tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35060728531834578472024-03-05T19:57:13.341-08:00Peaceable LiberalBonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17348444417253082809noreply@blogger.comBlogger766125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3506072853183457847.post-83078544173820705692019-02-28T11:46:00.000-08:002019-02-28T11:46:05.902-08:00The Recurring Persian Dream<a href="http://peaceableliberal.blogspot.com/2016/10/persian-daydreams.html">About two and a half years ago</a>, I found and fell in love with the Persian Dreams pattern.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzzDkW4NjivTO3tTyU1DcD_08VLAYrO1rv4fkswVNLk84foB14Tt6Fb91-iqm_1_sfdaru5OcXysdeWdBr_w_orCYt12RFJhvAZ4e17JZVmMBZ_rcMcHq0WiSjZVOnOqG7WCJlxIIHoZbX/s1600/persian+dreams.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzzDkW4NjivTO3tTyU1DcD_08VLAYrO1rv4fkswVNLk84foB14Tt6Fb91-iqm_1_sfdaru5OcXysdeWdBr_w_orCYt12RFJhvAZ4e17JZVmMBZ_rcMcHq0WiSjZVOnOqG7WCJlxIIHoZbX/s320/persian+dreams.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<i><a href="https://www.ravelry.com/people/WildJen">WildJen's</a> Persian Dreams (on Ravelry <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/projects/WildJen/persian-dreams">here</a>)</i></div>
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That one is the one that really knocked me on my ass. I could not resist it. It remains the most beautiful piece of knitting I have ever seen.<br />
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<a href="http://peaceableliberal.blogspot.com/2016/11/embarrassment-of-riches.html">A month later,</a> I had a Come to Jesus with myself and decided I was crazy enough to knit this BUT not crazy enough to make all the color changes called for by the pattern. Solution: Self-striping yarn left from my <a href="https://www.knitpicks.com/yarns/Felici_Sock_Yarn__D5420165.html">Felici</a> obsession. The amount remaining from knitting a pair of socks was enough to make one hexagon.<br />
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<a href="http://peaceableliberal.blogspot.com/2017/02/gradient-raglan.html">Two and a half months later,</a> I was on block 6 of 24 and had redevoted myself to it.<br />
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Two years later, block 7 wasn't even close to being finished.<br />
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You know what's coming: <a href="http://peaceableliberal.blogspot.com/2019/02/depth-year.html">DEPTH YEAR</a>.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD8vFKoS6BMHHD25ElCjeZJl6ta20eYWbRiq3DPiN5cAt5UkVR_DjqlGKnCY4JULY0Gpbe9CLETl0EHBftBQtXKb_S9icMzws99vgzDr2FZTr2pvpd4NdL660IK55GT300vJy5o0aDs00f/s1600/Block+7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD8vFKoS6BMHHD25ElCjeZJl6ta20eYWbRiq3DPiN5cAt5UkVR_DjqlGKnCY4JULY0Gpbe9CLETl0EHBftBQtXKb_S9icMzws99vgzDr2FZTr2pvpd4NdL660IK55GT300vJy5o0aDs00f/s320/Block+7.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<i>(mine ravelled <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/projects/bonniebeth/persian-dreams">here</a>)</i></div>
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Yesterday I finished block 7. </div>
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It took me the entire portion of the non-eating part of today's lunch break to get here: </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq2dYzO0KT-KUCbZ5oG7-ZMrVFlHhfXQ9O5vqHp7fEdrl37BLCfk1xb-G3l2gMqF25nQU41YdjPVjiBThexY7YraYWsbEkQ5aJvaxgtM1YE_i9mAcov_nlQl7X0fQ3yNILYi3LuEBWkYRN/s1600/circular.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq2dYzO0KT-KUCbZ5oG7-ZMrVFlHhfXQ9O5vqHp7fEdrl37BLCfk1xb-G3l2gMqF25nQU41YdjPVjiBThexY7YraYWsbEkQ5aJvaxgtM1YE_i9mAcov_nlQl7X0fQ3yNILYi3LuEBWkYRN/s1600/circular.jpg" /></a></div>
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I didn't have a crochet hook, so I had to learn a new circular cast on. In case you ever find yourself in a similar predicament <i>(and let's be honest, why would you?)</i>, I recommend <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXFJFNQkKRQ">this video</a>. </div>
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Even if I didn't have the cast on delay, let's be real about this project. It's going to take <i>for-freaking-ever</i>. There are 24 blocks. All of those blocks have live edges--288 stitches of live edges--that will be kitchner stitched to adjacent blocks.</div>
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I've thought about the best way to do this without plunging into the Pit of Despair. </div>
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I thought about blocking the hexagons when I have a third of them done, and grafting those eight together. Maybe breaking up the project into smaller bits would be helpful. I could try to convince myself that things unfold as they should and trust that each hexagon was created at the right time in the right pattern with the right yarn. Just take a deep breath and work in tiny bits and believe that it's going to be gorgeous at the end.<br />
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<img alt="Image result for who am i kidding meme" src="https://sayingimages.com/wp-content/uploads/just-kidding-meme.jpg" /><br />
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<i>I miss you <u>so much</u>, President Obama.</i></div>
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So, after giving this a lot of thought, I've decided there's only one path to completion here: Abandon any hope of completion. Lean into it. Accept that the rest of my life will be me knitting stranded colorwork with fingering weight yarn. If by some miracle I get finished with that before I die, the remainder of my life will be kitchnering together said pieces.<br />
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At the end, there has to be some sort of border around the whole thing--some way of dealing with the remaining live stitches. Lots of people have done i-cord rather than the 20-row border. Since I will never get to the border, I'm not bothering to think about it.<br />
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If I'm not enjoying knitting this, then I should quit. There is no reason to keep doing it in hopes of a finished product <i>because it will never be finished.</i><br />
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Here comes block 8.Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17348444417253082809noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3506072853183457847.post-35269382239947669862019-02-18T09:14:00.002-08:002019-02-18T09:14:35.128-08:00Cycles: FebruaryI'm beginning to understand that there are cycles of thought that should be respected rather than seen as a personal shortcoming.<br />
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For example, I used to feel badly about the obsession I would feel in February to research and order new flowers. I realize now that looking at seed catalogues and planning where I could plant new things is a very good coping mechanism for the gray and brown of February. It give me hope that someday soon the grass will once again green up and plants will dare to bloom.<br />
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This was yesterday morning:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXre-lqlQAww4s0DEnSKHINTTuZZTJdKg_caTtz6HCGUYD6Z8ot_o-AHqHuZVxndU0CvSJzVbJcK5oo_iPsX592Hmxcv3kmrqJJBVuMTokKMVmxn02BmTczAzbklf4RclWODmTnM904S8b/s1600/20190217_102811.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1338" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXre-lqlQAww4s0DEnSKHINTTuZZTJdKg_caTtz6HCGUYD6Z8ot_o-AHqHuZVxndU0CvSJzVbJcK5oo_iPsX592Hmxcv3kmrqJJBVuMTokKMVmxn02BmTczAzbklf4RclWODmTnM904S8b/s320/20190217_102811.jpg" width="267" /></a></div>
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I've started a wishlist of plants I'd like to buy. I want to try a couple plants that didn't work at all last year: lisianthus and ranunculus. They're beautiful enough that I'll try again. I plan to buy more dahlias even though the ones I overwintered in vermiculite in my garage didn't come back last season.<br />
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Hope springs eternal, and that's just fine by me. Hold on. Spring is coming.Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17348444417253082809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3506072853183457847.post-77214189947745846822019-02-12T09:14:00.000-08:002019-02-12T09:14:59.809-08:00Depth YearI'm doing a Depth Year this year. It's based on the idea from this blog post: <a href="https://www.raptitude.com/2017/12/go-deeper-not-wider/">https://www.raptitude.com/2017/12/go-deeper-not-wider/</a>. I've joined a Facebook group built around the idea, and I've enjoyed reading how other people are interpreting it for their own lives.<br />
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Here's what it means for me:<br />
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<li>Shop the stash. Start with stash and search for a project to go with the yarn instead of the other way around.</li>
<li>Buy no yarn except Felici, yarn for donated items, or if <u>very specific</u> gift requests are made that cannot be fulfilled by stash yarn.</li>
<li>Try at least a pillowcase of Yumiko Higuchi embroidered flowers. Unless it makes me miserable, set the goal of embroidering the pillow and the linen picture.</li>
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Regarding the first two goals: This may come as a deep shock to you, but I own a lot of yarn.<br />
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I know. I'll give you a minute to recover.<br />
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Better? Good.<br />
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Because I work at a computer, it is easy for me to take a break by looking at yarn, which leads to buying yarn. I'm particularly weak in the face of a sale. As a result, I own a lot of <i>great</i> yarn.<br />
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Now to knit that great yarn.<br />
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The way this has taken shape these past few weeks is that I've been working on projects whose raw materials I've owned for an uncomfortably long period of time. I knew exactly what this yarn would become, but I'd just never done it.<br />
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First up: Mr. Banana Foster, the sock monkey<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEzVNAYVdZfr268m_As3C5fpCZyqagqyIDPTHo0LK9D8-DpCtKYAcNuhH8mWdZALJmt-o1UmwgWzcTXvpLKLA36AZjRljRxhult4zibf_zuI3W_-5_xADpYh5OcpD8-AGb1ypokpw7KS9M/s1600/Foster+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEzVNAYVdZfr268m_As3C5fpCZyqagqyIDPTHo0LK9D8-DpCtKYAcNuhH8mWdZALJmt-o1UmwgWzcTXvpLKLA36AZjRljRxhult4zibf_zuI3W_-5_xADpYh5OcpD8-AGb1ypokpw7KS9M/s1600/Foster+1.jpg" /></a></div>
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<i><a href="https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mr-foster-sock-monkey">Mr. Foster Sock Monkey</a> (mine ravelled <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/projects/bonniebeth/mr-foster-sock-monkey">here</a>),</i></div>
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<i>knit in Knit Picks Essential (discontinued--I told you it's been in the queue a long time)</i></div>
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I bought the kit for Mr. Foster in 2012 to make for a friend. The pattern seemed fussy, so I didn't do it. Now it's done. (Spoiler alert: It <i>was</i> fussy.) He's supposed to have a robe, but I decided life was too short to knit it. Plus, a robe would hide his adorable butt flap. That seems like a tragedy.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiEpw0La6uSsGv4w10P93DDUciwy5Br1n2X90js1vhzyQ6grF3ATXDPYPcQT3ANncMZXIcPKzRbbFvcdu0WGLZgI5IoT9BuFeWRTe6Fd3GRhNw5tuDOOFyxe2wd-d6B2-LJ0UDhBj2myBH/s1600/Foster+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiEpw0La6uSsGv4w10P93DDUciwy5Br1n2X90js1vhzyQ6grF3ATXDPYPcQT3ANncMZXIcPKzRbbFvcdu0WGLZgI5IoT9BuFeWRTe6Fd3GRhNw5tuDOOFyxe2wd-d6B2-LJ0UDhBj2myBH/s1600/Foster+2.jpg" /></a></div>
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Then there came Mawata Mittens. You take silk sheets that are nearly translucent in their thinness, stretch them out until you get something that sort of looks like yarn, cut the loop, and knit with it. It's strange and delightful.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhARmqcS6IMGkXscmCmNmtb4uT3OTzh7qjBLx0wJIrt9zJI7SxkCjlvxQsmihwg86HC0kjnFBJ5G_yxhsM6ZC_qjpzaVWl1rqEK7wukx_rNpeomSpPWpu431SKPxNGXZZ_rtmfVaRjS_ryJ/s1600/Mittens+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhARmqcS6IMGkXscmCmNmtb4uT3OTzh7qjBLx0wJIrt9zJI7SxkCjlvxQsmihwg86HC0kjnFBJ5G_yxhsM6ZC_qjpzaVWl1rqEK7wukx_rNpeomSpPWpu431SKPxNGXZZ_rtmfVaRjS_ryJ/s1600/Mittens+3.jpg" /></a></div>
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<i><a href="https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/basic-mitten-7">Basic Mitten </a>(mine ravelled <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/projects/bonniebeth/basic-mitten">here</a>),</i></div>
