Big Reveal

Dear Mom,
Making gifts and blogging don't always cooperate. Especially if the gift's recipients are blog readers. It just won't do to ruin the surprise and makes for boring (or nonexistent) blogging.

My Knitting Friends and I just celebrated our 3rd annual Belated Christmas. This started when one of us couldn't quite get her gifts to us finished in time and we all decided we liked celebrating when the holiday stress was behind us. It gives us more time to enjoy the making of the gifts, and anticipating our January celebration is, in many ways, even better than the real thing. We exchanged our gifts this past Thursday and now I can share what had to be kept secret these past weeks.
 

Three handwoven scarves for three very special friends.

I started with three different warps, hand-painted by Carrie May , purchased at Tabby Tree Weaver, and I used the Raku weave pattern from the book Sixty Scarves for 60 Years. 

I was lucky to find warps with colorways that reminded me of each of my friends- one with blues and greens, one with pinks and purples, and a third with vibrant jewel tones.

To be perfectly honest, I never, NEVER!, thought I would be able to weave anything this pretty. I couldn't wait to give them to my friends. 

I suppose I should probably make one for myself....

Love,

Kim

Bubble

Dear Mom,
It seems that more and more often I am finding myself in little time bubbles. I can be blissfully occupied for a Few Minutes only to find that  Many Minutes, (hours even!) have slipped away. And no, I am not having blackouts. I am either fully absorbed in something or turning in to a total space cadet.
Last week was pretty much one big bubble. The first two days I was so blissed out at being home alone that I missed Bible Study. And then there were a couple days spent in the good company of friends and knitting. And then suddenly it was Friday and the weekend. And now here it is Tuesday again, already.

One good thing about bubbles.... I seem to accomplish lots of good things when I am in them.
And one of those good things is this sweater.

This is Idunn- A free Knitty pattern.  I've knit this as a class sample for the Village Yarn Shop. The class starts this Friday. The pattern calls for Lite Lopi yarn, but I used good old Cascade 220 instead.

This sweater is worked from the top down, in the round, and the front button band is steeked- which means it is cut open after the knitting is done. I did change the way those front bands were finished. Rather than crochet an edge as the pattern asks, I picked up and knitted the bands. They are folded over and encase the raw steeked edges. I think this looks much neater. Probably mostly because I have basically NO crochet skills.
I knitted in the button loops as I worked the folded edge of the band.

I also made the buttons from Shrinky Dinks! I traced the pattern from a calico fabric print using fine point permanent markers. I used a large round cutter (from the scrap booking section of Michael's) to cut out the discs and used a regular hole punch for the holes in the center. After following the instructions for baking on the Shrinky Dinks package, I had 3 pretty buttons in a matter of minutes. My 2 inch disc yielded a 3/4 inch button.

Sadly, ironing was not one of the good things accomplished last week, and I am playing catch up today. Not so bad with a book in my ears, but still. It is ironing. I've given myself this little blog break and now it is time to get back at it. I'll have other good things to show you  that won't be ironing- here is a sneak peak at one of them.....

Love,
Kim

knitting

Dear Mom,

The yarn for the Downton Abbey Mystery KnitAlong arrived! It is wound into a ball and waiting for me to work a gauge swatch. The first clue is published on Sunday morning so the participants can knit along with Episode 1 on Sunday night. I am halfway through Season 2 in my review. Good thing I am reviewing- those episodes are packed with drama! I'd forgotten how much happens. I am also picking up on little things I'd missed the first time through. The anticipation builds....

One thing I haven't shared here, which was knitted and finished as a Christmas gift, is this sweater for my Young Man.

