Another pair of socks finished!

  I just added this pair to my 12 in 2012 page.  Finished last night. One more pair out of the single sock bin.  I looked back and I finished the first one in September 2010!  So they definitely sat there for a while.

So far – four pairs finished in January.  Now if I average a pair of socks  a week – think of all those new socks I could have at the end of the year! LOL  That definitely won’t be happening.  But one new pair made and three finished off from the socks in progress bin is a pretty good start.

I cast on the second sock to the Ombre pair last night and have a couple inches of that one done.  Still haven’t wound the pink yarn yet – I may finish this one before starting on a new pair.

 

Back on the right path

Well today’s sewing is going much better than yesterday’s!   Thank goodness!  Time for a coffee break.

I restarted with the black print and I like the block so much better.  So it’s a good thing I kept messing things up I guess.  I can’t show you the blocks yet bu these are the other fabrics I’m using with it.

  The red orange is a bit darker but it has lighter splotches and sort of a brownish black that sort of look like some one dry brushed paint over it.  The gray  is one of my current favorite tone on tones – it doesn’t show up real well in the photo  but its a paisly tone on tone.  And the black has tone on tone specks of black and lighter grayish looking ones.

One block is done and the rest are in various stages and 3 or 4 others in various stages.

I did venture outside to run an errand since the temps  who hooo its a heat wave – 29 degrees.  But foggy and misty and the winds were picking up as I came home so not really a great day but warmer than it has been.

I nearly have the socks – the brown/cream/purple ones from the single sock stash – nearly finished.  I think I must be just a row or two away from the toe decreases so should hopefully get them finished off tonight.  So need to wind that pink yarn so I can start on that one to work on at home and cast on the second ombre one to work on during my bus ride.

Oh and check out the Granny’s Hankie blocks by readers page – I finally remembered to add Sigrid’s photo of all her completed blocks.  They turned out absolutely lovely!

Denise

 

 

 

Stashbusting Report – Week 3

Not huge stashbusting strides so far but slow and steady works too.  Only 2 yards busted this week and a large portion of that used making some test blocks, screwing up the cutting measurements (more than once) and making unuseable sections.

Hopefully today I’ll get that top together since my brain finally kicked in and I found my math error last night.  I blame it all on the over zealous cleaning of the sewing room one day where I must have tossed my original pattern.

So after deciding to use my “favorite fabric” posted yesterday, I walked by this fabric

   That black fabric…hmmmm… that would look really cool in the blocks I’m making (it’s far more striking in person with the black and gray, hints of red and orange, and gold glitz smatterings)

So I’m thinking I may set aside the “favorite fabric” pieces for now — I will still make the blocks out of them – maybe for a tablerunner for the breakfast bar for me me me — and try this black for the larger project.

First things first — time to hit the shower, get some laundry started and find some breakfast.  Then I’ll clear off one layer of scraps and go find some fabrics to go with that black print and start cutting again.

 

Sewing Away and Throwing Away

Clearly my brain is a bit addled today since I was busy sewing away on something and then realized – hey something is wrong with the size of one of the pieces.  It doesn’t help that it has a definite deadline and I keep thinking… will I really be able to get this done?

First, I went looking for the pattern I had printed out which has been laying around the sewing room for ages.  In my last cleaning frenzy I must have tossed it not realizing what it was since it was printed on the back of some scrap paper.   But of course first I dug through all possible locations for it making a mess and finally gave up.  Reprinted and then had to refigure pieces for the block.

All the pieces made for a block (and several others cut out incorrectly) hmmmm … clearly something was off and I new it had to be my math.  So I fixed it — or so I thought.  Cut out enough for one block and made just a quarter of the block – dang I added an extra seam allowance in there so one section was 1/4″ too long.  So all that stuff hit the wastebasket (or the floor near it) since I just realized I seem to have made a mess of scraps I knocked off the table onto the floor.

