bekka

warm fiber fuzzies

Last night I cast on for the February sweater from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitter's Almanac. Tried and tried to use the yarn I wanted, a variegated Wool in the Woods I had left over from a tank I knitted two years ago that I'll likely rip out, eventually. But no go.Tried needles from US3-US9 and couldn't get the 5 sts/inch that Liz suggested for the pattern. Am I being too familiar, calling her Liz?

Pulled out the Cotton Lux (Idena) I bought from LYS a week or so ago and tried it. Perfect, on US 5. It's not as overtly feminine as the first yarn I tried, but I'm happy with it. So happy that I called LYSO and asked if she had other colors. Only blue and pink. Yick. So, I may look for the Cotton Lux online, see what's available out there.

Went to my first meeting of the Overmountain Weaver's Guild this morning at Exchange Place in Kingsport, a neighboring city and hometown of the long-silent Bad Fortune Cookie. Arrived a few minutes late and had to sit in the front row. Yikes. But passing by all the other members, I saw something that delighted my eyes: Men and women knitting! That's right, I wasn't the only person who brought knitting and rubbed by needles together during the business meeting. The majority of members at the meeting were women, but there were 3 or 4 men, and 2 of them knitted. One knitted right next to me. Sigh, what a delight. Gave me the warm fuzzies.

Anyway, the guild members were lovely and welcoming and friendly. The officiating officer, since the president wasn't there, introduced me to those assembled as a new member. So I spieled into my story about all that fleece. The drum carder should be repaired by the August Boot Camp and I hope to have all my fleece washed and picked and ready for carding by that time. Boot Camp seems to be a monthly social/fibery gathering in which members socialize and weave, spin, knit, or engage in allied gentle arts.

There was show-and-tell (do children still do that in school?) after the more businessy essentials were covered. Lots of lovely rugs and belts skeins displayed by their proud creators/buyers. At one point I spied someone I knew. Laura, not the one I usually mention, but this Laura is a weaver who earned her BFA a year or two before I graduated. We were in the weaving department at the same time and were acquaintances then.  Several other people came to introduce themselves and welcome me. By and far people who love fiber are fine folk.

The presentation was too much for me. I should have left. We gathered in a darkened room and watched a DVD on color theory as applied to weaving. Most of the exercises and examples the woman demonstrated were ones I learned in my weaving classes 15 years ago. And I couldn't get comfortable in my padded folding chair, either. Can't really cross my legs anymore. Wonder why?

While in Kingsport I stopped at Hobby Lobby and bought fabric and button parts for two swaps I'm doing. Then couldn't resist a few variegated skeins of that washcloth yarn. Also got a few skeins of cotton in a nice plum that I've earmarked for a second February cardi if I take to this first one.

Also thinking about what to knit and enter in the Appalachian Fair. Got my AF guidebook, complete with application, in the mail earlier this week and that turned my thoughts to knitting specifically for show. Am thinking that those Saarjte's booties may be a winner. Might tug at some judges heartstrings to see something so precious among all that other...um...stuff. Wouldn't submit any that I've made in the past, but would create a new pair just for this. Just so it wouldn't seem so much like cheating!

fleece advice

Thanks so much Emily Amelia and Elizabeth for suggesting I look into renting spinning-related equipment from a local guild or yarn store whilst processing my abundance of fleece. Seriously, I'm not sure that even with preggy brain going on that I'd think to do that. I'm so used to doing it all, doing it whole hog and on my own, that I often neglect to think of how others could possible help me out.

It's been years since I've thought of local craft guilds, and I was fairly convinced the closest would be next state over in Asheville. But no. Good old Overmountain Weaver's Guild. As soon as I found their webpages, memories returned. I recalled my weaving professor mention them, and Convergence, which is later this month. He always attended Convergence, and it sounded secretive and serious and very high brow. Seems like while I was weaving a rug one summer weaving class, he mentioned Peter Collingwood and having been in a workshop with him at Convergence.

OWG has equipment that they rent to members, including a drum carder. It seems that I'm all set. Just pay membership fees, meet lots of great like-minded people, hang out at Exchange Place, and re-familiarize myself with equipment use. And that's well worth the small membership fee verses shelling out $70 for hand carders.

