at Knitting Pure and Simple get credit for that.

The design is ingenious and the directions are crystal clear.  It's a fairly simple pattern. The overcast stitch used to sew up the bottom and back of the heel is very easy, even for a terrible seamstress like me. My only complaint is about the yarn; and you can read about that here if you missed it.

As I hinted above, there will be more Mukluk Slippers. I just think they will be great gifts.

WIP Wednesday: Not Having Fun Yet

I couldn't wait to start this pattern:

It's the Ojo de Dios Shawl from the Winter 2014 issue of Interweave Knits, and it is a stunning pattern. It uses Plymouth Yarn Company's Gina yarn to achieve a dramatic effect. I saw a finished shawl at a yarn store in New Mexico when we traveled over winter break and fell in love.

It took me a while to get my hands on the yarn. Apparently the popularity of this pattern caused a run on Gina. Because of the delay, I could have read pattern notes on Ravelry. But I didn't. I just plunged in blindly.

As you can see, you knit one triangle and then pick up stitches to add the rest, forming the lower portion of the shawl. If I had read Rav, I would have known that backwards loop is not the only way to add stitches for additional cast-on. I hate knitting the first row of backwards loop stitches! It is quite fiddley and frustrating. Now I know.

And you can see that curling is a huge problem. Some knitters on Rav were able to block the edge flat; others said it was impossible. I may end up following the example of knitters who picked up stitches along the bottom and added a border to keep it flat.

This is a lot of work. I hope it's worth it!

I hope everyone is having more fun with their WIPs. You can find out by checking with Tami Amis.

Summer: Already?

We literally had three days of spring here in Wisconsin, and now it's summer. At least, it's a pleasant summer day -- 87 degrees, but not too humid. It was a perfect day for a long walk with a friend and then a bike ride on my own. Some friends invited me to go on a long bike ride, but I haven't built up my fitness level after last year's broken leg. I've got to get out on the bike more and build up some strength!

Slippers are not a very summery knit, but I feel good about working on holiday knits. Pretty soon I'm going to have to figure out how to seam these up:

Madison is a beautiful place in the summer. I snapped this photo of our state Capitol this morning. I biked downtown and actually did some work while sipping an iced coffee at a cafe that had an outdoor area. If only summer could always be this pleasant!

WIP: No SSS Here

Second Sock Syndrome that is:

I love the colors of this yarn so much that I cast on number 2 as soon as I kitchnered (that is a verb, right?) the first. Hermoine's Everyday Socks is the pattern. Super easy and goes quickly.

Half-way through a four-day week. Today was fun because we took a group of our 8th-graders over to the high school for a visit. I love this annual day because I always run into some former students. And they all love you when you are a former teacher. Sometimes it's sad. The first one I ran into this morning was wandering the halls during class -- clearly he's not faring well. But then I ran into Emma, one of my all-time favorites. A truly awesome young lady. Many hugs ensued.

Ten more days with students before summer vacation. I have mixed feelings. I always have a hard time saying goodbye, but I can't complain about having my days to myself!

Don't forget to check in with Tami Amis!

FO: A Different Garden

I certainly whined enough about our cold, rainy spring that anyone who's been reading this will not be surprised that I spent much of that awful weather embroidering flowers since there were no real ones popping up.

I am quite happy with the shirt. I asked my daughter what she thought of it, and she said, "It looks like you."

"Is that a compliment or an insult?" I asked.
"Neither," she replied. "Just a fact."

Said daughter flew in for the weekend to celebrate Seth's graduation. At 26, he's earned his bachelor's degree in biology. He got there on a very unusual -- and for his mother, stressful -- path. But that just made the occasion more special. It was nice that my parents are able to celebrate with us. They played a huge role in my children's childhood, especially after I became a single mom

One of the things Rachel and I did was to take a walk in the Arboretum, where the lilacs are in glorious bloom.

Spring Has Sprung + A Book Review

Finally, spring has arrived:

We've gone for three days with no rain: Glorious! I even rode my bike to work on Thursday and Friday. The cats have pretty much taken up residence on the screen porch.

I'm waiting for Seth's graduation cake to bake, so I have a few moments.

I just finished reading this:

It's unusual for me to read anything that has a whiff of chick-lit to it, and I can't explain what prompted me to pick up The Knitting Circle. But, pick it up I did.  And I didn't dislike it. From me, that is high praise for chick-lit. Frankly, the fact that I read the entire book is a big endorsement. It's somewhat over-dramatic -- maudlin, even -- but it hooked me from the start and kept my interest. The characters are very well drawn and Hood is a very good writer.

It is certainly the best of the knitting novels out there that I have read. It would make for great beach reading.

WIP Wednesday: Mukluk

Although this may look like an FO...

... it really is a WIP:

It won't be done until I sew up the seam that runs along bottom!

I am really loving this pattern, but this first slipper took me forever to finish because the yarn is hard on my hands. It is Encore Chunky Tweed: 75% acrylic, 25% wool, and 3% rayon. I don't usually have problems with acrylic-wool blends, so I'm thinking that it's the chunky-ness that is hurting my hands. It is giving me the same kind of pain that I get from Sugar'n Cream cotton yarn.

I looked up the yarn on Ravelry, but couldn't find similar complaints! Knitters gave it 4 out of 5 stars, even. So then I looked up Sugar'n Cream, and it also gets 4 out of 5 stars. Which reminds me of my issue with reader ratings on Amazon. In both cases, these are not statistical surveys. Rather, the respondents are self-selected. I've realized that romance books that I think are terrible get high ratings on Amazon because the people who choose to read them like romance novels.

I would like to point out that Lion Homespun (possibly the most hated yarn out there, though not by me) gets 3 out of 5 stars. And Red Heart Super Saver Solids gets 3 stars, too. Now that is a yarn that I cannot stand the feel of. It's the kind of material that could survive a nuclear holocaust. Still, a lot of knitters like it.

Does anyone know of a yarn that got fewer than 3 stars?

Don't forget to check out other WIPs with Tami Amis.

Not Much Knitting Going On

There wasn't much time for knitting this past week.  I attended two school board meetings last week as part of an effort to convince the school board to extend our contract. Those were exhausting but also exhilarating evenings. The camaraderie of more than 100 union members is pretty amazing.

Then I drove up to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., for the weekend to visit my niece and her parents. Rebecca is in a three-week program to help teens with chronic pain. She was diagnosed with P.O.T.S. a few months ago. (You can read about it here.)

Rebecca and my son, Seth.

This program is truly amazing. As you can see from the picture, she has energy and joy again!

The 3.5-hour drive up flew by because Seth was in the car with me. I don't often get that much time alone with him! BTW, he completed his bachelor's in biology from UW-Madison last week, which we'll be celebrating next weekend.

I had hoped to knit on the way back Sunday, but Seth got sick and slept the whole way!

WIP: Color!

I started these a while ago:

It is the start of my second pair of Hermoine's Everyday Socks, the free, viral pattern that has been popping up all over the Web. My friend Marsha knit a pair of these a few months ago, and I fell in love with the yarn -- Regia 4-ply, color 05048. Luckily, I ran into the yarn myself and snapped up two skeins.

My first Hermoine's were gifted, but I'm keeping these for myself. I need the color given the rarity of sunny days here. It's rain, rain, rain!

Only twenty more teaching days. Not that I'm counting! Actually, I have great kids this year and I am sad about saying good-bye to them in a month. However, I am looking forward to more time for family and creative pursuits. Besides, I got my list for next year, and it's looking like it is going to be, well, more challenging.

See what everyone else is working on with Tami Amis.