(such a) Fickle Stitcher

Years ago, perhaps even before my sons were born, my FIL gave me a punchneedle kit for Christmas. I think he bought it at a kiosk in the mall. I was gracious, but not interested and put it away. I thought I had given it to my DSD, but she doesn’t remember it. Anyway . . .

When I went to The P is for Primitive (Canton) last fall for a rughooking class, I saw lots of cute little punchneedle items; also when I was in the stitching shops in Asheville (NC) there were lots of PN kits. So, it really wasn’t surprising that when we had a bit of our TVR education grant left over from Rhonda’s embellishment & Barbara’s crewel workshops, punchneedle was a choice that fit the bill — literally!

Last Saturday our EGA chapter got together at our regular meeting place, the Flowood library, not on our regular chapter meeting day and Rissa got us started, and once we all got going, she spent the afternoon giving us hints and technique tricks.  We all had a loverly day chatting and laughing and learning something new!

Tonight, I finished my “practice” piece. It was to have been only the three leaves on the blue background . . . but, . . . DH piped up with, “It’s poison ivy!” After he left the room, I decided I would add the white berries to make it so and surprise him.

 

I’ve placed an order with PunchneedleMarketplace.com for additional needles in all the other available sizes, and can’t wait to start another design.

Just goes to show, well, two things actually:

Everything old is new again and again.

Never dismiss a technique out of hand; you might just be missing out on a joyful experience.

I won’t post about Tibet any more on this blog (only at Dancing My Life Away), but if you are a member of Ravelry, IndiaJoy, who is currently in North India in a Tibetan settlement, is posting as regularly as possible about the situation there and what news they are getting from Tibet in a discussion thread at Minful Knitters forum.

 

(May 2007)I am in tears this morning: “Eyewitness accounts from Lhasa.
Our friends live very near Ramoche.
More reports here.

We wait and pray.

pardon the interuption from stitching . . . this is so important, and so tragic . . .

With regard to the Ani hats, last night I wove in the last end and packed all thirteen (13!!) hats in a bag ready to go to Lhasa (image click-able). Now I just have to talk someone in to toting them 6K miles, and then delivering them . . .

In other stitching, there are posts from each of us three contributors to the Crewel Intentions blog about last Saturday’s delightful workshop with Barbara Jackson of Tristan Brooks Designs.

See, I said it would be quick! I even have enough lunch break time left to eat.

Taking a break from my own projects to knit some wool hats for the Tibetan Buddhist nuns (ani) in Lhasa. RedThread posted in the Mindful Knitters discussion board on Ravelry about a group heading to Lhasa mid-March who are willing to take knitted hats for the women in the four nunneries they support. I hope that one of the four nunneries the group supports is the Ani Tsang Kung that we visited on our last day in Lhasa, May 2007.

At least for the first one, I’m using the pattern posted by RedThread. I don’t have much worsted weight solid red wool yarn, but I do have wool yarn, so I’m using what I have. Even if it doesn’t go to a nun, there are plenty of folks around Lhasa (and especially beyond) who need something warm, children and adults.

So far, so good….

(The flash photo is washed out, the no-flash is too shadowy; sorry.)

In less than 24 hours, I finished two hats! Cast-on for the one on the  right and worked 11 rows before bed last night; worked on it riding to and from work, over lunch and afternoon break. Then cast on for the second one and had several rows finished by the time I got home from work. Had to find some more yarn, but finished the second one before 9pm.

Sarah’s pattern works up very quickly. I dropped down to US10.5s (from the US11s in the pattern) to get a little smaller hat. Time to grab some more yarn so I can start another one. . . I’d forgotten since last year when I was knitting hats to take with us to Tibet just how quickly they do knit up.

 Not only must I have two left feet, but quite a few right ones as well. It would be just plain frustratin’ to say nothing of borin’ to run through the list of things happening the last couple days (expecially today) . . . but when I got home there was a nice surprise –  beside my sweet DH –

 I received one of the Legacy Scholarships* from the Embroiderer’s Guild of America!