Of course all this involved going to and from the stash several times pulling out multiple fabrics trying to decide what to use (which are now piled on the sewing room table) and then in the end when I finally got one quarter of the block to turn out correctly — yep I now have the right measurements (WHEW!) — I decided to change fabrics entirely.  So a whole lot of cutting and stitching and one little measley quarter block to show for it. LOL  Oh well, I’m on the right track now and should be able to move along more quickly when I get back at it.

A few days ago friend Judy was talking about her all time favorite fabric.  I thought about it at the time and there are many fabrics I love but nothing in particular sprang to mind.  Then, as I was looking the second time round for fabric for this project I keep messing up, I found this in the stash.

  And I thought – yes! this is my all time favorite fabric.  I didn’t think I had any of it left.  It has been used in small bits and pieces in many projects.  One of my favorite quilts hanging on my sewing room wall has some of it in it.  Why is it a favorite – I guess since I love fall colors and it has so many in it.  You can pick out different shades of oranges, golds, greens, mucky purples, tans, browns and they all look great next to it.   I bought it many years ago – not for anything in particular but just because it shouted it must come home with me.  Alas, this is probably the last project I’ll be able to use it on and it will be gone. :-(  But I’m sure during some trip to the quilt shop some new favorite will come along and in the meantime, well there’s still a lot of pretty fabrics in the stash.

Now, since clearly the sewing is not being so cooperative tonight, I think I’ll go knit for a while.  After I taste a bit of that little berry pie I pulled out of the freezer and baked this afternoon.  And I remembered to buy a little containter of vanilla ice cream to go with it so just need to fill my coffee cup and I’ll be all set.  Tomorrow I’ll straighten up all the scraps and piles of fabrics!

I also managed to get two loaves of bread made – finally found my mom’s recipe I thought I had lost – and it turned out very good.  But it’s been a fairly lazy sort of day and about 5 p.m. I decided there really was no point in changing out of my jammies at that point so good thing no one came to the door. LOL

 

Decison made

I’ve decided it’s the Vintage Sari – hot pink yarn posted yesterday – that will be used for the next pair of socks. I just love that color.  Now I’m debating between two different patterns but will get the yarn wound and decide on the pattern and get started.

It’s another frigid day – minus 3 – so I’ll be staying in side, knitting and sewing and baking some bread.  That’s if I ever actually get out of my jammies and get busy.  I’ve spent the morning bundled under a quilt, knitting on the other pair of socks and have the foot about half done but it’s time to get dressed so I can warm up and get baking – which will warm the kitchen and living room up better than the furnace is doing at this point without having to kick up the heat.  Fresh baked bread awaits!

And I’ve got to get into the sewing room so just maybe I’ll have something to report on my stashbusting report tomorrow!

 

It’s a dilemma

Decisions decisions decisions

  What is my dilemma — which of these lovelies to use next.  I’ve been working on a sock the last couple of days – just an easy peasy plain one that I needed to make the second sock for.  It’s not quite done but I think I need to start on one that’s got a bit of a pattern or texture to it and save the easy one for the bus ride.  But which of these yarns to use!  I picked my three most favorite solidy looking ones from the storage container.  The pattern, which I’m drawing a blank on the name of at the moment, I think would look good in any of these.  Now you no I’m not partial to pink, but that bright pink (Vintage Sari) is really calling to me, but then so is Candlewick (the gold) and Earl Gray.  Hmm…. I have to go pull out the pattern and try to make a decision as to which to wind.

 

And double brrrrr

I was definitely Walking In a Winter Wonderland today!  Zero degrees or so (it really doesn’t matter if it’s 3 degrees or 3 below – whatever it actually was it was cold!).  And add 5 or 6 inches of snow that fell today — yep I’m staying holed up in the apartment all weekend and not sticking my nose out that door — except to maybe take pity on the poor birds who may need some more seed added to the bird feeders.

That didn’t keep us from venturing out this evening tho – a friend who has this weird need to go somewhere whenever it is snowing around here — emailed about going out for dinner.  LOL  So she picked me up at work (which saved me what would have surely been a long slow ride home on the snow-covered roads), we went to a favorite friday fish fry restaurant (where we did not have to wait for a table because all the sane people stayed home or went straight home).  The snow actually stopped on our way to the restaurant but it’s too cold for the salt to do anything about the snow on the roads but they weren’t too bad even tho it was a bit tricky to figure out where one lane stopped and the next started.

