odessa

Its my sister Lulu's birthday this week, she gets an Odessa.

pattern: a charmer from Grumperina
yarn: It was once a skein of yellow Brown Sheep worsted weight wool, that was put into a communal dye pot of indigo. Something weird happened , the leader fished it out, plunging it into vinegar as it had turned slimey and seemed to be disintegrating. The several-rinses-later result was about 100 yards of slightly felted, varied thickness, multi-hued pearlescent wooliness. Perfect for my one-of-a kind sister.
notes: The yarn is heavier than the pattern calls for so I reduced the stitches to 100, and left off the beads. The result is less refined, but with the same swirls. Its an addictive knit.

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I spent most of Saturday helping this same sister pack up her art studio, after 18 years of stuff accruing. I come from a family of artists. We all understand stuff. Stuff inspires us, stuff is worth looking at again, stuff might work well in a collage someday . That last one is, by the way, the go-to reason for hanging onto anything. Try it. Dryer lint? Might be good in hand-made paper. Used wrapping paper. Thing you bought at a tag sale but it shattered in an interesting way? Sure.
But you didn't hear it from me. Because if you've got enough space, stuff adds up.
After I said, "do you really need to keep this?" in my most non-judgemental-y voice for the hundredth time, she got a little peeved. Yes, I'm an oldest sister. Why do you ask ?