Tag: WIP Wednesday

Random

WIPs As Far As The Eye Can See

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ON MY NEEDLES

I’m going to dive right in……..

 New Gray Day Sweater

Knitpicks Wool of the Andes

Sprinkle Heather

 

Five Roses Shawl

Knitologie by Knitcrate Sparkling Sock in Turquoise (speckled)

Emma’s Yarn in Turquoise

 

Twisted Flower

Yarn Bee

Rainbow Wrapsody

 

Kew Socks

URU.YARN  by Knitcrate Sugared Sock

Hidden Pool

Dissent Cowl

Faithful Beauty by The Verdant Gryphon

Arco Iris by Malabrigo

Shell Cottage from The Handmade Sock Society

Knitpicks Stroll Fingering in Seashell Tonal

Helen Stewart, Designer

So, lots of knitting happening here at Casa Coleman, just not a lot of finishing. 🙂 I’m trying to be more diligent about recordkeeping and such, so you can find pattern details and progress in my project pages.

Silence is a fence around wisdom. German Proverb

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Family · Knitting · pottery

Betcha Thought I Forgot About This Old Blog….

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OK, at 63 (!) I’ve been been trying on a few different personas, just one more sign of my decision to never grow up, but here I am once more, an amalgamation of several whos and whats, as reflected in my new title, Mud and String.

As I type this, I’m en route to Bangkok, Thailand again, accompanying Big Mommy and the three grands, the Papoose, the Sprout and the Peach. All growing up so so fast and leaving me in the dust regarding what’s cool and what’s not. Anyhow……..

This trip has been very crazy, beginning with the first leg of the 30 hour trip being delayed an hour in Little Rock due to weather in Dallas, setting off a chain of situations like dominos falling. First, we missed our connecting flight to Hong Kong and so were stranded in Dallas for 24 hours, waiting for the next plane to Hong Kong. An adventure unto itself…More on that later.

So here we are, 32000 feet in the air, five hours into a 16 hour flight, with the outside time showing as -43.6F, wearing clothes that were fresh yesterday – Wednesday morning around 5 a.m. –  closing in on 48 hours. The time is 4:49 pm on Thursday, according to my ipad. I pity our seatmates! 🤭🤭🤭🤢🤢🤢

We made it to Hong Kong! Here’s the view from our gate waiting area-

Before I close this out, a few pics of recent projects

Ninilchik Swoncho

The art of progress is to preserve order amid change, and to preserve change amid order.

 

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Knitting

Dixie 8 Handknit Socks 0, WIP Wednesday

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This little angel is waging war on my handknit socks!

I’m beginnning to think I  need to buy a safe…she manages to find and destroy at least one sock of a pair.  She’s learned to knock the clothes hamper over to pull out the socks.  I’m trying to cut her some slack, she’s still a puppy, but her taste for handknits and Mr. iknead’s azaleas is making me want to tear my hair out.

ON MY NEEDLES

This is about the fourth attempt at getting started on this.

Droplets Shawl

Knitpicks

Airy Yarn from Unique Chic Studios

80% Tussah Silk/20% Merino

I think I finally have a handle on it – I hope so anyway!

ONE MORE THING

I’d like to invite you to visit my new Etsy shop, ClayDreamsPottery..  I plan to update every other Monday morning, but now, I’m slowly adding things, but I’d love for you to come have a look around.  I hope you like it!!!!!!!

Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly. Plutarch

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Knitting

WIP Wednesday, Booklove 11/19/14, Possum?

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ON THE NEEDLES

Yes, I have several WIPs, having finally gotten around to starting my Christmas knitting.  Being Christmas knitting, you’re just going to have to use your imagination.  No photos posted until Christmas Day.  Who said I couldn’t keep a secret???

BOOKLOVE

I’m right smack in the middle of this book, The Secret Life of Violet Grant, written by Beatriz Williams.  Very escapist, a great book for cold days, with a fire in the fireplace and a cup of coffee within easy reach.  I started and finished one called The Dressmaker, by Kate Alcott, a Titanic story with a different point of view.  Another good one for a cold day.

GUESS WHAT DAY IT IS!!!!!

Wondrous Box Day, that’s what!  Otherwise known as Yarnbox Day, it’s the day I want to hug my mail carrier. Look what’s inside this month!

 

Sorry for the fuzzy photo, but you get the color.