I know this is not a great photo. I am hoping to get a good picture or two of him wearing it before he goes back to school on Sunday. He has worn it a couple of times since Christmas. My critical eye sees a few things that could be improved as far as the fit goes- like some short row shaping across the back- or better yet, maybe he could just stand up straight and tall! All in all, a good fit considering the sweater was loosely based on measurements taken from a sweater in his closet.
I've written up the pattern and have the yarn to knit another one for My Hero. If all is well, I will publish the pattern for this one.

my faithful friend

Love,
Kim

The Last

Dear Mom,
I put off reporting this until 2012 was past us for fear of something happening to Olive. Happily, she is laying near me as I write this.
On December 14, our intrepid, adventurous guinea pig, Oreo, was laid to rest. Long-time blog readers may remember Oreo's escape and the hours she spent living in the wild. Oreo's blog posts can be found here and here. As it became obvious that her end was near, I was morbidly making plans to dig her grave before the ground froze. Thankfully, Oreo's last was a warm, sunny day. Again, I played the roll of grave-digger, pall bearer and officiate (the Young Lady choosing to remember Oreo in life), and laid Oreo to rest next to the hot tub, near the spot where she was finally captured after her hours of freedom.
Over the years, this family has been home to 7 guinea pigs. Oreo is The Last. I've disposed of all small animal accessories so NO ONE (including me) will be tempted to bring another one home. I've cleaned that cage for The Last time. I do miss the squeaks that greeted me in the morning, and I've caught myself reflexively gathering up raw vegetable scraps to feed her.
Oreo's was The Last animal death in a year that was burdened with them. (And this is why I waited to report  her demise. I couldn't risk jinxing Olive.)

These are the last days of Christmas break- school starts in for both kids on Monday. For the Young Man, that means getting his laundry caught up and sorted, books, boots and winter clothes packed for the trip back to school. The Christmas things are packed up and stored away in the attic- the house always feels bigger when everything is put back, and I feel a renewed motivation to keep things in order after the clutter and business of Christmas.

And with the quiet hours, I've had time to sit and watch some DVD's. Last night I began a marathon review of Seasons 1 and 2 of Downton Abbey in anticipation of Sunday's Season 3! Such is my anticipation, I've joined a Downton Abbey Mystery Knit Along, and await the arrival of the yarn specially dyed for the project! Surely I am not the only person who watches those shows and yearns to wear long skirts and aprons, beautiful hats, calico prints and lace?

I hear Mr. Bosch alerting me that a load of laundry is done and ready for Mrs. Bosch. I think I will listen to the Downton Abbey soundtrack as I tend to the housework. I can still wear an apron over my wool sweater and denim.

Love,
Kim

Happy New Year

A Bayberry candle burned to the socket

brings health to the home

and wealth to the pocket.

Wishing all a Happy, Healthy New Year!

A Few of My Favorite Things

brown paper packages tied up with string...
these are a few of my favorite things

Dear Mom,

I love these quiet days after Christmas.
The reward for surviving all the preparation and frenzy of the weeks before.
And a well-timed snow storm gave us an extra day and a very good excuse to stay home and relax.

On Christmas morning, we had waffles made from scratch. Far more delicious and more filling than the Bisquick waffles that are so easy to make.



Olive has been entertained  obsessed distracted  occupied by the squirrels on the bird feeder. Back and forth from the window to the back door. Desperately wanting to get those varmints when she is on the inside, then sloooowwwlly stalking them when she gets outside. Sneaking up on them, getting with in a few feet of them..... and then freezing in place. Waiting for them to make the next move. Or maybe giving them a chance to escape, because maybe she knows she really doesn't want to catch one!

The Amaryllis is just beginning to bloom. 

It almost looks artificial.

And a gift opening itself after all the other gifts have been opened.

This photo was taken through a window blurred by melting snow-

the cardinals, chickadees, nuthatches and squirrels are striking in their beauty.

Like Olive, I can't help but stop everything to watch them.

Love,

Kim

Olive the Other Reindeer

Dear Mom,

She is a very good dog to be putting up with this.

But she has been the best puppy.

And Olive has skills that Bumper and Patsy didn't have-

And pretty much the naughtiest thing she has done was trying to bury her toys in a potted plant.

oh. 

And chew the corner off the down comforter to make it "snow" inside.

um.

And eat that Christmas ornament made by the Young Man in 2nd grade. 

And despite being too wiggly to get a good focused photo...

Olive is A Very Good Dog.

Love,

Kim

Worth Reading!

