Switching things up!

 And now for something completely different!

I am so impressed with the fancy penguin and all the tiny things you're making!  The bicycle man makes me think of Monty Python.

This weekend I had a big to-do list and I got almost everything done!  So satisfying.  Jeff was busy tiling our fireplace so I was free to do whatever I wanted.

One of the things was to start on the quilt for Smallest's ballroom coach and his wife's baby.  The baby was born way early - 27 weeks? - and she just came home from the NICU a couple of weeks ago, close to her original Nov 4 due date.  I cut most of the pieces a while ago (did I post that?) and have been ignoring them, thinking this was going to be complicated.

Well I was very wrong.  This is an easy-to-piece Wild Goose Chase.  I sewed together the first two pieces, trimmed and ironed them all on Saturday and Sunday.  Then last night I sewed on the third piece.  It took me an hour and a half to sew on all the third pieces last night.  Tonight I will trim and iron them, and then it will be time to assemble the geese!  Very satisfying.  There will be sashing between the strips of geese, and then a border.  I think I didn't buy the backing yet?  I'll have to go look at what I bought.  Perhaps I can finish piecing it before the weekend?  We still have some batting the right size, so now I'm having delusions of quilting it before Thanksgiving?  I'll have to think about the pattern.

This was almost halfway through piecing the first two pieces

Post-piecing

Trimming finished!

Submit to my will!

Ready for second piecing.

Pieced, ready to trim and press.

All dressed up and nowhere to sew

We had a weekend trip come up somewhat unexpectedly last week, so I packed cross-stitch thread for a few different things I was working on. Sadly, I somehow did not pack the actual fabric I needed to sew on. I didn't notice until I had finished Loch Ness monsters #2 (the first one was so cute I decided to make another), about halfway into the first flight. I was telling Evil Twin on the plane that I needed to manifest something to work with, and he magically pulled a clean handkerchief out of his bag! Even better, one of the designs that I had brought thread for was a present for him! Amazing. 

Even better, Evil Twin had the brilliant idea the next day that we could stop in at a local superstore while out picking up dinner to see if they might have fabric. They did not have any cross-stitch fabric - that would be too much to hope for - but they did have 1-yard cuts of regular fabric! I hadn't been happy with the design I chose for one of my nephews, so I had asked him what animals he liked, and we landed on penguin. So I picked some fabric that I thought would be a nice complement - actually, there was a lot of snowflake-ish fabric, but that seemed too busy, so I just chose grey. But then I had something to work with on the plane home too. Yay! 

In the intervening week at various silly meetings plus regular arts & crafts time with mom, I finished the penguin and started on a new one. I haven't quite finished the bicycle man for Darren, as I need to find some new colors that I hadn't quite appreciated previously. Here are all the photos! 

I'm seeing Darren's family again for Thanksgiving, so I have a goal to finish as many of their presents as possible; if I pick fabric this weekend, it can be cleaned and pressed before next weekend, to go on a sewing extravaganza. But I also have more cross-stitches to make as well... may be a busy week. 

- Catherine

The cute Loch Ness monsters!

 

Nearly complete bicycle man

Penguin is done!

Beginning of gardener for Beth

Socks and vest

Okay, so the formatting in the previous post is totally wild!  I think it put all the text in the caption box for the photo?  I don't know how that happened.

Anyhow...

I have been working on the socks more than the vest, and I'm at the toe of the second sock, so I've picked the vest back up.  I am catching back up after my error, and then I made another error.  Alas!  I only had to undo four rows and then I could start back up again.  Not too bad.  I think I've already recovered what I lost.

Can you spot the mistake?

There's been a lot of stuff going on recently, none of it bad, I just feel really busy.  

During the storage space clearing out process back in October it made me think - at no point after I was dropped off at college did my parents help me move.  Now, in my peer group, we help our kids move all the time.  Is this a good thing?  I don't know.    I think my kids are, for the most part, pretty self-reliant, but then sometimes I think they are not as independent as I think I was at their ages.  It is very interesting to think about.

