#48 - TPHPE for the win

Hello one and all. 

This week has been all about potholders!

First I finished the hemp potholder - chinese characters for Year of the Monkey.

Then I checked my queue and saw that I had planned to knit TPHPE pattern.

TPHPE stands for The Prettiest Hot Pad Ever. 

I added the row of crosses along the top because it wasn't quite square enough.  Now I have started another one and I am expanding the pattern row to every two rows so it will be square enough without me having to adlib. 

I did a second Tree of Life potholder/trivit with better contrast of colours.  I am happier with this result than last week's.

A friend at knitgroup said she liked the brown one from last week because it was a mystery similar to Where's Waldo?  Where is the Tree of Life?

My son and I did another geo-caching walk before he left town and we saw these cuties with their mom along the way. 

Last Monday the three of us (my husband, son and I, not the little ducks) went to the Museum of Anthropology.  It is such an amazing place and now I am reading about Salish Weaving after meeting with Debra Sparrow whom I had gone to school with until grade 8.  She was there demonstrating weaving as she worked on a piece commissioned by the Museum.  She mentioned this book as her reference when she first began weaving.

Here is one of Bill Reid's carvings that is honoured with a room all of its own. 

Lastly at Knit Group a gentleman arrived with two suitcases full of wool and material. He was moving and had been storing things for his mother-in-law that he now wanted to give away.  

I took this amazing bolt of material that I am going to make into bedroom curtains.

And this red and green felt for an advent wreath and/or christmas stockings.

And some acylic yarn I will send on to the Hornby Island Free Store.  

This wool I will use for scrap yarn projects like my little advent knits.

but this I will make into a shawl 

and this into .....something.  Maybe a baby blanket?

Also there was a completely finished sweater except the ends hadn't been sewn in and there was a hole in the front where I think the woman was trying to fix a cable she had made an error on. I picked up the stitches on either side of the hole and grafted the sides together with kitchener stitch.  Last night I sewed in all the ends. The cable isn't a mistake, it is a design element.  Right?

I thought it would be donated to some young man, but then I put it on and my husband said I should keep it.  

What do you think?

A good camping sweater for sure.

To follow other yoppers as we head towards the finish line look here.

PS:  On the headache front it is still with me, but I did go to the doctor and have had lots of blood/urine tests.  I am not letting it stop me and have been walking and even tried a Tai Chi class for the first (and not the last) time.  It'll take more than a persistent headache to stop me from getting on with life.  

Yoppin Update #47 - Or is that 70?

I washed and dried some more fleece this week and spun some more of my May fiber.

I got two shawls on the blocking mats.   I am so happy with them both.

For about 24 hours I had NOTHING on my needles.  Panic ensued but then I checked my Year of Projects list and realized I had a Tree of Life Potholder double-knit in my queue which I knit up in two evenings.

The colour obscured the pattern so I am going to knit another this week with a better colour contrast.

I am using Cascade fixation which is cotton with 1% spandex.  It is lovely to knit with, soft and smooshy.

I also started another hemp, chinese-zodiac double-knit, pot holder for a friend's up-coming 50th birthday.  It is coming along nicely.

It will be the chinese character for Monkey.

But most of this week was getting ready for my dh's 70th birthday.  I surprised him by flying our son in on the morning of his birthday and then another surprise by having his best friend join us at the restaurant for dinner on Thursday night. 

He assumed that the surprises were over, but last night I had twelve friends and family surprise him as he came into the house from grocery shopping!  He WAS surprised and it was a great evening of laughter and stories, friendship and food.

For his birthday I started a "Hilo or Bust' jar so he can get to the Big Island to see the volcano before it stops erupting.   (He will wait until it is a wee bit more under control than at the moment.)

I withdrew from the test knit I was going to do because with these headaches still coming and going I didn't want the pressure of a deadline.  I will get to the doctor this week to try to see what is going on.  Promise.

My son has been introducing me to geo-caching and he accompanied me to find my first cache on Friday.  I now have the app loaded and I think in time I will start my own cache with some little knitted object.  Stay tuned. Near the cache we spied these cool fungi.  I don't think I would have seen them if not for us searching for the cache.

