Quilts for Patients

This project began in the fall of last year. My sister Linda is a nurse and told me one day that there was this woman who occasionally brought in these tiny quilts with a note attached and would give them to people in the hospital undergoing treatment for cancer. She said they were simple, just four little squares and a backing. The piece was no more than three inches  square. In the center of each tiny square she tied a knot. We all know this knot. To it she attached a note that said "Each knot was stitched with love for you".

Of course, I can do this. But I am not the sort to do things quite that simple. I spent months collecting patterns. My thinking was that I could make four miniature blocks and put them together to make a miniature quilt. Thing is, to get a piece that is 3 or 4 inches square, these blocks have to be really tiny. Now I love small. I am really good at small. But I was failing.

One day about six weeks ago, I got an email from a quilt shop on this technique and I was intrigued. Thing is, the method of working it, you couldn't make just one. It was a complicated exercise in geometrics. I started Googling this block called "Cathedral Window" and I found a woman who developed a pattern to make single blocks. I was off and running. Half of it is machine stitched and the rest is hand work. They end up being 4 & 1/2 inches square. Perfect. And they end up with little pockets that friends can slip little notes in.

Not a very clear picture, but you get the point. I made 28 of them in a little over a week. that should be a good beginning. We are having a 50th birthday party for Linda this Saturday and i will give these to her then. I think she will like them and they should be a hit at the hospital.

Easter

I love getting together with family. I love cooking for family. Well, I just love cooking period. When I finally move into a bigger apartment, I probably will try to have all family gatherings at my apartment. I will let everyone know that they should bring tupperware so they can bring leftovers home and I will cook massive meals.

We celebrated Easter on Saturday the 14th. We were nine of us this time. Linda's table accommodated everyone which was wonderful.


I made a dish of asparagus, brussel sprouts, leeks, garlic and shallots. I still have a bit of it in my fridge which I will cook up tomorrow. Linda indicated that they tended to eat more of a simple vegetable fare. Mashed potatoes, grated carrots, steamed asparagus. But I insisted on bringing this dish. I figured someone would love it. I managed to get a small container of leftovers. I bought over five pounds of vegetables. They ate it and loved it!!!!


Linda cooked ham with, I think it was a maple, brown sugar glaze with pineapples. Ohhhh. I just loved it. Of course, I love ham and never eat it. I don't know why. It's like turkey. How come we don't eat turkey all year round? It is a fabulous meat. It has a magnificent taste. It is good for you. You throw it in a cooking bag, a little flour, put it in the oven, and in a short time, you have this incredible meat that is so satisfying .....I...I don't know. Now I want to go and buy a turkey. Tomorrow. I will see if I can find a turkey tomorrow. You know how I love turkey? After I cook it, I freeze it in portions in zip lock bags. Then when I am in the mood, I'll defrost a bag and eat it cold dipped in ketchup. I can hear you all going YEWWWW~~~ But I love it. Minimal calories, and better for me than cake, chips, pretzels, ice cream, and shopping the internet for new shoes.

Linda makes great mashed potatoes. We grew up with mashed potatoes. Not the wimpy kind you find in restaurants, with special seasonings, whipped, not mashed, a tiny bit of butter instead of a ton of butter..... We know mashed potatoes~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My Mother and I made the grated carrots with mayonnaise, a bit of salt and a dash of sugar. It should have had parsley in it but I forgot to bring some. Merde.

I would have normally made bread. I used to always make bread. But this oven here and not dependable and I have not been successful with my bread baking. I keep trying though. I may have lost my bread kharma. I don't know. If I lost it, I will find it again. Promise.




Mom saw this picture of an Easter cake and tore it out of the magazine to see if I would make it. The description called for boxed cake mix, canned frosting, chocolate chips and of course, Peeps.

I made it from scratch. You can barely see it, but in the center of the cake, I piped a chocolate ganache in the shape of chocolate chips. It took over an hour just to do that. The cake itself was a white cake. I think Linda was afraid that everyone was going to be disappointed that it was a white cake so she bought a chocolate cream pie for those who wanted more chocolate. So, as it turned out, everyone had a piece of both. Can you believe it? Nine people. My cake was huge. Ten inches in the round by the time it was frosted. And then a chocolate pie!! GONE!!!



Well, people did bring some home.



I love gathering people around the table. People are always happy when they are eating good food, don't you think???????

