September 2022

Covid has left the building around here. I just have a lingering cough. And that, I found out, is due to a sinus infection. Talking around to friends, it seems that there is a secondary infection after Covid. Be careful out there.

The crocheted baby blankets are piling up because I haven't had the energy to go to a meeting. Also, I didn't want to expose anyone else.

 

This is a simple fan stitch that works up quickly.

I had two different skeins of Lionbrand Mandala yarn that were similar in colors: Brownie and Warlock. Using a linen stitch (1sc, ch) makes a softer, drapey blanket.  

At my Friday group, I was given some ugly green/gold upholstery fabric. I brought it home and made 10 grocery bags from it. I have a pattern that I drew up that I really like. It's not too big so the bagger can't stuff it too full for our old people shoulders. LOL!

At the same time I was given a length of double-sided prequilted fabric. I cut it in half for 2 Project Linus quilts. I found the perfect binding fabric in my stash! As I was working on it, I realized how musty it smelt. When I washed it, I added a cup of baking soda to the wash and voila! the smell was gone. 

August 2022

 The knitting/crocheting for Project Linus continues. 

 

This blanket was knit using 2 skeins of Lionbrand  Cupcake in the colorway Diagon Alley. I really like how this turned out using the variegated baby yarn.

 

This blanket was crocheted using a one pounder of baby blue yarn that I purchase from a thrift store. I used a stitch that I found in a stitch dictionary.

I finished this quilt. Finally! It is a vintage kit quilt that included everything except the batting and backing. This is the second kit like this that I've completed and I hesitate to say that I won't be doing another. The blue dye that is used on these for the cutting lines and quilting lines does not totally come out. But, all-in-all I am pleased with the results. It is hand appliqued and machine quilted.

 

July 2022

July was so stinking HOT! I work in the yarden in the very early morning (from about 6-8 am) and then come indoors for a shower. The rest of the morning is spent doing chores/errands. The afternoon is spent in the cool basement sewing room working on a quilt top. Then the evening is when I knit/crochet because it is a bit mindless and a good time to brain dump and slow down.

I've been working on a quilt named "A New Slant on Snowflakes" by Tina Curran. The pattern is from an Etsy shop. I'll show it when I get the top pieced.

Project Linus Blankets

I go to Project Linus meetings and pick up yarn for blankets. Most of the yarn is donated so there isn't a lot of one yarn which makes a person very creative to be able to get a decent sized blanket. It is a challenge.

Did I show this? It's Half Double Crochet Baby Blanket. All the yarn was 'sparkly'. Unfortunately the mylar in the white yarn was strange so I pulled it all out before I started to crochet.

 

And the Garter Stitch Baby Blanket. This one is knit from corner to corner and has a drape that is very nice.

Fast and Easy Baby Blanket is crocheted. I started with the green and just crocheted until it was gone. Then I divided a partial skein of white into 2 balls. I weigh the yarn on my kitchen scale and then wind it off into another ball until I have 2 of equal weights.

February 2018

I finished knitting a sweet little swaddling blanket this month for Project Linus. It measures 22x26". Now I am trying to use up the leftover yarns in a larger blanket. I just realized that this is the second blanket this year that has chevrons. I am on a roll!

The flu drug me down this month. The old man and I have been sick concurrently and it hasn't been fun. Please take care of yourselves and try not to 'catch' this. I haven't fully recovered from this flu, I'm tired and there is a residual cough. My ambition is gone, so when I get home from work I sit and crochet. We were sick on Valentines Day so we didn't go out to eat. We waited until this past Friday, during a nasty snow storm, to go for dinner. The roads were icy and people were driving too fast for the conditions so there were plenty of cars off in the ditch.

I actually have gotten two quilt tops pieced this month. One is a kit from Connecting Threads called Cottage Lane. The one I made is all greens not the fabric shown in the download. I actually had the presence of mind to order extra fabric since I wanted to enlarge it enough that there would be considerable drop on the bed. The top measures 108"x108" (yikes!) and I am trying to come up with a quilting design for it. The old man is really rough on quilts so straight line quilting is out since it doesn't have the 'give' that would be needed. I can't count how many times I've repaired one quilt because of popped stitches but I'll come up with something. The other quilt is one my SIL asked me to put together for her. She had a dozen counted cross stitched blocks that measure 13"x13". Since they were stitched on Aida cloth, which is very unstable, I had to stabilize them with interfacing. Now that the sashing is on, I realize the sashing is not as thick as the blocks. I think I'm going to spray baste some strips of batting onto the backside of the sashing to bring it all to the same weight. Then I'll add a lightweight batting or flannel (instead of batting) and back it and quilt it. What to quilt? A simple pattern like ribbon candy in the sashing and border and echo quilting in the cross-stitched blocks.

