Feeling Crafty

I've said it before and it was no different this year - May is a horrible work month.  On the plus side, this year was a little less stressful on getting the work in.  Almost all of our clients are now computerized and there was no last minute data entry to worry about.  On the other hand, a couple of our group were scheduled to take a vacation the last week of May and we were hoping they would not have to lug along a laptop to handle any last minute mailings.  We went into high gear from the last week of April until we finished the last file on Tuesday of last week.  I was relieved to finish up early, but really pooped and looking forward to the three day Memorial Day holiday.

I thought about just taking the weekend off and spending the time on the couch reading or knitting, but I decided I needed to do something different and get my mind off work.  I decided to make Saturday a play day and I started by going to my favorite yarn shop, Yarnorama in Paige, to take a class in needle felting.

I had only a vague idea what needle felting was all about, but I'm always ready to explore a new needlework technique so off I went.  It turns out that needle felting is about compressing roving (carded wool or other natural fiber) with a very, very sharp needle to create shapes and designs.  The teacher had a lot of interesting examples to show us, from small teddy bears to elaborate Christmas ornaments, and then she set us to work to create our own designs on a wool ball.  I started with a simple flower on one side.

And then I tried a free form design on the other side.  By the time I had finished the second design, I was getting the hang of the process.

I remarked to the teacher that it was rather ironic to deliberately felt wool when, as a knitter, you worry more about keeping wool from accidentally felting.  Felting (both by water and by needle) has been enjoying a resurgence in popularity lately.  I've never really had any desire to try felting, but this version I can see coming in handy for mini projects.  I'm planning to make furniture (a bean bag chair perhaps), pillows and wall hangings for my future hippie bus dollhouse.

When the class ended, I considered that I was only 11 miles from Giddings and one of my favorite antique malls, so I decided a little bit of antiquing would be a good way to spend a few hours before heading home.  I thought I would get away with just window shopping, but then happened across a cross-stitch piece that I decided I had to have.

It was a bit expensive and I managed to walk away from it at first, but it was well done and was based on Proverbs 31, one of my favorite Bible passages.  I finally decided it would fit in nicely in the guest bedroom where I have other needlework pieces on display.

Buying a piece for the guest room got me into additional trouble.  Last Saturday I had spotted a shabby chic lingerie chest in a store in Smithville.  I had continued to think about the piece through the week and I decided to swing back home through Smithville and see if it was still there.   I knew it would look very nice in the guest room and provide a little needed storage for guests during their stay.   

I figured when I arrived at the store and it was still there, I was meant to have it.  (Especially when the store owner told me another lady had her eye on it and was due to bring her husband in to take a look later in the day.  The early unmarried bird who doesn't have to check with anybody, has an advantage.)

That stop put an end to my shopping spree, so I headed home and arrived just in the nick of time.  Little Mojo had been out of sorts for the previous 24 hours, unable to get along with anybody, not even his Mommy.  I had not been home long before we discovered why.  He was hit by one of the seizures that come along every few weeks or so, and this one was more severe than usual.  When it subsided, we settled him on the couch for a long nap beside me, and I kept myself occupied with starting a new scarf.  

I've gotten a little tired of the scarf I'm knitting at the moment (miles of 3x3 ribbing, pretty but boring after the first mile), so I decided to switch over to crochet for a little while.  I'm having a good time with this pattern and the colorful yarn.  I expect I'll be working on this project quite a bit this weekend - when I should be mowing and pulling weeds and cleaning house.  

This is lots more fun.  And I've earned a little play time.

LSW

A Day in the Life of a Klutzy Genealogist

The first Saturday in May is reserved for the annual reunion of the descendants of Will and Amanda Frankum.  Frankum kinfolk from all over Texas descend on West Columbia for visiting, eating and playing (dominoes and music).  I try to attend every year - and I usually make it.

I came close to missing it this year.  Every year I also have a standing date with my traveling buddy Lana to go to the Miniatures Showcase in Dallas, which normally falls in the middle of April but this year it was moved down to the first weekend in May.  It was a dilemma.  Miniatures Showcase is just about the only opportunity for us Texans to see and buy the work of the elite of the dollhouse miniatures artists/dealers.  On the other hand, the Frankum reunion is just about the only opportunity to see all the Frankum kin together, except for funerals.  There have been way too many funerals in the family in the last few years.  I hate to miss the reunion where I can see everyone in a relaxed and festive mood.

When you get right down to it, the decision wasn't hard at all.  Family comes first and this year David and Karen were able to attend the reunion for the first time in many years.  So bright and early Saturday morning, the three of us hit the road headed to West Columbia.

The day was beautiful and the reunion was well attended.  We visited, we ate tons of food, we took part in a spirited fund-raising auction (where I won a set of pictures of my grandmother and her 5 sisters and brother and David picked up a pint of honey), and enjoyed a period of pickin' and grinnin' by the musically talented family members.

We had a lot of fun visiting with my Aunt Ruth Nell. She lives about 5-1/2 hours away from us and we don't get to see her nearly enough.

