February 1,2024 Where do you start to pick up the pieces of a life that is flying by? I have often thought of this blog, and always thought " Tomorrow.....tomorrow I will start again..." And it just wasn't meant to be. I am still crazy about the fiber crafts. Can't get enough. Just not enough time in the day to play as much as I want. Since time I reached out, I took up spinning and bobbin lace. 2 items I kept telling myself I didn't need in my life. 2 things I didn't need to add to my list of "Must Dos". Boy was I wrong. They have both been very fun to play with, even if I am not the best at it, I have lots of fun. The wool- cleaning, carding, dying and spinning. The dying was probably the best. With the wool, you can use food coloring. I would stuff the clean wool in a canning jar with water and a bit of food dye and a splash of vinegar to set the color), and let it sit in the sun. I would wait until the water looked clear ( to know the wool had soaked up the dye). Some of the batches were quite a surprise. Especiallythe black dye for Wilton's coloring. While dying the wool, the color often split and we would find a rainbow of color in the wool. Then it was a playing with dying before it's spun and after. 2 very different outcomes. This morphed into felting- wet and needle.I don't think I really have anything to show for this. I played around and had fun, but didn't really make anything substantial. I did manage to get one of my dear friends into it,and watched as they created a small replica of their cat from fur retrieved by combing their baby.

Day 3 - Nothing to Report

Monday, back at the grind stone, with little to show for the day, at least where sewing is concerned. I tried looking on-line for more ideas for the clothes, but continue to find very little info to the period of 1840-1860(pre civil war). I can find some on the eastern fashion scene, but don't think it transported to the west to much with the settlers. I will dive into the drawers tomorrow.

I did manage to make almost 3 quarts of strawberry jam today. I have been meaning to make this up but didn't get to it before the weekend. I was a little afraid they would be spoiled before I could get to them. I cut the tops of f them all, threw in roughly the same amount of sugar as berries (roughly 3lbs each) and a can of crushed pineapple. Yum! It came out good, and the color is RED! It tasted out-of-this-world great. It was my first time of trying to stovetop method and it came out better then I expected. I started by making the jams in the bread machine which was very easy to do, just had to keep an eye on it so it didn't boil over. I even tried it in the crock pot, but had an over cooked taste. I'll try it again on the stove top later this summer when I have more fruit from the garden harvested. The bread machine is out, as I think it's starting to die on us (it's something like 10yrs old...), and it leaks jam out of the bottom of the bread pan. Very messy to clean up the cooked sticky jam at the bottom of the machine.

Tuesday I plan to work on the drawers for my DD1 and myself. Will let you know how it goes!

Day 2 - Bottoms up

Well here you can see the petticoat...done. I really like how full it is. It made up nicely! I'm not sure about the drawstring I used at the waist, it was the salvage edge from the dust ruffle. It's kind of bulky. I may have to change this. I thought about putting a pocket or two on the front to hold things(even if it's under my skirt where I can't really access it easily). Sometimes a girl just needs a secret pocket for a few things.

This is nice and lone for me. It hits just at my ankles. Good enough. Now I am busy with other things until next week, so there won't be any progress until Monday or Tuesday.

This weekend is my parents 50th wedding anniversary. WOW - 50! We are heading up to Reno to visit and celebrate with other family members. Everyone should be there but older sister out of state who couldn't make it this time around.

Day 1 - The Odyssey Begins

So my Daugther comes home last week from school with a piece of paper telling her 4th grade class is celebrating Gold Rush Day, May 28th. They are looking for donations and help from the parents. DD1 tells me she wants to dress for the day, so now begins our current project- make pioneer clothing for her and myself for the day. Since we've been talking to some friends about joining them for an re-enactment group thing for the old west, these would work for that as well, so I thought if we put a little effort into it, we can kill 2 birds with one stone.....

So after scanning the internet for ideas of Gold Rush wardrobe, I didn't actually find a lot. I'll find tons on civil war era, but not gold rush so much. I think if I am for civil war but omit the hoop, I'll be in the ball park. I did find a site that had some brillant ideas about the petticoat and drawers for the ladies. I went out this morning with this info foremost on my mind.


