Out of Exile

I really need to learn not to put off the parts of projects that I dread the most. I finished all of the pieces for the brown blob at the beginning of December and only had the button band left. Hating button bands I worked on these yummy alpaca mitttens for my sister. 

Bella's Mittens Misti Alpaca in Chunky: camelback

For my mom I decided to make another Dragonfly Wings shawl. She's allergic to wool so I used Deborah Norville's Serenity Garden Yarn. It's 100% Dralon Microfiber (whatever that is.) I've read a lot of reviews about this yarn splitting, and I could see how that would be an issue, but I didn't really have any problems with it. I don't like it as much as some of the other yarns I use, but it is a nice option for when I can't use wool.

I was really happy with the stripes that the yarn made. It looks great with this shawl.

Dragonfly Wings Deborah Norville Serenity Garden: Hibiscus

Finally I couldn't put off the button band any long so on December 21 I finally did my seams and cast on the button band. (I should point out that I was celebrating Christmas with my family on December 23 so I had a mere 2 days to finish this sweater.) I knew I would be cutting it close with the amount of yarn I had left, but I was hopeful I could finish it. Unfortunately I ran out of yarn with 4 rounds left to go on my button band. I quickly ran to the store, but not surprisingly Wal-mart doesn't have a good selection of yarn. I tried running to Ben Franklin but they only had some nasty acrylic brown stuff that I didn't think would go well with the Knit Picks Wool of the Andes I'd used on the rest of the sweater. I thought about an IOU, but the yarn I need won't be available until the end of January. Some quick thinking and faster knitting and by the end of the night I had a hat.

Ramstar Falls Hat Homespun

I'll order more yarn the next time I place a KnitPicks order and will finish the brown blob for Christmas 2014. This brings me to the title of today's post. Last year after Christmas I cast on for the Fogarty Creek Blazer. I finished both sleeve and a few inches on the body of the sweater when I felt the urge to knit lace. I managed to resist the urge for a while, but as spring turned to summer the idea of knitting a heavy wool sweater became less and less desirable. Finally when I couldn't tolerate it any more the green sweater was banished to the stash box. Banished feels like a harsh term since the sweater didn't really do anything wrong, but since I've completed five projects, countless socks, and all but the button band on another sweater banishment is probably the right term. Lately our high has been hovering somewhere in the single digits with windchill pushing the temperature to -30 some days it's the perfect time to be working on a heavy wool sweater. I finished the back through waist chart and am making good progress on the charts leading up to the armscye. 

A Very Quilty Christmas

It's so wonderful to have a hobby obsession for your loved ones to focus on at times when gifts are exchanged. This year my Christmas presents focused very heavily on quilting. It feels a bit like bragging, but one of the ways I use my blog is to remind myself of things. My loved ones know I don't have the greatest of memories and I want to be able to look back and see what I got for Christmas this year and who gave them to me. If you stick with me to the end of this post I plan to share one of my goals for 2014 and how this blog will change.

I got some curved safety pins, a tool for opening safety pins, needles, and storage drawers (not shown) from my parents. My sister got me a set of 50 colored pencils. This one may not immediately be obvious as a quilting notion, but I'm finding myself sketching quilt patterns by hand a lot. (For those interested in my design methods it depends on the pattern whether I start this way or in EQ7, but my final draft is always done on the computer.)

I got lots of books and magazines. The Quilter's Patchwork Album and Easy Quilting is from my in-laws. The free motion quilting books and a subscription to Love of Quilting is from my parents, and the McCalls Quilting magazine is what happens when your husband gives you permission to buy your own stocking stuffer.

If you remember my Penguins on Parade quilt you'll know that I have love penguins. My husband found this adorable penguin shaped martini shaker. I suspect this will come in very handy on days when I use the seam ripper more than the sewing machine.

And finally my husband got me The Farmer's Wife. This brings me to one of my goals for 2014. I want to improve my piecing skills. I've decided the way to do this is to make the Farmer's Wife quilt next year. There are 111 blocks in this quilt which works out to 2 blocks a week with 7 left over. Some of the blocks are rather simple so I figure those weeks I'll tackle 3 blocks. 

I don't like sharing my goals for the new year. (Don't ask why I like the word goal better than resolution. I know they're the same thing, but goal seems much more attainable.) The reason I'm sharing my Farmer's Wife quilt goal is that I'm going to change my publication layout this year. Currently I publish Wednesdays on knitting and sometime in the weekend on quilting. I'm going to try moving to three posts a week. Miscellaneous Mondays will focus mostly on my other quilting projects, but they're miscellaneous so that I can share other things if I want to. Plus I love alliteration. Wednesdays will remain Work in Progress Wednesdays where I'll still share my current knitting projects. Fridays will now be Farmer's Wife Fridays and I'll show you the blocks I got done that week. 

