Woolythyme

WIP Wednesday and yarnalong.....

 Folded is almost too much stockinette stitch even for me.  I love a mindless knit; it goes so well with reading.  Folded and I just finished The Dressmaker (by Kate Alcott)--but I still have miles more to knit!  I loved the Dressmaker, just one of the many newly released Titanic books marking the centenniel of the disaster.  It follows life after surviving the sinking through the eyes ofa young servant girl-- a dressmaker-wannabe--as she makes her way in the dog-eat-dog world of haute couture under the "guidance" of Lady Duff Gordon, an aristocratic and not very nice Titanic survivor.  The emphasis of the book is on the Senate investigation of the sinking and how many more people could possibly have been rescued if not for the selfishness of a few "entitled".  Historical fiction, with the emphasis on fiction in depicting the young dressmaker's life.

I'm knitting Folded with String Theory's Hand dyed Caper sock yarn--which has a touch of cashmere in it.  It's beautifully, buttery soft.  The pullover is knit from the bottom up, in the round--the sleeves are finished and just about to be added to the bodice, so the knitting will get a bit more interesting real soon.  There are little pleats in the front, and since I'm most likely going to run low on yarn, I'm going to stripe the yoke like the linked picture.  I'll be happy if mine turns out even half as pretty as that one.  

 

The church charity knitting group has decided to meet every Wednesday after the noontime Lenten service through Lent.  One project we talked about was making bookmarks to be left with shut-ins after a visit--along with a little book of meditations, a Bible, a bestseller!!--whatever we deemed appropriate for the visit.  Guess I'll find out today if this is really the project-of-the-month.  But, I'm ready!

(The book is Green Market Baking Book by Laura c. Martin that someone suggested in a yarnalong post earlier in the year.  Wish I knew who to thank.  It's a great book!!!  The whole family is loving it!)

Ta-Dah Tuesday.....

Henslowe by Beth King, knit with sportweight Inca wool from the stash.  I had the yarn--liked the pattern, so started knitting, never dreaming that I would love the end result quite as much as I do.  Actually, the process was pretty wonderful as well.  Miles of mindless garter stitch--reading time, knit-nite time (and I didn't have to unknit a single stitch all night--now that rarely happens!), movie time...followed by a not difficult 4 row-repeat lace pattern, finished with an interesting picot knit bindoff.  The "wingspan" is long enough to nicely drape around the neck; I'm afraid I often find many of the little shawlettes just too skimpy to get these nice drapey long ends.

Blocking once again worked its magic.  The wool softened.  The lace was more defined.  I wonder how this would look in black...and purple...and maybe pink, too.  Yep, I just might knit this one again!

Weekending.....

A year ago Michael Terra, a local potter, decided to feed the hungry.  He organized our first Empty Bowl project.  The community stepped up and supported him well.  He had hoped to hand over a check for $5,000 to the Community Kitchen--but was able to give them $15,000.  Saturday was our second Empty Bowl day.

and the people came......all day long.  Local restaurants supplied the food.

Nursing homes, church groups, school kids, scout troops, individuals, friends, and local artists made and glazed bowls all year long.  There were over 1,200 to choose from.

This was my bowl.

Yesterday it held tomato basil soup, some rustic artisan bread, a bit of taco salad, and a chocolate chip cookie.

Today it holds yarn.

Plays well with others...just doesn't always follow the rules....

I got tagged.  This was pretty much a surprise.  I'm a new (6 months--almost) blogger and still amazed that people are interested in anything I have to say--especially since it's most always just about knitting.  (This post isn't.  Another surprise!)

When these kind of questionnaire things--send to 10 of your friends or the world will end--come in my email box, I delete them.  (Sorry.  If you've had a string of bad luck, I might have been to blame.)  They usually come from someone I know pretty well, so telling 10 things about myself, answer 20 questions, and forward to 40 other people who just got the same email just doesn't ever make much sense.

The blog world is a bit different.  I know some of you as young homeschooling moms, some as knitters, some as other crafters...some are grandmas, some are amazing photographers, some write so beautifully I'd be first in line to buy anything you formally published--and some seem to effortlessly do it all.  I catch glimpses of every day life, but I don't really know you.  (I'd like to know you better--maybe when Tracey finds us that castle in Ireland for the knitting retreat--or was it Scotland?  I'd go either place.)

