Two and Two.

I finished the garter stitch scarf that I showed last week, and made another scarf plus two hats:

Hats are leftover bits of yarn.  Garter stitch scarf is Caron
Chunky Cakes, discontinued colour "Trifle".  C2C scarf is Caron 
Cakes "Lovely Layers" in "Sugared Cherry", also discontinued.

I'm making progress on the Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club assignment for this month (when I picked up the copy I'd ordered at the bookshop, the clerk was very enthusiastic about it), and should be done in time for Wednesday's meeting.  That will make my 21st book for the year, not counting the one I re-read on New Year's Day.

The library is starting another walking/exercise challenge, which of course I plan to enter.  Why not get double use out of my daily (except for Saturdays, when I do an early yoga class) walks?

Otherwise, it was a fairly standard week.  I should work on the last few items for my DFW Fiber Fest class and start gathering the items needed for the classes I am taking.  Now that I am presenting at a conference during the first part of that week, I have to be organized a little earlier than otherwise.

Today I started a shawl of Knitting Buddha's handspun, stashed from a prior DFW Fiber Fest:

Without prompting.

An artist who started popping into my fees mentioned that it is World Watercolor Month, and since I have been playing with art, I decided to try to do something in watercolor each day.  I am not counting the form I was completing for the library's Summer Reading Challenge, although I did do the first one in watercolor and completed it on July 2nd:

I forgot to take a photo of the completed form
before I turned it on on July 2nd, when I went to
the library's science fiction book club meeting.

Since I didn't hear about this until a couple days into the month, I needed to do some catching-up, so my first couple of images are just trying the paints I have, on dry and wet paper:

Then I did one that was just making lines, to get into the feel of paintings.  And one limited to red and blue for the holiday:

I probably could have studied and done something
that resembles fireworks more accurately, but no.

Starting with Day 5, I wanted to try something that actually looks like a picture.  I'd seen a tutorial of hers, and it looked easy enough - and it was!

I decided to look up the official prompts for the month, and quickly decided that I am not able to follow all of them.  I may do a few, if I think it's something I can manage, or if the prompt inspires me.  Speaking of which, today's was "Hat" and I decided to try:

I need to make lighter pencil outlines.  And the proportions
are not quite right - but it does resemble a sunhat!

As for the reading challenge, we're supposed to mark every ten minutes we read.  That's too fiddly for me, so mostly a mark each time I read at least ten minutes, although if I read for an hour or so I'll count multiple ten-minute increments.  Nobody should be surprised that I've read well over the number of spots times ten minutes and am well into my second form.

As for my personal reading challenge, I've read fourteen books (fifteen if you count re-reading one) for the year, of the eighteen I proposed.  Being in a book club does help!

For an unofficial challenge I wanted to finish an item each day of the long weekend, and I did:

The "Americana" scarf was my 'car scarf', mostly worked on while waiting, so it took a while.  (I immediately cast on another.)  The two hats and other scarf were pretty much done in the last week.  Hats don't take much time and I wanted to do the crocheted scarf to have something quickly done.  Back to the scarf of linked diamonds shown at the top left.

A peek at spring.

I was finally able to take a proper walk - between weather, travel, and work, I haven't had much time to do so.  I did walk over 14,000 steps more last week than in previous weeks, no surprise given the walking I did at the North Texas Irish Fest!

Spring is starting to appear hereabouts:

Yesterday I took a class to learn how to make fused glass items.  It is in a local gallery and there are many items for sale, and the teacher said that some of their students have graduated to being artists in the gallery.  In this class, after learning how to cut the glass, and the different types of glass to use, we were set free to make our own designs:

My initial setup.  I took a photo before moving the items off the
base glass, because everything has to be cleaned before you can
stick it together for the firing, and I wasn't sure I would remember
the way I envisioned the pieces working together.

These are all the pieces students made, plus one by
a student from a previous class who wanted it fused
further.  You can "tack" which leaves texture, or you
can "full fuse" which melts anything into a smooth
piece.  I chose full fuse for my piece.

The final piece going into the kiln.  My vision is sun and sky;
we'll see how much it resembles this after it is fired.

I will go back in two weeks to pick up my piece, and I probably will sign up for open studio sessions to make more.  The instructor is there on Wednesday evenings and Saturday afternoons for classes or open studio time.  Since my parents don't need quite as much of my time, now that the main part of the books have been cleared (Mom delivered eight or nine cartons of books in German and about Germany to a university programme this week), I can pop out for a session once or twice a month, and still keep Sundays free for my own activities.

