Problem Child

This sweater was supposed to be my easy/winter project but it's been anything but. After I started and frogged two different cardigan patterns, I called my mom (which I clearly should have done to begin with) to get her thoughts on what to make and she suggested a pullover because this yarn tends to stretch after blocking.

I found a simple V-neck pullover pattern in a Patons book and I thought I'd add the Peasy lace pattern to it to dress it up a bit, if it's not too hard but the at the rate this project is going I have my doubts. At last I thought I have a plan so I swatched and I knit the ribbing only I really don't like it. It looks too loosey-goosey so I've decided it frog it and go down a needle size. By the time I get this thing going it will be spring and I'll be in the mood for spring colored yarn. . .

And ironically my Dark and Stormy sweater, which requires more concentration, is going along smoothly:

F.O. Sampler Quilt

Some quilt projects (like the blue and white triple irish chain quilt) go together easily and quickly. This one did not. It was the quilt with issues. I bought the pattern at Tennessee Quilts 2 1/2 years ago and glanced at the size and thought "oh that's close to a double bed size". It was not. Thankfully before I added the borders I laid it out on my bed to check the size and discovered it was several inches short on the sides. After racking my brain for a while as to how to fix it, I called my mom in a panic - what to do??? Add more blocks? Another border? In about 2 seconds she came up with idea of adding the half square triangle border and whew problem solved! She is SO good at that it's unreal. Note to self: next time just call her right away.

This quilt top also had several more trials along the way: blocks sewn together in the wrong order, borders sewn to the wrong side, etc. But at last it's done and out of my house and is now at my fabulous machine quilter's house! The back will be a flannel that's very similar to the outer border and the batting will be wool, which I've never used before so am anxious to see what it's like. Margaret is going to custom quilt each block to match the block pattern. It's going to be gorgeous and warm!

People at quilt shows always seem to come up with really clever names for their quilts, but all I've come up with so far is The Pink and Brown Sampler Quilt which is really lame. Maybe by the time I get it back from Margaret I'll have come up with something else. . . I'm also open to suggestions. . .

Dreaming of Spring In the Bleak Midwinter

One of my favorite songs is In the Bleak Midwinter because it sums up well the bleakness of winter perfectly. Back in December, I searched and searched for yarn that felt like winter and I finally found Rowan Felted Tweed grey mist. Then the search began of what to knit with it and after frogging the Transitions Knit Cardigan (the yarn was too fine for the garter yoke) I think I've settled on the Tangled Yoke Cardigan.

Here is the swatch for it:

And while I love the slow and quiet days of winter it, the dry skin, constant sinus headache, weather etc can be wearing, so I thought I'd start a quilt that would remind me of spring. After 2 bed sized quilts I decided a small wall hanging would be a nice change of pace and something that I wouldn't get too bogged down making. Today I started cutting it out - this quilt is fun in that I'm using charm squares (ie precut squares) given to me for Christmas last year by one of my closest friends. The other 2 fabrics are for the borders:

Here are the center squares:

for this quilt pattern:

F.O. February Little Lady Sweater

Three posts in one day - it's amazing how much I got done when I didn't have to go to work!

Here are some pictures of my niece wearing her new sweater and close-ups of the buttons I chose for it. My nieces LOVES blue so I tried to find blue buttons for it but none really matched. When she found that they were purple she was less than pleased but my oh-so-smart- brother-in-law quickly jumped in and told her that "purple is the friend of blue". I'm not sure she was convinced but hopefully she'll still wear it. . .

Nearly FO: Peasy

All I have to do is sew on the buttons hooray! I will post pictures of me wearing it after that's done unless it looks horrid on me then I may not. . . It was cloudy this morning when I took these so the pictures are a little dark. The picture of the sleeve in my previous post is a more accurate picture of the true color.

Going in circles

For some unknown reason it worked out that every project I worked on over the holidays involved knitting in the round:

#1) Peasy sleeve

#2) Snowflake hat #1

#3) Snowflake hat #2

#4) Cowl with a Little Twist

#5) Mittens for my niece (I made one, my mom made the other):

Weekend's best: January 1st - 2nd:

Worked on quilt borders, Peasy, and started a cowl made in Baby Alpaca - it's so soft!