A little setback...

Hi y'all. There are more pictures and good stuff coming, honest. I had a good plan for catching up but I had a little accident that has set me back a little. Yesterday I lunged across our little bathroom to catch a falling bottle and mangled a muscle in my hip. Made my sciatic nerve mad too. So my war with the dust/thread bunnies had to wait a while. But not too long. At least today I could walk a little.

While my Roomba was scurrying around my room today I dragged the big vac with the long hose in here so I could sit in my chair and get those corners under my desk. Roomba doesn't do corners very well. Anyway, I would have waited to do this tomorrow but while I was having a nap after breakfast my computer shut itself down and wouldn't wake up. Seems the dust bunnies and the 104f temperature today overwhelmed it and the fact that the a/c was on along with a fan didn't help at all. So I just had to wage war with the hoard and rescue my computer. Vacuumed all around it then opened it up and vacuumed it inside. Not too bad but the poor heat sink was hot enough to roast marshmallows. So I aimed a fan at the heat sink for a while until it cooled down, crossed my fingers and turned it on. I was SO happy to hear that lovely Mac "bong"! Now I am keeping a fan on the space in the back so it doesn't happen again. Keeping a better handle on the dust/thread bunny herd would be a good thing too, ya think?

Haven't picked up my knitting yet. My right thumb, the one with the worst beginnings of arthritis, has started "clicking" for want of a better term. It's a weird sensation to say the least. Doesn't make it hurt any more than it did so for now it's just a strange thing. I WILL knit tomorrow!

Lastly, a dear friend's young daughter has been diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma and is about to start treatment. Very scary. The round robin I was just working on is for her Mom. They are in my prayers. And another friend just went through two dental abcesses at the same time and is suffering the after effects in a very hard way. She is in my prayers too. All extra prayers are welcome!

Nighty night all!

Where have I been?

Hi all! This will just be a short entry, but it's a start on catching up. This is the round robin quilt top I have been slaving over. Mailed it to the last participant today. Tomorrow I hope to start getting my life back together!



My studio is a total disaster area! The dust bunnies are ganging up with the thread bunnies and are harassing the kitties! SO much to do tomorrow!!!

Happy Mom's Day and more

Hope all you Moms and GrandMoms and Great GrandMoms and Moms-to-be had a lovely day today. Mine was nice. But you see, it was my birthday too. I wasn't all that excited about this birthday and completely expected it to be all about Mother's Day. But it was definitely more all about surprises.

Woke up to a wonderful breakfast (I trained him well) presented with a large scrumptious rose from our front yard.



Yesterday an old, eccentric friend of the family had awakened us at dawn, bringing a box of birthday groceries. The older I get the more groceries the old dear brings. :o) And last week another old dear, a 93 year old schoolteacher who's garden Alex takes care of, sent a yummy lemon bundt cake and a sweet card. Um, no picture. The cake barely survived until Saturday. But the cake came in a beautiful hatbox!



After breakfast there appeared on the table a gorgeous bowl of my favorite sugar free pecan turtles. But the bowl! It is a hat, hand blown glass, white with pink in-the-glass decoration, a green hatband and a pink rose. Absolutely sublime addition to my glass collection.



The bowl is empty because I put all the turtles in a safe box and took the hat/bowl over to show my Mom.



Isn't that beautiful!? Oh, there was a bottle of Wisteria toilette water from Crabtree & Evelyn too.

Then we packed up some groceries for Mom and a special loaf of whole wheat raisin cinnamon walnut bread I baked last night, a couple of my turtles, put the glass hat in my new hatbox and headed over to Mom's. She loved the hat and the hatbox, and said she would have some of the bread with a cup of coffee later. She gave me a card with $20 for a "fun" haircut. And my sister, who had visited from Oregon last weekend, left behind a sweet card with a couple of silly pens. She said they looked like they were wearing stripedy socks, a nod to my knitting.