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<i><a href="https://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/frabjous-fibers-silk-hankies">knit in frabjous fibers and Wonderland Yarns Silk Hankies</a>, Spilled Ink colorway</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRua-qlkyvi1qXobkPtpKMnpscod2lUTWemJPBgMf1QubGVdYnjW6RmTLLeV-CPqLIJoRv2kMHlUyibYL3rNytU9r4A3PRnJRhc6HqOWSXSpO0KJDsaR2xu-BwHgzJA62gKs16iHxrb85i/s1600/Mittens+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="180" data-original-width="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRua-qlkyvi1qXobkPtpKMnpscod2lUTWemJPBgMf1QubGVdYnjW6RmTLLeV-CPqLIJoRv2kMHlUyibYL3rNytU9r4A3PRnJRhc6HqOWSXSpO0KJDsaR2xu-BwHgzJA62gKs16iHxrb85i/s1600/Mittens+1.jpg" /></a></div>
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Next up were thrummed mittens. Thrums are weird and wonderful. You take roving, cut them into bits a few inches long, and knit them between stitches. The outside looks like this:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwILLq1Jtgfh7GvIRZQZNfm8amAfUe4vMQudvQzZChhNAVPJ6vr_tWSMiFKzECBsJDYEO9bHCboYXuSivmg0ETNCHvGLvfvuhAxm9Zy0KNbt1bLwYqJR8IRvl5mPIVlxBwF_Of2rrbAwjv/s1600/Thrum+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwILLq1Jtgfh7GvIRZQZNfm8amAfUe4vMQudvQzZChhNAVPJ6vr_tWSMiFKzECBsJDYEO9bHCboYXuSivmg0ETNCHvGLvfvuhAxm9Zy0KNbt1bLwYqJR8IRvl5mPIVlxBwF_Of2rrbAwjv/s1600/Thrum+1.jpg" /></a></div>
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<i>Classic Thrum Mittens (mine ravelled <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/projects/bonniebeth/classic-thrum-mittens">here</a>),</i></div>
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<i>knit in <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/fleece-artist-blue-face-leicester-aran">Fleece Artist Blue Leicester Aran</a></i></div>
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The inside looks like this:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg44A0EPer7i4wAFD88b-BVv0juedDIQirFtrj8w-Z2s_DfL4CkBBDXH6vaOt_b62zqhiIBJJmOE027Bj-Hm-5CxbjNYMyAt8X-pDyjya_o0OgZ6qtU3dqdmgk31lVuBH7xkKyTXCjFNcsR/s1600/Thrum+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg44A0EPer7i4wAFD88b-BVv0juedDIQirFtrj8w-Z2s_DfL4CkBBDXH6vaOt_b62zqhiIBJJmOE027Bj-Hm-5CxbjNYMyAt8X-pDyjya_o0OgZ6qtU3dqdmgk31lVuBH7xkKyTXCjFNcsR/s1600/Thrum+2.jpg" /></a></div>
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The thrums are supposed to felt some with wear, creating a nigh-impenetrable mitten. I've already worn them hiking this winter.<br />
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Nocturne <i>adored</i> both the yarn and the roving for these mittens.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4n0SrGRJshM60cZPW2HYOAk1lnqMA21Zu3SNH0RhO-RYCBD3oivbEF8ahwN1HA2wjrHson5frD2obEuCP_RQUuX2T2FJbCa4DgkbkrAncF4CNlfGfHzr7LnvAkVCX2qFw26Fq0SUk5O-P/s1600/Thrum+kitty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4n0SrGRJshM60cZPW2HYOAk1lnqMA21Zu3SNH0RhO-RYCBD3oivbEF8ahwN1HA2wjrHson5frD2obEuCP_RQUuX2T2FJbCa4DgkbkrAncF4CNlfGfHzr7LnvAkVCX2qFw26Fq0SUk5O-P/s1600/Thrum+kitty.jpg" /></a></div>
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<i>Mine? Mine.</i></div>
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The strange thing is that these three projects took very little time. Granted, I can be an obsessive knitter, and I knit a lot, but still. It left me puzzled why I had put them off for so long. I'm feeling motivated to clean up my Ravelry queue!<br />
<br />Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17348444417253082809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3506072853183457847.post-1994436308508733772018-02-12T13:17:00.003-08:002018-02-12T13:17:35.481-08:00Change of PlansI bought some Mineville Wool Project Super Sock from <a href="http://www.simplysockyarn.com/">Simply Socks</a>. It's available in short runs at a fantastic price, and I really like knitting with it.<br />
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I was working on a pair of socks for Andrew, and I noticed that the sock seemed really.... dense. It didn't make sense to me. It was not a weird yarn. It was the needles I typically use. I have knit this pattern before. I mentally shrugged and carried on.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1wMYydSMP5jq30qah08MWpyPHSUOsHriW3FU7J9TfCHfv9tSNODyEn3dmRJssJQnSs5fXhUmiEPLblSdP0PoBlkpFMpsdOPze0QlvCT7IbIJtFdstgIVg1HhWWOe8pst_JTATw5jq3sNs/s1600/20180206_084057.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1wMYydSMP5jq30qah08MWpyPHSUOsHriW3FU7J9TfCHfv9tSNODyEn3dmRJssJQnSs5fXhUmiEPLblSdP0PoBlkpFMpsdOPze0QlvCT7IbIJtFdstgIVg1HhWWOe8pst_JTATw5jq3sNs/s320/20180206_084057.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<i><a href="https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/simple-skyp-socks">Simple Skyp Socks</a> (mine ravelled <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/projects/bonniebeth/simple-skyp-socks-2">here</a>),</i></div>
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<i>knit in Mineville Wool Project Super Sock, Winter Sunrise colorway</i></div>
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We all know how this story ends. The sock <i>was</i> unusually dense. Despite good yardage, I ran out of yarn a few rows before the second toe.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8JYhxeftgvVnXMTo1VvSwOzzu-ASAXBVS3jH8dVR6-mbqy5BHMBd40a8q4ML_woDcS8Ww6429gOUGarTEpkkx_NDLTd3KymT5WnfbfhnV_mtz91XL6kKwrxSEiRdB2fin8ExSkzkRAxlO/s1600/20180206_084108.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8JYhxeftgvVnXMTo1VvSwOzzu-ASAXBVS3jH8dVR6-mbqy5BHMBd40a8q4ML_woDcS8Ww6429gOUGarTEpkkx_NDLTd3KymT5WnfbfhnV_mtz91XL6kKwrxSEiRdB2fin8ExSkzkRAxlO/s320/20180206_084108.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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The moral of this story is that sometimes you have to change plans unexpectedly when you thought you were close to the finish of something. So, change plans and move on. It's fine, and it might even be fun.</div>
Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17348444417253082809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3506072853183457847.post-45579026639609274452018-01-08T07:18:00.000-08:002018-01-08T07:19:05.348-08:00The Year the Not Knitting Wasn'tI was ready for the Not Knitting. <a href="http://peaceableliberal.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-stillness-of-january.html">Every January</a>, it seems that I lose the desire to knit. Instead, I read. I've gotten used to it, and it no longer scares me that I'll never want to knit again and will have gajillions of dollars in yarn that I won't use.<br />
<br />
I was mentally prepared for it this year. I worked to get physically prepared as well. I checked out extra library books. I bought an embroidery pattern. I read up on British mystery series I might want to watch.<br />
<br />
Then this happened:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTFf6K0HsFVSgBOHHyy1eFsbRb3yG-JU8uM6A37jxOW5A2yUsmJZ1K4l5gOLkuhnqnn86YHa9HORRhKgxgf6OYlHxR1tQyc65DoAVPhmenRZVjkIBZA0kFSkPgLPlrdDD-meWP5on8VZDd/s1600/20180108_083153.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTFf6K0HsFVSgBOHHyy1eFsbRb3yG-JU8uM6A37jxOW5A2yUsmJZ1K4l5gOLkuhnqnn86YHa9HORRhKgxgf6OYlHxR1tQyc65DoAVPhmenRZVjkIBZA0kFSkPgLPlrdDD-meWP5on8VZDd/s320/20180108_083153.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<i>Christmas <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/diagonal-rib-socks">Diagonal Ribs</a> (mine ravelled <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/projects/bonniebeth/diagonal-rib-socks-15">here</a>),</i></div>
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<i>knit in <a href="http://www.simplysockyarn.com/west-yorkshire-spinners/">West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 ply</a> in <a href="http://www.simplysockyarn.com/wys-cocktails-989-candy-cane/">989 Candy Cane</a></i></div>
<br />
And then this happened:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiolVWmFycnvpzNNrBwnm7NVwtDcplSlePh5F-p2sv3f5HTtw9F6X7ad59oftt5oBebSRuWmK5MRV32Uq10Nr2vHlCZ6mjgxBxR900w-pEe3jAmK2r3gNaFbNaGd24f4yVQB_n-vsf9G_5v/s1600/wavelength.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiolVWmFycnvpzNNrBwnm7NVwtDcplSlePh5F-p2sv3f5HTtw9F6X7ad59oftt5oBebSRuWmK5MRV32Uq10Nr2vHlCZ6mjgxBxR900w-pEe3jAmK2r3gNaFbNaGd24f4yVQB_n-vsf9G_5v/s320/wavelength.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<i>Plain Socks (mine ravelled <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/projects/bonniebeth/sock-recipe-a-good-plain-sock-57">here</a>),</i></div>
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<i>knit in <a href="http://www.bluemoonfiberarts.com/newmoon/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=182_4_64">Blue Moon Socks That Rock Lightweight</a> in Wavelength</i></div>
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And now this is happening:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJAe-xTzLmludgOis6p39uy38645arH3PFkt3zxzdWwBbmt1tKoX9TjGiKHmt2btkbteZcRnD5ywJip3n5jfjolagvOAnCk4pZuRMAfiX1IzVFfWG921w9-1dpSxlMYJNPOg1N11Yi2bef/s1600/20180108_101227.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJAe-xTzLmludgOis6p39uy38645arH3PFkt3zxzdWwBbmt1tKoX9TjGiKHmt2btkbteZcRnD5ywJip3n5jfjolagvOAnCk4pZuRMAfiX1IzVFfWG921w9-1dpSxlMYJNPOg1N11Yi2bef/s320/20180108_101227.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<i><a href="https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/simple-skyp-socks">Simple Skyp Socks</a> (mine ravelled <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/projects/bonniebeth/simple-skyp-socks-2">here</a>),</i></div>
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<i>knit in Mineville Wool Project Super Sock in Winter Sunrise</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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Oh well. If the Not Knitting comes late this year, I'll still be ready.</div>
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Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17348444417253082809noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3506072853183457847.post-17937757878305276022017-12-13T06:47:00.000-08:002017-12-08T08:16:32.993-08:00The Wisdom of Books<a href="http://peaceableliberal.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-wisdom-of-tv.html">Awhile ago</a>, I shared some quotes I'd written down from TV. Today I'd like to share some book quotes. These are all from Louise Penny's books.<br />
<br />
Louise Penny's character, Armand Gamache, is particularly wise. This first quote is how I feel about knitting. I choose to do it anyway.<br />
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: purple;">He walked briskly to the young couple and their son and joined them as they walked to the stall Old Mundin had set up. It was full of furniture, hand made. A person’s choices were always revealing, Gamache found. Mundin chose to make furniture, fine furniture. Gamache’s educated eye skimmed the tables, cabinets and chairs. This was painstaking, meticulous work. All the joints dovetailed together without nails; the details were beautifully inlaid, the finishes smooth. Faultless. Work like this took time and patience. And the young carpenter could never, ever be paid what these tables, chairs, dressers were worth. And yet Old Mundin chose to do it anyway.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: purple;"><u>The Brutal Telling</u> by Louise Penny </span></div>
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<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
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<span style="color: blue;">Stupid people worried Gamache. They were unpredictable.</span></div>
</blockquote>
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<span style="color: blue;"><u>The Hangman</u> by Louise Penny</span> </div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: right;">
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #cc0000;">Gamache listened, but didn’t nod. Didn’t agree or disagree. He was bending much of his will to disengaging from Brébeuf, while still listening closely.</span></div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #cc0000;">A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny</span> </div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
It isn't just Inspector Gamache that's clever, though.</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
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<span style="color: #6aa84f;">Yes, I’m in debt. Never was good with money and now that apparently I’m not allowed to steal, life is much more difficult.</span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><u>A Trick of the Light</u> by Louise Penny</span> </div>
