Tarot Blog Hop Samhain 2015: Remember

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This time, our host is Arwen Lynch-Poe, and the topic she has created for the Samhain 2015 Tarot Blog Hop is:


''Samhain is the time of the feast of the dead in many cultures. For our topic, I would like you to post about a loved one or someone you admired/disliked (historical figures are fair game) that ties in with Tarot, Lenormand or an Oracle deck. You can do a Tarot reading for them. You can talk about what they would have thought about you reading the cards (good or bad). You can write a poem to them using a Tarot/Lenormand/Oracle card. You can post their favourite recipe along with thoughts on what Tarot card might represent that meal.

***Commune, Communicate, Commemorate with those who have gone on before us. ***


 My baby sister, as she first appeared to me in 1972:

Known to my regular readers as Auntie Fashion, she has been gone for 1 year and 3 1/2 months.

She was very much a Queen of Pentacles - grounded, practical, no-nonsense, a homemaker, creative and crafty, an excellent cook, proud of her home, a lover of nice things and luxury; she liked things to be just so. She provided an open house for her daughters and their friends. She created and maintained a unique relationship between herself, her ex-husband and her husband, which grew stronger over time and her various periods of illness, so that both men supported each other and the girls when she died, and remain good friends who spend time with each other on a regular basis.

She hated confrontation, so had developed many, many ways of saying 'No' that didn't involve the word. Her mulish and dogged tenacity is what brought her through at least 1 coma and 2 other near-death crises.

my sister on the inside

my sister on the outside

even the breed of dog is right: Hi, Charlie

Her last illness was relatively short, and she faded quickly.

 
And now she is somewhere else watching over us.

And what we remember most is her smile - there is not one photo of her without.

Halcyon Jean     22:04:72 - 18:07:14

Decks used in order: Wizards Tarot, Victorian Romantic Tarot, Witches' Tarot (Dugan), Paulina Tarot, Comparative Tarot







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FO Friday: Bat Baby is Here !

Halloween Tarot

Well, it's only been forever since I last created and published a design of my own - it was the Cabled Hot Water Bottle Cosy which I made for my MIL. Today I am proud to say that I wrestled with the Muse, and have survived - and a new, somewhat seasonal, design is the result.

My BIL The Cornishman has serious photography skillz, and is taking some posh pictures for me, but I am impatient and couldn't wait to tell you guys all about it, even if only using my own dodgy snaps ....

Here is the Bat Tea Cosy !

I do kinda wish bats were in a more easily photographable color .... but I think he is super-cute: his eyes can be beads, or embroidered (as are his fangs). Made from black DK yarn, and scraps of red, grey and white DK yarn, he is knitted in pieces and sewn together: he consists of stocking stitch for his body, and garter stitch wings; his nose is a bobble.

His head is knitted holding the yarn doubled, so that the toy stuffing does not show; his ears are also knitted double to make sure they have the wherewithal to stand up.

A sweet button holds his wings closed across his tummy; when you undo it, look what is revealed ! Either an appropriately seasonal message:

Or, if you use Chart B instead:

Of course, you could embroider a message on his heart as well.

My Eviller Twin kindly proof-read and turned my words into a PDF pattern, which is available not only from my Folksy shop, but through my Ravelry store - where for this weekend only there is a 10% to celebrate my baby Bat Tea Cosy's birth (applied automatically at checkout).

And I do always heart the projects people make from my patterns ....

FO Friday 160: Moving Right Along

The FO this week is me: I am exhausted ! I have been sadly absent this week as it has been half-term, and I have actually been out Doing Things with the kids. Nobody is more surprised about that than me. They have been swimming a few times, saw an uncle and the middle cousin, eaten large, fancy and expensive ice cream sundaes at Ra-Ra's, had a couple of play dates, carved pumpkins, gone trick or treating, and there have been a couple of parties. Here is their Hallowe'en swag:

 

Appropriate buckets, aren't they ? Skulls for the evilness of sugar, and bloodshot eyeballs for the effects of evil sugar. Yes, I have pinched some of their sweeties, yanno, just to check they're OK.

 I have a few hours to myself right now as Mini Diva and Destructo Boy are headed to Auntie Fashion's with Belo, and Titch is not yet home; so I will tell you that the Forest Pansy shawl is in a Time Out right now. I found a minor error, a difference between the chart and the written instructions, which meant tinking back 1 row. But, 2 rows from the end, I found a repeated error I had made back in chart 2, which I cannot ignore, however hard I try - and believe me, I have tried. All the large lilac section will have to be ripped back to the end of the dark violet section.

 

 So, it is in the Seriously Naughty Corner, because I had been hoping to complete it this week, in time to start NaKniSweMo today.

 

I am starting NaKniSweMo anyway. I just need to either find an app for my Nokia Lumia that will do stitch counting, learn how to use Excel in a millisecond, or - most likely - record how many stitches I knit each day using good old pencil and paper.

Blackberry Cabled Cardigan, made in Strawberry

And seeing as how the stitch count that needs to be knitted each day to complete a 50,000 stitch cardigan in 30 days is phenomenal (apparently, I have been told, I haven't done any math myself) I really must get going and make a start. You, however, can pop over to Tami's Amis and see some real FOs .....