Here I have (#1)The beige floral calico pillow cases (2) I'll use for her drawers. (#2) The blue striped pillow cases (2) I'll use for my drawers. (#3) The small blue plaid I'll use for my dress (#4) the blue dust ruffle for my petticoat, (#5) the white dust ruffle I got for her, but now I'm not so sure I'll use it. It would make a great white petticoat, but I wasn't planning on making her dress floor length, and as it is right now, it would be long...besides, I was going to use a different beige calico (currently in the laundry getting prewashed) for her dress. It was something I had in my fabric stash for years. It would lean towards an off white petticoat made of unbleached muslin more then a bleached white-white petticoat. I may just hold on to this for now... or make it up and wear it too. If one petticoat is nice, two should be awesome...am I right?

I figure we need blouse, skirt, petticoat, drawers, and bonnet. I have roughly 2 weeks to do what I can. I can see DD1 and I hav different ideas about what to do, so what I start out to do and what I actually do will be 2 different things.

Unfortunately I have dance class and GS meeting tonight, so don't know how much more I'll be able to work on this today. I'll have to let you know tomorrow.

Wish me luck!

Stop Me If You've Heard This Before

Wow, it's almost been a year since I last posted. In someways so much has happened- I lost my job (well, actually it ended. The company went belly up), we put the girls in public school ( tuition can be so expensive), and girls scouts are still going strong.

In some ways not much has happened. Now that I am not working, I spend lots of time reading, grocery shopping, working around the house, doing odd sewing jobs...but it seems like no matter how much I do, the progress isn't as obvious. It kind of makes me wonder how I managed while I was working (or were my standards just that low?). Well you know what they say- If you want something done- give it to someone with a job. They somehow manage to get, and their job done.

Right now I'm on a throwing jag. I am going through boxes and trying to get rid of as much stuff as I can. I have quite a few boxes in the sewing room I need to go through and sort out what I really want to keep, and what I should get rid of. I have gone through the garage once, and need to go again. I really need to go through the girls closet, as the girls keep growing and the clothes don't. They have lots of things we can stand to give to goodwill. I am hard pressed to hold onto clothes from the older girl to pass on to the younger. They are 2 different personalities, and 2 different body types. I can hold onto it now on the off chance that they'll fit, or just pass them on and worry about new clothes for both of them as the time comes along.

I have even started going through the fabric to see what I really don't think I'll use. Trying to be realistic. also, I don't have little babies anymore, so some of that can go too. Tastes change, needs change. I guess I'm in a cleaning phase, trying to get my life bck in order. Maybe I could find a job if I could get myself organized....? It's a nice thought.

Oh What A Beautiful Morning...

Oh what a beautiful day. I love these flowers. The Blossoms always looks so beautiful in the morning. It's great to look out the window in the morning, and see all the beautiful blossoms on the back fence.

You can almost see my pumpkin, in the lower right hand corner (just out of the frame. DD2 wanted to try growing pumpkins, so she threww a few seeds into the ground and something actually managed to come up. We'll need to get a picture before we carve it up.

What the ........

Can you tell what this is?
Do they look like branches?


I worked on the 11 1/2 prs ( 20 gloves total for the show, plus 2 gloves as the sample pair, and 1 botched sample too small for anyone but my 5yr DD) of these for the show along with the leaves.... Streams and streams of leaves for the show.

It was all a big hit with the kids, not so big with my husband. If he was tired of the costuming after working on Poodle skirts and Elvis, then he's downright deadset against me doing more. I spent most of March sewing for the show. It was 66 tree costumes, 7 Toy solder costumes (jacket plus shako/hat). It was a lot of sewing. Sewing and fabric buying. The only good thing about these boughts of sewing is that during that time I try so hard to refrain from buying more fabric. I try not to buy things other then for the school, so as not to mix up the reciepts. I bought so much brown fabric. Of course not all the same shade, so I had to be careful to not mix up the tops and bottoms. I always made sure that when I cut out a top, I cut a bottom as well. Somewhere along the line things got out of whack...that would probably be when I decided it would be a great idea to heat set the wrinkles in to the costume (to enhance the "barky" goodness of the brown fabric). This meant cooking the garment in the mircowave, so things got a little crazy for a few days.