<div>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #3d85c6;">“Do you think he’d lost his mind?” Clara asked. “I think,” said Myrna slowly, “that Peter could afford to lose some of his mind. It wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.”</span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><u>The Long Way Home</u> by Louise Penny</span> </div>
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Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17348444417253082809noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3506072853183457847.post-13227046074474601572017-12-12T07:26:00.000-08:002017-12-12T07:27:03.321-08:00Book Quotes: Books
These are all book quotes about books, a glorious world within an already glorious world.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #741b47;">Bringing a book of your own to school was a no-no, and not to recess either, where you were supposed to be getting balls thrown at your head. Carrying a book was practically against the law at summer camp, where downtime was for forced mass song.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #741b47;"> Books are how cautious kids get to experience a kind of secondhand rebellion, a safe way to go off the rails.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #741b47;">(Years later, the literary critic Liesl Schillinger would dub these “mumblenyms”—words mispronounced by heavy readers who’d encountered them only on the page.)</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #741b47;"> This is every reader’s catch-22: the more you read, the more you realize you haven’t read; the more you yearn to read more, the more you understand that you have, in fact, read nothing.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #741b47;"> It wasn’t until I was in my thirties that I understood it was okay and even right to read what you wanted rather than what you ought.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: #741b47;"><u>My Life with Bob: Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books, Plot Ensues</u> by Pamela Paul </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<div>
<span style="color: #38761d;">There was a universe inside every human being every bit as big as the universe outside them. Books were the best way Nina knew—apart from, sometimes, music—to breach the barrier, to connect the internal universe with the external, the words acting merely as a conduit between the two worlds.</span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><u>The Bookshop on the Corner: A Novel</u> by Jenny Colgan </span></div>
Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17348444417253082809noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3506072853183457847.post-39021916613876404812017-12-11T07:30:00.000-08:002017-12-11T07:30:25.032-08:00Book Quotes: Funny
It's time for some funny quotes.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: blue;">“There are only so many hours in the day, Simon. Two, three people—that’s all any of us have time for.” </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: blue;">“There are more people than that in your immediate family, Penny.” </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: blue;">“I know. It’s a struggle.”</span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: blue;"><u>Carry On</u> by Rainbow Rowell </span></div>
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<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<div>
<span style="color: #990000;">You and I…we despise almost everyone, which means we save all our love and affection for a small few. I don’t know how they put up with the intensity of it, but they do.</span></div>
</blockquote>
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<span style="color: #990000;"><u>Neanderthal Marries Human: A Smarter Romance</u> by Penny Reid </span></div>
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<span style="color: purple;"><br /></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<div>
<span style="color: purple;">Oh thanks be to the God she doesn’t believe in.</span></div>
</blockquote>
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<span style="color: purple;"><u>The Crossing Places</u> by Elly Griffiths</span> </div>
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<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<div>
<span style="color: #c27ba0;">I don’t want to do anything. I don’t even want to start this day because then I’ll just be expected to finish it.</span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #c27ba0;"> <u>Fangirl: A Novel</u> by Rainbow Rowell</span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #c27ba0;"><br /></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<div>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">I have to admit that humans waste a lot of their time—almost all of it—with hypothetical stuff. I could be rich. I could be famous. I could have been hit by that bus. I could have been born with fewer moles and bigger breasts. I could have spent more of my youth learning foreign languages. They must exercise the conditional tense more than any other known life-form.</span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><u>The Human</u> by Matt Haig </span></div>
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #990000;">“I had enough adventure as a child,” Sophie said firmly as she poured. “I’m having a staid adulthood to make up for it.”</span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #990000;"><u>Welcome to Temptation</u> by Jennifer Crusie </span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<div>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">Shitsofuckit. This is just your life, your career, your world, my brain said to me. No reason for you to be nervous. Why are you such a pain in the ass? I asked. It’s the job of every neurotic artist to have a brain that tortures them, my brain answered. Well, fuck off, I demanded.</span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><u>Rock Chick Reckoning</u> by Kristen Ashley </span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div>
<span style="color: #4c1130;">Why would she take one of her two days of quiet and solitude a week and spend it with people? Nice people, certainly, but people who wanted to talk and interact.</span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #4c1130;"><u>The Obsession</u> by Nora Roberts </span></div>
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #990000;">“You’re a very unusual man.” </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #990000;">“I have no context with which to frame a reply to that observation.”</span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #990000;"><u>Memory Man</u> by David Baldacci</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #38761d;">Here’s a thing I believe about people my age: we are the children of Hogwarts, and more than anything, we just want to be sorted.</span></blockquote>
and<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #38761d;"> Every single surface told a story. A long one. With digressions.</span></blockquote>
and<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #38761d;">I felt the disorientation of a generous offer that in no way lines up with anything you want to do: like a promotion to senior alligator wrestler, or an all-expenses-paid trip to Gary, Indiana. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"> <u>Sourdough: A Novel</u> by Robin Sloan </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #660000;">The railway hit Harrow on the Hill in 1880 and it’s been downhill ever since, culminating in one of those formless red brick shopping centres which artfully combines a complete lack of aesthetic quality with a total disregard for the utilitarian function for which it is built. As a result, your average shopper has only to spend ten minutes inside to be reduced to a state of quiet desperation</span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #660000;"><u>The Furthest Station</u> by Ben Aaronovitch </span></div>
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #0b5394;">We are all ignorant. There are beaches and deserts and dunes of knowledge whose existence we have never even guessed at, let alone visited. It’s the ones who think they know what there is to be known that we have to look out for. “All is explained in this text—there is nothing else you need to know,” they tell us. For thousands of years we put up with this kind of thing.</span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><u>The Book of General Ignorance</u> by John Mitchinson and John Lloyd </span></div>
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17348444417253082809noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3506072853183457847.post-20299966879608216352017-12-08T07:37:00.000-08:002017-12-08T08:18:37.337-08:00Book Quotes: EmotionThese quotes are ones that explain some nebulous emotional state. When I read them, I understood them profoundly, but I'd never been able to put the feeling into words.<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
I'll read anything Rainbow Rowell writes. I bet even her grocery list is fantastic.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<div>
<span style="color: #38761d;">He sat back in the seat and looked over at her. “I wish you’d go away,” he whispered, “so that we could finally talk.”</span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><u>Eleanor & Park</u> by Rainbow Rowell</span> </div>
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #bf9000;">They’d even gone to therapy together after their mom left. Which seemed weird, now that Cath thought about it. Especially considering how differently they’d reacted—Wren acting out, Cath acting in. (Violently, desperately in. Journey to the Center of the Earth in.)</span></blockquote>
and<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #bf9000;">Cath couldn’t control whether she saw Levi on campus. But she could worry about it, and as long as she was worrying about it, it probably wasn’t going to happen. Like some sort of anxiety vaccine. Like watching a pot to make sure it never boiled.</span></blockquote>
and<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #bf9000;">Cath had tried to call Levi first—not because she thought he could help, he was four hours away—but she wanted to touch base. (The “tag” kind of base. The kind that means safe.) </span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #bf9000;"><u>Fangirl: A Novel</u> by Rainbow Rowell </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
These are ones I've collected from various books:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #660000;">So I guess you could say Neel owes me a few favors, except that so many favors have passed between us now that they are no longer distinguishable as individual acts, just a bright haze of loyalty. Our friendship is a nebula.</span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #660000;"><u>Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore</u> by Robin Sloan</span> </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #38761d;">Decent people who were curious, interested, and even sad about Angie’s death, but felt it in a removed way. A protective empathy. If I feel bad for Josie Archer, then it won’t happen to my family.</span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><u>Death by Cashmere</u> by Sally Goldenbaum</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #351c75;">It was like being rolled over by a steamroller made of flowers, Abigail thought. It didn’t really hurt, it was all very pretty and sweet-smelling. But you were still flattened.</span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #351c75;"><u>The Witness</u> by Nora Roberts </span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<div>
<span style="color: #a64d79;">And I knew the point of love right then. The point of love was to help you survive. The point was also to forget meaning. To stop looking and start living. The meaning was to hold the hand of someone you cared about and to live inside the present. Past and future were myths. The past was just the present that had died and the future would never exist anyway, because by the time we got to it, the future would have turned into the present. The present was all there was. The ever-moving, ever-changing present. And the present was fickle. It could only be caught by letting go. So I let go. I let go of everything in the universe. Everything, except her hand.</span></div>
</blockquote>
and<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #a64d79;">Kissing is what humans do when words have reached a place they can’t escape from. </span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #a64d79;"><u>The Human</u> by Matt Haig </span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #a64d79;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: blue;">Seth’s voice stayed quiet, but his eyes—full of noise—stayed on Susan’s face.</span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: blue;"><u>The Obsession</u> by Nora Roberts </span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #990000;">"I love it. I just… If you had scanned it in—I feel bad you had to ruin the actual photo.”</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #990000;">“I didn’t ruin anything,” she insists. “I cut out the only two people I cared about in that class.”</span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #990000;"><u>The Inner Circle</u> by Brad Meltzer </span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<div>
