Fiber

All zipped up

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Sailing season approaches and our sailboat’s original cushions from the 1980’s were shot. My Husqvarna Viking 1951 sewing machine was purchased for the task.

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Sailrite showed me the way. It’s my new, favorite website. They have great, do it yourself, videos to recover cushions, pillows, upholstery, sail covers you name it. And they have lots of great tips. For instance, I cut my fabric with a hot knife to prevent the edges from fraying.

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By following the steps in one of their videos, I can install a zipper in minutes and it’s a good thing because I have installed over 40 feet of zippers!

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So I am 7 cushions into the project and have gotten the hang of it. The old fabric was so shot, I used the cushions to directly measure the fabric. Just like knitting, it’s all about ease. This varied as I went along, early ones may have a bit too much “negative ease” and are a bit squished. Several cushions are mounted on a board and I forgot wood doesn’t compress in my measurements; my first attempt has to be partially redone when I can bring myself to pull out another hundred staples!

I am eager to see how they look on the boat. I have three of the longest cushions left and two more on boards to finish. The captain has decided he wants buttons to pull in the cushions as the boat had before. Sailrite has forms to easily make coordinated buttons.

20140421-074020.jpg Sewing in three dimensions is different from quilting. It’s a wonder as these squared, boxed covers emerge from the sewing machine. Of course not one of my cushions were square boxes and not due to my sewing prowess. Every cushion was wonky. They are angled in the back to nestle against the boat’s curved sides. They are narrower towards the bow, wider at the stern. Now they are just a bit more interesting.

Even my knitting has zippers. I’m almost done with this baby sweater with a zipper up the back, I found on an archived web page. I never owned one when my kids were little but friends say they are the easiest way to dress a squirmy little one.

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Better to be bit by a bug than a coyote

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Last week didn’t exist for me – or I didn’t really exist last week. Imagine, no knitting for a day due to either a virus or parasite that knocked me for a loop and caused me to sleep 18 hours a day for four days. But, I’m back, feeling mended and ready to charge back into the work week.

Better a bug than the coyotes. They howled across the road the other night. This is what they sounded like from our porch.

I managed to get some work done on a few projects. I spun and plied some luscious blue faced Leicester on its own and with some local alpaca. Since Tim lost his f***ing deer hat, Some of this may be used in the replacement.

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I was ready to dabble in some pretty fiber colors in preparation for this Fair Isle Vest I want to knit for myself by Eunny Jang. I plan to use the organic merino I spun on my drop spindle on Deal Island and then dyed with all the onion skins we used during our three month stay. I may use some navy and this rose yarn as well.

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I’ll be visiting my darling daughter and need some handmade items for her. I’m working on a knit market bag and may need a few for myself. Maybe I’ll actually remember to bring my own bag into the store if I made it myself!

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This rug may be finished by next winter but chicken little is running around saying, ” the cabin is falling, the cabin is falling!” I hope not.

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In case my coyote sound track doesn’t work above, here’s another way to hear it.
Coyote songs

Perspectives

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When I think of a movie or TV show, I often think of its one quotable line, even if it’s wrong. An old time favorite movie is The Red Balloon, which was shown at least each grade while I was in elementary school. The other was Nanook of the North, another classic. Anyway, for years I thought the Red Balloon’s quote was, “It is balloon!”. However, the movie was French and there was no dialogue. I later learned it came from the not so classic TV show, F Troop! Oh well.

Today someone posted a photo from the Honeymooners with Ralph and Norton in chef’s hats. Immediately I thought, “But can it core a apple”? Which brings me to today’s post. I have and will be visiting family and, like Goldie Hawn in Saving Private RyanPrivate Benjamin, “I never go to someone’s house empty handed.” However, when I looked up Saving Private Ryan, the more memorable quote was reportedly, “I did join the Army, but I joined a different Army. I joined the one with the condos and the private rooms.” Ah well, so much for my perspective.

So here’s what I’ve been working on.
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Placemats to grace a new home.

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Mohair merino ballet slippers from a pattern from Bev Galeska, queen of felted knits. These slippers await felting to shrink to fit one pair of feet in the new home. Felted clogs are still in progress for the second pair of feet. And,

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This cute little berry hat to warm the head of a new little one.

How to get spring fresh laundry in winter

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I found the perfect solution to fresh smelling laundry. Remove any and all dead rodents from the dryer vent! Voila! Spring fresh again. It was a nasty task but I meant to see what was rattling in the vent for a while. And I found it. Along the way, I found the perfect use for duct tape: repair the duct. My dryer vent hose was unraveling at the dryer, hopefully not because a mouse was trying to claw its way out. Oh the horror! Like a flash, the idea of duct tape, which I use for everything else, came to mind. Worked like a dream.

