Montgomery Woods Visit

Sunday we made our some-what annual Spring visit to Montgomery Woods State Park. After the recent rains the creeks were wonderfully full and lots of wild flowers were out.

There's something so soothing about a visit to the redwoods.

Evan's First Easter

Suddenly Evan is Mr. Personality.

Wearing matching gray shirts with Daddy. We celebrated DH's birthday Saturday and the Lord's resurrection Sunday. It was a great visit.

In My Yard

Photos by Frank Roberts

Nap Attack

I got a gently used air mattress recently and wanted to find out if it had any leaks. I had help.

Fiber Find

Yesterday I helped our church youth group set up their annual yard sale. O.M.Gosh. I found a cache of vintage yarn remnants that included a dozen balls of crème colored goodness. So soft and shiny!

I researched Reynolds Sonata on Google and the trademark expired in 1985. (!) I was looking for fiber content and washability. A search of Ravelry’s yarn db shows it’s 54% linen, 46% cotton. Just right for summer knitting.

Buttons Make the Statement

This is our grandson's first Easter. I'm looking forward to the family visit and a special dinner honoring DH's birthday and the resurrection of our Lord. I put the finishing touches on this cardigan for Evan. 

So I got out the button box to choose buttons, a vintage Whitman's tin. I'm such a sucker for collectible tins.

My Mom taught me to save buttons and I have all my life. When a shirt or blouse wore out, we'd remove the buttons before throwing it away. But that adds up over time. This is about a fourth of the collection.
 

 

I've often thought that shoes really define an outfit, but buttons also make a statement.

 

These are shell buttons and pick up the colors of the variegated yarn really nicely.

Well then I got drawn into grouping and sorting the buttons. It was as absorbing as working a jigsaw puzzle; turn each piece over, see if you can find a match, remember color, shade and shape.

 

This is only part of what I grouped. I got completely spread out on the kitchen table using jelly roll pans and cookie sheets, it went on for days! But eventually I decided enough was enough and it was time to put it away and do something else. When I was little, Mom showed me how to use a needle and thread to group the buttons on string and tie them into a bundle; but that's slow going.

 

So I used these mini ziplock bags instead.

A fun rainy day activity.

To-do List

These days I have mental tension to one degree or another, like a constant companion I can't entirely shake. I practice calm, deep breathing and letting go, it minimizes the dizziness and ringing in my ears. I've thought about the fact I used to be an administrative assistant for as many as six people at a time at the County Office of Education; organizing their calendars, travel schedules, billing, print jobs, tracking details, etc, etc, etc. If it makes me crazy, I don't want to do it anymore.

So today I figured I'd go into town and run 'a few errands', but I wasn't going to make a list, because nothing had to get done.

 

I started at the local Post Office, dropped off Netflix, mailed a get well card and bought stamps for bill paying.

Then I drove to town and went to the Sheriff’s office to dispose of expired prescription medications. The nice lady at the counter told me I was at the Correction Facility and I needed to go two driveways down to the Administration office. Finally found it, the address facing the street was obscured by bushes.

Next I went to the a local gift shop to exchange my ceramic teapot because it’s developed fine cracks throughout and leaks tea onto the counter. I’ve had it almost a year. She did exchange it, but said whatever warranty it had was long ago expired. Perhaps, but a teapot shouldn’t leak!

I stopped in at Lucky’s grocery store, which I don’t know the lay out of, found the restroom, then got buns for dinner – pulled pork sandwiches.

I went to the Credit Union and paid our monthly credit card statement from savings and withdrew cash from checking, noted the transaction in the bank book.

I decided to go to the Transfer Station (aka: the dump) next and then Beverly’s Crafts for new knitting needles, since Beverly’s was going to feel fun after all these errands.
I wanted disposing of my e-waste to feel like this: 

Instead it was like this:

E-waste represents 2% of America's trash in landfills, but it equals 70% of overall toxic waste.

It wasn’t hard, or embarrassing, though I had to do my own lifting and unloading. But I wasn't happy or comfortable as I hurked two dead microwaves, two CRT monitors and a stereo receiver into the pile. I decided I felt guilty. We are bombarded with messages about ‘keeping it out of the landfill’. I told myself the transfer station processes stuff and it’s better than sitting in the bushes somewhere! But I don’t really know where old microwaves and monitors go to die. – And seeing all that TRASH is just depressing, we are such a throw away society.

By then it was 11:45 so I stopped for a sandwich. Man did I need that. Felt better afterward, that and 12 ozs of water.

Then at Beverly’s, bought size 10 knitting needles for a new project and used this month’s 40% off coupon. Yay! I was so ready to head home. Sometimes running errands feels like a job in itself.

Once home I corralled the items we’re donating to the annual church yard sale; an easy chair, sub-woofer, vinyl suitcase, quartz heater, and Sony large screen TV; and called the church to suggest Ralph bring someone to help him load the truck. Then I pulled my DS2's 13 year old bike out of the shed, hauled it around front, hosed it off and wiped it down. Then I gave the vinyl seat and handle grips a once over with a light lubricate. It looks 100% better. 

The men from the church just came and hauled all that stuff away. I think I need a nap.

Repurposing

When DS1 said his hands got cold trying to type in his office, I volunteered to fashion fingerless mitts for him. I say fashion rather than knit because I wanted to get them to him before next winter.

I took apart this thrifted merino wool sweater.

