quilting

My friend Amy invited me to come to her house this summer so I could learn how to make a quilt.
I had trouble once again with blogger not doing what I wanted it to do with regards to combining pictures with words (duh!), so I am giving the commentary separately here.

This was my first "real" quilt project ever, and Amy guided me through it....I am still not quite sure I could do this entirely on my own, but I am mighty proud. I did most of the cutting and most of the sewing and most of the tying, while she figured all the quantities of fabric and did all the ironing (the pieces must be ironed after each addition of a strip) and all the running through of the ties and the final border because I had to go back home.

So thanks Amy for letting me pretend that I made a quilt! :)

For those of you in the know, it is a strip quilt, nine patch log cabin, and tied not quilted.
I think I go all that right.

My finger was still mightily bandaged at the time, but I managed to machine sew with it quite well. I am now almost all healed up and am back to knitting.

But learning how to make that quilt was a wonderful experience! We especially like that stained glass effect we got from holding the quilt top up to the window before we assembled it.

two women, two days, one quilt

oh no!

Yesterday, we were working in the garden. Dear husband has 2 weeks before the school year starts and he has to go back to work.

Here's a shot of Solomon's Seal. Lush.


Then there's this mess.

That's the daylily bed, all horribly overgrown and mixed together with a hundred other plants.

When we first moved here 5 years ago, we couldn't see any flowers at all. They were all buried under a horrible vine that had taken over this yard. I have been plugging away at this for 6 summers, and now it was time to dig it all up, separate the lilies from the rest, add topsoil, and replant the lilies.

It's a work in progress if there ever was one.

So at the end of the day, I come in to make dinner. Husband is still out there, putting the tools away (he'd been working in the yard since 6:30 am).

I am cutting up string beans, the knife slips. A small chunk of my finger stuck to the knife.

Tall son rushes to my aid. Brings bandaids (no good in such a case), sterile gauze pads, the works.

First words out of his mouth: "Oh no! Now you won't be able to knit!"

I do love that kid.

And it's true. No knitting for...I don't want to think about how long...the finger affected is the one where I run my yarn around, continental style.

Meanwhile, check out this website:

http://www.fightglobalwarming.org/

outing

Last Saturday was a gorgeous day, my sister-in-law was here visiting from Houston TX, and we went on an outing to Thacher Park. 25 min. from Albany.
Here's a shot from the top.

There is a sharp drop-off of several hundred feet, and a trail where you can skim the rock walls and walk beneath a waterfall. Except we hadn't had enough rain and the waterfall was practically non-existent.

We enjoyed the walk through the woodsy terrain.

Here's a look up to the top of the ledge.

Love the play of light on the leaves.

We had ourselves a picnic.....played frisbee...good times.

To think we might lose all that.

Global warming IS upon us.

reply

Dear Jody,
Thank you for your comment on my last post.
My parents have 3 different trash cans where they are in Bavaria. One is for compost. One is for recyclable materials. One is for "regular" trash. That one gets emptied only once a month.
Can you imagine? Having your trash emptied once a month?
They also take all the glass, cans, and paper to recycling containers which are conveniently located near grocery stores. The remaining recyclable trash, like plastic, goes into the trash can they have from the town.

A few years ago, there was a new law enacted in Germany that told manufacturers to reduce packaging. For example, toothpaste tubes no longer get packaged in a box.

My mother rarely uses plastic wrap, she has all plastic containers like Tupperware that lasts a long time. Nobody has their groceries packed in plastic bags over there. They all bring their own bags, or collapsible crates (which I have seen at places like Bed Bath and Beyond). The scanned groceries get put right in the crate. Pop the crate in the car, and then carry the groceries in the house.

I know that there is no perfect solution, that there are no perfect people, and that this world will eventually come to an end.

But to bring it to an end so deliberately....when we could be doing so much to save it for future generations.

Thanks for listening!

Karin

between

I have long been debating with myself whether to start another blog.
There is just so much I want to say, because my world is certainly not all about knitting.

Don't get me wrong; knitting is my life, and I am fast discovering how I LOVE spinning. And I just know I will be dyeing a lot more yarn come fall and everybody is back in school.

Knitting is the proverbial thread that holds it all together. Knitting is what I do, knitting is where I have made lots of friends, knitting is the creative outlet and the personal income. I love talking about it, I love discussing whether it's worth it to do left and right leaning decreases when you can't even see them on the purl side of a sweater. I love talking yarn. Gauge. Fiber content. Needle sizes. Sizes, and ease, and what works best as far as style for a certain body types.
On and on I can go, and never tire of it.


