July ending, August beginning

 I haven't blogged all the July pics yet, and here we are in August. Some dancing shots of Daniel and Tertia at Ian and Ashley's wedding...

Tertia dances with such complete joy, even when her feet hurt from dancing all night.

 My July birthday girl made her own birthday cake. It was a Mocha Toffee Crunch cake, and it was delicious! She is seventeen now.

Also, Tertia and I entered the Harry Potter trivia competition on July 31 at Latte-Da Coffeehouse and Wine Bar. We won second place! Tertia is the trivia whiz... I provide transcription and spelling assistance, and I know Latin so if she remembers  something that sounds vaguely like "priori incantatem" I write it down.

 A shirt, a Dobby poster and a special vial of Felix Felicis (for decorative purposes only) were the spoils of victory. She is already making plans for the next event on Halloween.

 The Clark County Fair is  now open. Pygmy goats are always photogenic.

 I didn't enter any quilts, but enjoyed looking at those on display.

And the girls doing a silly shot in the 4H cats and dogs pavilion. Not pictured: our annual stop at the Dairy Women's booth to buy milkshakes before leaving the fair.

The plum tree is doing its thing, we are making plans for camp, the Megaquilter is semifunctional again and I am binding Grand Illusions quilt, which really deserves its own post. I'm also doing  genealogy semi-obsessively - which needs its own post; and I'm working on my Latin course for Wikiversity, which needs its own post. The random number for August is 9 - that means that my randomly selected UFO's for this month are (1) to resurrect the ancient Mariner's Compass rug hooking project from... maybe 18 years ago... and (2) work on knitted gifts for my stash. Neither of those is happening so far but I have finally turned the heel on my purple Sara Elin socks. 

Ravelry is still being a booger though, so I'm spending very little time there. They have lifted the restriction on me posting but they have blacked out my profile and are showing no signs of restoring it even though I purged it of everything political and asked to have it restored. And it wasn't even political in the first place! For the record, I oppose censorship. And the people who run Ravelry ... well, I can't say anything nice. But hey, at least they aren't spitting in my food or trying to get me de-platformed everywhere else. Their lunch counter, their rules. It's just one more symptom of a broken culture, where disagreeing with the Left on anything makes you a racist, and Twitter mobs can force the New York Times to take down the bland headline "Trump Urges Unity vs. Racism" because it wasn't anti-Trump enough. Yes, definitely time to tune out of Twitter and Ravelry and any other triggering sites for awhile.

Well, back to your previously scheduled summer. I want to prep a dehydrator full of plums today. Quarta has already made a load of plum-roll-ups for the winter. I also need to tackle Tertia's clothes and bag up the surplus ones so she can actually get them put away in her dresser. And there are a few quickie baby quilts I would like to make, but probably not until after camp.

Randomday

Well, I am averaging about two blog posts a month so far in 2019, which is better than last year.

Since last posting I finished the Epitome of Me socks, originally begun in the Lots of Socks knitalong.

I would add the photo, but I have been using my i-phone for all my photos, which means that I must download them onto my laptop from my i-cloud before I can crunch them in Photoscape and add them to my blog. But they have recently started compressing them into a zip file when I download, and then when I tried to move the zip files to my to-be-crunched folder, it tells me it will be about 3 hours before the files are transferred. Thanks, Apple, you are supposed to make my life easier, but this is not it!

Okay, it is downloading photos at the rate of about one every 10 minutes, (still about 3 hours left to go) and this is the finished pair of socks. I gave them to Quarta, and I gave the Flower Shock socks to Emma. I am currently knitting on the first of the "Sara Elin" socks in Malabrigo purple yarn. I am just about ready, finally, to begin the ribbing.

That will be it for the photos this post. We have been busy with Steve traveling, Quarta requiring doctor visits for her dislocated knee (she has had two braces so far and will begin PT next week), Quarta's school play (she was Miss Bingley in Pride and Prejudice, and fortunately the long dress hid her knee brace), a little bit of gardening, and the usual amount of adulting.

I finished one of my two baby quilts, and have started quilting the other. I'm using my regular machine; I've still not gotten back into using the Megaquilter.

This means I have fallen way behind on my UFO goals for the year. The May number is 4: that means (runs to check journal) the Manu cardigan, and a machine quilting finish. (That would be Celtic Solstice, still on the Megaquilter since a long time ago).

