North To Alaska

Day 170: Seriously, I did not intend to part with this Double Wedding Ring quilt, but when a friend in Alaska asked me if I had a quilt she could purchase, I told myself, "Well, you can always make another one." Y'see, I have a Double Wedding Ring my great-grandmother made. That's one. I have a rather plain Eight-Pointed Star, hand-quilted, which my Cockatoo Cocoa helped me make (he thought it was a bird trampoline), and I have my Cathedral Window kitty quilt (also hand-quilted). I also have a hexagon kitty quilt still in the process of being quilted (it went on hold when Merry decided he liked to eat polyester fiberfill), so that brings the total of quilts in my personal possession to four, and really, how many quilts does one person need? I'm working on another one even now. I decided I could back, batt and bind the Double Wedding Ring for my Alaskan friend on a timely basis, tying it rather than quilting it by hand (an option I had considered anyway). She was thrilled with the prospect! I completed it on Sunday, and will ship it off today. I love seeing my handwork go to people who appreciate it for what it is.

Catching Up To Myself

Day 169: As I was adding new hexagons to the quilt-as-you-go project, it occurred to me that I needed some way to ensure a semblance of randomness. I had already decided that I wanted no more than two of each center, although there might be four from a single piece of fabric (e.g., isolating two sheep for one pair and two chickens for another) and no more than four of each border/reverse side fabric. It seemed the best way to achieve this would be to make pairs as I went along, sewing one into the quilt and setting the other aside to be added in the second half. I had already assembled a dozen, so I've spent the last few days catching up to myself by sewing their counterparts (this is in addition to hand-stitching the binding to a different quilt). I have one to go, and then I'll have caught up to myself. If I have enough different fabrics, the finished quilt will be either 53.5" x 60" (218 hexagons) or 56" x 60.5" (230 hexagons).

Leather Thimble

Day 168: I am a small person. I have very, very tiny hands, and when I say "tiny," I mean that my wedding ring was a size 4. Eons ago, when I found a leather thimble which came reasonably close to fitting my middle finger, I should have bought half a dozen instead of just one. I used it for many years until it finally wore through, at which point I covered it with a piece of pigskin. Pigskin is notoriously tough for all of being thin and supple, but even so, it eventually wears out with repeated abrasion. The poor thing has stood me in good stead through countless quilts and other hand-sewing projects, but when I sat down to stitch the binding around the Double Wedding Ring, I realized I was on dangerous ground. Anyone who has ever driven the threaded eye of a needle into their finger will know what I mean! I was out of instant glue, so putting another layer of pigskin over the one covering the original leather thimble was out of the question. I did the nest best thing: just poked another piece inside and jammed it in with the tip of my finger until the thimble felt snug. It's not the best solution, but it's serviceable until I can get some glue. The leather thimbles they sell these days are so big and sloppy, they'd fall off my big toe!

Norse Kitchen In Blue

Day 167: One of the most enjoyable aspects of warping for several iterations of a project (for example, towels) is that you can change up the colour every time. As much as I liked the lavender version of Norse Kitchen, I did want to create something more traditionally Scandinavian. I'm not particularly fond of red, so although it's arguably found more often, blue at least runs a close second. I've warped for three large towels, and haven't quite decided on what the last one will be.

My table loom sits on a makeshift platform on top of an old desk, the drawers of which are handy for holding shuttles and other assorted tools of the trade out of reach of inquiring kitty hands. I weave on it standing up, partly because the desk was too high even without the addition of the plywood, but more because I want something to do which doesn't involve sitting in a chair. Shifting my weight from foot to foot isn't exactly aerobic exercise, but with the weather we've been having lately, walking or hiking has been out of the question. That said, some day, I hope to replace Schacht with a 25-30" floor loom, although the likelihood of that happening is fairly small.

Ready, Sett...Weave!

Day 166: Ready, sett...weave! I've missed the last several Weave-Alongs because my looms were all occupied with projects. Currently, both Max and Schacht are tied up (oops...accidental word-play there) with Friend Evelyn and Norse Kitchen respectively, but my 16" rigid heddle just happened to be empty. I'll be making a runner five feet long on 215 threads plus two floating selvedges using 8/2 cotton supplemented with 3/2 with a 15-dent reed. The draft is from Betty Linn Davenport's "Textures and Patterns for Rigid Heddle Looms." I dithered back and forth with the colour scheme, and right up to the last minute, I still wasn't settled. I picked up the nautical blue I had out and said, "Nope, that's just not what I want to do with this green." I had to choose between two aquas and went for the brighter one. I'm a little ahead of the game because we start on April 1, but since this is a fill-in project while I work on the overshots and finish binding a quilt I want to ship in the next two weeks, I decided to get warping out of the way. I won't start weaving the honeycomb until April. Promise!

