Dang and Blast!

Back soon!

2011-12-12T08:58:00.002-06:00

Greetings, all who stop by when I leave you a comment! You may have noticed I haven't posted in months... I've had a few life changes, one of which has left me a bit too tired and busy to post anything... but I'll be back soon (have more free time now!) and - as you may have noticed - am still reading other blogs, although I'm about a month behind (the max) in my feed reader.

I did have fun at the Quilt Festival, though!

Giveaway winner!

2011-05-26T08:55:00.000-05:00

The winner of the giveaway... via random.org...

Darcy said...
I don't quilt, but I lurve the fabric. And because you told me to.

May 25, 2011 2:37 PM

Hooray Darcy! Fabric coming your way on Saturday!

Giveaway day

2011-05-25T08:36:00.000-05:00

Wow, been having so much fun reading your comments and reading other blogs (and subscribing to so many... my poor reader is full!). A few things I've realized: the hot pink on my blog was painful. Have toned it down a bit. And, unless you're super-cool, I won't put you in my blog reader if you don't let your full post be published there. Just a snippet? I'll unsubscribe. (Grograinfabulous is super-cool.) But so many great people out there, and so many great ideas! Good luck, all :)

Giveaway! and can this quilt be saved?

2011-05-22T12:00:00.001-05:00

So I'm making this quilt for my sister. It's supposed to look like this excellent quilt... but I realized I don't have a good color sense. (My mother's been telling me that for years, and the husband has even very delicately started in... hers is "are you going to go outside wearing that with that?" and his is a diffident "do you normally wear those two things together?") Looking at it now, I see I should have made the stars out of the colored flower bits that make the stretched hexagons. There are stars there, just you can barely make them out.

(This is the backing, with a red binding.)

So, does anyone have any hints for how to quilt it (at home - I don't do the "send it to someone else and have their computer quilt it" thing, although I do understand it's faster) so that the stars are emphasized rather than the oblong shapes? Colors, techniques, anything? Would using a thick/fluffy polyester batting (rather than thin bamboo/cotton) and putting most of the quilting in the non-star areas help?

(Redoing it is not an option - I don't have any more fabric!)

But now on to what you want... the giveaway!

Whether or not you're willing/able to give me "can this quilt be saved" advice, I have up for offer 2 yards of silk chiffon from Universal Fabrics here in Houston. I bought it because it's fabulous, but I've got no idea of what to do with it, so I'm leaving it up to you.

Here's a shot on a chair back so you get the scale:

And a close-up of the hilarious pattern, also showing how sheer it is (it's folded up behind itself at the bottom of the photo):

(I saw a greetings card once with various structured undergarments on it; the inside said, "thanks for your support!")

To win, just post a comment of any kind. Quilting advice welcome, but not necessary. A way to contact you (i.e. no "no-reply" profiles) is necessary, of course.

(Random) Drawing on May 26th.

Shipping note: I had some issues last time with the giveaway - I live next door to a post office, but it's open only when I'm at work, so I have to wait for a day off work when the post office is open (i.e. no holidays) to ship internationally (the machine will ship domestically any time). I had a day free just after the giveaway, but a family emergency kept me from the post office on that one day, and it was over a month until I had a non-holiday weekday off work again. So, this time, US/Canada only, unless you're willing to wait a while for shipping. (If you're willing to wait, you can submit from anywhere!)

Giveaway day

2011-05-19T18:31:00.000-05:00

(Just a nice picture)

I'll be participating in the Giveaway Day again this year:

So come back next week!

Cross-stitch Ganesha/Puliyar - and lessons learned

2011-05-18T08:37:00.001-05:00

The husband's parents moved to Texas from India in the 1960s-1970s. They are Hindu, and in fact were instrumental in founding the main Hindu temple in Pearland (south of Houston). When we were living in El Paso, I had a lot more spare time, and so I decided to make something for them.

Through the magic of the internet, I found a clip-art Ganesha (known to his family - South Indians - as Puliyar) and converted it to a cross-stitch pattern through some free-trial program. It was a lovely pattern, very clear, with specific DMC/Anchor threads listed, and so I set to work.

Lessons I learned:

1) it's self-torture to work on black cloth, as you can't see the holes.

2) if a pattern calls for 42 inches of floss, and you're using 2 strands together, you really only need 14 inches of six-strand floss. Yes, I bought enough floss for three projects.

3) there's a reason pattern designers get paid for their work, and it's not just putting clip art through pattern-creating programs. My pattern had 21 colors, and one showed up for just 2 stitches, and a few others would have one stitch every four inches or so. It's all gradations of blue/green/gray, so a human rather than a computer creating it would have made it much more stitching-friendly. (I did take over the 2-stitch color with another color.)

4) a large project on black cloth with 21 colors unintelligently designed will take longer than the 4 months until Christmas I promised myself. In fact, it will take around 2 years (conveniently, until the mother-in-law's 60th birthday party... which, to be a more effective surprise party, was thrown at a time of year nowhere near her birthday).

But they loved it, and the husband's dear grandmother takes such pride in showing it off to her friends, and they've installed it in a prominent position in their home, so I feel it was all worth it.

(sorry for the bad photo, it's reflective and this was taken during a party - that's me in pink in the reflection.)

Not worth it enough to do it again, though, even if I do have enough thread to make three.

In progress: Wildflower quilt

2011-05-18T07:54:00.001-05:00

(ha! excuse the foot!)

My very Texan sister has been living in Virginia for the past few years. Not bad, as it's sort of next-best to Texas. But she's moving to Boston. Now I love Boston - lived there for four years - but I know she's going to freeze and miss Texas.

When I was in Brenham lately I stopped by Stitch Haven and picked up some Moda Wildflowers IV charm packs and a few related fabrics, to bring my sister a bit of country warmth up in the frigid north.

Pencil Roving

2011-05-13T12:15:00.000-05:00

Huzzah, Blogger's back up!

I've been spinning some pencil roving:

It spins like a dream. No drafting necessary, just hops right on. From Sassy Spinster in Lancaster, TX. You also get to see Edna, my spinning wheel, purchased from eBay a year or so ago - came in a huge box. Very fun!

Then washed and hanging (like the setup? two hangers, a shower, and groceries!):

And the finished product! (With a new Margery Allingham from Murder by the Book.)

One skein of pencil roving yields 45 yards. Anyone have a pattern for 45 yards of somewhat bulky?

Hospice quilts and the great quilt debate

2011-05-05T07:45:00.001-05:00

I had occasion to spend time in Houston Hospice lately. I may write more on that again. It's a lovely place, and the walls are all hung with the most beautiful handmade quilts. This one was my favorite:

I took pictures in case I want to copy this quilt pattern, or at least the blocks. It's all hand-pieced and hand-quilted. The work on this one was very good; the piecing and quilting on several of the others was, I was excited to see, worse than my relatively novice skills. Then again, their piecing was done by hand as well, not just the quilting. But even rough and uneven hand quilting is good enough to put on display, it seems!

I also got a picture of the name of the quilt; when they knew it, the signs also listed the person who made it.

I was thinking about this again with the great quilt debate (I'm a bit late to the game, as I run about a month behind in my Google Reader). My one gripe with "quilters" is that so many are actually "piecers," and do no quilting at all - they have someone else do the quilting for them. That's fine, but if you don't quilt, you're not a quilter - seems pretty straightforward. You may be exceptionally skilled at patchwork, and I'll admire your productions greatly, but if quilting books would give credit separately to the piecer and the quilter in the photo credits, it's not all the work of the piecer! (Not getting silly here - I know you likely didn't grow and pluck and spin and weave and dye the cotton. That's simple. But if you'd say - as my sloppy self has had to - "I made you this birthday cake, and my mother frosted it," then it's dishonest to take all the credit when someone else did half the work!) I'm a sucker for kits of any kind (cooking, painting, luggage (well it's sets there), etc.), and the quilt I made for my grandparents, a few posts down, I'll happily acknowledge is from a kit. If I make you a cake from a mix, I understand that that's different from making it from scratch (and probably better, in my case), and also different from store bought. I don't think something counts as "handmade" when you just programmed a computer (even your own) to quilt it either, although I am absolutely fine with machine quilting, so I suppose it's a gradient there.

My other point - as I've been a bit bemused to find people saying they want to join the debate while they are proud not to have read the original post (a bit like the Amazon "reviews" that start "I'm not going to read this book, and here's what I think of it):

The original "dumbing down of quilting" post - pretty clearly in the post itself and then very explicitly in the follow-ups for the people who missed the point - didn't say people shouldn't make simple quilts. (It did seem to say that the writer is tired of seeing everyone make absolutely the same quilt, but that the writer understands the impulse, etc.) It did say that it's dishonest to try to effectively trick novice quilters into paying money for traditional patterns long available for free, and it did say that it's wrong to scare off novice quilters by labeling basic concepts like half square triangles as "advanced," to basically tell novice quilters that it's useless for them to aspire to make anything more complicated than a very simple sew-two-charm-packs-together-and-hope-your-corners-line-up (and if not then call it wonky and act like you meant to do that) quilt. (And to combine the both: sell a pattern for sewing two charm packs together into a baby quilt!)

I disagree a bit with some of the points. (I wholeheartedly agree that sewing sites, even those trying to be accessible to novice sewers, shouldn't use words like "advanced" and "challenging" to scare people off of quilts like the one pictured above, which really is entirely squares and half-square triangles and totally manageable for me, even if I'm sloppy about seams and my points will be off a bit.)

On sales of simple and traditional quilt patterns: some people don't have an easy set-up where they can use the computer next to the sewing machine, and would rather have something on paper; some people aren't reliable with numbers and find it worth a few dollars to have someone do the math for them. (There's a deceptive copyright issue there, in that pattern sellers often claim they own copyright not just over the words of the pattern but also over the finished product, but they don't - instructions aren't copyrightable (except as literature), and useful goods (functional bags, clothes, quilts) aren't copyrightable. That's why it's absolutely fine and legal to have knock-offs of clothing designs from the Oscars. Just don't copy the logo, pretend to be that designer, or copy a literal fabric design (2-D fabric is copyrightable; what you do with it is not). So claimed copyrights aren't a reason to be wary of buying simple quilt patterns. They claim it either out of ignorance - they think it's copyrightable - or (in the case of the big pattern companies like Simplicity) with full knowledge, but just in the hopes you don't know better. OK, taking off copyright law hat now.)

If you are worried not that people would actually prefer to pay when they know they can do it themselves, but that people who don't know there's free patterns are being suckered: When it's somewhere you can put a review, there's absolutely nothing at all keeping you from posting a review saying, "nice design, also available for free at...." Just sayin', is all. But people will still do it, even when they're next to each other - people buy patterns off Ravelry when there's an identical pattern for free. Sometimes (I've done it) it's simply to support someone whose pattern presentation you like. I don't know about everyone's motivation; who knows, it might be for tax purposes, if they want to buy a pattern to write off as necessary expenses for their sewing business.

And it doesn't bother me that people make the same simple quilts - the original poster disliked it mainly because it seemed to her like they did them because they had been made to feel they couldn't do anything more involved. I think they may just like them, as many of the commenters have pointed out. I love the quilt I posted above, and it's not overly challenging (must watch seams!), but it would be something that would take me ages to do. I have one quilt that's still in my head that's bed sized, for me, and that will take me ages to do. I get short notice that someone's having a baby, and I can't take a year to make the quilt. Or it's someone, like the perfect sister-in-law, who's very modern and wouldn't like the fancier type. (I've made an "awesome baby quilt" from Jamie Mueller from Moda Bake Shop for her - photos in the next post, if I get my act together. See? same quilt everyone else has made, but it fits what's needed. And even there I measured one square wrong and it won't line up with the rest.) Or it's someone who's asked that I include certain fabrics, which need to be in very large pieces, so a large-piece quilt is what's desired (same for fabric designers, who want to show off their new lines, and tiny pieces won't do it!). Or it's a passing acquaintance, and I have no idea what they like, and no need to spend hours on something for them, so I give them a self-binding flannel receiving blanket, technically a quilt (as it's quilted), and those are always a hit. So there's a time and place for all kinds. For me, even paying attention enough to realize when I've sewn a five-foot seam with no bobbin thread is a challenge, so it's all a challenge to me, for what it's worth!

