My niece who it a budding artist offered as a birthday present to paint my Danskos.  I am a big fan of Van Gogh, so I asked her to look at his roses for inspiration.

And this is how she painted the Danskos.

I now call them my “Happy Shoes”, I smile every time I gaze upon them.

Now for the something ugly, the main reason I haven’t posted for awhile.  I woke up one morning, and as I was getting my bearings before I would get up, I had an itch.  As I was scratching it, I could feel a lump… it was on the side of my left breast.  My first reaction was “Where did that come from?” and then I better get this checked out.   Within 10 days they confirmed it was breast cancer.  Then the whirlwind started.  Tests, surgery, trips to ER, tests, chemo, change in chemo treatment because I was having severe reactions like not breathing, tests, new chemo treatment, more tests, and as of today I am in my second week of radiation which is 5 days a week.  The hardest of all of this was telling my children (all teens).

In this whirlwind, there have been rays of sunshine, from family, friends, neighbors, fellow parishioners and last but not least members of my guild.  I am very blessed that I do not have to go through this alone.  The doctors, nurses and technicians have been so sweet as well as very competent.

I hope to be posting more frequently, I was able to do some knitting/spinning/weaving during this time that I’ll share with you.

And if it’s been awhile, go get tested.

I was a very contented individual knitting and spinning.  But during the course of visiting the blogs of other knitters and spinners, I found that there are quite a few who also weave.  I have admired their projects, scarves, towels, blankets but thought I don’t have the time or space at this stage in my life to take up weaving.  The weavers in my guild were also gently shoving pushing me to give it a try.  So last year at the guild’s garage sale I saw and bought a rigid heddle loom for $20.   My thinking was, its small and maybe I could give it a try and see if I like it.  But it wasn’t until recently that I warped it and started weaving. 

I am using Knit Picks Kettle Dyed Sock Yarn  Bordeaux and Eggplant for the warp and some hand spun Ashland Bay Rose Quartz Merino , 2 ply for the weft.

Well I am officially hooked, thanks mostly to Alice and Pamela.

While recouping from some surgery, I got a call from a friend who said that she was had decided to leave the state.  She mention that one of the things that she wasn’t going to be taking with her was a loom and if there was anybody I knew who would be interested.  So I very happy to report that I have something new in my living room, thank you Mada.

I am very excited.

The loom needs cleaning but I think from first inspection it looks to be in very good shape.

Yesterday as I was knitting (Fountain Pen Shawl) in my living room, I heard the heddles of the loom start to rattle and as they got louder I could then feel the earthquake.   The quake gave us a good shake, it was 5.4 and about 60 miles away.  We had a few good size aftershocks since.

I am indeed very happy with my new loom/earthquake detector.

Last night was the high school graduation of my eldest.

It seems a bit surreal to me.  Kind of like when we first brought her home.  Her daddy and I would just stare at her, trying to absorb that this tiny human being is real and she is ours.

We are both very proud parents.

Dang it.  Where are those tissues?

Yep, the ends of this sock are not for the faint of heart. 

I hope to have it done for my guild’s potluck this Saturday.

I think this is just darling, and I really love the colour.

Which is a good thing because for just one sock I needed to knit 15 more.

I have knitted a total of 33. 

Yes I can do the math… and realise that I should have made a total of 32 leaves, 16 for each sock, but it seems that I just can’t count.

But I can count today… my eldest daughter turned 18.  Oh my…

So I’m off to decorated her cake.

Last Saturday I attended a spinning workshop that my guild was putting on. 

The instructor for the workshop was Galina Khmeleva, author of Gossamer Webs: The History and Techniques of Orenburg Lace Shawls.  Her focus for our workshop was showing us the techniques for spinning exotic fibers into fine lace yarns.

Galina brought alone many jaw dropping, major drooling, absolutely fabulous lace shawls and scarves.   I was literally giddy, and stupid… I couldn’t find my camera until most of the shawls were put away.  But I did get these pics.

The shawl above Galina is showing, is made with yarn spun from qiviut and plied with a silk single.

The scarf  below is made from spun pygora.

The spinning  and plying are all done on support spindles which is a plus when you are dealing with short fine fibers. 

We were given six scrumptious samples of fibers to play with; cormo, bison, cormo/alpaca, qiviut, qiviut/silk, pygora and cashgora. Yum, yum, yum!

I was a bit skeptial at first, but after a couple false starts, I was getting the hang of it and not too long after that I was feeling comfortable using the support spindle.  I do have some experience of spinning lace on a drop spindle and that helped.  But drafting with the supported spindle is done with one hand, which was new to me.  It really pays to have good fiber prep.  I checked out a few of the YouTube videos demonstrating the use of a support spindle, but they don’t show what I think are good techniques like Galina taught us.

Galina is a very good instructor and share a wealth of information about all aspects of the construction of the beautiful Orenburg Lace.

I went home with some goodies.

This is the finest I have consistently spun qiviut and I am enjoying it more.

