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