Grab Bag Challenge #1

It’s taken much longer than it should have to complete this first challenge!

I started with one solitary 20 gram ball of long-discontinued Panda Double Bubble, a boucle-style 5ply (sport weight) 100% acrylic yarn. I’m not even sure how I know it was sport weight – I must have found it on the internet somewhere because it’s not in Ravelry’s yarn database!

Logic told me to give it away; after all, what can you do with 20g of yarn? But the colour was so pretty – just right for a little girl – so the challenge was to find something useful I could knit with 20g.

I have no idea how much length there is in a 20g ball of sport-weight acrylic yarn. I know that there are between 250 and 300 metres of yarn in 100g of acrylic 8ply (DK), therefore there are about 50 to 60 metres to 20g. This is sport-weight not DK, so I figured I probably had about 70-80 metres to play with.

And here is where Ravelry shines. I opened the pattern search page, ticked the filters for acrylic, sport-weight, 70m or less, free knitting patterns (or those in my library) that had photos. From the 25 patterns shown, I found two hat patterns that I thought would work with this yarn and chose Jeffrey’s Stripey Hat by Heather Wells, simply because I liked the shape better.

Ambitiously, I cast on 120 stitches (the 3-6 months size) on 2.75mm needles (I couldn't find my 3.25mm needles).

The first obstacle came when I realised that working with that boucle yarn on small gauge needles caused a great deal of pain in my left forearm and elbow. I could only knit about 300 stitches then I had to stop! So it took several days before I realised I was running out of yarn faster than I was running out of pattern! ;-)

I ripped it all out and decided to knit the newborn size. I cast on again but my arm ached worse than ever. I wondered if the small gauge was the problem. There was only one way to find out – I needed to locate my 3.25mm needles. (That’s the problem with having guests staying – things get shoved away to make room for extra beds).

With 3.25mm needles in hand, I cast on again. Still some aches but not as bad as before. It must be the combination of the acrylic boucle yarn and the small needles - - I knit socks on 2.25mm needles and have never experienced “knitter’s elbow”!

Taking it slowly so as not to aggravate my arm further, I completed the hat in four days.

the colour in this photo is the most accurate

The hat will go into my stockpile until I hear of a charity needing hats for newborn babies.
I had more yarn leftover than I thought, so I planned to knit a pin-cushion for my own use.

After four attempts at double knitting with a single yarn, I gave up. Three times I dropped stitches and couldn’t find them in the boucle bumps. The last time I had obviously not slipped my stitches correctly because I didn’t end up with a tube I could fill! This has never happened to me before – I assume it was because I’m too tired to concentrate properly (we've had a lifestyle change and I’m now getting up three hours earlier than my natural inclination). my arm is throbbing from four hours of knitting that yarn so I’m going to cut my losses; who knows, I may pick up the yarn again some day but, if not, it will go in the bag of scraps DD uses to needle punch toys for cats at the animal adoption agency!

Time to grab a new bag and find a pattern to use up the yarn it contains!

If you’d like to join me in this challenge, grab some odd balls of yarn or some orphaned quilt blocks or fabrics that work together (you get the idea), put them in a non-see through bag, then label it on the outside with generic labels (eg 2 x 50g balls 8ply wool/nylon blend); one 12” orphaned block; three fat quarters). You want to have a general idea of what's inside, not a specific one. Seal all the bags and place them in a drawer, cupboard, basket, box or tote bag. Grab one bag at random and make something using as much of the contents as you can. No putting one bag back to grab another – the challenge is to use up what's in the bag and therefore use up items that you have had around for a while but don't quite know what to do with!

There’s no linky party for this challenge (I’ll create one if enough people are interested) but there’s a button and ‘grab code’ in my sidebar if you want to add it to your blog. You can leave a comment on this (or any other) post to invite me and others to come and see what you’ve done with the contents of your “grab bag” and I’ll put a link here on my blog which will, hopefully, drive some traffic over to your blog!

Won’t you join me? We all have miscellaneous items we keep avoiding!

Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday

Today I'm hosting TGIFF.

I don't actually have a recent, unpublished, finished object to show you. However, M-R, one of the instigators of the TGIFF concept, has invited me to share with you what I've been doing as regards the survivors of the bush-fires which devastated parts of the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, in mid-October. 

For those who may not know, four major fires sprang up near Lithgow, Mt Victoria, Springwood and Winmalee. The Lithgow and Mt Victoria fires soon joined into one blaze and destroyed over 10,000 hectares of land -- both bush and farmland. Remarkably, only a few residential properties were lost. However, major infrastructure was destroyed, including property belonging to the state-owned railways. This meant that electric trains were not able to get further west than Katoomba and commuters who travel from Lithgow (a two-hour trip on an express train) had to take a bus for part of their journey, adding up to an extra hour of time to their morning and evening commutes.

