A new hat for MaMa ...

I was in the middle of knitting a sweater that I started on a whim because I saw a photo of one someone else made. (My Compulsive Shopper thing kicked in.) It is knit as one piece up to the armpits, so the cast on was some hideous number of stitches. It's pretty much stockinette stitch except for a cable at the front opening, so gets kind of tedious, allowing for the wandering of an already easily-distracted mind. I started thinking about how nice it will be to arrive at the end of this sea of repetition, and wondered why I even started such a thing. I could have made a hat and been done with it. A hat. Yes. A hat. THAT is what this yarn should have been. So I left off the sweater and started a hat. (I'm old. I can do that, if I want to.)

Here's the hat:

And here's a picture of Rose's French Braid that she and Dave finished up here last week.

I think the photo should have been rotated, but, oh well. She pieces, he quilts with her supervision, and I bail them out when there's a problem. My camera was in hiding when they were here, so we used their cell phone. I took pics of them with the quilt, but they didn't forward those for posting. Hah! They're coming back soon, and I've found the missing camera. I'll get them in the next photos.

Meanwhile, back in the jungle ... yesterday was a Fire-Outputting day. The freezer in the cellar bit it. I'll spare you the details, but know I felt like I accomplished something major when I finally got all the stuff moved to another freezer with little loss. The afternoon was spent running mundane errands like banking and grain fetching from the feed mill. Bleh.

I've finished up a few more customer quilts and will get some photos of those to post later.

anything look familiar here?

Not washed & blocked yet, and loose ends inside need to be dealt with. Still don't recognize anything? Here's a hint:









Yep ... wool from my sheep, now socks. I have a ton (literally) of wool spun into yarn. I decided yesterday to try it out. With a little practice, it is destined to become my favorite. The dark wool seems to be a bit finer than the white, so I'll need to figure out how they work together the best way possible. My goal is to make sweaters for everyone in my family from our home-grown wool. But I'm already old, so I'm not sure how that will work out.

Should I start with the smallest size, figuring that working from the smallest up will yield the highest number of finished products in shortest amount of time? Or should I work from the largest down, figuring they can be passed down as people grow into them? That might be the best plan. Then everyone can take a turn wearing the sweater, pass it along to the next in line, saying "Your turn to pretend you like hand-knit wool sweaters."

Maybe I should just make one for myself and see if anyone asks for their own. Yeah. That's the ticket!

She'll be ...

… wearing hand-knit stockings when she comes …

* * * WARNING: rant follows. You DO know where your delete button is, right? * * *



















Is this the new marketing trend? I keep getting messages from the big online book store, letting me know that books I may be interested in are available for pre-order. The first week of September I saw a quilt kit I thought was beautiful. After a couple of days of telling myself I didn’t need yet another project on the shelf, I caved and decided I really REALLY want it. So I went back to the website and saw that, not only was it a pre-order item, but the price had gone up by about $30. Well, that didn’t sit very well with me. It had only been a matter of about two or three days since I’d first considered it. So I went to the website of a major quilting fabric retailer and found it was there, as a pre-order item at the first price I had seen. So I ordered it. My heart’s desire became a gift to me. It was to be available mid-October. Perfect.

I also needed something to make for a baby friend, and found another quilt kit in a magazine and decided to order it online from the company who advertised it. Wow! It was on sale for half-price. My lucky day! So I ordered that on the same day as the first, but from this second company.

So forward to November 1. No packages arrived, so I called to find out why. The first company said that they were waiting on the manufacture for the pattern that goes into the kit. (Oh … please, take your time!) The second company said they were waiting on the manufacturer for the fabric that goes into the kit. (I do hope they’ve at least picked the cotton at this point, lest the baby be full grown by the time I make his crib quilt!)

It’s now past the midway point in November, and still my packages have not arrived. Yeah … I know … I could just cancel my orders to express my unhappiness with both of these companies. (Mind you, these are NOT small companies – they are the industry leaders. Otherwise, I’d be a bit more understanding, fully aware that stuff happens and things don’t always go the way it’s hoped.) I’ll try to wait it out, but trust me, I won’t be doing the pre-order thing again any time soon.