Aunt Nell, me and David

Aunt Nell, Uncle Donald and my Daddy were 3 of the 21 first cousins born to the aforementioned 6 siblings.   All the cousins were raised together and were more like siblings themselves than merely cousins.  There are 14 of them still living and they have moved into the position of our family elders, also known as our Board of Directors.  (The only one missing from the following photo is my Uncle Donald Wilcoxen, who lives in Missouri and is unable to make the trip any longer.)

Standing, left to right:  Karen Ryman, Earl McVay, Hazel Heiman, Norman Frankum,
Faye Butcher, Ann Owens, Grace Harrington, Edward Frankum
Sitting:  Ruth Wilks, Peggy Murff, Glynda Wester, Dean Frankum, Bobby Frankum

We had a fantastic time and all was well - until I pulled one of my clumsy stunts.  David and Karen were participating in the music-making and I decided to get a jump on getting our stuff loaded into the car for the trip home.  I had taken a bowl of tuna salad for the luncheon, which it turned out was something we didn't need at all, so I thought I would go ahead and put it back into the cooler and have lunch taken care of for the next week.  I was making my way to the car, holding the pyrex bowl out in front of me, when I stepped on a loose rock in the parking lot.  My foot turned and I went down fast, skidding across the pavement on my left elbow and knee.  The bowl flew out of my hand and landed shortly afterward, shattering into a hundred pieces and spewing tuna salad everywhere.

I was so stunned at first I wasn't thinking about anything but the need to clean up the mess.  I picked myself up and stumbled on to the car where I scrounged a grocery sack out of the trunk and went back to clean up.    Two young folks who had witnessed my fall came to help me and I was busy cautioning them to "please, please don't cut yourself on the glass" when I half-realized that blood was streaming down my own hand.  I still wasn't processing what had happened and continued on picking up the shards of glass with only the thought of getting it all up before any of the little kids who were running around managed to get into it.  The young lady who was helping disappeared to find Band-aids before I bled to death and the young man took over getting the mess removed to the dumpster.  When I finally felt like I could deal with whatever was bleeding, I headed inside to the restroom where I was joined by my aunt and several cousins to make sure I was okay.

One of the cousins was a nurse and she took over the first aid.  We quickly figured out that most of the blood was coming from a shallow cut just below a cuticle.  Once we got the bleeding stopped and that finger bandaged, we checked on the rest of my injuries, which turned out to be a painfully skinned knee that I had not even realized was oozing blood through my jeans and a series of scrapes on my left elbow, both hands and my toes.  (Today I woke up to a very sore shoulder and hip where I landed and tender places everywhere I touched pavement.  What a disgraceful state of affairs for a 58-year-old spinster lady.)

While all of this was going on, David and Karen were blissfully unaware that I was leaving DNA all over the place.  Once they found out, they made sure I didn't do any more carrying or loading up.  We said our goodbyes and headed home about 4 o'clock.

My dad's family lived in and around Wharton until Daddy was about 10 years old and every time we travel to the area, we have to check certain Wilcoxen historical sites.  This year, due to my fall more than anything, we skipped the stop at the Wharton Cemetery where my grandparents and great-grandparents are buried, and made our only stop in tiny Glen Flora.  Daddy, Aunt Nell and Uncle Donald were all born in Glen Flora, which is barely more than a blink along the road between Wharton and Eagle Lake.  However, there is a nice little antique store there which we decided to check out.

I fell in love with the old building that was once a general store.  I had a lot of fun exploring the structure, which included a big stage area in the back, with a viewing gallery on the floor above.  The lady who owned the place now did not know what the stage was used for, but I could picture the locals having a dance there, with the older and younger folks watching them from the seats upstairs.  Part of the stage floor turned out to be a freight elevator, which the owner said still runs and she uses all the time.  From the tin ceilings to the leaded windows to the elevator to the gallery rails, I enjoyed every minute and could imagine my grandparents and their contemporaries being a part of those long ago get-togethers.

Of course, I had to find something I needed while I was there.  I acquired a vintage crocheted table topper and a dollhouse fireplace. 

When we got back to Bastrop, the three of us decided to have dinner at the new Italian restaurant just inside the subdivision, and while we ate we watched that beautiful supermoon rising over the tops of the pine trees. It was the perfect ending to the day.

Never miss a family reunion.  (Even if you end up with a bruise or two.)  

LSW

Savoring the Rare Peaceful Moments

(To preface this post, let me just say that Blogger has introduced a new editor and I am cautiously exploring my way through it.  Bear with me if things look a bit out of kilter for awhile.)

Something odd has been happening at random moments over the course of the last two weeks.  Just when I began to wonder if my nerves would ever calm down again, I find myself experiencing flashes of inner peace.  The flashes are not long-lived, but when they suddenly appear, the feeling is wonderful.  I've come to savor the rare moments when I sense all is well.

Yesterday was the first time in a long time that I felt truly peaceful for an extended period.  Central Texas woke up to one of those wonderful spring days when the sky is an intense blue, the breeze is just the right temperature, the birds are singing, the flowers are still in bloom and the air is filled with a light perfume.

