Q2'25 (4/16)

Not a lot done...

• 
• Another rice bag (there's a separate post on this).
• Two Gnomes (pictured along with the first one). I did dye 9 different colors of yarn for the gnomes, so that's something, right? And I have a lot of yarn that'll be leftover. Thinking of a sweater.
• Alabama Channin class sample (no photo). This is an intriguing combo of cotton jersey, stenciling and hand embroidery; I've completed the sample and am ready to start on the scarf kit. Thinking of doing some more of her projects (and in fact, just ordered some fabric!)

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I had a lot on the list from last quarter that I didn't do. I came back from the CNCH/Scotland/Portland triple header with some sort of non-Covid ick, and so far haven't been motivated to do anything much in the studio, or really anything much at all.

There's a CNCH class sample: I have a bobbin full of singles from the CNCH class, not sure what to do with these.

I do have the following that I'm working on:

• Lily Sweater, designed by Dan Doh. It's an oversize lacy pullover in linen; I've got it all done except for one sleeve. 
• The April cardigan still just needs button and the ends woven in...
• I cut the rest of the leaves for the mosaic table, now I need to make some design decisions and get to work on finishing it.
• I'm pretty sure I plied up a bunch of the singles I had sitting around but I can't remember? I'm sure they're here somewhere.
• I've started warping a loom but it's slow going.

In the past few quarterly recaps, I've added the list of unfinished projects and things I want to work on. I'm going to omit that this time and see if it changes how I feel about getting things done.

Dal and not a lot else....

I've been travelling a lot; three weeks in Northern England/Scotland, and then a 4 day girls trip to Portland... And I came home with that chest cold that's going around Europe. And I've been actively avoiding my studio. Not sure why? But it feels a little like an existential crisis. At some point I'll get to the bottom of it.

We did some shopping in Portland... I would have to recommend Northwest Wools and For Yarn's Sake! Ritual Dyes was also awesome; they do a lot of their own dyeing (not exclusively) and I came home with enough of their house-dyed linen for a goregous summer top.

What exactly have I been working on?

• I spent this morning cleaning out the mosaic studio and am working towards the next step towards finishing it. That was especially good because I may be looking at glass tomorrow on an expedition to see my sister.
• I finished the front and back of the Dan Doh Lily sweater; I'll need to blocks those before I can sew them together and pick up and knit the sleeves on.
• As "idiot knitting", I've cast on another gnome. A nearly finished gnome that I started in Portland just needs stuffing.
• I took an Alabama Channin class (with P.!) in embellishing with embroidery... I've worked through the class sampler. It's quite a bit of fun. I'll be starting on a scarf where the ends are embelllished (adding beads). Right now trying to figure that out. 
• I started warping the loom for another Weave In, but only have 2 other people who can come... I think we're going to cancel and move to November or January. Meanwhile, I need to figure out what to do with my warp... 

I did make this dal recipe and promptly forgot the tadka. It was awesome anyways. I made a double recipe using all red lentils. I'm now looking for something else to fill up the freezer...

I do hate a post without a photo; then the Thumbnail is so boring. Here's my boy enjoying a warm June day, right before he rolls in the dirt and becomes a disgusting ball of dirt.

Currently clean, not for long

Another Rice Bag

These are seriously fun to make... So much so that I'll give this one it's own page and show all 4 sides. 

This bag will go to JN who has been organizing a local event I'm volunteering at; feels like she's lived the event for the last few months and I think she deserves something pretty. JN is a master craftsperson and totally worthy of hand crafted goods.

Not pictured, the heavily (machine) quilted bag bottom, and the liner made from fabric with little paw prints on it... complete with a zipper pocket. 

I have the sides for the last bag pieced and ready for embroidery. Then I think I'm done with komebukuro, at least the fancy hand done kind. I may make some on the embroidery machine...

Went a little off pattern on this side but love the results, Note the fine way I've joined the ties! 
I made notes just in case I forget what I did, and put them in the pattern.

Rick-rack just makes everything better and yes, you can put beads on it!

Fussy-cutting at it's best

Nothing fancy here but I just like it.

