Saturday, June 28, 2008

Another week, another sock

Baby K is rockin the diva vibe in her new sunglasses:
We checked in on Grandpa as he recovered from surgery (went home last night - all is well):
And four days of hospital knitting got me past the heel on Froot Loops (pattern available at Knitty.com)

Monday, June 23, 2008

Weekend Round-Up

Baby K loves music, and she has been banging on the piano for about a year now. I think the way she crosses her legs is too adorable!
Occasionally she taps the keys individually. She sings the ABC song continuously these days!
I've been working on miters. If you want details of the colors, please check my Flickr files. It's all Tahki Cotton Classic yarn.I figured out the border on my striped vest. The directions are intimidating because you pick up stitches, then work the rows perpendicular to the body of the sweater. I have two other sweaters that I want to work on, but I'm forcing myself to finish this one first. Such restraint!

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Waste not, want not

This is all that was leftover when I put the binding on...next time I will allow a few more inches to my calculations!Here is the graduation quilt - just a few weeks late.
I tried to get some detail shots of the quilting. I did curly q's in the center soccer fabric, then spirals in the green corners and waves in the yellow portion.
Quilting details from the back.
Border details.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Socks

Baby K found some of my handknit socks this weekend. They don't fit her feet, so...She put them on her arms!
I finished another pair, with just inches to spare. I was sweating those last few rounds as I watched the yarn disappear!
Jaywalker pattern with Blue Moon Socks That Rock yarn in January One colorway.

I was itching to immediately start another pair, but I have so many choices that I couldn't decide. I was looking for a pattern for the abandoned Socktoberfest yarn, but I didn't feel like swatching. I have some red, white, and blue self-striping that would be cute for July, but I didn't go digging through my stash to find it. I have several sock club kits, leftovers from 2007 Socks that Rock and Tofutsies, but I didn't want to concentrate on elaborate directions. I know, I'm being much too picky - just knit already!! So, I ended up working on a baby blanket and flipping through Sunday night reality TV (Ice Road Truckers if you must know my guilty pleasures...)

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Stitching Away

I've got all the blocks together for my Christmas throw, using the "Turning Twenty Again" pattern. It's fun to put together because of the randomness. I tried not to have any fabric show up twice in any one block. Here is a portion...
One of these days (or evenings when Baby K is asleep) I will lay it out on the floor and sew the top together. Since I already have quite a stack ready for the longarm, I need to spend time there! But instead, I started on my Storm at Sea. The complete block on the left is what I got done at camp 2 years ago. Today I sewed up the squares on the right. I have to re-check my math and decide how big it's going to be. I have a friend in mind as a recipient, so it's a toss up - do I make a twin size as a sofa quilt, or do I bite the bullet and go for the queen bed size?!?
And finally, here's our cutie pie. She loves to play with ice cubes and luckily our house has tile floors so I just let her drip everywhere. (Again with the expensive taste in toys!)
She enjoys a watermelon with Daddy, but she's not very good at smiling on command for long enough for the camera to capture it. Oh well, you get the idea!

Monday, June 09, 2008

Doing what I love

Ahhhh, summer vacation has truly begun. Hubby took baby K to daycare on his way to school (he's teaching a summer class) so I had the house to myself all morning. Delightful!

I finished quilting this one for my mom:The pattern is called Love Knots. Here is a better (?!?) picture of the quilting designs I used:Yesterday I was trying to get some pictures of K. She was really being a ham!I let her play with some scraps from my current project. She was having a grand time laying them out on her table and then draping them carefully over her arms. I tried to get her to smile...Success!

Friday, June 06, 2008

Fiber Content

I finished block #12 in Marti Michell's 2005 Block-of-the-Month quilt. I am going on a weekend retreat in July, and now I have two tops to put together! The cabin we're going to has several big design walls, which I need for the next stage. The original pattern for this quilt calls for additional plain squares of fussy cut roses. I'm not all that frilly and I'd like to use this quilt in my bedroom, so I may try to find a plainer blue. Yes, I had this plan in mind three years ago but did I bother to buy the extra fabric??? Of course not! Since the rose fabric came with the cost of the kits, I may just follow directions and we can sleep under a few roses. Who am I kidding...it's too hot for quilts most of the time, so I'll just drape it across the foot of the bed!

Next up is the pattern "Turning Twnety Again." I collected a bunch of Christmas fabric...it started off with the green batik you see on the right, but there aren't enough Christmas batiks to make that the whole theme.
Baby K was playing on the couch last night...she gets in these silly moods where she kicks her legs and laughs "ah, ha ha ha ha ha." Usually she's on the floor and wants Mommy and Daddy to lay down and laugh with her. I join her, since laughter is good for the soul! What I really need to do is get that on video!
There is an "Educator's Expo" today that I thought about going to. Just to see the vendors and scoop up any free stuff for my classroom. The organizers sent a workshop description last night, and the one workshop that might apply to my high school subjects is in the afternoon when I'll be finishing that other class I mentioned yesterday. So, I talked myself out of the whole thing! I don't need any more free tote bags or extra papers floating around, gas hit $4.05 yesterday, and I'd rather stay home and quilt for a couple hours. Rationalization, it's a beautiful thing!

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Brief Pause

I am trying to get used to a new computer and a new camera! Plus, I am in a class about teaching students who are not English-speakers this week. I keep most of my feelings about my profession separate from this public forum...let's just say the American education system needs a major overhaul!

The best part of the class is a group project researching a different culture, with a capstone experience of dining in a restaurant owned by immigrants. My group visited a Romanian deli. The food was so good, I will definitely be taking my family back for an encore.