The week before had not been so peaceful.  The aftermath of my annual birthday week vacation is a backlog of work that accumulates when I disappear for a week and that I have to clear out before I can relax and think about other things.  I finally caught up on Thursday afternoon, but at that point I was required to begin preparing to play hostess for the monthly DAR meeting Saturday morning.  Add to that, my mind has been mulling over what on earth I was going to do about the rapidly approaching deadline for the annual Frankum reunion newsletter when I had no ideas at all.  

So I woke up a bit frazzled Saturday morning, rushing about to pack the car with cookie tray, fruit bowl, pitchers of orange juice and tea, bags of ice and serving supplies.  I had been given a list of things to bring by the other hostess, so at least I did not have to think about what to bring, but it seemed she gave me all the bulky and heavy items (fair enough since I'm much younger than her, but Big Red was loaded down by the time I got everything packed).  This was my first time to act as hostess at one of our meetings and, naturally, it had to be a meeting that involved a field trip and we had only a slight idea of what our serving situation was going to be.  I headed to the McDade Historical Museum early enough that I would have time to deal with the unknown.

The McDade Historical Musuem has been on my to-do list for years, so I was glad to get the opportunity to visit.  Normally it is only open on the 1st and 3rd Thursday afternoons, when I am normally working.  I've just never been able to time it right to get in a visit.  The museum has a large collection of McDade pottery, which I also collect, and my Hodge side has deep roots in McDade, so I knew I would find a lot to interest me.  I was not disappointed.

There were samples of every stage of the McDade pottery industry, photos and family tree charts of many local families, displays with history of the more notorious elements of McDade's history (anyone familiar with the Christmas hangings?), local history books I've not yet been able to acquire for my personal library (I am eager to get back there to dig into those), and a marvelous backbar and bar that are not original to the building, but period examples of what must have been there back in the late 1800s when McDade was truly a part of the wild, wild west.  As I explored, part of me was recognizing that this old building was there when my granddaddy Hodge and his grandparents were citizens of McDade and I was walking in their footsteps.

An artist's rendering of the McDade Pottery 

In addition to touching the past, both literally and figuratively, I had the opportunity to have a nice private conversation with the curator, Audrey Rother, who I have visited with in the past and who is a fountain of information about the area.  Nothing I like better than to chew the historical fat with someone who likes to visit the past as much as I do.

When the exploring was over, the DAR meeting done, and Big Red packed up for the return home (incidentally with a good part of what I had taken over there untouched), I checked the time and realized that I might be able to swing over to the First Baptist Church of McDade and catch the ending of the McDade Cemetery Association meeting.  Since I have a bunch of relatives buried in the cemetery, I try to make regular contributions and participate in their meetings when I can.  I arrived just as they were ending their potluck meal and I had a chance to visit with cousin Dorothy Edwards and her daughter and to say hello to Mother's old school chum Maxine Wolf Turnipseed before they started their fundraising auction.

I do love auctions at family and community gatherings.  You never know what is going to pop up and quite frequently you can grab a rare book or handmade item that is buried in the pile of odd crockery and doo-dads I wouldn't have on a bet.  I lost out on a cookbook compiled by the local Kastner family (the Kastners were great friends of PawPaw Hodge), but I wasn't going to lose out on a set of 4 doilies handmade by Maxine.  (I also acquired one of those odd pieces of crockery that wasn't moving--basically a pity bid.)

Up to this point in my day, I realized I was having fun, but it wasn't until I headed away from the church with the doilies sitting in the seat beside me that I realized I was in one of those treasured tranquil states that are all too rare lately.  I impulsively decided to take advantage of the situation and extend my outing.  I headed to Paige to visit one of the truly great local yarn stores, Yarnorama, a store on the level of anything Austin has to offer and located in the Bastrop County boonies.

My luck was holding.  I arrived when the store was in a lull and had the owner all to myself.  I had no business acquiring any more yarn, but naturally I did.  I can't browse a yarn store and not bring home a new yarn.  I also found the yarn bowl I had been waiting for.  The shop sells yarn bowls created by a local potter and I've wanted one for a long time, but until now none of his offerings had spoken to me.  Yesterday there was a deep blue bowl that called out to me almost immediately.  The idea of a yarn bowl is that you can place your ball of yarn in the bowl, thread the yarn through the side and your yarn will not tangle as you knit.  Mine will be used primarily for display.

This yarn was my impulse buy.  I am drawn to interesting textures and I fell in love with this slubby linen/cotten blend.  I expect a scarf will appear shortly.  I also bought yarn for a wonderful little shawl that the owner had on display.  As I was leaving, she cautioned me about returning to Bastrop via Highway 21 because of a bicycle race that had traffic tied up, so I drove back by way of the back road from Paige to Smithville.  It was a good decision, because nothing makes me happier than to drive along a curving country road on a beautiful day.  My inner peace was extended.

When I got back home, I was busily unloading Big Red when I remembered the art show that was in progress at the Deep in the Heart Foundry that is just over the hill (as the crow flies) from my house.  I made another impulsive decision to get back in the car and go see what was happening there.