Dear Mom,
I want to shout a great big AMEN! to this post! 
Love,
Kim

More Weaving

Dear Mom,
Donna Reed and I had some time to spend together this past week and will ya look at what we finished?!

the small bits of sparkly stuff I blended into the batt before spinning looks like a touch of frost

This scarf used up some leftover Silky Wool and the yarn I spun from this experiment. I selected a weave pattern from my Handweaver's Pattern Directory, did some math, and ended up with a long, warm scarf. It just happens to go well with My Hero's winter coat, which he quickly pointed out, so I guess I know who will be using it. He's gonna have to wait for Christmas, though.
Okay, and because I can't leave without pointing out the flaws....yes, I need to perfect my selvage edges. I used a floating warp but didn't foresee how the weave pattern would look on the edges. Nor do I quite know how to correct that in the future. But I will learn!
And, as you can see from that middle photo, I will NOT be weaving this week, but will be raking leaves instead. (We are those people who wait till all the leaves have fallen before we rake them up.) While I rake (and call it exercise), taking in the fresh air and sunshine, I have no doubts that my mind will be wandering and planning my next projects.
Love,
Kim

Giving Thanks

Dear Mom,
The next few days will probably be too busy with pies baking, turkey roasting, and everyone home, so I am seizing what may be my last quiet moment to share a deliciously simple recipe.
This one came from our favorite, and now, very sadly, closed, gift and tea room, Helio's.
Helio's was the scene of countless birthday lunches, just because lunches, and the traditional day after Thanksgiving mother/sister lunch. It is the place my Young Lady called "The Tea Party Store". It was a place filled with the sound of happy female chatter and laughter. And many good memories.

Helio's was the place where, for us, everyone knew our names.

Here we are celebrating her 10th birthday!

The basic menu never changed - which is a good thing, because I walked in knowing what I would be eating- my chicken salad croissant lunch and hot, spiced tea was all part of my Helio's experience! But the desserts did vary, with special offerings during the holidays. This recipe is one of those holiday offerings, which they also graciously shared with their customers.

Pumpkin Spice Crunch

from Helio's Tea Room

Carmel, IN

1 (30 oz) can Pumpkin pie filling

1 (130z) can sweetened condensed milk

2 eggs, beaten

1 box spice cake mix

2 sticks of butter, melted ( I used Smart Balance butter blend)

Combine the first 3 ingredients and spread into a greased 9X13 pan. 

Sprinkle dry cake mix over the top and drizzle this with the melted butter.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,

Kim

Knitting Class

Dear Mom,
This fall I've been teaching lots of knitting classes and have been blessed with full classes, adventurous knitters and new friends. My favorites are the sweater design classes.  I enjoy challenging and enabling the knitters in my classes. Their successes are particularly satisfying, and in the past two months I've witnessed some heartwarming triumphs.

My last scheduled class for 2012 finished up this morning. Over the past 5 weeks, the ladies in my class designed and knit fair isle sweaters. For some of these ladies, it was their first attempt at fair isle and one lady told me today that it was her first sweater! I took lots of photos of the finished (or nearly finished) projects today and want to share these lovely images with you. I am so proud of what these ladies accomplished!

Love,
Kim

Where I learn that Pretty Yarn is Reason Enough

Dear Mom,

I will back track to explain how I got here, but let me just start at the end, because it is the end result that makes this a worthy blog post...

Beautiful yarn, dyed by me, with natural dye stock produced by plants from your garden!

Now, back to the beginning.

It started back in January, with my purchase of the book The Dyer's Garden .  My decision to buy the book was sealed when I saw that Purple Loosestrife was included. You and I both have Purple Loosestrife growing in our gardens, carefully transplanted from house to house, the original parent plant having grown in Grandma's garden.
The instructions say to harvest the whole plant tops when the flowers begin to fade. I asked you to save your plant cuttings for me, and between us I think I have 3 garbage bags full of cuttings. I used one of those bags in my first batch of dye stock, which yielded about 2 1/2 gallons of rich, dark coffee brown dye broth. As soon as I have containers to hold it, I will brew up some more with the rest of my plants.

I didn't have a specific project in mind, just knew that there is plenty of roving to dye on hand when I am ready to use it. I'd been tossing different ideas back and forth in my brain, wondering whether to dye roving and then spin it, or spin and dye later....

And Then.