A nice lady in our neighborhood is downsizing her fabric stash and I have twice visited her sale in the last two weeks. I am still working on sorting, pre-cutting and organizing my scrap fabrics, so this just prolongs the mess and the fun.

Oh yes, a quick recipe before I go: Lovage Pesto is where I started, having made it once before with hemp seeds and a bit of bought basil pesto, and I changed it up a bit. I'm planning on cooking some pasta to put it over and bringing it to fellowship meal tomorrow.

Lovage and Rosemary Pesto

3 C Lovage leaves, chopped, parboiled for 3 minutes, cooled in cold water bath and squeezed dry
about 3/4 C Rosemary leaves, all stem bits removed and chopped roughly
a little parsley (we don't have much in our garden this year)
a little thyme, just one sprig
many garlic cloves, maybe 12
about 1 t kosher salt
several grinds of black pepper
about 1 C walnuts, toasted for 10 min at 350

Chop/pulse in food processor; add about 1/2 C olive oil or as much as it needs to become smooth.

I sampled this on wheat thins and everyone approved. The food processor is the $25 mini they sell at Costco; I never had one before so this is a marvelous new to me technology. I'm going to experiment with all kinds of pesto now.

I have Latin translation lessons to do, so I should sign off now. Maybe I can do a photo sharing post in the next few days, after downloading and processing all those zipped photos. I'll try for an average of more than 2 posts in May.

April Fools, April Goals, WIPs and Yarn-Alongs

I finished all my March goals... April Fools!

No, really.  The only goal I actually worked on at all was #3, knit the Mint Chocolate sweater to the halfway point.  It might be halfway, but I'm not that confident.  I also worked a tiny bit - microscopic - on the string star quilt.  I didn't expect everything that happened in March... the walking pneumonia, the son enlisting in the National Guard, which looks like it's really going to happen.  The coyote in the back yard -- turns out it was actually a dingo.  The neighbor kids' pet dingo.  Who is supposedly good with cats.  Yeah.  It was that kind of month.  I pretty much gave up on the crafting.

I read a lot of books - most recently The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley, Elantris by Brandon Sanderson, and Keep it Pithy by Bill O'Reilly.  Never say I am not eclectic.  I'm overdue for a book review day sometime soon.

I may not be sewing much, but Quarta whipped this little table-topper scrap quilt up Sunday afternoon while I was napping.  It was from some scraps from that epic estate sale I went to last year, and she just improvised it up.  Pretty cool for an 11-year-old.

She's made three quilts so far.

So, should I even bother to set goals for April?  Let's just modify the March goals:

1. Knit the body of the sweater.  Sleeves can be another month.
2. Make small progress on the string star.
3. Make small progress on the machine quilting of Farmer's Wife.
4. Do a spring cleaning of the sewing area.

I'm really looking forward to Spring Break next week.  I hope to get rid of the last of the pneumonia cough and have lots of time to read and craft.  I've been too tired to stay up later than 9:30 most nights lately.  Steve will be taking Secundus on college visits and I will try to keep the girls from going stir crazy here while not actually doing much.  It sounds wonderful to me, but I'm afraid the natives will be restless.

Randomday: (Not) Getting it Done

Well, January's goals are (not) in the books.  To recap, I was supposed to:

1. Finish the UFO #8, On Your Toes gray homespun sweater.  I did not even dig it out of the bag to look at it.  Instead, I am plotting starting yet another sweater for the Olympics: This one.  The Olympics should be all about impossible feats, right?
2. WIP: Celtic Solstice mystery top.  Almost complete, but not quite. Still, closer than anything else this month.
3. WIP: Farmer's Wife quilting.  Some progress, but not even close to complete.
4. Knitting WIP: Secundus' argyle socks.  They have been advanced but not completed.

So, I think it's enough progress to merit 1 1/2 stars out of 4.  I didn't complete the thorough cleanup of the sewing area or any of the other projects I thought about for bonus points.  January was a stressful month and I'm not really optimistic about it getting much better, but I still like to set goals for the crafting part of my life.  So here's what I want to get done in February:

1. UFO: Random.org chose #1, applique on the 1996 Piecemaker's calendar quilt.  I have about 4 setting triangle blocks of hand applique to reach the halfway mark.
2. WIP: Farmer's Wife.  Keep plugging along
3. Knitting WIP: the argyles.
4. Olympic knitting.  I've been an eager participant in the Ravellenic games/ Ravelympics in years past.  I want to make another Nordic stranded sweater.  I highly doubt I can finish it in the 17 days of the Olympics, but the whole month of February... well, maybe.  Stay tuned.

