It’s been about five months since I last posted in this blog. Summer’s long days of warmth and light, the excitement of the birth of a new grandson in the early fall, then the coming of the holidays, lured me away from blogging. With the turn of the New Year, I’m feeling like it may be time to dust off my blog and write again. I want to start by reviewing my goals for last year, and thinking about what I’m hoping for from 2015.
2014 Goals
Last January I wrote of goals I’d envisioned when I retired six months previously, which I summarized as focusing on home, health, family, connecting, and making things, and I shared photos of projects I hoped to get to in 2014. Here’s a brief summary of my progress on those projects:
Sewing Workshop patterns – I made the “Hudson” pants and top, the pants in a black poplin and the top in a cranberry polyester. It was gratifying to be sewing clothes again. However, I was somewhat dissatisfied with the fit and styling of both pieces -- should have chosen fabrics with more stretch and more drape for these pieces -- and wound up donating both of them to the local Goodwill. I hope they found a good home.
Printed apron fabric – I made up the Country Apron. The other apron fabric is still sitting in one of my fabric bins.
Collection of small, Japanese-themed squares to be made into a small quilt – The whereabouts of these squares is a mystery. I misplaced them somehow shortly after writing the post. Very disappointing, especially after seeing a beautiful Japenese-themed quilt at a quilt show in Downtown Charlottesville this past December that brought my missing squares back to mind. I haven’t quite given up hope that I’ll stumble upon them in some unexpected location some day.
Collection of small, Japanese-themed squares to be made into a small quilt – The whereabouts of these squares is a mystery. I misplaced them somehow shortly after writing the post. Very disappointing, especially after seeing a beautiful Japenese-themed quilt at a quilt show in Downtown Charlottesville this past December that brought my missing squares back to mind. I haven’t quite given up hope that I’ll stumble upon them in some unexpected location some day.
Stamped hand towels and pillowcases – For Christmas, I gave a completed embroidered pillow case to one of my daughters-in-law and two completed bluebird embroidered hand towels to my other daughter-in-law. Another pillowcase is in progress.
Quilt tops – I quilted both of the quilt tops over the summer. By hand, sitting on our screen porch, enjoying summer breezes and summer birdsong.
The pieced triangles quilt has been on our bed since I finished it.
I gave the 60s patchwork square quilt (shown above before quilting) to our daughter and son-in-law for Christmas. Our grandson seems to like it too.
Knitted hat – I knit this hat, using the Aesderina pattern by Jane Richmond that I purchased on ravelry.com, in the lovely blue and green yarn that I'd bought in November 2013 from Close Knit in Evanston. I gave it to our daughter for Christmas.
Other projects in 2014
It’s fun to notice that in addition to my wish list of 2014 projects, I did a bunch of others. In fact, among the joys I guess of making things are the continual opportunities and ideas that arise over the course of the year, and the pleasures of responding to those nudges and notions. Here are highlights.
Things for Grandbaby
Learning in 2014 that we would have a new grandchild in the fall led to several new project opportunities. First off, I wanted to make a baby blanket for the expectant parents. I settled on a Leisure Arts pattern featuring small granny squares around a large central crocheted block.
Then, I wanted to do some soft stuffed animals for the little one. I was inspired by the menagerie of circus animals my Grandmother Wolinski had sewn for my brother Bob one Christmas in the mid 50s. There was a wonderful wooden circus wagon too, with a top and cage-like slats, painted red with colorful decals, that Grandpa Wolinski made for the animals, that Bob could pull them in.
As it happened, the wagon was large enough to hold a small child. Like our younger brother Dan, born the following summer….
So, inspired by warm memories, I wanted to make some stuffed animals for the coming grandbaby. I used the patterns in Zoo Animal Friends, an Annie’s pattern book, to knit six creatures – an elephant, a zebra, a monkey, a lion, a koala with baby koala and a kangaroo, with baby in pouch.
I also used the basic animal body pattern to design and make a baby boy doll to accompany the animals.
