A hat for baby

This is the story of two crocheted baby hats:

My brother and his wife were expecting a baby.

I used my keen psychic abilities and secretly predicted a girl.

I crocheted a tiny ruffled-edged girly baby hat.

They had a beautiful baby boy.

I gifted the hat to Harriet May (who used to belong to my Aunt and now sits on a shelf in my room).

It was a little big on her so we turned up the edge.

I took a trip to the yarn store.

I got busy on a blue hat for my new nephew Parker.

I shipped it last week.

I heard the weather in Texas finally got chilly and I was secretly glad.

Then I got this photo from my brother.

I have never seen a cuter hat-wearing baby in my life.

Also, he looks a little concerned.

I love being an aunt.

Found: Happy Things

These are some of the hardest days for me. These weeks when, although the days are supposedly getting longer, I feel like the sun is never far enough over the horizon and my bones are in a constant state of chill. 
To combat the dark I am on a constant search for pinpricks of light — a sprig of green, a sunny song, a hopeful laugh.

Here's a little roundup of some things I recently discovered.

BOOKS ~ This site — bookcrossing.com — where you can send your books out into the universe and track their journey. A version of the elementary school "Flat Stanley" project . . . . for grown-ups! (Thanks to Danni of Silo Hill Farm for telling me about the site.)

TV ~ This list of feel-good documentaries from PBS.

SOMETHING PRETTY ~ This dress from Mod Cloth. I don't wear dresses often, but this one is divine. Maybe I should plan a fancy Valentine's day dinner and get this dress for the occasion? Except, dang, one of my words for the year is "simplify." Buying a semi-pointless dress doesn't really work into that plan.

READING ~ This book. I'd never read it and decided it was high time.

ART ~ This french artist's blog and artwork. And this one too. There are so many talented people in the world, aren't there? 

MUSIC ~ This documentary on Tom Petty. (Again with the talent.)

HOOKY ~ For all the crochet-crazed out there — this free baby bootie pattern. I think I know what I'll be working on next!

And finally POETRY. This poem:

Winter-Time
Robert Louis Stevenson (from A Child’s Garden of Verses, 1885)


Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,
A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;
Blinks but an hour or two; and then,
A blood-red orange, sets again.

Before the stars have left the skies,
At morning in the dark I rise;
And shivering in my nakedness,
By the cold candle, bathe and dress.

Close by the jolly fire I sit
To warm my frozen bones a bit;
Or with a reindeer-sled, explore
The colder countries round the door.

When to go out, my nurse doth wrap
Me in my comforter and cap;
The cold wind burns my face, and blows
Its frosty pepper up my nose.

Black are my steps on silver sod;
Thick blows my frosty breath abroad;
And tree and house, and hill and lake,
Are frosted like a wedding-cake.

Wishing you a happy week. 

Oh - and don't forget to put your name in for a book drawing. I'll pick names on Wednesday (see previous post).

Two Little Bees & A Teen

Thank you for enduring my Halloween rant on Monday. 

Now that it's all said and done I can honestly say things went festively well. Also, I have a confession: 

I want you all to know that I am now one of those people who puts their pet in a costume. I truly never thought I would be a pet-costume person, but if there's one thing I've become progressively more sure of it's that you should "never say never" because life is always a wild ride. That said, last year I thought pet costumes were silly. And this year I CROCHETED A PET COSTUME for my yorkie. Oh my. 

But she was so stinkin' cute in it. Then Kate decided to join in the fun and be a bee too. It was a regular swarm around here. Emma decided this was the year to call it quits. She still wanted a photo though, so we took one of her, dressed as herself (note the cell phone, which I think is permanently adhesed to her hand). 

How were things in your neck of the woods? Spooky? Chocolatey? Were there any costume-clad animals?

Comforts of Home

While Gary and Emma drove to Bozeman on Saturday for Emma's final club soccer games of the season Kate and I propped ourselves up on the couch with yarn, hooks, and a steady stream of Home & Garden TV. Kate's working on her first big hooky project, a baby-blue scarf, and I'm giddy over having my very own crochet partner. Chat. Stitch. Chat. Stitch.