Mother's Not-So-Little Helper

Day 165: The bias binding for a quilt I sold finally arrived yesterday, and I was anxious to get started on finishing it. I knew better than to lay it out on the floor. Pins and pussycats are not a good combination, so I brought out a card table and laid my formica "bread board" on top of it so that I'd have enough length to pin most of one side at a time. I put the quilt on the improvised crafts table and went in the kitchen to get the pins. It took all of fifteen seconds, and this is what I found when I came back. I should have known. Merry is the only cat I've ever shared my home with who flatly refused to accept the stricture of "no cats on hard surfaces." And I know I will not win this battle, no matter how hard I try. I did manage to keep him off while I was actively pinning, and by the time I'd got to the third side, sewing each side as I went along, the novelty had worn off. He curled up in his cushy bed for a nap, satisfied that Mama didn't need help with her project after all.

Quilt-As-You-Go Tutorial

Day 164: A couple of people asked for more detail on this quilt-as-you-go project, so I've put together a little tutorial.

First of all, you will need to cut your fabric and batting. It won't matter if you want to use larger hexagons. The stipulation is that the sides of the large one are an inch longer than those of the small one so you can turn a 1/4" border. I have used a 3" hexagon for the backing and a 2" one for the center. The batting should be cut to the same size as the center (top left image).

Turn the large hexagon face down. Center the batting on top of it, and place the 2" hexagon fabric on top of that (top right image).

Begin by folding one edge of the large hexagon to meet the edges of the batting and center. Crease it with a fingernail. Turn it again and place a clip in the middle of the side temporarily. Turn the second edge of the large hexagon to meet the edges again, then turn it a second time and crease it as before. You will notice that the corner automatically mitres. Place a clip on the corner. Repeat the process all the way around (left middle image).

When you reach the last corner, remove the clip from the middle of the starting side and place it on the corner. Now you're ready to sew the border in place (middle right image).

Take tiny stitches through the center fabric and just catch down the border with each one. Do NOT stitch through the large hexagon backing! At the corners, take a few stitches out to the edge, then pass the needle back through the fabric to emerge at the inside corner. When you have stitched all the way around, you're ready to quilt the centers. I prefer to poke down, poke up through all three layers as if I was doing needlepoint, but you can use a running stitch if you like. It's faster to use a running stitch, but the stitches on the back will be smaller than those on the front. When you've finished quilting your hexagon, stitch it together with another one, using an overcast stitch with the front sides facing each other. The quilting stitches will be more visible on the reverse side of the piece. Build your quilt as large as you like!

Quilt-As-You-Go

Day 163: As if I don't already have enough projects going already, I stumbled across a cute "quilt-as-you-go" idea on YouTube day before yesterday and thought, "Well, I'll make just one to see how it goes, tuck it away as a reminder that it's a possibility." I've never done a quilt-as-you-go before, although I started one once, and when it came time to add the centers I'd cut beforehand (several hundred), I discovered that I'd forgotten to add a seam allowance. This was fifty years ago or so, and probably only the second or third quilt I'd ever tried to make. I was so disheartened that I abandoned the project and forty years later, used the base fabric for something else, and turned all those tiny little squares into a streets-and-alleys quilt which I gave to a friend for a graduation present. I've learned a lot since then, and the idea of being able to make fully quilted pieces one at a time has an irresistible appeal. These are easy to make. Cut two hexagons, one at 3" and one at 2", lay the larger one down with the back side facing up, put a 2" hexagon of batting in the center, put the 2" fabric on top of that rightside up, and then turn the border. Stitch the border in place, then work a line of quilting around just inside it. Bingo! Your first hexagon is done: backed, batted, quilted all in one go. I have no idea how large this quilt will eventually be. I'll just keep going until I run out of fabrics or out of enthusiasm, whichever comes first.

When I Said Complicated...

