Prayer shawl finished

I finished the prayer shawl by adding fringe. Unsure if the Homespun yarn will maintain its integrity as fringe. I chose one skein of yarn from the basket and will work it with the remaining yarn from my last shawl to create a new shawl. Unsure if it will have fringe.

During the meeting, the leader read a card to us from a recent recipient, and I was touched. Many stories about the effect of prayer shawls from a faith community have affected me as I work on projects for this ministry.

Reading Karen's post about taking a class with her daughter reminded me of our prayer shawl ministry. We meet monthly, and we always have at least one school ager in the mix. The most consistent school kid is a 7th grader, and she made a presentation to her 4-H group about knitting. She invited everyone in the group to learn to knit at our Prayer Shawl meeting, so we had two kids and mom learn to knit tonight! Last meeting, we had 4th graders knitting with us, as well as a college freshman.

Multi-age learning, leisure and life skills are things that I have striven for in my adult life. I am thankful that I have the freedom to explore all sorts of things to satisfy my quest for the new, new to me, thing. I think I was really narrow in my view of education until my freshman year of college. At that time, I visited a professor, and he said, "You don't have to be enrolled in a college course to learn something." He then gestured with his arm to the wall of full bookshelves behind him. He had a very diverse collection of reading material. Until that time, I think I was wearing blinders. Thank you, Sam, wherever you are!

Prayer Shawl

Our parish re-started a Prayer Shawl Ministry in the fall, thanks to a high school alumnus. We're a small yet consistent group of people. Here is my current work in progress (WIP), created with Lion Brand Homespun. I am knitting a plain garter stitch on size 13 needles, using two skeins of the color Antique and one skein of Nouveau (the random stripe). Although our current request list is shawls for children, I would like this shawl to be for a man or woman. This will be my second prayer shawl for the ministry. I try to begin work with a prayer and think positive thoughts while knitting. When I complete it, I'll attach a nice tag and sign it, sending my positive prayers along with it.

I hadn't used Homespun since the godson hoodie sweater. Once you figure out the tension needed to use this yarn, knitting with it is a snap. Figuring out the tension can take a little while. In fact, I know a few people have thrown Homespun in the trashcan, never making it out of the "figure it out" period.

I want to talk a little about needles here. My last shawl was made with a pair of aluminum needles, probably the first ones I bought for "A" of GAIN Academy. That means I wanted a minimum investment until I knew the hobby was a lasting, not a passing, one. I can't stand them. The yarn slips off them and they make a noise that bugs me. I cannot say that I am a fan of plastic, but the needles in the picture here, also an early (cheap) purchase, are wonderfully quiet. They are warm and quiet. I think all of my wooden needles are wonderful to touch. However, I have no long wooden needles. I haven't shopped for long needles, but now I wonder if I have ever seen long wooden needles. I'll have to pay attention the next time I shop.

Two items of crafty news from the weekend: I am still crazy quilting, but I think I'm going to quit. An empty scrap drawer just won't happen right now. I want to be done and move on. I'll size up everything and think about a quilt top, batting, and backing this week.

I was able to finish my sister's drapes this afternoon. It was a quick job. If I can finish something quickly, I am very pleased. So I was happy. She and my SIL and my mom also gave me rocking birthday gifts this evening. I am multiple times happy.

Next potential WIP: cloth napkins. The goal is 25¢ per napkin. So I have some math to do before hitting the remnant baskets at the stores.

Crazy Wonky Houses Quilt -- closer to done!

My progress:

I am halfway done with connecting all the blocks. I have *just* enough fabric to go in between the rows. The stripes will be oriented opposite of the sashing, and I'm OK with that.

Connecting the blocks into rows goes really fast. I'm pretty excited to say that a baby presented itself to me this winter. His baptism is this weekend, so I may be able to give this quilt to him on Sunday.

I also ripped out the blue Homespun prayer shawl that I started an embarrassingly long time ago. It was much too wide. I reworked it to fit on the needles better. Substituting R.E. with family movie night and watching Liberty's Kids for history every day means that we've a LOT of TV. So I've gotten this skein of yarn almost completely worked into a shawl. I'll need to get more by next Prayer Shawl meeting.

Small Things

Since the crazy quilt top was done, I've been going a little stir crazy looking for things to occupy myself with, especially after dinner. I want to maintain the brain cell count. Little things have taken my time, including this prayer shawl and the beginning of a potholder.

