March TIF challenge

Sharon B's March challenge is definitely .... a challenge! I need to finish Feb AND Jan, so I'll be like Scarlett O'Hara and think about this "another day." But someone has already posted DMC floss companion colors, so that will help!.
(Edited later in the day: it's still winter here. What is more "detailed" in the small version of nature than a snowflake? So I'll eventually do something with cutout snowflakes or snow crystals in thread.)We'll still have snow for a while, but if not, there are tons of pictures on Flickr to help me out.

I spent some time yesterday cruising Ravelry to look for ideas to put my sunburst granny squares together,
but I'm still thinking about it. I don't know if I want all those "white edges." But the Afghans and blanket group there has 67 pages of projects!

And I have a new fun knitting book
to look at (thanks to examples from Jean's Knitting): this book could keep you going for a while on the different styles of scarves to knit!

Swatching

We all know we are supposed to swatch when we knit; I usually hate it because I'm so anxious to get started on a project. But this time I'm glad I did:
here is a mini-Andean cell phone case pattern done up in fine Alpaca

and I discovered while the wool is soft, it's not "lofty enough" for what I like for stranded mittens, so I don't need to get any more.

Coming to the end of February

I've been working on knitting my WIPs -- changing as my arm allows. The Irie Tarot bag is coming along, as is one Paistu mitten.

A Japanese friend lent me a book by a friend of hers: Reiko Yamaguchi. I believe this particular book is out of print, but it is glorious to look at:
the cover

a screen

a close-up of beautiful fabrics

so of course I spent the afternoon sipping tea, looking at the book, and looking at photos from the Tokyo International Great Quilt festival posted on Flickr by moonstitches

I need to get back to my February TIF challenge!

More WIPs

This is a Nancy Bush Paistu mitten from Piecework Magazine July/August 2006 using KnitPicks Palette
and the second photo is the "easy for first lace knitters" Forest Canopy Shawl in Vita, an alpaca wool.

WIP: Rowan Earth Stripe Wrap

This Rowan Kidsilk Haze project from Issue 42 is my evening knitting when we watch DVDs -- it got me through last year's episodes of "24." It's great for my shoulder, too, as the larger needles don't seem to bother me so much.

But with all the double-stranded color changes, it's a slow project. Who knew stockinette could take so long? But there were great suggestions on Ravelry about how to keep the side edges from curling up, and suggestions for finishing up the sides and all the color changes at the end.

I have made some color changes to the pattern -- the colors are darkish when combined in two strands, and I wish I had made some of them even lighter! The wool is soft and warm, and will be lovely finished.

40 minutes...

is what about I figure I can do at one sitting with my shoulder issues, whether it's knitting or sewing. Sigh. Especially on a PT day - can't do "the same" thing for any longer. And we all know that in "40 minutes" you just get going. Most of the time I go on, and then "pay" for it later. Tres frustrating. No wonder I have so many WIPs.

Today I was happily starting some running stitches on my TIF Feb. with three strands of different colored floss (but Feb mandated colors). It started out well -- my shoulder felt fine. Then I started feeling that I needed to stop. But the piece looks "flat." It's true I have a very thin batting underneath, as I have enough trouble with the needling and the commercial batiks, but I had hoped for "something."

Esp. since I saw, but haven't read yet, the posting from Spirit Cloth on "shadows."

Japanese Hina dolls for March 3rd

I was privileged today to see a set of Japanese Hina dolls. They were exquisite!

WIPs - knitting wise

I'm off in a little bit to look at some Japanese Hina dolls (I'll look them up later on the internet) and then will come back and spend the rest of the day knitting.

We have the day off today in the US - it's President's Day. I could spend the day cleaning up all the mess I have in my sewing room, but will save that for tomorrow.

I might, however, take a couple of pictures of all the knitting WIPs I have ongoing. It's getting scary. That's why Ravelry is so nice -- it calmly lets you post your projects, finished and ongoing, without making you look like a raving "never finish anything" person.