When I needed a break from crocheting I made a few hanging ghosts from some white fabric I found in my studio. They're hanging from the light over the kitchen table.

Sunday was a menagerie of projects — everyone moving around the house to their own beat — mowing the grass, sorting laundry, laboring over homework, filing stacks of bills. All of those tasks that nag at you, annoy you, yet when they're done you feel ten tons lighter.

Sometimes happiness is a quiet weekend at home.

Life's Canvas

I'm all over the place these days. Crocheting a row on Emma's blanket, then jotting down a line for a poem, or noting (on a torn corner of paper that I will never be able to find) a book I need to read, then filing just two of 50 papers that need filed, before I run upstairs to vacuum the living room, getting distracted by the Country Living magazine on the coffee table. I feel like a scattered mess. A happy scattered mess. Life is filled with so much inspiration and so many tasks that call to me at every hour of the day. How am I to chose? There are so MANY ways to throw paint on the canvas of your life — your one, precious life.

For starters I've decided to start making a daily schedule each morning to try to calm by brain. And I've made a boring but necessary new rule that I'm not allowed to start a large project without finishing another. For example I began painting all of the cabinets in our kitchen last November. There are still a few cupboard doors left to paint, but now I'm itching to look at color schemes for the basement walls and my office. Under my new rule, I must finish the kitchen before moving on to the basement. Isn't it high time we quit tripping over those cupboard doors propped in the hallway awaiting their paint job? Another example — I am not allowed to look up crochet patterns for granny square quilts (oh, that sounds sooo fun) until Emma's all snuggled in her finished blanket. It's gonna be hard, but I've gotta give it a try.

In good news the cooler weather has got me hooking away on Emma's blanket. It had been a few months since I'd crocheted and it feels darn good. I snuggle up in bed at night with my skeins of yarn and spread the blanket over my lap. Izzy likes to curl up next to me, pressing her body against my legs. I work by the yellow light of my little bedside lamp and keep a cup of hot tea beside me. It's like a little snippet of heaven. Just me, and the needle, and the yarn twisting and pulling. Creating. My mind is so present in the moment that worries and stress fall away.

Oh, I love this time of year. 

The good news for us all is that today is Friday and that means we get to relax a little and enjoy larger expanses of creative time. I can't wait! Happy weekend to you, whatever your projects may be or your travels may take you. Go throw a little paint on that life of yours!

Unexpected Visitor: Jack Frost

Criminy! I didn't pay attention to the weather guy and the temperature dipped below freezing last night, leaving a thin layer of frost on our corner of the world. My poor unexpecting tomatoes! Fortunately I harvested lots of cherry tomatoes earlier this week, but the larger ones (and there are lots of them!) were all still green, so I left them to keep on sucking up the sunshine. *large sigh* This gardening thing is not really a strong skill of mine.

The chilly air reminded me that I have been a little lazy about working on Emma's blanket. I started it early last spring but as the days warmed the urgency waned and I've all but ignored it now for the last two months. Time to get busy so my gal can snuggle up before the snow flies.

Kate is feeling much better and is putting in a full day of school today. Her neck is still a bit stiff but things improve daily. I told her no jumping on the trampoline for a while.

Tomorrow she and some of her friends are joining the middle school show choir ~ go Glee! Don't Stop Believin'! 


p.s. A couple business items: I've added a button on the right so you can "Join this site" and get updates through Google. Also, if you go to my Facebook page you can 'like' Audrey Finch there and I update my status whenever a new blog post uploads. 

As always, thanks for reading. 

Crocheted Round Pillow ~ Ta Da!

 

Well, it's about time I showed off a creation. It's been quite a while since I stitched up my throw pillow covers and I needed one last pillow to round out the look in the living room, so I pondered and stewed, then settled on a basic round crocheted pillow. I would have loved to tried my hand at this one but I don't feel ready for that yet. Just looking at the instructions makes my palms sweat. I'm putting it on my "someday" list though. 

Because she's my crocheting hero, I used Lucy's (Attic24) directions for crocheting a flat circle. She changes yarn color throughout but I just stuck with the single yarn. Surprisingly things went quite smoothly and quickly. I completed the multi-colored front side in just two evenings and the back side in just one evening. I used Sugar-n-Cream Twist yarn in Cottage Twist for the front and a cream Sugar-n-Cream variety for the back side, then attached the two sides with some of the colored yarn and a large needle. Sugar-n-Cream yarns come in the yummiest colors. I just love that brand!

