Falling for the New

Do you ever fall head over heels for a project? The color, the pattern, the fabric or fiber? Sometimes it’s a quilt, sometimes it’s a fabric, other times it’s a sweater (usually a sweater, not something small like a scarf or hat). For the knitting infatuations I’m using Ravelry to my advantage by queuing or favoriting the project, then doing some research by looking at projects made by other people. What did they think of the pattern? The yarn? I’m also trying to use my stash listing to link to these projects. The last two sweater pattern I fell for are still in my queue, and though one required purchasing a back issue of Vogue Knitting, both are tagged with yarn already in my stash.

Quilts often get drawn up in Electric Quilt 6, and good notes are taken so five years down the road I won’t think it was something designed by me. It’s great fun to resize the blocks and use my own colors and fabrics. I’ve scanned my own fabrics a couple of times, but find it easier to find the images online and just import them. The Electric Quilt website has tips and links for doing this, and they also have lots of free fabric libraries to download. Sometimes I stalk fabric online for a while before purchasing it. I thought I had waited for a good price on a quilt kit at an online store only to discover that the discount was only that the kit no longer included a backing. Fortunately I was able to find the same backing online and even on sale—this was one of those fabrics that really wanted to be a backing: XOXO The Cat by In The Beginning, with hilarious notes from the cat.

Machine knitting is still very appealing, though the blanket that I thought was going to charity is now the cat’s. The piece was over 40” wide on the machine (and it was knit very tightly), and I used basically all of the wool that was the same weight for a length over 30”, and once it was removed and blocked, it is much smaller than the minimum size requested. It shrank almost 7” in width alone.

By doubling some 14/2 linen, I machine knit some great washcloths that have just a bit of scrubbing power, and are more absorbent that I would have guessed. I was contemplating trying to make some felted boxes on the machine, but after re-reading the pattern realized that they will probably be too bulky, as they are knit with bulky yarn doubled. Browsing Ravelry I found a cute pattern for a worsted weight spinning bag that looks like it can be converted to a flat piece and seamed before felting.

De-Stash Projects

I have a bad habit of taking a small project and talking myself into making several of them, turning it into a much larger project. Sometimes it’s a practical idea, especially for gifts, like the three Boo the Bat amigarumi toys knitted for my three great-nephews last Halloween (note: after looking at the picture I remembered a 4th one went to my sister.) I took it a bit further with the 40 placemat project for Meals on Wheels (finished way early!) for this Thanksgiving. This had double points since it was such a great stashbuster—using up small batting scraps and fabrics.

Continuing on, last weekend 20 cosmetic bags for charity used up the largest pieces of upholstery samples from my SIL and the last of the gross (144 in the box) of turquoise blue zippers gifted to me by my FIL. Next up is a batch of quilt tops from some large fat quarter bundles that must have been a really good price some years back.

On the knitting front, I have made eight charity scarves from washable wool, using my Bond knitting machine. It’s a good way to try new techniques, and using up yarn that probably would not have been loved in sweater form by anyone in my family. I learned to skip needles for better drape after the first one came out a bit stiff (but still very wearable). The fabric knits up with a slight ribbed appearance, though when one of the first scarves was wet blocked, the tension evened out and it disappeared.

One small scarf/kerchief knitted as a triangle was a success, with interesting patterns from the sock yarn. I started from the long edge and decreased on both sides as I worked. The next attempt was to knit a larger one sideways, but I’m just not getting the increases to take. I foolishly plunged on trying to knit one half, starting from the center, but hadn’t done my math and came to the halfway point of the yarn way too soon, so will have to practice on some other yarn and try again later (was attempting to start from one corner edge, with increases on one side until the full width of needles or the yarn halfway point was reached).

Yesterday I brought five pieces of garment fabric to my ASG meeting and four of them found new homes. Most of it was rayon, one piece of silk, all of them older than my son. I have a collecting bag for Project Linus going too, and a project box collecting pieces for next year's ASG national project making drawstring bags for the troops.

The Latest Fibery Addiction

The Bond Ultimate Knitting Machine has been on my radar for over a year. It didn't quite seem worthy of the investment, even with a discount coupon. But more than once I had been disappointed when either the sale was over or they ran out of stock at a certain online superstore.

Last week I caved, and there is no looking back. There was even a storage table the right length that already held containers of yarn, and it's in a room that can be closed off from the cat and left undisturbed. Finished so far: a sample swatch waiting to be stitched up into a baby hat, one large baby blanket center (planning to edge by hand with knitting or crochet), a dishcloth/swatch from cotton chenille, a charity scarf from sock yarn, and 4 washcloths waiting for a crochet edging (done in one piece with waste yarn in between.) The chenille swatch is helping me plan my first sweater, and the sock yarn scarf has me optimistic for other projects with lightweight yarns.

My week off from quilting-for-the-job gave me time to do some custom quilting on one of my own quilts. It needs some thread cleanup and binding before it's photo-ready, and it felt great to take the time to give this particular quilt the quilting it deserved. It's made from swap blocks from a group, with additional applique done on each block by me.

The Fudgy Quilt

When you use pins and steam to get quilt pieces or blocks to fit more precisely, you "fudge" them. This little quilt is very fudgy. The checkers are actually printed on the fabric, and are about 1" square. It took careful cutting of the strips and blocks, and then piecing along the printed lines to give the appearance of being more or less square.

