Our Messalonskee “TV” station has been providing so much entertainment in the last few days. We heard these two chirping at each other before we found them – it took a minute or two to figure out they were sitting in the tree at the corner of our shared driveway. And there they sat until my DH (dear hubby) had to chase down our naughty, wandering dog. We’ve seen a “critter” swimming by a couple of times and once it dove with a slap of its tail (a beaver). I’ve heard the owls in the evenings again which tells me they’re coming back out of the deep woods. And until this morning we had a couple of female hummingbirds. There’s been a lot of activity on and around the water with cormorants, gulls, loons, ducks and even a dead pike.
I’ve been at work inside finishing projects and just got back from a Target run to buy wrapping paper and tissue paper so that I can package them up and send them off on Monday. I’ll have one to deliver locally in late November but the rest will be fully checked off my list. Yay!
I’ve spoken about the baby hats and matching thumbless mittens. I’ve shown you the French Macaroon and cabled toddler mittens for my great-nephew’s birthday. And today I blocked my Fiddlehead Mittens and I’m tickled pink with them. They turned out beautifully if I do say so. I knit them with a partial skein of Patagonia organic merino by Juniper Moon Farm and a skein of handspun by Clarion Call Fiber Arts that my daughter gifted to me several years ago. I finally found the perfect project for it. The lining is knitted using a hank of yarn that I must have bought at Mardens years ago it’s Classic Elite Yarns, Escape. The Classic Elite company has closed. Despite the fact that these aren’t “my” colors, I love them.
And once blocked, the stitches have evened out and they are simply stunning. I have knitted a lot of colorwork but I love these the most of any. The lining yarn is so soft (I hated knitting with it!) and the little bit of yak in it will make these mittens so warm and cozy.
I have packed up the little Oorik vest, with another little toddler-sized sweater that I made for a workshop that I taught and a pair of the toddler cabled mittens for my darling granddaughter. I have five more packages to wrap and get ready to ship off on Monday. I’m very pleased with myself. This leaves me the Christmas stocking to knit for my college roommate’s grandson and a pair of socks for my brother-in-love. I have caked up my son’s hat yarn and will likely cake up his fiancees hat yarn, too. I believe these will be my last projects for Christmas 2024 leaving me open to start a couple of sweaters that I am itching to knit.
I have several to choose from and that I already have the yarn in my stash: Big Love in Berroco Pima 100, Lane’s Island in Berroco Remix Light, Ouzo in Patagonia (or Wool and Honey), Poet in Julie Aslin fingering from Knit City Montreal, Cardoon in a yarn (forget it’s name) that I bought on clearance at work, Diggory Venn in Lore and there may be a few others in my stash but this is a good start. Ha! Ha!
Aaaaand, on that note, I’m going to sign off and get cracking on the stocking. Think I can get it done in a couple of days? Yeah, maybe not.
Without fanfare, it’s Labor Day again. We are spending the day quietly at home and I am knitting. But I’ve also been thinking about the perceived value of women’s work … or lack there of.
For the majority of my adult life I was a “stay-at-home mom” which mean that I didn’t have a paying job. As a stay-at-home mom I was up and going as soon as my feet hit the floor every day of the year. Twelve hour days, 7 days a week. I got up at night with hungry infants and sick children. I was the CEO of our home: laundress, cleaning woman, logistics manager, chauffeur, counselor, cheer leader, therapist, chef, travel agent and more. I was responsible for the grocery shopping, cooking three squares a day and event planning. My work didn’t end at 5 o’clock and vacation was simply a change of venue. I moved from New York (2 homes) to Connecticut (5 homes) to Ohio (2 homes) and almost to Illinois when my ex-husband took a new job. Each move meant packing up a home, saying goodbye to friends and family and then unpacking and starting all over again. Making a life isn’t easy for kids or adults. But a home must be created mindfully, a place where children are safe, where they find food, clean clothes and endless support, someone who takes their side in friendship battles, where they learn to trust and learn about relationships. I was responsible for getting it all done.
When the first two kids were in school I became a community volunteer in their classrooms, in the school, school district, and my neighborhood association. Eventually I even went back to work at a “real” job part-time to earn a little extra money to help pay for the kids’ activities, driver’s ed, orthodontics, etc.
I saw a post on Instagram recently that reminded me of the “replacement value” of a stay-at-home mom (without bonuses) which in today’s terms would be over $200,000 a year. Forbes* estimates that the average stay-at-home parent’s value over the course of 20 years is over $1 million or about $4500 monthly.
Over the last 40 years or so I have invested in my skills as a knitter. I took classes, read books, and practiced. I learned from other women and some men. I took “correspondence courses” and became a certified knitting teacher and instructor (two levels of testing). I was paid as a teacher for my expertise to teach others (money means value, right?) I remember a customer who requested an alpaca sweater. She asked me to create a design from a photograph and execute it by hand. When I quoted her a price in the $400 range, she balked and said she could buy one at a store for under $100. Even at the price quoted, my labor would have been $5 an hour. My value as a maker is (or should be) much higher than that.
