Pouches Galore!

I have pics of zipper pouches to show off. So I'll show 'em in twos: backs and fronts. Or fronts and backs--depends on how you look at 'em. I know! So very very many pouches! I just couldn't stop myself. And I came up with a fun idea: I put the name of the quilt that it came from on the tag. I may be the only one who cares, but it pleaseth me. There are sixteen pictured here, front and back, so there's 32 pictures. Yeah, I said 32.It's been so odd here. I keep hearing about how hot it is elsewhere. We're getting the coldest temperatures on record for July and August. This is SoCal: I should be sweating and complaining. Instead, I'm wearing sweaters to go out for a walk and flannel pajamas.No, not the pajamas to go for a walk... unless I've been sleepwalking... note to self: set up videocamera tonight. And no complaining or even whining!

Okay, 31 photos. This last one looks exactly the same on both sides. I thought we could leave that one out.

Whakahekeheke

(pronounced, as far as I can recall, FA-kuh-HEE-key-HEE-key)
It means surfing in Maori. This quilt reminds me of New Zealand and has lots of surfboards and beach-ie motifs so Whakahekeheke to you. That's the secret name. Keep it between us, okay. I'm going to turn it in and call it Surftones. Yeah, Whakahekeheke is way cooler but it'll freak out the ladies who have to read it. You should'a heard 'em when I named a quilt Holaku.
You might guess I used up tons of scraps for this baby. You'd be right. We have boxes of 2-1/2 x 2-1/2", 4-1/2 x 2-1/2", and 6-1/2 x 2-1/2" precut scraps. I dug through and put these together. The only thing I had to cut was the inner border --that wasn't even half a yard. I was trying to figure out the outer border when I realized I still had plenty of 6-1/2" scraps. So I had to use 'em, toss 'em, or put 'em away. Ethically, tossing 'em seems just wrong. And I really don't like to put things away. (Enough from the peanut gallery!) So I made a "piano key border." It involves sewing strips long sides together. Any length will do, but I had these. Not too complicated, it just takes time. The only trick is to backstitch the beginning and end of each seam so it doesn't unravel when you put the whole quilt together.For those who make clothes, but not quilts, backstitching is almost entirely unused by quilters. I know you like to do it. Even if you're inclined to make a quilt. Fine. Go ahead. Don't let me stop you.

Paula Poundstone Touched My Knitting!

Okay, I know you can't see my knitting, but see those two little sticks in her hands? Those are the tiny size #1 needles attached to the Slayer Sox. If you look below, you can pretend these images are continuous. See, her hands... and the sock. You say the sock is as big as Paula's torso? Um... Tiny's got really big feet. Yeah.

The story is we had tickets to Paula's show on Saturday. Irresponsible parents that we are, the Man of the Place and I thought Tiny would still be away at camp that night. Oops. AND, she called us to pick her up early because she was sick. She's gotta be REALLY sick to miss out on the bus ride. Double oops. So we drove up to Julian, picked her up, and had drinks at the coffee place (no, it was her idea!). That's where I took out my beautiful Kaylee-nomah shawlette and draped it artistically on a vine. Here's the detail shot.

Once we got home, we did what we could for our feverish child and took off for our evening of fun. Small feeling of guilt? Yes, but

1. it's important to spend time with each other outside of the house.
2. she prefers to be left ALONE (her caps, not mine) upon returning from camp. Teenagers.

Poor baby.

And Paula? She was so funny! I think she's gotta be my favorite comedienne. Especially since she has two teenagers herself.

How Can You Tell If Your Teenager Loves You?

Tiny's just finished her Murder Among the Mateys pirate party. I was the corpse. Yyyyup. I guess you can't have a murder without a corpse. It seems telling that she'd choose her mother to be the dead body. At least I was included.
At PQM, Uphill Both Ways got finished up. Here it is, all sewn together. And here's the back Cathy made.I've been working on more zipper pouches. This is the front of one.And this is what I originally was going to use for the back. Something just struck me as wrong, so I used that for lining and chose this for the back instead.It's in process. I'll show you the finished project soon.

What I did for my summer vacation...

Guess where I was this week? Some people say I was at San Diego Comic Con, but that's not true. I was actually at a knitting convention. First I went to Battlestar Galactica for some training. As you can see, the crew chief helped me with my Caribbean Sunday Market Shawl:
Then I met up with Captain Hammer and Doctor Horrible (Doctor Horrible's Sing-along Blog)--I gave him a few pointers and let him work on the shawl a little. And now it's almost done. I blocked it out yesterday and just need to weave the ends in.Then I went to a sock workshop. The teacher was Belle (Beauty and the Beast) and she showed me how to get my Slayer Sox to practically knit themselves. (I'm told she has moving furniture.)Here's a closeup of the progress made. It's slow work as it's on size 1 needles, but the ribbing is ideal for keeping my fingers busy while gazing into Nathan Fillian's dreamy eyes.... Oh, sure, there were 900 other people in the room and the lights were down but we made a connection.

No Proble---Oops.

I am working on what must be the simplest knitting project that isn't garter stitch: The Sunday Market Shawl. The only weird thing is that you have NO IDEA how it's going to come out until the VERY LAST ROW! I'm not kidding. Click on the link if you want to see how it's supposed to come out. Look anything like what I'm doing? I think not... Oooh. I just realized I wasn't following the pattern. Ahem. I have to go.

But before I do, I inherited this. Anyone know what it is?