I did squeeze in some knitting

Dear Mom,
Until I looked back through the photos downloaded on to the computer, if you'd asked what I've been knitting I would have answered "not much".  I don't know exactly how, or when, but I did manage to start and finish a few things.
First up- The Bobby Sweater from Tadpoles and Tiddlers. I've made many sweaters from this book, multiple times.  This little gansey is for a new great-nephew.  I made the smallest size and used about 1/2 a skein of Baah's La Jolla yarn.

And then, I must have been in some time warp because I can barely remember knitting this Highland Shawl with Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool XL from the Folk Shawls book.

For the yarn shop- from one skein of Berroco sock yarn- The Ananke scarf.

Up next, and with 2 skeins of Ella Rae Lace Merino, a pattern I've had in my stash for a long time.  Finally. This is Scalene, a very clever keyhole scarf. I love the yarn combination I chose, but my expectations for how much I was going to love this scarf may have been too high. I'm not sure I like it all that much. It needs to rest in a quiet place for awhile. Maybe I'll like it better after we've had a little break from each other.

And Last, but certainly not Least. I am most proud of this one.
This is some of that beautiful angora/ merino roving, spun and knitted into an original design.
Meet Mistress Tippet.

 Spinning this yarn was a dream.

 And then watching the angora bloom after it had been knitted and blocked….magic.

 Mistress Tippet was inspired by the little pink shawl that Claire wears in Outlander during the boar hunting.

While we were watching you commented on how it would be nice to have something like that to keep the back of your neck and shoulders warm but would not get in the way. One of the reasons I have to watch these episodes multiple times is because I am dissecting the hand knits. Really. Too bad Jamie doesna wear as many as Claire does, aye?

 Ahem. Anyway. I had all that pretty hand spun- and some ideas. And Mistress Tippet was born. By the way, the definition of the word tippet is : a scarf, usually of fur or wool, for covering the neck, or the neck and shoulders, and usually having the ends hanging down in front.

But Mistress Tippet takes it a step or two further. Buttons allow you to wrap and secure the ends at your shoulders for a pretty draped cowl.

 Or, you can wrap those ends all the way around, securing them at the center back, for a snugger fit.

Pretty and warm and dressy. More details for knitting and purchasing the pattern can be found HERE.

Love,
Kim

And Then My Head Exploded

Dear Mom,
On a recent visit to the Kansas City area to spend several blissful days with a dear friend, we gloried for hours, soaking in the inspiration of Florilegium.

beads of every shape and color imaginable

This area was off limits to customers. It is The Owner/Artist's Studio area.

This display is just small selection of the beautiful ribbons available.

Everything is displayed to perfection.

This case greets you as you step in the door.

This Enchantment is beaded embroidery on a window screen!

And one display case was filled with samples of ribbon embroidery.

In addition to the ribbons and beads I've shown here, there was roving, and wool for embroidery or needlepoint, buttons, art yarn, hand painted yarns, and thousands of ideas. Gretchen, the owner, and Cathy, her employee, were extremely generous with their time and ideas, with no hesitation to demonstrate a technique or describe a creative process. We left with our heads spinning. My only regret is that Florilegium is 9+ hours away. Lucky for ALL of us, they ship orders every day!
Love,
Kim

The Estate

Dear Mom,
A long time ago, not at all very far away, a grand country home caught the eye of a curly brown haired girl, riding in the back seat, behind the driver, as her family took a Sunday drive through the country. That little girl was I.

I think the whole family loved our country drives. And probably all four of us kids were hoping with all our might that the drive might end up at Dairy Queen; but until we either returned home or pulled into the DQ parking lot, I leaned my head against the window and looked out and day dreamed.
On one of those summer Sunday drives, as we drove past a full spruce tree near the road, a remarkable number of rabbits shot out and scattered across the lawn of a large brick house. Daddy, who loved to tease, announced that this was where the Rah-bots live. The name stuck. For forty years I've thought of that house as The House Where the Rahbots Live. And for forty years I've admired that house. I still live within a few miles of that house.

The house has History. It is 150 years old and started out as the home on a 100 acre horse farm, Two Gaits Farm. Eventually, the home was donated for use as a rectory and then one of the parish priests purchased the home. The horse farm was sold off bit by bit and this grand house is now surrounded by the the newest sections of my neighborhood.

Not too long ago, as my hero and I were driving past - either heading to the hardware store or for a dinner out- I saw a For Sale By Owner sign in front of the house I've been dreaming of all these years. I grabbed paper and pen out of my purse and wrote the contact info down. I knew in my heart that this was an unrealistic dream, but I was going to make that call.
And I did. The house is way out of our price range and it needs a hefty investment of time and money to get it in shape, but in my conversation with the estate agent, I was told that there would be an estate sale to sell off the contents of the house. I noted the dates on my calendar, knowing that this may be my one and only opportunity to step inside that house.

The estate sale was impressive. I felt like I was in a museum, surrounded by fine antiques, depression glass collectibles and a barn filled with glass lamps and lamp fixtures. I didn't necessarily go there to buy anything as much as spend time in the house, satisfying so many years of dreams. I did manage to find an interesting solution for my laundry detergent. I've been wanting something prettier than the Tide box to keep the detergent in- something that would be fun and functional. What I found is absolute perfection! It is the vessel that would have once been used to empty a chamber pot!

