What's Goin' On?

Yet another song reference... Can't think of anything better, unfortunately. Here is the baby cardigan I showed you before, all done except for the buttons. I used some of the yarn Meital swore she absolutely had to have when we were in a fabulous yarn shop in Oklahoma City in 2007. She graciously allowed me to use her yarn to make this sweater, and I promised her I would save it for if/when she has a baby. I will wait until that happy day before finishing the sweater by adding buttons.

I have also finished the first of my pair of socks, and hope to share a photo soon. I cast on but haven't started knitting the second sock. I got sidetracked between Meital's English homework, a burst pipe in the girls' bathroom, and making tomato sauce for tonight's dinner.

Yes, my life is glamorous and full of non-stop excitement. Thanks for noticing!

Other recent activity includes working on Meital's Starsky Jr. sweater and a bit on my top-down raglan sweater.

Aside from all that, I am busy working on the editing and translating of a special project for Maccabi Tel Aviv. I also write/translate for their website (I know you remember!).

I also made approximately 1,702 chocolate chip cookies yesterday...some of which I gave to Meital's friends, who were over to work on a project for school. Most of the rest will be handed out to the girls' friends at school.

What I really need to do is start thinking about stamping up some holiday cards. I have a couple of ideas, now I just need to find the time to settle down in my stamping room and see if they work or not.

Special Visitors

I had to smile when I read Alison's post on Thursday. The timing was just perfect. Because today, we were honored to have two very special guests in our home, cousins Birgit (above) and Ruth (below). Birgit and Ruth, who are sisters, are visiting in Israel from Sweden. And they are my father's second cousins.


I think I am the first in my family to meet these two delightful ladies. We had such a wonderful time, talking and laughing together. I had prepared a list of questions (yeah, that's the way I am), but as it turned out, I somehow or other already had the answers to most of them in my files. Clearly, I didn't prepare enough beforehand. But I learned a bit more about this branch of the family. More important, we met two truly wonderful people and had a terrific time together.

Feeling Papa Maxish

My maternal grandfather, Max Kameny (shown here with my grandmother in a photo from the mid-1970s), was a wonderful man, playful and generous, smart and opinionated, and always sure he was right. He also loved to fix things himself. Sometimes he was more successful than other times, but he always tried his best and had the best of intentions.

So today, when I finally got around to yet another home improvement project I've been meaning to accomplish, I thought of my Papa Max. I think he would be proud, not only of my efforts but of the fact that I didn't have to buy anything in order to complete it!


We've had our dining room set (purchased at Scandinavian Design or some such place) for about 19 years. As you can see, the chair seats were not only showing their age, they were in the process of spilling their guts and dying a painful, highly visible death (the dining area can be seen from our living room, so trying to feed guests from the coffee table wouldn't have helped avoid the shame and embarrassment).


After spending a great deal of time thinking about buying fabric to recover the chairs, consulting friends and relatives about the appropriate place to locate such cloth, and agonizing over the fact that I had not yet actually acquired anything, I finally decided to see whether the fabric I bought for a large-scale cross stitching project about 10 years ago (possibly more) might not fit the bill. It did, and it didn't. I feel (and luckily for me, Avi agrees) that this fabric is perfect, and I wouldn't have found anything better had I indeed gone shopping. However, I only had enough cloth to cover the seats of four chairs (of a set of eight). Once again luckily for me, only four chairs were in a state that absolutely demanded instant action.

Avi is so pleased with the results, he has asked me to go back to the same store (my lucky streak continues, because I remember exactly where I got this fabric) and get enough to cover the remaining seats, plus all the chair backs (they don't actually need it, but like me he is a proponent of the old matchy-matchy). I rather doubt my luck will extend to the store having the identical fabric in stock after all this time, but that's out of my hands.

That's not all I did today! I knitted a bit, worked in the garden, translated yet another article for the basketball team's website, changed all the sheets and did laundry. Right now I'm relaxing in front of the computer with a lovely glass of Shiraz Cabernet, and hoping all of you are having a fun and productive day, too.

Mending

Today was rather a boring day, spent doing such stimulating things as mending ripped pockets and giving the bags I've made for Liat a going over (reinforce felted strap on Doll Bag, remove players no longer with the team from her Maccabi bag). I also did laundry and ironing.

What? You're still awake?

I did finish up the Jean Greenhowe puppy for Meital, but will wait to introduce him to you until he has his "accessories" - a bone and water bowl, of course! I also worked a smidgeon on my current sock. And I worked in the garden.

An althogether thrilling and blog-worthy day, no?

No.

Sorry!

Reveal and Repurpose

Hello everyone! Just crawling out of the bag of chocolates where I've been hiding to say, yes I'm still alive. Now that my niece has had her birthday (and has opened her gifts) I can finally reveal the things I made for her. Above is a fun gadget called a Stitch a Mug. The plastic mug and liner pop apart and you can add a decorated insert. It comes with a precut piece of plastic cross stitch canvas, which is what I used. I changed the colors in the design of an augury that I found in one of my many cross stitch booklets so that it would have teal, which is my niece's favorite color. Her initials are on the other side.


