I thought I'd recap my recent activities with some crappy pictures! We had city wide garage sales this last weekend. Since I'm too much of a pack rat to actually get rid of some stuff, I chose instead to embark on an insane baking biathlon. I baked 24 (count them 24) dozen kringlas. UTTER MADNESS!! I mixed up two double batches of kringla dough in my HUGE metal mixing bowl (one double batch at a time!) and then piled them into another big bowl so I could use the huge bowl for lefse. Meanwhile, I had my two biggest pots on the stove boiling 10 pounds of russet potatoes that I would later cool and rice twice. Keep in mind that this was all happening at about 2300 and would continue until 0500 when I would then shower, change clothes, load my car and then DRIVE 40 miles to get home! I was facing the Point Of No Return where I knew what I was in for and now HAD to continue and finish lest I waste all those ingredients, however many POUNDS of it there was! I just stood there for a moment and laughed to myself like a crazy person at how pathetic and ridiculous my situation was at that moment! In the end I sold the first 16 dozen kringla that I made and baked another 8 dozen at my parents' house. I also mixed up the lefse dough (about 72 pieces worth) and cooked it in their kitchen which was actually kind of nice because I think it is a rare treat to eat lefse hot off the griddle. I was also quite proud of myself that I cooked it all by myself which I have never done in all my life. When I was a little girl, I would stand on a chair in front of the stove with the lefse stick and Mother would roll it out and I would flip. Now that I am older and Mother is just OLD ;) we have switched jobs, but Mom was working that morning so I rolled and flipped myself. It CAN be done if you're not babysitting or watching anything else in the kitchen. You are steadily busy and I always get a sore lower back after rolling/stooping for 3 hours.





Lately for some reason, I've felt the need to do some fabric de-stashing. I've had this lovely blue and white lithograph fabric (about 12 yards of it--MUST HOARD!). I was going to be home where there is a great open space to work on blankies and where Mom's Elna sewing machine is! I backed it with some navy broadcloth and machine quilted it 6 inches apart in lengthwise running stitches. It turned out to be a nice light spring blanket. I am pleased. I was hoping to have some scraps of batting to use for Mari bases...





Did someone say Mari? Normally I would say this is a crappy blurred picture, but it is actually an accurate picture of what my eyeballs were capable of seeing at the time. DeeDee and I worked for almost 8 hours on Temari balls twice this week, pausing only for fluids and PRN bathroom breaks. My mother had some batting leftovers that were too small to use for anything but too big that you wanted to throw them out, so we even did some recycling while we were at it. DeeDee made all from scratch temari this time! She picked her own noisemakers and had a charming idea about putting personalized tokens or charms inside!

This last Thursday was the monthly meeting of the area spinners and weavers. We met at the MacNider Museum (on the LAWN and I was already internally whining about the heat) and one member had her floor loom set up for an overshot weaving demonstration. I stopped in to see my beloved puppets before I left.

I hit the library before I went home. No new or exciting knitting books. And shame on me, but I saw this growing in the lawn of the library and couldn't help but swipe it! I absolutely LOVE Lillies of the Valley! This tiny little stalk was so delicately fragrant!

When I was little, my mother used to play the piano and we'd sing all kinds of songs. We learned a lot of Norwegian songs and hymns growing up. We had piano music for The Sound Of Music and Hans Christian Andersen and Sunday School songs. One of my mother's favorites was 'White Choral Bells'. "White choral bells upon a slender stalk, lillies of the valley deck my garden walk. Oh don't you wish that you could hear them ring? That will only happen when the fairies sing." HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, MOM!

Tartan Temari

We forced Melissa to come to Temari night last night! She and her husband were in charge of the catering (Hardees and Wendy's! Num Num!) and once we'd each had sustenance, we began work on a new Temari. She wrapped her ball in black sewing thread and learned how to measure her ball and plot her lines. This ball is only divided into 4ths so you can really see the thread 'ribbons' against the black. She has also gone through the idea books and has found a few stitched patterns that she likes so we will try those next time. I do know one thing though, soon we'll have to get together to have just a Mari dummy making party because I'm quickly running out of finished bases!