Good news from Smallest - the tutor is helping.  Good results on the latest test, and understanding is increasing overall.  Passing is possible!

I have been reading a book recommended by Dad, The Power of Habit.  It's actually quite cool, and it makes me want to experiment on Dad.  It's a quick read, only 286 pages long, and I'm in the 70s.  I might finish it by the end of the weekend.  Let me know if you read it.  I'll start thinking about experiments.  I'll see if John has read it too.

So, back to projects!

I need to figure out yarn for the hood-thing for Middle.  I don't think it will take long to make?  It would be great if I could get it done by Thanksgiving as an early present, but seeing as how that's two weeks away, I don't think that's a realistic goal.  Alas.  Oooh!  We can pick the yarn while Middle is here for Thanksgiving.  That would be better.

I have just noticed that you've updated your projects!  I'll see if I can update mine, but I think only you can do that?

I have two Santa cross stitch projects to finish.  Maybe I can work on those in January.  I really need to ride the bus to work.  Maybe 2026 will be my year of riding the bus?  

I've downloaded the pattern for your v2 sweater, so we need to check measurements and then I will begin!

Margie

Better to have a birthday than not!

Something is really crazy with the formatting, so I apologize!  It won't let me left justify!

Look at how cute those flowers are! Well done. I like the tiny people for the pencil cases also, and how satisfying to find the missing book.

 I can't believe October ends today! Where did the month go? 

I made a mistake in reading the pattern of the vest, so I had to rip back several inches. Alas. I have been working on socks instead, but I need to go back to the vest so that it will get done. 

 I have been slow to finish this post!

I like your fancy lady!

We are in the midst of preparing an NSF proposal, and I have another irritating professor to work with. He is the one I complained to you about - he is too important to be responsible. I think now he might just be too busy to be responsible, but he also tends to walk through the world creating fires that he has other people put out. He is exceptionally smart, and can be exceptionally irritating. To his credit, he does thank me and has expressed his desire to hire me away from Rice, or clone me because I am good at resolving issues. So now there's the Man-Baby, and this guy. Sigh. 

 I still need to come and visit soon. Maybe early in December? We submit the grant Nov 21, and then it's Thanksgiving, so I will be free after that. My college roommate, Tina, has invited me to come stay with her when she goes to their place in Winter Park in February, and I am thinking I will do that, so I will definitely stop in and say hello then! 

 What else... We cleared out The Boy's storage unit. That's $134/month that he won't be paying anymore. Very satisfying. I sold several things for cheap, and then we donated the bed frame, mattress, and a loveseat. Good to get rid of it all. The only thing left is a microwave, and I think I have someone picking that up tonight. Now it's time to start cleaning the house in prep for Thanksgiving, and for checking on the vegan recipes I have to plan for Middle's SO joining us. 

 Jeff is redoing the tile around our fireplace. He has discovered that it is not square, and it is causing much agitation. I am glad that he is in charge of that. 

 Oh! Smallest dropped her Physics class and has found a local tutor for Calculus. Things were not going well. I had suggested that she drop them both, but she had to get permission to take Calculus again (this is her third time?) so she really didn't want to drop it. I am really glad she's found a local tutor. 

 Both of the classes were online, and they weren't live lectures, and she couldn't attend the tutorial sessions because of time conflicts, so they were really hard to begin with. I can't imagine taking 95% of my classes online. Barf-rageous! Middle took some of their classes online during Covid and that was awful. Some of Smallest's HS classes were online, but she got to go back in person in the fall of 2020, so it wasn't so bad for her. 

 Anyhow, I'm glad she got the tutor and we will all be happy if she passes the class. She thinks that it is possible so I am hopeful. She is very determined. 

 I am still working on the socks and the vest. I'm on the foot of the second sock now, so the end is in sight. I did discover a big mistake in the first sock. It would require re-knitting the whole sock to correct, so I think I'll just leave it. It's a feature, not a bug, right? Here is a silly for you!

Lady in green

I finished the fancy lady and started the Loch Ness monsters! I think the monster on the left looks like it has a little sweater on. I hope the other one doesn’t get jealous!

