Thanksgiving

My Chloe is still doing fabulously. She milks her 3-legged status for all it's worth, and is greatly spoiled and adored by all. It's been over 3 months since amputation. and about 6 since cancer diagnosis. It's bonus time, and I try hard to remember to appreciate every bit of it.

In other news, knitting!

Baby sweater for our friends James and Adria's forthcoming baby. I think it's hilariously like a little old man sweater. I even used the fake woven leather buttons.

I have my standard 6 billion other projects going, too. This year the Pacific Fabrics KAL is using Weekend Knitting by Melanie Falick, so I'm currently in the throes of both a brioche hat and the petticoat socks (Ravelry links), as well as some secret holiday knitting projects.

Also in the ongoing project kingdom, I'm working on the quilting on a queen size quilt I'm making for my mother. I'm so close to done, but I'm having trouble getting done. But it sure is pretty.

Garden update 2

I do still knit and sew. I just don't take many pictures of it. But look, here's a quilt I'm making for a store sample!

This is called Baby Dots. It's from a pattern called Dots and Daisies by Smith Street Designs. I'm also making the version pictured on the pattern cover, but that one hasn't come together yet.

But since Ryan asked, here's a garden update. I have peas, real actual visible edible snap peas. (Cascadia from Territorial).


I have broccoli heads forming (no, really, look in the center).

I have very lush cherry tomatoes and potatoes, though no produce from either just yet.


I have bolting arugula (with bolting collards in the background, and an Ichiban eggplant protected by a Wall of Water behind that). It was particularly nice, lush arugula before it bloomed, so I'm going to try to save some of the seeds for a fall arugula crop.

I also have imported cabbage worm. Grr. The caterpillars are really hard to spot, since they're exactly the color of whatever brassica plant they are mowing down. Little bastards. I've been picking them off and stomping them flat. Hate.

Patience

Gardening

I spend an awful lot of time outside looking at my little garden and cheering on the plants. Despite a spell of good weather a week ago, it took longer than I expected for the peas, spinach, and lettuce to sprout. But lo, a pea shoot:

The plants from Sky Nursery are generally doing pretty well. I'm a little concerned by the yellowing of the Chinese Cabbage (background), but the broccoli (foreground) looks good.


There's still no signs of potato sprouts. I think I may have planted them too soon, or too deep, or too something. We've had a good bit of rain, and it's supposed to warm up this weekend. If they don't start sprouting, I'll do a little excavation to see if they rotted.

Excercise

I've started another long-term project...again. I've once again embarked on the couch potato to 5K plan. I tried it last year, then I tried jogging again last fall, in a less structured way. Starting didn't hurt nearly so much this time around. Either I have a tiny bit of lingering fitness from the last bout of running, or I've finally learned to jog slow enough to not kill myself.

Finished things

My friend Kristin is having a baby girl, which gave me an excuse to do some really girly knitting and sewing. I made a sweater

and a matching outfit.

And a quilt covered in ribbons.


Unfinished things
Remember how I said I was going to finish all those unfinished sweaters this year? I worked very diligently on Trent's fisherman sweater for awhile, almost finishing one sleeve. Then he tried it on, and the sleeve is too big. Not too long - too big around. So I'm going to have to rip the whole thing out and reknit it, starting with fewer stitches (I have a plan for that) and decreasing more rapidly. I could cry. Consequently, I've been knitting other things. Hopefully I'll make it back to the unfinished sweaters at some point.

Quilting oops

I finally got around to resuming the mystery quilt, Carolina Crossroads, that I started last year. I have all the sub-units done, so now I'm just putting it together. I ran into a hitch with the 16 setting triangles. They're supposed to look like this:

15 of mine looked like this:

and one of them looks like this:

In my defense, the directions I was following did have a picture with the incorrect assembly. There was also a picture of the RIGHT way, but I managed to follow the wrong one. Sigh.

Meanwhile, Kidd the terrier continues to make himself right at home.

