Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Drive By Post

This will be quick, it's a busy season for everyone!
image
Yes, it's cold and wintry, but the sunrise sets the trees afire, and the sunsets are fabulous...

The sweater has been worn in the wild:
Nose to nose

Also? A new hat for a little girl!

And we spend our days working, learning all sorts of things:
Puzzle time

We talk a lot. sometimes the people around us can understand us. Understanding can be hard.

Friday, November 16, 2012

At Last!

I finished a new sweater:
sweater 045

I started this several months ago, but have had to put it aside while more pressing projects needed attention. It's handspun wool, Lincoln, Blue Faced Leicester, Romney, etc. All sorts of outdoor-wear breeds of wool.

This was knitted top-down; a design-as-you-go stranded cardigan, with a steeked front. The front closure for the steeks is a knitted envelope, or steek sandwich! which I learned from this post by Kate Davies.

It has the necessary pockets:
sweater 001

Also the requisite hood:
sweater 021

and cuffs...
sweater 003
that turn into hand warmers!

The buttons were an issue. I tried several (of course, Plan Ahead applies here: the sweater was done, buttonholes included, before I looked at buttons, so I was limited in my choices).

Wood:
sweater 002

Leather:
sweater 004

Dyed bone, which I liked best, sewed on, but it turns out the shank tip catches on the yarn (boo):
sweater 003

So I had to go with these:
sweater 023

Dyed wood, very large and lightweight. They are perfect for the buttonholes, and the color is good: they will do nicely. The button holes are applied i-cord: a very neat and tidy finish to the steek sandwich front bands.

So there you have it! Handspun, stranded, steeked, hooded, with built-in mitts, a new sweater just in time for winter:
sweater 011


Sunday, November 11, 2012

Lessons Learned from Cats

contract 013

Still basking here, catlike, from SOAR and a few days' retreat thereafter. Charlene has posted about some of the things we did and talked about here. Raised by cats, indeed! It seems an apt metaphor.

I did manage to get a few things done, herewith the silk fabric:
silk fabric

Now, to sew. I always leave the sewing until the last minute: not my favorite thing to do. But alas, no clothing without some sewing!

I was given several things as house gifts and thank you gifts recently, and I sense a theme:
SOAR gifts

I've finished a new sweater too, pictures to follow. It was to be for SOAR, but the best laid plans, etc. Cold weather is just starting though, so it will get plenty of wear, and it is The Perfect Sweater (aren't they all? at least the most recently finished?).

Thursday, November 01, 2012

A New Year

November! A new year, the quiet season begins. I left for SOAR when it was late summer, we had winter while there,
Granlibakken snow

and I returned home to Autumn:
image

It's raining here now, a perfect time to unpack, wrap up, collate, categorize, change direction and repack for the next adventure (yes! headed off again, soon).

Something fun awaited my return:
Book catalog

The new book is Becoming Real:
Book2 cover

And my silk fabric even graces the catalog's back cover:
Catalog back

I'll be putting up a pre-order button for signed copies in early Spring!