I've been to the foundry many times and there is always something new to see, as they are always placing pieces of their current works in progress around the property.  This time I was greeted by an enormous horse.

This will be a part of a new project to commemorate Route 66.  I believe the entire piece will consist of a horse and wagon meeting up with a Tin-Lizzie automobile.  The Tin-Lizzie was across the way, almost complete, and two horses rearing up in surprise were in another corner.  I look forward to seeing the completed work.

Inside the gallery are their smaller works and I had gotten wind that they were offering some mini-paintings.  I expected maybe a half-dozen that would still be priced too high for my wallet, but there were at least two dozen sprinkled around the gallery and, while not exactly cheap, they were reasonably priced for original works of art their size.  I decided to indulge myself in the purchase of two.  There were two different artists involved and I decided to buy one of each.

The little painting on the right grabbed my attention from the first.  It reminded me instantly of travels in New Mexico and, sure enough, I was told that John Maisano was influenced by the American west in his paintings.  The one on the left was a more difficult choice.  The artist, Jaime Howard, works locally out of the gallery and she herself was helping me with my purchases.  I was torn between a modern abstract and this painting that suggested a sunset.  I finally decided this was the one that should be added to my collection.  Now I need to pursue the dollhouse art gallery that has been simmering in the back of my mind.  These little guys need a good home.

From start to finish, yesterday was a day I needed badly.  History, yarn and minis, combined with time on the country backroads.  A perfect combination.

And I'm hopeful that these periods of peace are coming back into my life on a more regular basis.

LSW

Birthday Indulgences

Traditionally my mood takes a big jolt toward the better when it gets close to my birthday. The bluebonnets burst into bloom, the birds are singing before the sun comes up, the butterflies are busy and the temperature is just right. For many years I've tried to take a week of vacation during the week of my birthday to take advantage of my good mood. It used to allow me the opportunity to adjust to Daylight Savings Time, but now that they've moved that back into March I tend to hit a really draggy spell just before April that corresponds to the last push of allergy season.

But with the dawn of the first week of April and a week of vacation and God's in His heaven and all's right with the world, I begin to feel better and I start to throw caution to the wind and allow myself a few indulgences in celebration of my birthday. My policy generally is "If I want it and if the price is not too outrageous and the money is there to cover the check and it's still in the month of April, go for it".

This year I fudged the rule just a few days early and bought my first birthday present toward the end of March. I had spotted this modified grandmother clock display cabinet a month or so ago at the Antique Mall in Round Rock and had managed to talk myself out of it. (It wasn't April yet and I still had my winter somber going.)

When I discovered it was still there waiting for me, I decided we were meant for each other. I've been looking for a mantle clock case for some time with the idea of creating a miniature clock shop and had not been successful finding the right case for the right price. I decided why not expand my plan to include the clock maker's workshop and living quarters. Now the big problem is where this piece is going to live in the house. Still studying on that.

A nice bonus to my annual feel-good month is that the Spring Antiques Fair in the Round Top/Warrenton area generally occurs the week of my birthday. This year I've been fighting a siege of back trouble, so I wasn't particularly interested in walking myself into a backache, but I didn't want to skip it altogether, so I made myself a compromise. I would go to my 2 favorite sites and also hit the big antiques mall in Giddings on the way home.

So yesterday I rolled out of bed early, visited my chiropractor and hit the road for Warrenton and Cole's Antiques Barn, a nice big collection of dealers who can be counted on to tempt me with a wide variety of the kind of antiques I enjoy - from oak furniture to dollhouses to textiles to Texana history books.

Last year I was on the prowl for oak bookcases and a bedstead for the guest room and could find nothing of interest. I'm sure glad I had already found the oak bedstead for my room and the North Wind bookcase and the white iron bedstead for the guest room before I made the trip to Cole's this year, because this year everybody had oak bedsteads, iron bedsteads, matched twin bedsteads and oak barrister bookcases. I like the pieces I have collected better than anything I saw yesterday, but if I had still been looking, it would have been more temptation than I could have stood.

I did find some tiny houses to add to two collections I half-heartedly add to from time to time even though I do not presently have anyplace to display them. (In the background are Sheila's houses and in the foreground are pieces from the Liberty Falls collection.)

I succumbed to temptation at another booth that drew me in with a display of items from the fifties. I was in flashback mode to my childhood. One item particularly caught my eye and I'll share that in closing. The lady had a Bliss dollhouse that I would love to own, but Bliss dollhouses have reached the stage of being museum pieces and I can neither afford them or afford to subject them to the natural disaster of living with 3 cats. But, I did find a tiny little yarn bowl to add to my knitting store dollhouses and I found 3 additions to my small collection of darning eggs.

