Heal My Life

Long Weekend Activities

A long weekend, wow - I remember those!  When you work for yourself, you rarely get to take them "off".  Just one of the benefits of being self-employed.  But this weekend we took all for ourselves!  Which meant that Anthony got to make some furniture (photos to come), and clear some brush and work on the chicken coop and make steamed buns, which were out of this world yummy.  And I got to, well, it's easier if I show you:

This is Thorpe.  I knit it in the large size, don't ask me why, the earflaps hung to my shoulders.  I was bummed until Anthony suggested I felt it.  And Voila! It fits like a charm.

Then I worked on Carmen, a new bag in hot summer pinks and yellows.  I had done the layering of bits back in NY and transported her rolled up in a tube.  I cut and laid on the sheer top layers, pinned them in place and free motion quilted the sandwich together.  Tonight, I'll burn through the sheer top layers on the back between the quilting lines and reveal the bits underneath. 

I can't wait - I just love setting fire to things. It's the best part!

 

 

Then, I brushed Sulei, and I brushed him and brushed him and well, you get the idea.  I have to do something about that straw.

 

And I ate Anthony's yummy steamed buns, and we ate our first EGGS with toast made of Anthony's English Muffin Bread and mulberry jam from last years canning.  And it was all so delicious. We feed the chickens amazing organic feed and give them fresh ground veggies every day and the yolks were a gorgeous deep orange. 

And so our Sunday breakfast was made up of all things we made or raised or wild-gathered ourselves. And I have to admit that it was so satisfying to know that we provided the entire meal in one way or another.  Self-sufficiency is just so darn cool.   

Rockin!

Okay - this is totally cool.  Just when I think there isn't anything new to be done or discovered in the way of arts and crafts, someone comes along with a new twist on an old technique.  In this case - it's embroidery, on a rock and it's 3D! 

Last weekend at the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool, I finally met up with Jen, a blog pal whom I had been corresponding with for a while.  We'd exchanged little gifts and seemed to be on the same wavelength on several issues and beliefs.  It was wonderful to finally meet and hug, though we didn't have much time to chat as I was working. But she brought me a bag of fabulous salt water taffy made in her town and something even cooler - a freeform embroidered rock!  I couldn't for the life of me figure out how she had done it and even though she patiently explained it to me - I'm a visual learner, so it didn't make much sense. 

Then, this morning, having my coffee and reading my lists, I saw that she had posted to our Yahoo Freeform Group introducing herself.  She also included a link to a tutorial on how to do the ROCK!  Awesome.  I high tailed it over there to see how she did it.  NOW I see.  And I have to try this.  I'm thinking of doing smaller rocks, pebbles maybe, and adding them to the freeform. I have all kinds of cool threads and lightweight yarns about... it would even work for semiprecious stones as jewelry! How cool is THAT! 

The rock is sitting on top of the pile of papers on my desk, keeping everything from blowing about when I have the window open.  Thanks Jen - you're a DOLL!          

The High Veldt

The inspiration: the high veldt at Domboshawa National Park

Part of the incredibly gorgeous stash I acquired at the New Hampshire sheep and Wool for the project:

Some added stash from home:

Now...what shall I make?

I'm thinking a perhaps a throw ala Colinette Perigino?  I could use the zigzag pattern like Jaywalker,

or a feather and fan

like the one in Colinette's Ab Fab... 

Anyone have any ideas?

2007 International Freeform Challenge

So it's up!  I couldn't tell you what I was up to freeform-wise last month because we were sworn to secrecy intul everyone's contributions were in.  But Now they are and thanls to our fabulous and fearless leader, Mrya Wood, we have a stellar showing!  My contribution is below and you can see the rest of our group's contributions here.

www.flickr.com Claudia Dunitz's 2007 Freeform Challenge photoset

Merry Go Round in Progress

Okay, so here's the freeform I promised you, though it wasn't supposed to be freeform at all.  It was supposed to be a green shrug knit with a few skeins of a beautiful green Italian polished cotton yarn I bought at a new LYS I just discovered.  It was one of those "seemed like a good idea at the time" things.  I saw the yarn, it was on sale, I showed it to Anthony.

"Wow, that's nice," he said, "You should make yourself one of those little shoulder things, what do you call them, the ones with the short sleeves... for summer...?"

"Oh," I said, "Do you mean a shrug?"

"Yeah, I guess," he shrugged.

