In addition to tallying up and recording all of the pertinent information about my yarn and fabric stashes, I’m trying to finish a bunch of projects that I had started but never finished. I’m not promising to finish them all before I start any new ones, but having a spreadsheet of all of my works in progress and what is required for each is turning out to be a great tool for me.  I finished a few garments that just needed some hemming, cut out several items on my list to make for other folks, and actually started a couple of sewn garments for myself.

I finished the first of my embroidery projects for those wacky Celts.

It’s a helmet drape. Our Samhain is early this year, so this will find a home this weekend. Once one is out there, I know many people will request one of their own. I need to come up with a better way to get the design onto the linen, because my normal methods weren’t catching the details well, and I can’t expect someone who can draw the design to always be on hand when I’m ready to start a new one.

I also made myself a fun little sewing accessory.  It’s a pincushion organizer from a free Sew Mama Sew pattern.

Sorry the pictures are so dark–we had a rainy week.  I picked some well-matched fabrics out of my stash, and used a scrap from a shrunken kilt hose (why is there no singulative for hose?) for the wool felt portion in the middle.   It’s already getting a lot of use, but there are a few things I may change about it.  It likes to slide if it gets heavy, so I may add some sort of non-slip treatment on the underside.  I may also add more weight to the pincushion.  And I may remake the thing entirely, because these fabrics may be a bit too sweet together (and the way I placed them is making me itchy . . . that crazy part is literally true).

I also got back into the swing of things with my woolalong afghan.  Here are the yarns I have in store for squares.  I’ll dye the light natural skeins in one of the colors I’m using for the blanket.  Starting from the top left, these are Roubaix CVM/Romeldale, Thingamastring Columbia/Southdown, Solitude Suffold/Dorset, Elemental Effects natural Shetland, and then the bottom three are two naturally dyed Icelandic skeins from Solitude flanking a dark brown Shetland from Elemental Effects.

I may decide to eliminate the dark brown Shetland, depending on how the pallet evolves.  These are the squares I’ve finished so far.  These first three are in a Cormo/Yak blend I dyed myself.

These are a gorgeous BFL from Laughing Rat.  The orange makes me so happy!  I hope I can dye something similar.

Look how lovely they are together!

I got myself the sort of (quite early) birthday present I always want, but would never ask for.  There’s just no way to send someone out to find the perfect handmade journal for me, you know?

It was made by Kreativlink on Etsy. I got one of the larger format ones, since I like a lot of space on my pages. It’s gorgeous.  I can’t wait to start using it.  It may even warrant a new pen.

I also finished that bit of embroidery for a special project.  A project I may repeat 30 or 40 times if I can keep up the momentum.

It’s very simple work, but it will make someone pretty damn happy, once I finish it and decide who gets it.

And here is that lace cowl I made while I was on vacation.

And the blanket I accidentally started:

which I’m working in stockinette, this time around.  I’m restricting the color palette of this one, and banding the inner squares in black.

Finally, I picked my Cat’s Paw rug up again last weekend.

I’m a bit shocked by how huge the thing will be, and how slow going it is.  But it doesn’t involve any gauge issues or sleeve trouble, so I’ll keep at it.

Socks for Scott, in Sanguine Gryphon Eidos.  The colorway is Simonides.  I improvised the stitch pattern, and really like how these turned out.

A modified Baby Surprise Jacket for our friends’ baby CW, who is still in utero. That’s Sundara sock yarn in “Live with Harmony,” which seems auspicious. His current due date is Scott’s birthday, so we should meet the new guy before Halloween.  CW’s folks are very happy with the sweater.  I’m a bit itchy about the way I did the increases on this one . . . I can’t decide if I like them.  We’ll see how it fits.

Sunday, I went to the Sully quilt show, right around the way. There were new quilts–

And old quilts–

And one fantastic quilt the Reston guild is raffling off.

I wish I could show you how beautifully-worked this one is.  These women are masters. Just look at the detail in this feather

I think I have a new thing to aspire to.

Now, excuse me while I finish cataloging all of my yarn and fabric and reorganizing my studio.  I’m almost done with the yarn, about a quarter of the way through the fabric, and loving the pile of give-aways I’m building.

