Springtime Colors

Not much stitching going on here these days, but I'm slowly knitting this scarf, the free pattern is Different Breeze by Sachiko Uemura.

The yarn is a discontinued long color change single by Loops and Threads.

But if you want to see some real eye candy, here are the step-grands, smiling after their Easter egg hunt in our back yard. 

Butterflies

I've got the layout for my butterfly quilt.  This design is inspired by one I saw in Glenna Hailey's book Sugar Sack Quilts, which features more modern-looking design for vintage and reproduction fabrics.  I really wanted to minimize the white backgrounds in the applique blocks, and to add some primary colors to the pastels.  White and light-colored bed covers just don't fit in my cat-enriched life.

I'm cutting down the blocks and then bordering them with contrasting prints.

The butterfly blocks are 9.5" finished, and the sashing is 1" finished.  It's been fun to cut prints into large triangles by bisecting 16.75" blocks.  I had a stack of fat quarters, but sadly, a lot  of them were smaller than the 16.75" I needed.

...So I got to buy some half yards, which also will allow me to add more variation to the prints.  As soon as I can set aside more time, I'll finish the cutting and designing.

Two Looms are Better Than One.

I'd been thinking about adding a small loom to my tools for a long time.  My original loom, an Ashford Rigid Heddle loom, is 24" wide, the perfect width for towels and shawls.  You can make narrower projects on it too, though it's a pain to stretch across that frame if you don't need to.

I though about getting a Sampleit Loom, or a Cricket.  But I couldn't justify adding one more thing to the supplies I currently have.  Then, one day on Ravelry, someone posted a practically new used 10" Cricket for sale at a price I couldn't refuse.  It included all the heddles, 5, 8, 10 and 12 dpi, and lots of shuttles.  This smaller loom is easier to warp and it's perfect for scarves and for experimenting with warps and with fancy weaves I have yet to try.

So now I have the Cricket.  That's a sheet of paper inside the frame, so you can see the size.  To keep the karmic balance in my stash, and to make space in the Closet of Doom, I passed one of my old Singer sewing machines to a friend who needed one. 

This scarf, made with some fingering weight yarns, was a fast and easy getting-to-know-you project.  Now that I've given my back yard its Spring spruce up, I have fantasies of sitting out there and weaving with the Cricket.  

Wheel of Fortune (63 x 63)

What a relief to finally finish sewing this top.  The poor thing has been on my design wall in pieces for so long that some of the fabrics are starting to fade.  It needed a quick finish, and Spring break came just in time.

It's pressed and ready for quilting, which Debra (thanks Debra!) has volunteered to do.

I found this great flannel on clearance at JoAnn's for the backing.  I hadn't looked in awhile, so I was shocked to see that their quilter's fabrics are now $15.00 a yard.  Wowza.

I'm now turning my attention to these hand appliqued blocks that have been taking up space for a few years.  I've got a drawer full of 30s reproduction fabrics to go with them, and I think I've settled on a non-traditional setting design.  Another UFO may bite the dust.

Mondo Zig Zag Blanket (58 x 64")

 When you get a really bad cold, bad enough to stay in bed for a few days, you'll have time to work on you big crochet blanket.

The cats will cheer you on and keep you company while you do another row between coughs.

When the cold turns into bronchitis, you'll have time to crochet three or four rounds around the edges.  The cat will be so impressed.

 

When all's said and done, you'll have a nice blanket to lay with on the couch while binge watching episodes of Lark Rise to Candleford on Netflix.   

The free pattern is the Easy Ripple Afghan, and the yarn is vintage acrylic donated to me by my aunt.  I'm hoping that along with the antibiotics, it's a recipe for a cure.

The End of the Red Sweater Saga

I finished the red sweater, and I've been wearing it a lot.  It's very cozy and warm, and the pop of bright color is an added bonus.  It's amazing what I can accomplish when I practice project monogamy.

I wore my sweater several times on a recent conference trip to Seattle.  What a fun city.  It's been hard to come back to the old grind here at home. 

I will be popping in and out as things have gotten pretty busy at work.  I'm looking forward to the end of the term, when I hope to have more free time. 

Sweater Update

With a few missteps (like having to re-knit the end of one sleeve because it was too short) I've made good progress with my sweater.  I've re-engineered the pattern, so I wasn't exactly sure that knitting the front bands separately and sewing them on would give me the results I wanted, but it worked perfectly.

I've got both sleeves and both front bands knitted up.  The bottom is still on the needles so I can add length and make this sweater reach at least the top of my thighs, if not longer.  I tried it on, and it looks great.  I think I will be able to finish this one soon.