But really there's no cause either to say, as many have, "oh, she's evil, she's saying it's bad to make simple quilts, and everything must be a very involved and intricate pattern with pieced curves and all that," when that's not at all what was said, or to say, as others have, "oh, traditional quilters need to get over themselves and realize they're done, nobody wants that, and that my way is actually the only right way, because the future lies in showing off fabric and not bothering about technique, and only a stick-in-the-mud would look down on wonky style or big squares." The whole point is: don't be deceptive, don't seek to profit off of others' lack of knowledge, and don't be afraid to challenge yourself.

Strawberry Cake

2011-05-02T08:44:00.000-05:00

I made this cake at Easter, from this Martha Stewart recipe. (Made the change suggested by the commenters and just made two dang cakes, rather than slice one cake in half!) What a success - not only does it look just like her picture, it tastes fabulous!

1930s triangles

2011-04-27T22:00:00.000-05:00

A month or so ago I went to a quilt shop that was going out of business and got a grab bag of 1930s (I suppose) half-square triangles for $1.87. Not sure exactly what I'm going to make with them (well, baby quilt, as everyone seems to be expecting, but not sure the pattern yet), but I figured I could at least make squares out of them. I have enough to make 132 of these and 19 solid white (perhaps I have enough of my own scraps of this batiste-type cotton to make 20).

So I've been sewing squares.

All in a row, so I'm sort of making bunting, at least until I iron them.

Bunting seems appropriate, if you can see what's on my little TV...

Yes, it's a Royal Wedding special.

I also went to the British Consulate on a break from work (it's right across the street) and signed the congratulations book. (Most exciting thing ever!) I felt a little less silly when I saw that the Mayor had signed just before we got there!

What books have you read?

2011-04-10T17:50:00.000-05:00

I've read 56 of the books listed here, and 1 (Shakespeare) unfinished. Not bad. Minus: several of the read books (Suitable Boy, Life of Pi, etc.) were school assignments or tutoring self-assignments (as students had to read them). Plus: most of the unread books are of the modern/trendy/"read the book of the movie!" variety. (Admission: I have read Bridget Jones....)

So.... have an English teacher as a mother and you'll read most of the classics at home; have two advanced degrees and you'll probably get most of the rest!

How about you?

Wallpaper

2011-04-02T19:22:00.001-05:00

So, in my grandparents' kitchen, out in the country, this wallpaper was in the kitchen back in 1977. They replaced the rest, but not in the utility closet.

The best part? It's held together with electrical tape.

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Two-ball simple baby blanket

2011-03-28T18:48:00.000-05:00

Simple baby blanket pattern:

Cast on 5.
Purl one row.

Increase section:
Odd rows:
P2, yo, K to last 2 sts, yo, P2.
Even rows:
P across.

Work until one ball of yarn is complete (I like to leave a few yards in case of uneven skein sizes). Attach second ball.

Decrease section:
Odd rows:
P1, P2tog, yo, K2tog, K to last 5 sts, K2tog, yo, P2tog, P1
Even rows:
P across.
Work until 9 sts remain.
Next row: P1, P2tog, yo, K3tog, yo, P2tog, P1 (7 sts).
Next row: P across.
Next row: P1, P2tog, K3tog, P2tog, P1
Next row: P across
Bind off.

(Works with any yarn, any needle, any gauge, as long as you have two balls of the same size. Have done this with bulky fluffy yarn and size 15s a few times. Currently working with Bernat baby jacquards - florals, from Wal-Mart, as I was stuck with no yarn recently. And size... 10? circulars. Enjoy the way it works up, actually. If I remember, I'll post a picture once it's finished - I'm halfway through.)

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Miniature quilt!

2011-03-17T07:48:00.001-05:00

That's what I've been working on! Miniature quilt from Terrie Sandelin's Miniatures in Minutes. Didn't exactly take minutes - more like 2 days - but it's SO COOL how everything lines up so beautifully! I've since picked off all the backing paper (used just computer paper - wasn't sure if I'd even like doing it, so didn't buy fancy supplies - but I think her recommendations of alternate materials are probably wise) and am waiting to figure out what to do with the finished product. And how to quilt it. A few of the seams are borderline not there (I wasn't sure how to place the triangles, as all the illustrations showed only vertical seams and then just said to keep piecing the rest, so some of the seam allowances got too large in some places and much too small in others), so in-the-ditch quilting is probably not wise. Perhaps just along the grid (in the middle of it)? or diagonally across the triangles? Either way, it was fun!

Guess what I've been up to?

2011-03-14T18:19:00.001-05:00

Any guesses?

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Still plugging away

2011-02-16T16:53:00.001-06:00

Number two in progress. Deadline: next Friday.

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Grandparents' Quilt

2011-02-08T08:00:00.001-06:00

I finally finished my grandparents' quilt! It's my first quilt - my first real one, not a tiny baby quilt, and definitely my first with hand-quilting. I hand-quilted around the designs in the center panel and around the Ohio Star blocks. The rest - largely due to time constraints - was done by machine. Lesson learned: can't machine-quilt with hand quilting thread, at least not on a 30-year-old Kenmore. But it looks good, and, more importantly, my grandparents love it. (My grandmother's crazy for "redbirds".)

Up next: an applique quilt the in-laws gave me to make (just a foot square, but applique is totally new to me), a star quilt for my mother for July 4, and a civil-war-style to-be-designed quilt for me!

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Longhorn Socks

2011-02-07T08:43:00.000-06:00

So, everyone who says that the husbands never notice when you're making something for them right in front of their eyes? True! All the way up to Corsicana and back was working on these:

Otherwise known as Paraphernalia (Ravelry link). He wanted UT-colored socks, and manly ones. The cable pattern is much more subtle on striped socks, no? But I like it.

Hope he does too!

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Snow in Texas!

2011-02-06T09:02:00.000-06:00

We went up to Corsicana for a medical function (that ended up cancelled). 1 inch of snow was predicted; we got 7! Here's a few shots of the snow, the little snowman I made outside of Gander Mountain (so glad they were open! Gloves were purchased!), and the big snowman outside Collin Street Bakery. I can't get the snowman photo to be right side up on my phone... sorry!

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It's all Goode

2011-02-04T09:44:00.000-06:00

I'm back! There have been various family illnesses etc., but all is now well enough. And, I finally finished my grandmother's quilt!

Lunch today at Goode Co., where I was entertained by this sign.

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Pause

2010-12-29T09:44:00.000-06:00

Due to some family issues, everything has been put on hold for a bit... including getting to the post office to fill out customs forms. Sorry for the delay.

Quilt!

2010-12-24T08:30:00.003-06:00

Doing a combination of hand and machine on this one. (And trying out my camera settings on my new phone!)

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New phone!

2010-12-23T23:44:00.001-06:00

This is a test post from my new smartphone!

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Winners!

2010-12-18T12:08:00.000-06:00

So, I posted 3 giveaways without thinking how I'd award them. Random might choose all 3 people who wanted the same thing! So, I figured, just keep hitting random until I'd gotten 3 people ("I like them all" would get whatever the others didn't want). But, luck was with me, and 1, 2, and 3 each hit people who wanted different things!

Without further ado:

The yarn goes to:

#31 Sara said...
The yarn is really cool!!!

Thanks for the giveaway...

New Hampshire... haven't been much past Boston, but I sure don't envy your weather right now...

The book goes to:

#18 Mystica said...
I like the book. ! Thanks for sharing

(Sri Lanka? nice! Haven't been further south than Tamil Nadu, but I'll make it across the water some day...)

And the headband goes to the person I chose first, who was going to get the leftover, but who got the wished-for headband anyhow:

#84 Macska said...

These are so lovely! Thanks for the chance to be in to win one of them. :-)

I'd love any of these as a gift, but especially that headband - it's gorgeous.

Have a great Christmas!

New Zealand! That's the husband's desired travel destination. One of these days...

Your prizes will be in the mail after I get your information; as mentioned, due to having to fill out forms when real people are staffing the post office, it may take a bit longer for the international entrants.

Thanks, everyone, for entering; a headband may make its way into my shop in a few days, depending on how many cousins make it into town; if not, then there will be some in the future :)

And thanks for the birthday wishes for my mother!

Giveaway!

2010-12-13T08:06:00.001-06:00

Welcome to the Sew, Mama, Sew giveaway day! (And my mother's 60th birthday!)

Today there are three options.

I'm giving away a headband, like I'm making all the (girl) cousins for Christmas. (Knitted with a crocheted flower.)

And I'm giving away this little (4x5 ish) coptic-bound book, handy for writing things in.

And, in case you want to do it yourself, some boucle yarn, in three colors. I tried (ignoring the label) to crochet with it (about 2 feet of the yellow), threw a fit, and decided not even to try knitting with it. Maybe you'll have more luck!

To enter, tell me what you'd like - that's all. Open until the 17th. Yes, I do ship internationally (but it may take past the deadline for me to ship to you, as I can't use the automated postal unit for international shipping, and the post office is only open when I'm at work).

Watch This Space

2010-12-12T16:36:00.000-06:00

I'm still alive!

My hours changed at work (I know, shoddy excuse), so I've been getting home later, and haven't had time to post things before dinner. In six months. Anyhow, I'll be in the Sew Mama Sew giveaway tomorrow, so come back then!

Bibs!

2010-06-24T21:41:00.000-05:00

I'm in the SewHappy bib challenge!

I completed this bib with the topstitching method. The back is solid blue dots. It matches one of the self-binding baby blankets I made recently (which had trains on one side, dots on the other and the binding). I used cotton flannel and all-cotton batting.

This one isn't complete, so it probably won't make it into the challenge -- I got the wrong kind of bias tape. (I could make my own, but I'd have to buy fabric specifically for it, as I don't have enough matching fabric, so it's cheaper -- well, it is if I buy the right kind -- to buy it.) It's leftovers from the recent baby quilt (scroll down a few posts) -- alternating cotton and cotton flannel.

This is the back. I'll be using brown bias tape around the edges.

I'll also make embellished burp cloths (from prefold cloth diapers) with the rest of my scraps.

Grandmother Quilt

2010-06-20T12:14:00.001-05:00

I did it -- I went to Sunflower Quilts and got a quilt kit, as I mentioned below. My dental hygienist sent me there, which entertains me. Had great fun at the shop, and last Saturday made these four blocks (not perfect, as the corners really aren't exact, but I'm very pleased), and yesterday made four more.

I'm always impressed by the women who can apparently do everything. With a full-time job, getting home after 6:30, a husband who likes to eat dinner together, and an 8:30 bedtime, on my days off I can either make stuff or do housework/buy groceries/etc. But the people who do both, and have kids, impress me. I approve of homeschooling, and, if we weren't in a place full of good schools that I can trust, we might consider it if necessary, but I don't have the self-discipline and organization to do that. I taught high school, and in a parochial school where we came up with our own lesson plans and lectures (none of that cushy stuff that some of my friends in public schools have -- and that I've seen/used when subbing at public schools, where your lectures and lesson plans are all pre-made by some syndicate! (And yes, I know, not all public schools do that -- but some very highly-ranked and highly-regarded ones do)), and it was certainly a lot of work! I certainly can't understand single mothers who homeschool (respect them, yes, but grasp how their lives function, no) -- if you're also having to earn a living for you and your children, how do you do it and also manage to teach multiple levels of children and stay with them all day? The 1990s Supermom (who had a high-powered job, ran a perfect house, and raised perfect children with no hired help) stereotypically ended up on speed for a reason, I think!

But, that said, my goals for the rest of the day:
~~-bring the workbasket downstairs to corral some of the loose knitting/clothing repair projects~~
~~-3 loads of laundry~~
~~-dishes~~
-find books that are owed to various people (good thing working at the library means no late fees!)
-go to post office (across the street)
-grocery/gas (Costco?)
~~-plan meals for the next 2 weeks~~
-pharmacy
-water plants (and, if enthusiastic, mow as well)
~~-call AT&T to figure out why the TV won't work~~
-only if all else is finished: play!

Cricut sale!

2010-06-14T07:58:00.000-05:00

Cricut sale -- this is a serious sale! I'm tempted... although I suppose it's still out of my price range, and I'd probably never use it...

Baby hat

2010-06-13T12:12:00.001-05:00

So many pregnant friends... one's due in October and wants hats, so here's a sweet one with laceweight mohair blend from Yarnorama in Paige, TX, my favorite store (if only it were closer!).(Ravelry link.)

Baby quilts

2010-06-12T12:29:00.000-05:00

I've never been good at coming up with colors and fabrics that go well together, and I've always been a sucker for kits of any kind (Himself knows the way to please me -- get me sets or kits or samplers!) So, when I saw these baby quilt sets at Joann's, I had to get them.