I recently read someone else’s rant about how the J-I-T method of managing inventory is not good for the economy. (It might have been on the Drudge Report.) I think they’ve now pushed the process even further. I’m opting out.

What's THAT about?!? ...

Walking over to the studio for a day of quilting, I glanced down into the pasture and saw this:

King of the Hay Bale? Go figure. (There's always something nutty going on for my amusement.)

The day before, all the cows decided to hike over to the neighbor's farm for a visit. I managed to round them all up and bring them back home without much of an issue. The electric fence that is supposed to keep them in had been knocked down, probably by deer in the night. I thought the wire had been snapped because it was stretched across the road and dangling over a welded wire fence. My guess was that a deer got caught on it, and jumped the welded wire fence to escape, taking the electrified wire with it on it's hoof. I grabbed ahold of the wire, intending to re-attach it where it belongs, and ZOWIE! I found out it was still a live wire. Sparks flew. From my mouth.

I put the cows in the upper pasture because I had no desire to repeat that little scene. DH could take care of it, and I told him about it when he returned. He said he would fix it, after he came inside for a cup of tea and a snack first.

By the time he went back out, the cows had found their way out of that pasture by way of a gate that opens into the woods where he gathers firewood. He had left it open the day before, not thinking I'd put the cows back in that pasture for a while. They all headed down the road and paid the neighbor on the opposite side a visit this time. DH and the dog rounded them up again. Now we've all had some good exercise, a chat with the neighbors. I'm telling you, it's as good as a three-ring circus most of the time.

Pat still has some more work to do on her quilt, so no photos yet. But here's a glimpse of Shannon's Minkie Monkey quilt. That minkie fabric is incredibly soft, stretchy, and with deep pile. I had not quilted any before so was a bit apprehensive about working with it. It worked up without any problems caused by the fabric's characteristics. Nice surprise. See the monkeys? They're swinging in banana trees, and that design coordinates with the fabrics on the front of the quilt, which I have no photos of to share with you.

Comfy!

And here we have Leftovers:

Looks like socks, to me! I couple of years ago, I knitted a sweater for GS1. I've never seen it since, but I'm sure he's outgrown it by now. I remember that the yarn was soft and squishy -- the way I like my socks.

Pat C is coming back today, and we hope she'll get her starry quilt finished. Stay tuned for photos.

She's absolutely right!

Brenda S commented that when she was in school, those experiments were done with plenaria. She's absolutely right -- that's what they were (not euglena)! (google it if you wanna see some regeneration images ... they will grow a second head if you split them. Ugh! Who thinks these things up? And how did someone ever discover those odd little things to experiment on?!? I guess I'd better go google it some more to re-remember).

Well, Brenda came and got a couple of quilts done Sunday. The first went without a hitch; the pawprint quilting pattern was just the ticket for the cat print.

Although you cannot see the print on the back of this, it’s got little toy vehicles, and we found a pattern with the same theme for the quilting. Very cute.

Tip for the day: if your scissors go missing, find them before you proceed.
Sock progress: when I get to this point (closing up the toe), “She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain” starts running thru my head, over and over till I finish it up. So finish it up I must, lest I go completely crazy from the repetition in my brain.

a what?!? ...

DH uses this tool when caulking. I saw it lying in the bathtub during one of his recent projects and asked, "Doesn't that thing look like a euglena?"

"A what?"

"A euglena. You know, those things that you can cut the head in half and it will regenerate so it has two heads."

"What ARE you talking about?!?"

Okay, so is it just me, or did anybody else have to do that in first level biology class?

Here are some pics of the two quilts I mentioned in my last post -- note the dates, etc. Handquilted antiques (owner accepting offers).

Dated Sept. 07, 1888

That edging is either tatted or crocheted. (How does one tell the difference?)