I warned you I would do it.

Today is the Nebraska Democratic Caucus. I am reminding folks with my garage door.

Sorry for the break, went on a quilting spree, and I can’t get good looking pictures.

Here is the super-secret installation piece. In December I inherited 20-30 industrial spools of fine weight acrylic cone yarn. I also purchased a small I-Cord maker. The I-Cord maker is a little annoying in that it “twists” the I-Cord, so making 30-40 ft quickly becomes a pain. I also purchased 40 super-strong mini-magnets.

The intent was to have an I-Cord with embedded mini-magnets that could be configured into words or symbols on our garage door. The first attempt showed the magnets were too small to be contained by the I-Cord, and easily fell out. I ended up wrapping a single magnet in a 2” by 6” piece of magazine paper. The ends of the paper were creased to a point to hold the magnet, and to make passage through the I-Cord maker easier. Next I started the yellow acrylic through the I-Cord maker, passing a wrapped magnet through every 10”-12”.

I made about 30 feet of magnetic cord, and then I continued the cord for 60 more feet and cut the cord. After messing with the cord, I noticed the magnets still popped out. A second pass through the I-cord maker was required.

It all comes together to form the following:

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The extra length was needed to make a thicker line. I folded the length into thirds and twisted it so the magnets hold everything into place. The detail shots show some of this.Today Ty comes home from another long trip and this heart will be waiting for him. As we get deeper into the political season, it may change a little bit. Tomorrow it may change to say “vote”, next week, a peace symbol. Pictures as they come!

This year Tyrone and I got student tickets to the Nebraska Cornhuskers games. Last weekend was not a happy time for us. The Huskers were beat by Missouri 41-6, and the Broncos were beat by the Chargers 41-3. But these are pictures from happier times:

Here is the view from our seats:




Here is a pre-USC game peace rally picture.  The USC fans were really wonderful, and some even joined the march.  On the way back to the car, some USC fans even stopped us to ask if we got on ESPN Gameday.  We told them it was a pro-Huskers/pro-peace sign.  They were all very excited for us, and I think the were surprised to see anything like that in Nebraska.  One kind older Trojan even remarked, “I guess there are a few things that are more important than football.  Keep up the good work.”

Did so much this weekend, but not that much time to go over it all.

First a finished object:

This is the “Birthday Wishes” pattern from www.woolandhoop.com.

Started half of this pattern on the felted blue purse I’ve had in my reserves. Based on how that was going, felted 5-6 more sweaters. Working on a project for Tyrone; he needs the arm rests on his writing chair covered. I’m going to use some of those sweaters because the fabric is nice and thick.

Went to the peace rally on Saturday, and gave out every last Peace Cuff I made. It was such an overwhelming experience. I almost cried after hearing the speech made by vet mother, Susan Emanuel.

Wow, there is an entire summary up. Check it out!

Sorry to disappoint, but I had a number of pictures to put up today of various past finished objects, and of wonderful gifted/found needlework objects.  This morning I went to unload them off of my camera and they were GONE!   Luckily I can still take pictures of everything, but it was a weird experience.

Knitted once again with Katie last night.   She’s still working on her cashmerino sweater Jaeger (not me) pattern on tiny needles.  I hope she gets it done during sweater season.

On the seed starting front, the thyme is up!  If the parsley isn’t up by this weekend, I’m replanting it.  Last night Tyrone and I scheemed about what sort of container garden we will have.   We still may buy some sort of share at Ross Brockley’s organic farm.  He has meat sometimes too, but most of his customers are vegetarians, so no one seems to know much about that.  I’m happy just planting some spinach, lettuce, and herbs…maybe a tomato plant.

Leaving you with the last of the peace pictures…

 

Gave most of these away this weekend, so I’ll have to work on some more!

Made more Peace Cuffs and gave a bunch away.

Knitting all of those cuffs gave me an idea.  I’m so excited about the idea, but can’t share yet, sorry!

Worked on the bag crocheted of plastic bags from Craftivity: 40 projects for a DIY Lifestyle. Guess what?  I don’t have enough bags.  I know, the whole point is to use the new recycled bag instead of using all of those plastic shopping bags, but I need more bags.  Doubling the produce bags seems to work.  I guess we’ll always be using those.

I was stocking up pink Victoria’s Secret bags for a project like this 3 years ago, and now I can’t find them!

Made Chili Blanco soup.  This time I doubled the beans, and it was much better.

Also worked on another special, super-secret project that involved dyeing fabric in the washing machine. I didn’t know you could do that, but luckily, my husband had some experience with it.  Here’s a teaser picture:

 

My first pattern, for Peace Cuffs, is up!

 

I’m making these for the rally in Lincoln at 1pm on March 17th.