Sunday, March 31

The quilt, it has thwarted me.

Well, I had high hopes of having a megasquare by today, but I didn't make it. Somehow everything takes longer than you think.

I did work for 1:40 yesterday (sorry to hoard, but I did text sister to warn her), and 3:45 today. Doesn't that seem like a long time to do just 5 lousy seams? But, in fact, I spent a lot of time marking the lines where the seam should go, and then 5 (so far) squares didn't have enough hem allowance, so I had to detach them to some extent from the 12x2 blocks to lengthen them. Then it took FOREVER to pin up one of the seams. Fortunately, it was worth it, because the seam is beautiful and I do have one 12x4 block to show for my efforts. Evil twin was very impressed. And I've got another two of the 12x2 blocks totally ready to go (marked up, etc), so I just need to finish marking up the last blocks (one is ~half done) and then sew the seams. Maybe another 5 hours??

So close!!

All told, I'm at 45:10 this time.
Catherine


Sunday, March 24

Fie you, seam!

Still on the quilt... Today I decided to face down the evil seam that had so discouraged me some weeks ago, along with 8 of its friends. That one darn seam still isn't perfectly perfect, but it was close enough and it was the worst one of the day, so I'm counting it a success. I also did some fixes to two squares that weren't long enough (there's one more that will be close, but it might be ok; will ponder). So I have 5 strips of 2x12 squares, one piece that's 2x4, and 4 that are 2x2. Only 9 more seams until I have a megasquare!!

2:20 today, 39:45 total.
Catherine

Thursday, March 21

Pig Butts

Just another quick post.  While Smallest was either dancing or at an appointment, I can't remember which, I was able to get another 45 minutes working.  This time it was on a knit pig from a cute book called Spud and Chloe at the Farm which I bought some time ago.
 
Smallest picked out the yard a while back also, but finally it's time to get to work.  It requires double pointed needles, which I haven't used a lot, and I submitted to the Evil that is Etsy and bought a whole bunch of DPNs, because I never seem to have the size I should.

Anyhow, I have started and did a few rows, then left it for a couple of days before working on it more. Unfortunately, I didn't think about which orientation was knit and which was purl when I picked it back up, and the farther I worked, the more this became apparent.  The start is at the pig's end, and then you make the body from there working towards the front.  So our poor little piggy has rather a rough bottom, followed by his smooth body.  I am sure Smallest will never notice.  The next one will be better.

More dancing this afternoon in preparation for the Texas Ballroom Challenge this weekend.  Smallest is very excited.  After this weekend, she'll start preparing for the Emerald Ball, held in LA in May.  Sounds like Dancing With The Stars pros turn out for that one, which would be a thrill for her (and me too!)

There are plans underway to crochet Middle a cute summer top.  That should be fun, and hopefully quick.  Crochet always seems so much faster than knitting.

.75 hours for me, 12.50 total.

Margie

Tuesday, March 19

A visit!

We had a super fun sister visit this weekend, with lots of salsa, games, tex-mex and more salsa.  It was lots of fun, and I even managed to squeeze in a little crocheting work while Catherine was here.  I finished some fingerless, fuzzy purple yarn gloves for middle.  Yay!

.75 hours for me, 11.75 total.

Margie