Summer Hiatus

I'm BACK!

And, I have a few FOs to show off! Yay for productivity!!

Here is Aim's "granny" poncho:

This was from a free DROPS pattern here, meant for little girls. I started with an opening large enough for an adult (I chained 128--I think it was an "I" hook), then worked around and around til it was the size that I wanted, which was also when I ran out of yarn! Cool! I used RYC Cashsoft DK yarn ~9 balls. A fun stash project.

This poncho has been great for walking the dog in our early fall temperatures. So glad I made it!

Next, I made a Baktus out of Mint Chocolatini colorway sock yarn from Yarntini.

I love the way it looks with the bobbles, which I copied from a Raveler.

This scarf is a great way to use up one ball of sockyarn.

I also started and finished a Chanson en Crochet, a cute little shawl-ette that really keeps the chill off!


I made it in Brooks Farm Riata yarn, a nice mohair/wool/silk that worked out very nice. Because I only had one ball, I had to skip several rows of pattern, but you can't even tell. I already used it last Saturday morning when it was FREEZING out the morning of my garage sale. It really kept me warm enough, with a short sleeved tee underneath, until the fog cleared midmorning and the sun came out and then we were baking!

As the Nana Slippers go, I finished 1 and 7/8 of the pair, but ran out of yarn. Grrr, I have to find the calorimetry I made in that yarn and frog it (I don't like it anyway) and then I can finish the slipper. Very frustrated with that!


As usual, I've overextended myself to the point that I can't keep up. I have promised multiple great things from this blog, but have been unable to deliver. So sorry about that. I am thinking of taking blogging hiatus, but before I do I'd like to finish up some of the promises....like the tutorial I promised long ago (it's very minimal, but I DID promise!) and finish the nana slipper pattern. So I'm gonna try to do some of these things prior to signing off!

Recycling and Whip Up

Pearl Geyser glows eerily in Yellowstone National Park.

I just found the coolest tutorial. It is non-knitting related, but still the best crafting/recycling post I've ever seen! It shows how to make fabric shades out of old cheezy miniblinds!! Go check it out at Little Green Notebook

I found that tutorial via whip-up, one of my fav blogs. I have not read any blogs in months, I feel bad about that. I have been knitting, working and spending my time on Ravelry. But this morning I decided to link to some of my chicas and see what they are up to. I have really been missing out!

(A big thank you to those who have been reading and commenting on my blog in spite of the small little world I've been living in the past couple of months!)

Anyway, here's an amazing website (in Portuguese) with gorgeous lace projects. You could spend hours scrolling her beautiful photos. I'm in love with that style of crochet lace, very reminiscent of Irish Lace, but updated with gorgeous colors! Sigh...
If I only had 300 years to make everything I want!

Finally, look at Anne's cute red & white theme she has going (love the polka dots too!)

Gotta run, or I'll be late for work.
Happy crocheting and knitting and recycling and sewing and crafting and cooking and...well, you get the picture.

Nana Memorial Slippers--a free vintage pattern

My Goompa was known for his gardening and his poetry. He was very witty, and wrote humorous poems that always made you laugh. He was even published in the Saturday Evening Post!

My Nana was known for her hospitality, her knitting, ceramics, and sense of style. She wore wonderful outfits with matching chunky jewelry (it WAS the 1970s girls), and always looked just so. There is a photo of her with my grandfather in the 1920s, a stately teenager gorgeous in her ruffle-sleeved polka-dot dress with a cloche. What a stunner...

She always knit. In fact, she kept all 8 of her grandchildren (and her children and in-laws) in slippers and mittens and hats. Throughout my childhood she knit continuously. When we would visit she always pulled a box of mittens and slippers from under the bed, and let us choose our own. She also gave them as gifts each Christmas. We never once wore store-bought mittens or slippers until we were well into adulthood, when she was too ill to knit anymore.

(In addition, she supplied her church's annual holiday bazaar and various charities with those same knitted items EVERY YEAR. She was amazing.)

Sadly, during her lifetime I crocheted, sewed, and crafted, but I did not knit. I purchased "The Principles of Knitting" in about 1995 to help me learn more of knitting. But knitting never really caught on until 2002; Nana passed away in January 2003. She never saw my knit items.

Every single stitch I create now reminds me of her. I miss her, but what a legacy she left!

My point is this: My brother mentioned that he sure misses the slippers Nana used to make, and do I know how to make them because he'd love them for a Christmas gift?! (Also, he stated he is still wearing the last pair she gave--they have to be about 15 years old at this point!)

