blocking is not for the faint hearted

Imagine a rectangle 102cm x 96cm.

Now think about 126 round-headed pins. Yes, that's right, one-hundred-and-twenty-six!

That’s how many pins I used to block my Blanket for Emily.

It’s knitted in 10ply (Aran-weight) Fiddle-De-Dee by Cleckheaton; a sadly-discontinued line of 100%cotton which is both machine-washable and machine dryable.

Because the blanket was knitted in cotton, I needed less pins than if it had been knitted in wool.

I could get away with one pin in each of those scallops because cotton doesn't have “memory” like wool does. Once stretched, it’s stretched. Wool bounces back to it’s original shape (if not stretched too far). Items knitted of wool may need blocking again after a few washes if they were not severely blocked the first time. Cotton, on the other hand, stays stretched.

As I was saying, this is a good thing.

Good because I needed less pins to block it and was therefore on my hands and knees for a lot less time than I might have been!

Good because my niece can wash and dry this many times and it should retain its shape (unless she stretches it more (by hanging by clothes pegs or some such)!

Good because this particular cotton can be dried in the machine which, in the weather we’ve been having, is almost the only way to get the washing dry!

I love the way that blocking evens out the puckering that occurs while doing entrelac in stocking stitch.

So, may I present another finish for June? A blanket for Emily (details on Ravelry). The photo was taken while the blanket was still blocking (and before the ends were sewn in) inside on a very wet winter’s day without flash because that washed-out the colour. The lights were on which, of course, gives a yellow cast to the photo. The yellow is more lemon than the photo shows but I couldn’t get the right tones by editing.

The ends have been sewn in now but you don’t need another photo, do you?

Five finishes this month! I hope I can keep this up for the rest of the year next month’s 2013: Year of the Finished Object challenge.

works in progress

It’s nearly the middle of the month and I’m way behind with some of my projects but right on target with others.

No progress has been made in turning a flimsy into a finished quilt for Gift of Hope quilt #2 or in completing the flimsy of my Scrappy Log Cabin quilt.

There has also been no further progress on my Earth and Sky quilt – I plan to rectify that today! As my friend Debbie at Stitchin’ Therapy said in a recent post: “boredom leads to UFOs” and I am so over this project! (Some self discipline is what is needed here! )

I had some time over the weekend for some knitting and some further time yesterday afternoon so Emily’s Blanket is moving along – slower than I had hoped but still progressing. The colours in the photo below are not accurate but they’re the best I could do – the yellow is much more lemon and doesn’t look so obvious!

Until Emily’s Blanket is finished, I can’t work on the sleeves for my Westall cardigan so it may be a travelling project (ten more sleeps until ).

My hexagon project bag is coming along well and, I hope, right on target. I finished the hand-piecing in class on Monday. I would have finished it over the weekend but I didn’t take the pattern away with me and I had six hexagons I didn’t know what to do with. Turns out they were surplus to need! Ah well, there’s always another project, right?

Anyway, here is the project as it was when I finished class on Monday after the piecing was completed and some of the papers removed. The other photo shows the fabric I have chosen for the lining; the lining has been cut and the two pieces (not shown here) are ready to be gathered and joined. The base of the bag has lots of green in it so the lining makes more sense if you could see it!

I hope to get it completed in class next week. I’d like it done before we go away on 24th May!

I do have plans for another hand-piecing project but that will be the subject of another post.

The biggest project of all, the renovation of DD’s former home, is almost complete. The painter is there but there are still a few odd jobs (mostly that WM had to attend to) to be completed before we call it done – such as ordering a skip (and filling it of course), painting the garage (I’d forgotten about that and have lost enthusiasm now – we decided not to pay the painter to do this “simple” task), washing of floors and hanging of curtains.

Here are some photos of some of the work that has been done:

1. A new stove top and oven were professionally installed. WM replaced the doors and handles on either side of the oven. I scrubbed the tiles at the back and cleaned the glass of the range hood. MIL washed the filters before I re-installed them.
2. WM installed a new vent where there hade been a hole covered by a sheet of MDF held up with duct tape.
3. When DD and SIL moved in, the laundry tub was covered in paint. It had always been their intention to buy a new tub but they never got around to it. MIL turned up one day and decided it could be cleaned – between her efforts and those of WM the tub looks pretty good!
4. Some of the vinyl tiles on the laundry floor were damaged – WM lifted them and replaced them (hurrah for being able to match the tiles; thanks Bunnings! – a large hardware chain in Australia)
5. There once were shelves and unused brackets on the laundry wall. All the shelves have been removed (for painting) and the holes filled and sanded. Not too much can be done here, the walls are made of a fibro that contains asbestos and would need professional removal.
6. 79yo MIL washed all the windows and venetian blinds in the family room. This photo shows slightly more than half of them! WM has installed a new light fitting on that bare wire!