Q1'25 FInished list (12)

My Pebble Beach Shawl matches the
Anthony Murphy
painting in the bedroom

Apparently I haven't been photographing things, as I'm finding a lot of mentions of items without any documentation. So this will be photo-heavy. What have I finished this quarter?

Knitting:

• Modular vest: it's proved to be a great little vest for around the house, keeping me warm when I'm a little chilly. 
• Pebble beach shawl: "finished" 7 years ago, but I hated it and put it away with plans to rip it out. I found it last month and don't hate it anymore. Hard to count it as a finished object since all I did was block it and weave in the ends, but will do so as it's no longer in the studio but living in the closet.

Modular Vest

• A gnome.

 Printing:

• An edition of snowflake postcards
• An edition of quail postcards

Weaving:

• 2nd pennywise runner (with issues)
• 4 towels; 3 with carrots, 1 with corn (not pictured).

Carrots hanging out in the kitchen

Spinning

• The Diver's Cove roving is now a 2 ply lace weight yarn, all except for the dregs on one bobbin. I'll ply that with something leftover from another effort.

Other:

• Bunny shopping bag: I used a machine embroidery pattern by Urban Threads with bunnies and carrots to make a shopping bag/tote using yardage from my stash. Why do I have carrot fabric in my stash? I have no idea. The bag is super cute, and is going to the same charity as the carrot towels.

FOR Q2:

I'll still be out of the studio a lot but should be able to finish:

• The April cardigan just needs button and the ends woven in...
• I have a bobbin of merino/tencel singles that I've started plying, more blues.
• Would be nice to ply up some of the oddball spools
• I'm taking a spinning class at CNCH, not sure what the result will be.
• 2-3 more prints, hopefully a 2 color print in the batch,
• Doubleweave pillows; pattern is drafted, yarn is on the shelf waiting.
• A waffle weave project for the study group.

And hopefully make some progress on:

• The pink hawaiian baby quilt
• The in-progress table
• And maybe some stepping stone. I'm rethinking designs.

(19 things as of 12/25/24)

Spring-like projects!

It feels like anything going on the studios has slowed to a crawl... I do have a lot going on but I think the political situation is causing a lot of stress, making me feel like I'm swimming through Jello. Anyways, I have been doing some studio work.

The carrot towels are done; the towels are plain except for the carrot border.  The one with yellow is supposed to be corn (?); I think I did something wrong. That one will go into my towel drawer, and the other three will go to a charity auction. I'll put the photo into the finishing list.

I'm making a tote/shopping bag for the auction as well; it's changing too fast for a photo. I currently have one side of the bag quilted and trimmed, and am most of the way through the 2nd side. I'm practicing some of the machine quilting skills I'd like to be better at. Then it's just sewing it all together; should be able to finish next week and put it in the mail to the charity with the towels!

An early photo of the tote side...

In searching for quilt batting, I found an pink Hawaiian quilt top (baby sized) with backing and batting; if I recall correctly, I bought it, partially complete, at a guild auction 20+ years ago?  I'm looking forward to quilting that outside on the deck this summer. There's a blue one somewhere in the studio as well... Hoping I can find and quilt it too! 

The April sweater is almost done, just in time for April. I followed the instructions for the bind off, to discover that it was too loose and it rippled along the front.  I know better.... I ripped it out and started the button band again, picking up 2 for every 3 rows (pattern said pick up one in every row). Let's see if that helps.

I also found a completed shawl I made 7 years ago that I hated at the time; so I threw it in a bag and planned on ripping it out and reusing the wool. I actually like it now. So it's blocked and in the closet.  I'll add a photo later.

Coming up? I need a new knitting project, a new weaving project, and an old quilting project to resurrect. 

Quail! and everything else...

