Gooey/ Groovy

The poison oak medicine is gooey. Scary gooey. So much so that I'm afraid to cross-stitch. Quilts I can wash, socks I can definitely wash, cross-stitch not so much. So I may occasionally stitch when the medicine has been washed off and not reapplied, but... Well, let's just say that the attention to stitching is mostly limited to longing gazes. (Very Romeo & Juliet: it could end in tragedy.)

So on to quilting! Today at PQM, I finished the Have a Nice Frog top. I used more of the groovalicious tie-dye style fabric and I really like the result. (Click on the pic for a closer-up view) It's one of those things that look so different when you step away from it. I'm happy with how it came out. Oh, and today Transporter Malfunction got designated, so send up a prayer for Anita if you're so inclined.

Azkaban Reopened

What do you mean, I haven't written lately? Neither has Shakespeare. Um. Yeah. So there.

First order of business: I've finished Sheherezade. Now it is off my plate, the agenda, and the sidebar! Looking at it, I think it could have had another border, but... feh! It's done. And I like it.

Second in line: the Peeps Bedsocks are finished! Knitting on it was like eating popcorn: a few stitches and--before you know it--the bowl is empty! Aren't they cute? Slightly goofy, I know, but sweet in their special way. As always, there was some yarn left over so I decided to make mirror booties with what's left. I've read about, heard about, and thought about a new technique: knitting two socks at a time on one circular needle. So I gave it a shot. I like it. This way, the socks have a chance to be nearly identical.

Lastly, Playtime at Azkaban has returned. I wasn't completely satisfied with 'em. They kept falling down--not really desirable in a pair of socks. I determined that the cuff was done in a twisted rib and that's not very stretchy, albeit pretty. That needed to be re-knit. But--and it's a big BUT--you can't just unknit ribbing from the top if it was knit top-down. It requires... surgery. That's right. Cutting. Warning: The following pictures may be too explicit for some knitters. To prep, I used Jasmin's advice: slip a smaller guage needle into all the stitches in a row.Then take a deep breath and (I know it's scary) CUT a stitch. Just one. From that stitch, pull out the following stitches all around that row. The needles in place should keep your beautiful work from unravelling. Now that you've got your work stable, you can work on your project peacefully. (And I am!)

Full Bloom

Spring has officially sprung! The cowbirds are scouring the parking lots, the surfers are shucking their wetsuits, the poison oak is budding, the skies are clear, and... wait, what was that last one? The skies are clear. No, further back. That crack about poison oak? Yup, that's the one. Let's just say that spring is in full bloom and... so am I.
You know what an itchy rash is good for? Projects! It gives me something to focus on besides NOT SCRATCHING. I mean, come on. If we're told to not do something, isn't that the only thing we want to do? Instead, put a lace pattern in front of me and knitting supplies and say, "Go!" Then my focus is much better channelled. I've been mostly knitting. Riding in the car with The Man of the Place, standing in line at Soup Plantation in between scooping gobs of broccoli onto my tray, waiting for a pan of mushrooms to cook... whenever I need something to do. For a heavy duty attention grabbing project, I've been working on my lacey Gasp of Spring socks. (It's actually a much darker, richer purple but the camera wanted to show it to you in a less intimidating color.) For sheer fun, we have these silly bedsocks. The pattern is Emma Bedsocks, from the Jane Austen Yarn Club, but I call 'em Peep Socks because they look just like that Easter marshmallow candy. Well, at least the yellow and purple look Peep-ish. Because they are knitted with DK weight and size 4 needles, they are fairly flying off the needles.

Then there's another pair of my own design I won't show you right now because I'm hoping to sell that pattern to a knitting publication. Right now that's only in plain stockinette, so it's perfect for zombie knitting. (Just knit and knit and knit.) And I've finished a pair of blue baby booties for a friend who's preggers with a little blue one.

Have a Nice Frog!

Here's what I came up with for this groov-a-licious combo! I thought I'd have a whole top to show you today, complete with borders, but... okay, here's the story. Friday is quilting group. Here's my routine:

1. pack up my portable machine and my current project in a rolling bag
2. set it outside the back door
3. put my other stuff in the car
4. walk around the house to the back door
5. put rolling bag in car
6. drive

Well, I went straight from step 3 to step 6 yesterday. It was more like this:

1. pack up my portable machine and my current project in a rolling bag
2. set it outside the back door
3. put my other stuff in the car
4. drive
5. get out of car
6. realize that I am one rolling bag short
7. call home and ask the man of the place to put my stuff away.

So it was time to find out what opportunity I was in line for. We do have an extra machine and plenty of supplies. I yanked out the blue, purple, and green scrap bins. I started finding fabrics that might want to go together. Then I noticed a bunch of 3.5" width-of-fabric strips in the blue bin, all the same blue funky floral. To me, that just screamed, "Border!" Already cut and ready to go. I used it as the inspiration fabric for the quilt and pulled in some pinks and oranges for sparkle. I cut the fabrics into 4.5" width strips, not worrying about their lengths. I also cut a few 6" squares and folded 'em into prairie points. Then I made long strips and laid them side-by-side. I scattered in the prairie points and assembled the whole thing. I still needed an outer border, so I grabbed the fushia bin. No dice. The dark green. Ew. Purple? No way. Yellow really wanted to play so... Here is the final product. I'm calling it "Transporter Malfunction." Get it?

Heh-heh-heh...

If you were given this: and this: and this: ...what would you make? I'll post my answer tomorrow.

Mayday! Mayday!