2 friends, one pregnant, one I just found out adopted a newborn five months ago.

I do like the way these turned out. The doggy quilt is backed with the faces from the center top and bottom panels; the duck quilt is backed with the blue dotted flannel.

I especially like that there's no binding involved, just like the self-binding baby blankets I like making. No batting either, which I don't mind using, but batting is expensive. Just turn and handstitch the opening closed. I don't like handstitching either, and I think it looks better with topstitching anyhow, so I topstitch across the opening and all the way around. A little stitch-in-the-ditch (nasty hard when one side of the ditch is yellow or brown plush!), and you're ready to go!

I'm thinking of making bibs or burp cloths with the extra fabric scraps. We'll see.

Of course, what did I do but go out and buy a larger-sized actual (with-binding-and-batting) quilt kit for my grandmother for Christmas...

Christmas birds

2010-06-06T09:15:00.001-05:00

Can't find the SD card (that happen to anyone else?), so: here's some pictures of little things I made for my cardinal-loving grandmother last Christmas. I love kits!

Top-down short-row socks

2010-06-02T09:17:00.000-05:00

(Pictures forthcoming!)

Back from New York (with the bride cross-stitch not yet finished...), and we went to a yarn shop in Tarrytown: Flying Fingers

Got some nifty sock yarn and a teensy 8" Addi Turbo needle (I've been converted... there's a real reason they're more expensive; unlike Lantern Moon where I feel you're just paying for pretty, Addi's quality is worth it), and, as I have what I've recently seen described as "startitis," I just had to start my socks right away.

Problem is, I didn't have a pattern. I looked in one of the books they had for sale to get a concept of gauge (I don't know off-hand the circumference of your average sock), and I cast on 64 sts on my little size 1 needles, ribbed 1x1 for a while, then realized I didn't want to do any of the patterns I had in my own sock book (using to make something fancy for the kid brother) when I got back to the hotel. I'm not a huge fan of heel-flap socks, and I agree with Himself that short-row socks "look like real socks," so I had to use my memory for a short-row pattern. I really do prefer toe-up (use 2 balls, stop when you're finished, and you don't have to worry about running out of yarn -- if you've got too little yarn, you've got short socks! Rather than having to have a different-colored toe...), but I'd already started, so had to go on from there (hate frogging unless something's become unusable).

So, here is a very generic short-row sock pattern, designed for the experienced knitter who understands the concepts of sock knitting:

co 64, join.

Ribbing: rib 1x1 for as long as you like ribbing.

Top of sock: stocking stitch for as long as you want the top of the sock.

Short-row heel: k 1/2 a round (32 sts), turn; sl 1, p to 1 stitch short of the beginning of the round, turn; sl 1, k to 1 stitch short of the previous last knit stitch, turn; sl 1, p to 1 stitch short of the previous last purl stitch, turn; continue until there's 16 sts left on what you're working through. Now do it in reverse: k to the first slipped stitch, k it, sl 1, turn, p through what you just did to the next slipped stitch, p it, sl 1, turn; repeat until you've worked across all 32 sts.

Body of sock: k around until your foot starts to taper. (I never do the "2 inches before desired end of sock" thing -- it never works for me.)

Toe: k until 3 sts before halfway around (29 sts at first), k2 tog, k 2, ssk, k until 3 sts before you reach the beginning of round, k2 tog, k1 (end of round), k1, ssk; continue, either alternating with k-all rounds or just repeating this decrease-four round (depending on how quickly your foot tapers!) until 6 sts remain.

Cast off with kitchener stitch.

Wear your sock!

(Or, if you're not me, weave in ends and make the sock look pretty first, then wear it!)

One nice thing about top-down socks: they're easier to try on mid-sock than toe-up socks!

Bride

2010-05-26T08:16:00.001-05:00

Going to a dear friend's wedding in New York. I don't think this'll be finished by the wedding on Sunday, but it's a ton of fun! She's done some massive cross-stitch pieces in the past, so I think she'll appreciate it.

Bless you both, Kate and Dave!

Spoonbread

2010-05-20T19:09:00.000-05:00

Here, so I'll be able to find it (and you will too!), is my great-grandmother's spoonbread recipe, altered to include whole corn:

2 c. milk
1/2 c. cornmeal
1/2 tsp. salt
3 eggs
2 T butter
1 small can corn

In a double boiler, scald milk, add cornmeal and salt, and cook 20 min. or more until it's pretty firm.

While it's cooking, beat egg whites until stiff.

Remove pan from heat, stir in egg yolks. Add drained corn.

In a well-greased souffle pan, fold in the egg whites and the corn mixture.

Bake at 350 for thirty minutes or so.

It's good!

What's your dream car?

2010-05-19T20:08:00.000-05:00

If it's just expensive fancy cars, my dream car is..

1998 Mercedes S500

(And that's actually not so expensive anymore, now that they're all 12 years old.)

But the car that would just tickle me so greatly to have is a Trabant.

I lived in Germany for a year, and spent two weeks with a family in former East Germany. They spoke fondly of their Trabi, and I ended up writing a school paper from their stories -- taking the engine out and into the house with them in the evenings in winter, carrying around a set of strong rubber bands and electrical tape for repairs, actually speeding once when the spring holding up the gas pedal broke (brilliant engineering, there)... But really, I do love them. Their style's so much like my second favorite car, the HM Ambassador in India.

Best thing? You can get them quite cheaply these days.
Here's an ebay listing.

From the description (translation): "both autos are more or less driveable."

And (at least right now) for 10 Euro the pair!

Do you have a silly dream car?

Giveaways

2010-05-19T16:45:00.001-05:00

So I meant to come back and post again, but for the past three days I've been surfing all of Sew Mama Sew's giveaways! I've subscribed to many new blogs (note: if your blog only puts the title or a line or two in the feed, you have to be exceptionally fabulous for me to keep you. I like full posts!), and I've entered many giveaways -- only for things I'll actually use, so if you're coming back to see me from your giveaway post, it's because I liked your stuff, not just because it was free!

The only one I'm actually mentioning is a giveaway by Sweet Tea Mom, because they're the cutest potholders ever. I've made some cute ones myself, and bought some cute ones, and skipped over many giveaways of ones that weren't cuter than what I've already got... but hers win! Go see them :)

(Not that all the fabric giveaways aren't awesome. Just these really are great potholders!)

Back and Berries!

2010-05-10T08:14:00.001-05:00

I know, I've been gone a very long time! I oversaw a massive move at work and was so exhausted every night that I didn't make anything at all for four months... going a bit crazy by then... and I've only just now begun picking things back up. Made two inkle belts for the boss and a coworker, since part of the move involved a spreadsheet, the use of which threw out my wrist, leaving me with only weaving or stitching as craft opportunities.

We spent this past weekend at my grandparents' place in the country.

Picking dewberries.

They tend to make your hands red. (That's Himself's hand over by mine.) They have nasty prickly thorns -- my right arm still looks like I've got measles, with little red welts all over it -- but they're worth it.

They lead to great preserves.

Recipe:
1 cup sugar
1 cup berries
put them in a pot over medium heat and stir until it starts to look like syrup
put them in a jar and process as normal.

No pectin, no added water, no anything else. Just goodness!

(Other options: jelly, jam, cobbler, pie, or straight up and fresh off the bush.)

Back from Christmas

2010-01-03T09:28:00.000-06:00

and well recovered! Hawaii was excellent, and gave me time to make things I wouldn't have had opportunity to otherwise. For what must be a record, I actually finished everything I was making for people, and made a few extra things in the bargain (the tea wallets proved such a big hit, several unintended people got them as well). Himself will have to wait until his birthday in February for his sweater, but, as he doesn't remember he's getting one, it's all well and good.

The best gift story of Christmas:

the Tuesday before, my grandfather said that what he'd like for Christmas was, "a white scarf, not too long, like we used to wear in the Army." He was Army Air Corps, stationed in Okinawa at and after the end of the war. (With good timing, he graduated from West Point in June of 1945.) He's not overly easy to get things for, and the photo book I'd had made for him didn't turn out at all, so I figured it was worth a try. Drove all around town that night and the Wednesday, finding out that not only did no store have a white scarf, but no store had a man's scarf at all -- everyone was sold out. "Like we used to wear in the Army" stuck in my head, so I called around to some army surplus places in town, and all they had was Army Green. Everyone I'd mentioned the request to, though, instantly said, "have you tried Col. Bubbies?" I called them up, they said they had a few, and that if I came down early enough on Christmas Eve morning, they'd still be open. So, a pleasant drive down to Galveston (with the King's College guys singing to me on the radio - very nice) later, and I had what was actually a white scarf like he used to wear in the Army -- actually an Army Air Corps scarf! (A bit yellowed around the edges, but still good.) $5 later, and I was set.

I gave it to him with an explanation on Christmas, and he seemed somewhat tickled, but not overly excited -- a bit tired, I'm sure. The next day, though, I found out that he'd mentioned the request to someone else, and that the someone else had gone out and gotten some snazzy silk or cashmere scarf from Nordstrom's or something... and that mine was preferred, because it was literally exactly what he'd wanted. He put it on, and I saw him smile the best smile I've seen from him in probably three years. Definitely the best gift of Christmas.

Hawaii!

2009-12-07T08:25:00.001-06:00

The in-laws are sending us to Hawaii! Back in a week or so :)

Book fair!

2009-11-30T12:57:00.000-06:00

Earlier this month we had the book fair at the Museum of Printing History. Here's me with my offerings:

Regular readers may recognize some of these books, especially my two miniature books in the left corner. (Those went quickly.)

The little books in the middle, in the neon covers, are tiny staple-bound notebooks; I find them useful, and usually have one in my purse or wallet, but they didn't sell, at a dollar each.

All three of these ones went, though. All I have left is a few of the Florentine-paper ones, and one with Rome on it that I forgot to bring but that (see post below) is now destined for the perfect sister-in-law.

Much fun! My second fair, not as exciting as the first (because I spent all of 3 weeks making things, rather than a few months like last year, so didn't have much variety or any of the little earrings which sold so well last year), but still a very good time.

Christmas List

2009-11-15T10:52:00.002-06:00

Oooh, stuff to make!

-Mother: (she might someday come here, so it's a secret!)

-Father: that's always one I'm stuck on, as he's sometimes difficult and doesn't pretend well if he's not sure he likes something. He may get a hat, like the rest of the men. Or a last-minute book buy, as has sometimes happened. I normally come across something great for him (old scouting book from the used book store, or, one year, a gizmo that turns your Nalgene bottle into a French press coffee maker!), so we'll wait and see.

-Grandmother: Sewing caddy, from pattern here. And, as she's got fragile skin, lotion, like every year. Perhaps someone's handmade lotion off of Etsy -- I can make lotion myself, but, well, I'm not very good yet, and... see fragility of skin, as mentioned. Not good.

-Grandfather: Perhaps some of these. He loves Churchill.

-Sister: (she might actually check this blog, so it's a secret! But at least two homemade things.)

-Brother: Shaving kit (from pattern here) and perhaps also skull hat (from pattern here)

-Aunt who likes things made for her: Sewing caddy, as well. And perhaps a tea wallet, as she's always on the go. There's a zillion patterns out there, and I've got tons of scraps.

-Aunt who doesn't appreciate most things made for her: something purchased (perhaps purchased from someone else who's made something?) (I'd skip her altogether, but she *gives* very nice gifts -- that's my only "obligation"-style gift. Everyone else is a joy; last year I made her a little pillow, though, which did please her and was a joy to make.)

-Uncle who likes food: food :)

-Uncle who likes things made for him: oooh don't know yet -- perhaps another book, although I did make him a day planner last year. But he's always super-appreciative of any homemade gifts, no matter how awful (he's a schoolteacher, which might help!), so he's a joy to give things to.

-Girl cousins, and the teacher uncle's girlfriend: Rae's Buttercup Bag, in various colors (there are 4 girl cousins)

-Boy cousins: skull hat, as above

-Perfect sister-in-law: coptic-bound book with map of Rome on the covers, as she's going to Italy with her family (may toss in one similar for perfect sister-in-law's little sister)

-Sister's husband (for some reason, I think of him that way, and think of my husband's brother as the brother-in-law): a secret, purchased from the Small Object (we get each other tiny things each year -- last year I made him a head cover for a golf club, and they got Himself a Texans hat)

-Brother-in-law: Don't know, but I got some lovely brownish variegated yarn that I may make into a hat.

