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Felted Slippers and New Starts

In between all the visiting and travelling of last week, I knit one gigantic pair of wool ankle socks, which I promptly turned into felted slippers for my DH when we returned home. Wish I had taken a 'before' pic, as these things were truly huge - at least 18 inches long - before I threw them into the washer! 45 minutes later and voila - slippers! Felting is something new to me - at least, intentional felting is something new to me - and I am always delighted and surprised when it actually turns out :)



My hands felt empty after finishing up with knitting my shawl, so I dug through my stash and found this yarn to knit this shawl for my mom. The shawl is in Knitters Spring 2001 - one of my thrift store mag finds! I am now finished 2 pattern repeats and I like the way the yarn is coming up color-wise! I hope to do a pattern repeat a day until it is finished. The yarn is a wool & acrylic blend that should block out well.

I have also begun another large stitching project - Waterlily Pond by Chatelaine Designs. I originally signed up for the online class back in 2004 but did little other than collect the patterns. I am stitching it all on one piece, using the border provided. Hopefully, by next year, my finished piece will look like this beautiful piece stitched by Debbie:
http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/1247703609053869425AQlSAN

We are back!

and we had a delightful time visiting my mom and my family in BC. We went to Kimberley - just a four hour drive from Lethbridge, and well worth the visit: http://www.city.kimberley.bc.ca/siteengine/activepage.asp?bhcp=1

We shopped in the Platzl - where I found a trove of knitting and cross-stitch magazines at one of the local thrift stores, and bought a bag full of Jo Sonja paints for a great price at a local shop....

we had a lovely visit and colored easter eggs at my brother and sil's home....

we went to Fort Steele - http://www.fortsteele.ca/ for Easter Sunday, and the kids had a blast searching for easter eggs in the straw, going on a wagon ride, and walking around this amazing little town in gorgeous sunshine...

and we enjoyed visiting with my mom and her dog Midnight - lots of good walks, long talks, and knitting in the evenings :)

Speaking of knitting - I finished my shawl and just spent an hour on my knees blocking it out on the basement floor. I am so tickled to have this one done - this is Alita by Herbert Niebling, with an added Lover's Knot edging, knit with an old Bernat yarn called Kabuki - which feels like cotton but is silk and acrylic. It is about 60 inches in diameter - maybe a wee bit more. On the final rounds, I had 840 stitches, and I knit 1680 rows of the edging! I had just a half ball left - which sure beats needing a half ball and never being able to find it :) So here it is

before washing and blocking ----- and after

Finished!!

well, I did manage to finish something off before we leave on Friday! This little beauty is the Peacock Chair by The Cats Whiskers Designs. It came together rather nicely today and I could not be more pleased :) Rather than gluing all the pieces together as per the instructions, I sewed the arm rolls, chair sides and chair back onto the seat/drawer/base unit. It gave a tighter, tidier finish that I preferred to glue.



For those who need to know, I stitched on miracle mint belfast with Daydreams and Wild Lavender Dinky Dyes silks. I also changed the feet, as I wanted to paint them to match the fabric.


Janie from The Cats Whiskers has asked if she can put my email address on her site as a N. American finisher - hmmmm. I did agree to finish future projects for her, and will have to think about the other . I have already had a number of inquiries from my online stitching friends - in fact, I think I will probably be making up a whole living room full of lovely chairs! I cannot wait to see what she comes up with next in this line!

Odds and Ends

It has been one of those weeks filled with lots of little things! The list includes driving not one but both kids to festivals and workshops - on different days of course! - and then spending 3 and a half hours waiting for them to test for their next belts in tae kwon do yesterday. They did very well, by the way, and we are very proud of how hard they have been working at it. DD and I visited a friend of hers in hospital - poor little thing was just diagnosed with diabetes - and then the next evening DH and I actually went out for supper together - without kids!!! - when a friend took both our kids for a playdate. Now that was a wonderful surprise :) I spent one afternoon clearing out flowerbeds for our wonderful 95 yo neighbor who just cannot manage this year, and will do his back yard this coming week - if it stops snowing.

I am making progress on adding a lace edging to my shawl - just over half way done on now! I already have the next shawl planned, so cannot wait to get this one off the needles and blocked. I ended up with 840 stitches on my last rows - so that means 1680 rows of lace edging!

I have begun making up the pieces for my Peacock Chair by The Cats Whiskers Designs - looks good so far! I chose different feet so I could paint them to match the fabric - and just have to finish and stuff the arms so that I can start putting it all together. Can't wait to have it done :)

And I finally started the stitching on a page from the Ackworth Token of Friendship book! I am in a RR with a lovely group of stitchers and am looking forward to stitching pages for everyone else's book as they stitch for mine. I am working on 28 ct DMC linen in snowdrop, using Purple Haze WDW.

Finally, I am nearing the completion stages on a quilting project - just finished hand stitching the crazy quilt blocks, and am hoping to do some meander quilting this week, and then on to the embellishment stage! This is a special project for a friend from another group, so no pics til it is done! Do you think there is any hope of finishing anything before we leave for an easter holiday?? Thanks to everyone who has left comments - you have really brightened up my days!

Out of Sorts

Spring has always been an introspective time for me.... a time to think about the year that has passed while making plans for the new year, time to make changes, time to begin again and move forward. Spring is not my favourite season - I prefer fall with its feeling of things accomplished and ready for rest.

I have felt decidedly out of sorts all weekend, and so I did what I would advise any of my patients to do when they are feeling down - get outside, get busy, get doing something. Patients?? Yes, well, I am a behavioural psychologist by training, and altho right now my patients consist of my own little family, it still counts! So I spent the afternoon cleaning out all the dead growth in the flower beds and garden, raking, hauling leaves and plants to the compost pile, admiring the new crocus blooms, and encouraging all the new growth of iris and peony, columbine, sedum, daisies, clematis, lilac and flax. I listened to the robins and sparrows - the robins were reminding me to fill their water dish, and enjoyed a rare visit from a downy woodpecker. I unearthed hundreds of ladybugs from their winter rest among my mint plants.

After clearing out all but one last flower bed, which will wait til later this week, I sat on the deck and enjoyed a hot cup of tea in the sunshine, and I felt decidedly better. Maybe clearing out all the debris of this past winter was what was needed - maybe just the work and sunshine - maybe realizing that it is all do-able again this year! Whatever.... it worked :)

You blink twice

and a week has gone by! Guess that is a sign of a busy life :) Spring is here this week - the tulips and daffodils are coming up, as are the iris and flax! I saw the early peony that lives right beside the house this morning, and a robin out in the back yard. Makes me want to get out and clean up the yard....... but that can wait til things are just a bit warmer.

Speaking of warmer - this is the pair of socks I just sent to my mom. Her feet swell by the end of the day, so I made them to be loose. They are knit of Online supersocke 100 yarn and were a fun project.

I am in a birthday exchange with a wonderful group of ladies, and since the March birthday girl has received her package, I can show the needlebook I stitched for her. This is from And A Forest Grew by Rosewood Manor, and is stitched on a 28 ct linen using GAST & WDW I subbed for the DMC.

Enough for today - things to do and places to go!