Sunday, October 6, 2019

A full, happy week...

Is was a good week, last.  In addition to cleaning up from a big house project and bringing hubby's study more or less together (there will be pictures someday), I was able to reclaim my "yarn room".   I put "yarn room" in quotation marks because ultimately I really don't want to have a room devoted to yarn, but for the time being that's mainly the purpose it's serving.  

Eventually, I hope I can turn it into a room that reflects my interests and will contain the stuff involved in pursuing those interests (which is far more than just yarn).  I could call it my study, I suppose, but at the moment it's still undeniably...  a yarn room.  But now with plenty of room for sorting and figuring things out.  😊


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A week or so ago a friend asked me if I would teach her young daughter the rudiments of embroidery (this toward her earning an American Heritage Girls badge).   Having plenty of supplies, I went looking for some free designs online for embroidery samplers.  For a very first project I settled on this sweet little beginner Heart Sampler.

Last weekend, after picking out our colors for our respective samplers we all set to work:



My young friend was a very quick study and it was a fun couple of hours of stitching together.  Hopefully, we'll get together soon to finish off what we started, or if she completes her first sampler on her own, maybe we could begin another!  What a pleasure it was to see a little one so engrossed in a new hobby.  She's a natural.  😊


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And then this weekend saw the long-awaited arrival of old friends from Michigan.  On Friday night, we enjoyed catching up, and on Saturday the men went their way and the ladies theirs.  We gals ended up in Indianapolis at the Mass Avenue Knit Shop.   

Over the years since I've become a yarn hoarder collector, I've driven by this shop a number of times - early on I drove right past it because I couldn't find it, and later - after I had a general idea of where it was - it just never seemed to be on my agenda when I was in the area.  So I'd never before stopped and shopped there.  This time it was our mission to find it and check it out.  

While it's a totally unassuming place on the outside (I regret I didn't get a picture), inside it seemed HUGE to me!   I was slightly overwhelmed by the size of the space and the number of people who were there (they were having a weekend retreat), but the owner, Susan I believe is her name, greeted us warmly and explained the layout of the yarns and where to find whatever we might be looking for.  


After wandering around for a while, looking at and squishing yarn, I found what I think might be perfect yarn for making a Doris Shawl (I was gifted the pattern a couple of years ago). 

An employee, Susie, wound my yarn into cakes on this beautiful vertical yarn swift that, I believe she said, is made by a local wood worker.  With her permission I'm posting these pictures:
 
 

What a lovely finished, heirloom-quality swift.  

And my pretty caked yarn:


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Then late Saturday afternoon we girls met all the menfolk for a birthday/retirement celebration dinner at The Bosphorus in southern Indy. 


For the first half hour or so we practically had the place to ourselves, but during normal meal hours, this is a bustling place that serves delicious Turkish food.  Anytime, it seems, the atmosphere is casual and friendly.  






While middle son (on the right) insisted on being a goob as I tried to shoot a picture, and while I'm hoping someone has a good picture of the birthday boy (the fuzzy one on the left), this is the best I can do at the moment for a picture of my three sons.  I'm a blessed mom with these three.
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And late this morning, we said goodbye to our friends as they headed back to Michigan.  The let down was greatly felt as we waved goodbye from our front porch and they drove off in the rain.  😔 

I'm now in my quiet, getting-ever-more-orderly house.  Hubby headed north a little bit ago to his mom's to see if he can be of some help organizing paperwork this evening and tomorrow.  

Maybe I'll manage to make some more progress on my "yarn room"! 👍






17 comments:

  1. Pretty, pretty yarn you got and it looks like it is perfect for the Doris Shawl. I'm glad you had fun with your friends and your boys are adorable (even if they're still adorably goofy). Good work on the "yarn room" progress and I get what you mean about the goal of making it into a study. Yarn does take more space than embroidery supplies which were also put to great use this week -- you're sweet to teach her and she's a cutie too.

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    1. It's kind of terrifying how much space yarn takes up. And how you have to remove a LOT for it to even make a dent. Even I have trouble comprehending how I accumulated so much!

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  2. What fun decor that restaurant had and what a nice LYS you found and visited.

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    1. It is a fun place. Interesting to look at and take in. I was glad I thought to walk around and take a couple of pictures. I was glad it was empty at that point and I felt free to do so.