My sister Mary offered to help with this project, and knitted a polar bear and a panda. I made a large drawstring bag to hold the animals in. We gave this menagerie to the expectant parents at their baby shower.
I also crocheted the components of a rainbow themed mobile for the baby’s room. Our daughter had seen the mobile online, and put it together once crocheted. She painted the rainbow-themed picture in the background.
Other knitting
For Christmas, I knit a long camel colored scarf in a soft wool for our son-in-law,
a scarf in variegated white and lavender for our niece Shelby,
and a cowl in a lacy pattern for our granddaughter Sydney. It was a delightful surprise on Christmas to find that Sydney had knit a scarf for me, in a warm winter pattern perfect for the cold temps that the new year has brought us.
Other sewing
As mentioned in a May post, for Easter I made a shirt for Alex's son (our now eleven year old grandson.)
Amigurumi
For Christmas this year, I crocheted a lot of amigurumi - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amigurumi - a word I had never heard until stumbling on a delightful Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pattern online. I started by making turtles for my brother Jim’s two youngest sons, and my sister Sharon’s youngest. Then my daughter suggested that our son Daniel was a Ninja Turtle fan and would like one as well – since, as she told me, appreciation for amigurumi was shared by adults as well as children. So I wound up making four of them.
After doing the turtles, I thought our son Alex might like a Link, recalling that several decades ago he’d been a Zelda fan. I found a pattern I liked, but it wound up being larger than I had anticipated, so I did a smaller one as well.
Lara helped brainstorm amigurumi ideas and patterns then for our son Edward and our eleven year old grandson -- Gandalfs --
for my brother Jim’s oldest son -- Harry Potter --
and for my brother Dan’s daughter -- Elsa.
Gardening
Our vegetable garden in 2014 turned out really well. The eight foot fence and raised beds that Gary built, which I mentioned briefly in my post of April 9 last year, and Gary has wrote about several times in his blog at http://www.garymawyer.com , made a huge impact. We literally harvested a couple of hundred pounds of produce. Much of it we ate or shared through the summer – from our first harvest in late June into October. Some I froze.
One of my special hopes for our garden was to grow some good pumpkins. We wound up growing, and eating, 15 small sweet pumpkins, and two quite large Halloween ones. And this winter we are growing some modest winter crops – kale, collards, cabbage – which we had never tried doing before.
Exercise
As I wrote about in a February post last year, I’ve been going to the ACAC gym regularly 3 to 4 times a week for a good while. In the first half of 2014 I began attending a weekly Egoscue class that I found invigorating and healthful. This summer, with some trepidation, I tried a NIA class. https://nianow.com/practice And I’ve been doing NIA now twice a week ever since. I love the combination of cardio, strength, music and dance. And I love the community that forms itself among others practicing NIA, and the mindfulness that is part of its practice.
I've also done some delightful hikes on the Monticello trail (http://www.monticello.org/site/visit/trails-and-boardwalk) with Gary, and with my sister Mary and her daughter Jessie. It's a good 4+ miles on graveled path and boardwalk, immersed in fragrant forest foliage, with occasional views of Charlottesville and the Southwest Mountains, culminating at the Monticello Visitor's Center. There are also side trails that take one into the woods. A good workout.
I've also done some delightful hikes on the Monticello trail (http://www.monticello.org/site/visit/trails-and-boardwalk) with Gary, and with my sister Mary and her daughter Jessie. It's a good 4+ miles on graveled path and boardwalk, immersed in fragrant forest foliage, with occasional views of Charlottesville and the Southwest Mountains, culminating at the Monticello Visitor's Center. There are also side trails that take one into the woods. A good workout.
Playing with Grandbaby
Since our grandson’s birth in October, I’ve had the chance to spend time with him (and his parents) both here and at his place. It’s hard to be several hours away from him, yet we're not so far that travel is completely impractical. It had been a long time since I’d last held an infant. What a joy to hold him, to sing to him, to see him changing from month to month.
Goals for 2015
In my next post I think I’ll touch on goals for 2015. With Gary retiring from full-time employment at the end of this month, I am looking forward to seeing what this new year will bring.