LOVED this week's merry meanderings! The chaotic orderliness of all he swatches. The orderly chaos of the words. Thanks for brightening my already lovely day!
Thank you for a lovely post! It made me feel calm and energized after a brutal month of surgery and recovery. Now I am thinking about all those swatches I have.......
Love your beautiful stitching and your knowing how to do it, as well. When I read magenta armpits I imagined some sad case of dye bleeding from one garment to another. HAH! Leave it to you to see magenta gussets held the key to a certain kind of order. Love that you are sharing the process and your warm light.
I actually tested the magenta yarn to see if it would bleed before using it cuz i was afraid of just this thing. Happily, it didn’t. Most of the rest of yarns are colors i dyed so I was confident that there wouldn’t be color migration. But of course the proof will be when I wash it….
Thank you so much for these musings every week, but this week most of all. Your words illustrated how I’ve felt this week and lent me some good perspective. They made me cry a bit, but in a good way. I adore your coat. Making a coat out of all those swatches gives them new life and new meaning. Again, such a powerful metaphor for life. So thank you again, dear friend. You bring such comfort and joy into this world. Signed, another blue girl in a red world. ❤️
Oooh!! I love how your colors are migrating into your other workspaces and how they talk with you! Makes me want to write a song where the blues say this and the green says that and the magenta twirls and puts on a hat!
Today, a new friend gave me some wool and two partially finished Kaffe Fassett sweater pieces that she found in a box lot of things from an auction! I have two sleeves. One finished, both too short, and one almost v-neck front in a different design. Half of the V is absent. Your letter has me thinking about combining them and knitting the back and neck ribbing in what’s left of the wool. Then carrying on with my own wool. It’s a thought anyway!
That is a genius idea. Combining the two existing bits and then carrying on with your own yarn—OMG what fun is that? Having just done some knitting on the swatch coat to help bring it together, I’m all in favor. Do keep us posted.
Thank you so much for the encouragement. I detected some moth damaged in the already knit sections, so I am just treating those before I handle them any further. I also found that some of the balls of wool/silk which were still in the bags with the sleeves had moth damage. So, I've been through all of the balls and kept the ones that seem secure. I have them in quarantine, too. So, with any luck, I can pull them all out of their quarantine soon and contemplate their future! Thank you for inspiring me to put them together! I'm excited to see the swatch coat as it grows.
Moths! Yowza. How very wise to quarantine and treat — and perhaps compost/discard anything that seems questionable? No fun starting a project if there is someone wanting to nibble it away even as your brilliant idea is unfolding. And of course once treated, there is all that visible/invisible mending you can do on the holes — singing all the while?
I really got excited about the prospect of visibly mending the moth holes! More colors, I thought! You’ve read my mind. I discarded the questionable bits because I wanted to get them really far away from my wool world. But, I should compost them in future, really. Definitely a good idea to sing while mending! Yes! Lots of smiles to you!
This was such a nice treat today. I'm enjoying what you do and the thoughtfulness behind it. I begin to wish I had so many wonderful swatches to patch together. I have a tendency to tear swatches back out after doing them because I'm always afraid I don't have enough yarn. Silly though. Thank you. My day is better.
I actually do a lot of swatch ripping out these days myself—and it is as satisfying to have hardly any leftovers as it is to put all the swatches into a coat and have no leftovers of those any more! Oh, the path to minimalism…
LOVED this week's merry meanderings! The chaotic orderliness of all he swatches. The orderly chaos of the words. Thanks for brightening my already lovely day!
Gosh thanks!
Thanks for the magenta gusset; it's just what I need for a much loved handspun and knit sweater.
Thank you for a lovely post! It made me feel calm and energized after a brutal month of surgery and recovery. Now I am thinking about all those swatches I have.......
Gosh —surgery of all kinds is so intense and I’m so so glad it was helpful.
Love your beautiful stitching and your knowing how to do it, as well. When I read magenta armpits I imagined some sad case of dye bleeding from one garment to another. HAH! Leave it to you to see magenta gussets held the key to a certain kind of order. Love that you are sharing the process and your warm light.
