{p,h,f,r} Hand Made

I'm joining the folks at Like Mother, Like Daughter for {pretty, happy, funny real} with a focus on things that the Pirate and I have made, and how they turned out.

{pretty}
At our last home I had a separate studio where I did all my fiber projects - knitting, crocheting, and what I called "nature weavings". I've had my works in various shows, but not the one below, which is my favorite of all. It used to hang in the hallway of our old house, but now it's on the wall right above my treadle sewing machine. It's one of the first things I see every morning. The yarn is actually more colorful than the closeup photo shows.


{happy}
When we moved down here to Mexico I didn't think there would be any point in bringing any of the sweaters that I had knit over the years, but I did bring one that I had knit long ago with a nubbly cotton yarn. I love that yarn and I didn't want to consign this sweater to a plastic tub in our storage unit, so down it came with me. It has been hanging quietly in the closet for the past 4 years, but the reason it's hanging on a chair in my bedroom is that I just wore it. Yes, after a couple of days of warm, sunny weather, the fog is bag and I'm wearing long-sleeved knits all day, PLUS sweaters when we go out in the evening. I'm sure glad I brought that sweater down here!


{funny}
I've been begging the Pirate to smoke some cheese for me (in his smoker), so the day that I asked him to smoke some chicken legs and potatoes for dinner - I had already partly cooked them - he decided to throw in some monterey jack cheese as well. As you can see, the right amount of time for chicken and potatoes is definitely TOO LONG for cheese, which melted down onto the chicken. Actually the "mistake" turned out pretty tasty!


{real}
When our oldest granddaughter was staying with us for a couple of months earlier this year I bought some yarn for her to have a knitting project. She found a pattern for a clapotis shawl and started it, but didn't get very far into it. I told her that I'd finish the shawl for her birthday, so last week I picked up the project and knitted it to the halfway point (it's a triangular shawl). However, when I started to decrease stitches to make the triangle I realized that the pattern had a major flaw in it (at least for the type of yarn that was being used) and I wouldn't be able to continue. Happily I had bought WAY too much of that yarn because the color is so lovely - actually a deep brownish burgundy - so I started the shawl again with a new ball of yarn and a change in how stitches were added and subtracted. This is the original piece, which I'm about to rip out so I can use the yarn in the new version (rather than using up more new balls of yarn).