 The funds provided I will use for the Phase II Japanese Bead Embroidery course to be held mid-summer. Actually, I’ll take Phase III as well, as they are offered as a combined class. (Last year at the EGA National Seminar in Chicago, I took Phase I; haven’t made much progress, however.)

(*What’s really wonderful about it is that last year, Lisa, friend & fellow MSNA chapter member, received one of the awards.)

After I finished my legwarmers, and carried them to work and back home with me a couple of times, I was torn about whether to leave them at work. What if I needed them at home?? They are bulky to carry in my totebag, but the whole point was to have warm feet at work. I made them bulky to go over pants’ legs, and for the bottoms to flare over the top of my shoes. See?

Did I mention before that it is mostly around my ankles, above the shoe, below the pants’ legs that I feel the cold? (That’s why the effort to make them loose and wide at the bottom ribbing.) Lightbulb time. I would just make another pair, to leave at work that would just cover that area. Should take half the yarn, and half the time to finish.

Thus, my Ankle Warmers:

(I took this photo on the ride home from work, but then I reworked the upper ribbing on smaller needles. Will take another photo when the second one is finished.)

Here’s what I used:

2 balls of Debbie Bliss Merino Aran (color 605) — sorry, this is a discontinued yarn, but still available from some ebay sellers (and also from Ravelers)

Double-pointed needles: 4.25mm (& 3.5mm for upper ribbing)

3-by-3 Cable pattern stitch: slip first 3 stitches onto a cable needle, hold to front; knit next 3 stitches; knit the 3 stitches off the cable needle

Here’s how I made them:

Cast-on 72 stitches. Work K3P3 ribbing for 16 rounds.

Rnd. 17: *K2, ssk, P2, K3, P3* repeat around. (66)

Rnd. 18: *K3, P1, Ktog, K2, P3* repeat around. (60)

Rnd. 19: *K3, P1, K3, P3* repeat around.

Rnd. 20: *K2, ssk, K3, P3* repeat around. (54)

Rnd. 21: *3-by-3 cable, P3* repeat around.

Rnds. 22-28: *K6, P3* repeat around.

Rnd. 29: Repeat Rnd. 21.

Rnds. 30-36: Repeat Rnds. 22-28.

Change to smaller needles and begin K1P1 ribbing. Continue K1P1 ribbing for 8 rounds. Bind off.

Credit for inspiration where it’s due: Leigh Radford (her cable scarves in One Skein), and GarnStudio (legwarmers). Also note, the above instructions were written up as/after I knitted the first one; will double-check for error as I make the second one — so if there are mistakes, please don’t yell at me?

8:02PM edited pattern.

Poor little blog! So woefully neglected!

First it was one thing, then ten others…

Right after my last post, we took a quick trip to Tennessee to visit friends (and yarn shops). We left on a very unusual Mississippi day: a snowy day! For a while on Friday, I wasn’t sure DH would make the trip… not that he won’t drive in snow, we just don’t have the tires for it that we had when we lived farther north.

We got into slush about 25 miles north of our home–and saw four accidents before we got to Hattiesburg, where the slush turned to snow while we had breakfast at IHOP. From then/there until just after we reached the Alabama state line, we felt like we were back in Maryland!

(click on the photo to go to an album of snow photos from that morning)

My friend in TN kept calling to tell us that CNN and the Weather Channel were reporting accumulations very hazardous for driving and specifically advising people not to drive on Interstate 59 — and we kept waiting to reach it, but, there was NO snow, nor even much evidence of it, all the way across Alabama! We thought perhaps it melted before we got there, but the folks we talked to in Birmingham (*had* to stop for lunch at the wonderful Superior Grill, of course) said there was none of which to speak and some even bemoaned the lack.

While on that trip, I finished my legwarmers…

 

helped my friend get started on a knitting project – she’s a long-time crocheter who got “hooked” on a pattern that turned out to be knitted not crocheted! — revisited (and made purchases at) two of the four yarn shops I visted in November, took advantage of the 40%-off sale at Hobby Lobby on needles, book, accessories, and bought some sale yarn there and also at Big Lots and Wal-Marts during our daily outings.