Then on the way home we stopped at the grocery store – got front row parking and it too was mostly empty for a Friday night.  I may have to go shopping during snow storms more often – no lines, no crowds, no waiting!  It was funny tho because the first four aisles in the store we went by all had one person in them standing in the middle of the aisle talking loudly on their cell phone.  It struck me as too funny.  I turned to her and asked how it was possible that I could  shop without being on a cell phone?  How were those people able to buy groceries before cell phones were readily available?  She has a cell phone — shouldn’t she be calling someone?

Now I’m not looking for angry comments from cell phone users.  I do believe some are able to shop and not have to be on the phone at the same time. LOL   I will admit, I’m not a cell phone owner and appreciate that they are necessary for some people but in certain circumstances do find them annoying — like blocking the grocery store aisle while standing there talking or the guy who rides my bus who every single night and calls his wife from the bus (do you know how noisy it is riding a bus — the bus itself is a noisy contraption so you have to talk extra loud to be heard on a cell phone) but he calls every night to say “I’m on the bus.”  Seriously – that’s their whole conversation other than “see you soon”.    Well where the heck else would he be at that time of day on a work day?  Is it a secret warning to his wife — get the gigalo out of the house now honey, I’m nearly home?  Is it a warning that dinner better be on the table in 10 minutes because he gets off the bus in only a couple blocks after he calls?  I just don’t get it.

But anyway…. got some groceries and then trudged my way to my door (since no one had been out to shovel the sidewalk or steps yet) asking my friend wait in the parking lot to make sure that the keys the landlords gave me last week really opened the new deadbolt lock they had put on my apartment door today.  In this case — glad she had a cell phone since I just called her once I got in the door and told her the cost was clear – I got in -and didn’t have to walk back around to the parking lot in the cold and snow to tell her.  See, I don’t believe all cell phone useage is bad.  But if one day you are blocking the grocery store aisle while on your phone I might accidentally ram my cart into you…… I did say it would be accidentally didn’t I? ROFLOL

 

Minus 4

yes that is the current temperature.  We won’t even discuss what the wind chill is on this very blustery day.  Suffice it to say, it’s dang cold out there!  And several inches of snow are supposed to be on the way tomorrow — maybe it will warm up a bit if it snows.

Thank goodness for hand knit socks – the rest of my may have been freezing waiting for the bus but my toes were toasty.  I finished the toe off on the pair I posted yesterday and wore those today.  Here they are finished.

  The sock that pooled on the foot just makes me laugh.  I had to keep kicking off my shoes at the office to show the gals my mismatched looking socks.  They loved  them.

Then I didn’t feel like figuring out a pattern to do for a new pair (and there are many in progress to pick from) so picked up this pair out of the in progress basket so I’d have something to knit on during the bus ride to work this morning.   A plain Jane pair so the second sock should go quickly.  I got what’s finished so far  done working on it last night for a while and then the bus ride to and from work.

  I don’t remember what yarn it is (and the wrapper which I usually stick inside must have fallen out) but it’s a pretty combination of dark brown, lighter browns, white and a touch of purple.  I know I’ve got a another ball of the same type of yarn in the cabinet so I’ll have to see if I can figure out what it is.

So I added the finished pair to the 12 in 2012 page — 3 pair done so far this month!  That pace won’t be maintained but I’m well on my way to 12.  And I updated the yardage knit - on the sidebar.  I’m just keeping track of that for fun and seeing how much I will knit in a year - all projects combined  – not just socks.

Denise

 

brrrr

It was in the single digits today and tomorow more of the same with more wind.  Yuck! and more snow coming Friday – double yuck!  All my pretty little scarfs I knit — well someone SHOULD have knit a big thick wide long one that they could wrap around their face and neck and head several times!  I may have to get busy on that.

