Pirate Retreat!

I got so much done this weekend!  Lauri, Linda, Sharon, Jean and Debbie (a new member of our crew) got together and worked on projects from Saturday about noon through Monday.  I was really glad that I was still feeling well on the weekend--last Monday, I went to dinner with Godith at a restaurant that has a name that sounds like a fruit and an insect (not "Orange Ants", but you get the hint).  We didn't know it, but it had just re-opened after having been sanitized from a norovirus outbreak.  There was no sign on the door warning guests, in case they hadn't read the paper or were just passing through town.  The next day, Godith wrote me a note asking, "How are you doing?" and explained the details that she read in the paper.  Apparently, the next day, they closed again, indefinitely.  I just looked up the incubation period, which is 12-48 hours, so it appears I cleared the danger period.  Whew!

Linda & Sharon (with Miss O) arrived shortly after noon, just after Lauri (and Mr. L).  The kids ran upstairs and started playing happily.  Jean arrived a few minutes later in her full dance regalia after performances with two dance companies!

I set to work on my UFO list.  I made a lot of progress on several quilts.
First I added bindings on two quilts that were nearly finished.  Emma's Japanese one-block wonder was on the top of that list because she had been harassing me recently about taking so long on getting it done.  I couldn't find a green that matched, so I selected a yellow that matched the fabrics in the quilt.  I hope I can wrestle it away from her for the quilt show in April.

Next was the purple pinwheels quilt that I made from swapped fabrics from the guild and a variety of purples from my stash.  I didn't have any more purple, so I chose a piece of orange...and I ended up being about 2 feet short in the binding.  I had to find another fabric that was pretty close...it wasn't as bright, but it blends in pretty good.  No one will notice.  And if they do, they're looking too close!  This one will also be in the quilt show, then afterwards, it may have to find itself a new home. :)

Finished assembly of the blocks and borders added to the Civil War quilt.  This one is a twin size--about 80" x 106".

Blocks were sewn together and borders added to the pineapple quilt.  I love the look of this one, and I had wanted to make this quilt for a long time, but I really started to hate doing it after a while.  I had originally planned to make 25 blocks, but after 16 enormous blocks, I threw the rest of the photocopies of the patterns away.  With the borders, it's a good lap size, and is a bright, cheerful quilt that I will probably use in the living room for TV time.

I added a simple border to the Children's Hospital quilt.  Again, this is not a donation to the hospital, but for the parents to sleep under while staying with a child at Children's...for me & Kelly, specifically.

I made a bunch of Half Square Triangles for the border of the Jewel Box quilt.  This was still in progress when the Pirates left on Monday.  The 5" squares were pre-cut, saving me a lot of time.  The border will be white all around, but finish the diamonds around the edge.  I think I may have to scrounge up more white on white fabrics...not sure what I'm going to do for that, if I have some hidden in my sewing room or if I'll have to buy a couple yards.


That's 6 out of 12 quilts with progress to them!  Most of the rest of the unfinished projects just need quilting and binding.  Now if only I can make sure that my longarm keeps working.  The stitch regulator is still not working up to par.  I'll have to find out what to do about that.

I was hoping that I could get all of the UFOs done by October...but I may get more than 12 done by then.  The rules of the UFO challenge say that you can keep adding UFOs to the list, but they must have been started prior to January.  I can't start one now and add it to the list.

Still working on the Olympic knitting, but I spent the entire weekend doing the quilting thing, so I'm a few days behind.  I love watching the sports, but I'm really frustrated with the coverage of the Olympic games this year.  They have 4 minutes of coverage, then 3 minutes of commercials.  They really only cover the US athletes and don't show any of the medal ceremonies.  They have a Facebook page that is posting the results of some of the competitions before the West coast feed even starts.  It's really frustrating and disappointing.  I keep thinking that NBC really should buy up several channels and air almost constant coverage of the various sites--one channel for skiing, both hills and flat surfaces; one for slope style & snowboarding; one channel for ice skating; one for speed skating; one for hockey; and one for curling and other odd sports like curling.

But that would involve me becoming CEO of NBC...and that probably won't happen.

Olympics and the Usual Chaos

Last Thursday marked the beginning of the Olympic coverage (even though the opening ceremonies didn't occur until Friday), so I started casting on the Norwegian Blue sweater.  The red strings are to help me count the stitches when casting on.  I needed 288 stitches on the needles, and darn it if I didn't lose count six times before I finally started putting these strings in between every 20 stitches.  I ended up having to take it out and start again...a couple times...so I really didn't get it started until Friday anyway.  The judges said they'd allow it.  No deductions for a false start.  We'll just call it a "practice run".