My rule today is that I won’t knit for someone unless they’re willing to pay fairly for my time. If does feel like $300+ is a lot for a Christmas stocking, for example. But when you consider that the supplies cost $60-75 that leaves $225-240 for me. The time it takes to knit a stocking is 24-30 hours all in making my “wage” less than $9 an hour. The stocking becomes a family heirloom crafted in premium wool, with hand-sewn embellishments, a custom-stitched name, birth year and sometimes sequins, beads and specialty yarns.
So, I guess the moral of the story and what I have learned over time is that we have to value ourselves. We have to know our own worth. I know that I’ve made a difference in the lives of my children, my family, my community – all of them – and I continue to give back even after my children have left my home. I am fully satisfied with my successes and my mistakes because I am who I am today as a result of them all. When I’m asked to babysit for my grand dogs or grandchild, it means that I am trusted. When my son told me a few years ago that I was a great mom, that was my payday! I’m so grateful. I would choose being a stay-at-home mother again because my children will continue to make the world a better place. I will, too.
Today we’re back to my hubby and me. We’ve had the most excellent family time at our house for the last (almost) two weeks. My eldest daughter, Kate, and her husband and our granddaughter arrived last Tuesday and my son arrived Tuesday night with his two doggos. We had lots of fun swimming, playing with bubbles, visiting some fun spots and eating SO much great food. We’re early to bed and early to rise around here and the kids, despite their NYC lives, always fall into it, too. Coffee on the porch, blueberry picking, Belgrade Lakes Farmer’s Market … and did I mention swimming? Sylvie is a little fish! She loved the lake and became more and more confident over the time she was here – even confident enough to “fall” in twice on their last day. Of course we were right there to pull her out but we also have to let her fall so she knows the truth about the lake – it is fun and wonderful but it’s also frightening. (She was not a fan of falling in.) We went on some fun boat rides, saw eagles, counted loons, and we tried (and failed) to outrun a rain storm but arrived home safe, sound and in time to see a full rainbow across the lake.
She has started to put together two-word sentences like “Monk, no!” and “Help, please” and she is singing chunks of her favorite songs. For a kiddo with a slight verbal delay, she’s adding new words every day. We had so much fun watching her pretend with her new (to her) kitchen set and we found out that she will eat anything worthy of feeing to ducks – lettuce and frozen peas were a fun snack. Who knew? Otherwise, she always wants pizza, blueberries, milk and “bubbles” (seltzer).
We ate local corn, the last of the local strawberries, tons of blueberries, we found a farm where we bought local pork and beef (the pork was amazing!), lobster, blueberry buckle, blueberry muffins, mixed berry pie from Winterberry farm, an ice cream cake and a divine Da-Da-Made chocolate cake among others.
And … are you wondering if I did any knitting? I had made what I thought was great progress on my River Cowl. Turns out I missed a very important part of the first sentence in the main section directions where it says to knit so many rounds “as follows”. I read it as knit all the rounds and when I got to the 62nd round it was already as long as it needed to be. Ugh~ I frogged it back to where I pick up the 270 stitches around the cabled edge and started over again. So, I’ve actually moved backwards on my knitting over the last weeks. Ha! Ha! Humbled once more by my knitting.
I’ve not touched my Christmas stocking, my sister’s socks or the dish towel but I am sure that after a few good nights of sleep I will be back to my knitting practice with gusto and maybe even a renewed affection. It’s possible.
For now, this Yaya has a full heart and so many new memories; so many reasons to remember and smile. We are looking forward to our next time together in September at the beach!
Well, it seems that it’s Monday again and I’m on hold with Electrolux/Frigidare because hubby’s 2 year old air conditioner that was a replacement for a 2 year old air conditioner is broken. Does this seem like a pattern to you? I have approximately 19 minutes to wait on hold and since I’m still not feeling particularly energetic, I thought I’d just wait. I hope I can drag half of our laundry to the laundromat today but it may be tomorrow. We’ll see how I do.
Today our gorgeous purple iris is blooming. This is one of my favorite flowers in our garden. Well, actually, they’re all my favorite when they bloom because they all bloom at different times: yellow iris, white iris, peonies, lilacs, forsythia, daisies, echinacea, astilbe, day lilies … you get the drift. I loved seeing my purple iris this morning and today it’s my favorite. Don’t tell the others.
I’ve been doing a little bit of knitting and a lot of thinking about knitting as I recover from Covid. We both got it somewhere in our travels and in the wedding bliss but we’ve both weathered the virus well and haven’t been too terribly ill. Thank goodness! I’ve been without a fever for a couple of days and yesterday the cough subsided for which I’m really grateful. I hope with another couple of days of relative rest, I can return to work later this week.