- Catherine 

Flowers finito!

Well, as I suspected, I finished the flowers on the flights to my destination. However, they did take longer than expected - many hours yet to finish the last two blocks, so I'm glad I took it. See? Now I just need to clean it and take it to be framed. 

I had also taken a few smaller designs that I wanted to start, and was able to nearly finish 4 of them! I could have finished them all except there was some white thread that I thought wouldn't show up well on white fabric, and I knew I had a sparkly thread at home that would be a good complement (a byproduct of the bugs for John, actually). So I finished those in the first meeting where I didn't have to be on camera. Ta da!

Now I am working on a girl in a green dress, of similar size, and have several others lined up behind. My goal is to make more pencil cases for Christmas presents, as well as some embroidered handkerchiefs. I also ordered more silly fabric for my team at work, to give them new little bags (and, for the guy who started in May, his first). 

The last fun thing is that I found a book of cross-stitch patterns that I had been looking for without success, yay! There were two people that I had picked a little pattern for but I wasn't really satisfied with those choices - hopefully this book will help me find something more appropriate.  

The last not fun thing is that I somehow hurt my hand this morning trying to open a jam jar. What the heck?? I do not love this middle age thing. :P

- Catherine

Packing puzzles

I am packing for a big trip and trying to decide what to take for projects. Due to my pencil case plans, I have a lot of smaller designs I want to make, which is fun, but also means there are many books and pieces of fabric and colors of thread to deal with. Probably too much to carry? Perhaps I will see how much space all my clothes and such take up, and maybe that will help me control myself.

I am also debating whether to take the flowers - the extra motivation definitely helped, such that I am nearly done (see? Only the top left and big red flower leaves in the top row are left). But now I'm so close to done that it feels stupid to take it. However, I'm probably also underestimating how much more work is needed to finish. Argh.

I'm also a little grumpy because I had wanted to cut out white hexagons before this trip so I could spend time sewing those, but didn't make it happen. Blah.

Happy birthday to Jeff. :) I'm glad he ended the day on a less grumpy note. It would be nice if we just stopped getting older! 

- Catherine

Birthdays

Well, yesterday was Jeff's 60th birthday. He has been grumpy about his birthday all year. When I suggested that we see if his daughters could come in, he didn't want to do that. When I offered to organize a get-together with his high school friends, he didn't want to do that. If sitting alone in a dark room was an option, I think he would have enjoyed that. Instead, we skipped church and went for a walk in a different neighborhood than ours. Then we went to look for tile for a fireplace project, and that was fun. After that, we dorked around at home and his younger brother called to invite us out for dinner, so we went to dinner with them and that was great fun. They brought cake as well, and he was much less grumpy. Both of his girls called, and my kids texted, and there were limited presents, which he wanted, and I think the day ended on a better note than it started.

It was great to talk with you both last night also, and fun to hear that I'm not the only one that thinks I am younger than I am. It was wild to talk about The Boy turning 27 this year, and other kids in the family getting older. Jeff's older daughter is 28 and her husband (I think) is 30. How is it possible? Here is The Boy when he was smaller, which is clearly how old he really should be!

We haven't been watching a lot of TV lately, but I have managed to get a couple of rows in on the vest. I really need to start riding the bus so I can knit during my commute. Here's the update:

Other than that, things are good. The front stair project is never-ending. We need some different side rails, and the place that makes them is relocating next month, so it might be two months before the product would be available. Do we wait that long? Hard to say. Maybe we can put up something temporary over the open gap on the side while we wait. On the plus side, they have pretty lights? I did cut quilt pieces yesterday, and I do think I'll have enough to make two quilts. Ginny did not approve. Now the question is, do I make one for Smallest as well as the baby, or do I make one for another baby coming this fall? I do have another quilt top waiting to be finished, so that one could be for the second baby. Smallest might like a lap quilt? Maybe I'll piece it and then ask her.

Give Nairo lots of love before you have to leave again! Margie

This seems familiar?

