Schrodinger's Kittie

So, here are some of the wonderful things I got from my delightful and spectacular family.

My mother finished the king sized quilt she’s been working on for me for years. I love it!

Then, if that weren’t enough to blow me away – Daddy gave me a spinning wheel! He made it out of jarrah wood. It’s got ash splines in the wheel; but, otherwise, it’s 100% jarrah. It’s gorgeous and the weight of it is surreal. It definitely won’t be walking across the floor when I use it.

Plus a gorgeous cedar box. And, Dad let me play with his lathe and make myself a jarrah rolling pin out of the left over wood. How much does my Daddy love me? Well, he found out he was allergic to jarrah when he started making the wheel. Yet, he pushed on through and finished it for me – in a wood he’s allergic to!

Finally, we pieced together the family blanket. Each of the blocks was made by someone in the family:

Emily – age 10 – did the brown and blue variegated squares.
Jessica – age 12 – did the rainbow variegated squares.
Jason – age 17 – did the ivory squares.
Julia – my sister – did the maroon squares.
I did the oatmeal squares.
Mom did the green squares.

I did a key square to fill the one spot that was left empty. As you can see, not everyone got their full number of squares done.

I love how it turned out.

So, I get home last night to two things requiring my attention. Number one was W sitting on the couch looking miserable. His stomach had been waging war against him all day. I made a beeline for the kitchen and made some chamomile tea with honey and made him choke it ALL down. You wouldn’t believe the faces he made while drinking it. He was trying to just not drink it; so, I kept the “hairy eyeball” on him until he drank it all. Not ten minutes after he finished it, he got a very surprised look on his face and said he was starting to feel better. 45 min later he was feeling great.

With that taken care of, I sat down to read my email and came across this in my inbox:

I’m a new knitting author (book forthcoming in February on the global history of women and textiles). It’s called: Knitting the Threads of Time: Casting Back to the Heart of Our Craft. It’s being published by New World Library and Bernadette Murphy (who wrote Zen and the Art of Knitting) has said of it:

“A richly textured exploration of the knitting craft — as a source of warmth, a sign of love shared, and a tangible link to the fiber artists who precede us. . . . Anyone who shares the human condition will rejoice in Nora Murphy’s insightful prose.”

I’m wondering if you might be interested in getting a review copy of the book in January with the idea of writing about Knitting the Threads of Time on your great blog.

I’m thrilled to review this book, so stay tuned for the review. I have to work out details with the marketing people, of course; but, it will be nice to write reviews for a knitting book, for once. All the reviews I’ve written over the years have been for self-help, religious, relationship, history (which I love) and/or cookbooks. This book will blend two of my favorite subjects – fibre arts and history.

As for my own progress in the fibre arts – I am making progress on the baby blanket. Though I still stress on if it will actually lay flat. That’s one of the biggest issues on working from the outside in. I think it will – but I won’t be able to tell until I’m darn near finished.

I started a present for my sister (who reads this so no more information on that until it’s given). I had just realized the other day, when I was thinking of what gifts I’ve made over the years, that other than a cross-stitched hand towel …I’ve never made anything for my sister. So, I am working to rectify that. I figured I’d give it to her for Christmas, but she wrote me an email asking me to finish the cluster pattern squares for her and the girls for the crocheted family blanket we are making. She and the girls can figure out the other two patterns, but this one is confusing them. I will do 7 of the 8 here and keep one for finishing up there on Christmas day so they can see how the pattern goes. It’s one of those that’s deceptively simple – but, how it has to be worded can be highly confusing.

Like how I do a toe up cast on in knitting…I really need to bribe Sue Ann with massively awesome chocolate and get her to write it up for me…and supply photos with it.

Eep!! It’s time for me to boogie to work. I hope all of you are having an absolutely delightful week and are looking forward to time off from work/time with friends/time with family. I will be in Alabama from the 22nd to the 2nd and having someone over to house sit. Here’s hoping the house in still standing when I return.

So, I was knitting away on my second sock last night when it dawned on me how addled I must be. Oh, step back a moment and inform you why I was a tad addled…we found out yesterday afternoon that we are going to be grandparents in about 8 months. Great news! I’m tickled pink. However, the news addled my brain enough that it took about half the leg of the sock for me to realize it looked wrong. Then it took me another few minutes of eyeballing the sock to figure out WHY it looked wrong.

It appears that a 2×2 rib looks nothing like a 3×1 rib. Who’da thunk it? So, yeah. I ripped it all out and will start over again. However, before I got started back on the sock, I had to do a block for the kiddo’s coverlet. I’ll take a photo tonight when I get home – don’t hold it against me, it was the first thread crochet I’d done in a while. By the end of the block I was back in the swing of things, so the rest will work out nicely. I’ll be doing 82 heart blocks and then spelling out the last name (six characters). This is being done in Filet Crochet – and I think it will make a really nice, summer weight coverlet.

Then I’ll knit up a heavier one like what we girls in the LSSK group generally make for the new babies that arrive. Very nice little blocks with feet and stars and angels and the Lone Star State (of course) all worked up and sewn together.

Yes, I’m still working on the socks and the hat. I’m pretty much done with my blocks for the crochet along, so the only thing that remains there is for all of us to sew them together over the holidays at my family’s place.

Here’s what the squares will look like – only a bit nicer since this was the first. Notice the improvement toward the end – top.  Plus, it’s unblocked.  I think it will turn out really nice and be easy to take care of.