My second gray Hermione’s sock has turned the heel is well on its way out to the toe. I have to re-check my notes to see how long I knitted it before I started the toe because I’m that close. I do love the texture in this pattern and I love the Coop Knits SocksYeah! yarn. It’s soft and not at all splitty. It makes knitting socks a cinch. I hope my sister will like them. The next pair of socks will be for my brother-in-law. Two great couples will be gifted custom knit socks this fall/winter.
I’ve also be working on my River cowl by Yumiko Alexander. I am really loving working with the Sonder Yarn Company Muse yarn. It feels great in my hands and it’s a tiny bit thick and thin at times which makes it interesting. I think the drape, once blocked, will be gorgeous. I also love the color! The pattern is fun and easy enough to not take up too much of my brain’s band width (which hasn’t been great with my covid brain!) I’ve completed the five repeats of 66 rows of the “hard” work of cables and dropped stitches. There were a couple of places where I forgot to twist edge stitches so that when I dropped the purl stitches and unravelled, it wanted to go too far. Thankfully, I knew this was a problem and stopped the process. Grabbed the stitch and wove it in with a new piece of yarn so it will stay put. And it barely shows. Since this is for me, I’m good with that fix.
I’m measuring the length of the edge of the River cowl at 52 inches long at the five repeats of 66 plus 1-9 for a total of 339 rows so far and the pattern wants 52.5 inches so I have a couple more rows to complete to make the length what they’re asking for and then will begin picking up stitches along the edge to make the body of the cowl. I’m excited about this one! AND I’m so glad I chose not to make the tee with this yarn. I’ll wear this cowl all the time. (I think!)
I’m still on hold with Frigidaire … it’s been 54, almost 55 minutes so far … and so I’ll just write that I am thinking the next project will be a pair of baby sweaters for my granddaughter and great-nephew and a pink Lane’s Island in Remix Light for myself. And, of course, the socks for my brother-in-law. All of the yarns that I will need are in my stash – yay!
We arrived home last night after a week of travel to Denver and Fort Collins and a wedding of my husband’s youngest daughter to the love of her life. The wedding was perfect, the travel was acceptable and relatively trouble free and it was fun to spend some quality time with hubby’s older daughter and her hubby. Bonus was that I got to meet up with a childhood family friend and my former mentee and visited a couple of yarn shops, too!
So, we flew out of Portland, ME to Baltimore where we met up with my hubby’s daughter, Robin, and her husband Evan. Our flight to Denver was only delayed a bit and we arrived our Airbnb in Wheat Ridge, CO by 9:30 or 10pm (with a time change). Wednesday we picked up the dance floor and made a visit to Fancy Tiger Crafts, a co-op with yarn. I may have bought some local yarn and a US7 knitting needle. The project that I had intended to work on while we were away was NOT going to make me happy so I frogged it and found another project to use the yarn in.
Frogged – Staple Tank Top by Joji LocatelliCast on – River by Yumiko Alexander
Before leaving for the wedding venue in Fort Collins, we made goodie bags and the bride’s and bridesmaids’ bouquets and arranged some flowers for the reception. The flowers were all white and they were gorgeous. Amy, the bride, ordered the flowers from Costco. They arrived on Wednesday (for the wedding on Saturday) and I had some serious concern that they wouldn’t hold up all that time but they sure did! Not one rose was droopy on Saturday afternoon! I’d say that was a success.
the bride, her mom and sister getting our mani-pedis onFort Collins
From Denver to Fort Collins we went on Thursday. The wedding party and lots of guests stayed at the Armstrong Hotel. It’s a beautiful hotel, we loved the decor and the sidewalk cafe. We unloaded the bride’s car into their room and we checked in at our Airbnb there. Thursday night we had dinner as the family of the bride at a taco restaurant and it was good.
Matron of Honor and the Bride -to-Be
Friday I had breakfast and visited a yarn shop, Lamb Spun of Colorado, in Fort Collins where I may have bought a little more yarn. We also hunted for a book store to buy me a new book since I finished “Frozen River” by Ariel Lawhon on the airplane. The rehearsal dinner was at a great brewery and the caterers were amazing! We had a delicious dinner and then the rest of the guests were invited to gather at a Welcome Party. A wonderful day and a fantastic dinner.
A Bee! Art in Ft. CollinsBridesmaids’ first lookOur beautiful brideThe Venue … exceptionally gorgeous!!!
The wedding day was perfect and the weather couldn’t have been better. It had been unseasonably warm in Colorado (like in Maine) but Saturday gave us all a break – a little cooler and cloud cover for the ceremony. Another perfect dinner and great party. We even got lifted up in chairs with all of the parents during the Hora!