This beauty holds a huge amount of Tide detergent and I keep a pretty little tea cup with a detergent level mark on the inside of the cup to scoop the detergent out and into the washing machine. I am thrilled with this purchase. I also found a delicate, petite-sized cake stand with a glass dome. Not necessary, but too pretty to leave behind.

What I really really REALLY wanted, but was intended for sale with the house, was this sign. I took a photo, knowing that my picture would be the next best thing to having it. I have so many childhood memories tied up in the name of this farm, and in this sign. And yes, it should stay with the house, where it belongs.

The Estate is still on the market. I won't wonder or dream about living there anymore. I am happy to stay here, in My Home, but I will be keeping an eye on The House Where The Rahbots Live, hoping that it can be a home again to someone who will love it. And maybe even to someone who dreamed all her life of living in a house just like this one.
Love,
Kim

All That Wool

Dear Mom,
Remember last spring, when I took all that beautiful angora fiber from Duncan, your adorable rabbit, and some black alpaca that was given to me, and some gorgeous mohair (another gift) to the Fiber Event to be dropped off for processing?
Well, it's here.
And it is beautiful. 
And boyohboy do I have my spinning "work" cut out for me! (okay, we all know it isn't work.)

I chose to have half of the angora blended with some coral merino wool, and the other half blended with a teal merino wool. Both blends and 80% merino/20% angora. More angora than that and the garment would be too hot to wear. The mohair was also blended with merino, but with white merino so I can dye it if I choose, and see the shimmer of the mohair against the merino. That will be fun to play with. The black alpaca was blended with a peacock merino. The color is gorgeous. 

I've already started spinning the coral. It is a dream to spin.

This is the coral blend (obviously) with the mohair blend behind it.

And the teal in front of the peacock.
Getting an accurate color photo of these blues was tricky.
 This is the best I could do.

The heavenly mohair/merino blend

Olive says, "ACK! Where are you going to put all that stuff?!"

"Just don't block my view!"
Lots of squirrel watching out there.

Love,
Kim

My Kitchen

Dear Mom,
Okay. The last time I showed you the kitchen, the back splash looked like this:

and the island looked like this:

And now?! The island has been painted and the backsplash has a decoupaged collage of vintage cookbook pages and kitchen advertising!

I even covered the outlet and switch plate covers.

                                      

I even decoupaged some pretty fabric into the drawers- no more ugly, self-sticky drawer liners!

Mod Podge has come a long way. I used a furniture specific formula that can be washed after several coats and time to cure. I took a leap of faith, doing this, and got that sick "I am making a big mistake" feeling when I was a small way into the project. But once I finished the collage on that first section, I was in love.
I had a great boost in supplies when MelissaWhoDoesNotKnit offered me her grandma's collection of clippings and recipes in exchange for a pair of hand knit socks. Otherwise, it would have taken me forever to get that wonderful assortment! I love the personality my new back splash adds to the kitchen. And the paint color on the island turned out better than I dared to hope. When I look at those "before" pictures, I am amazed at how washed out things looked.

It would seem that most of my creative efforts have gone into the kitchen. And yes, it did take a lot of time and energy, but, there has been some knitting. And spinning. Stay tuned!
Love,
Kim

Starts and a Finish

Dear Mom,
School has started, projects are nearing completion and others are finished with great satisfaction.

The Young Lady started her Junior year of High School and I was able to take a First Day of School photo on the front porch. A clear sign of Growing Up-  the Starbucks Light Vanilla Frappuccino in her hand.

A week later we moved The Young Man back to IU for his Junior year. On the hottest, humid-est move-in day, for us, so far. With the longest walk from vehicle to dorm, for us, so far. Thank heaven his room has AC and we only had one flight of stairs. After making several trips back and forth, laden like pack mules, and still faced with transporting the really bulky, heavy stuff, we decided to risk our parking spots to pull into a drive meant for Official Vehicles Only to do a quick unload, thus cutting our walking and carrying distance in half. Since mine was the vehicle with said Heavy Load, I pulled into the drive with My Hero and the Young Man standing by. They unloaded onto the sidewalk in record time and I almost as quickly pulled around and began a new hunt for a parking spot. I lucked out and got a spot even closer than my previous one! My Hero babysat the load on the sidewalk while I was parking and the Young Man took a load to his room. As I approached My Hero in his perch on the sidewalk, I saw him signing a clipboard and handing it back to two camera wielding folks. When I got to him, he flashed me a huge smile and proudly stated that he was "going to be on a website somewhere".  Last week, the Young Man forwarded this photo from one of IU's Facebook pages.

Yes, there he is, in a garage sale rescued dorm chair, with the mini fridge. 

While we were moving in, I noticed several resourceful people pulling collapsable wagons loaded with belongings. We are going to have one of those for the next move. 

*******

After 20ish years, our backyard barn was an eyesore. We needed a new one, and one with a bit more useable space. After unloading and dismantling the old barn, and storing all its contents in the garage, we finally got the new, cute little backyard building painted and reloaded. This one has two sets of doors- one for easy access to the things kept there, and one for John, Dear to drive in and out. We are calling it our cottage because it is probably the closest we will ever coming to owning one!

We've really accomplished a lot of home improvement projects this summer. The kitchen facelift is almost complete! I can't wait to show you how it looks!

Love,

Kim