Wrong Tree
I think I have been asking the wrong questions regarding my hobbies. This whole time I have been concerned with which ones I enjoy most, and trying to carve out time for those from the rest of my schedule. That question really has no answer. I think I need to start asking what I want to accomplish with them, not individually but as a whole. What do I want to do with myself? My hobbies are all things that make me less dependent on others, except fencing. Knitting, sewing, baking, and gardening are all activities that produce (or can produce) necessary objects: clothing and food. Writing is a bit trickier, but it does provide me with entertainment. Fencing dose give me focus when it comes to fitness, which I cannot manage on my own. Exercise for the sake of exercise is not really my thing. Looking at my hobbies in that light, I am not doing too badly. This last month has demanded a lot of work in the "garden", so I have had less time to spend on writing, knitting, and sewing. Things in the garden are about to slow down now that most everything is planted, so I will have more time to focus on writing for the rest of the month. All we have is time, and as long as I am using mine in at least one way that I enjoy, I will try not to feel too frustrated (why no, my script is not going very well!). This is also going to have to change how I look at sewing plans, come to think of it. Last week, I actually had to purchase a pair of pants because I put off making them for too long and had a pair die on me. I needed a pair for work more quickly than I would be able to make them, so off to the mall I went. In the future, I need to look at sewing the way I do baking: plan ahead and make time, and make sure the ingredients are on-hand early. Er, materials. Whatever. Meaning, I need to go buy some black pant fabric sooner rather than later, so i can replace my black pin-stripe pants before they fall apart. Working this out has made me feel better about the whole situation. Hurray for early-morning epiphanies before tea! Also, garden pictures!  Chives and potential carrots  Giant Italian Parsley  Spinach This is what is out so far. I have my pepper plant still inside for at least another two weeks, depending on weather, and the basil is too tiny to think about going outside yet.
2008 re-cap
Posted by Elizabeth on 01-01-2009 at 11:56 pm Happy New Year! Another year is gone. Most of what has gone on this year has been knitting, despite my hands falling apart in July. The 2008 Project Inventory is mostly up-to-date, if anyone wants to see what has been done this year. The last of this year's projects are the finished(!) Ravenclaw Harry Potter Prisoner of Azkaban scarf, which was my husband's Christmas present: I knit a washcloth for my mother, to go with the bath set that was the rest of her Christmas present but did not get a picture before I left it with her in Texas. The last item was a knitted doll, mostly made from this pattern, but scaled down by half, except for the legs, which prove that I should not do math at 11:00 at night, since they are too big. I would post a picture, but she has no clothing yet and that might be a bit indecent. Also, according to some more 11:00 pm math, I have figured out that I knit around 4,000 yards of yarn in 2008 that ended up in finished projects. Just so you know. For trivia's sake. I have learned that I need to take better care of myself next year. I have learned that nicer yarns really are worth the expense, for the most part (I know, duh, but I have not ever had much of a yarn budget to work with). I also learned that I can have too much yarn if I am not careful. I learned that I like not having eight million projects going at one time. I also learned that what is an amusing and useful hobby is not always the best choice for a job. I finally have started to write again, after a several-year-long hiatus. My novel from this year's NaNoWriMo is not good, but it is finished, and there is definitely something to be said for that. I am making attempts to keep up with writing now that I have started again, as well. Tomorrow I will be posting about what I have planned for 2009, and posting an update on the projects that have spilled over into another year.
Must Find New Hobbies
Why has there been no content lately? Because I have not been doing anything, that's why. No, really. Work requires intensive use of hands, and so if I try to knit after I get home from work, I have to rest my arms on hot-packs before too long. I can knit one square on my Lozengy Blanket before I have to stop for the evening (the blanket, incidentally, is about three rows longer now that it is in that picture). Now that work has picked up, there are more days in the week on which I can't knit (or sew, or crochet, or embroider) than those on which I can. So, it might have been a bad idea for me to sign up for the Wee Tiny Sock Swap from Yarn Miracle. But I don't have to work until noon today, and I have Saturday off, and I really think this sock will take less than two hours to knit. Really, I should have plenty of time to get it done. Plus, I like making tiny things. I can't keep all of them, can I?
Project Inventory 2008
The lovely Lime & Violet have a finish-a-long going for the first six months of the year. I'm moving past knitting projects for this, and so here is the list of unfinished projects I have going right now. It took so long for this list to go up because I wanted to make sure I actually listed everything. Sewing - 7 projects - Purple blouse, lacks buttons
- Pinstripe vest
- Black & blue messenger bag
- Black & blue wallet
- Red and tan quilted pillow covers
- Tudor Monstrosity underdress
- Rice-filled hot-packs (from this pattern)
Embroidery - 3 projects - Blackwork cedar sachet
- Blackwork basket cover
- Covers for the hot-packs
Knitting - 5 projects - Vintage lace doily from Lace from the Attic (because I'm apparently an old woman) - Done!