So, let’s talk about yarn … I had been knitting the Staple Linen Top by Joji Locatelli in Sonder Yarn Company’s Muse in a shade of pink that I really fell in love with up in Montreal. I thought I’d like the tank top but to get gauge I had to get out a bigger needle and it was going to be way too sheer for me to wear without another tank under it. SO … I frogged it and just happened to see a shawl/cowl pattern on Facebook that uses the same weight of yarn and I think it’ll be really beautiful. The new pattern is called River by Yumiko Alexander. It starts with a long narrow piece of cables and dropped stitches (I’m making the largest one and it’s five repeats of 66 rows.) I’m pretty sure that from there I’m going to pick up stitches along one edge and knit the rest of the cowl. I loved the photo in Ravelry with a shawl pin and I have a few that will be fun to wear with this. I’m enjoying the cables and drop stitches … there’s something really fun about dropping stitches and unravelling them all the way down!
Two repeats in … RiverSecond sock
I still have the second Hermione’s sock on the needles. I didn’t do a ton of knitting while we were traveling … there may have been other things to do!
We have started a Christmas in July KAL/CAL at work and I have to pick a pattern and cast on my stocking. I knitted one years ago that I don’t love any more so I want to knit a new one. I also have one more to make for a friend of our family. I’ve been thinking about knitting an Arne & Carlos pattern that they used as an Advent KAL last fall/winter in Patagonia Organic Merino. Or the other option is the pattern that I made for my daughter. It was a kit that I bought. I’d buy Cascade 220 for this one. Both are stranded colorwork and 100% wool because it’s the best for colorwork. Update just as soon as I get into the store!
Well, it’s been another busy week at the Warner homestead! We’ve had a couple of rainy days but this morning we were able to enjoy our coffee on the porch. What a wonderful way to start the day. Coffee, my favorite husband and the BBD.
I’ve been home from my babysitting gig for about a week and a half and I’ve more or less recovered from full-time grandmothering. AND then life started up again. In the past week we’ve both had our eyes examined, I worked a little bit extra and a Saturday when the boss was out of town, had a board meeting, Maine Arts Academy graduation and a couple of committee meetings. (Thank goodness for Google Meets.) We are now looking ahead to our youngest daughter’s wedding at the end of the month and a bit of travel. I’m excited about July when we will just be at home. I know we have at least one visitor for the 4th of July so that’s exciting!
Yesterday “the girls” at work and I dressed our front window at the store. We’ve been planning this for a few weeks and announced to our LYS community an Emotional Support Chicken kal/cal in our weekly newsletter. We’ve had terrific participation and we are so excited by our summer window display! Our customers are excited about it and we are, too! We even have a couple of foxes.
Today I spent the morning running little errands. One of which was to deliver the little signs for the window. This is one of my boss’s favorite lines and we thought it was appropriate for our window. The ESCs have been such a great fad and we capitalized on it. Isn’t it great!? (New from Lake Yardgoods is that four more chickens arrived today! Yay!)
I’ve knitted four of the ESCs myself. One was sent to a friend in Florida and one was delivered to my granddaughter. The other two are in the window for now. The purple ESC who I’ve named Janet is going to be raffled off to one of my donors for the Longest Day Knit-a-thon that I do each year. The longest day is actually on a Thursday when I have to work so I’ll be knitting on the following Saturday. I hope that maybe some of you will donate to the Alzheimer’s Association through my link.
Thank you to those who’ve already given. I’ve raised $450 of my $1600 goal. But we’re getting close to the date and I hope to amp up my fundraising posts soon.
I’ve been in a little bit of a knitting slump. I don’t really want to knit anything that takes any bandwidth. I’ve started a pair of socks ostensibly for my brother-in-law or my sister and I’ve been working on a little sundress for my granddaughter. I need to frog back a bit on the socks because I noticed last night that I’d made a mistake in the pattern an inch or so back. Since these are gifts, I have to make them right – I see the mistakes and I won’t gift them that way. I might be able to forgive the mistake if they were for me … alas they’re not.
Emotional Support Chickens
I did make a couple of chickens and a giant ray which I finished. BUT I just noticed that the ray doesn’t have a tail and I threw away the left-over yarn. I also returned the other balls of yarn to Michael’s because the yarn had changed. The new white yarn was SOOOO messy and was shedding all over me and all over my atelier when I was working on it. I hated it. Hopefully, though, my daughter will like it and she can stuff her corn heating pad into it and use it as a heating pad cover. We’ll see how the reports come back. I may also close up the hole after I stuff it like the one for Sylvie (which lives in her crib!)
Ruby Ray the Mega Ray
I also ran out of the blue yarn so the poor ray is a bit wonky. But that white yarn was a horror to work with. I’ll be finding white ray fuzz in my studio for years.