Bonus points available for sewing room cleanup, completely finishing the Celtic Solstice top, and maybe partially assembling the String Star top.  Or anything from my big master list.

There is still no stash input or output to report.

****************

Now, as to other random matters:

Daniel's 9th grade biology notebook showed up in my file at school the other day.  It has such gems as this: "white mold from classic Blue Brie Cheese x400" followed by a drawing of 2 speckled blobs.

"I now believe that my frog is male due to lack of evidence to the contrary.  I tried to expose the brain and I saw brain but I mutilated it in the process."

This is classic stuff and will have to go in the special box.

Daniel reports from Pennsylvania that he is enjoying the relatively warm temperatures in the 20's (after a few days where it stayed well below zero) but has a cough.  I mentioned to him that in some of my classes we had at least 2 absentees all week, and he shook his head and said, "That just can't happen at college."

Secundus has been working hard; his goal is to earn enough money to buy a car that actually doesn't have to be junked by this summer. I keep nagging him to practice for the reading SAT but without much success.

Tertia needs to stop daydreaming in school and writing imaginary letters to "Padfoot" in her planner.  The staff is becoming concerned about her reports of seeing Darth Vader and waiting for Asterix and Obelix to come rescue her.  I just see it as evidence that she is my daughter.

Quarta was assigned Filippo Brunelleschi as her Renaissance artist to do a report on.  I'm hoping she will attempt to recreate "Il Duomo" in the form of a cupcake.  She is also one of the finalists for 6th grade in the school speech meet.  She is pulling once again from T.S. Eliot's cat poems with "Growltiger."

I now have a vocabulary of almost 1000 Italian words, according to Duolingo.  It is very like Latin, but also quite similar to French.  Funny how the languages morphed and interacted.

"We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary. "

— Booker T. Washington

New Year, New Goals

Happy New Year!  May 2014 be happy and productive for each of you who brighten my days by stopping by my little corner of the internet!

Bonnie Hunter gave us Celtic Solstice mystery sewers a gift on New Year's Day - early release of the final layout clue!  It's going to be gorgeous, but I have been slower than some and only have about 30% of the blocks assembled so far.  Can you believe there are quilters out there who already have a finished top?

The beginning of the year is a good time to set goals for the year.  Since this blog is primarily about sewing and knitting, that's what I list.  (Other goals, personal goals or reading goals for example, I may share as they come up but that's a bit more than I want to keep track of publicly!)  I enjoy having a master list of goals for the year and selecting a few each month to focus on.  I rarely meet all those goals each month, but one of the fun things about blogging is talking about the ups and downs of my favorite hobbies.  It surprises people I know in real life when I tell them that there are actually people on the internet who are interested in reading about other peoples' quilting and knitting projects.  Sometimes it surprises me too!

I participated in Judy L's UFO challenge for the last two years, but I don't think she's running it the same way this year.  I liked the way it existed last year and the things I was able to get accomplished, so what I'm going to do is compile a list of all my known sewing projects as of now.  I will categorize them by WIP's - things I'm actively working on as of the last few weeks/months; UFO's - projects started but in a state of long-term neglect; and USO's - Un-Started Objects, projects I want to start but haven't yet.  Today's post will list all of these in one long list, and then each month I will pick 4 projects I want to tick off the list for that month.  Ideally it will be one UFO, one current WIP, another project in any of the three categories of my choice, and a knitting project of my choice.  To make things interesting, I'll select the UFO project randomly.  I'm going to leave the knitting category undefined because I like to follow my whimsy there, and my whimsy changes.  I may or may not find a place to link up my progress on a regular basis, but that's not as important to me.  To give myself an incentive... maybe if I finish all 4 monthly goals, I will allow myself a trip to a yarn or fabric store or online shop.  Otherwise I will be crafting from stash exclusively except for necessary batting and thread.  I will be tracking my stash usage of both yarn and yardage, but that will be on a different schedule.  Last year I allowed bonus points for projects above and beyond the stated goals.  Bonus points mean absolutely nothing, but for a slightly obsessive personality like mine, they are also part of the fun.  And I can use them to "atone" for a monthly goal that I didn't meet, so it builds in some flexibility.

