Progress report

My Gee's Bend baby blanket is coming along.


The square on the top now has a sideways strip out to the right, which will likely continue on the whole width. I'm beginning to worry about my yarn quantities, so I think I'll be as efficient as I can. Strips knitted in between the squares, bound off in the middle, as obvious seams. Whatever little border I can contrive.

I got another book from the library! My oh my, I might have to take up sewing! Gorgeous! So much inspiration! Ahhhh!

Log cabin, Gee's Bend, donated Anny Blatt wool

A couple of weeks ago, I got an e-mail offering some "wool" for our charity project. I was leary, because people do tend to dump crap yarn when they get an opportunity! But, this was no crap! Seven balls of Anny Blatt 100% wool, gorgeous colours. (Though somewhat dated when seen all together, I must note. Funny how certain colour combinations remind one of certain eras.) This came together with the other very decent yarn which inspired the Disco Queen jacket.

It just so happened that I had a book out of the library about the Gee's Bend quilters, specifically Mary Lee Bendolph. (I especially love this one; it looks like books on shelves.)

Other knitters have admired the Gee's Bend quilts, and have done something about it. Here's Kay admiring a quilt; here she knits another. Kay tends to keep her lines straight, though! Luckily, there are all sorts of knitters around, including people who will knit garter stitch squares that don't end up straight! The secret: short rows. Nona even wrote a tutorial on the whole wonky square issue!

So, when I see a picture like this...

I can sorta knit it!


I think this is a quarter of a baby blanket, but it might end up a sixth. Too garish? Would a baby in Zimbabwe appreciate it -- well, yes, they would like a nice colourful wool blanket, but maybe only a kooky knitter who admires not-straight-line quilts would really love it...

And this is the next piece. The quilter has log-cabinned clockwise, and knitting can only go counter-clockwise, I think, so I will fudge, but the whole thing is fudging, really, isn't it? Onward and upward and wonky!

A book-with-knitting swap

I have joined a book swap! We need to find a book written before 1960 which involves knitting in some way, even some teeny way; make a bookmark, and send a package off to someone somewhere! I have a few ideas, but must see who I'm giving the book to, before I make any big decisions!

It is so lovely out right now. Spring lasted about 3 days, and now we are well into summer, it seems. Soon I will begin to complain that it is too hot -- already Elaine and I have crossed to the shady side of the street while out walking at noon.

Get down, baby!

Took a break from whatever I was doing this week, and made a Disco Queen Baby Surprise Jacket.

It needs glittery buttons, don't you think?

I mailed the blue socks to my dad for his birthday, and they fit and he has worn them. So, hooray for socks. Now, my mom's birthday is in July, and she's only going to be 88, not 90, but I think she might qualify for a knitted gift as well. I'm thinking shawl right now, but her birthday is not really in shawl season. But, who cares... she'll need it some day, and that's what I want to knit, and maybe socks, but not right now, but I might change my mind, but.... oh, never mind me...

No more Magknits!

I just read on Grumperina's blog that Magknits was no longer around!

Go read their statement... Sad for us, but it seems a sensible thing for them to do, really. And although I used some patterns, I certainly never supported them by even clicking on an advertiser. I guess there is no free lunch!

Lucky me, in the middle of my Jaywalkers, Grumperina's put that pattern on Ravelry. I'd best go download it properly -- I'd just been counting on being able to go to Magknits to read it when I needed to! Odessa is hers as well, and it's a great hat pattern.

In other news, Rosie mentioned a book swap. I dashed right over and joined, my first ever swap!

Saturday sky on Monday

Yesterday I stepped out of the house and saw this cardinal in a tree, with the clear white con trail across the sky, and thought, "Ah, Saturday sky!" It was really Sunday, and I'm posting it on Monday... but you get the point.

This past weekend the weather has been divine! Green things are popping out of the ground, and we even barbecued for lunch on Saturday! Ten degrees, people, plus 10! I took an actual photograph of actual blooming crocuses, but it's on the other camera and there are issues with that camera at the moment...

[Those issues have been resolved, so, look! Flowers!]



I see it's snowing in Britain. I'm tempted to say ha ha ha, but I know the chances of us getting through April without another snowfall are small.

We went to a little farm in the city yesterday looking for baby animals to photograph for an upcoming fair, but there were no babies yet! Just a few chicks under a warm red light, which makes for not so great photos....

But, Arthur did manage to catch this cow in a quiet moment.

(And I took a fine picture of his friend flying through the sky, but it's on the other camera....!)

[And here's that one too!]

More moss, and the sock on the town

I was thinking about mossy yarns the other day, and I remembered these lovely bits of handspun that I'd come across on my mossy West Coast travels.

The first ball, which I bought at a craft market on Hornby Island, had been once made into this scarf, but it was too short, and too tickly, and it got ripped.

The second ball came from a gallery on Pender Island last summer, and had just been sitting around... I think it even came from island sheep, spun and dyed locally.


So, I got my trusty 7 mm short circular needle, the two yarns, and a couple of afternoons, and came up with a nice warm hat... in April, just as I'm thinking I might one day be able to leave the house without a wool hat!

It's nice and slouchy and funky and very very mossy!

I did a few other things yesterday as well. I took my sock (my poor neglected sock!) out for a walk and took its picture at Honest Ed's.

The Yarn Harlot gave the knitters of Toronto a list of places/scenarios in which to take pictures of socks, and we seem to have been rather diligent about this! There's a flickr group here.

I knew I couldn't go to her talk, so I didn't go all out to collect lots of points, but I got a few.

Here's the sock on my deck, looking toward the CN Tower.

And now the sock had better get to work at getting longer, turning its heel and speeding toward the toe!

April goals include finishing this sock and the Jaywalker, and if I can do that, with perhaps a bit of fun on the side, I'll be content!