Sunday Drive Designs

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!

I just got back from the Vera Project silkscreen studio with a bag full of freshly printed ties.  I’m hoping that it’s enough to carry me thru the holiday season, but I’m not too sure. I suppose if I sell out of them, that’s a good thing, right?  I’ve been trying to balance both working and getting things ready for the upcoming shows and relaxing and doing things for me. So in the category of doing things for me, here’s a quick snapshot of my sweater I’m knitting.

It’s the Bar Harbor sweater.  It’s been cold here and this sweater just seemed like the perfect warm sweater.  And since the bulk of the sweater is knit up on size 13 (I’m a tight knitter so I had to go up a needle size) I’m hoping it knits up quickly.  I wish I could say this is the yarn that I reclaimed from the last Goodwill sweater, but it’s not.  It was not the right weight for this.  I am using Cascade Eco that I originally purchase to make Aidez with.  It’s such a great yarn and a really great value that I’ll probably buy more of it at some point and make another attempt at Aidez.

I also have yet another wool sweater to rip apart, thanks to Goodwill.  It’s another incredibly large men’s sweater and it’s handknit by someone.  It cost me $4.  I think I might already know what I’m going to use it for, but I need to see if it’s the right weight and yardage.  Fortunately one of my fellow Columbia City Knitters loves to frog stuff.  So when she saw me frogging the last sweater she got real excited.  And even more excited when I showed up with the latest sweater and said that I would be reclaiming the yarn.  So excited, in fact, that she started to frog the sweater right then and there!  Here’s the sweater before frogging.

And then I picked up a cardigan for myself to wear – also $4.  It needs a bit of repair and a good washing.  I think I will also try and reblock it because the sleeves a little tight but I believe that’s just because it hasn’t been washed and pulled back into shape in a bit.

And here’s a close up of the buttons.

And here’s a picture of the repair work that someone did on it.  I can only assume they were not a knitter.  There are two of these and fortunately they are on the back of the sweater.  So no one will see them if I decide to wear it before I repair it.

And last but not least, here’s a better shot of the coffee dyed yarn with a skein that hasn’t been dyed yet.

And yes, one skein is slightly darker than the other.  I think that was the one that was sitting below the other one in the dye bath.