A new year

You can't reflect on this past year without talking about Covid. I have been very fortunate to be able to work from home and have the means to have groceries and other items delivered rather than go out to purchase them in person, so my exposure has been limited, and to the best of my knowledge I have not ever contracted the virus. However, a work colleague died from it just two days after Thanksgiving. He was due to retire at the end of the year and had a family. I was looking over some computer code he wrote for me just yesterday (very well written, too), and it saddens me greatly that he passed away too soon from his life. He was a really nice guy. 

Another sadness is that we lost our beloved furry buddy, Felix, in early December. He lived a good, long life and we so enjoyed having him in ours. 

Felix Shag-a-ferocious Tuggle-rumpkin
2003 - Dec 2, 2020

Moving on...

I had a very crafty-filled year, most of which I wrote about in this post, so I won't repeat it here. I splurged on a number of new "toys" - partly out of retail therapy because of feeling cooped up but mostly because I wanted them.

And believe it or not there were things I didn't own yet. This Cricut Maker was a Christmas gift that arrived this week. Not a great picture of the machine, but the picture was more meant to show off the snowflakes I made - my first project after cutting out the sample blue bear. It's fun! I think my next project will be to cut out some lettering to label some drawers that store sewing supplies. It'll dress them up a bit more than boring label-maker tags. I'm also excited to use this to cut small fabric pieces, either for quilting or machine embroidery applique.

The rest of my Christmas gifts were mostly either items to sew with, like bobbins, sewing machine feet, embroidery hoop, or books on knitting. Two books on Norwegian-style knitting!

And speaking of knitting, I finished one sock today:

Last week I finished sewing a Christmas-themed potholder. Another one just needs the binding. Maybe I'll get to it tomorrow.

I've always wanted to crochet snowflakes, so I gave it a go. I don't know that I'll ever make all 100! Haha! 

And on this New Year's Eve, I also spent some time spinning:

So what's in store for 2021? Well, one things for certain, I will do more knitting, sewing, embroidery, spinning, and weaving. And now that I have this new Cricut, I might do a little scrapbooking. I still have plans to do some fiber dying with natural materials - I received an indigo dye kit and some madder plant material at my spinning guild gift exchange. 

Happy New Year!!

Big changes

This is the state of my sewing at the moment - an almost finished Burda top (#121 from 9/2010), a sewing repair to my husband's sleep pants, and a growing mess.

The growing mess is because I'm moving soon. Our European adventure is going to end and we're about to start a new one back in the U.S., which I'm happy about because it means a really great job for me. Of course this will mean less time to spend on all my hobbies, but this job will be worth it and was an opportunity that would probably not come around again. 

I hope to finish the top and the repair but other than that I don't think I should start any other sewing projects and should instead focus on getting stuff ready to move. We will have our stuff packed for us, but not all of it will be going back to the U.S. - like most of the IKEA furniture we bought to furnish our apartment here - so I have a lot of work to do to sell/donate/throw away. And we'll have a house hunting trip in a few weeks and some final trips in Europe to do. Busy, busy busy times! 

One project I am working on is to finish weaving a scarf that I had started just before I knew leaving was a real possibility. I blogged about it earlier. 

The scarf looks really complicated and it sort of is. First, I did not design this, so the really hard work was done for me. The scarf is from the book Next Steps in Weaving by Pattie Graver. Still, this is the most complicated weaving project I've done so far. But it's like following a recipe, where the ingredients and their amounts are already determined and you just need to apply your skill at working with them.

I had lots of time to knit in December because I flew from Germany to California for an in-person interview right before Christmas, and we made two trips to our place in the French alps (which we are keeping and will be our destination for most, if not all, of our vacations). 

First, a shout out to Wollhaus in Pasadena, California. With the evening free after my interview was over, I of course sought out a yarn shop. I was warmly greeted right away and invited to join their knit night, which I did. I immediately felt at home. This may very well be my new LYS and as a bonus, one of the owners is Austrian and can help me translate all those German knitting magazines I accumulated!

Here's a finished project:

Socks for my husband

Works in progress:

More socks!

I'll leave you with a picture from our recent snow shoeing fun:

Click to biggify!

It's 2015!

It's time again to reflect on the past year and look ahead to the next. I think sometimes I feel that day to day I don't accomplish much but when I look back over my blog, I see that I really did do a lot.

Looking backward, my sewing machine got some use this past year. Hooray! I made some clothes for me as well as things for friends and relatives. My goal for this coming year is to do more sewing. I want to get past the anxiety I have about the number of projects I want to do and JUST SEW! I've been using OneNote not just as a database for all my patterns, but also as a way to capture my project ideas. In the past I had so many ideas floating around my head that I found it hard to pick the next project. With OneNote I can "clip" the pattern line drawing or picture, add a description of the fabric I plan to use (I could photograph it but that takes too long) and include notes about design ideas, notions, or other related information. I'm a list-oriented person, so having a "to do" list of sewing projects helps keep me more focused.

An example of my OneNote "Project Queue" page in my Pattern Library

The other piece of equipment that saw some use, albeit late in the year, was my loom...well one of them at least. My goal for this year is to get the sample OFF of my 4-shaft loom and put a real project on it. If I enjoyed weaving on my rigid heddle, I'm sure weaving on the 4-shaft will be even more fun. And if I do a lot of weaving on it, maybe this loom will be in my future:

Louet David

One item that did not see any use last year was my spinning wheel. For shame! But lately I've been thinking a lot about spinning, and I am itching to get back into it. I bought some fiber at a Christmas market and also bought some bargain fiber while on vacation in Turkey over Christmas. Since most of the bags in the below picture contained polyfil, it's likely that the intended use was for stuffing. However, I spied bags containing merino wool and cotton. With a little combing, I think it's spin-able.



Big bags of fiber in the Izmir shopping bazaar



What I bought - it's on my pashmina shawl on the hotel bed, in case you can't tell. Total cost: $2.60.

What I have been doing a lot of lately is knitting and reading, The weather has been very gray and dreary since we moved in - it feels like we've only had one or two sunny days in the last month - so I've been more inclined to snuggle up on the couch with a cat and my knitting or a book than getting the apartment set up, including my studio. I recently finished Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond and am now reading his follow up book, Collapse, as well as another book titled Women's Work - the First 20,000 Years by Elizabeth Wayland Barber. All are fascinating reads and have made my recent trips to Malta and Izmir, Turkey that much more interesting. I highly recommend the books (and also Malta and Izmir!), especially the last book because it pertains to weaving and textiles.

Travel is the other activity I am very fortunate to be able to do. Once again we took advantage of living in Europe to travel as much as possible. Besides Germany, this year I went to:

• France
• Austria
• Switzerland
• USA
• Spain*
• Norway
• Croatia*
• Poland*
• Italy
• Serbia*
• Malta*
• Turkey

*new countries for me!

Malta

 

Blue skies

 

 

Look! Blue skies! No rain! I need to get out. I'm recovering from a cold that stole my weekend from me, so I must find some energy to get dressed, make a lunch, grab my knitting and a go find a park bench to enjoy the day.