I had two good swims this past week and a few good walks in the forest.

Today?  Later I will go for a walk, but for now I am in my jammies relaxing after the hustle and bustle of planning last night's party.

It is so hard to clean the house without looking suspicious!  lol.

One last thing.  My son showed me the app bitmoji - so here I am:

My other wonderful yoppers are here

Yopping 46 - To drum card or hand card - that is the question.

On the knitting front my Bendy Arrow is almost done- next week I will post the finished picture (maybe even blocked!)

I took a very large pillow case of washed, un-carded fleece to my sister's little island.  She belongs to a fantastic group of weavers/spinners/knitters/crocheters that have a wonderful space called Fabricators.

It is in building that used to be a one room school house.

and inside is everything you need to do whatever craft you are working on.

On Tuesday morning the chairs were full of women chatting and laughing, helping one another, and sharing their projects and stories.  I was struck by this gathering of women because I know that amid the laughter and chatter there are individuals that have lost their health, their house, their husband, their hope.  And yet.  And yet there they were listening and laughing and carrying on with their lives.
It was inspiring.  It was supportive.  It was healing.

I went specifically to use one of the drum carders because I have soooooo much fleece and I thought it would help my poor wrists to put down the hand carders and so:

I went from this grey/black Baby Doll fleece to this:

and from this Friesan fleece:

to this:

 and from shetland locks like this one:

to this:

I went in again on Wednesday by myself for a couple of hours but I wasn't really alone because this

lovely spinner watched over me.

I have to admit that I thought the drum carding would go faster, and it didn't really. Plus, it took a long time after each session to clean the carder.  I also realized my Baby Doll fleece still has far too much lanolin so I will wash it again with soap before I card anymore.

I was struck by the peacefulness of the space while I was there alone for two hours.  I have decided that when we move I want to move to a place where I have a studio space with lots of light for all my spinning, knitting and sewing materials so they will be available and set up at all times.

A place just like Fabricators.

And I hope to fill it with women who create.  Fill it with their laughter and stories, their gifts and resolve, their beauty and support.

Today, too, is Mother's Day.  To all who mother in whatever capacity I wish you peace and love

Just for a giggle I will share with you what the front porch looked like when I arrived home from visiting my sister for nine days.  I didn't pack this much stuff to go to Europe for a month!

and a dear friend I visited on the way home gave me this lovely pin:

It has been a good week. I wish the same for all of you my dear readers.

If you are on Ravelry you can follow my other yopping friends. here.

Yopping 45 - Oceans of Time

Ta-Da! I finished Oceans of Time last night.

(That is my sister's Jack Russell photo-bombing my pic.)

It is a beautiful pattern and a fairly straight forward knit except for the first section of the border.  I had knit it (540 stitches plus all the short rows) and the count didn't work.  I ripped it out (thank God I had put in a life line) and tried valiantly a few more times before turning to Knitterarium for help.  Neither of us can figure out why my count wasn't working but she helped me fudge the numbers so it would work out. 

The next section of short rows went smoothly.  Again, thank God.  I am not sure about the colours, I think I should have swapped the red and mustard colour, but I have received compliments on it so I will go with that.  I am trying to expand my colour choices.  I mean I do LOVE Prince - but not everything I knit HAS to be purple.  Right?

So no, it is not blocked, and my ends aren't sewn in yet, but when I get home (I am on the Little Island visiting my sister for a week or so) I will get it on the blocking mat.  It is going to be huge - which is the way I like my shawls. 

I have done a fair bit more on my Bendy Arrow.  I am loving the colours and pattern so far.

On the headache front I think the worst is over.  I saw my chiropractor last Monday, and, although my neck is still stiff, the headache, for the most part, has abated.    (My goodness I don't think that last sentence needed sooooooo many commas. 

To follow all my wonderful Yopping friends please visit them here. 

See you next week.  I think I will have some spinning news for you then and maybe, just maybe a blocked Oceans of Time.