Sock enjoys sunshine on Olympic Peninsula

At Hurricaine Ridge




and at Kalaloch!


(That's Crazy Zauberball, again)

Leaves, mon amie

Last year I came across a shawl pattern that caught my eye, called Photosynthesis by Modern Lace. The name appealed to the science student in me, not to mention the delicate repeating leaves! I bought the pattern to add to my collection.

Later in the year, I fell in love with a beautiful green laceweight yarn by sweet georgia yarns, the colourway called Botanical. The greens had subtle varigation, and were extremely restful on the eyes. I had to have it, and felt very content just looking at the skein from time to time as I moved it around the house to appreciate it in different light.

Then one day pattern and yarn lay side by side, and a new idea was born!



Seems pretty obvious to me now, gah.
Photosynthesis + botanical = perfect pairing.



Once I got into the zone, the shawl worked up very well in about four weeks.
The pattern was a treat to knit! Very well written, with an excellent cast off for no-worry blocking stretchability!
The yarn is sheer beauty (as are all of sweet georgia's!)



I knit on my lace beauty, immersed in the joy of watching the leafy lace pattern emerge and change as I made my way through the charts. I admired the little leaves, I anticipated the transition rows, I embraced the big leaf section because they added balance. I loved making the lacy mesh edge, but then it was all over too soon. I was sad it came to an end, but so happy and pleased with what I had accomplished.



Lila, this shawl is for you!
Thank you for all the wonderful times we've shared over the years, but mostly, thank you for your kind and generous friendship.

You will be missed very much, miss millefeuille!
Love, miss eclair

a little card, a little envelope

Miss M made a cute birthday card for a friend.
She folded a little envelope and glued it onto the front of the card.
She was very pleased it looked puffy.



Inside was the message!



This little card was her inspiration.

Valise

I enjoyed a new challenge recently. A vintage brown leather portfolio came across my path! It has a very simple design, slim profile, and sturdy zipper. There are some surface scratches from regular use, but the leather is in excellent shape. Over time, though, the stitches have shown their age: in the area where they attach the zipper to the case itself, they had worn thin, frayed, and disappeared. This meant I got to try my hand at leather repair!

First I went looking for the right kind of thread. I found a great colour match with the leather:



and the existing stitch colour, too.



Ideally I wanted to use a strong quilting thread, but the shop was in short supply of colour selection in the thread I wanted, at the time. Instead, I used my usual silk finish cotton thread. I doubled it to get a closer match to the weight of the other stitches.

Then I set about carefully unpicking the remains of the stitches on the underside of the zipper.



Then I got to start making stitches! I backsititched my way through sections where no stitches remained, admiring my work along the way. It was pretty easy considering I did not have to make holes in leather, I just worked the needle through the path that was already broken. I found this "work" to be very satisfying.



It all went swimmingly! I think the hand made stitches look pretty comfy nestled into their places.