<span style="color: #38761d;">I hardly ever spoke to live people. It wasn’t that I was stupid (although a lot of teachers thought so when I first entered their classes), or that I didn’t like people. It was just that there didn’t seem to be a lot to say that someone wasn’t already saying.</span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><u>Chasing Redbird</u> by Sharon Creech and Marc Burckhardt </span></div>
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #990000;">I squirmed in my chair. I didn’t know what to do. My mental hands were tied. I had been flung into a part of life that was over my head and I was in danger of drowning in ignorance.</span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #990000;"><u>Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd</u> by Alan Bradley</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<div>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Dan and Dad’s relationship always had an edge to it, as if the two men couldn’t quite embrace each other’s ways and personalities. They were like two jigsaw pieces with the same bit of sky on, but which didn’t fit together.</span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><u>The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper</u> by Phaedra Patrick </span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<div>
<span style="color: #4c1130;">“I should enjoy that,” she said, stretching the truth so thin that really there was nothing of it left.</span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #4c1130;"><u>First Comes Marriage</u> by Mary Balogh </span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #c27ba0;">All people are children when they sleep. There’s no war in them then . . . They . . . open their hands halfway, soldiers and statesmen, servants and masters. . . . If only we could speak to one another then when our hearts are half-open flowers Words like golden bees would drift in.</span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #c27ba0;"><u>To Be Where You Are</u> by Jan Karon </span></div>
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #274e13;">Addison felt a deep-down, strangely detached sort of devastation.</span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #274e13;"><u>A Darling Bay Christmas: Three Heartwarming Holiday Short Stories</u></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #274e13;">--This one by Juliet Blackwell</span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17348444417253082809noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3506072853183457847.post-58997088811009867862017-12-06T09:40:00.001-08:002017-12-06T11:34:16.025-08:00HardI'm finding things hard.<br />
<br />
News stories make me want to lie down in the road and never get up, but I feel guilty not listening.<br />
<br />
I feel despair at the decisions our political leadership are making, and I feel like my letters are pointless.<br />
<br />
Plus, should I really have to tell anyone, but particularly our elected leaders, that their job is to watch out for those who need it most? That they need to be most concerned with the poor, the jobless, the homeless, those needing extensive medical care? Isn't this obvious?<br />
<br />
This is clearly not obvious, as evidenced by the bullshit form letters I receive back from those elected officials.<br />
<br />
I am disgusted and appalled by Trump and cannot understand why there are those who are not equally disgusted and appalled. This then makes me feel badly because I feel I am living a double standard: I expect you to understand my position but I do not have to understand yours.*<br />
<br />
I feel confident we're more fucked up than ever before, but then I remember mustard gas and Hiroshima and Vietnam and KKK lynchings. Then I just wonder if we're doomed to be a racist, violent, hate-filled species that kills itself off.<br />
<br />
Personally, I'm having a harder time than usual with the short days. I bought a light therapy box, but I still struggle with feeling I should just sit on the couch and eat mac and cheese until March.<br />
<br />
I then feel guilty that I'm struggling because I live in the first world, have a job, have good health, have a wonderful partner and friends, etc.<br />
<br />
So many things in my life are great, but... it's just hard right now. I'm putting a lot of energy into life. I'm forcing myself to stick to my workout routine. I'm using the light therapy box. (I typed "life" therapy box. Freudian slip.) I'm making sure to get good sleep. I'm trying to eat healthily more often than not. What I <i>want</i> is to watch British murder shows and eat mac and cheese and not move. What I'm <i>doing </i>is quite different, but I'm so tired.<br />
<br />
It's just hard right now. It'll get better. The only way out is through.<br />
<br />
<i>*Because my position is right, damn it. Sigh. Not helpful.</i>Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17348444417253082809noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3506072853183457847.post-80961766712894640252017-11-06T07:23:00.000-08:002017-11-06T07:23:00.508-08:00Zippered pouches!As I <a href="http://peaceableliberal.blogspot.com/2017/10/sewing-101.html">mentioned</a>, a friend and I took a six-week sewing class. We met a couple hours one evening a week.<br />
<br />
One of the reasons I was excited about this class is that we were going to learn about zippers. In the past, I have paid someone to put a zipper in a knit cardigan. Zippers are scary.<br />
<br />
Now they're less scary. I have a healthy, hesitant respect toward zippers now rather than a blind terror.<br />
<br />
The pattern was a zippered pouch. We did one unlined and then one lined. I worked on making more lined ones the past couple of weeks.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLsNfulpGQGk3hGrfCu__42tvfdeFe9TEANshyphenhyphenJ9H2we6uAvm5zRPs9qG-GOJS7gErZ_BHPllC91rCl4Lz5_QItbGJhgXL2yJFq17fwK1zZLackVqnM_E8oLzoqlU8QUZCtpOQCiNi0gFs/s1600/20171106_080629.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLsNfulpGQGk3hGrfCu__42tvfdeFe9TEANshyphenhyphenJ9H2we6uAvm5zRPs9qG-GOJS7gErZ_BHPllC91rCl4Lz5_QItbGJhgXL2yJFq17fwK1zZLackVqnM_E8oLzoqlU8QUZCtpOQCiNi0gFs/s320/20171106_080629.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
I made every mistake imaginable: sewing the exterior wrong side out, sewing the interior as the exterior (just on half, of course, so I couldn't pretend that was my intention), using quilting tape instead of basting tape (totally not the same thing and doesn't work), trying to sew up the hole in the lining where I turn things inside out and having to do it 3 times to actually catch both sides of the hole, using the wrong bobbin and completely buggering the machine. Really, I was <i>diligent</i> in making errors.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMwM34Uc2sHIM96tg89GeUt8gnRGpyGGMt16gXYiL2Ff0U8ejuQQ9iGf9SqeqJ0zQd1qGeD-9LLCIKFfzj1SBAo7o4O36-9kbD6O-eFYGHLj0zUIe4EuzAYcwTflBjQpSF1GYWJxjLvSuG/s1600/20171106_080659.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMwM34Uc2sHIM96tg89GeUt8gnRGpyGGMt16gXYiL2Ff0U8ejuQQ9iGf9SqeqJ0zQd1qGeD-9LLCIKFfzj1SBAo7o4O36-9kbD6O-eFYGHLj0zUIe4EuzAYcwTflBjQpSF1GYWJxjLvSuG/s320/20171106_080659.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
But I fixed them. The pouches turned out great despite (because of?) all the mistakes.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaBtg3d2ovM7y_eJy1LDsrO1egEv5P8nmGBan9HtqUdATMxRQtYuPNd_UVWGRuM9cpwJtTytWNWfD2T4y9pPBzpw7jv1Q8abAq0cXVmXG4WaNNx7Enlq3rbQImqJTs-uRfikvo81YhywCY/s1600/20171106_080556.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaBtg3d2ovM7y_eJy1LDsrO1egEv5P8nmGBan9HtqUdATMxRQtYuPNd_UVWGRuM9cpwJtTytWNWfD2T4y9pPBzpw7jv1Q8abAq0cXVmXG4WaNNx7Enlq3rbQImqJTs-uRfikvo81YhywCY/s320/20171106_080556.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
I've replaced the $2 cosmetic bag I've been carrying for years with my knitting notions in it with my very own handmade zippered pouch. It makes me feel like a crafting ninja.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUlsEIP7Ubtka3DKmK1fdCkXYFpOP8Vwgf_3ktRyw9UH9CxFzmQqueiw7Dc8373CozX1gg1DfpsF8XI6vrQm7tDVjeWjITdAs3A01qvoaWNfiImWFvwZnqOSdZfOvlGB9eTxx6si2jBrxD/s1600/20171106_080739.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUlsEIP7Ubtka3DKmK1fdCkXYFpOP8Vwgf_3ktRyw9UH9CxFzmQqueiw7Dc8373CozX1gg1DfpsF8XI6vrQm7tDVjeWjITdAs3A01qvoaWNfiImWFvwZnqOSdZfOvlGB9eTxx6si2jBrxD/s320/20171106_080739.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="text-align: start;">See that purple and pink felt in the bag at the bottom of the picture? </span><a href="http://peaceableliberal.blogspot.com/2009/12/crafty-mccraftermeier.html" style="text-align: start;">Remember this?</a><span style="text-align: start;"> </span></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="text-align: start;">I made that nearly eight years ago and still use it all the time.</span></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="text-align: start;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I think the point of this post is a reminder to myself: New things are supposed to be hard. Make mistakes, then fix them.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
And also, know when to take a break. For me, that time was yesterday when the rage at yet another stretch of quality time with the ripper could literally be felt in my stomach. Take a break. Come back to it later. Breathe in. Breathe out. Repeat.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Now I'm thinking about sewing a cover for my machine...</div>
<br />
<br />Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17348444417253082809noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3506072853183457847.post-24708827618033550372017-10-30T08:03:00.001-07:002017-10-30T08:06:03.037-07:00The Wisdom of TVI keep a notebook by my normal spot on the couch so I can write down quotes from TV. Here are some from the book:<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: purple;">"All I know is that I don't want to be mad anymore."</span><br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: purple;">"Then maybe don't be."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><span style="color: purple;">Robert and Sol in <u>Grace and Frankie</u></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><u><br /></u></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><u><br /></u></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: blue;">"I just want you to think. Do you know what thinking is? It's just a fancy word for changing your mind."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: blue;">"I will not change my mind."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: blue;">"Then you will die stupid."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><span style="color: blue;">The Doctor and Bonnie (Zygon, not me) in <u>Doctor Who</u></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><u><br /></u></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><u><br /></u></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #6aa84f;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">"I don't want to talk about it."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">"I regret the words I've said already."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><span style="color: #6aa84f;">Rosa Diez and Raymond Holt in <u>Brooklyn Nine-Nine</u></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><u><br /></u></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><u><br /></u></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><u><span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></u></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #cc0000;">"Grow up?! I have a Roth IRA! I eat wheat toast! YOU grow up."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><span style="color: #cc0000;">Terry Jeffers in <u>Brooklyn Nine-Nine</u></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><u><br /></u></i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><u><span style="color: #b45f06;"><br /></span></u></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #b45f06;">"Kimmy, I don't know what to say, so I'm hoping the tone of my voice makes you think that I do, okay, sweetie?"</span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><span style="color: #b45f06;">Titus Andromedon in <u>Kimmy Schmidt</u></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><u><br /></u></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><u><span style="color: #a64d79;"><br /></span></u></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #a64d79;">"You're very Grace right now. I mean, there's a lot of Grace going on."