Saturday, January 28, 2012

A Week Down

Well, nearly a week. But that's on top of two weeks already this month! Tricksey viruses.

One afternoon I read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and enjoyed the story and the creepy pictures...

I ordered these Harmony needle tips in a size 4 from KnitPicks
because they are pointy and will work well with my yarn from Wolles Yarn Creations in these beautiful colors...
and I ate lots of these...
and began knitting a pair of fingerless gloves and baby booties. Last night in a burst of ambition I spent a few hours in my sewing room, and started a cargo skirt from a length of very nice fast drying/sunblock fabric. This friend (I know, how great is she?)
Photo, Jacob Wallace
has suggested that a similar style might be nice for climbing, so I'm thinking of designing one with that in mind.

I also discovered that being sick in bed with this
is much better than being sick in bed without it.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Cute Aprons!

I made these two aprons and matching headbands as a special order for two young women. I love the fabrics and hope they last for years in their kitchens! I am so grateful for my daughter who rarely refuses my request for a model, even after a long day.

Michael Miller. Double pocket with contrast trim, purchased bias.
Really bad lighting but you get the idea. Super cute headband.

Love this fabric but I can't remember the designer. No pocket because the center motif was so pretty, handmade bias to match, and a selvedge hem.
I love these headbands.
I made this apron pattern around 15 years ago, and I've lost count of how many I've made. Last month I also made a trio of them in a beautiful red and green plaid Kona broadcloth for myself, my daughter-in-law, and her mother. They were lovely, but I would like a break from bias tape and ties!

Monday, January 9, 2012

New Year, New Moleskine

But the convergence of the date and the new book is a coincidence.

Being sick in bed for four days straight and sick in a recliner for four more is bad enough, but to have to miss the annual family ski trip in Vail? What? There are no words! 

Two of these span roughly two years of use, one was filled in a year, and the fourth was a three week trip to Italy.
On day five of my fun-sucking illness I felt a little better and optimistically decided to make a list of things to do while home alone. (Ha! I've done none of them!) My Moleskine was filled but there was, of course, one in reserve, sitting right next to the stack of used ones.  
Ooh la la, brand new and waiting for me.
I opened the new one by writing the start date on the inside cover; we'll see how long it takes to fill it with the epherma of my life. The task now is to look through the one that is being retired and transfer any relevant information. A quick look and I find: 
  • Contact information for people I've met.
  • Yardage amounts for sewing and knitting projects I want to make.
  • Verizon renewal dates for all our cell phones. This is more important than you might think, for some of us.
  • Books and movies recommended by friends.
  • Project ideas.
These journals are multipurpose, serving as planner, list repository, record keeper, and visual journal. Glue sticks are my friends, as you'll see.

Obviously, I love paper and find a way to use markers and pens and pencils as well as all the technology in my daily life. I am equally attached to my ipad and the fact that I can access Remember the Milk from my phone, ipad, computer, and ipod. So yes, I had that flight information on my phone, but it was also there in the book when I needed to refer to it and it will be there as a record of that trip in years to come. 
Leonard Cohen needs no caption.
Hastily sketched dimensions for kitchen window curtains.
Sometimes I combine electronic planning and my Moleskine. I like it.
These pages are the result of one of those times when there is so much on my mind I have to force myself not to think until I can get to a pen and paper and let my thoughts flow, so I don't lose anything.
I love keeping things like this last-minute map my stepfather drew of the Piazza del Populo in Ascoli Piceno, Italy, so we could identfiy the places he knew as a child growing up there.
A list for customs
A few years ago at Stitches, a huge knitting event, I had checked my felted tote bag and it was admired by my fellow knitters. One woman asked the attendant to tuck this note into the bag for me. How fun! It lives in the back pocket of the journal.
Pretty wraps from a very thoughtful present from my daughter, glued into a page, along with her note.
A cable pattern, written out while in the car because the chart was just too big to handle in the front seat.
It's been fun flipping through the books and sharing a few pages with the blog. Moleskine journals come in all sorts of configurations and their website is worth exploring. It's also interesting to check out what other people do with theirs, and you can spend a long break surfing around that subject!


Thursday, January 5, 2012

Oh Boy!

You might think I'd be frantically creating posts to catch the blog up on the holiday preparations and celebrations but no! Not going to do it! I am going to share this picture of something I made for a newborn, born into a family near and dear to my heart, and going into the mail asap. Daigen, I hope you like these for the brief time they'll fit!
I could not resist stacking those books for the picture.

I loved using "big boy" sock yarn instead of a traditional baby boy color scheme. I have made socks for my (quite grown up) sons from this yarn; in fact I have one in progress.

How cute is that?

The yarn is Froehlich, a high quality European yarn known for durability. It comes, in fact, with a fine matching reinforcement yarn that can be knitted into the heel, or held for darning. When I heard production was going to stop on this line I scooped up several skeins and stashed them. Durability is not an issue here for Baby Daigen, of course. Further details on the knitting are on Ravelry. 

Happy New Year!