works in progress

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you would know that I have a large number of projects that I've started, many of which have fallen by the wayside.

I have tried to remedy this by determining a finish date for each UFO, and then working on those things which need to be finished first. Sounds logical, I know, but until I put it all in writing, I couldn't see the wood for the trees – or, more truthfully, the projects for the piles!

Since I wrote that first detailed list back in June, some projects have been finished and I've blogged about them. Some new projects have inevitably crept in – nieces have had babies or recently become pregnant, Secret Santa projects were unexpectedly thrust upon me, or I’ve fallen in love with a fabric, yarn or pattern (such as the three bags I've recently finished)!

But, thanks to the organisational skills of this app on my iPad, my WIPs are under control and at the moment there are six that I am actively working on.

In my last post, I showed you the first of two Secret Santa projects and the first of two cloth books which, naturally enough, need to be completed by Christmas.

Here is the second Secret Santa project in progress. Today I will stitch the turnings closed and do the necessary embroidery.

And here is part of the second of the cloth books – cut out, batting fused and pages pinned together. All I need to do is load another bobbin, change to my integrated walking foot and get stitching.

Also to be finished before Christmas, is this – the third embroidered Christmas tree. I plan to finish that before the end of next week because I need to turn the three into a wall hanging which will need to be hung soon!

I mentioned nieces having babies or finding out they were pregnant.

This unblocked lace knitting (still on the needles) is 4ply (fingering) bamboo/acrylic (machine washable – new mums love that); it is for our latest grand-nephew. His mother, our niece, is also our only god-daughter, so she gets something a little bit extra-special. I could have knitted it sooner but I was hoping to use some of the pink baby yarn in my stash!

It’s the Bernat Baby Blanket (Ravelry link) and should be finished in plenty of time to be given to the proud parents at the family Christmas party on 16th December. This baby, by the way, is my MIL’s 13th great-grandchild! (She has sixteen living grandchildren).

And on my side of the family, my eldest niece has just been surprised by an unplanned pregnancy. Her mother, my sister, told me a couple of weeks ago that D. really likes The Very Hungry Caterpillar, so there is a surprise play quilt in progress. Here’s a peek at the top. The spots are part of the VHC range; I can’t quite figure out why!

You may remember that I started an Intarsia Blanket in November 2011. Here it is in July this year.

I have finished the knitting. All that remains is to finish knitting the i-cord edging and sew it on, then secure a few hundred ends (they were woven in while I was knitting but the acrylic yarn slides so they need to be sewn back in the opposite direction).

 I know what you're thinking, why didn't I knit the i-cord on? The answer is simple, it’s too hot to sit under a blanket and knit, plus the weight of the blanket kept dragging on the i-cord, making it difficult to knit. I quite like hand-sewing, so this is the best solution for me. I did knit the i-cord onto the 200 open stitches at the top of the blanket.

Finally, there is a pile of scraps on my ironing board for making more blocks for the rainbow scrap challenge. This pile, as you can see is blue, which was the colour a few months ago – I had so many blue scraps that I could still be sewing with them into 2013. I might put away the blue (again), and get out the brown, which was the colour for October or black which is the colour for this month. My black scraps are few and will be mixed with white.

I hadn’t planned on making blocks but it was hot here yesterday and I already had dark grey thread and my quarter inch foot on my machine – what's a girl to do? 

I'd better go - I have things to do!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced blog.