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><span style="color: #a64d79;">Frankie in <u>Grace and Frankie</u></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><u><br /></u></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><u><span style="color: cyan;"><br /></span></u></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #6fa8dc;">"Macrame is just like knitting except everyone hates it."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><span style="color: #6fa8dc;">Archimedes in <u>Puss in Boots</u></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><u><br /></u></i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><u><br /></u></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: blue;">"Do you want to talk about it?"</span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: blue;">"No, I don't think I'm emotionally available for that yet."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><span style="color: blue;">Mitch in <u>Rosewood</u></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><u><br /></u></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><u><br /></u></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: purple;">"That's enough. Life is too short for conversations like this."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><span style="color: purple;">Elderly writer character from PC Game <u>The Raven</u></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><u><br /></u></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><u><br /></u></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #38761d;">"I like books. They're so much less terrifying than people."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><span style="color: #38761d;">Leonard Finch in <u>Grantchester</u></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><span style="color: #38761d;"><u><br /></u></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><span style="color: #38761d;"><u><br /></u></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #990000;">"Does sarcasm help?"</span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #990000;">"Wouldn't it be a great universe if it did?"</span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #990000;"><i>River Song and The Doctor in <u>Doctor Who</u></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #990000;"><i><u><br /></u></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #990000;"><i><u><br /></u></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #b45f06;">"And, Dad, how do you feel?"</span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #b45f06;">"Let me check in." <i><pause> </i>"Nope, never mind. That was scary."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #b45f06;"><i>Bud and Sol in <u>Grace and Frankie</u></i></span></div>
Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17348444417253082809noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3506072853183457847.post-82015547421448900482017-10-02T13:37:00.001-07:002017-10-02T13:37:27.343-07:00Sewing 101<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
A friend and I are taking a six-week beginning sewing class at <a href="https://www.crimsontate.com/">Crimson Tate</a>. The first week we made a pin cushion (think square bean bag filled with crushed walnut shells). Last week we worked on a fancy pillowcase.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
My mother-in-law is a delightful person, plus she provided half the genes for my very favorite person. For these reasons and others, she deserves fancy pillowcases for Christmas. I worked on hers this weekend. </div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpLPKbdDlsaGMntUxXKKHvCZurklo6dA_GS4Tflz0TBghXax1LgDOeWEvpKO14AvUm2OCDoh3gJ5vcGOqNw0rV62ZrUDOvq9xq6wJdnHxb7O4iuEqozdym8k_3Mb_VH8azLI6fQWLtP2XT/s1600/20171001_190938.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpLPKbdDlsaGMntUxXKKHvCZurklo6dA_GS4Tflz0TBghXax1LgDOeWEvpKO14AvUm2OCDoh3gJ5vcGOqNw0rV62ZrUDOvq9xq6wJdnHxb7O4iuEqozdym8k_3Mb_VH8azLI6fQWLtP2XT/s320/20171001_190938.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I wonder how many fancy pillowcases I need to make before it feels less stressful than disarming a bomb.</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFLx6rL7sKZ_18SGLUpHWhkoJ7eP0QHTkuzjH2CVsnz_RxZyMXdoWlMzdDLLEhMjq41aKBcjw-8F-3nVkCRuSLiwkhMWu51JT3_nvwR6eeiWPutlSWKQghCGiCcqHrGPn6IVa4oZxhQ4Ht/s1600/IMG_20171001_211016_376.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFLx6rL7sKZ_18SGLUpHWhkoJ7eP0QHTkuzjH2CVsnz_RxZyMXdoWlMzdDLLEhMjq41aKBcjw-8F-3nVkCRuSLiwkhMWu51JT3_nvwR6eeiWPutlSWKQghCGiCcqHrGPn6IVa4oZxhQ4Ht/s320/IMG_20171001_211016_376.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
The answer is more than four.<br />
<br />
Tomorrow there's a rumor we're going to work on zippers. Like Little Red Riding Hood, I'm <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQ-f6C3sCf0">excited and scared</a>.Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17348444417253082809noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3506072853183457847.post-23394490068218386172017-07-28T07:48:00.000-07:002017-07-28T07:48:01.141-07:00Stripy, Stripy, Stripy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I don't even quite remember how it happened. I think I saw <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/shalomzebra/bad-blood-cowl">this cowl</a> somewhere (ravelry? pinterest?) and fell in love. Then Knit Picks was having a sale on some of their Chroma. Then I was talking with a friend and we were discussing possible colorways.</div>
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Anyhow, this happened.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSMvBsrMu5Q4XM2ukC2zMOhhNp8Ec-7AqldWXjZd7rVz4tS3ERVXKQ04afhrS1Cswzl6DJ2jtyplWhI3L9ESJ-bCnJMNhW_jmZidskOV0tiv-ALc69TjJEllbqdhvOSMvK2ZVVrK4Bgfyf/s1600/IMG_20170719_140212_460.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSMvBsrMu5Q4XM2ukC2zMOhhNp8Ec-7AqldWXjZd7rVz4tS3ERVXKQ04afhrS1Cswzl6DJ2jtyplWhI3L9ESJ-bCnJMNhW_jmZidskOV0tiv-ALc69TjJEllbqdhvOSMvK2ZVVrK4Bgfyf/s320/IMG_20170719_140212_460.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i><a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/bad-blood-cowl">Bad Blood Cowl</a> (mine ravelled <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/bonniebeth/bad-blood-cowl">here</a>),</i></div>
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<i>knit in <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/artists-palette-yarns-smoothie-sock">Artist's Palette Smoothie Sock</a> in 1079SS</i></div>
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<i>and <a href="http://www.knitpicks.com/yarns/Chroma_Fingering_Yarn__D5420203.html">Knit Picks Chroma Fingering</a> in Dear Diary</i></div>
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I used just over one skein of the Smoothie Sock and not quite two balls of the Chroma. The pattern suggests just knitting until you run out of the 100 gram skein of each, but I knit a bit more than that to get it the length I wanted.<br />
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It's an easy pattern. It starts with a provisional cast on of 107 stitches (which I can do only if I watch <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3J-sUx_whE">this video</a> every single time I need to do the cast on), then has 2 rows of the first color and 2 rows of the second color for 10 repeats, then 3 rows of the first color and 3 rows of the second color for 10 repeats, then 4 rows and so on until you have 8 stripe rows. Then you graft the two ends together to make a cowl.<br />
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If you are ready for this step at your lunch hour and realize you don't have another circular needle, you may be tempted to try various other bits from your knitting bag, such as stitch holders and shawl pins. These will not work. You should then remind yourself that it is July, and you do not need to be in a rush to finish a cowl on your lunch hour. Furthermore, remind yourself that you can't kitchner 107 stitches together in a lunch hour anyway.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIcusGIozdhlhIQmwAKNWgtbdSQtSfW1jxTFKrQLG5naLtOK5NKzg6GQ08xR7CPuXiTRX5fT9EnK7KmVHKrSCWsO4roK8dm0_2oeUwulOyGK1eryOK-GzRyMen5FFQnJwnV5yR5175je5s/s1600/IMG_20170725_143018_060.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIcusGIozdhlhIQmwAKNWgtbdSQtSfW1jxTFKrQLG5naLtOK5NKzg6GQ08xR7CPuXiTRX5fT9EnK7KmVHKrSCWsO4roK8dm0_2oeUwulOyGK1eryOK-GzRyMen5FFQnJwnV5yR5175je5s/s320/IMG_20170725_143018_060.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I like the cowl a lot. It's long enough to loop twice around my neck.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpj-ijmqhIgxVjZ1Re-KnjimxlTLcpnsP9fmb4QpK4Z1vXBd_jFbVqvcZDmT9YmMAOsqMv2-kPfYr8W8lnP_r-Frbnb5Ps1w1AL5QfnX3H_bZI8K7vI_EpT9U5A4ypvWcAs9GKJCSqnC9e/s1600/IMG_20170725_200915_863.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1372" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpj-ijmqhIgxVjZ1Re-KnjimxlTLcpnsP9fmb4QpK4Z1vXBd_jFbVqvcZDmT9YmMAOsqMv2-kPfYr8W8lnP_r-Frbnb5Ps1w1AL5QfnX3H_bZI8K7vI_EpT9U5A4ypvWcAs9GKJCSqnC9e/s320/IMG_20170725_200915_863.jpg" width="274" /></a></div>
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I have the yarn picked out to make another one for a friend. This time, I'm going to avoid the tedium of progressively wider and wider stripes and start with the 8 stripe sequence and decrease down to 2. I know that it's exactly the same amount of knitting, but I'm betting it won't feel like it. Score one for brain trickery!<br />
<br />Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17348444417253082809noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3506072853183457847.post-80892153527088473662017-07-27T07:34:00.000-07:002017-07-27T07:49:23.367-07:00Coasters<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Remember how I had that list of projects I wanted to do but had never done, <a href="http://peaceableliberal.blogspot.com/2017/06/grandmas-bag.html">like Grandma's knitting bag?</a> Another project on that list was i-cord coasters.</div>
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I'd seen an article in Interweave Knits Summer 2015 magazine about a little doohickey that makes i-cord. I've knit my fair share of i-cord, and it's tedious, if by tedious you understand it makes me want to poke my own eyeballs out with a dpn. With the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Caron-20293-Embellish-Knit-Machine-Kit/dp/B003W0AUQ4">Embellish Knit</a> doohicky, you feed the yarn through the top, do a bit of futzing at the beginning to get it either behind or in front of metal pegs that look like tiny latchhook hooks, weight the bottom of the yarn, turn the handle, and voila! I-cord. </div>
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It takes 3 i-cords roughly 6' tall to make a coaster. Once the i-cords are made, you braid them together tightly, then sew the braid to itself in a spiral shape.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUrycbG7JYZhE-vAOgQKdIS3_raxDPBjEix6AWgqX_vWYBt2J4lSGKYABh1kX-52Jb016OIe-r8Rzl2prDZy-hyBWbr5iDymKYwVGGkTnYklbAU9bN7ToekShBjh6c1GozfDEi6P_y9DIy/s1600/IMG_20170625_205414_223.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUrycbG7JYZhE-vAOgQKdIS3_raxDPBjEix6AWgqX_vWYBt2J4lSGKYABh1kX-52Jb016OIe-r8Rzl2prDZy-hyBWbr5iDymKYwVGGkTnYklbAU9bN7ToekShBjh6c1GozfDEi6P_y9DIy/s320/IMG_20170625_205414_223.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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This means we now have another use for scrap sock yarn. Angels are singing, and they are singing about the joys of using up tiny balls of fingering weight yarn. The harmony is glorious.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaMWGdhOrJ3EuFCb2ibzEChDAnXnWdN2CO2jj5Z6wLXVRHnGZyVlIKQYnK1UXs0GrpMjx-s0376kilsUZg0U1Zwhq7lgAo2vnUKr7e54iXx0bAylhzU0lmrZcnYHoGcmIZHlGL59lDJvbH/s1600/IMG_20170628_184543_414.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaMWGdhOrJ3EuFCb2ibzEChDAnXnWdN2CO2jj5Z6wLXVRHnGZyVlIKQYnK1UXs0GrpMjx-s0376kilsUZg0U1Zwhq7lgAo2vnUKr7e54iXx0bAylhzU0lmrZcnYHoGcmIZHlGL59lDJvbH/s320/IMG_20170628_184543_414.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i><a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sock-yarn-braided-trivets">Sock Braided Yarn Trivets</a> (mine ravelled <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/bonniebeth/sock-yarn-braided-trivets">here</a>)</i></div>
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I've made 6 of these. They tend to pucker, but soaking them and then blocking them under something really heavy makes a big difference. (That also could be solved with more practice. It has something to do with the way I sewed the braid to itself.) I made 2 for me and 4 to give as gifts. I don't have any desire to whip up more at the moment, but it's a nice trick to have for when the scraps begin to get me down.<br />