As luck would have it, OWG's monthly meeting is next Wednesday. I contacted the president and she invited me to come hear their program on the use of color. Hooray, I'm all set. Thanks again, y'all for steering me in the right direction. Certainly seems like a lovely case of serendipity having it's wily way with me.

hoot and boon

Hooray, I'm a winner. I look at Apartment Therapy's Ohdeedoh blog regularly. They showcase all the latest baby/child paraphernalia, and I usually enter their contests. I won Thursday's giveaway which consists of a set of Boon's new feeding line. I'm already feeling the name because Daniel Boone is/was my 7th great-granduncle and before the last name had an e on the end, it was the same as this company's name. Silly, I know. Oh well. Any connection at all is a good connection, right?

Love its colors, orange and light blue. Wonder what we'll get?

got geese, er one goose strip

Whew. Finally learned how to make the second part of my seasonal table runner, the flying geese aspect, last night. Finished up my spikes a few weeks ago. Four will be sewn together to form the center of the runner, actually three vertical centers. And then flying geese will enclose, or fly around the spikes. And then there's one last part to piece before I start sewing it all together and then finishing this runner up. I'm not certain I love my color choices and even wonder if every time I use this table runner whether I'll cringe at my extremely bad taste. At least I got to use some of the green. I'm so tired of the black and peach, or almost-peach, whatever this putty-like color is.

Surely I'll find time this week to make the other dozen or so rows of flying geese. Surely. That's my goal. Don't have anything planned any evening this week, and so it is doable. That is, if I'm not feeling lazy and decide to knit by the television. I know, how ironic is that? My last baby post was very anti-tv and here I am talking about knitting via tv. Maybe instead I'll turn on XM and listen to BBC for a few hours, remain true to my values and all. Or, better yet, I can convince Laura to let me teach her how to start her flying geese and we can work on the project together and I can hear all about her fascinating trip to Amish country, Ohio.

I'm actually pretty stupid when it comes to putting together projects. If not for Linda, there is absolutely no way that I could follow the pages and pages of dense instructions included in my pattern. Read a blog entry the other day at Sew Mama Sew about how people approach patterns differently depending upon their learning orientation. I have no idea what my learning orientation is. When I taught myself to knit via a book, my techniques were corrected by my LYSO the first class I took with her. I wasn't knitting exactly right. Was twisting a stitch, or something. So really, I work best when someone sits down and shows me how to make something in real time, in person.

Normally, I love to read, so being a Print-Oriented Learner is most natural to me, but that's when I'm reading for information, only. My approach to putting together furniture or anything that arrives with instructions is to disregard those from the start, examine the parts, nuts, and bolts, and try until I get it right. That falls into the Tactile-Kinesthetic Learners category, the last on the page that Kristin mentions.

Last night at quilting class, I learned a fair amount from watching Linda teach another class that met at the same time as ours. When she has really slow learners, such as me, she keeps letting them come in to class, so oftentimes one class overlaps another. Two women were finishing up a wall hanging and another was basting the layers together in a different Judi Niemeyer quilt. So now that I've almost got the hang of this paper piecing down, dare I contemplate trying another of her quilts? Tennessee Quilts offered a Japanese Fan class last year, and I so wanted to take that, and make that, but I didn't. It's probably my favorite JN pattern of all.

Basically I learned that I'm going about my quiltmaking the wrong way. When you plan on handquilting, you're supposed to baste the layers together instead of pinning with safety pins because attaching your hoop to the layers is made more difficult by closely placed safety pins. When machine quilting, safety pins are the best choice because you can navigate around them easier.

I half-listened as Linda told the Diane and Betty how to finish up their wall quilts. She suggested making your own binding from your fabric. And then showed them how to do that. I didn't listen closely to mitering their corners, because I'm good with that already. But she did say something about sewing the binding together at 45 degree angles to make the binding. I didn't watch, but feel I could probably replicate that on my own.

The non-quilting conversation was interesting. Betty just returned from Taiwan where she accompanied her daughter on her quest to adopt a toddler boy. She loved Taiwan, said that the Taiwanese were delightful, happy, helpful people. There was a 6.0 earthquake while they were there. Her daughter turned to Taiwan because their endeavors to adopt in China ground to a standstill when she was told it would be another eight years before there would be a child available for her to adopt. I count my blessings everyday that I was able to conceive. The extreme expense of adoption made that an impossible option for us. We we lucky.

So my method of binding is to make the backing an inch or two larger than the top. Then I fold it over twice and then sew it to the top. But, I know that's not the "right" way to do it. Linda uses her rotary cutter and squares up everything before trimming away the excess.

