gasp!

An elusive pattern, the Spanish Crown leaf, has been found again! Rich and I stopped at the Village (thrift store) after church on Sunday. He has decided to enhance his stash by ripping up sweaters, so that’s what we were hunting for. Of course I had to wander past their housewares section while we were there. As I walked past, I glanced down and saw those lovely green leaves. I gasped loud enough to draw Rich’s attention. Marked on the large plate, it said “$1.50 B”. The B was short for blue, which meant that it was half-off. The whole 11 piece set was just 75 cents.

SCORE!

around my kitchen

I love the living room in the morning. 
I love the kitchen in the afternoon.

Pot scrubber octopus and hedgehog veggie brush.

Ikea foot stool with a linen towel from Nana Helen.

Vintage cake carrier for $1 at the flea market.

Solar powered friend sits behind mug rack.

sweaters

little ones. without arm holes.

well, that might not be entirely accurate. they do have spout holes.

For no particular reason I became inspired to get working on my teapot sweaters this week. Of five pots, two are now cozy. And the great thing about it? They neither take a lot of time nor yarn. I just might get all five done before December 5.

must. make. mittens.

I did it AGAIN. Yes, AGAIN. I waited until the last minute to beef up my stash of mittens for the Holiday Craft Show. Can we just pretend that planning that wedding took up all my free time?

For the sale this year, I’m not doing any neckwarmers. They were too confusing for most people. In place of those, I was hoping to get some tea cozies made, with the pot included. However, I have pots but no cozies. We’ll see how that ends up…

Another change to the status quo is the type of yarn I’m using. The first few years I purchased white commercial yarns and dyed them before knitting simple ribbed mitts. Gradually, I’ve incorporated handspun yarns and different styles of mittens. This year I don’t have any of that first style of mitt and most are made of handspun. I will also be using some undyed fiber and recycled sweater yarn.

And here are some of my most recent pairs of mitts. The middle pair was knit two at time and finished in one day! I’m excited about that accomplishment.

a petite homemaker

All that time I spent collecting and stashing household goodies… it has all led to this! Rich and I are now finally settling into our little apartment. My cupboards are full of green Pyrex and I don’t have to feel guilty about decorating the living room with wool.

While we were on our honeymoon, we stopped at several antique malls. I found some special things including this wonderful linen tablecloth. During some intense browsing, I came across a pile of linens, and just happened to pull this one out without knowing its special hidden secret. A wheel! Of course I couldn’t pass up something with a spinning wheel on it! When we got home I put it on the table immediately. An unexpected bonus: it’s inspiring me keep the table clean.

the perfect day

We’re married now, Mr. and Mrs. R. Richard Brown. Despite mediocre weather, the day was superb. The only hiccup was my slip – it kept rotating around under my dress, making the strap hang out. Otherwise everything went perfectly! We had a great group of friends come support us. We had delicious food, a positive atmosphere, and lots of fun. Thanks to everyone who helped with cookies. And thank you for showing us so much love!

weee!

This is my final post as Miss Gwen Shriver!

in just a few days I will become…

MRS Gwen Brown!

weeeee!

see you in a week.

tom’s favorite mitts.

Apparently Thomas has a favorite pair of fingerless mittens.

It began when I left a pair in progress on the couch and came back to find him using the ball of yarn as a pillow. He had been resting his chin between both balls, but then adjusted to favor the blue-green one.

Then, after I had finished knitting the pair, I brought out the stool to take photos. He joined me.

Or perhaps he just wanted to look out the window.

questioning.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not very creative when it comes to writing my own patterns. For mittens, I don’t really need a pattern because I’ve made so many pairs that I have an idea of the stitches to cast on and when to increase, but they aren’t very interesting. They are just mittens. So I can’t claim with any amount of pride that “this is MY pattern”.  In fact, I don’t even know what to do to make them unique or special. Your hand goes in, there is a thumb hole, your fingers come out the top. I suppose using a stitch pattern of some sort would add a bit of intrigue, but the basic structure is the same. My brain just doesn’t think outside the box.

But another reason I have difficulty either claiming a pattern as “mine” or even attempting to write my own is because there are so many out there already.

• How does one determine that a pattern has become theirs?
• What if you start with a written pattern and make modifications?
• At what point is it a new pattern?
• What if two people simultaneously write patterns that are so close they are indistinguishable?
• Or you start with something like Ann Budd’s basics book to get an idea of the number of stitches to cast on, but from there you just wander off?

These questions stress me out. Whenever I do knit something that doesn’t really follow a pattern, I neither write it down nor share it because it looks so basic and average that I figure someone else must have already written it. I bring this up because someone asked if the Green Circles hat that I made a few weeks ago was an Ann Budd pattern. Well, I cast-on her recommended stitches (actually for a cap, not a tam), but I didn’t follow anything else. In fact, the hat didn’t even turn out how I wanted it. So am I wrong for not saying it is HER pattern? None of her hats look like that – at least to me.

I’d appreciate any thoughtful comments on the subject.

Thank you.

alpaca: beyond samples

The past few weeks I’ve been trying to spin alpaca yarns to show at the farm day event that occurred last weekend. Overall it went well, except for the completely dreary weather on Saturday. Sunday morning we had a birth right at the farm. One of the momma alpacas had a little girl. She had gotten up yet when I left later that day so I’m hoping she’s doing better.

I orchestrated a swap with one of the alpaca owners. She wanted some dyed fiber spun into yarn, so I took that and a big pile of natural colors to spin for myself. My plans for it include mittens for the Christmas show. I think folks will respond to “Handspun Alpaca in Natural Colors” especially since I have some black (close enough anyway). Everyone is always asking about black. Not going to do that!! Plus it’s really boring, but if it’s a natural color fiber I don’t mind so much.

Also, I used the left-over yarns from the green striped hat to make a pair of fingerless mitts for myself. I think I’ve always wanted a matching set, so now I’ll have one! Green and white stripes with brown coat – it should work. Although I’ve never been concerned about matching in the past, so really it doesn’t matter.

We’re finally meeting with the caterer tonight. What’s on the menu? I have no idea!