Cattywampus

A baby quilt, two years late and more practice

Before I get into the quilting - look - daffodils!

I finished the final delayed baby quilt, pieced, quilted, and binding sewn down.  WHEW.  

Lesson learned here:  Never underestimate the value of solids.  I think solid sashing in place of that crazy stripe would have gone a long way to make this quilt more attractive.  

Eh.  Well, live & learn. 

I quilted this one myself, I am getting better, I think.

If you look at it up close my stitches are still uneven, and the shapes aren't even close to exact copies of each other.  Also, I didn't do a good enough job making the quilt sandwich because it's bunched up in some places.

It's not perfect, but I'm definitely improving, and neither the little boy nor his mother will notice, and even if they do, they won't care.

I am practicing for my next quilt, a bigger one, I have decided on an all over pattern.  It's a Christmas quilt, so I tried to see if I could do a snowman pattern that I saw online.

Not so much with the snowmen...the flowers aren't so bad, not for a Christmas quilt, but for something.  Instead I think I'm going to go with a swirl/wave pattern.  

Much better.  

After the Christmas quilt I will finish the one block wonder quilt that I started 3 years ago this summer.  I have the rows put together, so it shouldn't take long to finish it another time, it was really a pain to get this far, so I have been sort of making bargains with myself to get it finished.  This weekend I needed to get it to this stage.  In a few weeks I will come back to move it to the finished quilt top stage.  

The finished quilt top is going to be good, I think, but I doubt I will make this type of quilt again.  If I do it will certainly not be soon, I will need to forget how incredibly annoying it was before that would happen.

I feel like I should clarify that I took a few extra days off this weekend, I didn't accomplish all this in 2 days...

I will leave you with a very content dog.

Not at all a spring sweater

I started this sweater in December with the idea that I would finish it for late february and have it for those days when the highs are in the 40s, it's a cotton/wool blend, so that seemed like the right temps for wearing it.

Unfortunately, I underestimated how long it would take me to finish, those cables were really, really hard.  Not hard like I couldn't do them, hard like I never memorized them, EVERY. SINGLE. ROW. I had to check against the chart and see what came next.  It drove me absolutely bonkers.  

The sleeves were too long, believe it or not, I shortened the cuffs by an inch, I may shorten them more when I get it back out next fall, but right now I just need to be done with it.

The underarms are a touch tight, the sleeve fabric kind of bunches up there, but it's not anything anyone but the knitter would notice and it's not uncomfortable (especially when I am NOT wearing a dress underneath it).

Oh, this is Parcel, from the winter twist collective in Shelridge Farm wool/cotton.  

It doesn't match what I am wearing in these pics at all because I really do have it on over a dress, I threw it in my bag to take to work so I could get some pics taken because I don't envision being able to wear this before september.  Sigh.  But hey, a brand new sweater ready to go next fall, that's bonus!

The pattern was excellent, the fit is good, I am most pleased.

____

Book Review!

I have two today, one good and one meh.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand:  I cannot possibly tell you enough times that you should read this book.  It is not earth shattering, it will not blow your mind, it will make you feel...wait for it...HAPPY.  When was the last time you read a story that made you feel good inside?  Major Pettigrew is a fabulous character (older British retired major) with a really great sense of humor, his little asides had me cracking up outloud, and it is all the easier for you to understand where he is coming from because he seems to surrounded by complete idiots on all sides.  I won't say anymore, just read it, it is wonderfully written and it will make you smile.

The Passage:  This is the meh.  800 pages of meh.  It starts slow.  It starts reeeaaalllllyyyyy slow.  It reminds me a bit of The Stand, a bit of every movie ever made about a deadly pandemic, and a bit of a very strange vampire book.  It's not a bad book.  It's not a great book.  It's a book...you may love it, or maybe, like me, you'll wish you knew it was the first in a trilogy before you started so you could have gotten out while the getting was good.  Because the thing is, I really do want to know what's going to happen with the characters, I just wish I could find out in 300 pages instead of two more (presumably) 800 page books.

I wanted to share that because I kept seeing it on 'best books of 2010' lists and I didn't think it was all that.  Sometimes I wonder if books like that get on multiple lists because somehow LONG and COMPLICATED has been mixed up with GOOD in literature.