UFO's

1. 1996 Piecemaker's Calendar Quilt: finish hand applique and embellishments
2. " " (enough to make 2 months' worth of work)
3. 1996 Piecemaker's Calendar Quilt: complete top.
4. Scrappy Trip Around the World
5. Classical themed tote bag
6. Felted wool blanket(s)
7. wool hooked rug in Mariner's Compass design
8. knitting: On your Toes gray sweater
9. knitting: Carnaby Street skirt
10. knitting: Rosalind sweater

WIP's

1. Farmer's Wife Quilt - machine quilting and binding 
2. Celtic Solstice mystery quilt top
3. Thoroughly clean and organize sewing area (I need to do this at least 3 times a year!)
4. Conversion to Bonnie Hunter's Scrap User system is still ongoing.
5. String Star
6. Not All Who Wander are Lost quilt - a good month's progress would be 6 small blocks
7. APQ low-volume quiltalong

USO's

1. Bowling-style knitting bag (I can't believe I haven't started this YET!)
2. three-quarters bag kit from Connecting Threads
3. heirloom linen blouse
4. wool stuffed toy cat
5. Frugal Patch quilt top
6. Celtic Solstice quilting and binding
7. Country Stars quilting and binding
8. Clean out the flannels - make 3 or 4 baby quilt tops
9. knitting: design stranded colorwork forest sweater
10. knitting: socks for Daniel
11. knitting: socks for Steve
12. knitting: socks for me
13. unravelling thrift store sweaters
14. New York Beauty quilt top
15. a quilt with 1930's fabrics
16. maybe another Double Wedding Ring quilt
17. Of course I reserve the right to start a new project at any time of the year
18. I owe my mother-in-law the machine quilting on at least one quilt... soon!

Whew!  Well, it's not really too bad.  I have fewer UFO's than in previous years, and my stash is better organized.  Here are two of Grandma's quilts that I pinned for her, just to break up the length of this post:

 Elephants and Donkeys.

And a patriotic lap quilt from a free pattern she got.

Now, on to January's goals:

1. UFO: #8 came up, knitting the On Your Toes gray sweater.  I will at least dig it out of the pile and evaluate.  It has been hibernating a long time.  

2. WIP: Celtic Solstice mystery quilt top.  That could actually happen.

3. another WIP: Farmer's Wife quilting... binding can wait, but it would be great to free up the machine.

4. Knitting: finish the argyle socks for Secundus.

If making decent progress on UFO#8 is impractical, I will substitute one of the other knitting projects.  Bonus points for finishing a thorough tidy-up of the sewing area, making a bag, or any of the other projects really.  See how easy I'm making this for myself?  A monthly, modest shopping excursion is a good prize to work towards.  If I finish all the UFO's and WIP's listed here, I think I should get a new sewing machine next year.  (Just kidding, Steve... I know it may have to wait until after Secundus is through college).

Knitting and Quilting Year in Review

 For a knitting blogger, I started the year well and finished with a limp.  I was determined to make a lot of socks for my family because they are enjoyed by everyone.  However, two of the pairs I labored over for my husband felted beyond wearability: top and bottom left.  Note to self: use Knit Picks yarn only with great caution from now on.  The argyles I made for myself are from the same yarn but either it didn't felt or the pattern was loose enough to allow for it: I'm still wearing and enjoying them.  Daniel's Klingon socks have at least one hole in them but he wears them constantly and still likes them.  Quarta's purple socks I think are still wearable.

These were another pair I finished for Steve this year, from the Zauberball I bought in January, and they were successful.  That may be all the socks: also I finished two scrap yarn rugs from unraveled cotton sweaters:

The second is almost identical.  I started a few other knitting projects but they are hibernating at the moment.  All in all, it is time I admitted that I'm in a knitting slump.  I want to get back to enjoying knitting in the New Year, and that probably means laying off the socks for awhile, unless I knit them with sturdy German yarn in simple patterns and intersperse them with sweaters and shawls.

2013 was another good year for quilts; although I didn't finish quite as many as in past years, I'm pleased with the ones I did.  Clockwise from top left: Easy Street, Country Stars (top only - still not quilted), Orca Bay, and the Cedar Tree auction signature quilt.  I have the Farmer's Wife in progress on the frame, and after that I owe my mother-in-law a quilting job and then I will quilt the Country Stars.  I'm happy with the various quilts I have in progress, too: the Celtic Solstice mystery, my String Star, Not All Who Wander are Lost, the APQ quiltalong, and some other random scrappy projects that are just waiting to coalesce into the next big plan.