It was quite cold in the east Tennessee mountains, and we had to delay our return trip by a day due to icy roads. Then, once home, it was quite cold here in south Mississippi! This past weekend was two of only about three nice days we’ve had, i.e., not cold, not rainy, since before our trip.

omg… at break time I’d not had coffee–forgot to give Son#1 my JavaWerks card to get it for me–so I walked to Einstein Brothers (tried to stay close because it looked like rain any moment), and just as I got there I realized the students are off for Mardi Gras and thus it was probably closed… it was… too late to walk to JavaWerks, so that meant Starbucks was the only choice… the oatmeal cookie was like a BRICK, and had NO taste, nor did the coffee! no wonder people get the expensive ’mixed drinks’ — the plain coffee is horrible… boooo on Mondays and my poor choice… and I probably walked farther than if I’d gone to JavaWerks!

What else… oh, I won a new BG meter from LifeScan: the new OneTouch Ultra-Mini in pink! There was an online sign-up last fall to ‘win’ one — they had only recently stopped just giving them to whomever came to the website and asked for one, and I don’t remember how many they were going to give away (or even if it said), but I’m betting they gave away a lot… I’m not that lucky! Anyway, timing is perfect because I had not yet mailed off the script from the doctor for strips and lancets for the other meter.

Movies? Yes, in fact, I have seen a couple of good ones. Except for the “bloody violence” in several places, Eastern Promises was quite good. Excellent story, with just enough indication of how the story would unfold, and still a few surprises.

Books? Beside boring and wordy textbook chapters, I’ve got my mind on children’s books by Pat Mora, Vicki Cobb, Gerald Hausman, Kimberly Willis Holt, Loris Lesynski, James Ransome and Will Weaver, the featured authors at this year’s Fay B. Kaigler International Children’s Book Festival. But I did manage to pick up a few 80% off books at Hudson’s on Saturday, including The Big Bad Wolf Tells All by Donna Kauffman. Haven’t read a bit of it yet, so I’m not making a recommendation; it just looked like a fun read… not that I have *time* for a fun read. What I need to do is get some “fun reads” loaded onto my iPod to listen to while I knit on the drive to and from work, and while DH watches weird stuff on TV.

That’s more than enough rambling, and lunch is over. As soon as I get the photos uploaded, the rest of the links to my finished projects (there on the left) will be active.

Today over the lunch break, I finished the black/grey/white entrelac scarf for my ex-co-worker.

 I am very pleased with it; so is Brickle. I hope she will be as well.

Interesting day — if very cold and raining. I was given a new task and felt good about how much I accomplished. It also gave me an opportunity to both learn more about and become more comfortable working with the new version of the software we use for most of our cataloging projects. Unfortunately, the side of my face is still aching, either from cold or sinus inflamation. The house is cold, but the bedroom is warm, so that’s where I’m heading!

As soon as I got to work this morning, freshly charged battery in the new camera, I took this photo of my Carnivale Critters, “Boss Hogg” and “Miss Prissy.” Mardi Gras comes VERY early this year (February 5th). We’ve already had one King Cake (from Randazzo’s, of course!) — on Twelfth Night — and my sister got the baby in the first slice! What a good omen for the year.

My third entrelac scarf, this one in the black/gray/white colorway of di’Ve’s Teseo is almost finished, lacking  only the last tier and the bind off triangles.  It will just have to wait until tomorrow; my eyes are shot for the night, the left side of my face has been aching since 2pm, and I just have to go to bed . . . I had it half-a-bind-off triangle from being finished, but ran out of thread and had to pull back a whole tier set. When it’s finished, I’ll block it and take photos (with the new camera!!). I do hope my friend like it!

I decided today that my next knitting project will be a pair of leggings! There is a terrible draft at my desk, and I’m tired of my feet and legs being cold. I don’t like running a space heater. I looked through all the patterns on Ravelry, and the items taged with legging, leggings, and legwarmers. I think I like one of the ones from DROPS best, but I want to flare the ankle area as that is the part of my foot which gets coldest.

I’ve got three projects “that far” from being finished! Grrr… maybe tomorrow I’ll get to join my friends all posting their first FO of 2008!