Be My Valentine thru Feb 14, 2011. Visit the Ravelry store and enter coupon code
bemine
at checkout to get 14% off any of these specially selected heart-themed e-patterns:
Tell your friends (they’ll love you for it). Gift someone (they’ll love you even more for it!).
For the blog category “Friends of HeartStrings Gallery”, I’d planned to set aside one day each week to feature someone else’s creative talents. You might have noticed that over the last few weeks. (See “Joy Cyr’s Beaded Winter Wonderland Socks“, “Layering against the cold”, and “Priceless because they just grow up too fast”.) My original intent was that it would be someone who had used a HeartStrings pattern as inspiration or a jumping off place in their own creations. This week’s talent deviates from that a bit, but still deserves a “heart” place in the HeartStrings Gallery. This week I proudly present my sister Carolyn and the Hearts Quilt which she made from her original design.
I have two sisters and they both are the best in the world. You might remember last week that we were getting together. (See “A small(-er) family reunion“.) We had such a good time, but as always, much too short. My sister Carolyn brought a quilt to show us. She had recently made and entered into a prestigious competition. You know how I love hearts, anyway. But this quilt is even more special than just that, because I am so proud of my sister for making it her original design. And she got a blue-ribbon in the competition, too!
Here were some quick, candid photo shots I took of Carolyn holding her quilt. She told us how surprised she was that her quilt earned the first place blue ribbon, as there was fierce competition with more elaborately designed quilts. I expect that the simplicity and superb execution of Carolyn’s work had won the judges’ hearts. 🙂
As always, photographs don’t really do it justice, and obviously the informal setting did not contribute very good lighting either. But I think that you can get a sense of appreciation for it if you know anything about quilting. And even if you don’t, I think it will win your heart, too.
The votes are in for the “What Kind of Project Are You?” survey. Hot off the tally sheet, here are the results. As a reminder, you can see the just-for-fun project definitions that were posted earlier this month. For easy reference while taking the survey, the definitions were also included within the survey itself.
This graph shows the relative number of project personas reported by 307 survey respondents. I intentionally asked that only one project persona be chosen, which even for me was very difficult. This survey was just intended to be a fun exercise to reflect on our passion and motivation(s) for knitting.
As you can see, The Gifter took the lead, with The Long Distance Runner and The Day Dreamer coming in as close second places.
I also allowed for additional open-ended responses in the survey. I think you will enjoy reading these survey comments that I posted on a page at my HeartStrings FiberArts website.
By the way, if you are a stickler for details, you likely will see that the percentages and response counts on the enlarged graph do not quite add up to 100%. That is because about 4 people just left comments. They probably just couldn’t decide on one answer!
Thank you so much for everyone’s participation. It was fun for me, and I hope it was for you, too.
p.s. There were also a few comments that were posted with the original survey announcement on this blog. You are welcome to add any additional comments there or here, especially if you missed the official survey.
Here is a nifty little gadget if you are in the market for a new tape measure to take easier, more accurate and consistent body measurements. It is the Myotape Body Tape Measure.
I’ve sometimes found myself having trouble taking my own body measurements. For example, how loose or tight to pull? Or trouble holding the tape while attempting to take a reading at the same time?
This tape is spring-loaded and retracts into the handle when not in use.
The handle is well-shaped to grab onto, which I normally would do, except that in this photo my other hand is holding the camera, lol.
To use, just pull the tape out the handle like a normal retractable tape. The difference is the little peg on the end. After placing the tape around the thing to be measured, slip the peg into the indention on the opposite side of the handle from where the tape pulls out. Do you see that in the photo?
Depending on what you are measuring, you can either make a loop beforehand or pull the loose end around the part to be measured. Then slip the peg into the indentation. The nice thing is that you can keep the tape loose while you get it in place.
Then de-press the button on top of the handle to snug up the tape. The spring-loaded mechanism self-adjusts to a consistent tautness. No more guessing about how loose or tight (and no more cheating!).
You only need to hold with one hand because the unit has connected into its closed loop. It’s easy to read the total measurement at the side where the tape pulls out. I usually release the peg and read off the number rather than attempting to read the number while it is still around my body. Then depress the button on top of the handle again to release the spring and retract the tape into the handle until the next time it is needed.
By the way, there is 1.75″ built into the total measurement. This is to account for the distance between the sides of the handle where the tape pulls out and where the peg inserts. Thus, this tape cannot measure something much less than a wrist or ankle. For example, it could not be used to measure around a finger or toe. But then, that is not something you or I are probably doing very often.
Here’s example of where I am taking a wrist measurement. For this, I simply had made a loop with the Myotape beforehand that was large enough to slip my hand through. Then depressed the button on the handle with my other hand. In this case it is easy to see what the total measurement reading is. But if the reading were not easy to see while the tape was still in place, I would just slip the peg out of its indentation and move the tape to where I could see. Of course, you don’t want to depress the button to retract the tape until you have your reading.
So that’s the Myotape Body Tape Measure. I could have lived without it (I have plenty of other measuring tapes), but now that I have it I find it indispensable for consistently accurate body measurements.
After having experienced a well-produced audio book like The Help, I am convinced that sometimes we rely too much on the imagery that TV shows and movies place before us.
I had never really been a fan of audio books before this — I just didn’t seem to be able to get into them. In talking to an acquaintance who is a fan of audio books, she was amazed that I would not like audio books. She asked me why and I told her. Then she countered with “you just haven’t found the good ones”. The Help was at the top of her list for me to try. I had already had good reviews from other family members who had read the print book, but I had just not gotten around to it.
I checked with my local library for The Help audio book and was able to get it after a short wait. The audio edition is an unabridged huge set of 15 CD’s … that’s a lot of listening time. Yikes – 15 CD’s – what had I gotten myself into? And then as I set aside some time each day with my knitting and listened to a CD, I started getting so interested that I was not looking forward to reaching the 15th CD!
This audio book was very well done. I particularly liked that different people took on the different characters in the book. I thought this was much better than just hearing the same narrator speaking throughout the story (however, they try to imitate different tonal inflections or fake accents, it always sounds like they are the same person to me and I sort of zone out). I began to be so involved in The Help story, I could just ‘see’ the characters and felt I was living in that time. It was better than any TV or movie production could be, because it was my own personal production of imagery in my mind’s eye.
I sort of felt like my parents must have felt when listening to weekly ‘shows’ on the radio. Do you remember “The Lone Ranger” on radio (ok, I know I am giving away my age). My first recollections of that as a very young child was hearing the clip-clop of horses hooves simulated over the air waves while my parents washed and dried the dishes after suppertime. Of course, it was later turned into a TV show. I guess that is progress.
If you haven’t read The Help yet, I recommend this audio version very much. And even if you have already read the book, I am guessing that you might enjoy this audio version as well.
p.s. Some of you might be wondering about the little heart doily that partially shows in the middle photo. I knitted this doily from “Valentine” Design on pages 61 -62 of Marianne Kinzel’s First Book of Modern Lace Knitting. I made the small doily version on size US 2 needles using some red linen from my stash. The doily is sandwiched between 2 rounds of plexiglas and stands vertically in a holder.