Another thing I've mentioned before is that Linda uses the green Papermate felt tip pen to mark her quilting patterns. But I didn't realize that you marked before you basted or pinned. Duh. Oh well. Linda said that if you use chalk to mark your quilt top that the humidity here causes it to evaporate too quickly. And, that if you want that antiqued crinkly look to your quilt after washing it, you should use cotton batting which will shrink, thus causing that effect.

What else? Oh, I asked her about pre-washing and drying before cutting and piecing your quilt together because that's one of the requirements for this Doll Quilt Swap 4 that I'm doing; already know my partner's name and blog, and I'm seriously considering exploring this flying geese pattern to the hilt on her, unless I discover that she'd absolutely hate that. Linda usually doesn't pre-wash if the quilt is an arty one to be displayed on a wall. But if it'll be washed and used often, she pre-washes. She said that normally you don't have any problems with batiks since they're sun-dried and have the wax treatment on the surface as well. But there was this one time that a customer used a red batik and when they went to soak the quilt to remove the markings, it bled horribly. Linda chalked it up to an inferior batik fabric that she no longer carries in her store, but eventually, they were able to get most of the red smears out of the quilt, though Helen (I think was her name) said that there were still a few subtle spots.

Spending all this time around quilts and quiltmakers makes me want to take a class or two during Quiltfest. My gosh, I have no idea how long it's been going on, at least 10, maybe 20 years? From time to time I take note of it, but have never taken any classes. One offered this year is the Amy Butler Weekender Travel Bag.  Another I'm sort of interested in is the Civil War Sampler. I'm sure I'd enjoy any one that I took. And would no doubt learn scads of new skills, but how to choose? Silly me, I asked Linda about whether they had the classes at different venues around Jonesborough and she kind of laughed and said they had not done it that way in years. The event actually takes place in JC, my town, at Millennium Centre. They've booked ten big rooms to hold classes in. It's sad the festival is no longer in Jonesborough. It's so quaint and the cafes are yummier than anything nearby in JC.

sucker for swaps

Can't recall the last swap I made. Sort of wrote them off for a while. Not so much bad experiences, but just grew tired of having lots of deadlines and keeping it all orderly and in the correct compartment in my mind. In the next 2 or 3 months I'm doing Doll Quilt Swap 4. I participated in round 2, I believe. And I keep coming across the most amazing quilts that participants make and send to their partners. Wowie. I want a piece of that action.

Then there's Kelly's Favorite Things Swap, where you choose at least three objects that you love, or just like, to send to your partner. What I like about this one is that it can be as much time and effort as I have at the moment, you know? Can be store-bought or handmade goodies.

And the one I'm super excited about is the Bend-the-rules-sewing swap. I missed Round one, which was the Pleated Beauty Bag from the eponymous book. But Round two is Place Mat & Napkin Set.

Mostly what I love about swaps is doing the detective work, especially if it's a secret swap. Blog-stalking and anonymous comments and getting to know my partners likes and dislikes. I'm ready for a bunch of that. Cause once baby comes in November, well, I may be out of the swapping loop for some time. And  the worst thing about baby's arrival is that it's smack dab in the middle of my favorite swap all year, the Holiday Ornament Swap. Sigh. What to do? Last year sign ups ended on 9 November and groups were assigned by 12 November, so maybe, possibly, I can make ornaments and send them off before my 20 November due date? Just don't know. Don't want to over-extend myself.

SAFF already?

Saw on the SAFF Ravelry group that registration for classes opened up May 1. At already a month behind the first day of registration, I hope I can get into the ones that I want to take. Seems really early to register, but each year I look at the classes and then around August decide to register for one or two, but they're all sold out. The other thing is this: I'll be eight months pregnant when SAFF convenes at the end of October. Will I feel like going to a fiber fair and actually taking classes at that point? And will I have a free weekend with all the potential baby showers and baby preparations I'll be making?

And one of the classes I so want to take mentions that students will be standing while working. What, the whole six hours? I want to take Beginning Spinning. Sounds like lots of sitting to me. I looked at that last year and didn't have strong feelings about it. But since another BFF is learning to spin, I feel like I shouldn't let her get a leg up on me since I taught HER to knit.

But the lots of standing class? Oh, that one so appeals to me. It's the Brilliant Brimmed Madeline Hat, a feltmaking class. I love hats and would so love to learn more about how to make them. There are no millinery classes in my part of the country that I can take, and I mostly learn best by being taught one on one in person. Taking this class would be a step in the right direction toward beginning my millinery education.

what i learned at the quilt shop

Linda is a wealth of knowledge. She's teaching Laura and me (and two other women called Diane and Lori) how to make this Seasonal Table Runner. Really, all the women who work there have so much knowledge to share. There's a lot that comes through in class, like when she reminded me the best way to use my rotary cutter. But most of the information I learned I got by asking specific questions.

