To-Do List # 1 (Done)

Hat Band for Steven's leather hat.  Attached, boxed and mailed today.  It should arrive in Virginia in two to three days.  I can't wait to get a photo of it on Steven's head!  And yes Alpaca lovers, this is the second time I have felted with this fiber.  It is very fuzzy! great for the band that gets to replace a furry fox band!

Doggie Sweaters

Those of you who follow me on Facebook, will know this past Summer we got a dog.  He is a rescue, from South Carolina.  I assume he will be chilly as the New England colder months set in.  This morning it was 32 degrees so we bundled up.  Yes I knit him a Dog Sweater.  And it has a cute hood on it.  Buddy puts up with it, but after a long walk he literally shakes it off.  He is a 20ish pound Terrier mix, and after 4 months of working on routines a bit of training, and then remembering that I need to still train (him and me), he still needs more.  He is soooo happy, he gets so excited when he plays, he sleeps hard, pretty much starts falling asleep around 730 or 8 pm, and if our laps are available he will snooze there.  So we went to Six Loose Ladies, and picked up 4 skeins of Mt Ascutney View Farm yarn.  It is a dense wool, very reasonable, especially for a doggie sweater!  He looks so cute, I am happy to be walking the already cutest dog in town, now even cuter because of his sweater!!

To-Do List #2 & #3

Did I mention that I have weekends back again?  And when one is motivated, how much one can actually get done over a weekend?  

#2

I have had this bolt of turquoise fabric I won as a final contestant in the Norwalk Sofa Design Contest two years ago!  Wow yes, that was two years ago when I met Candice Olson.  So I finally made something of the 8 yards a fabric; a beautiful slipcover (shown here un-hemmed and missing a couple of little zips), for Buddy's chair in the kitchen.  The throw on it's arm is from last year's Threshold Collection of home decor at Target, and my inspiration point of colors to pull together for the porch and kitchen colors, the wall color - a coral rose - while looks OK needs repainting and will become more of a cantaloupe color, the two back pillows are my OLD Festive Fibers products, KNIT pillows, which frame a beautiful pillow I have had on my Etsy shop.  That felt piece for the pillow front was actually a demo felt I did during a class at NEFS.

#3
Studio chairs:  I have owned these funky wooden dinette chairs since I was in college.  I bought the set at a HUGE Salvation Army in Queens NY.  The furniture part was like a 3 floor warehouse - amazing.  They have been my kitchen chairs in many lives - 93rd St., Edison, and now Alstead.  Whenever the mood struck I changed the fabric slip seats, and about 15 years ago they were relegated to being my studio chairs.  I have never painted them, until now.   I have a great color scheme in mind for my studio redo (another # on the To-Do List), and I had this pile of samples which I cut and sewed into patchwork.

 

Here are the chairs, either trash or re-cycle?...

Very cool, as this is the first time I ever noticed the inventory dates on the bottoms, all starting at 1958-1960, and believe me they had at lease 6 layers of slipseat covers, one stapled right over the last.  Not any more, that old stuff removed completely and then a coat of fresh coral paint and some spray polyeurethane, can you say...

 Fabulous!

 

What do you think?

To-Do Lists

Wow the last post date was a long time ago!  Well a lot of life has certainly been happening, good things all, but it has made my posting time fall to the way side.  So no more time to spare, in the next couple of weeks I will catch you up with all the things I am finally catching up to!

 Do we all have To-Do Lists?  The Oxford Dictionary says:

Definition of to-do list in English

to-do list

Syllabification: (to-do list)

noun
a list of tasks that need to be completed, typically organized in order of priority

I tend to agree with this definition,  especially the part about organized in order of priority.  It is a beautiful thing when we are flexible enough to reorganize these lists without too much internal angst.  So as I have begun to chip away at my to-do list it really is not in any particular order, but boy oh boy, is the sense of checking something off exhilarating!  Bam! You're done!  In second grade, Mrs Ceretto gave us gold stars for doing the things we were supposed to do.  In my niece's first grade class they get a certain colored card at the end of each day based on a day well done (behaved, homework done etc) or not so well done; green, yellow and red.

So one of the few things on my list has been to make a new hat band for a dear art friend, Steven Summerville of Virginia's Dream Pottery. (if you visit his facebook page you will see why we love each other!)  Well, more than a year ago, Steven asked me if I could make a new band for a favorite hat.  His doggie chowed on the original a fox fur.  The hat being a favorite he wondered if I  might I use fiber from his beloved alpaca Kaboodle, who had passed away the year before.  I said "Steven, I would love to do this for you as long as you are not in a rush, as my life is so full."  No problem Nicole no problem...well sadly I missed last year's cold winter season, and darn-it I refuse to miss this year.  While we had a couple of chilly mornings here in NH, I know it is still on the warm side in Bumpass Virginia!  So Steven, here it comes.  

Here are a few pictures of the band being laid out, I will felt it probably tomorrow, and will then attach it to the cap style hat.  I hope it comes out like it looks in my head... I want to stuff it as I attach it so it has some depth and roundness, as it is replacing a fluffy foxy fur, so I want to keep that silhouette.  Steven, as you can see you have Buddy's approval! (By the way, this is the first time he has been with me when I lay out fiber in the studio, he was very very interested in what that fuzzy stuff was, sticking his head into my bins I had on the floor, where as his usual position he takes in the studio is upside down sleeping on a chair) I will felt this in the next day or so, and then attach the band to the hat, I hope just in time for the real cold that comes this time of year!

I will post a couple of more pictures as the hat finishes.