Greetings!
Winter in Wisconsin can be all over the place weather-wise. During the month of December 2011 we have had unusually warm weather, unusually cold weather, high winds, sun, rain, ice, sleet and fog, sometimes all in one day! During cold winter days I prefer to do what I must outdoors and then work on a project in the house while I enjoy the fires going in one of my two soapstone stoves. I have had one wood-burning soapstone stove in my home since 1995. It is positioned against an old brick and fieldstone wall. The wood heat warms the stone wall, which in turn warms the room and everything in it. A second soapstone stove will soon be installed in my weaving room. It will burn lp (liquid petroleum) gas. Both stoves are quite efficient and continue to heat the room long after the fires have gone out. Just looking at the flames through the door of the stove makes me feel warm.
Currently I am working to finish a hand-knitted lace sweater made of Rowan Kidsilk Haze yarn in a smoky gray. At the time of this writing I have all but the lace border finished. I sit by the fire with a cup of tea, a movie, the dogs asleep on the floor and the cat on the sofa next to me while I knit in the evening after my day’s work is done. I shall begin to knit another lace sweater as soon as this one is finished because I enjoy knitting so much! As some of my fiber arts friends put it, “knitting is food for the soul”.
The sweater is called "Honeysuckle". It is designed by Sarah Hatton and can be found in the Rowan Knitting and Crochet Magazine number 45 at www.knitrowan.com To date this is the most challenging thing I have knitted.
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When my children were small I made wooden puzzles for them. I have designed, cut, glued, sanded and painted several puzzles throughout the years for my children and now for my grandchildren. A very good friend of mine has a lovely, heated woodworking shop. In exchange for my making a puzzle or two for his children and grandchildren, he allows me to use his tools and wood scraps to make gifts for my family. Pictured below you see a puzzle I am making for his granddaughter’s birthday in January of this year.
You might recognize the shape of a sleeping cat. The wood is white oak, the back of the puzzle is hard board. I’ll paint and varnish the pieces, then sign and date it and it will be finished! Over the years I have made more than a dozen of these puzzles, as well as cradles, cars, recipe boxes and such. The climate of our recent economy encouraged me to “get back to the basics” and make gifts again this year.
This puzzle is made up of 67 oak blocks, each cut by hand. Jim helped to cut the blocks and build the framed box in which they are all kept. I painted six different pictures for this puzzle, one on each side of the blocks. You see just two of them here. We made this puzzle for our children the Christmas of 1980.
Making gifts of wood has been a tradition in my family for generations. I am very fortunate to have a teeter-babe made by my great-grandfather for my mother when she was a toddler. I can remember sitting in it when I was a child, my children played with it and now my grandchildren play with it. Four generations of my family have enjoyed this toy! To build it my great-grandfather used lumber left over from jobs done by the family’s general contracting business in Marinette, WI. Close examination of the teeter-babe reveals pieces of pine, maple, oak and plywood. Its head end is meant to mimic that of a rooster. While seated in this toy the child hangs onto the handle at the front and rocks, front to back. There is a box hanging between the two rooster heads and when rocking the box makes a sound pleasant to the child, but sometimes annoying to the mother!
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Our son, Jonas, and his family will be living in Anchorage, Alaska for four months this winter as his job takes him there. During this time they have arranged for someone to live in their Wisconsin home to take care of the family pets and the house. Jim and I are seriously considering a trip to visit them. Although Jonas and Julie have decided to make this move by car so that they can enjoy some serious sight-seeing on the way, I believe Jim and I will opt for a plane. It is a sixty hour drive from here to there according to Jonas. Conversation at the New Year’s Eve dinner table was about the best route from here to Anchorage. General consensus was that they will go from Wisconsin west to North Dakota, then north to Edmonton, Alberta, through Dawson Creek, British Columbia, continuing northwest through Yukon Territory and on to Anchorage, Alaska.
If Jim and I could afford to take an entire month for the trip I know I would enjoy a drive like that. Last winter Jim and I drove from Wisconsin to Mexico and back. We found that we truly enjoyed each other’s company in such close quarters for the entire trip, so I know we can do it! However, I fear we have only a week to spare this year. If we go, we will go by plane.
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The Soap Lady
W6378 Highway 26
Juneau, WI 53039