Project Spectrum

I have, as they say in some languages, "too many tastes." I like a lot of different textile "mediums" and ideas. I like to "think" about what I am working on, and think and read about the history of the medium. I know I'll never do any fabric hand dyeing, because of my allergies. But I do know I want to try and learn to weave one day.

But I've also started to lurk on Lolly's Project Spectrum ideas -- and there is a Flickr group with over 1,000 members, and a group on Ravelry, too.

I'd like to think about it a little more concretely next month, but I am knitting a RED forest canopy shawl, so I guess that counts for February.

TIF Feb progress

 

Anniversary

Today is the anniversary, if you can call it such, of me falling in the house and breaking my arm last year. Everyone thought it would heal on its own, but by May the x-rays showed otherwise.

So I'm really counting my anniversary for May 31 when I had surgery in London (12 screws, 2 plates), and physical therapy time for the frozen shoulder issues from mid-August when I started. I've been very diligent about the PT, and if I continue to work well at home on my own, may graduate to PT only 2x a week.
some of my PT toys



and the BEST DVD that targets specific areas (the title is misleading, it should just be called Gentle Yoga) -- I've been doing the shoulder series for PT all along

Time means nothings to WIPs and UFOs

I was thinking about Sharon B's postings on her New Year's resolutions and then her WIPs follow ups last night when I was looking for someting "simple" to do when I was too tired "to do anything else."

A look through my things -- found wonderful projects "waiting", but they all required more energy than I had.

This, for example -- will be wonderful when it's ever done. I see the copyright date on the pattern 2001 ... oh dear.

 

And then there is the "eye issue" -- it looks a lot easier on the eyes this morning than it did last night. But I'll keep it out in plain sight for a while and see if I can get to it at all.

Letting the fabric speak - TIF February

I've never been one to cut out pieces for a quilt from 5-7 fabrics -- I have to see what will work.

 

The more, the better. But sometimes the fabrics have minds of their owns, and the Japanese piece really didn't want to get cut up.

In the interest of time, I'll keep to a log cabin format, but with a larger piece in the middle -- I want to see those flowers. The Kasuri Geski can wait for another time.

 

But the REAL miracle: Ms. Pfaff, out in the open, for the first time in over two and a half years!

 

Valentine's Day!

 

 

Slow to catch on...

I'm terrible about "trying" new yarns that I physically haven't "touched" -- I like to know what my fingers will be working with.

But I'm also in love with Latvian, Norwegian, and Estonian mittens. Ravelry has just whetted my appetite more, with lovely examples being knitted up by a lot of people.

We all have seen mittens appear now and then from the Yarn Harlot and others, but my favorite person to watch right now is Ann from med pinner. She has been recommending the KnitPicks Palette yarns, so I plunged and got the "sampler" -- one of each color.



So, in the midst of all my WIPS but with a semi-free afternoon, I cast on one of Nancy Bush's mittens from the July/August 2006 Piecework Magazine issue.

The yarn is "thicker" than I would have thought for fingering, but it's soft, and so far on 2.25 mm needles it's working fine! Stay tuned for progress -- the colors don't change more than 2x per row, I don't think.

This weekend though I am going to do my February TIF challenge work!

Mitten books from the Estonian National Museum

 

 

Nancy Bush from The Wooly West has these two books in stock now -- "heritage" mittens from the Estonian National Museum. The booklets are lovely, as they are also in English.

Look at the fabulous "wave" pattern above -- what a fun idea to think about!

The wool I menitoned in my last post isn't fingering, but is thin enough for stranded knitting and therefore good for mittens -- so I'll have to go back and get more colors! It doesn't have that "superwash" feel, so I suspect I'll be using it a lot.

