With the fair, ebook, and Empire Line projects finally out of the way, it’s time to start focusing on Christmas knits. I don’t have a tonne planned for this year, and a few are already completed (as fair projects they did double duty!).

All that’s left is two pairs of heavy ocks, and four hats. Nothing I can’t whip up in the time that’s left until the big day.

Since the socks are heavy, and will knit up really quick, I decided to focus on them first.

The first pair is already half done.

The yarn is West Yorkshire Spinners Aire Valley Aran – colourway is Blue Tit. If they look a little familiar, I made Dad a similar pair for Father’s Day earlier this year in the Owl colourway.

Both Dad and my brother love heavy socks, so these are always a hit. Once this pair is done, I’ll start on Dad’s.

Well, I did it! I managed to resist the urge to start another quilting project. Instead I finished another top!

Cabins  at Rainbow Camp is together! And it went togethe much easier than I expected. As I’ve said before, assembling tops is not my favourite part of making a quilt, but I had this one together in a couple of hours.

I’ve always loved the log cabin block, and I think this layout will bring a lot of cheer come winter!

Technically, it’s not quite finished, as I plan to finish it off with a border all the way around. But I’m waiting until I have the Scrappage Patch top done. I’m hoping I have enough of the blue I bought for the sashing leftover for borders too.

I’m also hoping Lens still has that nice big chunk of rainbow fabric in the clearance bin I spied last time I was there. It would make a perfect back for this!

I did it!
I finished the Empire Line Cardigan at long last. The official finish date was November 1, but that’s only because I had to sew it all up. The knitting was finished on October 30 (within my self-imposed deadline), and I gave the sleeves a couple days to settle on the blocking board.
This pattern was knit mostly to the pattern, except for a few mods:
When I first started knitting the sleeves for the largest size, I found they were knitting up far too wide. This is actually an issue I’ve found with previous Debbie Bliss pattern – they are often oversized. I wasn’t worried about the body, because the largest size only went up to a 40 inch bust. I’m a 44, so I figured I’d be ok there.  But for the sleeves, I decided to  go down to the medium.
I’m glad I did  – they are perfect now. As I suspected, they came out a touch short, but that’s better for me. I hate it when my sleeves flop around into everything. I also like to wear bracelets, so these are the perfect length.
Another minor mod is the neckline. The pattern finishes it off with a crocheted picot edge. However, my crochet skills are, frankly, crap. I could have done a knit picot, but I was worried about running out of yarn. So instead, I picked up stitches all around, did one row of garter, and then a nice loose cast off. It’s not as fancy, but it’s tidy.
The last mod was not really intentional…
As you may recall, the cardigan is supposed to close with a ribbon threaded just below the bust.
However, once the sweater was on, that line was far too high. I’d have a ribbon going right across my boobs. It’s a problem I’ve run into with a lot of empire waist designs – they just don’t design for the well-endowed ladies.

I could have threaded it through lower, but there wasn’t enough length on the cardigan to make that work. So instead,  I sewed on a simple silver frog clasp. I may put something a little fancier on at some point, but it works for now.
The yarn I used was Rowan Cashsoft DK. I got it on ebay years ago, from a woman who was liquidating her yarn store. It’s a merino/microfibre/cashmere blend and I used almost all of the 14 balls I had. It’s stupidly soft and was lovely to knit with, especially with all those cables.
The colourway is poison, and the pics are pretty accurate. It’s a very deep, dark burgundy, and I think it lends is self well to the mix of cables and lace. It will also pair well with much of my wardrobe.

The fit isn’t bad. I usually prefer a raglan, or round yoke, because I have very narrow shoulders, but this one isn’t too bad. It’s a touch wide, but nothing I can’t live with.
I also prefer to knit all in one piece  with no seaming, but that’s mostly because I’ve always been terrible with sewing set-in sleeves. But this didn’t go too badly. I used a lot of pins and took my time, and they went pretty smoothly.
For a cardigan was started and restarted several times… and then took more than a year and a half to finally complete, its finish is pretty darn satisfying. And it’s nice to have a warm knit done just in time for the colder weather!

While it isn’t officially winter yet, we are definitely on the down side of autumn. I know there is a reason the official dates exist, but to me, winter is November, December, January, and February. Spring is March, April and May. Summer is June, July and August. And Autumn is September and October.

And since my autumn is pretty much done, I figured I should get some autumn projects squared away. One of which is the Autumn in the Country quilt top.

I had the centre done, I just needed to whip through some borders.

And whip through them I did.

If I’m being honest, this is a quilt I royally screwed up. I was more or less following the Summer in the Park tutorial. However, I have a bad habit of skipping through and not watching the whole thing.

If I had, I would have seen that they used two jelly rolls – one print, one plain. I split my jelly roll into colours and neutrals, which meant I was already down on the number of squares I’d be able to make. That wasn’t a huge deal, it was only intended to be a couch quilt anyway. But then I went and cut a bunch of the squares wrong, and sadly, there was no salvaging them. So my centre ended up being much smaller than planned.