I am accustomed to running into wooden darning eggs of various shapes and sizes, but I had never before seen a glass darning egg. I knew there were ebony darners with sterling handles, but had never seen one for sale and the multi-colored one I just thought was neat. They have been added into the yarn display that serves as a side table in the living room

I was patting myself on the back for sticking to small items and was on my way out to the car when I cruised through a booth and spotted a box of tiny little plastic figures that I knew immediately I had once possessed, but I could not remember where they had come from. I decided to buy a few of them to use as dollhouse figurines and sought out the dealer to inquire about them. It turned out they were Cracker Jack prizes, which explains why I could remember having a variety of them when I was a kid. (Unfortunately I could not get a good photo of them.) I was just wrapping up my business when I glanced over and saw something that I knew was going home with me if I could afford it. The same dealer had a number of old clothes wringers, some attached to old wash tubs but several that were designed to be clamped onto the tub of your choice. I think the dealer knew he had a hot one and he immediately knocked $15 off the asking price. So I brought home my traditional antique oak purchase from Cole's.

It is a pretty little thing, with ornate metal findings that have adjustable settings and a long, curving handle. Not so easy to find a corner to tuck it into, but I knew I had to have it and it is now sitting on the corner of the fireplace, happy to settle into my collection of rustic antiques.

My second stop was the antiques show at La Bahia in Burton. It was there that I saw bedsteads that would have tempted me if I were still looking. I found lots to look at, but managed to only purchase a quick lunch there, which I ate while visiting with other antique hounds on the hunt.

I had gauged my stamina fairly well, because by the time I left La Bahia my back was protesting. So I pointed Big Red for home and made my last stop in Giddings at the Whistlestop Antiques mall. This has become a new favorite place for me and I like to hit it every 3-4 months. I was resisting temptation fairly well, but in one of the last booths I found another little treasure. This little iron chair is destined to get a new coat of white paint and a bit of re-upholstering before it takes its place in the guest bedroom with all the other white wrought iron pieces that have come home with me.

And now for that trip down memory lane. Back when I was a little girl in San Gabriel, one of the ladies in the church made a framed ribbon doll for me. It may have even been a birthday present, but I can't really remember. It has seen better days and at one point Mother told me I ought to just pitch it, but I resisted and hung onto it. When I started working on the guest room, I decided to try and replace the frame although I feared that it would crumble into pieces when I took it out of the old, rickety frame. It made the transition to a new frame and it now hangs in the guest room where I've been enjoying seeing it again on display.

The booth at Cole's where I found all the great nostalgia pieces had a framed ribbon doll hanging on the wall. I was so surprised to see it because I had never seen another example and really did not even know what to call what I had. She told me they were popular in the 30's and 40's when ladies could buy the paper dolls and then create their own custom craft work with the ribbon and laces of their choice. It turns out there is a whole community of ribbon doll collectors out there and I was surprised when I got home and did some EBAY searches. Sure enough there are a lot of examples for sale. The dealer told me that for mine to be dated to the 50's was not that common, but the later versions usually included silk flowers (mine does). I can't really remember who gave me this piece, but I suspect that it was an older lady who probably learned the craft at an earlier period of time. Where the earlier versions made use of stock paper dolls with faces and more defined hands and feet, I suspect my doll's extremities were hand drawn. I had no idea I had something collectible in this little piece and I'm glad I decided to hang onto it.

So begins the month of birthday indulgences. This year's birthday may turn into an expensive indulgence. I just concluded a meeting with a group of folks who are set to do some remodeling for me in the next month or so. The older I get, the bigger I indulge!

LSW

Wrapping Up Unfinished Projects

It can take me awhile, but sometimes I actually finish projects on hold.

Yesterday David, Karen and I went to Sherwood Forest Faire, a fledgling renaissance festival that is in its third year at a location between McDade and Paige. They are doubling in size every year and this year have reached the point where you can't see everything in a long afternoon. They have all the features of their big sibling, the Texas Renaissance Festival, but are still small enough that you don't get claustrophobic from huge crowds.

Last year I was delighted to discover a booth that sold little dollhouse sized dolls with a fantasy air. The artisan also fabricates fairy houses from gravevine wreaths, birdcages, birdhouses and odds and ends. I immediately grabbed one of the fairies last year, but could not make up my mind to purchase a fairy house. After all, I make houses myself and I thought I might like to fashion my own. At the last minute, on the way out that afternoon, I decided I should go ahead and get the fairy house I had my eye on, but I had procrastinated too long and it had sold out from under me.

Over the course of the year, I purchased odds and ends with the idea of making my own fairy house and I never could find the exactly right materials and it never got made. This year when we headed out to the faire, I decided that if I saw a fairy house that I liked, I was not going to hesitate. I had not been in the store 5 minutes before I had zeroed in on the fairy house that would come home with me.

The fairy houses are about 90% natural materials, with a few little commercial items thrown in for effect. This house started with a round gazebo-type structure and has been covered with ferns, dried flowers, seeds and mushrooms, has a table fashioned from the bottom of a pine cone and is decorated with a few miniatures like a mirror for fairy-gazing, a mini candle and some fairy snacks.

The little fairy who came home with me last year took up residence immediately, lounging in the soft moss and preparing to take an afternoon nap in her wooded bower. The project won't be truly finished until I find an acrylic box large enough to hold the entire thing and keep it safe from marauding cats, but it feels satisfying to get Tatiana a home at last.

