“Night Garden”

October 14, 2012November 28, 2018thegreensheep 6 Comments

I have a new blanket ready for a fall show in November! These sweaters sat stacked together for months, awaiting some time on my calendar to put them together. This is “Night Garden.”

While I was sewing it, when our temps were a bit warmer, it evoked for me the feeling I have when my hubby and I sit out on our little street-facing balcony on a quiet evening, enjoy a glass of wine together and watch our neighbors walk with their spouses, their dogs, their babies.

Now that the weather is cooler, though, I just see “fall” all over this blanket. Funny how my feelings change through the seasons. We use our wool blankets all year long.

I was lucky enough to have my daughter and two of her wonderful college roommates agree to model, and even luckier that the rain stopped long enough for some photos. That their T-shirts serendipitously complemented the colors in the blanket — that was a bonus :)

“Night Garden” (70″ by 85″)

J Loves J (and vice versa)

August 26, 2012July 12, 2014thegreensheep 1 Comment

Some friends stopped over recently to choose a blanket for a wedding gift. They picked one they had eyed before: The Painted Piano. (You can see my first post about it here.)

They brought along the wedding invitation, designed by the creative she of this beloved couple, and on its cover was this sweet and simple declaration of true love:

J+J

How could we pass that up as the perfect way to personalize this blanket??

So congratulations, Jimmy and Jenny! May you have many wonderful years together! And while you’re at it, I hope you bring this blanket along to:

have a summer picnic upon,

cuddle under on a wintry movie night (warm it up in the dryer first!),

cover your honey when you find him/her napping on the couch.

I guarantee you: the longer it’s around and the more you use it, the cozier it becomes (kinda like marriage). ENJOY!

The Painted Piano, with monograms (51″ x 65″)

This item has been purchased.

“Butterflies”

May 19, 2012July 18, 2014thegreensheep 15 Comments

Did you take General Psych in school? Do you remember Erikson’s psychosocial stages of development? As a sociology major and then an occupational therapist, I distinctly recall studying this several times. Now that I’m, um, older, I think I’ve found a weak spot in his thinking….

[Source: Gathan Beaga]

Erickson observed and described FIVE stages of development

to get kids from birth to the teen years

but tossed together a measly, vaguely-depicted THREE more

to take us from the age of 18 until death.

AH-HA-HA-HA-hahaha!

[Source: Gathan Beaga]

[Bear with me while I take a little license with Erikson’s model here — I know he had certain things in mind. But still, I believe my points are valid….]

[Source: Gathan Beaga]

Did Erikson take note of THESE milestones? — Figuring out how to live with the alien you promised your life to in marriage? Shakily acknowledging responsibility for your newborn when YOU DON”T KNOW WHAT THE HECK YOU ARE DOING? Learning from your mistakes? (Emblazoned on my memory is the time I went through the house slamming windows closed so the neighbors wouldn’t hear me scream at my 10-year-old.)

[Source: Gathan Beaga]

Or how about these — Discovering that raising kids to be independent is the right thing to do but hurts like the dickens? Realizing that you caused your own parents a boatload of pain and worry but they never let on? Seeing aging in a whole new light once age 50 or 60 hits? Wondering who will “go first,” you or your spouse?

And these are only the highlights. I personally think Mr. Erikson skimmed over way too much stuff.