I know that setting lofty goals sometimes means failing, but I don't like everyone to know when I fail. This is probably why I don't share my new year's goals with anyone other than my husband. I will however share my goals for 2013. This year I wanted to get a quilt pattern on the moda bakeshop (Into the Woods and Prairie Stars Table Runner) and I wanted to be paid for one of my patterns. I have my first pattern up on craftsy and have even been favorited by someone. It's not a sale, but I'm sure it will come sooner or later.

Writer's Block Drags On

I've got to learn not to name a quilt after a problem another creative field struggles with. In November I had my quilt top complete, went to a weekend workday hosted by my quilt guild and figured out the pieced backing. Sadly I went to lay the quilt out and discovered that my borders had more waves than the ocean. After ripping off the first border and cutting it according to the center measurement of the quilt rather than the edges (who knew quilt edges could lie) I discovered that the problem lay with the first pieced border I'd done. Originally I used my left over jelly roll strips to make an inner scrappy border, but it turns out my blocks are 7.75" rather than the 8" my border counted on. I've ripped off the first border (it's been put in time out and won't be allowed out until it agrees to play nice in a new project) and have decided to use just the solid border. Thankfully the quilt lays flat now and I was able to baste it pretty easily. My living room is a little cramped so I wasn't able to lay the whole quilt perfectly flat for basting, but I got half of it pinned and then rolled it and moved the other half to the wider floor space. 

Things were starting to look good for this quilt being finished before Christmas and my main machine jammed. I do have a second machine, but it doesn't have a cabinet with a nice flat bed and table to support the weight of the quilt. I'm hoping once my husband looks at the machine he'll figure out an easy fix and I can still use my main machine for quilting this thing. I might yet be able to get it under the tree this year.

Christmas Knitting

My Christmas projects are getting smaller which makes it harder to share without giving away exactly what I'm making. Since my husband has seen this hat in progress (and pictures of the finished pattern) I can share this gift. A little while ago I ordered some of KnitPicks Imagination sock yarn in Sasquatch. Unfortunately I didn't read the washing instructions before ordering the yarn and didn't find out it's hand wash only until it was here. I don't mind most knit things being hand wash only, but I just can't wrap my head around the idea of hand wash socks. Thanks to Ravelry I found this hat that knits up really quickly. Despite being hand wash only I'm really loving this yarn and its subtle color changes.

My husband requested the hat be long enough to comfortably fold and still cover his whole head. This was my car knitting during Thanksgiving so it might have gotten a little longer than intended. The pattern leaves it up to the knitter to decide how long to make the fold so this could be done with a single skein of sock yarn.

The hat is finished, but in order to keep some surprise in Christmas I'm waiting until the recipients have seen the finished gifts before sharing them here.

Sioux Prairie Quilt Guild Christmas 2013

This week my quilt guild had our annual Christmas party. It's always one of my favorite parts of the holidays. We have a big potluck, play a few games, and exchange quilt related presents. 

When we arrived there were donuts sitting on our plates. All of us were a little confused and asking if we really wanted to eat a donut at 6:00 at night when we had a potluck of yummy salads and desserts awaiting us. Then we got closer to the tables and discovered that the donuts were really these super cute felt pincushions. Each of us also got a template for a 5" half hexagon! I've been wanting to play with this shape but haven't gotten a template or one of moda's precut hexie packs yet. The best part is that the half hexagon works with charm packs and jelly rolls which is one of the few things I actually have in my stash.

The games were very creative this year. We're a large group and fill several tables so that's how our teams were decided. Everyone had to take a needle and each team was given a spool of thread. We then raced to see which team could get all of their needles on the thread first. The ladies at my table have lightening fast threading abilities and I'm pleased to report we won!  Our prize was a fat quarter and I chose the blue fat quarter in the picture below. For the second game we had to bring a fat quarter to exchange. We got to choose a fat quarter from the basket and had to toss it into a tub a few feet away. You'd think it would be easy, but those fat quarters really catch air when you throw them. Thankfully everyone who missed (including me) got to choose a fat quarter from the basket at the end of the night and I got to bring home the lovely little black and white print.

The evening ended with our gift exchange. Since we're all quilters we wrap our gifts in fabric which is how I got the green fat quarter in the picture above. We drew numbers to decide the order we chose gifts in. From there we could either take a gift from the table or steal one of the gifts that had already been unwrapped. The stealing part is always nerve wracking because if you draw something good you don't want anyone else to take it, and you want your gift to be concerned good enough to be stolen. (I'm pleased to report that the table runner I made was stolen once!) I was nice and picked one of the wrapped gifts and got a great little box bag for carrying all of my tools to workshops/retreats/work nights and a charm pack of Bobbin and Bits. I'm loving this fabric line and I think it might be destined for some play time with my new hexagon template. 