Today that involved a lot of cleaning and organizing, some vacuuming, un-gunking a drain, and putting out the trash and recycling bins.  So exiting!  I also watched my congregation's Purim Spiel online, and have been working on the hat I am trying to finish so I can enter it at the Carolina Fiber Fest.  Deadline to register something is Tuesday and they have to be delivered Thursday night or Friday morning; it will have to be the former, given my work schedule right now.

Fiberuary - Week 3

 

Day 15 - Cozy Corner

This is Judy's sunroom.  I thought it makes a perfect location for "cozy", with the addition of crocheted (not by me) afghans and a mug of tea, and my knitting.

 

Day 16 - Reading/Watching

I knit while watching the opening of the Maria C. Vallejo Lace Collection, and during class (but no photos), and then knitted and read on my flight home.

Day 17 - Monochromatic

I almost forgot to take a photo, then thought I might have to re-use something and I want these to be unique as much as possible.  As I was trying to find something else I noticed the piece of felted wool I'd purchased at last year's Carolina Fiber Fest, to use for shoe insoles and padding.

Day 18 - Twos Day

Photo shows the in-progress scarf to match a hat I knit last year.  I had two skeins of yarn in different colourways and decided to work them into a set.  First the wedge hat, and the rest for a scarf.  I tried to do a scarf in wedges also, but it was more of a challenge than I felt like managing.  So I changed to this pattern, in which I started with one colour, added the second, and when the first colourway ran out, finished with the second.  Bottom photo shows the finished set, which I didn't complete on Tuesday.

Day 19 - Wear It Wednesday

It was a cold and snowy day, so wearing a thick handknit sweater was perfect.  I've seen baby and toddler sweaters with the leaf pattern at the yoke and wanted one in a grownup size.  When I found one, I was very happy that some well-aged yarn in my stash would work nicely.  Lower photo is a better one of the sweater; in the selfie I am at the storm door but the glare prevents you from seeing the snow.

Day 20 - Fiber Friends

I have many photos of people I met through fiberarts, and groups and events I have attended.  Many are just of two of us; this is of the DFW Fiber Fest board and guest teachers from 2011.

Day 21 - Now & Then

The Sock Yarn mittens that were in one of my first blog posts also appear in the "Favourite Things" photo for Day 13.  One has a moth hole I need to repair.

Butterfly Garden

Last weekend I saw a spectacular production of a rare opera in Spanish; of the romance languages, French and Italian are the ones where you find most opera.  Florencia en el Amazones has a minimal cast (one comment at the afterparty was that there are the same number as on The Minnow) and is more than a little fantastical which this production embraced.  I am sorry there were only two performances.

Seed packets were given out at the cast party.

I managed to finish the Science Fiction Book Club's assignment before Wednesday's meeting and definitely am enjoying this group.  A wide range of ages and viewpoints and the discussion is lively.

This also means I have completed seven books and according to the tracker I am six books ahead of schedule, and 39% finished with my challenge reading of eighteen books.  I already have the one for next month, and the month following, so should remain well ahead on this year's challenge.

I am rather proud of this week's cheese soufflé:

Advent-ually Finished.

The shawl is done, except for running in the fifty-something ends:

I may block it, just by patting and stretching the edges and corners even after washing, so it dries in shape.  But since it's for office wear, I don't care about them being perfect.  This measured about 16"x64" folded, but when I held the shawl up it stretched well over my head.  It wraps about me very nicely, stretching to 17"-18" wide.  The bands alternate between seed stitch and a moss stitch variation.

Also in the photo is the "pocket hat" I finished, leftover sock yarn on US#1 and US#2 needles, 120 stitches around, and it fits my head.  Going into the charity box.

I went to the Science Fiction Book Club at the library and enjoyed the discussion, so I plan to make it a regular thing.  I've found the next book in an online version and also on paper in local bookshops, and will be looking for the other two in the trilogy.

Winter Storm Cora came through Dallas and here, dumping snow and ice and rescheduling my planned visit of this week to the end of the month.  Luckily friends could use the two theater tickets that I couldn't reschedule, and enjoyed the shows.

As I mean to go on.

Yes, same title as last year's, but that's what setting intentions and resolutions are all about, yes?  Or as a friend put it, "as you start so you will go on".

So today involved:

• Baking bread
• A yoga class
• A long walk
• Reading
• Drinking Diet Dr. Pepper®
• Crocheting (a charity item, probably no surprise to anybody)
• Knitting (somebody suggested starting a new project with the new year, so I did)
• Chatting and emailing with friends
• Watching videos by some of my favourite YouTubers
• Eating homebaked cookies
• And ice-cream

I also took a nap.