At the beginning of 2013 I set some loose goals for the year, listing 20 "UFOs" that were either on my dream list or in various stages of progress.  Of those, I am counting the following as accomplished:

• #5, a felted wool blanket (although not "the" felted wool blanket I originally planned, it counts)
• #6, Orca Bay quilting and binding, see above
• #8-9, Easy Street top, quilting and binding, see above
• #10, Crumbs auction quilt, see above
• #14, boxers in multiple fabrics - finished for Christmas gifts
• #16, Civil War repro/Pine Needles quilt became Country Stars top, see above
• #19, (ongoing) clean and organize sewing area - I did this at least once this year
• #20, have fun, or everything else is pointless.  I think if I keep this in mind, I remain in a better frame of mind to keep being productive, no matter what the actual product is.  But I need to remind myself now and then.

So 9 out of the list is not really bad.  I will reevaluate the remaining things that didn't get done and come up with a new master list for 2014 in a day or two.  I notice that I don't enjoy setting goals for knitting as much as for sewing; in the past, I have wanted to give myself permission to flit from project to project because knitting takes so much more time and my tastes do change.  But clearly, I am not devastated about it when I don't reach my sewing goals for the year, so maybe I will think about having a combined list or a separate knitting list for 2014.

I have some other ideas for blog projects percolating in my head, not all of them craft related, but we'll see where the whimsey leads.

Randomday, with November goals

Secundus' birthday was today - 17.  He spent it on the bus to the district meet in Tacoma and back.  He's an alternate to the varsity runners and didn't get to race, but seems like it was a good opportunity anyway.  His team did well and he'll get to go to State next week, we think.  Again as an observer and support, kind of like the Vice President.  When he got back at 6:30 we had his requested birthday dinner of tenderloin steak, mashed potatoes, and apple pie.

Yesterday I didn't have to go in to school; no Latin so the Reformation Day festivities could proceed.  Quarta went as her namesake from the Bible, with the appropriate passage from 1 Corinthians (in Latin) as the sole clue to her identity.

It was nice not to have to go in to school; my grades are all caught up although it was a painful marathon Thursday evening.  I made another large batch of gumbo, part for the freezer and part for church dinner tomorrow; and "shrimp and hotroot soup" from the Redwall cookbook for the church Reformation day party.  The skit this year was about the runaway nuns who hid in the pickled herring barrels.

I suppose I better report on last month's goals and set new ones for this month. October's goals:

• Start quilting Farmer's Wife.  Done.
• Finish Quarta's socks. Done 
• Finish Rosalind.  Not done
• "Fair" progress on NAWWAL and the String Star.  Well, it was less than fair.

So for this month, November, my goals will be:

• Maybe to the 1/3 way mark on Farmer's Wife.
• Finish Rosalind
• There's a new sock in progress...  it's argyle, so it will probably not be done in a month or anything, but maybe one of the two socks.
• More progress on NAWWAL and the String Star.  And I'll probably start the new Bonnie K. Hunter mystery quilt.

More than that I know I won't be able to do, but there's no guarantee I won't try.

Steve and Secundus and I watched Fargo while I was typing this up.  Now I'm going to post and reboot this computer, which has been multitasking for too long.  And I'm going to reboot myself, since I've been multitasking too long, by heading off to bed to enjoy that extra hour of sleep.

Snail's Pace Progress - October Updates

Well, not much has been done at all during the month of September.  Here were my goals:

• 33% progress on quilting Farmer's Wife - HA HA!  I wound bobbins and adjusted the rails.
• Sew a bag - any of the three on my UFO list nope
• Make significant progress on either NAWWAL or the String Star - that depends on the meaning of "significant"
• Finish the Rosalind Sweater nope

Maybe I can claim a bonus point for finishing the Circle of Fun rug.  But overall, teachers shouldn't expect to have a life outside of school during September.

This is Not All Who Wander Are Lost so far.  I did the Rivendell block on the lower right in September.  It is painfully obvious that I need to scale back my expectations a bit, but this is a fun project.

Goals for October: 

• Start quilting Farmer's Wife.  It will be a multi-month project.  Just. Start. It.
• Finish Quarta's socks
• Finish Rosalind
• "Fair" progress on both NAWWAL and the String Star.

Bonus points for making boxer shorts, hand applique blocks, or a baby quilt or blankie.  That's it!

