sarahbyrdd

It's amazing what happens when 1) you have a few extra days off and b) don't have a million housekeeping chores hanging over your head. I was able to finish a shawl I'd been knitting on and off for several months, and I made some proper marmelade based on this recipe because we have a surplus of grapefruit:

http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-white-grapefruit-and-elderflower-marmalade-recipes-from-the-kitchn-198960

This stuff smells and tastes amazing. I'm hoping that I didn't cook it too long. I'll know in a day or two.

Finished the market jacket today. It still needs blocking, but I think it turned out nicely.

Made myself a "smoking hat". The Dumbledore hat from Harry Potter Knits. :-D

Colar down

Collar up

laid flat

and socks

Why yes, I did have a little time just to sit and knit while we were away. Why do you ask?

I actually finished my first ever whole sweater in time to give it to Mom for her birthday. Yay me. So, it wasn't so bad. This one has raglan sleeves which I knit in the round so there was absolutely no seaming to do. I think the trickiest bit was picking up stitches for the edging. Hopefully it will look nice on. Now I have another sweater to finish (all but sleeve, neck edging and assembly), and another ready to cast on.

P1010012

I've been spending this relatively dry day blocking other projects that have been lurking, including my Cladonia shawl, and the Inspira cowl that I knit over last winter/spring.

P1010001

Yesterday I got the rose charted and made a start on the iris (at least thats what I assume it is). There are so many places that things are fuzzy in both the picture in the book and the photo I found online, that I can tell the charts are going to be a compromise between all the available versions. So I'll be making an interpretation rather than an "exact" copy of the original. I'm fine with that. If I can chart the flowers just once and swap colors and orientations when I make the cushion my life will be much easier. Which, when you think about it, is probably how that set of cushions started out and the variations are all human error/whim. I may play with a barley twist border, rather than running it on the diagonals, for the sweete bag.

Also, as I was charting it out it occurred to me that some of those many shades of cream to taupe might have been more pink before 400 years of use faded them. I may edge more towards the pinks in the seat cushions, though I like the neutrals for the sweete bag.

I was fortunate enough to see the "Betwixt Art and Nature" exhibit of English embroidery when it was at the Bard Center in New York. Getting to see all that spectacular embroidery up close and personal was mindblowing. One of the pieces that stood out for me was a seat cushion done in long-arm and regular cross-stitch, the sister to this piece of which I found a picture of on the web (happily, there's also an excellent full page photo of the piece I saw in the exhibit book).

From: http://rjohnhowe.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/what-is-a-weaving-what-is-not-and-why-part-1/
Eventually, I'd like to make a copy of the whole piece for a cushion for the period chair that bytchearse commissioned for me. But as a intermediate step, I'm going to chart two of the flowers and make (yet another) sweete bag. I'd like to have that phase of the project done for an entry to this year's St. Eligius competition. I've already picked out some really fabulous wool-silk blend floss with the help of the kind staff (pushers) at Thistle Needleworks and got advice about availble colorways in needlpoint wool when the time comes to work up the full cushion.

I'm really happy to find this photo on the web. Comparing this one with the one in the exhibit book will help me chart in the areas where the stitches are worn or pulled.

Current Mood: Crafty

I have some time next week to hunt down supplies, so I thought maybe I'd get rolling on the needlepoint/longarm crosstich project I've been pondering for the past several years, and maybe knock out a test piece. So my CT crafty folks, where's the best place to get needlepoint wool and blank canvas?

Current Mood: cheerful

Apparently I knit shawls as well as socks. Both of these need blocking, but I'm pretty pleased with them.

I'm particularly happy with how this picture came out. I'm slowly figuring out how to take pictures that actually show off my knit projects. If the flash is used at all there's no sense of the texture and the colors go off. My little digital camera has so many settings ... I suppose I could dig out the manual and actually read it rather than wildly pushing buttons to see what happens. I like the airy quality of the photo, but it's still not doing the colors in the yarn justice.

Alpaca lace shawl for mom.

We had a fantastic dinner, with hibiscus kir royals, roast duck and cherry sauce that used cherries in wine that I put up last year as the base. I think, other than the odd jar of rhubarb jam, that was the last of the 2009 canning, so I'm on target for using up what I've put up. I'm looking forward to many more canning projects in 2011. Lemon curd is a big hit, as is the pickled asparagus and strawberry balsamic jam. Putting together our open house was pretty easy with the more elegant items I'd put up. This year I want to make some different jams, start a rumtopff, do proper dilly beans, experiment with fruit butters, and try my hand at pressure canning. And then there's cheese ....

This weekend I spent some time finishing the sweete bag from a kit I picked up when we visited Plimoth Plantation. I'm quite pleased with the results. While the design is out of period for the SCA, I think the method of construction fits (backing first sewn to each piece THEN assemble) and I made my first twisted cording and sewn eyelets, so as a learning experience it was useful, and while I wouldn't enter it into a competition, I think it'll look spiffy with my late-period garb.