I know many people are feeling this way as the year begins:

Sandra Boynton posted this a few days ago.

Resolutions - Or Goals

Reading:  I set my goal as 18 books to read in 2025, and have a good start because I read three this morning.  Goodreads wouldn't let me count Making Space again (I thought it is wise to start with some guidance for the new year) and then I 'read' two cartoon anthologies:

I'm not really sure that counts as 'reading' but they have words and are officially my first two books of 2025.  I am back to the proper books next.  Additional Goal:  Finish at least two (and ideally all five - I found another one!) of the partly-read books, and finish the other two of the Annette Funicello books.  And I may try to complete this challenge:

Several of these are on my "always" list, so it may
be easy to get about halfway through the challenge.

It's possible some books will count in more than one category.  At least two of the unfinished books qualify, one as #2 (plus possibly #11) and one as #9, and nothing says I have to read the whole book in the year.  My believe is that finishing will count.

Cooking:  I will try to remember to document cooking from historical sources, and to do so at least six months of the year.  Maybe all twelve, if I get inspired.  I will definitely keep cooking; I made hoppin' john to eat today, and had it for breakfast.  And I want to try one new-to-me technique or category of food, so I might have to take a cooking class.

Knitting/Crocheting/Crafting:  I have several goals for this year, most of which are versions of ones from previous years:

• Finish at least two UFOs, and try to keep the Advent Office Shawl from becoming a UFO.  Up to Day 14 and it appears the shawl will be big enough after Day 25, so I am considering what to do for the "Hannukah Advent" part.
• Make at least three items for me, not counting the Advent Office Shawl, preferably at least one cardigan.
• To answer the above two items, I pulled out the 2023 Channukah set I received from Olive and Two Ewes and finally decided on a pattern (not the one I thought of originally for the set), wound yarn and cast on.
• I also looked at shawl patterns for a Paris colourways set I purchased with the goal of having a shawl made before I go there at the beginning of May.  I have a couple additional shawl patterns in mind for my on-trip project.
• I think I have settled on a cardigan pattern for some of the Knitting Buddha yarn I have, if it's the correct weight.  I may adjust if it is not.
• Finish at least one blanket for Warm Up, America!
• Make at least twenty-five items for charity - a fairly low bar for me, but I don't want to get overambitious because I know where that ends.  Plus one is a blanket.
• "Dry January" means no yarn shopping!  The items currently in my Etsy basket don't count.  😉
• I am planning to attend three festivals this year: Carolina Fiber Fest, Maryland Sheep & Wool, and DFW Fiber Fest.  I want to minimize yarn shopping except for those.
• I want to get my application to enter the North Carolina State Fair competitions in on time!  I missed the deadline for 2024, so three items I had planned to enter are now disqualified as everything has to be made in the year since the last NCSF.  I want to enter at least one item in both the Carolina Fiber Fest and the North Carolina State Fair, the former mostly to get feedback.  I'd planned to enter the item from this year in the State Fair competitions, but oh well!
• Finish a bunch of the holiday kits I bought and try to sell them in the local arts & crafts group's holiday sale.  I was out of the country this year so didn't participate.

Much more detail for this year's fiber arts resolutions than in pas years!

And in other subjects, I plan to get three rooms repainted (one is mostly touch-up, but it may look better with a full repainting and I am OK with that) and shelves installed in two of them, then get my books and records unpacked, and make progress towards having a working studio and a working media and guest room.  Part of those require hiring people to do the painting and the shelf-building and -installation, and I keep procrastinating.

Stay tuned.

The final reckoning of 2024.

A friend posted this on social media, and it so, so encapsulates the year:

Looking back at this year's plans, it's amazing how much I didn't do.  And yet, how much I did.

Reading:  After upping my goal to 18 books, I ended up reading 24.  Not as many as some people I know, but enough.  And I have at least four in various stages of being read.

Goodreads sent this around midmonth,
so it doesn't include my final book report.

My shortest book was 92 pages and my longest one was 714 pages.

Cooking:  I forgot about this resolution and didn't cook as many historical things as I wished.  But I did a bunch of cooking, most recently a "smothered pheasant" dish from a 1953 cookbook.  This is just browned bird (I substituted chicken, easier to find) braised under a blanket of onions.  It counts as historical if the recipe is older than I am!  I also made a vegetables dish of roasted onion, butternut squash, brussels sprouts, and after about twenty minutes added fresh cranberries and some pecan halves.  Plus the almost-weekly cheese soufflés for my parents; some weeks I was away on the weekend, or once in a great while we did something different.

