Where's that sun?

Because I really miss seeing my shadow.

The gloom. The long continuing, uninterrupted feeling of oppressiveness and gloom. That feeling of waiting and waiting for something, and then figuring out that what you're building up all that anxiety for is just for the appearance of light. Will that sun ever come back? That's all I think about these days. The sun.

It is gloomy outdoors and twice as gloomy inside and it just seems like nothing but the sun can bump me out of this inertia. Except for maybe knitting.

Thank Gawd for knitting. It sure can get me through a lot of restless moods. One of my favorite things to knit are kittybeds for Violet.

One is blue...

...the first one I ever made and it's way too tall.

But it can be rolled down.

And smashed, if necessary.

I made this red one for a charity auction. While I was photographing it, I tried keeping it out of Violet's sight so she wouldn't jump in it and claim it as hers....

But she jumped in it and claimed it. Hers.

She then gave it a few kicks to really claim it and so once it got to the charity auction, I had to bid on it, win the bid, pay for it and then bring it right back home.

I knit this one during the Winter Olympics (which is why it is photographed outdoors in the snow).

An orange one...

And one that is just all girly and garish for no reason. Oh, she has a lot of these things.

If you look in the bottom of that last one, that circle in the middle almost looks like a sun in the center of a solar system. Doesn't it? At least it does to me because the only thing in my head these past few weeks has been sun, sun, sun.

Well, even though it's not a real sun, those kittybeds are warm and to Violet, that's kind of the same thing.

Yeah. I'm desperate for some sun. I sure do hope it comes out tomorrow but if it doesn't, at least there is the promise of something blooming that is sunny and bright...

If the squirrels don't get to them first. :-/

Finishing up projects...75 or so years later

Something I like to do is collect old embroidery projects (preferably from the 1920s) that never got finished and then.....finish that last bit of embroidery. Most of the time it's just one square inch left to complete because for some reason the project got put away when it was almost finished to get stored in a box for what ends up to be a lifetime. Am I guilty of doing the same thing? Oh, most definitely. And I hope 75 years from now there will be someone who will have enough interest to finish my unfinished projects for me. I have a lot. I even inherited the unfinished projects from an old boyfriend's grandmother....a big box of them which sits in my attic. Most of her things are not that interesting to me because they're from the 50s and 60s but there are some transfers I should dig out and store in a more archival fashion because they really are very period. One in particular I remember is a portrait of a flapper's face in profile with a cigarette dangling from her lips. Charming.

I pulled these two pieces out because I want to make them into pillows when I have some time off at Christmas. I have the cotton velveteen backing, just have to sit down and do it. At least both of them now have their embroidery completed (still have to figure out a good way to get rid of all those rust spots though).

I just adore this mandala with all the spirals. It's got the eye confusing detail that draws me in every time. Lots of movement with lots of order. Love that kind of design.

It was pretty much completed when I found it. One outer row of red and green dots had not been done. Also, all the dots in the center three circles were not done. I hope I guessed the right colors. The spirals at the 12, 3, 6 and 9 o'clock positions don't have the additional red outline, they probably should, but I left them alone because I like it better that way.

Sometimes you're lucky to find something with your initial.

It was a sincere pain trying to figure out how to duplicate the bullion stitch but success!

However, don't try to embroider french knots or bullion stitches when a starling is on your shoulder. That's another thing I learned. Starlinka would bolt from my shoulder to pull out the knot in just seconds. I have to say I was guilty of the same thing when I was little. I have no idea why but I'd pull out the french knots in my pillowcase when I was bored and couldn't get to sleep. Kids are bad. Even when they grow up to become people who love this kind of stuff.

Hopefully soon I'll have these two pieces clean and sewn up into pillows and then some day, on to the other........uncountable number of projects waiting for me or someone else to finish.

I remember going to a basket making class years ago and most of the women in it were older (60s-70s) but dang, they were a busy bunch. One of them was late to class because she had started digging a fishpond that weekend and had to stop off at the side of the road and gather up some good rocks. She apologized for being slow but she was still sore from all that digging she had done the day before. The conversation became one of gardens and one of the women lamented that she and her husband had just moved and that now that she was in her 70s, she didn't know if she had enough time left on earth to put in one more garden. One of the women said, "Miracle-Gro, Mary. Miracle-Gro." I wish they had some sort of Miracle-Gro for unfinished embroidery projects because getting them done is a very slow process, sometimes taking close to a century. :-)

Knitwear for birds

A little over ten years ago, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art & Design here in Kansas City had an exhibition of Argentinian artist Monica Giron entitled "Trousseau for a Conqueror." She knitted life-size protective clothing for the birds found in Patagonia, the region where she is from. There are many layers to her artistic intent (the merging of cultures after one has conquered the other, protection vs overprotection) but my friends and I could not get past the incredible cuteness of all the knitted bird outfits. The preposterousness of birds in their winter sweaters had us laughing until we snorted.

Pullover for a Carancho

Pullover, socks, and scarf for a Flamingo

Pullover for a Chucao

Thanksgiving starts the countdown to Christmas and every year around this time, I think of that exhibit. Why? Because I think maybe the birds and the turtles and Violet should all have their own Christmas stockings hanging from the mantle. Maybe this will be the year when I finally sit down and start knitting a Christmas sock. And if I did, the first one would be for Eddie. Something pink, fuzzy, glittery, maybe with some maribou trim because Eddie is definitely a girly girl. Stella? What kind of sock goes with combat boots? :-/

An Introduction to Violet

Violet 1995

Violet 1996

Violet 2008

Violet was named after my stepgrandmother (I met her only once but I always liked the name). I really should have added an "n" to Violet's name though because "Violent" was more like it. Oh she was awful as a kitten. She was a kitten for...ten years I think. Bad. Every day of her kitten life. But she eventually learned to calm down and learn that doing absolutely nothing can sometimes be the best thing you can do with your day...

She is now a very good helper when it comes to photographing anything knitted. For example, here is Violet showing off the front end of a scarf...

...and the back end.