If You're In the Neighborhood...

Saturday January 31st and Saturday February 7th.
Do drop in, 12-4
email me for directions
Homemade soup and bread
Coffee and Tea
Yippee

Craftastrophe!

My husband is usually not especially excited about knitting, but lately since he's discovered the time-wasting beauty of Stumbling, I've been getting some entertaining links in my in box. The above is my favorite from Craftatastophe: because not all handmade is pretty. Follow the link to read Rat Annabelle's story. Irresistible. Many other delightful and ghastly crafts on this site.

OK one other....Amazing artist Yeondoo Jung brings kids drawings to life....a must see! Now stop stumbling!

This Weeks Inspiration and the Results

It's that joyful kindergarten stitch, short-rowed for a spiral top.

Wooly Country Graffiti

Indeed it happened, not in a big way, but in a cozy-snowy-day-way, the first Yarn Bombing Focus Group: Midcoast Maine Chapter, took place. Nevermind that we all just knit on our own things, and had no agenda. We had soup and homemade bread, looked at magazines and knit.



Maybe this piece, which signaled my driveway, will come along to Rockland for the inauguration party. In it's close-up below, you can see there is a kind of presidential air about it, with gold stripes in the blue, red and white with snow.

Maybe not as ambitious as the South End Knitters piece that Julia of Moth Heaven mentioned... but mine was especially effective in the blizzard on Sunday, when even I couldn't find my own driveway without it.

Have a Big Celebration tomorrow!

Pom Pom Hat

She goes public! Not the most successful color work...it just started getting good at the top, and then my head got to cold and I had to finish it...actually I wore it unfinished for a long while. I feel like a little old lady in it, like I need a tiny worn coin purse that snaps closed.

Tomorrow...my house..yarn bombing, and general knitting...Noon-ish on...

You Probably Know This Already

The daunting tangle of unruly ends...never fear!



Part down the middle, so they are heading in the direction they would head off in ... if they did.

I do one side first, just tucking them in neatly, following themselves.

If you encounter and especially short one, weave in the needle first ...



... and then thread it afterward.




Don't clip the ends too close or they'll pop out the public side.



Ta da!

NOTICE OF COMING ATTRACTION!

This Saturday, January 17th, 2009

12 Noon-ish

KNIT IN at my house!

YARNBOMBING FOCUS GROUP : MIDCOAST MAINE CHAPTER

and just general knitting too, instruction if you need it, or want it. If you're in the neighborhood....

email me for directions maryjaneknits (at) yahoo.com

Ta!

Swatch 'til the Cows Come Home

And then swatch a little more.

Happy Shiny New Year!

Snow Again

There's nothing better than being snug inside on a snowy night.

Feliz Navidad

Little red birdy
Nesting in our Chrismas tree
Family at home

My Aunt, and Her Way of Life

Remember my trip out west this spring? To Idaho where my hardworking, tough little dynamo Aunt Lori lives?

She has no electricity, relies on a generator when needed, which is powered as much as possible from a solar panel.
















She and my late uncle Jay Quilliam are the hardest working people I have ever known. Cattle ranchers, who have always had a flock of sheep. Since my uncle's death 14 years ago, Lori has turned increasingly to her sheep as they are easier for her to handle alone.

Now her way of life is threatened because her property borders state land, Payette National Forest Land, where Bighorn sheep have been re-introduced, or wandered over from Oregon. I'll admit to being unclear about the fine details.

What concerns my aunt is the threat of the Federal Game Department of Idaho, introducing a ban on domestic sheep on lands bordering federal land, to protect the Bighorn sheep from disease. The issue is often made out to be greedy large sheep-running operations vs. a native species, which has a pricey hunting lottery attached to it. A complex issue to be sure. She's one of the little people who get overlooked, who don't have anyone to speak for them. She's not asking to use the federal land for her sheep to graze on, she just wants to make sure she can continue her livelihood on her own land, like she has done for the past 44 years. She loves her home, and would have little if any, income without her sheep.

Lori and I, ask that you please write to:

Payette National Forest

800 West Lakeside
McCall, Idaho, 83683

attention: Big Horn Sheep

or:  http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/payette/

Click "contact"

And help her voice be heard.

And Now A Word From Our Sponsers

These are the colors of Manos that I didn't use. I didn't have enough of any of them...they are the future...the future is in brights! Hold on!

I've been knitting a little something else that goes on it's merry way tomorrow.

Then, I can breathe again.

I'll share some brilliant adventures I've just had when my breath is caught.

–till then

Ciao Bella!