I did as I said I would and went back to the drawing board with the Burlington sock. I changed my stitches up to some beefier patterns and it’s looking so much better.

I’m using some nice smooth House Cat  in Turquoise for this pair. If it looks a little familiar, it’s because I used it to make a coworker a shawl last year. Before I picked a pattern, I’d dyed up two skeins. So after the shawl was finished, I still had a full skein left. And it’s just perfect for a textured pattern like this.

Ideally,  I’d like to finish the first sock by the end of Sunday. It’s doable.. other than a day spent in the garden at some point, I don’t have any other commitments on my time for the rest of vacation.

And only the leg will have patterning. The foot will be plain, so once I round the heel, I should breeze through it!

I was so proud of myself, getting my quilting projects back in order…. but then… something happened…

As I mentioned yesterday,  I spent Saturday afternoon with Mom. You see, Relic had a vet appointment that morning (just vaccinations – no worries), and since the vet was right around the corner from her house, I told her I’d get Dave to drop me off afterwards. Mom’s been trying to get her sewing room closet under control for a while, and sometimes it helps to have a helping hand.

But when I got there, Mom told me she hadn’t had a chance to get bins for organization yet, so we decided to have a sewing day instead. Luckily, I’d brought some fabric with me. I’d just bought a new  batik charm pack and was excited to show her.

You see, back when I made my brother the Deep Sea Star quilt, I’d pulled all the blue and teal out of it to make stars. I was left with a pile of autumny batiks, and when I saw this charm pack on Craftsy, I knew it would pair well with the leftovers.

I was planning on making a small Disappearing Nine-Patch with them. While Mom worked away on her sewing project…

(a new top for Dad’s Argo), I sat at a machine beside her (a definite advantage of her vintage machine collection!) and started assembling the nine patches.

After a couple hours of sewing, she had the Argo top done, and I had all my nine patches together and ready for cutting

I absolutely love the colours, and how well all these beautiful batiks look together. I think it’s going to look even more amazing once it gets all chopped up and reassembled.

Of course, that’s going to have to wait until I get at least one of my other quilt tops together. I had a good excuse for starting this one… but I can’t let things get out of hand!

Here we are, almost half way through the week, and I’ve decided to take a step back…

You may recall that I boasted about possibly being able to finish the Empire Line Cardigan by the end of my vacation.

It seemed totally doable last Thursday, but here we are at Tuesday, and… well.. I grossly over estimated the time I would have to work on it this week.

Saturday, Relic had a vet visit in the morning, and I spent the rest of the day sewing with Mom. Sunday, I was out on an adventure with Wren and her Mom. Monday was Thanksgiving – Dave and I spent it at home, but a good chunk of the day was taken up with  cleaning and doing all the things I didn’t get done on the weekend. And today, I have company.

Now, all that aside, I did manage to get about four repeats done on the last sleeve around all those events… but last night I noticed I’d made some huge, obvious errors, so all that work got ripped out.

I managed to get about a third of it redone, but it was still a pretty big set back.

Now… I could still finish that last sleeve this week if I really focus on it. But you may remember that I’ve got another knitting project with a bit of a deadline… The last pair of On the GO socks.

If I want to release the e-book this year, I need to get the last pair done by the end of October. With my other committments (work, class, sleep, etc) it realistically takes me about two weeks to finish a pair of socks. And while we’re not quite at the middle of the month, we’re getting close. Every minute I spend on the cardigan, is a minute closer to not getting the e-book out this year.

And to top it all off…

I have to go back to the drawing board with my planned design. It was suppose to be a Guernsey-like pattern… but what I’ve charted out is just to small and it’s not showing up as well as I would like. So all this is getting ripped out, and I have to go spend so time with my design program.

I’m afraid finishing poor Empire is just going to have to wait a week or two…

I only had 10 squares left on the Log Cabin quilt. I had an afternoon free, and it was pouring rain – it seemed like the perfect time to bang them out…

And bang them out I did! I still have to sew them all together to finish the top, but that will have to wait for another free afternoon. Once again, I’m so pleased with how these came together.  I’ve always loved the log cabin block, and I love this rainbow layout.

Despite all the scraps I used up in the quilt, I still have a substantial pile of 2.5 strips and squares, so there will be another scrappy quilt in my future. I’m thinking something like this one. But for now it will have to wait – I’ve still got my five project boxes full:

• Autumn in the Country: Craftsy was having a good sale, so I sucked it up and bought some coordinating yardage for this one. I’ll finish off the top in a weekend or so.
• Cabins at Rainbow Camp: As noted above, I just need to trim and assemble the blocks into the top. I’ll have to scrounge up a backing for this one, but there’s no rush.
• Scrappage Patch. Still awaiting sashing fabric. I just haven’t got out to the fabric store yet.
• Kitty in the Sky with Diamonds: Four patches are done. Awaiting  a free weekend to assemble the top.
• Leader and Ender project  (Many HSTs): The HSTs are piling up. I need to get trimming and squaring the ones I’ve done so far, so I don’t have to do the whole lot at once. I’m not sure exactly how many I’ll make. I’ve still got quite a few 4″ squares for sewing them, so I probably won’t be stopping any time soon.

