The thing About Knitwear

I have a lot of knitwear.  I have shawls and wraps and scarves and sweaters and socks and on and on.  If it can be made, I have or will soon be knitting it.  And I love it.  

When I started knitting, it was really for sweaters.  I wanted sweaters that fit me and I wanted warm.  Even if I hated knitting I would knit sweaters just to have something decent to wear that was warm.  I love my sweaters and among my stock of them, have favourites.  I love how some of the sweaters are workmanlike sturdy yarns and how some of them are so incredibly warm and light.  I love the heavy dense ones too.  They all get worn regularly.  

I love my scarves and shawls too.  I have been wearing a different one everyday to keep the chill off of my neck.  A good small shawl or large one, wrapped close a few times, is exactly the right note of cozy.  I have my small stash of fingerless mittens too and wear them all the time.  I used to just wear them to bed, but lately, I have been wearing them everyday.  My hands are chilly and the gloves make me so much more comfortable.  And then there are these.

These are usually in my car, coming into the house only in winter.  They normally hang out in my bag but some of my grandkids came overnight to keep my company when my boys were gone for my father in law's funeral.  It was a lovely warm night, a rare -4C and the kids wanted to play outside with the neighbour kids.  Marcus had forgotten his mittens so I gave him these and we tucked them into his coat sleeves so they would stay on.  His hands fit well, but the cuff was too big for him.  When they came in, the mittens were sopping wet.  Their coats and snow pants were dripping and needed to go into the dryer.  Mittens and hats went onto the registers to dry.

It was a few days till I remembered my mittens. I picked them up and put them on.  

I was so surprised.  The wet wool on Marcus' hot little hands and all the wet wool had caused the inside to felt just the smallest amount.  They are so delightfully cosy and fuzzy and soft.  They were already a really good warm pair of mittens, made as they are from Mule Spinner two ply from Custom Woolen Mills, but now they are even better.  Wonderful.  

Today was also laundry day.  Laundry included the first dishcloth I made on the larger of my two pin looms.  

After a good hot wash and dry with some towels, it is the perfect size.  I am really pleased with it and it makes me almost want to do dishes.  Maybe that is taking things too far.  I took a photo of it against the second dishcloth so you can see how it shrank and to show you the difference from the loom mounted cloth to the cloth ready for use.  

That is sort of what I ended up working on today.  A dishcloth.  To save my hand and to give it a good rest, I took lots of breaks and kept doing different things in short spurts. My hand is slowly feeling better and I would hate more than anything to hurt it again now.  

And that was my cozy warm day, hands in mittens, Ishbel close around my neck and a couple different sweaters worn through the day.  

And socks.  Always socks.

 

Endless Possibilities

I did all the things I planned to do.  This never happens.  It is also 5 a.m. and I don't write at this time of day, but I am wide awake and wish it was just a bit later.  This 5 o'clock business seems to be happening more than I would like.

But there are no photos and there wasn't really anything to say.  I was planning to write last night but I just didn't have much to say and then my son called and we talked for quite a while.  He had a bad day and needed to talk it out.  But that is his story and not mine.

I am not really sure what I will get up to today.  I may just read a book and maybe set a puzzle. Might sew the thing I cut out yesterday.  Might bake some buns.

The day has infinite possibilities.  How wonderful!

  

Zooming Along.

The weekend was for working with the zoom loom.  I am quite sure my experience with this loom will make my work on the larger pin loom better, faster and much much more rewarding.  

It took almost no time at all to work up a first square, maybe an hour and a half.  I picked it up and set it down a few times though, so I am not really sure.  It wasn't long.

There is a place where I missed a thread but it seemed to sort itself out and it was not worth taking apart to fix.  It is good enough for where it will eventually go.

By days end I had a wee packet of five squares.

I did a couple more today just to be certain I had the technique down pat.  Or close enough that the squares are not falling apart when I take them off the loom.  