Well, maybe it is now a coaster. Originally found here at a semi-worthwhile blog, which is an ad to buy their products, I made one basic block of it. The proposed project has you make 16 blocks. Note that I definitely made a mistake while working it up. The stitched on the diagonal line don't lay right for the entire length. If I have to concentrate so much that I cannot listen to the TV, then I call it quits. I even used my row counter -- one digit for the row number and one for the number of knit stitches before the diagonal line decrease. I really wanted to just make a new dishcloth, but you know, the brain cell thing. The prayer shawl certainly is not going to help the brain cell count stay at its current level.

I also made a small pillow with two new fabric remnants that I bought. I started with the intent to have a cute pin cushion, but it is so huge that it has to be a doll pillow. Anyone have a dolly in need of a cute two-tone four-patch pillow?

I've come to reckon with the remnants left from the crazy quilt. It's all flannels, appropriate only for newborns. I might ask Blank Hospital if I can make something for them with it. They were great when our youngest was there with croup four or five years ago.

Crafting in a group

(sorry, michelle and pattie. i didn't ask your permission. i think six years time gives me rights, doesn't it? LOL)

Last night, I stopped in at our church's Prayer Shawl Ministry. I hadn't visited in a while and it was wonderful. There is something soothing about the monotonous, mindless knitting pattern, and it is very conducive to quiet praying and chatting. Praying for anything and chatting about anything. It gathers men and women, young and old, from different backgrounds. Even if you are not working on a prayer shawl (yarn supplied!), you are welcome.

I also enjoy scrapbooking as a group. There is something about the social aspect that makes me more productive. It could be the creative energy, inspiration from other people's photos and work, the rush you get when looking at supplies, I don't know. But like knitting, I feel that there is no judging of ability or person if you're with the right group. I've been in a few groups, the most active one at the moment is a meetup group.

If you are a lone ranger crafter, I encourage you to seek out a group that fits your personality.

Shhhhhhh!

The latest project is under wraps. I cannot say more than, "I am experimenting and developing a gift."

On the semi-public front, our church re-started its prayer shawl ministry. I started a prayer shawl last night after having my hands blessed (and yarn and needles, too) with the group. I decided to use a foofy yarn. After hearing people's stories about wearing the shawls to chemo and back and forth to the doctor, I thought that comfort is nice, but style is nice, too. I'll get a photo up when I have more length on my project.

Prayer Shawl and a Chair

The prayer shawl. Remnants of Lion Brand Homespun here, in three colorways -- Colonial (blue), a small stripe of Antique (red), and mainly Sierra (tan with earth tones). Knitting keeps me busy while sitting on the couch with Mr. GAIN during TV time. Without knitting, I'd be in another room, which bothers me. I'd like to spend my time with my spouse. I love spending time with him, that's why we married.

Since our new recycling bin came to our garage, we've been pressed for space. We moved an old rocking chair out to the garage just before the recycling bin came. This chair has been in Matt's family since he was young. He's repaired it a couple times. In order to dispose of it, we decided to have the boys tear it down for the garbage bin. Fun day for them.

Sticks and yogurt

On the sticks: a prayer shawl! I'm using my remnants. I feel awful not using the donated yarn from parishioners. I'll get a picture up and list colorways once the shawl is long enough to photograph nicely.

Yogurt: I accidentally forgot about my crockpot full of milk last Wed. Instead of resting for 3 hours, it rested for 5 hours. An impromptu visit to Living History Farms made me forget. Fear of wrecked yogurt fell upon me during the five minute ride home. I proceeded with the recipe as if I hadn't left the milk sitting longer than instructed. The result? Thicker yogurt! Making a note to use the longer time.

For those of you who aren't ready to make your own yogurt, you may want to head over to fellow Iowa home school mom Darcy's blog. She's giving away Stoneyfield Farms Yo Baby yogurt, along with other Stoneyfield Farms stuff (bib, bowl, etc.) The contest ends on Sunday, July 5th at 11:59pm CST.

Crafting in 2009

Not a lot of changes here. Prayer shawl ministry has supplied some yarn so I can do some mindless knitting when I need it. My remnant scarf is still a WIP (work in progress). It requires more thinking than most scarves, and I like that. Of course, my state of alertness tells me when to work on it. My crazy quilt stash is finally getting smaller! YAY -- I have no idea what the block count is. Funny thing is, even with all those scraps gone, my scrap drawer is still full. I think fabric fluffs out and compresses as the situation dictates. "I" of GAIN is still working away at her valentines. Biggest challenge is the envelopes. If they need to be mailed, we have to get a sturdy envelope. Future 2009 valentines will be made to fit a conventional envelope if they have to be mailed.