Then I decided that she also really, really needed a piece of birthday cake! This was quick and easy to knit up. The only change I made (if I remember correctly, since it's been a month!) is that instead of knitting a candle out of I-cord, I knit a thin strip and sewed it around a cut-down drinking straw (a la Jean Greenhowe, who is absolutely the cleverest toy knitter out there, as far as I know).


Another something I did a while ago was search out a way to reuse the clear plastic caps that come with the current favorite ice cream treat here at Bag of Chocolates.


I came up with a sort of mini-shrine idea. I had seen something done with a tuna can at Ten Two Studios, and had - once upon a dream - saved a washed and scrubbed tuna can for transforming into a shrine. Never happened. I ended up tossing out the can. But for some reason this tiny little cap seemed to work for me. I also use some of these for paint palettes for those liquid acrylic craft paints, but I've already got a million things that work for those. In any event, I backed the cap with a circle of leftover painted and stamped cardstock that I'd saved for oh, about forever, from another project. Glued in the lovely lady (who was missing half of her face for some reason - she came that way) from Collage Stuff. Glued part of a fish tail from an advertising circular for a pet shop over the flat part of her face. Added sand from our local beach and shells that were originally on a necklace that no one ever wanted to wear. The little pearl-like beads were part of a piece of costume jewelry that (do you detect a theme here?) no one wanted to wear. The ship's wheel charm also came from Collage Stuff.

I have a feeling I could have a lot of fun with these, once I get back to them. Meanwhile, I've got a bunch of Halloween cards that really need to go in the mail, birthday cards to make, and a second something or other to come up with for my niece (she of the knee socks) for her upcoming birthday. I hope to have some finished things to show you soon: I have one sleeve left to knit on the baby cardigan, am sewing up the Jean Greenhowe puppy for Meital, and have some super-cool socks on the needles (for me!), as well as the 17.33 other projects in the works. Time to come out of hibernation and get busy!

Happy Dancin'

Oh, yeah. I am SO happy to be finished with these knee socks for my niece! They really are the same length, they just don't look that way in this photo.


Here is a close up of the increases for the calf. Quite a long time ago I posted about how ugly my increases were turning out, and how I ripped back and started them again. I am so glad I did.

Interesting facts about these socks (well, they're interesting to me, anyway!):

* I used three 50 gram skeins of Regia Nation Colors yarn, and about one third of a fourth skein.
* Also used an undetermined amount of plain blue Opal yarn for the heels and ribbing.
* I started the first sock on June 5, 2008, originally working from a pattern which quickly revealed itself to be less than useless. I then spent quite a few weeks avoiding the sock, doing the math for the sock, avoiding the sock some more, avoiding the math, redoing the math, avoiding the sock, and so on. And on.
* Finally finished the first sock on September 28.
* Started the second sock on September 28.
* Finished the second sock on October 15.

Now, if that's not pathetic, I don't know what is. I had the first sock on the needles for 16 and a half weeks. Once I had finally figured out all the math and realized I didn't need to fear the sock, I was able to start and complete the second sock in 2 and a half weeks!

Oh well.

Once I had finished the socks, I took the photos then ran through the house, waving them in the air and shouting, "They're done! They're done!" If you don't believe me, ask Avi's friend in Sweden, with whom he was chatting (and using his webcam) when I rushed into the room.

Then, do you know what I did?

Yep. I cast on for a new pair of socks! For me this time, cuff down and fairly standard, except they call for stranded color work, which should be fun and only mildly challenging (remember the Doll Bag?).

Then later on, I did something I've never done in the 2+ years I've been knitting socks. I cast on for a different pair of socks. Plain 2 x 2 ribbing. For Avi, for Chanukah. He will see me working on my socks, and I will only work on his when I know he won't see them. So I've got stealth knitting and camouflage knitting going on at the same time.

Pretty cool.

Tag and Pocket

I've been up to all sorts of things, and here is a glimpse at some of it. Above is a pocket and tag set; I copied the idea from a thread on Club Posh. Since the pockets are not yet available for sale, I tried creating my own. All stamps by Dee Gruenig, images colored with Marvy markers.


Here I did a more vintage version. I am so in love with my Distress Inks by Ranger, I just had to use them! The original is more yellow/orange than it appears here. Again, all images by Dee Gruenig, and available at Sunday International, on the fabulous EZ Mount.


I've made a few other things lately, but I'm less pleased with them. I do like the background I made here. I sprayed watercolor paper with water, then with Adirondack Color Wash, then smooshed a piece of plastic wrap on top and let it dry. Love the cool effect, which is why I didn't go to too much trouble covering it all up. Can you guess what the message inside says?

I've also been hard at work on the knee sock, and have finished the calf increases. Now I am going to start decreasing toward the knee, then all that will be left is the ribbed area at the top and the afterthought heel! Tomorrow, we're going to Jerusalem, which of course means lots of sock knitting time, and no stamping time.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!