Away, but not really!

As my title states,

I've been away (from the blog)

but not really away at all.

We've been home and trust me,

I've kept busy.

Here's the book I completed on Tuesday.

 Of course, I couldn't have done it without 

the help of my friend Claudia.

The covers were made several months ago,

and I've been busy painting the pages 

over the past few weeks.

I love to just throw paint at paper -

don't you?

The binding is a 2-Needle Coptic.

I really love the look of it,

and I'm slowly but surely learning to love

the process!

The cover is very sturdy,

so it's a challenge to sew through.

The signatures are wrapped with a lovely 

red-orange paper that has some gold threads running through it.

Claudia calls these little papers 'shorties',

which tickles me.

(I'm sure there's another more professional name,

but I don't remember it!)

I dyed a number of skeins of perle coton for the stitching,

discharged several,

overdyed a couple,

and these were the finalists:

I finally settled on the variegated green,

which I love.

I've also been knitting up a storm!

This is my Hannah Fettig Featherweight Cardigan:

I finished its second sleeve the other night,

having taught myself how to knit in the round

on two circular needles!

Boy, is that ever a lot smoother than using dpns!

So, in the above image, I've just picked up 

all of the stitches around the fronts, sleeves, and 

neck edges.

I'm on the home stretch, with only a few more inches to knit!

WooHoo!

In the meantime, I've finished a pair of mittens for C,

started another sweater for myself,

and put the first few rows on a baby sweater for 

a friend's new granddaughter.

Our daughter, son-in-law, and two grand cherubs

were here visiting for several days.

We had a marvelous time!

peace