Day 162: This is Norse Kitchen, and when I said it was complicated, I meant complicated! But only in the threading. The weaving/treadling is actually relatively easy, and especially once the bottom border is done and you're into the central motifs. There, it's just a matter of 1/4 three times, 3/4 three times, 1/4 three times, 1/2 three times, over and over and over until you're ready to add the border again at the end. Oh, did I mention that this is woven on a four-shaft loom, and that the design is entirely loom-controlled? I can't imagine how anyone developed the draft ages before weaving software became a thing. From the time I got my copy of "A Handweaver's Pattern Book," Norse Kitchen has been on my Bucket List. To me, it represented the ultimate challenge for a four-shaft loom. As I am weaving it, there are 497 ends (495 for the cloth, and a floating selvedge adds 2 more). That it required meticulous care in threading goes without saying, proof of the aphorism, "Patience is its own reward."

Norse Kitchen

Day 161: It's official. The actual weaving of Norse Kitchen has begun. This is a rather complicated overshot with a wide border on all four sides, and a center section which can be made with any number of repeats. That is just one of the constraints I had to deal with when laying it out. Because I am weaving it on the table loom, it couldn't be wider than 24 inches. Since that is rather wide for a hand towel, I elected to go with 20 inches, which meant that the center section could only have six repeats if I used a sett of 24 epi (ends per inch) for 10/2 cotton warp. A wider sett would have meant fewer repeats, and I really wanted at least six. The narrower sett is making the design taller than it is shown in the book (a wider sett would have allowed the weft to pack more tightly), and I figure the center motifs will be closer to square than being wide diamonds, but there ya go. It's all about compromise. I was pleased to see that I had threaded it correctly (every weaver's worst nightmare is a mistake in threading a complicated piece). The tabby is 10/2 with 8/2 cotton for the overshot design. Norse Kitchen appears on page 186 of "A Handweaver's Pattern Book" by Marguerite Porter Davison (green version).

Inventive Solution

Day 160: Halfway through the complicated threading of "Norse Kitchen," I became aware that something was grievously wrong. I had counted heddles carefully, but I was coming up short for those on two shafts. I looked at the draft I'd printed out, and compared it to my calculations. They did not agree on the number of repeats in the center section. After much study, I discovered a second mistake. It was time for a major rewrite, and it had to be one which would allow me to use the warp I had already measured and rolled onto the loom. I took a "sanity break" before sitting down with the calculator, and once I'd made the adjustments, I saw that I was going to have to add nine more warp threads on each side. Now how was I going to do that? It meant I'd have to pull the four-yard warp off the loom, and I certainly didn't want to leave it in a pile on the floor, so I wound it onto my 16-inch rigid heddle loom. Merry got a little too helpful during the next phase and had to be locked in the bathroom for the duration, but by dinnertime, I had the warp wound back onto Schacht. If the Gods of Weaving are benevolent, they will reward me for my diligence today with a smooth and error-free threading process.

Mountain Building

Day 159: When this kid plays, he plays rough. He goes galloping through the house at high speed, bouncing off walls, sliding on the linoleum, crashing into doorways, knocking over furniture. I was in the kitchen doing something I couldn't leave unattended when I heard a loud thunk. Visions of disaster swarmed through my head, but I was surprised when I rounded the corner and saw what had happened. He'd apparently leapt on the upturned end of the S-shaped tunnel, causing it to flip into the air and come down wrongside-up on his crinkly tunnel two feet away. And the little mountain goat was standing on top of it, pleased as punch with himself for having altered his environment. Life With Cat is never boring.

Spinning Milk And Honey

Day 158: I have always found that I make more progress at the start of a project than at the end. I tend to get bored easily, and although I am not guilty of having a houseful of unfinished crafts, some seem to linger longer than they should. The first two two-ounce skeins of Purple People Eater went quickly. The third began well, but then began dragging its anchor. However, when I wound it up, the fourth and last was hard to start, and after spinning a quarter of it, I set the wheel aside and worked on bandweaving for a couple of weeks. When I finally said, "Okay, I've got to get that stuff off the wheel," I went at it with a will. I completed it in the evening two nights ago, and rather than put the wheel to bed empty, I spun up a few yards of another wool which I'm calling "Milk and Honey" for the cream-and-caramel blend of natural colours. Yesterday, I worked up roughly half an ounce spinning off the fold (technique shown in the upper image), and this morning, I finished the first one-ounce bobbin of singles. That was fast! Given that I have a whole pound of the wool, we'll see how long it takes before it's done, or whether I feel I need a mental break to a different colour.