Anyway--that was a long way to say I decided to play (since I figured out how to get the questions onto the blog--that was going to be the showstopper; I'm not real techie.  read that as totally computer illiterate. )

So---here are the answers to my questions from Shannon:

11 Questions from My Tagger

1. Who is your favorite singer (or band)?  Norah Jones
2. Cary Grant or George Clooney? Cary Grant--wait, George--no, Cary--oh, both
3. Cancelled t.v. show you miss the most.  Paper Chase (wow, am I dating myself!!!)
4. Most annoying habit. My compulsiveness; I often leap before I look.
5. Best facial feature.  high cheekbones???
6. Favorite season and why.  winter--all those handknits, of course!!!
7. Did you see The Artist?  no 
8. Favorite book as a child.  Mr. Popper's Penguins  and the Borrowers--a tie!!
9. Have you seen the first person you kissed in the last 10 years? no
10. Favorite movie made before 1970.  Thomas Crown Affair (with Steve McQueen! sigh)
11. If you have children, who are they named after?  If you don't, who is your pet named after (or what inspired the name)?  Christopher and Robyn  (a third would have been named Pooh!!!)
12.  Sidney Poitier or Denzel Washington?  Denzel
13. What country would you like to visit before you die?  Iceland
14. Have you ever seen a dead body in person?  yes
15. Favorite book or movie that makes you want to eat.  Chocolat

TAG RULES:

1. Post these rules on your blog.           (check)
2. You must post 11 random things about yourself.       (check)
3. Answer the questions set for you by the person who tagged you.     (check)
4. Create 11 new questions for the people you tag.    oops
5. Let them know that you tagged them. ***        oops
6. You legitimately have to tag 11 people, but if you don’t know 11 bloggers, tag as many as you can.***        oops

 11 Random things about me....

    1.  I LOVE rhubarb.

    2.  I was a cover girl (when I was 18 months old for a company magazine where my Dad worked)

    3.  In spite of what most of my friends think, I was NOT at Woodstock; wanted to be, but wasn't.

    4.  I have worn coke-bottle-lens glasses since I was in the 3rd grade (with a contact stint in my  teen and middle years--thank goodness the lenses are now normal for people like me!)

    5.  I marched in the Cotton Bowl parade in high school  (drill corps).

    6.  Too much marching...I had a hip replacement 14 years ago.

    7.  I'm tone deaf.

    8.  I never owned a dog until I was married, but have had one ever since.  (Thank you PapaGeek!)

    9.  Diane Keaton is my style hero.

  10.  I was in 9th grade French class when JFK was assassinated. (I'll save you the math--I'll be 63 this year.)

11.  I occasionally do things other than knit.

 

 

Questions for my taggees.....

1.  Favorite pet of all time.

2.  Meryl Streep or Diane Keaton?

3.  Favorite movie set.

4.  Furthest you've ever been from home.

5.  Most unusual mode of transportation you've ever tried.

6.  Do you speak any foreign languages?  (Pig Latin counts)

7.  Best vacation you've ever been on.

8.  What is your earliest childhood memory? 

9.  A book you've read that you would recommend to everyone.

10.  I think most of us are crafters---your most disastrous crafted thing.  (If you don't craft--your biggest kitchen disaster....let me tell you about my eggnog sometime.)

11.  Your favorite toy as a child.

 

OK.  I played.  Now here is where I don't follow the rules.  Sorry.  I'm not forwarding this to 11 people.  If you want to play.  Great!  Go for it.  (It was actually sort of fun.)

But what I'd really love is for you to find one or two or five( or eleven) questions to answer--or tell me something about yourself that wouldn't have come out in your usual blogging world posts--and leave it in the comments.  That way ALL my friends can play--even those who don't have a blog!  If you read the comments, you all can learn something new about each other.

So, here goes.  Tag.  You're it.

A single moment.....

Joining Amanda at Soulemama for a single moment from the week....

 

Yarnalong and WIP Wednesday....

Spring is in the air...I can tell.  Look at all these things I started this week.  I do this every year--hop from one thing to another, to another.  (I still have some lingering WIP on my Rav page from last spring...and I've been eyeing my sewing machine--and pulled out a Russian punch embroidery project--I guess this is just my version of spring fever.)  

The lime green is Henslowe and the yarn is from the stash, some Inca sportweight that I found a while ago at Tuesday Morning.  

The purple variegated (I can't find the ballband) is going to be basic vanilla socks; I seem to remember that this yarn is supposed to stripe in wide bands but I'm not far enough long to know for sure.  This is supposed to be my car project--the one that is handy when I get stopped for the train or have to wait in line at the bank, but it hasn't made it to the car yet.