<br />Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17348444417253082809noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3506072853183457847.post-44694607215091046382017-07-12T06:31:00.002-07:002017-07-12T06:31:48.374-07:00Before speaking<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"Before speaking, recognize what motivates your words." -Lama Surya Das</i></div>
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When I was in college, I worked on a project with another student and one of my Religious Studies professors on faith development. We did in-depth interviews with people to discuss their faith journey. James Fowler's <i>Stages of Faith </i>informed the project, and, honestly, the book was one that helped me accept my own spiritual journey as valid and beautiful even though it differed from what was expected of me by my family.</div>
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That's not what I'm thinking about today though.</div>
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I'm thinking about one of the meetings we had during that project. The professor said to me, "What do you think, Bonnie? I like the way your mind works." I don't remember what I said, but I know what I wish I would have said.</div>
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I wish I would have said, "That's because I only talk when I have something to say." </div>
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I didn't. I felt pressured into speaking before I was ready, wanting to live up to some unexplained and possibly nonexistent expectation of one of my favorite professors. </div>
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The truth is, as a very introverted person, there's a lot of thinking that happens before most of my speech. Many, many, many times I think of the right thing to say--the thing that feels right in my mind--and the conversation has already moved on to something else. That's frustrating, but I think I'd rather have that than my life filled with inane chatter.</div>
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More than one person has suggested I become a counselor, typically after dumping their problems in a verbal avalanche. I think that sometimes people like to confide in me because I <i>listen </i>to them. It's not that I have some sort of powerful insight that puts all their problems in perspective; it's that I am able to be present in their presence and hear what they're saying without saying much at all back. I'm a sounding board, and that allows them to figure things out themselves.</div>
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In high school, when I would struggle with homework (usually math), Mom would sometimes tell me to explain it to her. I thought this was stupid. Obviously I couldn't explain it to her. I needed someone to explain it to me. But, often, it worked. In explaining it to someone else, in talking it out, the things I didn't understand became things I did. She wasn't able to help me with calculus, but <i>she helped me with calculus.</i></div>
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I write this as a reminder to myself. It's okay to be quiet. It's best to listen and only speak when I have something to say. Consider my motivation and whether what I say will help, hurt, or just fill the world with distracting noise. Intention.</div>
Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17348444417253082809noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3506072853183457847.post-62359529659026714872017-07-05T10:07:00.005-07:002017-07-05T10:07:43.531-07:00Grow What I Love<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I make promises to myself at the end of every growing season.</div>
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Often it's the same promise I made the year before, such as, "I will not neglect to water the garden in July just because I want to sit on the couch in the air conditioning." I have a somewhat shaky relationship with the rain barrel in July, but I reaffirm my promise each year.</div>
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Last year, I promised something new: I promised to plant less vegetables and more flowers. Part of me felt that was really irresponsible. I told that part to shove it. Seeds are cheap. I overwinter dahlias in the garage, so those are free after the first year. A lot of my flowers are perennials.</div>
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Plus, buying plants is <i>always</i> better than a crack habit, so there.</div>
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Flowers bring me joy. Fresh flowers in the house always make me happy, and fresh flowers in the house that I've grown myself make me doubly so. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7pBJAs_0x1GgILMjz2x2BNno45v7j-l8RrsabkJL5nMAR_uZCLbA6BDb3w49b28lTeQitWJkOwMK0MeyJ4LBxAJSHwffgRkJM1CFormSlWss9cDBLBEKxRd7U-J2PtttJBLUVVStzrsTh/s1600/garden+flowers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7pBJAs_0x1GgILMjz2x2BNno45v7j-l8RrsabkJL5nMAR_uZCLbA6BDb3w49b28lTeQitWJkOwMK0MeyJ4LBxAJSHwffgRkJM1CFormSlWss9cDBLBEKxRd7U-J2PtttJBLUVVStzrsTh/s320/garden+flowers.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Daisies, zinnia, bachelor button, dahlias</i></div>
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We feed birds, which means we also feed chipmunks, squirrels, and rabbits. Some of those little bastards have gotten into the raised beds this year.</div>
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Most of my pepper plants have been destroyed. I don't even care all that much.</div>
Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17348444417253082809noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3506072853183457847.post-62486496855856022302017-06-21T06:58:00.001-07:002017-06-21T06:59:20.555-07:00One YearAbout a year and a half ago, I started seeing a personal trainer for the first time. She was very nice, but it was hard. It was early in the morning in the winter, so I drove there in the dark and the cold in order to feel weak for half an hour. I persisted for a few months, and then my trainer decided to quit training and become a nanny. (Oddly, nannies get more sleep than trainers.)<br />
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I didn't want to lose momentum, so I joined the JCC. It's within walking distance to work, so I decided I could work out right before or after work and thus avoid the siren song of the couch.<br />
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I talked to a coworker's partner who works at the J to get trainer recommendations. I called them and they promptly set me up with someone else. (The person recommended wasn't available.) I put on my mental armor and made an appointment.<br />
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He was physically intimidating. He looked like a stereotypical trainer. That was scary to me. It had been scary to go to the nice, female trainer who understood when I needed to sit down because things were going a little black around the edges of my vision. I wasn't sure I could work with someone who looked... like that.<br />
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But he was kind and encouraging at that first meeting, and as we worked together he continued to be. He is very careful of my back. I have scoliosis, so strengthening my core to avoid back injury is one of my primary goals.<br />
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We started out meeting twice a week, but that's not financially feasible for me long term. Now we meet once a week and he writes workouts for me two other times a week. He emails when I don't show on a day he expects to see me in the gym, and that means I rarely skip. I've found that I do really well with that accountability, and I'm grateful for it.<br />
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Tomorrow will mark one year since our first appointment. I gave him a thank you card this morning.<br />
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He made me do alternating walk up planks and deep lunges. I choose to believe that's his way of saying, "You're welcome."Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17348444417253082809noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3506072853183457847.post-37873198340036575172017-06-07T09:37:00.004-07:002017-06-07T09:37:53.730-07:00HANDSOME: Yeah, You AreExciting news! <a href="http://www.pamelawynne.com/blog/2017/6/2/introducing-handsome-man-sweaters-for-every-body">Pamela Wynne's </a>latest genius project, HANDSOME, is now available! As Pamela says, "<em>Handsome: Man Sweaters for Every Body </em>is an e-book collection of six menswear sweater patterns designed to fit <b>every size, shape, and gender of adult human</b>."<br />
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She's not screwing around. I did one of the test knits for this, and there are <b>options</b>. The specific sweater I knit has narrow/average shoulder option, A-line shaping option, and custom-length sleeves with the cute thumb hole. There are also <a href="http://www.pamelawynne.com/handsome/calculators">custom calculators</a> so you can make sure you knit yourself a sweater that actually fits well.* She wrote these patterns using real people for measurements, and the lucky devils who modeled are now the owners of sweaters knit specifically for their body.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfIsu1VSY5y-5OhxBsloc2v6Ji2TeQ_5FQaWlPcCQ0S0AzTfsh71tRvk3NatBiQRUqikt_iAU9e6f-eGG2ecGXSFq6BRElC_Gqb0VIE5P4oLcEQ92t5XF3C6vz-zZDpKpmSfEgy1G-CLI7/s1600/kale.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfIsu1VSY5y-5OhxBsloc2v6Ji2TeQ_5FQaWlPcCQ0S0AzTfsh71tRvk3NatBiQRUqikt_iAU9e6f-eGG2ecGXSFq6BRElC_Gqb0VIE5P4oLcEQ92t5XF3C6vz-zZDpKpmSfEgy1G-CLI7/s1600/kale.jpg" /></a></div>
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I knit the pieces for the blue Kale pictured above, and Pamela did the finishing. That fabric was glorious, and it fits the model beautifully. I would wear one of those sweaters in a heartbeat.<br />
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Check out the lookbook <a href="http://www.pamelawynne.com/handsome/lookbook">here</a>. She's running KALs for each sweater and has a <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/groups/handsome">Ravelry group</a> for the patterns.<br />
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These aren't just for men. Men's knitwear is an underserved market certainly, but these sweaters are good shapes, well-designed, and easily customized so they can fit anyone. We all got lucky here.<br />
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I'm thinking gray, but I always think gray.... Wouldn't a gray Kale be lovely? In my head, I'm already curled up with a book in my new sweater.<br />
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<i>*I'm going to work hard at not thinking about the sweaters I knit that I don't wear because I don't like how they fit. Spilled milk and all that.</i>Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17348444417253082809noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3506072853183457847.post-41983070355942119462017-06-01T09:33:00.003-07:002017-06-01T09:33:37.298-07:00Grandma's Bag<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
A couple weeks ago, I was feeling plagued by projects I had told myself I wanted to do but had never done. Let's pause a moment and recognize what a gift it is that I have a life that can be plagued by my hobbies instead of real problems.</div>
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Amen.</div>
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So, I emailed some smart friends about it. <a href="http://peaceableliberal.blogspot.com/2009/12/grateful-ii.html">Lynn</a> asked if maybe I was just tired of making things and needed a break. I sat with that for awhile and decided that I just hadn't been in the mood to do <i>new</i> things. <a href="http://peaceableliberal.blogspot.com/2017/05/blues.html">A tenth pair of diagonal rib socks? </a>Yes. A project that I couldn't do while zoned out on the couch? No.</div>
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Mysteriously, that was what it took to get unstuck. </div>
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I don't remember my grandma knitting, but she did it a lot before she had Parkinson's. Parkinson's is terrible. </div>
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Grandma's old knitting bag had sat in a garage for years. It was badly, badly torn and frayed, held together in places with safety pins, was disgustingly dirty, and contained some dubious black things that made me shudder. I cut the material off the wooden frame and washed it. It was worth the risk of it falling completely apart in the wash. There was no way I was using it for a template as it was.</div>
