Tag Archives: Heidi Parkes

Progress All Around

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Sunday, August 20, 2023

This morning I was thinking and I feel like I’m finally feeling more like myself. The last round of Covid that I had in April (after the round I had the week before that got me “stuck” in New York City) must have affected me more than I had thought. I thought it was a mild case but it left me with some pretty severe fatigue. It seems like that fatigue is finally lifting and I am able to DO more than I have been able to do BUT I also realize that I have limitations and I need to listen to my body and quit when I am ahead.

We decided that we had to hit a few of our around-the-house chores this morning before we give in and do something more fun. I’ve been thinking about cleaning some of the more disgustingly dirty screens in our bedroom windows and in the upstairs bath. I’m happy to report that the inside part of this chore is done. The outside chore will be waiting until next spring when N is (hopefully) fully healed and has his full balance back after his hip replacement surgery. It’s been four months now and he’s made (is making) lots of progress but he overdid this week and he was hurting yesterday … enough that he got his cane out again. He’s out sanding and cleaning/refinishing our teak dining set that we have moved onto the front porch. It’s a little bit big for the porch but we are finding we like using it out there and we will probably like it even more in the early fall.

I’ve been knitting and sewing this week. I’m aiming to hand-sew something every day in order to have it become a daily habit. I’m working on a “Love Note Quilt” inspired by Heidi Parkes. I have been taking her class on Creative Bug and I really like the artistic quality of her quilts. They’re in no way traditional pieced quilts but they’re each unique and I find I am liking having the creative license to stitch what I want. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to completely quit the traditional quilting yet.

I’ve stitched another needle case. I find these little projects very fulfilling and I have an idea about what I will do with the ones I make. I will continue to show you the ones I make but I’m not going to tell you my plan. Haha. (*evil grin and hand-ringing) The most recent one used this cute vintage-y cowboy fabric and I stitched it with red floss which I think looks really cute. I didn’t applique another piece on it because I really wanted to focus on the cute little cowboys.

I’m working on a stuffed toy for my granddaughter for her birthday. She’ll be one year old in just a few short months and I’d better get moving because life is bound to get busy. My daughter, her mother, loved the Very Hungry Caterpillar book and I’m knitting a caterpillar and a sweater for S. The caterpillar pattern is free on Ravelry and you get what you pay for with this pattern. It’s not very well written and I could think of several ways that I would change it if I was to knit it again. I may actually pull out the ends and Kitchener stitch the head to the body rather than finishing it as the pattern suggests. I’ll update my project page with whatever I decide.

I knitted the little shells top for my granddaughter. This was my daughter’s idea. She asked me to knit a top to go with the mermaid tail that I made for S when she was born. Her mom wants to take some photos at the beach and we can’t have a topless mermaid, now can we!? Yaya to the rescue! I hope that I made the top so it’ll fit but I’ll bring my tools to the beach in case we need to make any adjustments. Photos will be coming soon.

I have also knitted another chemo cap for a gift for a friend who just announced that she has cancer. I wish I could do more but this is what knitters do when they can’t do more. And if she doesn’t lose her hair, she can gift it to someone who will. Passing on the good will and the love and healing wishes in every stitch.

Last but not least, I’ve pulled my Favorite Pullover for Women out of time out and have started to make some real progress on the yoke. This sweater may not even fit me. The sizes were a little bit too close to zero ease for my liking but if I add a few stitches to the under arms when I cast on after the yoke, I think I can make it work. It’s a lot of work to be sure, especially if I don’t know it’s going to fit. I have a colorwork sweater that I love the fit of and I’ll be measuring this one against that one when I get the yoke complete and before I go further. The good news is that I am wrapping up another WIP (work in progress, Muffin.) This design is only found in a book called Norwegian Knitting Designs, 90 Years Later. I’m knitting it with Norwegian wool that I bought from Knitography Farm after taking several of her classes online.

chemo about all we’ve been up to on the lake. It’s been a string of several lovely late-summer days. The lake is getting quieter as the summer people head back home to get the school year started. Maine Arts Academy, on whose board I serve, welcomes teachers and staff back tomorrow and the kids come the following week. We start this year in our new building in Augusta and we are all so excited to be independent and free to have activities after school, etc. which we couldn’t do before. We are also developing some wonderful partnership with Augusta Arts and civic groups. I’m so proud of our school!