Sock progress is being made.

  One ombre sock is now finished.

  And this pair is nearly finished too – a few more rows to finish off the toes tonight.  That’s one I pulled out of the single sock pile so finally it will be a completed pair.  It is so interesting to see how they turn out.  The first one, the yarn on the foot and cuff knit up in sort of stripes but when I got to the second sock, both the cuff and foot the colors pooled.  I actually kind of like the way the pooling looks.  Guess I’ll be able to easily decide which is my left sock and which is my right.

And a new quilt design has been added to EQ Boutique — Buckle Up!  It’s a big quilt, but super  simple to piece – just choose some fabrics to love and you’ll have it stitched up in no time.

And what did I get in the mail today, but my autographed copy of  friend Judy’s latest book for AQS – 60 Pieced Quilt Borders.  Check it, and her other books, out at the link.  It’s a gorgeous book and lots of great borders and how to fit them to all kinds of quilts.  It’s a keeper!

Denise

 

Stashbusting and Yarn Organzing

I did get into the sewing room this week long enough to piece a backing for another project I want to pin baste this afternoon so have a bit to account for on the stashbusting report.

3 yards used this week, 0 purchased (I had planned on stopping at the quilt shop yesterday so that could have been disasterous but got tired of shopping so didn’t!)   so Net busted this year:  8 yards.

I do have these two lovlies sitting out trying to decide what I want to use them in.  Not together – but separate projects.  They were Christmas presents from a friend and she knows I love the fabrics with a bit of glitz in them.  Both are so pretty.    I do have a couple ideas for them but too many other things to work on first.

And in my mailbox today I found the long awaited backordered second hank of Everlasting Passion.

      So now I need to pull out that pair of socks and get back to work on them.  This one doesn’t look like it has as much of the darker shades – but that’s the nature of hand dyed yarns.  Could just be the way it is in the hank but in any event, if I really need the second hank to finish a sock, it should just be on the toe so all will be well.

So all my yarn ordered before the end of the year has finally arrived.  I’m still waiting tho for an answer on one hank of yarn I ordered.  I didn’t open the package right away and finally opened it last week and I don’t think they sent the right color.  It’s a place I haven’t ordered from before.  The 2nd hank I ordered is lovely  and looks like the photo of it but the other one was a pretty greenish gray color on the website and what I got is a boring brown.  Even accounting for the differences in monitors and photos, I dont’ think this can possibly be the color I ordered.  So I’ve emailed and will see what they say.  If they do say it’s the correct one, they will definitely not be on my list to order from again if their photos are so far off of  the true color but it may have just been mismarked and I got the wrong thing.

More plastic storage tubs of various sizes were purchased yesterday so I finally got some other knitting stuff organized – now just need to figure out where the storage boxes will go.

  The long bottom box and the smaller clear one on it are the new yarns from my last hurrah of shopping before starting the 12 in 2012 challenge — some of them were ordered prior to that tho which I collected from the sewing room since they didn’t have a home yet.  The two blue ones that have yarn in them are two different sweater projects.   Note to self – stop starting green sweaters! LOL  One is a cotton summer short sleeved sweater and the other is my wool minimalist cardigan.  Both are green tho the minimalist is a bit more yellowy green.  I  do love green, and they are for different seasons, but I need to branch out to some other colors! I want to get another pair of socks or two finished and then I’ll pull the Minamalist cardiagan back out to work on.  I’ve got the back done and I think about half of one of the fronts done so far.

Today so far I’ve spent cleaning the bedroom, getting out the last of the winter clothes into the closet and out of the storage boxes and packing away the boxes again.  So just need to wait for the bedding to come out of the dryer and remake the bed and vacuum and that room will be back under control.

The next  task will be to bake some more banana chocolate chip muffins/bread. I cleaned out the freezer this morning and although I made one batch yesterday (and feasted on muffins yesterday and delivered the rest to a neighbor), there were enough bananas frozen in there for a double batch which will be destined for the office tomorrow and no more bananas falling out of the freezer on me.  I can actually see what I want in there now.