All the Way Around

Yesterday I put a push on to get the outline of the border done. I removed about 1/3 of the stitches I had stitched in order to correct mis-counts or being out by one thread. I had to resort to using the magnifier on my lamp in addition to my 3.0 magnifying reader glasses.

Now I can stitch the motifs socially and probably not screw up as much.

I frequently dragged my needle across to the border on the other side to make sure the alignment was correct. Thank goodness I was able to figure out where I had gone wrong. 

I also decided to unpick the deer that was below the house on the right as I didn't want to repeat the counting error on its mirror image on the other side.

I usually knit at night while watching TV. Last night I almost completed the leg of the second helix sock.

Scooter has settled in here for the next few weeks. He teaches English as a Foreign Language to folks all over the world so I told him he could set up in his dad's office. I really haven't been able to do a lot of clearing out of Skip's stuff but made space on the desk and bookshelf.

I'm pleased Scooter has moved his teaching stuff into that space so it can be separate from his bedroom. He  does a lot of conversational stuff with the children he teaches so has lots of props to prompt conversation. The little flour dough hand imprint below the clock was made for his Grandma on the occasion of her 80th birthday in 1997 when Scooter was 3.9 years old. (written on the back)

It's nice having him here and not too much of an adjustment. The house is big enough we can both do our 'thing' and not get in each other's way. I've always enjoyed spending time with him.

The girlies are planning a road trip to a stitching retreat in August. Sadly, Jen1 and I won't be attending because it overlaps with the time she and I will go to music camp. I could have attended both and just left the Ottawa retreat early on the Sunday - driven the 4 hours to Whitby, packed up the car for camp, picked up Jen1, and driven the 2 hours to 'camp' at Wilfrid Laurier U in Waterloo. Even though I want to do 'all the things', I opted to not overdo things. Instead I'll do my own little road trip in SW Ontario at another time.

Speaking of retreats. I'm starting to get my mind in gear for my departure this Sunday. Check-in is 4pm so I'll leave in time to visit a Len's Mill store in Waterloo en route. (not that I need anything - cough).  I'm taking way more projects than I'll ever work on but I want all my bases covered. I just thought of another sewing project I can take - must make note of it in my phone.

While I do all my crafty things, I often listen to podcasts. Lately, I've been listening to 'The Secret World of  Roald Dahl'. Very interesting. After working as a spy during WWII, he authored, 'James and the Giant Peach', Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', 'BFG', 'Matilda', etc. I don't believe I've read any of his children's books so have a couple on hold at the library. I may even download the eBooks on my iPad rather than wait for audiobooks to become available. 

Lola!

Last night I fully finished Lola. 

She's knit from 100% merino wool.  Her sweater is Mustard, an acrylic DK remnant from the Persian Tiles blanket.

Lola, Ernest, and Veronica

I have another one on the needles but I need to change the colour of the duplicate-stitched heart stitches because they don't show up very well.

I've been getting quite a bit done on The Light of Winter. 

There's hope I may actually finish it before the summer.

I'd like to do a start on my birthday - the day before the first spring StitchNorth. I'll need to do more thinking on the matter. Perhaps the Fluttering Butterflies project I received last week.

However, last night I remembered I had a couple of wool felt appliqué kits I could get going on.

I bought this complete kit a couple of years ago at Quilter's Cupboard. I saw it on display last fall at a craft show and remembered that I had the kit.

I also have the complete kit for this project. Which I bought from Cotton Harvest at least a year ago.

I'm a sucker for sunflowers.

I just ironed freezer paper onto printer paper so I could copy the patterns onto the freezer paper. That way I won't have to reverse the templates to cut out the felt pieces. Rather than select floss ahead of time to go with the felt colours, I'll just take my full floss stash and select as I go.

I also have a couple of ugly Christmas sweater wool felt appliqué kits in my stash somewhere. 

That also brings to mind the three little foundation paper piecing kits I could work on, too.

Introducing Veronica!

I took the latest little bear to stitching yesterday. Everyone thought it should be a girl and Sharon G insisted she should be named Veronica.

After I got home, I stitched her eyelashes and attached a bow matching her sweater.