It would have been nice if I had stopped there, but I ended up purchasing another of the little dolls, this time a lady pirate. I just couldn't resist and now I'm contemplating what kind of scene I need to create for her.

Another project has been on hold since last year's faire. Last year I was taken with the shimmery,ruffled skirts sold by one of the merchants. I was not taken with the blouses they offered and managed to convince myself that I would be able to find a blouse elsewhere to complete the outfit. Despite my best efforts, it is hard to find an appropriate modern blouse to partner with a renaissance styled skirt and the skirt had hung in the closet untouched. This year I marched into the booth and bought a blouse and sash to complete the outfit. Next year I can deck myself out in appropriate attire for the faire. (If I can find some comfortable shoes that will look right.)

In other quarters, the knitting resolution is still intact. I finished March's project, a soft cowl that is plenty big enough to be pulled up over the head to block cold air. It is very warm and very soft and I look forward to putting it to use next winter.

Three half-finished projects moved off the to-do list. But then, I have a new pirate lady who needs a home and I've already started another scarf. There is a shawl about to move onto the needles. Three things checked off and three things moving into their places on the unfinished projects list.

Oh, well. It keeps me out of trouble.

LSW

A Little Rest and Recreation

Whoosh. That was the sound of February slipping past. I started working on this post 10 days ago, stopped to take a couple of photos and whoosh, 10 days later.

The knitting projects continue ahead of schedule. I take these crafting spurts of energy rarely, so I enjoy them while they last. Right now my mind is too scattered to read or work on my computer projects in the evening, so knitting is the perfect alternative. (So long as I don't tackle a complicated pattern.) It relaxes me, calms my mind and generally puts me to sleep, so it's a wonder that I'm making any progress.

But progress is being made. About a year and a half ago I tackled a crocheted shawl which turned out to be a study in frustration. I prefer knitting as a rule, but once in awhile I am tempted to the dark side of crochet. And every time I succumb to temptation, I have to relearn all the stitches. Since I don't particularly enjoy crocheting, I tend to work for awhile and drop the project for awhile, and then when I pick it back up I have to go back and learn all the stitches again. I have a real mental block about crochet.

So it took a long time to finalize the shawl, but the end was attained earlier this week.

I was a little upset that the shawl turned out to be a capelet, much smaller than the dimensions given by the pattern. I was upset until I turned to Ravelry (an online fiber arts community) and found that much more proficient crocheters had run into the same problem. Now I'm upset with the designer, but much relieved that I am not a total flop in the crochet arena.

Earlier in the month I completed another scarf, a kit I impulsively acquired back in December. Impulses get me into trouble and this was one of those instances. Even though the result is fairly pleasing, I hated the yarns in the kit and was much relieved when I finished. To add further aggravation, Dixie decided that one of the hairy yarns really needed to be killed and would sneak into my knitting bag whenever I was working on the scarf, grab the offensive yarn and race away. I lost track of how many times I had to rewind that particular yarn.

A couple of weekends ago, I was tempted by Yarnorama's Facebook posts to trek over to Paige and check out her sale. While I was there, I inquired about table swifts and if they worked as well as umbrella swifts. Swifts are tools that help you wind skeined yarn into balls of yarn when you don't have a handy set of hands to hold the skeins while you wind. I've had this umbrella swift for many years and it works fine - except, it scares all the pets when I set it up and set it to spinning.

Susan, Yarnorama's owner, assured me that table swifts work just as well and she had one in stock that she set up and demonstrated. I liked the thing immediately, so I added it to my pile of purchases. When I set it up at home and wound a skein, no pets were disturbed.

Not only were the pets happy, but I was happy that it will be much easier to set up and take down and store. That umbrella swift has always been a problem. Although, I don't know that I will be able to part with my old friend, so now I have two swifts to store.

Naturally I did not escape without buying more yarn.


And before the evening was over, I had completed another ruffled scarf made with a special yarn "fabric" that requires very little actual knitting and looks like it was a complicated thing to accomplish.

I'm actually way ahead at this point, having completed two projects in January and 3 projects in February. I am more than half-way done with a Bamboo/angora yarn cowl, so I should stay on course through March at least.

A nice side-effect of my current knitting passion is the discovery of the Ravelry website. I have been able to catalog the yarn I have stashed, the needles I have on hand, and now if I'm out shopping and run into a tempting project I can pull up Ravelry on my iPhone and check my stash to see if I have the necessary yarn and needles on hand. If I have yarn that I've forgotten what project it was purchased for, I can inquire on the yarn and see what others have made with it and get fresh inspiration. It's a really cool place for knitters, crocheters and weavers to hang out.

I'm enjoying getting back to my knitting. The thing I need most right now is peace and quiet and lots of calm. Knitting is the perfect solution. Although - I'm tempted to make another run at that Tree of Life afghan and if I give into that temptation, I may be headed for a nervous breakdown.

LSW

On Schedule

So far, so good. I'm actually a little ahead of my self-imposed 2012 knitting goals. I completed two projects in the month of January and started two projects. I hope at least one of those new projects is fully completed before the end of February.