There will be more before and after photos in a later post!

Right now, I’m off to have lunch then trim my quilt sandwich, press fabric, cut and join binding strips, attach binding and stitch it down – it doesn't sound like much if I type really fast!

a blanket for Emily

If you’re looking for the May post for 2013: The Year of the Finished Project, it’s over here.

As you may know from this post, my eldest niece (my sister’s eldest daughter) had her first baby on 23 April. Being just two days before my own birthday, you could say she was an early birthday present.

This is the same baby I made the Very Hungry Caterpillar quilt for (because it is her mama’s favourite childhood story).

But I’ve gone a little less bright and a little more “pretty” for her baby blanket.

I didn’t start the blanket until the day after she was born, and then I ripped it out (too wide and wrong colour combination) and started again two days later. It’s not that I didn’t know she was coming, of course. It’s just that I didn’t know she would be a girl (although I had a feeling she might be!)

I was also being true to my own rules – no new knitting projects until others were finished – but a new baby is exceptional! They don’t come along in my family every day!

I have not been in the mood for knitting between saying goodbye to DD and the Grandsons, being sick, and working over at the “renovator’s delight” (henceforth known as “RD” -- there will be a post soon, I promise)!

But there’s nothing like a new baby to bring out all those craft-y tendencies!

I looked through my stash and decided to use up my Fiddle De Dee cotton (by Cleckheaton, sadly discontinued) because it’s a heavier weight (10ply/Aran/worsted) than the other cotton in my stash (we’re coming in to winter) and, more importantly, it’s machine washable and dryable! I don’t know that my niece knows such a thing as hand-washing exists! It knits up very softly although, being cotton, is quite hard on the hands when knitting for extended periods. I only had small amounts of each of four colour-ways, three skeins (150g) of lemon, and six skeins (300g) each of mint, a lemon/blue/white variegated yarn and an lemon/mint/pink/white variegated yarn.

The right combination and the right pattern were going to be important so an entrelac blanket it must be (hi Cindy! LOL). My first choice was to use the two variegated yarns but I didn’t like the combination so I settled on the mint and pink variation (of course! LOL)

Anyway, I hope to see Emily next weekend and wish her mama “happy mother’s day” for the first time. But I doubt I’ll have the blanket finished. This is where I was up to on Saturday afternoon; I’ve done part of the next tier since then!.

(Thanks Diane for the photo taken by iPhone during our workshop on Saturday)

If I had time to knit all day I might have got it done …

But there’s no way that was going to happen!

It will be sweet when it is, don't you think?

Linking up with Barbara at Cat Patches for the New FO challenge (on the last possible day!).

Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday

Today I’m hosting the linky party for TGIFF and, yes, I have a finish.

It’s not the one I hoped to have – although that came close.

This is an previously unpublished project.

A few weeks ago, my quilting teacher was talking to us about making a quilt each for the Gift of Hope project. Basically, the quilts are made and donated to families whose babies are still-born or die soon after death. My teacher says “born asleep”.

It’s a sad project but I wanted to help.

Here is a picture of the backing taped down ready for basting and the flimsy lying on top.

I tried hard to buy some suitable green fabric for the binding.

I had plenty of the pink but felt it would overwhelm the whole thing. I didn't have enough of the white-on-white print to make binding and thought a slightly darker blue-green would be perfect. Of course, the colour in my head was not available.

At Caring Hearts Community Quilting group yesterday, someone found a white fabric with a tiny gold print on it that I could use.

So last night, I made binding and hand-stitched it down. But, of course, I had to wait for daylight to take photos!

First the backing – a hand dyed fabric donated to the quilting group (I also used this on the front).

I quilting diagonally through the floral squares. This photo also gives the most accurate colour of the fabrics.

Finished size - 24" x 24".


Thank goodness I had a finish to show!

I'm also linking this project with Barbara's New FO party. Pop over to Cat Patches and see the projects that were started by other bloggers in March.

What about you? Do you have a finish to show this week?

more finishes

I have not been so productive over the last couple of weeks – life gets in the way of crafting sometimes! And then there are times where I just don’t feel like sewing. I usually knit because I can do that with my eyes closed and find it very relaxing.

