Sunday, September 29, 2013

Colloquium knitting

I gave the talk in CMS on Thursday, so I only knitted in colloquium.  I finished and grafted together the first cuff (but didn't weave in any ends).  Then I just barely got started on the second cuff.  I think it looks good, but those cuffs are definitely going to need blocking!

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Baby bibs!

 Robert and I have a brand new niece.  She is adorable and sweet and squeaks when she sleeps.  I made a half dozen bibs for her using this tutorial.  They have quilting cotton on one side and terry cloth on the other, and they were very easy to make (and used almost no fabric - I bought 5/8 yard of terry cloth and had enough left over to make at least 3 or 4 more).  The most exciting part was putting on the snaps.  I was going to use velcro instead, but then I though it might scratch the baby or get stuck things, and I figured the snap attaching tool might come in handy in the future.  The snaps were easy to put in with the tool, and I'm already thinking of other things I could make that could benefit from snap closures!

Sunday, September 22, 2013

CMS/Colloquium knitting

I had the right supplies with me on Thursday to do a crochet provisional cast-on, so I started the edging on one sleeve of my shrug.  It took me a little while to figure out how to position my work to get it "knitted on" to the edge of the sleeve correctly - I really wanted to do it without breaking thread, but in the end I concluded that I couldn't.

I got about 2/3 of the way around one sleeve on Thursday, and worked on it a bit more between services at church this morning (the picture above is from before church).  I think it will take me about two more weeks to finish the shrug, and then I'll have to figure out what to knit next!

Saturday, September 14, 2013

CMS knitting

I finished everything except the sleeve edging and weaving in ends in CMS on Thursday.  I forgot that the edging requires a crochet provisional cast-on, so I didn't bring waste yarn or a crochet hook and couldn't start the edging. 

I tried it on on Thursday morning.  The sleeves are just past my elbows, so with a 3-3.5" edging on them, I think they will come out to be a perfect 3/4 length.  The only problem is that the opening between the two sleeves is a little bit short.  I needed help getting it off after I tried it on.  Hopefully it will be easier to get on after everything is finished and I feel a bit better about pulling on the ends of the sleeves (and with practice I will figure out how to get it off on my own).  I'm sort of tempted to put a crochet edging around the opening, to make it a bit sturdier, since it being a bit too small will put more stress on the edge when I put in on/wear it/take it off, but I'm a bit worried about making the opening even smaller.  I'll have ot see how it fits when it's done (maybe even after blocking) before I decide.

This is my only active knitting project right now.  I also have my mitered square blanket with tofutsies leftovers, but that one is on the long-term back burner.  I'm looking forward to starting another knitting project when the shrug is done.

Sunday, September 8, 2013

CMS/Colloquium knitting

 I finished my leaf socks in CMS this past week!  They turned out pretty well, except that the second one is slightly bigger than the first one.  It's been many months since I started the first sock, and I seem to be knitting more loosely these days. 
 The yarn for these socks is Spud and Chloe Fine, which is 80% superwash wool and 20% silk.  It has a lovely texture and sheen, and it comes in very generous 65 gram skeins (although at $11/skein, it costs more than I usually like to spend on sock yarn).  I started with two skeins and still have most of one left.  I would love to make more socks in different colorways and then use the leftovers for an afghan or baby blanket.

In colloquium, I worked on my not-wedding shrug.  It's coming along nicely.  I think I'm almost done with the sleeves - I need to try it on before next Thursday.  I'm still not sure how long I want the sleeves to be, but after they're done all I have to do is knit on the wide knitted-on lace edging and weave in the ends!  I'm also expecting to have quite a bit of yarn leftover from this project, so I'll have to think of something to do with the extra (something worthy of this incredibly luxurious yarn).

Monday, September 2, 2013

Jelly Roll Race Quilt Finished!

 I finished my Jelly Roll Race quilt!  I love how it turned out.  I bound it with a navy blue semi-solid from my local quilt shop, and it does a pretty good job of containing all of the crazy colors in this quilt in the binding frame.  (I wanted to put an orange binding on, but if I had it would have been banned from our living room, so I went with blue instead.) 

The jelly roll and the backing are Cuzco by Kate Spain for Moda.  I quilted it with one big spiral using variegated thread.  Now it's on my couch, perfect for keeping warm while watching TV!