This little loom really is the perfect thing for sock yarns.  I can see a huge array of colours resulting from my bits and ends of sock yarns.  I have tons of ends and it is nice to know that there is another little way to use the them up. I mean, I like monster socks (socks made with ends) but I like to use new colours and new yarns so that my socks are always interesting.  Repeating the same thing would be dull.

I have a feeling though that this little loom is never going to make squares that are the same and that each one is going to be unique.  I can already see that this is part of what makes this little thing fun.

Going back to my ten inch pin loom, the plan is that now that I have the technique soundly set in my head, to get back to it and make some dishcloths.  I set it down because the larger tools and yarn were hard on my hand and after the first cloth, I wanted to go slowly.  The first thing I want to do on that loom, is to mark the pegs into groups in the same way they are on the zoom loom.  Markings of groups is really going to help keep me on track and it will then be so much faster to warp and to do the actual weaving.  I also am going to get a long upholstery needle to do the weaving.  A finer but sturdy tool will make that go much faster and will be easier on my hand than the crochet type hook I am using now.  

It was a great weekend for experimenting and playing.  This week, though, I am looking forward to more sewing.  Lots of that to do before I am done, or tired of it.  And soon, maybe I can knit.

A Day of Delight

I put a big chunk of the day to sewing.  

First thing, I finished the edges on the lace part of my top.  

I had thought it would be hand work, but I decided yesterday evening, that what might work better and last longer, would be to bind the edges with some fabric.  

I think it worked out pretty well.  I am pleased with the whole top and I love how it looks on me.

And then I pulled out the new pattern and cut it out.

As you can see, this is pretty bright fabric, the better to break the winter doldrums.  Since I can't knit bright yarns...

I even did all the sewing on the interfacing pieces and am just about to iron on the interfacing I am using for the hem.  Yes, this is one of the things this top does just a bit differently.  It has hem facings, which will be a really great feature when it comes to the curved hems.

I would have done more of the sewing but by the time I stopped, my eyes really needed a break.  The will was there to keep going.  I was having a lot of fun, but it was time to stop so I had some tea and listened to my audio book.  

I am reading a book series written from 1954 to 1976 by Lucy M. Boston called the Green Knowe books.  I purchased the first three of the 6 books she wrote in the Green Knowe series from Audible in a collection of the first three.  

I first came across these stories on Amazon when I was looking for dvds, and it popped up in a list of British movies.  Julian Fellows adapted the second book, the Chimneys of Green Knowe to make the charming movie From Time to Time in 2009 with the wonderful Alex Etel playing Tolly, alongside an all star cast.  I utterly fell in love with the story and searched out the books.  I loved the movie, and I can honestly say that I wish I had read the books much much earlier in my life.  

They are so beautifully written and the stories...  It is just like that time reading Agatha Christie when I just had to pause midway in a novel to take in the way she used words.  Lucy M. Boston is a master.  You can see and feel Tolly as he worries about crossing the flooded way to the manor on his arrival or feels the breath of something on his neck before he sees the children and their array of pets.  Her descriptions put you right into the heart of the manor house throughout time.

I have read three mystery novels this January, The Twist of a Knife by Anthony Horowitz, A Keeper:  A novel by Graham Norton and The Man who Died Twice:  A Thursday Murder Club Mystery by Richard Osman and all of them were excellent.  It was time for a lighter read and these books, generally regarded as children's books are perfect.  My only regret is that I did not know about them when my kids were small to read aloud to them.  They would have loved these stories as much as I do.  They will be read again. 

All in all, it was a perfect sort of day.  Something fun to do, some tea and something good to read.  Perfect.

Busy Bees

It was a busy day.  It kind of looked like this.

In the mail the previous day, my Zoom Loom arrived.  The larger pin loom is strictly for dishcloths and this smaller one is for the vast amount of sock yarn ends I have.  Eventually I hope it will be a blanket.  Surely I can manage to make a dent in the pile of sock yarns ends with this.

I finally got around to opening it after lunch today.  I wanted to work up one square, but by this time, I had started another project that I wanted done.