Knitting/Crocheting/Crafting:

• I have not finished the shawl from my 2023 list, but I think I saw it when I moved.
• Spinning wheel still needs repair.
• I did not make six things for myself, and the sweater I started with such anticipation has been stalled because the colourway started pooling and I didn't like it.
• Maybe I did make six things?  The "Age of Brass and Steam" shawl, mittens and (much later) a hat of Knitting Buddha's handspun, a "Palmer House" shawl from yarn I purchased at the Carolina Fiber Fest, and a bucket hat.  I think the test-crocheted cardigan was the year before, but I need to find my notes.
• I found the Olive & Two Ewe 2024 yarn challenge, which I'd forgotten about, and did complete a few of the items on it:  adult sweater, scarf, mittens, more scarves, hat, shawls, baby/toddler sweater.  I did not make a bag, slippers, a tea cozy, or a blanket, although I did put together a blanket from pieces made by others.

I made a total of 74 items this year, many of them being hats or scarves for charity.  Those are easy to carry around and work on and often don't take much attention.

I didn't have a resolution about travel, but I did travel, including twice to Europe.  Also a number of places around the country.  I am already making plans for 2025.

Walking:  No resolution about it, but I have done a lot of walking.  I participated in the local library's "Route 66 Challenge" where they had us record walking certain distances, such as "Chicago to St. Louis: 15 miles" or "Needles to Santa Monica: 11 miles".  Of course, the real distances are much longer, but this is for fun.  Since on a normal day I would walk a couple-three kilometers easily, and usually more, I converted those to miles and just entered defaults.  Normal walk? 1.5 miles.  Long weekend walk?  2-3 miles.  Yes, I probably walked more.

At the end of the contest, you could turn in your sheet and try to win a prize.  I almost forgot but wasn't the only person to turn in the sheet on the last day.  To my amazement, I did win a prize!  And speaking of prizes, I've continued to participate in the online theater performances, and they just announced the winners of prizes for this season:

Accounting.

I finished a book and read two others on the trip.  One was a thick mystery I picked up from the ship's library and stayed up late to finish so I could leave it in place; the other was a slim mystery I took with me and read mostly on the trip home, finishing this morning.  So Goodreads tells me I have finished 22 books out of my 18-book Reading Challenge for 2024.

I did buy a little yarn on the trip:

The purple is a yak-wool blend that will make a lovely hat and mittens or gloves to go with my blue-teal coat.  I wore the coat to the shop and we tried to match but nothing was close.  A few yarns were within a shade or two, just enough that they looked odd, but the purple really glowed.  The other is an intriguing-looking yarn that I will use to make more charity hats.

I finished (except for a bit of sewing-up) four charity hats, and am mostly finished with one similar to the yellow hat, plus have started a scarf to match the wedge hat on the right:

This is after I finished a hat for myself on the flight over, and wore it often.  I need to make it a bit longer and will post a photo once that is done.

I also made a collection of gingerbread (lebkuchen) to try:

The black bag came from the Basilika St. Michael in Mondsee, Austria; they are using it to raise funds to repair the roof.  The others from a Vienna shop that also had a stall at the St. Stephen's Cathedral Christmas market, two of their several types.

Like many people, I am nervous and a bit frightened about what the results of Tuesday's election means for much of the country.

Meeting and Eating.

This weekend I attended two of the local fiber groups.  I've tried to join, but with one thing and another (including travel and the online cinemas courses I keep taking, plus work which often doesn't end until well into an evening) it's not easy.

One group meets on Saturdays, plus the occasional Thursday evening.  It's Twisted Threads NC so mostly spinners, but other fiber arts as well.  This was the Annual Meeting, Potluck, and Swap and you had to be a paid-up member to bring things to swap.  I paid and decided to see what happens.  I took the duffel of yarns I'd sorted for a tag sale, that didn't sell, and I thought about putting on eBay but hadn't done so yet.

For my potluck contribution, I decided to make stuffed baked buns.  I've wanted to make bread, but was finishing some loaves I'd put into my freezer.  One of my bread books has instructions for stuffed buns, and I thought that would be a good finger food to take.

Saturday morning, between my yoga class and Torah study, I made the dough, using a mix, with oil for the fat and oat milk instead of water.  I was a bit worried about the timing to fill and bake them, allowing for a second rise, because my mother and I planned to go to the local farmstand.  She was running a bit late, so I used the time to do the filling and shaping:

For the filling, I scrambled two eggs in butter, adding a large spoonful of my garlic scapes pesto.  I let this mixture cool for a few minutes, then added about an ounce and a half of finely shredded cheese.  I divided the dough into fifteen pieces, rolled each one out, and put on a spoonful of the filling.  