Home again after doing some chores for Mom, we collapsed in front of a fan for a nap. Very hot today. After dark I was busy recording mysteries etc., Alex was about to start dinner, and his sister and our 2 nephews are at the door. This is the first time in 32 years she has actually gotten here ON my birthday! Usually it's a few days later (but just as fun). And oh boy, bearing goodies! One of her yummy, very chocolate cakes. Which we sat down and ate with the ice cream from the birthday groceries. Before dinner!!!



I had asked Mary if she would start lap swimming with me now and then. She gave me these beautiful beach towels. They are huge! Even bigger than the bath sheets we use in the bathroom. I can't wait to use them!



The nephews gave me the movie Narnia, which I have wanted very much to see. And a quirky "Half Baked" cookbook illustrated with wonderful cartoons by Charles Addams.



Much later we had a midnight steak dinner. Oh yes, and the cards. The black and white one on the right is a kitten sleeping in a hammock. So sweet!



So, a wonderful day, full of truly unexpected surprises. Boy! If this is what happens when I make light of turning 58, what's next year going to be like?

Must end this before the blog police get after me for so many pictures in one post. :o) Time to go nighty night. Love to all, and to all a good night!

Where have I been?

Hi Folks! It has been a very busy time around here since my last post. My Mom had another fall. This one assisted by a 4 year old neighbor who leaped off the stairs and into her arms for a hug. Wasn't very funny at the time but in hindsight someone should have been there yelling "timber!". Mom went over backwards like a felled tree and wrenched the living daylights out of her back. Took a couple of days to convince her that she needed to go to the ER. The fact that she couldn't move at all and was in immense pain might have had something to do with it.

So after a day and a night in the ER zonked out on morphine and muscle relaxants she was transferred to a convalescent hospital for a week or so. Last year's fall put her in a convalescent hospital that was about 15 minutes away. This time it was waaay out of town, about 40 minutes. So DH and I took turns going to see her everyday. Got her home and tucked in last Wednesday and she is getting better every day.

Then my younger sister decided she needed to come down from Oregon on the train and stay with Mom for a few days. I guess she needed to see for herself that Mom didn't really have one foot in the grave and was as well off as I and Mom had been telling her. That visit went well enough and we loaded her back on the train tonight. Now, hopefully, life will begin to get back to some semblance of order. (Knock on wood!)

I received the next round robin to work on. Not sure yet what I am going to do, but I have a couple of ideas. Here is what it looks like now.



And for L&L here are some pics of the sleeve of a new shrug I am working on. In the first pic I thought I'd be clever and put the cuff over my lamp to show the "lace" off better. Not real successful in my opinion.



Here's one of the sleeve "laid out" so to speak.



The lace swirls around the sleeve because all of the decreases are done exactly the same, all in one direction. And the colors swirl around and climb up the sleeve. Gradually, every 16 rows, I am replacing some of the lace with stockinette, until there is no lace left. I've just changed to a larger needle and will knit the last of the sleeve and the back in plain stockinette. The next 2 pics show the gradual changes.



If you look closely you can see the stockinette beginning to be introduced.



And here you can see the stockinette is almost solid at the top. After another 20 or so rows of plain stockinette I will start knitting back and forth for the back. Wonder what the colors will do?

So there you have it. Love to have some comments on the sleeve so far. I am off to bed now and a deep, healing sleep. "Sleep knits up the raveled sleeve of time..." Good old Shakespeare!

Round Robin 3 pics

Here are a couple of pics. The darker one shows the fabrics better. The one with the light shining through it is kind of pretty too. Enjoy!

I'm gonna dash off and show it to Mom. Then mail it on the way back. Then I'm gonna come home and crash!

Very Brief Report

Just a quick note to my two dear blog-greedy Ls up north... it is nearly 6am and I am still sewing. Just be a little more patient. Today is the day!

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone had a nice Easter Sunday and enjoyed your celebrations. We had our usual family dinner, with a lovely ham and all the fixin's. Everyone waddled out the door around 10pm. We had a late dinner so that nephew Seth could join us after work.