Anyway, I have finished two things – one sewing, one knitting.

The first is the angel I made from a pattern and fabric given to me at our quilting group. I mistakenly thought they were for a secret Santa project but they are actually to sell when we have our Airing of the Quilts in April (our annual fund-raiser).

The angel was made on the machine but joined together by hand. 

There is running stitch around the sleeves, wings and dress as well as the banner.

The face is drawn on using a Sharpie with a fine point.

The rosy cheeks are coloured pencil.

The hair is some dark brown 5ply (sport) yarn that I had in my “scraps”.

I didn’t have any gold thread for a hanger so I crocheted a chain using 6 strands of embroidery cotton and a 2mm hook!















 My knitting finish is a baby blanket for our latest great-nephew (we have eleven great nieces and nephews; MIL has seventeen grandchildren and thirteen great-grandchildren).


The pattern is Bernat Baby Blanket; it is knitted in Belle Baby “Buttercup” (4ply/fingering, 75% bamboo, 25%  acrylic) on 4.00mm (US 6) needles. I used 6.66 x 50g balls to make a blanket that is 106cm x 112cm (41.5”x44”). The yarn is machine washable and can be line-dried, something young mothers seem to prefer to hand-washing and drying flat; I wonder why? LOL

My November to-do list looks like this:

1. Christmas Angel – finished
2. Cloth book – finished
3. Christmas Tree embroidery – to be worked on today
4. Baby  Blanket – finished
5. Very Hungry Caterpillar Quilt – more work on the quilting will be done today; this project will definitely not be finished this month!
6. Intarsia Blanket – finished
7. scrappy blocks – 16 blocks made; hopefully there will be more done today

Not bad after all!

The weather is going to test my motto (“never too hot to stitch”) today – it is the last day of spring and the forecast maximum is 40°C (104°F)!

it’s that time of year

It’s just eight weeks from tomorrow!

I know it’s getting close because of what's coming off my sewing machine:

First I made this apron (on behalf of DD) for a “Secret Santa Swap” at Caring Hearts Community Quilters. DD was given the panel (called “A Christmas Gathering”) but there’s no way she has time to sit at the sewing machine with two very active under-threes! I’m sorry some of it is missing but this is as much as WM took! I love this so much I’d like to keep it for myself! So would DD (who was conveniently wearing a red tee-shirt when modelling)!

 Secondly, this book which I started last year and never finished -- a gift for the Grandsons who both love books. Older Grandson will love identifying the animals and Younger Grandson needs cloth books because he still puts everything in his mouth and his teeth damage cardboard books!

 This has nothing to do with Christmas but I am so glad to finally have it finished!

First the inside view with its two generous pockets. My teacher, Kerry, and I designed this bag as we went along.

It had to fit this panel (designed by Kerry, embroidered by me) and will be used to carry my sewing/embroidery supplies.

It may look small the way I’m holding it but in fact it is 38cm (15 inches) wide, 35.5cm (14 inches) tall and 18cm (7 inches) deep.

It is actually a very deep purple colour as shown on the sunlit (right) side of the bag, not the royal blue shown on your left!

Goodbye to the green eco-bag from the local supermarket that used to carry my sewing supplies!

What about you -- are you crafting gifts for Christmas?

on and off the needles

Last month I didn’t do much sewing but I definitely knitted!

a black beanie ( no photos – sorry)

a cowl which I designed on a train while taking my mother to Strathfield to meet her country train – it’s hard to see but it has a textured zigzag pattern

a blanket for a local animal shelter (approximately one metre – 40 inches – “square”) – unblocked because I don’t think animals care!

a pair of socks for mum (Baby Mock Cable - which look so much better than this photo shows)

a pair of “plain vanilla” socks for me (Patonyle, purchased 2008)

four sample socks for the workshop I gave on 16th June

a single repeat on these socks (pattern: Ribbed Ribbon Socks from “Socks from the Toe Up” by Wendy D Johnson)

and 40 rows (8,000 stitches) on this blanket (not 80 rows - 16,000 stitches as stated on my progress report – I counted the ridges and doubled twice but some thing told me that couldn’t be right!). I have added another 26 rows (5,200 stitches) to that this week.

And to think I nearly frogged it when I was just past that pink stripe!

I frogged this blanket (which wasn’t working for me).

On Thursday night I cast on and knitted twelve repeats of Wendy D. Johnson’s Lacy Rib pattern on a bed sock for DD.