That comment made me go stash diving into my patterns. I thought I remembered seeing a hand-written sketchy pattern for slippers from my Nana's estate.

I dove in and pulled out this:

written in her own hand! (click for better view)

I cast on eagerly: if I'm gonna make these for gifts I'd best get started! And never a better time for "reminknitting" than when the loss of loved ones is so fresh.

I thought I'd share this timeless pattern for slippers, as I have scoured Ravelry without success looking for it:

NANA SLIPPERS

size US 4 knitting needles
4 ply worsted weight yarn

CO 3 STS
K1 ROW ACROSS
K1, INC 1 ST, THEN K ACROSS; REPEAT THIS ROW UNTIL 32 STITCHES ARE ON THE NEEDLE

NOW, INC IN EVERY STITCH--64 STS.

(You can change colors here if you like)
*K2 P2* REPEAT ACROSS. REPEAT THIS ROW FOR 5 INCHES

(change back to the first color here)
K2 TOG, REPEAT THIS ACROSS THE ROW--32 STS.
DEC IN 2ND STITCH UNTIL 3 STS LEFT. BO.

SEW UP TOE & VAMP.
SEW UP VAMP FOR HEEL.

(You will fold this oddly shaped square into a triangle with the garterstitch points together. Then sew from this point down one side completely. On the other side, you will only sew together the ribbing section for a heel!)

As much as I'm a yarn snob now, I grew up in these slippers knit in acrylic yarn. They lasted through many washings and really the only thing that ever ruined them (I remember) is snagging them on a loose nail on the flooring, which ripped a hole. A testimony to how long they can last is my brother wearing his 15 year-old pair!

I hope that my posting this pattern will lead to a whole bunch of people knitting these for loved ones this Christmas--I will try to "pdf" this at some point, and get it listed on Ravelry. And, I'll be back to update this post once I get a finished slipper to photograph!!!

Happy gift knitting everyone!

Good reads

Mammoth Hot Springs, view of the town from the top of the hot springs formation. Our happy little cabin is tucked back in there!

I just read Maeve Binchy's latest book, "Heart and Soul". She writes such good stories about life in contemporary Ireland. I have read all her others as they came out, and always wait impatiently for the next one.

I just finished reading "Journal of a Trapper" by Osborne Russell, one of the original mountain men who traversed the Yellowstone area in the first half of the 19th century. It was sometimes tedious reading as he really kept a log of miles traveled each day and in what direction, but it is also interspersed with very lovely prose and accounts of the beauty of the wilderness, gripping Indian encounters, and tales of the trappers' life. A great book if you are interested in history, and at all familiar with the area of which he writes.

I remember always being fascinated with that particular group in American History class in High School, the mountain men were a very hardy bunch, and, though trapping and hunting in that era contributed to the plundering of the land (and near-extinction of some species), that lifestyle has always appealed to me in a romantic sort of way. Imagine working all day for yourself, in the company of only the wilderness, and you are only as well-off as your persistence and ingenuity make you.

Anyway, I remember being in the bookstores of Yellowstone national park and seeing quite a few titles about the historical figures of the area. So now I am on a quest to read as many of them as I can find. And I will start here, in the online bookstore of the Yellowstone Association. Each book usually gives plenty of references to others, too.

I really want to revisit that beautiful outdoor theater of the great wild West...

A Perfect Cloudless Day

A perfect cloudless hot summer day. She gets home from work feeling run down; today is the first day of another summer virus. So she sets up a cushion on the patio lounge chair to relax in the late afternoon balm.

Her spouse brings in the mail; brings out to her a special letter. It is in her mother's handwriting, with her late Grandfather's return address. She opens it--it contains a card that says "I miss you" and inside is a check for her inheritance from his will.

She cries. She misses him so much. And while the grief threatens to overwhelm her, she looks up. Above her, in an otherwise cloudless sky, hovers an oddly shaped cloud. It fully captures her attention in the midst of her sorrow. As soon as she sees it, the cloud hesitates, and then begins to shrink slowly from sight. Wonder gradually displaces grief. Suddenly, she understands. He is here, attending her reciept of his gift. Making sure she remembers that he loves her.

The cloud does not blow along to the horizon like clouds do; it simply grows smaller and smaller until it dissipates directly above her. A sense of peace, and bittersweet sorrow, and gratitude for a lifetime of memories are all that remain.

Til I see you in Heaven, Goompa. My life with you was a precious gift. Thank you.

Love,
Amy