4 years have gone by in a flash

It’s hard to believe it’s been 4 years since I’ve accessed this blog. So many things have happened. Thank heavens, we no longer have 45 in office, but his malignancy has left an awful mark on this country and the world. I pray that he will be held to account, and perhaps the slimy underbelly that supports him will return to wallowing in the mud and leave the rest of us alone.

Bad things that happened:

1. Covid, of course
2. January 6 Insurrection
3. Proliferation of guns
4. Precipitous increase in mass shootings
5. Corrupt Supreme Court
6. The demise of Roe v Wade
7. Russian war against Ukraine
8. My daughter’s DC apt had major fire.
9. Permanent rupture with family member in wake of my father’s death (which actually happened before my last entry, and still continues, sadly)
10. Probably a whole lot more that are just too numerous to mention, inflation, supply chain etc, etc, etc.)

Good things that happened:

1. We all survived the lockdown, never had Covid, hope we don’t get it now (4 shots and counting). Remarkable that none of us have had Covid.
2. I’ve been working steadily (part-time) since 2020 for a covid vaccine company, supplementing our retirement savings has been a godsend.
3. Our son has a full-time salaried job for the first time in in his life (since 2020), has money in his savings account, and now has a cat.
4. Our daughter suffered no ill effects of the fire, aside from protracted homelessness while repairs are undertaken, so she moved home, and has begun her peregrinations (she has always had a remote job even before Covid) until repairs are completed. She spent month 1 in a hotel in DC paid for by her renter’s insurance, month 2 & 3 here at home, and month 4 in Chicago with her step-brother and family. Next steps are Portland, Maine, to visit friends for 10 days, cat-sitting in DC for the month of August, then on to Prague, CZ for an extended stay. She made lemonade out of lemons.
5. My stepson remarried during the lockdown, we, of course, could not travel to Chicago for the wedding, but we are headed there today for the 2 year old wedding reception festivities this weekend. They also welcomed their new son last August, and he is a delight!
6. After a year’s hiatus, returned to Hawaii last February, where we were joined by all the kids, and even the new baby.
7. I revived my stagnant quilt-making hobby, bought a new longarm, and have been making quilts regularly, ever since, while continuing to knit, socks, mostly.

Update 2018

It’s been more than a year since my last post. I’d almost forgotten about it. I was on Ravelry and looked at my profile page, which I almost never do, and I happened to notice it.

Sometime last July, something happened that reminded me that the only way I was going to start feeling more like myself again was to get healthy. So I started walking on my treadmill. First day, 5 minutes felt like a year, and I got some advice from my old personal trainer, and he said add a minute every day. So I did that. I also stopped eating between meals and decreased my portion sizes but ate what I liked. So here it is almost a year later and I’ve lost 40 lbs, and continue to walk for at least 30 minutes every day. Most days it is more like 45 but never less than 30. It has become a habit and I miss it when life gets in the way.

I’m glad I was able to do this because I feel like if I hadn’t, given how depressing the political atmosphere is in this country, I might have been in so much despair I don’t know how I would have made it. Taking care of myself physically has given me the mental strength to cope with everything else. I highly recommend it.

Sadness

The last year has been one of sadness. I lost my Dad in December, he was 94. Lived a good long life, maybe that’s why it was so hard to say goodbye.  I am still sad whenever I think of him, but thank goodness I don’t cry as much.

Revived Etsy Shop

Today, I reactivated my Etsy shop formerly known as “Crazy4Dyeing” now known as “Potomac View Dyeworks” in honor of our new home closer to the Potomac River.

I dyed a whole bunch of skeins a few weeks ago, so I decided the time was right to go back to the shop. I picked the perfect logo:

I’ve added a new page for the shop in the menu at the top of the page. Clicking the links will take you to that section of the Potomac View Dyeworks Etsy Shop.

Knitting and Blocking

I’ve knit two repeats of the first chart in my “Gingerbread” shawl. Love the color, love the texture.

Also my Bryter sweater is blocking. It’s been two days in the house and it’s still wet. Just moved it outside so hopefully it will be dry by the end of today. Will post better photo when it’s dry.