 So I've been working away on the vest for Smallest.  I had a bout of insomnia this weekend and decided to spend the awake time knitting. I was checking the pattern to see when I should start decreases for the shaping and discovered that I was supposed to cast on 131 stitches, not 119.  Oops!  I know there's an old post about knitting, unknitting, and re-knitting, and I was thinking about that as I undid the meager progress I had made.  I think I was only about four repeats in, so it wasn't a terrible loss, and much better to find out earlier than later!  Here's where I was before, and here's where I am now.

It's a seminar day today, so I sit in my office and monitor the Zoom (because part of our Center is in Boston) and get to do whatever I want for an hour.  Sometimes I am productive and send emails and do worky things, but to day I think it's a knitting day!

My foot is feeling much better, so I think it was just a deep bruise.

I started cutting the fabric for the quilt.  I actually read the directions and there's an easier way to make the "geese" than cutting lots of triangles!  You piece them as rectangles and then trim them afterwards.  Who knew!  I've gone through the blue and yellow fabrics, I did decided to omit two gingham fabrics because they were really thin and easy to see through.

Ginny is helping me keep track of how much to cut.

Sunday is Jeff's 60th birthday.  He is very grumpy about it.  I don't recall if I've mentioned that before or not.  We're having dinner with friends on Saturday night, Sunday will be just us at home.  

I don't know a lot more?  I forgot that I had this fun pattern that I wanted to make for Middle.  Maybe I'll make it after Christmas.  Speaking of Christmas and Grumpy Jeff, he's taking time off this fall, and I think he's got the week between Christmas and New Year's off!  This is exciting for me because I get that week off every year and it's always a bummer that he has to go work.  This year should be lots of fun!  I suspect there may be children home as well to play with that week.  Very exciting.

This is the Hoodola - doesn't it look great for the cold? (not a picture of Middle)

Seminar is over!  I did two patter repeats on the vest.  I have a meeting tonight at 6:30, so I'll have some time between work and the meeting to work some more.

Margie

Sweaterfest!!

I am delighted thinking of your sweaterfest (even more so in the fact that it will end with me having a fabulous homemade sweater). It sounds like it should become an annual gathering of some kind.

I hope your foot is ok!! That is no fun. Stop getting injured, please.

I have more progress to report!

1) I had some time to stitch this past weekend while visiting friends (and traveling to/from) and made some good progress on the flowers - see? The blue and yellow flowers in the top row are now totally done, and the remaining square in the middle row has many leaves! The last three have leaves that use two different colors of green, and for some reason the difference between the colors is not as striking as what's on the cover image for this design, which annoys me. So that's probably why I'm ignoring them. :)

Even better: The friend I was visiting and her family went crazy over the flowers, and said they would be so happy to have them! So now I will be extra motivated to finish since I know someone wants it. :D

2) I finished the peacock!! See? It's so dense that I feel like I could use it as a frisbee. I am excited to make it into a pencil case for myself. 

3) I have decided that I like making pencil cases so much that I will make some more for Christmas presents. I like having a little stitched panel, and I have found several smaller designs that will be fun (I hope) for various people; I've started pulling thread colors for those, and will report back!

4) I finished the quilt grid, see? I need to put some edging on the top and assemble the bottom (i.e., one or two big seams), but we're getting close. I also reached out to a long-arm person and she was terrific helping me think about possible designs - can't wait to see how this experiment goes!

- Catherine

Ach, me old bones!

Well... we went to Austin this past weekend for the Texas Woodworking Festival.  There weren't as many people there this year, but that was okay.  We still had a good time.  I noticed that my back didn't hurt as much as it had in past years, so hats off to Alex the Physical Therapist!  I am getting help with a hip/glute/back issue.  

On the way home, we stopped at a woodworking store and while we were wandering around Jeff shifted some wood and a board fell on my foot.  It hurt a lot, and there was swelling.  It hurt to walk later.  After getting home and icing it, the swelling went down and while it's uncomfortable to walk, it doesn't hurt as much.  I had Alex look at it this morning and he said wait a couple of days and see if it gets better.  I'm sensitive in one of the areas that would indicate a fracture.  I had told Smallest about the accident and she made me promise to get it looked at because I always make her go to the doctor about her issues.  So, hopefully not broken, just bruised.