Sunbeam Kids Dress
The body of the little dress is finished. I have a few icord edges left to knit and I hope to get to them today but I had to run my errands and pick up some veggie plants for the garden before it’s too late. We have a short planting season here in Maine and we’ve been derelict in our planting duties. My sister-in-love had kale and lettuce ready to eat in her garden. We hadn’t even planted any but today we got some in. Swiss Chard, tomatoes, yellow summer squash, broccoli, kale and some radishes are in. We have to soak our pea and bean seeds and get them planted … maybe tomorrow.
The gardens are full of weeds but the flowers are blooming all around. Spring bulbs have faded into lilacs and then into wild roses and peonies and iris. I love watching the gardens come alive again year after year. We may even get a blueberry or two this year – if we can beat the birds and critters.
The King Fishers have returned to the lake as have the Humming Birds, the Great Blue Herons and, of course, the loons … I mean the fishermen. We had two old guys who could have heard me (ahem) sneeze this morning. I watched them from my atelier window as they scrutinized our house and I’m sure they heard me yell down to my hubby, “maybe they’d like an invitation to dinner” because they quickly motored away. They were close enough to cast their lines onto our shore and hook the dog! With hundreds of acres of water, you’d think they’d choose a spot where people aren’t obviously living – our cars are in the yard, the doors are open, the flag is flying … geesh!
Still on the needles where I was when I last wrote about them are WIPS: 1) Fiddlehead Mittens, 2) Oorik Tank Top … I did at least pick up the stitches and knitted the 5 rounds and bound off for the last arm hole. All that remains is to stitch down the steeks and I can block the sweater. 3) Pink Mittens, 4) Three Seasons Cardigan: I’m going to have to frog this and start it again when I’m ready. My tension is bound to have changed since I bound this on over a year ago. I have done a tiny bit of hand stitching; started a new block for the love note quilt – a picture of our old house here on the lake before we rebuilt.
All I want to do it knit little things. I have yarn for two French Macaroon sweaters by Purl Soho for Sylvie and her friend Isaac. Mitten yarn was purchased for Sylvie and cousin Noah. Dish Towel yarn is in the house for a pair of Farmhouse Dishtowels by Purl Soho (they have some terrific free patterns!) Little things, boring things, things that don’t take a lot of thought or effort because I’m not there and it’s okay.
Today I mixed up some natural ingredients that I hope will work as ant repellant. I am allergic to everything (allergies may be part of what’s going on with me because my system is overwhelmed) and we can’t use any chemicals in our house. This ant repellant is all natural with witch hazel, water, castille soap and essential oils. I’ve had an infestation in my atelier and it’s bugging me (ha! ha! funny!) I had to have a full on cleaning session before heading to work yesterday because they were everywhere – turns out they were in my bag of cough drops the little buggers. I vacuumed, washed the floors and walls and my desk, tossed anything with ants in it and now I sprayed. Crossing my fingers they’re gone forever.
Ant Repellant – Mix in an 8oz. glass spray bottle:
One of my college friends on social media said that she always left her grandkids with an empty tank and a full heart and I can tell you that is exactly how I feel after this week. I got home last night from Marblehead and five days of what I’m calling “grandmothering” (because babysitting just doesn’t cut it.) My daughter had a gig with the Boston Pops on Wednesday and Thursday evenings and rehearsals started Monday afternoon. We might have been in a hotel room for the week but we asked my brother and sister-in-love if we could come stay with them and they enthusiastically agreed. So we spent four nights with them in their house and we all had a blast!!! My granddaughter is a little 19 month old spitfire with a pleasant, upbeat, happy personality. She’s at that age where she’s challenging the boundaries and stinking independent and what a joy she is to be around. She’s also exhausting!
She quickly warmed up to the big dogs and was sharing a dog bed and Cheerios with Dory in her bed by the time our first day was through. She loved the garden, found puddles to splash in and loved picking and eating the kale and peekaboo. It got warm enough for the baby pool to get filled up but she liked sitting in it just as well (almost) and throwing the ball for Buck. Auntie bought a huge wonderful bubble machine and bubble “guns” and they were a huge hit with Sylvie and her cousin, Noah, who we had several play dates with. Mama visited on Thursday for a few hours and went out in the rain to blow bubbles and splash in the puddles. The lights on the garden fence and the neighbors and their dogs were another hit. We went to the playground, the Muffin Shop, the grocery store, the book store and the toy store – all via stroller. We didn’t get in the car once. And by the time I got her into bed in the evening, I was unsure whether this body of mine would make it up or down the stairs once more. Ha! Ha!
My family embraced this little girl like they do everything, with love and caring and we all made some really great memories together. And how can you not laugh when this little peanut turns a corner and sees you and smiles, waves her little hand at you and says, “hi!” She is so happy to see you every time.
