I know I just  said I need to focus on staying on budget… and I will. I just need to unsubscribe from all the mailing lists of my  favourite shops….

Case in point:

Remember Ursa?

I said I wasn’t going to start it until fall because it’s definitely more of a cool-weather knit. Which meant I wasn’t going to buy the yarn either… though I had it all picked out.

But then I get a Knitpicks email the other day telling me about the wonderful clearance yarn that won’t be around much longer… I figured it didn’t hurt to look. And I’m so glad I did. The yarn I wanted, in the colour I wanted was going to be gone forever soon!!!! I had no choice…

It’s Biggo in Brass Heather. It’s a Superwash Merino/Nylon blend and OMG it is soooooo soft. It’s even nicer than the Chroma twist!

I chose this colour because of my dresses. In addition to my many, many Fit and Flare dresses… I also have several simple A-line maxi dresses from Old Navy. I usually buy a couple each year because they are super comfy for the days I don’t want to get dresses up. I call them my house dresses, and they get worn a lot in winter.

This is just two of them…. I’ve got also got a navy blue and a gold one, and this yarn will be perfect with all of them!

Now excuse me while I go unsubscribe before my bank account goes into the red….

Our perfect little Princess is 15 years old now…

But she’s still happy to see Spring come. Unlike the boys, she’s much more patient. She’s content to wait until the lawn has had the chance to grow to an acceptable level of lushness, perfect for munching.

Now that is has, she’s usually right at the door with the rest of them, when it’s time to go out. The difference is, she’s all business. She heads right for the grass, eats her fill and heads back inside to finish her nap. When we first moved here six years ago, she’d chase bugs, and even bunbun if he dared to come around. But those old legs are getting stiff, and crouching/butt wiggle pose just isn’t as doable any more.

She doesn’t mind as long as she gets some grass, and some pets from Dave. And for us, every day she’s still with us is a gift.

I have decided that Dave’s birthday quilt is probably going to be a Christmas quilt now. I need some other fabric for it, but I’m trying to focus on staying on budget right now, so buying fabric will have to wait.

So now I can focus my attention on my other deadline project… Mystic Maze. I’ve been snowballing squares here and there and had quite a stack. It was time to lay them all out and see exactly how much I had.

Sam requested that this one be around the size of her Superstar quilt, which is about 70″ square.  This one will have a border on it, but as you can see, I still needed some more blocks to make it big enough. After taking this picture, I did some math, figured out exaclty how many I needed and finished them off.

The final layout will be completely random, so the next step is matching up squares and sewing them together. Once that’s done, I’ll make four patches from the pairs… and so on. It will be a completed top in no time!

Our favourite floof-monster is two!

And I promise you, he will spend his birthday being as ridiculous as possible…

I started Cascadas the other night, and so far it’s going swimmingly.

I’ve just started the second section of lace, and once it’s complete, I’ll be separating for the sleeves and body. It’s just plain ol’ stockinette after that!

Converting it to a cardigan wasn’t that hard – round yokes, I find, are the easiest to convert… you just take the cast on number, and add some stitches for your front bands (if knitting them as you go). Easy peasy. Then, when reading the directions, you just have to remember that you’re knitting back and forth, not in the round, so you may have to note wrong side rows (depending on your pattern). I may have to do a little finagling when I get to the sleeves,  but that won’t be difficult.

I did make a couple other mods – the pattern has you knit the neck band on last, but I’ve done it first. I also changed up the lace pattern, removing the purl columns.

It’s hard to tell here, but it just gives the lace a smoother look. But mostly I did it because I’m lazy. I didn’t want to have to pay attention on my wrong-side rows… I wanted nice, mindless purl-back.

Do you ever mod patterns to make them “lazier”?

After I finished quilting Rowan’s quilt the other week, I still had some time left in the afternoon, so I decided to push through and quilt Go, Daddio too.

It’s a crazy mass of scraps in whirly, swirly pinwheels. It started as a Leader/Ender project, and used up a pile of 4″ scraps. I finished it off with a thin border of white and some leftover strawberry fabric (I do love those strawberries, I’m sure it will show up in future projects.

The binding was some pretty red/white vine fabric I’d gotten as par of a mystery bundle from MSQ. The back is a cozy flannel check.

It’s not a huge quilt, but not too small either – 48″x70″, great for a extra layer or curling up with a good book.

And now, with this one complete….  I have no more tops to quilt! I guess I better get sewing!

It feels like it’s been an exceptionally rainy April, though it’s probably pretty average. It’s just me being impatient… because while the rain does help the plants grow… we don’t get blooms without sun…

Despite the grey days, there have been some sunny moments… and look…

Flowers!!!