All over the place, really.  How’s about I tell you about all sorts of things, in whatever order I remember them,  as I would over drinks in person?  Feel free to interrupt, and let me know when you need another round.

I’ve spent the last couple of weekends crafting with friends from our living history community, and it’s been fantastic.  It’s like we had little mini-vacations tacked on to the end of Camp, helping prevent withdrawal symptoms.  It was an excellent chance to help folks with a couple of things they wanted to learn about but that don’t go well outdoors when you’re tired and don’t have electricity or endless running water or enough sleep.  And it was a chance to start on some cool projects for other people.  We dyed fabric, set up a new serger, compared sewing techniques, plotted presents, ate and cooked fantastic food, knit, sewed, mended, noodled around with some music, shared research . . . it was like there was an epiphany storm, at least in my head.

But it also kept me from tackling the vacation photos.  For some reason, I’d convinced myself I’d taken very few.  When I started downloading them this afternoon to answer the squawking crows demanding pictures . . . I realized I’d taken nearly a thousand.  Yay me!  But also, um, damn, that’s going to be a lot of work.

So let’s just start with the silly little assortment left on my table when our last intrepid guest departed this afternoon.

That is one of the most glorious little groupings of stuff that’s gathered in our house in a while.  It’s wealth born from experience and community rather than money and shopping, which makes me particularly grateful.  The notebook is one friends have talked about needing for years that we’ve finally started–a notebook to keep close at hand at events and parties to scrawl the funny lines into, right as they cause those little explosions of laughter, so we can remember them and call them back up later, and fill in the folks who missed a bit.  It’s sitting on lyrics from a song I love, covered in notes on musical theory and practice tips from the best music lesson I’ve ever had, given by a dear friend at my own kitchen table this weekend.  Other friends made almost all of that crockery, and the few pieces made by strangers were made well and given generously.  The honey is local, and great, and comes in old milk bottles.  The tea was just right.  The dish towel is homey, and made from scraps.  The little cowl is going to be well loved.  And the packet of fabric . . . what a present.

A week or so ago, a dear friend from college pinged me and asked for my current mailing address, saying she had something she thought she should pass on to me.  When it came, I was floored.  Knowing that folks who know her and would appreciate the present were due at our place, I wrapped it back up so they could see just how kind our far flung friends are, still.  There’s something particularly touching about a present that is so perfectly personalized.  You can open it again with me now.

Ellery knows what sort of fabric will go right to my head . . . the mouth-watering blue and that orange.  sigh.

And the crow thing–that hasn’t escaped her.

She’s really got it down, in fact.  Look at those little corvid heads!  Squeeee!  I’m so lucky.  Truly, truly fortunate.

Really, I have an embarrassment of riches.  I mentioned my coins in that last post . . . I guess I should explain.  There’s a great intersection between living history and numismatics.  Currency is an ancient thing, and a fascinating thing.  If you think the new Euros are cool, you’ve got another think coming.  Look at the old stuff, and you will see some amazing ingenuity combined with social change and propaganda and art.  <slides glasses up nose>

A while back, I was talking with Cedach, one of my pals at Celtic Summer Camp, about  Boudicca’s coins, and how unusual it was for a woman to be minting coins in the ancient world, and how they supported her rebellion, and just how freaking cool Boudicca was, and what it’s like for me to write about her or speak about her when we do demos.  He  is interested in coin making, which is a fascinating craft.  On another thread, way back in the way back I’d used my combined portions of audacity, charisma, persistence, and luck to convince many many people to accept a silly title I gave myself . . . The Queen of the Bog.  I don’t know how I got it to stick, but I did, and it’s hilarious and sweet and such a compliment to have a nice nickname.   Well, Cedach’s interest in making coins, and my passion about studying Boudicca’s moneying, and that little nickname lodged in his craw just perfectly.  He came back to Camp this year for the first time in a while, and he and his wife Maebh presented me with . . .

A beautiful felted bag Maebh made me, complete with a spiral-hearted, crowned flame-red crow . . .

Full of these.

So, that would be me on the face.  And on the reverse, an Ang, a sun wheel many of us use as a symbol, and the text reads “Lanea Reg Bog”.  We have a gift culture in and amongst our little tribes, and we try to treat each other kindly, but this is so generous I was just gobsmacked.  I still am.  I don’t know if I can ever earn the love and kindness these people  give me, but I sure am going to keep trying.

