Knitting’s Coming Along with Joey’s Help

Knitted Shawl - Peggy Osterkamp
Knitted Shawl – Peggy Osterkamp

Here’s a progress report of the shawl I began on March 1. (This is only the back). It’s 12 inches long and I’m now binding off with an I-cord binding. Then the stitches on the two sides will be picked up and knitted. Joey often sits beside me when I’m knitting before bedtime.
I am having the time of my life–loving it. I can’t believe all this knitting was done on #1 needles!

Knitting with Joey - Peggy Osterkamp
Knitting with Joey – Peggy Osterkamp

 

Helen’s Double Weave Afghan

Helen’s Afghan and Joey on Peggy Osterkamp’s Couch
> click to enlarge

Another “Helen” treasure is this afghan she made for me. These were her specialty and she always made two on a warp–each as different as she could make them. They were always made for someone and given away. You had to ask for one unless you were family and got one automatically. She had these on her loom when I first knew her until a short time before she died–probably 40 years. She tied on the new warps and never threaded but the first time. It was really complicated; I helped her fix some broken threads once. It took 15 shafts.

Joey played with my silk thread!

Joey investigating spool (click to enlarge)
Joey scratching his cheek

I have two cats–this morning  I heard scratching noises by my spools of silk thread. I have wound two more spools and each one has a thread sticking out from it. Joey was trying to get at one of the threads! Yikes, I said and covered them up. He kept hanging around, wondering where his precious thread-toy had gone!. After all my work, having a cat snarl the threads up again would have been awful. Molly is seen investigating the first spool on a previous post.

I’ve been winding more of these lovely Japanese spools from cones of fine silk. They are so nice to look at–“thread-sculptures”, really.