Hats off!

All the Graham slouchy hats are done, and the Gisella hat/cowl/earband is drying. That is all the hats I am knitting for the holiday season. Well, except one for moi, which I will start sometime before the end of the year.

The only handmade item left is a scarf for my SO. It's warped on a rigid heddle loom. I just have to buckle down and do the actual weaving. Then I will probably edge it in single crochet.

This is all I am going to write for now, as xmas is at my house AGAIN. I thought I might get out of it this year, but no. I have a few things to attend to in the next several days. Happy holidays!

Program list

Over the past few years, the gestalt of the local spinning guild has changed. As many of the "old guard" aged, a leadership vacuum developed which has been filled by newer, younger members who don't know the history of the guild and who aren't attached to the old ways of doing things. Instead of socializing and show-and-tell, they want programs. Fine.

Those programs have been somewhat... I don't want to say lame, so let's say not all they could have been. I had a couple of ideas that I thought "they" should do, then decided maybe I should just take charge, at least for the coming year. Needless to say, the leadership was more than happy to hand that responsibility over to me.

After soliciting ideas and lining up presenters, here is what I came up with:

• January: Sometimes the weather causes this meeting to be cancelled, so a show-and-tell with the theme "Using leftovers", plus a yarn exchange (rehome your leftovers) seems flexible.
• February: Travelogue. One of our members spent some time in Austria this past summer and is eager to share her experiences.
• March: Knitting, specifically sock knitting. Another member and I will share our sock knitting wisdom; members will be encouraged to wear their handknit socks and we'll have a sock fashion show.
• April: Hands-on spinning lesson, in chain-plying, with "coaches" on hand to help out.
• May: Judging fiber, in preparation for encouraging members to enter their fiber projects in the county fair.
• June: Animals, specifically raising silk worms, which is a hobby of one of our members.
• July: Annual picnic, show-and-tell with the theme organizing fiber; sell, swap, and/or give away tools and fiber and FO's.
• August: Dyeing, specifically plant fibers; hands-on tie-dyeing of tee shirts
• September: Fiber prep, specifically blending; hands-on drum carding, blending boards, etc.; fiber exchange.
• October: Making money with fiber - festivals, retail, Etsy, etc.
• November: Hands-on holiday craft (TBD)
• December: Holiday party and gift exchange

I also want us to have a challenge for the year: finishing unfinished objects (UFOs). Maybe we can share those at the November meeting.

Knitting: Finished 'Graham' number three, and that's about all I can stand of that pattern. I started 'Giselle', a hat that can also serve as a cowl or an earband.

Spotted in the wild:

Now THAT is a useful bit of crochet!

Handy ma'am (sort of)

At some point, my 10-year smoke detector decided time was up. It must have been when I was not home for an extended period of time, because I had no idea there was a problem until it began to act strangely. At first, I thought it was okay, as it responded appropriately to a manual test. A week later, it was mute. (Note: one is supposed to periodically test one's smoke detector by pressing the button on it. I had never done this. Shame on me.)

So I purchased a new 10-year smoke detector, thinking I could take the old one down and use the same bracket to mount the new one. Alas, sometime in the past 10 years, the manufacturer changed the bracket design. I took down the old bracket and discovered holes in the wall where an even older smoke detector had once been, holes that did not line up with the holes in the new bracket. *sigh*

I left everything sitting on the breakfast bar for about a week before deciding if I didn't act soon, there was going to be yet another newspaper article about a house fire where everyone died because the smoke detector was non-functional. Today I got out the drill, installed the new bracket, attached the new smoke detector, TESTED THE SMOKE DETECTOR, and now we are all safe.

Now I need to get hold of some spackle, and patch and paint where the old smoke detector was.

I wasn't as successful installing a portable, motion-activated light in my clothes closet. Can't win them all.

Knitting: I finished another slouchy hat, and my pattern modifications worked pretty well. I started a THIRD slouchy hat, plan to repeat the modifications, but will make the ribbing a bit longer.

Yesterday's spin-in at the Little House of Spinning was fun, or more fun for me, as there were fewer people there. When there is a big crowd (and by big, I mean about a dozen people), multiple conversations are going at once. My little AD/HD brain gets overloaded and I go home exhausted. Seven (plus or minus two) are about the right number.

Another holiday down

My easy-peasy Thanksgiving day was a bit of a FAIL for the most part. While heading out to sweep the front porch, I noticed what looked like a leaf by the door that turned out to be POOP. I cleaned that up and inspected all my shoes, but ended up Crosswaving the entire house. The meat for the pot roast was so lean that it came out dry as a bone, and there was no fat for gravy. To top it all off, every one of the pets managed to puke somewhere. At least my SO's pie was delicious.

Knitting: Finished Bigfoot's socks. Finished one slouchy hat, but it came out kind of large with little drape. For the second one, I dropped a pattern repeat while moving up a needle size to see if that works better.

