It's that time of the month again

for Sharon B's Take It Further Challenge participants. I'd have a hard time with this color palette, but I'm not doing anything on this other than enjoying looking at others' work. The scheme might make a good pair of mittens, although I'm not sure about the last color on the right.

Me? Getting through the week: PT, visitors, knitting on the Leaf Lace shawl with my gifted Rauma Inca Alpaca, and doing closets and drawers when I can.

July colors

I had totally forgotten about Sharon B's Take it Further challenge as I can't work on it anymore, but finally had a chance to catch up a little bit and found her July challenge. Nice, calm colors!



Speaking of colors, we were honored by a visit by an American artist from our part of California -- Jack Stuppin. We had two of his pieces in the Residence in Armenia through the US Department of State
Art in Embassies program, and it was wonderful to meet him in person. His landscape work has such a wonderful "zing" to it the colors just make your heart jump.

Take It further: June

I wasn't able to do anything for Sharon B's Take It further challenge for a couple of months, but June looks interesting. Her reasoning is quite different, but does make one think.

I actually like the colors that her color palette maker came up with -- I might just do some calm quilted squares. We are still in "limbo" about our plans for the fall, and strange as it sounds, "no news" in this case is more stressful than getting on with the "rest of the story."

The men in my husband's family are very fond of this palette, and here are some items from Vilnius, Lithuania: linen pot holders and a brushed cotton pillow cover.

May Day weekend

So far we are having a lovely quiet 4 day May Day weekend. The days of mandatory local parades with red flags are long gone; people enjoy the time off and go walking about or just relax.

We've just come back from a week plus trip to Almaty. It was SO green -- made me really appreciate it. The two parks, Panfilov and Gorky, were glorious with young adults, roller bladers and skateboarders at Panfilov, and families with small children at Gorky. A trip to the mountains was also great, with a teeny hike up in the sun.
We even made it to what will probably be our last "local" Russian Orthodox midnight Easter service. We were outside for most of the time, and very glad we were, so we could at least do one "lap" around the church at midnight. There were a lot of people, but there were quite a few standing off to the edges with their kulich and eggs to be blessed, with candles blazing on top of the kulich breads. We have NEVER seen this before in the evening service, so it was delightful. This photo was Saturday afternoon, before the evening service.


We were able to drop by Saule Bapanov's to pick up a felt and silk shawl, and to admire hers' and Alibay's latest works. They were off for a long weekend trip to Bukhara where their daughter was having a couture show of her own felted clothing.

I'm still kicking myself over a left bag of felted dolls I bought at the monthly craft show across from TSum -- I just don't know what happened to the bag. I bought 6 or so of the fat girls dolls that I give as presents for pincushions, and a few other items.

I was able to give my arm a good rest by not taking my computer with me, but somehow only got a little knitting done. Last night I frogged my shawl collar project from Knitting New Scarves book -- I loved the Karabella yarn I was using but just didn't like the way it sat on my shoulders -- something about the neck area.

I'm looking forward to Schoolhouse Press' Latvian mitten KAL that is about to start, and also to read Sharon B's May TIF Challenge.. I've pretty much had to bow out of the challenge, but may drop back in from time to time. This month's color scheme would make a good Finnish looking mitten!


Yesterday I spent the day catching up/tidying up my iTunes podcast links and deciding which of the many knitting podcasts I do or do not listen to. Today, I'm making bread: still learning how to use the breadmaker and figuring out what I can do with it. It kneaded the sourdough recipe quite well, so that's rising, and then I made some cinnamon bread for my breakfasts. I'm anxious to try lots of different recipes and then just be able to do things on "auto-pilot." Bread making is so relaxing -- it just calms the clutter in your brain! And I really look forward to reading the bread book from the posting below.

The weather is cool here, but still nice, and luckily there have been no more dust storms like the one the morning I flew to Almaty. It was as if someone was standing in front of the car and just heaving mounds of dirt on the windshield! We heard later in the day the wind below the sign above the nearby Gros supermarket off and it crashed into a long row of cars.

April TIF: the dog ate my homework

Or will eat it: I have to travel next week through the beginning of May -- just won't get anything done for this month. I think it's going to be on again-off again for me with this, but I'll still try and keep up with Sharon's blog and the TIF comments. I've seen so much fabulous/fun/different/artistic/original work!

I am able to knit a little here and there though (lots of WIPs). Maybe I should try Sharon's monthly colors in knitting!

Oh, and it snowed yesterday evening through this morning: a good old fashioned "blizzard" with a LOT of snow. More snow in fact than we had all winter.

Sunday diversions - treasures in the study II

Some people like to try and take it easy on Sundays. We often use Sunday as "catch up" from the week. I should be taking a power walk, getting the new bread maker I just bought out of the box and reading the instructions, or doing a million other things.

I should also be thinking about what I might get done for the April TIF. I'll be traveling in a week or so, the project will have to be very small and portable, as we'll be away for 10 days or so.

In the meantime, a few more photos of "stuff" in my study:

from a small section of the top of my desk



a lovely thread-crocheted and lined bag pouch from Armenia

Trip around the world - TIF April

Reality check. Free time to sew? not much. Have been thinking about colors for TIF month, and I do have fabrics that will work. But my "eyes" are always bigger than what time we have alloted each month and I have worried since April 1 about what I could get done this month.

Going through my Bloglines lines-up this morning, I found the Purl Bee's latest post about using wool felt squares for a trip around the world quilt. I actually have two sets of their felt packets I bought to make a pincushion, so tomorrow I'll try and find them and see if I could make something mini-mini with what I have.

