History, Music - and Fiber

I've been getting reacquainted with my old spinning wheel this week, and enjoying it - I'd forgotten how slow and relaxing the treadling rhythm of this one is compared to the Hitchhiker. Since I got the Hitchhiker, I'm afraid the old one hasn't gotten used much. Partly because I felt like I should do most of the work on the new wheel, and not risk breaking the antique one, and partly because the new one is portable and so it came with me places and always had something in progress as a result.

I've been back on the old wheel because next Sunday is a rather fun demo that the Weaving and Spinning Guild was contacted for. The Algonquin College Theatre has an event on from Odyssey Showcase, called A Musical Taste of our Canadian Heritage. And for a few hours before the show, they are setting up an 18th C trading post in the lobby, and getting us to do a little weaving and spinning there. So I get to go and spin, on my old wheel, in costume, and talk to people about how you turn sheep and plants into clothes. I honestly can't think of a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Parenting the Cat

I wasn't expecting to be back at the parents' so soon. But here I am for a couple days, because of the cat. Julia was having trouble eating and drinking, her breath smelled, she was drooling a bit, and not as perky as usual. To me that was suggesting infection in her mouth or throat, but I couldn't find anything obvious. Yet there was clearly something up, and it was worrying me to see her sit around, and not wanting anything.

Our vet, who is excellent at diagnostics, and relatively inexpensive, is out here. So I got an appointment for yesterday morning, and spent the day before the appointment fretting over Julia. As a parent, I get way too concerned, always imagining the worst-case scenarios. It's probably a good thing I've only the one cat to be concerned with. As it was, I will admit I lost sleep, and had a hard time concentrating on my knitting, let alone anything that needed thinking...

Vet couldn't find a danged thing on examination except a baby tooth that hadn't come out yet (Julia's 7) so thought that might have been fretting her or getting infected, and took it out. And lo and behold, while they had her knocked out for that, they found an ulcer under her tongue. That would explain quite nicely the issues with drinking, which seemed a bit odd for a tooth to cause.

So now she is back here, nicely perked up, being pampered, starting to eat and drink more already, and enjoying the sunlight. And I can (happily) settle back to normal and concentrate on things again.

Uses For Random Buttons

It's the rare day that I have to buy buttons. My mother came from a family that followed the tradition of saving the old buttons from your clothes when the clothes were worn out and went in the ragbag. She got further infusions of buttons when older people she knew passed their button collections on to her. She has button boxes, I have button boxes...there are a lot of buttons around.

Of course the small problem with saving buttons is that sooner or later you wind up with a lot of buttons where you only have one or two of a kind. Hate to throw them out, but what do you do with them?

Some of my mother's random mother-of-pearl buttons have gone onto ornamental pillows, which it seems a lot of people have done. 

Some of them end up in other crafts - I have a hair clip my sister made years ago that has the same kind of overlapping look as this picture frame.

Knitting projects that take only a couple buttons, like slippers or hats, are another notion, and a good one if what you have is larger, ornamental buttons - the kind that used to come off coats. I've done that a few times.

But I learned of another, apparently trendy, use a few weeks ago, which is the reason I've been picking through my collection for lone buttons in specific colours today. Brides are making (or buying) button bouquets! One of the knitters I know has requested buttons for her wedding bouquet, and I had to go search online to see what she was talking about. 

Kind of a neat idea, (and appropriate for someone crafty)! Buttons either stacked or wired into flower shapes, or sewn in a dome shape, and set up as a bouquet. What'll they think of next?

Bits of Winter Life

I was happy to be out at the parents' for a couple days last week, in that so-lovely frigid weather. Nothing like having a good heat source, like a wood stove, on a cold day. It was very pretty, though - sunrises sparkling over the snow (that's what I get out my window when I'm there), and the feeders thronged with birds. But I watched from inside, thankyouverymuch.

I expect the good part of the cold for the birds is that they don't have to worry about the cats so much. Certainly none of them spent much time outdoors. Some, like Julia, found vantage points to watch the feeders, and some, like Pumpkin, just found a nice cozy spot (with a sunbeam, if possible) to nap in.