I was finished sewing the rest of the top in the morning, and as I thought, it took much less time to sew than it did to pin the sleeves in.  But for finishing details to strengthen and secure the side seams of the lace, the top is done and I am very pleased.

I had picked up my embroidery stuff to get to work on finishing it, but I opened the embroidery case and realized that here was another little project that needed just a wee bit of time to complete.  So I did that.  Only two elements were needed, one to secure the 'smoke' and the other, to finish the wee background volcano.

I voted not to put in the colours at the bottom.  I have a feeling they will be covered up when I frame it or make a pillow of it or otherwise finish it.  If the spot does show, I will add it but it is substantially complete.

Then, I looked at fabrics.  It was time to figure out what to sew next.  I decided to look at patterns. I was looking for a pattern to fill that wardrobe spot most often filled by tank tops.  Some summer days are just too hot for anything else. This time, I picked out a pattern from Style Arc. I picked out the Parker Tunic  .  The rest of the day was taken up with putting the pattern together and getting ready to cut out the fabric for top one tomorrow.  I have two pieces of rayon fabric that I want to use for these tops.  The rayon is light, brightly coloured and will drape perfectly, even if sewing the stuff is a wee bit more challenging than I prefer.

I did not get to finishing my lacy tops edges.  By the time I was finished Marcus' volcano, my hand was buzzing the tiniest bit.  It is doing so well and I really don't want to use it for serious long gripping tasks more than I have to.  It is driving me nuts, but I am getting through it.  My hand is getting better, but at least another week before I can knit.   

Note to self:  Never ever rush small circular knitting like hots and socks and mitts. That is how I injured myself.  I pushed too hard and now look at me.  

And Sew It Was

I got up early this morning and by 8:30 I was in the sewing room.

I played around in fabrics for a while till my coffee was finished and then pulled out my chosen fabric and gave it a go.

The pattern and fabric lay out and cut like a dream.  I had plenty of fabric to play with so I didn't have to be ultra careful.  My goal was to have the hem at the bottom in the lace. I was hopeful for a bit, that I could make the sleeve bands out of the lacy part but that was not to be.     

After lunch I started sewing.  All the interfacings are in place and the pieces are ready.  Not that it takes a lot of time.  There are only four seams and not a lot else.  It means I have the luxury of time and can take it slow and be sure it is right.

I stopped after the neck facing was in.  All that is left is to put in the tab sleeves and sew up the sides.  The sleeves are already complete and will take longer to pin them in place than it will to sew.  I will finish in the morning..  

I took a photo of the lace too.  It is just so pretty.

The only change I made to the pattern was that I made it longer.  I put the hem of the pattern just above that beautiful wide lace border, which will finish things off in fine style.  There is one tiny place where I will have to do a bit of repair on the lace bottom. I noticed a thread loose on one spot on the back piece.  I don't think it is serious.

Finishing will be tomorrows job and then comes picking project number two to play with.

Sewing It Is

That is it.  Tomorrow I get back to sewing.  I still can't knit, my house is clean and I am bored to tears.  Sewing it is.

When I went through my fabrics the other day, I found a couple of fabrics that I chose for a Torrens Box Top.  I have made several of these and I love them for summer wear.  They are easy and made in cotton are perfect for summer wear.  This is the fabric I have and it is also my source. 

If you click the link, you will note that deep border of lace?  I know.  It just became something I had to have.  It was an obsession but I still only paid the buy one, get two free price.  I was obsessed, not crazy.  It's a cotton summer top and is something neat to wear around home, so all thoughts of fancy are out.  Comfortable is in.

A Torrens is a great top to get back to sewing with.  It is a simple shape and so few seams and only a small bit of finishing.  It will be a short sleeve version with no adaptations to the pattern other than what that gorgeous lace requires.  I will do only my standard deviation for a good fit on my hips.  It will be an a line Torrens.

Last time I sewed, I cut out three or four fabrics and different garments in one day and while that worked pretty well at the time, having to watch that pile all the time was a bit of a chore.  I worried about losing the small pieces or getting the interfacings mixed up.   I may cut out two Torrens, because they can easily be sewn in the course of a couple of days but beyond that, one pattern, and maybe two projects, I am not going to go.  

