Flying

I didn't grow up celebrating Halloween but I have always been a huge fan of playing dress up. Sometimes a deadline also makes me do something that I wouldn't otherwise make the time for. With two families sick, co-op was canceled for the week so we had a bit of extra time to work with as well. When I asked the older kids what they would like to dress up as this year, Ellie said that she wanted to be a princess swan and Peter, who initially said that he wanted to be an electrician (?) said, rather predictably, that he would like to be an airplane. Ellie already had a white ballet-type dress that was a good base and I figured that some cardboard, duct tape and paint would do it for Peter.

In the spirit of involving them in the creation process, I cut out the crown and Ellie decorated it.

Painting gold glitter onto the swan's crown

Peter said that he wanted stripes, words and glitter. He somewhat halfheartedly dripped a few drops of red glitter on the wings and tail and went back to smearing on the paper that he was working with. Oh, well.

The PPE airline decorated as per request--with red glitter raindrops

A great use for those too-long suspenders. The clips held pretty well but required some adjusting after going up or down stairs. The wings were proportional to the body, which meant that they were too wide to get through gates or narrow walkways. Peter got really good at gauging whether or not he could fit through and we made a pretty good navigating team.

Can I go fly yet, mommy?

It fits!

Wings, crown and tail feathers from a dismantled feather boa. We also started reading The Trumpet of the Swan this week so there were lots of swan sounds echoing through the house and yard.

See my wings!

Koh-hoh!

We took the obligatory pictures and finally turned them loose.

High-yi up in the sky...

Easter Eggs

Peter's first year coloring eggs. They drew designs on the eggs with crayons--Peter chose green and Ellie chose pink (of course).
Wearing wings, showing off her drawing:

Drying off the yellow egg:

Mommy helped a little bit:

Ladling in and out of dye:

Adding stickers:

Inessa in her Easter dress:

She cooperated with the egg coloring by napping.

Knocking off and Knocking out

When you have just a little bit of fabric and just a little bit of time, what do you do?

Look at cute dress and shirt tutorials online and make your own knockoff version of a simple pattern, obviously.

I may have bought this fabric simply for the delightful exuberance of the pattern since I don't remember if I had had something specific in mind. There was just enough to make a shirt for my tall little girl. It is lined in a white linen/cotton blend.

It is a little snug, which is what happens when you are making up a pattern and have limited fabric but it will also be a darling summer dress for Inessa next summer. I can just picture her toddling around in it.

Button from Grandma Sherri's stash that she generously passed along to me. Not only do the kids love playing with them, often there is just the right button or two to finish off a project.

Purple Girl

Despite the reality of hand me downs from big sister, I hoped to have a few things that Nessie could look back on as uniquely hers. To differentiate, I've been inclined to go for things that are purple rather than pink even though she looks just as lovely in pink as Ellie did.

Some time ago, I was given a bag of yarn that included a couple of skeins of purple wool, almost a lilac color. It seemed the perfect yarn for the first handknit for Nessie. Given my current state of continual interruptions, a lace knit didn't seem feasible so cables it was.

Nessie's Antler Cardigan:

These buttons have been in my stash at least since we moved from our old house. I'm so pleased that there were enough to use here. I'm not particularly happy with how the placket turned out but you learn something with every project, right?

Happy Birthday, Mormor!

A cardinal pin for my grandmother inspired by Sally Mavor's Wee Felt Folk book.

Family Gifts

I finally finished hanging this lovely embroidery that my cousin made for Elanor. The frame came from a local thrift store and when I opened it up it had a mat of just the right color hidden inside. I painted the frame white to fit with the colors in her room. It looks lovely on her wall. Thank you, Desiree!

Joy Doodle

I have been between projects (other than baby, house-hunting and packing) for the last several months. I finally realized that the awful empty feeling that I had been having was at least partly due to not allowing myself a creative outlet. I had finished all of the Christmas projects and not had the energy in the early stages of pregnancy to start something new. Once I did, there was so much other stuff going on that I didn't have the time for the slow development of an idea that I usually need in order to get something started. So I decided to just take a scrap of muslin and the leftover threads in my needlebook and just try out some stitches. It didn't have to be pretty. It didn't have to have a recipient or a purpose other than just to remind myself how to do them and break back into creating. It was so freeing to just put some threads into the fabric and not feel any anxiety about how it was going to turn out.
Of course, once I got about halfway done, a design did start to emerge that necessarily introduced some boundaries to what I could represent with those stitches. But by that point, it didn't matter anymore.