Knitting wasn't the only thing I was doing, though.  I also took a little time on Thursday night to make some beads with Bekah.  These are the six I made that night.  Three of them were made with Olympic colors--I tried to do rings on the two on the far left, but one of the colors (green) was not cooperating.  Then I decided to do mixed up rings, on the right.  The three in the middle were just fun spotty beads.  Again, the green turned transparent and didn't have the desired effect, but it's still pretty cool.


I finished up the perle cotton weave and although I don't have a particular project in mind to add it to, I really like the way it turned out, the fineness of the weave, the flexibility of the fibers, and I know it's going to make a great impact on whatever garment I add it to.  Now I'll have to make some really stunning garment to go with it.  It reminds me of a doll house plan I had once.  I started with the door.  Little did I realize that you really can't start from the end, and that the doll house would never come to fruition.

Once the loom was available, I started weaving the band for the warp weighted loom, adding in the yards of wool for the warp.  It took nearly two entire skeins of Fisherman's wool to finish the warp, and I figure it'll take another two to weave it up.  The band will be laced onto the top cross bar and the weaving will start from that point.  I have set it aside for the last week while I worked on other projects.

Saturday was consumed with teaching a costuming class for Ithra.  I only had two students, but we had a great time and they were able to finish their mock-up and have a pattern to fit them and make a wearable outfit from there.  Since it was the first time I ever taught the class, I was glad not to have the pressure of a full classroom.

After my morning class, I "crashed" the beginning beadmaking class in the afternoon and ended up being a sort of co-teacher, helping the other students learning how to handle the mandrils, heating the glass, and making wearable beads.  I was able to make a couple beads myself, demonstrating layering colors.  This is the bead I made.  You'll notice the black ring around the blue glass--this is a chemical reaction between the ivory and the turquoise; a very cool effect!

When I got home, I was wanted to make more beads, so I brought out my torch and made these.  I probably would have made more but I ran out of fuel, and the jug of bead release is running low.  I'll have to pick some up tomorrow, I guess.

This is a photo of the sweater progress this evening, after three days of work.  I only got six rows done today, even though I was working on it for hours.  288 stitches takes forever, especially when it's two-color work.  It's slow going...they say it's a marathon, not a sprint, but it sure feels like the tortoise and the hare.  I'm the tortoise.  I think I'll call this one "Norwegian Blue (aka the Dead Parrot Sketch)".  Actually, I think the pattern is called Lillies or something like that.  It's from the DROPS web site, pattern #58-8.  I tried to copy the colors somewhat closely, although the colors available were not exact.  I can see now that mine is going to be quite a few shades lighter than hers, but it was what was available at the time.  The colors seem much more intense in this photo than it does in real life.

Tomorrow is the guild meeting, and I hope the weather doesn't delay the trip--it's supposed to be in the low 40s and rainy, so it should be fine.

The Knitting Faux-lympics!

A couple years ago, a news article came out that brought to light a cease-and-desist letter sent by the US Olympic Committee to the Ravelry community who had, for the last several years, hosted the Ravelympics on their web site.  This letter was published and it angered a lot of knitters.  According to the Olympic board, "We believe using the name “Ravelympics” for a competition that involves an afghan marathon, scarf hockey and sweater triathlon, among others, tends to denigrate the true nature of the Olympic Games.  In a sense, it is disrespectful to our country’s finest athletes and fails to recognize or appreciate their hard work."  (Here's a great article on the subject that's worth a gander.  Also, just for fun, a letter from Starbucks to a brewery over the name of one of its concoctions...)

I think we can all agree that this is this a bunch of complete nonsense and a waste of valuable time and resources.  I have the utmost respect for Olympic athletes and I can't possibly even come close to competing against them.  I couldn't win against them in a race to the bathroom, much less down a ski slope or around a skating rink.  But a crafting competition named similarly to the world's most illustrious sporting events to participate in *while watching* would not hurt anyone's feelings--least of all the fastest, strongest, most agile competitors our planet has to offer--and it was a slap in the face to all knitters who have spent years honing their skills, some of them actually competing for prizes and recognition in their own smaller world.  None of it is televised and few are sponsored, so the expense is totally on the competitors to foot the bill!

What the USOC should have said was, "What a creative way to challenge each other in your craft AND help improve our ratings at the same time!  While we would have rather you asked our permission to use 'lympics' and the logo, we will grant you permission to use them as long as no organization and no one person is benefiting in a monetary way."

