As mentioned yesterday, with the Blue Tit socks off the needles, I’m onto the next pair.

This pair is for Dad – the colourway is Bullfinch. I love that pop of red with the greys. This one is almost ready for the heel, and if I can keep at it, I’ll have the pair done by the end of the weekend.

I really want to get these out of the way, so I can get to the hats, which are much more fun to work on!

 

I love heavy socks!

They knit up so fast! Nothing fancy for these ones – just a simple 3-1 rib throughout to give them a nice fit. It’s the yarn that really does the work.

This yarn is West Yorkshire Spinners Blue-Faced Leicester Prints. The colourway is Blue Tit… and I think they nailed the colours pretty well.

These will be tucked away for my brother’s December birthday… and I’m onto the next present on the list… check in tomorrow.

I did it! Instead of starting something new, I finished the last quilt top I had in my boxes to complete.

It’s mostly because I’m not sure what I want to start next… but whatever, I’ll take it as a win.

So here’s the Scrappage Patch quilt top all wrapped up. There’s just something wonderfully classic about a simple sashed nine-patch quilt. The very first quilt Mom made me when I was about six or seven was a nine-patch sashed with pale yellow. I literally loved that blanket to death.

For this one, I chose a pale blue sashing (and I’m happy to say I have more than enough leftover to border the Rainbow quilt). I didn’t want to go with white sashing because a few of the squares have white backgrounds – same with black. Light blue seemed like a good compromise that wouldn’t clash with any of the other fabrics.

This one is intended as a Christmas present for Dave’s Mom … but for Christmas NEXT year! (Yes, I’m seriously working on presents for next year.) I already have some knitted things for her this year, and Mom’s got enough on her plate without having to whip out another of my quilts by Christmas.

So now… I guess I better decided on some new patterns to start…

Another quilt, and another Christmas present off the list!

I used the Moda Love pattern for the centre. It’s a great pattern that you can make with a Layer Cake, Charm Pack, or Mini Charm Pack. This one was made with a charm pack, then rounded out with a few boorders to bring it up to about 50″ square. It’s a perfect little  lap quilt.

As usually, I let Mom make the decisions on the quilt, and she went wild with this one.. there are flowers, and swirls and circles and piano keys… a little of everything!

I got lucky, and there was enough of the black floral backing leftover from the Superstar quilt for this one. There was also enough leftover of one of the border fabrics to use as binding.

I’m really pleased how this one turned out, and a little sad that I’m not keeping it. But it’s okay, it was a fun pattern, and I’m sure I’ll do it again!

When Mom and I did the photos for the Empire Line Cardigan, we took Jem along for the walk.

Not far from Mom’s house is a beautiful walking trail with a new subdivision on one side, and Twenty Creek on the other.

The creek has been the backdrop for many of our photoshoots, because it’s always so pretty, no matter the season.

Now that I work from home, I’m not getting out much. The survey where we live seems to be a little bit insulated, weather-wise, and while that’s good for my garden, it means if I don’t get out, I really don’t get to see much of the fall colours. I was starting to feel like I was missing out.

But there was plenty of colour along the creek. And with all the rain we’ve had, the creek was running VERY high.

If you’re wondering just how high… that picture to the right… that’s pretty much the exact spot where we took the pictures for April Come She May a few years back.

If you click on the link, you’ll see I was standing about in the middle of the creek… though there was much creek at all after a pretty dry summer.

That said, this kind of up and down isn’t that unusual for that particular creek.  It’s levels vary greatly throughout the year.

But the leaves and the creek weren’t the only things to see on our walk. Though I couldn’t get pictures, there was a Red Tailed Hawk in full hunt, a pair of shy Blue Jays, and a cute little pack of sparrows chillin’ on a creek-side bush.

We haven’t had a really hard frost yet, so the wild asters and chamomile were still hanging in there. The thistle flower was a nice pop of purple, and I just love milkweed pods. Because of all the rain, they haven’t had much chance to dry out and open yet, but I’m sure they soon will.

And I wasn’t the only one posing at various locations along our walk…

Miss Jem is quite the super model!

I don’t know how I get myself into these things…

Okay… I do. It all started with the fair cardigan I knit that was destined to become Wren’s Christmas present. I knew I wanted a frilly little dress to go with it.

The trouble is… I really wanted something with birds on it. Parrots to be exact. Wren’s mother, Krista, love birds – especially parrots. But I couldn’t find anything in the stores that would work. Not even something with just regular birds.

Then one day at Lens, I thought – how hard could it be to make one? Famous last words…

I found what seemed like would be a simple pattern. It called for two contrasting fabrics. They didn’t have parrots, but I found these colourful little songbirds.

The feather fabric was in another aisle, but I thought it was a great match. Krista loves colourful things and both prints would go great with the orange from the cardigan.

The fabrics have been kicking around the studio for a while, but last Sunday, I decided it was finally the day to tackle it.

Things went ok.. at first. I remembered that I really don’t like sewing curves that much, though since making a few bags, I’ve gotten better at them. Then I realized I’d cut my feather fabric wrong, and I wasn’t going to have enough. A quick trip over to Lens solved that pretty easy, but it was an interruption I didn’t need.

Then I got to the gathering. I #@$%ing HATE gathering. It’s something I’ve done before, but I’ve never been very good at it. I struggled through it with a lot of swearing and a lot of ripping… and eventually…

The dress was done! And it didn’t look half bad… I couldn’t believe it! Wren turns two in April, but both the dress and the cardigan are size 3… just to be sure she won’t outgrow it too fast.

And I was right.. both fabrics look fabulous with the orange cardigan. Maybe all that frustration was worth it…

Well gee, Burton….

That’s just rude!

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!