Just because an author can write a storyline that crosses 1000 years and has hundreds of characters does not mean the book is automatically good.  Give me Major Pettigrew or Beat the Reaper any day, good writing, characters I really care about, and a plot line that isn't completely predicatable...books that stay with me days, weeks or even months after I've finished them.  I'll take that any day over long, complicated and just a little bit boring.

Alright, there's my rant for the day.  I was a lit major, some things stick with you...

Elemental Boatneck

Well this one has been a long time coming.  I bought the yarn for this when we went to WEBS last summer, started it in September and had delusions that I would be able to wear it in the fall.  (It's okay, you can laugh, I don't mind.)

The elemental boatneck by hannah fettig (love her!) from interweave summer 2009.

I somehow underestimated how long it would take me to knit something on size 3 needles.  I finished the body in early November and put it away to better use my time to knit warm, cuddly things.  I brought it out in early march thinking (reasonably accurately) that it shouldn't take that long to finish the sleeves and it should be ready for spring, and voila! here it is!

Can I just say that Hempathy is one of my new favorite yarns?  Elsebeth Lasvold's yarns are surprisingly affordable, (btw it is taking a serious strength of will for me to stay away from the Webs anniversary sale) and they knit up very nicely.  This sweater is SOOOO lightweight, I'm totally sold on it.  I think it is my new favorite yarn for spring/summer knits. 

My main complaint about spring/summer knits is that cotton and bamboo are so heavy and the yarn is still so thick that even tho it's not wool I am still all sweaty and feel like I am encapsulated in insulating material that actively prevents the breeze from finding me.  Basically it's just not my thing.  But this sweater - this sweater is thin, really thin, and it weighs NOTHING.  While the longish & snug sleeves make this impractical for one of those Philly-hot 98 degree days, I can definitely see wearing this into the 80s (for reference that means it should take me through June and then I can get it back out in September).

Now I am all about finding other things I can knit in this yarn.  :-)  Wow I have really waxed poetic about it!  I guess all I'm saying is don't knock it 'til you've tried it!

Alterations:  Knit cuffs & hem on smaller needle, knit sleeves from the top down.

Also, in an attempt to be able to purchase some more yarn for spring/summer knits I am doing some serious stash busting.  I have decided that my two for one rule includes selling yarn, because really I'm just trying to minimize my stash, there are no rules about HOW I get rid of it.  Check it out & thanks for looking!

Weekend

I had a weekend, of that much I am sure.  But that's about it.

Last week at work I had one of those weeks where it feels like the world is trying to suck the life out of you.  Where people (students) are constantly demanding and come to you with situations that are so bizarre and off the wall that they seem to be made up and/or they absolutely break your heart.  The kind of week where at the end of each day you feel like someone has removed part of your higher logic skills, and tho you get them back each morning - they are less and less effective each day.  The kind of week where you barely have conversational skills left for your spouse at the end of the day, where you fall asleep on the couch 2 hours before your regular bedtime, where the idea of having to cook dinner makes you want to cry because you cannot possible figure out where to start and how to make that happen.

I hate those weeks.

The good news is that it's over, the bad news is that after a whole weekend I'm still feeling fairly fried and the idea of going BACK to work tomorrow is seriously stressful.  Don't get me wrong, I really do like my job, quite a lot actually, but sometimes it just takes more from me than I have to give.

Enough whining.

Did you all see the new Twist Collective?  What an accumulation of gorgeousness!  I am seriously impressed with that magazine.

Speaking of Twist Collective, the sweater that I've been knitting from the winter issue is almost (?) done.  This is Parcel, btw.

Almost, I guess, if one sleeve to go is almost.  The problem is that it's spring (more or less) and this sweater is SUCH slow going that I know I won't finish this in time to even get in one wear this season, so my motivation is fairly negative.  I do know that if I put it off and do the sleeve later my gauge will probably change and the two sleeves will be two different sizes...which would be bad.  So I will start working on it, but my heart is definitely not in it.

This isn't a knock on the sweater itself, I love it, I think it is going to be really lovely despite the fact that the cable pattern is completely non-intuitive and that it took wayyyy longer than it seems like it should have to knit.

Look - fake spring!:  (all recently planted (except the daffodils), but still it makes the heart sing to see such pretty blooming things)

I do have an actual FO to show you, but I have to wait for it to dry...