An Auspicious Occasion

Dearest Sister and Car Guy spent the night at Chez Iron Needles on their way back to Desert Crazy Town last month.  I was so glad to see her, and, as it happened, I had just finished cutting out the 3” squares that are to be the 9-patches for Grandbebe Four’s quilt.

She and I spent part of our all too brief time together matching up squares to make awesome 9-patches. The grandbebe quilts (See One, Two, & Three here) are a team effort, but happens states apart.  It is doubly extra special, with chocolate syrup and whipped cream, when the effort can happen in the same room.  Plus!  We are more creatively, I believe, than the sum of our parts…and we have more fun together than we do with others.

That much is certain.

As it also happened, I had ordered a walking foot for my most awesome Singing Singer, the Rocketeer, which for the uninformed, will enabled me to quilt with my sewing machine.

(Not that I will quilt the grandbebe quilt this way. Oh NO! A standard has been set and will be adhered to.  Grandbebe quilts are quilted by hand…with love in each and every stitch.  As it should be…taking months and months and months…of love!)

Back to the walking foot….Sister has one for her Featherweight, and seeing hers is what inspired me to find one for the Rocketeer.  I will be able to quilt smaller projects much faster and easier with it.  Anyway.  It showed up the same day Dearest Sister did.  We were able to break it in together.  Outstanding! with a side of awesome!

And…I did not realize that Dearest Sister had not been to our humble abode since the creation of my craftudio, my she-cave, my space-station.

She loved it.  I knew she would.  She wants one of her own.

Now...the next quilt is calling.  And I need a real project to test that walking foot on.

Where Have I Been?

I have been rilly rilly bizzy.  As the proverbial bee.  As a bee that is another year older even.

I shall start at the beginning.

I have thinking for a while about my upstairs bedrooms.  Both have been rooms essentially maintained for guests, with one doubling as my 'craft site'.

It has been cumbersome, however, both for me walking around all the bedroom furniture to get to the sewing machine and the shelves upon which I keep my 'things' and to the closet where I keep my other 'things'.  It has also been a nuisance for our guests to have to put up with my stuff when they have all their stuff spread out from here to yon.

So much with the stuff!

So, like I said, I have been thinking for a while.  The brainstorming proceeded to planning (yes, I drew out a sketch), and from the planning, I started filling in Wonderful Guy about what I was considering.  I move in stages that way...slowly, but steadily.

My thought processes coalesced this past weekend and the planets aligned and I started.  Friday night I knocked down the bed in the first bedroom.  Saturday, shelves went up.  Sunday afternoon, we hacked together my knock off craft table. And all the while, I was packing and unpacking and moving and moving out and making decisions....and oh I don't even know if I can decide one more thing....just toss it all!

Not really. I am joking.

As of now, all the furniture from Bedroom #1 is in Bedroom #2 (where the craft supplies use to live).  Bedroom #2 is ready and waiting for guests.  And all the craft supplies in this entire house is now in My. Craft. Room. (formerly known as Bedroom #1)

I lied.  Molly, the Marvelous Matchless still lives in the TV room, and my knitting book shelf is still down stairs.  There is still a corner with 'my stuff'...but it's a teensier tinier corner now!

So, yeah.  Busy, because there was lots of toting back and forth and moving this and that, and taking this to the garage for the sale, and OMG! that was so heavy!!!  And late late nights.  And trips to the ginourmous box stores with measurements and trying to figure out the directions and The Thinking! even after all The Planning and The Knowing what we wanted. And the moving of stuff back and forth and forth and back.  Because!  Everything from one room went into the other.

But I have a really Wonderful Guy.  He listens really well, and offers suggestions, and listens some more, and is kindly patient with my creative pursuits.

And he is really, really good at putting up shelves.

Behold.  Le Studio d'Iron!

The crafty table?  Of a height that will be good for cutting out fabric.  While I won't be able to walk all the way around it, it is 3x5.  Cleared off and with a cutting top, it will be very adequate.

Still to be done...I think the antique Goody's prints will go.  I am not sure what will replace them.  Maybe my own photos?!

Shelves all new!  Tubs all new!

2 new shelves in the closet, too!  And in the cabinet there?  The Singing Singer sleeps....

Close up of my knock off crafty table.  So not $500....not even close!

So yeah.  Happy Birthday to me!  I celebrated that little milestone yesterday, by dusting off the bike and kicking off the biking season.  I cranked out my 15 mile commute (round trip). Not bad for a 55 year old.  I won't tell you how long it took me to get home...

Just Because I Can

I had soap.

I had wool.

I know felting theory. (technical term...)

So I put coats on my soap.

1. Obtain soap.

2. Obtain wool.  I used some wool top.

3. Pull off pieces sized to wrap around soap lengthwise and widewise. Both wise, in other words.  Not too thick, not too thin.  Lay contrasty colors on top layer.

4. Slightly wet the wooly 'envelope' and start massaging gently. Gently, and not too wet, or the wool will get all askew and boy, there will be starting overs!

5. Continue to massage.  Foamy lather will...foam and lather up. The wool will shrinky dink. Wet more.  Rinse hands.  Check progress.  Continue until satified.  Not rocket science.

6.  First use won't show alot of suds, but after that it's all good.  Or so my resources report...As the soap is used at the sink, in the shower, or in the tub, the wool is supposed to continue to felt and shrink.  We will see!

And that is what I did with my Friday evening.

Needles of Iron....

I read yesterday about site counters, and have been thinking about the implications of such regarding my philosophy of blogging. Do I care how many might read it? When being honest with myself, I know when I see how many times my Ravelry projects get viewed, I get a charge out of it. And undoubtably, the Ravelry linkage opens the blog up to others. While I might not mention it to those who know me, certainly some can see there that I have one, unless I remove the address, which I could. What a conundrum!

Today, on the Needles of Iron…as usual, a Four-Corners Dishcloth (1870 Pearl), a Maple Seed Hat (Angela Hahn), and Alison’s Scarf (Annie Modesitt). My history with dishclothes will be for another post. I have developed a process to determining what my current WIPs are at any given time, and this has kept me challenged, yet also let me have some mindless knitting. I keep about 3 projects going, one being the ubiquitous dishcloth, one a project using a little bit more concentration and technique, and the last requiring new technique and skill levels. When some knitting time rolls around, I can pick up whatever is called for. The hat is using leftover yarn from my Cinnabar Scarf (another Angela Hahn), and I hope there is enough. I am using some Paton's Decor for the scarf, sturdy enough for some learning of new technique with the requisite frogging. The scarf's I-cord cast-on is very interesting, and I think I like it alot.

I have knitted a lot this past year, and really it has only been since June when the group at work started knitting the squares for the Greensburg project (again, another post). FO’s are listed on Ravelry and I count 25 projects, plus dishcloths. For half a year! I have honed some old skills, and picked up new ones, too. I have come to look at knitting as one of my Momma’s legacies. I value the lessons from my mother, teaching me the basics as a young girl. As I have taught others, I’ve come to appreciate her patience. Well, at least now I do!

Other crafty accomplishments this past year: I completed the quilt for the grandbebe girl, the eldest daughter’s lifetime scrapbook, and the dearest sister’s 50th birthday scrapbook.

Back to knitting….