Fiber and Pulp

Cold Rain

 I thought about going to the opening showing of the new Sherlock Holmes movie today, but I stayed home in the warm and watched The Code instead. Nicely convoluted with several surprises and very nice acting scenery. :)

My friend Patty came up and presented us with a wonderful tin full of baked Christmas goodness -- Thank you, Patty! Delicious! :)

Since I slept until a little after 2 p.m., I missed my daughter's and my mother's phone calls. Am recharging my cell phone now so I can can call them back. :)

I've been reading, listening and watching a lot of stories this month with great pleasure. For some time (months and months) my attention has been taken up by lots of nonfiction -- podcasts from The World and NPR and PRI, Marketplace  reports, Diane Riems interviews, etc. This month I went back to the worlds of fiction, though, starting with the three books (a trilogy) my daughter sent me for my birthday in November - His Dark Materials.

You might be familiar with the first volume, The Golden Compass:

The second volume of the trilogy is called The Subtle Knife:

  

The last volume is The Amber Spyglass:

These are rich, intense tales of alternate worlds and the relationship between a girl and her father, her mother, her age-mate male friend ... and the intensity of belief. Took me much longer than the usual amount of time to read these stories through, with a few days of thought and contemplation between readings (generally I read very quickly and can finish a two or three hundred page paperback in two or three hours).  

Since I finished reading those books, I've been delving into reading once again. I've also been listening to audiobooks at night as I fall asleep instead of the 'real-world' podcasts I had been consuming. Things like Stephen King's Dark Tower  series (which I have been through four times now, enjoying them more each time), Elizabeth Peters' Egyptian mysteries, a modern werewolf tale (part of another series) called Frostbitten, Dan Brown's newest novel The Lost Symbol ... thanks to my beloved daughter for helping me to remember the joys of a good story line. :) Also to my beloved husband for buying me the iTouch for my birthday that is helping me along this journey. ;)

I am supposed to be working on the sales floor at my store tomorrow -- I sure hope this nasty cold rain we are having tonight doesn't turn into inches of ice! :P

On the Eve

 
All the lovely Christmas posts on other quilters' blogs are actually making me rather sad today. (sniff) We have not celebrated Christmas with a tree and decorations for some years now. When we were newly-weds, years ago, I decorated with a variety of hand made ornaments given to me by my mother-in-law and made by friends over the years. When the children were small, I went all-out for the holiday with a tree and the works, including lots of gifts. (At some point about 20 years ago I had to restrict my gift-giving to just the close family -- children and parents - as my winter seasonal affective disorder condition could no longer deal with the stress of shopping for so many (I gave birthday gifts instead)). 

Now, since the store, I have no 'life' at home other than sleeping, eating and vegetating. (sigh) No decorations, no tree, etc. Not enough energy to deal, I guess. I do miss the smells and lights, though ... so today I went out and googled myself some tree lights like the ones from my childhood. My Aunt Pauline always decorated their house with lots of pretty things and her tree with these vintage (now:) bubble lights. I was always fascinated by them -- how the bubbles rose up inside the light stems and reflected and re-reflected the light. (happy sighes). My husband thinks these are the essence of dreadful so we don't have them on our tree (though I did buy some at one time -- don't know if I still have them or not:). I can have them on my blog if I want, though. LOL

Skip and I bought ourselves two new appliances for our mutual holiday gifts. we are not much for holiday-appropriate gift-giving timing -- we tend to give gifts, big and small, when the mood strikes. :) Skip and Hugh are mutually working on some new game acquisition for the Playstation 3 (?). My son's gift to me (though maybe he doesn't think of it like that:) is his willingness to emerge into the work world. :) Mine to his is my willingness to help him ... also I am contemplating a makeover for his bedroom that includes paint and new curtains and installed furniture (which I actually bought him for a christmas gift some years ago). :)

Yesterday was my mother's 78th birthday. Happy Birthday, MOM!! :) 

Today would have been my mother-in-law's birthday, too, but i don't know when she was born, exactly, so I"m not sure which one. Difficult as she was to get along with, I wish she were here to celebrate, too.