So I bought the yarn.  When I got home, I rifled through all the patterns I had for shrugs then went online to look for more.  And I guess I don't have to tell you I didn't fall in love with any of them.  So I have this yarn and no pattern and all I could think of was green and purple, because I've been fixated on that colorway recently.  I made up a basket of yarn and sat down.  I thought of doing something modular, but the sheer effort of looking for the book and then knitting all those little squares or diamonds just gave me the willies.  Though I guess it might have been fun in various weights of yarn.... but now I'll never know.

I picked up a hook instead.  You can see what happened. 

The other yarn I bought that day included a ball of Karabella Barbados in #544 purple/pistachio and I've been using it to crochet the rounds together.  I'm going to need more, and hopefully I'll be able to find it on sale as that ball was $14.95. 

So Anthony looks at my circles the other night and watches me hook them together.  Finally he asks: "What are you making?"

"A wrap," I answer.

"I thought you were making a... what did you call it, a shrug?"

"Yeah, so did I."

   

2007 Freeform Calendar

I know I've been a slug in the posting department, but I have something to show for it!  I've been working on a project which is now FINISHED!!!  I've been compiling and editing photos submitted by members of our International Freeform Crochet Group for a calendar.  And it took me a heck of a lot longer than I though it would, thanks in part to a computer crash.   

But it's finished and it showcases some incredibly beautiful fiber art by some of our talented members.  Thanks to Myra's help in doing the cover and hosting it on our groups CafePress site, you can get one here:
https://www.cafepress.com/caff.97443528

100% of the proceeds go to the Global Fund for Women as do the proceeds from all the other fab goodies on the site.  So go ahead and shop.  Get pretty things and do a good deed to kick off 2007!   

Happy New Year!!!

Gertie the Baglet

Yesterday, I completed this little bag as a sample for a class I'm doing in Vermont in March.  Yeah, I know, I never think this far ahead, but here it is.  I've made a couple of little bags similar to this one, but never bothered to photograph them, and I wouldn't have posted this photo either, except that in a flash of desparation brilliance, I came up with a name for them and I just couldn't resist telling you!

So I was fretting about the name, not of this bag, her name is Gertie, after my aunt Gert, who wanted me to call her Aunt Trudy and would not have been pleased about this.  But she made this name change too late in my life for it to stick.  So to me, she was aunt Gert until she died. And she was a real character.  A kept woman in the old fashioned sense, she taught me many thing my mother, her sister, could not.  But she deserves her own post, so I won't divulge the juicy details now.

Suffice it to say that she was a colorful woman, and she would have loved this little bag with it's sparkly metallic yarn dangle and fol lined gold beads that took me a total of eight hours, two evenings to complete.   

But, I was still bothered about the name of this type of bag.  You know, the really small bag that really only has room for a cell phone, a credit card and maybe a tube of lip balm, if it's roomy.  Cell Phone Bag, and Amulet Bag really don't do it for me.  Then, as I finished weaving on the strap, it came to be in a flash of bright light, accompanied by the sounds of a heavenly choir: BAGLET!

And she, and her descendants are hereby now and forever... BAGLETS! 

WIP'S

Someone recently wrote asking what I've been up to.  She meant fiber-wise.  Yeah, I know I've been a slug in the photo sharing department recently, but it really isn't my fault and I take full responsibility for that, even though my camera seems to have gone off it's gourd.  And I don't mean that in a good way.  When I got it -it took beautiful Sharp pictures, close up, all the time.  It seems to have decided that it doesn't like close-ups any more and doesn't want to take any photos at all, really.  So my picture quality has deteriorated to the point that I don't want to share them with you, really.

The answer to this problem is to throw the *&^% camera against the wall go back and read the manual, but I can't find it.  Sigh.  Thus - I haven't been able to show you cool stuff, and I feel badly about that.  So this morning, despite the pouring rain, I sweet talked it into at least taking something roughly resembling photos.  And Voila - bad photo's and all - here's what I've been up to. 

First the front and back of a cool reversible cable scarf.  The back isn't ugly at all! Then, these flowers are from Nancy Epstein's Knitted Flowers and it's an AWESOME book!  There are so many variations of knitted flowers I honestly didn't know where to start knitting.  There are felted ones, and petaled ones, and spiral ones and feathered ones! You'll need a cigarette - trust me.  There's a link to it on Amazon on the end table sidebar at right.  These flowers are for a secret project I'm working on which I can't talk about because it's for someone who occasionally reads me.  I'm seriously excited about it because I think it's going to be gorgeous!  I'll show the photo after I give it to her.