The edges of the fabric are just outside the edges of the photo so using it for anything would be a challenge. I'm thinking that a very carefully hand stitched border from some of the leftover golden silk from my flower girls dresses would frame it nicely though.

Playing Dress Up

We weren't going to go out trick-or-treating but I did have to make a costume for her. What could be better than an felt Ellie-flower? Of course, it had to fit over a jacket and involve a hat to keep her warm enough. She had a tan striped hoodie that blended pretty well with the petals and a pair of green pants for a stem.


We went for a walk around the neighborhood in the afternoon to enjoy the day and take some pictures. Unfortunately there weren't very many people around to appreciate the cuteness. By the time real trick-or-treaters started showing up at our house, she was in bed.



The petals just tied around her shoulders like a cape so it should be big enough to wear next year too.

Little Friend

This little creature went out to a friend for her granddaughter. I hope she liked it! Modified from this pattern.

Full of personality, wouldn't you say?

Curtains

After we rearranged the bedrooms to accommodate the new occupant, it seemed a shame to paint the bedrooms beautifully and let the window coverings continue to be pieces of fabric pinned up over the curtain rods.

I had many yards of bleached muslin around in my stash--almost exactly enough for all of the panels. I got the green linen fabric for crib furnishings before Elanor was born. I had originally intended to use green ribbon as tie backs but this leftover garden themed wire ribbon was just what they needed.

Our bedroom has the same basic design but, of course, with different colors. The fabric on the bottom of the muslin panel matches our sheets, coordinates with the wall color and came from the bargain bin at the fabric store. I have had the trim piece for several years now--a gift from a colleague who was unhappy with this portion of her online auction purchase. I liked it, but what do you do with 30 yds of trim? Some of it edged a skirt and the rest was just enough for the curtain edging and tie backs for all of the sections.


It is amazing how much more finished curtains make a room look.

Hope Completed

I shared the beginning of this project here.

This piece had its origins in a conversation with some dear friends about where we all were in our lives at that point.
We were in places where what we could see was the dry, dying hardness of the current season of our lives. We had to trust and hope that the spring was coming. The image of a tree in the midst of changing seasons came to represent this place.
There is all sorts of symbolism about trees in Scripture. Ps 1:3 has special significance to us because of the meaning of our name, there are multiple references to a tree of life, culminating in Revelation, the crucifixion on a "tree," etc. I also wanted to show the link between what we see (the withering) and what is true, spiritual reality as well.

People say, with some justification, that the measure of modern art is really how impressive a blurb the artist can write about it. At the risk of receiving that criticism myself, these were my intentions in this design.

The tree is cup shaped, alluding to the cup of communion with Christ and his body. The red threads underlining the tree branches remind of the blood of Christ's sacrifice for us (on the tree) and the reason for hope. The flame-colored threads reference the work of the Holy Spirit in revealing the hope that we have in God and the way that he is working despite the apparent death.
I worked the withered and falling leaves first and then added the different shades of green. I had originally intended to make only a few green leaves and those not actually touching the branches in the way that the dead ones did to show that hope was far off and only hinted at. However, as I worked on it over the course of the last year, the emphasis shifted to call for more of the green as our personal seasons changed. God has brought us better marriages, children, friends and work in ways that we were not able to see at the time of our original conversation. It no longer seemed possible to put so much emphasis on the hard season in the way that the design started.
However, though we are experiencing a spring just now, there will be another winter when we will need to be reminded of hope.

For now, I hope that this piece will be a blessing as it goes on its way with its recipients to their new home.

Finished Book

I gave this embroidered book cover to Camille for her college graduation. Then it sat, waiting to be stitched to the purchased book insert.

At long last, I got around to making it up.

I just realized that this picture is upside down...

