Sunday Drive Designs

Finally the weekend arrives and fortunately I got thru this week with little damage.  This weekend is going to be all about new designs, knitting, sewing, flowers and gardens.  Hopefully Monday evening I’ll have some new towel designs for everyone to vote on.  And there may even be a little giveaway as a thanks for the input on the new designs. As for the other four things, well, after I get this post done, I’ll be doing some knitting.

I haven’t been able to knit as much as I used to.  And one of my goals is to get back to knitting.  Even if it’s for a few minutes here and there.  Tonight’s project is the Baby Newsie by Bekah Knits.  I had 3/4 of this done and frogged it because it just looked huge.  So I’m going to give this another go.  And I will prevail.  I have to.  I have to make 5 of these things.  If I can get this one done, than the other 4 should be smooth sailing.  And once those are done, I have a small shawl/scarf that I promised my mom that I would make for her.  She bought the yarn in August and I haven’t been able to get to it.  It’s the Highland Fling scarf/shawl on the cover of the Crestone & Vista booklet.  And after that I’ll finally be able to get to my sweater… but which one should I do first?  The Rose Jumper or the Jan Sweater.  Thanks to my cousin and her lovely daughter, I have the yarn for both of these sweaters.  I guess I will make my decision once I get to the point where I have to make the decision.

The sewing part of the weekend is to finish the tunic I started before the holiday craft fair season.  It’s about half way done.  And since I’ve made this tunic before I should be able to get it done in a reasonable amount of time.  And if I’m feeling like I really want to live on the edge, I will trace the pattern for the next thing I want to make.  But again, I will make that decision when I get to that point.

The flower and garden part of the weekend will be sunday.  I’ll be attending the Seattle Flower and Garden show.  My friend and I do a girls day once a month and this is our day out.  I will be looking longingly at the chickens and the chicken coops.  I really want to get chickens but the rather large raccoon family in our cul de sac and my landlords teenage poodle seem to be two really good reasons for not getting chickens.  One half of my landlords also expressed an interest in getting chickens…  the dream lives on…  I really excited to see what kind of container gardening I can do by my door and to find out what I can do to keep the lovely teenage poodle out of my plants.  I will probably have to give my wallet to my friend so that I don’t try and buy a pear tree or something crazy.  I’m hoping the fact that I’ll be taking the light rail to the show might also deter me from buying large shrubbery.  But if I can find them I’ll be buying more of those tomato grow bags.  Those things are great!  I got a pretty good tomato crop this past year.  It probably would have been better if I had been better at watering my poor tomatoes.  Or perhaps, if they are having a show special I may have to get one of two of these Vee Garden container gardens.  The more i look at the exhibitors list, the more I’m thinking I should just leave my wallet at home.

And that, my friends, is my weekend.  Enjoy your weekend everybody!

I’m now 2 shows into the 5 show schedule I’ve got this year.  The first show was great.  I always love doing the Century Ballroom Flea Market.  Everyone is so nice and friendly.  It’s hard not to like it.  This weekend’s show was a fundraiser for Soulumination.  Soulumination is one of those organizations that is all about love.  Lynette (the founder) and her roster of giving photographers give the gift of a lasting memory, in the form of photographs, to families of terminally ill children  and parents.  If you couldn’t make it to the artists sale to help support the organization, you can donate money here.  I met a woman at the sale who I felt like I connected with immediately. She told me she was at the sale to support Soulumination because she lost a loved one and one of the Soulumination’s photographers took their pictures.  I was so honored to be a able to help them raise money. And I hope what little I could bring in, helps ease the pain of losing a loved one too soon.

OK, enough about that.  While the holidays can be a bit tough to enjoy when working in retail or even when you see Christmas decorations in September, there are 2 things that I love to do during the holidays.  The first thing is going to see the incredible light displays people put up.  I’m not talking a few icicle lights and a santa on the lawn.  I’m talking every inch of the lawn, house, roof and whatever else that doesn’t move covered in lights.  The tackier the better.  It just makes me happy.  I can’t explain why, but it does.

The other thing that I love is the luminaria that line Lake Washington Blvd one night in the month of December.  It’s usually the same night that the Argosy Christmas Ship stops at Seward Park and Stan Sayres Memorial Park.   The main boat has a sound system that plays Christmas music.  And while it never docks at the locations it does hang out off shore and then a choir sings a few songs and you can hear them all around Lake Washington.  And several smaller boats always follow and the are all decorated with lights.  At each stop people stand on the shore, with hot chocolate, tea and other assorted warm drinks and snacks and just listen.  It’s amazing.  It’s one of the few times that you can really feel some sort of holiday wonder.

So now that I have seen the luminaria and heard the choirs and seen the boats, I now know, it’s the holiday season.

I was listening to Brenda Dayne’s podcast, Cast On, on friday and she talked about why there is a resurgence in the craft world and why people craft.  And it got me  to thinking, why do I craft?  Well I think it’s a couple of things that make me want to craft.  The first reason is my dad was a high school art teacher.  He always had something that I could draw with, build with, and create with.  Looking back, I may have said that I was bored.  But I don’t think I ever was.  Our imaginations are amazing.  And with them we can do anything.

The second reason is the pride that comes with making something from your own hands.  There’s something satisfying about creating something from nothing,  And for the time that you are creating that thing, you are completely immersed in that project.  You and your brain are working on this one thing.  It’s an amazing process.  It’s rewarding, frustrating, satisfying and aggregating all in one. Once the process is done, you now have a tangible object that you can look at, show off, and take pride in.

The third reason, and probably the real reason I craft, is because it makes me feel closer to the people who came before me and who made me who I am.  My father’s mother, affectionately called Grandma Buck because they had a dog named Buck, was an incredibly knitter and crocheter.  Growing up we had piles of hand knit sweaters and blankets from Grandma Buck.  When I graduated from college and had an incredibly long commute to and from work via train, I asked grandma to show me how to knit.  While I was close to my grandparents (something my parents made sure of by the Sunday visits to both sets of grandparent’s house) this made me even closer to her.  It also made me realize the amount of love she put into all her knitting and how much she loved us.

My other grandmother, Grandma Beauregard, was a phenomenal baker (pies especially) as well as a quilter.  Every Sunday she make a pie for my father (her son in law) and my grandfather.  And every fall would bring the start of a new hand sewn quilt.  A couple of years ago, I came across a pie making class called the Art of the Pie, taught by the amazing, Kate McDermott. During that class I had flashes of memories of my grandmother and I in her kitchen on a Saturday, making pies.  Now when I make a pie, knit a sweater, sew a little something, I am reminded of the love of my grandparents and all the things they went thru to give those of us that followed them the best lives they could possibly give us.  And when I get stuck I always say a little pray to them asking them to “Please help me figure out this darn lace chart, Grandma Buck”, or “Please don’t let the bottom of the pie crust go soggy, Grandma Beauregard.”

Besides not everything can be bought at a big box store!

The winner is CindiP!  Here’s Cat Bauer with the winning number

CindiP please contact me so I can get you your prize asap!  Thanks everyone for playing along.  I hope to do another one next month, so be on the look out for it!