We tweaked our traditions a bit this year. Alex and I have been doing baskets for each other for 29 years. And cleaning up green kitty burps for days afterward every year. So I suggested not doing baskets this year and using our little collection of glass baskets instead. After all, they just sit on the sideboard getting dusty all the time. Better we should use them! Alex grumbled a bit but went along with it.

But when I said I didn't feel like coloring eggs this year poor old traditional Alex positively balked. Seventy year old Scots are verra gude at balking! He went right out and bought more eggs and a coloring kit. A new kind that uses liquid coloring and little sponges and makes a very colorful mess. He did a lovely job and I was very proud of him. A new tradition is born!

The Easter Bunny did us proud with all the empty glass baskets, for they were all filled with goodies this morning. Have a look!



This is one end of the table...



and this is the other.



This is a fun dish we use every year.



These are Alex's beautiful Easter eggs in a lovely Fenton glass dish he found at our annual Peddler's Faire.



This is a better look at the first 3 glass baskets. The one on the right has little silver roses where the handle attaches to the basket and the roses are signed. This is the first glass basket Alex gave me and it came from Macys years ago.

The middle basket is Fenton "Hobnail" and was found at Peddler's Faire.

The left basket is another from Peddler's Faire. I think it is Fenton but not positive. It is filled with what is now known as "hiding" eggs, which is what I grew up with and they get harder to find every year. My Mom is particularly fond of them too and, just before she went home, I spied her stashing a few in her pockets while everyone else was heading for the front door. I nearly died trying not to laugh! I would love to sneak into her house one Easter and hide eggs all over the place for her to find, like when I was a kid. She would love it!



This is a better look at the other 3 baskets. The one on the right is Fenton and a match for the dish with the painted eggs.

The one on the left is a little "cut" crystal (actually molded but very pretty) basket from... you guessed it, the Peddler's Faire.

And the green one in the middle is my favorite, another signed original from Macys. Last year the handle was broken off at the edge of the basket on both sides by felons (feline) unknown. Hooray for super glue!



This tall slender one arrived one Christmas, filled with cashews but not for long. *grin* Santa's helper confided that it might have come from a local collectibles shop. I don't remember if it is signed.

Well, that was a full day and night! I'm off to bed. Nighty night!

Next round robin

Been awfully busy with design deadlines and a few other things. But I just got the next round robin and thought you might like to see it. For the first time I had several ideas right away, well... with the generous help of someone with a PC and a copy of EQ. And my husband, and my SIL and nephew. :o) Anyway, I know just what I am going to do. Here's the before.



And here's how the after will (hopefully) look like.



I like the balance of it.

Now I have to go to bed early because there is a sudden family luncheon at my house tomorrow and everyone will be here before I am usually out of bed. So nighty night!

RR #2 is on the way!

Finally finished my part on round robin #2 and am ready to pack it up and send it on to the next person. I was moving like molasses yesterday and just couldn't get the last frame border on before I fell into bed. And the sky was already getting light! Anyway, here it is.



The last person who worked on it and sent it to me said she thought it needed "calming down". Well, I don't know how much I calmed it down but I definitely lightened and brightened it. Those Spring/Easter colors were just calling me. And if it's too much or too little, then I hope my little gifts of love in the corners make up for it.

Now I have to get started on a slipper! Until next time, y'all be good! :o)

Almost but not quite!

Well, dear reader(s), I have 3 of the 4 wide borders done on the round robin so no picture yet. First thing tomorrow will finish the last wide border, then add a thin frame border. Then I will take a picture to post tomorrow night. Promise!

Been playing musical money with my accounts. The Fed refund is supposed to deposit tomorrow so I am praying.

Lois, hope you had a wonderful day playing tourist in Vancouver. I would have loved to be with you. It has been so long since I was there I bet I would hardly recognize the place anymore.

That's all for tonight. I am off to my cozy bed as the rain beats down yet again. Nighty night!

Time is flying!

Miss me? Sorry I haven't posted for a while. Finished the crochet project and the pattern is now in review by the publisher. Started working on another pattern project, knitted this time. A shrug in Schaefer's Elaine in the color called "Snoopy's Crayons". I love this stuff! Here's a little peek at one sleeve in progress.