Hermione’s Everyday Socks (yes, again!) – As of bedtime last night
Needless to say, I did very little knitting. I’ve started a pair of sock for my brother-in-love and I knitted exactly 21 rounds of 2×2 rib on the first sock. That has to be the least that I’ve knitted in a decade. Last night I got another inch or two knitted and the socks will be lovely. And when 9 pm arrived, this little YaYa took herself to bed and slept really well. I’ll do the same tonight and hopefully I’ll be feeling a little less exhaustion. I was very proud of my body that ached at the end of the day but was feeling pretty good again the next morning. Lifting and carrying that little 20+ pound body up and down flights of stairs and chasing her around is more action than I’ve seen since my kids were little.
Tonight we are going out for dinner to celebrate my husband’s birthday. We love being home and go out very seldom … less seldom on the weekend! But this special occasion is a good reason to celebrate in a different way. He’s chosen Front & Main at the new boutique hotel in Waterville as our spot. Tomorrow I’m attending Maine Arts Academy’s graduation ceremony and celebrating our newest graduates. What a privilege it is to volunteer my time for the school! Who knew that when I got older I’d have such a full and meaningful life?! I’m so grateful every day.
After a run of cloudy, gray days, this morning was stunningly beautiful. We had to drop my car off to get an oil change first thing this morning but after we got back, we had a cup of coffee and breakfast on the porch. Hubby was reading in the sunshine and I grabbed my crochet hook and some yarn to start yet another project that I’ve been thinking about. Castonitis is real!
At one point I looked up and the Canada Goose Family was passing by and the goslings have already gotten much bigger. We have some huge Snapping Turtles and Bald Eagles, all of whom would make a meal of a little goose. We always cross our fingers for the new babies around the lake.
AND yesterday I got so many little things checked off my list! My college roommate sent me some knits that needed repair. They’ve been sitting on the extra chair in my studio for a while now and I’ve managed to put them out of my mind but yesterday, I pulled a single crochet round off of her favorite (ugly) hat and added a new one and then blocked the hat. It’s drying as I type. She also sent me an Aran sweater that had some wear at the elbow and the folded neckline was coming apart. She’d said that she was ok with my using some visible mending and I did. The elbow will live for another few years and the neckline is repaired and the sweater has been washed and it’s drying with the hat.
I hadn’t been able to find my crochet hooks bag so I decided to clean out the cabinet that holds my “uncommitted” yarns. I emptied everything out because I also wanted to look at the collection of Jamieson & Smith 2-ply jumper weight yarn that I have for two different projects: a cowl that Goodrun Johnston is teaching in season 9 of Knits Stars AND I want to knit a clock face Yoke O’Clock. I was thinking I needed to buy a few colors of fingering weight Shetland wool but I have plenty already in my stash! I’ve now cleaned up and organized the cabinet again and put all of the like yarns in plastic bags to make finding it a wee bit easier. I hope.
DIS organizedOrganized
I also have a sweater that I knitted for a young woman who I mentored when she was 10. She’s quite a bit older now and is about to have her third baby boy. I made her a Zip Up the Back baby sweater – pattern is Zip Up a Baby Sweater by Marge Webster. I knitted it in Cascade Pacific Prints in greens. This is a great pattern to knit and a wonderful baby sweater. What’s not so great is that I have to hand-sew a zipper into it which is not my favorite activity. But yesterday I got it done and the sweater is blocked, too. (I was shocked that a mass-manufactured yarn bled so much. The water was green!)
Zip Up a Baby Sweater
That’s three finished objects in one day! Yay, me! I feel lighter already. And that brings me back to the morning today – I cast on a Ruby the Mega Ray. It’s a crochet pattern that my daughter sent to me for my granddaughter and I made it relatively quickly. She suggested that I make another one for her sister and “how cool would it be if you could put one of those corn things inside” … corn things are the microwavable bags that are so wonderful on sore muscles. I’ve made a lot of them over the years. The last bunch for the kids was made after they all got sore muscles after a ski trip up here. So, I’m going to try to adapt a crochet pattern … try, I will. I have a sort-of-plan and if it doesn’t work out, I’ll go back and make the ray according to the pattern. Crossing my fingers my plan works because it sure would be cool!
Pink Sock progress
I’m still making progress on my pink socks. The heel and gusset are finished and I’m working my way down the foot. And I’m also working away on the little pink cotton dress for Sylvie. It’s not a difficult pattern but it’s a lot of purling. If I were to make it again, I’d make it inside out so that there was a lot of knitting …
I’ve cast on another Emotional Support Chicken, too. I had a ball of wool that I found deep in my stash and started the tail in that and then changed to a ball of violet-ish wool that was given to me. I think she’ll have some more of the first yarn in her as stripes around her neck and that should leave me enough yarn to make yet another chicken. Ha! Ha! I’m hooked. They don’t take a ton of time or effort and I am enjoying the process of knitting them. We’ve decided that we’re going to have a chicken coop in the store window this summer and we’ve asked our customers to make Emotional Support Chickens and loan them to us for the window. We’re hearing that it’s a fun idea and hope participation will be strong.