Now, apparently, the USOC apologized in a follow-up letter that read, in part:

“Thanks to all of you who have posted, tweeted, emailed and called regarding the letter sent to the organizers of the Ravelympics.

“Like you, we are extremely passionate about what we do. …

“The letter sent to the organizers of the Ravelympics was a standard-form cease and desist letter that explained why we need to protect our trademarks in legal terms. Rest assured, as an organization that has many passionate knitters, we never intended to make this a personal attack on the knitting community or to suggest that knitters are not supportive of Team USA.

“We apologize for any insult and appreciate your support. We embrace hand-crafted American goods as we currently have the Annin Flagmakers of New Jersey stitching a custom-made American flag to accompany our team to the Olympic Games in London. To show our support of the Ravelry community, we would welcome any handmade items that you would like to create to travel with, and motivate, our team at the 2012 Games.”

Whatever, USOC.  Guess what?  You don't have exclusive rights to the word "Olympics".  I don't care what that 1978 lawsuit says.  You know where I live?  Washington State.  The capitol is Olympia.  My in-laws live on the Olympic Peninsula.  Just a few miles from my house, you can see the Olympic Mountains.  I even worked at a place call the Olympia Village.  You want to stop people using the word "Olympic", you'll have to talk to the Government of Washington State about changing the names of mountain ranges, cities, roads, businesses and other geographical locations.  Good luck with that. 

Here's what I propose...It's not the Ravelympics; there are no organized competitions.  BUT, in the Olympic spirit, I hope to challenge you during these most austere games, to reach high and aspire to your own lofty goals and improve your "game" while watching and cheering on our nations finest athletes!  With the utmost respect to the athletes, coaches and judges, and to the time and commitment that they all undertake to reaching these games, I challenge you all to participate in the Faux-lympics!  

We will not be competing in Scarf Hockey or a Sweater Biathlon, but you choose your project, set your own goals, cast on during the opening ceremonies, and try to finish by the closing ceremonies.  One friend already said, "I better just do a dishcloth--I don't know if I'll have time to complete a larger project!"  Whatever you think you can do!  Go for gold!

I'm planning on doing something like this; a huge challenge for me.  I've never made a sweater that I could wear (OK, one, but it was in college and it was hideous), and I haven't done much two-color work...a couple pairs of socks.  OK, five pairs.  But it includes steeking, a technique I've never done, and I may have to increase it in size (it has S-M-L, no XL or XXL).  And although the original pattern is in Norwegian, it has been translated to English (so here's hoping it was done well!)  The great thing is that it has a free pattern here.  There are tens of thousands of free patterns on the garnstudio site, so just about anything you want to knit is there!  Great search engine, too!   Go check it out!

I haven't yet chosen my tools and materials (equipment), I'll have to do a couple of test swatches and watch some YouTube videos (training) and consult my fellow skilled knitters (coaches), maybe even find a sponsor (DH!) and start on my road to bringing home the gold!  Or at least a pat on the back!

Only four weeks to go...are you ready?  Get set!  GO!

Olympic Cleaning

Kelly has made arrangements for us to go camping at Mt. St. Helens this month.  We went a couple years ago and had a great time (although the campground we chose for the first night was abysmal), but he wanted to go to another campground and do some fun things...there's some kind of waterslide that is built out of airplanes or something...kind of the aeronautical engineer's fantasy family vacation.  Not sure what all the details are, but it'll be fun.  Also not sure what we'll be camping in since our 8-man tent really isn't fit for more than 3 beds, and the 4-man tent barely fits 2 beds...and not very comfortably.  Maybe I can look to see if I can find an inexpensive 8-man tent for the kids to share.

After the camping expedition, we hope to visit some friends and family in Portland.  Of course, there's never enough time to see everyone, but I hope we can get a few hours in here and there.

I haven't gotten much done in the past couple of days in terms of sewing, although I did cut some fabric leftovers from the baby quilts I was working on (pile to the left), and I am going to make a few more 9-patches to add to the three that I made at the quilt show so that I will have another quilt top finished for the guild's charity quilts.  They give these quilts to area foster kids and to Seattle Children's.  The gal who is running this charity committee has a daughter who also spent a lot of time at Children's, although she's now an adult and expecting a baby in just a few short weeks!  I know I have way too much fabric, and using it up to make charity quilts is something useful I can do with the surplus and I know it's going to a GREAT cause!

