For the longest time...

Not only has it been a long time since I posted, that's one of the songs we're learning for our Sweet Adelines show in Nov.--and I have a short duet to sing in the middle of it--nervous making! We're also preparing for an A Capella Workshop as an educational outreach for the community, selling water at the Trails West! festival next weekend (it's only supposed to be 101--oh, well, sales should be good), and a couple of other singing engagements. I volunteered to help organize the show...then found out that puts me in charge for next year! Script committee, costumes, publicity...oh, my! Now you know I wouldn't do it if I didn't love it!

The Fourth of July found me in St. Charles with Deborah, enjoying the fireworks:

I finished my purse! the result makes me very happy! I really enjoyed doing all of the embroidery stitches!

I made pockets just to fit my camera, phone and a pen, then a bigger one on the other side so I can drop my keys in there and not have to dig around forever to find them:
One last picture. I've shown the view from my back porch in winter and summer. Here's a sunset from my front porch:

quilted bag

Had to show my version of the school house quilt block. I used the traditional red, but used a white on black music print for the door, windows and chimneys. The outline and eaves are a black on white print that luckily had the musical staff in a straight line. Each fall our Sweet Adelines region has a Regional Educational Symposium...referred to by everyone as "music school"...hence the embroidered name. The inside is lined and has pockets, using the black on white print. It's machine quilted (I will leave the hand quilting to those with more talent and patience!). Just had to share.

It's a purse!

At least it will be a purse soon! My daughter gave me this scrumptious Vogue pattern and several delightful prints and I have been busy doing the crazy-quilt thing. I tried taking the easy way out and doing machine embroidery, but I have an older machine and the choices just didn't make me happy, so...

I've been embroidering the edges by hand. Much slower, but much more satisfactory! I had sort of forgotten how much fun this can be. (Thanks, Deb!) The piece that looks like Chinese writing in the upper left is what I will be using for the lining. I'll post pictures when I'm done.

Topaz has discovered the delights of sleeping on the top of my pillow-back chair. So comfy!!

Since I started off with a winter picture from my back porch, I wanted to share a summer picture. It's really pretty wild out there...especially with bugs that want to be in here! But we've had deer, a mother red fox and kits, possums, many bunnies, lots of birds, and a racoon that was trying hard to walk in my storm door! I live on the very east edge of St. Joseph, MO. Just east is the acreage that belongs to MWSU campus, with lots of undeveloped land. Much wildlife, and some of it spills over this way.

ISE4

What a fantastic package from Becky in Houston. I am SO lucky to be her pal! The scarf is out of a brick red Noro yarn, with almost 2,000 cables (brave Becky!). I love the color and it is so wonderfully soft! Then there are two skeins of Cotton Comfort from Green Mountain Spinnery (20% organic cotton and 80% wool...and 100% soft and luscious). Four little tins of teas and tea bags (hooray since I don't have a tea ball!). She made the oven mitt, and had downloaded pictures of my cats from this blog, and incorporated them in the mitt! What a neat idea! There are chocolates, treats for the kitties, stitch markers, calendar...Wow!

ISE4 scarf done!

I finished my scarf for this International Scarf Exchange 4 and it's on its way! I'm really happy with the yarn and the pattern. Here's the "falling water" scarf" falling down my front door:

A closer view of the pattern:



It is a simple, 16 stitch repeat and gave me some confidence about something lacy. I used Euroflax in celery. It's true what knitters (and the directions) say about putting the finished item in the washing machine, maybe with a towel or two for friction. I just put it on a couple of towels, smoothed it out, and it dried without needing to pin it. It definitely is softer after being washed, and will continue to soften with each washing.



Ozzie observed the entire operation from the top of the kitchen cabinets:



Now it's back to the dreaded cotton sweater. I want it, but can tell that my gauge is different -- never should have put it down before it was done. Memo to self...

Yarn plus

While I was in St. Charles last week, Deb took me to Myers House.

Wonderful old two-story house. The first floor is all quilting, and the second floor is knitting and weaving. I've never seen so many different sock yarns in one place before! I got the lovely Euroflax from my previous post there.