Footnote 3/22: Found its missing label under the cedar chest. Yep, it's BFL!

Determining Sett

Day 157: When you're planning a weaving project with an unfamiliar thread/yarn, you need to determine the proper sett if you want to achive a balanced weave. For a tartan to be authentic, it must adhere to the proportions described in the Scottish Register of Tartans. It should be a 50/50 weave, which is to say that it should have the same number of warp threads and weft passes in an inch. Given the variation between yarns, how do you figure out the correct sett? A good starting point is by ascertaining the number of wraps per inch (WPI). Wind the thread around a ruler with each wrap taken as close to the previous one without compacting them. Cover an inch on the ruler and count the number of wraps. Divide the WPI in half if you plan to weave tabby, or by 2/3 for twill. And I cannot emphasize this strongly enough: this is only a guideline! You may have to adjust, as I did for my 16/2 Scottish wool. It wrapped the ruler at 40 per inch. This suggested at 30 warp ends per inch (EPI) would be a good sett. However, because this wool was very expensive and I only have enough to weave a shawl in my McLeod tartan, I decided to make a sample to confirm the sett. At 30 EPI, I made 40 weft passes to the inch ("picks per inch" or PPI), obviously not a 50/50 weave! Yes, I could still weave perfect squares, but my goal was to weave my official tartan, not just a plaid in McLeod colours. Therefore, I had to make some adjustments. By changing the sett to 36 EPI (tighter), the weft picks didn't pack as firmly. I'd found the sweet spot, although it will still take some careful attention to beating to keep consistent throughout the piece. I think my mother would be proud. (Footnote: the McLeod of Lewis tartan is mostly yellow and black with a fine red line, so I wove this sample using red because I knew I'd have more than enough. The yellow in the photo is not wool. It's a piece of nylon cord I used as a separator.)

Halvdräll, Round Two

Day 156: The second set of halvdräll towels is off the loom, and I am quite pleased with how they turned out. Now that I have a better understanding of the structure, I was able to select colours which worked the way I envisioned them, the long floats being a medium shade of green, and the two tabby threads dark green and banana yellow. Ages ago, I had a kitchen painted in similar colours, and these towels would have fit right in. My current kitchen is green and white, and the yellow will be a nice accent if I decide to keep them. More likely, they'll be gifted to friends since my linen cupboard is already full of handwoven items. Another halvdräll project is on the agenda, but first, I want to work a test swatch of the 16/2 Scottish wool I'll be using for a tartan shawl to determine the correct sett. I can do that on the table loom, although the shawl will be woven on Max once I get "Friend Evelyn" done. Next up on the table loom is..."Norse Kitchen!" It's a draft I've always wanted to weave, but the way Davison laid it out in "A Handweaver's Pattern Book" (green version), it was confusing. By using Fiberworks' weaving software, I was able to sort out the various sections to get them in the right order. The warp for "Norse Kitchen" is already measured and waiting its turn.

Rigid Heddle Cats

Day 155: Between the linen cupboard and the door into the bathroom, there is a six-inch wide bit of wall which hosts an assortment of changeable bell-pull style fiberarts acknowledging the changing of the seasons. Aside from Christmas, it's the only seasonal decorating I do. Not all the pieces match to a specific holiday, but examples of those which do would include krokbragd sheep for spring, tvistsöm or woven birds for summer, satin stitch/hardanger acorns for autumn, and hardanger poinsettias for winter. Having developed a rigid-heddle pattern for cats, I thought it might be nice to acknowledge Merry's birthday with a cat panel. That said, the grey cats in this little design have tails. Merry only has a stub. Working at 15 epi using 8/2 cotton, the piece was woven with a pickup stick on alternate rows to provide the cat pattern. In between, I wove white tabby (over and under), using floating selvedge threads. The pattern threads must also be taken out to the edges, passing over or under the floating selvedges as appropriate. I had to place dividers between the cats to keep floats on the reverse from being too long. I found that taking both floating selvedge threads either "up" or "down" on each pick worked best for this design. Given the nature of the weave, sometimes a grey thread would get trapped under the tabby pass as they occasionally do in any overshot, but these were easily brought to the surface with a yarn needle and should not be problematic once the fibers have been fulled by washing (not yet done in the image). 

