Crewel Embroidery

When I was reading an article about William Morris in the latest Spin Off magazine,

it reminded me of a kit I have had for decades.  Sure enough, I found it and worked on it.

While I have a considerable amount of trouble with hand sewing, the wool thread covers more area with fewer stitches-more bang for my buck, you know?!

I worked on it for a half hour and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

I have a quote to share with you from William Morris;

"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful."

I am living this motto and didn't know it was spoken 150 years ago!  Cool!

Needles and Yarn

Our sandhill crane couple come up to the house every morning to ask for corn and lately the male has been banging on the sliding glass door -it is very loud banging, make you jump in your chair banging!   He is competing with his reflection-getting all bothered about a problem that is just in his head.   I think it is a good lesson for us to make sure that the things that we might rail against all day is really an adversary and not just a reflection of one!

 I have been down with this sinus headache and bronchitis again!  I am on a new course of antibiotics and steroids so the third time will be the charm!  I am getting knitting done at least!   Here is a cowl I am knitting, the one on the cover of the book.   It is a delightful knit.

 I have the second pair of socks done-I sure got a lot of mileage out of this skein of Chroma yarn!

The pattern is written for handspun yarn;  I love the directions, repeat this chart until you run out of yarn!   A perfect way to use up those orphan skeins!  This cowl will match the fingerless mitts I made last month.   The cold temperatures we have been waking up to each morning make the cowl and mitts acceptable wear here lately!

The Loom Lesson

When there are too many decisions and not enough experience to make a choice about weaving, it tends to get ignored.  I read the recent article in HandWoven magazine about using handpainted thread in the warp.  I have some of that.........I wanted to try the technique.  I didn't have the exact results of the article but I was happy with it.  I thought I would up the degree of design and make it an overshot pattern.  I worked for hours to come up the the right pattern on the narrow (189 threads) warp.  I got it all threaded on the loom and began weaving.  It looked awful.  I began to wonder about experience and me in the realm of weaving. 

Experience =  the wisdom and abilities gained by doing

I have this definition of experience in lots of arenas-sewing and quilting, even knitting.  So I began to think about my choices in relation to knitting and I knew where my mistake was.  I would never combine a busy yarn with a busy textured pattern.  They would cancel each other out!  So I cut away the overshot weft-4" of ability gained by doing- and began to weave with plain weave-the piece just glows!  I am happily weaving away on this cloth that I am making myself.  I have gained some great experience with this weaving!

Thought for New Year's Day

Just think if what you did today determined the quality of the rest of the year.............

What you invest in today is seed for the rest of the year!

Family.....conversations........reading material.........activities.

You can spend the rest of the year working that thought out.

What am I doing?

Watching feel-good movies on Hallmark channel while sewing (mending), quilting, knitting, reading a Gilbert Morris book, listening to Bill and keeping in touch with the Yahoo Group friends who spin wool, too, and e-mailing friends and family............

PS to Solitude

Here is the treasures Bill bought at the auction-a back hoe attachment for the tractor and a sprayer attachment.........for the tractor. Are we seeing a pattern here?!

Here are the pics for Karen's Kaleidescope quilt.........didn't she do an excellent job?!

This is a close-up of the block quilting......

I tried a new to me technique for the large blocks (16 1/2") for this quilt . I divided the block into workable passes for my short-arm quiting system (6" passes) and it became a very workable choice to get a long-arm look on our machines. This is the pattern.....

and for the border area I used a stencil and free motion to echo the block lines for a traditional quilt line- This is a bug picture for my grandchildren.

Oh, the sweater for David looks like this as of last night.....

and looks like this, this morning! No, I didn't put the order of the pics wrong. I had to rip out the whole thing. The drape of the sweater was way too stiff and when I got to the 'divide for sleeves' part I could see that it was too narrow--two strikes and it was out! Bill was teasing me for ripping it out; no, there was very little hesitation on my part to rip out 3 hours work--it just wasn't right and it can be. I think this is what separates the novices from the experts; not just experience but the fortitude to know that ripping out whether it is knitting (read about blog friend, Wool Enough) or in the quilting realm (read about ColdFeetQuilter, another blog friend) where it takes days to correct a mistake--a novice will quit and an expert will bite the bullet and make the corrections. This is a lesson that my Mom and time has taught me. It serves me well!

A P.S.

I ripped out the scarf I started the other evening 'cuz it was too wide to be a neck scarf and I would have run out of yarn at the wider width. I will try again but I will pick a lighter movie to knit to. Marsel says she told me the end of the My Son Jack movie was sobering but I must have missed the caveat and plunged into the second part last night quite ignorantly. Bill had to get up and walk away and not watch. Life is stark sometimes and since it was a 'real' event Bill said I couldn't rewrite the ending like I usually do on movies I think have fallen short of my expectations.

