Because baby quilts are so small, I can quilt two of them easily in an afternoon. So immediately after finishing the quilting on Brigantine Baby, I loaded up another quilt and got stitching. If you follow our facebook page, you would have seen this top already. If not, here it is all quilted.
It’s a pattern I’ve done before with small variations (here and here). It’s made with a charm pack so it sews up easily in an afternoon. When I first finished the top, I was worried it was a little too busy, but now that I see it quilted, it’s just perfect.
I think that wide white border is perfect to balance all those fun farm prints.
The centre of each star has animal sounds all over it – it was a fat eight Mom gave me from her stash when I showed her the charm pack. We both agreed it needed to be used with it. (Although I did have to keep checking to see that that “peep” wasn’t really “poop”. My eyes kept telling me otherwise.
The back of this one isn’t flannel, but it’s down-right adorable. It was another remnant bin find. I bought it ages ago with no specific plans for it. Obviously it was waiting for this quilt! Which is now available in the shop!
One of the things I wanted to do in 2020 was dye up all the yarn left from our Wandering Cat endeavours. My plan was to dye once a week until there was no more left (I had three large rubbermaid tubs of varying weights and fibres). Despite having plenty of time at home, that didn’t happen. I was more often quilting than knitting, and dyeing was pretty low on the list.
But then just before the new year, I was helping Mom clean out one of her closets (so she can fit MORE fabric in it!), and we came across ANOTHER bag of undyed yarn. I brought it home with me, with a renewed commitment to DYE ALL THE YARN.
The very next day I got to it.
There were five skeins of a fingering weight bamboo/Falkland merino blend (the ones found in the closet),three skeins of cashmere/merino aran, three skeins of fingering weight merino/mohair, and two skeins of a fingering weight silk/BFL base.
I slopped dye on all of them and just generally had a grand time making a big mess. But then it happened….
Normally, once all the yarn is dyed, heat-set, and rinsed, we put them in lingerie bags, and put them through the washer on a spin-only cycle. This spins the excess water out of them (wringing them out only does so much) so they don’t drip all over the place, and they dry a lot faster.
But last month, our washer went down. Dave’s mom graciously gave us the apartment-sized one from her condo (she’s living with Grandma now, so she doesn’t use it.) It’s quite old, but it does the job and didn’t cost us a thing, so I’m quite happy. Yet… it doesn’t have the spin part of cycle marked on the dial like my old one. You have to guess.
And I tried. But I wasn’t getting it right, and it was making all kinds of bangs and bumps. Since it’s old, I didn’t want to chance breaking it. I thought to myself – everything is in lingerie bags, and I’m using cold water… it shouldn’t hurt if I put it through a full wash cycle (with no soap). It’s just more water, right?
WRONG! I forgot about one crucial thing. AGITATION! Maybe if I had put it on a gentle cycle, it would have been different. But… when the washer finally stopped, I pulled out the bags and opened them up. It wasn’t good.
Because they were superwash, they didn’t felt…. but… they were an absolute tangled mess. Getting them on the swift and into cakes was going to be interesting. If not impossible.
Thankfully, I only have so many lingerie bags, so only the bamboo blend went through the washer. The others would just have to drip dry.
And maybe those bamboo ones would look a little better when dried. Or maybe not…
Utter, tangled mess. Still these others looked good.
Top is the merino/mohair blend, bottom right is the silk/BFL, and bottom left is the cashmere/merino.
Now it was time to tackle the untangling of that bamboo!
I’m pleased to say, it went much better than expected! It was a couple hours work, and one skein was tangled beyond salvation, but four of them are now caked and ready to go!
I hope the weather is good enough to be on the water, because this little baby quilt is ready to set sail!
I have to say, this is definitely one of my favourite quilts! It’s just so… so… charming!
Those ships are just so winsome (and easy to make!) and there is just something sophisticated about them all lined up together – even though it’s a baby quilt with plenty of cutsey!
As mentioned in my previous post, the back is flannel and it’s all bound up with those adorable crabs! (They just keep popping up!) And it’s now available in the shop.
