Watch for Sailors!

Yesterday, in an attempt to appreciate my home town, I stopped at Spanish Landing and took a little walk in the tiniest strip park along the harbor. It was just lovely. Until about 30 sailors nearly trampled me in a horrible jogging accident. Okay, okay. It wasn't like I walked into the middle of a marathon.* They were going in singles and groups of up to four, it seemed. And they dodge walkers very well. Mostly I looked at sailboats, grass, sky, that one guy... Then I headed over to Little Italy for a caffe latte. I put the final borders on Pink Orient. I wish I knew what that Chinese calligraphy really says. I heard about a scientific journal that accidentally put an ad for a brothel on their cover! I think this will make a nice back. I was digging through my Asian fabrics for something without any success whatsoever. Then a wild hair made me open up the purple box. I had four yards of this scrumtious darling. It should do just fine.And Whisper is finishing up, very scrappy, if I do say so myself. I used pieces from the 2 1/2" x 4 1/2" box to make the final border. The style is called "Piano Keys." I still have to do the other two sides, but I really like it as a good way to increase a quilt's size quickly and use up scraps. Here's a link on how to do a really nice one.


*not like that time we drove into the Cody Stampede. That was an oopsy I won't soon forget... So we were visiting Cody, Wyoming on our first cowboy vacation. We knew there'd be a rodeo and we were looking forward to it. Driving into town to visit the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, we became aware of about 200 cows and numerous cowboys headed straight for us and not a block away! "Aah! Turn! Turn!" I shouted. The Man of the Place did so and parked. We hopped out and watched the rest like a parade. It ended well. I bought beads.

Twisted but Happy

Non-Sense and Sensibility Socks

So the heel flap is done and the heel is turned! I really like the stitch pattern. Well, I really like the way I did it. Wrong, I mean. I slipped purl-wise. It's probably very close to what it's supposed to look like. I figured out that I was doing it wrong on the last row, so I wasn't about to pull it out. I'll do it right on the foot and then we'll see.

I brought the Koolhaat to knitting group on Saturday and got quite a bit done. Jo said I was "brave for knitting that in public," but I figured knitters would understand when I went silent or sat there going, "one, two, three, four, oops." It's the toughest pattern I've ever done, but I'm getting it. I even fixed a couple of dropped stitches. I hope.
Sleep Baby Sleep is getting some attention. I got the basketweave done on both sides, and completely filled in on one side. It's pale pink. Yeah, I know you can't tell. Trust me, it's there.I found this on etsy.com. I typed in a destash yarn search and found tons! Of course, I knew better than to go absolutely nuts, so I only bought this. I plan to use it to make the Annetrelac Socks pictured below.

I think it's gonna be really pretty in those blues and pinks and browns.

No, Really. Who Am I?

As I'm working on the Sense & Sensibility socks, I decided to take a quiz and find out which Austen character I am:

Take the Quiz here!

Go figure it's one I know nothing about! Well, that'll be remedied. I plan to read six Austen novels this year.

1. Sense and Sensibility a
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. Mansfield Park
4. Persuasion
5. Northanger Abbey (you mean I gotta wait 'til October?)
6. Emma

So, anyway, here's the sock progress:You can kind of see how pretty the chevron pattern is becoming. I'll block it when I'm done, (get it wet and pin it out to dry) then you'll really be able to see it.

I've got a little further on Pink Orient quilt. Stashbuster Alert! I wanted to use up the three fabrics in the blocks, so I cut it pretty close. All the fan fabric (black background and cream background) is gone and I have just enough of the pink to go around with one little 2" border. Measly, I know, but if you look in the upper left hand corner of the photo above, you'll see a little squarish piece of pink: that's all that will go into the scrap bin.

Detail of Pink Orient

When You Can't Quilt...

I think I figured it out: don't use Molly (my big sewing machine) when I'm migraining. I think the constant noise is too much. So today, I knitted. Here's the dish towel. I love that the color name is Pink Panther. Too cute!And I baked. Although when I had all the rest of the ingredients ready to go, I realized that I had less than half of the right amount of yeast. So I gave it a lot of time to rise and an extra knead. It came out good, if a little short. And I knitted some more. The pattern is the Koolhaas Hat. (I'm calling it the Koolhaat.) The problem that I found is that the gauge is based on the lattice pattern knitted in the round. I've been trying to be a good little knitter and knit up a guage swatch to make sure I'm using the right needles, but (Rant Alert!) how can you get an accurate sample of this booger if you knit it flat? And how would you do that anyway since the chart is written in the round? Here's what I think: I think that any pattern with a guage specific to the pattern has a lazy designer! (Hmph!) I don't think it's possible to make a swatch for this despite the ingenious circular-to-flat method Katy showed me. It won't work because the pattern is written one way. (Well, maybe it would work for Katy.)