A new favorite is in picturesque Old St. Charles, down by the river. Fun place to wander and visit and have a "cuppa" or a good meal. The new knitting store is Knit and Caboodle. Here's a picture of her 110 (!!) colors of Cascade 220! Lots of other goodies, and she is encouraging folks to bring a sack lunch on Fridays, nosh and knit there. I bought a luscious Lane Borgosesia Cashwool 100% merino lace yarn, in "Denim" 1460 yards, for $14. I feel a shawl coming on..

Ozzie will help me look for a pattern for the shawl

After he finishes his nap, of course. That's three feet of Bengal kitty (nose to tail tip). He's about four years old, attitude to the eyeballs, but very loving. Usually.
I can't leave without reporting that we won a medal at the Region 7 Sweet Adelines Competition in Kansas City last weekend. Our St. Joseph chorus, named the St. Joe Show Chorus for the last 48 years placed second in small choruses. The chorus almost dissolved about 10 years ago, and has slowly been building back. This is the first time in several years that we've even placed, so we're really happy. One judge complains about Region 7 because " everyone wears black!" We took care of that!
Our director is Kim Kraut (on the left above) who is terrific! Here she is (second from the left below) with her winning quartet, Primo! I know, they're wearing black, but they're from the Kansas City chorus.
We're lucky to have her. I feel so lucky to be a part of this chorus--we're small, but dedicated, loving and supportive of each other. Such fun!

Changed my mind!

I couldn't find a pattern for the yarn I bought for my ISE project, so I changed. I'm using Euroflax (100% wet spun linen) in a celery green. I have three repeats of the 16 row "Falling Water Lace Scarf." I'm enjoying working with the yarn, but am glad to know that it softens with each washing. I'll be sure to soak it good before I block it and it should be very nice. It block to 6" by 70" so my pal should be able to use it in lots of ways.

Been a long time

It's been a while since I posted, so this may be a long one! We finally opened the box of yarn and books from Bonita knitting store in LA. My daughter and I were supposed to be joining their Stitch 'n Beach cruise with Debbie Stoller in January, but thanks to American Airlines, we missed boat. Literally. (You would think that a plane that had been on the ground for 14 hours would have been inspected before people boarded and that a broken strut in the engine might have been noticed!!) Anyway, the folks at Bonita were kind enough to ship me all of our yarn and books and goodies and we opened it when I took it to St. Charles to visit my daughter.

This is for a scrumptious knitted evening bag using a solid silk blend and a variegated silk blend that is beaded. Everything's here...yarn, needles, directions and the frame.

Books and tools...calculator, chibi, a tape measure that won't retract until you tell it to and lots of other goodies. The Stitch 'N Bitch book is autographed, too!

Our first glimpse inside just one of the bags! We had the same yarns, but different colors. We traded some, but were delighted with the choices that had been made.

Isn't this a yummy picture? It's to make a loooonng scarf, just two rows of each yarn, knitted crosswise. What a delightful way to package it all!
Here's a glimpse of one of their cute bags. The pockets were stuffed with tools, Euclan, rich hand soap, and even chocolate! The yarn comes from Be Sweet and is a subtle blend of burgandy/gray/brown, all 100% baby mohair. Do check out their site...they do a lot of good.

It would have been a great cruise, but we're delighted to get all of the fun stuff to play with!

At Last!

A real lys in St. Joseph! It is owned and operated
by Laura who is basically a dyer. She and her
husband moved here where he took a position as
Dean of Students at MWSU. She sells her yarn,
"Textiles a Mano" at a few stores in Colorado and
one that I know of in St. Louis. She basically
rented some work space for her dying, but since
an office came with it...a small but good yarn
shop! She says she likes to work with her yarn
in large hanks. The lovely shawl on the wall is
made from one skein of her yarn...with enough
left over for a scarf! Three of her skeins make
a sweater. She has a lovely sense of color, and
the yarns are nice and soft..such fun to visit!

