The Purse's Progress

Despite constant interruptions - some wonderful like my daughter's visit - some not so wonderful like hours and hours of blowing leaves - the purse is in the home stretch.

You know how every once in a while, something goes better than you hoped. This is one of those instances. To my delight, when I sewed the front to the back, the zig zags lined up perfectly and the side seams are virtually invisible.

Yesterday, after the leaf blowing olympics, I sewed the lining together, put the trim on the top of the bag and figured out a way to use a button that I have been saving for something special to close the bag. 

Heeding Jennifer Manuell's advice (brilliant as always), I decided to use the wool that I trimmed the top of the bag with to make a loop, which will come around the button to close the bag. I think it is going to work. At first I worried it would fight with the handles, but I think by positioning it further down the front, it makes a nice accent and will be functional as well. When I don't want to close the bag, the loop can just tuck inside and the button will be purely decorative.

Right now, all the pieces are placed in position to evaluate - and now that I see this image on the screen, I think I will really like it. The trick will be determining how to place the button so that it visually compliments the design, but also will function when the bag is stuffed with all my worldly goods.

Hopefully, I will be able to do the final assembly today......if my arms still work, that is. I think there are completely different muscles for holding a leaf blower for hours on end. (And they are slightly different again from the rediscovered muscles from sweeping at curling).

Do Not Punch While Sleep Deprived

I finished the second half of my punched Bala bag last week. I am pretty sure they match. But there's a story here.

Doing the second side, I developed a plan of attack that meant I wouldn't have to move the piece inside the frame as much as I did the first side. Each time I moved it (since the loops are on the under side in punching) it got a bit of a pull on the gripper strips. So for the second side, I did the left side first and then the right side, so I wouldn't have to move it at all. And it was a very good plan indeed. Until...

At one point, I pulled out the upper right quarter of the second side, thinking I had done something horribly wrong. It was about 3/4 of an hour of punching. I later realized that I had done something wrong, but it was a little error that didn't require the extreme tearing that I did.

What caused my rash decision? I attribute it to sleep deprivation! I had three really bad nights where, no matter how tired I was, I couldn't fall asleep. With so little brain power left, the smart thing to do would have been to "step away from the purse" and come back to it on a day when I was firing on all cylinders. But oh no, that part of the brain was not engaged either - obviously. And when I realized what I had done, I laughed at how silly it was. Definitely impaired!!!!

As chance would have it, I took my car in for service on Friday morning and was flipping through an old issue of Chatelaine at the car dealership and came across a very interesting article. It was about insomnia being caused by back lit devices like ipads and readers.

According to the article, reading from a backlit screen can prevent some people from producing Melatonin, our natural sleep-inducing hormone. And as I thought about the nights where sleep wouldn't come, they coincided with reading on my ipad. (I usually play a game of Sudoku on it if I can't fall asleep, but had been reading a novel lately.)

So Friday night, I refrained from reading. And sure enough - 8 1/2 hours of glorious sleep!! Same thing Saturday and Sunday nights. Coincidence? Perhaps. The truth could be complete and utter exhaustion will eventually cause you to fall asleep, but last night, I even used a book light and a real book (for a few pages) and dozed off, no problem.

The moral of the story is "don't hook or punch when extremely sleep deprived". Your centre of reasoning is wayyyyyy off and you will do something crazy for sure.

Stay tuned for finished bag - hopefully, assembled under the influence of lots of good sleep.

Toddler in Leaves is finished.

What an incredible Thanksgiving weekend! Good food, good company and the most beautiful leaf show by Mother Nature. How thoughtful of her to save it for the weekend when so many could enjoy it.

Inspired by the colours on the lake and on the road, and finding little pockets of time - mostly while others were sleeping or reading - I finished this little mat. I still need to "finish" it but have to figure out what I want to do with it first. (Or else that's my excuse for having so many small, unfinished pieces waiting for the decision. LOL)

I think I may put this on a canvas stretcher, along with some of the other smaller pieces. Not only does it keep them from curling, but it also makes them feel more like the impressionist 'sketches' that they are.

On the drive to and from Toronto yesterday - to return my daughter and have a quick late lunch with my son - I was overwhelmed by the splendour of leaves once I was north of the city. Even the yellow birches were illuminated by the other colours around them. They were positively glowing, which I had never witnessed before. And in some spots where there were lots of evergreens, the smaller trees with coloured leaves appeared to be nestled inside the pine boughs. Breathtaking.  (The city leaves are still far behind.)