Here is the Temari I finished last night. It is wrapped in a chocolate brown sewing thread, and then I divided it into 4ths to show Melissa how to do hers. I chose some really bland yet stunning martha blues and greens and then did a simple wrapped design but did one strand of color at a time for a woven look. I think it looks more like a plaid Temari though! Oh well. I am going to lie down for one hour and then go to Hobby Lobby to see what their metallic thread and perle cotton inventory has to offer!

I finished a pair of socks this week too. This is some lovely variegated 100% wool yarn I got at Joann Fabrics of all places! I made them with 3 skeins but of course I bought 4, as well as 4 of a blue/grey colorway. Oh well. I'm sure I can use the leftovers for something. It is a lovely 2 ply of irregular thick and thin singles. It looks very homespun while it knits up and was just a pleasure to work with! These were knit ankle down (cuff 48 stitches) on size US 6 double pointed needles.

These are lovely TV/bed socks and will be cozy and warm...but did I mention that I turned my air on once already this week? I'm going to have to put these away for a few months before I'll get to enjoy them!

Temari Action Shots!

Here is the wrapped and marked ball. That is a styrofoam ball that I hollowed out slightly, put a jingle bell inside, wrapped in quilt batting, wrapped with yarn, and then DeeDee wrapped it with an entire spool of sewing thread. She has measured and plotted north and south poles, measured and divided the ball into thirds, and wrapped and anchored an equator and longitude lines. She is ready to begin the design work, but it looks as if she's still thinking about the colors....


Here she has begun anchoring her colored perle cotton threads that she will wind around the ball in her chosen design. Note the position of her right thumb and forefinger. Your hands get SO tired from gripping and pulling the needles! I have some awesome 4 inch needles that are great for going through the entire thickness of the ball and I have some INDISPENSIBLE little needle grippers! They're the size of a 50c piece and are to needles what those rubber kitchen grippy things are to pickle jars! They are a must for this kind of work!



Here you can see quite a few rows of the work in progress. The nice thing about a wrapped ball is that you don't have to cut your thread as you work the design. You anchor the end of the thread and just wind directly off the skein so the work goes quite quickly. Again, note the position of her fingers! Your hands are sore the next day from gripping the thread and holding the work tight!



Here she is anchoring a color she is finished with. Note the gynormous needle.

And here is the finished object!

Here is a nice little Temari tutorial to give you a better idea of what we're so nuts about making!

Such a wondrous and colorful gathering of perle cotton, styrofoam balls, and sewing thread can only mean ONE thing: Temari balls! DeeDee has been asking and asking to start a Temari ball. I had a few yarn wrapped Temari balls ready for decoration and we just started there. First we had to agonize over the COLORS which is always the worst part. She then wound her chosen spool of sewing thread onto the base and got some practice anchoring her thread and learning how her stitches would behave. We used a paper strip to make her measurements and divisions on the ball as well as establishing her two poles.

That is where we picked up this week. She learned how to stitch her latitude and longitude lines and made further measurements to mark the wrapping. She agreed that the measuring/marking was the most tedious and frustrating part. We began wrapping with the perle cotton and the metallics and she was off! I watched her start the first few rows and then she worked on her own! We also just started doing actual embroidery stitching on a ball. She has 2 more that are marked with the stitching already begun and she recently took her final and was excited to have time to work on these!

This is the Temari I finished that night. It is wrapped in a spool of martha blue thread that I have been dying to use on a ball. This ball was divided into fourths and stitched with two woven spindle shapes. It has a wide obi belt so you can't see where my spindles overlapped a bit! I have had SO much fun showing someone else how to make these! The two we have made so far are the simplest to make but you can still see how beautiful even the simplest ones are. I need to be making these for my nieces, but I think I want to keep these! I look forward to revisiting different techniques as DeeDee learns, and I'm excited about learning the more complex ones!

DeeDee's WIP is a deep purple divided into eighths and will be 8 single spindles in shades of purple and rust--and the first one looked SO good! I can't wait to see it when she is finished!