The back side.

Current Mood: happy

So,I'm watching the movies "Bright Star" which has the barest whiff of a plot, but the period detail and costumes are gorgeous. Particularly eye catching are some of the sweaters and shawls designed by Sophie Digard.

[4094090797_f63bfeebe5.jpg]

I'm quite sure I don't have the patience to crochet something like that, but man is it beautiful.

1) Double batch of banana bread/muffins made, muffins frozen

2) Much laundry done

3) Tomatoes canned:

4) Mozzarella has finally been achieved!

5) Finally found the USB cord for my camera, so I can post pictures of things ...

Like my entry for the embroidery challenge at Northern Region. Any beekeepers (cvirtue, I'm lookin' at you) out there want a nifty little piece (no more than 6" square)?

Hughmanity ... you've seen this (on Ravelry)?

Wish they had that on T-shirts.

Current Mood: amused

1) I have a serious yarn addiction problem. I won’t even bother to say that I can stop at any time.

2) Are there any sites that help you use up your stash by answering the question, I have X yards of Y yarn, what can I make with that?

3) I received an “invitation” from my medical insurance carrier to participate in their in house wellness program (and to provide them with all sorts of other information about my health and habits), as they’d surmised from my claims that I’m at risk for heart disease. I will be declining to participate. Actually I’ll be throwing the questionnaire in the trash and not answering the calls from their nurse practitioner who will be following up on the mailing. This is my first personal encounter with insurance companies practicing medicine without a license, and it’s pissing me off.

4) The weather is cooler. This makes me happy.

5) I seem to really want a low heeled lace up boot for fall, sorta like a dressier Doc Martin.

6) I am a girly girl. Red lipstick and toenail polish makes me happy.

7) I have ideas for knitting projects that will make gifties for several of my favorite people. That also makes me happy. See #1 above.

From last week:

-~~finish chunky sox for kvirtue~~ - Chunky sox are done save for darning in ends and sending off to kvirtue.

-knit lacy scarf with the crazy soft blue alpaca yarn (~~simple pattern like this~~ ~~http://straw.com/cpy/patterns/scarves/kidm-mist-lace-scarf.html~~)

I started that scarf and I'm going to frog it. The yarn I have is not lace weight and the pattern just looks messy. I'm going to go with some variation on this instead: Mead scarf (a happy name!) http://beyondlifeexpectancy1.blogspot.com/2007/06/mead-scarf-pattern.html but with fewer repeats of the pattern to offset the heavier yarn. And I might do something different with the border. Of course I may frog that too.

Projects on my short list not really in an order:

Cut down/sew tick to fit new bed
Block/potato printed divider curtains for big tent
cover for folding chair
2 pr. simple trousers for middle eastern garb

Organize spare room
- Get shelves to organize spare room

knit lacy scarf with the crazy soft blue alpaca yarn (simple pattern like this http://straw.com/cpy/patterns/scarves/kidm-mist-lace-scarf.html)
finish chunky sox for kvirtue
line knitted relic bag
knit baby caps with stash yarn

register a device and name

Embroidered favor for bytchearse
New coif of better cloth, embroidered
New partlet of better cloth, embroidered
15th c. front lace gown (for summer)
chemise & hood to go with
Fancy Elizabethan cap (like the one in the userpic!)
Elizabethan ropa

... things getting added all the time.

... about 3" left on my latest pair of socks.
... a kit for a knitted reliquary pouch which will make me learn 2 color knitting, and it's silk!
... new size 0 dp needles for above project.
... a packet of favors to embroider for Her RH. I have a stash of seed beads. They may become involved.
... linen tea towels to be dedicated to the weekly bread making.
... more ideas for embroidered coifs and partlets to spiff up my garb.
... an urge to make some higher class garb, or at least a spanish coat to go over what I have.
... and hat lust. So many good hats! I want the one in my user pic.
... ideas about joining the A&S 50 Challenge.
... a little bit of a sniffle.

Also, the batch of proto-yogurt that I left on top of the fridge (rather than tucking into the turned off oven) turned out just fine. Tonight I'll test the consistency and see if I want to strain it a bit.

http://gotmedieval.blogspot.com/2010/01/gravity-in-margins-mmm-marginalia.html

And seems to be a good discussion of layout for marginalia.

EDIT: Link is fixed!

Current Mood: amused

His Punkin

My Punkin

Current Mood: happy

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sarahbyrdd

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Entries tagged with fiddly things

Green Lace Shawl and Marmalade

Market Jacket

No more cold heads at home.

Joanie Sweater FINISHED

More knittings

Embroidery project

Multi-Phase Embroidery Project

Plans, I haz them.

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Knitting & photography

New Year's & Beyond

Sweater lust

Productive Day

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Projects progressing!

Projects

After Birka I have ...

This amused me!

We haz punkins!

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December 2017

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