High Fiber—Ghost of Christmas (and Birthday) Presents!

I was too sick to enjoy my birthday, but I'm enjoying it now. This was my big present from DH, for a big birthday (hint: it has a "0" in it).

This loom was made about 40 years ago for my friend Joanie by Tools of the Trade, Fair Haven, VT. The craftsman who made it was Arthur Weitzenfeld. It's a 45", which means it can make a piece that's 45" wide. The deal DH made with Joanie includes the bench, the warping board (on wall), all the attachments to allow for thicker or thiner yarn/thread and a pile of books. Now I just need to learn to weave, LOL! It's still at Joanie's until we can arrange to pick it up.

I netted a nice assortment of quilting fabrics for Christmas from DD and DSIL (the Kaffe Fassett fat quarters and the book) and birthday from DDIL2 and DS2, including some fats from Sharon's Attic in Hillsboro, OR, a nice walk from their house. I reviewed the shop in this blog post. Some of the fabrics were grab bags picked up at a craft sale.

The boys' I-Spy quilts will include some of the fabrics. All of them will find their way into something fun.

DD gave me this shawl pin for my birthday. It's a cranberry, great for a Christmas birthday! Here it is nestled into my Rona Shawl made from Shimmer lace-weight yarn. It will work equally well with all my other shawls.

Common Threads met this week at Karan's. I was supposed to host, but the kids and DD were sick with colds, so Karan came to the rescue. Now DH and DSIL have come down with it. I think it must be the same cold I had a month ago, or I would be sick, too, after all the snotty kisses and nose-wipings for the kiddos.

We had our usual show-and-tell at the Common Threads meeting. Here's Jean's hat:

It's the Brier Toque from Weekend Hats by Cecily Glowik MacDonald.

Remember the quilt Karan made for her son's wedding? She had people who attended the wedding write little notes on fabric using archival permanent pen and incorporated them in the Irish Chain quilt.

She is now in the planning stages for a bed-size quilt in the same colors for the young couple. They are looking at patterns and various options.

Kay is back from her cruise. She got a lot of knitting done. Here's one panel for the afghan she's making for one of her neighbor's daughters.

As for me, I'm almost done with Soren's BSJ (Baby Surprise Jacket).

I didn't have much time to knit with the kids here, but I got a lot done Sunday during the football game. This is the BSJ before seaming:

Folded into shape, it looks like this:

I found some square buttons for it at a local yarn shop. I think they echo the right-angled stripes nicely. The yarn is Comfy Worsted in Serrano and Maise. Making the jacket in worsted results in a 1-yr. size sweater.

The next project to be CO is DH's Christmas sweater, based on this cardigan. Unfortunately, I will have to rewrite the pattern to match the gauge for the Swish DK in Lava Heather I bought for the project.

As I reported last week, Zachary is walking! In spite of his cold and teething (notice the drool), he now can make 7-8 steps at a time before sitting down. Go Zachy!

Daphne had a special adventure at our house. When we lived in Indonesia, we picked up this great doll house made by a craftsman in Jakarta:

It's on casters, and the walls and roof open up to reveal the rooms inside. We decided to populate it with a bear family, so if we eventually had grandsons, they wouldn't be put off by the idea of playing with a "dollhouse." DGD1 enjoyed decorating it and making a quilt for the parent bears' bed. The house sat dormant for several years waiting for Daphne to get to be old enough to play with it.

I had to remove the flowers from the flower boxes, and all the dishes and accessories that were too small for her to play with at her age. It was still great fun to play with, though!

DD's birthday was January 3rd. We celebrated by babysitting the kids, so the parents could go to lunch alone together and do some shopping at the local outlet mall. January 5th was her husband's birthday, so we all went to No Worries for breakfast, usually the treat for my birthday, but pointless that day because I was sick and not eating.

Soren also turned six months old on January 5th. He and his parents have been back home for a week, so we didn't get to share it with him, but thank Heaven for Facebook..and Skype, of course!

He is enjoying some new foods, including avocado when this photo was taken.

Daphne, Zachary and their parents left yesterday to return home (by car), so we'll miss Zachy's 9-month birthday on January 8th, as well.

I'm missing wiping noses and getting snotty kisses. [Sigh!] The upside is, we get to enjoy our new bathroom and are back to sleeping in our own bed.

What's on my needles: Finishing up Soren's BSJ, ready to CO DH's new cardigan, Dogwood Blossoms still in progress.

What's on my wheel: Full Circle Roving in "Pigeon," now destined probably for weaving.

What's on my iPad: D. E. Stevenson's The House of the Deer from Audible.

What's my app of the week: Match Animals, another great app for preschoolers.

What's in my wine glass: Amberhill Secret Blend 2010. Very nice, and not too expensive.

Note: This blog post was produced entirely on the MacBook, using the iPad for photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for or cleaned.

Tags: BSJ, Comfy, Swish, baby, bears, birthday, dollhouse, fabrics, loom, quilting, More…weaving

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Comment by Peggy Stuart on January 31, 2013 at 4:30am: Thanks, Wendy! It was bad being sick, but it didn't last long. Yes, I'll have to keep the "H-word" to a minimum!

Comment by wendy on January 30, 2013 at 10:46pm: Wow! What a wonderful birthday gift!!! It's a real beauty. I think with this newest fiber habit, you're just going to need to give up the HSWK completely. I know this will greatly bother you - lol. I thought that was a warping board on the wall, I'm glad you pointed that out to us non-weavers. As others have said, I'm sorry you were not feelling well on your birthday, but I do know you much you love having your family around, so I am glad they were able to be there for Christmas and your special day. The kids are adorable, drooly faces and all. And the dollhouse will bring years of fun for you and them. Cute idea using bears. As for next year, sounds like you need to make a 'road trip' of your own.

Comment by Peggy Stuart on January 13, 2013 at 6:39am: I'm still waiting for DH to feel well enough to go pick up the loom, but yes, I got some great presents, and had a wonderful Christmas- and birthdaytime. The best part of the holidays, though, was having family around me. I don't know what we'll do next year. DS2 and his family will be going to Thailand with the other grandparents, and DD and her family will be in Texas with their other grandparents.

Comment by Janice Aitkens on January 13, 2013 at 1:35am: Love the dolls house as well as the quilting frame, looks like you had some beautiful gifts for your birthday, sorry you wasn't well for it but you can enjoy them now

Hugs Janice

Comment by Peggy Stuart on January 10, 2013 at 7:59am: I guess that spared them the worry beforehand.

Comment by angelkarhu on January 10, 2013 at 7:48am: My prents were surpised when they got the call that your daughters surgery went . . . They had no idea and there was no time to call them before the surgery.

Comment by Peggy Stuart on January 10, 2013 at 5:44am: I'm glad they got to this one so fast.

Comment by angelkarhu on January 9, 2013 at 8:14pm: True. When I was 15 I was at hospital at ear dr and it still took 6 hours before they did that surgery.

Comment by Peggy Stuart on January 9, 2013 at 8:07pm: And that was because you were already at the hospital!

Comment by angelkarhu on January 9, 2013 at 7:52pm: No kidding. Was at hospital already due ickiness and they tried to hook me up to dialysis and no go. An hour later I was in operating room. For a hospital that was fast.