Skip to main content

Beginning on the Right Stitch

 

Projects! First, two pairs of fingerless gloves (my pattern - Love Out Loud - on Rav or contact me if that's not accessible for you). All of mine seem to have gone missing (I'm sure they're probably in the only pocket of the only coat I didn't check) so I made the blue pair for myself - and then as usually happens when I post fingerless gloves I've made, someone promptly commissioned a pair. I used stash for both pairs, so in terms of continuing to allow my yarn collection to fulfill its ultimate destiny this year's off to a good start.


Another impulse/stash project was a "soap bar." Lush has you wash your hands with a sample of their soap when you first come in the store, which serves the double purpose of getting your hands clean and also making you want it. I've found they're the perfect size for the kids' hands, and they enjoy getting to choose which one they want to use, and when I mentioned this the last time I was in, they found me some extra samples to add to selection. Lacking a soap dish and tired of having a smudged counter, I crocheted and felted a little mat for them to sit on. 


The current ongoing project on my needles is the next installment in my Handknitting Replacements for My Store-bought Cardigans project. I only managed one last year but it was a lovely squishy cozy thing that did the duty of two of my other cardis and ended up being precisely what 2020 needed - although I did finish it rather late in the year. I'm doing another Hannah Fettig pattern (I did check that it was newer and didn't have set in sleeves, like the last one did) that I feel captures the mood of the one I'm replacing nicely, and I was elated when Kandy got in some Farmer's Daughter Fibers sock yarn that matched the color perfectly. It's yards of stockinette on small needles, so it may take me awhile, as I've only finished the first of four hanks of yarn.


Another project I decided on for this year was to make a few more Ripple bralettes. I really like the one I made last year, my bra drawer desperately needs an overhaul, and I have a lot of pretty stashed sock weight yarn. I knit this one in a few days, using yarn I bought 15 years ago at a store in Texas that no longer exists.


A small ongoing thing I'm working on is a set of sashiko embroidered coasters from a kit I got at Hillfolk. It's a very pleasant and contemplative process, and I'm trying not to rush it. There are five different patterns and I've only done one so far, but I'm looking forward to doing the rest.


First project last! Brandy did a fun little Zoom workshop on New Year's Eve to make "mantra bracelets." My oldest and I did it together (since each kit had supplies for two bracelets) and I made one to go along with my word for the year. Something new I'm trying with my yearly theme is trying to expand beyond just the word itself (although I'm certainly on the lookout for it) but also things that go along with it. I've been wearing this every day and it's been a good reminder.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reading and Writing

  #attunedpracticetuesdays: where we share the rituals and routines that are aligned with our sense of peace and wellbeing A couple of months ago, while working on a commission project , I started a new practice. I was listening to audio books while working since the project required my eyes but not my full attention, and since it was fairly labor intensive, I took the weekends off (not something I would normally do). Lacking something to do with my hands, the first Saturday I decided to put my speedy reading to good use and read a novel in one sitting (my preferred method, anyway). Then I read another novel the next Saturday. And now it has becomes a weekly thing. The only rule is that it has to be fiction - I read enough non fiction that a novel a week isn't going to hurt anything (and it wouldn't anyway, reading is reading). Helping out with Paper Heart Books and attending a bring-your-own-book-club meeting last week helped restock my dwindling supply. I like to get hard cop
Post a Comment
Read more

Festivals and Fairs

October is the Month of Fun Outings. The weather is generally pleasant, many things are less crowded than they are in summer because school has started back, and there are also an array of local events. We try to make the most of it, since I got used to not getting sick while we stayed in for a couple years so now we ride out the germiest months at home. But before that, we frolic. We'll miss our favorite fall festival due to scheduling conflict, but there will be a small one at my eldest's dance studio, and we're all going to the state fair this year. There are street fairs and at some point soon we'll go and each choose a pumpkin to stack on the front step five deep, and my littlest will name each family member while pointing at their pumpkin every time we go in or out the door.  I've started leaving windows open at night, and sometimes it's been cool enough to have them open during the day, too. My desk candle has expanded to three candles on a cheese board b
Post a Comment
Read more

3.3 - Forage

I recently looked up the rest of the Mary Oliver poem that ends in "tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" because that was the only part I had ever heard, and it turns out the rest of The Summer Day  is about going for a walk and lying about in the grass. That's what she planned to do with her one wild and precious life. I feel like it gets misapplied a lot. As the weather grows cooler, I've been thinking about foraging, as a concept. I am a terrible gardener. Even as a child I loathed getting up early and tramping through the dewy grass to the dusty garden to water and pull weeds. As an adult, I stumbled onto the one plant that likes the climate of my front windows but claim no personal credit for their flourishing. If we ever move I may have to leave them here, to ensure their survival. There's also a pot of mint by my front step that survives on rain water or when one of the kids points out that it's a bit crunchy. Plants
1 comment
Read more