Yarn Along

The stocking is growing slowly.  I went off of it a little bit for a side project/Christmas present and then came back.

The book is a self-bought Christmas present on printmaking.  Now it's wrapped and beneath the tree and I don't remember the full title!  But not before having a leisurely look through it in the store.  And that's all the reading I've done this week!

The heel and ankle bit looks so weird and baggy. Hoping it turns out better than it looks now.

Yarn Along | Christmas stocking

The pattern assures me it will look something like a sock when I'm finished.  We only have three stockings for me, John, and Afon, so I've had feelers out for a fourth stocking for baby Roan.  There haven't been any that I liked, then I saw this stocking kit on clearance in The Works.  I like the blue-green-red winter combination.  Probably because it looks Scandinavian.  This is my first sock.

I'm not any further in my reading of Gilead, or anything, because after we got HFMD, John and Afon got a stomach bug, and now all four of us have colds.  Ah, November, you really went after us, didn't you?

Autumn Beeswax Garland {Illustrated}

I've wanted to make one of these garlands ever since I happened upon them on the world wide web.  There was only one thing holding me back: the total and utter lack of autumn in my part of the world.  So guess what?  When I saw there was still fall foliage upon the trees when returning to Wales, I waxed those babies and strung them up to make a garland!

I even let Afon help some.  Mom of the Year over here!

I bought some bars of beeswax on Amazon, and the process was really quite simple.

Because I didn't have a crockpot or disposable baking dish, I lined a saucepans with tin foil and let the wax melt in there.  It was surprisingly easy.  I thought maybe the bars would take longer and that I  had erred by not looking for some special wax "petals" or "chips," but I honestly had no problem melting these down. I cut the first two in half and didn't even bother with the rest.

My leaves were a bit dirty but I didn't know how washing and wetting them would affect the waxing, so I brushed them off and dipped them as they were.  I do sort of wish I'd had a bit more wax and/or a deeper pot because the large leaves had to be sort of scrunched in there to get them completely covered.

I dried them on a sheet of clean aluminum foil because we didn't have wax paper.  After the first batch, I realized it would be better to hold the dipped leaf over the wax and let it drip for several seconds before lying it down on the foil, so that the wax wouldn't harden and the leaves wouldn't stick and be more difficult to peel off.

If I felt like they needed it, I dipped the leaves more than once.

The smell is so rich!  Afon tried to eat the wax, I don't blame him, it's too much like honey.

After I finished waxing my leaves and carefully peeled them from the foil, I used a white thread and needle and strung them along so that the leaf surfaces were all facing one direction.  If I'd had more, I might have sewn then up so that their surfaces were all touching each other, like single file soldiers, but I needed them to stretch, and I wanted a biggish garland.

The string got tangled in the crevices and leaf edges; thick string would have been better for sturdiness, but wouldn't have sewn through the leaf skins so well.  If I'd had my (now stored and over the ocean) usual range of craft supplies with me, I might have done twine and wooden clothespins.

Wow!  A craft that I could execute successfully with minimum effort and planning.  What's not to love?  But if I were going to do things differently next time, I would:

• use wax paper instead of tin foil
• use a larger and deeper container for the melted beeswax
• use thicker string or twine

Still . . . it looks really great, no?  (Note: I could have adjusted the colors and lighting in post-processing to make the autumn leaves appear more brilliant, but I wanted to keep them as close to natural as possible.)

Hope you're enjoying the last scraps of your autumn.

Yarn Along | Martinmas mittens

A tradition is to make and gift new cold-weather clothing on Martinmas, but I'm perpetually behind, it's sort of my thing.  Anyway, I'm working up these mittens for Roan with some leftover yarn.  I got a slow start last night, so only a bit of the cuff so far.

Continuing in lateness . . . I've picked up my copy of Gilead I bought midsummer and am halfway through.  It's a very quiet, contemplative kind of book, not much action so far, plenty of reflection.  It's what I'd call a "nothing" book because nothing really happens, at least not what you can see from the outside.  And no, I'm not at all saying that's a bad thing.

Roan looks like he has hand, foot, and mouth disease.  He had an awful night last night and just wouldn't nurse.   I've already got some roasted vegetables and a sage stuffing chicken ready for roasting for our simple feast, but I don't know if we'll be up to any other liturgical celebrations with a sick and needy baby.  We'll see.

P.S.  Some Martinmas ideas from one of my favorite liturgical bloggers.

Poe Halloween Printable

Halloween isn't just a kids' holiday.  Think about a grown-up party themed on Edgar Alan Poe, or even just "The Raven"--there's plenty of material there for a spooky, sophisticated gathering.  Using this print-out as your starting point, think of all the creepy creativity you could conjure!

