Sunday, August 7, 2011

Squares for Cheongju Avenue of Trees---Calling all knitters and crocheters...

One of my fellow bloggers My Fair Isle has under taken on a HUGE project.... Cheongju Avenue of Trees....the project can all be found on Ravelry here is the Cheongju link for those of you who are members there. 

Here is the pattern or you can do any version of a 20 in by 20 inch square knit or crochet....a wonderful way to use up all those left overs. The guidelines for making squares are simple: each square should be one colour only and be 50 cm/20 inches in size. Otherwise, the squares can be knit or crocheted in any stitch or yarn.

The Avenue of Trees, being created by artist, Robyn Love, as part of the 2011 Cheongju Biennale in Cheongju, Korea.
The goal is to create 1500 squares that will be installed along 5km of roadway that will lead visitors to the Biennale event (Sept 22 - Oct. 30, 2011).
My first square is knit.....but I am switching to a granny square  for the next one.....1500 is alot of squares and 20 x 20 in is a LARGE square!!! 
Good luck to Robyn!!!

Monday, August 1, 2011

Mothers and Wool......

Today I am moving into my STUDIO!  A big job sorting all the wool from all my stashes. 
My organized stash..
I uncoverd unfinished projects that are now in a pile and not getting put away but are going on the to do list. A pair of socks half done :-), a scarf, a neck warmer, an afghan, two ponchos needing to be sewn and fringes added and a cross stitch of my dog "Jazz" who is at Rainbow Bridge for five years now.  Plus the current Rug Hooking I am working on and the Shawl I am knitting.  Not alot of unfinished really ( I console myself) compared to all the completed projects I have :-)

As I am sorting through I find my mothers knitting bag with all her needles and patterns. Mom passed away five years ago and I just couldn't look through her stuff. Mom , Myrtle Eileen Hiscock Stacey from Winterton, Trinity Bay Newfoundland was a wonderful knitter. In her wool bags there are all kinds of wool treasures that she had put together for projects.  Four balls of beautiful wool with a price tag of .25 cents each!!!  I paused to wonder what she was going to make with that and how long she had them...and I feel the need to create something with it.  I know the right idea will come.  Patterns that she wrote down by hand...I'll knit some of them to see what they are...no titles on them.  Mom taught me something today ---One neat trick she had for part used balls of wool was to tie all the same kinds together and she had one label of the type of wool tied on the string with it....no wondering now what the type wool is or care instructions...neat trick.
Myrtles Needle and Pattern Bag


I also found one of my Mother in Laws sweaters that she knit for herself and wore all the time fine wool in a beautiful pink. She passed away 26 years ago a young woman.  The sweater is thirty years old.  I washed it and its perfect.  My mother in law Beryl Rideout Flood from Grand Falls always had the needles clicking.  Beryl  had her comfy chair with her knitting near at hand and her gold colored swag lamp hanging over her shoulder.  When you went in no matter what time of day you would find her working on a pattern and she would lean out of her chair to see who was visiting. Beryl could knit anything!! In the summer she had a fly tent that she sat outside in and knit.  With a family of ten children who were busy having their own families Beryl was never short of a project to work on!  I still have the Christening Dress and Jacket both full lenght that she know 34 years ago for my first son and was used at both my sons christenings. Her daughters have her pattern books and needles.

Beryls Sweater


Today I feel these items have a home....Moms bag is hanging on my shelf and Beryls sweater has a place there as well.

Heres a pic of my studio.....I read on someones blog the other day about not living long enough to use the amount of wool that you have in your stash....I think my wool and some of Mom's will get passed on to some other crafter.