Kids would come home from school hungry, looking for something to eat, and hear the microwave going thinking I'm making something for them.

Them: "Hey Mom, what's cooking?"
ME: "Trees!"
Them: "Oh".

I made it through without completely losing my mind. Yes!. I'll have more pictures here in a day or two...I hope.



I couldn't do it all by myself- I had some good moral support from little Nutmeg.

Times Ain't What They Use To Be

Years ago I worked in fabric stores. Practically lived in them. At the time we could be pretty helpful (or charitable) to non-profits and schools. Now that I am pursuing fabric for trees, I am amazed how little helpful they are. I can get a 10% discount. That barely covers the taxes. This is very disappointing. I could search around more, but I am running out of time to aquire the fabric. I am at the point of just buying the fabric and submitting my receipts. Very disappointing.

I was able to find the elastic /notins at a good price on the internet. I ordered yesterday, let's see how fast it arrives from Portland Oregon (should take a day or two). I am excited, and can hardly wait for it to show up. How often do you get 288yds of black elastic cording in the mail? Elastic and brown thread. Yipee!

Today after work, I will go to the fabric store and pick up 2 yards of brown lycra to make the 10 pairs of gloves/treebranch hands. I want to finish these soon. I will also pick up broadcloth at the store if they have it around $2.99/yd. I can start to cut out the various tree costumes, and I have a parent that will start to sew together. I thought I would tackle the chorus first, because I can pass a lot of it off to the other parent (or at least start to funnel it out and see how fast she works). There are 44 kids in the chorus, the rest are suppose to be main cast. I'm not exactly sure how many kids are in the main cast, and of those kids, how many will be trees. I thought the known first, then plow through the main cast (the hardest part will be the gloves, that's why I want yo finish those first).

I was thinking of ideas for the headpieces for the main characters. It would be nice if we could do something more then just the leaf wreath for them. maybe something more along the lines of a crwon....but what? I have a vague idea or image in my brain, but not sure how to go about it. I am still giving it thought...trying to see where this leads. I was first thinking about a paper mache "hat", but not sure how that would work. Was also thinking of something more like the jester hats for rene faire, but more in the shape of a tree...? Maybe a crown, cut from carboard and covered in felt(or painted), with branches shooting upwards from it. Again, needs more thought - don't want it to look like a Las Vegas Showgirl headress with a ecological theme. Thinking, thinking, thinking. The wheels are spinning (obviously rusty they be).

This weekend is Girls Scout cookies. We have 2 booth sales going this weekend. Saturday morning 9:30- 1:00, and Sunday 9-12. At least the weather should be good (nippy in the mroning, but warmer as the day progresses). I will need to see if the sunbrella fits in the car(can't have the Thin Mints melting before they find a new home). These kind of cramp my sewing style, but I guess I could be cutting leaves while I'm there...Lord knows I've got lots to cut.

Idle hands...and all that!

Cheers!

"She's At It Again..."

Can you believe it? You would think I had learned from the first time around. No, no I feel the need to learn the hard way. I agreed to help with the costumes for the spring production. "A Tale of Three Trees". Actually all the kids are trees. 78 trees... a forest of them (Hahahahaha!). I am still forming the ideas, and my brain is working overtime. On one hand I am trying to come up with strange and exciting ideas for the costume, but on the otherhand, I don't want to get too out-of-hand, and kill myself in the long run. I am trying to think of how best to keep the cost down without over working the whole thing (which means I am way over-thinking the process).

At first the script reccommends using a simple gown as the costume base, but the teacher wanted a 2 piece- top and bottom. I played with it, but to do pants for the boys, it takes quite a bit more fabric (besides, most trees have just one trunk anyway). I made a very simple peasant smock, taking the directions/idea from a renaissance costuming site. Drawstring neck closure, and drawstring waisted skirt for the trunk. These are small kids, so one length of fabric with the seam swn down the back should suffice. I am now on to playing with heat setting in the wrinkle to give the fabric more character.

For the headpiece, they reccommend a laural leaf crwon. I had made something like this for the last production, but we bought the garlands, and crocheted the leaves into a head band and wristband. I am playing with felt scrapes (got lots vrom the poodle skirts). We may just do the felt leaves. Still looking at it.