My hand is feeling much better but there still are twinges and I am not going to knit till it feels good with zero twitches when I do light weight work.  Soon though.  Soon.

So, sewing it is. 

A Gift

It has been a long winter, even though winter is half done.  My father's passing, my own health issues, which are now so much better it is hard for me to believe, and then finally, my father in law.  My father in law was buried this past weekend.  He died quietly aged just a few days, four to be precise, before he reached one hundred years.  It was a life well lived and loved and it meant a large family gathering in the town where Brian and I both grew up and where we started our married life.  

I know who these people are.  My boys know who these people are. They started school with these now grown kids.  We know many of the family's histories at least in a basic way.  At least half of them were roots very much like my own:  from Germany via the United States.  The other half were immigrants from Ukraine.  In most ways, this is not a story uncommon on the prairies of Canada.  They are a kind and caring community that pulls together when they need to.  It is a great place to have grown up and to call my first home. Like many, my life moved a lot of different places, but it will always be home and a place where people know me and my story even when they are only lightly acquainted.  It is a place where I will always belong.  Roots go deep.

So when my lovely sister in law, who still lives in the community sent me a gift, via my sons and their weekend trip of love and duty, I was a little surprised and oh so very touched.  The community has a prayer shawl ministry and my sister in law sent one.

It's lovely.  It is rows of creams with rich warm greens shifting and fading and back again.  The yarn is most likely an acrylic ( Many go to nursing home and hospitals in the area, abd washing is critical for those institutions here) but it is soft and warm and really pretty.  However, the thing I value the most is the care and kindness and thought with which it was made.    The makers name was tagged to the shawl and I was so pleased.  The lady who worked it was a cousin of my father's.  I understand how much of her heart, spirit, kindness and her prayers for whatever the receiver needed went into this lovely wrap.

Many years ago, when Brian died, I was sent one by a good friend of our family who is also part of the prayer shawl ministry, as a wish for comfort to me. I don't know if I ever really expressed my thoughts properly though on what it means to me.  The prayer shawl I received before was like a beacon of comfort to me and the idea of it still comforts me to this day.  It has been a long winter and someone was praying for peace and ease for a weary soul and that is huge.  It isn't just a very pretty thing, it is rich with meaning to me, and warms me to my very heart.

I have a closeup of the stitch pattern.  It is really interesting.  The shawl has been crocheted in this pattern that I am not familiar with.

Of course I spent the whole day, trying to figure out the stitch she used, a sort of mental game I like to play.  How did they do that?  I have some of it figured out, but the books come out tomorrow.  If I can't figure it out, I will search for it. It's the kind of thing I love to do.  

So that is part of the plan for tomorrow.  To pin the wrap on as I sip my morning coffee and sit and try to sort out the rest of the design and if I can't do that, to find it in my stitch pattern books.  Wish me luck.

The Yearly Stats

I love it each year when Ravelry puts out the stats of what goes on on Ravelry.  It is like a little sample of all the knitters in the world and where we are and what we love to do.  Iceland tops the knitting each year, usually by a pretty decent margin.  Canada is usually in the top 4 or 5.  We are usually below Icleand, Finland and Norway by a significant margin, but it is nice to see us up there. 

Many people I know do not go into Ravelry on the homepage but use a link to their personal notebook instead and miss this interesting tidbit about the thing so many of us love to do.  So here you go.  The nifty stuff from  The Ravelry Home Page