I started having trouble with seeing cross stitch several years ago, and I highly recommend a pair of 0.5x reading glasses.  Magical.  I could send you some?

You are making good progress!  And it's fun to see the flower cross stitch again.  It could become a pillow and go live with Mom and Dad for sure.

I did some car knitting and finished the first of four socks that will all be the same.  They will be presents for Middle and Smallest.  I also swatched for the vest for Smallest.  I blocked it when we got home and have started on the ribbing.  The week before I ironed the fabric for the quilt.  I picked up some extra fabric at our nearby quilt store.  Hopefully I can get the cutting done this weekend.  Jeff had his computer stuff set up at home for a while, but he's moved it up to Middle's room so perhaps I can keep the sewing machine set up for a while.

I need to unravel your sweater and get started on Version II.  I am not putting out a call to Jeff's girls for knit presents this year, so once I finish the vest and the socks I should be able to get busy with Sweaterfest.  We'll see!

Here's the ribbing for the vest.  Wild and exciting.  I think it will go quickly.  

Margie

Sew slow

Oof, where did 6 weeks go?

Congrats on your adventures and your completed projects!! I successfully guessed which pattern Smallest would like best, lol. Sorry about all the time you wasted on the bad sweater pattern. :(

I have made progress on three projects since I last posted. 

1. The quilt is coming together - I have one block of 8 horizontal strips, one block of 4, one block of 2, and three more pairs waiting to be sewn up. 

2. The green of the peacock has grown, though only slightly. The stitches are so small that I have to work on it without my glasses on / with my face up close like an old person. It's ridiculous, I know. But also, it means that it's not a good project if I'm in any moving vehicle on the off chance I poke a needle in my eye.

3. I've come back to the flowers cross-stitch; the last post I can find that shows a picture is this one from Dec 2023. Between then and August 24, I did a bit of work on the leaves in the bottom left (see first photo), and through today I've finished that block, added a second color blue to the top right flowers, and am more than halfway done with the leaves of the middle right yellow flowers (see second photo). I still don't know who I am making this for, humph. Maybe Mom would like a little garden since she can't grow her own anymore?

I aspire to finish the pinwheels this weekend, and then I will talk to a long-arm person to make sure that I'm preparing the quilt sandwich correctly. 

I also want to cut out the white hexagons this month, as I have a big trip coming up in October that will be perfect for sewing.

I also need to regroup on my projects list, as I think I only have 3 completed so far and I was aiming for 25. Hmm...

Yay for sewing!

- Catherine

No More Kids!

Well, it has happened!  We are all alone at home.  I had a nice drive to Vermont with The Boy.  It was long, but entertaining.

When we got to Massachusetts, we were driving along the Pike and I was thinking about how fun it was to visit you in Amherst, and then I realized that a friend from grad school is there now.  It was close to dinnertime, so we called her and met up with her and her son for dinner there.  Very fun, and great to be out of the car for real food!

Me and my friend Tina (not college roommate Tina)

The move-in on Thursday went well, I got talked at a lot by school people.  It was helpful.  I stayed with my Rice/S&B friend Laura M. who lives about an hour away from The Boy in Peterborough, New Hampshire.  It was so fun to see her (and her husband), and see her house in the midst of kitchen renovation, and talk and talk and talk!  She also has a very sweet dog (also a Lucy!).

Lucy was a stray dog in Aruba!

I came back late on Saturday and I think for the first time in many, many flights there were no small children on my flights!  What is this magic?!

I did go to Green Mountain Spinnery while I was there, and they do think there is a market for Icelandic sheep wool, but they can't process it.  I bought yarn for a sweater.

