Hard Work Deserves a Reward.

SweetiePie has taken me under her wing. I started trying to clean the sewing room a few weeks ago by folding fabric, etc. and I just didn't get very far. The poor room is just too far gone. I got bored at the lack of progress and lost interest. Enter SweetiePie.After dinner last night she said "C'mon Mrs. Thimbleanna, lets go tackle that sewing room." She grabbed armfuls of fabric and moved them to the adjacent room and the ping pong table (where much folding will take place.) She cleared shelves. Ahhhh. That felt so good. Then we had room to work. We sorted and organized the paper supplies. We worked until midnight and got about 1/3 of the work (not counting fabric folding) done. Painting and sewing supplies are left to do.I'd show you pictures, but it's possible that you'll never see pictures of the dungeon. My sewing room shares space with all the household mechanicals. I've managed to partition the room a little with some big cabinets, but it's still dark and dingy. No windows. I'd love to have a spacious, bright sewing room, but the truth of the matter is, as long as I have a little light and electricity, I can still sew. On sewing days that are just too pretty to miss, I move my machine upstairs. Can't let a little thing like a dungeon come between us and our sewing, now can we?But, I digress. SweetiePie worked hard to get me going. And she gave me just the push I needed. Even if she can't help me anymore, I have a plan for the rest of the organizing, so I can finish myself. I think she deserves a little present, don't you? So, I thought I'd give her this little bag I just made. (Remember TheEmptyNestChild's scarf? It wasn't a scarf.)I saw this pattern at an Indianapolis LYS. They were out of the pattern, so I just bought some yarn and decided I could figure it out myself. It's just a rectangle of knitting with cables in it. Any combo of cables would probably be cute. And it was a pretty fast project 'cause it's knitted on size 17 needles. I mail ordered the purse handles from Ewe & Eye.
So, special thanks to SweetiePie. She's a keeper. And I'm sure you can tell why I named her SweetiePie!

XOXO,
Anna

Another KnitNight

The quilty peeps and I still get together occasionally (we miss you Gurney!) to knit. We're very casual with our schedule and we don't have a set night or anything. We just get together when it's convenient. It's a good thing for me -- it keeps me regularly knitting. Otherwise, knitting might be swallowed up by my everyday activities. Lorna and I are still arguing in between working on my little Scruffy project.

Tonight, Junie brought her finished bag that I showed you way back when. Can you believe this was her very first knitting project??? She did a fabulous job, and I'm very proud of her! It's looking very stylish on her bum, don't you think?
This bag is called the Coco Bag and you can find the pattern here. She started one of these little bags tonight and it will be a breeze compared to the Coco Bag.
With the pink and brown, I think Junie's bag would be very pretty mingling with MeMum's coneflowers. MeMum has the prettiest patch of coneflowers. I was there the other day and there were bees and butterflies everywhere.
A few odds 'n ends:
I might just have to buy a yoyo tool. Have you seen these? Them'r cute!
I'd love to have this sign in my kitchen.
It's no secret that I love to camp. How cute are these?
And, do you have a fabulous brownie recipe? You should enter this contest -- you could be the next browniebabe and just look at the super apron you could win!

XOXO,
Anna

A New WIP

Just a little one. I need a diversion from socks and from fabric folding. My stew-dee-o sewing room is such a pigsty so I'm doing a little cleaning. I'm finding the fabric folding method to be very helpful, although pretty slow. Hopefully I'll be done before TheSecondChild graduates from college in two years.

Not much else happ'nin around here. The quilty peeps and I are in a high state of distress. Our LYS closed and we've been rendered Cascade220Less. If you have any good recommendations for great yarn mail order places, we'd love to hear them!

Remember when I posted about s'mores? I found these and these that look heavenly. Definitely on the list to try. Btw, I tried the Eclair Cake and it was a big hit with TheManoftheHouse and my extended family. Yum, Yum.

And if you haven't checked out H2's blog, get thee there now. She's been doing a great series of posts on the SLC quilt market. Have you ever seen a booth so beautiful?