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  3. That was interesting how they put the yarn in that little ball. I have never been to a yarn store such as this. I have a room that I call the sewing room, but it is my laundry room, ironing room, office, and so much more:) It is funny how we attach a name to a room. At our previous home, we had a study because it had a desk in there in the days of one computer per family and a desk top at that. That room was quite a catch all though, so I don't know that study quite fit it, but it stayed the study. I can't imagine getting three boys to take the picture you got. I would imagine them all making faces. My son is the worst about pictures.

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    1. lol. I was reminiscing with my friend about how (before children) we used to have a "doom room". It was an extra bedroom where everything that had no where to go ended up. It got cleaned out periodically, but owning it's doomed purpose seemed to help clarify what we were doing with that room. I never want a doom room again, so I'm hoping with my remaining years to be more focused about what I accumulate.

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  4. Oh how neat that yarn swift and such a beautiful restaurant! and I totally get the let down of saying bye to dear friends! however so GLAD for all the GOOD things!

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    1. Yes - glad (and thankful) for all the good things! Thank you for stopping by, Elizabeth. :)

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  5. Yay for orderly (ish) houses. I hear you about the yarn room. My yarn/study/painting/music room is much to crowded these days to work in it, but everything is stored more or less in an orderly fashion. At least I can find things when I need them.
    I love teaching young people crafty things. It sounds like a blissful time you spent teaching her embroidery.
    There is a yarn store like that one near my house. It also is very unassuming with a tiny door that leads you downstairs, and then it opens into a space much like the picture you shared. No vertical swift though - that is a beauty.

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    1. Orderly(ish). lol I've been commenting lately on how everything is -ish anymore. Is it fear of commitment, I wonder? Your comment makes me think the key to figuring out what I call this room is going to come with time and it's going to require whittling out a lot of stuff still that I have just for the sake of having. I need to seriously edit and curate my collection of creative stuff, to have what I own make sense for who I am today, or the part(s) of me I want to nurture and hone. I'm thinking to do that effectively, though, I need to know who I am, and what I truly want to be about, don't I? I am such an -ish person, I'm not sure that's possibility. But as a goal, it seems a worthy one.

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  6. Beckie, what a great week you had. How special to be able to pass on your knowledge of embroidery to a young person. So many of our handiwork skills are being lost. Tatting is almost non-existent these days, for one. Your weekend with friends and family sounds wonderful and very fulfilling. As for your 'yarn room's Make it your crafting room. That covers so many different things.

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    1. Tatting is baffling to me, but I've not considered it beyond looking at the odd-looking tool(s) one uses and beautiful finished products. Crafting room isn't quite what I'm after either because the interests I'd like it to contain and inspire go beyond crafting. Sigh. I'm beginning to think I'll eventually just end up calling it "my room". You know, to differentiate it from all the other rooms in my house that I have free access to and can house my interests in. :^/ Feeling pretty "privileged" at the moment...

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  7. What an exciting week you had! In a good way! You could call your room a "studio"....I think that entails just about anything you might delve into. Good food, good friends and yarn? What more could a gal ask for? Happy Birthday to your son and it reminded me of that old t.v. show "My 3 Sons"..remember that one? What a handsome group of young men. I love the Doris Shawl and the yarns you chose for it.
    You are such a great teacher to so many. I think the heart is darling....of course....now I want to make one too! LOL! Your student looked totally absorbed in her project...."in the zone" as they say. Have a great week ahead and you are motivating me to get my "studio" in shape. As soon as all the outside work is done (just starting on it)...woe is me! LOL!

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    1. Studio is a very appealing word, and I like to think of the possibilities it holds. But I confess, it sounds a little pretentious for me. I hear the word and I imagine a separate structure. A place where I have to leave my house, walk even just a few steps and I'm in - away from the rest of the world. Oh yeah... I'd love to have a studio... ;^)

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  8. You had a really lovely week, that yarn swift looks wonderful, how good that they wound that yarn for you, its a lovely colour. I just call my space 'My Room' as it covers, yarn, art and writing.

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  9. I hope your embroidery lesson has instilled a life-long passion for stitching. If your DH can have a 'study', surely you're entitled to a 'studio' (which, if you're like me is a word you might find hard to use....it's taken me years to feel comfortable with it....thinking that all I 'deserve' is a sewing room). That shop looks amazing and I know I could lose myself in there for at least a couple of hours! And...your boys are very handsome!!!

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  10. Hi Becki :) That restaurant decor is wonderful and the photos of the boys are cute! The yarn store, my gosh I would love to spend time there!

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