I did work on your sweater while we were driving, and I have some bad news.  Below, behold the sweater:

Check out the width on that puppy.  The sweater it's on top of is a boxy cut sweater that is baggy on me.  It is 25 inches across, so 50 inches around.  I think it is Too Large (and this is also before blocking!).  I'm going to look for a better pattern that won't require heavy modification, or see if I can use a book of patterns that I have to create our own.  So sorry!

The yarn for Smallest's vest came in.  It's a surprisingly small amount of yarn, so hopefully it's all correct!

Oh yeah, I have that quilt to make too!  We don't seem to be using the table for dinner any more, so maybe I can just set up the sewing machine there.  That would be excellent!

 

Margie

Catching up and dropping off (almost!)

Oh, you have been so good about posting!

So, since the post in June I have finished many things!

I was disappointed to find that I was needed for more things at both meetings than expected, so less progress than desired.  Alas.

You have done so much!  And I applaud Helper Cat for his excellent holding down of the quilt squares.  Good job, Nairo!  The peacock is cute and so tiny!  How goes the flair with the asymmetry?  I really like that quilt pattern with the colors you have chosen.

I finished the top for Smallest, but I think I didn't sew the buttons on?  No, no buttons, but she can sew those on.

I also finished the shawl I started.  I think I started it in April, after I finished those socks for Jeff.  That was very fun, the construction was different, it's knit tip to tip, so you have to increase one side all the time and decrease the other side.  It was clever.  Blocking is, again, magical.

I delivered the cowl and it was well received.  Yay!

I realized that I still have a top waiting to be finished, so I will take that and your sweater along with me tomorrow when The Boy and I leave for Vermont!  (Fun fact, his school is five miles away from Green Mountain Spinnery!  They make nice yarn, and they also process fleece for people.  I have had this idea about processing fleece from a herd of Icelandic sheep that live in Colorado.)  I am really excited for him re-starting the school process, and I'm excited to have no kids at home, and I'm really going to miss him a lot!

The drive will be about 28 hours, according to Google, and I need to make The Boy a better long distance driver, so he needs to do most of the driving, which means knitting for me!  And then there's the flight back home.

Once I'm back home, the baby quilt awaits me because the baby came waaaay early (due in Nov) so we've picked out fabrics and a variation of the goose chase pattern.  Cutting and piecing next!  Ginny has her paw on the border fabric, then next is some sashing, then the colors for the "geese" and the neutrals for the background of the geese.

Oh! I forgot, I saw a cute vest pattern that I thought Smallest would like.  She does, so I tested colors and the red and cream with the cream "v" pattern is the winner.  I need to order the yarn for that.  It should be quick.

I finished the book series.  I liked the series over all.  I wish it hadn't leaned so heavily into pairing everyone off and soulmate stuff, but ah well, it is a series for teens.  Now I'm finishing the Southern Reach series by Jeff Vandermeer.  Annihilation was the first in the series.  They're weird, but interesting.  I'm making progress on the Wheel of Time book I was stuck on.  It will be good to move on to the next one.  I'm also glad there's a glossary in the back reminding me who people are.

If you get bored, you can call us on the road Tuesday or Wednesday!  Here are bonus pictures for your amusement.

Margie

Pinwheels pieced!

The first pinwheels have been officially made! I've sewn 4 of the horizontal strips together (on left in the photo), and have two more sets of two that are ready to be sewn together (bottom right); the remaining 8 strips are waiting to be kicked off (pile top right).

I had ambitious plans to get all 20 rows put together this weekend, but I am behind on the work I get paid for, and then the other work I volunteer to do (but am still accountable for), so I cannot dedicate as much time as hoped to sewing. Alas! However, they do come together pretty fast; we'll see how many more I can get to.

I also had a lovely walk this morning, catching up with an old friend. While walking through the open space, I found myself going the opposite direction of a (small) herd of cattle (here's the second half). Two babies took a good look at me going by! They did not know what I was all about. :P

Next week I will be away from home, so hopefully I will make some progress on the peacock. I also need to make a plan for what project I will take with me on a big trip coming up - more than 2 weeks, including a fair amount of time on planes. We shall see!

- Catherine