•  Iceland: 678 projects per 100,000 people
•  Norway: 524 projects per 100,000 people
•  Finland: 491 projects per 100,000 people
•  Canada: 273 projects per 100,000 people
•  Sweden: 266 projects per 100,000 people
•  Denmark: 222 projects per 100,000 people

and this

• added 87,106 patterns to the Ravelry database, over 70,000  of which were published in 2022. This brings the total number of patterns in our database to nearly 1.2 million!
• made over 1.3 million projects (approximately 1.1 million knitting, 225k crochet, and 8k weaving)
• knit 328.8 million yards / 300.7 million meters of yarn
• crocheted 56.6 million yards / 51.8 million meters of yarn
• wove 2.2 million yards / 2 million meters of yarn
• added 32.8 million patterns and 3 million projects to favorites
• spun 1040 kg of fiber (well over a ton!)
• added 8 million photos throughout pattern, yarn, project, and stash pages
• 5,791 patterns were featured in the Hot Right Now top 20 list, and 3,486 designers appeared in debut patterns spotlight. You can find both of those lists on our main Patterns page.

The really mind blowing thing is that Ravelry is only a small chunk of the people who regularly knit. Iceland knits.  I love that about a country.

Just hanging around

Still no knitting but getting ever closer.  I have been doing a lot of things around the house but none of it is knitting.  Sigh.  And if you think this is not driving me nutty, you would be wrong.  

Today I sorted out material for what I want to sew over the next few months.  I did not manage any sewing at all in the fall so I am a bit behind.  At the same time, the extra time has refined what I want to sew and what I want my woven clothing to be and how I want it to function.  I have a better idea of what I want certain pieces of fabric to be when they are done.   I have really clearly made up my mind as to the slightly longer back of shirts, the better to tuck them in and have them stay tucked in. I need this to keep me warmer.  I also cleared up which fabric types I want as little flowy tops and which need to be shirts or skirts and dresses.  

I also know that I need to sew a variation on my pencil pants that will function as proper leggings to wear in winter.  I just hate being cold and nobody makes long underwear to fit me.  I have thought of knitting them, I have lots of yarn, but the time it would take to do that is not something I want to think about.  Sewing them is the most sensible option and I have some plain knit t-shirt material to make them.

That time has also cleared up a small problem that seems to be arising from all the sewing.  Scraps.  There are enough small pieces of fabric, pieces that are large enough to do something with but I did not know what.  For years I had planned making project bags with whatever sewing scraps I had but my need was more urgent and I purchased bags. There are pieces that will probably be sewn into bags, but the vast majority will be put into a scrap happy duvet cover.  I have a couple blankets around that really ought to be consigned to the very well worn pile and if I put them together and under an interesting cover,  they just might do.  

I'm not going to go crazy mind you.  If the blanket idea doesn't work out, then I will just put the crazy tops onto a fleece backing and sew here and there across and call it good.  It might be a good idea for kid blankets, though my kids are rapidly getting old enough not to want to cuddle so much.  And yet, everybody needs a good blanket, don't they?   I can donate them too.  There is always a need for warm blankets.

My hand is getting better , just more slowly than I want.  Oh well.  I would rather look forward to knitting soon, that to start knitting before it is healed and face an even more brutal time away from knitting.  

My Favourite Thing

I was chilly today.  I have been chilly a lot this winter.  I think it is that we have been more humid than usual.  It isn't a dry cold this year.  It isn't as damp as living by the seaside, but it is different.  

Every day, and I do mean every day, I find myself wrapped in my Shetland shawl.

It is huge.  My best comparison is this.  

It takes up the same space in the chair as the first Sock Monkey Cabin Blanket.  My Shetland shawl is blanket sized but it is perfect. 

I fold it in half corner to corner and wrap myself in it and curl up and feel enveloped in its warmth.  There is just something about two layers of light wool.  

My favourite thing.

Hmm, and then there was nothing.  I used all my gumption writing yesterday.

I had a great visit with a friend this morning and then I warped another dishcloth.  I have a wee bit of a problem with it and I am deciding if I am going to do a fix that I think will work or if I ought to simply pull out the four weft rows I already wove and redo it properly.  It is a silly simple problem where in I started under when I ought to have started over.  It isn't going to fall apart.  It will all be fine because the next row does its thing to hold it all together but as is, the end will be loose and not a firm edge like I want for a dishcloth.  The debate is this:  is this an opportunity to see if my idea about fixing errors would work well or is this just a pull yourself together girl, and redo moment? So often in life, it isn't about being perfect, it is about knowing how to fix things and make it work.