I have to laugh whenever I see the word "tablescape" on the Internet. The horizontal surfaces in my house are almost always cluttered, usually with fiber projects of one sort or another.

I did clear off most of this coffee table mess Thursday morning, and the dining room table as well so we had somewhere to eat. Since I will be focused on knitting xmas gifts for the foreseeable future, I hope both remain relatively clear until the holidays are over. (HA!)

All knit, all the time

The holidays are coming, so I am focusing on handknits as gifts. My son and his girl friend each get a pair of socks, my daughter and granddaughter will be receiving slouchy hats, and I hope to have my SO's replacement scarf finished by then. Meanwhile, everything else will sit on the back burner.

Crochet: The second Emotional Support Chicken is done except for the piecing. In search of an easy pattern my granddaughter could work on independently, I started a double crochet cowl as an experiment; it looks like a contender.

Knitting: Bigfoot's socks are done but for the weaving of the ends. Slouchy hat number one is underway.

Last week I forgot to mention some sock yarn I purchased at Three Moons Fiberworks in Chesterton. It's ice dyed, a process that separates the individual colors that make up acid dye. I'm hoping it looks nice knitted up, not like camo.

And at the owl expo, I bought this Japanese knot bag from a vendor. By placing yarn inside and slipping one handle into the other, a knitter can be mobile while knitting. This would be useful when I am knitting in public but don't want to put my tote bag on the floor. It's also handy for car knitting.


I'm taking it (relatively) easy on Thanksgiving: pot roast (with potatoes, carrots, onions) and crescent rolls. My SO is baking a pumpkin pie. It will be a quiet day. Hope you enjoy yours.

Out and about

This past weekend, we had a family gathering in Michigan City (where my son lives), as we do every year around this time of year. Usually, we bring bad weather with us, but this time it wasn't too bad. We hike a bit and sightsee a bit and eat a lot. We do this instead of the traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

My SO and I visited the Lubeznik Center for the Arts. One of the current exhibits is called "Healers and Dreamers". Savneet K. Talwar is (among other things) a fiber artist and art therapist. These two pieces (one a smaller study of the other) are about the partitioning of Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan in 1947 after the British left. The red line represents the Radcliff Line, an arbitrary border between the emerging states. The top piece was woven on a Jacquard loom.

One of the interactive elements of the exhibit was created by Rita Grendze. During the pandemic, she sifted through her recently deceased mother's yarn stash and unfinished objects. She created Collective Comfort from these materials.

When I hugged the piece below, I choked up, overcome with emotion. Whether they were internal feelings brought to the surface or the traumas absorbed by the piece itself, I don't know. I just found it a very moving experience.

We also visited the La Porte County Historical Society Museum. Like most local museums, there is a treasure trove of memorabilia, some of it nostalgic for my SO and me.

From farther into the past were uses for human hair.

It used to be nothing went to waste.

Crochet: While the knit version of the Emotional Support Chicken has yet to be assembled, I started on a crochet version.
Knitting: I was hoping to get some knitting done on our trip, but we were rather busy (and I drove). I'm on the toes of Big Foot's socks.

Every holiday season, my daughter requests more slouchy hats. I've noticed that the previous ones have pilled a lot, so I decided to knit some this year from Jamieson and Smith Shetland wool. Shetland wool has many qualities: it doesn't irritate because the fiber lacks guard hairs; it wears well; and it doesn't pill like so many other fibers (merino, I'm looking at you!) A good source for this wool is The Woolly Thistle. Requested colors were "neutral", so I purchased 'Flugga White', 'Shetland Light Grey', and 'Shetland Black'.

The program at last week's spinning guild meeting was about Tunisian crochet. It produces a lovely fabric. This book was the recommended one.

Per usual, I got a little excited about taking on yet another fiber craft. I've calmed down a bit now, but will probably check the book out from the local library to see just what it's all about.

Am I a fiber snob?

I have about ten pairs of black pants in my closet, of various sizes and weights, none of which I wear on a regular basis (like not at all). They are "just in case" I need to wear something besides jeans. Most are polyester, not very warm in the winter.

Once upon a time, one could purchase a pair of wool slacks at a department store. That is what I would like, but finding something that is 100% wool and affordable is nearly impossible. I'm tempted to try sewing a pair... but they would probably hang unworn in the closet with the rest of my "dressy" pants. I'm open to suggestions.

Knitting: Cora the ESC is almost done - just need to put the pieces together and stuff her. Bigfoot's socks are a few rounds from the toes.

And that is about all the fibering I have done this past week. We drove to the Honeywell Center in Wabash to take in an exhibit by one of my fiber friends, and per usual, now I don't feel well. It seems every time we go somewhere, I pick up some fresh germs that leave me feeling low for a day or two. I need a nap.