One final note not related to the Christmas party, but still exciting. I recently found OttLite bulbs at JoAnns that fit in a regular lamp! I've wanted an OttLite for a while, but the ones that I can afford if I spend a year's worth of birthday and Christmas money are the "cheap" ugly plastic ones. They'd work okay in a craft room, but I do most of my hand work in our living room where I want something a little more stylish. The light bulbs are a bit pricey at ten dollars a bulb, but that's significantly cheaper than the lamps. It's been really nice having a great light for knitting (haven't done much quilting this week.) This morning while taking pictures for the blog I realized the true value of this light bulb. I'll admit I was feeling lazy today and decided to use my point and shoot camera for pictures instead of setting up my DSLR. I occasionally do this and then use photoshop to make the pictures look good. (I know it's not the best practice, but it's the lazy one.) Because of my awesome new light bulb I didn't need to do any editing on my pictures! If you're trying to figure out how to take good photos in the winter with the crummy light the northern hemisphere gets this time of year (or next June for those in the south) I'd definitely recommend investing in one of these bulbs.

*This post has not been sponsored by anyone. I find it challenging at times to find quality items and when I do I want to share my finds.

Sleeves

I'm not sure why this amazes me since it tends to happen with every sweater. I moan and groan about the first sleeve and how much I hate sleeves, procrastinate as much as possible, and then when I finally finish the first sleeve and cast on for the second one things start flying. This weekend I actually finished the first sleeve.

Two days and one skein later I'm half way finished with the second sleeve. I'm not even worrying about the fact that this is my last undamaged skein of yarn (the other one got cut a little when opening the box) and even counting the damaged one and the half that's left from the first sleeve I only have two and a half skeins of yarn to finish this sweater. I've been floating back and forth, but right now I think I just might make it.

Sleeve Update

I was wishing this morning that I lived in Harry Potter's world, or at least had the ability to wave a magic wand and have my knitting needles magically go at it and work themselves. It would be so lovely to have these sleeves finished and move on to the next thing on my Christmas to-do list. Then I remember that they sell sweaters in stores so clearly the reason I do this is not just for a finished sweater. I know that the recipient of this sweater will feel the love I've knit into the stitches. When he wears this sweater it will be like I'm wrapping him in a hug and he'll remember how very much he is loved. Thankfully he really likes me and won't acknowledge all of the frustrations and frogging that have also gone into this sweater. So, with 41 days left until Christmas (eek!) I think I'd better get back to knitting.

Predictable Progress

As predicted the sweater sleeve has experienced a frogging. I was able to save the first three inches so it wasn't quite as painful as I anticipated it being. I'm not sure what I did but if you look closely about half way down the sleeve on the left side there's a wonky bit. It doesn't look too horrible in the picture, but it was very wonky in person. I was hoping that it would get better as I worked, but every round the wonkiness became more and more obvious.

I also noticed the the increases I was using were leaving large holes in my knitting. This is the first piece where I've ever had to do increases on a purl row. My preferred increase is to knit in the front and back of the stitch and if the pattern doesn't let me do that I lift the bar between two stitches and knit (or in this case purl) into the bar. For some odd reason the lifted bars left big holes this time. I'm still pretty sure that it should work knitting this sleeve in the round. Hopefully next week I'll have better progress to report.

Sweater in a month?

I've read in years past about knitters who commit to knitting an entire sweater, start to finish, in the month of November. This crazy event has been dubbed NaNoSweMo or National Sweater Knitting Month. It's the knitting response to NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month where participants are encouraged to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. I've always thought it would be fun to participate in, but never thought I'd actually be able to do it. This week as I cast on the left front of this cardigan I realized that it's entirely possible I will finish this sweater in 30 days. That said, I probably won't. I have no intention of pushing myself hard to finish this by October 25 (a month from when the sweater showed up on my blog) or by October 31. If I really intended to finish this sweater in a month I needed to commit to that before starting. 

Shaker Cardigan

That said there is still a crazy little voice in my head telling me I can finish the brown blob by Halloween and I have a lovely blue yarn in my stash waiting to become a cardigan that could be knit up in a month. Must keep reminding myself that this sweater is only the first Christmas gift on the list, another sweater is not on the list and cannot be on the list, and there are still lots of little projects left to knit. I also have to keep reminding myself of my promise to the green sweater that she would get finished. I'm really hopeful that I can dedicate November knitting to all of the little Christmas projects and then in December I can work on the green sweater as a Christmas present for myself.

Waiting until morning

Saturday I was happily working away at the brown blob. Close to bedtime I looked down and four rows back I somehow switched my pattern and ended up with about four inches of purls on the left side.

I told my husband I'd see how things looked in the morning. His loving response, "What do you mean you'll see how it looks in the morning? It will still be wrong." Sadly he was correct, the sweater was still wrong in the morning. However in the morning I had remembered the whole trick of dropping a stitch down row by row and using a crochet hook to bring it back up the right way. It was annoying, but far less painful than frogging four rows of knitting. Sunday afternoon I finished up the back of the sweater.

I cast on for the right side of the cardigan. Three inches later I remembered that the k1p1 rib includes a knit stitch at the start and end of the row before the k1p1 rib. Thankfully this sweater is going really fast so it was only an hour or so later that I had the second piece set up properly and began working the Shaker Rib.

*http://www.ravelry.com/projects/kymberly/shaker-cardigan