Okay, Kids, I'm stuck. I started this post:

SABLE that's ... Stash Aquired Beyond Life Expectancy. I think I may be SABLE at
this point. I have so many creative supplies, I could open a store. So, why not? I'm not going to use it all. But it's hard. I bought this stuff because I like it and I believed I'd use it. I've got to say, this is a hard bullet to bite. I'm... opening an etsy store. I'll preview the stuff here, and a few days later it'll pop up in my (gulp) online store. I am starting with the cross-stitch tub. I have some gorgeousness just languishing away in there. Then perhaps I'll move on to the acid-free papers.

And then I got stuck. Yup. I took pictures and wrote a description or two. And then nothin'. I like my stuff. Even the stuff I don't like as much as the other stuff. So I don't know what I'm going to do. Any suggestions? How do you manage your oversupplies?

Injured Pride

My office chair broke just now! And you gotta know that when your chair breaks, it doesn't just fall over when you're out of the room: no, it dumps you out and suddenly you're not sitting where you thought you were sitting. No worries, though. I'm not hurt. I'm just applying a little ice to my... pride. And we have no lack of chairs in this house. But that was the only purple one. Phooey.I've been doing an online team workout program. It's called Blue and You. My team is Lime & Violet. With it, you check in each day you work out. With every day's worth of exercise, you are moved to another place in the USA, as though you are walking really fast. Today I'm in Beachwood, Ohio, near Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Color me well-travelled.Dream Dancer was getting a little monotonous so I pulled out In a Garden again. (I really don't understand those people who can work on just one project at a time.) I finished up the lemon tree, complete with backstitching to pick out the details. I like backstitching as I go. I get to appreciate the picture more. And if I really get moving, I can get Sheherezade done today. We'll see. And if wishes were horses, we'd all be eating steak. Anybody know what show I'm quoting there?

This was started right after our trip to New Zealand, possibly on the plane home. That was five yea--cough-cough!--some time ago. I pulled it out and stitched for, oh, probably half an hour. Then sewed down the ends on the sewing machine: less than ten minutes. And there was the blocking--wetting, ironing, pinning, and leaving it to dry--maybe five minutes. So, a maximum of 45 minutes and I can kick a project off the Way Too Many Projects sidebar. (This is where you cheer. That's okay. I'll wait.)
So I'll look at that list again and ask, "Is anybody else a quick finish?" Well, the Nine Batik Stars should be done in a few hours. I'm just sewing down the binding--I've done three corners already--and will have to make a label. The label always has my name, the city, the year, and the name of the quilt. It's art; it needs a name.
And I've finally found the name for this one. I was thinking desert (because of the sand color), jewels (because of the tones of the blocks), and night (because of the stars). This took me to the middle east, then to Arabia, then 1001 Arabian Nights. I thought about the stories of Sinbad, djinn, mysterious caves, harems, surprise twists and then I thought about the woman who told all these stories: Sheherezade. And that was it. That's the name. Sheherezade. Cool, huh? I'll change it in the sidebar.

While Tiny's away, we cleaned the carpets. That's right, we did. We didn't call a company. We didn't figet and fuss that someone wasn't rinsing it enough. We actually went to the store and picked up a Rug Doctor and did the work ourselves*. And rinsed it three times. Yeah, that means we didn't do the whole house, but still it's very nice. If soggy.

*By ourselves, I mean the Man of the Place ran the machine. I just moved furniture, mixed the solution, and poured it in. It makes too much noise for my tender little shell-like ears.

The Camera Doesn't Lie

Oh, sure it does! When you look at these pictures, you can't tell if the room is a mess or straight out of Better Homes and Gardens. In fact, you can't tell if my home is really in a hollow tree or an alien ship orbiting Earth and looking for signs of intelligent craftwork. But wait. That also applies to you. I don't know if you're even human or possibly some exotic mix of gorilla and butterfly. A gorillerfly. Butterilla? I gotta get my mind back.

I pinned these two quilts in preparation for actually quilting them.

Definition

Quilting, if you don't know, is the action of attaching a quilt top, fluffy stuff in the middle, and back together. Usually a sewing machine is used for this, but hand-quilting is highly respected. Also, there's something called a tied quilt. In this case the quilting is done with small bits of yarn, cording, thread, or very flexible pasta* that simply goes through the quilt and back up and is then tied. Many quilters will actually pay to have their quilt machine-quilted. This is referred to as credit card quilting. I have credit card quilted my three largest quilts as Molly, talented as she is, simply isn't big enough for some things.
Miss Running Water, my Dream Dancer, has made some progress. I believe that everything except her skirt and feet and some little background do-hickeys (that's a technical term) has been cross-stitched. Backstitching is still needed for almost the whole picture.
*Quilting with pasta is not recommended for quilts that you expect to ever wash as it is biodegradable and will disintegrate. Cooking with pasta, on the other hand, can go over quite well.

A Finish and a Review

I did it! I kept my focus on this little darlin' and The Secret Life of Limes is finished, top and back! This one is ready for Red's deft hand. I don't usually make backs, but I was inspired. And--Stashbuster Alert!-- I used up this 2-yard piece of chartreuse, not to mention all the scraps that went into the cross! I also used a little cross-stitch piece I made when teaching a class. Applecheeks really likes it when I throw in some cross-stitch.

Movie Review, from a Knitter's POV

We rented The Hurt Locker. If you need a film that will move knitting fingers fast, this is a good one. The action just keeps moving and the sock practically knit itself. There was one point that I needed to leave the room to escape from a particularly gruesome scene, but otherwise I found it a good film. If your project is low in patterning detail, like my Joyleaf Cable Socks, The Hurt Locker can be a great film. However, for a project that requires more attention, you'll be better served with The Reader. This is a film that my regularly looking away did not cause me to lose the thread of the plot and may have, in fact, enhanced the movie-watching experience.