While I was there I bought the yarn for myISE4 project. It's called "Shanghai" and is a soft, soft 50/50 blend of silk and wool. The gauge is supposed to be 20 stitches over 4" but I think I will use a larger needle to get a more open pattern. Laura said it accidentally got left in a vat and got overdyed. Now she likes it so much that she hopes she can create the green/turquoise/gold again.

Not much more going on with knitting...painting some shelves (trying to get them done before the rain comes), and working on costumes for our district's Sweet Adelines competition in April. Fringe and glitter and sequins..oh, my!

Surprise!

Look what came in the mail! An absolutely lovely, gorgeous, yummy shawl from my very sweet daughter! The stinker talked about it and showed it on her blog, but said it was for herself, and I never caught on!It's the Estonian Garden Wrap in Alpaca with a Twist Fino in Royal Velvet. All that gorgous lace, generous lenth/width and only one skein! It's luscious and soft and a scrumptious wrap and I absolutely love it! Our Sweet Adelines District Competition is soon, so I know what I will be wearing when we watch the quartets compete. This may call for something new underneath...





You met Ozzie on my last post,
so meet Topaz. She was a tiny stray, covered with ice and mud that I found on the campus during a sleet/snow storm. She's about 15 now and hasn't missed a meal since! Here she is guarding a bonanza of catnip!

Here is a part of my stash (some is still hiding in the closet). The tan on the bottom left is the beginning of a short-sleeved pullover for summer, in Artful Yarn's Candy in Toffee. Soft and stretchy with cotton/acrylic/nylon and 1% elastic. It will be so soft and comfy to wear, but I find I have to be very, very careful when I knit so that I knit loosely enough that I get the right gauge. The elastic is a new experience for me and I find it touchy to work with. I am going to love it and wear it lots but can hardly wait to get it finished!

Brand New!

Am I ready to have a blog? Hope so, because here I go!

I really, really am tired of winter! I know, I will say the same thing about summer come August, but enough snow/ice/wind is enough! It does look pretty from my back door, though:

Caps for the Dulaan project and yarn for two scarves for the WWII project. Great knitting to do while watching TV. I have to be careful, though...if I try doing something with a pattern while something really interesting is on, I make the most interesting mistakes. (That's in the Chinese sense...there's a Chinese curse that says, "May you live in interesting times.")

Projects in process include my first pair of socks and The Braids Cardigan (#402 from Cabin Fever). I'm using Reynold's Signature yarn (80% acrylic, 20% wool) in wine. Machine washable, and so soft! It's not a difficult pattern, so it's a good one for me at this point.

Thanks to my daughter's patience, I have finally learned to make socks....well, almost....still trying to figure out the Kitchener stitch to close the toe. I've tried books and a good video tutorial, but I still need a person to walk me through it the first time. I was OK using dpns to finish the caps, but got frustrated trying to start a sock with them. Too many sticks for me to handle! Deborah taught me the "magic loop" method and that seems to work for me. The Wizard of Oz (aka "Ozzie") is checking out the progress. Yes, I am from Kansas!

I've enjoyed reading Susan Whittig Albert's book, Indigo Dying. It's a mystery (about the only genre I read), and weaves in raising white and colored angora goats, using natural dyes, spinning, etc. (Weaves in...get it? I know, bad, but it was just there, waiting for me...) There are lots of interesting tidbits about natural materials, creating dyes, etc. along with a fairly extensive bibliography at the end. The goats have a guard llama named "Shangrilama" along with three very responsible bucks. Her whole series revolves around her herb shop. Some books waiting in the wings:

Non-knitting things crying for attention include two counted cross-stitch projects that have been ignored for entirely too long. There's a "Girls Night Out" with glow-in-the-dark floss from the Witches Stitches folder by Stoney Creek that I really should finish NOW so that I have time to get it framed and ready for fall. It doesn't seem to be on their site any more, but you could ask them, or try e-Bay.

Then there's the gorgeous Morning Light from Graphs by Barbara and Cheryl, Inc. Lovely play of light and shadow on the garden and house, and 82 different colors of floss!

This should be enough for the first time! Love to hear from you!