Dyeing Adventures

For the first time in many, many months, I dyed some yarn. My primary motivation was due to my intention to knit this shawl “Gingerbread” and I wanted to knit it in a golden color. I have a lot of undyed yarn left over from my Crazy4Dyeing days, so I selected some Wool2Dye4 “Diamond Fingering” and planned to dye that. Along the way, I picked a few skeins of previously dyed yarn that although it served its purpose at the time, I knew I would never use, so I overdyed it. And just to be an overachiever, I had skeined up several skeins in 150 gram batches to use for shawls so they went on my plate as well. This took place over the course of two days, and I am happy to show that I haven’t lost my touch.

Here is the Diamond Fingering (600 yard skeins) in Golden:

Next here are the four skeins (also from Wool2Dye4-Sheila’s Sock) that used to look like this:

and now look like these: And finally, five skeins of 150 g ~600 yards of my old base “SlenderSock“:

June

I cannot believe it’s been more than a month since my last post. It was a rainy May, but also very busy. My new contract work assignment has kept me busy. I was sick early in May and missed Maryland Sheep and Wool for the first time in quite a few years, so that was a bummer.  The quilt from my last post about the binding in now on the quilt machine, you can see in the foreground of the second photo below. The quilt on the wall is another one that’s been a decade in finishing. Somehow disinterest and laziness  prevented me from piecing the blocks together, although I had them planned an finished for a long, long time. They just sat in a pile waiting patiently. Now the center of the quilt is pieced and looks wonderful. I have at least two borders planned, one will be plain to frame the quilt and probably a flying geese outer border. I love flying geese for some reason, they  seem to sneak into most of my quilts one way or another.

Here is my plan, more or less.

Here is the actual at this point unfinished but getting there!

I expect today I will finish up my Crystal Bay Shawl using this really pretty Madelinetosh Feather yarn. FO photos in a few days!

Scrappy Binding

I’ve made significant progress this week in finishing the 30’s Applique quilt. Finished appliqueing the borders and successfully attached them. This feels like a major accomplishment. I am currently working on appliqueing similar flowers onto the border corner squares. This is awkward at best as I am used to working with small, easily manipulated pieces while doing applique. One is done, the flower is a little bit off, but I am reasoning it is acceptable, because nature is not as obsessive compulsive with the display of bouquets as I could be, so I am leaving it alone. As it is, I had to redo the templates so many times, once because I forgot to mirror them, and several times to make sure they were approximately the same size as the flowers in the body of the quilt, having lost those templates many moons ago.

At the same time as all this is going on, I decided I needed to plan the quilt binding, and I was pretty sure I wanted to do a scrappy, pieced binding. I’d done one or two in the past but it was a long time ago, so I researched modern methods on Pinterest and found a few tips. One was about only needing four fat quarters to make 360 inches of border, I needed less than that but since I did not have exact fat quarters, I was unsure how much I would be able to cobble together. After scrounging together the biggest pieces I had left, I cut to the smallest piece which was about 16″ long. I cut 2″ strips. Another tidbit I picked up was about minimizing waste – make a 45° angle fold at the top of the strip, and stagger sewing them together. After piecing 8 of the 2″ strips and cutting the subsequent chunk into 2 1/4″ binding strips, I realized that I cut WAY more 2″ strips than I needed. Each chunk of pieced fabric yielded four binding strips 2 1/4″ wide x ~21″ long. So I needed at most about fourteen strips in all, which translates to 4 chunks of fabric in all, but to be on the safe side, I will make 5.

Some in-process photos:

Photo shows 45° fold and completed strip

Photo shows how angles line up

 

 

 

Applique Revisited

It’s been a long time since I’ve done any applique. Mostly because I’ve been focused on knitting for the last seven or eight years. Something made me dig out this partially finished 30’s fabric applique quilt. The center pieces were finished. The applique borders were partially finished. Over the last few days, I’ve been finishing the borders, and planning the next steps, since I didn’t leave myself any notes, and I don’t remember the plan or even if I had a plan so here’s a picture of approximately what I have planned.

Zucchini and Shrimp Recipes

Somehow, I never published this post last summer when I originally wrote. It’s just a link to some delicious looking recipes, so here it is…in the hopes that summer will be here eventually and zucchini will be plentiful once again.

http://bakerbynature.com/sunday-suppers-spicy-sriracha-shrimp-zucchini-lo-mein/