I present - Veronica!

She likes to have adventures with Ernest.

Inspired by the Paralympics, they thought figure skating would be fun for their Bearalympics. (Thanks to ChatGPT).

Veronica is always up for a wee photo shoot. For example, today at the fabric shop.

Stay tuned for lots of adventures with Ernest and Veronica.

A Fine Day Out

Today we ventured into The Big City to visit the Knitting Loft, a yarn shop and Country Clothesline, a fabric shop.

MaryK and our driver, Poppy were our trusty companions. My, what an amazing assortment of quality yarns they have! 

Ernest and Veronica (our newest little buddy) posed for the photo shoot.

All I came away with was a ball of bear-coloured DKweight yarn. What ever will I knit with it???

After lunch we headed to Country Clothesline off O'Connor in East York. It's not a big shop but it has lots of Liberty of London, Tilda, Wm Morris, etc. fabrics.

There also lots and lots of fat quarters - tastefully arranged by colour palette.

I bought a 'scrap bag' which had 1.5 yards of random widths of fabrics.

Inside were 11 WOF strips ranging between 3.5" and 5.5" wide. They'd be great for EPP, backing stitched projects, small checkerboard projects, etc.

I picked up some snips on sale and a pack of Tilda fabric-covered buttons. 

They'd be cute decorating little sewn items: biscornus, pincushions, pillows, etc.

I thought they'd work well with anything from this charm pack I also purchased.

After a lovely day of shopping and camaraderie Poppy skillfully drove us back home.

It truly was a fine day out.

Part III - Wooldreamers, Windmills and Wine

On our third full day of the tour, we piled into the bus and ventured to La Mancha - Don Quixote country.

First we stopped at the mill at Wooldreamers in Mota del Cuervo. 

There were merino sheep outside in the rain but they didn't seem to mind.

Inside was a full mill operation. This woman was skirting fleeces; sorting parts of the fleece and removing unusable bits. There is only a small area on the back of a sheep's fleece that is good for processing fine wool and yarn, the other useable wool is used for felt and carpets.

Fleeces here are from all over Europe.

This was a 3m high pile of fluffy merino wool fibre after being cleaned and picked. It was ready to be carded and made into rovings for the final steps of spinning and plying.

We then were driven to a high point of the area where some iconic windmills remain. Of course, there were statues of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. (factoid: 'panza' means 'belly' in Spanish. Cervantes was a real joker)

In their day, they were used to grind grain into meal and flour.

We also toured Belmonte Castle - from Medieval times. It was a key fortress and a symbol of power in turbulent times - the mid 1400s. It is a very unusual equilateral triangle shape with 6 towers/turrets.

Photo from Google Maps

Belmonte Castle is a representative example of Gothic-Mudejar architecture. The fortress is designed in a star shape, an uncommon structure among castles in the Iberian Peninsula. Its geometric design, with turrets at the points, allows for more effective defense and provides a panoramic view of the surroundings, as it has towers 22 meters high.

There were many rooms, lots of furniture.

One of the really remarkable features was all the woodwork - floors and ceilings.

 

After lunch we were taken to the Wooldreamers showroom and outlet in downtown Mota del Cuervo. I didn't take any photos there for some reason. 

This photo is showing the wooden cheese presses. 

The chevron design and grass periphery is iconic to Manchego cheese. 

I was this many years old before I realized manchego cheese comes from La Mancha. D'uh!

In the local gift shop I tried to find a personalized story book for Ernesto but to no avail. Enzo's book title translated is 'Enzo, the magicians need YOUR help!' Ernest left empty-pawed.

This was our group photo in front of the Wooldreamers shop in town.

Then we were off to the Mont Reaga winery for a tour.

They were ready for us. This was all set up when we walked in.

After the tour, we participated in a wine tasting. 

Of course we sampled some sausage and manchego cheese.

We piled back on the bus for the rainy drive back to Madrid. 

That night we were on our own for dinner. Poppy and I visited the local grocery store 1/2 block from the hotel and picked up snacky food for supper.

It was a very full and informative day.

The next day would be our day with Carol Feller and her knitting instruction.

(to be continued...)