I don’t have much to report on for last week’s artistic adventures. Our spring has been cool here but the warmer weather is surely just around the corner and since our “Frost Date” is (for the most part) Memorial Day, its time to get serious about the outdoor gardens. So I have spent most of my week prepping the vegetable and herb beds for my planned planting flurry this weekend.

Meanwhile, this round of sock classes (I’m teaching “Toe-Up, Two at a Time on One Needle Socks!” at Heritage Spinning and Weaving) is going pretty dang well. I’ve been very lucky with this last two classes as they have been “up to the challenge” and becoming sock knitting fiends. Here is my current class (from left to right); Linda, Carol, Suzanne, Diane, Pat, and Sue.

Don’t they just look like they are going to be producing mass quantities of hand knit socks in the very near future? BTW, Jane of my class that graduated in April has already brought in to show me her finished pair and they are beautiful, go Jane!

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I received a wonderful surprise in today’s mail. I have an art quilt in a traveling exhibit; Michigan Quilt Artist Invitational 2008, The Art of Music. I got a post card advertising the current exhibit and my quilt was one of the two quilts gracing the front. This is my first time to make it in print so I had to share.

And the back.

For better pictures of the quilt I have in the exhibit, I blogged about it last December.

And last but not least, it’s not just for sewing anymore… I saw this little gadget in a posh kitchen catalog and thought how it would be great for chopping up all my fresh herbs.

Then I thought, “this reminds me of something I already have”. I rummaged my sewing table and sure enough, I have 3 of these things so one could be spared.

OK, so the larger size would work better. I also have to take it all the way apart to clean it each time but, it works incredibly well and best — it was already paid for ;o)

Deb H

Is that not just the most dramatic title ever? Yea, the playwright daughter is not the only drama queen in the household

I’m simply referring to the fact that as I empty stuff out of my art room to paint another wall, the studio and office have become so choked I cannot navigate in them. I’ve had to be diligent about a path to the computer! But, it has to get worse before it gets better, right? I have (in my defense) filled up two large garbage bags with old disks and paperwork that is about 15 years out of date and ideas and fiber articles that had me saying - out loud - “what was I thinking!?!” Some things are just not worth keeping, I keep telling myself that as I still have several more boxes to sort through. But progress is being made, if very slowly and the light of dawn will glow again. What is my point? An over abundance of clutter can stifle creativity. Trust me on this.

I just finished teaching a sock class (Toe-Up, Two at a Time on One Needle) and I always knit a pair of socks along with the class for demo purposes and to make myself feel less guilty about not making myself do the same homework I make my students do. Since I already have a pair of Cat Bordhi socks on the needle and have started my Hanne Falkenberg “Mermaid” sweater, I was not over-eager to start another pair so they are in super chunky yarn. But then I blew the whole “quick and dirty” thing by doing them in a lace pattern. A bit odd, but dear daughter loves them! I start another class next week, dear hubby will get some slippers too as I have a bit more of this unknown chunky yarn that was given to me. I think I’ll skip the lace on his.

As to my Mermaid Sweater, the color way I ordered was Apple Green and Turquoise. A lovely color combination and I adore it. I just don’t adore the yarn, sorry Hanne! It’s a bit scratchy and breaks too easily. I have replaced it with Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool in navy, purple and bronze, I’m hoping it will look as good in real life as it does in my head. When I have it a bit further on, I’ll post a pix.

Since I can’t even get in my sewing studio, I have started to wind a warp with the merino I dyed in the Palindrome method.

It seems to be working and the color sections are (more or less) lining up. Cool!

And because this silly herb garden tickles me so much, here is a picture of my garden, three weeks after planting. And yes Mom, I harvested some last night as I grilled orange roughy with some fresh basil, chives and cilantro, among other things - very tasty!

Back to winding my warp.

Deb H

My wonderful hubby is a bit hard on his socks. So, how to darn a gaping hole in a hand knit sock? There are several ways; you can actually darn it, or you can reknit the section - picking up stitches on each side until you replaced that little square that used to contain the hole. The later was my intent.

After several tries,

and not being satisfied with the lumpy edges that would fall under foot… I found the perfect solution! (Thanks Joan!)

OK, so I didn’t have any matching yarn left (I used it up in hand warmers, lesson learned) and had to get creative. On the “I did something right” side of things, I managed to save a heel before the hole appeared. It was just starting to thin so I grabbed some yarn the same weight and did duplicate stitch over the thinning area. This seams to be the best time and way to fix a hole.