Here are Quarta's socks, using Tofutsies yarn and the Sweet Tomato Heel.  They are coming along and it would be reasonable to finish them this month.  I'm reading, at the moment, How Civilizations Die (And Why Islam is Dying Too) by David Goldman, and Fyre, by Angie Sage.

The good news is that it's meatloaf for dinner, the Best Meatloaf Ever from Don't Panic- Dinner's in the Freezer.  I bought 11 pounds of ground beef, turkey and pork and there are 5 loaves in the freezer now as well as the one on the table.

Linking up to Judy L's Getting it Done, WIP Wednesday, and Yarn-Along.

September updates

I finally mounted my Farmer's Wife Quilt onto the Megaquilter frame in preparation for quilting.  That's the eggshell thread I will need to wind several dozen bobbins of, and there is just barely enough of the backing ... there better not be any shifting as I go along.  But I've been meaning to load this up and finally got around to it.  There will need to be lots of free-form feathers, but I think if I take it a bit at a time it's doable.

Here's what's on the design wall at the moment.  A few more string diamonds and 3 Lord of the Rings paper-pieced blocks for the Not All Who Wander Are Lost quilt.

#3, Weathertop is the most recently completed.  I'm having fun finding appropriate fabrics in my stash, and I love the gray runic circles on this fabric I used -- it looks exactly like ancient weathered stone.  There was some amazingly intricate piecing in those arches, although this isn't the best picture.  Fortunately the beauty of paper-piecing is that it is nearly fool-proof as long as your fabric piece covers the necessary area.  It makes it possible to do very intricate work accurately.

Stash Report:

Fabric:

Fabric used this week: 3.5 yards (extra-wide) for backing Farmer's Wife

Fabric used year to date: 53 yards
Added this week: 0 yards
Added year to date: 49 yards
Net used for 2013: 4 yards

Knitting yarn:

Yarn used this week: 0 yards (2 knitting projects about 70% done)
Yarn used year to date: 6550 yards.
Yarn added this week: 0 yards (still have some to ply, skein and measure soon)
Yarn added year to date: 5800 yards
Net used for 2013: 750 yards

So how did I do on my goals for August?  Not so great:

1. Mount and begin quilting the Farmer's Wife quilt.  I want each little block to be beautifully quilted, so this will be a longer-term project. Mounted but not begun.
2. Complete Country Stars top. Done
3. randomly chosen from my list of 2013 goals: #4, the 3/4 bag kit. Nope
4. Finish the Rosalind sweater. Nope

I do qualify for a bonus point for organizing my fabric, although the entire sewing area is only just passable and I started digging into my fabric again so it's no longer organized.  Still, better and more fun to spend time there than it was, as evidenced by the fact that I started two new quilt projects.

Goals for September:

1. 33% progress on quilting Farmer's Wife
2. Sew a bag - any of the three on my UFO list
3. Make significant progress on either NAWWAL or the String Star
4. Finish the Rosalind Sweater

I will award myself bonus points for any other completed knitting project, hand applique blocks, multiple boxer shorts, or a felted wool blanket.  I like having a wide variety of possibilities, hence the bonus points.  I can never predict in any given month where my whimsy will take me.

A big thank-you to Judy L. for hosting all these link-ups to keep me accountable!

August updates

Here's where it stands on my design wall at this moment.  I am seaming one of the looong unwieldy seams of my scrappy Country Stars quilt, and the three diagonal rows at the upper left corner are the only ones left.  It's totally do-able to finish this top, even today, if I just kicked into gear.  But I just haven't kicked into gear.  I'm tired, sore, discouraged about the state of the house and the rapidly oncoming school year (which will be much tougher than last year as I won't have my own designated classroom anymore but will have to itinerate), and a bit lonely.  I think some therapeutic sewing will be in order, just as soon as I can clear time for it.  I have really enjoyed this project with all the pretty reds and the scrappy fabrics. I hope I can take a big picture of it as a finished top later this week.

I'm not going to update my stash report this week because there has been nothing new in or out.  I decided not to attempt to calculate yardage of that big bin of scraps from the estate sale -- it will just get morphed in with my existing scrap bins as I have time, and I look forward to the treasure hunt that that will feel like.

It's also past time to report on my July goals and set some new crafty goals for August. 

These were my goals for July:

1. Finish the brown socks. done!
2. Machine quilt the Farmer's Wife Quilt, or at least reach a midway point.  Ha! Not done!
3. The knitting bag project.  Nope.
4. Finish the Country Stars top. Almost.  It would be done if I weren't such a loser.

