Little things for little feet

Remember the pink sweater I knitted for my friends who were expecting? Baby is here, and she's adorable. Mum wanted a pumpkin hat since she loves all things Halloween, so I offered to knit her one.

The hat pattern is Baby Berry Hat, and I knitted it up in about 2 hours, maybe 3. It was quick and easy. The yarn is acrylic, which I don't usually like to work with, but I didn't want to trek all the way to the local yarn store to buy what I needed. The green yarn is wool, from my stash.

Because I had so much yarn left over, I decided to make matching booties. Honestly, I've never had babies to knit for, and I became a little obsessed when I made the sweater... When my kids were born, I wasn't knitting.

The booties are Saartje's Bootees, and they're very quick and easy. They're supposed to be made with two colours of yarn, but I didn't have any more of the green yarn from the hat, so I used green buttons instead.

I did say I was obsessed with baby knits, didn't I? Since the first pair of booties knitted up so quickly, I decided to use up the last bit of the pink yarn from the sweater to make matching booties. Since the pattern calls for worsted weight yarn, and this yarn is fingering, I held the yarn double. Piece of cake!

My friends liked the hat, and the unexpected booties. I've seen photos of Baby in her pumpkin hat and booties, and she's incredibly cute. I can't wait to meet her.

Skirts, part II

Here are the other two skirts I made with Butterick 4722.

Another view C. This skirt is made from quilting cotton that has been in my stash forever and a day. This one was given to my daughter's friend, to whom I promised a skirt months ago and finally got done.

She's a little older than girlie, and a touch bigger, so I added a little bit to the centre front and back seams. She has a bit of growing room.

I didn't have any brown zippers, but I did have a pink one, so it ties in with the colours in the skirt.

This skirt is view B. I normally like to make children's clothing out of quilting cotton because it is inexpensive, but this fabric was not a quilting cotton.

I can't remember what it was though. It is cotton, however.

This one was not so fun, as the markings on the pattern made no sense at all, so I had to work out the ease and gathers freehand. I'm not a big fan of doing gathers, but they always look nice when I'm done, so I suppose I shouldn't complain.

This skirt has an elastic waistband.

Next up on the sewing list is Halloween costumes. I'm looking forward to them - they are always fun. Little Dude's costume also incorporates some knitting... but I'm not telling what he's going to be!

Skirts for Girlie

When my daughter and I went back to school shopping, every skirt she looked at was way, way, WAY too short. Am I getting old? I don't think I am... there's no good reason for an eleven year-old to be wearing skirts that short. Yes, they had shorts underneath, but as far as I am concerned, shorts under skirts are for girls that are young enough not to have storytime on the carpet. Or gymnasts, or figure skaters, or dancers. You get the idea.

She tried on skirts like this one... On the model, it looks perfectly fine... My daughter, however, has long legs, and on her, it looked more like this. Now, this would be fine if she'd wear leggings underneath, but I know she probably won't... Sorry kiddo.

So, I told her that none of the skirts she picked out were acceptable, and asked her if she'd like me to make her some skirts. She was happy with that, so we left the minis at the store.

She didn't want to go fabric shopping with me, but I know what she likes. I bought Butterick 4722, and planned on making view B & C (the orange one and the yellow one). I bought the fabric in August, and finally got around to sewing two of the three promised skirts yesterday.

I haven't made the gathered tiered skirt yet, so I won't comment on it yet. I did make two of the pleated skirt however, and it was a great pattern. Only three pieces, eight pleats, a zipper and a grosgrain ribbon at the waist instead of a waistband. I omitted the bow, because she's not really into details like that.

 The first skirt I made was in purple corduroy. I found it in the clearance section of the store. I found the great lime green lace and thought it would be a fun accent.

It is a nice fine whale corduroy, so it doesn't have too much bulk. Purple is one of her favourite colours. I couldn't find the right colour of zipper, so I had to use a black one. I almost wish I could have found a lime green zipper!

The grosgrain ribbon waist was a bit tricky on this skirt, because of the weight of the fabric. It was a little too thick for this waist treatment to work easily, but it did work out in the end. There was just a bit of fussy pinning to do.

The second skirt is made of a brushed cotton plaid. I think out of the two, this is her favourite. It drapes beautifully, and the waistband was much simpler.

I really loved the colours in this fabric. Girlie isn't a fan of brown, but the blue is one of her favourites, and I figured if she didn't like this fabric, I could use it for myself. I'm almost disappointed, because I would have liked to make myself a skirt out of it. I'd buy more fabric, but I suspect she might have a problem with her mum having a matching skirt.

