Petunia rambles on and on….

Yesterday was a beautiful day. The first thing, most noticeable to all, was that it wasn’t raining – this coming after what seems like months weeks many days of straight rain. Gloomy, gray skies.

The lovely PomPom made my birthday with a gift certificate to Knitpicks. She knows I love new yarns. How fortunate I am to have her as a friend. Thank you, Sally, for this great kindness that meant more to me than you’ll ever know. It so helped to offset some rather unpleasant news this week on an entirely different front.

I took advantage of the sunshine, and took these.

Purple flowers for you, Minnow!  Happy Mother’s Day!

Twas too nice a day to stay home and do all the chores that needed to be done, so I did a few and left!

I love brickwork patterns. Note the odd set on every 6th row!  This is an odd angle at the back of the house.

The front of the house faces the St. Jones River.

Side door that leads into a work area, where sewing, weaving, spinning and mending was done.

Pink Dogwood – to me, the most beautiful of all – and such a short season for them.

Finished the pink socks.

Louet Gems Crabapple Blossom, 2 skeins, done Magic Loop, 2 at a time, on US Size 1 needle.

Pattern is Diagonal Lace Socks from Wendy Johnson’s new book Socks from the Toe Up.

Fabulous book. I could just carry it around with me like a yellow blankie.

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Note a small grandson, about 15 months old here, with a lovely Yellow Blankie.

I saw Yellow Blankie at his 4th birthday party this past Saturday.

Yellow B is still cherished but looks somewhat the worse for wear.

 Several spots have been mended.

Several more still need it.

Some stains will never come out.

 Most of the patterns on the fabric are faded to invisibility.

No measuring the comfort it’s given , though.

 

 

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So Back to Wendy’s book.

Feel free to accuse me of a biased opinion here, but I love prefer toe-up socks. I’ve made them cuff-down, can do it well, can Kitchener the toe without going gray(er). So it’s not that I dislike or have a problem with the time-honored method of working towards the toe, instead of away from it. I like toe-up because I can try it on and see if it’s big enough around and adjust as I go if need be. The main reason, though, is that with toe-up, I can fully utilize the often-expensive sock yarn that I buy, without fear of running out half-way down the second sock. I often always work two at a time now, dividing the yarn in half, and working until I’m just about out of yarn. No fear; no waste. I like-y.

The book is great. A bit in the beginning that quickly goes over the “Tools of the Trade,” needle types, markers, counters, cable needle, etc. A page or so about yarn choices, thicknesses, fiber content, measuring and gauge.  Then there’s 5 different ways to start the toes, short discussion on using different needle configurations (DPNs, 2 circs or Magic Loop), 3 different heel styles, and several ways of binding off.  Each of these are clearly explained and well-illustrated. Somebody spent a hell of a lot of time with the line drawings and diagramming. The methods are interchangeable, so you can insert a different type of heel or bind-off if you choose.

Patterns start out with what Wendy calls “plain Vanilla” socks. There are three of them, illustrating the different techniques. I can/will use these patterns for socks for Pop. He won’t wear anything fancy and the wildest thing I might be able to talk him into wearing would be a sock with ribbing on it for close fitting. These patterns are also great for the multi-colored hand dyed yarns, where intricate stitching would be lost in the color.  Then there’s Lace Socks, Textured Socks and Cabled Socks.  There’s even a section for Sport-weight yarn socks, when you need a quick knit!  Included at the end are Abbreviations and Definitions.

I’ll admit up front that there’s quite a few that I’ll never make. This isn’t a criticism of the author’s talent; it’s an acknowledgement of the fact that my eyes ain’t what they used to be. The ones with more intricate lace would be difficult with my vision issues, I’d make mistakes and not be able to correct them when using fine yarn. Ripping is not my favorite indoor sport and I knit for relaxation, not aggravation. I have other sources for that, thanks.

This book gives enough information on techniques and the basic architecture of socks that it begs a reader/knitter to try designing for themselves.  Get out a stitch dictionary (we all have them!); plug in what catches your fancy and go with it.

I’m sure this is a book that I’ll refer back to over and over. I purchased a good one!

I don’t usually post about sewing.  I used to do a great deal, but that was before this blog, I think. Then my sewing room got turned into a bedroom for the twins. Twas right at the time. Now things swing the other way; sewing, knitting, spinning, quilting things are moving back in!!  Pop, who doubles as a pack mule in his spare time, has spent many of his days off work ferrying goods from a rented storage locker back to our house.  (The locker has now been emptied, cleaned, inspected, keys turned in – no more monthly bill after almost 3 years!!)  Last week, he re-built one of my big corner desks and I’m thinking about moving the main computer system back.  If I keep only the laptop out in the main area, perhaps it’ll reduce hide some of the visible clutter.

While I was mulling this over, Pop cluttered up the entire desk surface with “stuff.”

Some of the tubs are filled with sewing/quilting/embroidery fabrics and notions; some are out-of-season clothes.  Damn!  I think I need to deal with that issue first – get the warm weather items out, cold weather goods stored away.  (I hate doing this with a passion every year, this semi-annual Toss the Clothes About party that I throw for myself, I’m the only one that attends, so it’s boring AND lonely)  But I really think that’s where I need to start.  I can’t be moving computer equipment back there until I find the dask again.

So while I was thinking about crafts that don’t involve yarn, I was also in my Flickr account and found a picture of a project I did years ago. One of my children is a fish person, a shark person, a Miami Dolphins fan perhaps only because the mascot lives in water. And one day, I saw this fabric in the local store.  Using my standard Placemat Template, I cut out muslin backings, batting and the top fabric, enough to make 6 placemats.  I did the first one with stipple quilting – machine quilting in a random pattern, close swirls meandering over the entire surface – dark blue thread. It looked like hell, took away from the neat-looking sharks on the fabric.  I realized that to enhance each shark, rather than muddy each one up, I would need to outline each of the little cuties, quilting free-hand with the machine’s feed dogs dropped down.  Oh, that was going to look so much better, and luckily, I had enough of the top fabric to cut another oval.

I started in carefully outlining each of those wee sharks. This is exacting work – the nature of free-hand quilting requires that you keep it moving.  If you slow down the fabric movement, you get a shitload of stitches all on top of one another, making a big snarl that has to be cut and picked out – again very carefully or you cut a damn hole right in the middle of your project.  I also did not realize in a timely manner just how many fins these ugly beasts have apiece. And I really wanted to accentuate their mouths. And doing this for any length of time makes your wrists hurt.

By placemat #3, I didn’t like sharks anymore.

By placemat #5, I was re-thinking how I felt about the kid.