-In-laws: no idea. Worked for years on their last present -- think I'll just leave it to their son to buy them something this year!

-Himself: perhaps a sweater (the back's done!), perhaps a gym membership -- we'll see. And, if I can figure it out, a scrub hat with the Texans logo on it.

And some of my melt and pour soap for everyone (Himself won't let me play with lye, so all I can do is melt and pour or refashioned "hand-milled" soaps). In flower shapes and floral scents for the girls, in herbal or otherwise manly cubes for the guys.

Complete:
One skull hat
most/all of the Buttercup Bags
book for perfect sister-in-law (well, nearly complete - just needs to be sewn, which takes no time at all)
part (each) of what mother and sister are getting
Sister's husband's gift
as mentioned, back of Himself's sweater
soap :)

And to think, some people want my family to go to a one-gift-for-someone-out-of-a-hat scheme (and I *know* I'll draw the difficult aunt!). They can do it if they want (they usually complain about having to spend money (because they feel bad if they haven't spent a certain amount per person), or feeling guilty when other people give them things), but I get such joy out of making things for other people that I'm not going to let their psychological hangups or financial guilt trips deprive me of that!

One easy solution for someone who's anti-materialism (but unwilling or unable to make things for everyone), financially straightened, and also feeling obligated to have something for everyone, is to do what one good woman I know did once with "teacher gifts" for her child's school -- gave a donation to the Heifer Project in the name of the teachers of the school (all together) and then gave each teacher a card (which she prints herself, using Greetings Workshop) saying, "a gift has been made in your name to the Heifer Project," etc. I see no reason why it couldn't similarly be done for "The Smith Family," with cards for each. Print them yourself, costs no more than the cost of the ink and paper, and with good enough paper you'd never know the difference. (I'm always surprised at the stores -- $4.50 for a simple card?) Then you've done something good for someone else, haven't spent more than you could afford to ($50 for many charities will do much more good and bring more joy than $15 each to a dozen family members!), haven't given things they probably wouldn't like very much to people who don't need anything, and got rid of gift-giving obligations in a way that the people you give the cards to are obliged to act pleased about! (And many of them would be, in fact.) Also, if you're making things but stuck for ideas, there are other one-size-fits-all ideas -- cookie-mix- or tea-mix-in-a-jar all around, or (like me with the cousins) one gift for all the girls, one for all the boys, or (as my mother used to do when there was a bumper crop of berries, which there hasn't been for a few years) a jar or two of homemade jelly all around. If your friends don't appreciate it, your friends don't need gifts. If your family doesn't appreciate it, too bad. They're your family, and they know you and your views on things, so they should be happy that you think they're worth any effort at all! (Well, minor hypocrisy here: if there's someone in your family who doesn't appreciate it, but is a REALLY good gift giver (like the aunt above), it might be worth it to buy something for that person! But, in general, rule holds.)

As for me, I have to make things, and don't have much success selling the things, so it's good for me to have the opportunity to give them away! I'm easily pleased, so I love everything I get in return (and usually my favorite gift ends up being something a teenage cousin picked up for fifty cents at a flea market), but I don't keep a tally on who gives and who doesn't, and I don't mind at all if you don't give me anything -- so long as you allow me to give you something!

What's on your list?

Marshmallow Utility

2009-11-09T17:52:00.000-06:00

Before my current job, I was a high school economics teacher. I like to think that I was a fun one, too. We did in-class exercises to help illustrate basic economics principles, and my students seemed to enjoy those days just as much as they days we watched educational videos (the days when I had to have one-on-one progress talks with each student).

My favorite exercise was teaching the students about marginal utility -- a lesson I called "Marshmallow Utility." To their credit, the students remembered the name, and whenever marginal utility came up on a test they could identify it.

Materials:

The big kind of marshmallows works best, as it has an effect faster. Bring several bags.

I lined up several volunteers at the front of the class, and had them plot their happiness (after consuming zero marshmallows) on the blackboard.

Fed each one a large marshmallow, and then had them plot their happiness again. Everyone's went up.

Fed each one another large marshmallow, and had them plot their happiness (general sense of well-being, etc.) on the board.

Repeated several times.

For all except one girl (who absconded with the rest of the bags after class!), each student reached a point at which one more marshmallow made them feel a bit worse, whether from over-saturation or from dietary concerns.

That, I explained, is marginal - or marshmallow - utility. How much happier will one more marshmallow make you? For all except the marshmallow-lover, the first additional marshmallow caused a big jump in happiness, the next few increasingly smaller jumps in happiness, and eventually an additional marshmallow causes a loss in happiness. Similarly, if you're a supermarket, the first cash register makes things much better, an additional cash register makes things quite a bit better, the seventeenth cash register makes things very slightly better ... and eventually you reach a point where adding another cash register doesn't solve check-out problems but instead makes it so crowded it's hard to get your carts out the door. If you've got a restaurant, one more helper in the kitchen is great, two is even better, fifteen means you're always tripping over each other. Something massive, though, could be the equivalent of my marshmallow-lover -- if you're trying to pick up all the trash on the entire Pacific coast, for example, you have to go a very long way before the marginal utility of one more worker becomes negative.

Lesson? Keep eating marshmallows until it would be detrimental to chow down on another one. Keep adding workers until the marginal utility of one more worker is less than the marginal cost of that worker. (If I'd charged the students a nickel a marshmallow, they should keep buying marshmallows as long as they got at least five cents worth of pleasure out of each marshmallow.)

Economics is fun :) and tasty!

Baby Blanket

2009-10-31T18:29:00.001-05:00

Things on the schedule to do today:
Laundry
Wash dishes
Clean kitchen surfaces
Clean up the tiny bits of kitty litter the little cat leaves on the carpet
Go to grocery
Make dinner
Debate tonight's plans
Change sheets
Make many books
Do some stuff for work
Clean the man-cave (overflowing with my stuff as well as his)

Things done today:
Laundry
Wash dishes
Go to grocery (but forgot list, and forgot plans, and wasn't hungry, so got only milk and have no dinner plans)
Made one book (just like the Martini Record below, so no photos)
Made two self-binding baby blankets from the pattern here

One entire department at work is expecting -- 2 people, one pregnant herself, one with a pregnant wife. Due at the same time. (That department will be useless in a few months!) I figured, with Christmas and everything coming up, I wouldn't get something knitted in time, so I whipped out two flannel blankets -- figured the blue edging (which is also the back) and the yellow flowers make it unisex enough -- one's a girl, and one's to-be-announced. The pattern's really enjoyable, very fast, and the geometry of it suits my mathematical brain. Hope the parents-to-be like them!

Of course, that means I'm very behind in inventory for the book fair next weekend, and the house isn't clean, and I have no plans for dinner (speaking of which, I love the name of the blog "Things to make instead of dinner"), or whether or not we're going to an office party tonight (heh - Himself is coming straight from work, so he could go as a doctor!), and I haven't done anything for work....

Well, that's the way things go around here!

Oaty-cakes

2009-10-29T19:08:00.001-05:00

I made these oaty-cakes from Simple Up the other day. Figured I'd better take a picture of the last two before they were all gone! My only difference was (as you can tell) using a heart-shaped cookie cutter. They are somewhat granola-bar-ish, so I think I'll make them again with perhaps some honey, or peanut butter, or dried cranberries mixed in, cut them into ovals, and call them granola bars. Really very excellent -- a bit dangerous (eat over a plate!), but not too sweet, not too dry, not too anything but irresistible.

And aren't my plates sweet? They're the "Flower Shop" Nick and Nora pattern (which I can't find online anywhere), and each size of dish is a different pattern. Got them at a resale shop where I was volunteering -- I fell in love with them, and that was that. Meant I didn't have to register for dishes when we got married! At some point, I plan to paint our "great room" in the yellow tint you see at the top right corner.

So: Oaty-cakes: very good! Go, make some!

Martini Record

2009-10-25T14:44:00.001-05:00

What do you think - make a journal of interesting mixed drink recipes?

The paper entertains me. The insides are standard linen resume paper, hand-torn, very nice.

Sewn with waxed linen thread.
Zooming in on these two pictures (shadows heightened in the lower one), you can see the difference in the sewing -- this book was sewn with single-needle coptic style sewing; the florentine book below was two-needle sewing, and I think it looks a lot more even.

Tutorials, of course, can be found through the links at TJBookarts' website.

New book

2009-10-25T14:27:00.001-05:00

I had fun with this one, my first two-needle coptic-bound book. I used a lovely florentine-style (maybe actually florentine -- it's "made in Italy"!) paper for the outside, and a Japanese print on the inside.

Plain blue copy paper matches nicely.

If you zoom in on the picture below, you can make out my stitches. I think it looks a lot better than single-needle coptic, but it's more of a pain (especially as I have only one curved needle, and had to do the other straight!). Pink cotton thread. These colors make me happy!

Brief notes

2009-10-22T09:41:00.000-05:00

Oddly unable to find time to post lately, although I can find time for other things...

But just wanted to say:

This skull hat is awesome, totally making one for my teenage cousin.

And, See Mommy Sew is giving away fun scrappy bits -- and Between the Lines has cards! and beautiful things!

That's all -- the husband's on the night shift for a week, so I should be able to get stuff done, photograph it, and publish it! (Now my 15 mins are up, so back to work!)

Softness

2009-10-06T12:16:00.000-05:00

A few years ago, I typed up all the letters my grandparents wrote each other in the early 1940s (when he was at West Point, she was in Houston or NYC, and they were dating/engaged). (More on that at some other time.) One of the more entertaining bits to me was when she wrote of her excitement that her office had purchased air conditioning, and that it would be turned on between 1 and 4 pm in the summer.

I have a few coworkers who don't have air conditioning. (I live in Houston, if you've missed that.) I've lived in India, where air conditioning is rare and it's often 90 degrees at night and humid, but with good ventilation and a fan it's not bad, except when there's a power cut and your fan gives out. (I've also lived in England, where there was once a news story on TV on how possibly one could manage to sleep when the temperature only got down to 70 degrees at night -- however, they mostly don't have fans and mostly don't/can't open their windows, so I can imagine it might be a bit suffocating at times.) Last September, after the hurricane, most of us went two weeks or so with no electricity. Not bad, inconvenient, but not bad. (Yes, if you depend for your life on electronic medical equipment, bad. For most of us, not bad.)

Why am I thinking of this? Someone was just yammering on about how it should be mandatory for the City to provide free air conditioning to everyone in town, because it's a necessity of life and it's a basic human right.

When did we get so soft?

There was one interview on TV after Hurricane Rita a few years back, where the reporter asked a fellow how he was managing to survive with no air conditioning. His response? "I haven't got it anyhow, so it doesn't bother me!"

Rigid Heddle Mats

2009-10-02T18:13:00.000-05:00

I made these two mats a while back on my rigid heddle loom. I used the Sugar and Cream yarn, which I love -- it's the same yarn as in the star blanket I made a while back. It was just a simple weave, not trying to get any fancy patterns at all (although I did have fun with my graph paper plotting out how to warp it to get fancy patterns in plain weave). Overall, I'm pretty pleased. I didn't weave in the ends when changing colors, as it really bulked up where it duplicated (the yarn's so thick), and I figured I'd have to do something with the edges anyhow, as I'm not yet overly steady on the tension at the edges.

You can't really tell from these pictures, but this one (that I made first) is longer than the other. They were intended to be placemats, but I didn't measure properly when warping on, so one's placemat-shaped, and the other's squarish. I realized when switching that there wasn't enough yarn, so left only a very small gap for fringing in between the two. I think I may just zigzag over it on the machine to hold the fringe in place, rather than knotting ... any opinions on that?

Not bad for functionally a beginner, though, right?

(I did do several pieces 15 years or so ago, all with some sort of scratchy earth-toned stuff that I've seen in weaving shops since ... I prefer non-scratchy finished products, so I prefer working with things like this.)

Wine-colored dress

2009-09-29T20:37:00.000-05:00

What I want:

Alison Sweeney's dress tonight on the Biggest Loser. A-line, funky sleeves, nifty low-cut-ness, and wine colored. Absolutely gorgeous. I have tomorrow morning off of work... I have no money, but perhaps I might go to Target or something to see if there's something like that somewhere... No image, because there's not one online yet (heck, the show's still on!)... my second ever twitter search (first: to see if I was the only one having Blogger troubles or not a few days back) was to see if anyone else mentioned her dress; seems (so far at least) that nobody has. Perhaps I'm crazy.

