January 1, 2008 and needlework ahead

I almost feel "overwhelmed" already as there is so much I want to do "needlework" wise this year. I imagine we can really say needlework as one uses a knitting needle, a crochet hook/needle, a sewing needle, a quilting needle, a sewing machine needle, an embroidery needle .... I could go on!

Sharon B from In a Minute Ago has started her 2008 Take It Further Challenge; I believe I'll probably be opting for the color themes. This month is certainly different: I find certain colors "appeal" to me at different times of year, and to me, this is a soft early spring color theme.

Today here it is sunny, white and bright, AND a crisp -25C!


I need to do last night's manti-making pots and pans (great for the shoulder issues, believe it or not), finish blog surfing, and then open a new book

and all of a sudden, I notice the two images above have similar colorings.

Happy New Year!

from another reproduction Russian New Year's postcard

 

All is calm, all is bright

All is calm enough after the Christmas rush for me to sit, start this wrap, watch a little TV and read over the next few days.

 

All is bright: yes, lots of snow.

A present

of a Kazakh girl doll from a lovely friend

 

It's Almost Time ...

to wish you a Happy New Year! What a great old postcard!

 

Something from Santa

One of the many books from Santa:

 

but I'm swooning: the text and photos are DIVINE

Happy Holidays

 

here's the link for the nice holiday clipart

And WHERE is the notebook...

for this 10 year old Russian drawn thread sampler? This DEFINITELY is a WISP -- a Work in Slow Progress, term coined by Sharon B from
In A Minute Ago

Sharon, these photos are for you! Talk about Slow Cloth .... could I do this again today? I doubt it.

 

 

 

 

These are some of the drawn threads, saved to use again for basting, sewing up, or even sewing. Note cotton thread with "25 kopek" stamp. In the class we used Russian 42 count linen and DMC embroidery thread, or floss from India.

 

Lacis reprint:

 

This looks like fun

I have a cold so I don't even feel like knitting, although I'm making good progress on the Colorblock gloves. I've totally gone overboard with the custom fit, changing needles many times and therefore also frogging, but I'm happy with the results so far. Still three fingers to go, but the pinkie and thumb are done -- on amazingly small "metal" Addi dpns.

Oh, and it's consistently cold enough now that the city is chopping blocks of ice from the river for the annual Ice Palace. Hope to see it finished soon!

Our fantasy Russian winter village

We've been adding to this for years, but it all started in about 1985....

 

Some of our creches from around the world

 

 

 

 

Holiday Traditions: Black and Whites

We spent a long time in the kitchen yesterday starting the holiday baking. John made these, although they are from MY family's holiday tradtion.

 

My mother used to make these when my brothers and I were "small," and then we lost the recipe.

Thanks to Google, you now have many choices of "which" recipe you want to follow, but here's the one that's probably nearest to the one we made as kids: it uses cake flour.

Knitting weekend in the midst of snow

We are having a 4 day weekend here in Kz in honor of the local Independence Day. Snowflakes softly floating all morning. I've been looking at mitten patterns all morning on Ravelry but must get back to Colorblock gloves.

I frogged back down to the cuff to redo the wrist and then to switch back to a larger size needle. But I really want to get back to some mittens!

Ann from Norway has a lovely blog in Norwegian, of course, but was generous with a pattern in English for some Latvian mittens.

More favorite UFO blocks

I have favorite UFO blocks, sigh.

The light has gone for the day; I'll re-photograph these tomorrow and add a few more. The blocks are from the late 1980s.

 

When will "they" come up with a Ravelry for Quilters? I find the Ravelry projects and queue sections so helpful to keep track of what I'm working on.

First Machine Pieced Quilt

I'm a hand piecer and hand worker. I was taught to embroider, knit and crochet when I went to a British elementary school in Vienna, Austria years and years ago.

I started quilting in the 1980s when I was living in Virginia, where Jinny Beyer had just published her pattern block books, and we were all taught quilting and patchwork by hand. I started with Mariner's Compasses and more, but can machine piece a mean bias-cut triangle, thanks to Marsha McCloskey and her Feathered Star block series of the same "era."

This little quilt below was the first thing I EVER machine pieced. I didn't grow up around a sewing machine, so I sweated bullets doing this. And it still sits, unquilted, after all these years.

 

Then later, courtesy of Marsha McCloskey's fabulous bias-square triangles directions:

 

Quilting in the future ... long time UFOs...

I have an entire closet full of quilting fabrics ... in tubs.

I've signed up for a lovely Quilt-A-long that hopefully I can start thinking about this coming week. I need something simple to work on to get the sewing machine going again: it's probably been more almost two years since I've done any sewing. Have to laugh at how life throws things at you: between moving up here from Almaty and having a broken arm/frozen shoulder issues, I can see why I haven't done any quilting.

And a sampling of the stack of UFOs, some of them 20 years old!

 

 

 

 

Wintery Day

A cheerful online e-card available from Lion Brand Yarn ... and then back to knitting.


We had rabbits in our back yarn in the snow, we think!

 

a view of the Norman Foster (architect) Pyramid from the side gate

 

Take It Further Challenge and thoughtful blog

I'm hoping to join Sharon B's from In a Minute Ago Take it Further Challenge in 2008, so I've activated the comments section here.

With my "schedule" I don't expect I'll be too adventurous, but it will be something to work on, get fabric and thread out for, and at least fun to think about.

I've been a long time lurker of Sharon's blog -- she is very generous with her time and expertise. Somehow, even with her blog and on-line classes, she always manages to find interesting textile blog links for all of us to look at.

Right now I'm working on Nanette's color block gloves, trying to figure out fit with different size needles.

 

The simple color block pattern with Hand Jive's Nature's Palette Yarn and the Gansey glove (see postings below) have been a good lesson: I have a very narrow wrist, so I finally realized I need to use smaller needles for that section. We'll see how the rest of the hand fit goes -- I'm at the little finger now.

I've tremendously enjoyed looking at another blog: Spirit Cloth. Her prose is calm and thoughtful, and all of that translates in her hand stitching.