On a lighter note, I’m weaving a set of overshot placemats in linen and cotton. I had some linen on the shelves and boldly moved forward, despite reading the difficulty of working with linen in low humidity. My loom is near the wood stove. I’m learning to love the warping process and do it mindfully. Less snarls and hassles and misthreading. Previously, I tried to rush through so I could get to weaving, which forced me to become adept at repairing errors. Now I take my time, understanding that the loom prep will take several days. Then it’s off to weaving.

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I’m a big fan of hats. My whole body stays warmer when I wear a hat. But some hats are just wrong. This is one of them.

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I’m no Barbie

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No one should be. I know this is old news, but someone figured she’d be 5’9″‘ with a 19″ waist, 35″ bust and feet so small she’d have to walk on all fours.
Barbie’s dimensions

I’m not your average, off the rack size either. Let’s just say my “core” is in the middle of a pear. There’s often a compromise in fit with dresses, coats and bathing suits. I may have the last one licked.

Sometime before the holiday, I went to a sale at a clothing maker’s house. She had a couple of yards of sparkly red swimsuit material and a pattern she said was easy and had good results. Now that my initial baby knitting and weaving is done, it was time for a project for me. One designed for me right from the beginning and not because a potential gift was flawed. The pattern is an old one from Stretch and Sew. It was easy to customize for me: small on top, not so small on bottom. It was a cinch. And it fits like a glove! Now to test it in the pool. I may still be the slowest but I bet I’m the only one in a home made bathing suit!

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Someone boil water

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We got a call Friday night that our first grandchild was on the way. By Saturday morning he was here. Everyone is doing fine.
He’s cute as a button.

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In old movies, labor was a time to boil water and cut up sheets. In modern times, I thought about feeding the new family when they returned home from the hospital. I whipped up lasagna (sort of; homemade noodles, however, chile comprised the meat sauce), two small pans of Mac and cheese (Barefoot Contessa version), curried apple-butternut squash soup and brownies. And off we went.

I had already finished the rainbow plaid baby blanket but didn’t get the elastic for the wool soaker until the day of labor, which was almost three weeks before the due date. My baby bunting still has a couple of days before completion.

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I managed to soak the soaker in a lanolin waterproofing solution before we left and delivered it, slightly damp. We spent the weekend visiting the new family, holding the precious bundle and dressing greyhounds for walks in the North Country, with 8 booties in total and two jackets. And smiling from ear to ear.

Making lemonade

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Thinking of what to do with that truncated blanket. I thought about a sleeping bag but don’t think it’s PC any more.

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Instead, I may make a “sleep sack”. Sort of like a sleeping bag and a jumper combined. I guess that way the material is guaranteed to stay away from the face. I’m thinking of something like this but in wool. I have some blue wool material and thinsulate for the upper body and could attach it to the blanket bottom. We’ll see.

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I got my vintage Viking sewing machine today and almost burnt the house down. Not really but the pedal definitely overheated and the machine was revving like a race car. It looks like part of a ceramic (I hope) resistor(?) broke off and heat was being dissipated. I fixed it with some electrical tape and it’s back to normal. Just a reminder to watch these vintage electrical items. I never leave them plugged in when I am not using them. I’ll also treat the pedal very gingerly.

I also learned that just because I can quilt, doesn’t mean I can sew. I made the simplest and cutest baby sundress today, reversible with snaps! But I had to cut it out twice, because although I lined up with the fabric grain correctly, the little pattern was upside down. Not something you really think about when quilting
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I flipped everything around to get the flowers right side up, but still made the little bloomers upside down.

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Since I anticipate making lots of baby items I the upcoming years, I invested in a snap installer. Easy peasy and it allowed the little sundress to be completely reversible.

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I cut apart the rainbow blankets and tied fringe for the larger one. Looks like it’s time to hit the loom again.

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Media handoff

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Tim hiked a High Peak today and I was left home alone. It’s a good thing because it was cold outside and I had plenty to do. I wanted to finish my two rainbow blankets. Naturally there’s a problem. First I didn’t have enough yarn to keep weaving and took a trip to the not big city (mostly small haven) 45 minutes a way and bought one skein of eight colors to finish my project. Oops. So much for my weaving calculations. Then I became so enthusiastic about the first blanket, I didn’t leave enough warp for the second blanket. So the first blanket is 46 or 48 inches long and the second is 21″. Good for a newborn baby for a few days. I now have to bind it to make it. They are beautiful though. One is a twill and the other is plain weave.