This is an excellent color, though:

Bright and girly Emmeline apron

2009-09-28T17:33:00.002-05:00

I just love making these. The instructions are simple, I get to play with fabric and colors, and it's such a lovely finished project. I hate photographing them, though -- it never turns out right. I iron them, and they look great to the naked eye, but the photograph makes them look wrinkled, or uneven, or something. And my mother's dress form sure looks busty!

At least here you get true colors:

Both Jo-Ann prints. The accent color/sash is a yellow with tiny white butterflies on it, picking up on the butterflies in the hot pink. I need to get an up-close picture of the decorative stitching I did across the top band, but this is one finished project with which I am very pleased!

In other news, my list of unread posts from my 489 Google Reader subscriptions has gone down to 997 after weeks at 1000+!

Book Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

2009-09-27T13:52:00.000-05:00

I read this book this past week. I must say I was looking forward to reading it, but did not expect to like it very much. As it happened, though, I loved it!

The book, for those who don't know, keeps almost all of Jane Austen's original text, adding in sections (and changing just a few words here and there) to add a background of a zombie plague across England, where the five Bennett girls (and Mr. Darcy, although not Mr. Bingley) are all well-trained in zombie fighting.

(Spoilers ahead.)

Aside from my enjoyment of the zombie element, I very much appreciated the way that it made several pieces of the plot easier to understand. Charlotte's decision to marry Mr. Collins, for example, stems not just from her fear of ending up an old maid, but also from her infection with the zombie plague, her awareness that she has but a few months to live, and her hope that her new situation will give her a better end. Darcy's excuse that he warned Mr. Bingley off of Jane because he feared that her illness (from Jane Austen's original) might be a sign that she had also become infected with the zombie plague also is much more believable than that he feared she wasn't actually interested in him.

In all, a very enjoyable book; the solidly 1900-era costumes on the girls in the illustrations aside, I heartily recommend it.

No internet

2009-09-24T16:12:00.002-05:00

My internet's out again -- 5th day out in the past 10 days. Perhaps it's time to switch providers? Anyhow -- back when it's fixed.

Green miniature book

2009-09-21T12:16:00.009-05:00

Again, blurry dying-camera shot, but you can see my little book's structure. Case bound, linen resume paper, headbands from France, paper from odds and ends lying about... very fun little blank book.

I like this paper - it looks and feels like snakeskin.

Love the way the marbled paper turned out in such a tiny segment.

My hands look so big! It's about an inch across and 1 1/2 or maybe 1 3/4 inches tall. It, like the red one, is available in my shop.

Red miniature book

2009-09-18T16:15:00.001-05:00

Sorry for the fuzzy pictures - the camera was dying.

Looks like leather, actually is paper.

Real marbled paper, off-cuts from a larger book. My hand gives you some sense as to size -- it's about 1.5 inches by 2.5 inches.

Six signatures of linen resume paper, headbands from france, case bound. And very fun to make.

Along with the camera battery going, my internet has been out for the past two days... meh. So, editing the scheduled post from work on my break (I'm a good girl, don't blog when I'm supposed to be working, but a 1-paragraph edit in my afternoon break is fine). Hope it gets back up soon... although I'll probably get more of the house cleaned tomorrow if it's not!

Miniatures

2009-09-16T09:44:00.000-05:00

More detailed pics to come; this was the best one, though, so showing it off first.

Buttonhole book

2009-09-15T19:16:00.002-05:00

I've been home sick today, and didn't do much but lie around. I picked up something from the kids I was around on Sunday, I expect; sadly, my grandfather is ill as well, as I had dinner with him Sunday night. I did get around to making this little buttonhole book today, though.

Neither of these pictures is right on the color -- it's greener than that. The paper is some I picked up in India in March; the paisleys are made out of little glued-on dots.

Sewn with linen thread from France. Boring old yellow copy paper on the inside, but the colors do match well. About 6 inches tall, about 4 inches wide... I suppose one could put a bunch of 3x5 photos in it!

The endpages (false endpages, technically). Don't know where I picked up this paper... heh - don't know where I picked up most of the yarn and paper I have lying around!

I also unearthed a few miniature books I made a while back; photos to come tomorrow.

New Yarn

2009-09-13T16:46:00.000-05:00

Look what I won from a Pfat Fiber giveaway!

It is such a lovely blend, so soft, and the colors are just gorgeous (see the dress below -- I like those colors!)... I'm a convert. The marketing plan worked -- when next I buy yarn like this, I'm highly inclined to make My8KidsMom my first stop!

Any ideas what to make with it? It's more than I'd need for a regular pair of socks... could make super-long socks, or something non-sock-ish... suggestions?

Danielle

2009-09-10T06:45:00.002-05:00

What I'm wearing today:

The Danielle, from Burdastyle. (Cropped to remove silly hair.) Went together really fast. I'm very pleased! I made it in a tiny sundress, but that was much too short to show online (wore it to Galveston on July 4, but tiny sundresses are fine then). I love the fabric -- it looks like wool, but it's actually brushed cotton, so suitable for Houston weather. Here's to Joann's sales!

Spinning

2009-09-09T09:30:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, I was in Austin for a conference, and I was taken to Hill Country Weavers. The store's an amazing experience -- very hard to limit yourself. I bought some excellent yarn for a sweater for myself, and then I saw this. Fool that I am, I was too impatient to play with it to take a picture when it was nicely braided up, so this is all you get. It just looked like candy...

I got a drop spindle once, from a woman in Bolivia -- I bought a woven guitar strap from her, then some yarn, then was so interested in the spindle she was using that she sold that to me as well. I couldn't find it just now, though, so I watched some videos on youtube and then made my own temporary one out of a hook, a pencil, and a circle of cardboard, and spun away! It wasn't that hard.

First, after spinning it all, relatively evenly, I decided to ply it. Ended up a bit bulkier than I would have liked, so it went back to singles. More pictures to come.

Right now, I've done something to my wrist, so I can't knit, crochet, or even type much. Machine sewing seems ok, though...

New Fiber Arts Shops on Hwy 290

2009-09-06T07:40:00.003-05:00

Hello all!

We went to Austin earlier this weekend, stopping by my grandparents' place in the little town of Carmine halfway there (claim to fame: the bank was robbed by Bonnie and Clyde -- they even have a plaque commemorating it). Along with gingerbread pancakes at the Magnolia Cafe, I wanted to try out a new weaving shop in Brenham I'd heard about at Winedale a while back.

Driving up to Austin, passing through Paige, I as always looked left and saw the little sign for the Paige Historical Museum and thought it might be nice to look in... and then I looked right and for the first time ever saw a sign for a business! On the way back I had to stop, and I easily found what may be the only business in Paige:Yarnorama! I wish I had an interior picture, but had no camera this weekend (the above is from their website). It's a lovely and exciting store, with roving, weaving materials, spinning wheels, masses of sock yarn and handpainted yarn and silk yarn and anything fancy you could ever want. Friendly people, too.

Having spent all my extra money at Half Price Books in Austin, I couldn't buy anything, so I went on down to Brenham.

There, into Fibers (sorry, no picture at all). My 6th grade art teacher, Mrs. Fowler (who it turns out is nationally known as an inkle weaver and has written articles on the subject), had us all use inkle looms to make belts. I bought the loom afterwards and loved it. When I saw someone at one of the Winedale historical events with an inkle loom, I told them about Mrs. Fowler, and the weaver knew of her and told me to come to the new shop in Brenham. It's a lovely shop, very big and open. It's certainly central Texas -- there were people in there with the same accent as my grandparents' German (actually Wendish, but who's telling?) farmhand, who's been in this country for generations, so the German modified itself beyond easy recognition but left its traces in the accent. It has tons of weaving, spinning, knitting, crochet, and probably other stuff as well. (I think I saw some scrapbook supplies.) The help desk/check-out counter is made from display cases showing lovely antique tatted and other fiber arts items.

Both certainly worth a repeat visit; both like nothing we have in Houston (If we do, Houston people, please tell me -- I've heard that the nearest weaving shop is in La Porte, and I never go that direction).

Beard Hat!

2009-09-02T21:14:00.001-05:00

I don't like buying things I can make myself, so when I saw the beard hat / beard toque for sale at various places, I figured I just needed to make one myself. I looked for patterns online, most of which were Ctulhu or crazy loosely-knit or loosely-crocheted things. My kid brother's going off to college in Colorado, and he's a good sport and also a big hat wearer, so I wanted to make him something that would be warm and hold up to a bit of wear. He's got great red hair and has in the past cultivated some very nice mutton chops, ones that make him look not like a belated hippy but like something out of Dickens, and I want him to go full-out lumberjack and get a big beard. I figured this might convince him, so I made up my own pattern, and here's the result (posed with an authentic Norwegian climbing pick):

I used a basic spiral single crochet hat pattern, then just made it the desired shape. For a moustache, I used Drea's pattern, and it was absolutely perfect. The beard, rather than being a flap, is a pocket that hooks over your chin and keeps your neck warm as well.

Does that shirt pattern look familiar? It's from a tutorial I couldn't find anywhere just now, but I know came through my blog reader sometime last fall (the best I can find is here, but the link afterwards is dead). I wasn't doing freezer paper stenciling, so I just used an iron-on transfer, which was fine.

I made four; they were Christmas presents for Himself, my brother, and both brothers-in-law.

This one's also gotten too small for the beard-wearer, as you can see, so it's mine now.

Backlog!

2009-08-31T08:27:00.004-05:00

I still exist, I really do. Things have been a bit hectic at work (I'm on a break at the moment), as we're moving everything to a new wing. So I come home and cook dinner and fall asleep. But I've taken a few pictures of fun things, so I'm going to queue up a few posts (so there's not a glut all at once) about:
- The Beard Hat I made for my kid brother
- The sweet little sundress I made for myself
- The scarf the knitting group at work made for me
- The team of rogue road repairmen (when called, the City says they're not doing work in the area) that make it difficult to get out in the morning and think my yard's a tip
- The cable-heavy sweater I'm making Himself with scratchy yarn, and the Aran-style sweater I'm making myself with excellent yarn (not that I don't like him, I just don't trust him to actually wear it, and don't want to waste excellent yarn on something that's not getting worn!)
- The placemats I wove on the rigid heddle loom (yay!)
- The flash-drive cover for my boss
- The baby-girl-camo sweater that's nearly on its way to my hunter friend's new daughter

See you soon!

Girls' night out

2009-06-22T22:54:00.004-05:00

I never go anywhere. I work full time, and Himself is a doctor, so, the few times he's home, I want to be with him ... and I'm usually tired when I get home and just want to sleep. Tonight I let a sweet girl I've known since we were six talk me into joining her for a girls' night out (well, actually, in, at her place).

With some excellent cheese, and some excellent wine, a bunch of girls -- most taking the night off from kids as well as husband -- talked about babies (did you know olive oil makes a baby's bottom easier to clean, just like greasing a pan before baking?), in-laws (from experiences of many: don't live with them! Especially without the husband!), and husbands (they just don't understand why girls who have a maid coming have to clean up before the maid gets there!). We don't have any babies yet, of course, but it was still a great evening. Last time I did anything of the sort was January, getting together with my college roommates / bridesmaids. I'm the only married one of the four of us, so it was different tonight. Fun both times. The time before that was last July, going out to Galveston with coworkers just a few weeks before the places we went got washed into the ocean. But once every six months isn't enough... I must remember how much fun I had tonight, get over my hermit/homebody tendencies, and get together with girls more often!

Lookit!

2009-06-21T09:51:00.001-05:00

Remember this?

I moved it inside because it was dying from our overwhelming dry heat. It then went into suspended animation because of the air conditioning. So, I moved it upstairs into our unused bathtub, where our zoned a/c sets it at 85 in the daytime (coincidentally, apparently the optimum temperature for tomatoes). This morning I have this:

Isn't it beautiful? Ok, one tomato, but I've never had any at all before, and at $1 for the seedling, it's given me more than $1 of excitement! The little flower beneath it may be producing another one as well.

Isn't it so pretty? This afternoon, I'll find out how it tastes.... so happy!

Non-maternity maternity top

2009-06-21T09:44:00.001-05:00

Below I mention my non-maternity maternity top. Here, as promised, are pictures:

As you can see, I haven't added the ruffles or fully attached the straps.

Or properly cleaned my bathroom mirror, it would seem... looks fine without the flash, though!

Honestly, I'm not quite as large as the top makes me look...

