[insert evil laugh here]

Well, I see that my nemesis, Quilt Girl, has yet to respond to my challenge! I, Knitting Lady, shall continue, uncontested until I triumph over the oppressive fabric coverings and enslave the sheep of the world! All the yarn shall be mine!

In truth, I didn't work that much this week. A little here, and then more tonight. I had a really funny moment though. I was working on the sleeves tonight while Smallest was at her ballroom dance class and as it's time to make raglan sleeves, I thought I was at the point where I was almost done, having reached 40 stitches, so I started on the next stage of the instructions, where you reduce stitches on the right side and the wrong side. So I worked four rows and then looked at the directions again. It said I was supposed to do the reducing on both sides only one time and then I would have 23 stitches (for the size I'm making). Uh-oh. So I looked farther up in the instructions to see how, if I had 40 stitches, would I be able to reduce by 4 and get 23?

Turns out I was supposed to work 40 rows at the end of which I would have 27 stitches. Now it's all making sense. So, I thought for a minute and decided that I would just rip back and move forward from there. Ah well. I also discovered that when one of the sleeves had an odd number of stitches and the other had even, it was the odd one that was correct, so I'll have to fix that too. They're both even now.

It pays to read the instructions carefully. I'm starting to worry though that these sleeves are going to be really long. I have to remind myself that they're raglan sleeves, so I'm making the shoulders right now. I won't have to find a mutant baby with extra long arms to be the recipient of the sweater. At least I hope so.

1 hour today (45, plus 15 at Tuesday choir), 3.5 total.

Margie

Knitting Envy

As I mentioned before, I taught Middle how to knit over the Christmas break. We went to a fabulous yarn shop (Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins - the closest to my parents' house) and we looked at all the yarn and there was lots of touching and admiring. She selected a very nice light minty green yarn for her own and then, rather than settle for the very functional plastic or metal needles, she chose the more expensive wooden needles with fancy do-dads on the ends.

She has been happily knitting away, and was delighted when I could finally teach her how to cast on. I've taught her how to finish her piece, and showed her how to decrease by knitting two together. She's having lots of fun. I'm still trying to finish the baby sweater.

The baby sweater is getting close. I'm working the decreases in the sleeves and only have about 10 more rows to go? Something encouragingly close. But truly, I wander into my closet and look at my stash of yarn and think about all the other things I could be working on. I am ready for a new knitting project. It's good that I've taken time along the way to knit other things, although perhaps I would have finished the sweater sooner without the interruption. Who knows.

At any rate, I'm jealous of Middle's freedom to knit whatever she wants - she had knit an inch or two, and then during recess at school yesterday (where many girls crochet, but only the truly individual knit) she decreased from 35 stitches to 3 just to see what would happen! She ended up undoing the whole piece, but she is unconcerned, because she's not trying to make anything at this point. Fun to explore. (and she gets to cast on again, which not all the knitters can do)

I worked on the sweater for 1.5 hours while the girls were at choir practice last Thursday, and then another 30 minutes during Smallest's ballroom dance lesson.

And when Middle tires of knitting, I'm stealing her fancy needles!

2 hours last week, 2.5 hours total

Margie

The Gauntlet, it is thrown!

Well, after that bold challenge, I will have to be more intentional about my projects.

I did work on the cream baby sweater yesterday after dropping Middle off for choir and waiting for a meeting to start an hour later, so after all the chatting, I'm guessing 30 minutes? At any rate, I'm close to finishing the sleeves and then there's just the assembly and the neck to do. I even have some friends who are expecting a wee bairn and appreciate knitting, so maybe they'll get the sweater.

I taught Middle to knit over the holiday, so now she can start her life of yarn hoarding and incomplete projects too. She already has some incomplete projects, but no yarn yet.

I have quilt pieces to make another log cabin quilt like the first one, so maybe I can find some time to put that together as well.

30 minutes total.

Margie

2012: Return of the quilt

One of my new year's resolutions is to finish my quilt. There - I've said it, and now am accountable. More to come...

In the meantime, I just got a knitting pattern daily calendar for my Evil Twin, and he is excited to learn all of the different patterns. Yesterday's was a basket rib, which we both decided looked more like space invaders than a basket weave. We intend to make 4" x 4" squares of many/all of these, and then use them to make a knit quilt. He made the official square yesterday, but I also wanted to learn the pattern (never having done slip stitches before), so I spent 30 minutes (at least, but I forgot to time it) knitting 16 rows and then pulling them back out.

Watch out, seester! I will have two quilts before you know it.

30 minutes.

Catherine

Oops, it's October!

So I horded about an hour and a half. That would make my total 11.5 hours.

I've also become a little over-committed to soccer, Odyssey of the Mind and our church's annual giving campaign. I love it all, but not a lot of time for those lonely projects.
I've also been reading a lot more. True that some of it is junky brain candy, but some of the books have been quite good.

Hopefully the OM stuff will settle down shortly, and the annual giving should settle down a lot at the end of the month. Soccer...well that never ends, but it's manageable. And the kids are getting better about not letting their school papers lay around all over the house. Their socks however...

So, Catherine, where did you finish up?

Margie

Knitting and Stuffie clothes

Well, on Tuesday I took Smallest with me to a sewing group that I infrequently attend, but now that it's summer I have a little more time for. I brought the cream baby sweater and she brought felt for making stuffie clothes.

When we were in Canada, we picked up the habit of calling stuffed animals "stuffies" because that's what they called them there. It's a cute word.

Smallest was much admired by our host's 4 year old daughter, and she had lots of fun with that. It's not every day that Smallest is the coolest girl around!

I knit for about an hour, I am at the point on the sleeves now where I will really have to pay attention to what I'm doing, so I will require some uninterrupted time for that.

Here's a link to one of the Pullip lady's posts on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRj2znjc7rM

They really are most amusing, especially the pictures at the end.

1 hour for me, 10 hours total.

Margie

Picture Fest

As promised, here is Smallest in her dance get-up. She's with her teacher.

Well, it's just been Middle and me here for a couple of days. Smallest is chillin' with my parents for a week, The Boy is at summer school camp and Darling has gone off on a business trip. So, to fill the time, Middle has been watching videos on YouTube of this woman making clothes for her Pullip Doll.

I think Pullip Lady needs to get a life, but she does sew well.

Anyhow, the result is that we've been making many clothes for a Liv Doll that Middle obtained from a friend when we were visiting Calgary.

And we've been making clothes for a rag doll that Middle is giving Smallest for her birthday. Shhh! Don't tell! It's a surprise!

So...we started on Friday and have put in many hours. About 5 on Friday, Saturday we made a nightgown for the doll that I failed to photograph, and I tried to crochet a little animal but was using the wrong hook size, so that's another 2 hours or so there. Today we just spent about 2 hours making two more tops for the doll. And I have a plane trip to go pick up Smallest coming up... maybe salsa will be mine this time!

Catherine - the blanket is most impressive! If your friend is not appreciative enough, I'll take it!

9 hours for me, 9 hours total.

Margie