For my 2nd print of the year, I wanted to work through some of the issues from January, and experiment with texture. I looked at a lot of bird prints by Molly Hashimoto and others, and then picked a photo of a quail in motion to work from. I did a run of 21 and will probably discard 3 of them. Just some notes:

Not my dinner

• Looking at the feather markings on the neck made me realize I needed some narrow small cuts; on the breast, I need some chunky cuts. I practiced these on scrap linoleum, traced the photo, then carved the block.
• I mixed too much ink extender to make the ink more fluid, which made my prints too light. Once I worked with plain black ink, I had more luck.
• I used a brand new Ritualis printing press and enjoyed it so much more than using a baren. The press is pretty basic but the prints were good once I solved the ink issue.
• I had some pretty small cuts, like around the quail's eye; at one point I overinked the block and lost some of that detail. I stopped, cleaned the block, and restarted and it was fine.
• I cleaned the block afterwards with vegetable oil instead of water and the block didn't warp. This is a win.
• I used a different card stock, not a watercolor card; I hoping this takes less time to dry. I'll move the cards out into a sunny spot when they're less tacky.
• What's next? I'd like to do a quick card for April, then start working on a two color card to send in May before we leave on vacation. I'd like to find an image from our holiday after that.

Foodwise, I'm not doing anything that interesting. Friday night we grilled some salmon and opened a 2017 Azienda Agricola Valentini Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo which was wonderful. Tonight we'll have Shakshuka from a NYT recipe.

Other than that, I've prioritized some other things in January; between German classes, piano, and walking as much as possible (but still not enough), I've had to give up a lot of my art time. I'm not complaining, it's just a shift in priority. 

• I finished the 2nd Pennywise runner... Part of the apron strings on my loom broke while weaving and some of the weaving is noticeably skewed. And it's short because I miscalculated the warp length. Not sure what I'll do with it but thinking of slicing it up for parts.
• The Modular vest is done and quite wearable. I've worn it around the house on cooler days and now I want more vests.
• I'm still working on the blue cashmere sweater, knitting the 2nd sleeve now. I haven't checked the fit.
• There are 3 towels done on the loom, I'm working on the final one.

A Gnome

This year is flying by!!! What have I been doing?    

After Mom died (thirteen years ago yesterday!) I brought her two hutches home with me, plus all the contents that the family didn't want. My plan was to hold them for some time for any of my nieces. I've thoroughly enjoyed hosting them and they are beautiful antiques but it's time for me to have other things in my house... None of my nieces want them... But I was surprised to hear my brother wanted them!!! So I spent the month of January documenting the contents, surveying my siblings to what they wanted, and packing and shipping stuff off to the Beloved Brother (BB); I have another box packed up for my sister. I still have a few boxes of things to settle in... but the house no longer looks like a garage sale, and we have a couple of large areas that need some small furniture and some art.

My gnome is on the far left like my politics

That and for some reason I'm unable to say no to anything. I'm in a drawing class. I'm in a German class. I'm in training to walk along Hadrian's wall. I hosted a weave in. I'm working at a conference. Then to top it all off, I spent 4 days being miserable after a vaccine.  And I signed up for a half day Gnome Knitting class, taught by Sara from Never Not Gnoming at A Pop of Color in Morgan Hill. 

Six of the nine of us from my Monday knit group were in attendance; the picture has four of our gnomes plus a tiny gnome the teacher made. The class was great! The class logistics were super and there were even snacks! We had a great time. I'm deciding if I need gnomes on my Christmas tree this year (if so I better start knitting them!)

Z subdues a gnaughty gnome

My gnome may or may not have been left where it was able to cause trouble... No worries, Z caught it and subdued it. 

Not much else has been happening fiber wise. I've completed a carrot towel but it's still on the loom... It's very cute. I've been spinning a little, and still working on my cashmere cardigan. I've also bought a small printing press but haven't tested it yet (I need to carve a new block).

Foodwise, it's all about keeping the freezer full, mostly soups... Tomorrow, for Valentines Day, I'll be making lemon souffles for dessert; dinner is still undecided!  I'll be back to cooking more interesting things shortly.

The drawing class has been interesting. I drew a section of Hadrian's wall from a photo (this still needs work).  In drawing it, I noticed how wide it was at the top (you could tell in the photo); wikipedia tells me it was about 8' across (2.5M?). The stones weren't as regular as in my drawing, but they definitely looked hewn and not just randomly gathered.  Those clever Romans! I'm not sure if I would have made these observations without trying to draw it. 

Drawing in pencil of a section of Hadrian's wall