Lastly, check out the Crafty Crow. She has a giveaway!

This picture is the girls working on Chinese calligraphy, their idea. Happy Chinese New Year a bit early.

crafts and yogurt

progress on the wastebasket: very good. this is a promising project. dh Mr. TellBlast gave approval to its looks this morning.

progress on current prayer shawl: poor. I've knitted only once or twice this week.

progress on G's jean quilt: still at a standstill. My wonderful partner brought her walking foot over. The quilt is too thick to fit. The crazy quilt came together so easily with the batting and backing with the same foot. Denim is too thick. I'll probably sew little spots like a button, or duvet instead. I'll make decisions about how to place them. And I had such a cool quilting pattern in my mind.

yogurt: it's great. I am crazy serious about my love for crockpot yogurt. My third batch is just as thick as the second, but I let it sit for 3, not 5, hours. I am wondering if the culture being in (unflavored whole milk yogurt) vs. (vanilla 2% milk yogurt) makes the difference. Everything else I use is exactly the same -- Heartland whole milk in the glass bottle, crockpot, and the culture (yogurt).

Vanilla Yogurt Recipe

1/2 c. crockpot yogurt
1/8 tsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbsp. white sugar

I hesitate to use vanilla because of the thickness issue. (Same with honey. And we're on our last jar, which I blame on A's grandpa.) For yogurt with fruit, we frequently go without vanilla extract. It enhances the flavor, but is difficult for my 8 yo (actually all of us) to measure in that amount. We usually just drop the fruit in a cup, cover it with a little sugar to make it weep a bit, then spoon a bunch of yogurt over the top. Mmmm.

knitting update

I ran out of yarn. Prayer shawl is as finished as it's going to be for a while. I mended a pocket. I made a card. Pretty complicated, too -- stitching and three kinds of paper. And a sketch.

I've crafted a food dehydrator from cases left over from my Inner Guard. He supplies his group with refreshments every month. Coke cases, Sprite cases, etc. They're all the same size, so they fit well for this plan Mother Earth News. I already had a can of black paint. My son already had a roll of leftover laminating plastic. I had to buy hardware cloth/screen, but I'd been wanting it anyway. (Unfortunately, I don't remember the other uses I had in mind for it.)

The great news is that I got permission to pick apples at a local residence. My older two kids LOVE dried apples. They are easy to make, but I'm not thrilled about using the oven when it's warm out.

The woman who owns the house always has a tree overloaded with fruit. I've passed it for three years and finally remembered to ask about it today. She hopes we take everything! After we get a few apples to sample, I'll determine the future of our fruit-picking at her house.

knitting this week

I really truly knitted this week! My church's Prayer Shawl Ministry met on Monday. 'Love the fellowship and the brainless knitting "pattern" of the shawls.

Another "pattern" has been on my mind, so I started it with white acrylic yarn, size 15 circular knitting needles. It's gonna be long. I know, you can dip the cable in hot water to get rid of the curl. I'm not worried about it.

Olio

*** edited to include photos ***

Of note:

1. Two new denim potholders in the works. I just need to bind them.

2. New prayer shawl slowly getting done. It will contain the leftovers of all the Lion Homespun yarn that I own.

3. 'N' of GAIN found morel mushrooms in our yard! we've never seen them in our yard. ever. ten years. never seen before. Story: he's mowing the backyard. he makes one pass along the fence, shuts the mower off, and runs through the house looking for me, (I'm in the front yard.) yelling for me to come quick. everyone is in alarm but me (I can't hear him since i'm in the front yard), thinking that something is wrong. 'g' of gain thinks maybe he injured his foot. 'a' of gain thinks he ran over a branch that we missed during yard clean-up and broke the mower. mr. gain has no idea what is going on, but it must be bad -- you don't want to hear your child to say anything like 'come quick' when he's running the mower. by the time N gets to me, he says, 'I found morel mushrooms! Come look!' Three big ones, in our backyard. They were too old to eat, but oh so cool to find.

4. We have a yellow bee-eating bird in our yard. Flycatcher is my guess, but I see no wing bars or eye ring. it's odd. In this photo, it's sitting on the wooden fence.