Since driving and taking pictures is not a good idea, I wasn't able to get too many. But this one (yes, I stopped the car) is an example of how the colours together are amazing and how the birch trunks stand out against the colour. It truly felt like being inside a Group of Seven painting and the drive was like an art show versus a chore.

I think today is forecast as the last sunny day for a bit. The sun is sparkling on the water. The wind is bringing down lots of leaves (I guess their job is mostly done.) So hopefully today can be spent cleaning up the gardens and getting ready for what is lurking around the corner.

Hooking Fall Leaves in the Fall Leaves

What a beautiful day it was here today. So I decided to join my hubby on the lower deck and do a little hooking there.

When I realized I was hooking fall leaves, somewhat surrounded by fall leaves, I got Rick to take this picture to share.

Ironically, there aren't many fall leaves in this picture. But if you look closely....see behind the chair that patch of yellow....and next to my worm boxes, those scattered leaves. I'm not sure why the trees are so far behind this year, but they seem to be.

That big pine directly behind me has dropped so many needles, you can hardly see the stone path anymore. Here's a pic of that. (I am sitting on the deck to the left of that big patch of rust pine needles.)

And yes, the colours have begun - I'd say they were about 30-40% now. Here's a picture of the side of the bay that is furthest along. (OK, so maybe that looks more like 50....)

And some glorious colour on the road into our home.

Now THOSE are fall colours. Maybe they were waiting for our Canadian Thanksgiving weekend to really show off.

Faceless Portraits

I have always believed that some of the best portraits of people didn't involved showing their faces at all. When I used to paint, I did a series of family portraits without showing a single face.

My husband's portrait was of him reading the newspaper sitting in a Muskoka chair - from the back. His hair, his feet up on the railing and the way he held the paper was distinctly him.

My daughter's portrait, also from the back, was her lying on a beach towel with her face down on her crossed arms. Her beautiful swimmer's shoulders and the dimples in them were as personal as her face.

And my son's portrait of hunting for salamanders in the creek, was from the bottom of his t-shirt past his jean shorts to his feet in the water - scratches and bandaids and all.  I will try to see if I still have the sketches to share.

I think they are portraits that are "universal" but very intimate as well. The mat that I did of the kids "reading in the canoe" was another one of those portraits that I had to hook.

Another one is on the frame. Finally after what seems like months, I am back at it. And this one is another "universal" moment captured. A toddler in the fall leaves. Everyone has a picture like this.  It is much too soon to be taking pictures of my progress, but I am so excited to be hooking again, I have to share.

Little rubber boots and a plaid fall jacket. You can't see them, but you know there are ruddy cheeks and probably a runny nose above the frame. How many times did we rake up the same leaves, just so they could jump in them and play with them.

I think Matt was nervous about jumping in at this stage. He left that up to his big sister and the neighbour kids. He mostly stayed around the edges of the pile and either kicked the leaves or tried to pick them up in his chubby little hands.

A perfect portrait for a fall day that will go on through time as long as we have leaves. This is a small piece - only 6 x 12, so I should have it done while the leaves are still falling.

Getting My Groove Back

Simple Things Shawlette knitted in hand-dyed sock yarn

After finishing up a few knitting projects, (this is a picture of a new little shawl hot off the needles and drying on the blocking mat) I realized that I need to catapult myself out of my prolonged hooking absence and get on with making some new mats.

So I spent some time on Rug Hooking Daily this morning and was inspired by lots of new photos on the photo page. Inspired enough to leave some comments and upload a couple of my new pieces. No sooner had my fingers left the keys than some comments came in. And there's nothing like encouraging words from fellow hookers to re-ignite that spark. Thanks to all of you who left comments.

In responding back, I found some new great works and a new blog to share. It's called Laura's Loops and Laura is one extremely talented lady. You will have seen her work in Rug Hooking Magazine and she is a very active teacher.

I'm sure you will LOVE her  blog. And her website too - you will find a link there.

Falling in Love with Fall

A perfect little maple on the path.

The leaves here in the near north have just begun their colour show. And it is very localized, it seems. On Saturday, we drove to Huntsville and there were lots of glorious leaves along the Aspdin Road. But on Sunday, we went to Killbear and there was barely (no pun intended) any change there.

Our magnificent "sign" maple, which is common in these parts.

At Killbear, the change is just beginning.

Some pretty berries on the rocks.

A remarkable sign of how much the water levels are down.