Never Forgotten

I love meditation. It does not always mean to sit in a quiet room with legs crossed like a Yogi, fingers touching, and the mind empty. I was talking to my sister Linda over dinner earlier about this. You can walk and meditate. You can drive and meditate. I knit and meditate. Often, when I am centered in my kitchen, the knife carefully slicing vegetables, the oil in the pan cooking the onions and garlic, then next goes in the beautiful carrots sliced on the bias, oh, and look at the leeks. How beautiful is the leek. Out comes one vegetable and in goes the next, each having its turn in the hot pan until, in the end, when they all marry together with herbs and the sea salt. And nothing else exists at this time. It is all about this tiny kitchen, these beautiful vegetables, the smells, the sounds..... This is meditation too. There are no other thoughts. It is so peaceful.

Tonight I sat in my chair and worked with these tiny pieces of fabrics making rounds. I lit a candle that Christina, my dear friend in Mosier Oregon sent me, a beautiful scent. I sat and made the tiny hand stitches, absorbed in the beautiful colors on a black background when I realized that some three hours had gone by. I got up to make a cup of tea and looked at the candle which had burned down to the dish in the way that hand rolled candles do and found that the single wick had turned into two flames.

At that very moment I felt my mind freed..... Like a river endlessly flowing.

Tea

New Works

I already showed you the winding of this yarn on my swift. Now I am working on creating the scarf. You can see my needles which are from Signature Needles and they are absolutely the best. Very pricey. They can be upwards to $45 a set but you get to design them yourself and once you start working with them, you just don't want to use anything else. I Use the stiletto point when working with the fine yarns because I don't have to struggle with splitting the yarn or the pick-up.


As you can see, I use a lot of stitch markers. The ones with the beads separate the different patterns and the black rings separate the repeats within a pattern. This scarf I am designing myself. I have searched a lot of patterns for this particular scarf for my sister Linda and in the end, decided to create one myself. After all, I have been knitting for over 50 years. I guess I qualify to become a designer. The shop where I bought the yarn is interested in seeing the end of the piece and wants to sell the pattern. And, Signature Needle Arts is also interested in this project. I am also working on a shawl using their needles for my sister Suzanne and they want to see that one too, although I did not design that pattern. For that one, they want a commentary.



As difficult as this is to see, this is an idea of what the pattern looks like for this scarf. It will be a sixteen row repeat. Each row is written in colors as each row involves four different pattern stitches and I find it much easier to keep it all straight when I am looking at colors between my markers. I may print up the patterns this way too. I might charge a couple of dollars more for the pattern because of the colors, but I think the knitters who buy them will agree that they can follow it better this way. If I can, then they can.



This is a silk yarn I have which will be for an upcoming project, unsure of what its destiny will be. A very gentle green. eh!


I fell in love with this pumpkin orange yarn and am designing a sock. The yarn is a wool and silk from Peru. I love how the yarns today are completely washable. Sock yarns have come such a long way. Although I still hand wash my socks, it is good to know that people who are not prone to such care can just throw them in the machine.

I am calling this pattern "Landscape". I see mountains in this. Even though I did knit up a slight cuff, the mountains are so strong that the cuff is wavy. I love that about this pattern. I don't do the "knit two, purl two" cuff as you always see in the traditional sock. I don't like those. I find them quite binding. I want a sock to just sit above my ankle. I want it to just breathe on my leg. Once the sock is finished and blocked, you will see it better.


It is a very easy twelve row repeat pattern and is transportable for when I go places where I can't concentrate heavily. I am going for more infusions the next couple of weeks and socks are perfect for that situation. Often, patients near me want to talk about what I am doing and it is difficult to talk and knit at the same time unless I am knitting up something simple like socks. This pair will be done in no time. Hummm, who will get them.

The Swift

I was trying to take a picture of my swift as it was spinning around. How beautiful it is going 'round and 'round as my thumb and index finger hold the ball and my right hand coils the yarn coming off the swift carefully onto the ball. You don't want the ball to be too tight as it stretches the yarn and ruins whatever it is that you are knitting up. What I ended up getting was this haunting image of the swift in motion and my mind mesmerized into meditation in winding two balls, each having 437 yards of quite thin yarn on them.


At the same time, I was watching all the special features and lectures put forth by Thich Nhat Hanh at the end of a movie I had been watching on the life of the Buddha. So, I was way out there to begin with. The city could have been hit with a tornado and I would not have noticed.