Fortunately, I managed to find a blue zipper that was just the right colour for this skirt. Picking thread was a little more challenging, as I couldn't decide which colour to match. I went with the brown.

I'm quite pleased with my matching of the plaid as well. I normally dislike working with plaid because matching it is such a hassle, but this wasn't too bad.

I decided to have some fun with the decorative stitching on my machine as well. It is subtle, but I rather like it. I wish I'd had lime green thread to do this on the purple skirt!

Girlie wore her plaid skirt to school today, with a white t-shirt and guess what? Leggings. Sigh. Sometimes, you just have to throw your hands up in the air and give up!

Her friend came over yesterday while I was making supper, and was really excited for Girlie because I'd made her skirts. I may have promised to make her a skirt too... fortunately, she's the same size as Girlie, and I have some stash cotton that would be great on her... so I guess that's my next project. I hope to finish her skirt as well as the gathered skirt today.

I guess I'd better get sewing!

Snip, snip, chop, chop

I decided to go ahead and chop my hair. I went to my favourite hairdresser and she did her magic.

 This is my hair a few weeks ago. Cute straight, but truth be told, I have grown to hate wearing my hair down.

I usually wore it in a high ponytail, but I have a LOT of hair. It is heavy, so wearing a high ponytail causes a lot of tugging on my scalp.

All of the tugging on my scalp makes my scalp hurt and itch.

And besides that, what the heck is the point of having long hair if you always wear it up because you hate wearing it down? And if wearing it up is uncomfortable, what's a gal to do?

Chop it off, of course.

Two interesting notes about the before & after photos. I still have a little bit of pink left! I bleached that part of my hair a couple of inches away from my scalp so that it wouldn't look stupid as my hair grew. I wanted it to look good when my hair was up, and didn't want a harsh line where the new growth was. I thought I'd lose all of the pink, but apparently not.

Also, my hair is decidedly BROWN. This is not acceptable. Last time I coloured my hair, it was a dark purple colour. I need to figure something out, because I don't want to be a brunette right now.

I am quite chuffed with this cut. It took literally five minutes to style this morning. All I did was scrunch some AG reCoil into it while it was still dripping wet, squeeze it with a microfibre chamois, and diffuse it for a couple of minutes.

A mostly non-knitting related post

I try to keep this blog all about crafting, and there's a bit of crafting talk in this post, but the reason for the post isn't really craft related. Does that make sense? I didn't think so.

Anyway. I love the patterns on Knitty. They're fantastic. I've knit several. Some of them more than once. I have several more in my queue, waiting to be knitted up. In fact, it was the Caliormetry pattern that prompted me to take up knitting again.

Yesterday I was looking at their Fall 2013 edition, and came across this sweater. Isn't it fantastic? The leaves! The cables! OMG, the colour!

I love retro styled clothing. This sweater is adorable, and screams "BOMBSHELL!" Unfortunately, in order for me to wear it, it would have to be lengthened about 4", so that it at least skims my hips. I hate how I look in cropped tops of any kind.

But the sweater is not the reason for this post. The sweater is great. I love the sweater. However, I love her hair. Yes, I am a vain creature. I am always on the lookout for the perfect haircut, which, sadly, I haven't had in some time.

I used to have extremely long hair. I could sit on it. It was my security blanket. I treated it very gently, kept it up 99% of the time, braided it at bedtime, oiled, conditioned, and hennaed it. It shone like a mirror. I bought fancy sticks and forks to wear in it, since it ate hairpins and laughed at elastics. It had soft waves, not curls. If I wore it down, I looked I should be wearing Renaissance garb. Or dancing in a forest glade.

It also made my head hurt, and I couldn't wear it down without catching it on everything in sight. It took forever to dry, and my updo never stayed put, so I had to mess with it a lot.

So in 2010, I cut it short. It was a cute angled bob, very edgy. It also required a ton of styling, so I let it grow out for about a year.

Then I cut it short again, even shorter than the first cut. It required less styling, and was a bit more "me", but it was too much of a "mum who is approaching middle age" haircut. Again, I let it grow.

Back to the haircut in the sweater photo. I have different bangs than she does, but bangs grow fast. The problem I always had before with short hair was that the cuts didn't work with my hair texture. This is the back view of the sweater, which I absolutely love.

What really got me, however, is her hair texture. I swear, I'm practically looking at the back of my own head. She has the same loose waves that I do. I know how to style hair like this.

