Goodbye LYS!

I received an email a couple of months ago from my local yarn shop, Knitting in the Loop.

Apparently they had come to their senses and would be closing up shop as of May 20th.  I am sad, for now the closest shops I have to choose from is the disorganized crazy lady shop (that is actually open on Monday) where apparently she decides how much you pay for yarn based on her opinion of you, or the one that's 45 minutes away in a cute shop with lovely people that is closed on Monday (my day off) and not open late ever.  Boo.

So I am off to drop off some forms for the doctor to sign to send Middle to camp this summer, and then I will go by and see if there's any yarn left to buy.  Or maybe some books.  Or more needles!  Gadgets!  Hopefully for me, I will like nothing.

I finished Smallest's leg warmers (surprise project!) while she was having a coaching session yesterday with a much respected dancer.  She had a blast.  I am glad I have leftover yarn for these (originally two pairs were planned) because Smallest is getting ready to grow.  She won't pass Middle, who is officially now 5 ft, 7 3/4 in, but she may catch up to me.  We will see!
I have to crochet a little on them, and tuck in the ends and then I'll post a picture.  Smallest loves them already.

I'm going to guess they were about four or five hours to make?  Just spread out over a while.

Oh, but we're in a new quarter, so we have to restart the count?

5 hours total for me then.  Probably more from working on the bug, but who knows.
Margie

Mutant No More!

I have cured my X-sweater of its mutant-ness.
In the previous post, I showed the before picture, and here is after:

And here is The Boy with his sweater for an 18 month old child:

I don't think it will fit.  I decided that it would be creepy of me to save the sweater for my grandchildren, so I decided to give it to some friends who have a super-cute little girl who is about the right size, maybe a little small even, which is good as sweater weather is pretty much done here.  

As I was finishing, I did realize that I forgot to switch to smaller needles for the ribbing at the bottom, but I also realized that I don't like sweaters for little kids pinching in like that, so the looser edge actually pleases me.  Better mobility for small people.  The yarn is 75% acrylic/25% wool.

So now I'm on to my bug cross stitch.  I have resolved not to start knitting anything else until I make progress on other things I'm working on.  

2 hours since Friday,

32 hours total.

Margie

Catching up

Well, I'm probably behind in total hours for the quarter, but I have some project pictures to share.

I have the scarf for My Friend, and the mittens I made to go along with it.  The mittens were a late Valentine's present, and I finished them just in time for him to wear them up to Dallas last weekend when they were still being hit by cold weather so he was very happy to have them!  I modified a pattern for plain mittens, and I would add another cable if making them again, but I was surprised to find that they fit him perfectly.  Less surprised that he loves them, but still happy that he does.

I've also been working on another cowl that would have been for our mother if she didn't like the first one I made.  That one is getting closer to completion.  No picture of that one yet.  I am getting very close to completing the Mutant Sweater.  This is what it looked like before -

Between the first and second pictures I sewed up the seams and put the collar on.  The ladies at my local yarn shop (LYS) reassured me that the short torso wouldn't be a problem, the sweater owner could just roll up the sleeves.  After looking at it for long enough, and reading through too many Yarn Harlot blog postings, I decided I couldn't let the sweater remain a cropped top and unravelled it from the bottom.  I've picked up the stitches (you can see the needle in the picture on the right) and have knit at least three or four inches on the bottom.  The proportions look correct to me now, so I have started on the ribbing at the bottom and have five rows to go before completion.  This means that The Boy's sweater will finally be complete!  Only... 15 years late!

When the sweater is done, I too have a cross stitch project to do that is tiny but has eleventh-billion colors in it in single stitches, and I've already made a mistake within the first 20 stitches.  Sigh.  There  are plenty of other things waiting to be completed as well, and I confess to buying more yarn for specific projects in the last couple of months, so I guess I'll just have to knit more.

Middle is making a crochet sloth for a friend.  I'll see if I can get a picture of it.  It is very cute.

Tallying up the rest of January through today - 29 hours.
30 hours total.

Margie

Quiltastic!

I have finished the quilt! I had to repair one part of the backing fabric that was a little bit damaged, quilt 51 more little circles, and I put my initials on for good measure (see photo 4). I didn't do a perfect job of laying the quilt flat before quilting, apparently, because some sections are a little warped between front and back, and there are many other errors that I could point out to anyone interested, but overall it's super cute and I'm delighted to have finished it on the time scale I intended. And the quilt circles do give just the effect I was hoping - they don't distract from the front (can you find all six in photo 2?) but they do add to the back (see photo 5); photo 3 is a closeup. And it was lovely to have entertainment/company during my sewing - evil twin and his brother playing video games that are silly and not too loud or violent. Yay!

Hopefully I will keep this momentum going to finish the cross-stitch I started, and then think about what comes next!

1:20 hours Friday, 5:10 hours Sat, 4:30 hours today = 11 hours this weekend; 68:40 total.
Catherine

Keepin' on keepin' on

The end is in sight: I have started quilting!

I have discovered why it would have been better to quilt before edging, since now the borders are nicely sewn up and it's a pain to tie things off. Things to remember for next time. Anyway, some of the quilting is right in the middle, so it would be a pain either way.

My plan was to make little circles in some of the blocks to match the circle pattern on the back. In my first circle, I used a chain stitch, which was really pretty but REALLY slow for some reason (25 minutes!) perhaps now that I am getting more used to working with 4 pieces of fabric, I will try again). So I've done 6 others with a more simple backstitch (1:25 min), and I'm reasonably happy with it. See? (front and back)

I've also picked 6 squares within each mod block (plus the four central black v. black intersections) that I intend to quilt, and then maybe that will be enough. After all, my original goal was to have the quilt done by the end of this month, as the recipient was coming to visit; the trip has been put off due to snowpocalypse but I don't want the quilt to suffer a similar fate.

I also decided that my most recent felt bear would be a fun addition to the quilt, so I put his arms on (20 min), and he's all done. See how cute?

So, 2:10 for me this weekend. Total = 57:40.

Catherine

A quiltmaker on the edge

A double meaning: I spent 6 hours and 20 minutes hand-sewing the edges of the quilt yesterday (see? It's done!), and I am on the edge of being totally finished! I had originally planned to start doing the interior quilting as well (I think those are in the wrong order, too bad) but 6 hours of poking myself with pins and needles was enough. And I couldn't find the thread that I bought, humph. For now, I will enjoy my success!

Total = 55:30 this quarter
Catherine

The quilt(wo)man cometh

So exciting! Yesterday I sewed together the fabric for the back of the quilt, which was all I had planned to do. But, with the back all ready, it was so easy to keep going, sewing the quilt top, batting, and quilt back together around the edges, about ~1/4 inch from the edge of the quilt top. Today I'm going to fold over the quilt back onto the quilt front and stitch it in place. I have one edge already pinned in place (see? here it is hanging from the ironing board; the pinned side is on the right), and it's really starting to look like a finished product. I spent 4:40 hours doing that.

I also worked another 2:10 hours on the cross-stitch. It's already starting to be rewarding, as the shape of the creature comes into focus... see?

Total = 6:50; 49:10 this quarter.
Catherine