The Springwood and Winmalee fires also joined and, at one point, jumped the Nepean River, coming within four kilometres of our suburban home. What we once thought was completely safe suburbia has proved to be vulnerable with winds carrying embers into our yard and onto our roof.  Fortunately, WM keeps the gutters clean and free of dead leaves, etc. No homes were lost in our suburb or the surrounding area but it could have been otherwise! This photo was taken by WM from our front yard looking west towards the "Winmalee" fire.

17 October 2013

The story for residents of Springwood and Winmalee is very different. Over 200 homes were completely destroyed and another 200 were damaged, most irreparably. Fortunately, there was no loss of life. Hundreds of children are attending pre-school, primary school and secondary school every day that have lost absolutely everything!

A local charity was collecting blankets for families that had been affected by the fires. I donated two that I had to hand -- one I had already finished and was storing for the "right time", the other was finished in response to the fire emergency.

"Intarsia Blanket" (designed and knitted by Never2Hot2Knit)

"Knitted Patchwork" (donated half squares joined by me)

I also cast on another blanket, which I called the Winmalee Blanket, in honour of the suburb that suffered the most damage. I would have liked to have finished this by now but I'm still a few hours away from completion. For those of you who don't knit, a finished blanket has about 140,000 stitches in it and takes about 75-80 hours to knit. I'm about 7 hours from finishing mine, this is what it looks like so far:

modified "Moderne Baby Blanket" (Mason-Dixon Knitting)

For the knitters reading, this is a modified version of "Moderne Baby Blanket" and the only acrylic yarn (which I'm desperately trying to use up) that I had in large enough quantities. 

The president of the Knitters' Guild of NSW (Inc) got behind the idea and soon squares and finished blankets began pouring in. I had raised the idea, so I was the volunteer seamstress. This is what my dining table looks like with three completed blankets folded on the left corner and "squares" of various sizes stacked across the table (there are more piles that you can't see behind the 'skyscraper')!

please come and help me!

and this is a partially completed blanket on the living room floor.

"Knitted Patchwork II" (505 donated half-squares, 50% knitted, or to be knitted, by me)

I am hoping to finish this one soon but want to finish the Winmalee Blanket first which is getting more and more difficult as daytime temperatures are over 30*C (86*F). 

The need for blankets has now passed so the squares will be stitched together during a "seaming bee" in the new year and the resultant blankets stored (by the Guild) for future need.

Another group that I belong to is called Caring Hearts Community Quilters (CHCQ); it was started a few years ago in response to a bushfire emergency in Victoria. Along with other quilting groups and charities, there has been a massive effort to supply families who lost everything with items to show, in a practical way, that someone cares about their plight. CHCQ has already donated thirty-one quilts to two primary schools and a pre-school for children who have lost everything. Later today we will be sorting and bagging another 64 quilts that will be given to students in two high schools. WM is coming to the sorting day with me to take photos so come back later to see some of the activity and quilts.

Sourcing or making over 100 quilts in less than a month is no mean feat for a small group of about twenty women, most of whom are in their sixties and seventies. I am proud to be associated with the group.

Thanks, M-R, for encouraging me to share this story. I hope the post was not too long!

Please link up with your finished projects here. Please use the URL of your actual blog post so that we may all come and visit your blog and see what you have finished.

Is that a finish I see?

Back at the end of June I set my goals for July – then I was diagnosed with shingles and didn’t sew (by machine) for the entire month.
So my July goals became my August goals.
Half of August passed before I was able to use my sewing machine again but by then, I has lost any interest in quilt-making. My re-awakened interest in family history had pushed aside any thoughts of crafting.
Then last weekend WM made good on a passing comment he had made two weeks before: “the next weekend we have free, we’re going to tackle your sewing room”!
Well, I'm still looking at small piles of mess but, for the most part, my sewing room is much better organised and a much more pleasant place to be. And it’s amazing how handling so much fabric as it is moved from one place to another can inspire all sorts of ideas (and challenges, like “what am I going to do with this?”)
And sew (yes, I wrote that intentionally) on Thursday, after sorting yet more fabric (more on that in a later post), I worked on some of my August goals.
I’ll leave the story of the Scrappy Log Cabin quilt for another post (looks like I’m back blogging too! LOL) and move on to my second (or is it my third?) project of the day.
I planned to finish my Gift of Hope quilt #2 before the end of the month. But, after sorting all that fabric, I couldn’t find a backing fabric that I was happy with. In the end I was left with a choice of solid white (boring!) or a print which had been folded for a long time and was dirty and possibly faded on the fold lines. I put that in a bucket to soak with some nappy (diaper) soaker – can’t make it any worse.
Frustrated, I turned to the block that was to have been Gift of Hope quilt #3. An abandoned (not-made-by-me) Dresden plate block measuring 22” square. Whilst searching through “that tub”, I came across some pink binding. “Perfect for that block”, thinks I. It was more than perfect, it was exactly the same fabric that had already been used to make an inner border on the block!