Like, I asked Linda if she had any trouble with shoplifting at the store and she said not really. Then she went on to explain how one time she found an empty bolt and suspected that someone pulled the fabric off the bolt and tucked it into her (surely it wasn't a he?) pants or waistband of her skirt. Who'd steal 7 or 8 years of fabric. What kind of story would that be? Shocking, no doubt.

They only go to quilt market once a year. Of late, every other quilting blog shared fabulous photos of quilt market booths. I have such market envy. I want to go to quilt market and yarn market, and most of all, that national stationary show.

Another thing Linda shared with me was this: The best way to mark your pattern for quilting is with a green Flair Papermate felt-tipped pen. She said when you put it in the wash, that you may think that the green ink won't come out, but it will. Linda admitted that chalks come off too easy, especially if getting around to quilting those outer corners may take a bit of time. And other markings fade, like pencil. I planned to use a pencil to mark my quilting patterns on the baby quilt I'm making, but may try her suggestion instead. Linda used the green felt pen on a quilt that it took her ten years to complete. So you can see that some kind of permanence was imperative to her task.

Then yesterday, Memorial Day, Linda was not there, but several of the other women working in the shop popped upstairs intermittently to cut fabric at the extra table. Whooeee. Being surrounded by so much fabric and so many quilts and so many quilt kits was tough stuff. I want it all. And it's super easy to be inspired to do something else; to jump from project to project to project. And to buy yards and yards of fabric.

Laura and I quizzed them about their sewing machine preferences. Seems that most of the ladies at Tennessee Quilts prefer Pfaff. I've never used one. Laura is using one there and I think she likes it. When the needle slips down to sew the fabric you can barely hear it. I told her not to get too used to it. She's looking at buying an inexpensive machine in the $100-$300 range. I knew the Pfaff was pricey, but then the woman said the machine Laura uses cost about $1400, several years ago.

So for quilting, all those women like Pfaff. Another quilt store staff person admitted she owns five machines: A Kenmore, 2 singers, and 2 Pfaffs, because you need a different machine for different tasks. I told Laura I used a Bernina a few years ago at a purse making class I took in Asheville and was so impressed with it that I've lusted after one ever since. She asked what a Bernina was. All I told her was "It's Swiss-made." Then we likened Berninas and Pfaffs to the Mercedes of sewing machines and relegated my sweet little Singer some Ford Pinto status.

Hey now, I'm especially fond of Pintos. Both metal and mammal.

Surely my own "addiction" to gathering as many sewing machines into my bosom as possible is not so much an aberration after all, in light of this information from serious quilters. Sunday I added a Hilton to the fold. It's circa 1969, the first machine my mom owned; she was 16 and newly married. It's all metal; very heavy. I'm not to lift it. It's been in Mom's attic since the 1980s. She made dozens of baby through toddler through chubby pre-adolescent clothes for me with it. And sewed her own clothes, too, at least through the early 1970s. Don't know how she learned to sew, whether it was a home economics class, or from her mother. Seems like I remember my mom saying that if she went into something other than nursing that she thought being a home economics teacher would be right up her alley.

Part of my collecting of machines has to do with my acquisitive nature, but there is another reason. Jim asked Traci and me to teach a regular sewing/quilting class at the farm this summer. Traci and I still have the details to work out as far as projects, but we'll need all the extra machines we can get so that our girls don't have to wait around forever and ever to touch a machine. I may ask around work to see if anyone has any older sewing machines that I could borrow.

Silly, I know, but I feel like I'm down one from the get-go. Ian's mom loaned his first wife her sewing machine and when Ian and she divorced, she kept Barbara's machine. It should have passed on to me. I'd like to call and ask ex-wife to please return the machine, but that would be almost as tacky as she is. Little barb here and there at the ex-wife's expense is therapeutic, no?

own backyard

Back in 2000 there was road construction in my county and while razing the route tons of bones were unearthed. The state archaeologist came in and declared there was something there. Then the governor got involved and decided to re-route the road. Then the state appropriated $8 million to build the Gray Fossil Site.

