Christmas Knitting Rundown

The day I bought the Whispers yarn for the Misty Garden Scarf, I also bought several balls of a wonderful black ombre wool called Autunno, toning through pinkish and turquoise-y shades, but still black. I wasn't quite sure what to do with it but after the first Misty Garden turned out well, I thought I'd experiment with the same pattern in a heavier yarn. The Autunno looked perfect. It worked up beautifully into another but totally different Misty Garden, soft but solid.

This was a Christmas gift for my daughter Caroline, she of the extensively black wardrobe. I know she can't picture herself wearing much pink, but this is a painless way to segue her into just a bit of it.

I think I'm done with feather and fan for awhile, but it did knit up nicely.

My friends have been laughing at my tortured internal dialogue concerning the Kimono Shawl I finished in September. All along it was to have been a gift for my daughter but when it was done, I wasn't sure I could part with it. I wore it a few times this fall and felt like a million dollars in it. It's a gorgeous pattern and the Jamieson's Shepherd Spindrift worked up so nicely.

I was very torn--keep it and luxuriate in its soft gorgeousness myself? Or give it away to the kid?

But in the end the mom love won out and I wrapped it up for Caroline. Sigh. I told her that she had to wear it and love it. She wore it yesterday on an outing with a friend and looked fabulous.



I may have to make another one. There goes another six months of my life.

We've been doing a lot of knitting here in the evenings since Caroline has been home. She was looking through my copy of Scarf Style and has fallen under the spell of Lady Eleanor.



Yarn has been ordered and once she gets back to DC, she plans to dive in.

A Piece of Christmas Pie

Christmas morning found me putting together graham cracker pie crusts, attempting to duplicate a fabulous peanut butter pie Caroline and I sampled (more accurately, we pretty much buried our faces in it) in October at a bookstore/cafe in the Dupont Circle area of Washington, D. C. I had been thrilled to find what sounded like the exact recipe in one of my Silver Palate cookbooks. I made two graham cracker crusts using the Silver Palate recipe. But a few minutes into the baking time it was apparent that there was too much butter in the crusts.

Way too much butter. Way, WAY too much butter. The crusts in the oven were swimming in grease. I tried sopping up the grease with paper towels but more kept pooling in the bottom of the pans. I knew I was defeated when the crusts were literally melting down the sides of the pie pans.

And no more graham crackers were left in the pantry.

Luck was with me--a chain drugstore in town was open. I flew into town and grabbed the last two boxes of graham crackers. When I got home, sadder, wiser, and $7 poorer, I decided to make the piecrusts out of my trusty Betty Crocker cookbook. A known entity. They turned out beautifully, using THREE TABLESPOONFULS less butter per crust than the Silver Palate recipe. No wonder I was sopping grease on the first go-round!

For the filling and chocolate topping, I went straight with The Silver Palate recipe. The pies turned out great--an artery-clogging symphony of heavy cream, peanut butter, cream cheese, butter, and chocolate. But hey, it's Christmas. Everyone loved it. Oink.

Christmas Tree Past

Long ago, in my retail display lifetime, I had genteel themed Christmas decor every year. We had plaid bows, sprigs of baby's breath, homemade cookie ornaments, and carefully chosen one-color ornaments.

Need I say that this was pre-kids? Once we had kids and they hit preschool, the ornaments made of glued-on pasta began to appear, followed shortly by the walnuts painted to resemble strawberries, the applesauce dough ornaments, and little felt doodads marked with Brownie troop numbers. Sophisticated themed (if cookie ornaments could ever be considered sophisticated) trees were a thing of the past.

And of course I grew to love this happy hodge podge. Every little ornament was carefully wrapped every year and saved, and every one of them still trots out each year to appear on our Christmas tree.

Now that the kids are in their 20s, it's all an exercise in nostalgia--the little park bench mouse that Will had to take to bed with him, Caroline's preschool photo framed in the aforementioned pasta, the yellow felt Pac-Man ornament, the red apple that says "William's First Christmas".

We've picked up ornaments along the way that express ongoing family interests: LOTS of ski-themed decorations, some quilt-y ornaments, a couple teeny electric guitars. There have been gifts of meaningful ornaments--a family member gave me a little glass raccoon which reminds me of shared summer excursions when we were allowed to feed the raccoons at the roadside in Allegany State Park. And lately I've added a few food-related ornaments...