And Callie has colonized the plastic box I keep by my sewing machine for scraps.

Quilt FO

I've confirmed that this quilt arrived at its destination, so I can post it in public now. It was a gift to my friend Miss Print for the arrival of her new baby, Penelope. It's based on Karla Alexander's pattern "Catch a Falling Star" in New Cuts for New Quilts. I took a few liberties with the color scheme and the borders. The border quilting was all improvised using my Bernina Stitch Regulator. The center was done with a walking foot.

stash explosion

To satisfy my sibs
Since my siblings were kvetching in the comments on the last entry, here are two more Springfield stories.

On the visit to the F&M store, my niece, Camera Obscura's youngest, somehow managed to talk me into agreeing to make her a messenger bag. She also managed to talk her mom into paying for it, so at least I'm not the only one susceptible to her influence. A few years ago she sweet talked me into making her a felted purse. She's good, that one. She could be a very successful lobbyist. It's also worth noting that I was in there so long that my sisters, sister-in-law, and niece all gave up on me and went outside to wait in the car.

When Trent and I decided to walk the Galloway Greenway, we set out at about 3:30 in the afternoon. It doesn't get dark quite as early in Springfield as it does here, but nonetheless we were perhaps overly ambitious. When we left, I said that we might walk to the nature conservancy. My brother said it was way too far. A lifetime of being an obnoxious know-it-all younger sister meant I was by god going to walk that far. We did, but by the time we got there Trent had blisters, my feet hurt, and it was getting dark. We called home and asked for someone to come retrieve us (because Springfield, for its many virtues, doesn't have anything like a useful public transit system), and of course my brother was the only one who knew where to come get us. It was win-win: he got to feel superior because I was dumb enough to walk five miles without a way to get home, and I got to feel superior because I was right.

Fabric stash
The box of fabric I bought in Springfield arrived this week. Here's the contents:

On the right side of the front row you'll see the fabric my niece chose for her bag and its lining. The other fabric on that row is the beginning of a collection for the quilt Mom requested. Row 2 is quilt stash enhancement. The top row is garment or miscellaneous messenger bag fabric.

Meanwhile, my friend Karen is moving and wanted to clear out some of her fabric. She sent me a stuffed box:

Wowza. I guess I'd better get cracking with the quilt making.

Knitting
I finished something! Nothing exciting, but still:

Top up socks from Mega Boot Stretch, and a scarf from Taos wool. (That's a cat tail in the upper left of the picture, by the way.)

What I did during the holidays

December was something of a blur. It was the end of an academic term (the last one during which I will be teaching college full time). We celebrated my birthday and our 8th wedding anniversary. My mother had to be hospitalized with major intestinal issues, so I got to do a lot of worrying long distance. She was released a few days before Christmas, so she was home, but still flattened, when we got to my hometown of Springfield, Missouri on Christmas day.

My parents have retired to the house where I grew up. It was a little freaky being back there, but it was also kind of nice. Trent liked Springfield, despite the sad unavailability of our preferred veggie sausages (Gardenburger breakfast sausage). They've built a delightful greenway (the Galloway Creek Greenway) that begins a couple of blocks from my parent's house, just across the street from my elementary and junior high school.

I was seriously worried about mom while she was hospitalized, and so I decided to make her a quilt for Christmas. It started out as a table runner, but I decided the blocks were too boring for that, and it would make a cool quilt. The block is a puss in the corner variation, and the finished quilt is a nice couch-nap size at about 68 x 78". Here it is pre-quilting, with cat assistance:

And here it is in its new home (corner turned down on purpose so you can see the backing):

I guess Mom really likes it, since she promptly asked me to make her another quilt.

Once I got home Missouri, I resumed construction of the Carolina Crossroads mystery quilt. Here are steps 4 and 5, completed:

Bonnie says we're going to start putting blocks together this week - I can't wait!