I hear a lot of knitters fussing about "pooling", where the color in a hand painted yarn will begin to make pools of color instead of stripes. Well, I like it! It's fascinating to see how the color changes with only a few stitches decreased.. This is also going to be submitted for publication, in a knitting magazine this time. Wonder what they will say about the pooling? Maybe make me knit another one with yarn that won't pool? Fine with me. I want to keep this one anyway. Can anyone recommend a thick & thin bulky multicolor yarn that can't pool?

Took a short break from knitting to get this next round robin done. Have to mail it on Friday. Finally decided I was going to do a wide border of several pastels. It's going to be a checkerboard type border. But the corners will add a little gift of love. :o)



That was my first try at paper piecing! It was a 6" block but I shrank it down to a 3" block. I love to do itty bitty things. Just my personal craziness. Well, one of them anyway. I've made so many miniature quilts compared to how many full sized I've made. They're just so fast and fun! I have a gazillion quilts in my head I'd like to make but will never live long enough. Making them in miniature gets some of that out of my system. Anyway, these little gift wrapped hearts will go in the corners of the Sunbonnet Sue round robin. I'll post a picture of it before I mail it.

And my slipper pattern has been accepted and they want a sample quick! And the shrug pattern is on a deadline too. And a cabled bag pattern. Whew! I feel sorry for anyone who is bored being retired. Poor yes, but never bored.

Have you done your taxes yet? I did mine last week. Had no income to report except my little "profit sharing", which had 20% Fed tax taken out. So, a nice little return from the Feds, and pay a part of it to the State. But it sure will help since the nest egg is almost gone.

Let me see, what else has been keeping me busy? Finally signed up for unemployment. To h-e-double-hockey-sticks to the boss who swore he would fight unemployment, as he fired me, while I was in the hospital. I have to have a phone interview next month and tell the sad details all over again. Don't look forward to that at all. Probably have to explain again why I didn't get a lawyer when my workman's comp was denied. Lawyers are expensive! And how do you fight someone who has lots of money and lots of lawyers and no morals about lying and getting others to lie for him too? Oh, don't get me started!

Ok, I am calm now. 8*} About time to wind down and get to bed. Gonna finish that border on the round robin tomorrow and then back to knitting. Gotta get a sample slipper done, quick! Nighty night everyone! Love and hugs!

Sidetracked again!

Just when I thought I was free to knit again something else comes up. An invitation to submit a crochet design for a book. Can't pass that up. I need income! Can't show the design but you can peek at the sample.



That's all you get to see. Don't mean to tease. :o)

Haven't done this for so long that my crochet callus on my ring finger has to build up again. Can you say sore?

That's about it right now. Still watching my Olympic tapes and enjoying all of it so much. Storm after storm after storm has been coming through. We even had a rare tornado warning this afternoon in our county. Rain, hail, even snow down at sea level but none in my yard. Very rare for the California Bay Area. I love it!

Gotta do a couple more rows before bed. Seeya!

Always seem to be...

...trying to catch up! So let's see. Pieced 2 sets (24 blocks) of Origami Bow Ties in Civil War reproduction fabrics, sewn on my 1876 Singer New Family model 12. The old gal did quite a good job and I am proud of her. Not bad for 130 years old! Got the blocks all signed and mailed off my "squishy" today. In a couple of weeks I'll get back another squishy with 24 blocks from other exchange participants.




Got the next Round Robin to work on in the mail Saturday. It's so cute! I think the computer need a teensy little Mac Apple on it. And Miss Sunbonnet Sue needs some lace and ruffles. Not sure what I'm going to do for a border. The last person to work on it seems to think it needs "calming down". Hmmm...



Finally got around to mailing my granddaughter's ruffly wrist warmers to her. I'm starting to get used to going to the post office. It's close enough to be a quick trip that doesn't leave me super anxious to "just get home". Even Alex is a little impressed that I am going out to run little errands more often. Maybe there's hope for the old hermit after all! :o)

I am itching to get back to knitting! Got to do a couple of quick design submissions for a new crochet book first though. And I can't leave the Round Robin until the last minute this time. HAVE to mail it by the 31st! And the taxes are waiting to be done. It will be interesting this time, after my first year of retirement.