High-Fiber Diet

Day 154: I thrive on a high-fiber diet. I'm guessing that my stash of weaving cones and wool for spinning would last me at least two years if I didn't make any new purchases, and believe me, this is a thought which has been in the front of my mind since...oh, let's say the last week in January. Certainly, some projects might not be exactly what I'd prefer, but then, if your cupboard is bare of everything but canned peas, you'll bloody well eat canned peas rather than starve. As it is at the moment, I can pick and choose. Want a lighter shade of green in that band? I've got it. Need a handspun hat for a friend who likes pink? Can do! But if push came to shove (and I suspect it will), I'm sure I could design an attractive band around brown and grey and, boring though it might be, creamy white Corriedale wool has a delightful feel as it slips through the fingers to wind onto a spindle. The cedar chest is full of wool. The weaving cupboard is fully packed. Off camera, there are several bins of commercial yarn, every shade of embroidery floss known to DMC, linen threads for bobbin lace in sizes which would make a spider envious, crochet and tatting cottons filling numerous drawers. I may wind up with an empty tummy before this nightmare ends, but at least my hands won't be idle.

Weaver's Box

Day 153: "I'm gonna go weave. Are you comin' with me? Go get in your little weaver's box!" He leaps out of his cushy-bed and runs for the Loom Room door. Okay, we've had to graduate to a large priority mail box because 14.5 pounds of cat no longer fits in a medium size, but he prefers the box to his hammock. But what is it about weaving which makes him want to be in the Loom Room? Certainly, he likes to be with mama, whatever she's doing, but he generally gets in his weaver's box and immediately curls up and goes to sleep. Is it the sound of the loom? A countermarch loom doesn't clank and rattle like other looms, largely because it (Max, anyway) uses string heddles. Even so, the raising and lowering of the shafts is noisier than I'd think a sleepy kitty would like. Is it the rhythmic cadence of treadling, passing the shuttle, beating? I find the loom's voice almost hypnotic, definitely meditative (and of course there is no other sound in the room except for the occasional wheezy snore coming from the Box). It's not the Box itself. The same box in the living room holds no particular appeal. Whatever magic the loom casts, Merry has fallen under its spell, a true weaver's cat.

Moving Parts

 

Day 152: Merry is a very lucky little kitty-cat! He has friends from all over the country and world, thanks to the internet. Annother birthday present arrived yesterday, and as I carried the box into the kitchen to open, he got excited, twining himself around my legs and running back and forth, as if he had understood when I said, "This is something for YOU!" The Meowtain came fully assembled, and as soon as I set it down on the floor, he began playing with it. So many moving parts! Sometimes he runs in circles around it in hot pursuit of the most active ball, but it is small enough that he can get his arms around it to bash the balls back and forth when he gets lazy and lays down beside it. It kept him busy right up until bedtime (well, with a little time out for food and a nap), and he went straight to it this morning when I opened the bedroom door. Yes, my living room is an obstacle course of cat toys, but sometimes I cycle them out, only to reintroduce them at a later point when he will think they're something new. Gotta keep that little mind active!

TTD List

Day 151: "TTD Lists" can take many forms. Some are short-term, e.g., "things to do today." Others may have an obligatory completion date, as in "mop the kitchen floor before Rob comes to visit." Then there is the biggest category, the "things to do before I die." I've ticked off quite a few of those over three-quarters of a century, and although I never climbed the Willis Wall (largely because I couldn't find anyone crazy enough to partner with me), I did become a published author, if only of articles in small magazines, newspapers and instruction books. I hiked the Wonderland Trail twice. I climbed Mount Rainier six times by five routes and, as a bonus, spent a night on the summit. But those were the biggest of the "big ones." Not all my goals have been as lofty. Now, I feel the press of time, so I'm scientifically engaged in ticking off a few more, like "weave Norse Kitchen" and "do that bird blackwork piece you've wanted to do since you bought the book fifty years ago." Norse Kitchen is my next project for the table loom, and I started the bird yesterday. I think...at least I hope I have enough time to finish both.