But luckily, in one of Craftsy’s 60% off sales, I was able to get  more of the white fern, and green farmhouse fabrics to build it out with borders

I love that farmhouse fabric so much, that I grabbed enough of the white version for the backing.

So that’s another top out of my WIP pile (and on to Mom’s!)

Do you think I can finish another top before I start something new? Should we take bets?

… for 2018 at least.

It’s been almost nothing but cold and gloom and rain lately, but we did get one sunny, moderately warmer day so I took the advantage to head out back with the boys

While Relic goes out, no matter the weather, Rupert and Burton won’t have many more chances to play outside until Spring.

So we took advantage of the sun, and got the last of the work around the gardens done. The garden decorations are all packed up, and the rakes, shovels and hoses are stowed.

It does feel weird though – despite the gloom and promise of winter, we haven’t had a really hard frost yet, so there garden is still green and blooming.

Chicago Peace continues to bloom, as do the Pincushion Plants. And the Sedum is a nice dark pink now.

The Blanket flowers are still going strong. If you’re looking for a hardy, long blooming plants… try these. They are amazing performers, providing colour from June on.

The Toad Lilies have popped out another bloom. I have a second plant that I’ve been watching every day, but it’s still just in bud. I don’t know it will have time to bloom before the frost, but I hope so!

This one is a first for me… the blackberries are fruiting again! I definitely didn’t expect that, though I doubt they will have time to ripen before the weather turns.

And last… a true sign that winter is on its way…

We’ve hung the bird feeder up and are ready to settle in to a season of bird watching from the comfort of the couch!

I am a bad cat mommy…

I got all wrapped up in all this sewing, and knitting and Hallowe’ening… that I totally forgot to mark Rupert’s birthday.

I know! I’m sorry! I’m horrible!

We don’t know Rupert’s actual birthday, but we know he was born sometime around the beginning of October. And here it is.. almost a month later… but out favourite ginger is now a Big Three Years Old!

In the last month or so, he’s been decidedly more cuddly. But we are pretty sure that’s just because the temperature has dropped and until a few days ago, I refused to turn on the heat.

He is still our little enigma cat… totally sweet and saucy, all at the same time.

Happy birthday little Ru!

Never leave your knitting unattended when you have a cat…

Here we are, on the the far side of Hallowe’en. It’s time to really starting thinking about that ‘C’ word….

I’ve already got a few things done for Christmas, but I am especially happy to have this one out of the way nice and early

As you know, this quilt started as a Leader and Ender Project, sewing up all those four patches as I worked on other quilts. They piled up quickly, and in no time, I had enough to make a nice sized lap quilt. The white in the HSTs is a subtle white on white print, and the blacks are actually three different ditsy floral prints. They blend nicely, but don’t take away from the scrappy feel of the quilt.

Leftovers from those prints got cut and sewed together for the binding. This cute strawberry fabric was found in the clearance bin, and I think it makes a fabulous backing.

For the quilting, Mom got out her gadgets (in this case, special quilting rulers), and did two different types of continuous curves. I gave her free reign to do what she thought best, and I think the result is spectacular.

Now it’s all folded and tucked safely away until Christmas when it will be gifted to Dave’s Grandma.

Happy Hallowe’en from our resident Vampurr…

Normally, Burton and I would have spent last night carving pumpkins, but my wonderful, talented neighbour Krista gifted me with this beauty a few weeks ago!

She carves them out of foam pumpkins from Michael’s so we’ll have this Cheshire beauty for many Hallowe’ens to come!

I hope you all have a wonderful, safe Hallowe’en that’s full of more treats, than tricks!

 

I love it when a top comes together!

It was grey and gloomy this weekend, so  I put it to good use. I finished binding a quilt (you’ll see if on Thursday), I did a little knitting, and I finished the Kitty in the Sky with Diamonds top.

I have enough black for the binding, I just need to get some backing fabric. But there’s no rush. Samantha has closed up the trailer for the season, so I can keep looking for the perfect backing. Mom’s got a long list of tops to quilt, so I should probably let her catch up too.

But with this top off my WIP list, and technically onto Mom’s, that means I’ve got the QotGs back under control:

• Autumn in the Country: I’ve got all the fabric I need to finish this up. If the week is quiet, I’ll probably get this one out of the way.
• Cabins at Rainbow Camp: If I get lucky, and get more than one quiet day this week – I’ll finish this one too. The squares just need to be trimmed and assembled.
• Scrappage Patch. I got a pretty light sky blue for the sashing, so this top won’t be a WIP for long wither
• Dissapearing nine patch batiks: This one still needs a name. And all those nine patches need to be chopped up so they can disappear and be sewn back together.
• Leader and Ender project  (Many HSTs): The HST pile is growing. I’m trying to trim as I go, so these don’t get too out of hand.

Wow… looks like I could have a few tops done soon… and that means I get to start new quilts!