Sesame Seed Designs » ogee tunic

Family + Knitting = A Happy Weekend

Casey — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 22:46:00 +0000

I brother came to visit for 5 days and we had a really good time. This was his 1st time visiting Mike and I in the 5 years we’ve been married so it was nice to have him at our place for once! We did the grand tour of Portland and the gorge, ate a lot of food and had a nice time. Ryan was even so kind as to wait patiently for me to finish seaming my ogee tunic before we went out one day because I really wanted to wear it. The only thing I like about the sudden cold, cloudy weather that’s hit Portland is that I can wear my sweater! It needs a little tweaking, though. I need to redo part of the shoulder seams so you’ll have to wait a little longer for a better picture and I’ll have to wait to wear it again. In addition to my new sweater, I also have a new knitted bag! My lovely secret pal, Nicole, knitted me a fabulous felted bag using Peace Fleece. She even sent me the leftover skein along with a bunch of other great things. Thank, Nicole, for being a great secret pal!

I’m still working on the diamond trellis scarf, one repeat at a time. My new project is the Frost Flowers and Leaves shawl from A Gathering of Lace. I’m not really knitting it as a shawl, though. I’m using Devon from Elann. It’s 100% wool that they call unshrinkable. That seems like it should mean superwash but they say to handwash it. It’s really soft and nice to knit. The color is called mineral green but Mike insists it’s blue. Whatever it is, I like it! It’s sport weight so I’m making a light blanket instead of a shawl. I love the look of shawls but don’t really see myself wearing one anytime soon.

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Oliver is cute

Casey — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 02:06:00 +0000

Oliver is so cute!! He’s my new bunny. His color is called chocolate but he’s really a light orange. I don’t know who comes up with the names. Here he’s eating weeds like a good little bunny.
Since Kathy asked, here is some info about angoras. (If you’re not interested, skip this part) They are more work than your average bunny. He lives outside but has a roof so he doesn’t get rained on. Since they have so much fur it’s important they don’t get wet. They also don’t do well in the heat. Again, because of all the fur. When it’s really hot, we freeze a liter bottle of water and put it in the cage so the bunny can cool off. They also require brushing so they don’t get mats in their fur. We’ll see how this guy does but once they’re over a year, most don’t need to be brushed more than once a week. Different angora breeds need different amounts of brushing- it depends on how many guard hairs they have- and individuals vary too. They are the softest bunnies you’ll ever feel and I love petting Oliver!

Besides knitting, my project this last week has been painting my bathroom. My bathroom used to be terrible. Here’s the before:
It doesn’t look that bad until you see the walls up close.
It’s wallboard with wallpaper attached. (It’s popular in trailers and manufactured homes. Classy stuff.) It was super old and dirty and we couldn’t take the paper off because it’s fused to the wall so we had to use a nasty oil-based primer to cover it all up. Fumes filled the house for days. How I love inhaling chemicals. It was all worth it, though, because now my bathroom looks like this. The color is called spring rain and it reminds me of a robin’s egg. I love it! No more dirty, nasty walls! We even had this pretty print that matches perfectly.I haven’t been neglecting my ogee tunic. I started seaming it together the other night and it’s coming along slowly but surely. It’s still summer so I’m not in a big hurry to finish it. It’s not like I’ll get to wear it soon. It’s looking like it’ll fit nicely and I am excited to see it all finished!

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Summer = Fair Time

Casey — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 04:29:00 +0000

The state fair is coming and I am so excited. I was practically raised at fairs. My mom is, and my grandma was, a fair judge. They judge baked goods, jams, jellies, sewing, crafts, you name it, they can stick a ribbon (or not) on it. Some of my earliest memories are of hanging out watching the fair get all set up while my mom and grandma fed me bits of cookies they were judging. They say that when I was a baby they used to stick me in the closet at one particular fair to take naps.

When I was older, I was in 4-H and I had animals so I practically lived at our county fair. I accumulated boxes full of ribbons and my grandpa and uncle were embarassed every year when I made them drive me to the fair to pick up the boxes full of stuff that I had entered.

This is a long intro to explain to you how excited I was to see that Larissa started a State-Fair-Along! I entered some things in the Oregon State Fair for the 1st time last summer (I am not a native Oregonian) and was excited to win a blue ribbon for some cookies but was disappointed at the lack of competition in many of the categories, including knitting. So was Larissa. There are so many crafty people that aren’t entering things in their fairs! So fellow Americans, knit, sew, bake, make something to enter in your local fair this has started a summer. It will be fun!

I just made this skirt but it is not fair quality. It’s summertime-fun-in-the-sun quality and that’s all I was going for. Please forgive the wrinkles, the white fabric is linen and I have been wearing it all evening. I used some of the fabric previously seen here.
So, what will I be knitting for the state fair? After much deliberation, I have decided on this:It’s the ogee tunic from Knitting Nature. I’m using Knitpicks merino style in tide pool and I am already almost done with the 1st sleeve! Pretty exciting, huh? What could be more exciting than a partially finished sleeve? A package from my secret pal! I was so excited to get this in the mail! It’s 2 skeins of knitpicks laceweight merino and a pattern for a shawl. The blue yarn is Cascade Pastaza-wool and llama! I’ve been fondling this yarn for a while now and have been wanting some. How did you know, secret pal? The colors of both are gorgeous- just what I’d choose for myself. I also got some great chocolate and fabulous stitch markers so I don’t have to use those cheap plastic rings anymore. Thank you, thank you!

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