It’s Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. So I thought as a little thanks to all of you, I’d offer 30% all yarn in the shop. Just use the code THANKS30 at check-out. Today and Monday only! Treat yourself!

www.wanderingcatyarns.etsy.com

Fall is marching on, but the weather has been mostly good and the garden is hanging in there.

Clockwise from top Left:

1. The Peach Dalmation Foxglove is having a last gasp. I really hope it comes back.
2. The Beard Tongue is such a neat looking plant. It blooms with both pink and purple flowers… I think this bunch looks like a troupe of trumpeters.
3. You  know I have snapdragons throughout my garden, but I think these pinkish white ones are my favourite. I’ve saved some seeds in the hope of having them again next year.
4. Sedum… the staple of the fall garden. I’ve got this dark pink beauty throughout the gardens thanks to Samantha.
5. The colour-change Coneflowers are still blooming. I think I like them best at this in-between colour.
6. I have the pincushion plant in two colours – purple, and this pale pink here. I love them both. Such a unique plant that blooms from spring to fall.
7. Ah, catnip. I’ve got tonnes of it, and it just keeps blooming!

And speaking of hanging around….

Thanks to mom, I’m the proud owner of an antique bird cage… and two little quartz doves. I’ve wanted one of these for a while… they can be quite expensive, so I asked Mom to keep her eyes out for one at a good price… and as always… Mom delivered. It’s on the small size, but it’s just perfect for a garden project I’ve been wanting for a very long time. Now I just have to decide… flowers or succulents?

Of course, I have until spring to make a decision…. but what do you think?

Play with ME!!!

I did it!

The first sleeve of the Empire Line Cardigan is complete! Now I know what you’re thinking… “gee Valerie… that sleeve looks a mite short…”

I was looking at it thinking the same thing. But, I followed the pattern instructions exactly. I even double checked. I think the issue lies in the yarn… the original is done in an alpaca/silk blend. If you know anything about those two fibres, you’ll know neither has memory, and they grow a lot. (I made the mistake of making Dave a ribbed sweater in that yarn, and it just kept getting bigger…). The yarn I am using is a merino/cashmere/acrylic blend – it’s just not going to have the same growth. This picture is pre-blocking, so i with the lace, it will open up and lengthen some more, but I have a sneaking suspicion I’m going to end up with 3/4 sleeves on mine.

I can live with that. I generally prefer a shorter sleeve anyway because I like to wear bracelets. I could, in theory, rip back and add  a few extra repeats to the sleeve before decreasing for the cap, but:

a) I really don’t want to rip back, and;

b) I am perilously close to running out of yarn. Now that I’ve finished one sleeve, I know I have enough for the second, but there is also a small decorative edging around the neckline. If I add length to the sleeves, I definitely won’t have enough left for that.

I’m on vacation next week, so I’m setting myself the tentative goal of completing the whole cardigan by the end of it. Of course, I’ve also go plans for sewing quilts, an tutus, and a dress for Wren… and maybe even a visit with Mrs. Samantha… so I probably shouldn’t get too ambitious… A week goes by really fast.

 

 

 

Yes. I’ve finally named the Disappearing Hourglass quilt. And just in time to…

As the top is complete. For those of you that don’t speak French, Des Étoiles Rouges simply means these red stars… but it sounds so much prettier en francais. Plus, the print fabrics are part of the French General line by Moda, so a French name is apropos.

I am sooooo happy to have this top done. I was really dreading putting it together. Partly because I hate assembling tops. (I also hate cutting, and sandwiching, and quilting… really the only thing  I love about quilting is making individual blocks). You may have noticed that most of the quilts I do have sashing between the blocks. That’s because my blocks are so wonky, that putting them side by side just really shows their errors. But this pattern  wouldn’t look  as good with sashing… so I just had to suck it up.

Also, there’s something to be said for the old-fashioned way of cutting all your pieces first (instead of the sew/cut/turn/sew of this one). Doing it this new-fangled way means you’ve got a lot of biases in play (for non-sewers, that means stretch). I hope this doesn’t provide too many problems for Mom in the quilting stage.

Despite all my worry, the top went together pretty easy… but it’s far from perfect.

Pretty much all of those little corner diamonds are wonky. That’s  probably because quite a few of my stars are wonky too.

But oh well. I’d rather have it on it’s way to being quilted, and one step closer to being on my bed, than still in the sewing room trying to get every intersection lined up.

I had a chunk of plain cream in the stash, and it was just enough for a nice wide 6″ border. The stash also yielded up a print with the exact right shade of red and grey/beige for another 4″ border which brought the quilt up to the perfect size.

That circle print was actually bought, but never used, for the Bear Paw quilt, so it just goes to show that fabric purchases are never wasted!

I still have to pick up something for the binding, but in the meantime, this one is packed in a bag and joining the others in the quilting queue at Mom’s. But you know what that means…. I’m back down to five project boxes! Woohoo!

Here they are!

And I love them!

I love the lace, I love the colour, I love the fit!

And I love that there’s only one more design to make for the e-book!

Stay tuned!