I am on to looking at the gloves/ hand-covering for the main cast. I don't want to make them for 78 pairs of little hands, but they sure are fun, and would work for the main cast. I am off the meet with the teacher about what I have. I think these are the main items that will determine the costs needed.

Wish me luck.

I said I would show...

...and here they are. This was my big project for the holidays. The kids school had their Christmas show, and i volunteered to help with costuming. I started on Thanksgiving eve with these leafy headbands and bracelets for the bigger kids(4th & 5th grades). The materials were pretty much on sale at that time, so I started here.
The 24 sets of collars and bracers, done for the 2nd & 3rd grades, was started the day after Thanksgiving, after getting up on Black Friday, to stand in line for over an hour to buy felt, felt felt, and more felt. Oh yea, and some gold material for these. Who knew that was such a big day at the fabric stores! It was a good thing the skirts didn't have to be all the same color, I never would have made it.
Here was the big projects- 25 poodle/felt skirts and Elvis. In a sick way, this was quite fun to do. The skirts were the most time consuming- each skirt took 2-3 hours, and it was kind of hard to think of designs to put on the skirts. The design had to be kind of simple, but I wanted something kind of colorful (and no way could I have done them all as poodles...seamstress does not survive on poodle alone). Each design was stitched down for fear of bored little girls picking and pulling them off on stage(you might laugh, but the attention span of a five year old is only rivaled by that of a gnat!).

Elvis was something else. I didn't get the boys measurements until 3 days before the show. I got the suit pretty much done ( I would gave liked to have done more embellishments, but flat ran out of time)for dress rehearsal, just had to finish the buckle for the show. It might have been a little on the tight side, but was good enough for the show.

When we gave the suit to the young man, he took it off to try on. we waited and waited. Finally we sent someone in to get him, and all we got in return was "He's not coming out".

No, wait. I need to know if there's a problem. "Go tell him to come out here".

"He's not coming out!"

I follow him to where the kid is hiding, "Come on out, I need to know if there's a problem...."

Poor thing, when he finally came out- all the girls started giggling. The Moms all seem to have the knowing laugh (Yea, we remember who Elvis is...). He looked good for an Elvis impersonator...during the show, it was even funnier. The crowd howled! As the young man gained confidence, he began posing in Elvis type antics. A good time was had by all.

In the spring, the school is planning on doing "The Tale of Three Trees". My husband has requested that I NOT help with the costumes. We'll see. When the kids told the teacher what Daddy said, she just laughed and walked away.

Long Time No See...

Wow, it's been 2 months since I last posted. Things have changed so much. My good friend moved away. We've started another year of Girls Scouts, and this year both girls are active (I'm leading the younger girls Daisy Troop). The younger girl is in the school Christmas production, so I volunteered to help with costuming. This Holiday weekend, I will spend my time sewing poodle skirts for her class participation in the show, and accessories for the other kids. Pretty busy.

Work is still there, but greatly reduced. Just after I last posted in August, my company went through a major downsizing (work force cut in half). Now last Thursday, they further cut the ranks when they decided to close a division that was loosing money. Now we number 12. Where my job wasn't very demanding this time last year, it has bulked up considerably. Although today is somewhat quiet, I haven't been completely handed the reins of the customer service job which I will inherit going forward. I feel so bad, right now I am looking for things to do to stay busy, and just the other day we laid off several good people who had lots to do, but we had to let go to secure company funding. I know this is just the lull before the storm, and next week will be somewhat crazy. It's just very quiet here.

ENOUGH DOOM AND GLOOM!

You can see from the picture above, I have been a little busy knitting. Here is the Jack-O-Lantern, waiting for his head to be attached. I am having a little trouble with the face. When I first did the head, it looked too small to have a face added to it. I made a taller head, that to look at, looks like a nice pumpkin, but when you place that pumpkin on the body, it's way too big. So I struggle with the idea of adding the facial features, and attaching to body.

