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Restingmotion

  • Skirting the Issue

    Christmastreeskirt

    The beautiful wine velvet has become a skirt of sorts; it has become the tree skirt.  Ahhh, one way to deal with temptation, because as it was: (a temptation that is), I was ready to chuck all Christmas plans out the window, tell my family to order pizza on Christmas eve, not decorate the house, or distribute my usual platters of cookies and Christmas candies or do any of the other things that I love during the holidays.  I was going to hole myself up with my new Hot Patterns skirt pattern and red velvet and not come out until I had a skirt.

    That plan has been successfully aborted and delayed until next year, when my mind will be much clearer.

    I do this every year, wrap some lovely piece of fabric around the base of the Christmas tree.  I am happiest when I have huge pieces that I can drape and arrange in extravagant folds so that it extends well beyond the border of the tree.  I have used cottons, velvets, silks, brocades, even, one year, a beautiful Chanel tweed, which later became a beloved suit.  And yet, every year I tell myself that I could have made a skirt for the tree, or even bought one.  That latter choice is not all that likely as I always find fault with the skirts in the stores.  Over the years I have had plans, often grand in scale, for the tree skirt I would make.  They never materialize. 

    When I was young, naive, and full of energy, in my early 20s,  I thought I would embroidery one in panels, perhaps recreating beautiful stained glass windows and tying them together with velvet or brocade.  I planned at least 12 panels of embroidery, although I aspired to more.  I thought I would do one a year.  I would have been finished long ago if I had ever undertaken that project. 

    Once I wanted to make a beautiful and grand needlepoint skirt, probably the size of a rug since I don’t like wimpy skirts.  That one was never started either. 

    Once I was going to make a skirt of silk and velvet pieces like a crazy quilt, with embroidery and perhaps even beads….

    You guessed it.

    I still have fabric, plain old fabric, under my tree.  Probably always will.  But you know, after that fabric is made up into some favorite garment, it’s cool to think that I am wearing my tree skirt.

  • Christmas Yarn

    A couple of gifts of yarn are going under the tree:

    Christmas2

    This is actually a kit for a scarf.  The yarns are by Anny Blatt and are fairly subtle.  Unfortunately I could not get them to photograph well.  They were either too washed out and came back almost white, or they were too dull and gray.  The colors of the slate on the front porch echos the colors in the yarn pretty well  and the camera picked up on that.  The yarn is a little more intense here than it actually appears, but only a tad.

    Christmas_006

    The Noro was the intended gift and I am sure the recipient will love this.  The first, I am not so sure, but the colors really spoke to me, and I hope she likes them too.

  • Of wrapping and cutting

    I did finally finish cutting out the vest.  Despite my best intentions, and after announcing several times the night before that my first priority for the day was to do some cutting, I did not get started until 4:30.  I had hoped to cut before shoveling the snow, but various interruptions occurred and the day did not go as planned.

    Well, what is new in that?  Nothing, nothing at all.

    After the vest was cut and dinner was made, I was just too tired, and the back to sore to cut some more,  (that new cutting table is looking more and more attractive) and I have the vest and a sweater set cut so there is plenty to sew on right now.  Besides at the moment my sewing room is piled high with various Christmas gifts waiting to be wrapped (only a few more to ship), so sewing time may be limited to rather rare moments between holiday preparations.

    I wrapped up the gifts for my nieces and their children so they can be shipped out on Monday:

    Christmas1

    The pot in the background is filled with vegetarian vegetable stock that I had just finished making.  This one was based on winter squash and leeks, along with miscellaneous vegetable trimmings and spices.  The Christmas preparations have begun, along with some menu planning and recipe alteration to accommodate the preferences of my vegan 2-step-granddaughter, who is expected to be joining us. (step-daughter’s step-daughter).  There will be plenty of choices for the more carnivorous minded as well.  I have never been known for having a shortage of food on the table or in the pantry.

  • On The Menu

    Roasted Steelhead Trout with Balsamic Citrus Glaze
    Braised Fennel and Garlic
    Roasted Sweet Potato & Potato Chips

     

  • Winter is a Comin’ In

    It’s Here:

    Winterisacominin

    The total was somewhere between 10 inches and a foot, dry and powdery, perfect cross-country skiing snow.  Guess what my weekend holds?

    The first carnival sock from the knitpicks yarn is done and I love it!
    Carnivalstripes2

    It has been done a couple of days now.  I keep trying it on and admiring it.  The other foot is eagerly awaiting its own sock.  It may take a bit before I get started.  There are other things in the pipeline, but it won’t take that long.  More details when I have a pair.