Snow and Cold!

 

We've had lots and lots of goodies like this  in my neighborhood since I last wrote! Beautiful, glorious snow! :) There were, of course, lots of Maryland folks who thought the entire event not-so-glorious. :) I love snow -- it makes the world white and quiet. ;)

Still, in a place with less-than-practiced snow removing folks, it _is_ an impediment to normal life. We spent Saturday and Sunday completely snowed in at home. Our sidewalk and driveway were shoveled (twice) thanks to the crew I pay to do the work -- they more than earned their pay this time! Our court/street did not get cleared until Monday morning (snow started on Friday evening and lasted until late Saturday night). Of course, my store was closed, too. Skip and I ventured out on Monday morning in the sunny cold and managed to get to the shop without trouble. By then everything had been cleared.

I'm getting ahead of myself here. Friday I went to see a cardiologist, Dr Michael Kelleman at Johns Hopkins, on the referral of my primary care doctor. Dr K had me stay to get a sonargram of my heart and the results. Yes, I do actually have something going on in my left coronary artery -- whether it is a blockage, clot, thickening of the vessel wall or whatever, not to know, yet. After some discussion, we decided that I should have an angiogram the first week of January.

This involves inserting a catheter into my artery and taking a look (via nifty tiny camera technology) at the lining of my artery. If there _is_ a clot there, they will perform an angioplasty -- remove the clot and insert a stent to hold the artery open. :P If they do that, I'll have to stay overnight in the hospital for observation ... if not, I get to go home right away. :P 

Since two of my four siblings now have similar problems with their hearts, I'd guess we (the five of us) have some kind of specific weakness in our hearts. (sigh) I guess this is a wake-up call for me -- time to take better care of myself than I have been in recent years. :P

Quilting-wise I have done very little since I finished my warm Minke piece. I've been knitting -- on my son-in-law's scarf and on a brain-wave of my own. I'm actually kind of proud of myself with this project. (blushing) 

I think I might have mentioned here that I recently found a very old knitting project -- ten years or so ago I started a simple shawl-collared cardigan sweater from a Knitter's Magazine pattern using a lovely (to me:) purple-to-pink variegated Manos del Uruguay yarn. When I found the project, the back piece had been almost completely finished but the remainder of the yarn to make the fronts and sleeves was gone (don't know if it wandered off into another project bag, was given away, or used up). I unraveled the entire back and reknit it into a nice rectangle, thinking it could be the start for an afghan, maybe.

I've been wrapping the rectangle around myself to stay warm while I sit upstairs and use my computer. About a week ago, it suddenly occurred to me that I could make it into a shrug (I was _cold_ and the silly wrap would not stay on my shoulders without at least one hand to hold it; I wanted to use both hands to type on the computer). So, I went to the yarn shop beside my store and bought some very nice Galway brand wool yarn in a matching soft purple and started to work. (Well, in my life things are never that easy ... first had to _find_ my yarn-sewing-up needles and some thread/yarn snips .. then seam up the sleeves).

I picked up stitches and made cuffs on each sleeve (that's easy enough). 
 

I decided that the sleeve seams had to be sewn up only to a point and I needed some extra, um, coverage before the band .. so I picked up and knitted a gore/gusset on each sleeve that connects the bottom and top of each sleeve. 

 Of course, this took a little experimentation -- I was not sure how big it needed to be so I increased by one stitch every time I picked up at the edge. Turned out that was way too big (I seamed it closed and cut away the extra on that side) ... so I just picked up stitches on the other side and that turned out right. :) Always floundering around and making do. :)
 

I wore the shrug like that all day Saturday while I sat and watched movies. Clearly the shrug needed a band all around to keep it from slipping about on my back. 

