Anticipation

Hurrah! I just discovered this book (click on image for link). It seems like an answer to my searches and plans for the summer.


I am by no means an impulsive buyer, but this time I knew I had to have it, so I took a detour to amazon before you could say "Κύμινο". I threw in a couple of other cheap books in the order, got my free shipping fix, and now all I have to do is wait for its arrival. Plenty of time to say κύμινο (=cumin), then.

Spring blues turned productive

March was a month of preparation and stashing. I feel well-equipped for several projects coming ahead. The books, fabrics and yarns are all in place, waiting patiently to be reach the opt of the queue. O.k., my queue is a list of ideas, but not in order of priority, so it's always a surprise which project I will start next.

Often little ideas, especially quick ones, take precedence to fulfill a need. Such as this little booklet I collaged out of a publisher's catalog that came in the mail.


Other items, however, remain in the list for months, perhaps years, before inspiration strikes. In principle they are good ideas, but I am not sure about the final shape. Until the right fabric comes along, begging to be turned into this or that.


I also had a few birthday and (long) overdue Christmas gifts to make, but some of them I still can't post about as they have not been delivered yet, and I don't want to ruin the surprise.


In addition, when everyone else has winter blues, I skipped that and went straight to spring blues. In the end of the days all I feel like doing is comfort knitting. But with only an irritating crochet project that I am stubbornly trying to finish before I start anything new, comfort knitting actually meant swatching. So I am in the process of making swatches for all my sweater-quantity yarns. Ravelry really helps here, making the rest of the steps automatically, such as calculating yardage etc.


Meanwhile, the kitties have been up to something secret. I could not hear what they were plotting about, but I managed to take a photo...


They seem to be serious about it...

The mystical communication of cotton

One of the things I have been collecting (or should I say stashing) over the years is cotton squares and small amounts of fabric for quilting or just playing around. Most of the projects I have made over the last year are from this stash. They are fun and an inexpensive way of collecting fabric, even though there isn't much uniformity in what I end up with. And sometimes they can be found in the most unusual of places.

Like this last batch, which I found in a 99-cents store a block away from work.


As soon as I came home, I played a game. I laid them all on the floor and sat in front of them, just staring and trying to imagine what each piece would like to become. It was an interesting experience, as different projects came through my mind as possibilities for the different fabrics, and in a very mystical way the fabrics rejected my ideas. Heh.. Finally, two decided to be cooperative.

So now I have a definite project for this:

And possibly for this:

Hopefully some of it will materialise during this weekend.

As always, Skid had to inspect the fabric-stash box