I didn’t get out this morning to take a photograph. Not sure why but I didn’t so here’s a photo from yesterday that seems appropriate for today. Mothers/’s/s’ Day. Maine has been experiencing the Aurora Borealis storm that much of the northern part of the country has been but we’ve missed it at our house … the first night because we were too tired to stay up late and last night because of thick cloud cover. Maybe tonight it’ll happen for us?
Today is Mother’s Day (singular) in the USA. A day to honor our mothers when we should be honoring them every day since they gave us life. But I learned something today from Heather Cox Richardson about the origin of Mothers’ Day. Professor Richardson says that Mothers’ Day (plural)
… “actually started in the 1870s, when the sheer enormity of the death caused by the Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War convinced writer and reformer Julia Ward Howe that women must take control of politics from the men who had permitted such carnage. Mothers’ Day was not designed to encourage people to be nice to their mothers. It was part of women’s effort to gain power to change society.”
I’ve been receiving HCR’s Letters From an American since its inception and have learned a lot about the history of our country and how what’s happening today fits or doesn’t. Today’s post talks about Julia Ward Howe, who wrote the Battle Hymn of the Republic and who hoped after the Civil War to have women keep their new role as participants in national affairs. But the 14th Amendment established Black men as citizens and didn’t specifically mention women. Howe had an abusive husband and if she left him, her children would belong to him. Her activism lead her to believe that mothers were the only way to stop war; wrote an Appeal to Womanhood Throughout the World, organized a Woman’s Peace Movement and Mothers’ Day events to encourage women to speak up and speak out because she realized that a woman’s life didn’t have to revolve around a man, that they should share human rights and responsibilities equally with men. A fitting reminder today that women must make their voices heard and they must have the same rights as men.
I thought I’d update you all on my knitting WIPs. They only seem to be growing and not much is being finished. I seem to have a case of castonitis. (For those non-knitters, it’s when you start a bunch of projects which in knitting is called casting on.) I have cast on another Emotional Support Chicken and a sweater gift for a sweet mother-to-be and I have two more sweaters for little people that I want to knit and bought the yarn for because I don’t have the right yarn … of course.
Emotional Support Chicken(s)
I have two FOs. One is a bit older than the other but I’m showing them side by side for the size difference. On the left is my worsted weight ESC and on the right is the DK weight ESC. The one on the right will be going to my granddaughter. I will likely be knitting another one because we’re doing a window display for the summer … a chicken coop. Ha! Ha! We’ve asked our customers to participate in a Chicken-along, we stole the idea from Franklin Habit who is doing the same, and we’ve asked to borrow the chickens for our window. I hope we’ll collect a few! This pattern is so much fun to knit and there’s an equally charming crochet pattern. I made the first one just for fun and then made a second one who’s gone to live in Florida with a dear friend and the third I made with one 50g ball of Plymouth Dream Baby Paintbox. I used the same pattern as the worsted weight chicken and a US3 knitting needle. I love her!
Remaining on my needles, however, there are several active and several passive WIPs. The active ones, ones that I will actually pick up and work on over the last couple of weeks are coming first.
In the order in which they appear … My Jelly Roll Blanket is half-way up (down?) the third strip. I was working on it while on a zoom meeting with my friends from college on Friday night and did something screwy and had to frog a few rows, and then a few more, reknit a few, frog a few … not sure why I couldn’t get the stitches back on the needles successfully, but there you go. Today I was watching an Arne & Carlos YouTube video and got it fixed and then continued knitting almost to where I had originally made the mistake. I think I’m going to like this crazy patchwork-y scrap buster!
A new cast on. I have a young woman in my life who I mentored when we both lived in Florida and she was a student at my local school. I fell in love with her as a ten-year-old and love her still today as a young woman and soon a mother of three boys. I cast on this sweater to send to baby #3 who is due in a few weeks. I’ll have to head to Target or somewhere to find a little something to send to the big brothers, too. The sweater is an oldie but a goodie – it was in a magazine in 1982 and is out of print but we have a very poor copy of the pattern at work and I’ve used it a few times. I’ve chosen Cascade’s washable/dry-able acrylic and wool blend Pacific Print to knit the Zip Up A Baby Sweater. Since the yarn is multi-colored, I decided to do the plain front and sleeves rather than the cabled one. The yarn is busy enough!