  • In anticipation of snow

    There is nothing quite like trying to buy Calcium Chloride the day before a snowstorm, but that is precisely how I spent part of my day today.  It started this morning when I casually told the Husband that they were predicting snow for tomorrow morning, and thank goodness I did too.  He told me that we were out of salt for the driveway, explaining that he hadn’t mentioned it before because I had such a bad cold and he didn’t want me to have to go out and get it then.  Of course, I am still snot-brained and dripping like a leaky faucet, but I do have much more energy and presence of mind today so off to the stores I go to find the elusive salt.

    Usually we are much more prepared with salt supplies, trying to keep enough for at least 2 snowfalls in stock.  In this household that means three 50 pound bags, as it takes 75 pounds to salt our 600 foot long, steep, curvy driveway.  The salt makes a big difference in what is left after the plowing is done, and in how quickly it melts, especially since most of the driveway does not get direct sun in the wintertime. Although the salt expenditure is significant, the difference is highly noticeable, and the driveway remains far more passable with less shoveling.

    If the powers that be are correct this time, it looks like we will be at the center of the coming storm with approximately 10 inches of snow predicted.  What fun!  I love looking out the window at the white, snowy world.  Everything becomes so silent and peaceful.  For a few minutes after a snowfall, if I am lucky even a few hours, I can pretend that the world is a calm, peaceful, and happy place.  That is until I go out near the malls in the pre-Christmas madness.

    As I warmed my hands around a nice cup of hot coffee following my 45 minute stint of salt scattering, I thought about the wonderful prospect of a snow-day.  There are things to do.  I am a little behind on holiday preparations.  But I decided that I will ignore them all.  Tomorrow I will finish my cutting, cutting out the projects I had originally planned, plus one more.

    My pattern order arrived from HotPatterns on Tuesday::

    Hotpatterns

    I didn’t order anything really fancy and I did not expect them to arrive so soon.  Today some beautiful wine stretch velvet arrived from Candlelight Valley. 

    Winevelvet

    The photo is not mine, I copied it from this page  on the Candlelight Valley website.  My photos ended up too blurry and pink without flash, and too dark, almost black, with flash.

    I’m not yet sure which version of the skirt I will cut.  Tomorrow will tell.  Tonight I have to wash the fabric (and I still have to iron the sheets).

  • Cold and Gray; Head filled with Clay

    A perfect project for one afflicted with a severe head cold:

    Spray

    Scarf for the Morse Box, to be donated.
    Finished size 5" by 50"
    Rowan Spray, 1 skein, 87 yards
    needles size 15

    No pattern.
    Cast on 12 stitches. 
    Rows 1-3, Knit
    Next row, Knit
    Next row, Knit 2, purl 8, Knit 2.
    Repeat last 2 rows until scarf is near to finished.
    Knit 3 rows
    Bind off..
    Finish 3 rows garter.  Bind off.

    Perfect for those lacking in attention span or whose thought processes are temporarily clogged.

  • Travelling Yarn

    I and my suitcase full of yarn have returned from Boston.  The yarn that travelled to Boston has, for the most part, come home untouched, but we have all made new friends.

    Of course, I knew I was being unreasonable, packing more yarn that clothes, but I had high hopes.  I feared I was coming down with a cold and the thought of snuggling up in the hotel room with pay-per-view and a pot of tea fed my knitting fantasies.  The cold waited until I returned and now I face the plethora of holiday preparations with red nose, scratchy throat, and the energy of a damp dishrag.  ‘Tis the season.

    Travellingyarn

    There is Tesla in the lower right corner.  I am still plugging away.  All the other gray yarn is Tahki’s Donegal Tweed, which I was planning to use to start (and finish) Rogue.  Of course I knew that even if I started Rogue I would not finish it but I had to take ALL the yarn just in case.  Ahh how naive the crazed knitter!

    Of course, as I was sitting in the passenger seat of the car knitting Tesla as we drove up the Taconic Parkway, I realized that Tesla was progressing at the amazingly fast slow rate of 2 1/2 rows an hour, and that I was bored to tears knitting 300 plus stitch garter stitch rows, so that I could not knit for endless hours on this project without distractions and breaks.  I love the sweater.  I want to wear it.  At this point I really can’t wait to be done with it.

    At the end of the weekend I have 40 more rows to go, more or less, depending on the vagaries of neckline width and final desired fit.  I think the real Christmas miracle will be finishing it in 2005.

