I'm Off

Oh besides off my rocker, I am leaving for Tennessee in about 12 hours.  Tennessee you say?  Yes, to visit with my son and his wife.  Remember I mentioned making her  something for her birthday in my post before last?  Well, it didn't happen.  I was sewing along and then I made a humongous mistake.  I tried to correct but kept getting more and more frustrated.  Her birthday isn't until the 17th so I'll have time to finish it and mail when I get home.  There will be some major ripping out and resewing.

This is my granddog, Lady D.  I will be very happy to see her.

 The world's largest cedar bucket at home in Murfreesboro, TN

This is a very large rocking horse carved from wood and using the curve of the  wood for the head and mane.  This was at the art and craft museum store I visited last time.

 So many front porches have one or more of these great rockers.  Here they are for sale at Cracker Barrel.  They're very comfortable and less that  $100.00.

This is Ruby Falls.(Near Chattanooga)  It's an underground waterfall.  About a thousand feet below ground. Amazing.











These are some of the things I saw when I was visiting in the past.  I look forward to seeing some new things this time. However I mostly want to hug my family and then hug them some more.

                 Look for me next week, when I return to  The Challenge.

A SOCK STORY

Hi, it's me unabashed sock lover.  My children will tell you that socks are, perhaps, an obsession with me.  However, I have no idea when this began. It wasn't always like it is now.
  It may have started in 1994 when I got my first job as a nurse.  We graduates had longed for the chance to get out of our student uniforms and into the cute scrubs we had seen at the hospitals where we obtained our clinical experience.  For me, this was not to be,  I was hired at a Catholic hospital where all nurses wore white.  (Oh, Hallelujah, we did not have to wear our caps.  Mine looked unlike any nurse cap I had ever seen.)  Consequently, I tried to accessorize my whiteness with color. I got a turquoise stethoscope and little belt pack to carry my tools and bandages and tape.  When not wearing a skirt, I wore the most colorful socks I could find.  It made me happy to see them whenever I got a moment to sit.

Today, I have many socks. 
I have a section for ankle socks, one for knee socks, one for handknit, and a large drawer for the crew style socks.  Most of them are in good shape, but some may have holes.  I have a hard time throwing them away, and I have learned to darn.

Did she say 'darn'?  What is that?

It's a way to repair holes by making a little woven section in the hole using a similar thread or yarn.
 
The following photos are from my collection.

 Ankle socks

Knee socks

Crew socks, all mine.

Handknit.








Several years back I took a sock knitting class at Lofty Lou's yarn shop in Placerville, Ca.  My teacher, Pam, taught me and also became my good friend.  What a deal I got that day!!

These are the socks I made. My first ones!  Note the difference in the toes.  The left was easier, but the right looks nicer and I've done it that way ever since.







As you may know, socks are a very portable project.  I took them occasionally to the theater to be productive during off stage times.

See the beginnings of a yellow/green sock there on the pillow?  I recently started finishing it.  Much to do yet.

               

Doing the gussets and it is tedious.  I'm using size one needles and I have the feeling I'm using toothpicks.

See these?

I fell in love with them HERE.  Knitted by Stephanie Pearl-McFee.

Here are mine,  I didn't take time to make them line up as Stephanie did with hers.

                                    It's okay,  I love them anyway.

Only one more,  I've one sock done in this striped yarn color Red Lips and Smoky Eyes and started on the second. For my sister, Pat.

The colors are bright.  I think it may have been foggy in my house when I took these photos.

Come back soon, maybe next week, for more of something.

Don't you just hate it

When you finish something and it's just not right?  Yes, I finally finished the red blouse with help from my trusty or not so trusty assistant.

Zeke who  recently returned from a walk about insisted on helping me while I was hemming.  Poor lamb, he didn't realize how inadequate a couturier he is.

He just couldn't make his tail do anything productive.  It just lay there.

So it only took a couple of hours to finish the blouse and I eagerly looked forward to trying it on.  This is what happened.  I couldn't wait so I tried it on before I put on the sleeves.  This was a BIG mistake.  After I did, I didn't want to finish.  It's true.  I suddenly hated the red blouse.

Twenty-four hours later, I did put the sleeves on, but I refused to hem them or do the buttons.  Here are photos.

Starting to hem, before Zeke arrived to help.

The front sans buttons.  The color in the photo above is more true in color.

This is the back but the color is really off.  I'm not sure why there's such a difference same camera same time same place.  Ah well, a photographer I'm not.







Can you guess why I hate the red blouse?  No, it's not the weird color changes. No, Zeke didn't harm it in anyway.  It doesn't fit.  There.  I said it.  I'm keeping it because there is a possibility than it might someday.

