Category: Uncategorized

  • Craft fair bummer

    Unfortunately we had a terrible rainstorm the night of the craft fair and no one came. All the kids had worked so hard, their table displays looked great. There were some sales made none the less, so the kids weren’t too unhappy. Here is Ty’s origami raindeer and more of Nina’s monsters.

  • Off to Houston friday

    I’m going to the International Quilt Festival for the weekend. To see the show but mostly to hang out with my textile art group gal pals from Texas. I am so proud of Kathy York from Austin who won first place large art with her wonderful quilt Little Cities.

  • All Hallows Eve • Dia De Los Muertos

    Today is The Celtic New Year, the day when the veil between the spirit world and our world is thin enough to allow visitation by our departed loved ones. My altar is set for my dear friend Onnolee who passed this spring with a few of her personal items that I am blessed to have…

  • New Sweater

    I have started a new sweater. This time it is a hoodie from Patons made in Knitpicks Merino Style wool. It is nice and soft. I was not so thrilled with the cable design used in the pattern so i have decided to try my own. This has been a lot of trial and error.…

  • Abby’s new fall sweater

    Fall is coming fast in Chicago and I thought Abby should have a new turtle neck cable sweater. She is a stylish city dog after all.The basic dog sweater pattern can be found here. This is a great pattern to create a sweater in any size to fit your dog and it is simple to…

  • What I Did On My Summer Vacation

    I knit my first cable sweater. This is Patons “Must have Cardigan” in Knitpicks Shine Worsted cotton.When I was at my mother in laws house I laid it out on her lovely patio to block. It dried in minutes in that hot Los Angeles sun.Attracting a baby lizard.It’s really soft.

  • Home from California…finally

    I could have flown to Australia in the time it took me to get home from Los Angeles. I booked the shortest flight I could find considering I would be traveling with 3 kids and a small dog (carry on). I had a non-stop flight on United, 4 hours total. We got to the airport…

  • Off to California

    Well I leave wednesday morning for 3 weeks in northern and southern California. There may not be any posts for a while.

  • Nina’s new photography blog

    I finally convinced my daugher to create a blog of her photography. She is so good. You can see her work here.

  • May birthday party in August

    Yesterday Melody Johnson hosted a birthday party for all the girlfriends with May birthdays: Laura, Emily, Anne, Frieda and Tommy. For the party to be in August shows you how busy all these talented gals are.Here’s the group shot. Back row: Emily Parson, Jane Sassaman, Me, Frieda Anderson, Laura Wasilowski and Anne Lullie. Front row…

  • India Bound

    The college age daughter of some friends is in Delhi India. She has a blog about her life there, it is wonderful. You really get a sense of what it is like. Check it out India Bound

  • Sweater Progress

    The cables progress and look like they might actually become a sweater. This one is made from cotton. It is very soft and feels great, it will be perfect for the fall. I am going to have to try making another cable sweater out of wool for the cold Chicago winter. The Frieda green sweater…

  • Look Em, I’m making cables!

    I was so impressed with Emily Parson‘s fabulous black cable sweater a few months ago. I was determined to learn to make cables too. I started this with the leftovers from my last sweater (that I still have not done the finishing on) just to see if I could do it. What do you know,…

  • Lotus blossom tank

    I finished this top from the summer issue of Interweave knits. I added a velvet ribbon under the bust on mine because once again I made it a little big. (Not hugely big like the last sweater) I knit a whole other top at the same time as this one from another interweave pattern from…

  • yearly window cleaning

    today I was surprised by seeing a man on a little wooden seat dangling outside my window using a suction cup to hang on to the window. We were supposed to take out all our screens on the lower half of the window but we have 25 window screens that are over 3 feet tall…

  • Houston Rule Changes

    Well International Quilt Festival changed the entry rules this year and now the group quilt we have been working on may no longer be eligible. It says quilts with sharp embellishments that need extra care, will not be accepted. Our newest group quilt, Fauna, with panels by Frances Alford, Julie Upshaw, Vickie Hallmark, Kathy York…

  • 2 socks on 2 circular needles

    I have finally gotten the hang of knitting two socks at the same time on two circular needles. The benefit to this method is you don’t end up with a bunch of single socks or socks that are slightly different sizes. It was very confusing keeping the yarns from getting tangled and picking up the…

  • Sweater #2

    Success, I have actually knit a sweater that fits and looks good. Oh, I forgot to say this is the Penelope blouse from Oat Couture.