I'm gonna be honest here, I'm jealous of you guys with a permanent residence that you can deck out in crystal balls, spider webs, and velvet pillows to get the gothic library effect.  So if it strikes your fancy, please use this and show me how you incorporate it into your Halloween decor!

Here's an alternative version:

And these would work great for invitations:

Pottery Barn's sold stuffed crows the past few seasons, but they're nothing special, and I bet you could find some just as good at a craft store or thrift shop.

(The printable will fit in a document frame; otherwise, use a paper cutter to trim the edges off to fit a picture frame.)

What kind of Halloween parties and decorations do you indulge this time of year?

∆∆∆

For further reading:

• Autumn in My Home--A Blog Hop on A Knotted Life
• Haunting Your Home on a Budget on Everything to Someone
• and another free Halloween printable in this week's Quick Takes

30 Days Has September

Autumn is my favorite season.   September, October, November, I'm non-discriminatory.  I'm smitten with the contrast of crisp and cozy, and the smell of burning wood, and the goldenrod sunshine.   I'm always full of creative itches, but since we're stranded without our things for the time-being, I'm limited to virtual projects.   Thought I'd share these to pass the cheer of the season!

Do you have any special autumn traditions exclusive to September?
 

Yarn Along

I decided I'd better make a hat for Afon after all Roan's bonnets.  He likes to "make socks" with my yarn and get it tangled.  When I crocheted baby booties, he tries to stuff his own ginormous feet in them, which is humorous and half guilt-inducing, because the poor baby obviously thinks (or wants, if he doesn't think) my labors to be for him.

I let him pick out the yarn.  "This one or this one?"  They were two same colors from Roan's bonnets.

He echoed, "This one," and sort of gestured toward the mustard color (which, by the way, is not a very nice name for such a luscious hue).

It's way too big, so I've got to pull out the rounds and redo them.

I'm still in The Queen of Air and Darkness from The Once and Future King.  There's more time to throw myself into reading and crochet since Afon started school on Monday, but a heavy, sniffly cold keeps me subdued.

Yarn Along // autumn bonnets

Instead of finishing {the last baby bonnet}, I threw myself into making these two new ones because I preferred the yarn.  I like to crochet in pairs or threesomes.  The first go is like practice, in which I go slowly, make mistakes, and figure things out.  Then I like to do another one right away, while the ins and outs and pitfalls of the pattern are still fresh.  I had to get this right because September, personified, is a enthusiastic child, saying, "I'm here, I'm here!"  And while I'm sure there are some lovely days of Indian summer still ahead of us, the first of the month arrived with a wintry whim.  Today's been the same.

Next I want to crochet a hat for Afon.

That ball of yarn is my first wheel-spun thread.  The thick lobs are there because the teacher said it was a shame I spun so even, so we left some lumps in there for good measure.  "It's beautiful, lovely, lumpy wool," she said, "and as you get better you can't do it any more."

When I get busy crocheting, I replace television and movie-watching with book-reading, so I haven't got any further this week with T.H. White, but I did pick up my favorite random mag of mischievous miscellany, Oh Comely.

Yarn Along // puffs baby bonnet

Breaking out the crochet is a real challenge these days, as my arms are almost always full with Roan.  And when they're not, I have to guard the precious project-in-progress from Afon.

I got the pattern for this bonnet from {crochetlatte} (who is also my photography muse), and I haven't put the pom poms on it yet.  I might do little balls instead.  We'll see.

Reading The Queen of Air and Darkness from {The Once and Future King by T.H. White}.  Significantly darker in mood than The Sword in the Stone, but I love how White characterizes the four brothers, Arthur's nephews.  White really knows his {Malory}.

Our life in Wales

It takes a good couple of months to reestablish routines in new circumstances; especially since Afon doesn't start school here until September 1st.  Having him in school built a natural framework for the rest of the day that I benefited from.

I've gained weight, for several reasons: (1) without the tight schedule I've more free time in which to wander into the kitchen and nibble, and (2) I'm still getting accustomed to finding my "smart food choices" in this country.

It's difficult because as we don't yet have a car, we have to make trips to the store almost daily.  I can only carry back so much in my arms, and less if I have one of the children with me.  It is utterly out of the question for me to go to the store with both.

So I'm making use of this very nice service whereby Tesco delivers a smorgasbord of fresh groceries I order online.  What a Godsend!

I do laundry every day.  The minuscule laundry machine fits about a mouthful of things, which are subsequently dried in a tiny drier that ineffectively blows hot air around on the things and collects moisture in a tank to be emptied when it is full into the bathtub.  I get why people line dry over here.  (Hint: it's not just because they're green.)