My repairs will work, and knitting a new toe is easier than darning. Of course, I knit these with a 100% merino yarn. Nice and soft but not the toughest wearing choice for socks. The green repair yarn is 50% nylon. The toes will last longer than the cuffs! At least he has his house slippers/winter boot socks back and I didn’t have to knit a new pair from scratch. BTW, they were from a yarn I hand painted, they were worth saving.

So! Why have I bored you with sock repair? Mostly because I haven’t done anything “artsy” this week and it was colorful. Speaking of color, I did finish painting one wall of the art room (art store room). This looks ever so much better. The walls are light aqua, the closet doors are bright chartreuse and the trim is a medium teal. It looks great! It only took me two weeks to get one wall done but I have gotten some sorting and organizing done along the way. The other three walls will be much easier as they have no doors or windows to trim. Yes, this room was the master bedroom in the original 3-bedroom cottage that used to be this big house. Who designs a master bedroom with no windows?!?!? On the up-side, I can store my fabrics and yarns in here with no worries for sun damage!

As for the sorting and organizing; I spent three entire days sorting and organizing my beads. It was scary, now it’s functional. I may even do some beading again someday.

And just for grins, I have to show you pictures of my indoor herb garden. I showed you the gizmo (Aerogarden) in January. But I failed to keep you all up with this totally cool way to have fresh herbs all year round and right above the kitchen sink! The January planting grew to an over abundance (I was giving herbs away) until they all started to bolt and bloom (about 3 months). I replanted two weeks ago today. Last Thursday I took a picture for posterity.

And today is the two week mark. Pretty cool, huh?

We can’t plant outside here for another 4 weeks so this gives me a bit of spring earlier than I normally get

Deb H

I’ve taken up the challenge by LynnH of Colorjoy! to knit spring into existence by picking something with very spring colors and thinking warm, sunny, colorful, new growth thoughts while I knit My project is a pair of socks called “A Riot of Tulips” because that is what the colorway looks like to me.

It’s just a start but so far, the cuff is linen stitch and I’m using the Sky Architecture sock pattern from Cat Bordhi’s new book; New Pathways for Sock Knitters, book one. Yes, I’ve started another pair of socks - hey - I like socks!

I must be painting Spring into Existence as well. I just realized that my colors I picked for painting the art room are very spring like!Pale aqua for 3 walls, bright chartreuse for one wall and all the doors, trimmed in medium dark aqua. But, I have to say… it’s always at this point when I wonder why I thought I wanted to take this on - I really do hate painting! As I progress ( a little bit each week, I can only force myself to work on it for short periods of time), it will be worth it. The best part is getting rid of the nauseating wall paper trim (See upper far left of photo). I just can’t handle the cutesy pink flowers in blue baskets - ugh. It’s not my fault, they came with the house!

The next saga of my “Grape Vines on Stucco” has not gone excellently. Oy.

I added lots more color. I was actually kind of happy with it, even if it is a bit too yellow.

It’s still wet here but you can see the resist is working nicely. I let it cure and heat set it. BTW, I’m using Setasilk, Transparent Setacolor, and Lumiere fabric paints.

I decided to try a less “wet” painting technique and started a second painted silk cloth (both are about 22″ x 26″). This also has resist lines (much softer) and potential.

The background is hard to see but is much less yellow. I used a spray bottle and some diluted warm brown. It looks a bit like tea dyeing. After curing and heat setting, I couldn’t stand it and wanted to see how the resist was working. I washed them.

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Whoa! Where did all my color go?!? I guess I need to be a little more patient when it comes to the curing and heat setting.

OK, back to the paint table - at least the yellow washed out

Deb H

I finished the Winterberry socks I was knitting in Tofutsie yarn. They turned out delightful, don’t ya think?

They were December’s Sock-of-the-Month from the Tofutsie club through Southwest Trading Company and local yarn shops. I get mine from Heritage Spinning & Weaving in Lake Orion, Michigan.

The colorway is not quite what the yarn selection was for December. I decided that the beautiful pastels were not what I need at the moment since I was thinking ahead to spring already and have a hand dyed dress that needed socks to go with. This colorway is a perfect match for my summer dress.

I think the beautiful little bobbles were a hoot to knit (I’ve never done any bobbles before) and they were not as hard as I expected. They did slow me down a bit but I knit for the pleasure of knitting. A finished product when I’m done is just a bonus! I also like the picot hem instead of a cuff but I have used this before because it’s easy.

I deviated from the pattern in only one place, the toe. Debra Lake, the pattern designer, used a standard top-down toe and I had been wanting to try a spiral toe from the 2006 Holiday Gifts Issue of Interweave Knits, page 54. I think they turned out rather nice! And they fit well too.

Can you tell I like my socks?

Deb H

PS - 3/20/08, I added the link to Debra’s web site for those of you who would like more info on the pattern designer.