Ravellenic Games

Every time there are Olympic games, the knitting site Ravelry has the Ravellenics: a sort of knitting competition with teams, badges, and lots of hoopla.  The spirit of the thing is to challenge yourself with a project that is to be completed (more or less) during the time of the Olympic games.

My challenge is to finish this sweater.  I set it aside before the holidays to focus on other things, but now I'm hoping to finish it off in a couple of weeks.  Here's my project page.

When I started I needed sleeves, the front bands, and I'm going to use whatever yarn is left over to lengthen the body. 

At the end of day 4, I've got one sleeve done, and one on the needles.  I'm making pretty good progress.

Chevron on the Brain

There's something irresistible about chevron, and I'm afraid the trend will evaporate as quickly as it's started, but for the time being, in addition to my crocheted chevron afghan, I've cast on this little scarf.

It's an easy and repetitive pattern, the Wavy Lace Scarf, and self-striping sock yarn does the hard work.  I had picked up more than a few of these big balls at Tuesday Morning.

The new year sparked a bit of self-indulgent knitting after making mitts for the family for the holidays.  I finally found the perfect pattern for a ball of mohair yarn with a hint of shiny lurex that I brought back from Italy a couple of years ago.  The Melissa Scarf is an easy, fast and satisfying pattern (even though it has no chevrons).  It feels cozy around my neck in the cold wet weather that has finally blown in.

Mexican Jenny and Other Poems

My new book of poetry, Mexican Jenny and Other Poems, has recently been published by Anhinga Press.  The book was awarded the 2012 Philip Levine Prize.

The book features the story of a Colorado prostitute who in 1913 killed her abusive husband and then served time for murder.  Legend has it that while incarcerated Jenny made a crazy quilt from the clothes she had worn as as a sex worker.  The long narrative poem about Jenny addresses the question of what we can know about events of the past.

Mexican Jenny and Other Poems is available now from Anhinga Press and Amazon  The Ahninga page has a sample of the book and my artist’s statement for your perusal.  I feel a sense of accomplishment that I've found a way to fuse my textile work with my writing, and I'm very proud of this book.

In the interest of keeping it real, here's a new project:

 

57 inches wide, I'm crocheting this chevron afghan from a basket of complimentary stash yarns.  I'll keep going until it gets to hot and big for my lap.  I've still got a ways to go.

Ode to Socks

I'm happy to report I finished my socks.  I don't know how many years it took me to finish this pair, but I remember knitting the leg of sock one on the train from Nice to Florence when we went to Europe a couple of years ago.

I love these colors, and nothing beats the feeling of hand knit socks.  Finishing up a pair of socks reminds me of the poem "Ode to My Socks" by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda:

Mara Mori brought me
a pair of socks
which she knitted herself
with her sheepherder's hands,
two socks as soft as rabbits.
I slipped my feet into them
as if they were two cases
knitted with threads of twilight and goatskin,
Violent socks,
my feet were two fish made of wool,
two long sharks
sea blue, shot through
by one golden thread,
two immense blackbirds,
two cannons,
my feet were honored in this way
by these heavenly socks.
They were so handsome for the first time
my feet seemed to me unacceptable
like two decrepit firemen,
firemen unworthy of that woven fire,
of those glowing socks.

Nevertheless, I resisted the sharp temptation
to save them somewhere as schoolboys
keep fireflies,
as learned men collect
sacred texts,
I resisted the mad impulse to put them
in a golden cage and each day give them
birdseed and pieces of pink melon.
Like explorers in the jungle
who hand over the very rare green deer
to the spit and eat it with remorse,
I stretched out my feet and pulled on
the magnificent socks and then my shoes.

The moral of my ode is this:
beauty is twice beauty
and what is good is doubly good
when it is a matter of two socks
made of wool in winter.

There are so many striking images in this poem.  I think I'll borrow the image of "woven fire" as a nickname for my socks.  

Inspired, I've cast on another pair.  Although I have successfully used a variation of the Roza's Socks pattern several times to knit socks that fit me perfectly, I'm feeling adventurous, and trying a new pattern, Laura Linneman's After Thought Heel Socks.  I figure if they don't fit me, they'll fit someone, and bring them the pleasure of feeling their feet like"two fish made of wool."

2014 Goals

I'm not typically one to make new year's resolutions, but it seems efficient to have some creative goals for the year.