Erikson’s problematic schema aside, I am so thankful that we do change and learn and grow. Can you imagine how dull life might be otherwise?

~~~

“If nothing ever changed, there’d be no butterflies.”

~Author Unknown

Diane brought me a handful of wool sweaters from her dad’s closet not long after he passed away. Her parents had been married for 55 years and all too quickly he was suddenly gone. Talk about a new developmental stage! Diane said, “I’d love for you to make a blanket for my mom out of these sweaters of Dad’s.”

A couple days later, Diane added: “And would you put butterflies on it?” Butterflies — to depict the unfolding days ahead for her mom, now no longer with her mate by her side, but with instead a whole realm of new possibilities.

I used three of Diane’s dad’s sweaters:

In the photo above, 1) the brown patch that the pansies are on, and below, 2) the cream-colored stripe and 3) the “checkerboard” under the blue butterfly.

His sweaters make a beautiful background for the new butterflies, just breaking forth now and finding their way.

And back to Erikson — he lived until nearly age 92. Do you imagine that just MAYBE he had a couple more chapters brewing in his mind by then?

Butterflies (Size: 57″ x 70″)

[This is a custom-ordered blanket.]

“The Original”

May 6, 2012September 13, 2019thegreensheep 9 Comments

Three years ago, my youngest daughter opened an old copy of the now-defunct Cottage Living magazine to an article about Caroline Unruh and her company called Sweet Felt Goods. The “sweet felt goods” are her incredible blankets made from recycled sweaters. I’d never heard of such a thing before! My daughter said, “I think you’d like doing something like this.”

The blankets in the article and the mentioned website (no longer active) were beautiful, colorful, intriguing. It piqued my interest to try to figure out how to do it. So I went online and found out about all the things people were making out of recycled and felted wool sweaters. I really had no idea!

I studied other people’s work for some time, then went around the house and collected all the old wool knit things we no longer wore. I picked up a couple more from a thrift store. And then I set about felting my very first batch of wool sweaters.

In there was a sweater I had bought for my soon-to-be husband on my last trip with my family just two weeks before our wedding, on the Greek island of Mykonos (the cream with brown detail):

Also in there are the hand-knit woolen long-underwear made for my husband when we lived in the People’s Republic of China and taught English for two years early in our marriage. Winters indoors were very cold where we lived, and long underwear was a necessity. In the photo below, can you see the four teeny holes lined up along the lower edge of the brown? That’s where the drawstring threaded through those long-johns to keep them on my hubby.

I cut everything in strips by hand with my old fabric scissors, laid out the pieces until I liked them, and finally sewed them together. Oh my, and how could I ever have known how I would fall in love with the wool and how addictive the process would become??

This blanket has become very well-loved and well-used in these three years. It keeps us warm for movie night, snuggles well for Sunday afternoon naps, has gone on sleep-overs and retreats, and is often being hunted down because it moves from room to room so frequently.

It’s also huge, about 70″ by 90″, which makes it great for two on the couch and provides extra coverage on top of a queen bed.

With affection, I present the blanket that started everything:

The Original (size: 70″ x 90″)

The blanket happily belongs to the owner of this blog and her family :)

“Red and Green”

January 8, 2012July 12, 2014thegreensheep 8 Comments

Over a year ago, Robin saw a photo of “Roasting Chestnuts,” one of my earliest blankets, and set her heart upon it. Of course, setting her heart on it didn’t do her any good, for it had already gone to a loving home. But I did tuck away in my mind the colors that Robin liked. Did I mention that Robin lives in a charming log cabin home? Well, she does.

I didn’t hear anything more about it … until last fall when Robin’s husband emailed and said he wanted to surprise her for Christmas with a blanket for their king-size bed in their charming log home. Did I mention Robin’s husband is my cousin? And that he’s 6’8″? Well, he is.

I said “Yes, I’d love to!” and turned to the felted sweaters I had been collecting with Robin in mind “just in case.” I needed many more sweaters than I had been stockpiling, however. This blanket was not just to top the king-size bed, but to drape over the edge all the way to the box springs. That’s huge — double the size of most of my blankets! This was a new challenge for me.

But, as always, it was an enjoyable challenge. And how could I not be inspired by picturing those beautiful log walls as the backdrop?

My schedule and the weather did not cooperate in my slim window between finishing the blanket and delivering it –I never got a good shot of the entire thing. I’ll have to leave you to your imagination with just these snippets :)

All folded up…

…and packed for delivery. Robin, may you enjoy your Christmas gift from your great husband!

“Red and Green” (size: 110″ x 84″)

This particular item is not available for sale.

“Ginkgo Leaves”

October 23, 2011July 12, 2014thegreensheep 6 Comments

I have a little obsession with design from the Arts and Crafts era of the late 1800s and early 1900s. It’s the mix of wood, fabric and pottery, the nature themes, the importance of hearth, home, and handmade-ness that all appeal to me.

So, in making this fall blanket, I decided to use ginkgo leaves. It was the influence of Asia that brought the leaf into a little prominence during the Arts and Crafts period.

The ginkgo biloba tree (“biloba” = bi-lobed: the two halves of the leaf) has a reputation in Chinese and Japanese culture as a symbol of resilience, longevity, and hope.

My bit of internet research says that it’s one of the oldest living trees still on the earth. Apparently there are ginkgo leaf fossils over 270 million years old. Plus the sap has fire-retardant qualities that allow ginkgos to survive fires which destroy other trees.

And there it is: the resilience that leads to longevity that leads to hope.