New Rabbit Holes

  I always have excuses for not writing, it seems, but this one is very valid.  You see, my mother is dying of cancer in a nursing home, and I've been working on-call for the last three months to help take care of her.  At first, way back in July, it meant being at her house from six in the morning until four or five in the afternoon.  After a few weeks of that, it became obvious that my sister and I couldn't do it ourselves anymore.  
  Liz found a nursing home not too far from our homes, and I started spending a few hours each day sitting with Mom, and then shopping for things she might want.  I always showed up at the nursing home with bags full of things that might tempt her.  She tried to keep up a brave face, knowing we couldn't give her the care she needed, but she was sad to leave her home.
  Now, "the disease has progressed," and I don't spend as much time at the home as I did, because she sleeps most of the time.  When she's awake, I move her bed, fetch her yogurt smoothies and ice water, and listen to whatever streams of consciousness she has going on at the time.  She wanders through her life like a time-traveler, only to be jerked back to the present by the expression on my face, or just the reality of the grim surroundings.
  And so, that's been the background of my life this summer.  I always bring knitting to the nursing home, for those long gaps of Mom sleeping between semi-consciousness.  I've been knitting two sweaters simultaneously from a pattern by a Danish designer, Lene Holme Samsoe (https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/ella-34).  

I started in white cotton, making a short sleeve pullover.  This sweater was all over Instagram this summer, tagged Sommerella, and the comments were always in German or Danish, and I don't speak either, so it too me a while to find the design.  I could only find it on Ravelry in English, but it's called Ella, and has long sleeves, and is in wool.  There's a problem in the pattern in the increases, and on the white cotton sweater, I simply put more stitches in the body to make up for it.  But when I asked my sister if she liked it, she said she'd prefer a different color. I bought Valley Yarns' Goshen, a blend of cotton, Modal and silk for hers, and decided to make it a cardigan.  On the first try, I didn't allow for the lace increases on either side of the button band.  When I got to the sleeve separation, I could see it didn't work, stitch count-wise, either from my mistake, or from the pattern.  
  In my frustration at two sweaters going awry, I decided to try something completely different.  Liz saw a coat in Coldwater Creek's catalog that she loved but didn't want to spend $200 on.  Well, this coat was covered in machine embroidery, and I could see that even if they paid someone in China to make it for a dollar a day, that coat was worth $200.  But rather than say anything, I thought, huh!  I wonder if I could make that?  Now, I haven't embroidered for the sake of embroidering since I was nine when Mom made me work on that stupid sampler she'd bought me to teach me to embroider.  Oh, how I hated that ugly thing!  I'm pretty sure I tossed it out somewhere along the way to be free of it.  

sleeve hems

peplum sunflowers

  But now in the age of YouTube, anyone can learn anything, can't we?  I watched a zillion YouTube videos of how to embroider, and got started.  Instead of using tan jersey knit, like the original jacket, I used nubby raw silk that I just happened to have 15 yards of.  I bought all her favorite tones of peach and matched it with some olive greens, like the jacket had, and started sampling.  
  So far, I've done the edges of the sleeves and almost finished the peplum in the back.  And what do you know? I like embroidery!  Especially when my obsessive knitting makes my arm and hands ache, and I need some quiet, non-screen time.
  I did go back to the sweaters, separated successfully for the sleeves, and am running the garter stitch down the bodies of both.  They're my t.v.-watching and nursing home projects, and both are getting quite large.  Thank goodness it's cool enough finally to hold them in my lap!
  A couple of weeks ago, my friend Pam asked me if I was going to Convergence next year, since it was in Knoxville.  While we were chatting, I looked it up on line and saw that, not only is it in Knoxville, a place I miss so much, but that it's also my birthday week!  Now, you might have guessed that my life the past few months has been bleak and cheerless, and that I need something to cheer me up.  So, I registered for Convergence!  I'm going!  I renewed my membership in the Handweaver's Guild of America, and bought the week-long package, with meals and everyday entrance and discounts on classes.  Then, I signed up for two classes:  eco-friendly dyeing and inkle weaving.  

first try

  Well that did the trick, for many days.  I was so excited!  I'll be staying at LouAnn's house, and going into Knoxville everyday, hanging out with my friends from all over, and rubbing elbows with lots and lots of weavers.  But how long had it been since I've actually woven?  From time to time, I'll go in the studio, and maybe I'll wind some skeins of yarn for the two sweaters, or I'll just go in there to air the room out, but I haven't woven much at all this summer.  I did start a tartan, one I designed to practice weaving tartans, but hadn't had much success.  I couldn't find anything, book or video, that tells what to do with the selvedges.  And from the sample here, you can see that my sett was wrong, and I beat in too hard.  I cut this part off, and it was stiff as a board.  So I let it sit in a darkened room by itself while I knitted.

janky selvedges

shuttles ready!

  But when the rush of excitement about Convergence was on me, I went back in the studio and tried again.  I replaced the 12-dent reed with a 15.  See, the Harrisville Shetland I'm using says it has a 12-15 epi, but it must be the twill that brings it in more (maybe some are saying, "Duh!"), and I'm so used to weaving overshot with fine threads that my beat was way too hard.  I've been working on it this weekend, and I think I'm doing better.  Not all my squares are square, but they're almost there.  And it's fun.  I keep reminding myself that this is my learning warp, and to have fun with it. 
  I'm still plugging away occasionally on the white bread cloths in Swedish Lace, and have every hope of finishing them for Christmas!  And one of those sweaters needs to be done by then, too.  The embroidered jacket doesn't have a timeline.  It'll be done when it's done.
   And as it cools off, I'll be out in the yard, making plans for next year, planting roses and perennials and bulbs.  Enjoy fall, wherever you are!