My second pair of Hermione’s Everyday socks are coming along slowly. I finished the first sock and have started the second. This yarn was deeply stashed ages ago but it was calling my name. I love this pattern and even mentioned it to a customer at the store on Thursday who was going to knit her first pair of socks. (I didn’t suggest it as her first pair. I suggested she use the Yankee Knitter sock pattern for her first pair and when she’s ready, she can branch out.) Anyway, the socks travel with me to work and when we’re out and about.
I’m knitting a little cotton sundress for Sylvie. I couldn’t resist this dress when I saw the pattern and I am loving it. The pattern is Sunbeam Kids Dress (on Ravelry) and I’m making slow but sure progress. It’s still too cold for Sylvie to wear it so I’m ok here. I suspect she won’t be wearing it for a while since our weather has been so bizarre. I am hearing rumbles that we might get snow next week? Are you kidding me?
Oorik Tank Top – arm hole #2
The Oorik Tank Top (vest) has been languishing in the project bag. I have exactly one sleeve opening to finish and I haven’t touched it. I think it would take me less than an hour to pick up the stitches around the steek and knit a few rounds of ribbing but I haven’t done it. No reason, no excuses. I’d like to say that I will finish it this week but I’m not a liar. Ha! Ha!
And last but not least, the Fiddlehead Mittens. I’ve started the first lining and have reached the thumb gusset but I’m more interested in knitting baby sweaters than knitting mitten linings apparently. So it goes. They’ll get done one of these days. I’m working on keeping my sanity and not fretting about not finishing things. It’s all good.
I’ve still got the pink mittens and Three Seasons Cardigan in “time out” and they’re not really even on my radar right now. My knitting mojo has been a bit “off” and I’m trying to just go with the flow and knit what speaks to me. There’s a time for everything in its time.
We celebrated Mother’s Day here with a trip to our favorite Longfellow’s Garden Center in Manchester, Maine. We bought some new compost and soil for the new raised garden bed and we bought flowers to fill the window box and the bee pot in the door yard.
The term door yard is used a lot here in Maine and it helps me because we two main doors in our house – one at the lake side of the house that leads to the porch and the other at the back of the house that we go in and out of from the driveway and yard. We aren’t sure which is really our “front” or “back” door so I’ve decided to use the “door yard” for the (technically) back door which is the main entrance door that would typically be termed the “front” door. It’s confusing. But they’re pretty and cheerful now and let’s hope the weather stays reasonably warm because some of them need to be hardened off and some are already. If it decides to snow, I’ll pull them in. Let’s hope it doesn’t snow.
Today isn’t the most beautiful that we’ve had this week but I am not going to work today and I am so glad to have a day to recharge my batteries. I hope that a day at home will also help me with my knitting mojo. I have several projects that I really “want” to finish but I can’t bring myself to actually do it … so, instead, I cast on a new project and have something else that remains unfinished. AND as the UFOs collect on my ottoman or “projects-in-waiting” cabinet, I get more overwhelmed. It’s kind of like when the house is a mess or my desk is disorganized. I really need a day or two or three to catch up with my messes and this week may allow me to do some of that!
Anyway, I really wanted to show you around the house because the spring bulbs have sprung and they bring me so much joy! You can see the Forsythia bush out by our boathouse is in full bloom this year and our garlic is shooting up through the hay, too. We (and when I say “we”, I mean the royal we) have filled our third raised garden bed with soil and just have to add a bit of peat moss and some compost and it’ll be ready to plant with veggies. We can’t really plant until after Labor Day weekend but we may try some cold-loving lettuce seeds.
We have had a couple of gloriously beautiful sunrises this week that I also want to show you. (They’re on my Instagram page but if you’re not on Instagram … well, you get the idea!)
The lilac bushes are leafing out and soon enough we’ll see the buds beginning to form. Lilacs are one of my favorites for sure. Another favorite is my Bleeding Heart. I have two but the first one is the most special. We had a HUGE one at the old house but when the house fell, it fell on and killed my first Bleeding Heart. So, when we started planting again, one of the first plants to go in, in almost the exact same place, was this Bleeding Heart. You can almost watch it grow at this time of year.
Every year we’ve been adding bulbs around the yard. Not a ton of them, just a few. Last year we added a bag of daffodils and a bag of tulips. I’ve never lived anywhere where I’ve successfully grown tulips … deer love them and some soil doesn’t love them. Regardless, they seem to be happy to grow here. We took out a dead Hydrangea last fall and planted these bulbs and they’re making me very happy!
Oh, what a beautiful morning! My husband took this photo while I was sleeping but you can see that the color of the sky was absolutely stunning. What we seem to have missed that morning was the rainbow in the opposite direction. Mother Nature was really showing off this week.
Here’s another morning and another photo by my hubby. He’s the “real” photographer in the family but I take more photos and am, perhaps, less artistic more the chronicler. Is that a word? Now, all we need is a little bit of warmer air so we can sit on the porch!
Queen Bee Knits 