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Once clean, it sat and stared at me judgmentally for months.</div>
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I was off yesterday, and I spent it at home working on one of the bag. It started with a list and some math.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjScyBoPIEEvdcIDFfJyGU63qc-kb2k8jFggvAy75A-usbUzYgAaeK9OvDDlM_q6dl2JBVhYCZUnUMf7lE79WefciTFsabQ7wld6aixMkBOEIJFoKy1LWxxXzwC8iupqn80aAmR5votjXpr/s1600/clip2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="623" data-original-width="517" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjScyBoPIEEvdcIDFfJyGU63qc-kb2k8jFggvAy75A-usbUzYgAaeK9OvDDlM_q6dl2JBVhYCZUnUMf7lE79WefciTFsabQ7wld6aixMkBOEIJFoKy1LWxxXzwC8iupqn80aAmR5votjXpr/s320/clip2.JPG" width="265" /></a></div>
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I had already purchased and washed the material I wanted to use for the project, a canvas for the outside and a satin for the inside. In addition to the bottom of the bag, there's another flap that goes under the wooden frame to hold it in place. Since that and the long seams on both sides that go over the handles had to be done with the frame in place, there was a lot of handsewing. </div>
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I tried to be Zen about it. I only sort of succeeded.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEYDdBW5V74xFkCwvH6pT-hHAKOpcoqgSHdiBBL-qIjyyAV0lW7N5KXYDMjAauEg5eWeOzT1ebq2NldarfXuTNx7hGh0e8tLigSqwZot-3RWb_oT-Qlu58YNmlvfdZBZqorClz3Lx8BGei/s1600/IMG_20170531_153920_317.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEYDdBW5V74xFkCwvH6pT-hHAKOpcoqgSHdiBBL-qIjyyAV0lW7N5KXYDMjAauEg5eWeOzT1ebq2NldarfXuTNx7hGh0e8tLigSqwZot-3RWb_oT-Qlu58YNmlvfdZBZqorClz3Lx8BGei/s320/IMG_20170531_153920_317.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I measured my notion bag and made a pocket for it in the lining. It's possible that pocket is wrong side out, but I'm sticking to the story that it depends on your perspective. My perspective says it's fine.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir3DwgP2sD1iX_xZMKONBovlfLO5HR7CeQQAlDAL8Q0BBRecpZ0Q9NkFtGkNbv8aybm1JwdOJQ1WcQuIaAn3okQlEUV2-jbaa2NVFs-iQa1E2tbuCsnpGps-RsXN_F4cGTK-ctJSJWkmmi/s1600/IMG_20170531_160236_401.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir3DwgP2sD1iX_xZMKONBovlfLO5HR7CeQQAlDAL8Q0BBRecpZ0Q9NkFtGkNbv8aybm1JwdOJQ1WcQuIaAn3okQlEUV2-jbaa2NVFs-iQa1E2tbuCsnpGps-RsXN_F4cGTK-ctJSJWkmmi/s320/IMG_20170531_160236_401.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Seven hours, a bobbin refill, a bent sewing machine needle, far more handsewing than I anticipated, only one shouted outburst of, "FOR FUCK'S SAKE," and it was finished.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0P7UoZ7K1BpK1KaQOiv0DYAucF3nnC0YOitkR1Tg4dAuifP949sTxjc_7d6DISn-_ZaafNbBgY-IqTF-I1q6COltkwX16HQu2K4vZgNeVndI1PB5nu93jxLxhq0HOr0PthnrSkD5G8fzj/s1600/bag.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="575" data-original-width="514" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0P7UoZ7K1BpK1KaQOiv0DYAucF3nnC0YOitkR1Tg4dAuifP949sTxjc_7d6DISn-_ZaafNbBgY-IqTF-I1q6COltkwX16HQu2K4vZgNeVndI1PB5nu93jxLxhq0HOr0PthnrSkD5G8fzj/s320/bag.JPG" width="286" /></a></div>
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I learned some things, certainly. I would have done the lining differently if I had it to do over, but thank God I don't have to do it over. No 4-H judges will ever look at it, and it doesn't matter that there are some wonky areas. I'm pleased with it, and I'm thrilled to be able to use something that was grandma's for a hobby we share.</div>
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Last night I loaded it with a mostly finished hat that just needs a pompom, a matching, long, worsted weight cowl in progress and the 6 balls of yarn the cowl requires. It all fit, which makes me think this might be related to Mary Poppins' carpet bag. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdvm_e6bicEtu5yHvHssQCOKQFB2o6sFz87bbLPgqWFch7YX50_eF8oeVk1adhgtPeQSi4UU6bHsyDto7JUwe3D14GhsMn08hRyOpM56n_yCqFue_ZFhFkM79esYOt7nAhH4Da3pJtqUAT/s1600/20170601_083905.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdvm_e6bicEtu5yHvHssQCOKQFB2o6sFz87bbLPgqWFch7YX50_eF8oeVk1adhgtPeQSi4UU6bHsyDto7JUwe3D14GhsMn08hRyOpM56n_yCqFue_ZFhFkM79esYOt7nAhH4Da3pJtqUAT/s320/20170601_083905.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Thanks, Grandma. I'll think of you whenever I use it, which will be a lot.</div>
Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17348444417253082809noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3506072853183457847.post-67333875533735984652017-05-23T07:29:00.000-07:002017-05-23T09:01:27.153-07:00BluesSome yarn is harder to work with than others. Most of the time, I can figure that out by looking at it and avoid it. Sometimes I can't.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfP8GFVl8gAFUA29rRz-2mLC5MuD00MXVEXZIH7glH9CYMjCh1949DWvHQIOIYVvpnv34qzvnuUiJwIS3EIL5GzmRTsuQz81UYM8nNHa8ejJbTzBooCRjbd6G8fOSuyjX6lKgWrfrzjHN9/s1600/socks.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfP8GFVl8gAFUA29rRz-2mLC5MuD00MXVEXZIH7glH9CYMjCh1949DWvHQIOIYVvpnv34qzvnuUiJwIS3EIL5GzmRTsuQz81UYM8nNHa8ejJbTzBooCRjbd6G8fOSuyjX6lKgWrfrzjHN9/s320/socks.JPG" width="269" /></a></div>
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<i><a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/diagonal-rib-socks">Diagonal Rib Socks</a> (mine ravelled <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/bonniebeth/diagonal-rib-socks-12">here</a>)</i></div>
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<i>knit in <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/regia-hand-dye-effect">Regia Hand-Dye Effect</a> in 06552</i></div>
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This yarn is splitty, and got VERY thin in sections. I am not a fan, and I'm not sure how they'll wear. The socks look pretty, and the pattern, as always, is great. (I think this is my 10th pair of this pattern. Ann Budd knows what she is doing. I knit mine slightly differently than the pattern, but just because I'm odd and not because there's anything wrong with the pattern.) I'm just grateful to be finished and moving to a yarn that isn't so difficult to work with.</div>
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And I'm praying I didn't buy another ball of this, but I'm too scared to check the stash to find out for sure.</div>
Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17348444417253082809noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3506072853183457847.post-91557479107707517932017-05-18T18:09:00.001-07:002017-05-18T18:09:06.092-07:00All the Loopiness<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Yesterday I took some pictures of the Loop. It's a lovely bit of knitting.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOsRmVwSrlKrXswhdnza-2xKtvDF8MKf3HoL-jilFHuMmidmHlhRmFUS-NPkGhSNd9ID3ied8bt2qY-UjZVtBgL5tdTfK57I5bfKDtZCpxruTpw4x2i5Lx1b7-eiOHi-TEBrBmb5L4WWKE/s1600/Loop+1.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOsRmVwSrlKrXswhdnza-2xKtvDF8MKf3HoL-jilFHuMmidmHlhRmFUS-NPkGhSNd9ID3ied8bt2qY-UjZVtBgL5tdTfK57I5bfKDtZCpxruTpw4x2i5Lx1b7-eiOHi-TEBrBmb5L4WWKE/s320/Loop+1.PNG" width="217" /></a></div>
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<i><a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/loop-6">Loop</a> (mine ravelled <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/bonniebeth/loop">here</a>),</i></div>
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<i>knit in <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/madelinetosh-80-10-10-fingering">Madelinetosh 80/10/10 Fingering</a> in Spectrum </i></div>
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<i>and <a href="http://goodforeweyarn.com/yarns/#/yarns-sultry-steps/">Good for Ewe Sultry Steps</a> in Gray 98</i></div>
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The Spectrum colorway is my very favorite. Each stitch has the possibility of an unexpected pop of color, but all the colors look lovely together and not at all like clown barf.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLDF4DYnl2SnIkFnoKkVZ7aPQEXkT_khawjzzjNzmf4zT79pGREdf8qYsipsKKgvbf06GOYDbVdMt-PaBifJZ-ZiYzOR8DIphR6arbVs7qhSby2FmN4lFNcE_pK5KMt_fpL0Ic8_OzYq-d/s1600/loop+2.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLDF4DYnl2SnIkFnoKkVZ7aPQEXkT_khawjzzjNzmf4zT79pGREdf8qYsipsKKgvbf06GOYDbVdMt-PaBifJZ-ZiYzOR8DIphR6arbVs7qhSby2FmN4lFNcE_pK5KMt_fpL0Ic8_OzYq-d/s320/loop+2.PNG" width="254" /></a></div>
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The edge is garter stitch.</div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi88_cTulbGE86sT_6-ODXNqF4gLJO-FK3Z5_cNiEG_gmRYTnlSJJuuD27ga9REjbfNWYv_gl1GXGo55IJALib6rxURk8whU43M0LQ1OgY7ToiGfDcf4xLVOqkdixq4Wr6ljx0zq2wdOUmR/s1600/DSCF5877.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi88_cTulbGE86sT_6-ODXNqF4gLJO-FK3Z5_cNiEG_gmRYTnlSJJuuD27ga9REjbfNWYv_gl1GXGo55IJALib6rxURk8whU43M0LQ1OgY7ToiGfDcf4xLVOqkdixq4Wr6ljx0zq2wdOUmR/s320/DSCF5877.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
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Then an i-cord bindoff that is a Zen meditation. Breathe. Accept what you are doing. (Abandon hope of ever finishing, but that's where my Zen broke down.) It's beautiful when it's done.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMk73OMSprRezl6OYJs0q1SYagUe0jelHQDHoKGN6hgX77wZ9jNKHtQ_yZMLsj9_73d60FT291IoPyeV2V39TetRODLskwCAWdmca5bQUZcrC9LCdQTfg58kSytI4mAou-PPV6Ge_Owbgq/s1600/DSCF5878.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMk73OMSprRezl6OYJs0q1SYagUe0jelHQDHoKGN6hgX77wZ9jNKHtQ_yZMLsj9_73d60FT291IoPyeV2V39TetRODLskwCAWdmca5bQUZcrC9LCdQTfg58kSytI4mAou-PPV6Ge_Owbgq/s320/DSCF5878.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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I enjoyed myself so much that I knit another.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzU6LE9iWRBEVcJCrr5PF_B3ljBGcf3jsj-PyjyPp4yt_9JYAZqdLVM2CS-dzdsuA94kce9PRmShhS4I7hc8zeAtRwk5F9lCVeEA4VkwIWR3z3-q3eEE3M3rzyj5STInuEfndAgzkluEA8/s1600/loops.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzU6LE9iWRBEVcJCrr5PF_B3ljBGcf3jsj-PyjyPp4yt_9JYAZqdLVM2CS-dzdsuA94kce9PRmShhS4I7hc8zeAtRwk5F9lCVeEA4VkwIWR3z3-q3eEE3M3rzyj5STInuEfndAgzkluEA8/s320/loops.PNG" width="217" /></a></div>
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<i>Knit in a mysterious sparkly gray from the stash</i></div>
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<i>and <a href="http://www.knitpicks.com/yarns/Chroma_Fingering_Yarn__D5420203.html">Knitpicks Chroma Fingering</a> in the Roller Skate colorway</i></div>
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<i>(ravelled <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/bonniebeth/loop-2">here</a>)</i></div>
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I love this one just as much as the first one. I was worried about how the long gradient of Chroma would behave, but it's lovely. Chroma is unspun enough that I think this pattern is a great use for it. It won't get a lot of hard wear wrapped around my friend in a fetching manner.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3zjdjB8nL_GaoTssM0-2jSSYWZPr_pbMsa8P80dpTb2h8BUga0fWpYEDllCK_efzXa5qMMu3vU8pyqptkqPdcdTs6ehrxFV3AW0ZlTXcqca83RY7h7g3un8REdNEacvBWZw7pnF46nFqt/s1600/DSCF5875.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3zjdjB8nL_GaoTssM0-2jSSYWZPr_pbMsa8P80dpTb2h8BUga0fWpYEDllCK_efzXa5qMMu3vU8pyqptkqPdcdTs6ehrxFV3AW0ZlTXcqca83RY7h7g3un8REdNEacvBWZw7pnF46nFqt/s320/DSCF5875.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Pretty, right?</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgku40wchYtBQYpl2mdUCyda4Phxvax8Wd1SjTPlBM9yYJ3HYHMVRfbGVK8nl_sSRXm-gKwE0LM2JCui4k-5tQkAtx3XfaTiZVrUB_nPAfIrgBpwHZcIQF1VM_S0NIcY2lFcCkhTNPMtPVE/s1600/DSCF5876.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgku40wchYtBQYpl2mdUCyda4Phxvax8Wd1SjTPlBM9yYJ3HYHMVRfbGVK8nl_sSRXm-gKwE0LM2JCui4k-5tQkAtx3XfaTiZVrUB_nPAfIrgBpwHZcIQF1VM_S0NIcY2lFcCkhTNPMtPVE/s320/DSCF5876.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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For both of them, I did a modified garter stitch tab as suggested by a genius on Ravelry and also did a yo between the first two and last two sts on each right side row that I then dropped off on the wrong side. This kept the edge from being too tight. I'd love to take credit for both those ideas, but the truth is that I got both ideas from the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/loop-6/people">Ravelry projects</a> for this pattern.Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17348444417253082809noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3506072853183457847.post-71909245375991190522017-05-10T07:04:00.001-07:002017-05-10T07:04:51.936-07:00No WordsWell, I don't really know what to say.<br />