Most of what they found were tapirs, sort of a pig-like creature that's related to the horse dating back to the Miocene. Miocene sites are rare in eastern North America, so it's really something special to have in your own backyard. And they're always finding alligators which means that this part of Tennessee once had the same climate as Florida. There's tons of limestone in east Tennessee and the area where the fossils were found was once a huge cave system that collapsed and then became a watering hole (this happened over, say 10,000 years) which drew a variety of animals, several which died and were preserved in the moist clay.

symbolic watering hole

The museum opened last year, but it took some time for us to stop by. Its practically in our backyard and was in the news regularly, so we figured we knew all about it, so why bother to visit?  I took Wednesday off because Ian had the day off, a rarity. When he asked me what we should do, I suggested the Fossil Site. The neat thing is that with the excavations they've done since approximately 2000, they've only scratched one percent of the surface. The site could be dug in for another hundred years and still yield goodies.

The outdoors tour was kind of blah. Mr. Davenport took us over to a covered dig site. We stood and stared into a flooded pit. That wasn't so exciting, but the information that Mr. Davenport shared with us was really thrilling, if you're into fossils and discovery and identification of new species, like the red panda. Listening to him was great fun. He answered any question we had for him.

Once inside, we watched the short movie that gave the basics which I've shared with you. Then we walked around the exhibit hall which was so well done. I was really impressed. Most museums in our region were built in the 1960s, or earlier. And so their exhibits, displays, signage, etc. are terribly dated.

The lighting in the room was awesome, sort of dark and colorful which lent a sense of foreboding to the person walking through amongst all those skeletons. There were multiple interactive areas that appeal to children; drawers to pull out and touch screen computers allowing the guest to date particular animals on a timeline. Then the next room was brighter and looked more like a laboratory. There were about a dozen stations where you could sit, or stand, and look at how a turtle shell is pieced together.

tapir teeth/jaw in cool magnifying exhibit case

While Ian visited the bathroom, Mr. Davenport spotted me waiting in the lobby and  showed me a pre-molar and a juvenile tooth from tapirs that he found while walking the grounds after we left him. Seeing those items so up close and so recently after they were found was super neat. And that Mr. Davenport wanted to share them with us was a really special touch that you don't experience at every museum.

and godson said mabekka

me, Scout, & Zach

Sunday I went to Knoxville to visit a my godson and his parents. They invited me there to celebrate Bahá’u’lláh's birthday. They're new Bahá’í. And I love that so many of my friends find spiritual expression outside the mainstream religions, because then I get to come to services and experience it all. I don't get to see Zach too often, but we had a great time playing together. He couldn't pronounce Rebecca, so he called me mabekka. It's lovely. I almost wish is was my real name.

Zach's first self-portrait

He's almost three and loves trains. He also loves taking photos. He carries his disposable camera around and snapped shots of everyone. Naturally, he loved my camera. His hands traveled across the buttons, lens, flash. And, he took a photo of himself. His first self-portrait. Needs a bit of work to get his whole face in the photo. But, I think he's got time to develop his skills.

Speaking of skills: my skills of memory were off. I have a remote for my camera and its battery died because I left it turned on. So we did this the old-fashioned way, with the timer blinking and all. But, at least it worked out in the end. And I've really got to be better about traveling with a tripod. The gorilliapod won't cut it.

overuse of the word occasion

Several months ago I learned that Blogless Amy nominated me for a local award. The Business Journal of Tri-Cities Tennessee/Virginia publishes an annual 40 Under 40 feature, "a salute to the emerging stars of the business community." Last year it seemed like most of the winners were in the health care industry and most of you know that I'm not in business. 

I was notified in August that I was included in that number. Then in September I met with a photographer and the magazine's editor for a shoot and interview. There was a formal gala in mid-September that I missed attending since Ian and I were out of town. That was the first time I've had potential occasion to go out a purchase formal attire. Unless you work for the corporate division of CSX, which Ian doesn't, there are no holiday parties formal or otherwise. And being in academia? Forget about it.

Somehow I thought dressing up and going to parties was something everybody did. But my mom and step-dad were more special than most. It is unfortunate that I absorbed that idea that adulthood meant formal parties because I find myself quite disappointed with the dearth of occasions wherein formal attire is required. But I digress.

fyi: sign to the left reads beware of attack armadillo

So many of us struggle along in our jobs, paid and unpaid, without any kind of recognition. Each year when the Emmys or Academy Awards are broadcast I grow envious and think that there should be more recognition in every profession, every vocation, maybe on the local or regional level. An occasion for us to dust off our formal gowns and walk on stage and "thank the academy." One of the fellas who works for the BJ brought my trophy to campus. He congratulated me and told me that this year's honorees were especially wonderful because the number of nominations was much higher than in years past.