Yarn Outlaw

Bohemia Sport

40% Polwarth

45% Alpaca

10% Possum

Absinthe

 OK, this possum thing is a first for me.  Growing up way down in southwest Arkansas, in a town you could describe as “yew cain’t git thar frum heer”, I know about possums.  Sort of cute, but nasty, scavengers that really do fake death when threatened, but could give you a nasty bite anyway.  Is this the same kind if possum?  How exactly do you go about getting possum fur for yarn?  Shear it?  Scare it and shave it while it’s playing possum, pretending to be dead? I’m very curious.  More research needed.

 This is what I think of when I think possum.

The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery.  There is always more mystery.  Anais Nin

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Knitting

WIPW 11-04-14, Booklove

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ON THE NEEDLES (TECHNICALLY)

Simplex Shawl

Since my nitpicky, obsessive side insists that a project isn’t finished until washed, blocked and dried, my WIP this week continues to be Simplex, although I expect that tomorrow it will be transformed into an FO, thanks to the ceiling fan.  Please excuse the wonky photo– I had to stand on the Papoose’s little stool to take the picture.  The way it was moaning and groaning, the photo session could have gone really bad, really fast and I’m happy that I managed to get a marginally OK photo without breaking a hip.  Better photos Friday.

BOOKLOVE

I finished an amazing book today, Labor Day, by Joyce Maynard.  I loved this book and became totally immersed in the story.  Thumbs up all around.

I’m linking today with Frontier Dreams, Tami and Ginny’s Yarn Along

It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety.  Isaac Asimov 

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Knitting

WIPW, Bikes at the Beach

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ON THE NEEDLES

I continue to plug along on Simplex, which is slowiy but surely growing and hopefully will be finished in the next week or so.  At this point in every project, I begin fantasizing about my next project, even if I don’t specifically have one picked out.  Too bad I don’t have a time lapse to post, because that’s about the only way to see Simplex’s growth from week to week without actually counting the ridges/pattern repeats.  Someday, I’m going to try a time lapse photo, just for fun.

Makes me think of a pizza!

THE GRANDS

A few more beach pictures, if you can stand it.  I wish I could take credit for these, but I can’t.  Mr. iknead took these beauties.

 Sprout and Sand

 

At the End of the Day

Best idea of the whole week!  Babymama and Bigmommy rented bikes with buggies – it was hard to tell who had more fun!

 The Sprout had to ride by herself, but with a snack and her paci, all was well.  Next year, Charlee will even the count and she’ll have a bike buddy.

Light tomorrow with today! Elizabeth Browning


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Knitting

WIP Wednesday, Booklove 10/14/14

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ON THE NEEDLES

 My Simplex Shawl continues to grow.  According to the pattern, it’s more than halfway finished.  More about it here.

BOOKLOVE

Where do I start?  I’m rereading Stephen King’s Dark Tower series and am up to Book Three, The Waste Lands.  I read The Wind Through the Keyhole in Florida, a book that technically falls between Books Four and Five, but was released in February, 2012.  This series continues to be my all time favorite.  Crazy love them all.

THE DOCUMENTED LIFE

I got a little behind in my art journal while on vacation and am just finishing up last week’s prompt, which was Polka Dots.  After a couple of false starts, I got into the groove, using a circle stencil to draw flowers, then handcoloring them and cutting them out to layer with stenciled dots, spray ink and, probably some stamps.  I drew and colored these flowers just for fun today.  I don’t have a current plan for these, but I thought they turned out well.

 I love drawing and coloring flowers – they’re probably my favorite, but I’ve been sort of down on myself because I’m not good at faces and because lettering also isn’t something I feel I do well, especially when I compare my stuff to projects others post, but I’m adjusting my attitude starting now.  New mindset:  So what if all I can draw is flowers – I love doing them.  So what if every face I draw is weird and more than a little wonky – I’ll never be commissioned to do a portrait.  So what if my lettering leaves something to be desired – I can practice and get better at it and if that doesn’t pan out, I’ll use my computer.  So what if my journal pages will never be hung in the Museum of Modern Art or the Louvre – they make me happy and creating them feeds my soul, just like they’re supposed to and because of that, I am an artist!

Linking with Tami, Frontier Dreams KCCO and Ginny’s Yarn Along

Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.  T.S. Eliot

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Knitting

WIP Wednesday, Booklove and Babylove

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ON THE NEEDLES

 image

Knit Vested and Stylish

Quince&Co.

Lark in Twig

So, before Mr. Iknead and I took off to Mt. Magazine last weekend, I did a stash dive and came up with ten (!) skeins of this lovely yarn.  I’m a little embarrassed to reveal that I’d completely forgotten about this little bit of stash enhancement.  Obviously, I’d bought it with a particular project in mind, what with ten skeins and all, but as for the planned project, no clue.    Anyway, I started  cruising Ravelry for patterns and settled on a  sweet and simple vest from Redheart.

