Sunday, September 27, 2009

Knit Cafe














Beth,
Thank you so much for the wonderful wristwarmers you designed-Lovely Lichen
They are great!


Sunny Barbara, dedicated museum volunteer !

Mary Ann with the hat she knit. This pattern was donated to the museum as a fundraiser by Ms. Lavold.
She also knit this lovely Lavold creation. Very pretty !






The shawl modeled by Evelyn.













































Spent part of the day at the museum learning how to input data on some of the knitted pieces in the collection,first two boxes were Icelandic items. It's like a treasure hunt which I find quite fascinating ! Too bad I have to work or I'd be there almost everyday !

Signed up for a Danish cooking class with Anna Brita. Yum !


I like my barn so. Do you think the old farmers are rolling in their graves laughing at silly people like me who collect rusty farm implements, spend money on a falling down barn, and instead of something practical like cows, have miniature horses instead !

Ryan helped put this shadowbox together of items found under the floor during the renovation of the north end. It will hang out there with some other rusty items as Barn Art !

















The previous owners left these very hefty parking stanchions chained to the side of the barn. I was going to put them free on Craigslist but we were joking that it's probably holding up the barn, which is leaning quite a bit to the east !





















Even though the probability was high, there is no way I would have thought the barn was originally red with it's grayed out and peeling exterior. When Ry took off a board this showed thru - RED ! He is totally disgusted with me that I would even think of having it painted such an unoriginal color.


The guys in the new in and out Ryan fixed up for them.



Anna noticed this hawk sitting atop the covered chicken yard last weekend. It was looking for Sunday brunch! A birder was guessing, from the small picture, that it is a Sharp Shinned or Coopers Hawk.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Latvian Mitten Workshop


Last weekend was the three day Latvian mitten workshop. The museum brought out Sandy DeMaster and Mary Germain from Wisconsin. I met Sandy in 2005 when I took a week long Scandinavian knitting workshop from Carol Rhoades at Sievers School of Fiber Arts. Anyway, they spoke at the Seattle Knitters Guild the Wednesday before, fabulous presentation I might add, to which they brought many, many, mitten samples for us to drool over.
This was one of the most fun workshops I have been to and so very inspirational. There were four Latvian women in the class so it was very interesting to hear them exchange stories with Sandy and Mary about the country, food, symbolism, textiles, movies, etc.. There is so much I could write about, it would take days ! Some of the older Latvian women brought in Latvian goodies everyday and as usual the museum was trying to kill us off with Danish pastries and such !

Saturday and Sunday we worked on a lined mitten sample.

















Sandy said these were knit for her by their Latvian mentor Irma. They have "barn protector" symbols on it. Since she raises Finnsheep Irma thought it would be a good thing to have. I want to knit a small pair to put in my barn !




Love the pattern and colors of this pair.


















These mittens have the unusual cuffs featured in Mary's booklet "A Distorted View of Cuffs" Check out all the booklets they have to offer on Mary's profile.






Drinking this "Slim Chance" beer probably foretold the chances of getting my sample done !


Such tiny, tiny little mittens which I hear will be for sale at the Latvian Christmas Bazaar on November 7th-8th at the Latvian Cultural Center in Seattle. Can't wait !

Interesting Latvian beliefs about mittens

Mittens and socks should be knitted in summer, then they will be warm, soft and strong. /A. Zvejniece, Lubāna./

One should not wash new mittens when there is an old moon,
they will lose their color and let through the wind. /K. Zilbers, Meņģele./

One should not wipe their nose in a mitten. Whoever does that never gets rich. /J. Andriņš, Taurkalns./

One should not give their hand to another with a mitten on, otherwise they will give away their luck/A. Tidriķe, Pabažu jūrmala./

Link to Latvian mitten charts
Cimdu Raksti

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Sock Summit

I can't stop smiling :)

Belated Sock Summit news

Karen and I headed down Friday, arriving in the afternoon to check in. We tried to wander thru the marketplace, featuring 150 vendors, with what seemed like thousands of skeins of yarn ! It was pretty overwhelming !

























Unfortunately I was coming down with a bad cold so didn't have much stamina the whole weekend. Thanks Karen for the cold care kit with Fisherman's Friend, tissue, bottled water, and OTC meds. Thanks also for still hanging out with me even though I was "Typhoid Mary" ! Evenings were spent in our plush hotel room having room service and laying low.

Saturday morning was Knitting with Speed and Efficiency with Stephanie Pearl McPhee which was interesting. I had not seen Irish Cottage knittng before. It's awkward at first, like trying to write with my left hand - pretty challenging. The afternoon was spent at a very bizarre lecture with a very well known person. It was so weird we had to leave before it ended.




Sunday morning was Beaded Cables with Sivia Harding. She is so cute !










The Luminary Panel was amazing !
MCs Tina and Stephanie with Lucy Neatby, Cat Bordhi, Deborah Robson, Anna Zilboorg, Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, Meg Swansen, Barbara Walker, Judith MacKenzie McCuin, and Nancy Bush!
























I've always wanted to make pickles but didn't want to deal with the canning. Watched a great episode of Good Eats with five different recipes for refrigerator pickles. These are so wonderful,it took us less than fifteen minutes to whip out a batch of B and Bs, and Summer Fruits, each. My friend Beth, getting a country fix away from her city condo.

















Marc helped pick blackberries with DC and Sherman. They loved them as much as we did ! More pictures of the guys to come.












Out of the eleven chicks that hatched I ended up with TEN ROOSTERS !! What are the flippin' odds for that ! Found homes for all but two, those will be gone soon I hope. Two roosters crowing at all hours is really annoying.










The more excited the rooster gets, the higher his voice goes. He's got a little bit of a Barney Fife quality to him.
Jeff Foxworthy


(Have Foxworthy in my genealogy, maybe that's why I like being a hayseed!)

Saturday, September 12, 2009

OMG !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I received an e-mail from Evelyn Clark this past week. When I opened it I was stunned. It made me so happy I started to cry.

Photo courtesy of Evelyn Clark Designs


I called Charlotte, education director at the museum, right away and started shrieking OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG without an introduction. I'm pretty sure she understands why I went TOTALLY NUTS. What a wonderful and touching gift. This is so unbelievably nice.
My Sock Summit post just had to wait until another day.