January 2018 (in February)

Well this is no way to start a new year. I should be quoting the White Rabbit: "I'm late, I'm late". So where did January go?

I've been busy with life. I haven't really been sewing: it's that time of the year when the basement sewing room is very chilly. And so I've been playing with yarn. The blanket pictured above is a small swaddling blanket that I completed in January and is 28"x32". This is for my upcoming grandson. Yes, I will be a grandma again!

I've also been knitting a blanket for Project Linus. This is a simple baby blanket that is the perfect size for swaddling as it is 24"x30". It uses almost 2 skeins of yarn. The stitch is a 4 row repeat and you need to cast on a multiple of 8. I added a knit-on border that is 16 rows of garter stitch top and bottom and I also added on 16 stitches for the side borders.

Knitting and crocheting can be done in the warmth of the wood burning stove that is in our living room.

Mojo?

I seem to have lost my blogging mojo. A lot has been happening but I don't feel like writing about it. I am still knitting and crocheting for Project Linus. Here are the latest 2:

 This lovely soft lilac baby afghan is knitted in my favorite Ravelry pattern called the Sunny Blanket.

And this soft green afghan is crocheted in my go-to Ripple pattern.

I've been quilting too:

 This is made from spare parts left over from two other quilts. It is a sashed double 4-patch.

Here's the back. I didn't have enough of the batik so I pieced a large box. This is a gift for someone and I don't want this person to know, so I'm not mentioning names.

More baby blanket

This is a knitted baby blanket

A crocheted baby blanket. This is crocheted from one corner diagonally to another.
It is a great way to use up small amounts of yarn.

Another corner-to-corner crocheted baby blanket.

Blanketeer

I've been crocheting and knitting blankets for Project Linus.

This blanket is knit using Caron yarn and size 8 needles.

This is a simple crocheted blanket using scrap yarn. It is crocheted from corner to corner.

There was some yarn left over from the previous blanket so I created a large crocheted granny square.

I added lavender strands going in one direction and purple strands going in the other direction to create a plaid.

I was given a bag of fabric. Does that happen to you? So I dug out my serger and serged the edges for fast and simple blankets.

Fiber Work

During my convalescence, I knitted and crocheted things.

Crocheted baby swaddling blankets are just too cute in acrylic yarn.

I am out of sock yarn. I know, right? Here are the last two pairs of socks. I'm on to other things now.

Whoops!

I was knitting merrily along and then I noticed this:

This is not part of the pattern! It happened when I dropped a stitch and it went unnoticed. And so, I put in a lifeline because it was too far down to tink and needed to be ripped out.

After I got to the lifeline and got all those live stitches back on the needles I saw another error. *sigh* Can you guess how far down this one was? Far enough that I ripped the whole thing out and started over. I am considered this my gauge swatch.

At least I now know the 8 row repeat. Look on the bright side!

Linking to On The Needles at Patchwork Times

On The Needles: January 30, 2015

I finished another baby afghan (Crocheted Double Diamond) that used just a wee bit of this yarn. So I made a hat, scarf and mitten set for some unknown child. It still needs to be washed and then it is ready to go into the donation pile There is more of the other two yarns left over, so I cast on for another hat. I'm just playing around with patterns, trying to get a good fit for myself.

How's your weekend going?

Linking up to Judy L at Patchwork Times.

Finishes finishes

I have several finishes to share with you.

It hasn't all been knitting and crocheting. I actually have a quilt done. This is for my grand-niece, Jordan. She loves pink and purple, can you tell? I cut some leftover Cuddle fabric (left over from making jammies) into 10" squares and put it on the back. Oh, never again! I just did not enjoy that process.

This quilt was made TOTALLY from stash. I am so proud of myself for that accomplishment. Because of the stretchy quality of the Cuddle I put the quilt under the sewing machine needle and tacked it down using a bar tack. There was no way I was going to try to quilt this.

The Skyp Socks are finally, finally finished. I started these in Sep 2014 and finished them today. This pic shows them blocking. What can I say? I got extremely bored with them.