Here's the finished product sitting nestled among her pillow friends on the couch. I think the cream side is cool and calming for these hot Summer days but I know I'll love flipping it to the colored side when Fall blows in and the holidays arrive. It feels warm and festive, don't you think? I must say, I'm very pleased with myself. I know it is a bit wobbly and I probably should've stuffed it a little fuller, but hey - it was my first round pillow so I'm cutting myself a little slack.

So hot here in Montana (95 degrees). The dogs are all laying on their side in the shade. Even the bunnies are panting. (Did you even know that bunnies panted? I didn't until we got these)

Is it hot where you are?

Flour Sack Towel Embroidery #2

I took a little inspiration from the book Doodle Stitching and came up with this design for my second embroidery attempt. I'm happy with how it turned out! I have yet to try satin stitches although I did try a "lazy daisy" and the results were less than attractive (notice that I am not showing you a picture of said "daisy").

Weekend Plans:
Crochet on the new blanket, finish reading Cutting for Stone (excellent so far, BTW), paint trim in kitchen, plant remaining herbs in garden, take some items to Goodwill, and tonight – dinner at El Cazador downtown and watch "The Descendants" with Gary.

Happy weekend to you all!

Sidetracked

Yesterday I fully intended to go grocery shopping, as the cupboards were more than a bit sparce (stewed tomatoes and dried beans anyone?). I called Gary to see if he'd like to meet for lunch and he said he would - in 45 minutes downtown at the bagel place. Perfect! But that wasn't nearly enough time to grocery shop and I kept hearing this little voice calling "Jenny, the antique mall is downtown. Please shop!" and I suddenly found myself roaming stalls of antiques. Joy!

Here's what I discovered - there are hoards of antique embroidered linens in the world! How come I'd never noticed this before? They were everywhere – so intricate and delicate. I snapped a few pics. Isn't that alphabet sampler just amazing?! What a ton of work.

Just seeing all those hankies and dishtowels and tablecloths so carefully embroidered made me think about the woman of days gone by, rocking by the fireplace in the evening, humming a little, and lovingly stitching embellishments on cloth. Women from Colonial days, the Victorian Era and those traveling West to find land to farm. Post-WWII mothers stitching their children's initials into their underwear and socks before sending them off to summer camp.

Learning this old skill makes me feel a tiny connection with those women, who were FAR more industrious and hardy than I'll ever be. Remember Ma in "Little House in the Big Woods" - when she hit that bear on the butt, thinking it was Sookie the cow? How about in "On the Banks of Plum Creek" when Pa got lost in the snow and was gone a whole night. Ma just sat by the fire, calm as can be, stitching and waiting. Even when her children showed concern and asked if she was worried she held her composure and gently sent them back to bed. I would've been freaking out, crying "Dear God, Pa's dead! What the hell am I gonna do? A lone woman with three children?! We're all gonna starve here on this piece of crap farm in the middle of nowhere!" But not Ma. She just stitched the night away.

By the time I met Gary at Bagels on Broadway (best bagels in town) I was giddy to show off my new purchases – a beautifully embroidered pillowcase and two cloth sugar sacks. As you would expect from a man, he was super excited (not!).

We split a turkey, cream cheese, cranberry sauce, sprout and sunflower seed sandwich on an everything bagel. It was so delish I wished I'd just gotten a whole one to myself.

Embroidered Kitchen Towel

Well, I completed my first embroidery project and I have to tell you . . . embroidery is SO much fun, VERY relaxing, and it is probably going to take a little PRACTICE to make my final product look anything like the pictures in Alicia's book. But, that's okay. I'm willing and patient.

If you're looking to give it a try I have to tell you (geez, I have a lot that I have to tell you don't I?) . . . I loved the flour sack towel project. You can buy the towels for about a dollar apiece at Target so if you make a mess of things you haven't blown too much cash. Plus you can instantly display your work as soon as you're finished – just drape the towel over the oven door handle and viola! Your kitchen is a bit fancier.

