Suzann’s Textilefusion

Professor Wolfgang Michael was an expert on Reformation-era German theater. He taught at The University of Texas at Austin, where he also directed German language plays. I acted in several of his plays in the early 1980s. It was fun!

Dr. Michael wore Birkenstock sandals. No surprise there. He was a Bohemian academic. If he hadn’t worn them, we might have been concerned.

My friend Sheryl from Dallas is a professional in the world of finance and a great knitter. During a visit to Dallas in the early 1990s, I was truly surprised to see Sheryl wearing Birkenstock sandals. She said something like, “If I’m going to knit socks, I want to show them off!”

That sounded like a perfectly good reason to me.

Since this is to be my year for knitting socks, I asked for some Birkenstocks last Christmas. I like them a lot. Here are my Christmas sandals and my newly-finished socks. The yarn is Patons Stretch Socks (41% cotton, 39% wool, 13% nylon, 7% elastic) in colorway “Sugar.”

More socks are on the needles.

When was the last time I was able to sit at my desk long enough to write a blog post? Hmmm, looks like it was late November.

We’ve done a lot since then! We did our usual December things, like school parties, a quilting ladies’ party, a band concert, and preparing for Christmas. And we also caulked and painted the inside of an entire house, organized lots of repairs and improvements on it, and filled it with furniture and other things one needs to live there. Unfortunately, it wasn’t our new earthen house, but it looks great anyway and it deserves its very own blog post.

So here I sit at my desk, finally, and what do I see, but a pair of lovely earrings I bought at the Quilt Festival.

Meg Hannan of Rag Sky Art Studio in Seattle made them with fiber millefiori. It’s the same idea as glass or polymer clay millefiori. For her earrings and pendants, she makes a roll of different color fabrics, fiber, and beads, soaked with liquid glue. When glue sets, she cuts the roll in cross-section to reveal designs that look like tiny, colorful fantasy worlds.

I’m planning a pinkish and salmon-colored sweater that will look great with these earrings.

Dusty’s Antique Linens and Buttons had baskets and baskets of vintage buttons that would have taken two hours to look at properly. For some reason the orange button collection beckoned—possibly because I’m planning a sweater in orange with teal, green, and other rich colors. These swirly fabulosities were cabochons from the 1970s or so, which were converted into shank buttons.

I have a sweater of moss greens on the drawing board as well. Thank goodness I already have a great selection of green Gail Hughes buttons and buttons from a previous visit to Dusty’s to choose from.

Looks like a busy knitting year ahead!

Thanks to Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, when I finally had time to knit some socks, I didn’t need a pattern! At least 20 years ago, she taught a sock workshop in Central Texas, where we learned to knit socks from the toe up, trying them on as we went.

Once you have enough stitches to fit around your foot, work even to your anklebone. Knit one-half round with a waste yarn, where you’ll come back later to add the heel. Knit a few rows plain, then make the ribbing as long as you want.

When my k2p2 rib was long enough, I made a stretchy, scalloped bind-off like this:

1. k2tog,
2. *(yo, bind off one st) 5 times to form a little chain scallop,
3. p2tog, bind off one stitch,
4. (yo, bind off one st) 5 times, k2tog.
5. Rep from * until all the ribbing stitches are gone.
6. End with (yo, bind off one st) 5 times, cut yarn, stretch the last st until the yarn end comes out. Stitch the last st to the first st of rnd. Weave in end.

Sugar Sock the Second is about 1/3 finished. Hurray! I love hand-knit socks!

Nautical flags are happy and colorful, and I just love them. But not only that, they actually spell stuff! I mean that each flag represents a letter of the alphabet.

In Polymer Clay for Everyone (my first book—oh yes, I love polymer clay, too), nautical flags decorate the top of a marine trinket box (pages 70-71). And guess what!? They spell T-R-I-N-K-E-T-S.

Next time you are near a Long John Silver’s restaurant, look for nautical flags that spell:

E-A-T H-E-R-E

Imagine that. “Eat” is on the tall sign, and “here” is split in half on the long sign across the front of the building.

When Eva and I were at Disney World with her schoolmates several years ago, we saw this float in a parade. It spells D-U-C-K. (The K is hidden in shadow at the bottom left-hand corner.) Whose float could that have been?

Someday I’m going to knit nautical flags into an afghan. Shouldn’t be too difficult. Garter stitch, I think. Then it will be up to you to unravel the hidden meaning.

P. S. The flags at the Krusty Krab restaurant in SpongeBob Squarepants cartoons don’t spell anything. They’re made up versions of nautical flags. Yay! It fits in with the theme of being able to have a campfire underwater!

We’ve all made friends online. Every now and then, on a very happy day, we get to meet one of them in person!

Years ago, I joined a Yahoo group of knitters. Among them was Nana Sadie Rose. At the time she was knitting lace things and learning the wonders of the lace lifeline. She also designed and sewed the most lovely and useful tote bags and project bags.

Naturally, because Nana Sadie Rose herself knits, her bags are especially good for knitters and crocheters. She makes them in various sizes for different kinds of projects and she makes sure they have plenty of pockets for tools and needles and such.

