Holiday Arts and Crafts Sale

Today I am going to be working to update my de-cluttering project blog, but I realized I hadn't posted here in 10 days. I've been busy, and it's been good-busy. A week ago Saturday, I had a wonderful time displaying -- and selling!-- work at a holiday craft fair at Centenary United Methodist Church.

Martha from Riverwools generously invited me and John (my weaving teacher) to fill her table with our handmade pretties. Here's Martha:
I went over in the afternoon and had a splendid time. It was great to sell so many things, but it was made a truly wonderful day by the good company of Martha and getting to chat with people about my work.

Afterwards, I spent an hour or so weaving on my tri-loom and having a cup of tea at Coffee Break, then it was off to Stephanie's 50th birthday party. I honestly thought the day was going to be draining and that I wouldn't stay long at the party. It's difficult for me to, well, be away from my grief, for a long period of time. But there were many wonderful women at that party, and there were numerous times where it was natural to speak of Patrick and what we are experiencing. The energy was warm and healing.

I was out until after midnight, an unusual enough occurrence that Paul remarked on it to Molly.

And speaking of Molly, she came home for a visit last week and her hair was yet another color, kind of a Raggedy Ann Red: Although, of course, the name of the color was actually something like Blood Red...

BELATED THANK YOU #1

I have numerous public thanks to deliver, going all the way back to my birthday which was September 29!
Son Ian and his wife Lisa sent me fleurs:

My sister George-Anna sent me a special package full of goodies:There were all kinds of things that have become meaningful and symbolic to me over these last few months - columbine seeds, a feather hair ornament...and Paris postcards and Bear Fat soaps which have no bear fat in them (I don't think so anyway!), but are handmade in North Carolina and smell fabulous and last forever.

Extra-special was this carved robin and card from my niece Channing:

The Robin now resides on the dashboard of my car.
Channing wanted to make my card in my favorite purple/green combination, but had no green construction paper. She made her own:
Clever, crafty girl....Thank you, Channing!
More thanks in days to come...

Fingerless Mitten Binge

I've been on a bit of a mitt knitting binge, started when I saw my friend Sharon's Monkton Mittens, that she knitted from the pattern in the the new Jane Ellison pattern book, Noro Unlimited.

These fingerless mittens are knit in combinations of two different Noro yarns, one for the cuffs and the other for the body. Sharon did hers in Silk Garden and Kureyon, and they looked gorgeous. I'm such a Norophile, and anything that's a quick, uncomplicated knit-up that uses small amounts of Noro and looks pretty cool is a project for me!

My first pair makes me laugh when I see it -- I made so many mistakes in this uncomplicated pattern, and my decision to go up a needle size (because I knit somewhat firmly and because the pattern said for "small hand") combined with the boucle of Silk Mountain resulted in a pair of mitts that give me Muppet paws!
And I love them! Nothing beats being able to smile when driving, and every time I looked at my mittened hands on the steering wheel the other day, I kept thinking of Grover and Cookie Monster.
Details on this pair: Silk Mountain with cuffs of Cash Iroha 101.
My big mistake was not doing enough rounds between the thumb gusset increase rows on the first one I knit. I was just not familiar with the general principle of thumb gussets and didn't realize I'd read the pattern incorrectly until I did the second one correctly.

My second pair went much better - I used the size needle that was called for and made the proper number of work-even rounds between increases in the gussets. In all the mitts, I chose to make the body smaller in length than the 9 1/4" the pattern calls for. For one thing, it was just too long for my preferences and for another, by only going to 7 1/2" or 8", I am able to get both mitten bodies out of one ball.

I'm going to post 3 pictures of pair #2 because I had such a great model. Daughter Molly was in town when I finished these and agreed to pose for me. Naturally, she got to take the mitts with her when she went back to school!
Details: Cuffs are in different colors of Cash Iroha (101, green and 88, light purple.) The body worked in the new Cashmere Island.

I really like that the mittens come out differently from each other.

Pair #3 in Kureyon 102 and Cash Iroha 88 cuffs:

Pair #4 in Kureyon (147, I think) with cuffs done in black Cascade 220:
I absolutely love that the mitts are different.

And finally, I started looking around at other patterns for fingerless mittens and made this pair that doesn't have the half thumb, just an opening for the thumb. I did these in some handspun 2-ply, made from a Winderwood Farm hand-dyed roving.
Right now, I'm spinning some more 2-ply for another pair of these little mitts, from a Dudleyspinner hand-dyed roving, some greens and very deep ,almost black, purple.

Today I'm getting ready for a Saturday arts and crafts holiday fair, and I am always amazed at how many things I can take for such a fair in one lightweight box. Certainly beats the transporting and setting up of books at a fair!!

I will post one last picture of one of my freeform hair pins (which can do triple duty as a scarf or shawl pin, too!) This is Noro Kureyon - I just did a lot of chaining, doubling back with it randomly and then doing sc and hdc randomly.


And if I do say so myself, I think my hair looks mah-velous. (It is thanks , of course, to my wonderful colorist daughter-in-law, DeAnne, who really works hard to make my hair and me happy!)

Bowl, Shawl Pins, Garlands

I awoke today with the notion that I am going to blog my little heart out this week and get lots of photos posted, especially ones which have been patiently waiting in the wings for a very long time. If I try to do this in a very organized way, I think it won't get done, but I will try for some coherence....
Here we go:

Ceremonial Grief Healing Bowl #3 Wool, handspun, knitted, wet-felted

A knitted, wet-felted bowl in the pattern I made for a bowl to put in the center of the grief healing ceremony after Patrick died. This one is much larger than the first two I made, and I don't have it with me to measure, but I'm thinking it's about 8" across.

Shawl Pin (or Scarf Pin or even Hair Pin)
Wool, handspun, crocheted, wooden hair stick

A whole bowl of 'em. The colored ones are all done in Noro Kureyon.

Garlands 60"-72"
Wool, crocheted

Garlands (detail)

These garlands are mostly chain stitch, with an occasional slip stitch, sc, hdc connecting the chains in the parts I call pods. Good for decorating one's neck, a doorway or window, mantle or tree....

And here they are in the display of my things at RiverWools, my home-away-from-home LYS.
I really appreciate Martha's support of my creative spirit and the opportunity she gives me to share it with people and even sell a few things. I had the ultimate pleasure of being in the shop when a woman came rushing in to buy one of my hats (she'd been in earlier in the day and came back!), and said all kinds of nice things about my work, not even knowing I was there. So I thank her and I thank Martha for providing the opportunity for me to have that experience.

Granddaughters

Sophia the Chicken and Raven the Mermaid, my lovely granddaughters.