    Distractions abound however, although I am limiting them to small projects.  I know deep in my heart that if I start something like Rogue Tesla will be tossed aside to gather dust.

    I started this sock earlier last week, when I needed a project in a hurry for the train into NYC:

    Carnivalstripes

    The yarn is KnitPicks Simiple Stripes.  I ordered it to try another basic sock when I wasn’t sure what I thought of the first one.  When I actually started it though, I needed a project in a hurry and I didn’t have time to try anything new.  I knew I didn’t like the ribbed top on the stockingette cuff of the first sock, but did not have time to figure out a picot edge.  Although a long-tail cast on in K1P1 rib was plenty stretchy for the first sock, I was not sure it would be stretchy enough for K2P2 and I am not yet adept enough at tubular cast on for K2P2 to do it on the fly without a book.  I haven’t learned how to cast on for a toe up sock and wasn’t about to figure it out on the train.

    So, having just read Annie Modesit, I used her technique for casting on with waste yarn and knitting a tube from the base of the toes up, adding waste yarn for an afterthought heel as well.  This is a great mindless project when you just need something to carry along and not think.  Picking up the stitches at the toe to knit down was a little fiddly, but not a problem.  I knit the toe in garter stitch which I may like better. All that is left is the heel, picked up and ready to go, and then to graft heel and toe.  I thought grafting was best not done on the bumpy, windy Taconic Parkway yesterday afternoon.

  • The remainder of the vest has not been cut.  I had truly hoped I would get to it, not that I was likely to get to the sewing soon as we will be leaving for Boston by late afternoon today and will not be back until Late Sunday night.  I have no handsewing to take with me although I do plan on taking knitting.  George will be at a meeting so I will be free to shop, wander around, go to museums and just generally hang out.  I am looking forward to it.

    I am also looking forward to meeting May from Sewing World who not only sews but is a fabulous knitter.  What fun.

    I had originally had a small stretch of time on Tuesday, but the new Design Within Reach catalog arrived and in it was this fabulous modern shelving system .  I immediately thought of my sewing room.

    I have long wanted (needed) to put some kind of shelves with cubbies along the blue wall.  I have looked at all the local stores and closet places and just about everywhere I can think of for a modular system that I could put up that would fit there, under the beams from my post and beam ceiling, in the space I have, in a way that would meet my needs and be aesthetically pleasing.  Nothing was working out.  I had reconciled myself to the fact that I would never get what I wanted unless I had a custom-built bookcase/shelving system put in, and frankly my sewing room is not high enough on the priority list for that right now.  If II go to all the expense and bother to build a built-in and have it really well made, I feel I also have to deal with the panelled walls which I hate, the floor that I don’t like and so forth.  I would rather deal with those issues in the more public areas of the house first.

    When I calculate everything out with these modules, which are 18 1/4 by 18 1/4 by 10" deep, I realize that they just work out to fill the available space, depending on how high the little feet are that go on the bottoms.   HOW EXCITING! 

    Besides I genuinely like the high-tech modern look of them, or at least I imagine I do from the photos.  I hope I am not dissapointed when I see the real things. I’m going to stop in the Cambridge DWR store and take a look.

    But now, I think this can actually happen.  I still have to work out a new counter-top and cabinets for a sewing table one wall as I am going to replace the old desks i am using now.  But, with luck I should be able to pull this together this winter and will have a place to hide when the outdoor demolition and construction starts in March.

    I’ll let you know what develops.

  • New Style of Heirloom Knitting

    Look!

    The Japanese knitting book arrived!  And I think I want to knit every item!
    Lostintranslation1

    Actually all the instructions are mostly graphs, which was also true of the two older Japanese knitting magazines I have.  I dont’ think it will be that difficult to figure out.

    Here is a page for a gorgeous cabled cardigan for which  Cara is starting a knitalong.

    Lostintranslation2

    I signed up even though I am terrible, just terrible, about doing things on other people’s schedules.  I figured that if it was more complicated than I expected there would be help.  I can’t wait to start this sweater, but then I have been saying that about a couple of other sweaters for a couple of months now while I slogged away on my WIPs.

    On that front, Tesla is progressing, albeit slowly now.  Those 344 (current count) rows seem to go on FOREVER.  Thank goodness for those 8 decreases every 4th row.  I’m taking it with me to Boston this weekend and I hope to finish (and start something else but that is probably naive).  If we leave early enough I will get some knitting done in the car, but it is not an after dark project.  I have a simple pair of plain socks on size 2 for the late night in the car knitting.

    No computer is going with me, so I will catch you up when I get back.