TheEmptyNestChild told me this better be a scarf for him. Hard to believe that sweet innocent face could have those balls of yarn spread all over the house in a matter of minutes.

XOXO,
Anna

Celtic Cables

I went to a Fiona Ellis workshop on Tuesday night. I really can't say enough about the wonderful time I had. What a fabulous, charming woman! She was so pleasant and the rhythm of her voice was perfect for knitting. Who doesn't love a Brit accent?

We knit a little sample in class to learn the basics. Do you know the difference between regular cables and celtic cables? Regular cables move up and down -- celtic cables can also move sideways. Thus forming the celtic "knots".
She told us a little about herself and I loved a story she told from her childhood. She learned to knit and sew at a very young age. One day, she was making a little doll dress and she didn't know how to do gathers, so when she joined the skirt to the bodice, she had excess fabric at the back. She took the problem to her grandmother, who looked at it and said "Well, let's make a bustle!" She attributes that "make lemonade out of lemons" attitude to her abilitly to come up with creative solutions and designs. It's a good lesson to learn. I could use a little of that spontaneity. I would have taken it out and learned how to make gathers. Stupid rigidity.

I learned some new tips. Like (and this one is common sense -- duh, me) cables shouldn't be knit with dark colors 'cause they don't show up as well. (Could of used that tip before I started the sweater I'm currently working on.) Early on in the class, I asked her if it's possible to drop just a few stitches off the needle to repair a mistake several rows back, without ripping those rows out. She assured me it was and she went into detail about how it could be done. Naturally, since I asked the question, I would be the one to make the stupid mistake and forget to cross some stitches, not noticing it until four rows later. Dingbat. It was actually a fun lesson though -- I got to see her in action. It was pretty cool to watch her fingers move as she repaired that mistake. I'll have to make a lot of mistakes like that before I become fluent in the language of successful cable repair work.

If you're interested in cables and you get the chance to go to a workshop (or if your guild needs a great workshop) with Fiona, don't miss it! She's a very interesting woman and great fun to listen to. Highly, highly recommended! Oh, and that book in the picture is great too. There are a bunch of really beautiful sweaters in it. One of them is a cute hoodie -- the celtic cable goes up the back and continues all the way to the front of the hood. Alas, another obsession.

XOXO,
Anna

P.S. Fiona has a new Fair Isle book coming out in October. Just can't picture that -- she'll always be the cable woman to me!

Lorna is Not My Friend.

I've been working on my socks and trying to come up with a solution to the "pooling" problem. I was using a pattern with 64 stitches on size 2 needles. I tried increasing stitches to 72 and reducing needle size to size 1. That didn't work. Then I read somewhere (a google search on "lornas laces pooling problem" yields many other people with this problem) that you can solve the problem by using two skeins at once. So I tried that, reducing the number of stitches to 48 and using size 4 needles.As you can see, it definitely gives the variegated look that I want, but the socks are pretty thick. Which would be fine for winter socks, but these are pastel colors and I'm hoping to wear them when I'm wearing spring/summer colored jeans.

I've used Lorna's Laces before and couldn't figure out why I've never had this problem. So, I looked through my socks and found this pair.Gee, I didn't even notice the pooling when I made them. I must have been on another planet or something. Anyway, I've decided I'll just duplicate this pattern again and be done with it. I'd much rather have a variegated look, but oh well. Lesson learned. And too bad, 'cause I just love Lorna's Laces colors.

Hope you're all geared up for a nice weekend!
XOXO,
Anna

More Knitting....

Well, I tried my fourth iteration of the pastel sock last night with no success. So, while I mull it over, I've been amusing myself by finishing the little felted bags I started a few weeks ago. I saw the pattern in February here, and knew I'd have to try them.

They work up pretty fast, so like the little bunnies, I figured, if I'm making one, I might as well make several.And remember the little embroidered thumbtacks? I told you you'd be seeing more of them. This time, in the form of button flowers to sew on the purses.