But when I measured it, I found that there was only 90” and I needed at least 98” of binding for the finished quilt. But, unfolded and pressed, 90” was enough to turn the 22” block into a 24” block – the recommended size from Yasminah’s Gifts of Hope.
So I pressed the fabric and attached it to the block. Now for the sandwich…
I had the “wadding” (cream flannelette); I just needed a backing fabric. But do you think I could find some? In the end I settled for a very pale lemon homespun (or is it lawn?).
I cut my backing and wadding then cleared off my cutting table to make a basting table.
In not much time at all, I had a sandwich.
Full of enthusiasm, I started quilting at around 9pm! I quilted “in the ditch” around the inner circle, the outside points of the plates and around the border fabrics.
I found some fabric that was suitable for binding (everything is a compromise when one is working with donated fabrics), cut and joined three strips that were two-and-one-sixteen-inches wide (I didn’t have enough fabric for a conventional 2.5”!) and pressed the binding in half. I attached the binding to the quilt and planned to leave it there.
But, at 1:00am I had to force myself to abandon the hand-stitching of the binding. (Too much enthusiasm here!)
I finished it last night and here is my first quilting-related finish in two months:
 
Blanket of Hope #2 will go to a family experiencing loss of a baby at birth or soon after. As I sewed, I sang a song (given to me in my private worship time that caused me to weep) “Somebody loves you, Somebody cares” over and over -- I pray that the parents will experience the love of God as they hold their little one wrapped in this quilt.
Linking up with TGIFF (Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday), which is being hosted at Pippa’s Patch this week.

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!

“tagged”?

Impera Magna, over at The Adventures of the Empress of the Universe, was tagged to answer 11 questions and then posed eleven more for anyone who wanted to answer them.

I thought they were a bit of fun so here goes (I’ve reordered the questions, Freda, I hope that’s okay!):

1.  How long have you been quilting?
DD and I bought fabric and cut out our first (string) quilt (with scissors) in March 2010.

I bought a rotary cutter soon after and we cut out pieces and began Elizabeth Hartman’s Modern Sampler Quilt in April 2010 but it didn’t get finished until we began to take classes in 2011.

So, I guess the short answer is just over two years, but we have been taking it seriously for about fifteen months!

2.  What quilting/sewing tools do you find most useful?   
I would have to say my sewing machine closely followed by a stitch ripper, my rotary cutter and cutting mat. And scissors – I have four pairs in different parts of my sewing room and another pair on my quilting frame in the garage; almost all the scissors are paired with an empty container for throw-away scraps (there are other scrap bins for usable scraps).

3.  Do you belong to a quilt guild?  
DD and attended the inaugural meeting of the Sydney Modern Quilt Guild last October but have not been able to attend either of the two meetings since.

4.  Do you have a local quilt shop?  
Four – I attend weekly classes at one of them!

5.  Do you quilt your own quilts or quilt "by check"?  
So far I have quilted all of the quilts we have made – either on my sewing machine or on the quilting frame. I can’t see this changing in the near future.

6.  How many finished quilts do you have in your home?  
Three. The first two quilts we made (both seen above) for DD’s sons; and this one which belongs to the “Caring Hearts Community Quilting Group”.

7. What's the farthest you've been from home?
England, in 1983. WM and I plan a return visit to the UK in 2017 to celebrate our 60th birthdays and 40th wedding anniversary.

8. I'm going to take you out to dinner and I'm paying... where are we going and what will we have?  
Lobster please!

9. When was the last time you bought fabric?  
Tuesday – the local chain store has a discount of 30% off all fabric; this included a discount on the clearance stock which was already marked down to $4 a metre (normally $12.99-$19.99 a metre). I went to buy one and a half metres of fabric to line the bag we are starting in class next week; there was 1.9 metres on the bolt; the other fabric had 3.8 metres on the bolt and I bought the lot! At $2.40 a metre, I can never have enough neutral fabric!

10. Thread... more than 100 spools or less?  
Way less. I used to buy a different coloured thread for every project, now I have only white, black, charcoal, two tones of grey, two tones of beige and a spool of brown. Of course, I still have part-spools in other colours but way under 100 spools.

Come back tomorrow when I’ll answer the 11th question!

the kindness of stitchers

At the end of April, It was my privilege to collect items donated to Australian Inland Mission, the charity of the month over at Knit4Charities. These items will be taken by a local pastor to Aboriginal communities in central Australia.

Twenty-eight fabulous stitchers from around Australia contributed a total of 264 items, which DD and I enjoyed sorting and photographing last Saturday. The items were knitted, crocheted and sewn.

blankets

hats and wristwarmers

ponchos, bears, socks and slippers (and a sweet little baby set)

scarves and pants

and sweaters (jumpers, cardigans, shrugs and vests)

Thank you all so much! And thanks, Pam, for starting the group.