I’ve got zucchini to grate. I’m making fritters this afternoon.

Gone knitting.

More FOs … not all knits!

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Thursday, August 10, 2023

We started our day today with coffee on the porch but it was too warm for a bathrobe. We must be heading into a few days of summer heat again. It’s all good. We have thoroughly enjoyed the cooler mornings over the past few weeks.

I’ve finished a few more little things and wanted to share them with you. I’ve been taking classes from Creative Bug – they had a special deal going with 60 days free to try it out – and I’ve taken a couple of Cal Patch’s classes and a couple of Heidi Parkes’ classes and they’re all sewing classes. While I was watching Heidi’s class on making a needle case, I was inspired to actually sew it myself right then. I went to my fabric stash and found two favorite fabrics – a lobster print and a hummingbird print – both from the days when I was making fabric masks for the family. I made a lot of masks. I appliquéd the little hummingbird patch onto the lobster fabric and then bought a piece of felt to sandwich-ish in the fabric to make the little needle case. I’ve learned a lot about needles, stitching, hand-work and sewing from these classes and while my FOs aren’t big, they’re mighty. They mark a stepping off point for me and a new potential passion, too.

Outside
Inside
Finished!

My second FO is also a sewing project. I have had this little panel since attending the quilt show in Augusta, ME probably 10 years ago. I bought a few similar panels and remember making one as a gift somewhere along the line, but this one has been sitting in my cupboard for almost (or maybe more than) a decade. It was time!

This is a fabric (much edited) version of the little golden book, The Tawny Scrawny Lion. I wasn’t familiar with the book but I love the idea of little books without words. The reader can make up the story to go along with the illustrations (or the reader can Google the book and tell the same story.) Regardless, this little book will be winging its way to New York City to a very special little girl who is so deeply loved by her Yaya! I know that she’ll love this little book and she won’t rip the pages.

Pom Pom Socklets by Purl Soho

Last but certainly not least, a pair of “peds” as we knew them back in the day … but these aren’t the sedate peds of my past. I decided to knit up some fun, bright, color-blocked shorties and this is the first pair for my daughter, Kate. I decided to make them all crazy and different. The only thing missing from these finished socks are the pompoms that will be attached at the back of the heel. Just like my mom did in my childhood days … and I did, too. I’ve got several more pairs to knit. My thought is to make a pair for all of the “girls” at our family beach gathering in September. Think I can do it? Three more pairs before September 5? Time will tell. This is a free Purl Soho pattern that I used to make the U of F socklets for my favorite graduating (graduated) senior that I cared for when I was a school nurse. The kids used to ask me to knit them socks when they came into my clinic and my answer was always, “no!” (and emphatic no to be sure!) But this kiddo was different and I’ve stayed in touch with her family and when she graduated, I knew just what to send her for a gift (and a gift certificate to the U of F campus store.)

My sweetie and I took a brief road trip to the coast yesterday because I needed to get some sewing supplies. I thought my time at Fiddleheads would be brief but I was looking at the fabric store with new eyes – the eyes of a garment sewer. It was exciting and intimidating. There is so much to learn about garment-worthy fabrics. I’ve learned that quilting cottons are not always a good garment fabric because they don’t have the same drape. But I managed to do some damage and bought a bit of a cotton lawn and a pattern to make some harem pants for my Sylvie. And I also bought some hand-sewing needles and wool felt to make more needle cases. They’re fun and quick. I found a basket of bolt end cuts of fabric and they had two pieces of linen that I had to take home with me, too. One is a 3-yard cut of a khaki colored linen that is enough for a dress, I think. The other was only a bit over a yard of fabric but it’ll make half a shirt or a pieced shirt … time will tell. I feel so fancy talking sewing!

Gone knitting.