These are so fun to make. They're small -- the buttons are only 3/4- inch. Try them -- they make a quick little project!XOXO,
Anna

Just Perfect

We had the most perfect day here today. It was sunny and warm and just a bit breezy. I had big plans to go into the dungeon and sew all day, but I just couldn't do it. Instead, I opened all the windows and cleaned house. I love to clean on a beautiful day with the breeze airing everything out. Just Heaven! The downside of all that cleaning is no pictures. I doubt you'd enjoy a picture of the cleaner in the toilet bowl, would you?

I did start a new sock this weekend, out of a Lorna's Laces yarn in a pastel color.Notice how the colors are pooling? (Yellows with greens and pinks with purples.) If I continue with this pattern, I'll end up with a candy cane effect on my sock. Apparently, this is a common problem with Lorna's Laces. I've tried three different patterns and the pooling persists. I'll be ripping this one out tomorrow to try something new. Hopefully sooner or later something will produce a nice mottled effect.

I do have a question for any of you readers with a green thumb. I've noticed the ends of my newly emerging hostas have been nibbled, which indicates that my wascally wabbit has returned. Does anyone have any rabbit deterrent suggestions? Several years ago we had a cat that patrolled the yard, but she disappeared on day. As a result, I won't let TheEmptyNestChild go outside. And speaking of cats, I heard once that it might help to put litter box contents around the hostas, so I might try that.

Here's to a good week ahead!
XOXO,
Anna

Knit Doctor

First things first. When we arrived home from work this evening we were greeted by this scene in the rarely used living room. How sad that I'm airing my dirty laundry in public, but we thought this was pretty funny. TheEmptyNestChild was apparently burrowing in the couch. I just have two things to say. 1) Our sweet dog has been gone for two years, and 2) There will be no comments about my housekeeping. Thank You.

Over the years, I've thought a lot about all this crafting that we do in relation to gift giving. What if the recipient really hates that gift that you've toiled over? Should you spend a lot of time on something that you know won't be appreciated? I've finally decided that I make things because I love to make them and once they leave my hands, the recipients are free to do whatever they wish with my gift and I won't be offended, no matter what the outcome. So, this week my quarterly newsletter from Sheep's Clothing (in Valparaiso, IN) arrived and it contained advice from the Knit Doctor on just this subject, and I thought I'd share it with you:

Dear Knit Doctor,
I know you have heard tons of horror stories about unappreciated hand knitted gifts. Well, here is my contribution. Years ago I knitted an elaborate pillow for my son and his wife. It was a complex cable pattern. I went to visit them and noticed that the family dog had a very nice pillow -- hand knitted -- by me. I decided to say nothing, but put the pillow in my suitcase and took it home with me. I now enjoy it in my home and make no attempt to hide it when family comes to visit. Nothing has ever been said about this. Sometimes I wonder if they realize that this is in fact the self same pillow. I'm actually not mad at them for not appreciateing my gift. I'm really rather enjoying it myself.
No Pillow Talk -- Muncie, IN

Dear No Pillow Talk,
The fact of the matter is that a hand made gift fares no better chance statistically of being appreciated than a purchased one. It is my feeling that any hand knit gift should come with two contracts. First the knitter must make a contract with herself not to become emotionally involved if the gift is not well received. Second, any hand knitted gift item should include a return clause. You simply exercised your rights under the return clause.

Dear Knit Doctor,
Years ago we received an elaborate knitted pillow from my husband's mother. For reasons which we cannot explain, our dog just loved that pillow. Every time we retireved it from the dog, when we'd turn our backs the dog would have it again. We finally gave up trying to preserve the pillow from our dog. You can probably guess what happens next. Mother-in-law visits. Pillow disappears. Pillow reappears in mother-in-law's home. Since then I've seen it at her house many times, but no one ever mentions the... Pillow in the Room -- Griffith, Indiana

Dear Pillow in the Room,
In your family there is a Pillow In The Room that no one speaks of. In many families there is an Elephant In The Room that no one speaks of. This should put a new perspective on the basic good health of your extended family life. You are all wise enough people to enjoy each other without letting smal l matters, like pillows, get in the way.