I love it so much, I have plans to make a much bigger one… for some grown-up sailors!
I should be working on the second sleeve of Paisley’s cardigan, but as much as I love it, I needed a bit of a break.
Enter my Winters Frost socks. The last time you saw them, I didn’t have much done. But a few evenings of working on them, and I’m just half an inch away from starting the toe.
I really love the colours in this one (which aren’t showing well in the picture, because I took it too late at night). It’s a beautiful mix of cream, soft grey, pale pink and a hint of blue.
It’s called Seashell colours (Kroy FX), but to me, it’s the colours and shade of theshadows on snow… cold and frosty, but also beautiful!
I’ll finish the toe up and then get right back to the cardigan sleeve… fully refreshed and ready to rock those stripes!
A new year has donned, and I’ve been busy stitching.
I’ve wanted to make this ship block for ages, and I finally have. In fact, I made 12 of them!
Relic inspected each one and I sewed them into the sweetest little top for the babies. I love so much about this quilt, but I really love the fabric I found for the water…
With those random little fishies swimming about! And what do you think about those seagulls?
It was a remnant bin find and couldn’t be more perfect! And speaking of remnant bin finds…
It was there I found this sailboat flannel for the back! And of course, I’ve got more of those adorable crabs to bind the whole thing up with!
(Sorry if you saw this post yesterday, it got scheduled wrong…)
New Year’s Eve has come and gone, and I’m sure you were hoping to see an FO post but…
Bogatell is still on the needles. As you can see, the first sleeve is done (and I’m actually well in to the second). If I’d done nothing but knit, I might have been able to finish it before the year was out. But I had other things to do.
I don’t mind though. I’m closing in on the end, and it is quite an enjoyable knit. I love the effect of using three different shades of grey for the big stripes. And the mauve and magenta on the skinny stripes are so striking. You can’t see it, but the mauve has lovely shifts in shade – it’s a beautiful yarn! And I should have enough left to make a pair of socks for myself from it.
Well, here we are at the end of an “unprecedented” year. (I am so sick of that word now.)
And while there of course, have been challenges, I really can’t complain. Both Dave and I were able to keep our jobs. And while my pay was cut for a while, and Dave’s hours were (and are still) reduced, we still managed to pay off a couple of debts, and our finances are in better shape than they were at the start of the year. If that’s the only thing 2020 brought, I would have been happy.
But 2020 brought lots of others smiles. You’ve already seen my knitting and quilting retrospectives, but 2020 brought a lot more!
After the first lockdown, and before the second wave, Mom and I were able to get north and spend a lovely summer day with our girls.
In September Dave and I got all gussied up
And took the fancy car out to celebrate true love with his uncle and new bride.
There wasn’t much more traveling than that, but I had plenty to keep me occupied at home.
I merely had to step outside my door to experience a beautiful world
My gardens, and all the critters that inhabited them, kept me plenty busy
And let’s not forget my adventure with the swallowtail caterpillars…
Even if it didn’t have a happy ending.
And then, of course, there’s been hours of entertainment with Squirrelington’s!
And while we said goodbye to our gorgeous Torti princess in November.
She hung on for 11 long months and went peacefully in the end. And we still have Los Trios Diablos to keep our spirits up
Did 2020 turn out how I expected? Absolutely not. But overall there was more good than bad, and that’s the most I ask of any year.
So now we move into 2021 with hope. Because if 2020 taught us anything this, it’s that anything can happen.
While it didn’t really feel like it, my time with the knitting needles was just as productive as the sewing machine. I completed 36 projects this year, which is right on par with my average.
As usual, there were lots of socks!
There weren’t as many garments as I would like, but there were a couple..
Including the sheepiest cardigan ever. Let’s just say working on the girl’s cardigans was an absolutely delight after that nasty yarn
There were several great hats
And a few fun little whimsies!
I’m not sure what 2021 will bring to the needles, but whatever it is, you can bet it will be warm and wooly!
Wandering Cat Studio 