 As we drove around and ooh-ed and aah-ed at the colours, I realized that I think they are the most splendid when there is still green around them. Without the contrast, they aren't quite as spectacular.

And my mind kept going back to this incredible piece of wool that I won at a hook in last summer.
All the glorious fall colours contrasted against the greens and blues.

Mother Nature NEVER gets it wrong.

Sometimes all you need is a rainy afternoon.

And we had that today to be sure. Incredible winds that eventually brought in the rain. So I had an afternoon to spend inside and no work waiting for me on my computer.

Amazing what you can accomplish in a few hours. Here is the front (or back) of my punched bag - all punched.

I was thinking how the colours were unusual for me, especially the green. And then I put it on the oriental carpet in the dining room to take this picture and practically laughed out loud. All the colours in the bag are in the carpet!!! We do really come with a palette, don't we?

For those of you who haven't punched, here is where I left off last time. And I took this picture of the in-progress bag and the handles. Something screwy with all the colours, but in real life, they look awesome.

As I begin to hook the second side, I have learned many lessons from the first. I will share them in a future post when I see if my learning makes side 2 better.

Stay tuned.

Enuff with the Baby Stuff!

Well, nearly enough. I promise not to keep doing knitting posts and get back to hooking (or at least punching). But before I do, one more little shot of "adorable".

Using the same sock yarns, I did a little hat that is newborn size and so cute with the blanket. And then I couldn't resist doing a few of the little "bunny nuggets". They seem to be just the right size for little hands to hold.

Now that the baby knitting is done, I can move along on my other projects - of which there are many.

I am just doing the sleeves on this "slouchy cardigan", which I knit before in a yarn that didn't suit. Hopefully this yarn will work, as it is now on its third iteration. I am becoming the Queen of Ravelling.

When that is done, I have some beautiful yarn with a delicious colourway that may turn into this Noro pattern.

And this dramatic lace cardigan has been waiting patiently to be knit for some months now. It should actually come ahead of the one before, so I'll see when I finish "slouchy".

And then, in true September style, I have made a list of hooking projects too. Lots to whip and finish, but a whole set of stair risers, which I think I will do in a combination of wool strips for the "critters" and punch needle backgrounds.

That of course, after the Bala Bag is done. 

The "A" Babies are Coming.

One arrived on the weekend. Little Ayla, for whom I knit the apple green blanket, is here safe and sound. I will hopefully get a chance to go and meet her next week. In the meantime, I made a couple of other little things to go with the blankie, since I couldn't find more wool to knit the little cardi I showed a few weeks ago.

What a cute little hat, isn't it?

 This hat was a free pattern on Ravelry, called "Berry Baby Hat".

And I love these little creatures.

And these little "Bunny Nuggets" were also a free pattern that I found through Ravelry as well. I think I giggled the whole time I was making these. And they didn't take long.

The next baby to arrive will be Abby, due next month. She is the one for whom I have been knitting the second zig zag blanket. It is now finished and just needs the ends tidied up.

There might just have to be a couple of "Bunny Nuggets" to go with this blankie too. There's certainly a rainbow of possibilities.

I love knitting for babies! It's fast. It's joyful. And there is absolutely no happier occasion for knitting. I am reluctant to do sweaters any more, since they outgrow them in about 15 minutes. So blankies and softies are definitely my preferred way to go.
 

Knitting Begets Punching

Punchneedle hooking that is.

I am well into my second zig-zag baby blanket and over the long weekend was bitten by the urge to transpose the zig-zag pattern to a purse. Since I already a Bala bag (Jenn's pattern) on backing, I simply needed to create a grid and away I went.

So here is the begetter.

Wow, it looks really red in this picture, when in fact it is more like a raspberry pink.

And here is the begettee (I don't think either of those are words).

Everything is just yarns from my stash, but the colours are driven by a pair of turquoise leather handles.

And this much progress took only a couple of hours yesterday afternoon. We had a quiet weekend and such a smelly upstairs (staining the beams and logs in the great room), so I hid out in the studio and got lots done.

I also finished my beautiful Alga sweater. Here is a picture of it on the floor. I'll see if I can convince Rick to take one of it one me when I get it blocked.

If you look closely at the left side, you'll see the pleats.

The little pleating detail doesn't show up as well on mine as it did on the orange one I showed a few posts ago, but I love the denim colourway of the delicious Madeline Tosh light merino wool. It will be fabulous with jeans, don't you think? And it may just be cool enough to wear it today.