Well, time for bed. Nighty night!

Feelin' old

It's surprising how much 3 days of intensive piecing, after years of not making all those movements, can affect older muscles and bones. You hold your entire body differently when using a sewing machine. And rotary cutting layers of fabric on the dining room table? OY! My back, my hands... ow!

I woke up today wondering if I was coming down with the flu. Aching all over and moving like molasses in Winter. Getting physically older is a drag! No other symptoms though, just achy and tired, tired, tired!

So I had my cup of hot Ovaltine and took some Advil and went off to the post office to mail the Round Robin. Got a bright yellow box for it, the same yellow of the blooming Oxalis that is swallowing up my front yard. Also mailed another DVD to my cyber twin. (Hi Laura!) Came home and made breakfast and commenced to wade through the 300+ emails waiting for me since I hardly read any yesterday. Just finished the last one half an hour ago! Whew!

So I made it through the day with just a very short nap. Did 7 loads of laundry, read all my email and thought about all that I plan to do tomorrow. My desk is an incredible mess, as usual. Need to tidy up my fabrics, pay the bills (ugh), vacuum up the thread bunnies and maybe work in a lovely hot shower. My Mom had one of those new baths installed, the kind you walk into, shut the door and sit down. No more trying to struggle up out of a slippery tub. I'm going to try it out when she cruises off to Turkey this month.

Well, I should get to bed. It is storming again tonight so I should sleep good. See y'all later!

Round Robin #1

Tonight finished three intense days of measuring and cutting and piecing and sewing and pressing and snipping and remembering what it was like to do this all the time. Now it's time to pack it up and mail it on to the next Robin. The next one is already in the mail to me and I am definitely not going to procrastinate on this one! Here's a picture of what I added to the center square.



I chose colors out of Kelly's background fabric to use in the flying geese. She wants her block to end up on point so, at first I was trying to figure out what to do for corners to do what she wants. But I wasn't inspired so I'll let the next person figure out the corners. :o) The geese are all flying toward the point so I at least acknowledged Kelly's wish.

Next I need to sew a bunch of blocks using my 1890's hand cranked Singer sewing machine and Civil War reproduction fabrics. Have to get those in the mail by Saturday. Then a little break to finish the slipper patterns and then start contemplating the next Round Robin center.

I recorded ALL the Olympics because I didn't want to miss anything and I knew I wouldn't be able to catch it all "live". Tonight I watched the women's snowboarding. One of them is named Gretchen! How cool is that! Someone in the crowd was holding up a huge sign that said Gretchen USA. Love it!

Well, been a long day and I am ready to rest. Lots to do tomorrow! G'night all!

Rip it out! Do it over! Make it better!

I swear! I can't stop! I finish knitting something. I look at it and I see ways it can, and should be improved. Especially when it is something I am designing and hope to be able to sell.

What do you call that? NO! I am NOT a perfectionist! Really! I'm not! Anyone who could see my house, especially my studio, would know that in an instant.

Sometimes I am sort of embarrassed when someone exclaims over something I've created. But they don't know that that itty bitty stuffed heart somewhere on the quilt covers a booboo, a blood stain, an "oops" in the fabric. It's sort of my signature on any quilt I make. Or that the slipper when folded flat looks fine, except that if you look at the whole thing you see that the toe is off center because my center marker fell off the needle and I put it back in the wrong place. Aaargh!!!

But I do know I can do better. This slipper pattern is just making me a little crazy I guess. Gonna take a break this weekend and get the Round Robin done. I have to mail it by Tuesday and I haven't even pulled out fabrics for it! I know, in my head, what I am going to do but I really shouldn't have waited so long. My bad! Not to mention the deadline for mailing the Civil War bow tie blocks for the TreadleOn exchange is next Friday.