I look at our tree and see so much richness, the layering of years, gifts, get-togethers, people who've moved in and out of my life.

Many memories of years that flew away far too fast...

Caryl Bryer Fallert

My local art group listserv sent sent around some very sad news today. Bob Fallert, the husband of quilt artist Caryl Bryer Fallert, died very suddenly this past weekend at their farm in Kentucky, apparently of a massive brain hemorrhage.

Caryl is one of the most amazing artists and teachers I've ever encountered. She visited our local guild several years back. I was lucky enough to hear her lecture and take both classes she offered. Her patience at teaching was equaled by her articulate delivery and her masterful use of high tech equipment. Not to mention the talent, the vision,....well, I could go on a good bit. The techniques she taught in those classes stretched my mind, maybe bent it a bit, fired my imagination, and helped me to see in a different way.

Caryl offered classes and workshops in her studio, and while she was still living in the Chicago area, several friends and I used to muse about pooling our funds and doing private classes of some sort. What an experience that would have been. Unfortunately it never happened, and almost two years ago Caryl and her husband moved to the Paducah, Kentucky area, taking advantage of Paducah's artist relocation program.

This is all so sad for Caryl. In her note, Caryl said of her husband and their move to Kentucky:

He spent the last year and a half of his life living his dream, out in nature with his dogs and horses doing the things he loved best.

One more billboard for all of us on the road of life saying "It's later than you think".

Getting There

Much is getting accomplished here but I'm doing my best not to get caught up in holiday stress to the extent that I have in some years past. Having a job gives me some excuse not to go overboard. My mantra is, "We don't NEED ten kinds of cookies laying around here..."

There actually ARE ten kinds of cookies laying around the library--our library patrons are very good to us at this time of year. Too good, in fact, for my waistline. There will be a day of reckoning after the holidays are over. Oh yes.

Our weather is warm--all the remains of the big snowstorm are gone and green grass is back. Do I personally need snow to feel Christmas-y? NO.

I have binding to complete on one quilted gift, another is completed.

One knitting project is completed and blocked:



One sewing project is done, two or three more small ones remain.

Happy Christmas week upcoming, everyone. Let's all promise not to stress out too much.

Sneak Peek

It's been a productive weekend but I can't show many pictures because the walls have ears, as it were. Santa's workshop is in full swing. I don't remember when I've made so many gifts for Christmas--crazier than usual this year, I guess.

What you see above is an orphan block project from the leftover Tree's Up blocks. This top is finished, as are two other gifty items. More coming. All will be revealed in the fullness of time.

I also squeezed in another mall trip, please god, let it be the last I have to do before Christmas... My good cheer was challenged by the snippiest sales help I've seen in a long time, all working at a big name high-end cosmetics chain, whose name starts with S. My gosh, I spent nearly $100--doesn't THAT merit a little courtesy? Apparently not.

And I bought an issue of Selvedge. I've always been intrigued, but the price tag would stop me. This time I caved, and I'm thinking of subscribing. I have a little money from my Viewer's Choice win in September. I want to use those winnings as seed money for something that will feed my soul. Is Selvedge the right choice? I'm thinking about it.

Cabin Tracks Potpourri

Take a deep breath and inhale that cinnamony aroma... Ahhhhhh.

My Seams group had its holiday get-together a couple nights ago. A fabulous putluck dinner included cranberry martinis! The show and tell was choice, but alas someone had forgotten to charge her camera battery and the photos are few.

Renee finished one of her Cabin Tracks and I can share a couple shots of this scrappy and wonderful quilt along with a couple snippets of her masterful machine quilting.

This is Diane Gaudynski country. Most of us know Diane and learned machine quilting from her in her classes. We've all taken it off in our own directions and Renee is one of the best.

Yes, Renee needs a blog!

Leaves

This was delivered to me at the library by special messenger (AKA a 4th grade mom). No thanks were necessary but what a cool memento from the kids I read to a couple weeks back! Very touched by their notes and by their quilt-related artwork.

Don't you just love kid art?

The Lowdown on Tree's Up

Many thanks for all the nice words about my Tree's Up quilt. The pattern source: I had to dig a bit because I have to admit (sheepishly) that I borrowed a friend's pattern (she has made THREE of these now). The full name of the pattern is Tree's Up Lights On. The designer is Sandy Gervais and the pattern company is Pieces from My Heart.