So, there's my weak attempt at humor, 'cause really, all I can think of is what happened at Virginia Tech today. I really do think that blogs should be a place where we can escape, and most of the time that will be true here. I've had the news off all night. I have two boys away at school and for now I'll have to be an ostrich with her head in the sand. In the grand scheme of things, there's just nothing I could say that would be of any importance. I'm just so very sad for all the families that lost their children today.

XOXO,
Anna

KnitNight

I met with my quilty friends tonight to knit and since they've discovered me here at Thimbleanna's, I thought it might be time to introduce them to you.

My first little quilty friend is Gurney (there's a story behind this nickname, but we don't know it yet!) Unfortunately, Gurney moved away quite a few years ago and she now lives 2 hours away. We used to only ever get together every 4 or 5 months and she always made it. But now, with an interest in knitting, we're meeting more often and she can't always make it. So, she wasn't with us tonight and we miss her terribly! She's lots of fun, knits and quilts all kinds of wonderful things, and she's a brand-spankin'-new grandma for the first time. That probably means we won't see her as often as we used to, but we're really excited for her anyway!

Next up, and to the right, we have Jewels. Jewels has a heart of gold, a fabulous sense of humor, and she keeps us laughing all the time. Jewels mission at our Knitnights is to learn how to knit socks. This is her very first sock and she's just turned her first heel! Woohoo! It's all downhill now baby! And do you notice the color of the yarn? 1) It's red. Jewels is all about red and she's made me love red too! 2) Notice a similarity to my sock? That's 'cause I admired this beautiful yarn and Jewels went out and got me some -- she's a sweetheart!

And lastly, we have Junie. Junie has a keen sense of style -- you should see her beautiful home. She and her husband are into all kinds of fun retro-y stuff -- jukeboxes, schwinn bicycles, and all kinds of old game machines (is that what you call them -- pinball, bowling, etc.) What you see below are exhibit A and exhibit B. Junie is knitting her very first project ever! She didn't even knit a sample. Not a scrap! She's making a felted purse and she's taken to knitting like a duck to water. She didn't even have the initial awkwardness that people have with the needles at first. I attribute it to her vast quilting/other needlework experience. Now, not to make fun of poor Junie, 'cause we're laughing with her, not at her, but in Exhibit A, you can see that she is unraveling a few rows. She picked her purse up one day and started knitting backwards. Haven't we all been there? I love mistakes, 'cause that's how I learn, and as she told me, "Bet I won't make that mistake again!" Exhibit B shows Junie progressing along nicely!













I hope you love my quilty friends as much as I do -- I'm sure this isn't the last time you'll be hearing about them. ;-)

XOXO,
Anna

It's Slow Here.

There's just not much going on here at Thimbleanna's. I've been gone so much the past few weeks that I haven't had time to work on any projects. I posted a few weeks ago that I was getting a cold and I finally adimitted defeat and went to the Dr. today. On Wednesday, I flew to NJ and I'm pretty sure during the descent, someone hit me in the head with an ax. My travel companions told me to take pseudophedrine for the return trip on Friday and that helped with the pain, but I haven't been able to clear my ears since we landed. I feel like I'm walking around with my head in a trash can. Hopefully, we'll have a little clearing as the antibiotic begins to take effect tomorrow!

In the meantime, I'll leave you with a picture of my airplane knitting. You'd think with all my trips I'd have these done by now, but I've been sleeping pn planes more than knitting! I love to knit socks -- they're portable and once you've made a few pair, they don't take much concentration. These are my first sort-of-red pair.Autum posted that Randi posted about "Let's Get Real Monday." The premise is that we post "the truth" about something, instead of only showing nice things to our guests, as we so often do on our blogs. The theme this Monday is spring cleaning. We'll see if I get brave enough to show some of my disgusting dirt. There's certainly more than enough to go around.

XOXO,
Anna

Blizzard Warning?

We're under a blizzard warning, but as you can see, it's looking pretty tame out my back window. (It looks foggy in the picture, but it's really a very fine snow falling.)

Anyway, the upside of a blizzard warning is that everything in town is closed and even though our place of work didn't close, we came home a little early. Which gave me the chance to take a few pictures of the friendship quilt that I posted about a few days ago.







