The Neverending Quilt (Part I)

I've decided not to work today. Okay, my boss decided that. Because it's cold outside.



It's cold enough to freeze your beard just by breathing.
My Midwest friends are saying, "Yeah, so?" My New Mexico friends are saying, "Holy crap! Frozen beard!" This may be in part because last week, we were wearing t-shirts outside. Thanks for catching up with the rest of this hemisphere, New Mexico. It's winter.
Really, the wind chill this morning was -27, so I decided to stay in today. After going to the chiropractor. And the bank, and the grocery store. And to take out the recycling. Okay, so now I'm really not going outside again.
Instead, I'm working on this.


It's one of five bajillion quilt squares I need to make. (Actually, it's #18 out of 45.) I've been working on this damn thing since last spring. As you can imagine, quilt squares have the potential to get boring. So I tend to project-jump.
If you don't do any crafting, it's possible you don't know what I'm talking about. Let me show you my knitting corner.
The wooden thing on the left is the sewing cabinet my great-grandpa made, inherited from my aunt Linda. Underneath it is a plastic bag full of alpaca yarn goodness. The bright blue yarn next to it (which is actually purple) is for half-finished ear warmers. Then we see a hot glue gun, used for wedding favors, and leftover invitations.

Immediately right of the sewing cabinet is the pile of yarn I'm using for the Neverending Quilt (Caron Simply Soft, for those interested - yes, it's acrylic, but it's cheap, and this is a summer quilt). Beneath that stack are several skeins of yarn for The Sweater the Universe Denied (don't worry, if you don't know that story, I'll share it soon enough).

On top of that stack is a Finished Project - a scarf with no destination, at least yet.On the far right is my stash box. (My stash is also all up in the sewing cabinet's biznass.) On top of that, we at last see 17 of the 45 squares I'll be using in the Neverending Quilt.

But wait: there's more. You may also notice something silvery sticking out of the middle, and a deflated skein of pink stuff as the crowning glory. The pink stuff needs to be balled up - haven't gotten to it yet. The silver stuff is uber-tiny and gets knotted really easily. Before I can thread it through any other project, I have to roll that into a ball, too. It's in a skein. It's already tangled. I don't know where to start.

And so it sits there. Waiting for the day when it will shine in some lovely completed project. Just like almost everything else in that picture. Did you see how many completed projects were in it? ONE. And I'm less than halfway through the quilt.

The Neverending Quilt isn't even my focal project. I happen to not have one of those right now. But my niece's birthday is coming up, which means a hat. Then Mom's German Teacher has a birthday, which means... I don't know. Gloves? A pillow? Then my mother-in-law's birthday, which means some other project.

That's why it's called the Neverending Quilt.

The Neverending Quilt, Part II

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sally Anns and a Can of Spam

Image
Sally Anns are one of my favorite cookies. By their taste alone, they evoke a sense of home and comfort, reminding me of the kitchen at my grandparents' place and the simple happiness of mid-afternoon sweets. They're the only food that evokes the thought, This would be better with a cup of coffee. Making them was a good Easter activity, especially as I was stuck away from the family due to unpacking (the books are now free!) and yard work shenanigans (such as finding a dead mouse in the yard, which was lovely). With help from my mom, I found the recipe in the family cookbook (my great-great-grandparents are on the cover, and other awesome old pictures are scattered throughout). I decided that the transgression of buying a can of Spam (just once) was worth it for the sake of the cookies. Poke holes in the bottom of the can to allow for air flow. I didn't have enough butter for a full batch, but half of one made 18 Cookies of Unusual Size. I made the mistake of
Read more

The Beatles' Help! Scarf

Image
Remember when I posted about making Beatles-themed crafts after seeing Cirque du Soleil's performance of Love? I've finished the first one. Here's a refresher of the original Help! scarf. Source And here's my version: a massive thing that I gave my sister for her birthday. In these shots, it's wrapped around her neck twice. I didn't measure the beast before I sent it to its new home, but it's probably about 8 feet long. Made with Caron yarn on size 8 needles, this tube scarf was 40 stitches in the round. Each block of color is 20 rows. The only tricky parts are getting a smooth transition between colors and what to do with the yarn ends inside the tube, but they are easy problems to solve. When you transitioning, knit a normal row with the new color, then pull tight the last stitch of the previous color. That last stitch shouldn't disappear entirely, but it will be close, and your problem will be solved. Then, because this scarf
Read more

Data in Social Science

The science aspect of social science work is central to improving social systems. Data inform whether we are moving in the right direction or need to adjust our course. However, data and science must not be the center of our work; we must keep focus on children, families, and individuals, whose experiences are nuanced and filtered through systems that hold innate bias, which rests within the data . By maintaining awareness of these biases and their potential, we can keep people at the center of our work and focus on the true causes of injustice and pain that many families deal with. Lack of awareness can be a slippery slope to believing that individuals or families are themselves at fault for their situations, be it lack of housing, interpersonal violence, or other abuse. With data that are conscious of systemic issues and biases, we can examine the true issues at hand, such as racism , financial instability, and ableist policies.  What good are any manner of properly applied scientifi
Read more