Lest you think I took all this time with nothing more than a nearly finished red blouse, here is something else that turned out better.

 Sleep-over Satchel for Pam
 (see post here )  That one is the story of The Monkey on the branch.

 Supplies

 Forgot to photograph until I put the lining in.

 Close-up of pocket

The finished bag.  Again, however, the color isn't true.  I think it maybe that my sewing room is yellow.

Yesterday I also finished some knitting so tune in tomorrow for a look at that.

What's next you might well ask?  I'm making another Sleep-over Satchel, this time for my daughter-in-law. Sh-h-h, her birthday is next month.  I'll be sharing pictures then.

Thank you for hanging in with me.  I hope to be posting more often as the challenge is taking off.

 Ciao! (Did I mention I also study Italian?)

And I thought I was done

When the show closed on December 30th, a sold-out performance, I knew there was one more day.  On January 4th, we had to strike the set.  That means putting the theatre back to it's former self.  Everyone involved with the production was supposed to participate.  I joined in, but being unfamiliar with tools such as hammers, drills, etc. I helped with organizing the costumes for storage and return to costumes rental places.

Aack! Is she still talking about that show?  Where's the challenge?

I heard that.  I know, I promised and it will happen. Believe me.  So, at the strike I volunteered to take home some of the costumes for wash and repair. Thankfully there were only a few minor repairs, but oh, the washing.

These are the clean factory aprons. Twenty-one draped ;on my loom.

This is my car loaded with some of the bags of costumes I brought home. I'd already done the aprons.

 Clean costumes on the loom. Shirts, aprons and bloomers.

On the loveseat.
Lots of burgundy and gold gloves from the wedding scene.

Is there a loom there? And what's that on the chair?  Cindy's huge nightdress. It is so big she couldn't find her way out.


And ta-dah! My whole living room full of clean stuff.  Except the dog.  See the video tour.

 

And the loom has completely disappeared.

Next time, the red blouse returns for it's final performance.

Hey, it's almost January!

Hiya to everyone.  It is almost January.  Don't get me wrong I love Christmas,  I love celebrating God's greatest gift, the first coming of my Lord.  I love the decorating and the family time. The music and general good will.  Somehow this year January looks  so  ripe with potential and it's because being in Les Miserables has consumed a great deal of my life.  Our last show is December 30th and so January 2nd seems like a gateway to marvelous new things.

So please keep checking back   I will Finish the Unfinished this bright new year of 2014

We don't often get snow here in the foothills, but we had a lovely one on the 6th of December this year.

If you are reading this before Christmas, do have a happy one,  If it's after, just remember it's almost January.  Or perhaps it's already here!


 
 A bit of color to send you on your way.  Come back when ever you care to, you're always welcome.

Costumes finished

Just stopping by to say I'll soon be writing a real post.  The costumes are finished, that is, my part of  it.   I am relieved.  I have taken my poor hard working machine to the shop for tender care and fixing the reverse.    I have my other older machine which is a wonderful one though in doesn't have as many decorative stitches as the newer one.

I was thinking about getting a serger.  I'm not thinking about it any more.  The one I thought would work for me was the BabyLock Imagine.  Oh, goodness it's $2900 and I'm just not going there.  I realize there are less expensive sergers but they are not self-threading.  At my age with my vision I would need the self-threading type.

 Sometimes I do some mixed-media fun projects.

This a piece I did for my daughter.  On the From side there's a map of the area I live in as the base while on the To side the base is a map if her town.


It was meant as a tag, but also some that could be hung on a plant or hook.  Fun

I made some other labels to stick into the holder on the front.

Please come on back and see what I'm up to next.  Remember January I'll return to my challenge.  Ta Ta.

I'm Not Back

Not yet anyway.  Still very busy with the show.  Only 20 days until our first performance.  As I said previously, I will resume my challenge in January, please stay tuned.

 Just for today I'm posting some photos so you have something to see, since you stopped over.

This is a photo of Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas.  I didn't take this photo, but I have been there and I have some great pictures. Unfortunately they are on my other computer which is still dead. So I got this one from the web.  The Dry Tortugas are a few islands in the Gulf of Mexico and Fort Jefferson was a prisoner of war camp during the Civil War. They are called dry because there is no fresh water.  You can get there on a catamaran, as my daughter and I did, or you can fly over.

This photo is from the Lost Gardens of Helligan.  They are in England. I've never been.  There are several of these earth people about the large garden site.  If you look at their website  you can see more plus the lovely gardens themselves.


Now if you look around my yard you can sometimes see this stunning sight.

       It's my handsome cat, Zorro, collecting Fall leaves.  Isn't he clever?


               So long until next time.  Whenever that happens to be.