A little bit of patchwork

 2 more blocks today.  I'm the world's slowest quilter because I don't sew assembly-line style.  I like to choose my fabrics as I go along.  It's the best part of the process.  Speed?  Meh.  Pretty?  Yep.

They do look wonky, and probably are, but when assembled, quilted, and washed and crinkled, they will look just fine.  I think I'm the Wonky Quiltarian.

More blocks

4 more blocks for B's quilt.  I must be the slowest quilting in the country.  Takes me forever, not that I'm in a hurry.  The best part of quilting is picking out what fabrics go next to each other.  That's what takes me so long.

Knitting?  Same old stuff. 

Moving along

 I've decided that Sept is now the beginning of the year.  I have no idea why, but possibly because the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) is in Sept this year.  At any rate, the cooler temps feel like a beginning.  My goals this year are to make 12 pairs of socks (for me and for the little kid), at least 6 sweaters, again for me, TLK, and his mom.  Miss P is good with socks and sweaters, DD1 doesn't need any, and the Hubz will wear my socks for sleeping socks, but is not apt to wear a sweater of mine.

So, on the needles is sock #1.  Basketweave pattern, which is my go-to lazy pattern.  My usual 56 st sock, but the pattern is a multiple of 8, so can easily be made in larger sizes.Yarn by EarthAndEmpress.

Sweater.  Ah well.  Remember the raglan from the previous post?  Turns out that I accidentally used the wrong needle.  I was working on a #5, and just grabbed it.  My #5 and #6 needles are pretty similar in color.  It was, of course, too small.  Frogged it, changed my mind to making another top-down raglan, but with a different neckline.  And I'm making stripes.  I think it will be very cute.  Yes, this scrimmage of stitches on a 24" needle looks too small.  It's not.  I tried it on, and anyhow, I always smoosh lots of stitches on a 24" needle.

Yarn is Spearmint in KnitPicks Palette.  The pink and white are some leftovers.  Size 6 needle, and should measure approx 38" in circumference when done.  

Quilting:  TLK, aka the little kid, has been asking for another quilt.  He has his baby quilt, now used as a sitting mat on top of a bench, and his I Spy quilt, which is someplace or other. He's growing, and could use a larger quilt.   At any rate, a grand wants a quilt, a grand gets a quilt.  He likes brights and I started this new log cabin with turqs and peaches and such.  Very little very light colors, which is good, since he'll schlep it around all over the place and his mom doesn't want to spend her life washing it.  So, here are a few new blocks.

I'm also binding a quilt that I finished way back when.  I'll post pics when it's sewn and crinkled.

This is all keeping me happily busy. 

Very interesting article on a quilting response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.  Worth reading!

What's new?

 3 projects, 2 knitting,and 1 quilting.

Yet another basketweave sock, this one in a lovely colorway by a brand-new dyer, Earth and Empress.The colorway is Blackberry Mist, and I believe that there is one skein of it left.

Remember the raglan craze I've been on?  This is the third in the series.  Bottom up, with that cute little rib I showed in the previous post.  The yarn is Palette by Knit Picks, and the color is spearmint.  After this raglan, if I can stand yet another one, the next one will be top down with a different neckline and with stripes.  I think.  Who knows?  

On the sewing machine is yet another log cabin, with colors in turquoise and orange or variations thereof.  8" blocks, so a total of 64.  I have 8 done.  The youngest grand has asked me a few times for a new quilt, and he's mentioned it to his mother, too.  So who am I not to make him one?  If he likes this, he'll get it. If not, then we'll figure something else out.

Knot a Garden

 It's sort of a knot garden, but it isn't actually a garden, so it's Knot a Garden.

I love this quilt.  I started off with the idea of making the entire quilt with hourglass blocks.  Then I sewed some of them together and decided that life was too short to do this nonstop.  So that's why the blocks are bordered with a grassy kind of fabric.

And here's the back!  I fell in love with this fabric the moment I saw it, and now it's going into just about every quilt where it will fit.

Knot a Garden

She's sort of like a knot garden, but not a knot garden, so her name is Knot a Garden quilt.

Differences in colors are due to sun or shade. 

A couple more photos.  I'll post more pics after she's been quilted.