The stitching is on a remnant piece of dupioni silk. It is backed with fusible interfacing, layered with charcoal gray felt underneath and stitched onto the book with a piece of black satin ribbon for a bookmark. It is a little tight, as shown in the slight wonkiness in the first picture, but should stretch just enough with a bit of use to lay flat. I'm particularly proud of the darning job that needed to be done along one edge where the silk was fraying. It had started to ravel when I started the stitching, but it couldn't be trimmed off without making that side of the end pocket too small. Next time, I'll be more careful to match the positioning of the stitching to what I intend the finished project to be.

Justice's Fiddlehead

After making a sweater in this pattern for Elanor, I decided that her new cousin should have one as well. I picked out the yarn before we knew if the baby was a boy or girl, figuring that this lovely color--like chocolate cherry---would work just fine for either. It is 100% superwash wool fingering and worked up beautifully.


I just missed finishing it in time for their visit this summer but it is on its way.

Note to self, however. Do not use old mailing labels that have lost any of their stickiness. The package ended up back in my mailbox without the recipient's address on it. Thank goodness I had put my return address on the envelope itself!

Baby projects

I've been on a knitting kick for a while so I haven't made any embroidered clothes for Elanor yet. I have enjoyed using up some odds and ends of yarn from other projects for baby socks, though.
This yarn was the leftovers from the Evenstar mitts:

I got a bunch of a friend's leftovers as well:

Matching mitts--which were for a much smaller baby than the socks were and are now too small:

This was a great free pattern called Fiddlehead that I found through PurlBee. I made a lightweight cotton version in a sport weight rather than the fingering weight that the pattern called for. It involved a couple of the dreaded gauge swatches and several calculations but it came out beautifully in the end. Another modification--knitting the body in the round rather than in two flat pieces. I don't care for seaming at all and there is something very soothingly rhythmical about knitting row after row to produce perfect stockinette. It was perfect for bus riding and other odd moments. I was also trying to get in as many continuing education lectures as possible so as to be able to comfortably renew my cytogenetics certification before taking my leave from the lab and working on the sweater during the lectures helped me stay awake and focused. It's working pretty well for sermons now too as I work on the one for Elanor's new cousin, Justice.

Of course, calculating the yarn needed was a little tricky and I ended up with some extra. Every cute baby sweater needs a matching hat doesn't it?

Knitting Adventures (from 6/09)

My first sweater-the Ophelia cardigan in Knitpicks Comfy. I was surprised at how quickly it worked up until I remembered that most of my projects up until this point had either been on #2 needles or lace. I had hoped to wear it to Camille's graduation but ended up sleeping on the plane instead of knitting. It was finished just in time to go to Folklife, though.


Evenstar fingerless glove #1:


I had a dreadful time photographing this without the cats getting in the way. The law of cat attraction apparently applies to yarn too. In fact, they liked this particular yarn so much that Edison figured out how to open my backpack and extract the partially finished glove and yarn ball from the project pouch in order to carry it off in high glee to kill it in several corners of the house. There are a couple of fuzzy spots on the left glove that will never be the same again.

Jamberry

We were able to go raspberry picking this summer. Forty pounds of berries later, it's time to make jam!

With the excellent help of Elsa and Camille, I spent an afternoon making delicious raspberry jam. This was only the first couple of batches through the canner. We also have been working our way through the bags in the freezer. I am now a full convert to laying out the berries on a baking tray to freeze first, then putting them in bags. It is so much less trouble up front than I expected and much easier to take out a handful at a time for baking or snacking.

The boys were no help at all.

Hope

A preview of a work in progress.

Knitting Notebook

I finally decided to separate out the knitting and crochet projects into their own notebook. I needed the graph paper format for charting lace. It was actually quite a bit easier to find a book with graph paper than it was to find a plain one! I intended to recover it eventually but ended up carrying around the unadorned Mead book for quite a while. However, I found the perfect paper at the Paper Muse in downtown Sumner last weekend and made time to put it together with a little help from my fabric and paper stashes.
I got paper for my most current design notebook as well, but left it at my in-laws house over the weekend. Fortunately we'll be going back down there on Saturday!