Oh, such optimism I had, way back here when I showed off a bunch of purse patterns, and promised finished purses to come. Where are the finished purses? Unfortunately, they exist only in my head.

Here’s what happened (as Monk says). While preparing to cut fabric for a project, I went to pick up a rotary-cutting ruler from my splintery floor. In the process, I drove not one, but two slivers under my fingernails. Which was not really a career-ending injury, but it did immediately lead to one of those I-have-just-had-it moments (amidst all the OW, OW, OWs), and lo! Another UFO was born.

Because I have not touched that project since. Or any other sewing project. I’m sure that I’ll stop sulking one of these days, and the sewing will recommence. I still like the idea of sewing, and as evidence…here is my haul from a few days ago, from the best estate sale ever.

I spent the last three weeks working on a dreaded house project (I kind of explain how I feel about house projects here), and when it was over, I returned to my computer like it was my long-lost best friend. I was so happy to see it, knowing that it would never, ever need me to laboriously scrape 100 years worth of paint and wallpaper off of a ceiling. No. It would let me play in Photoshop, and I would not need a dust mask or eye protection, and I could just be happy.

Really, really happy.

I Photoshopped this picture using a tutorial from the January/February 2010 issue of Layers Magazine (www.layersmagazine.com). They used photographs of a bride for their example, but for my version I went with my most reliable model: Toby. There’s one picture of Emma at the very end.

Here’s a sneak peek at my newest collection…my fifth! Sometimes it’s hard to believe. I was working on this last fall, with summer just past, and me already looking forward to spring. The older I get, the more I like the sun. (Still, I love you, Seattle.)

Instructions for making this quilt will be available as a free PDF on In The Beginning Fabrics’ website in a couple of months. The piecing in this design is super easy, and the applique gives it a little extra pizzazz. On a real quilt (as opposed to this Photoshop version) I’d probably add buttons to the flower centers. Or yo-yo’s! And maybe a little rick-rack around the flower petals or leaves…oh, the possibilities!

The PDF will also show the quilt in two other colorways (turquoise and lavender). You can check out the whole collection at this link. I hope you like it! (Breeze should be in stores in May.)

I like it when there are several things happening at once that, on the surface, seem to have nothing to do with each other but THEN, you realize that they actually fit neatly into one theme.

For example, Mysteries of the Deep. Here’s the first mystery. These photos were taken from the Fremont Bridge in Seattle. That body of water is the ship canal, but what are those darkened bits of water in that kind of square-ish formation? They can’t be anything too obstructive, because they’re right in the middle of the ship canal. Mysterious!

Then there are the Brontes. Lately I’ve read “Jane Eyre” and “Shirley” by Charlotte Bronte, and “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte. Because the written language of the mid-nineteenth century is so different from today, and since I’m susceptible to mimicking written language, I wasn’t able to talk like a normal person for several weeks. Anyway. The Brontes: deep and mysterious.

Finally, there’s Adobe Flash CS4. I just upgraded my Creative Suite software, and for the first time ever, I have Flash. I didn’t even know I wanted Flash. I’ve always associated it with herky-jerky animation of dancing women who want me to refinance my mortgage. But, as it turns out, it’s so much more than that! It’s mysterious. And deep. If I can figure it out, there might be some animation popping up around these parts.

I got an email yesterday that said, “WHERE’S THE DOG?” It turns out that after saying that “Wednesdays Are UFO and Dog Days,” I went on and on about the UFO (the Icarus Shawl) and forgot the dog entirely.

But that’s OK. Because, if I had remembered, I would have picked just one of these photos to post, but now, with the UFO out of the way, I can post all three. Here we go:

I like these pictures for two reasons. First, of course, is the dog. Good dog! Second, is that these home-owners seem to have the same approach to house projects as we do. Good intentions and all…take care of the pets first…and maybe forget to finish the paint job. Oh well.

Wednesdays Are UFO and Dog Days

Finishing this actually went a lot faster than I thought it would, which just goes to show that procrastination makes everything seem a little worse than it really is. I wish realizing that meant I would give up procrastination once and for all, but somehow I doubt that’s going to happen.

Anyway! I washed the Icarus shawl and blocked it. (I tried my blocking wires again, and this 2nd attempt went perfectly.) Two-out-of-two cats left the shawl alone while it was blocking. Amazing!

I have done it again in terms of making something much bigger than it was supposed to be. Finished dimensions as given in the instructions: 72″ x 36″. My shawl: 101″ x 49″. This would explain the extra skein of yarn I had to buy at the end. Doesn’t really explain how it got so off-track in the first place, but I’m guessing that “gauge” and “yarn substitution” might have had something to do with it. But nevermind.

Here’s a detail:

Casual disarray:

Nicely folded:

Project Details: Pattern is “Icarus Shawl,” designed by Miriam Felton, published in Interweave Knits, Summer 2006. The pattern is also available in “The Best of Interweave Knits.” Yarn is Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock, color is Black Purl. I used size 4 needles (up one size from the pattern recommendation) and 6 skeins of yarn. And made a really huge shawl.