Quilting is back

I'm so happy to be quilting again.  After 5 weeks of mask making, I'm finally done with them! If there's a need when the next wave of the virus comes along, then I'll go back into masks.  But for now, freedom! 

Here are the first 2 rows.  I'm so loving this quilt!  The pictures aren't great, but they'll do for now.  I think of the quilt as a bit of a knot garden, except that it's not a garden, so... the name of this quilt is Knot a Garden.

I'm knitting a sweater, the usual pair of socks, and baking and cooking a lot.  It sometimes seems that we spend our days eating.  Breakfast, mid-morning break with home-made biscotti, lunch, mid-afternoon break with home-made muffins, supper, and nibbles while watching TV. 

Way back in January, I started to run out of all-purpose and bread flours.  So the Hubz, who loves to market, bought me some more.  We already had yeast bought in Dec (I think).  I buy yeast by the pound, and freeze the bulk of it.  I take off enough for a small jar and keep that in the fridge.  It lasts me about a year.  We also put in a flour order from King Arthur flour.  It was all back-ordered,  and was supposed to arrive in about a month.  Instead we got it all in a couple of weeks.  So we are all set from bread and pizza baking as well as muffins, biscotti, etc. 

And on that note, I'm off to eat lunch.

Knitting and quilting

Mismatched socks for Miss P, she who inevitably loses socks, therefore I make singleton socks that don't match.  She loses one?  Doesn't matter; she has plenty more.

64 stitch sock, helix pattern with 3 yarns.

I also have a shawl on the needles, but no sense in photographing it yet; it's messy as usual.

More hourglass blocks.  Such fun! This is not a design board; the blocks are just plopped down randomly.

Take a look at the center points of each block.  They match!  And I didn't pin them; just sewed them.  whoo hoo.

Playing around

with hourglass blocks.  These little guys measure 3.5", and will finish at 3".  I figure I'll need about 400 of them! 

This is not a real layout, just me playing around with them.

Yesterday's eggplant dish proved to be adorable, but not very tasty.  Both the Hubz and I found the eggplant very bitter.  I love the idea of the little eggplants, but not the taste.  I did find another recipe that I might try.  The other possibility is to use Japanese eggplants, which don't taste bitter to me.  We shall see.

Hourglass blocks and food

The latest hourglass blocks.  These take so much time that they almost qualify for slow stitching.  It is a nice rhythm, though. Same blocks in both pictures, just moved to the left.

Food!  The Yarnarian is still cooking Indian, just not taking photos.  But look what the Hubz got today at the Indian grocery store:  baby eggplant.  Are these not the most adorable veggies in the world?  I have recipes for them made in the Instant Pot, as well as one on the stove top, but I'll probably try the IP one first, just because I can.

Knitting?  I'm working on a pleasantly mindless shawl and the endless socks.  This time it's another mismatched sock for Miss P. 

It's time to sign up for this year's Sock Madness.  Why do I do this?  The socks are always way to large for me, I often don't like the complexity (I've made so many socks in my lifetime that I want simple TV watching socks), and I'd rather be knitting something else.  BUT, I love the goofy idea of Sock Madness and the camaraderie,  and the lunatic fun of it.  I also like being on a super fast team with my role being canon fodder. 

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.

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?

Breakfast, Lunch and Tea Stitching

I was super-productive this week, stitching not only at breakfast, but also lunch, and afternoon tea.  EPP goes so slowly.  And I'm now at the stage when I want it all done.  I figure mid-February might be the end.  In the meantime, I'm forcing myself to buy fat quarters for the Lucy Boston quilt.  It's tough, but so it goes.  I'll post pics another day of my new fabric.  (You do realize that I have enough fabric to stock a quilt shop, but you can never have too much, right?)

Here are my individual blocks.  I have 17 assembled including these, and I need 2 more for the body of the quilt.  Then, sigh, I have to figure out the edge pieces.  Blech.

The next photos are of a row I started last week.  I have one more block to add and then this row is done.  Then a row of 9, followed by a row of 10 and I am finished!  Except for those edges.

In my knitting world, I have about 3" to go in finishing a sleeve, then adding the neck edge and blocking.  I have no pics of this jobbie, but will do it later this week.  Knitting, by the way, is inherently slow work, especially since I rarely use heavy yarns.  Give me lace (for shawls), fingering and sport wt, and I'm a happy camper.