Busy Busy Busy

I have three quilts to make in short order. Of course, I am working in my favorite style -- fused applique. If you look at a number of quilts that I do for baby quilts; I use 3 X 3, 3 X 4 or 4 X 4 pattern of a specific motif. Something simple, like this modernized version of a heart within a heart, is fast and easy to put together -- especially when you use an uncut piece of fabric for the back ground.  Next step is to begin machine blanket stitching around each heart with a colored thread. I use Mettler 100% Cotton Silk Finish 50 weight tread to do the blanket stitch. I like the smooth appearance of the thread and they have a variety of colors.

 

Quick Quilt Update

It is pink all around!  Both babies are girls so I have to buy more pink fabric because I don't have enough. (Any excuse to buy more fabric is a good excuse!!!!!)

Can you give me a hand with this?

I started a new quilt today. It is going to be a charity quilt for Maternity Homes of Fox Valley. I hosted an open house informational meeting today and we did a fun project to kick off the charity quilt. Using a pencil, we traced attendees hands onto Pellon Wonder Under Fusible Webbing and then ironed it on to bright hand-dyed fabric. These hands will be used as a theme for a double-sized bed quilt which will be raffled off as a fund raiser for this worthy charity.  Stay tuned to see the project progress.

This fall will also see me working on quilts for two babies that are due in the fall. Both moms work in my office. One of the babies is a girl, but I don't know what the other baby is. I was thinking of doing a traditional quilt design for the girl quilt that has outline of a hand with a heart in the palm. (As you can guess, one thing led to another and I thought of the idea for the charity quilt). If I do the hands in pale pink prints and the hearts in hot pink prints I think it will look great. I have not thought of an idea for the other baby as it is sometimes harder for me to figure out an idea for a baby with an unknown gender. If anyone has any suggestions. . .

My Sleeveless Shell is Done

It is done! I finished sewing in all the ends this morning. Since it is actually wearable, I am probably being over critical by saying I am not super happy with it. But if my whole point was to learn something in the making of it -- learn I did.

I learned a lot about converting a pattern from a hand pattern to a machine. The pattern gave a gauge that was for width of 17 stitches = 4 inches; but it did not give the number of rows per inch. It was a pattern that expected you to measure as you go. Well on a machine, when your sweater is stretched out with weights, it is rather hard to measure. My fall back was the swatch that I did. I measured the number of rows and then tried to determine how many rows I needed to have in order to get a good length. I am guessing my math was off or my knitting on the sweater was different from the swatch for I am about 3 inches short in length. Most of that length should be in the "bodice". It feels rather snug in the arm area. When looking at my picture and at the picture with the pattern, you can see that my neckline is higher and that there is not as much length in the straps. The lesson learned here for me: Be selective with the pattern. Make sure that it has everything you need to convert easily to machine knitting -- rows included.

I had trouble with the yarn. It is not very resilient when you have to pull out a row and re-knit it. The 8 plies come apart easily and when re-knit they look slightly different. I think that if I had picked a solid color, it would have been more apparent so I am glad I went with a variegated yarn. While it is soft and silky feeling, I think that it will get a lot of pulls in it.

The cable really looks nice and neat, it turned out much better than I hoped. I actually changed the cable to twist every 10 rows as opposed to 12 rows -- but that was a total accident. I miscounted on the number of rows when I did the first cross over and I didn't want to go back and pull it out because of the yarn plies coming apart.

Well, I might try this pattern again as I do like the sweater. However, I think that I will try it with a wool blend and stay away from the bamboo cotton blend. Perhaps I will try this pattern by hand where I can measure it the way the pattern is written.

Or maybe I will just stick to socks.

Mitten and Sweater Update

I have been so busy the last week or so, that I really did not do too much knitting until yesterday. As you can see, my mitten is progressing -- albeit slowly. I finally have transitioned to the second green color. There is only about four more rows until I get to the second pink shade. I am really looking forward to how the transition will look.  I first blogged about these mittens when I got the book more than 3 months ago. I know this sounds strange to say in July, but I am beginning to wonder if I can get these done by winter!

I don't have a picture to show you yet, but I am so close to being done on the sweater that I knit on my Bond. I have completed the back and front, I connected the shoulders and hand knitted the rolled neckline and I am working on knitting the rolled edging on the arm holes.  As soon as I have that done, it I can sew up the seams, tuck in the yarn ends, and wear! -- Oh, and of course, take a picture or two to post here for you to see.

Happy knitting!

Working on the cabled sweater

This afternoon, I started working on the front of my sleeveless cable sweater. It has been slow going, and I needed a break, so I thought that I would blog my progress.  Here is the last picture I took of it showing 5 twists. The process is fairly simple -- but slow going. However, not nearly as slow going knitting by hand!

I have to say that creating the purl stitches is easier to do in this pattern than it is in a rib. This is only 4 columns of purl stitches in the entire pattern. I hope that making good purl stitches just requires a lot of practice, because I am not really happy with how they look. They are not really as even as I like.

 I did one thing to make it easier to keep track of where my purl stitches were supposed to go. I taped a small piece of red paper over the two stitches on both sides of the cable on the bed in front of the green retainer bar.

 In order to pick up the first side of the cable, I used a cable stitch holder that I have had for years for my hand knitting.










Here are the first stitches hanging out of the way so that I could move over the other half of the cable.

It would be nice to have three hands so that I could take a picture of myself moving the four stitches -- but alas I am just like everyone one else. . . I need a tripod.

Well, I have a sweater to finish.  Happy knitting.

Not so weird(o) -- it's warm -- Beardo!

There are winter days in Chicago where I wish I could wear a ski mask. But of course in this day and age, people in ski masks get arrested -- or at least followed and observed.  This is just too (weird) cute.  Beardowear is a Canadian company that makes an, ummm, interesting hat. The Globe and Mail Newspaper reports.

Enjoy. . . and happy knitting.