handstories

sharing interests . . . sort of

    Last night, K picked up the sock pattern I was using.

    "What are you doing with that?"

    "I'm taking an interest in what you're doing."

    Hmmm.  I was suspicious, this is not typical behavior. 

    "What do these socks have to do with skyping?"  

    Oh, that was the draw, he thought it had something to do with a computer.

    "You're supposed to wear them while skyping."

    "Really?!"

    And today I was able to share what little I know about photographing close-ups with Moon, for his latest project.

Moon's view of a "Blue Shark" car.

black . . . ack!

    A friend was wearing a beautiful black designer knee length sweater.  I noticed a couple of moth holes at her shoulder.

    "Let me fix that, it'll just take a minute to stitch those closed."

    Thank goodness for the sunshine the last two days, because oh, my eyes!  

    Fifty-three black thread on black fabric holes later, it is done.  

    I will give it back to her with some cedar blocks.

 

 

days

    How are you feeling today?

know where you stand

    There are storms a brewin’ in these parts, and it’s a good thing.  Today I found myself talking to Someone.  Someone who has some power to change things.  When finished, my words were still ringing in my ears.  There was a familiarity in them that I had not recognized before.  It was my dad.

    For all the troubles between us, there is much to admire about him.  He has a sense of himself, knows that he is often "an onery cuss", knows what he believes in, and may not agree with you, but "will fight like hell for your right to think it".  This passion can be off putting, make people step away.  It mortified and annoyed me while growing up.  

    But there I was today, with a need for truth and justice, with him within.  It doesn't make things easy, but I'm glad for it.

    And to brighten the gray skies . . . a "Simple Skyp" sock.  This one is promised to someone, but I'm going to cast on more of these, to keep me warm through the storm.

it doesn't take much

    If I could only make little running,  invisible basting, and thread bead stitches,

    I think I would be plenty happy.

nesting in the sea fever

    It is the last day of Spring Break.  I couldn't tell you what all we've done.  I had started the week with a list of possibilities, saying that at least one of them needed to happen.  None of them did.  So, I guess the "need" wasn't true.  

    "sea (fever) nest" was finished today, so something did happen.  

        Surounded inside and out by unknown lately, I find myself wanting and hoping, but also unable to decide or focus.  Mostly because of the unknown that I and others have no control over.   There was an hour long phone call today about it all, ending with, "I think we have done all that we can do."

    Yes.  It's good to get to that place.  So for now, I'll continue wanting, but mostly waiting.  And stitching, because that is something I can do.

    The dark brown yarn was spun by Drucilla and I spun the lighter one from one of her "birds nest batts".  I love the bits and pieces of fabric she put into it.

i'm thinking, grace, i'm thinking...

silly but smitten

    The borders of "49" were needing another layer on the back to support the stitching.  Covering the backside with a layer of muslin was a simple solution.  After stitching around three of the outside edges, I couldn't bring myself to tack it to the center.  

    I kept thinking of the backside and how much I like it.  I turned it inside out and (feeling silly) took photos, thinking that would let me hold onto it after it was sandwiched out of sight.   Some border stitching happened, but basting down the middle was avoided.   After a lot of fiddling, I still couldn't stitch through it, so it was put aside.

    That evening there was an email from Dru.  She wrote about how cool the back of one of her pieces was.  That was all the encouragement I needed.  Scissors were grabbed, muslin was snipped and ripped . . .

  and the back is back . . .

     

 

 . . .and we are very happy to be together again.

lots of nothing

    Spring Break week.  Lots of clouds, board games, cookies, lazying about, library books, and some stitching, of course.

    Today a road trip in search of sun and sand, or at least a cinnamon roll.

    Working on "49".  Enjoying it so much.  It may go on until "50"!

realizations . . .

1.  That if the weather is perfect (sunny, but still requiring long sleeves), and there is plenty of knitting and stitching to do, watching five hours of baseball games can be a really good thing.

2.  That some things never change.  When Moon was small, he loved nothing more than costumes- fire fighter, pirate, knight, and one of his favorites, the baker outfit, etc.  His life was a constant parade of characters.  I thought that he had outgrown that phase, but when asked why he liked being catcher?  "All the stuff you get to wear!"  That's him in his new costume above.

3.  That choosing and starting a pattern while feverish may not give you the results you were expecting.  For example, if you use much thinner yarn, and needles that are seven sizes smaller than the suggested size, you will get a scarf, not a shawl.  

    No worries, I'll just keep going, there are a lot of baseball games to go, and there is more sunshine today.