I mentioned a few posts back that the crazy pinwheels wouldn’t be Leaders and Enders for much longer… and here’s the proof!

All the individual pinwheels were assembled so it was time to lay them all out and contemplate the craziness I had assembled. AS you can see – I had some help.

After extracting the cats, I paired them all up and sewed them into two patches. then those two patches got paired into four patches. I didn’t worry too much about placement – I just made sure no two like fabrics were touching. Anything more than that and I would have gone insane.

The four patches now need to be sewn into a top, but that was enough for one day. And since this is no longer a L&E project, it needs a proper name. I’m calling it Go, Daddio, since it was inspired by Daddio’s Thangles quilt, and it’s a swinging swirling mass that makes me think of one of my favourite Swing songs – Go Daddy-O.

Now excuse me – I’ve got to go figure out something to make for L&Es now!

Taa-daa….

I give you the first completed Sunday Swing sock! It went very fast and was fun to knit. And I’d already got the second sock underway so hopefully I can avoid the dreaded SSS.

As you can see, I didn’t carry the lace down the foot as the pattern calls for. That’s because I found the leg was twisting a bit and I was worried it would cause the foot to twist when wearing. Plus the recipient lives where they get a lot of cold and snow… socks with too many holes just aren’t practical.

The pattern also calls for only three repeats on the leg. Were these socks  for me, I probably would have stuck to that (I prefer a shorter sock). Since they are not, I added one extra repeat. I think several other KALers have done the same.

It never ceases to amaze me how different a yarn can look knit up. In the skein, the grey was much more dominant.

But knit up, that Turquoise just takes over with the Yellow coming a close second. Just part of the magic of knitting, I guess!

While I worked on Cat Fancy on last Saturday, on Sunday I wanted a bit of a change.

So, I got to cutting the plain white strips I needed to for my Purrfect Petals quilt. I always try to chain piece whenever possible, so that meant attaching the petals in sets of two first, then working on the strips that hold the centre block.

After an afternoon of sewing, I had all my petals paired up and all their centre strips ready to go. By that time, the clock had struck 4 p.m., but I just couldn’t resist tempting pumpkin brain to get a few finished flowers together.

I’ve got 18 more flowers to make, but with everything ready to go, they won’t take long.  I guess I better start thinking about border fabric for this one!

It’s hard to have the February blahs when you’ve got such a cozy place for a nap!

All that snow I showed you on Monday is gone. We had a brief warm up and it melted in no time. I’d be excited, but it’s still February… Mother Nature is not fooling me.

Yesterday the freezing rain moved in.

Everything is covered in ice. Schools are closed, and roads are chaos. Luckily, I work from home, so my commute down the stairs in the morning wasn’t affect by anything more than the usual Burton laying on the step, and Relic dancing around my feet begging to go outside.

At lunch I took a break to join Relic  outside. He was not thrilled about the weather, but after that warm up, he’s determined Spring will come if he keeps going outside to check.

The driveway was a sheet of pure ice, and the lawn little icy daggers.

The birds have been out and about too – despite the icicles on their feeder, the top has kept the ice out of the seed.

As inconvenient (and dangerous) as it can be for some – I do love a good ice storm. There’s beauty in everything Mother Nature throws at us.

 

 

Since I got the slip-stitch socks complete, my sock needles have been empty. It’s perfect timing to join up with Vera and Dee in a little KAL.

The pattern is Sunday Swing. It’s a simple pattern that’s easy to memorize. It’s also one of those patterns that make you want to finish a whole repeat before putting it down, so it’s moving along nicely.

It’s a great pattern to work with a crazy handpaint like this. I’m using Barn Cat in Bird on a Wire. It’s one of the last skeins I dyed up last year.

This pair will be for my Sister-in-Law (her birthday is next month), but I’m thinking I should use the second skein I have of it for a pair of socks for Dave. He doesn’t mind wild socks, and these colours work just as well for a man as a woman. But for now, I’ve got to finish this pair.

I’m almost to the heel already, so I don’t expect this pair to be on the needles for too long.

Since Mom was so kind as to cut all my pieces for Cat Fancy, it seemed only right that I get to work on the piecing of it.

I didn’t get too far – just the first two steps. the HSTs were pretty simple. The geese weren’t hard, but it was my first time making real geese (not just sticking two HSTs together) so I wanted to make sure I got them right. I quite enjoyed it, so I’m sure there will be a Flying Geese quilt in my future.

But not until this one is finished. And that will be a while yet. While it’s not overly hard, it’s not quite a beginner kit, and there are a lot of moving pieces. Better I take it one step at a time!