My neighbor, Gordonna, came by to see my beads that we had talked about several months back.  She grew up in one of those little countries sandwiched between Greece and Italy and loved the evil eye beads.  I said that I was fashioning some of them after the traditional Turkish beads, and she said, "Oh, don't mention those people..."  We both thought it was funny that after 700 years, her people still have that reaction to the Turks.  She loved the beads but refused to take any when I offered them.  Maybe I need to learn how to make bracelets or necklaces with them and give them away since it's harder to refuse a finished gift...especially around birthdays and holidays.  First I need to clean them--the holes are filled with dried ceramic that keeps them from sticking to the metal rods--but I don't know how to do that.  Isn't that amazing?  I can make all these beads and I have no idea what to do with them.

I also started cleaning Cammie's room.  I've been asking her to do this for MONTHS, and give her small goals like "Pick up just dirty laundry" or "Pick up and put away 10 things."  Clearly it hasn't made a dent.  I found lots of dirty socks & three towels, which I stuffed into the already-full bin, and several dresses, shoes and slippers that are too small, so it was time to pack them up for donation along with a few toddler items that she no longer needs.  I also sifted through some papers, put books back on the shelves, and put the seasonal clothes and costumes away.  After about 90 minutes, I took a break to have lunch, then it was karate, dinner and more karate.  By then, I just sat with a cuppa tea and watched some of the trashy TV I taped and looked at some emails.  There's still a long way to go on the room, but I'll put in some more time tomorrow and see if I can't get a vacuum in there.  By the time she gets back from her cousin's house, she'll probably not recognize the place.  The trick is to thin out the stuff and hope she doesn't notice.  She loves playing with the blocks--building cities and houses with them, which you can see over by the fan--and then moving in the little creatures and dolls and creating stories with them.  This creates a bit of clutter in her room, but it's managable.  It's the broken crayons, papers, wrappers, strings, and other garbage that doesn't seem to make it into the garbage can that turns it into insanity.  To further the insanity, she's got a rock collection that is scattered everywhere.  Once I get the floor cleared, I can start sifting through her drawers and pull out clothes that are too small.  It'll give me a better idea of what she needs for the school year once I can see the gaps in her wardrobe.

I've been enjoying watching some of the Olympics, although I'm not as happy with the coverage this year as I was with the winter Olympics in Vancouver/Whistler.  They seem to be more spotty in the coverage and some of the "episodes" we've recorded have not actually recorded--it says, "Sorry, video not available." And then, of course, people are posting results online before I get a chance to see it.  My favorites events are men's gymnastics (there's some beautiful back muscles on those guys...)  and swimming.  If I were to have become an Olympian, it probably would have been in swimming.  I was actually part of swim team for a couple of weeks in my freshman year, but I found that pool chemicals make me sick to my stomach, especially after swallowing so much of it during practices.  I did become a lifeguard later and worked at a pool one summer, but competitive swimming was not for me.  The women's swim suits look really uncomfortable, though--they keep tugging and stretching them across their chests like they're not be used to that particular style or cut of suit.  I can see why--with the width of the chest and shoulders on these athletes, it looks like her boobs are about to fall out the sides.  That would make me crazy, too.  I think the suit designers need to keep this in mind when putting out styles--these aren't beach bunnies, guys.

I also didn't realize that equestrian events were still included in the summer games!  How did I not know this?  It really makes me want to sign up for regular lessons nearby.  I still have to take the Girl Scouts out again this summer...the two outings we've had already have been very poorly attended, and we're very rapidly running out of summer...August always slips by so quickly.  I need to get out and enjoy it a bit before it's over.  Starting....tomorrow.  Oh wait...I still have to clean.

Two weeks later...

I can't believe that it's been 14 days since I posted anything.  I don't usually go this long without sharing my stuff, so I guess I better get busy!

I finished the tunic for Tyrssen.  It looks pink, but it's really salmon colored.  I had originally made it with straight sleeves, then remembered what a pain in the butt it is to have big sleeves, so I tapered them down.  Hopefully, they're still large enough to roll up over his forearms for working/cleaning/cooking.  I made it with a slightly simpler design--no armpit gussets--but used long gores on the sides that essentially incorporated the gussets.  Fewer seams, less fuss.  I sent it to his office so he'd get it sooner and he was so excited, he put it on as soon as he got it...at work...including the cap I made.  He said he got a lot of funny looks, but he's very excited and wants to order more fabric and have me make more tunics for him.

See?  Not pink like the washcloth.  Aunt Melinda suggested it might be "antique red."  She's a funny lady!  This is the coif I also made for him to cover up his "bed head" after camping several days in the hot fields of Pennsylvania.