Then last but not least, I've been thinking deep reds and golds lately, I guess it's the fall leaves/harvest thing, this red maple is in our backyard.  So in that vein, I started scrumbling in those colors.  I have no idea what it's going to be -more on this as it develops. 

And I've decided what to knit for the babies due in my circle - the Kiss Cap in Melanie Falick's Handknit Holidays, link on endtable sidebar!  It really looks like a chocolate kiss - I'll look for a photo to show you or scan the one in my book.  More later on this later...     

      

Loot

I'm feeling terrible about not posting crafty stuff, since this is allegedly a fiber-centric blog.  There's a reason for this; not a very good reason, but a reason none the less.  One of the things I've been working on is part of a birthday gift for Holly, my youngest.  Now she doesn't read my blog, but if I posted a photo, you bet that would be the one day she picked to stop by.  I've also finished two new bags, but somehow I seem to have lost the ability to photograph things with any reasonable amount of skill, which means I'll have to hunt down the camera book and figure out where I've gone wrong.  So until I can find the freakin book, I can't show you the bags as all the photos I did manage to take are awful.  Sigh.

But I can show you a (really terrible) shot of the loot I scored at Rhinebeck.  These are some incredibly  gorgeous yarns, sparkly, glittery ribbons and loopy boucles in absolutely luscious colors.  Most of it came from Oak Grove, the pretty purple angora came from Cozy Rabbit Farm, and the little embellishment pack came from someone whose name I can't recall, nor can I seem to find the little card that was in the baggie.  Oak Grove only REALLY sells through the three shows she does a year,  as her site doesn't have color photos or updated yarn types either.  So if you son;t really know what you want to order - you're out of luck.  This year I managed to get a photo copy of the colors!  Whoo Hoo!  So I can call and order from her when I feel the need for sparkles and her particular gift for color!

The other thing, is I started a scarf with a reversible cable!  And really, it's cool.  You can flip the thing over and it doesn't look like there's a wrong side.  I'll take a photo of it after I get a biit more done.  I was following a pattern, but didn't like the way it curled (too much stockinette), so I ripped it out (all 18 inches) and started again with a seed stich edging to keep it flat curling.  I don't have enough back on the needles to do a photo justice, but it doesn't seem to be curling this time. Keep your fingers crossed - because if I have to rip it out again - it's going back into a ball.

NJ Sheep and Wool Et Al

I've been busy.  But in a good way.  We did two last minute shows back to back the past two weekends and we have another one coming up this weekend.  Last weekend was the New Jersey Sheep and Wool Show just outside of Lambertsville, NJ which is right over the bridge from New Hope, PA.  Nice.  We ate a lovely Mexican dinner on the patio in New Hope after parking in Lamberstville.  Anthony said it was the first time he parked in one state and ate in another.  You gotta love firsts.   

The fair was small, 12 vendors of which we were one.  We did well and had a good time,  Not a lot of yarn to buy - but I did manage to purchase two lovely skeins from Woolbearers, which I should have photographed for you before I wound them into balls - they really are gorgeous. The sheep were the view from our booth - REALLY nice.    

There was a sheepdog demo which I actually got to watch, something that never happens at Rhinebeck because we're so busy.  And I saw the cutest darn thing - the pee wee sheep showing competition.  No, not Pee Wee sheep, Pee Wee kids - six and under.  It was hard to tell who was leading who!  And I also saw, for the first time - a satin angora!  They are gorgeous!  And Anthony finally caved and agreed to get one!  Whoo Boy - ANGORA FOR ME!  The neatest thing about the satins is the sheen of their fur,  I photo'd a scrunchie given to me by the loveliest gal who had several of them, whose name I have to try and remember as I  didn't get her card and there's no vendor listing in the show brochure .  Sigh.  I think she's going to be at Rhinebeck and I hope she has those bunnies with her.

And on a freeform note, this is what I've been doing since the Vermont Sheep and Wool.  Her name is Indra and she looks a heck of a lot prettier in person.  I just love the hand dyed wool I bought from Nancy up at the VT show and I hope to get more at Rhinebeck as it makes a rich, beautifully textured fabric base for bags. I worked in some silk rods and inserted some dyed cocoons into wire mesh jewelry cord.  There will be more - I just have to finish the body of the bag and figure out what else she needs. 

We'll be at Museum Village, Monroe, NY this weekend demonstrating freeform and selling HMH.  Hope it doesn't rain as we'll be outside.  Keep your fingers crossed for  us!