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Happy Birthday, Bettie

My grandmother, Mama Bettie, would have been 93 today. She died before her 91st birthday on January 27, 2006.

She taught me to knit when I was six and she was one of my very best friends.

I miss her terribly.

She was a Scott. And she loved her two fingers of Dewar's (over ice, please) on a fairly regular basis - once the kitchen was squared away and Earl was in "his room" watching his sports and news, Bettie would settle into "her room" with her scotch and her knitting.

I'll raise a glass of Dewar's to Bettie tonight - once the kitchen is squared away and the kids are in bed - I'll have my knitting close at hand.

Cheers, Bettie.

Participate here.

felted bowl for etsy customer

felted bowl for etsy customer
Originally uploaded by theytoldmesew

blogged here:
www.theytoldmesew.blogspot.com

ALL BETS ARE OFF!

Three weeks after my last post, my husband accepted a position at Wind Cave National Park and life became a fury of chaos. I began by "depersonalizing" our house and pseudo packing everything to store in the garage. It paid off...the folks on HGTV are right...we sold our house exactly 1 week from the list date! Having such an empty house brought me to a more in-depth level of organization...the brass tacks. I've spent the rest of my time going through old files, shredding trees-worth of paper, pitching old spices, baking ingredients and half-used bottles and jars of condiments and marinades that weren't that great but I couldn't bring myself to waste. When you're moving, you get a "Get out of Guilt Free" card to play when ridding your house of such things that one might normally consider wasting. It's truly a liberating experience, moving. AND! As my friend, Jacquie, said, "you get to re-invent yourself". She elaborated by reminding me that nobody there knows me and if, by chance, there are any flaws in my personality that I have been wanting to work on or completely change...NOW IS MY CHANCE!! My favorite part about it is: ALL BETS ARE OFF! Did I promise you that I would serve on this committee or watch your house for three weeks and feed your plants and your cat or did I have a momentary lapse of conciousness when I agreed to be the road committee treasurer? Sorry. ALL BETS ARE OFF. And when I get to my new location...you can bet that I'll think twice before offering to bake 150 cupcakes for the school bake sale or sew the costumes for the community theatre's fall production. NOT A CHANCE. I love moving.

Anyway - I have had some time to knit and felt. This is my latest creation: I made it with Nashua Wooly Stripes single ply yarn in the Citrus colorway. It's oh, so soft...hardly like you're knitting anything, it's so very light! I threw this puppy in the washing machine and at the end of the second short cycle, it's was DONE! I couldn't belive it! And it felted beautifully - very strong, dense fabric. I was very pleased with it and so, it seems, is my buyer who commissioned it. I decided this yarn would serve well felted on my feet. So, I ordered 8 skeins of it off Webs site (it's on clearance for $4.99/sk) and can't wait to knit up Bev Galeskas' pattern for some felt clogs.

So, I'm moving AND I'll have a new pair of clogs...can't really see any downside in that! BTW - can I interest anyone in 12 different, partially used, containers of meat rubs?....

Extreme Wool Makeover...

I paid $5 for this lump of wool on etsy. I won't mention the sellers name because she took her sweet time getting it to me (21 days before she actually SHIPPED it - to be exact!- and I had paid immediately with Paypal upon purchase)...let it go, let it go, let it go. Irritating.
ANYWAY! My purpose of this post is to show how impressed I am with myself...nothing like tooting one's own horn.
I really didn't know what to expect when the box finally arrived. I had no idea what I would do with it, but $5 for 12 oz. of wool just could not be passed up.
So it arrived. Harshly dyed coarse wool packed into a tiny little box...and need I mention again...from an annoyingly careless etsy seller. Many things can be done with primary colors. So I hauled out the anchor-weight drum carder that I have on extended loan from my frightfully busy fiber friend, Nancy, and began to blend. Yellow with blue, yellow with red, red with blue and the three colors on their own. I ended up with a MASSIVE pile of carded wool in 6 varying colors. I began to spin and was surprisingly pleased to see the earthy, organic colors that developed on my spool. I then tried my hand at navajo plying to avoid having to wind off the spool into a centerpull ball and plying the single against itself...that always results in a headache for me. The yarn sat in my stash for a couple of months. I couldn't decide to sell it as-is or do something with it.
So, I swapsat last night for a friend. We have this great arrangement where she sits my kids one night so Hubby and I can get out and act like adults and I watch her kids one night so she and her Hubs can do the same. It's a great arrangement that gives me peace of mind that my kids are safe with another mommy I know and it doesn't cost a dime! I do apologize to those HS girls out there who need a little babysitting spending $...but desperate financial times call for logical measures.
Anyway, back to my excruciatingly long story (my kids are circling at this point...nice day outside, much bike riding to do and here I am on the 'puter...I'll be DONE IN A MINUTE!!!).
So, when I sat last night, I took said skein of yarn and some fat needles with me 'cause I'm on this bowl thing, ya know. I whipped up what resembled a Rastah hat for dreadlocks and dropped it in the washer early this morning.

This is the end result. 5" high, 7" wide. I'm still trying to decide if I should de-fuzz it. Any suggestions?
Anyway, I think it was quite the accomplishment...considering what I started out with.
OK, kids...you have my complete attention...just let me grab my knitting and we'll head outside...

Cyberfriends...

Ever since I began listing items on etsy, I have been amazed at the number of connections I have made with people over the internet. For instance...my "friend" Jenny. She is the owner of
Bare Sheep Yarn and has created so many amazing colorways with her yarn. We have done a few "swaps" and these three felted bowls are the result of some of her "Country Roving". It's a 5-strand pencil roving that knits up so fast you won't believe it and it felts beautifully! Anyway, she is kind and generous and genuine and I not only look forward to seeing what new colorways she has on her drying rack, I also look forward to hearing from her now and then. I've learned so much from her about dyeing and I would like to think she learned a thing or two from me. The internet has opened up a whole new world of potential fiber friends for me and if any of them are like Jenny, well...LUCKY ME!!