Then I measured his arm to where he wanted the cuff to come and unraveled the sleeve from the top down to two inches below that point 11" (13" finished). Then I picked up the stitches and knit 2 x 2 ribbing for two inches. I bound off in 2 x 2 on needles one size larger than I used for the ribbing to make it stretchy.

Next I created an opening in the sleeve seam for the thumb and reinforced it above and below the opening. 

When I tried them on they were a little loose in the wrist and palm, so I turned them wrong side out and took in the seam allowance using a zigzag stitch on my sewing machine.

Beautiful

It's FINALLY been raining - running off the eaves, filling the ditches and puddling the driveway - rain. We usually get the bulk of our rain in December, January and February, but those months were sunny and warm. Now that the flower bulbs and fruit trees are in bloom it starts raining, and HARD!

Ceanothus Silk moth

Found this guy on our front step when I got home from town today. I don’t think he’d been emerged for very long, his wings were a little wrinkle-y and he sat and shuddered a lot. The thing was the size of a small bird! He hung around long enough for me to grab the camera, swap lenses and take this picture. Then he flopped away into the wet grass, out in the pouring rain. I wonder if he's going to be able to dry out like he needs to in this weather.

Fabric In, Fabric Out

I try to keep the fabric stash limited to the storage in my sewing room. I'm pretty maxed out at this point so I've promised myself when I bring in something new, I TRY to take something out. 

I went through the existing stash and pulled out 10-15 yards I was willing to part with. Either I'd used them a half a dozen times or knew I would never use them for whatever reason. I donated them to the local 4-H. They're participating in the One Million Pillowcase Challenge. What a great way to get the kids involved in community service AND learn how to sew.

For more information about contributing to the One Million Pillowcase Challenge, visit their website here.

Quilter's Estate Sale

I was up early that Saturday and arrived well before 9:00. Doors were already open and the place had a happy feeding frenzy of quilters busily browsing the large piles of fabric and UFOs on the tables. It felt like old home week because I saw quilting friends I hadn't seen in a couple of years. We all acted relaxed and casual as we chatted and browsed and put selections in our bags, but there was an unspoken excitement, a silent hyperventilating going on in that room.

This was a lifetime of collected fabric, tools, totes, notions, books, patterns and more. I focused on background prints and greens for the Star Struck Again quilt. More than once you could hear quilters laugh and say, "This looks remarkably like my stash at home." And it was true for me too. The fabrics were those wonderful calicoes and small prints popular in the late 1980s and 90, the same era most of my fabric is from.

Of course I sorted by color and prewashed everything. The wash water for the green load was so dark I could've used it as a dye bath.

I was browsing the piles and piles of projects half started; full-sized quilts, dolls, teddy bears, patchwork clothing, wall hangings, embroidered pillowcases, tea towels, bibs, and more quilts, when the woman who had put the sale together came over and said to a few of us at the table, "I'm glad you-all can use this stuff. I figured you'd know what to do with it. It was my mother's and I don't have a clue."

Underneath a table full of navy blues and  crisp greens I spied a storage box full of solids. It probably didn't look like much to a someone who doesn't quilt, but it was full of quality white and natural muslin as well as solid butter yellow, pale green and soft pink. I got 20 yards of quality natural muslin, the kind that's hard to find these days.

I overheard several conversations about our stashes at home. One woman said, "Yeah, my kids've made me promise to get rid of mine before I die. They don't want to deal with it." When I checked out, the cashier was the granddaughter. She said, "That was Gran, she was real good at starting stuff..."

When I got home I estimated how much I had by weighing one yard of fabric, then weighing all the fabric and dividing by the weight of the one yard. Sixty-four yards. Even if I bought it for 8.00/yd at a store today that equals over 500 dollars.

March Temps

The wood stove is going and the house is cozy. I'm sipping tea, eating a cinnamon scone and blogging. Life is good.

Star Struck Again

I'm still home on disability and I still feel dizzy and motion-sick most mornings. Despite that I've been trying to get back to quilting, but the ability to choose colors intuitively seems to elude me. I started another Star Struck quilt last December, but it's been really slow going. I decided not to worry about how long it's taking me and use it to work my way back to quilting. Maybe when it's finished I'll look back on it as my recovery quilt.

I used to be able to pull fabrics for the color palette without a lot of thought. But this palette has seen a lot of trial and error. Turns out this green has too much black in it, this background makes the one next to it look dinghy, or is too busy, and this calico is so dated I'd be embarrassed to use it... so I've given myself permission not to use some of the prints I originally cut out and to discard pieced blocks that won't work. I'm ignoring the nagging feeling that I'm being wasteful and that I'm not as efficient as I used to be. *shrug* I feel like a beginner quilter again, trying to learn color confidence.

 

December

January

 

February/March

 I took out a lot of the print backgrounds and phased in more neutrals. It's made the green stars stand out more and I like it better.

 

Here's the EQ draft. It's intended for my car, so there's no time frame. Good thing!

Water Bottle Cozy

I wanted to practice stripes in the round and found this cute pattern on Ravelry.

 

Some knitters choose this type of project because they want to use up bits of left over yarn. In my case I actually went shopping for remnants and found several fun colors of wool at Legacy Craft Thrift.

I needed one more bright color so I over dyed this gray-blue.

While searching YouTube for a video to remind me how to join knitting in the round I accidentally discovered there's a way to create a 'jogless join'. Instead of the color jogging up a row at the change point, they appear to be in line.

I studied those and experimented with different methods. It worked!

 

It keeps the water cooler and I love how it feels in my hand.