Unfortunately, I JUST got my hair cut. Knowing myself as well as I do, I will probably obsess over this haircut until I bite the bullet and get it done. It is short, yes. I keep saying that I want to grow it out again, but I'm just not feeling the love. That's part of the reason I dyed the underside of my hair pink. And I do love the pink. However, this cut... this is pretty much the Holy Grail haircut for me. It is what I've always wanted in short hair. And with minimal styling.

And it is a damned fine sweater, too.

Baby Jester Hat

I love Woolly Wormhead's hats. She has really clever ideas. She designs very wearable hats, very cute hats, and some that are just plain wacky and off the wall. I've made a few of her designs now, and I'm always pleased with the result.

I had some leftover Knit Picks Imagination yarn that I thought would make a great baby hat. I had about 400 yards of it, which would have been enough for an adult hat, but I knew it would be totally obnoxious and I'd never wear it.

The Baby Jester Hat is a free pattern, and I just happen to know people who are having babies... so I figured why not? Imagination is fingering, and this pattern calls for worsted, so since I had enough yarn, I just held it doubled, and it was perfect.

Even Casey approves.

The pattern did not have the tassles. Those were my addition. They're awfully cute. I almost want to add little bells to it, but that would be a bit... much.

The pattern is easy to memorize, and I knit it during our road trip, on the day we went to Drumheller. I finished all but the grafting that day. The hardest part was grafting the crown. It takes forever! A year ago, I would not have attempted this hat, because I didn't have the hang of Kitchener stitch, but now that I have a few pair of socks under my proverbial belt, I'm good to go.

For the record, I don't like doing my Kitchener stitch with a tapestry needle. I find that my tension is always bad, and it feels unnatural somehow. This video is long, but it shows (more or less) how I do it. These are the instructions I used to learn the technique.

Cobbled Cowl

I gave you a sneak peek at my Cobbled Cowl yesterday, so here it is, in all it's warm, soft glory!

The yarn is Malabrigo merino worsted, and it is a single ply yarn. I love single ply yarns, because they have such a different texture than multi-ply yarns. The only downside is that they tend to pill more.

The colourway is called "nostalgia", and it is a lovely blue & green blend. I bought the yarn on a whim at Three Bags Full several months ago, not knowing what to do with it. I loved the colours and just had to have it, so it went into my stash.

When our trip to Banff came up, I decided that a cowl was just the thing for this yarn. I didn't really have enough for a hat, and I hate scarves, but knew it could get cold at night even in August... so a cowl was the answer.

I really love how this cowl turned out. The stitch pattern is nice for this particular yarn, because it breaks up any pooling and softens the acid green parts of the yarn, so they're not so obnoxious. The pattern was easy to memorize, and knit up fairly quickly. It was a little bit slow because of the stitch pattern, but I'd definitely make it again. In fact, my little guy wants me to make him one, and I'm game. Just not in Malabrigo. I love the kid, but he loses stuff...

I'll post the baby jester hat tomorrow.

Road Trip!

Sorry for the radio silence, our family went on a road trip! It was quite an adventure, and I have loads on pictures to share... but for now, I am only going to give you a peek at what it the view looks like to a knitter on a road trip!

We were on our way to Drumheller, AB... to go to the Royal Tyrell Museum. The yarn on the left became a Baby Jester Hat (which I still need to photograph, and would like to modify to a big kid version, if only one of my children would wear it). The blue and green thing on the right is my Cobbled Cowl, knit in delicious Malabrigo worsted. Again, I need to take photographs of the cowl, which I absolutely adore. In fact, my son wants one, in red. I won't use Malabrigo though, he loses things... like socks. I need to see if his dad can hunt down the lost sock, which is probably at his house.

I have a little bit of the Malabrigo yarn left, which will go into a hat that I'm designing. I'm off to buy more yarn for the hat. I need something to go with the blue/green yarn!

I got to knit a baby gift!

Most of my friends are done making babies... so by the time I really got into knitting, there weren't many babies to knit for. Luckily for me, some new friends of mine are expecting in a few months, and they're having a little girl!

A week ago, I picked up some Sweet Georgia Tough Love Sock to knit up a baby sweater... and thanks to a free pattern called Maile (which has a sweet story behind it), I came up with this...

This is a closeup of the leaf lace. I love how the yarn knit up - there's absolutely no pooling! It is a hardy yarn too, so while it looks really pretty, it should stand up to lots of washing and baby abuse!

I did make a mistake on the yoke lace though... you have to look closely, but you'll see that the middle set of leaves is too long. I wasn't using a counter, so I knit one row of lace twice...

The mistake I made on the yoke lace is the reason that the buttons at the neck are so close together... The sweater is only supposed to have four buttons, but mine has five.

I gave it to our friends on Saturday. They really seemed to appreciate the gift, and I can't wait to see photos of their baby wearing her new sweater!