This is the beginning of some return gifts, as it were.  When in doubt, embroider.  When you’re trying to figure out how to thank individuals, start by thanking a whole community.

First there was Maryland Sheep and wool, for which I made a few dozen bags.  At the last second.  With feeling (and excellent audio books spurring me along).

Most of the bags found happy homes, but I do have some orphans I should list.  I finished by the skin of my teeth and took off to rendezvous with several of my favorite knitters at the Spirit Trail booth.

The heat was oppressive all weekend long, and the crowds on Saturday were maddening.  I did manage to pick up a couple of treats for myself, which I should, you know, photograph and post about.   As usual, I spent most of the weekend guffawing with friends, whether we were working or wandering about or recovering at the Inn.  “Laughing too much” throat set in sometime Saturday night.

I also met this little guy.

His little black knees and nose slay me.

I’m not sure how I should feel about the fact that after fawning over this little sweetie Ruadhan and I walked right over to the lamb stand for lunch . . . so I’ve decided not to think too hard on it.  I certainly couldn’t think too much about it at the time because it was 95 degrees and I’d been standing for many hours in a row on concrete and there had been some drinking the night before.

Despite the weather and sleep deprivation and many margaritas, you can see the Spirit Trail gang was in high spirits on Sunday.  That may be just a really smiley form of heat-stroke, but I can’t be sure.

Then there were some work days, and a cancer smackdown day, and some more work, and then Beltaine.  Wheeeeeee.  Except with more sleep deprivation.

And now . . . way too many photos with far too little explanatory text, and in no particular order.  Mostly Maypole stuff, with some random other things thrown in for good measure.  I have many more, but can’t currently edit photos, so am only showing you the images that don’t need help.

Right, so, I’ve been working away, thinking in terms of modularity and mobility.  I decided to make an afghan as my project for Clara’s wool-along, since that seems like the best way to unify so many different wools.  My February square (yes, February.  I know)  is knitted from Cormo that I dyed in a crockpot.  The block pattern is from The Great American Afghan.

The crewel work is done in the Blue-Faced Leicester I’m using for the March square, which is a gorgeous orange.

I keep ripping out my March square, and I’m waiting for my Targhee for April, so those will wait.

Meanwhile, I’m also planning a bathroom remodel.  Our upstairs bath has been a nightmare since we moved in, but we opted to redo the one our guests use before tackling the baddy.  We finally cracked once a leak surfaced somewhere in the shower plumbing upstairs.  Here are the tiles I’ve settled on.

We’ll use the pebble tile for the floor of the shower.  The listello will cover the curb of the shower pan, and I may pick somewhere else to put it too. The field tile is porcelain that’s glazed to look like marble–we wanted to go for something classic but also easy to take care of (and dirt cheap to boot).  The fixtures are Victorian(ish).  I still can’t believe that I’ve managed to stick with neutrals this time around.   I’m starting to see this bathroom as the official first step away from DC.   This bathroom is the last thing we can reasonably remodel in this house, which we will sell to strangers so we can move sometime not too far in the future.  I predict some green paint on the walls–nice, reversible paint in the neutral, sale-able bathroom.

Scott is close to another new pair of socks.  The green is from Sanguine Gryphon, and the gray is some random something that I tend to use for guys’ heels and toes.  The pattern is just a simple thing I’m toying with.  And yes, Yarrow demaded to make an appearance.

There were 28 inches of snow on the ground when I went to sleep last night, and it’s still snowing now.  Sideways.  It’s snowing sideways in Virginia.

I love the Seussian properties things take after a heavy snow.  I particularly love the snow gnome hats my little solar garden lights grow.  These are the biggest I’ve seen.

Weather like this reminds me that I am so glad I sew and knit, glad I keep scraps and have a yarn stash, so so glad I have many unread books in the house, and I feel particularly fortunate that we have power and lots of food in the house.

My current projects include this string quilt, which is one of my favorite ways to use up scraps.

I plan to sash the quartets of blocks with a dark blue, similar in tone to the deep blues I’ve used for the center string in each smaller block.  I figured this quilt would take a long time, but if this weather keeps up I’ll fly through it.