Tying A Quilt

Day 150: Quilts generally consist of three layers: the top, internal batting, and a backing. Unless the three are bound together somehow, the batting has a tendency to shift and clump with repeated washings. I generally prefer to hand-quilt around the edges of each piece, but I have been known to machine-quilt occasionally, and sometimes I even tie. Hand quilting takes the longest. A quilt the size of this one would take me about a year. Machine quilting would take a week or so, but since I only have a standard sewing machine (as opposed to a long-arm quilting machine), it is very difficult to wrestle half the bulk of a quilt through the arch. Tying (also called "tufting") is by far the quickest method, and the spacing of the ties is often determined by the design. My mother and grandmother both tied their quilts, and although it is faded and stained, one of my real treasures is a Double Wedding Ring hand-quilted by my great-grandma, who we lovingly called Old-old. I have just finished tying a Double Wedding Ring I made, destined for a new home in the chilly wilds of Alaska as soon as I get the bias binding put around the edges.

Stages Of Feline Development

Day 149: After seeing a cute design for cats woven on an eight-shaft loom, I set about hunting for one I could do on four shafts without having to weave it as false damask. I was unable to find a draft, but I was not ready to give up on the idea. Thinking in terms of both pickup and overshot, I figured I could effect much the same thing with only two sheds and a lot of patience, so I ran a short, narrow warp on my smaller rigid heddle loom, got out the graph paper and made a preliminary design. I knew it wasn't going to be perfect, but as it turned out, the first few attempts came closer to my vision than I'd anticipated. I still have a few refinements to make: longer tail with more curve, one additional row on the body, reduction of the left shoulder by one X, but at least I have a recognizable cat.

Puzzle

Day 148: Genius types get bored easily, so when I created a gift list for Merry's birthday, I focused on mentally stimulating items. A friend in Australia sent him this puzzle feeder, and although I was sure it would keep him occupied for a while, he had solved all three levels of challenge in the first thirty minutes, and was capable of repeating the hardest one from there on out. In addition, he invented a new solution which wasn't in the manual, i.e., completely removing the lids from the feeder cups instead of simply pushing them aside. Puzzle is now one of his favourite occupations, and he comes running when I say, "Puzzle!" What he doesn't know is that most of the "treats" I stock it with are just a different brand of regular cat food.

Another Hellebore

Day 147: Perhaps I should walk around my yard more often. It seems I was mistaken when I said my other Hellebore wasn't in bloom yet. It's in a shady spot, and I have a tendency not to notice it because it's not very large yet. Unlike the one in my flower bed, its leaves have lighter coloured veins, making them appear almost mottled. I've been trying for some time now to establish a "shade garden" of Hellebores, Hostas and Maidenhair Ferns under Big Doug. It's coming along at a turtle's pace. I either need to buy more plants (not likely to happen) or hit my botany partners up for more starts. Yeah, I'm looking at you, Joe!

Comfort Food

Day 146: I will not hear argument to the contrary: there is no better comfort food in the world than homemade bread. I say that even though making bread has been part of my normal routine for over fifty years, and is something I don't really even think about, other than, "Oh, I need to make bread" when I see that I'm down to the last half loaf. The aroma of bread in the oven is uplifting. It challenges the deepest gloom. The promise of a hot, fresh slice slathered with butter defies any cookbook which warns the baker not to cut into a loaf until it is fully cool. Get that heel while it's soft! This week, I've made bread twice (cinnamon and sourdough), which speaks loudly of my current world-view. If I should swell up and bust from eating too much homemade bread, what better way to go?

Hellebore Season

Day 145: It's Hellebore season, and mine are heavily packed with flowers. They emerge from the center of the plant, rising above last year's deteriorating foliage which leaves the garden looking a bit tatty, but this can be forgiven in view of their sheer profusion. Only the "black" ones are in flower as yet. They are a major feature in my east-side flower bed, and the roots are so compacted that I can't divide them even when I jump on the shovel. Maybe I should sharpen my axe? In any event, even once the flowers have cycled out (and they bloom for quite a long time), the foliage stays lush and green throughout the summer. As perennials go, there are worse things to which you could dedicate a flower bed.

Spring

Day 144: We've come 'round the corner of winter. Not only are the Snowdrops in bloom, last night I heard the Pacific Chorus Frogs singing on the far side of the pasture, no doubt inspired by several days with highs in the 60s. Their music is one of the most delightful things to my ear, and it's soon to be followed by another: the plaintive note of the Varied Thrush. I'm ready. And I'm ready for the First Day of Skunk Cabbage, but that won't come for another two weeks or so. There is such joy to be found in Nature, even when all else is the stuff of nightmares. Snowdrops, frogs, Skunk Cabbage...they give me hope.