I actually tested the magenta yarn to see if it would bleed before using it cuz i was afraid of just this thing. Happily, it didn’t. Most of the rest of yarns are colors i dyed so I was confident that there wouldn’t be color migration. But of course the proof will be when I wash it….
Looking forward to seeing the magenta gusset coat when finished. What a fine project!
So on we go, indeed.
And I am pretty in love with those magenta gussets!
The Gusset is the email I look forward to every week. Love wandering along with you on your fiber journeys.... and walks with Beryl. Thank you!
Thank you so much for these musings every week, but this week most of all. Your words illustrated how I’ve felt this week and lent me some good perspective. They made me cry a bit, but in a good way. I adore your coat. Making a coat out of all those swatches gives them new life and new meaning. Again, such a powerful metaphor for life. So thank you again, dear friend. You bring such comfort and joy into this world. Signed, another blue girl in a red world. ❤️
Oh golly Deb. Thank you. It means so much —to have such a compatriot making things out of what is at hand and finding delight wherever it appears.
Oooh!! I love how your colors are migrating into your other workspaces and how they talk with you! Makes me want to write a song where the blues say this and the green says that and the magenta twirls and puts on a hat!
Today, a new friend gave me some wool and two partially finished Kaffe Fassett sweater pieces that she found in a box lot of things from an auction! I have two sleeves. One finished, both too short, and one almost v-neck front in a different design. Half of the V is absent. Your letter has me thinking about combining them and knitting the back and neck ribbing in what’s left of the wool. Then carrying on with my own wool. It’s a thought anyway!
I love this, Jeni. Bringing unfinished/old/unused things to life gives new purpose to my stash and findings. Good find!
Oh, that sounds absolutely marvelous!
That is a genius idea. Combining the two existing bits and then carrying on with your own yarn—OMG what fun is that? Having just done some knitting on the swatch coat to help bring it together, I’m all in favor. Do keep us posted.
Thank you so much for the encouragement. I detected some moth damaged in the already knit sections, so I am just treating those before I handle them any further. I also found that some of the balls of wool/silk which were still in the bags with the sleeves had moth damage. So, I've been through all of the balls and kept the ones that seem secure. I have them in quarantine, too. So, with any luck, I can pull them all out of their quarantine soon and contemplate their future! Thank you for inspiring me to put them together! I'm excited to see the swatch coat as it grows.
Moths! Yowza. How very wise to quarantine and treat — and perhaps compost/discard anything that seems questionable? No fun starting a project if there is someone wanting to nibble it away even as your brilliant idea is unfolding. And of course once treated, there is all that visible/invisible mending you can do on the holes — singing all the while?
I really got excited about the prospect of visibly mending the moth holes! More colors, I thought! You’ve read my mind. I discarded the questionable bits because I wanted to get them really far away from my wool world. But, I should compost them in future, really. Definitely a good idea to sing while mending! Yes! Lots of smiles to you!
"compelling colorful loquaciousness" is absolutely perfect. cheryl
You. ❤️
And your meanderings/writings/cartoons/videos/photographs are like sunshine on a weary, dreary November. Thank you for that.
Your coat is going to be spectacular!
This was such a nice treat today. I'm enjoying what you do and the thoughtfulness behind it. I begin to wish I had so many wonderful swatches to patch together. I have a tendency to tear swatches back out after doing them because I'm always afraid I don't have enough yarn. Silly though. Thank you. My day is better.
I actually do a lot of swatch ripping out these days myself—and it is as satisfying to have hardly any leftovers as it is to put all the swatches into a coat and have no leftovers of those any more! Oh, the path to minimalism…
Thank you Sarah. Yay for the magenta V’s and yay for Gandalf and yay for sticking around and doing our parts!
I love the way your inner self shows up in your tapestries - so beautiful.
No snakes in your neck of the woods then? Love the magenta gussets!
Rattlesnakes in the canyons!