5. The bees are doing well. a little burr comb, but very manageable. no scale, no mites (as thought earlier).

6. plantings are doing well. I moved lilacs from the homeplace to the front and back yards, thinned lamb's ear (stachys 'big ears') and moved to the mailbox (a school bus hit the neighbor's mailbox last year), and thinned the daylilies and moved to pots. so far, all the bulbs I bought from the Botanical Center last fall have come up, except the fall blooming crocuses. irises from friends and family are just beginning to bloom. *** update: the lilacs in the front yard are being eaten by a rabbit. I wasn't sure that I wanted in the front anyway. ***

7. My baby turns 15 this week! Here she is with her bees. She also ate the first strawberry of the season this afternoon. We will be flush with berries. Currently they are difficult to harvest, so we're looking for a tiller so we can move them to be more practically placed in the yard.


I have no idea what the deal is with the keyboard and mouse tonight, so if there are letters missing or improperly cased or in the middle of a random word, I blame the hardware. I'm just too fast for everything to keep up with me.

my craft activity this week

it's been a slow week for crafting. on top of being the regular, crazy-schedule class day, running home school kids around town, my birthday was yesterday.

i had my hilarious nephews over for a couple hours. D's marble maze is just a tube. It was the tallest maze. The marble goes straight down. No bends, no curves, no frills. He thought it was "the best one."

Then we have B-man's marble maze. He took the slide and tried to make it more predictable by adding a length of tubing to the end. After many tests and "G" of GAIN's advice, he shortened the tube. They were really funny.

My boys made lemon bars instead of a cake for me. "A" of GAIN decided to top the bars with a "3" candle and nine individual candles -- it made for quite the blaze. So now I am publicly proclaiming my age for the first time ever: I am 39 years old. Still haven't said it out loud, but this is a first step.

As I look back on the crafting I did, I find that there was some productivity. I painted three more eggshells for eggshell dioramas. I accidentally gave away too many for Christmas, and when "I" of GAIN didn't find the one she chose (which I had forgotten), I figured that I could replace it with another one.

I also started to lengthen the prayer shawl started many moons ago. I picked up some yarn from my parish's fun knitting group. There was no ball band, but I'm assuming that this yarn is Lion Brand Homespun. I also read about using T-shirts to make tubular yarn (it's expensive. I bought some before Purl's closed.), and with all the Vacation Bible School T-shirts that leaders have to wear, I've amassed a collection to harvest. I've set aside a shirt (from the theme year of Fiesta!) to test.

I'll end this really long post with shots of this week's watercolors. "I" of GAIN and I like this calendar. I've hyperlinked because I'm getting questions. (Mine came from Barnes and Noble.)

progress

The prayer shawl is almost off the sticks.

The jeans quilt is almost completely tied. "g" of GAIN cut more yarn and I've been attaching them while waiting for Muncher to emerge from its chrysalis.

"N" of GAIN cut paper hexagons for me to use as a patch on his jeans quilt. It'll be my first paper piecing, done with help from sew mama sew. N's usually more careful about cutting things out precisely, but it'll work out OK. denim is thick and hard to work with, but I think I can handle it.

Pics soon, can't spare much time while we're waiting for Muncher to emerge.

sideways scarf, dark

Again, finished in one night of watching the tube with the hubs. Even faster because I learned to pay attention to [right side and wrong side]/[where to attach the next row or yarn] from my first attempt. I made this a couple nights ago, using a circular size 6 needle (such as these). I decided to use the small needle because most of my dark yarns are dk weight. I didn't want to double the strand, but at the same time, I feared a shorter scarf with the small needles. Now that it is finished, here's what I think.

It is sturdier/stiffer with the smaller needles. Makes sense. The length is also more suited to a man than a woman. I would have made it longer if there would have been room on the needles. This scarf is not as soft as the light colored one. Unsure why, because the yarns were possibly nicer and definitely smoother than the light scarf. The color and yarn choices make this suitable for men.





Also, I used a pair of $1 needles from a huge chain store. Not the best. The attachment points where the cable and needle join is not smooth enough for all yarns. Stiff yarn that would not lay against the joint worked OK. I think $1 is a good deal only if I can use them. I could not practically use these needles for most of my stashed yarns. Definitely slowed my pace, and I will probably throw them out.