Thanks to the internet, we can all see what different yarns can be used for stranded knitting. I saw a blog recently where the owner had ordered colors of Finullgarn from Nordic Fiber Arts for mitten work. I'm waiting for a KnitPicks palette order to come to try that, too.

What to take traveling?

I have a LOT of WIPs, knitting wise, going on.

None are particularly suited to taking traveling, though -- too many colors to change, too many dpns going on, too big of a chart - you name it.

So right before I left last week I found some "new" yarn here: Alpaca Wool by Vita, a Russian import. It is Turkish yarn, processed through Germany, and marketed in Russia. The feel is lovely, and it comes in a nice variety of colors, and is practical at 100 grams/300 meters for 3-3.5 mm knitting.

I started, in red, the Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl which is supposed to be for beginning lace knitters. It's a lovely pattern, and easy to work in the car, while you are waiting for meetings .... WAIT!!

I look at the pattern right now and SEE that I didn't do the repeats right! Oh dear -- I'll have to frog it! And try figure out WHY I wasn't reading the repeats right.

Luckily, Ravelry has a great lace group where I can plead ignorance and I know someone will help me.

When the cat's away ....

it sure stays busy in blogland!

I've been away, came back to a busy week, so I was stunned when I got home last night and "attempted" to look at my Bloglines lists.

There were so many comments just to read from Sharon's B's blog that I was too tired and gave up. This morning I took another look and thought, hmm, I'm not sure I'll catch up. But I'm still taking a few peaks, so I'm thrilled I didn't miss Franklin's posts with the shot of his-about-to-be published book cover. And the Yarn Harlot had a little kerfluffle going on. But if you aren't in the middle of those blog comments "back and forths" when they happen, you really just don't "get it."

So, hopefully on Tuesday I might get a chance to think more about Sharon's February challenge. I do know, though, I will NOT be going with my original post (2nd month in a row that has happened, interesting). I realized that if I used the same format and used some "mustard" colors, it would just be TOO much "orange" and rather unattractive.

So, back to the drawing board, or rather to the WIPs "stash." One of my modest goals for participating in this challenge was to take my WIP's "further". I'm not in a "time position" right now to do anything that requires a lot of independent thinking and work.

I found a couple of ideas in one of my fabric tubs -- fabrics sorted in blacks and grays and burnt oranges for THIS Robert Kaufmman free pattern
where I could switch my colors around.

The other pattern I found in the "one day" pile: a Gwen Marston liberated log cabin design. I won't try this -- don't have enough time in February!

Take It Further February: adding to an old WIP

For the February challenge, I had originally thought I would do something with the "mustard" as the dominant color.

But as I was going through my fabric tubs, I found some hibernating Sylvia Einstein style "Magic Square" style blocks that are half done. I love them, and so adding the mustard/gold will give the cool blue nature of the blocks some warmth. Check out Sylvia's left side bar links and look at her work to see what movement she gets with fabric and ONE template piece!

So, throwing the 1/2 done blocks on the guest bedroom bed (in no particular order) with some additional fabrics, here is my starting point:

 

My goal for February is to get them pieced, as that is all that I will be able to manage within the month.

And I wonder which of these pieces will end up working with the blues:

 

And I also found my missing:

 

Slow cloth in the media, fast sounds with threads

take a look, thanks to the link provided at Red Thread Studio's
Jan. 31 blog entry, at the New York Times article "The Slow Life Picks Up speed" by Penelope Green.

(Sharon B from In a Minute Ago drew our attention to this blog in her Dec. 15 posting.)

Speaking of speed, I had a strange sensory experience yesterday. I was actually sewing for a few minutes on my Jan TIF challenge, using silk thread on silk. There is a certain "sound" that silk sewing makes -- hard to explain, but you know it when you hear it. And when you go faster, the sound changes. I was thinking how lucky I was that I "didn't have to go fast" and that I was even more fortunate I don't have to sew for a living. I have seen women sew and whip stitch things VERY quickly; but again, they had to.