This little quilt is only 42" square.

I'm trying to decide if my six inch red and white 9-patch swap blocks want to be a larger version of this quilt. That would require making alternate 9-patches for the center of each "X" block, with 5 white and 4 red squares each. Many of the settings I like for 9-patch blocks require making setting or alternate blocks.

9-patches and hourglass blocks or 9-patches and snowball blocks give the appearance of stars. 9-patches and churndash blocks are also fun. My blue 9-patch blocks will be set on point and offset every other row to give a 3-d effect. I've made some partial blocks for the sides so none of the swap blocks have to be cut in half.

New and Old

I've been doing quilt bindings the same way for a long time, but while doing 28 corners in one day (7 placemats), my corner technique has changed. I used to stop 1/4" (or the seam width) from a corner when turning, but the corner of the backing kept flipping when starting the next seam, making a lump. Sometime ago there had been a quilting demonstration where you would sew off to the corner, making a mitered seam, so I gave that a try, and it really helped. I thought it was Eleanor Burns, but the video showing her technique is slightly different:
http://quiltinaday.com/television/video-binding.asp

You can teach an old quilter new tricks!

With some unexpected free time, I plowed through a lot of projects in the past two weeks, finishing 4 quilts, lots of placemats, some sweater knitting progress, and even some spinning. The current spinning fiber is from a charity auction, it is not as clean as previous fibers I’ve spun (have to stop every foot or so and pick out pieces of grass, and frequently sweep the fiber crumbs off foot pedals). It is soft, a cream with some darker fibers for a heathered look.

I did a small machine digitized embroidery project – changing DS’s beloved hat from a rival school’s logo to his current college, with the help of a small scrap of fake ultrasuede to make a patch. And learned a new crochet technique--Tunisian crochet from a book, 3rd dishrag finished already. The fabric is nice and dense, and so far has been holding up well. The first was Lion Cotton, the others CotLin.

Found two local podcasts – The Manic Purl (Vancouver BC) and Doubleknit. They both do some traveling, but mostly are talking about things closer to home than SoCal or the Eastcoast.

Knot a Problem group on Ravelry – totally cracks me up! There is competition to untangle other knitter’s yarn! Raverly rocks!

Bits and Pieces

Bits and pieces of projects have been worked on in the last few weeks. The green Corriedale spinning has been plied, washed, and measured.

New spinning was started last night - some lovely oatmeal fiber that was purchased from an auction last year. It was wound in a "cone" about the size of an oatmeal can, and the first step was to carefully unwind it into a laundry basket so it would feed without extra twist. It has a lovely crimp and comes off in flat ribbons about an inch wide.

Eleven placemats are finished, two more have binding in progress. They are quite fun to make, as it's so fast to go from selecting several pieces of fabric, cutting one out, cutting other versions from the scraps, piecing and quilting with a simple grid on my sewing machine. Some of the bindings are completely done by machine, and others using narrower strips are hand finished. There are five more fabric bundles stacked and each one will make at least two tops.

The next group will have more oranges and browns. I'm making 4" squares and 4" rail fence blocks from scraps - some with a basketweave pattern and others that resemble pinwheels.

I may work on some Christmas print versions for one or more of the charity shops once this grouping is complete, in sets of two or four.

The Flower Basket Quilt top is finally complete - the borders carefully added, the backing pieced, and it's ready to quilt. A small Wolf Quilt for charity went together with the leftovers from a twin bed quilt made for my son many years ago. The fabrics were from the same line and were not very compatible with any of my other stash. It was also quilted on a sewing machine rather than the longarm. It just needs binding to be complete.

Back on the yarn side, a couple more scarves for charity have been finished, one knit and one crochet. I'll be able to expand my color selection after reading about the Warm for Winter program that Pacific Fabrics supports--last year they indicated the need for darker masculine colors, but they also serve women and children.

The Daily Sweater is moving along again, one half of the lower ribbing is finished and the other halfway done -- then just the sleeves to finish. Even being a cotton blend it is still warm when it has to sit on my lap.

A Large (small) Stash Project

The latest podcast of Annie's Quilting Stash had some great ideas for using and organizing fabric stash. The idea that hit home with me was placemats for Meals on Wheels - fall colors for Thanksgiving. I have a lot of assorted leafy/fall fabrics that work together in small groups, but not necessarily together for a large project. My local Meals on Wheels sounded receptive to the idea, and they told me the current number of people served is 35, which is reasonable for me to finish by Thanksgiving on my own (if the number was 100-200 I would have asked quilting friends for help). Three placemats are pieced & quilted (not bound), two more tops & battings are ready. The battings are being pieced from the 4" strips leftover from customer quilts that were too small to return and too large to throw away. I will probably finish them with regular quilt bindings rather than the serged finish I saw on some similar projects online. Two fat quarters per placemat, with a bit leftover, are being used (so far Rail Fence and 4" squares, but I may use other patterns.)

In knitting stash reduction, two more charity hats and a scarf have been finished too. A February Baby Sweater (Elizabeth Zimmermann) had been started too, but only after finishing the yoke did I realize that she had assumed we knew to put buttonholes in...and the yarn is quite awful, so I will purchase some nicer yarn and re-start, as this will be a gift. The yarn is splitty and a bit scratchy, so it will be recycled into something more decorative than wearable.