I rewrote the ending anyway! It was necessary for my mental health. We all cope some way and that worked for me.

So , am I saying you shouldn't watch the movie after my initial raves.....no, just be an informed participant. I did go on the internet and look up the life of Rudyard Kipling and learned that his struggles are still the struggles we face today. Does one event shape our whole lives? How do you sum up a whole life? Good questions still linger with me today.

I still wish I could unravel the movie like I did the scarf.......

No, really, I am glad I watched the movie and I will be richer for knowing what he went through.

There is just so much to lose when you love.

ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!

How quickly this past year has unrolled. Even in the frustrations of the permits (garage and addition) dim in view of the fact that WE ARE HERE! It is always good to take a good look of the year in review- Health-We always joked that it would take a year for Bill to catch up on his sleep after all the shift work...........it is true; he is finally starting to wake up early and get an energy level back! And me? I feel great-rested and relaxed.

Empty Nesters-after a few false starts, we are enjoying living in a home with just the two of us. The housecleaning is easier and so is the cooking! Bill is doing 99% of the shopping-a promise he always gave and is now kept-a result of my dislike of the chore and his love of shopping and shopping for food to boot!(And he always said he could do it better 'cuz he likes going to different stores for the best deals and I didn't do that!)

Grown Children-all of our children are now 21 and older-2 married and 2 developing careers while single. It is wonderful to be able to keep in touch and visit with them(grandchildren are a mere skip and a jump away (8hrs)-even our oldest son will be visiting with his bride from the Northwest this year! (He has never seen our new home and she has never visited FL!)

Weather-is absolutelly perfect-to be outside and in our yard every day is a blessing which words do not do justice..........The sun is out, the air is clear-even the hottest summer heat did not discourage us because it was only 'too hot' for a few hours in the middle of each day-mornings and evenings were still great.

Friends-While we are farther away from many (thank goodness for cell phones and e-mail!) we have moved closer to some and made new ones, too. Finding a church home was a major hurtle overcome pretty quickly after being here-a blessing we still do not take lightly.

Landscaping progress-we added trees, flowers, grass and beat the jungle growth back on most of this 10 acres! Bill even beautified the wet area into a pond and lawn now!

Driveway-graded and laid with asphalt millings so it does not wash out on the road every time it rains! (Tracks less sand in cars and house, too!)

Septic system-we have a whole new system with a drainage field moved out of the way of the new addition!

Well-a new well is drilled and placed where it will be away from the pool area to come--no sulphur either!

Contractors-we have eliminated dozens of them and have a few leads on possible workers in the area!

Power Service-added new pole and laid the foundation for underground service to come with the addition.

Snakes and Bugs-are not an issue-we learn how to deal with ants-(don't go barefoot in an ant hill), roach tablets and a quick swat with a shoe controls the Palmetto bugs (only dealt with 6 in the house so far), spiders all get the shoe or sprayed (no larger ones in the house than we had in the old farmhouse!) the snakes, only 3 so far, startled us outside but haven't seen them in a long time (are told by locals that having cats around the yard eliminates their presence!) Thank you Tommy and Bling!

Birds-an abundance all the time is incredible.........from chickadees to sand hill cranes--all are welcome and in abundance. We have lots of berry trees and it is an 'all you can eat' feast for all the birds (and squirrels, too!) We have tons of the northern robins now-they are looking fat after a few weeks of the aforementioned feast! And we learned that our hummingbirds also go south-er for the winter-Central America in fact!

Seasons-Yes, we do have seasons and it has been wonderful to see Florida for a whole cycle. We have been visiting here for 30+ yrs but have never seen the whole picture-it has been so exciting to see and we have learned so much. Most of the trees that are also found in the North have just about lost all of their leaves now. The colors that started their demise didn't start until November.
Flowers are a feast all year round-many species flower for 6-8 months and then rest a bit until they start all over again-others, like the rain lilies literally sprout a bloom overnight (in the first rains of late spring) and last only a week-all are beautiful and worthy of our attention! Most of the locals take their vacation in the Fall-the weather is truly perfect Sept - Dec, warm, sunny and no humidity (and most will tell you that the snowbirds aren't here yet either!)

Yes, it is good to reflect on the past year....even if they do not all hold the 'firsts' that this year produced! Like most years-it has had its high and low points yet I am so glad this dream of living in Florida has been realized!
In the memorable quote of Jackie Gleason when asked if he had lived here is whole life, he replied, "Not yet!" Lord willing, we will be able to say the same.



[As for pics...most have already been added to this blog under earlier posts!]