Oct 30, 2014

multicraft adventure

My fabric came from Etsy and the baby quilt is taking shape in my head ... about 4 shapes, but I have an appointment with Mum and Nanna on Saturday and a decision will be made. I picked up super cute brown and white striped fabric for the binding today. It was on sale. Don't give me grief. I can hold my fabric stash easily with one arm at this point. Yarn is a different story....

I'm still waiting for the buttons from France, so no update on the cardigan.

The socks ... I like to knit until the yarn runs out, but that doesn't work with an afterthought heel. So I decided, with one inch of leg knit, to go back and build the heel from the other end of the ball.


Sorry, Mrs. Ohhh, no fancy nails at the moment.

That yarn, by the way, is Two Tigers Yarns' Sock Attack in the Papa Smurf colourway. And yes, I do two socks at a time. One more heel to go and then onto the legs!

The turtle quilt top will be ready tomorrow. I'm going to fuel myself with candy (and not hand any out), and make that top come together with everything lined up. You'll see.

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Oct 27, 2014

freaking out

So here's a wee recap of the goings-on since the blocks were all built:

1. I went to A Great Notion and got a new blade for my ancient rotary cutter. I also got a walking foot, a foot with a guide in the middle for stitching in the ditch, and an arm/guide thing for quilting evenly-spaced lines. I had sold my spinning wheel, so I had a bit of a spree. That same day, I picked up a 12.5 inch square ruler and a smaller square ruler. The larger square let me properly square up my blocks. I wasn't about to sash them before I did that.

2. I owned the new rulers for over a week before I could muster up the nerve to do the sashing. The more pieces you put together, the more chances you have of things not aligning. The turtles are in 4 rows of 4 now. I have to do the longer, freakier horizontal sashing yet. I have to get it done before Saturday.

3. I finished all the knitting on my greatly modified cardigan. I ordered buttons on Etsy. They're coming from France. I've sold a fair number of my brioche cowl knitting pattern (cowl, not bread), so I had enough in my PayPal account for buttons plus 4 fat quarters in cute baby boy prints.

4. Was in Portland this past weekend and went to the Fabric Depot. Wowza! I was overwhelmed. There were a trillion fabrics. I ended up finding a 13-stack of Robert Kaufman fat quarters in some pleasing basics at 40 percent off. Woohoo! I also got some Halloween costume supplies for the kid and some iron-on patching for the fave jeans with holes just starting.

5. I cast on a really cool tank top in linen.

6. I decided on afterthought heels on the socks-long-in-progress for hubby. The only downside I see with that heel is the kitchener stitch, but I can live with that.

7. I cast on a second Bad Oyster pattern for Auntie Inflammatory that will be just a bit bigger than the first one to sit around her neck better.

8. Once the turtles are sashed, I'll hope that the baby boy fat quarters have arrived and see what pattern they want to be. Can't wait!

The beginnings of the bad oyster.

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Oct 11, 2014

what i learned today

First, the title on my blog posts doesn't automatically do sentence case.

Second, when you are piecing and want to be efficient, you make your pieces extra tall, and then you plan to cut across them to get the correct heights afterwards.


Like that.

However, what this newbie can't do is cut the total height to match the sum of heights needed and expect that the last guy is actually going to be the right height.

So where I expected to have 12.5 inches give me five heights of 2.5 inches, things were a little wonky. In the photo you see 9 inches of height for three 2.5 inch beasties. That actually works out to 7.5, but I'm planning to strip off the likely 1.25 piece and save it for later like a little squirrel. That's the three heights that I need to make up for the earlier boo-boo.

Third, I need a cover for my ironing boards. There's really no excuse for that.

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Oct 10, 2014

door prize

I forgot to type that I'd won a door prize at the Guild meeting. So. Rad.


Four fat quarters! Crazy lucky, right? They're folded up all pretty and I'm scared to open them up. I have a feeling new knitters feel like this the first time their yarn comes in a skein rather than a ball.

Getting my hair cut tonight. THANK GOODNESS! Goodbye, curls. Sorry we couldn't make a better go of that.

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Oct 9, 2014

2 guilds

But I'm only on the executive of one guild, so it's not too much.

Guild number 2 is a modern quilt guild. So. Fun.

It's a pretty large group, and they are very well run. So. Fun.

There was a very impressive show-and-tell - a lot of talent in the room!

I'm going to sew all weekend (more photos to follow). I'm also going to finish the dastardly sleeves on this darned sweater. Then I can get to the steeking and button band. And collar. Then it will be DONE! Fingering-weight sweaters take a while......

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Oct 2, 2014

Moving back

I have decided to start quilting and there's no place for that on a yarn site, so I'm reviving this blog to encompass all crafts. (I really do like them all.)

We were in Maui recently. At the Queen K... mall, there's a shop called Sew Special. Of course they have Hawaiian themed fabrics there, and they totally caught my eye. We had just swum with turtles and I really wanted a turtle fabric. I wanted one coordinated fabric as well, and found it.

When I got home, I got four more fabrics, plus one for sashing and the back (thanks for your help with colour selection, Mum!). Tonight was my first chance to take a crack at my design and see how it hangs together. Yes, this is my design. It's really basic, and I wanted to focus on the turtle, so out of a 12 inch square, 5 of the inches are turtle. The only tricky piece is the mitred corners. I thought I could sew the diagonal to get those corners, but that was a bad idea. Enter Mum, with "Smoke and Mirrors 101" - the pieces overlap completely, and then you fold one and iron a crease into it so it looks mitred. I'll tack them down with a stitch or two. Do you know, she actually used the word "glue"? Gasp! I had a flashback to that rad Knitting 101 video on YouTube where the guy "knits" a scarf. Go look that up if you haven't seen it.



I learned from my Mum to have that square lying around for a while, to make sure I like it. I'll mull it over for a few days. (By the way, the sashing is brown.) I'm currently wondering if I can just change the position of the turtle or if I should also change the arrangement of the fabrics around it. I might have to do more samples. Any that don't make it into the quilt can become cushions or something.

Now back to some knitting...... There's still a big sale going on over at http://twotigersyarns.com/shop, in case you were wondering.
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