You might notice I am in the process of working one of the Holiday Gnomes - red body, white hat. I couldn't find the yarn recommended for the beard, so I got another novelty yarn, bit not sue I like it. DH thinks it's great. This guy now has his arms, but is waiting for me to finish his legs. I actually have one in white with blue hat/mittens/boots, and another one green with grey hat/one mitten/no boots yet. They are kind of fun to knit, and DD2 loves to play with them (she's named them already). I will try to squeeze these in a little this weekend, as we need to finish to send out to to their new homes. I will make a few for our home too, just they can wait a little before need to work on those. I have other things more preasing....like lots of poodle skirts. Why did I think this wold be a fun project to take on? What was I thinking?

Wish me luck.

Hello, My Friend, Hello.

Clue one done.

You can't really see it but there are beads on this piece. I tried not to get caught up in this craze, but more and more of the shawls out there are incorporating them into the design...so I finally gave in and decided to give it a try.

I do think the beading part is a little fussy, but I think it would go alot easier if I would just break down and spend the $2 to get the beading needles....

I am still pluggng away on the summer lace sampler from BadCat designs... no picutre right at the moment, but will post something soon.

On The Needles

This is a summer project I found on the net. I was trying to get to this project sooner, but better late then never. This is a lace sampler from BadCat Designs. I was browsing around and happened upon the project. Here you can see all of clue 1 and 3/4 of clue 2. Since this picture was taken, I have finished clue 3 and , oh, about 2/3 of the way through clue 3. I like this project. It's not real wide, but depending on how it blocks, I may end up using this as a scarf instead of a wrap/stole. The color is listed as Aloe, but I would call it a soft apple. A little color without being too powerful. dark enough to add a little color, but light enough to over dye if it's not quite right.


I had also strated the Mystic Meadow Stole, almost on time with everyone... but life has a way of getting on the way of things. It is wallowing, waiting for me to commence clue 2. You can't see as much detail as this pattern has. It's a lovely pattern, challanging yet not frustrating. I really like it. I want to get onto clue 2....maybe this weekend.

I have missed my knitting. I need that creative outlet, and for the last month this has been kind of put on the back burner. My company had to move out of it's building, and we didn't have as mcuh notice as most companies need. It was a lot of work for 2-3 weeks before the move, and 2-3 weeks after the move as well. Now with things kind of quieting down at work, I am hoping to get back to some knitting. I know I do have some sewing to take care of first (back to school is right around the corner). But soon.

Pony, Pony Everywhere, But Not A One to Ride

DD2 loves to take pictures, and what better subject then her ponies.



I never know what I'll find on the digital camera after it's sat out for a few days...



Careful of the rough-housing there... plenty of room for everyone...


Now hold still...say cheese!


Let's see, is this thing working?




Sparkle



Sparkle-Sparkle.




Sparkle-Sparkle at play....

DD2 at play.

Once A Month, Ready Or Not

Wow, it's already been a month since I last posted. The time has gotten away from me - with end of the school year, end of the (girl)scouting year, company moving, and the downpouring of KALs.... Something had to give, and unfortunately it was this. I don't even have lots of great pictures to show for it!

This is a little over half of the swatch for the Mystic Meadows stole swatch. It was a smaller piece of the yarn I wanted to use, and from the little bit I did, I think I'm going to really like this choice. i will cast on tonight for a little bit.

My back is acting up right now, so it's hard to do anything but sit and knit...not that I mind. I did want to start work on a dress for my younger daugther- a yellow dress for "Wear Yellow To School Day" (Wednesday). Since it's Monday now, I don't have much time, but the pattern isn't too complicated. I should be able to crawl on the floor and cut out the dress, and maybe even start some of the sewing as well. I have some yellow ginham in the stash that would work wonderfully for this project (I think I better hurry and use up some of this material...both girls are starting to get a bit big for the gingham look...if you know what I mean.

After the yellow dress, I need to think about the older daugther. We have a pirate fair we want to go to this weekend, and she's outgrown her outfit from last year. DD2 is all set with something from the costume bin, and husband just needed some pants. I have a new bodice I'm finishing (need to put grommets in),and some bloomers/bottoms(haven't decided just what yet). DD1 needs new bodice, new skirt, new shift...she just keeps growing. I guess this is what happenes when you feed them :oP

After the pirate fair, she'll be needing clothes anyway. Like I keep saying - she 's a growing kid. She wants to learn to sew, so I will enlist her help to sew some of the things (with proper supervision). She should be able to help with shorts/pants and simple shirts. At least to start out with. She helped some this last Sunday with pants for DH. they were a very simple design and she helped to sew much of them up. I'm hoping for a good summer.