Dinner tonight

2009-06-11T21:36:00.003-05:00

Earlier this week we had an excellent dinner -- one of those multi-bean soup mixes from the grocery store, in the crock pot all day, over rice, with pan-fried okra thrown on top. Tonight, I was going to make Indian-style okra, but ended up not having the canned tomatoes I usually use, so I used what I had, and came up with something very good:

Start off Indian-style, and sauté

1/2 tsp. mustard seeds

in

1 tsp olive oil

add 1.5 c okra, sliced,
1 can mild Ro-Tel (that's where it diverges from the Indian recipe!),
whole cumin, cilantro, and black pepper (whole or ground) to taste

simmer 15 min or so.

It was really excellent, and I think I may do it that way from now on!

(Sorry, no photo -- I didn't expect it to taste good! Image source for the above. (Yes, it says it's a persimmon -- looks enough like a tomato for me!))

Water Bills

2009-06-11T06:15:00.002-05:00

If you had no water pressure in your house, but there was a hole in the sidewalk in front of your house where water was gushing out, where men had been working earlier that day, you'd assume a connection, right?

And if you called the city to say that there was a leak outside and that you had no water pressure, and then someone came out and fixed the gushing sidewalk hole, you'd assume a connection, right?

And if you then got a water bill for 43,000 gallons of water, rather than your normal 2,000 gallons, you'd assume it was connected to the above, right?

Apparently not, if you're the City of Houston. After talking with mumbly people on the phone who I can't understand, or people that assure me that there is no record of anyone doing work here (in which case we've got teams of rogue road workers!), or some imbecile who insists that her records show I have a pool and the high rate must be because I was filling it (if you can find a pool here, that would surprise me!), or two girls a month apart who each promised they'd send me a form to formally complain, and three people who each said I had only to pay the regular monthly payment for 2,000 gallons rather than that spike until things got sorted out (which I have been doing), yesterday I got a notice that my water bill payment is delinquent. No forms have ever arrived, needless to say.

I've never been in a situation like this, and it feels a bit like the twilight zone...anyone know what to do? I'm thinking I'll write an actual letter detailing everything (I wish I'd thought to get the names and supervisors of the road workers, but I assumed that, having a City of Houston logo on their vehicle, and since they're still working on my street several months later, they weren't rogue road repairmen!), but perhaps I should call my-uncle-the-lawyer to see what he says... I could possibly scrape together enough money to pay for the 43,000 gallon bill, but I'd rather not, and I REALLY don't want the City to get away with that -- who else are they doing that to?

Non-pregnant maternity top

2009-06-10T19:01:00.002-05:00

So, you know when you see a cute pattern, and you make it up, and it's not quite what you expected?

I'm not pregnant, and not going to be for quite some time, but soon I'll post pictures of my unintentional maternity top (cuteish, though, so may as well keep it for the future!)...

Star Blanket

2009-06-10T18:11:00.001-05:00

Himself's cousin is having a baby, their third. I've learned a bit about babies and blankets with each one -- after the first, I learned that ribbons threaded through eyelets, while pretty, get torn out as soon as baby can manage to tear it out. After the second, I was told that baby really loves corners, so could I possibly manage a blanket with more corners?

So, from The Diva Crochets, here's a star-shaped afghan. Her pattern really pulls when you make it (although apparently, from her picture, it comes out well with lots of blocking), so I made it in a way that seemed a bit more rational (and fit with one of the two ways she explained to do it), and here's pre-blocking (because I'll never remember to photograph post-blocking):

I used Lily's Sugar and Cream, 100% cotton, which was much fun to work with. This was begun as soon as they announced, before they found out what the upcoming baby would be -- it's a boy, and I think the colors will work well. I enjoyed seeing how it pooled -- always a fun experience with variegated yarns.

I also made an Emmeline apron out of a pair of cotton saris -- they're fun, because they come with their own border material, the red with a green and gold border, and the green (which you can see at the corner) with a red and gold border. The saris are very cheap (175 Rs -- about $3), and made out of thin cotton, the kind I used to wear all the time when living in India, but that wouldn't be appropriate for the only time I wear them now, to fancy events.

And just because I was near it when taking pictures, I bought this Tudor Rose needlepoint kit at Liberty's in London (but produced by English Heritage, I believe, or some similar organization) somewhere in the early 1990s, and it took me about 10 years to finish it. Never been much of one for needlepoint! Found that such kits are no longer sold, unfortunately -- it's all dinky cross-stitches of stately homes and abbeys. Which is nice, but not what I wanted!

What's the project that's taken you longest to finish?

Copying of ideas

2009-06-07T09:05:00.002-05:00

I went a little ranty in a comment over here, so figured I may as well put it on my own site as well...

Short form, she sold a book and the person she sold it to started making things from that design; and she had someone steal both her book design on ebay as well as her code and listing, and even inpersonate her.

My response, not so much about her post as about people in general:

Yeah, there's all sorts of levels there... I've seen people post tutorials and then get furious when someone else posts about their finished project from using that tutorial (why post a tutorial if you don't want anyone to follow it?)... and if Keith Smith threw a fit every time someone made a book using the instructions he's published, he'd have no time to do anything else (why publish an instruction manual if you don't want someone to use it? -- not attributing that attitude to him!)... Or if my coworker who studied bookbinding at North Bennet Street started teaching fine binding (in which there's not so much variation as in "book sculpture"), and they went after her for copying their ideas... but, on the other hand, impersonating the person whose work you're copying and selling is something else entirely! There was an issue on etsy a while back where someone was using someone else's images and descriptions to "sell" nonexistent items (read more about it here: http://patchworkpottery.blogspot.com/2009/02/scam-on-etsy.html )... But there's also coincidences, like one I was amused by (when I made this one http://dangandblast.blogspot.com/2008/08/city-streets.html using a simple binding structure and a commonly-available paper, and subsequently saw this one on another site http://dangandblast.blogspot.com/2008/09/not-book-i-made.html with the same common binding structure and a different section of the same paper). When people use the same basic concepts and shop from the same suppliers, you'll end up with some overlap... there's quite a few people who've, without a pattern and without knowing about each other, made 2x2 ribbed scarves with identical yarn before. Then there's people who post free patterns (my two favorite being Oh, Fransson's Margaret Bag and Rae's Buttercup Bag (which has what I think is a good solution at that post)), and expect people to use them (that's why they're posting them!), but ask people not to sell their finished products (and justifiably get angry when that happens). Neither bag is massively-enough different from other things out there, though, that they'd have a leg to stand on if someone made a *similar* product for sale... like how Vera Bradley fabric purses were all the rage, but when other people said, "hmm, cloth purse out of busy fabric, I could do that," it wasn't stealing her idea in any sort of bad way, although it was certainly derivative work (and usually priced accordingly).

I've gotten rambly... guess what I'm trying to say is, I think in your specific case about the ebay seller you're right (and in other cases it's also pretty blatant, especially when someone says "feel free to use this but don't sell it"), but there's other people out there who share their ideas, or even teach people (who've paid for the class) exactly how to make something, and then pitch a tantrum when someone else says, "hey, good idea, I'd like to try that!", even when the someone-else is just posting it on their blog and isn't selling it or anything... there's levels to all these things...

(My sister and I are going to make a million dollars off of this new apron concept that she's come up with and I've made, as she has vision and I have craft-ability, but that's why I'm not telling the world all the details of it or describing how it's made until I finish working on the design and we actually get some legal cover for it!)

A Man's Take on Menopause

2009-06-05T08:35:00.002-05:00

I know it's not related to anything at all (will post on the weekend, I swear!), but I found this hilarious -- a man taking hormone therapy and having sudden empathy with his wife's hot flashes.

Winner!

2009-06-01T06:22:00.001-05:00

The Randomness Generator at random.org gave me number 6! That would be Purple Paisley Patch who said...

I love the name of your blog, and I absolutely LOVE the gorgeous purple book you're giving away! I sooooo hope I win! :-)

Congratulations :) And for everyone else, hope you stick around -- I'm a sporadic poster, so I shouldn't take up too much of your time if you stick me in your reader!

Giveaway!

2009-05-27T07:26:00.003-05:00

My very first giveaway!

Sew, Mama, Sew! is having a giveaway day, and I don't know if I got in on time or not (if not, I'll try to stick myself in their twitter feed), but, either way, here's my prize:

A little blank book, coptic-bound in purply-pink thread, with purple covers and silvery endpapers.
(EDIT: my husband says it's not purple, it's pink on the covers... I'm not good with colors, but I think he's right.)

It's not absolutely perfect, so my perfectionist self won't let me sell it, but it's really quite nice and good for a giveaway! It may not be sew-ish, but it is sewn with needle and thread, lack of fabric notwithstanding... and the sew-ish people can use it to jot down pattern ideas :)

To win, leave any comment at all below. Open until next Monday morning.

Surprise!

2009-05-26T18:09:00.001-05:00

I won Rozi's giveaway. Today the package arrived!

Check out those funky stamps :) Her handwriting's nifty, too.

So fancy, that paper's totally being used for something else (another book?) sometime soon.
And then the final unveiling:

So pretty :) Thanks!

Projects

2009-05-26T07:31:00.002-05:00

Finally the camera card is back! Here are two of the projects I'm currently working on:

I like this little Roma tomato plant. The lovely tomato you see in the middle has been that size and that color for some time now, and the internet suggested that perhaps cooler temperatures might encourage it, as it's been over 85 every day; it hasn't changed much in three days inside, but we'll see. It was a dollar at the grocery store as a little 4" seedling, and it's done pretty well so far!

My other plants aren't doing as well... the City was doing water main work, and tearing up our street, and roped off all trees and shrubs along their way, including a little pear tree I've been loving and nourishing for several months. I come home one day and they've torn out my little tree (but none of the neighbors' roped-off shrubs, just my little tree and a scrubby bush next to it) and put it in a pile of dirt off to the side. I asked a fellow about it the next day, and he said, "we'll put it back." A week later, they still hadn't put it back, and the bush had been thrown away, so I gave up and put my little tree in a pot my mother brought around... it really doesn't look too good, and I don't think it'll make it. Very sad. I'll put in a complaint with the City if it dies, asking them to replace my tree (and my bush, and my grass, etc.), but I don't have much hope -- I'm still fighting them for charging me $400 for a leak they caused and didn't report, when we had no water for two days while their nicked water line was flooding the street. Meh.

In other news, though, I've finally got back out my rigid heddle loom -- hadn't touched it since high school. Thanks to Linda S. for helping me refresh my memory of how to warp it up! You can vaguely see my attempts at a plaid, but, as I've now learned, my warp threads are too thin for it to show well, so I'd either need to make this a very loose weave (which I can't manage, especially around the edges), or try again with thicker warp. This shadow-plaid will be a runner for the guest bedroom / craft room, which is in a blue-pink-purple color scheme (Himself doesn't go in there, so he doesn't mind!). It's been fun, and I'm getting better -- what you can't see rolled up on the beam at the front (besides the ripped-up plastic bags I used as waste strips) is all the wobbly-edged-ness and failed attempts at a twill weave from the beginning part. But onward and upward!

In more "other news," the pigeons are gone -- up and left one day -- I know it's probably wishful thinking, but I'm pretending the mother took the babies to a nest nearer the ground. There aren't any cats or other predators that can get into our yard, so far as I know, so I'm telling myself they're safe somewhere.

Two babies!

2009-05-15T08:11:00.003-05:00

In case you were worried (I was!), the other baby pigeon did hatch! Still no camera thingy (uploaded the other pictures at my parents' house), so no picture (plus, I feel guilty every time I scare away the mama pigeon by watering my plants), but BABY PIGEONS ARE UGLY! If you really want to see a picture, go here -- mine look just like that. They make my so happy every time I see them...

Pigeon!

2009-05-13T20:29:00.001-05:00

Here she is. I have an herb garden off my window, a very pleasant little place with basil, rosemary, parsley, and a flower I picked up somewhere. Underneath are tomato plants (growing beautifully, I must say -- my father-in-law, a good hand with flowers, mentioned that I must be using a setting spray -- I said that no, I wasn't, I was just letting things proceed naturally .... and then I looked up online what was causing the flowers to fall off rather than make tomatoes, and, lo and behold, I need a setting spray. Should have listened...); I went out to water them one day, and felt a fluttering, and here she was:

And this is what she left:

Here you can see both what happens to basil and flower when given minimal water (and probably some bird droppings) for two weeks -- as well as what wasn't there yesterday morning, but was there this afternoon:

I have a baby bird!