Here's a close up of one of the blocks -- this person loves fairy tales!







I also remembered to bring home my handwarmers that I just made. They are the knitting project that I was working on a few weeks ago. I took them to work and forgot to take pictures. My hands get really cold at the keyboard at work -- TheManoftheHouse just rolls his eyes when he walks into my office and sees me wearing them. It's my office and I can wear what I want to! You'll just have to imagine my right hand in the picture, I haven't mastered the fine art of snapping the picture and having my hand appear in the picture at the same time. (Aka, I'm too lazy to get my manual out and look at the delay option on the camera.)

I sure hope you're all staying warm!
XOXO,
Anna

My First Knitting Bag

I was hoping to have the project I'm currently knitting ready to post, but I didn't get it done this weekend. We had a two-day trip to Nashville to check on the younger child. We love visiting -- Nashville is such a fun city. I don't really know where the good fabric haunts are though (suggestions more than welcome -- I'll be going back in May to pick sontwo up.) I talked TheManoftheHouse into briefly stopping in at Stitcher's Garden in Franklin. It's a fun shop to visit -- I think you could probably find most any fabric you wanted (well, except the ones I was looking for). They have tons of fabric, but man, is it cluttered. Some of my quilty peeps refuse to go to shops like that -- it's too confusing for them.

Anyhoo, in spite of a TWO hour traffic jam in Louisville, during which time I was knitting, I didn't get my little project done. So, instead, I thought I'd share with you, the dorky vintage knitting bag I made when I was a kid.















I learned to knit when I was 8 or 9. I can remember sitting with a group of kids making this bag, but I can't remember if it was in brownies, an after school program, or what. It's a classic recycling project, but before recycling was common -- except in California, which is where we lived at the time. We took clorox bottles and cut them up. Then the instructor had us punch holes around all the pieces. I remember that part made my hands sore. We joined the pieces with single crochet and then hand stitched a zipper in. Considering how many moves and apparently dogs (note the dog teeth marks in the side) my bag has been through, I think the poor thing looks pretty good. TheEmptyNestChild seems to like it too.







Well, I'm off on another work trip tomorrow. Back on Wednesday.
XOXO,
Anna

A new knitting movie....

I got an e-mail from a friend of mine at work today. She knows I knit and sew and etc. The subject line read: You are so hip. Then she said, Check this out:

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=20
07-01-16T131646Z_01_N10288166_RTRUKOC_0_US-BOOKS-AUTHOR-JACOBS.xml&src=011607_09
33_ARTICLE_PROMO_also_on_reuters

That's just so funny. These days it's hip to make handmade things. Not too long ago it was oh-so-boring and old-fashioned! The best thing is that my friend wants to learn how to knit. We'll be bringing new meaning to Brown Bag Lunches at our workplace.

I'm off tomorrow on a little trip for work. I'll be gone for a few days. If you happen to be in O'Hare or Newark and you see this bag
















you'll know it's me! I made this a while ago so I'd have a place to put my laptop, purse, book and knitting all in one bag. I hate the standard laptop bags -- they're so padded they just add a bunch of extra weight. Besides they're a thief target. A few years ago, I was in L.A. and had my standard laptopy looking bag stolen from the trunk of my rental car. How'd they know it was in there? Bet they wouldn't have taken a quilted bag! The briefcase had my laptop, work papers, a book and some hand embroidery I was working on. I didn't care about losing any of it except for my little embroidery hoop. It was the old-fashioned springy metal kind of hoop and I'd had it since I was a little girl. It held such wonderful memories of years of embroidering -- I surely felt violated by its loss!

I'm still hoping you have snow where you are -- we're amazingly still snowless here in the midwest!
XOXO,
Anna

Knitting Journals

I'm teaching some of my friends to knit. So, I thought as a little gift for their patience, I'd make them each a little knitting journal in a box.
















I included cards where they can write pertinent info about each of their projects. And to file behind the tools tab, I put a few cards with sewing tools attached, one of which was a set of beaded stitch markers.
















It all reminds me that I have knitting to do....

XOXO,
Anna