Sunday, September 20, 2009
Eye Staining on White Dogs: Using Systane Eye Drops
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Faux Pearls, Satin Ribbon and Lace Bible for Brides
Aunt Mary George made me this Bible cover back in the 60's when I married my children's father. As you can see, I could not bear to discard it. Perhaps it can be repurposed for another wedding years later, if the bride cares to use it as a "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" sentiment to be carried for the ceremony.
The yellowing of the white lace adds to the vintage look, so perhaps only a touch of new ivory lace is all that will be added for a later bride.
Then again, if the bride and groom trade vows while skydiving or wearing hiking boots on an Australian walkabout adventure, this sentimental touch would be a bit anachronistic.
Maybe I'll just hang on to this vintage decorated Bible as a touch of the past.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
One Big Waa! Magical Thinking Does Not Work when Knitting
Alas, I was 1/3 through with the project before I saw that an extra stitch had been added into a knitting row on the clapotis scarf. This one little extra stitch put a halt to the planned drop stitch row that is purposefully unravelled, actually making the unique design in the shawl.
After having ripped out at least fifty rows of the shawl prior to noticing this big mistake, I was not willing to again do more frogging ... rip, rip. So I took the scissors to that one extra stitch and snipped it, thinking it would magically eliminate the problem. Yes, it was magical thinking, but one can always just click her ruby red slippers and wish hard, believing that the outcome will transpire into the desired result.
But after clipping the stitch, clicking my heels and looking down to see the "fixed" problem, it still remained, with further glitches resulting from the cut yarns. Sigh.
So I took some extra yarn, started weaving and came up with this half-hearted solution at the half way mark on the completion of the clapotis (corrected mistake on lower right side of picture):
Perhaps this is not the best fix, but I did learn to never take scissors to knitted yarn again in hopes of fixing that one added stitch inadvertently put into the pattern. Short of starting all over, do you have another suggestion to make this look better?
I am trying to learn to embrace the beauty of the mistake, and will ensure that the knitting snafu is disguised with a knot when wearing the scarf. Another wabi-sabi under my belt. I must embrace this project in its total harmony and keep this Japanese concept in mind when looking at this little mistake.Another wabi-sabi mistake in felting wool can be found here posted over a year ago.