This is lace yarn. I am designing a thin scarf for my little sister Linda. It will be 72" long and I am not yet sure how wide. I am designing it myself. It is my first piece that is this ambitious that I am designing myself. I should use bigger yarn and do a sample first and then write up the pattern and make the shawl. But not me. I am digging right into the shawl. It is so dumb. It is doing well though. It is going to be a twelve row repeat and I am on row 10. I ended up going out and buying some correction fluid. I have the instructions written in colors for each section. There are four sections in each row. Outer edges, sides, inner sides and then the center.


As soon as I get a foot or so done, I will put it up on this site. I bought the yarn at a new little yarn shop in Goffstown. They opened their shop in the fall. It is called "The Spotted Sheep". Tiny but it has a little of everything. We talked a bit about what I am doing and the owner asked if I might bring it by when I am done. So I thought perhaps I might take pictures and print up the pattern and maybe sell it in her store. A few dollars for her and a few dollars for me. It is just paper.

I might at some point even learn how to spin. They teach spinning there. I would love to get a great wheel and learn. Years ago I attempted it and it was wonderful. Oh, I just can't tell you what it felt like to spin my own yarn. But, a Great Wheel is big and you need a little space for it. Ah, but to be able to spin your own yarn - how extraordinary would that be?!!!

When I unpacked a huge bucket of yarn that I had in storage here I found a whole pound of roving the most beautiful shade of a dark teal, very dark, begging to be spun. I thought of finding someone to spin it for me, but what if I learned to do it myself? I at one time, had a couple of drop spindles. Where are those? I must have more of those things in storage.

The NH Sheep and Wool Festival is taking place in May. I will have to see if George wants to go. We went every year when it was held in New Boston. Now it is being held in Deerfield. That is where you can get all the raw wools, the hand dyed rovings and yarn. From the men and women who create these fibers for a living. It is fascinating. This year, I will bring my camera. I will show the enthusiasm to you all.

I have to go to bed now. George and I are button gallivanting in the morning. More on that tomorrow.

Knitting Away

Is there no limit to how many socks one can knit? I think not! I can knit them in my sleep. They are so basic. Normally, I don't like to work with variegated yarns because I much prefer working up fancy stitches and the patterns are not very obvious when there are so many colors like this pair. I made this pair for my mother and was going to give them to her for Mother's Day. But I ended up giving them to her last week while the weather was still cold. Of course she loved them as a good mother does. The pinks and purples and golds. All colors she wears in sweaters. I will have to come up with something else for Mother's day. I don't know what. Maybe a nice little cotton blouse. She loves clothes and when you compliment her on something she is wearing, her response is always "Oh my, I have had this thing for years. I have so many clothes. I should bring things to the Salvation Army. I just have too much. " So maybe something new would be nice. Something short sleeved and light.



Then Alice mentioned that she would love a pair of socks as her feet get cold a lot so I whipped these up real quickly. I didn't do anything fancy. I let the striping speak. I was surprised to be able to match each one almost perfectly. That is not always easy when using the self-striping yarn. I was proud of this pair. I think she will love them. They are on a plane over the United States somewhere. I am hoping she gets them on Monday.



I am watching programs on Ireland, being St. Patrick's Day. I love traditional Irish music. I love the accent and the old folk lore. I love the landscapes. Public Television has a lot of programming today. It is all so haunting and touching. I have an Irish Aunt who was Miss Dublin in 1958. I think that was the year. I should write to her and see how she is. I think of family all the time. And today, in particular, I think of my Aunt Moira. I used to love listening to her talk. I think it rains a lot in Ireland. I would like that. And some great wools used to come from Ireland. And Waterford is there. Imagine! It could be a peaceful place to write too.

Just dreaming~~~~~

Zoey's Dress

There is nothing more fun than making dresses for little girls. This one is for George's granddaughter Zoey. It is a McCall's pattern MP210. She turned 3 last week. This is what I made for her. It can be worn over a T-shirt now or just as it is in the summer.



It has loops in the back to adjust the straps and the bodice is all gathered with elastic thread and has two ties sewn into the side seams. And can you see the ruffles near the hem? Isn't it to die for?








George and I bought two patterns and I am going to make her another dress. But this is her birthday dress. I may even make another version of this in different fabrics. It is so cute!!