I'm not usually into making quilts from commercial patterns but this one just blew me away. It's a stack and slash-type pattern, like the Crazy Nine patch. It was easy to do--I had the top pieced in a weekend. And I love, love, love it. It's Christmas-y without hitting you over the head with Ho-Ho-Ho.

And think of the non-Christmas possibilities: fall colors, winter colors, varying greens...

Working, Reworking, Re-gifting...

Christmas is beginning to make itself apparent. It's easy to get in the mood now that the snow has fallen.

I met my son at one of the area malls on Saturday for some shopping and lunch, and it was fun to see all the people, the gussied-up stores, and to get carried along with all of it.

I have a love/hate with Christmas. Once I get into the spirit of things, I love to futz with decor and could get fairly carried away if I let myself and if I had more time. But then there are the crowds, and all the stores piled up with useless stuff that no one really needs: the light-up sweaters, the "holiday gift" books, the fancy foods. And all the budgeting and planning and cogitating and over-scheduling. But even with all of the potential yuletide hassle, on the whole I'm feeling pretty good about the holidays this year.

I'm trying to keep the cynical, bad-attitude Kathie at bay, at least for the time being.

But we all get sucked in, don't we? I've already volunteered to host the library Christmas party.... It'll be fun, but I will be frantic.

Speaking of frantic, this is my driveway in the process of becoming drifted over with the snow that we plowed out of the way on Friday. Over on the left there, it's probably at least a foot deep once again. The snow is re-gifting. I'm hoping it doesn't get any worse. It's really annoying to get stuck in your own driveway three days after the storm.

Well now. It's been a very productive weekend. The Mile-a-Minute quilt is all ready for the handwork on the binding. Almost done!

Now I'm working on another small quilting project. It's been awhile since I went into production mode, mindlessly cranking out the half-square triangles.

But once I've put in the time, those triangles will (I hope) add sparkle to a small piece that bears some resemblance to this below, my Tree's Up quilt, made last year. I finished that quilt and discovered that it was too long for the intended display area. So I removed an entire row of blocks. And now I'm using those leftovers up.

I've put the Tree's Up quilt in my entry hallway this week and the place looks Christmas-ized already.

There's also a secret project involving this:

The yarn is called Autunno, 100% Merino wool, colorway14630, but unfortunately I can't show you just what exactly is working up very nicely.

Regional Accents

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."
The Midland
The Northeast
Philadelphia
The South
The West
Boston
North Central
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

This kind of thing always interests me, but this quiz paints with a pretty broad brush. Yes I grew up in the inland north, but far from Wisconsin or Chicago. I was born and raised in northwestern Pennsylvania, where the speech and pronunciation patterns follow those of western New York State.

Yes, Western New York is a Great Lakes area too but speech patterns there differ from further west. I answered the questions with my background in mind.

I live in Wisconsin now, but I don't think my speech has taken on what I recognize as Wisconsin-speak with the exception of a few very handy expressions, like "come here once" (for some reason I love that). Many Wisconsinites do something interesting with their Os that I cannot do. And I've never adopted that Milwaukee-ism that Milwaukeeans are so very proud of--"bubbler"--for what I call a drinking fountain.

And back in Pennsylvania, it was "pop". In Wisconsin (at least in the Milwaukee area) it's "soda". I DO say "soda" now.

Then there's my husband: his Upper Michigan accent would make any real linguist sit up, take notice, and grab a tape recorder post haste.

The First of December Was Covered with Snow..

An entire unprogrammed day fell out of the sky and into my lap. A snow day! The weather people made the dire predictions and the predictions came true--we've had a good old-fashioned blizzard. The library was closed. Everything was closed. By the time the snow ended and the sun came out this afternoon, we were left with just about a foot of snow.

When we get even a small amount of snow along with wind, our driveway can easily drift to impassable. Make that a full foot of snow and our cars were all but buried. Mr. Kathie, bless his heart, dug everything out. As long as that wind doesn't kick up again, we are back in business.

But a whole day for me to play! And did I get things done...

I've knit, I have the Mile-a-Minute about 7/8 quilted. I finished my holiday dec, I made bread.

And the whole weekend is still stretching out ahead.