31.7.08

Piscatorial pictorial presentation

Good Morning Gwen,

We have had a bit of a theme running through the household the last few weeks.

One fish:
Two Fish:
Three Fish:School of Fish:



These fish were knit by the owner and employees of Millicent's Yarns and More. The fancy fish making a run on the worm is my work also. Joanna did the lovely eye 'make-up' and embellishments on many of the fish before they made their modelling debut. The pattern is published by FiberSpace. Each fish is a unique creation using 100% wool so they felt with a tight surface.

Some other fish spent a vacation at my house too.



Fishie #1 (apologies to Katie for chopping off her head, though her toes appear later)

Fishie #2 (with Gramma-helper)as J works at Beach Sitting 101

I think I see gills on this one.

Love, Mom

30.7.08

Dear Mom,

Last weekend was a sweet one - one dear college roommate married, other old college friends seen and visited with, riding the train south towards home through the familiar blufflands along the Mississippi.

Linen Guest Towels

This was my present to the bride and groom - two linen hand towels for their bathroom (pattern - Moss Grid Hand Towels from Mason-Dixon Knitting). These were a fairly quick knit, but even so, I spent most of the last day before I left furiously knitting to get the second one finished up and into the washing machine. The linen softened up so wonderfully after washing.

While knitting these, I kept thinking of Krtek and his little flaxen pants. My Czech family had a children's book version of this story, and it was a favorite with everyone. I've found it on Youtube auf Deutsch - of course, it really should be Czech.






mit zwo groschen Taschen,
Gwen

20.7.08

Summer Stripes

from the garden

Dear Mom,

I took these pictures this week and noticed a theme. Above is some basil from the garden plot, and the first of the "Jolly Jester" marigolds to bloom.

a visitor to the table

I found this little guy crawling along the very edge of a page of a book that was open on my kitchen table. I don't know what he is, do you? I believe he came in on a bouquet of flowers from the farmers' market last week - I even think I saw him at the beginning of the week, when he was just a little inchworm sized thing. A diet of flowers seems to have agreed with him. I put him outside, and watched his feet cling and uncling as he moved onto the very edge of a leaf.

simple shawl

I finished the shawl for afghans for Afghans I'd been working on at your house last month. I used mostly leftover Brown Sheep Naturespun sport wool, leftover from the Heartland Shawl I just completed (the orange was the rejected border color), and the socks that I made you for Christmas several years ago. I knew the shawl would drape well, since the Heartland Shawl does so well, which made it ideal for a shawl that will be used as a head-covering.

simple shawl

I improvised a really simple pattern (garter stitch borders on the long edges in a contrasting color, and tiny garter stitch borders on the short edges). I thought about adding a purple band to the short edges, too, but decided against it since I like the way the stripes trail off the edge of the shawl. I ended up blocking it twice to make sure it met the minimum width requirements - it shrunk in a little bit widthwise the first time, when I just laid it out without any pinning, and was a little under 20". Pinning it out the second time around opened up the garter stitch border and easily got it back up to size.

This made for ideal vacation knitting - no pattern to keep track of, simple enough to knit in any situation, didn't suffer when it got a little splashed on a boat ride. I'll be happy to get this mailed off first thing tomorrow!

Love, Gwen