I liked the way I was able to use very short remnants (the coral 'confetti' yarn left from a prayer shawl, some leftover 'watercolors' yarn from "A" of GAIN's early knitting) -- working a bit of this yarn alongside another strand of different yarn as a base, and having the remnant run through the middle area of the scarf but not the ends -- was a nice look.

The pattern is like crazy quilts. Freedom within boundaries. I love freedom.

Here is the pattern in local blogger Girl with a sword's words:

Get yourself some size 17 (or so) circular needles, and a big stash of yarn. ANY yarn will do, from fingering or lace weight up to super bulky. You can choose a color theme, do a rainbow (as shown above) or just be totally random. I have yet to make one that is ugly; somehow, they always turn out funky and beautiful. And the more mixed-up the fibers, the better! I use cheap acrylic, handspun, and everything inbetween. Funky eyelash and ladder yarns are great, as are ribbons or even thin strips of fabric. Mix is up, it's all about texture. Anyway, cast on 80 stitches or so. 60 will make a short scarf, 100+ a long one. I have done it all. Leave a long tail when you cast on, and a long tail at the end. Now pick another yarn or group of yarns, leave a long tail, knit all the way across, and leave another long tail. Repeat until you run out of yarn, get tired, or decide it's done. Cast off, the knot the fringe ends. That's IT.

If you're using fat yarn, one or maybe 2 strands per row are fine. I used up alot of my sock yarn bits, then I'd do 4 or 5 per row. 

Group Therapy

I am a big fan of group crafting. With many years of lone ranger crafting, I have really come to enjoy having company. Some people never had issues with groups. I have seen groups as risky -- I might reveal something or hear something that I wished I hadn't. But I like the camaraderie now. Maybe I've loosened up. Maybe I figured out how to be there without talking. I have no idea.

Progress check: the prayer shawl is now bicolor. I will probably quit when I run out yarn. I must save some yarn for fringe.

The quilt has not been stitched upon since I bought the new thread (two days ago). I finished stitching in the ditch for all the "vertical legs" that go around the individual blocks. Yeah, that reads clear as mud. I guess I'm saying that I have half the quilting finished. Next step will be to stitch the horizontal legs. Step after that will be to choose one shape near the center, the interior of the block. Shouldn't take too long.

new to me

My prayer shawl (all scrunched up) and my non-white quilling.

Running again

Currently on the sticks: a prayer shawl and a King Charles Brocade pattern dishcloth.

I ran out of thread for the crazy wonky house quilt this week. Just bought a new spool yesterday on the way home from Prairie City. It is a fantastic match to the backing fabric that I'm using.

Since my 5k run in late March, I've fallen off the fitness wagon, just as I feared. I did really well at exercising for a month, then busy spring family stuff came into my life. It happens every year. Ball games, track meets, extra-long gym classes, recitals, etc. Every year is different, yet always busy in May. What I know: Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday are great days for me to schedule a work out.

Enter group fitness. I am always needing something new (new place, new class, new dvd, etc.), and through my email groups, I've discovered two groups to work out with -- a running group and a boot camp group. Both have no cost to participate and have an education component. I had the running club on my to-do list for the entire month of April, but didn't go until I heard they were giving out free socks last week. That's the incentive I needed! I liked it. And I liked the boot camp. Then my SIL told me about Sierra Club group hikes. Nice idea. Another group hike I've desired in the past meets during our regular mass time, so I've never attended. Maybe Sierra Club gets reviews as fantastic as the Washburn hikes that I've read about (for years).

So here's the dilemma: On Mondays, do I attend the fitness group or do I attend the knitting group? Mr. TellBlast thinks I ought to run with the group, then show up to knitting club late. On Tuesdays, I'll have to decide if I'll group hike with the kids (Sierra club) or attend boot camp (potentially with dh and kids). Both are held at the same time. I think the location of the hike will be the deciding factor. I'll call it cross-training.

yes, i am slow

We had an unusual week. Nature program on Monday,

regular Tuesday, History Through the Arts on Wednesday, supervising teacher home visit on Thursday, and a re-visit to the Historical Museum and a sick kid on Friday.

Everything has been 'off' with this stuff. And don't get me started on tomorrow, which is unusally busy. Not our normal week.


So i've worked only two days to get some painting done. Take a look at progress from day one and most of day two.

 

I've made some progress on this picture (Monday), and on Tuesday's picture, but the rest of the week's paintings have not been painted. I am finished with my latest prayer shawl.