On the subject of quilts, here's one more note about Springfield: the FM store is like fabric heaven. Most quilting cotton is 3.99/yard. They had home dec weight silk, 54" wide, for $7.99/yard. I had to be forcibly pried out of there, and I found a way to go back the next day. My parents are shipping me a box full of fabric. I'll post new stash pictures once it arrives.

Trent and I also took a day trip to Branson, just so he could appreciate its tacky grandeur. Because he is a wonderful, wonderful husband, he actually pulled over when I spotted a quilt store. But he couldn't resist expressing his disapproval (he's been taking lessons from the disapproving rabbits):


I just couldn't resist.

A quilt, a shawl.

Here's the finalized Baby Harris quilt. I love how it went all crinkly and wrinkly when washed and dried. I tried to take better pictures, but the colors came out really strange.

The Eye Searing Pink shawl is sloooooowly working it's way off the needles. Here's 1/3 of the stitches in their bound-off state. I think Janine at Ferals was right - this sucker is going to be huge. I like how it appears to be oozing menacingly off the couch in this picture. It's coming for you, and your little dog, too.

I'm anxiously awaiting the next clue for the mystery quilt. Meanwhile, it has begun to dawn on me that perhaps I should do something about, oh, you know, Christmas - that big holiday coming up where one is expected to produce presents for one's friends and family. Huh. I guess I'd better get on that.

Mystery Quilt part 2

Mystery Quilt
I've finished step 2 of Bonnie's mystery. Here are my 103 little 9 patches (we need 100, so I have a few spares).

I found these stupidly fun to make, and stayed up WAY too late Saturday night finishing them. I'm afraid that this quilt is going to lead to yet another quilt in the same colors, because I've still got a pile of 1.5" strips that I cut, and more pieces of the fabric I cut them from. If only one of my friends would have a baby girl so I could make more pink things...

Other quiltiness
I'm making a blankie for Ryan's Baby Harris project. Originally, I was going to just sew right sides together, turn, and top stitch. But then, of course, I decided it was a delightful opportunity to practice my free motion quilting skillz (that's skillz with a z, y'all, 'cause I'm so hip). The quilting is now done, so I just have to bind it. The flowered part is a nice Anna Griffin cotton print, and the solid yellow is flannel. If you click to embigify the yellow picture, you can sort of see the quilting.

It's about 42" square (well, it's close enough to square that I don't think the baby will mind). I've got a cute coordinating stripe to bind it with. I thought about tackling that tonight, but the quilting was not so kind to my poor shoulder, and I should probably get to bed.

Knitting
I'm sloooooowly binding off the eye searing pink shawl. It's got a crocheted edging - you single crochet into a live stitch, chain 4, sc into next st, chain 8, repeat until your eyes cross from staring into the bright pink shawl. Someday I'll finish. Then I'll have to find somewhere to block it.

Carolina Crossroads mystery quilt

My life is so empty, boring, and full of free time that I decided to add another project. (That's sarcasm, y'all, in case that wasn't clear.) I'm a fan of Bonnie Hunter's fabulous website and blog. She started a quilt project and was persuaded to turn it into a mystery quilt sew-along, now called Carolina Crossroads (because she's in the middle of moving from SC to NC). The Yahoo group for the project ballooned up to 700+ members in 4 days - that's a lot of quilters. Holy cow.

Bonnie's all about using stash and scraps. The mystery quilt needs a light, a dark, and an accent. I'm using pink, black, and red, mostly from my stash, although I will admit that I bought a few more pinks to round out my collection.

Step 1 was to make 100 3.5" rail fence blocks, using dark/accent/dark. Here are mine, stacked into groups of 10 for ease of counting. As you can see, I'm using an extremely liberal definition of black and red.

Step 2 requires making 100 "accent in one corner" blocks, again 3.5". I'm up to 31 finished so far. They're a little fiddlier than the rail fences to get together.

I've been suffering from a lot of "help" in this process.

I really need to be working on some Christmas present projects, but I just can't seem to rip myself away from the mystery quilt.