- Afghan (which will never be over)
- Jaywalker socks in a discontinued Regia colorway (currently frogged for being too small)
- Coronet in Louet Gems Amethyst, either in Peony or Sweet William, because the band doesn't say what the colorway is and I can't tell from the pictures online what exactly it is.
- A crochet bath pouf, mentioned in this section because I don't crochet enough to give a section all its own
Spinning - 2 projects - Firefly glow-in-the-dark roving from Merlin the Cat Yarns, 3/4 bats spun
- Midnight roving, about 2/3 spun
Total: 17 projectsThis list is going to be posted in a page linked in the side bar, and will be updated with links to the "Look! It's finished!" entry for each item.
Dragon Panel: The Plan
What do I have so far? I have a plan, is what. I have not actually started working on anything yet, though, or purchased the thread for the project yet. The plan as it stands is to sketch up a dragon based on this image from Conrad Gesner's writings: I also managed to find a copy of The History of Four-Footed Beasts, Serpents, and Insects by Edward Topsel, printed in 1658 and based largely on Gesner's work, on microfilm in the University library. He uses some of the same illustrations as Gesner did in his works, but I can get a better image to work from off the microfilm than I can find online. So, I also have these images to work with: I loooove microfilm. If you are researching anything, really, try to find a nearby library with a good microfilm collection. Herbals, 19th century fashion magazines, early English books, you name it. End PSA. The sketch I come up with will be transfered to the linen. The outlines that I have been seeing of these pieces are not particularly symmetrical or regular, so I am not overly concerned about that. As far as color choice goes, I will be picking colors as close to the ones currently visible in images online and in print from the naturally-dyed embroidery color chart in The Tudor Tailor on page 42. A similar image is on the Links page. I do not have time to order silks, but pearl cotton is available in town for fairly cheap.
A Dragon in Any Medium...
Posted by Elizabeth on 04-10-2007 at 11:04 am ...still thinks you taste good with ketchup. There is an event not too far away just after finals week called "St. George and the Dragon", and the A&S competition is, as the title suggests, a dragon in any medium. I would really like to get to an event in May, since I am not sure that I will be able to make any others over the summer, and this is the closest one. The A&S competition is a bonus. This morning, walking back from chemistry (thrilling, I know), I thought of what I could do for the competition: tent-stitch embroidery. Mary Stuart, during her captivity in England, produced a number of tent-stitch (that's half a cross stitch, or what one uses for modern needlepoint) embroidery pieces, including one of a dragon. Unfortunately for me, not only are there no images that I can find online, but the dragon piece itself is incomplete. The only image that I have found so far is a small, black and white view in Margaret Swain's The Needlework of Mary Queen of Scots. It was incorporated into a green velvet wall hanging (probably after her death*) and approximately the top third of this particular piece of embroidery has been cut off. The dragon has no head! However, many of the other embroidered panels included animals based on the illustrations of Conrad Genser's Icones Animalium, published in 1560. There is a dragon included, but it is not identical to what can be seen of Mary's dragon. This can be worked around, I'm sure. I just wish I could find a color image to work with. I have tried the V&A website, which has high-quality images of several of the other pieces, but this one does not seem to warrant much attention. Her color scheme for the other pieces, though, seems fairly consistent. Bright yellows and blues, fairly true reds, two shades of green, at least one shade of brown, and black (which has not held up well) are the main colors. The pieces that I am imitating are done with silk on linen, and are approximately 30 cm across according to the V&A. I have the linen already, left over from the Tudor Monstrosity's corset. All I need is the thread, which will likely be pearl cotton since I can't afford that much silk thread right now. More on this project as it develops. *Swain, Margaret. The Needlework of Mary Queen of Scots. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1973. p 102-3. Edited 4/11/07: to fix broken link
Vile little pests
I don't know why I have not posted about this project before. At Calontir's Queen's Prize Tournament (the event the corset went to, I know I need to get stuff posted about that), I started on some blackwork embroidery for an anti-moth bag. Must keep the little devils out of sweaters, socks, and yarn, after all. Last night I finished the front bit for it. Those are supposed to be bees, I think. The pattern came from the fill work section of The Bronwen's Blackwork Library before she took it down. It is pulled from an early- to mid-seventeenth century sampler in the Victoria and Albert Museum. I have not made up my mind what pattern to use for the back yet. It will probably be something fairly simple.
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