I might get photos tomorrow for posterity , but for tonight, I am kind of done.  

I have been watching rug cleaning videos again.    LUBUSKIE CENTRUM CZYSTOŚCI is the fellow I follow. I have watched these videos on and off, mostly off the last while, but I started watching them again last week. His videos of cleaning rugs are so peaceful and enormously satisfying. I'm not spending huge time watching them, only one a day.  After that it would get dull, but I feel better for it.  Whatever it is about it, somehow it helps soothe out the days tensions that have built up inside my head.  

And they are great to watch while you are doing something else like not knitting.  Not that I am knitting yet, but it is getting closer.  Each day it feels a bit better.  I won't try it, not till next week for sure.  I do not want to start too early and ruin all my work so far.  Bring on next week.      

Dishcloth!

I know it is a weekend and two posts on a weekend is odd but right now, routine is my best friend.  It helps me settle for the night.  It puts my brain to the right place to rest.

This morning when I woke the very first thing I did after coffee, was start to work again on the dishcloth.  This is what I had left at the end of yesterday.

Not too much to do.

The closer I got to the end of the work, the more a particular little trouble reared it's head.  As I was warping the loom, I messed up the groups of three.  It meant that at the end, everything was just a bit offset.

It didn't take much to fix it because all the errors happened on the same layer of the warp (there are three layers).  I just had to move threads along the side where they were out of place and move them to a different set of pins.  You san see on the completed cloth above that it went well.  I was lucky.  It could have been a fatal flaw, though I think I could have made a wee fix happen so the cloth would be stable.

After I wove in the ends, it was time for the cloth to pop off the loom.  It was kind of cool.

And there you have it.  A completed dishcloth.  Not perfect, it has a couple spots where I missed going under a thread but overall, it worked and worked well. 

Including the warping, actual work on the cloth took about 5 hours. I consider that decent for a first go.  

The warping had to be done twice and then corrected after that (note that it still wasn't right per the twisted last bit), but it will be much faster the next time. 

With this style of weaving, you work with a continuous thread, and the normal practice is to wrap the thread around the loom 4 times or eight time (I heard both on Youtube videos).  I wrapped 16 times because I wanted to be sure.  I had 12 wraps left at the end, so all that additional thread meant that for each strand of woven yarn, I had to pull through a very, very , very long tail.  All that pulling extra thread made it go much slower than it would have had I used the shorter weft thread.  

And lastly, the first half was a bit slow till I sorted out the who, what, where, and why. I had to adapt tools and mangle needles, and find just the right size of crochet hook to do certain jobs.  Once those things were done, it went marvelously fast.  It could, with a bit of practise become a very speedy craft.

All I plan to make with this loom at present, is dishcloths.  I know that this seems like a foolish thing, to have spent the money for a one trick project maker, but I already have the yarn.  Maybe eventually there will be blankets and towels made of the product of this loom.  For now this is enough.

And it is enough to know that my precious knitting time will not be devoted to such plain things as dishcloths.  Unless someone special asks particularly for knitted ones.

Pin Loom Practise

I had a really great sleep last night and woke with the gumption to give this a first try.  

There are all kinds of ways to warp a pin loom, but what I was after was the three pin loom style warping.  I like that it cuts down the amount you have to weave and speed is what it is all about.  It is a dishcloth and while I have knit or crocheted them, it really is not my favourite thing. This is bound to be faster. 

I found some great videos online and got started.  I did have a few hiccups warping and getting the first rows of weaving done, but it only took about five minutes to get this much of the weft done.

From this point on it went much faster.  I worked with the crochet hook they included at first but I found that awkward and weird.  Next I tried a curved upholstery needle but the tip was too sharp for my needs.  Then I thought of a long afghan hook.  That would certainly work better than a regular crochet hook.  Unfortunately, I think gave that away in a box of needles I sold at one of the garage sales I had.  