And one more finish. I had two skeins of off white acrylic yarn, so I cast on for an enlarged version of Grandmother's Favorite dishcloth, only this is a baby swaddling blanket as it is 30" square. Easiest knitted baby blanket EVEH!

And on the hook is one more crocheted baby blanket. It's the last one for a while, I swear! Honest.

I'm linking up to Judy L's Patchwork Times.

And another afghan finish!

Here is another finish of the Project Linus blankets.

This one is a larger blanket that will suitable for a boy-child, don't you think? This ripple pattern is my go-to crochet afghan pattern. If I can't figure out what to make, I make one of these.

Here's is what is on the needles today. It is another Project Linus blanket. I had two skeins of this off-white so I just expanded a dishcloth pattern. This blanket will be 32" square and is a good size for swaddling a baby.

What's on your needles? I'm linking to Judy L at Patchwork Times.

On The Hook

Third crocheted Project Linus blanket

Life has been extremely busy lately. Have you found it so? But, I am still working on baby blankets for Project Linus. About a month ago, I found lots and lots of acrylic yarn at the thrift store. And so far I have three Project Linus blankets made: two crocheted blankets and one knitted receiving blanket.

Blankets and afghans made with thrifted yarn are a bit like a scrap quilt: use what you have. I do not go out and try to find more of the same yarn, because it is likely out of production. And so, I match up the manufacturers or the softness, etc of the yarn. Sometimes I am lucky enough to find four or five skeins of the same yarn and color. Other times, not so lucky. I try to make the blankets as big as I can, but they mostly end up receiving blanket size or for a toddler.

Do you knit or crochet for charity?

Linking up to Judy L On The Needles Friday.

Car Seat Blanket

Isn't this the cutest thing? There are openings in the blanket for the car seat straps to go through so the blanket always stays tucked around the little one. It's a simple crochet pattern that I found on Ravelry and only uses 700-750 yards of yarn. I have 800 of that pink. Yay! I have, for the most part, given up crochet. After having 3 different surgeries on my hands and wrists, they just can not take the strain of crocheting. But knitting is fine, go figure.

Here it is completed so you could say that this is Off The Hook, not On The Needles. ;-)

What's on your needles? I'm linking to JudyL's On the Needles Friday.

Off The Needles - Friday, December 20, 2013

The pointy sticks have just been flying at supersonic speed here at Casa del Quilter.

Have you ever had some yarn you just didn't love? I was not feelin' it for the sock yarn that I used in these three scarves.

These scarves are destined for Women4Women - Knitting4Peace. Have you heard of it? You can click on the link to learn more.

I have also recently finished a pair of these Shark Slippers for the son of a blogging friend. Aren't they cute? I understand that he is obsessed with sharks. This isn't a very good photo because I don't have a small foot available for modeling. But you get the idea, right? He puts his foot into the slipper and it looks like the shark has eaten his foot and part of his leg.

I don't crochet very much any more because it aggravates my wrists and hands. So when I do spend the effort to crochet, I have to take it slow and crochet in small spurts.

Have you finished your Christmas knitting? Are you close?

You can visit JudyL at Patchworktimes.com for more On The Needles.

Whoops

Oh phooey! I need to get another skein for only 24 more rows. The worst part? They are decrease rows. Sigh. Even worse? This is the second slipper of a pair of shark slippers. Double sigh.

More on the needles can be found here.

OTN - November 9, 2012

Do I have a FINISH!! It's not blocked yet, but because a storm is forecasted for the weekend, today was a perfect day to shoot this photo. Here is the Black Cherry Mama Bear Seamless sweater made in 100% alpaca. It is warm and cozy has raglan sleeves and was easy to knit.  This was made from the yarn that was over dyed with Black Cherry kool aid. Follow the link and you can see the color change on the yarn. I also still need to put the button and button loops on. Details, details.

Remember when I was worried that it might not fit? It fits, but loosely. I currently am taking a beather from actual knitting with pointy sticks and I'm doing a bit of loom knitting. I know, right? What am I making? Well, slippers. I modifyed my grandma's pattern to work with loom knitting and I am just whipping them out. Right now, it is only a pile of rectangles but will be soon sewn up into slippers. Thick, warm slippers for Hurricane Sandy victims.

For more knitted goodness, visit JudyL at Patchwork Times.