Here are the steps I took. (It only took me a little over an hour from start to finish.)

1. Gather your supplies and print the design you plan to use. Make sure you wash, dry and iron your towel before you start. (I had to include a picture of the package of needles because they are so vintagy cool! They came from G's aunt Billie's sewing box and they say they're made in England which makes them even yummier!)

2. Hold your towel over the printed design against a sunny window and use a washable fabric pen to trace the design on your towel.

3. Using a basic backstitch (see tutorial here), follow the design in thread colors of your choice. I used two strands of embroidery thread on the main parts of the design and just one strand on the smaller flower details.

(Sorry no photos of the sewing cuz I couldn't figure out how to take a pic while sewing.)

A couple things caused some problems for me:

a. My main thread color (blue) almost exactly matched the color of my outlining pen which made it VERY hard to see what the heck I was doing.

b. Check the back of your work FREQUENTLY. I'd be sewing away like a mad woman and then feel a funky snag, turn the thing over, and discover a spaghetti-like mass of thread on the back. I don't know how I kept making such a thread blob but it happened several time.

Here's how the back looked when I was done. I'm guessing this is kind of a crazy mess but I don't have anything to compare it to.

Here's the finished towel! I love it!

Think you want to try? Don't hesitate! Start tonight! Good luck.

Feeling Icky

Yesterday I felt icky almost all day. Nothing too terrible, just one of those kinds where you can tell there is something amiss and you decide not to eat anything just in case it all takes a turn for the worse. I worked and ran errands and did my usual thing anyway and by evening I felt pretty good. 

I walked to a neighbors house to meet with a bunch of other mothers. We all came with calendars and visions of summer camps in our heads and hoped to find a week when all our daughters could go to sleep-away camp together at Flathead Lake. There was wine and snackies and I hadn't eaten all day so it all looked pretty darn good.

By the time we disbanded (two hours later) we hadn't been successful at finding a week that worked for everyone – but I had been successful in consuming two glasses of wine and nearly an entire bag of some sort of AMAZING chip from Costco. It probably wasn't the best decision I've made because today I woke up feeling crappy again and now I don't know if it was the wine and ten pound of chips or if I really do have some sort of virus. *sigh*

AND, sadly, it's a beautiful, sunny Saturday. I could be out prepping the garden soil or doing general yard cleanup, but I'm on the couch staring at the view out my window, trying to muster the energy to at least go out and put the bunnies in their grassy pen. I do feel up for some handwork though so I'm going to get started on the embroidery project that I mention in an earlier post. I went ahead and ordered Alicia Paulson's Embroidery Companion last week. It is a beautiful book and has detailed descriptions of many different stitch types so I think it will be really helpful when I move on to more difficult projects. The book hasn't arrived yet, but I found some basic stitch descriptions online so I'm going to start on the kitchen towel design today and just try my best.

Wish me luck! Oh, and the daffodils are hours away from blooming! Hoorah!

And we've got ourselves a blanket!

I told myself that I wasn't allowed to start the embroidery project until I finished the blanket I've been working on, so I rushed through my day and finished the last three rows! Yippee! The pattern was one I made up myself and I like how it turned out. I thought I might call it my Fair Isle Throw because it reminded me of an Eddie Bauer "Fair Isle" sweater I had years ago. But then I Googled "fair isle" and although the pattern is somewhat stripey in nature it is a lot more fancy than this.

Izzy doesn't care what I call it as long as she can use it at nap time.

Slow Spring Sunday

Spring is so slow to come to Montana. It's almost painful, the waiting. Yesterday it actually snowed for a short spell, leaving the Robins in a complete panic. They perched on the fence posts and stood in the middle of the paved road in confused groups as if they were all discussing what they should do or who's lame idea it was to come North so soon.

Today was rainy and chilly so we spent the day doing quiet things. I worked on the blanket I've been crocheting and heated some leftover homemade veggie soup for our lunch.

The rain is feeding the roots of my Spring bulbs and they're slowly stretching and pushing up through the soil. It's just a tiny start to the new season, but it's enough to lift our spirits and remind us that there's more to come.