I looked at what I did have and I got to work. I had a pair of old straights marked size 1, so a 2.25 mm needle.  I am never going to need a long straight needle of that size.  Circulars are my thing.  A quick twist of the tip with a pliers and I have a tool that is the right length and fits almost perfectly.  The only problem is that the end hook is a bit too wide to go sideways through the pins.  It just means that I have to turn it upright and deal with a bit of careful over and under, but it isn't too bad.  You can see my invention clearly above.

Before I knew it, I had a good bit of work done.  

I have no doubt that there will be a few hiccups till I get the hang of it all.  I know there are a few weird bits on this first piece, but I think it will hold together.  I have a few ideas for marking the three pin groups but I am going to wait ti see exactly how that master of three pin pin looms, the Zoom Loom does it.  It ought to arrive sometime next week.  

Till then I will play and pray that my hand starts doing better.  One is pretty much ready to go, but the other is going to need a bit more rest and recuperation time. I miss knitting.  But soon.

Mail Day

I love getting mail.  I's just one of the bright spots in my week.  If you live in the city you likely pick up mail every few days, but here in post office box land, picking it up weekly is the routine for many people.   The bulk of the weekly mail arrives by Thursday so that is mail day.  And I love mail day.

When I was at my sickest I came to the realisation that there were things in my house that I did not want to burden my kids with getting rid of.  No not the yarn. I am keeping the yarn all to myself, but some of my other things, I don't know.  I think I just faced up to the fact that I am never going to get there, that what I really want, is to just knit and maybe spin, and a lot of the other stuff is just extra.  I have to sew, but I am never going to be into dyeing, I am never going to be into felting and I really doubt that I will ever weave anything in any substantial way.  My head is just too wrapped up in knitting.

So I made the decision, that some time after Christmas, my loom is going to go up for sale along with all its parts.  It is a beautiful thing and it deserves someone who uses it more than I will.  

But that leaves me with a small problem.  One of the things I did on my loom, the only really useful thing, was dishcloths.  I really liked how those turned out, much more than knitted or crocheted ones.  I hated to lose that.  So my gift to myself this year was a pin loom.  Two pin looms actually.  

I found a maker on etsy that made all kinds of sizes of looms, named Kiss Looms.  They make looms of all sizes and shapes for shawls, for socks, for almost anything you can think of.  It is an interesting store.  Quite unexpectedly, the loom arrived today.  Not too bad for something that was ordered well past Christmas, and had to clear an international boundary.  Not bad at all.

I ordered a 9 inch loom so that when the cloths are washed and ready for use they will be about 8 inches.  That is my plan.  They cotton yarn I want to use may have a different plan.  But I can try.  

I also purchased a Schacht Zoom Loom. If the big loom doesn't work out, I can use the smaller zoom loom to make the size and shape of cloth I want.  This smaller loom isn't here yet but I am expecting it next week.

The frustrating part is that I can't give it a first try tomorrow.  My day is full of errands and appointments.  It's a bit frustrating but what will be will be.  Saturday.  I will look forward to Saturday. I am so glad this arrived today.  I really am mentally done with the minis for now.  I loved doing them, but that is enough.  Time for something different to do, something that stretches my brain till I can knit again and this is it.

One last kick at the can.

See that little blue chair in the corner of the bedroom?  I did that today.  It may be a mistake because it didn't turn out that well.  But I learned a lot and one day, I will do it again, ( I have another chair and much more fabric) and do it better but for now, it is sitting there in a mildly dark corner and it looks almost okay.

No looking too close mind.

I have had trouble photographing things on this floor.  It is either too bright or too dark. 

Anyway, that is almost it till I get the gumption to do the lights, all of which are going to be little battery operated LED lights.  In the meantime, if I cannot knit, I will work on some soft works for the mini house, but I will also get started on Carter's embroidered volcano.  I am so looking forward to that project.