Vested and Stylish

Redheart

Sorry sbout the crazy photos, my phone battery bit the dust and photos taken on my ipad are HUGE. We’re charging, by the way.  The pattern and the Lark yarn seem to be a perfect match; I love it when a plan comes together! 😉

WEDNESDAY BOOKLOVE

I just finished Anthony Rapp’s memoir, Without You.  This is another happy discovery, Mr. Rapp was one of the lead characters in my all-time favorite play, Rent.  FYI, he played Mark, an aspiring filmmaker.  A good read, especially since I love Rent so much, of course, it was loaded with Rent references and bits of insider trivia.  Next up is Lucky Us, by Amy Bloom, a book I know next to nothing about, other than the synopsis sounded interesting.

GRANDBABY LOVE

New Kid on the Block

Charlee Faith, who is all of one month as of Monday.  Beautiful, right??

She’s #4 in the grandbaby line up and I’m here to tell you, the grandparent thing?,  it never gets old.  Ever.

I’m linking today with Tami, Yarn Along and Frontier Dreams.

The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.  Michelangelo

 

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Knitting

I Do Redo, WIP Wednesday and Grands

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I DO REDO

Mr. Iknead and I renewed our wedding vows last Friday for our 35th anniversary.  It was surprisingly emotional, both for me and for him.  I’m not a crier at all, so to just break down with happy tears was unusual.  We had Holy Communion – again, surprisingly emotional and just special.  That’s the only word I can find to describe it, special.

Aren’t we beautiful! Seriously!

Trio of Blessings

L to R – The Sprout, Babydiva and The Papoose

 

 After pics, we all went out to dinner and it was just joyous…..until the nasty little incident with Babydiva.

Here’s what happened:  we had to wait for a table, not unusual, we were a big group and it was Friday evening.  Waiting for a table with three hungry children had ugly potential, so Babydaddy and Bigmommy took the big girls outside to wait.  Lots of little girl fun, with hopping, skipping attempts, chattering, laughing, squealing – little girl stuff.  During a round of hopping, Babydiva tripped and faceplanted on the sidewalk.  Lots of blood and little girl hysterics, both from Babydiva and the Papoose.  Luckily, no broken or loose teeth, just a fat lip and we were able to get it iced quickly. I think Babydaddy was more traumatized than Babydiva, luckily for them, I just happened to have a Tide pen in my pocketbook and his bloody shirt was taken care of and Babydiva just happened to have some Barbie stickers and what didn’t come out with the pen, she put stickers over.

Poor Baby

Anyhow, it didn’t affect her appetite and by the end of the meal, all were happy again.   Parenting in the Trenches or Never A Dull Moment. : )

ON THE NEEDLES

Slip Stitch Felted Bag

Irina Poludnenko, Designer

Kureyon #352 and Cascade 220 #7801

Linking with Tami and Frontier Dreams.

Imagination rules the world.  Napoleon Bonaparte

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Knitting

WIP Wednesday, Booklove

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ON THE NEEDLES

Though it looks the same as it did last week, I have made progress on My Guernsey Wrap and hopefully will have knitted the last stitch in time to post it as a FO on Friday.  If I didn’t jinx it by saying that, that is.  You can read more about it here.

BOOKLOVE

Man, I’ve been burning through the downloaded library books this week.  So far, I’ve finished Home Safe by Elizabeth Berg, Grey Wolf by Simon Dunstan, Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld and started Delicious, by Ruth Reichl.  All great books, but I  think my favorite is going to be Delicious, but really, it’s too soon to tell.

FIXED

I had a challenge or two with my last post with a couple of pictures missing.  It’s fixed (I hope) and if you’d like to give it another look, it’s here.

I’m linking with Ginny’s Yarn Along, Tami and Frontier Dreams.

Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.  Booker Washington

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Knitting

WIP Wednesday

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ON THE NEEDLES

Guernsey Wrap

I’m just a little over halfway finished on this project and it’s been a surprisingly quick knit and the yarn, which I bought mostly because it was on sale, has been perfect for the pattern, both in texture and color.  Even though I don’t care much for shades of orange, I’m looking forward to finishing this and wearing it as the weather cools.  I have project details here and pattern details are here.

I’m linking with Tami and Frontier Dreams today.

As we grow as unique persons, we learn to respect the uniqueness of others.  Robert Schuller

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