There's always erranding to do when I'm down, and this was no exception. Mom and I went to meet up with Jo and Chantal at the alpaca ranch - and I always come home with homework from the meetings. This time it was a pair of thrummed mittens that someone wanted me to knit up from a Fleece Artist kit, which I knew was waiting to pick up. I spent the next couple days enjoying making those!

There was also showing the model and discussing some pattern adjustments to be made to the stranded mitten pattern I've been designing for the shop, to go with the dye classes or with shop kits (and which I hope to get posted on Rav after Chantal tests them for me), and a bundle of yarn and some patterns and ideas for commissions for the shop, and a commercial sweater Jo loves and would like reverse engineered and adjusted for their yarn.... I think most of my personal projects are going to be put off again!

Mom's thing is weaving, and she had some books and magazines to lend Chantal, who wants to do some scarves for the store. She also brought her latest project, linen towels for the bathroom, to show. I can't blame her, they are lovely! They look so nice lined up on the towel rack.

There is also a matching bath mat - and a runner for the cats' table in the kitchen, where their food bowl is. Only in a weaver's house would the cats have a handwoven, wool-backed, linen runner to lie on and eat their food on!

Pasta and Parterres

I have found a new use for my wooden clothes-dryer.

It makes a great rack to hang fresh noodles on. This is the remains of my first batch of pasta from my new toy (the pasta-maker I got for Christmas), and it made a very tasty supper. How luxe is that - fresh pasta is going to be the norm around here from now on!

And on the perils of combining two interests...I've been reading a lovely book about estate gardens in the US between roughly 1890 and 1940, and a lot of the formal gardens have parterres - variously shaped flower beds, often edged with green low stuff like boxwood and filled with plants, like this:

And at the same time, I'm working on another hat - a reverse engineer of a Finnish pattern in the slip-stitch and stripe technique I've been seeing and wanting to try.

But now I've got the idea, the outlined shapes are making me think of parterres, and I can just about see designing something with a knit version of an outlined parterre garden using this slipstitch patterning. I think it could be fun...

Something New

A friend of mine wanted a hat, so she was over looking at patterns and yarn yesterday. I'm very happy with the fact that the pattern that caught her eye was the Something beanie by atelier alfa, because I had been eyeing it previously. It looked like a neat construction, I just had no excuse to make it - until now.

And it is just as neat as I thought it would be. I'm not normally a magic loop person, but I'm wrestling a slightly stiff circular (it's an old Aero, but the only one I had of the right size and length) into service, and the hat is coming along nicely.

See that? The hat's kind of like a shaped ribbon, attached to itself as you go. You're working in basic back-and-forth garter stitch, but coming out with a round hat. Reminds me a little of the Baby Surprise Jacket, but with no seams involved. And like the BSJ, stripes are good. Which is perfect for me, since the yarn going into it is some handspun I had natural-dyed last summer - 4 colours but only about 60-70 yards of each.

I really like the construction. The designer has a matching cowl, but I'm wondering now...can I use it to make mittens? Socks? Suddenly, I see more magic loop in my future. Definitely Something fun.

New Year, New Look...

...not for me, though! I'm perfectly happy with what I've got in that field. Nope, it's my apartment that's getting the going-over, as a New Year's Resolution and a present to myself.

It's just way too easy, especially if you're busy, to let things slide. And I do let them slide, sadly. Result? There are corners in my place that haven't had a proper cleaning and sorting since I moved in a decade ago. It bugs me, but the sorting out hasn't been a priority. I KNOW there are papers and school notes under my bed from college and undergrad, books lying around that I'll never read again, clothes in my closet I haven't worn in years, things in the kitchen that are stale-dated and haven't been opened/used in years, or equipment I don't need...

So that's what's on the slate for the next few weeks, with breaks for knitting and spinning, of course. I'm all gung-ho to get things out of here (not the stash, though - sorry, that stays), and the remainder organized and cleaned. Made a good start already - after having a quick rummage through the dresser and closet, I've got a big garbage bag half full of clothes to give away.

Oh, and on the fiber front - Knit Picks Under 100 collection is out. I've got a pattern in it - the Candy Stripes Fingerless Mitts below - and another Amanda from Ottawa has a pattern in too, which is pretty cool!