Snowy Dragonfly Wings

I started this shawl for Jailgy last month and thought I would finish it while visiting her. I soon realized that knitting took second place next to her new quilting machine. We had so much fun! I think she said we finished five quilt tops altogether. I wish I had pics of them all but alas, I was only selfish enough to get one of mine.

This English paper piecing, basted on to a peach background and quilted on a electronic quilting machine.

When I got home I was able to finish her shawl but had trouble blocking it. I thought I could block it the usual way - the way I block wool. Get it wet, wring it out, pin it to a towel and wait for it to dry. Well, dry it did but when I unpinned it, it immediately curled. Grrr. I then remembered that that was not how you blocked acrylic! Silly me. What you are suppose to do is to pin your garment to the ironing board or some other smooth surface, hold the iron one to two inches above your work and steam away! And that, she said, worked. Voila!

When I Woke Up

This morning I wrote my list without even thinking. I wanted to get down as many things as I could think of before I forgot. Needless to say, most of these items will not get done. But I will try. So far, I've dropped off the vacuum hose to get fixed and expect to hear back from them later today. Good thing too since I'm expecting company. It never fails. Something goes wrong right before the company arrives. That's okay. This company really knows us and couldn't be bothered by such insignificant details as crumbs and cat hair on the floor.  Now, in the guest room I've had a shawl on the bed being blocked. (See number 10).In case you don't know, you use many straight pins to block a shawl unless you have blocking wires, which I do not. Hopefully, the company will not find any stray pins on their bed. Yikes! 

So this leaves me with an almost undone list and it's 3PM so I had better get busy. 

Winter Frost Not Snow

I may be repeating myself here. But bear with me as I get my blog in order and sort out the old drafts - culling, deleting and posting a few.

 We've had weird ground cover lately. It's almost as if it's trying to snow but not quite. That is frost, not snow. A closer look will reveal crystals unlike snow.

So I've been sitting by the fire enjoying working on my "Brick". It's so cozy inside the house - I don't want to leave. Not even to take a walk.

That's a good thing because I get a lot done. 

I'm not real happy about this sweater. There are at least three reasons but I'll chalk it up to a learning experience. First off, it's too big. I'm ok with that, I guess because then I can wear layers to keep warm. I can even roll up the sleeves. But still, I would like to someday make a sweater that actually fits. Second, the white yarn is gross. I don't like the feel of it. Even after a good wash it still feels pretty stiff. Also, the white should have been whiter. By that I mean the color, which is really cream, doesn't actually go with the grey. It looks ok on the computer monitor but in real life I don't like it. 

You would think I would have known this after putting together a quilt that mixed cream based and white base fabric. My sister fixed it by taking it all apart and separating the fabric into two piles - one white and one cream. This is what she did with the cream. Or was it the white? I'm not sure, but I guess I didn't learn.

She's really good with color. Me? I'm still learning,

So, I will knit.

At My Sister's House

One of the fun things about going to my sister's is that I get things done! Since I've been here I've worked on my slipped stitch socks and they are finished! They were my "car knitting"  project but I was getting tired of carrying them around the country (read: continent) and was glad when they finally came off the needles.

Heidi will be pleased!

I had been waiting a long time to finish this quilt. And when my sister told me she got a new (to her) quilting machine I asked if she needed another practice quilt. She did! We were both pleased with how it turned out.

The back is as pretty as the front! Maybe even more so. 

It only helps that my sister has a wonderful craft/sewing room. 

We come up early in the morning and only leave to eat and sleep. Well, maybe to quilt with the machine which is actually in the garage. What a great place to spend the day!

BTW, that's my finished quilt on the ironing board.

Autumn Socks

I like variegated yarn. I like it a lot. But it's usually when it's still in the skein that it's so appealing to me. Once I start to knit with it, I find it's not so pretty after all. There must be a trick to making it look as attractive in the project as it is in the skein. I'm wondering if that has to do with one of two things... or maybe both. The first may have to do with the actual stitch pattern. By that I mean some yarns fight with a pattern stitch and vise versa. A bobbly stitch does not look good in a variegated yarn. But if you do a plain stockinette stitch it will "pool" more often than not. And that's just plain ugly or homemade looking. The key is to find out the color repeat and find a project that corresponds to the number of stitches you have for a round or a row. If you can get the yarn to "stripe", you've won. I think I won.

Goals for 2016

So, no, I did not finish my temperature scarf. I really didn't even try. That was because I've been working feverishly on my "Brick" sweater.

It's almost done. All there is to do is to finish the first sleeve, work the second sleeve and finish off the collar. I'm still thinking about how to do the collar. I really don't like the look of the rib that the pattern suggest you do, so that's out. I've worked a single crochet on other sweaters and it's worked out fine. Another option is the seed stitch  - k1, p1 and alternate each row. That means where there is a knit stitch on the previous row, you do a purl stitch on the next row. And vise versa. Or I can do a garter row or two. Well, since it's easy to rip out I can try all three! There may be even a 4th option. I've got a book that has all kinds of ideas.

So that really brings me to my goals for 2016.

1. Love my children.

That's it! I don't want to set myself up for failure and I know I will always love them. Well, maybe I'll plan on finishing a few WIPs. Maybe.