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I haven't been posting because it feels like shouting into the void. The political shambles of our country is immense and gut-wrenching and faith-shaking, and it somehow seems both imperative and disrespectful to talk about knitting when action after action being taken by the President and Congress takes us farther from respect, compassion, and justice and closer to intolerance, isolationism, and whatever the hell you call it when policies are made to benefit those who need it the least.<br />
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I am knitting. I am also listening to the news except when it becomes so overwhelming that I can't.<br />
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I'm reading fluffy fiction. I am also regularly donating to a local charity that works to relocate refugees in the area (<a href="https://www.exodusrefugee.org/">here</a> if you're interested).<br />
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I am working out, trying to take care of my body both for my physical health and also because working out is good for my emotional health. My trainer, by the way, is an immigrant married to an American. They are afraid to leave the country on vacation for fear he won't be allowed back in.<br />
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THE WORLD HAS GONE MAD.<br />
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I think, in the face of our reality, <i>of course</i> I don't know what to say. There aren't adequate words, but we have to keep speaking anyway.Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17348444417253082809noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3506072853183457847.post-54824806952130980582017-03-17T09:02:00.002-07:002017-03-17T09:02:38.787-07:00Loop, Backward and Forward<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I was surfing Pinterest, like you do, when I fell upon a gorgeous photo of <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/276478864600724174/">Loop by Casapinka</a>. I was discussing it in depth via Messenger with a friend, like you do, when she casually told me she bought me the pattern and it was waiting in my library.</div>
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<i>No, you can't have her. She's mine. </i></div>
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I was not deeply committed to the laceweight sweater I'd just started (because, duh, laceweight), so I decided to cast on.</div>
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And then found myself completely flummoxed by choices.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaVg3qoSBe7WXLshNNd8ZX3JgaPmj4jzUa53CvQs_Fr052kNlmYYSjISfIhbdtJGzhSMQiGJjHJJE6CvRhyphenhyphenSq0-JWrja8hyphenhyphenipCcctkCJCrYaqmZfV6l6EYe9C-eY5JorsMFn0vSG04ObU8/s1600/20170314_181006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaVg3qoSBe7WXLshNNd8ZX3JgaPmj4jzUa53CvQs_Fr052kNlmYYSjISfIhbdtJGzhSMQiGJjHJJE6CvRhyphenhyphenSq0-JWrja8hyphenhyphenipCcctkCJCrYaqmZfV6l6EYe9C-eY5JorsMFn0vSG04ObU8/s320/20170314_181006.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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After dithering longer than I care to admit, I chose Madelinetosh in Spectrum, my <b>very favorite</b> colorway in the entire universe, paired with Knitpicks Hawthorne Kettle Dyed in Blackbird. I began.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWt-ukg9AkuCGyXMudFWqDaQf28Pse1ZjtdTB7_3Dp4HOvag_hpKwDcuV7nOWhRxfSALXxrLtsjU8dJ2M_C16XeYYVfkIVxKJ8N77WQasecdxUox-w17l2uFWkkeR09q6DQhGU2Uq_J0Mq/s1600/IMG_20170314_213220_328.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWt-ukg9AkuCGyXMudFWqDaQf28Pse1ZjtdTB7_3Dp4HOvag_hpKwDcuV7nOWhRxfSALXxrLtsjU8dJ2M_C16XeYYVfkIVxKJ8N77WQasecdxUox-w17l2uFWkkeR09q6DQhGU2Uq_J0Mq/s320/IMG_20170314_213220_328.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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And promptly screwed up. Those two colorwork rows should be the same. The pattern <i>clearly states</i> that you hold the yarn in the back when you slip stitches. As you're working a wrong side row, the back is the front of the work. I was thinking about the wrong side as being the back, held the yarn in the wrong place, and, well, crap. I can't blame that on anyone but myself. Rip.</div>
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That fixed, I trundled ahead. I loved Spectrum. </div>
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I did not love the pooling in the black.</div>
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In a move I'm incredibly proud of, I stopped and considered. I didn't like the pooling. Could I learn to like it? It probably needs better light. I went to bed.</div>
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The next day I took it to work, spread it on my desk, and glanced at it from time to time.</div>
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Pooling.</div>
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Yep, still pooling.</div>
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<i>Sigh. Still pooling.</i></div>
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Besides the fact that my time is precious, because we all know I've knitted something I hated despite the truth to that, this colorway is too precious to use it in a project that screams, "I'M POOLING!" at me every time I see it. Rip.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxqMWkwtrodq8XAhGZweZUlyO4DuPMw995mb7y6KF1aJ7lhFKUftwbvPViKNDnmxjCNPqkzuVu4dvWdsD2Nz0dT2sg8LJAdNSe1rvSJgPSq-eQ0rcg_RCcqDC5Kh7zNPrKEYN0OGSeOriA/s1600/IMG_20170316_124051_463.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxqMWkwtrodq8XAhGZweZUlyO4DuPMw995mb7y6KF1aJ7lhFKUftwbvPViKNDnmxjCNPqkzuVu4dvWdsD2Nz0dT2sg8LJAdNSe1rvSJgPSq-eQ0rcg_RCcqDC5Kh7zNPrKEYN0OGSeOriA/s320/IMG_20170316_124051_463.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I went back to the stash. One of the grays I had initially rejected was Good for Ewe's Sultry Steps. It's a great gray*, but it was fuzzy and monochrome and I wasn't sure I'd like it in this project.<br />
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I was wrong.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil2rHntVx2DQ7M2eLD4D2WBQjrSdHJkaY-Ex5RkHi6M6Tp9WtPSYQh4F4kj5NvHK6_8H1E7s_TvWcRlgMp-oSZc8tCXrQxtExHB9Jg15ifpElGdP6XbafeH3-xe7FWyDCFHooabffyhUJD/s1600/20170317_115853.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil2rHntVx2DQ7M2eLD4D2WBQjrSdHJkaY-Ex5RkHi6M6Tp9WtPSYQh4F4kj5NvHK6_8H1E7s_TvWcRlgMp-oSZc8tCXrQxtExHB9Jg15ifpElGdP6XbafeH3-xe7FWyDCFHooabffyhUJD/s320/20170317_115853.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<i><a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/loop-6">Loop</a> (mine ravelled <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/bonniebeth/loop">here</a>),</i></div>
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<i>knit in <a href="http://goodforeweyarn.com/yarns/#/yarns-sultry-steps/">Good for You Sultry Steps</a> in 98 Pewter </i></div>
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<i>and Madelinetosh 80/10/10 Fingering in Spectrum</i></div>
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Onward, again.</div>
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<i>*For me, a great gray doesn't have brown undertones. Brown undertones make me sad.</i>Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17348444417253082809noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3506072853183457847.post-51764592672398880282017-02-28T10:38:00.000-08:002017-02-28T10:38:28.769-08:00A Spot for Sewing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I love Ikea. If it weren't for the combination of Ikea and Andrew's grandpa getting remarried shortly before our marriage (and thus combining two households), we would have had no furniture when we married. Seventeen years later, we still have a ton of Ikea things in our house. I feel perfectly fine that my nonexistent children will not inherit antique furniture. </div>
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To say I sew sporadically is an understatement. I can go months between quilt blocks. I had set up the machine on our card table, and the weight of it over all those months was causing the table to warp. Turns out, sewing machines are heavier than cards. That meant the machine went back in its box, which made it even less likely I would sew.</div>
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I was talking about this with a friend, and she told me that she and a coworker had recently made an Ikea run to get furniture for their office. I spent a little time on their website, and...</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT6XqjciDRiSZGjJK4UneXGFT56m1jgJtf9SKj_ZjYFrwbeX3C81b1Sw2c7dfaEkMWNjeDBI6zLrZlv5rKX-iIJ4G-B6PEU8pwR3idOUCQE3vdU5wIFpEXm4H8ZoGQST2WaSZP4G6EwOFD/s1600/IMG_20170218_190635_335.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT6XqjciDRiSZGjJK4UneXGFT56m1jgJtf9SKj_ZjYFrwbeX3C81b1Sw2c7dfaEkMWNjeDBI6zLrZlv5rKX-iIJ4G-B6PEU8pwR3idOUCQE3vdU5wIFpEXm4H8ZoGQST2WaSZP4G6EwOFD/s320/IMG_20170218_190635_335.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i><a href="http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10192824/">Alex drawer unit</a> in pieces</i></div>
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My order arrived a week ago Saturday. That night, after a nap to recover from 7-year-old niece's birthday party, I started assembly.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvrcgpCQ0sV93ItrCV5U46d0tg3mZ9HAv3LT1ktKwSvTH5tlcDJHobYYRiimnmraOMn88ew4gSUNWIsyPCVyjaWe01YiH4pGF8s7Un1GsyJd07H_ZNuCsHeN59KJldr0rr2oNzM1Ybbtdi/s1600/IMG_20170218_205628_586.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvrcgpCQ0sV93ItrCV5U46d0tg3mZ9HAv3LT1ktKwSvTH5tlcDJHobYYRiimnmraOMn88ew4gSUNWIsyPCVyjaWe01YiH4pGF8s7Un1GsyJd07H_ZNuCsHeN59KJldr0rr2oNzM1Ybbtdi/s320/IMG_20170218_205628_586.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Besides the drawer unit, I bought a <a href="http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00251135/">Linnmon table top</a> and two <a href="http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70217973/">Adils legs</a>. Even with shipping (we don't have a local Ikea... <a href="http://www.ikea.com/us/en/store/fishers/indexPage">yet</a>), it was very reasonably priced.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga-dETFCMWlNdzltR88o58K7vFYmPithi6UWsVJD3LmmpCTn38je9laZiKqRSnTZvCgF9UclLOt1uXCBlyuMK7dEOIF9dy-2X8u0RVhZyBNFXenAN0OGGQySO9PD8cLqGzYJRdifJGifsi/s1600/20170218_223519.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga-dETFCMWlNdzltR88o58K7vFYmPithi6UWsVJD3LmmpCTn38je9laZiKqRSnTZvCgF9UclLOt1uXCBlyuMK7dEOIF9dy-2X8u0RVhZyBNFXenAN0OGGQySO9PD8cLqGzYJRdifJGifsi/s320/20170218_223519.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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Then I decided the drawers could be more fun. Since I am a whore for the rainbows, I already owned paint in the colors I needed (from <a href="http://peaceableliberal.blogspot.com/2013/06/store-shelf.html">this project</a>), so this past weekend I unscrewed all the drawers and spent some time in the garage.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5lTzTf8ARLZFhjIbQxgpTto8OTGFxmUQq0o41kL4xQuEMW6KbAzfNrULO-5M8Dt2xzBB0yYumg71cZQnvvC3TXC_347snYVvO80-3P2QjqSoYU26wun0miv3-7roTKerhMXlMCooUm583/s1600/Alex+rainbow+drawers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5lTzTf8ARLZFhjIbQxgpTto8OTGFxmUQq0o41kL4xQuEMW6KbAzfNrULO-5M8Dt2xzBB0yYumg71cZQnvvC3TXC_347snYVvO80-3P2QjqSoYU26wun0miv3-7roTKerhMXlMCooUm583/s320/Alex+rainbow+drawers.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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I love it.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqbe8oluGS2JWEhChZRk_zKLLIEMd54T56ffzxUi-06r01KOMbHVDnoePwwVSvWboTjf4J8i1RPf0i8QjWuNJ5DJnNFZOR4MrIARoY6zoSrms4HzciMn3EVi4mUKhrIZLGF_NDKKOdVry3/s1600/Alex+desk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqbe8oluGS2JWEhChZRk_zKLLIEMd54T56ffzxUi-06r01KOMbHVDnoePwwVSvWboTjf4J8i1RPf0i8QjWuNJ5DJnNFZOR4MrIARoY6zoSrms4HzciMn3EVi4mUKhrIZLGF_NDKKOdVry3/s320/Alex+desk.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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The drawers really brighten things up. I put an Eiffel tower lamp on the desk that we've had since our wedding (the light in that room is crap), and a <a href="http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10159443/">Spontan</a> magnetic board with some inspirational things and some quilt-y directions on it.<br />
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This will make it easier for me to sew more frequently, and I'm hopeful that means I actually <b>will</b> sew more frequently. I sewed two squares last night, so now I have fifteen of the fifty-six squares of the <a href="http://peaceableliberal.blogspot.com/2014/07/gray-quilt.html">gray quilt</a> finished, and I already have my eye on the pattern for <a href="http://www.andiejohnsonsews.com/2011/03/disapperaing-4-patch-tutorial.html">my next quilt</a>.</div>
Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17348444417253082809noreply@blogger.com2