Bonus points: I spun every day of the Tour de Fleece.
I entered three quilts in the Clark County Fair.

 

Maybe my bonus projects can offset the ones I didn't finish!

 

Goals for August:

1. Mount and begin quilting the Farmer's Wife quilt.  I want each little block to be beautifully quilted, so this will be a longer-term project.
2. Complete Country Stars top.
3. randomly chosen from my list of 2013 goals: #4, the 3/4 bag kit.
4. Finish the Rosalind sweater.

Bonus points available for making that silly bowling-style knitting bag, sewing multiple boxer shorts for the menfolk, finishing any other knitting project, or finishing a few hand-applique blocks.  And a big bonus point for getting my sewing area neatly organized enough that I would be willing to photograph it.

I was picking a few more plums from the tree this morning, when I turned around and there were 5 large zucchini that had crept up on me.  It was a little like a scene from Hitchcock's The Birds.

July updates

I've been a bad blogger the last few days, but it's summer!  We've had some lovely weather following up the heat wave, with cool breezes in the evenings.  I've continued with the Tour de Fleece since my last post:

 ...2 bobbins of hemp singles...

 plied together...

... starting a braid of BFL (Blue-Faced Leicester wool) from Frabjous Fibers...

 ...not much progress today, but I did take better pictures and skeined off 226 yards of hemp yarn.

This is an older photo of Steve's socks in progress - they are almost done now, and will be done next Wednesday if I don't fritter away all my time.  I've been reading several things, but the most recent book review was of Suetonius, Lives of the 12 Caesars.

So much for what's going on with knitting... how about my goals for June?  Well, there were good points and bad points:

1. Random number project: #17 from my yearlong list, flannel baby quilts. not done.
2. Finish Orca Bay quilting and binding. Done!
3. Finish Steve's socks, for reals this time, and make a good start on another pair. Not quite done, and certainly nothing else started.
4. I also want to knit Carnaby for myself, out of some reclaimed yarn.  At least start it. Nope.
5. The knitting bag project, oh my, it's been on there 6 straight months I think.  Nope.
6. Begin the quilting of the Farmer's Wife quilt. Nope, although I did buy backing fabric.
7. I want to start a quilt.  I don't know which quilt yet, I just want to have the fun of picking a pattern and starting a quilt.  Yes! And I'm more than halfway done with Country Stars:

(That's a collage of several blocks from last week) and here's Orca Bay, if you haven't seen it yet:

It's enough to hold my head up in June, I think.  Hmm, goals for July:

1. Finish the brown socks.
2. Machine quilt the Farmer's Wife Quilt, or at least reach a midway point. 
3. The knitting bag project.  This is getting ridiculous.
4. Finish the Country Stars top.

I will award myself bonus points for making a baby quilt, spinning every day of the Tour, entering a quilt or two in the County Fair, or completing an additional knitting project besides the socks.  But I've been setting the bar too high, and I need some achievable goals.  I get distracted too easily!

Randomday, With Other Peoples' Athleticism and Improbable Goals for June

Secundus took part in Mrs. Brabec's 5K "Fun Run" today at Frenchman's Bar.  Here he is, setting the pace with some veteran marathoners.

Quarta walked with the walkers; Tertia and I started out with the walkers and got about 1K in before turning around when the runners passed us.  We almost made it back to the start when Secundus came in, second.

He had set a goal of making a time better than 19:30.  And he did - 19:21.  Pretty impressive, say I.

As for me, I have never associated "fun" and "run" with each other, and don't plan to start now.  But I am impressed by the spirit of athleticism that prevails among the youth at Cedar Tree.

Even if they're lying down on the finish line and having water squirted on them, they actually ran it.  Bravo!
Speaking of setting goals for oneself, it is time to report on my May goals and set some new ones for June.  Um... these were my goals for May. 

1. Make another felted wool blanket (my random # choice) Not done.
2. Holdover knitting bag. Not done.
3. Quilt and bind the Orca Bay quilt.  Half done quilting.
4. Finish the current socks for Steve. Almost half done.
5. Finish cleaning the sewing area AT LEAST ENOUGH to be able to cut out a new project. Done!

And I did cut for the new project: making composition book covers as graduation gifts:

My one finish, and it wasn't on the list.  Oh well, May is always that kind of month for teachers.  Even now I am procrastinating some very necessary grading and fighting the kind of headache and neck tension that goes along with final exam grading.