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While I wove, I had another project to keep me busy (in addition to keep the wood stove going). I am converting my VHS tapes to digital format. To do it, I bought a video converter, the Diamond One Touch.
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After working through a couple of kinks, it worked great. I plugged RCA wires into the VHS player and connected to Tim’s computer with a USB. Not exactly one touch, but close to it. I had a couple of glitches. Tim’s computer kept not quite going to sleep, but would lock down despite power settings, which said never sleep. After a search, I found the solutions. I had to disable the setting which said, on resume, display the unlock screen. Voila. I no longer had to sit at the computer swiping the touch pad every five minutes. There was initially some terrible audio static, which went away, perhaps because I moved the VHS and computer apart.

I had a chance to watch my old family videos in the process. First let me say I have the absolute cutest and sweetest kids in the world. Just sayin’. We were mostly a Christmas, birthday and sports video family. I learned a few things I the process. My kids got way too much stuff for Christmas, or I let them down big time this year with only a white elephant exchange. Audio recording should not be on during football games. I have a 90 minute graduation film, bought from the school, with about 10 minutes of footage I really want to see. My son’s swimming coach critique gave me a few pointers I may incorporate.

What really struck me though, was the responsibility I have to my family. At some point, my father converted all his old 8mm tapes affectionately known as the Lynne Bahlkow story, to VHS and gave the tapes to his three kids. As the oldest, I had the most footage by far. My younger sister was a newborn, next she graduated from high school and then became a parent herself. Now it’s my job to get the VHS to a format that my kids can use and look at in the future and then ultimately convert to the next generation to keep our family film history alive. I’m going with MPEG 4 for now.

New beginnings

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Ring in the New Year
The new year erases the slate of 2013 and we get to begin afresh. What a perfect day to start a few new projects, the first of 2014.

I’m experimenting with wool soakers: garments to wear over cloth diapers since we’re having a green grandson (not a Martian, just environmentally friendly). My first attempt is a felted design. I like this idea because I can ultimately cut the felted material to fit the pattern. I may attach it with snaps or buttons, not sure. My new snap arrived today since I figure I’ll be making bibs and things which need snaps. They better, I have hundreds.image

I knit a duck on the back, which looks mildly creepy. We’ll see how it goes once the elastic legs and snaps are added. I’ve even purchased liquid lanolin to treat the fabric to make it water (and who knows what else) proof.

Next up is a rainbow woven blanket. Two actually but I miscalculated and have to pick up more yarn to make a checkerboard pattern. Setting up the loom made me think of all the hope and dreams associated with a new project. With the yarn laid out artfully along the loom, you forget about the possibility of crossed or broken threads, uneven warps or other problems that may sneak up along the way.
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We’ve had a bit of snow over the ice and cold, sub-zero weather. Tim wanted to test the cabin’s mettle so we spent the night in it when the thermometer dropped to -8 degrees Fahrenheit. It was a balmy 30 degrees on the main floor but toasty and warm in my sleeping bag in the loft. I hardly stirred while Tim kept the wood stove stoked all night.
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Winter wrap

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Christmas brought an ice storm to our region.  Then it warmed.  The sparkly, ice laden branches dripped ice and it sounded like it was raining.  My neighbor’s birches haven’t straightened up yet and I hope they survive. I’m conflicted because they look so pretty  as bowers.

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Now the temperature is plummeting again.  Our roof has been making some sort of explosive noise now and then.  Not to worry?  I didn’t see any big snow heaves on the ground and am not sure what causes it.

The cold weather, of course, gives me the opportunity to stay inside and play.  I was on my own for a few days last week and confess I stayed in long johns and slippers for most of (more like all of two) the day.  I managed to put winter garb over my warm clothes and ventured out with microspikes on to take some photos.  The base surface is a sheet of ice.  These thaws and freezes have acted like a Zamboni to make a smooth treacherous surface.  Microspikes are little crampons which slip over your boots (or crocs to the hot tub) like galoshes.  They allow me to walk the ice almost fearlessly.

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I had a few requests for knitted gifts and tried my hand at slip stitch knitting.  Both hats have a twisted braid brim and I think I’ll use this instead of turned hems (my second favorite hat brim) whenever I can.

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Then I’m back to the loom where I have a few towels to finish weaving.  I was dismayed to find my warp was crooked because the warp stick got caught on something.  So I get another wonky towel.  I give away the good ones and keep the “seconds”.  If you saw my linens, you’d think I had no idea what I was doing. Do I?

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At least I’m not getting blisters on my keister anymore thanks to a little cushioning on the weaving bench.  Now I look forward to a new year filled with unions, reunions, births and PROJECTS!