I did one thing today that will, I hope, make a big difference to my wrist problems.  I have one of those fold up TV tray tables and decided it is a much better height than my desk for using the laptop.  It means that my wrist is no longer cramped upwards at the bad angle while I am using the computer.  I hope that it leads to speedy recovery for my poor wrist.  If it works, I may cut the elegant legs of the desk off so that it is an ergonomically proper height for me and my computer.  

I really miss my knitting.  Sigh.

Mattress, mattress

The mattress and headboard is done. 

It doesn't look like a lot but a lot of work had to happen to get there.  I had to find the fabric and I wasn't sure where it was.  I thought I had put it in my bits box, but no.  Not there.  I did find it in one of my other boxes.  There is enough there for another simple top but there was a good sized scrap piece too.  The scrap was more than enough for what I needed.  There are some refinements that will happen later, such as the corners are going to be sewn so that they stay tidier looking.  For now this is fine. Time to do that when I have needles and thread out doing the soft goods.  

I also made a headboard.  I ended up going easier than even my original thought this morning.  But it fits my house.  They have dressers that are good but they probably made the headboard themselves.  And there is no footboard. The gentleman of the house did not have time to make one. It does have layered edges, with 3 different width layers and looks just right.

I alos went digging through my books, looking for quilt ideas and soft good ideas too.  I have so many books 

I have collected the books for a very long time, but they are such a resource for little things like this.  The internet is fine, Pinterest is great, but these books are filled with so much right at hand.  They are a vast mine of information and inspiration.

Once the bed was done, I put away all the little things, sorted through the boxes and tidied them up, and tried to clean up the mess that my living room was becoming.  But for the chair and the eventual garden, the rest of the work is soft goods, which means sewing and ironing and things not meant for the living room.  The rest of this week will be devoted to giving the house a good go over and then to getting ready for a wee bit of miniature sewing.  

And with any luck at all, by this time next week, I will be back to knitting.    

Big Little Dreams

It was a long day.  It started as it ought, right about 6:30 and the first thing i did after my one cup of coffee was the wall paper.  I had done the floor last ight just before I went to bed so that it would be dry this morning.  

After the wall paper was put on the wall templates, they all went for a press under the weight of books, to set and to take out the curl. 

Then I pulled apart the little chair that is up for reupholstery.  I really thought that would be working on the chair today, but when I got back from my appointment, I just didn't feel quite up to it.

I decided to see what I could come up with for a metal bed, my preferred bed frame style.

I played around with the wire I had purpose bought, but I don't have a soldering set and I am not going to invest in one.  What I do have is scissors, and large stocks of card stock and various other craft things.  So...a cardstock bedframe it will be.  These can look very nice and I do have some tricks up my sleeve.  It will look like the bedstead I had as a little girl.  Mine might have been metal, but the style will work really well to translate to cardstock.

After that decision, I decided that putting the wallpaper up and getting the floor in, would be a good idea.  My workspace needed clearing up so that I would have enough room to do the bed.

Isn't that fine?  I know it isn't perfect, but it will do.  In fact, it looks better than I thought it would. On to the fun of the bedding!

I came across one more little thing that was supposed to go wherever the lady of the house did her sewing.  This pretty but very simple wood chest is just right to fill with all her sewing things, the fabric, the threads, the lining, the quilt batting.  All the things a person uses when you sew.

And here it is, filled.

I made all the little bits many years ago, back while I was still living at the acerage I think. Just beside it is a basket full of laces too.  Those went up into the bedroom, right close to the sewing corner.

And then, just before I headed off to my own room for the night, I noticed a dark blue bead in with the chair parts. If you go up and look at the picture, you will see it too.  When I was putting the feet on the bed( a blue bead and a pearl pin) I had inadvertently dropped one of the blue beads. I couldn't find it.  I substituted a turquoise one and called it good.  Keith found it at dinner time, and he put it in with the chair parts, so I had to fix that.  

I do hope to have a good day tomorrow.  I would really love to get the bedstead and chair done and in my wildest dreams, I would love to pretend that I will start and finish much of the bedding.  I know that is not possible, but a girl can dream.  

And then maybe one day, really soon, my hand will be ready for knitting.