I want to finish the quilt that is taunting me from my design wall.  Quilts are slow going for me these days, so finishing this one will be an accomplishment. 

I want to make one smallish crazy quilt.  I have an idea and a plan, and will not start until summer.

I want to make a quilt for my bed.  Something sedate (unlike the one on my design wall) and tranquil.  It's possible I'll resurrect a UFO for this.

I will finish knitting the two sweaters I have on the needles.  The first one I'll tackle in February.

I'm going to knit myself more socks.  I love hand knit socks.  The pair above have been in process for years.  Over the weekend I picked up sock 1, which only needed the toe knit.  Since then, I've made substantial progress on sock 2: I turned the heel this morning.  If I set my mind to it, I could knit a pair of socks in a week or two.  I'm going to knit lots of socks this year.  For my next pair, I'm going to experiment with after-thought heels.

I think that's enough: a guideline for the new year, but nothing too rigid, with room or spontaneous projects and for some on-going charity stitching.  Wish me luck.

More UFOs

It seemed only fair to finish up some UFOs before I started to plan for projects for the new year.

This free shawl pattern Dream Stripes indulges my stripe fixation, though the pattern has a lace border, and I'm not a fan of lace, neither of knitting it nor wearing it.

I found a nice ribbed border in another free pattern Mizzle, which worked like a charm.  The yarn is some vintage Lion Brand worsted.

 

This other shawl, knit in fingering weight yarn that I recycled and koolaid dyed, proves my point about lace knitting.

Weekend Shawl has a substantial lace border made up of two separate patterns.  I'd done okay with the first, but the second was kind of a mess.

I was able to finish this shawl by ripping out the second lace pattern to a place where I hadn't made too many mistakes.

Done and Done!  Now I'm eyeing the unfinished quilt on my design wall.

La Flor de la Nochebuena

I just put the final stitches into this oooold UFO. She's the sister my Fall Madonna, and here and here are some of the process photos, jeez, from 2010.

I got stuck with this piece because I felt like the Madonna looked like she was floating in space.  Easy fix: I extended the poinsettia swag under her.

This piece is built on a vintage napkin, and features, broiderie perse, silk ribbon embroidery, and lots of beads.   The embellished lace circle represents the new moon.

I had to add a bird.

 The Virgin's beaded skirt references the Mexican national costume, and the poinsettia is native to Mexico, and a flower associated with winter.  La Flor de la Nochebuena, the title of this quilt, comes from one of the Spanish names for this flower, which literally means Christmas Eve Flower.

I have been saving this backing and binding fabric of gold poinsettias for a long time.  The quilt is labelled, like lots of my other quilts, with a vintage doily.

Many blessings in 2014 to all.  I'm relieved to begin the new year with one less unfinished project.

Using My Powers for Good

 

 A student of mine in an intern at a center for youth, and she's asked for outerwear for the kids she's working with.  I decided to make up some hats, the first batch is made of bulky yarn from the Rockstar pattern.

 

I got a little bored and so switched to Keiyla's Basic Beanie and broke out some scraps.   This runs a bit big if you want to knit for someone with a bigger head.  Both patterns are free on line.

 Continuing the children's clothes-making for Debra's project, I sewed up this size 6 dress.

Contrasting facing makes for a fun deail.

 Instead of gathering the fabric for a ruffle, I stitched on some eyelet, so the finishing was super fast.

 

After this my Janome had a bit of a meltdown, and I had to take it to the repair shop.  This gave me the chance to dust off one of my old Singers, the 301 and to oil it up to sew a couple of pairs of shorts I'd cut out.  Boy the stitch on these old machines is a thing of beauty.

Toasty

We're doing what we can here to stay toasty.  The temperatures have been very cold all week: down to the mid-20s overnight, and barely scratching 40 degrees during the day.  I  wanted some long fingerless gloves to keep my wrists warm, so I knit these up from a partial ball of worsted weight wool

The pattern Toasty, is free on line.  I added ribbing to make it fit more snugly, and I'm thinking of adding some crewel embroidery.

I finished the scarf/shawl I was weaving from self-striping sock yarns on my rigid heddle loom.  Here you see it before I twisted the fringes and wet blocked it.

I also used a fine yarn with tiny sequins, which you can see in this photo.  Note to self:  in the future save any yarns that might snag in the heddles for the weft only.  I like how it looks, but it was slow going easing those sequins out of the heddles.

It's too cold to do much in the way of outdoor activities, so I'll warp up  another shawl.  I'm learning a lot about what yarns do best in the warp, so this next one should be smooth sailing.