What’s Next? I don’t know! This was the last of my knitting UFOs, and now I can make anything. That’s so exciting to contemplate, I can hardly believe it. I’m going to spend some time looking through my books and magazines, considering the possibilities. It’s like the knitting world is wide open.

I was dismayed to hear again this year, a cooking-show expert trying to persuade people to serve something other than pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving dessert. Luckily for me, my mom was not convinced.

Then, in other holiday news, I learned that not everybody loves “The Little Drummer Boy.” This one guy claimed that it was the worst Christmas song ever. He complained about the endless pah-rum-pah-pum-pums…”Like, get on with it already,” he said. Not to be name-calling, but he is clearly an impatient, heartless, hater.

Like that guy, I also have a long emotional relationship with “The Little Drummer Boy.” I used to watch this animated classic on TV when I was a kid…crying through almost the whole show. My mom would say things like, “Maybe you shouldn’t watch it this year,” or “Maybe you should start watching after the scene where the little drummer boy’s parents are killed in a horrific fire.” But I’d watch it every year, from the very beginning, because I loved it.

Years passed. I grew up. I was driving Tom’s pick-up truck, waiting at a traffic light one December afternoon when “The Little Drummer Boy” came on the radio, and I experienced that whole “The Song Remembers When” phenomenon, where a song will take you back. The light changed, and I drove home, tears streaming down my face, no kleenex available, as “The Little Drummer Boy” played on. I tried to mop up with my coat sleeve, but it was not so successful. When I walked in the door, Tom could tell I’d been crying and started asking, “What’s wrong? Are you OK?”

I was sniffling, saying, “I’m OK. I’m fine.”

He was still concerned. “But…what happened?”

“The Little Drummer Boy.”

“The Little…?

“It’s so embarrassing. But. You know… ‘He had no gift to bring.’”

Long pause.

“And, ‘the ox and lamb kept time,’” I said. “‘Mary nodded.’ It’s all just so sad. ‘I am a poor boy too.’” Tearing up again.

“Well,” Tom finally said. “I’m just glad you’re OK.”

And that was the end of that until, several years later, the pick-up truck had its last irreparable break down. We were shopping for a new car two days after Christmas, holiday music was piping into the showroom, and we’d pretty much decided which car we wanted.

“It doesn’t have a radio,” the salesman said, “but we can put one in for you.”

Tom and I looked at each other. Was he remembering the Little Drummer Boy incident? Maybe. Maybe not. But we bought the car without a radio.

Which brings me to today. I was at my local coffee shop at lunchtime and “The Little Drummer Boy” started playing on the radio. Fifteen or so seconds into the song, when I’m just starting to sink under its melancholy spell, the barista rushed from behind the counter, dashed to the radio, and changed the station. I could practically feel her relief as we joined Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers in the middle of “American Girl.”

I’m guessing that the barista too, has some history with “The Little Drummer Boy.”

I was walking past Goodwill the other day, when this little voice in my head said, “Hey! You should go check out the knick-knack aisle.”

I’ve talked about Goodwill’s knick-knack aisle before (when I found my ceramic koala). Usually, it is equal parts fascinating and horrifying, and the way it affects me totally depends on my mood.

I was in a receptive frame of mind the other day — willing to consider the cat nesting dolls made in China — and passing benignly over the pair of kissing angels — and fighting the urge to group all of the Paint-Your-Own-Pottery puppies together in a charming tableau.

It was when I was reluctantly talking myself out of the puppy-arranging that I saw it. A small handmade bust, only 5-1/2″ high. It looked so delicate and dignified and beautiful. Like the koala, I wondered what its story was. How did it come to be at Goodwill with a $2.99 sticker on its shoulder?

I’ll probably never know. But now it’s a small piece of loveliness in my studio/home office/sewing room. It radiates calm and, for that reason alone, seems quite extraordinary to me.

Wednesdays Are UFO and Dog Days

If ever a project could almost be expected to crash and burn (or burn and crash…or melt and crash) it would be something named after Icarus, the boy with wax wings, who flew too close to the sun.

Which is just my roundabout way of saying that — in the past week — I had a problem with my Icarus Shawl and I was afraid the whole thing would come crashing to a halt.

The problem is in plain sight in this picture.

It’s that ball of yarn. It’s the last of five, and it’s not enough to finish the shawl. When I bought this yarn over a year-and-a-half ago, I was positive that I had enough. In fact, I figured I’d have maybe a half-skein left over. But I was wrong. As I contemplated the nearly-two-charts that I still had to knit, and my inadequate ball of yarn, I considered my options. I knew I wasn’t going to find the same dye lot of the yarn, but I wasn’t even sure that this colorway was still in production. I toyed with the idea of changing to a different color for the last three or four inches of the edging pattern. Like an orange/red blend. The Icarus Shawl…on fire!

But before committing to any extreme measures, I decided to hike up the hill to my local yarn store and see if they possibly still had Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock yarn in “Black Purl.” They did! And it looked indistinguishable from the lot I’d been using. I bought a skein, with the hope that any differences in the dye would not be noticeable, due to the variable nature of the coloration in the first place.

Just like that, I was back on track. Disaster (in the form of an orange-edged purple shawl) averted!

I was as happy as this orange-red dog.