So I decided to skip it. I checked numerous projects based on this pattern on Ravelry and, from other knitters' notes, it seems that, if I knit according to the pattern, it should be fine. And I did a tiny bit of beadwork. After receiving some beaded stitch markers with my Sense and Sensibility yarn and examining 'em, I knew how to duplicate them. So I pulled out my wire and tools and beads and made two. Just two, though. Let's not get carried away.Didn't do much else, though.

Welcome to Sock World

I've--eee!--started the Sense and Sensibility socks. The pattern was tough to start but I got into the swing pretty quickly after the first two or three rows. There's a technique abbreviated as p2tog tbl. Supposedly it means purl two stitches together through back loop. What it actually means is: twist your knitting into a mobius shape, stretch your wrists in ways that the greater apes (man included) have long forgotten, force a camel through the eye of a needle, stick your tongue out and curse because you just dropped the stitch. Okay, maybe it's not that bad... And the edges are starting to scallop: back to happy!The Soy Toy socks (made of soy and something artificial) are officially finished! I sewed 'em closed on Tuesday and wore 'em. On Wednesday, I noted that I had dropped a stitch and was getting a nice little ladder going, so I had to use a crochet hook and some more yarn to fix that, but no big deal. They are now wearable and gorgeous. Okay, they're not exactly identical twins--they're fraternal!

And since I've finished two knitting projects...

I done went shopping! But only for projects I have in the planning stages. This green and pink soysilk (actually a by-product from the manufacture of tofu!) is going to be a lace scarf. (The shoes are just shoes.

And this wants to be a hat for Tiny.

And meet my new hand towel... I guess it still needs some work.

Look What Came!

Oh, yes! The first installment of the Jane Austen Yarn Club arrived. This is the Sense and Sensibility sock yarn. The picture makes it look a little orangey. It's more reds, yellows and a little pink. The pattern is a scalloped cuff sock and it looks so pretty! I can't wait to get started...

... And I don't have to wait, because I finished a project! Yes, the Albino Bat mask is pinned to the ironing board as I type this, blocking out. (That's what smart knitters do when they've finished a project. You get it wet and pin it into the shape you want and leave it alone. When it's dry, it should retain its shape.)

And here are my Chunky Churn Dash blocks set with hourglass blocks. I think I'll call this one Whisper. I'll try and sew 'em together today. We'll see.

Pouch Day

No, I am not celebrating marsupials, as Jello suggested, although I am partial to opossums. Today was my day to make zippered pouches!

I went from this:

To this! (Notice the leftovers from Cowboy Christmas!)I scheduled Pouch Day about a month ago. I've been wanting to make more pouches, but I knew that it wouldn't just magically happen. So I put it on the calendar. Then I got sick. But the slime monster has been tamed. Sort of.

Anyway, last night got me pulling out fabrics, especially leftover bits and pieces. I had six--count 'em, six! zippers floating around in my sewing basket so I made six zippered pouches! I kinda designed the sizes of the pouches based on the zippers.

Things I learned:

1. Don't trim the zippers. That extra fabric is there for a reason. (D'oh!)
   
2. While a pouch opening must conform to the zipper, the length of the pouch is only limited by good sense. Or not.
   
3. Vary the sizes.
   
4. Pins are pointy.
   
5. So are needles.
   
6. If you put it on the calendar, it's much more likely to happen.
   
7. There are lots of tutorials online. I used this one: twelve22.
   
8. Don't buy metal zippers. 'Nuff said.

The lining for this was from Leapfrog--which I never posted a picture of but it was cute. Trust me.

Three of 'em were leftovers from Kiwi Twist--the quilt fabric I purchased in New Zealand. It's all used up now--yay!I love the Maori designs...
Moo!

Stashbuster Alert! Total fabric used is 64" (measured by width of fabric)

And the Albino Bat is nearing completion. I didn't guess how long the strap had to be. Or how big my head was. Say nothing.

...but No Whining!

I've been invaded by a slime monster. It resides in my head so thinking has become a challenge. So I will write very little. But here's some pictures.

Arctic Anarchy close-ups.

Arctic Anarchy in full.

Cowboy Christmas top. Worked on it during the Superbowl.

Dream Dancer continues to improve. This shows the blue behind her head has grown. I've done more. Maybe the next post will show a ...ah, forget it. I'm going back to bed. The best part of being sick: not being expected to do anything!