I just love the colour of the cashmere and silk I purchased along with a small shawl/scarf  penanular.

And now for the lastest volcano report, live from my house (100 miles away, I can just see it between some trees)…

Reboubt is venting a steam plume to 20,000 ft. 

Pic from AVO.

Now where was I…  Oh yeah, I finshed the Iris Quilt.

To recap, the project is from “Pieced Flowers” by Ruth B. McDowell.  Now I just have to make a slat for hanging the quilt.

I also finished spinning some 3 ply BFL/Mohair 85%/15% sock yarn.  I blended the fiber on my drum carder and the resulting batts spun like a dream.  This was for my guild’s challenge celebrating the 50th anniversary of Alaska becoming a state.  We were to (weave, spin, knit, crochet…) something with blue and gold.  Blue and gold being the colors of the Alaska state flag.

I didn’t want to have a solid blue for the sock so I hand painted the yarn with shades of blue, purple and turquoise.  I loved the result.

I choose the Sidewinder Sock  pattern by Nona.

With this design, the sock is knitted lengthwise.  I believe its shows the blue variations off better and creates a sky look to the sock.

After the socks were knitted, I spun a silk single and dyed it yellow for the stars.

I embroidered the eight stars on the socks to depict the Big Dipper and the North Star.

I really like the results, though this pattern wasn’t my favorite to knit.

And if you’re interested, the YouTube link is to the Alaska Flag Song which starts with “Eight Stars of Gold on a Field on Blue…”

Tomorrow is going to be a fun day, I will be at a workshop with Galina Khmeleva.

A few years ago a dear friend left Alaska, and for a parting gift I was to make her a quilt wall hanging of an iris.  I got 70 % of it done before she left, but alas I haven’t finished it yet even after all this time.  My rationalizing has included, “She’s moved a lot since she has left so I didn’t want to add to her packing.”  Pretty lame, huh?  The real reason is that I procrastinate when I’m not sure how to proceed and I rather do nothing than screw it up.  So I have decide to take a very deep breath, dig the project out and finish it.  I am a stronger person now… I have cut steeks.

The project is from “Pieced Flowers” by Ruth B. McDowell.  (A fabulous book to drool over peruse.)

I choose the asymmetrical straight seam iris pattern on the left.
I still have 40 % of the hand quilting to do, and I have yet to figure out what I have done with the thread I was using.  I also need to find the remaining fabrics so I can decide the border and how I want the quilt to hang.

Wish me luck.

As for knitting, more lace is in my future.  I have decided to give Mystery Stole 4 a try. 

The yarn is Jagger Spun, Zephyr, Blueberry .  I made some simple stitch markers, the thin wire doesn’t seem to affect stitch spacing as the plastic store bought ones do.

Phew!  That was the fastest I have ever completed a lace anything.  I had planned on having the month of August and half of September to complete the stole in time for the original reception date.  But due to the incident in Germany, the reception was moved up a month. 

None of my girls were interested in modeling the stole so I snagged one of their friends. Thanks Cat.

The Stole for Laura.

Pattern:  “Scarf or shawl with a center pattern” from  “Victorian Lace Today” by Jane Sowerby.
Yarn: Artyarn’sSilk Mohair, colour “snow”, 2 skeins
Needles:  US# 5, Addi Lace Circular
My variation:  For the center panel I used the repeat section of Chart B from “Scarf with the No. 20 edging from The Knitted Lace Pattern Book, 1850“.

Though it was a fast knit, I am very pleased with the results.

The bunchkins start school next week, so I have some serious back to school shopping to endure.

I had mentioned in an earlier post that I would be knitting lace for wedding gifts this summer.  One of the wedding gifts is going to be for a niece who is also my god daughter.  Her wedding was actually a year ago and far from Alaska.  She was then stationed to Germany and her husband sent to Iraq.  They were planning to come to Alaska this September after his tour and have a reception where I plan to give them their gifts.  But due to a dreadful event they will becoming home in August.  We have all been concerned about her husband’s welfare while he was in Iraq, but the event that surprise and shocked us was that my niece was mugged, beaten and left unconscious while on a run in a very “nice” town in Germany.  Her husband was able to get back to be with her within 23 hours of getting the news.  She is healing and otherwise doing well.

I have mixed and matched some of the designs from “Victorian Lace Today” by Jane Sowerby for the stole I’m going to knit for her.

The stole will have a center panel (Chart B from “Scarf with the No. 20 edging from The Knitted Lace Pattern Book, 1850“) with a border (Chart B from “Scarf or shawl with a center pattern”).

To start the stole I used the chain cast-on for the first time.

I like it very much, for me it works a lot nicer than the invisible cast-on.  This chain is temporary and will be removed when I knit the border.

“Victorian Lace Today” has a good reference section in the back of the book for techniques.  One of these references that I have found helpful is “Planning a shawl with a knitted-on border” which I used for planning the size and width of the center panel so the border should (fingers crossed) fit perfectly.

Off now to be mummy taxi driver (soccer practice).