The Blanket Continues

The Blanket continues apace. Much more apace than I've been showing. More apace than I will show you now, even, but here's some of the progress.

Marvelous Miters Mightier Together!
There is a stripe being knitted on (mid-row, hence the bunching). I was going to claim rebel status for their non-square forming formation, but it may be just a fear that they would dominate the blanket if assembled into a bigger square.



Try Them Triangles!
So much longer now. Note the string. I felt ingenious adding the string. I tied it on when I laid everything out approximately One Hundred and Thirty-Nine days ago (I'm not counting) (I'm calculating) and saw approximately how much longer it should be. Tied the cotton string on so I'd be able to see my status. In typical non-committal fashion, I haven't done a final half-triangle or bound off yet, it's on a stitch marker.



Bubbling Bias!
Oh, the reasons to lightly felt this blanket, they are many. The sin hiding I hope to accomplish therewith, it is great. I did a variation of a regular garter-stitch bias square in seed stitch. Saw that two of them were lookin' real good together, and could use two more friends. After sewing up, realized they really have an honest bubble to them, not just a too-lazy to smooth them for photos bubble. Looking at the photo some more, I begin to contemplate actually blocking this before sewing it with the rest and felting. Don't worry, it won't go any farther than contemplation. Seed stitch bias squares for finer work will require further tinkering. For now, Onwards!



If you're still reading here, you may be interested in what I've been eating this week. Which is to say, LOTS. The Jeff Next Door has been cooking up a Storm of Asian Goodness. Read all about it over there .

Friends, Food, Home.

There is a lot of craft action going on right now - my co-workers have really continued in their knitting fever and there is a "knit lunch" usually about 2-3 times a week, and sometimes even an after work knit-and-chat not far from my place (WOO-HOO!). And I have a marvelous temporary roommate who knits. The Blanket is progressing (WOO-HOO-HOO-HA!). I hope to update with pictures on all of that very soon.

More important today is tomorrow: Thanksgiving. We'll be a table of 10. I will not give you a picture of the beautiful linen plaid tablecloth that has not been made yet. Errrrhm...I think it will perhaps have a Christmas debut instead. Neither have I a picture of the table-runner in progress that will hopefully lend a more continuous and deliberate look to the two different tablecloths which will grace the table this year. Who says a plaid cotton and a satin stripe aren't made to share the table?

Let's focus instead on the things that HAVE been accomplished before Thanksgiving.

We have a dishwasher. We installed it ourselves, which involved 4 trips to the hardware store, several evenings of pushing it into the hole and pulling it out of the hole, a new circuit breaker, and a professional electrician who was at our house one, two, three evenings in a row figuring out the inanity of the kitchen circuitry. It all works now, and we even have a ground-fault-interrupt outlet at the sink now (that's the test/reset kind that saves your bacon when you get a splash of water in there).

We have lights. We were living in darkness. Ok, dimness. Our living room had no overhead light fixture, just a large expanse of drywall, poorly lit by two Ikea lamps with compact flourescent bulbs and the occasional Netflix flicker of the movie box. With the help of my father-in-law and our non-knitting temporary roommate, we cut a hole in the ceiling, snaked a cable of wires from the hole to the switch, installed boxes and had it all ready. With the help of Schoolhouse Electric, we had a fantastic fixture to put up there and it looks great now. I can tell, because there's light in there now, and I can get a good look at it. While we were at it, we also got and installed two new fixtures in the dining room and our hallway. They're just lovely.



Did I mention I have two temporary roommates and have had five houseguests in the past 2 weeks and my house is clean? And ready for two houseguests on Friday? I really love having guests and having people in the house. I've had the excuse to make 4 pans of gingerbread, souffled crepes, whole-wheat dairy-free pancakes...

Photos are of pre-turkey shopping in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. More pics, including the larger-than-life pig at the pork store over at The Jeff Next Door.

Vamp and Re-Vamp were sitting on a fence...

Vogue's Learn to Knit, 1972:



Rowan, 2004:

Weaving a House

Weaving was my first and still deepest textile passion. I've done it here and there in bits and pieces, on "toy" looms and handmade weaving boards and a rigid heddle loom in high school and at FIT (Fashion Institute for Technology) in New York.

The Sheila Hicks: Weaving as Metaphor show at Bard Graduate Center recently was really gorgeous and inspiring. I went with better bloggers than I: Marci, who writes about it here, and then also with Kay, who wrote about it here. Almost every amazing piece of that show was woven on a little homemade loom, basically a picture frame with nails at the top and bottom to string the warp on.

It brought to mind the fun times I've had with simple little homemade weaving boards, too. I had been thinking of making small-scale houses from fabric and starting thinking about a 3-D weaving frame to weave little houses.

Voila. The first piece, finished yesterday afternoon:



My homemade frame:


The Glamour Shot, on the Danish Modern rosewood shelf with the Amber Modern red wall:


Click on photos for more views, including In Progress shots with it still in the frame.

Kay gave me the tip-off that I'm not the only one who had to weave after seeing that show - check out Little Red Hen's piece here.