My number one project for the year was a cowl kit that I requested and received for Christmas. I had seen the kit on the Hill Country Weavers website, had visited the store and looked at it longingly and ultimately decided it was a little too expensive for my budget. I figured it would only be a matter of time before I decided the heck with the budget, but then when it got close to Christmas and little brother and sis-in-law asked what I might want, I offered the longed for Paintbrush Lace Cowl kit as a possibility. Santa came through and then once I had it in hand, I began to wonder if I had bitten off more than I could chew. I was determined to tackle it right away and prove that I still knew how to knit lace.

There were a few bobbles along the way, but nothing that caused me to have to rip it out and start over. Knitting lace is really not hard, so long as you pay attention to what you are doing.

The cowl is knitted with two strands of very different yarn held together, one a mohair and one a straw-like lace-weight yarn. When I felt the Silken Straw, I had my doubts about how the finished product would feel around my neck but I forged on. The colors were selected from the color palette of the Indian Paintbrush, one of my favorite wildflowers, and I enjoyed watching them shift through my fingers. And, as scratchy as the Silken Straw feels in the skein, when it combined with the mohair, it became soft and luxurious.

Yesterday afternoon I reached the end of my January project and after weaving in the yarn ends and steam-blocking, I had my own Paintbrush Lace Cowl. I defy anybody, including me, to find the few errors hiding in the lace.

I really had not expected the cowl to move as quickly as it did, so I had started another project to be sure that I would finish something in January. Lo and behold, I completed both the cowl and the Flounce scarf over the weekend.

The scarf was an impulse project. I had visited Yarnorama in Paige on my way back home from an antiques run to Giddings and had seen a sample scarf hanging in the store. I was intrigued with the very odd "yarn", which is actually a mesh fabric. You knit into the edge of the mesh and fluff out the mesh as you progress, which results in a soft ruffled scarf. I'm not sure what else you could use the yarn for, but it makes a really nice scarf. You can vary the number of stitches to produce a narrow or wide scarf. I chose to make a scarf 5 stitches wide and ended up with enough scarf to be able to drape it twice around my neck. (I've since bought a second skein of Flounce and think I will start another one of these little scarves soon. I've also made another foray to Hill Country Weavers and have purchased yarn for a second cowl in a version that calls for mohair only. I am itching to get that one on the needles, too.)

Coco did not protest at all when I asked her to model the scarf and posed like she is aspiring to be a model. Mojo took exception to the attention she was getting and made it clear that he wanted to be a part of the photo party.

I try to always make my kiddoes happy. And, it seems natural that they should be included in the progress report. Mojo sat beside me and kept me company for every stitch that went into these scarves.

The heathen cats were absolutely no help at all. My next project is another scarf that involves very unique yarns of boucle, mohair and a hairy yarn that Dixie thinks is a wonderful cat toy. I've had to rewind the yarn three times because she steals it out of my knitting bag and runs like crazy, trailing yarn behind her. I've had to resort to using a zippered bag to store this particular work in progress.

We'll see if cat slobber has any effect on the feel of the completed object. It should be showing up here in the not too distant future. I already have a couple of inches completed.

LSW

Reviewing the Stash

The best part about the Christmas season for me is that I usually have enough vacation saved back that I can take the week between Christmas and New Year's and spend it at home. At that point I have gotten thoroughly sick of shopping, just about everybody has gone to visit family and the neighborhood is nice and quiet and conducive to taking it easy.

After a day spent cleaning the house, I was free to putter as the spirit moved. I decided to give myself a break from the seemingly never to end scanning project and spend some time on my other two hobbies - miniatures and knitting.

One day was spent unpacking miniatures that had been swiftly stripped out of various dollhouses and removed to Austin in the post-fire period. The dollhouses were long overdue for a good cleaning, so I removed all the remaining minis and dusted and proceeded to overhaul the three largest dollhouses. The Melissa & Doug dollhouse I moved into the guest bedroom and it is in the process of being turned into a better Pink Lady Bed & Breakfast which will be presented here when some items that have been ordered to complete the effect make it here from Georgia.

The Southwestern dollhouse store, The Turquoise Moon, is still in pieces as I mull over new arrangement possibilities and work on some new display pedestals for the art room.

I did complete the renovations on my knitting store, Woolgathering. So many new pieces had been acquired in recent years that it needed a complete reorganization, beginning with a new little boy and dog waiting on the front porch for Mom to complete her shopping.

The upstairs apartment was divided into two distinct living areas. In my policy to always include an animal in every miniatures scene I construct, I really went overboard here. In addition to the little dog on the front porch, there is an animal in this dollhouse to represent each of my real pets. In this view you can see "Boo" taking a bath on the sofa and "Coco" supervising. Just to the right and out of sight is "Scout" taking a nap on the piano (which she does regularly in real life) and "Dixie" curled up in a pet bed beside the piano. "Mojo" is downstairs keeping an eye on his Mommy. Where I am, Mojo is not but a few inches away.

The store area has had numerous new knitted and crocheted items added in, and a new display/checkout counter which displays the tiny little baby items that have always been lost amongst the larger items.