The blue is going to be Folded, and I'm so loving this yarn I don't want to stop knitting with it.  This is the first time I've used String Theory's blend of merino, nylon and cashmere.  You can really feel the cashmere.  It's gorgeous.  Unfortunately, the shop didn't have quite enough for the sweater, so like Rililie, I plan to stripe the yoke and am hoping that the Madelinetosh tan will work OK for the striping.  I'm also going to use the tan for another pair of socks for PapaGeek, and I'm ready to start them.  Java from Knitty, winter 2011, doesn't seem to want to download for me--printer problems (which I'm sure is user error and not the printer's fault--printer probaby knows I have no business casting on yet another something!); they should be cast on before the end of the day.  

The problem now is.....I want to work on ALL OF THEM.

With my knitting so aimless, my reading has slowed a bit.  A couple weeks ago someone mentioned they were reading Simply Imperfect; I got the impression (most definitely my impression--I can't remember what the person who was reading it said about it!) that it was a "decorating" book, but it's so much more.  Speaks to meaningful living-- a wabi-sabi approach of appreciating the simple and letting go of the superficial; seeing beauty in the imperfect.  I've often said that my decorating style is the love of things used up, worn out, handmade, and green and growing--I just didn't know that this was wabi-sabi.   l love everything about this book.  I've skipped around in it--but I think I've read most sections 2 or 3 times.  

I'm still enjoying Unbowed by Wangari Maathai.  I'm not finding it a quick read, but a very inspiring one.

What have you been reading and knitting on this week?  Share with Ginny for yarnalong and Tami for WIP Wednesday--or just pop in to be inspired.

Ta-Dah Tuesday.....

I love car-riding-knitting time!  Lady Kina knit with Sublime organic dk cotton (from my stash!) at a larger gauge for a drapier look.  

My favorite part...

 

this wonderful raku button I found at the bottom of the button box!

Long weekending....

We started our "weekend" on Wednesday....

::  met our oldest granddaughter at the state capitol where she was a "page-for-the-day"

::  celebrated her birthday (and her daddy's and her GrandpaGeek's)

::  knit a little

::  played lots of air hockey--and lost

::  played lots of basketball--and lost

::  played lots of chess--and lost

::  played lots of board games--and lost (they think we are the best Grandparents because we're such losers!!!)

::  we did a bit of tumbling (some more than others)

::  we took long walks to the duck pond

::  and we even squeezed in a very very quick trip to a yarn shop

We managed to get back home in time to look for #1 SIL and JayBob at the Murray State basketball game on ESPN TV; can you believe that Dick Vitale was calling the game?? That little  Murray State was on national television?  Amazing.

It was a very good weekend....and Murray won again!

 

joining amanda for weekending!

Yarn along....WIP Wednesday

This week, a few things finished.....

Knitting... the Fan sweater--pattern from Japanese Inspired Knits, by Marianne Isager.  Unusual construction, but actually went together pretty easily and it was very easy to knit.  It looks (at least to me it looked) more complicated than it is.

Finished books...(they were all ALMOST finished last week.....)

Book of Salt  ***** loved it!  beautifully written; somewhat sad story of the Vietnamese cook for Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas (did you know she was a knitter?) who is haunted by his abusive overbearing father.  He's cast adrift--both literally and figuratively--looking but never really finding his "place".

In the Garden of the Beasts *****  loved this one, too--another unsettling tale, though, of how WWII Germany managed to conceal what was really happening until it was too late for the world to step in and prevent war.  Erik Larson is an amazing story teller.

 I decided to finish Devil in the White City (another Erik Larson book) which I put down during a particularly creepy part.  Glad I finished it.  Another great read...so good, that I downloaded another of his, Thunderstruck.  Haven't started it yet.

 

In the started/to start pile:

Lady Kina, using Sublime organic cotton-------from the stash!!!! 

The only book I've started--and I've only read a chapter, is Unbowed, by Wangari Maathai, winner of the Nobel Prize and founder of the Green Belt Movement in 1977.  Back cover:

"... She began a renowned poor people's environmental effort that soon inspired the world.  Having endured jailings, beatings, and personal losses, Maathai continued to plant trees and change lives, and worked successfully to save Kenya's forests and to restore democracy to her beloved country,"

The other books were impulse checkouts at the library this morning!

 

Won't you join  Ginny for yarnalong and Tami for WIP Wednesday!

Best valentine gift ever.....

A Valentine boy (and 15 months later....a Mother's Day girl!!--best Mother's Day gift ever!!!).  Happy 39th birthday, sweet boy.