I made a bunch of beads for gifts for Their Majesties of the Kingdom of Northshield (black, white and yellow) and Their Majesties of the Middle Kingdom (red, green and white).  This is part of the Lampworker's Guild for An Tir (for which I somewhat surprisingly was joined--Sophia just signed me up and I didn't object).  There are somewhere around 18 Kingdoms, and the rest of the members made beads for the others--we divided the work up amongst us.  Note how these beads do not have the problem with the colors getting all burnt and smokey?  Yep...I got a new hot head for the torch and things dramatically improved.  I'm very happy with this and want to try to make some more designs for myself and to make as largesse for the Kingdom and the Barony.  Other than the torch head, the rest of the materials are pretty inexpensive.  I'll need to order some more white for the base colors.  I go through a lot of that.

I put the beads onto dental floss and folded them into a square of muslin with two of my SCA business cards (it has my SCA name, titles, and contact information...Vista Print will give you 250 cards for free...just pay shipping.  Sweet deal!).  Last week Friday, Cammie and I hopped into the car with the yurt and our clothes and some bedding and headed off to July Coronation!

This is the yurt when it's all broken down (canvas not included).  To give you size perspectives, the door frame there is 5' long and 3' wide.  The circle is the "smoke hole", called the tono; the larger bundle directly under it is a giant baby gate (the khana) that stretches into a 12' diameter circle; the smaller bundle of wood are rafters (uni) that connect from the walls to the tono.  It fits very comfortably inside my car.  Some people actually have a door frame that disassembles for even easier transport!  The ropes hold the frame to the walls and the tension cable wraps around the top, keeping it from splatting outwards.  It's an amazing feat of engineering.  It sleeps two people quite comfortably.  We had two cots and a 3' x 6' table (granted, I could have used a table half the size) that we used for the Coleman stove.  Given the smoke hole in the top, it was a well-ventilated area that I felt safe using the stove in.  We really only used it to cook dinner and then heat water for tea and washing.  We had another small table (TV tray size) that held a 5 gallon jug of ice water for drinking.  We could have used some kind of floor covering, like a tarp and some rugs, but otherwise it was very cozy.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take any pictures of it set up.  I'll have to do that this week...

The kids have been keeping themselves occupied and enjoying the summer weather.  They couldn't decide between playing in the pool or on the swings...so why not both?  They moved it, filled it, and played for hours.  Clever little monkeys!

Today was spent largely at the quilt show for my guild.  There are a number of amazing quilts hanging up there, including MINE!  My job there today was to volunteer for their charity quilts area.  I didn't realize that I was the second-in-command for the charity quilts that go to Children's Hospital (somehow an email went astray) and many things went wrong.  Not disastrously wrong, mind you, but I used fabric from the wrong donation pile (I didn't know they were segregated), and I signed in for my volunteer hours in the wrong spot.  Next year we'll have it down to a science and we'll trade off hours so it'll work more smoothly.



After I got back from volunteering there, I started making pants for SCA wear as part of my Olympic Costuming competition.  One of the things I discovered was that I really only had one pair of Medieval underwear (bloomers, if you will) and I needed to make more.  The image above is of one leg...the skinny part on the left is the ankle, and the wide part on the right is the waist.  The triangle makes part of the crotch gusset.  It's a great pattern because of its simplicity and it uses every scrap of fabric.  I bought this rather inexpensive cotton fabric and sewed up two pairs for myself.  I also made a pair too big, so I'll finish those up for Kelly.  I used some of the leftovers to make a pair for Cammie, but they were too small for her, so they'll be for Ben, and I still have a scrap left over to make another pair for Cammie.  I'll have to figure out something else for Emma....

Olympic Costuming is a spin-off of the Olympic Knitting competition that occurs during the winter Olympics, so I'm starting my own Olympic Costuming for the summer Olympics.  During the next 2 1/2 weeks, I am going to see how many garments I can make from my seemingly endless stash of fabrics.  I need to make new tunics for the kids, for Kelly, and a couple of key garments for myself.



One of the things I've been wanting to make for myself is some kind of warm night garment.  Maybe something like a Medieval bathrobe, night tunic, and warm leggings...with feet.  I'd like to be able to get up out of bed, slip my feet into boots and go to the privvy without freezing all the way there and back.  There are also several occasions when I was so cold I couldn't sleep.  These things must be remedied.  Of course, the only night clothes I can find in images are simple long tunics, and they're usually of sick people, so they're covered up with blankets.

Here's one that looks like it has a quilt on it...although it could be woven.  She's wearing a full dress and head scarves.  That would probably be uncomfortable to sleep in.  Note the dog licking its balls.  And who said that Medieval art wasn't sophisticated?