I’m also chugging along on Ljod, an Elsebeth Lavold cardigan with a simple knot.

And, finally, trying to catch up on photographing projects I haven’t recorded.  These are Spiraling Leaves mitts, in Spirit Trail Helen

I’ve also made some little gifts for friends, but those photos have to wait for postal service to resume and presents to wing their ways around the country.

Stay warm, friends, and be careful shoveling and moving about in this mess.

I’ve not been much of a record keeper, lately.  There were additional computer problems, the usual chaos of the holidays, real snowfall, visiting dogs, new furniture, work, knitting, baking, and who knows what else.  But I’m here, and all is well.  To make up for my laziness and absence, I will charm you with pictures of Kaio the Wonderful.

We were camping back at our old Samhain site near Charlottesville, and our old water-and-snow dog could not bear to stay out of the icy river.

Here is my best news: my Mom is done with chemo proper.  She will start radiation next month, and will continue receiving herceptin infusions through next autumn.  She was fortunate enough to have relatively mild side effects from the chemo, in part because of the meds she received and in part because she is a trooper.  I’ve been able to escort Mom to her weekly infusions, which has been a real treat, believe it or not.  It’s fantastic to spend time with her, and to see that she is getting such excellent care and tolerating the treatment so well.  Other family members have joined us many times as well.  You know you’re doing something right when your loved ones test the limits of the guest policy at the cencer center.

My second best news: we ended up replacing some furniture, which is unduly exciting to me.  First, our old flat-pack cheapo dressers started spitting out ball bearings and just generally falling apart.  Wonder of wonders, we were able to freecycle them, and to find affordable new Mission-style dressers made of wood.  Actual wood.  And we replaced our adorable Marsh Hoosier, which was just the wrong shape for the space, with this great Mission cabinet. Some dear friends of ours are taking the Hoosier, which makes it even better–the only thing better than finding that perfect thing is knowing that the not-quite-perfect-thing it displaces will be appreciated and used.

I love the fact that most of the pottery in that cabinet is made by, in descending order of volume:
* One of my dearest friends.  Many of those pieces were also carved or glazed by other dear friends
* A Canadian potter I respect and love to share stories and drinks with
* Three potters I regularly beg to charge more for their work
* Several friends who throw now and again; and as-yet-unmet artisans whose work I cherish.

I made a chocolate and hazelnut Yule Log for Christmas, which was delicious.  I am a dedicated Nutella lover, and I promise you that homemade chocolate hazelnut butter kicks the store-bought stuff square in the ass.  My niece Talia was gracious enough to help me decorate the cake, which we then destroyed.

There has been some knitting going on, but it seems to be less of an occupation than usual thanks to all of the reorganization and purging going on.  I have more to show you, but too little light.

Hedgerow mitts for my friend and Sis-in-law Tchula:

and for my step-dad, he of the perpetually cold hands and all-things-red:

and some socks in Mini Mochi for me.  I predict they will die a quick death–pretty but weak, this yarn.

I hope 2010 is treating you all gently.

At long last . . . proof that I’ve been out and about with my camera.

After a long day at Rhinebeck:

Clara signing the Knitters Book of Wool at the KR Retreat

A Hedgerow Gathering.

Minh, waiting to get into the marketplace at the KR retreat:

More soon!

I’m now so sucked into playing with the fancy new camera that I am not happy with any of the photographs I’m taking.  Any of them.  And yet, I want to document things I’m making and seeing.  So I’ll suck it up as best I can.

The leaf-lace shawl is blocked and ready for my Mom.

Blocking this reminded me of how much I hate my current blocking surface options.  There was a lot of cussing, and mattress moving, and cat-chasing.  I’ve held off on getting anything else for so long, but I think I need to consider a board or mats or something.  Cashmere/mink lace shouldn’t sit around for weeks unblocked.  It’s just wrong.

I made some very simple toe-up socks.  I think this is fortissima, but the ball-band was long gone.

Our new bush-form copper beech tree is settling in nicely, and just starting to turn.

I’m scrambling to get ready for Rhinebeck.  I’ve made a couple of dozen new bags, and will be working at the Spirit Trail booth again.  Stop by if you’re at the festival.