Speaking of trip around the world, I'm enjoying two gift books: my Japanese friend contacted the Japanese quilter Reiko Yamaguchi and told her of my admiration for her book, and then I was SENT that book and another. For myself. Photos to follow later. I'm in awe. And her art quilts are all hand-sewn from fabrics from old kimonos.

TIF April

Sharon B sure knows how to keep her group on its toes with the April theme of "change" and this color palette.

Change for us is usually good in the big sense: we often move to a new country and city, learn about a new culture and sometimes learn a new language. I can take these huge changes easily, but then also realize I don't like small surprises in the messy details of life. Interesting.

Her colors are not exactly what I was hoping for as we are finally saying farewell to winter, but I think I actually may have some fabric that might work.

But for a change, I wanted to get a fresh start to the month and get going on something, so later today I'll check the fabric tubs.

TIF March -- finished, along with most of our snow

I spent the early part of March thinking about Sharon B's March TIF challenge. We still had snow here, so I thought a lot about snowflakes and snow crystals.

But the month got away from me, sewing wise, and 10 days ago I realized I'd better get something going, or March's project would end up simmering like January and February -- started but not finished.

Enter a crocheted 12 sided 3-D snowflake from Berroco:
It could also be dubbed "cow udders from space" or "Madonna's rejected bustier prototype from the 80's."

It turned out to be a fascinating project, for the "details."

Vague directions and maps confound me.
So I truly enjoyed watching this 3-D object come together, although things weren't "all clear" until the 3rd point or so.

Mid-way through I realized I could have gone down a hook size to make things tighter. I used old pantyhose for the stuffing.

There was actually a lot of crocheting, so my mind wandered and thought about possibilities of future crocheted glove fingers and how now I could design something.
For the most beautiful crocheted gloves and tapestry crochet, look at these gems: Lara Croft

I tried some Regia Kaffe Fassett Design line wool, and was pleased. I was afraid it would be thin or have a superwash feel, but it is a nice wool that works up thicker than it looks.

This would be a good project for a patient teacher and teens, too. But I have newfound respect for all the crocheted toy folks out there -- you have to pay attention to what you are doing and watch your row joins counts!

Who says knitters can't do it all?

If you have a blog, then I know you read other people's blogs. We all start out reading blogs about subjects we are interested in. Then ... you have to "restrict" yourself because there isn't enough time in the day to keep up with the news, your hobbies, or crafts, or art, or geek tech stuff, or even the ever popular food blogs.

I've been reading 101 Cookbooks and Chocolate & Zucchini for a while, check into The Kitchn for eye candy and recipes, rely on the always turns-out baking from Dorie Greenspan and Rose Levy Beranbaum and take a peek at Paris Breakfasts for her daily art and drooling photos of cafe food and seasonal window treatments in Paris.

Take a look at a new food blog from a knitter: Tanta Robina She's a knitter, very active on Ravelry.com, and about to start culinary school!


I'm thrilled she'll be sharing her adventures with us! Her first couple of postings of Italian food terms and a review of a cookbook with avocado, beet and pumpkin tahinis has me looking forward to a lot more!

I'm still working on the crocheted 12-sided snowflake - slow work, surprisingly or it's just my free time is just limited at the moment.

An hour's breather for TIF March work

It looks like I'll have an hour or so to work on my TIF March project today in-between "events." It's quiet here at home, too -- so quiet it's strange, although we had a fun visit this morning with a local artist (more on that another time).

In the beginning of March I was obsessed with "snow" as we still had enough of it, but last week came around and the realization I was "out of time" for a sewing project.

So I'm working on this:

it's a dodecahedron (12 sided)shape that will be my version of a 3-D snowflake. Do snowflakes come 12-sided? Have to check that out later. It's a Berroco Free Pattern - available both as knitted and crochet patterns. Photo above from the Berroco site.

My version is in this great KF Regia striping yarn, but I'm not sure how I'm going to get 12 sides out of this. But considering how limited my spatial abilities are, I'm just going to take it as it goes.

You have to go with the moment - TIF March

March has escaped me, sewing wise.

In between thinking about what I still have to do or go to between now and Sunday Easter dinner, I thought: there is no way I'm going to have any spare "free, calm and quiet moments" to even get started on something "snow" related (see a few posts below for some thoughts)for my TIF March work. Monday next week is now booked, Tuesday is a PT 1/2 day ... and so it goes.

But I did find something "fun" actually snowflake related a couple of weeks ago, and although they aren't original, they will be interesting to make (one knitted and one crocheted), and because I can pick them up and put them down, can get done by the end of March. I'm still quilting my Feb TIF and still need to finishing pulling the fringe on the Jan TIF. I do want to stay with the challenge somehow, although so far I'm doing far more "thinking" than producing.

I have to laugh: the beginning of March here was cold, windy, and full of afternoon snow storms. This week spring HAS decided it's time (vernal equinox today, I think) and yesterday it looked like a Frosty the Snowman mega-melt around town -- full wet streets, and the not-so-fun "black ice" puddles.

Taking a day off but need to get busy!

I'm almost finished with the shawl collar project from Knitting New Scarves.

I'm stash busting, so this was done in two colors of Karabella Aurora 8 -- a WONDERFUL yarn for ribbings. It will need to be blocked some.
I need to resume stitching on my Feb TIF Challenge

and I want to continue working on this mitten!

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!

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."

TIF Feb progress

 

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!

 

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!

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: