cloth.paper.string

tonight

Tonight I wished for a yarn swift and ball winder.  I then stood in the dining room with a hank of yarn pulled between the backs of two chairs and wound two hundred and twenty yards while witnessing the girl and her dad don headlamps, pull on rainboots and head outside to put the garden hoses to sleep for the winter.  The spigot is just below the window so I could hear them chattering about 'old man winter' and could see the light from their lamps bouncing about.  Had I had a swift, I'd have been done with my work before theirs began.  I'm grateful for the unexpected gifts that are born from simplicity.

The yarn is the last skein for the blue ruche.  I'm close to finishing it, and I'm almost certain I've found the perfect buttons.  It's a good thing, as I have some holiday knitting lined up that needs some attention.  I don't think I'm capable of adding a stitch to another project until I'm wearing this one.

simple decadence

Can you imagine how the setting sun tints the snow covered lake orange and pink?  Pine boughs laden with the weight of soft winter white?  What about a retired sled dog exchanging yips and yowls with a pack of wolves?  Or a star-filled night bookeneded by the steaming warmth of a Finnish sauna and the chilling cold of a woodstove extinguished in the wee hours?  I'd love to share images of the beauty found last week at the edge of the wilderness, but my camera doesn't capture much without a memory card.  

Instead I'll leave you with a cinnamon roll made from a hunk of the Artisan Bread in Five dough that's sitting in my fridge.  Because they were painfully easy to make.  Because they're delicious.  Because I can't post without a picture.  And too because there's something about homemade cinnamon rolls that feels decadent in the same way that going on an overnight without the little one for the first time felt like a complete luxury.   Thanks Nana and Papa for making it possible!

made

The holiday gift making kept me up into the wee hours recently.  We decided to go handmade for our family and friends and created a bundle of goodies in which all members of the household participated in the making.  I'll share more on the collaboration once the last of the gifts are given next week.

For my daugther, I knitted a hat.  One I've made before, and one I'll make again; though sooner than I had anticipated.  I made a mistake in the measuring, or she grew considerably, so the hat is a wee bit small.  This one will be donated for an upcoming silent auction, and another will be cast on. 

I also sewed a dress from this Japanese craft book.  Pinstriped denim, elephant pocket, vintage button and orange trim.  I'm pleased with how it came out and too that it's such a hit:  the pachyderm dress is in heavy rotation.

The handmade holidays rounded out a pretty good year of sewing, printing and knitting for me.  These are the finished and photographed.

For 2009, I'm aiming to use more of what I have; make more of what I think about creating; finish more of what I start; and clean up as I go.  And too, to photograph all of it. 

Wishing you all a happy, healthy and abundant new year!

a visit with the sea

Salt marsh giving way to salt sea. 

Splashing in a pool that will disappear with the tide.

Walking barefoot in sand soft and cold under gray October sky.

The salt.  The evidence of ebb and flow.  The ocean.  So different from the freshwater sea by which I now make my home.  And too, so similar.

housewarming

When I set out to knit the Hemlock Ring Blanket back in May, I thought it would be a wedding gift.  But through the process of knitting ring upon growing ring, I came to realize that it was a much more timely and appropriate gift for my parents.
The blanket was the first large scale project I've ever completed.  Much bigger than a hat or a mitten or a child's sweater.  Bigger too than the tangled yoke in its current state.  And also larger than all of those seemingly huge felted things I made in the early days when the allure of felting aligned with my desire to hide the myriad of mistakes that always seemed to appear four or five rows after I made them.
It was also the first lace pattern I've followed.  If you're not familiar with it, it's essentially a huge doily that is made up with aran weight yarn instead of thread.  Lots of yarn overs and slip slip knits.  The blanket represents a milestone for me.  I feel as if I'm on the threshold of many new directions in knitting.  I now look at complicated patterns and feel excited about figuring them out.But back to my parents.  They just finished up an enormous house building and renovation project.  The biggest of their lives.  One that represents a huge milestone.  Since I was a teenager, each summer they've moved out of their house so that they could rent it out to  tourists visiting the island they call home.  Along the way they designed and built four houses.  Each one a dream to them.  Each one left behind come June so that others could enjoy their hard work through the tourist season.  And each summer some small and funky cottage would be transformed into the family home.  I experienced only five or six of these seasons, but they've endured at least twenty.
This year it's different.  They've built their own summer cottage tucked into a stand of oak trees on the same property as their winter home.  A cottage that will be shared with family and friends, but not one that will be a place for strangers to spend their island vacations.  The cottage itself wasn't the biggest part of their project -- they also renovated and added on to another structure, built a pool and pool house, and then decorated, furnished and landscaped the entire property.  And they did much of it themselves, as they always have, figuring it out along the way. 

To say I am proud of my parents is an understatement.  It seemed that my knitting milestone needed to be with them.  A small token of gratitude for where their vision and hard work have brought our them and also, our family.  And so, a housewarming gift.  My largest and most complicated knitting project to date gifted in celebration of their largest and most complicated house project to date.

Pattern:  Hemlock Ring Blanket
Yarn:  1 1/2 skeins Cascade Ecological Wool in cream 8014
Needles:  size 10, double points and circulars up to 40" 
Notes:  See the Rainey Sisters for the corrected and expanded pattern.  If you're thinking about buying interchangeable needles, this project is a the perfect excuse.  I'm kicking myself for not doing so...

little bits

We recently gifted a certain babe-on-the-way with a bundle of handmade:  the simplest of quilts; a onesie freezer paper-stenciled with Olive, the Boston terrier; and a pair of Melissa's baby shoes screen printed with the image she created for the mid-winter gocco swap.

As for gocco, another swap is in the works.  I promise there will be more to come in the next few weeks...

beauties

I still make stuff; really, I do.   Last night I finished my second pleated beauty bag from Bend-the-Rules.  The first one was gifted before I had a chance to photograph it, made with charcoal wool and pleated with grey and pink thrifted goodness shared by Ella.

This pleated beauty is for me.  I thought that my first run at the pattern made a bit of a floppy bag, so I beefed up the second one, adding interfacing and canvas lining.  Despite breaking three needles on the machine while topstitching, I'm pleased that the bag can stand on its own. 

I ended up having just enough of the repurposed falling leaves gabardine.  It's the same fabric that recently inspired some freezer paper stenciling.   While the fabric is almost gone, I have a hunch those leaves will continue to fall onto paper and bookcloth.

Another beauty in my life turned two this weekend.  Two years old.  A fever, cough and runny nose kept our festivities quiet and slow, but we managed to bake a cake, share some gifts and talk a lot about the day she was born.  She tells her favorite part of her birth story like this, with elaborate hand gestures and enthusiasm:  "...den daddy scoop you UP out of water!"  She was born at home in a waterbirth tub, with her daddy catching her, welcoming her into the world (and these days she refers to herself in the second person). 

I remember experiencing such euphoria in those first days with her.  It seems like yesterday.  And too it seems that there hasn't ever been a time that I didn't know her.  Happy birthday, my little firecracker!

framed

You might recall that back in December I fell hard.  And was subsequently crushed.  You see, there was a certain letterpressed print offered up at Tiny Showcase that I happened upon after each and every print in the edition had been snatched up.  I lamented.  Little did I know that the bit of woe I posted would send my dad on a secret mission.  A few days later, with the help of my brother, his mission was accomplished.  On Solstice I held in my hands a printer's proof of Alec Thibodeau's Good Libations 2008 Lunar Calendar!  To say I was thrilled would be quite the understatement.

Fast forward three months and you'll find me a bit sheepish to admit that I'm just now hanging it on the wall.  But it's framed.  And I did it myself thanks to The Small Object's tutorial, a handheld mat cutter, and a frame from IKEA. 

To help get up the nerve to cut such a big piece of mat board, I practiced on a few other prints I had been meaning to frame for ages including a set of letterpressed stamps from Nikki McClure.  I still have a big pile to frame, but no longer will I shell out many dollars or wait many moons to put more prettiness on the walls.

holding on, letting go

Little red berries, still hanging on to the branches of the Rowan tree.

Determined child, finally surrendering to the stroller after over a half mile of puddle splashing.

re-awakening

The faintest of freckles have returned across the bridge of my nose.  They were coaxed out by the late morning sun reflected off snow along the trail over the weekend.  The sun and its warmth are oh-so welcome after what seems like the longest and grayest of winters.  We weren't the only ones making our way across the snow this sunny morning...

In looking at these little impressions, I wish had a copy of Track Finder (or better yet, the entire series of those nature study guides).  I've reached a point where I want to broaden my knowledge of the things I see out in the natural world.  More information and with it, more understanding.  The fact that the bird is red or the tree is some sort of pine is no longer enough.  I'm fairly certain this desire is fueled by the incessant "why?" of the toddler that punctuates everything that is said around our home these days.   

Also, it seems that as spoken language has been added to the way my daughter and I communicate, I'm seeing how she experiences the world in a different way.  It's a re-awakening of sorts, seeing my surroundings through my child's eyes.  One that reminds me of what Rachel Carson so eloquently describes in The Sense of Wonder:  A child's world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood.
Here's to wiping clean those lenses smeared and smudged in the becoming of an adult; to re-discovering that clear-eyed vision.  To seeing with clarity all that is around us. 

We're off to the Carolinas for the rest of the week to find more freckles, and surely much, much more.  But before I go, remember the little book?  Well, it was part of a collaborative with Alicia, Emily and Erin to celebrate the thirtieth birthday of Grace.  Today's her day.  You can see more of the project (and wish Grace a happy birthday) here.

See you next week, my friends.