(The other egg may be a dud -- it's got a crack in one side.)

It's been fun to watch -- the papa bird will come by, sit on the railing (this is a balcony one story up), and talk for a bit, mama will answer, and papa will say something else; then mama flies off and has lunch (I'm guessing) while papa stands guard. Very sweet.

Soap!

2009-05-13T20:18:00.001-05:00

I've been enjoying myself with some melt-and-pour soap. The first batch was very pretty, but cheap base, so didn't lather well -- smells divine, though, and very decorative. Good ornamental soap.

The next batch I had more fun -- rose petal bits, almond bits, olive oil, honey (that one was slimy, won't try that again!), and a better base.

Also tried a bit of rebatching, as you can see in the bright aqua ones -- they're a bit rubbery, but maybe they'll work!

Verdict: Soapmaking is fun, but when will I use all that soap? And who can I give it to?

Pigeon!

2009-05-10T20:36:00.002-05:00

Himself helped clean house, which is truly excellent and wonderful, but, of course, things get lost when cleaning. So, I don't have the dongle (that's what it's called?) that connects the camera's card to the computer... so I can't post pictures of the pigeon that's nesting in my herb garden! Maybe soon...

Paris

2009-05-01T12:40:00.004-05:00

On our way back from India, Himself and I stopped off in Paris. His family is from India, and his first name is very common there, so we were always looking around to see who was calling him. (Aside: I always found it amusing to shout out "Mommy!" in a crowd, just to see how many mothers would look my way to see if I were theirs.) For equality's sake, then, we found my name in many places in Paris.

(You may have to zoom in on that one.)

We had fun doing the 1976 Michelin Guide (picked up on my parents' honeymoon) recommended 4-days tour of Paris in 2 days, with the third for Versailles -- walking about 8 miles a day, which is very salutary, I'm sure, but does make your feet tired after four days of climbing stone temples barefoot in India.

We caught some examples of fine French design, which my French-Antiques-Saleswoman Aunt I'm sure would appreciate, such as the chandelier in our little hotel:

And we saw all the general sights, as well as, of course, some very exciting bookbinding examples:

at the Hotel Cluny, Museum of the Middle Ages:

Also managed to stop by Relma, a fantastic bookbinding shop. I'd never been to a real bookbinding shop before, only booths at the Guild of Bookworkers Standards meeting, so it was a great experience. Bought some cheap leather (that would fit in the suitcase) and some headbands -- some of the leather's already gone to make Himself a book, which should be my next post, if I remember -- either that or the bird that's moved into my parsley!

The last night, febrile under the Eiffel Tower, was not quite as fun, but I'm all recovered and well, and at least the pneumonia didn't really hit until the last night!

India!

2009-04-28T20:30:00.013-05:00

India

As long promised, here are some of my pictures from India.

At a Hindu wedding, there is fire.
Also flowers.

Afterwards, we went on a trip to a temple important to Himself's family; no pictures at the temple itself, but my Picasa album (first picture in this post should take you there) has pictures I took along the way.
That's my favorite car -- the Ambassador. The British were making a style of car when they were in India, and they left, and it seems not to have occurred to anyone until about fifteen years ago that there would be any reason to change the design. They come in any color you want, so long as it's white. They're quite comfortable (think British taxicab -- same concept, really), but everyone in Himself's family thinks I'm silly for loving them, except his father, who's tickled and indulges me by requesting them from the chauffeur company.

The billboard (aka "hoarding") behind the car? Political ad. You have to see the hand-painted portraits of everyone in the whole party! My favorite candidate from the region, purely because of his name, is M. K. Stalin -- yes, named after Uncle Joe. (Naming's different there -- the "last" name is your given name, functionally your only name; initials before the name might point to your father's name or place of origin, and you might mention your caste at the end of your name. M. K. Stalin's father is the breathtakingly skilled orator Karunanidhi, hence the "K." Why I'm so hot on Karunanidhi? Tamil is an excellent classical language, but most people speak it in a nasty nasal manner dropping syllables all over the place and using compressed grammar; when he speaks, you can tell how beautiful it really should be.)

Of course, if you haven't got a driver, or even a car, you can fit the whole load on your scooter. Didn't get any pictures of it, but they do that with families too -- family of six on one motorcycle, with only the father in a helmet -- which is still an improvement over the last time I went for any period of time (2003), when helmets were almost unknown in this region.

It's a land of caste and economic distinctions, but most people overlook one or the other. Sometimes both.

Here, a fine house is next to a pretty low-end one (there's more pictures in my album of true huts, made of twigs -- there's very little true homelessness in this region, as you can always drag some sticks and palm fronds together and make a very basic shelter). In the towns where I've lived, that could mean either that the person in the low-end dwelling (who has a shop affixed to his house, and has sold a wall for advertising -- people everywhere are enterprising!) is high-caste but in reduced circumstances, or, more likely that the person in the fancy house has come into money, but is low-caste or "scheduled caste" and will not be made to feel welcome in a nicer part of town. (You can see that a bit in Houston -- I've gone out in some odd areas on Google Street View (I always like to check out where such-and-such a murder happened, mainly), and there'll be no sidewalk or curb, mostly abandoned houses or trailers, and then what would be a million dollar house in the middle of town, but has a tax value of $100,000, due to the $10,000 lots nearby.) Less common in the smaller towns, but more in the bigger cities (like when I was living in Madurai, or especially this time in Madras/Chennai), people, especially the younger generation, won't care about caste (sometimes even overlooking it when it comes to marriage, although that's less frequent), and will hang out with and live near people of the same economic standing, education level, and job type.

In any case, people today are more likely to live like this:
than like this:
But I suppose some things do have to change over time.

One thing I'm glad has changed? Medicine -- levaquin is nasty while you're taking it, but pneumonia, even when young and otherwise healthy, is no fun. Just don't want to do anything for a few weeks; without the medicine, apparently, it would have dragged on for months. But I'm all better now :)

Pneumonia!

2009-03-18T17:52:00.004-05:00

So, I had a great time. The wedding was exciting, and I did get half a day to do some very rushed shopping in. I've been to India several times before, twice for 3-4 months each, so I'm familiar with the area, and know what shopping to do. (It's like when I go back to London, where my family lived for three years when I was in high school -- it's a shopping trip, not so much a sightseeing one, although, with London as with India (to a greater extent, as changes are more massive), it's also a "look how much things have changed!" trip.) Photos to come, when I get around to retrieving the camera.

Paris was a blast -- the Michelin guide my parents picked up on their honeymoon was printed in 1976, before the Louvre had pyramids and when the Orsay was still an abandoned train station, but it's really excellent. (I took a Let's Go guide (I won't get Lonely Planet, as they're Let's Go's main rival, and Let's Go is written by my old classmates) for things like modern opening times, etc.) It has a guide to how you can do all of Paris really fast in four days. I thought, "Great, we'll skip Montparnasse and Montmartre, and add in the Musee d'Orsay, and moving quickly we should be able to make it in three days."

That's until Himself says, wistfully (he's never been to Paris; I have, twice -- once with family, doing the full tour, and once on a one-day hit-the-Orsay-and-the-Eiffel-and-the-restaurant airplane layover), "can we go see Versailles?"

Ok, so we skip the Champs d'Elysses, as well (it's just the view down to the Arc de Triomphe, really -- we saw that in the shuttle back to the airport and while walking through Tuileries, anyhow), and do Michelin's Paris in Four Days, adding in the Orsay, in two days! And spend a day at Versailles, which was actually quite fun -- since I went (in 1995), they've added audioguides, which were most informative; and, we got to go out to see Marie Antoinette's fake hamlet where she could pretend to be a peasant, which I hadn't seen before.

We've walked about 8 miles (by Michelin's approximations) a day for two days, after several days of standing up barefoot for several hours in India, and spent a day doing a lot of walking at Versailles, and we get back and are sitting under the Eiffel Tower (it sparkles now -- didn't do that back in 1995 either!), having french fries and hot spiced wine (that's the good stuff), when I finally feel completely miserable and give in to miserableness. I've been coughing (in India, you can see the little black particles dancing around in the air -- never a good sign), and my throat hurts, and my feet hurt, and I'm finally losing my voice ... and then I get chills and am just feeling awful. We walk back to our lovely hotel, Himself kindly having given up his lovely and so-sweet idea of getting wine and cheese from little shops along the way and having an in-room picnic, where I try to check out with my French (Rosetta Stone was good -- helped a ton, and especially made me confident), with no voice, and feeling like I'm burning up -- turns out I have fever, too.

The next morning at the airport we get some cough syrup ... on the plane home, I feel like I'm dying -- turns out codeine's over the counter in France, and it's the only medicine I'm allergic to. So we didn't think to check the bottle... that's one miserable flight! After two days home from work sick in bed, I go back to work, just coughing a ton and feeling so tired, but not really thinking much of it (the pollution in India has had me cough for six months once before -- although then it may actually have been pertussis, I've since learned). My mother finally made me go to the doctor today ... turns out I have pneumonia! So, that's why I haven't made a thing, haven't read anything except one mystery novel at the doctor's today, and haven't had the energy to post.

Not to make it picture-less, though, I'll put in a few of the Margaret Bag from Oh, Fransson! that I made for my sister at Christmas. She loved it, and Himself said I should quit work and just make bags :)

The outside fabric is scotty argyle, and the inside is little scotties on brown fabric. Very cute.

(My skinny sister ... used to be a model, eats like a horse, 5'10" and 117 pounds or so... she got the Irish side (including the red hair), and I got the stocky German side!)

Didn't it turn out nicely?

Now back to resting... I'll be doing a lot of that for the time being!

Traveling

2009-02-24T20:56:00.003-06:00

I'm off to India and France on Friday. (The above is a picture of me on my birthday in 2004.) Himself's cousin is getting married, hence the India; and we didn't want to spend the entirety of his only week of vacation that way, so we're rejoicing in a three-day stopover in Paris on the way back. Staying here. Have a list of book-arts-y places to go in Paris, as well as the Orsay and the other tourist spots (I've been a few times, but always quite quickly, and he's not been much if at all), and my uncle's favorite restaurant.

I've been doing Rosetta Stone French through the library (free!), and have learnt to say such useful things as, "my husband has drunk much and has fallen down" :) -- hardly likely! But we'll have a grand time, I'm sure.

Last of Christmas

2009-02-24T20:49:00.002-06:00

Yes, I put away Christmas stuff on January 6 or 7. But I didn't post pictures until now!

These are those little houses ... I have to admit, while all snobby and classy in other respects, I confess to a weakness for Thomas Kinkade (in moderation) and little Dickensian houses that light up at Christmas.

(Peeking out under the drawer you can see the edge of some University of Texas demitasse cups my fabulous grandmother gave us, as we've each gone -- Himself for undergrad, me for my MA.)

And I got a gingerbread house kit in the secret santa at work, so ... house! It was truly a merger -- Himself had never made one before, so he was a novice, while I ... well, let's just say, the last one I made was a scale model of the Stephansdom in Vienna, with colored M&M's making up the patterned roof. So we compromised! I think it was sufficiently happy, anyhow!

Aunt Cushion

2009-02-22T08:29:00.004-06:00

This is a cross-stitch cushion I made for my aunt. It's entertaining -- she has such specific likes in colors, ones that no one else has, that everyone who saw this in progress knew exactly who the intended recipient was.

It's about four inches across; as mentioned below, I don't like finishing, so I had my lovely mother (who's finished pillows for me before) make it up for me -- she added some ribbon around the needlework to make it a bit larger.

Sweet, don't you think? Pattern's from this book.

Christmas Quilt

2009-02-18T07:19:00.003-06:00

A bit late, eh? Well, here's a little lap quilt I made for Himself, who gets cold. It's a silly cold -- he wants to sit around in light cotton clothing in January. I want to dress like it's January, and am actually doing stuff around the house (plus I have some extra natural insulation he doesn't have), and see no reason why I should be in a summer sundress and sweating to keep him comfortable sitting still in summer clothes in the winter ... so I refuse to turn the heat above 60, and make him put on blankets if he refuses to wear socks and sweaters!
Bizarrely, blogger seems to have rotated my picture ... but, as you can see, the back is poinsettias, with gold diamond-shaped quilting, and the front is santa toile (so funny!) with shaped quilting around each vignette. My first complete quilt! I tried to piece things when little (my mother's an accomplished quilter, and actually had to sew the bias tape around the edge here after I gave up, so I of course wanted to do what she was doing), but never actually completed one before. It was modeled after Erin's three and a half hour quilt, but it took me a bit longer ... lack of experience, I guess. And that's not even counting the binding. But, I'm pleased! And so was he.