Knitting Socks To Match

Day 143: Today, I thought we might step sideways into another area of fiberarts: knitting. Variegated/ombre yarns are an excellent choice for socks, but people often have trouble getting both socks to turn out the same. There are several reasons for this, the first being that commercial space-dyed yarns are put up by yardage, not repeats. Let's assume a colour sequence of red/white/green for ease of explanation. If the sequence was one yard of each colour, life would be easy. A 333-yard skein would contain 111 repeats, starting with red and ending with green. But that isn't the way the real world works. The colour sequence might be two yards of red, one of white, and one of green, i.e., a four-yard repeat. Therefore, our 333-yard skein would contain 83.25 repeats, which is obviously not a convenient multiple. The next skein wound by the factory would pick up where that one left off, and thus, the chance of our purchasing two skeins which each started with two yards of red would be fairly small. And then it gets even more complicated, because many space-dyed yarns contain more than one sequence, e.g., the full repeat might be two yards of red, once of white, one of green, one of red, two of white, one of green, one of red, one of white, two of green which, although the colours are equally represented over 12 yards, the repeat of the full sequence occurs over 12 yards as well. Consequently, the first thing you must do to create matching socks is identify the colour repeat and start each sock in the same place.

Now we come to another factor: tension. None of us, no matter how good we are, knits at the same tension every time we pick up the needles. That means we may get 40 stitches out of one yard of red from our example one day, and 42 the next. These small differences can add up! That means at some point, we're going to have to make allowances, and here's how to go about it.

As I said in the first paragraph, the first thing you want to do is identify the repeat and start each sock in the same place. Yes, you will be working two socks at once, although as a general rule, you can probably knit a whole cuff/leg before you need to adjust. In the case of the socks in the photo, I had trouble telling the blues apart until I came to the lightest one at the end of 55 rounds. Aha! That would be where I needed to have the socks match up. I knit the second sock to that point, found that I still had a yard or so of the next-darkest shade left, so I cut the yarn at that point and, using a Russian join, connected the darker section to the lighter one so that my next stitches would be in the lighter colour. Now the heels will match (or, as they say, "close enough for gov'mint work") and I won't need to make another adjustment until I begin the foot (and probably not even then). If I'm a stitch or two off when I reach the toe, I'm not going to obsess about it.

Inkle Pickup

Day 142: In the last few days, I finished up two inkle-loom bands. The sheep krokbragd went quickly, even more quickly than I'd expected. The green-gold band took a little longer because it used regular sewing thread for the ground (background threads), but I enjoyed working with the fine thread so much that I immediately replaced it with another sewing-thread band. If I had thought the green threads were difficult to see, that was because I hadn't tried dark purple yet! Each gold thread in the pickup design has to be separated from the next gold thread by two purple threads, and these purple threads have to be kept in precise order. Even slight variations of tension in the warp threads can make this hard to achieve. I've found that if I separate the threads as close to the heddles as fingers will allow, I am less likely to make mistakes. The finished band will be approximately 60" long.

Call 'Em "Fuzznias"

Day 141: Lichens in the genus Usnea are quite common in western Washington. Some, like Usnea longissima with its single graceful "Christmas garland" morphology, are easy to identify. Others fall into the category I like to call "fuzznias," so similar in outward appearance that it takes microscopic analysis to determine their species. They are often mistaken for mosses, so thickly do they grow on branches, and it is often and incorrectly assumed that they are killing trees. In fact, lichens such as the Usneas take hold on trees which are already stressed and dying, taking advantage of the weakened structure of the bark and wood. While different species of Usnea prefer different types of tree, multiple species of the genus often grow cheek-by-jowl. There may well be three or four species in this image.

Wet Cat Blues

Day 140: Such a good little babycat! Merry had his second bath yesterday. His first one, done several months ago, took him by surprise and in any event, wasn't much more than just getting him wet. This was the full "Tropicana Cat Wash" luxury treatment: all four feet in water up to his tummy, being lathered with kitty shampoo, enduring the scary sprayer for a rinse, and then being vigorously towelled to the state you see in the photo. He only tried to get out of the sink once, and although he resisted having his front feet put in the water at first, once they were there, he didn't object. Yes, I know it's unusual to bathe cats, but have you ever petted someone's cat and then felt as if you needed to wash your hands with soap afterwards? A clean cat is a happier cat, too. And there is nothing quite like having a wet cat in your lap once the deed is done.