Now, I don't have (um, more truthfully, cannot find) long circular needles ... so, I spent some time mentally considering how to knit a band. The easy way is to pick up stitches all around the edges of the sleeve opening and knit with ribbing (same as making a button band for a cardigan). What I had to work with is double pointed needles. (hmmm) I decided that I _could_ knit the band in the opposite direction and just join it by picking up the side stitches as I knitted. (hmmm) Don't know how to make _ribbing_ that way (not even sure it is possible?) 

When I was in the knit shop buying the yarn, I also bought a copy of Interweave Knits magazine for Winter '09. In it, there is an article about knitting reversible cables (that is, cables that look nice on the back). Now, I'm only an intermediate skill level at knitting (my own estimate:) and I have done very, very little cable knitting ... really only enough to know that I _can_ do it, with directions. :) The idea of a reversible cable was more attractive to me than plain garter stitch banding, though, so I thought I'd try that ... still picking up the stitches and attaching the band to the shrug as I knitted.

Of course, when I sat down yesterday to watch tv (on my computer) and knit, I realized that I had left the body of my shrug at the store on Friday afternoon. RATS! Yarn, needles, pattern ... but no body to knit onto. So (sigh) I am knitting the band and will sew it on when it is finished. :P I got a fair bit knitted yesterday before I tired. 
(Yes, that is our most-recent Quilters Quest bag I"m using to carry my knitting in -- works really well!:) I left one garter stitch edge wider than the other so I could decide which way to sew it on to the body of my shrug. I do not actually know which side is 'front' and which 'back' on this cable -- do you? (If so, please leave me a message and let me know!:) 

So, no quilting right now, just knitting ... and cocooning ... and snow enjoying. :) Pretty soon it will get frantic chez Schiffer with inventory preparation, but not yet. :)

One really good piece of news (for us) is that my son, Hugh, has decided that he needs to get into the work world. He has agreed to a hair cut and wardrobe upgrade so he can work for our store part time for a while. We have oodles of grunt labor that needs doing, heaven knows, and I am hoping to get him comfortable enough with customers to make a good sales person out of him. ;) We'll see about that in time...but any step toward the outside world is a positive step for Hugh! :)
 

I have spent some extremely pleasant hours recently reading _real_ books (thanks to my beloved daughter for the birthday gifts!:) and watching interesting movies and tv shows ... but I will share all that later as this is getting plenty long enough. :) 

(NOTE: Just now, reviewing my post under the header, I realized that the color combo on my shrug is clearly one that I like ... and have liked for a long time. :) Matches the header, eh?:)

Interesting Times ...

Here is what I am trying to finish this week. We bought some Minke kits for my store and this one is MINE. :) If you have never sewn with or touched Minke, it is a one-way stretch fabric with a nap that feels like fur. Luscious! 

I missed the entire decade or so during which we were learning to sew with knits (was in college and such:) so I felt a mite nervous about doing this. Turned out to be a no-brainer, though. I oriented each of the pre-cut squares with the stretch going the same way (no stretch across, stretch up and down) and sewed the squares together -- first by horizontal row, then putting the rows together. Despite my expectation, the stuff is not slithery -- it sticks to itself quite well. So much so that I did not actually use any pins until I wanted to match the corners when I put the rows together. I DID use my walking foot, though, to help keep the stretch from, well, stretching. :)

I decided that I wanted a generous lap sized quilt so I put a border (we did buy one full bolt of the Cheetah print) all around. I used the 60" wide cheetah print for the backing and a nice soft wool batt for the inside. I bought some #3 (I think) perle cotton (next door) to tie it with ... but haven't gotten that done, yet.

Talk about warm and cosy!! This thing makes me want to roll up in it. Definitely the luxury choice for a gift, too.