First up; the Red Dwarf Columbine. It’s not quite in bloom yet, but close. Another week or so and it’s going to be a mass of little red flowers. Next; tulips!!! These make me so happy. Since we moved here six years ago, I’ve been trying for tulips, but they never seem to thrive. These ones are out back with lots of sun! And there’s lots more coming! Next; Hyacinths! Okay… the white one is a bit of a cheat… I bought it last grocery day and stuck it in the garden… but the purple one is from a pot Krista gave me last year. Next; Daffodils! As you know, I’m just daffy for daffies. I planted a bag of mixed bulbs, but so far, only these white ones with fluffy yellow centres have bloomed. That’s okay though. I’ll take what I can get. And lastly; Dandelions. Yes, I know many people don’t like them, but they are one of the few things bees have around at this time of year. I pull them from the garden, but leave them everywhere else. This one is happily thriving in the cracks of the patio stones, and hopefully providing a little bee feast.

And as beautiful as those blooms are, there’s a couple other things getting me excited in the garden…

While I’ve got a big, beautiful Bleeding Heart in the backyard, I’ve been trying for four years to get one to take in the front yard. They are supposed to do well in the shade, but they never seem to thrive and they never come back. Last year was a last-ditch effort. I bought a slightly more robust plant. It did okay at first,  but by mid-summer it was turning yellow and died off. I did not expect to see anything happy this spring… but that pic above… that’s it’s beautiful little green sprouts! I couldn’t be happier – it’s going to look fabulous!

And while the Lilac bush is still working on putting up leaves… check out those little nubbly buds on the side… those are the blooms! I’ve never noticed her putting up flower buds like this… maybe I just haven’t been paying attention. Either way…. it’s going to be absolutely covered in flowers… I tried counting all the little flower clusters, but I lost count at 27. She’s only 5 years old, so she’s not a very big bush yet… it’s going to be amazing!

And I should give you an update on  my potted seeds. All are sprouting, but after a couple of weeks….

They just don’t seem to be growing much. The Parsley is probably the best of the bunch, but those stems are really fragile and spindly. I had them up in my studio where they get lots of light… but…

Bu contrast, my Winter Sow sprouts are doing so much better. So I’m doing something drastic. It’s still early to put them outside, but I’m chancing it…

I covered them with plastic wrap to help create a bit of a greenhouse effect. Hopefully they improve.

Are you having any success with seeds this season?

Half the blocks are complete for Time to Sew!

This is going to be a BIG quilt! There’s also going to be some sashing in there, and already it’s taking up more than half of my Queen-size bed.  And with Burton butt for scale, you can see they are quite big blocks!

After completing the the most recent two blocks, I went ahead and prepped the remaining eight.

They just need to be trimmed and ironed, but each block now as all it’s pieces piled together, almost ready to go. Sadly, I have to set this one aside for a bit. I’ve got two quilts that have pressing deadlines (more below), and I need to get moving on them.

HEre’s where all my QotG’s are at:

• Mystic Maze: This is one of the deadline quilts – it needs to be complete by the beginning of August, and I’ve still got lots of squares to snowball!
• Dave’s birthday quilt: The second deadline quilt. His birthday is July 20th. I’ve got some time, but I really should get started. I haven’t landed on a pattern yet though.
• Paisley’s Christmas quilt: I’ve decided I’m going to use the Flower Girl pattern again – just like her sister’s. But I’m going to use much more sophisticated fabrics, and make it a touch bigger. Blocks are cut, so I can start this one any time.
• Time to sew: Almost half done the blocks.
• Leader & Ender Rainbow Nine Patches: Going just swimmingly – but a long way from done!

Rupert found something that smelled good on the lawn the other day.

So good, he decided he needed to roll in it…

I really hope it wasn’t rabbit poop…

Hitchhiker has reached the end of the road

It was a fun, easy knit. At least to start with. I will admit to getting a little bored near the end. Those rows start to get long and your progress really slows.

Were I to knit this again, I’d definitely go up a needle size or two. I used a 3 mm and my Hitchiker turned out quite small. The fabric, while not quite stiff, is not as soft and drapey as it could be either. You don’t want that garter loose and sloppy though. In the end, I only had enough yarn to complete 41 teeth (the pattern calls for 42). And I was playing yarn chicken on that last tooth.

As mentioned previously, I used Knitpicks Chroma Fingering… and I don’t recommend it. While I love the gradient, the yarn itself was not fantastic. It was very unevenly spun, including a few very large slubs and some spots where it was so thin it drifted apart. There was also a knot  – not the end of the world, but it was an abrupt change from the yellow-green to dark blue, totally ruining the gradient effect. I had to do some creative cutting and splicing to get things to work for me.

But regardless, it’s complete and will be tucked away for my friend’s birthday, which is only a month away! It’s so nice to be prepared!