This is the knitting store I always wanted in real life. A little bit of everything, from canvas for needlepoint, to ribbon and buttons, to project bags to yarn winders to luxury yarns to a group of contented knitters visiting while they knit. (What you can't see in these photos are the two tea cups, labeled "Nettie" and "Lucinda" to represent me and my mother. Believe it or not I found those two cups ready made. I don't think I've ever seen any other personalized objects that included our very unusual names in the available choices.)

Working on the knitting dollhouse inspired me to spend a day rummaging in my knitting stash. I knew I had a lot of nice yarn tucked away for a rainy day, but I was surprised to find how much of it there was. I had a lot of WIPs (works in progress) and a lot of yarn that I had tagged for specific patterns but not yet started. I decided it was time that I started working on these long neglected projects and I set myself a New Year's goal (not a resolution) to try and get one of the backlog projects finished every month of 2012. A lofty goal, but if I get even half-way there, I will feel pretty good about the situation.

On the list of WIPs, I have the red crocheted shawl I almost finished last summer but got tired of when I was just a row or two from completing, the purple mohair scarf and my third Noro scarf that is just straight knitting with a color change every two rows. The fourth scarf in the picture is one I just started last weekend when I could not resist a really unusual yarn that creates automatic ruffles as you knit. That last scarf is working up really fast, so it may be the project that gets finished for January. I would like to think I could get the shawl completed as well, but the problem is I'm not a crocheter as much as I'm a knitter and every time I go back to the shawl I have to relearn the stitches and figure out where I am. The remaining two scarves are no-brainers and will probably take up residence at the office for the odd minute of knitting here and there when I need a small break.

I was feeling pretty good about that start, but then I began building project bags for the projects hiding in my stash. I rustled up a supply of knitting bags and began isolating the yarns, the patterns and the needles that would be needed for each project. The pile grew to 8 bags with projects varying from scarves to a vest to gloves to a shawl to a very complicated afghan. The afghan I've started once and had to frog (rip it, rip it) due to a cable needle that broke losing me 5 inches worth of progress.

The pile is daunting, but I plan to forge on and see just what can be accomplished in the next year. I expect to see scarves and other small projects. I don't expect to see that afghan for awhile.

This is but a small portion of my knitter's stash. There are many more skeins of lovely yarn waiting for their turn. And you would think that having just been through the process of choosing yarns out of my stash and building project bags that I would stand firm and refuse to buy more yarn for awhile.

But you would be wrong. While I was out on an antiquing run during my Christmas vacation, I stopped by Yarnorama, a terrific yarn shop in tiny little Paige, and picked up another scarf kit and 3 skeins of a silky, faded pink ribbon yarn. Then I got an email from Hill Country Weavers last week regarding their annual inventory reduction sale. This afternoon found me digging into their bins and selecting a complimentary yarn for the pink ribbon (thinking of a shawl there), a skein of dark teal mohair (a scarf) and a fiesta colored cotton yarn that I just couldn't resist but have no idea where it will be used.

A knitter is happiest with a big yarn stash. The question right now is, just how much of a dent can I make in that stash by the end of the year?

And speaking of stashes, I also have a stash of dollhouse projects and a goal to get some of those completed this year as well. We'll talk about that later.

Genealogy, knitting and dollhouses. I never have a problem with what to do with my free time.

LSW

Making Adjustments

For two weeks, we've been getting slow, soaking rain. Just what we've been needing here in Central Texas. For the first time since Labor Day, I felt like I could risk bringing some of the family treasures back from the storage unit in Austin. I was happy to reach the point where I could feel good about bringing things back home because I was tired of looking at the bare hooks on the wall and heading to my office to look up a family record before realizing that it was not in residence.

So early last Saturday Mojo, Coco and I headed to Austin to rendezvous with David and load up Big Red to bring things back where they belong. This week the house has been looking much more normal with the familiar faces beaming down on me from their accustomed places on the walls.

Tilman and Matilda Wilcoxen have resumed their positions in the foyer to greet arrivals.

Baby Lucy Mason, "Aunt Duff", and Elmo Hodge have returned to their spots in the stairwell and on the opposite wall the fragile wedding certificate of my Wilcoxen grandparents and the 1920 photo of Cora Mobley Hodge and her mother Mary Caroline Mobley are back in place. That stairwell has looked mighty bare for the past 3 months.

I hauled back a half-dozen small grocery bags of baby books, Bibles, school records, and assorted small heirlooms that are normally stored in the camel backed trunk in my office. As I started to unload the bags, it occurred to me that it would be smart to line the lower compartment of the trunk with larger bags and repack everything inside. If I ever again have to evacuate, all I will need to do is open the trunk and lift out the bags.

In the smaller upper tray, I unloaded the small pieces and then put a folded bag on top of the tray. All I will need to do is scoop the contents of the tray into the bag and go. Finally, I clipped a list onto the bag to remind me of various items that are located around the house (like the portraits lining the stairwells) that need to be rescued and that might be overlooked in a moment of panic.

It makes me feel good to know everything is back home where it belongs and that I've taken a couple of preventive steps against the possibility of future evacuation.

LSW