Oh, instead of pin basting the thing together as I might ordinarily do, I used Sulky 500 to spray baste the entire sandwich -- I am told that is the preferred way to do this fabric to machine quilt it, too. I have some little bits left of the border/backing fabric and the batting -- I think I'll experiment with machine quilting on that. :)

This has been an interesting week and no mistake. In the sense of that 'Chinese curse' about living in interesting times. :) I went Tuesday for my physical exam with my doctor. We started this process in order to substantiate a need for bariatric surgery to my insurance company ... Lots has changed in the last six months (I usually have blood work every six months to keep an eye on the CFS virus). My Vit D levels are down, so the dr. sent me for a bone scan (no big deal - xrays - no results back, yet) ... my blood sugar and cholesterol levels are rising (:P) ... and my EKG showed a 'left branch bundle blockage' so the dr. sent me for a Nuclear Stress Test. 

That is something I've never had done, though Skip had (when he reached 60, to establish a 'base line'). Five hours of sitting interspersed with two injections of radioactive isotope (they gave me a paper to carry for the next three months in case I set off any of Homeland Security's geiger counter monitors:) ... walking on a treadmill to breathlessness ... and sitting very still twice for fifteen minutes each time with my arms up and a digital xray machine clicking and whirring and moving around. <shrug> Also no results, yet.

The most amusing thing that happened was on the treadmill. At one point I got breathless enough to make the nurse concerned so she made me stop and brought me a chair to sit down on -- putting it right on the treadmill. The monitoring doctor came in and was examining the trace/plot paper with my heart figures and bumped the 'go' button for the treadmill. I knew instantly what had happened as my chair sailed serenely backwards toward the wall. I knew there wasn't enough space back there for me to get hurt so I'm giggling and the rest of the people (three of them, by now) are jumping all over the place trying to catch me. I thought the doctor was going to hurt himself! I was fine but he was embarrassed, poor man. :) LOL It occurred to me much later in the day that they might have been more worried about being sued than my getting hurt ... but I don't think so. ;)

We'll see what the test results are. My dr. said it could be anything from a random blip on the monitor to surgery-requiring stents. <sigh> I had planned to go see my Mom in Ohio this week, but had to delay that. Maybe next week, if nothing else 'interesting' comes up.

Surprise!!

This was the view out my car window as I drove home from the store today around 1:30 p.m. -- it is not totally unheard of for the Baltimore area to have snow so early in the season ... but it is really, really unusual. :) Those of you who live in more, um, inclement places will have little sympathy, I'm sure. ;) Heavy, wet, lovely snow was falling all morning and into the afternoon -- supposed to keep up until 11 p.m. or so tonight. 

By the time I got home, here was the view of the Japanese maple branches in front of our door:

Heavy, wet snow -- beautiful as it was falling. I was astonished by how much traffic was on the highway as I came home. Along I-95, between Md 100 and 175, there are probably 80,000 to 100,000 people living nearby. I think there was at least one car for every other household on the highway. :) The snow fell fast and was quite sticky -- the light poles along the road (maybe three? four? stories tall and metal) had very thick snow ridges along one side of each pole almost all the way up. Not much wind, very wet snow. I'm so glad I decided to wear my 'winter' coat when I went out this morning! First time I've worn it in two years and I was happy to have the warmth and the hood! :)

I had a pleasant surprise waiting in my mailbox at home, too. Some time ago now I won a give away on the Ivory Blush Roses blog (Lisa B) -- today I got my lovely ATC made with fabric and hand embroidery. Thanks!! Lisa, I cannot imagine a better ATC for me. :) The colors are lovely and understated, the embellishments homey and happy, the embroidery lovely!

 

MultiMedia Satisfaction

 

  
 
I must say that I am quite happy with my five multi-media pieces -- fabric, paper, various paints/inks and embellishments. :)  I apologize for the not-very-good photo of the last one -- the camera just does not like shiny stuff (covered with art glass glitter:).

I ended up mounting each one on a rectangle of foam core board to give them stiffness and stability. I hope the folks for whom they are intended like them. :)  

Paper Quilting

     On Sunday afternoon my MetroThreads Mixed Media group met at the store. We played with a paper quilt making technique that was written up in Quilting Arts called Cracked Paper Quilts. There are three really good videos on the QA site to explain the technique. 