   

I had very little filling left by the time I reached the last one, so I added a slice of the cheese.  Then I pinched the dough around the filling and rolled it into a ballish shape; the final one was more of a fat log:

Resting on the baking tray, with parchment paper.

  

No glaze before baking. Oats in the dough
remained very chewy - to remember for next time.

They came out quite yummy, and a few returned home with me, to become a breakfast one day and lunch another, after a brief warming.  With the breakfast one I had some fruit from the farmstand; with the lunch I ate a chopped tomato and cucumber salad seasoned with a splash of vinegar and a decent amount of Salsa & Pico.

For the swap, they had three long tables set up.  By the windows went all the spinning fiber.  Middle table for books and equipment.  Third table for yarn:

After business meeting and elections (really, approval of the slate of officers and since I didn't know people, I was fine with the volunteers) the president passed out numbers.  We had eighteen persons and I drew number ten.  First person got to choose an item, then you would call out the next number, that person chose, and so on.  After a couple rounds you could take two items, and some skeins of yarn went in groups or packages.  I was surprised that the books didn't go quickly, and I was able to get three of the four I had eyemarked.  I also got a bunch of yarn, and at the end everything left was being collected for a 4-H group, but I took home two of the skeins I had taken because I like them too much to donate, and one is from a long-retired indie dyer.  Most of the yarn I took went to people in various rounds, or the free-for-all at the end.  This is what I brought home:

The bag is thirty balls of aran weight wool from the UK, so I have plenty for various projects and will likely dye some.  Top row is a skein of handspun; one of the ladies brought a number of skeins she'd made, and somebody grabbed an armload of them, but was willing to let me have one.  It's a gorgeous combination of deep blues, teals, and purple.  Next is something that looks like taupe angora, which I will burn-test and may or may not dye.  The unlabeled taupe ball next to it was in a bag with the grey, which is really what I wanted, and likely will end up in a charity something.  Next row is a ball of Taos for a charity hat; a hank of Alice Starmore Scottish Campion that I was surprised nobody had snagged; two hanks of sock yarn in "Strawberry Fields"; and the grey yarn which is designed for an easy pattern.  Mine is mostly white and grey, not grey and pink as the website shows, and I may do something else with it.

Below that, the books:

• Knitting Lace: A Workshop with Patterns and Projects
• Alice Starmore's Glamourie - I have most of her books but didn't know about this one, and took it as my first round pick
• Twisted-Stitch Knitting: Traditional Patterns & Garments from the Styrian Enns Valley
• A pair of Elsebeth Lavold books that were together, Designer's Choice Book One and Book Eight

My duffel bag was not as full going home about which I am happy.  I need to find a Miami Dolphins fan for the car magnet.

Then on Monday evening, I went to the Triangle Fiber Guild meeting.  I'd attended one a few months ago but work nights can be difficult for me and this was no different.  I arrived late, and luckily they didn't turn me away.  Part of being late was getting rerouted by construction and a traffic jam, but part is just the difficulty of leaving work early enough.

No photos from this one; people worked on projects, discussed all kinds of things, and generally it was a casual event.  At some others they have presentations and they do charity work; when I arrived people were suggesting new projects for the fall and winter.  I suggested Knit Your Bit, Warm Up, America!, and the Morganton Blue Elves.  Another person mentioned the Red Scarf Project and somebody suggested a group that makes Disney-inspired hats for children undergoing chemotherapy.  The leader is going to set up a poll for voting.

Expanding the challenge

Last year, I told the Goodreads Reading Challenge that I would read a dozen books, and read eighteen.  This year, I decided to claim a dozen again, because overachieving is fun.  These are books on paper, not electronic or audio formats, because I like books on paper.

Sometime I go slowly because I read anthologies, which will have five full-length novels, but I count it as one book instead of five.  Then there are weeks like this one, when I read four books - but in fairness, they are fairly short, non-strenuous children's books:

A neighbor was offering the books to anybody who wanted them, as they were hers as a girl but her grandchildren did not want them.  I watched "The Mickey Mouse Club" in reruns when I was a child and thought these might be fun historical reads, so I took the books.  Then I saved them for the right time, and that turned out to be last week.

In quick order I read the four on the left.  I still have the other two to read, but am back into my Ellery Queen anthology, so it might be a while before I'm ready to pass these six to somebody else.

Recording those four means I am already at my goal of a dozen books for 2024, after only five months!  So I decided that instead of just overachieving, I would expand my 2024 goal to eighteen books.