A Beginning

A brand new quilt in the making.  Hourglass blocks finishing at 3".  This might take me forever, but it's fun and mindless.

Mindless?  Me?  Quarter square triangles?  Bias edges?  Hah!  I have that covered.  A couple of years ago, I bought Brenda Henning's Triangulations CD.  This is such a great program, especially for someone who cannot sew half-square or quarter-square triangles without stretching them and making a mess.  I find the size of the triangles, print out on newsprint paper (yes, the printer does that very well).  Pin onto my fabrics and sew on the dotted lines.  Cut on the solid lines, and, voila!, I have triangles that work.  In this particular size, 3.5", I get 11 quarter square triangle units, and, 2 bonus half square triangle units that measure 1.5".

So here's the beginning of some blocks.

All 5 of these have that same dark green/peachy rose combination.  I have 6 more of these to mix up with other combinations.  Delicious fun.

Basketweave socks

Yet another pair in my favorite pattern:  basketweave.  I use this all the time because it's mindless, works well on any yarn, and because I love it.  Sock Madness starts in a bit over a month, so then I'll knit crazy exhausting loony socks.  But not now.  Now I'm into brainless feet.

Yarn is Miss Babs Hot Shot, can't remember the colorway. The actual color is more intense. 

And a sweater is finished!

Ta da!  Finished, washed, and now worn:  My top-down yoke sweater in Estrellita yarn from Miss Babs.  Fingering weight.  #3 needle for everything but the top ribbing and the bottom and sleeve ribbings.  Those are done on #2 needles.  Took me about a month to knit.  I'm very fast but with a lot of stitches and skinny yarn and needles, these fingering wt sweaters take forever.

This is based very loosely on the Spector sweater by JoJi Locatelli.  I used her increases and how she integrated the various yarns. My version has a different yoke, no patterns on body or sleeves, and I widened it out at the waist and about 4" below that.  So, 4 sts increased at the sides for the first increase, and then another 4 increased later on.  I like the slight flare, and in my old age, I've gotten blubby, so increasing the width makes it not snug below the waist.  Or something like that.

A new yoke sweater

Bad picture, since I cannot get the greens to come out properly.  So it goes.  Played with my camera and my phone, and this is the best.  Meh.  Much more green at the top and very dark at the bottom.  Good thing I don't make a living from photography.

This is a top-down yoke sweater, based loosely on the Spector sweater by Jo Ji.  I know that it looks impossibly skinny, but it isn't.  I'm just working on a 24" long circular needle, so the 37-38" of sweater are all gooshed together.  I'm usually a 37" sweater, but wanted this to be a bit looser.  It fits, 'cause I tried it on.

Progress

Here's the layout of my Cranberry Chutney quilt.  It hardly looks like cranberry let alone chutney.  I need a new name.  The photo is not great.  The blues are pretty accurate, but you can't see the warm beige of the contrasting blocks. Ah well.

I now have 2 rows sewn together.  It goes very quickly since I don't have to match anything except for the points of the block.

Now what to make next?

Bardy's quilt

Bardy was a very dear friend. I was one of his opera dates, and we went to many concerts at Lincoln Center.   He passed away a year and a half ago.  I was so pleased when his wife asked me if I could make a quilt from his shirts.  And here it is!  The pictures don't do justice to the fabric, but trust me, the quilt is so lovely. 

As I was going through the shirts, I realized that turquoise was a main color.  So, Bardy, here you are.  I hope that Sue Ellen can curl up under your quilt and feel you there.

Happy all new projects year!

I kind of fell off the radar since the beginning of Chanukah.  What with holidays, company, dinners, all the usual frivolities of a combined season of Chanukah, Christmas, and New Year, I just forgot to post.  What I finished is not photographed:  3 pairs of socks for Little Kid, a sweater and some mismatched socks for Miss P, etc.  I finished the Bardy quilt, but I haven't photographed it yet.  I'm moving at a snail's pace these days.

But, I'm happy to report 2 socks on needles, both for me, a top-down sweater on fingering wt yarn (takes forever) also for me, a scarf for my SIL (needs 2 more inches), and I just finished all the blocks for a new quilt.

Ta da!  My take on the Cranberry Chutney quilt.

Mine is done in muted blues and creams, not my usual crazy color choices.  I had a bunch of blues/cream fat quarters that had been marinating on my fabric shelf for centuries.  I saw this pattern and thought that this would be fun to do, and it was.

So here's my pile of 64 blocks, just waiting for me to lay out and sew together.

And that's where I am.