The pieces I made (shown in photos above) were all experiments with different kinds of paper surfaces ... I will be doing more painting and embellishing and finishing on them before they become assorted gifts. One of the pieces I made did not please me visually so I cut it up into two inch squares and will further play with that. 

I guess the impending winter is getting to me (we've had gray, cold, rainy skies here in Maryland for what seems like weeks now:) -- the pieces I made were mostly about butterflies and flowers. Even the snowflake one I made (I do love snow:) has a butterfly for hope in it. :)

Working

 

Been a while since I posted any thing here. (sigh) The Quest went _very_ well this year and it took us all an entire week to recover. :) Everyone on the staff worked overtime! Since I finished tidying up after that event, I've been somewhat coasting at the store ... finishing up the Winter '10 newsletter, getting it to the printer and up on our website ... trying to plan for inventory taking at the end of this year ... thinking about when to go see my Mom since I decided not to travel over Thanksgiving (I was just tooooo tired to be trusted to drive a day each way) ...

Monday the 23rd was my birthday and I spent the day very happily indeed. My husband took me out to lunch at a local eatery (Mimi's Cafe in Snowden Overlook). I had a chicken salad, apple waldorf sandwich (on croissant) and Skip had a Reuben. My favorite caricature on the wall there shows an iconic kitchen and wait staff gathered and greeting you with a big 'Bonjour, Ya'll!" LOL Then we went to Home Depot and ordered/bought a new Maytag dishwasher (has steam cleaning!:) and clothes dryer ... the appliances in our house are mostly 20+ years old and are dying off. :P Started reading one of the books my beloved daughter sent me -- '1491', the Americas before Columbus arrived (very interesting).

Today the shop is closed but SKip and I are here working -- me on a class sign, snail mailing a few newsletters, and hanging class samples ... Skip on upgrading our computers all to OSX Leopard and book keeping chores. :P

I think we will have a quiet Thanksgiving tomorrow, just the three of us. I hope to get the table cleaned off so we can eat properly. :)

Busywork

The regional shop hop (Quilters Quest '09) is going on right now -- my store has been part of this every year since we started in '99. I've been sitting and stamping passports as customers come through for the past three days ... and ringing up at the register to check customers out. In the down time, I am working on my second Patchwork of the Crosses block. I'm still working with scraps and I'm happy with the way it is coming out. :) 

By late afternoon my fingers were feeling rather pricked to bits (I'm making my block with English Paper Piecing which is pretty brainless ... easy to pick up and lay down ... but no thimble as I dislike them). I went next door and bought some pretty, soft alpaca yarn and started knitting my first Xmas gift (a nice warm neck scarf for my son-in-law who is allergic to wool:).

 

You might be able to see the scarf pattern in the photo -- it was a free download from Martha Stewart's website. I like the way the scarf tucks through itself so you don't have flapping ends. :) I have my fingers crossed that he is not also allergic to alpacas (don't know when he would have been exposed to those animals:).

Two more days to go with the Quest .. might get the POC block finished? :)

Moments of Beauty

Every once in a while I have to stop and enjoy the natural world around me. :) Several mornings ago I left the house before my husband (we were on our way to the store) -- the sun was shining but the air was crisp. I sat down on our concrete front step to wait for him and enjoy the sunlight filtering down through the Japanese maple tree's red leaves. The front sidewalk leading from the step I was sitting on (very cold on my bottom:) was covered with what my daughter used to call 'cornflake' leaves -- dry and crackly when you walk on them. :) I looked down on them, soaking in the lovely colors, and notice an ant energetically crossing the sidewalk -- the smallish red and black sort shown above.

She was really intrepid, putting any human walker to shame -- up an down the leaves she went, busily tramping up and down twice as far as she went forward. Never swerved or hesitated, just pushed onward. I had to admire her energy, especially considering that she was cold blooded and I don't think it was much more than 55 degrees out.

Gotta be more like that ant! :)