On Sunday, at spinning, MelissaWhoSpinsButDoesNotKnit presented me with a cone of yarn, gifted to the two of us to share by MyWeavingBuddyCynthia. Cynthia told me in an email that the wool is from her very own North Country Cheviot sheep which she had commercially spun by Ohio Valley.
In other words, this is a very special cone of yarn.

I took the cone home, weighed it, and wound my half of it into a rather tight ball.

I then heated up enough of the Purple Loosestrife dye in one of my smaller dye crockpots to submerge the ball of yarn about 1/2 way. I did not pre-mordant the yarn, and the ball of yarn was dry. I wanted the dye to wick up into the wool, hopefully giving me a gradient effect.

The yarn simmered in the crockpot for an hour, then sat in the juice, cooling off and soaking until the next morning.

When I pulled it out, it looked like this:

 So far so good!

I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed until the rinse water was clear, then put the ball into a mesh lingerie bag, securing it very tightly at each end with rubber bands so the ball could not become unwound, and put it into my front loader to spin out the extra water. I then wound the ball into a skein to speed up the drying process (and to let me get a good look at how it turned out!). The result? A rich, warm, honey brown.

I was so pleased and proud of that yarn, you might think I had given birth to it. I took about as many photos of it as someone would a newborn baby.
And for document's sake, I took a close up of the dyed fibers next to the original undyed wool, just to show off the color and how nicely the wool fibers bloomed in the dye bath.

I have no plans for this yarn. Yet. For now I am happy to walk past it, admire it, fondle it, and smile at it. Which totally justifies MelissaWhoSpinsButDoesNotKnit's reason for spinning and dyeing, but not knitting or weaving..... It just feels good to make pretty yarn!

Love,
Kim

Creative Pursuits

Dear Mom,
Wayyyy back in April, I purchased a Quilters Jelly Roll with the idea in mind to use it in a weaving project. I thought that having the coordinating fabrics already picked out would give me a head start for what I wanted to do.
The plan......placemats. But not just your normal sort of place mats. I wanted placemats that would extend across the width of the table, shared by the two people seated across from each other. I wanted them to have a rag rug look.
With good advice and patience from Linda at Tabby Tree Weaver, I chose 3 colors of rug warp to coordinate with my fabrics. I learned that using 3 warp colors ( the warp is the up and down threads in weaving) helps the warp to disappear into the background, where one warp color kinda stands out on its own.

I chose brick red, natural and olive green warp colors. 

I cut the jelly roll strips in half ( 1.25 inch width) and then realized that one jelly roll's worth of strips was not nearly enough for what I had planned. Off to the quilt store for supplemental fabrics. I learned that next time I will not bother with the jelly roll. It was just as easy to pick out fabrics, get a yard or whatever of each and cut that into strips.
I took my strips and folded them in half and pressed them so they would stay that way- no wrong sides showing when I wove them. I then put the strips in piles according to color family - reds, blues, greens and creams. I wanted the strips to be randomly woven into the placemats, but at the same time I wanted the colors somewhat evenly distributed. I then made smaller bundles of 20 strips per bundle, each bundle having a fairly equal number of strips from each color family. I did not worry about the prints on the fabrics being evenly dispersed.
So as I wove, I grabbed a bundle, randomly selected a strip from that bundle, wove it in, selected the next strip, etc.
I finished the weaving last night and the hemming today. The placemats are not perfect- one is longer than the other- but I am happy with the result.  They are just as I imagined them. Well, almost. I imagined them to be exactly the same length! But I learned a lot, and can think of several things I  might like to try doing next time......

Love,
Kim

Election Day!

When Two Blogs Collide

Dear Mom,
Knowing she is new to Hamilton County, Indiana, I invited Christine, of Front Porch Indiana to join the happy group of spinners on Sunday's monthly Spin-In at Tabby Tree Weaver. Christine blogs about it here, and her photo is much more flattering (in other words, my double chin is less doubled than any photos I have)- so go look there before and after you look at this next picture because I am swallowing what little pride I have left in order to post it.....

I may never wear a turtle neck sweater again.
 And Such is my Horror that I actually EXERCISED today.