So how about some new goals for June?  School will be out soon - huzzah!

1. Random number project: #17 from my yearlong list, flannel baby quilts.  Hmm.
2. Finish Orca Bay quilting and binding.
3. Finish Steve's socks, for reals this time, and make a good start on another pair.
4. I also want to knit Carnaby for myself, out of some reclaimed yarn.  At least start it.
5. The knitting bag project, oh my, it's been on there 6 straight months I think.
6. Begin the quilting of the Farmer's Wife quilt.
7. I want to start a quilt.  I don't know which quilt yet, I just want to have the fun of picking a pattern and starting a quilt.

So in summary, I want to finish some of the lagging projects and have a healthy round of startitis.  But right now, I need to go correct 8th grade Latin exams.

Status Updates - WIPs and UFOs

Well, April has now come and gone.  My UFO list for April was as follows:

1. Random goal (held over from March): the bowling-style knitting bag.  still not done
2. Finish the argyles, and start a pair of socks for Steve. Done
3. Finish collecting signatures on the Crumbs auction quilt, quilt it and bind it, and turn it over to the auction. Done!
4. Finish the clean-up of the sewing area.  And then we can think about the next quilt.  This is one of those jobs that will probably never be done.

Finished in April: The argyle socks, the felted blanket, the Crumbs auction quilt.  I'm pretty pleased with those.  The felted blanket was an unplanned project, and already Secundus in particular has shown great appreciation for it in late-night TV watching sessions.
And now, I need to come up with some sorta-kinda goals for May. 

1. I randomly chose #5 on  my yearlong list, - make a felted wool blanket.  Okay, I did that last month, but there's material for two more.  So it's a maybe for this month.
2. I'm keeping that knitting bag sewing project on the list because I'm stubborn.  Maybe I really need to take it off the list and give up on it, and that will spur me to actually work on it.  I dunno.
3. Quilt and bind the Orca Bay quilt.
4. Finish the current socks for Steve. (I'm only about halfway up the foot).  Maybe start a new pair of socks -- but I'm starting to experience sock fatigue.  This is the equivalent of Second Sock Syndrome, but is experienced by people who knit two socks at the same time.  It's closely related to the feeling of being marooned on Sleeve Island.
5. Finish cleaning the sewing area AT LEAST ENOUGH to be able to cut out a new project.  That means that I have to quit puttering around with organizing my scraps and put them away for a bit.  I have been cutting up a lot of scraps into squares and bricks.  Fun, but there need to be a few limits:

What with gardening season upon us and teacher burnout at its annual high, that should be enough.

Here's a little owl that Quarta made this week, with additional owls waiting to be assembled.  Aunt Carol found the instructions here.  Then she sent the kits for Quarta to assemble on the new Bernina.

Knitting is going very slowly.  This is a repeat picture, but not much more progress has been made. As mentioned above I'm getting a little burned out on socks.  This is a pretty twisted stitch pattern but my mental state might be better off with something in garter stitch right now.  Real Education by Charles Murray was a challenging book that deserves to be talked over quite thoroughly among leaders in education.  His thoughts on IQ testing and who should go to college, particularly, are very controversial but I tend to think he may be on to something.

Here's a new acquisition: my knitting buddy Joyce thought of me and passed along this 1900 edition of a Compendium of Dogmatic Theology in Latin.  The binding is falling apart and the only other language that appears in it is German (okay, there are a few Greek phrases too).

Closer examination of the title page revealed the author, H. Hurter, was a Jesuit. (The initials S.J. after the name are a giveaway).  Now, because of Henle Latin, I have a soft spot for the Jesuits.  I think they are the brain trust of the Catholic church the way Reformed theologians are the brain trust of the Protestants.  It's probably only fair to point out, as Steve does, that they were responsible for many of the abuses of the Counter-Reformation.  In any case, I had a hard time finding out where this was actually published (it's volume 2 of a 3 volume set, as it turns out).  I finally Googled "Oeniponte." Oenipons in Latin means "bridge over the Inn" or "Innsbruck."  So it was published in Innsbruck, where the University is the outgrowth of a Jesuit-founded grammar school.  The theological Latin is a little too dense for me to figure out easily.  What I'm mainly curious is, knowing the Higher Criticism that came out of Germany in that era, is this textbook a critical response to it, or part of the onslaught?