Distractions

2009-02-05T12:55:00.001-06:00

Over at Not Quite Vintage, Colleen mentions that she can't concentrate when real people are talking, but can when the TV is on. (Along with cute quilt block patterns.)

When I was writing my thesis, I needed "company," as I was holed up for weeks, but real people were too distracting. I would put the TV on (no cable, but in Boston, so two PBS stations) nonstop. When it got too interesting / my deadline got closer, I switched to only the more boring PBS documentaries (steamboats, anyone?). Then finally to a rotating constant run of High Society and The Philadelphia Story, over and over (it was a year before I could watch them again!), as that provided me with "company" but didn't draw my attention in the least. Only in the last two days was everything turned off (and my dear roommates plied me with bananas and buttered toast).

What distracts you?

Wuthering Heights

2009-01-30T08:40:00.003-06:00

I watched Wuthering Heights last night -- well, the first part of it; the DVR cut out and didn't remember to record the second half. I really enjoyed it! I haven't liked the others (and once my dancer friend and I did a marathon of several different classic versions, so I've seen a bunch), but this one was good. Cathy both attracts and irritates, which is how she ought to be. Charlotte Riley's accent is fabulous, as well. Heathcliff's sullenness, brief period of moderate happiness, and eventual madness and destruction is well done.

I see I can watch the rest at the site, so will do that soon!

Inspiration / Ideas

2009-01-18T22:55:00.004-06:00

I have to create things. Even when telling myself I needed to stay focused at work, I created curtains and crowns out of discarded items. But I'd love the things I create to be objectively productive, not just turning junk nobody wants into more junk nobody wants. Some people have ideas:
Sheri Schmelzer had an idea. She made bugs and flowers and junk to stick in the holes of ugly plastic shoes to make them, if not less ugly, at least more decorative. It became popular, became Jibbitz, and now she's a millionaire. (Full disclosure: I wear Crocs at work, because I'm on my feet all day and walk a mile to and from my car. I have no jibbitz, and wear this kind of Croc, but still. Shame takes second place to waterproof comfort.)

I have ideas, but I doubt they're things that would appeal to the masses. My sister understands the masses (she's a school counsellor, down with Hannah Montana and all that), but doesn't make things. New plan: to get together, her ideas and my making things, and become millionaires.

Hey, a girl can dream, right?

(Now back to the knitted socks.)

Helvetica

2009-01-11T21:00:00.002-06:00

Just watched Helvetica. Entertaining to see all the perspectives, from people loving it because they don't think typefaces should say anything, to people hating it because it doesn't say anything, to an ... interesting ... woman who connects it to militarism and admittedly without any evidence except her own animosity towards both typeface and ideology correlates its usage with voting for Reagan. I think I come down mostly on the side of the fellow who says it's fine, useful for things where readability is the goal (like road signs), but basically boring.

And I got to teach Himself about the difference between serif and sans serif ... twice ... and I don't think he paid attention the second time either. But he is very good to me and does pretend to be interested in the things that interest me (at the time, at least), and is entertained that I'm interested, so I can't complain.

Why didn't I read much in October? We were sleeping on a matress in the living room, post Ike, with no lamps, and I had to be even quieter than normal, and what spare daytime hours I had were spent laying a new laminate floor in our water-damaged bedroom. So, only got away with a few novels for teenage girls and one dear little story for small children. Oh, well!

Reading List

2009-01-11T18:34:00.003-06:00

Between taking care of the husband, doing a bit of yardwork and housework, satisfying the we-never-see-you of the various family bits, and my job, I've managed to get a bit of reading in since my birthday (July 28):

July 28-:
Raisins and Almonds. Kerry Greenwood.
The Care and Feeding of Books Old and New. Margot Rosenberg and Ben Marcowitz.
Death Before Wicket. Kerry Greenwood.
A Hole in the Wall. Louisa May Alcott.
(Yes, it's a short story, but I bound it in a book all by itself, so it counts as a book!)

August:
Busman's Honeymoon. Dorothy Sayers.
Three For a Letter. Mary Reed and Eric Mayer.
Killer Stitch. Maggie Sefton. (These are fun mysteries hashed out by a knitting group -- I really enjoy them!)
Murder Must Advertise. Dorothy Sayers.
Away With the Fairies. Kerry Greenwood.
Clouds of Witness. Dorothy Sayers.
Thrones, Dominations. Dorothy Sayers and Jill Paton Walsh.
A Case of Nosy Neighbors. Lori Copeland.
The Last Hero. Terry Pratchett.
Bertie Wooster Sees it Through. P. G. Wodehouse.
Our Lady of Pain. Marion Chesney.
Murder in Montparnasse. Kerry Greenwood.
At Bertram's Hotel. Agatha Christie.
The Truth. Terry Pratchett.
Meg's Story. Susan Beth Pfeffer.
Mrs. Jeffries and the Feast of St. Stephen. Emily Brightwell.

September:
Further Chronicles of Avonlea. L. M. Montgomery.
Little Women. Louisa May Alcott.
Mrs. Jeffries and the Silent Knight. Emily Brightwell.
Unnatural Death. Dorothy Sayers.
The Documents in the Case. Dorothy Sayers.
A Gift for Meg. Susan Beth Pfeffer.
Along the Shore. L. M. Montgomery.
Alice in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll.
The Road to Yesterday. L. M. Montgomery.
The Gold Bug. Edgar Allen Poe.
Dragons in the Waters. Madeleine L'Engle.
The Arm of the Starfish. Madeleine L'Engle.
Meet the Austins. Madeleine L'Engle.
The Young Unicorns. Madeleine L'Engle.
The Moon by Night. Madeleine L'Engle.
Troubling a Star. Madeleine L'Engle.
(Yes, I go on kicks!)

October:
A Ring of Endless Light. Madeleine L'Engle.
A House Like a Lotus. Madeleine L'Engle.
William Morris: Decor and Design. Elizabeth Wihilde.
An Acceptable Time. Madeleine L'Engle.
Us. Mrs. Molesworth.
Romance of a Christmas Card. Kate Douglas Wiggin.

November:
The Little Christmas Shoe. Jane Scott Woodruff.
Beasley's Christmas Party. Booth Tarkington.
Why the Chimes Rang. Raymond McDonald Alden.
A Captured Santa Claus. Thomas Nelson Page.
The Light Princess. George MacDonald.
Fin-de-siecle Vienna. Carl E. Schorshe.
My Book House: Over the Hills. Olive Beaupre Miller (Ed.)
Emily of New Moon. L. M. Montgomery.
The Matters at Mansfield (or: The Crawford Affair). Carrie Bebris. (These are the only knock-off Jane Austen books I've ever liked, and I've tried several ... if you're writing about Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, don't have them swear, sleep around (especially not her, with anyone, or the pair between meeting and marriage), or do other massively anachronistic or out-of-character things, please!)
Emily Climbs. L. M. Montgomery.
Emily's Quest. L. M. Montgomery.
Fleece Navidad. Maggie Sefton.
Anne of Avonlea. L. M. Montgomery.
Anne of the Island. L. M. Montgomery.
The Lamnas Feast. Kate Sedley.
Equal Rites. Terry Pratchett.
Anne of Windy Poplars. L. M. Montgomery.
Anne's House of Dreams. L. M. Montgomery.

December:
Anne of Ingleside. L. M. Montgomery.
Mort. Terry Pratchett.
Sourcery. Terry Pratchett.
Rainbow Valley. L. M. Montgomery.
William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Home. Pamela Todd. (I love William Morris designs!)
Rilla of Ingleside. L. M. Montgomery.
The Story Girl. L. M. Montgomery.
An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews. Henry Fielding.
The Mysteries of Udolpho. Ann Radcliffe. (Long, but really just as good as all the reviews at the time said it would be!)
The Golden Road. L. M. Montgomery.
Kilmeny of the Orchard. L. M. Montgomery.
Relighting the Lamp of Excellence. Michael and Lois DeBakey.
America, 1908. Jim Rasenberger. (I've learned, if I give a book to someone in the hopes they'll lend it to me, I'll usually be wrong, so I should read it first -- this was a present for my grandfather.)
Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded. Samuel Richardson. (Ok, really? Servant girl resists master's advances, so he abducts her, locks her up, and attempts rape several times, and we're supposed to find it wonderful that he finally marries her? It's a good thing that the girl succumbs to Stockholm Syndrome? For ancient novels, I'll take Ann Radcliffe over Mr. Richardson any day!)
The Shuttle. Frances Hodgson Burnett.
Masterpieces in Miniature. Agatha Christie.

A lot of the Christmas ones were actually for work -- I was doing a display on Children's Christmas books, and read those on my lunch break so that I could review them.

Can you tell what I like? Sayers and Montgomery get read every year, sometimes multiple times (I can read Gaudy Night several times in a row), and Alcott and L'Engle get worked through on a two-year rotation, normally. And I do like "cosy" mysteries.

How do I read so much? Himself has to go to sleep very early sometimes, and I like to sleep early but not at 7:30, but I can't make noise, so reading gets done then; and, due to various regulations, I'm required to have a nine-hour workday and take a one-hour lunch, which is fine when I want to go out to a restaurant or something, but is a bit lengthy when I've brought a sandwich, so I get an hour of reading in around noon most days. And I'm a fast reader. Not a reader for retention, which sometimes threw me for a loop in class (but I really did read the book! I just forgot it after I read it!), but is great for novels -- I can read an Agatha Christie a year or two later and have no idea who did it, and I get as much enjoyment out of the books I read several times a year each time I read them, because it's always fresh to me!

Read anything good lately?

Sorry...

2009-01-11T18:31:00.003-06:00

I do mean to come back here... I have a Christmas lap quilt, and who knows what-all else ready to photograph and show off. And several comments to respond to! Thing is, my "you have a new comment!" notification comes in while I'm at work, and while I feel fine reading my email (there's professional email lists coming to that account as well), I don't feel fine blogging at work! And Himself will be out all night all this week, so I should have some time... if I don't spend it all cleaning house (as I should be doing) or goofing off and knitting socks while watching old recorded episodes of Masterpiece and the "Road to Avonlea" series (as I shouldn't really be doing all the time)...

Happy Christmas!

2008-12-25T07:56:00.002-06:00

I try to do some of the German things I picked up when living in Braunschweig, and these tissue-paper snowflakes are some of my favorites.

Our sweet little tree ... note the University of Texas longhorn for Himself ... the rest of our presents are at my mother's house and we're heading over there right now!

Now, that's just tacky

2008-12-23T21:59:00.002-06:00

My mother made an out-of-town family member a hat and scarf for Christmas last year. She was so proud of herself -- she'd just progressed beyond shawls, and these did not look like the work of a beginner.

This year, said family member brought my mother a bag of giveaway stuff he'd found in the closet he uses whenever he visits (and that no one else uses), for her to take to charity.

In the bag? The hat and scarf. He'd never even taken them away.

Well, someone's never getting time spent on him again, as he's shown how little it means to him.

Snow!

2008-12-11T07:17:00.004-06:00

I got home from work and looked outside (should have turned off the porch light to see our fairy lights better) and saw this:
Want a better look?
(I hate these palm-bushes, so spiky)
Even better, piling up on Himself's car:
It's all gone this morning, but goodness, it was fun. Snow in Houston!

Frosty

2008-12-10T05:05:00.002-06:00

I've never done anything in plastic canvas before, but I needed a break from the two-year crossstitch project, so, when I heard of this fellow on freecycle, I jumped. You get to see a bit of my hand for fun -- he looked better against the wall of the Man Cave than on our wood floors.

Things I learned:

1) plastic canvas is fast!

2) when they say to do all stitching, including the overcast edges, before trimming the plastic, ignore them. I did that on the left stocking, and you can see the bits of plastic sticking out. The rest, I trimmed first, and it's much better.

It was fun!

Now back to the two-year project...

Margaret Bag

2008-12-01T18:55:00.004-06:00

I made the Margaret Bag found over at Oh, Fransson! Like a fool, I didn't take a picture of it before wrapping it up for my kid sister, but I did take a picture of the fabric scraps once I thought of it:

The pink's the outside, with a big pink button, and the brown's the inside. Himself was even impressed when he saw it (he's used to my being able to make things, so it takes a lot to impress him). I'm so thrilled!