May Day...May Day...

Things have been kind of up-side down for me the last few weeks. Nothing tragic, just screwy. to cope, I knit. I have been able to finish the monkey socks (shown here in progress) started around the time of the wedding back in March. I haven't worn these yet, I need to finish tucking in the loose ends.



I made my "Incrdible Hulk Business Socks". A shorter, sportier sock. Picture doesn't do justice to the great green color. I haven't worn these either, just haven't had the occassion.


I have been working on swatches for another KAL I want to participate in, but I'm not happy with first swatch. The gauage is a little big, and I knit loosely , so this might not be a good thing.


Here's the Swatch-In-Progress. The color doesn't show, but it is a soft apple green (I think the vendor called it Aloe Vera or something like that). I like the color. Soft enough to be almost nuetral, but still a little color...light enough to oveerdye if the color isn't quite what you want.



What's In Your Wallet?

Here's my bag that I carry my STUFF in everyday. I throw my knitting supplies I take to work with me. It makes me laugh to think about all the knitting "crap" I have in there.

Here's my bag that I carry my STUFF in everyday. I throw my knitting supplies I take to work with me. It makes me laugh to think about all the knitting "crap" I have in there. Yarn (about 8 balls of yarn), knitting nnedles (1/2 doz sets of Dbl pt needles, and several circulars), plus knitting/Lace book...all sorts of stuff. the good thing about it being knitting stuff, it ain't too heavy. Yarn is far more bulky then weighty.

Now as I look at the picture, I find it almost embarrassing to show the picture of the inside of my bag....dope!

I am a Snapdragon What Flower Are You?

BIGGER Happy Face!

I did it! I finally finished the Galveston Shawl. FINALLY! Now I need to block. I didn't have time this weekend to get there, but I hope to get it done tonight / tomorrow. I am so glad to finally have this off the needles. I laugh at it a little now, at the color choice. I had used cream colored yarn, as it was what I had in my stash, but I was wanting to maybe dye it a french blue. Now that it's done, I'm not sure I want to dye it, but not sure I like the cream color either. For now I will block it and see what I think.

On another note, I did finally rceive the wool/yarn I ordered at the end of February, thinking I would use for one of the many KALs I've sign-up for. Now I don't remember which I was going to use for what. In most cases, I found something else to use for the project because the box was taking so long from Canada. No worries though, cause we all know something else will come along that this will work for.

Happy Knitting

Happy Faces

In the morning when I arrive at work, I see a bunch of the flowers looking like this.. not too Happy.












By the time I go home, they looking something like this! Much Happier!


I can hardly wait for the Morning Glories to come into their own! One of my favorite things in the morning is to look out the back window and see a wall of Morning Glory...in all it's "Glory".






And here, you see the Galveston Shawl so close to being done. One small problem...the stitch count came out wrong. I am short by 2 stitches. I need to go back and look at the last edge and see if I can figure out where I "Oops" up. I know there were a few times I kind of zoned out while knitting the edge on, so I may be able to tink back some and correct the problem. Think good thoughts of it only being a small problem to fix ( not too muck tinking to correct).


Have a good weekend!

100 Rows of KnittingTo Go, 100 Rows Of Knitting...

We'll knit the row

turn it around

and do the same again.






You know how it is when you are so close to the end you start to get SOOOO tired of the project? SOOOooo close you can see the end, and yet it's seems to go on FOREVER.
I am trying to finish this project first. I have started a pair of socks, but I am pushing to get this in to FO pile. I'll figure out where to block when I get to that stage.



On another topic, I can't believe how much more mature my youngest seems these last few weeks. It's like it's sunk into her that she's graduating pre-school in a month, and soon she'll be starting elementary school. the change is subtle, but it's there. I can't quite put my finger on what's different, there's something in the way she talks, or retells her adventure (and mis-adventures) of her day, the way she interacts with her sister and the cats.... something in the way she moves. I guess turning 5 was a good thing for her.