As testament to the power of blogging, meeting Christine for the first time was like seeing a friend you just haven't seen in awhile and picking right up where you left off. She is every bit as nice and funny in real life as she is in blog life, and even more so.

Hopefully, it was the first of many more happy get togethers.

Love,
Kim

Friendly Reminder

Dear Mom,
Tomorrow is the big day!
Hopefully you will have a great turn out at what may be the First Annual Craft Bazaar.
Anyone interested in getting a jump start on holiday gifts will find a nice variety of hand crafted items.
The bazaar is off Allisonville Road, in Fishers, across from Conner Prairie. Just follow the signs!
Love,
Kim

Happy Halloween

Dear Mom, 

When you are just a puppy, 

this :  

  

is VERY SCARY

  

Love,
Kim

Start your holiday shopping early....

This Saturday!

Dear Mom,

Your sewing circle has pooled their impressive creativity and put together their first craft bazaar. Elle will be there modeling your aprons. In addition, there will be some of your original art notecards, some of my knitted jewelry and handpainted mugs. Anyone in the central Indiana area who is interested in some special, one-of-a-kind gifts will do well to stop in and have a look.

Love,

Kim

A Good Dog

Dear Mom,

She might not be the smartest dog I've had, or the biggest, or the prettiest, or the softest.
But God knew that Olive is just what we needed, and she is growing up to be a Good Dog.
And I love her.

Love,
Kim

Potatoes

Dear Mom,
Last spring, inspired by something I saw on Pinterest, I decided to try growing potatoes in my garden this year.
The idea was to build a "potato tower", which would (I hope) allow me to grow potatoes above ground level, using up less square footage in the garden and making the harvesting easier.
I built a cube with some cheap garden fencing, lined it with straw, and built up layers of dirt and seed potatoes as I filled the cube.  The potato vines would grow through the straw and the potatoes themselves would all be contained within that cube.
Easy enough.
I planted 5 lbs of seed potatoes. I'll be honest and admit that I told just about everyone who was unfortunate enough to bump into me  about my Potato Tower. I envisioned having such an abundance of potatoes that I would have a serious problem storing them.
This weekend, when I cleaned up my garden, I harvested my potatoes.

Net yield from 5 lbs of seed potatoes? 1 pound of potatoes. Some of them smaller than a grape.
(Such was my determination and dedication to those potatoes that I rooted around in the dirt ( literally ) for grape sized potatoes.)

Our hot, dry summer may have had something to do with my results. I may try again. Maybe.

Last night we had our homegrown potatoes for dinner. I announced the fact to the Young Lady and My Hero and I broke out in laughter when, in unison, we said, "ALL of them!"

Love,
Kim

Answered

Dear Mom,
Like most moms, I pray that my children will grow up to be healthy and happy. I also secretly....well, maybe not so secretly..... hope that one day they will WANT me to knit something for them.

Let me qualify that statement.

I want them to want me to knit them something I want to knit.

That hope was fulfilled a few weeks ago when the Young Man, home for Fall Break, asked if I could knit a scarf. For him.

Within 24 hours I had that boy in the yarn shop.

Having grown up in this knitter's house, he knew the right answer to question #1, "Will you be taking care of this scarf, or throwing it into the washing machine?", which allowed him to choose some baby alpaca for his scarf.

I used three skeins of Cascade Yarns Baby Alpaca Chunky Paints and a size 9 needle. I found a simple reversible slip stitch pattern in one of my Barbara Walker stitch treasuries (Row 1: *k3, sl 1 wyb* rep bet we *'s to end of row, ending with k3. Row 2: K1, *sl1 wyb , k3 to end of row, ending with k2), cast on 31 sts and a scarf is born.

Love,
Kim

Best Halloween Decoration, ever

Dear Mom,
I drive past this house on my way to and from the yarn shop.
I love their Halloween decorations!

Love,
Kim

In which my absence is explained. (a little)

Dear Mom,
Teaching 4 knitting classes and knitting samples for said classes, knitting for gifts,

 Young Man home on fall break, jury summons,


Annual Up North trip,

fall yard clean up, and an obsession with James Fraser have kept me away from the blog a little too long.
I'm back now.
Love,
Kim

p.s. Olive is well and has My Hero properly trained.