The weather has been gorgeous; so far, only two days of rain.  It's much different than the Florida summer storms, which come and go like the tempers of tyrants.  No, here in summertime Britain, a sunshiny morning means a sunshiny day.  However, the rainy days have left me a bit bewildered about how people with babies get around without great inconvenience.  I know we ought to just buy a pram (stroller), but I'm trying to avoid spending too much money before immigration (and also of taking advantage of John's extreme generosity in trying to make me happy by getting me anything and everything I want).

Speaking of, I found the loveliest shop in town that is four months new, called {The Lost Sheep Company}.  It's run by the sweetest lady who, like me, has come in her later life under the spell of fibre arts and teaches courses on everything imaginable--from tatting to knitting to {dorset buttons}--in her comfortable and messy setup.  There are at least five spinning wheels in that shop, and one which is so old and blackened which she showed me, under its protective cover, and which she has only dared to try to clean with beeswax.

John let me do a two-hour spinning wheel course with her, and oh!!!  I could go into thrills like Anne Shirley right here telling you about the feel of that spinning wheel--just like I always knew, somehow.  I've never used one until that moment, and I'm sloppy at pinching and slow at feeding the thread, but it felt right.  Like returning to a place from memory.

The spinster left me and Roan in the shop to buy some lavender oil for a burn,  me carding wool while the sound of rain tucked us into a sort of pocket of dry stillness.  I wish I could write the smell of soap-washed, clean wool.  She welcomes visitors and people who pop in for a chat.  I will be returning often.

#7QT: Reading, Writing, and Drawing

-- one --

Everybody not going to Edel, stand up and say "hey-oh!"

That's it?  Really?!

As for the rest of you, OMG, have fun for us!  I'm so jealous.  Charleston!  (Any other Southern Charmed fans out there?)

-- two --

We finished listening to {Little House on the Prairie} and are now on to {The Sword in the Stone}.  This is a mad favorite of mine, since I am an Arthurian enthusiast.  But it stands on its own as a pristine piece of literature for the ages.

I'm not going to be homeschooling any time soon, at least not Afon, but this book would be ideal as both a model and a tool for home education.  "Eduction is experience, and the essence of experience is self-reliance" says Merlin.  Wow.  Just think about that for a minute.

And White's knowledge of natural sciences is so thorough and the opposite of boring.  I mean, I liked Biology in high school, but man, if Merlin were teaching it, I might not have gone on the English major track after all, that's how good it is!

White's insights as an Arthurian scholar are really profound as well.  And if you like folklore and fairy tales, you'll not get a better explanation of what fairies are than out of the mouth of Robin Wood in The Sword in the Stone.

This was my professor's copy of Malory when he was in school at Oxford.  It's one of my most prized possessions!

-- three --

I hope that if you are here, you know Tolkien wrote much, much more than the stories of Middle Earth, though no little can be said for the masterpiece that is The Lord of the Rings.  But did you know he was also a talented illustrator?

I've found that people were much better at drawing before the age of television and modern entertainments.  I think it was just natural for the childhood era of drawing to extend further into adolescence and beyond because there weren't as many distractions.  I'm just conjecturing here.  But I've been fond of Tolkein's illustrations ever since purchasing a book that document some of the letters from Father Christmas he wrote for his children.

Now this new book is out with new-to-me pictures that are really fascinating; they remind me of Blake's etchings, and that seems fitting, somehow.  You can read up on {Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator} {here}.

-- four --

It makes me want to start carrying a sketchbook with me everywhere.  I did it in Rome, along with my camera, and now I have a beautiful record of my four months in the Eternal City.  I'm not a great artist, but I'm very fond of the Pre-Raphaelite school and of modern Japanese manga style.

It's my own take on Alice, in Wonderland!  (Suki is my pseudonym for anything fandom.)

-- five --

It's just one more thing that needs prioritization.  While I have small children, blogging is a great channel for creativity because there is no physical product that Afon can tear up and therefore has to be carefully minded and put away out of reach.  Even when I did draw, I was terrible at filing and organization.  I usually just kept all my most recent pictures in a grubby pile by my bed with my art things and then went through them when they got to be too numerous.  I hated when anyone moved or otherwise touched these piles, too, because then I wouldn't know where to find them!

-- six --

So it's probably crazy that I've got this little {Etsy shop} selling hand-lettered quote cards and prints, but I do so enjoy it!

-- seven --

A much speedier outlet is collecting bits of inspiration and things from what I've read and jotting them downing a notebook.  This is called a {commonplace book}, and this is mine:

It's a Moleskine, of course, and Afon helped make it very pretty with some pen marks of his own.  I'd like to get some sketchbook versions of these, too.  If anyone is interested, I'd be happy to custom make them some, and we can go round Etsy.

Joining Bonnie this week for {7 Quick Takes}.