Sunday, March 8, 2009

So What Happened to February? Part 2




Because I didn’t know what I was doing I haven’t progressed very far on the sewing projects for my granddaughters. I’ve finally gotten the initials done on the corduroy bodices, now I have to change the thread on the serger to sew up the outfits. But of course, I’ve put that off to make an apron for my neighbor…







My neighbor, Lynn, is a great cook and baker besides being generous. When Carlee and family from SLC were here for Paige’s first birth celebration, Lynn sent over some baked dishes and cookies. What a sweetheart! So instead of sending some food back to her, I thought that I would embroider an apron for her and send that back with the empty dishes. HA! Well the empty dishes went back 2 weeks ago and I’m still working on the apron! But at least it looks decent. I added some embroidery “Lynn Super Mom” to the apron bib in pink on a turquoise background with an Amy Butler print used for the ruffle, pocket, trim and ties. Another week or so should finish off the apron. I keep forgetting that sewing, and doing a good job of it takes more time than I originally think it should. Once the apron is finished I can get back to the granddaughter’s outfits--which they will have probably grown out of by then or the weather will be too warm to wear. True Murphy’s Law or in my case, Ackerman’s Procrastination.




This past Monday morning I started teaching a beginning tapestry class at Wooly Wonders to a very interested student. Interested enough to get me back to teaching as I had taken the fall semester off from teaching weaving classes. It looks like I may have a beginning rigid heddle class following the end of the tapestry class. I’m going to try some new resolutions to prevent burn out. Teach only one class - one section at a time with a break of a week between a series of classes. And I raised my prices to approximately $10. an hour plus materials if any. We’ll see how well the new resolutions work out.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

So, What Happened to February? Part 1


Talk about a month slipping by without noticing it! I can’t believe I haven’t posted anything in my blog in over a month! Is that being too complacent, too busy or does that fit under my title of Procrastinator Magnificent?

My granddaughter Paige has turned one and has 8 teeth. She isn’t walking yet but may surprise us one of these days as she is standing unassisted occasionally when she doesn’t think about it.







Carlee, Tom, Jack, Katie Jane and Buddy drove down from Salt Lake City over Presidents’ Holiday to celebrate Paige’s birthday. We had Erin’s two Schnauzers as they were on a cruise and would have the party the day after they got back from the cruise. It was a bit of a zoo with four dog when anyone came to the door.




I bought a Schacht Cricket loom to work on with Jack while he was here and he did quite well with weaving on it. Katie had to have a go at it and didn’t do too badly either. She just doesn’t have the attention spand for it. Everything big brother tries she has to try. Grandma is going to keep the loom so that they have something to weave on when they visit, and I’ll bring it along when I visit SLC. The loom will last longer that way.


I’m still knitting on the horizontal herringbone scarves, all 4 of them, mostly as experiments to see how the gauge and yarns work out. But they are being replaced as the knitting project of the moment. I’ve moved on to “Durango Blue”.



“Durango Blue” is a sort of freeform knitting project that I want to finish before July, hopefully so that I can put it in the unjuried IWC (Intermountain Weavers Conference) show. It’s knit using #13 needles in a garter stitch, following a sketch that I’ve enlarged with a software program called Rapid Resizer. The enlargement is used as my cartoon or pattern. It’s a “shawl” that is really a wall hanging. More a figment of my imagination. I’ve started a group at Wooly Wonders on Tuesday mornings working on knitting and crochet freeform so that I will start working on my freeform project. And it worked! I’ve started working on my project again and a couple of people showed up for the group. So we may get something going.



I’ve been taking the mastery embroidery lessons for both the machine and the software for the Bernina which overlapped. I would like to retake the lessons in a month or so. Hopefully then more of the information will make more sense and become more second nature. Now I have to look everything up before I do it, as I am so unsure of what I am doing. But it is fascinating.