I have wanted one of those bags for a long, long time. Finally, at the Knit & Crochet Show in September, my wish came true! Nana Sadie Rose was there in person selling all kinds of bags. One of them had a button custom-made by…me!

The best part of it all was that I met Nana Sadie Rose, in person, finally. She is as lovely as her name.

On her website, http://www.nanasadierose.com, she lists the shows where she has a booth. You can also order online from her stock OR she will make a special bag with fabrics that you choose from her online fabric partners. Oh, my gosh. You’ll be sighing over all the beautiful fabric choices for hours.

My owl bag (Posy style) was the cutest in the whole booth (except for the skeleton bag, perhaps). Currently, it has socks-in-progress inside.

After two years and two months in the making, my brown seveness cardigan is finished! (Actually I thought it was longer than that. Thank goodness for blog archives as a memory aid.)

Here’s the best part: our weather was cold enough yesterday to wear it! It is very cozy.

I had eight of Gail Hughes’s lovely buttons, but only seven buttonholes. I felt sad for the eighth button. It would be lonely in a drawer, away from its siblings. So I sewed it to the button band, too. All better!

Gail Hughes will be selling her gorgeous buttons at the Quilt Festival, November 2 (preview night) through November 6, in Houston, Texas. She designs and manufactures them herself in the United States. Hurray!

In case you’ve missed my previous posts about Gail’s buttons, let me gush about them some more. They’re colorful. They’re all shapes and sizes. Whether you love texture, multi-colors, or sparkles, you’ll find something to please you in Gail’s booth. I love the shiny buttons, and the ones that glow from within a matte finish and look like delicious candy.

My pink with green polka dotted flower buttons by Gail would be right at home in a Dr. Seuss book. Her crisply sculptural buttons will send your mind back to the Art Deco era and Bakelite.

A primitive human need to own beautiful objects drives me to buy Gail’s buttons. I’ve bought for a cardigan awaiting closure. Other times I design a project around the buttons.

Experience the thrill of Gail Hughes Art Buttons at Quilt Festival next month!

Early Friday morning I made my way to the button classroom to finish baking buttons we made the day before. As the start of class came closer, familiar faces and new faces greeted me for Polymer Clay Button Boutique 2.

At nine o’clock, Jane, Susan, Mary, Diane, Mira, Rae, Ingrid, Charles, Joyce, Willett, June, Barb, Mary, Judy, and Camilla got busy mixing colors for faux turquoise buttons. We grated clay, applied paint to the grated shreds, cut, twisted, and squished the clay. We worked hard all day. The piles of buttons grew and grew. There was lots of talking and laughing.

By the end of the day, we finished the turquoise buttons, made twisty mica-shift buttons, flower millefiori buttons, and mosaic buttons. I had to take them back to my room to finish baking. Find lots more photos from our button classes here.

One of the great things about teaching is that I learn from the people in my classes. They try things I’ve never thought of, like this new way to do millefiori flower buttons by Judy and Charles.

The fall Knit & Crochet Show in Greensboro was SO MUCH FUN! If you’ve never been to a knitting and crochet convention, you should go at least once to experience the amazing feeling of being around so many fellow yarn lovers. It will make your day, your week, your year!

Thursday morning at nine, we started our Polymer Clay Button Boutique class by making fake lapis buttons, courtesy of Sue Heaser’s recipe. Her book, The Polymer Clay Techniques Book, is the best. I recommend it.

By the end of the day, we were exhausted but happy. Everyone had piles of buttons, and we had a backlog next to the oven, waiting to be baked. Next time I’m bringing two toaster ovens.

Many, many of the buttons we made in class are on Flickr. I hope you’ll go and see them. They’re gorgeous!

Sweetness

Eva’s friend Vanesa turned 15 this summer. Eva went to her Quinceañera and had a wonderful time.

This totally sweet little crocheted dress pin was a party favor. Eva said there were also crocheted hat and fan party favors.

I’ll bet a lot of Vanesa’s lady relatives got together and had a crochet party-favor party!

Sweetness and Foolishness

Ella is making a quilt from 5-inch wide patches cut from our large collection of scraps. She sewed pairs of patches into a long garland. Look at her at the sewing machine—sweetness!

Naturally, she had to wear the patch garland. Hmmm…foolishness.

Foolishness

On the subject of earthen house building, I bought a cookie press in hopes of squeezing mud mortar into narrow openings between bricks that somehow didn’t quite get enough mud between them.

Eva was going to take care of that job for me. She chose the star-shaped cookie attachment, thinking it would work well for remedial mortar work.

Eva practiced first, making sure she had the correct consistency of mud slurry to do the job. Wait a minute?! What job were we talking about here?

Well, I thought we were talking about filling in between bricks with mud mortar. Eva, on the other hand, felt certain that she was supposed to make large families of cute little star-shaped mud cookies. When they were fresh, they looked like yummy milk chocolate candies. But now that they’re dry, we can’t get them off the cookie sheet.