But I think it must be because I've made so many friends through this medium, and because I am a fairly open person and I am open to ideas and new information, that I decided to have a blog. Not just to tell you all that I've made another pair of socks, or to tell you that I've ordered yet more yarn. But to use this kind of forum to pass information along, and to allow myself to not only have an opinion about certain things but to pass it right along to you, figuring if you don't want to read it you can move to the next blog.


I have been thoroughly concerned about climate change. Every day I try to stay optimistic, and every day it is getting harder. Every day that I see someone idle their car in a parking lot with the AC on because they are waiting for their wife/husband to come out of that store...I get a little more discouraged. Every time I see someone cruising up and down my street just for the sake of crusing, I get more disgusted.

I get more upset when the clerks in the grocery store are letting me know that they don't like packing my groceries in the canvas bags that I brought from home because they are too floppy. (I'll bag the things myself then, thank you very much).

I get upset when I see the aisles of cereal, crackers, and chips that we have to choose from. Yes choice is a good thing....but have you looked around lately? Go look in the cracker/cookie aisle. Just the sheer fact that we have entire aisles dedicated to snack food.....
The truckloads it takes to transport all that snack food, the packaging it takes to put it in, the factories it takes to produce the stuff. And nobody really truly NEEDS to eat any of it.


To be continued.

blogger??!

I don't know how many of you use blogger to blog with.
But I am starting to resent it just a little.
The new word verification thing is a big pain in the you know what. The post NEVER goes through on the first try!
The line breaks are never where I want them.
I don't know how to write in html...so I am trying to deal with it....
but needed to say that things don't always show up in the final post the way I wrote them initially, and it bothers me.
There. Got that off my chest.



(There are supposed to be three blank lines here.)


Anyway. I decided to remove the picture of the sweater from the last post, I was getting worried I was showing too much of the design ahead of publication.

glimpse

(Psst...here's a small glimpse of the sweater...don't tell...)

<<> Sorry guys!





Yes I burned the midnight oil, had to make 3 sleeves because the first one didn't fit, did not run out of yarn, handed it in one day later (with blessings of Decadent Fibers who commissioned the work in the first place), and when I put it together late last night had visions of the editor opening the box in her office, holding the sweater at arm's length and declaring it the most abominable finishing job ever.


I am glad this baby is delivered, and out of my hands for now. I'll be able to show you more details when the magazine comes out.

If they don't reject the sweater and final write-up of the design. I think I'll finally believe it when I see it in print.

meanwhile...

My friend Laura made this very stunning version of my Berthe Collar from "No Sheep for You".

So simple, and so incredibly gorgeous!! Thank you Laura for sending me these wonderful pictures.

Meanwhile, all I have to report are these incredibly boring socks. I made them within the last month or so. I think.

Well, OK, these are cute...:)

Yarns used top to bottom:

- Fortissima 6 ply;

- Steinbach Wolle 6 ply; made in honor of my friend Stephanie's new granddaughter.

- 2 strands of a Louisa Harding yarn w/angora; made for donating to Afghans for Afghans. Jody took this picture for me.

24 hours to go before I hand over the sweater and pattern! May the force be with me....

thank you

THANK YOU

Today, I just want to send out a thank you to everyone--you have been so very patient with me! It feels very strange to be knitting my heart out and my hands sore, and not be able to blog about it. I am not supposed to show the sweater until it comes out in the magazine, which is sometime in December.

Maybe, when it's all put together, I will do a close-up so you can get a feel...

Meanwhile, I'll give you some more flowers to look at, as a lot of you are happy to see them!

IN OTHER NEWS:

I purchased a new computer today, and I am very excited about it. I simply cannot burden the family computer anymore with everything I am doing now, what with all the design software and pictures and stuff. So I got a laptop, and the thing will be able to go into the yard with me, and I can put the little memory card right in it....ohh the possibilities! And it has soooo much memory...I can put even more software on it...right after I move all my files from the old computer. And the router is in place.

It might take a few days -- I'll let you know. I largely depend on dear husband to do all the installing, and he'll be away with tall son on a college visit this weekend...enough time for me to sit and finish that sweater, which has to be handed over on Monday.