Hello. My name is Gretchen and I am a Procrastinator. Is there a program??? I make these "to do" lists and if I accomplish half of it in a week I'm doing good. I won't even tell you the kind of everyday, normal things I put on my lists. It's shameful.

So, tomorrow I sew. There! I've given myself permission to rip out the slippers tonight before I go to bed. Oooh! I feel better already! Hmmm... blogging is good therapy! :o)

Brief Report

Knitted up the sole of the Men's medium size (11) with the Highland Chunky but it wasn't tight enough for me. "Grin through" in the sole is not a good thing. :o) It would probably be good with a smaller needle and would make a smaller size. Hmmm... gives me ideas! Oh, I forgot to mention that one skein of the Sierra made one slipper, with about 2 yards left over. The Sierra is 110 yards so one skein of Cascade 220, knitting with 2 strands, works just as well.

So I'm going back to the Sierra in a different color for now. I've had one person say they liked the unfolded cuff better because it made the big foot seem more in proportion. And another that liked the turned down cuff better because it looked more slipper-like. I like it both ways but, to me, the turned down one is stuffed to look more like a natural foot.

That's it. Just a short note. Just so y'all know I'm thinkin' of ya. :o)

PROGRESS!

Well, I finally successfully completed a Men's Large sample slipper. Size 13 is so big! I took 2 pictures. The first one with the cuff not folded and the foot stuffed with several balls of sock yarn. The second is with the cuff folded and the foot shaped with a couple of round little candy cans and one ball of sock yarn. Which one do y'all like?





I guess to me #2 looks more like a normal foot. It's just so huge!

So tonight I've cast on for the Men's medium in a nice heathery blue Highland Chunky from Elann. The green one is in KnitPicks Bulky Sierra. Lovely stuff! The Elann isn't as tightly twisted as the KnitPicks so we shall see how it stands up. I think this would be nice in a patterned yarn too. Have to play with that when there is time.

Been glued to the Olympics. Tonight was the best so far. It was so nice to see the ice dancing with no falls or terrible mistakes. I am really looking forward to the start of figure skating tomorrow.

Well, that all for now. The Men's medium shouldn't take as long as the large because I don't have to rewrite the pattern as I am knitting. (Knock on wood!) Y'all be good now!

Math weary brain

Sorry for the lack of postings lately. Between keeping up with the Olympic schedule and taping all I can, and slaving over the Men's sizes in my slipper pattern I haven't felt very chatty.

I wouldn't say I'm a math whiz but I was a bookkeeper for 35 years. So most math problems in knitting and quilting aren't a big deal. But one of the things I've been wrestling with in the Men's sizes was how much to knit back after a wrap and turn. After going to bed with a math induced headache for a couple of nights I just had to break out the graph paper. Thank goodness it worked!!! Now I can get on with knitting samples for pictures. This poor yarn I've been using for the test knitting has been frogged and re-knitted SO many times it is begging for mercy.

But I am having another little problem that I need to solve. I get a hole wherever I do a wrap and turn. I think it's the wrap that's doing it. Maybe I'll just try it without the wrap and see.

Had a nice Valentine's Day and hope you all did too. Alex gave me a lovely bouquet of flowers, a box of my favorite sugar free pecan turtles, a very sweet card and made steak and mushrooms and asparagus for dinner. I made him a special card and gave him a big box of his favorite cherry cordials. Santa gave him some for Christmas but, um, he didn't get many of them. (Smirk, they were very good!)

Then our nephew Seth came over with a box of cookies, a Bonsai Bear book for Alex (who is a bonsai master) and Wallace & Gromit Curse of the Were Rabbit DVD for me. He is such a sweetie!

I vacuumed my studio today. Maybe that helped the math? Whatever, I am just so relieved to be able to move on! I have to get to work on the Round Robin center and get it on its way. And I have bow tie blocks to sew on my pre 1900 handcrank Singer with Civil War reprduction fabrics. And there is a mystery shawl about to start. And... and... you get the picture. So, maybe tomorrow I'll get around to some pictures. :o)

Happy teeth!

This is just a short little post to wish my friend Lois to GET WELL SOON!!!