I think there are two problems:
1) the toe shaping isn’t quite right for DD’s narrow feet and there are too many stocking stitch rows before the pattern begins
2) I’m knitting DK weight on 2.75mm (US 2) needles; I think the fabric is too tight for bed socks and I need to go up to 3.25mm needles (which DD has and therefore I couldn’t use them in the first place)

What do you think?

the eleventh question

warning: long, photo-heavy post (hurrah for the new internet connection and Windows Live Writer!)

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Yesterday I answered ten of the eleven questions posted by Freda (a.k.a. Impera Magna) on her blog The Adventures of the Empress of the Universe.

I had to leave the last question because it needed a post of its own (as you will soon see).

Q. How many UFOs/WIPs do you have right now?

A. Let’s begin with the sewing based ones …

1) The quilt that has been occupying my attention this week is my Country Houses quilt which started life as a single (twin) bed quilt in May last year; it’s too big for a single bed so I decided to finish it to queen size to go on our bed to keep me warm on these chilly winter nights. As you can see, it’s way too big for our bed! I am considering taking one or two rows off but, as yet, have not made up my mind!

 

2) Scrappy Log Cabin: I don’t have enough scraps to make the border I intended and am still thinking about what to do with it. Here it is with the inner border which has been added since I last showed the top-in-progress. It looks black but it is actually a dark brown because, despite all those blues, the quilt has an overall brownish look.

3) A cloth book I started for the Grandboys for Christmas (they got two of four before I became really ill a couple of weeks before the big day) – I need to unpick the last page I sewed; so it has been having time out in the “naughty corner” since November. This is the page I haven't got to yet!

4) curtains for Older Grandson’s bedroom – his mummy needs to find the hooks WM accidentally left there and I’m not finishing them till she does! (no photos here)

5) Dotty Bright needs basting and quilting

6) Scrappy Strings II: the top and backing have been made but are too long (Is this a theme emerging in my quilting? I hope not!) so I need to unpick the bottom row of blocks and cut down the backing then baste and quilt (it’s been spending time in the “naughty corner” too)

7) and 8) two scrappy quilts made from one donated partly-made flimsy; I don’t have anywhere near enough scraps to finish either of them (the flimsy was separated between the long floral strip and the yellow strings)

9-13) five rainbow quilts which are being made as part of the Scrappy Rainbow Challenge over at SoScrappy; I have blocks in various colours for a four patch quilt (17 blocks made), a nine patch quilt (11 blocks made), a string quilt (15 blocks made), an improv quilt (44 blocks made) and a Wonky Windows quilt (9 blocks made). Obviously, these are long term projects!

14) Hearts quilt: this a shared project with DD; we are hand-stitching applique hearts onto white squares – eventually we will have enough for a quilt! This began as a project to take to Guild meetings and for me to take to meetings of the “Caring Hearts Community Quilt Group” when I don’t have any quilts that need binding.

15) a cover for my fold-up cutting mat (originally used for dressmaking, now mostly used under a white plastic tablecloth to block my knitting)

– I am going to use the embroidery I started in class in April; I just have to finish the satin stitching of the butterfly  then I will decide which fabrics I want to use to piece what will be a large drawstring bag (probably lined)

16) Sampler Quilt: I cut out the pieces for the first block in class on Monday so I guess it’s now a WIP!

17) a long-untouched cross stitch which I really ought to get finish, it’s so close to being done! I just have to finish that sheet music (dozens of cream stitches on a white background), the scroll-work music stand and a little more of the piano keyboard to the left then I think it’s finished.

… and then there’s the knitting WIPs …

right now I'm knitting a pair of  men's mitts which I will finish today, then I need to revisit the following projects:

18) a pair of gift socks (I can’t say any more, just in case; deadline 22 June)

19) and 20) socks for me

       

22) Merlot toe-up socks for someone with big feet (I knitted the first sock on 72 stitches instead of 64)!

23) baby blanket (which I am considering frogging – it’s just not working for me!)

22) intarsia blanket (I haven’t seen this for a couple of months and was considering ripping it out but now I’ve seen the photo I’m loving it!)

24) sideways striped jumper – need to pick up stitches and do the collar

25) Ambassador of Love mittens (second mitten syndrome) – I finally located the yarn for the second mitten yesterday! Now I just have to find or download the pattern again!

26) Lace Infinity Scarf which I am also thinking about frogging;  the yarn does nothing for the lace pattern – perhaps a dark colour was a poor choice?

I guess it’s time to crack on with the stitching!