RIP

I don't know how it happened, or why, but my iron died yesterday. I was making a pillowcase dress for a friend's little one, and the iron sprung a leak and there was water. Everywhere. The entire reservoir emptied all over the floor and my ironing board.

I've always taken very good care of my iron, because it was a good iron, and it cost more than I ever thought I'd spend on an iron. It was only four years old, and a Rowenta, so it should have lasted. But it was not to be. I wondered if maybe our naughty cat knocked it off of the ironing board, so I asked if anyone had found it on the floor yesterday morning and replaced it before I noticed, but no. It just died.

Today, I got a new iron. Another Rowenta, and spent, again, more than I would have liked to spend on an iron. It will be broken in tomorrow.

RIP, old Rowenta. I'll miss you - you were good to me...but your replacement is sexier than you were.

Just for fun...

Breaking in the new serger

I sold the old serger yesterday. I think the "old" gal will have a good home... the lady who bought her was very nice, and already has some serger experience under her belt.

She also told me about a really neat local sewing initiative... It is called Our Social Fabric. She urged me to look it up, and I'm really thrilled that I did. It looks like chaos, but fun chaos. I'm hoping to make it out to their next event, which is this coming weekend. A full bag of fabric for $25? Bolts at $2 per metre? Yes please! My stash thanks you, Dorothy! So does my bank account.

So, since I got a new serger, I HAD to use it right away. It would be a shame not to, after all. I decided I wanted an easy, quick project, so I dug out my McCall's 6354 and made view B (but without the embroidery... did I mention instant-gratification?)

Here is the finished product. I love tunic-length tops, because they cover all kinds of sins. They're almost dresses, but they're still cute.

If anyone had told me six months ago that I'd be wearing orange, I'd probably have laughed at them... but I've been finding myself embracing warmer colours lately. I used to love cool blues and purples, but not so much anymore. Now it is all about warm plum, kakhi, rich brick reds, and warmer shades of blue. Oh, and chocolate. Can't forget the chocolate.

I'm pretty pleased with how the tunic turned out. For some reason I don't understand, it has French seams at the shoulders, so the only work I needed to do on my serger was the side seams and the waist seam. The hem is a double fold, so no serging there!

The surplice neckline is nice, but as usual, I need a camisole. Busty girl problems! Unless I'm wearing knits, this style of neckline gapes on me. I do love them though.

I also did some decorative stitching at the neck edge and along the hem, and made bias tape for the neckline out of leftover fabric rather than using purchased bias tape. I never buy the stuff - the quality is poor, and it only takes a few minutes to make matching bias tape for your project out of scraps. Why pay for lousy bias tape when I can make fantastic bias tape practically for free?

New serger, and some housekeeping

Yesterday, I went to the same store that I purchased my sewing machine from. They were having a BIG SALE!!! So the timing was perfect to replace my serger. It is a decent serger, but I wanted something better that can handle more difficult projects.

I rather fell in love with all of the features of the Janome 1200D, mostly because it does coverstitch, but I wasn't in love with spending over $1000 on a serger. I just couldn't justify the expense, since you mostly use coverstitch for sportswear, which I never sew. So, I picked up the Janome Pro 4DX. The price was about $20 more than I'd budgeted, so not a deal breaker by any means. Bonus is it was 40% off. It is quiet (for a serger), and doesn't travel, which is great. I really get annoyed when I am rushing to finish a long seam and the serger starts walking across the table! It also has a one step conversion to a rolled hem, which is a very nice feature. My old serger does a rolled hem too, but there are a couple of adjustments that need to be made, and frankly, I'm a lazy sod when it comes to adjusting my machine.

I can't wait to do my first garment on it. I'm thinking about a skirt.

I also did some housekeeping today. My yarn stash is a bit nuts, and not very well organized at the moment. And none of it was on Ravelry, so if I'm inspired to knit something, I have to haul out my big bins of yarn and rummage through them to see if I have appropriate yarn.

Bin #1 is finished, and you can see the contents on my Ravelry stash page. Some of the yarns still need details, but they're unknown yarns whose yardage I need to calculate, and frankly, I'd rather play with my new serger right now. I still have a second large bin to go through, and there are other miscellaneous yarns hidden around the apartment that need to be added to my stash. One of these days I'll get organized! I need to do my fabric stash at some point too. That ought to be loads of fun...

Next!

I finished my second sock last night. I'm quite chuffed with them. I'll take some fun photos later, but for now, you'll just have to wait.

I've ordered yarn for a special pair of socks for the boy. I don't know when it will arrive yet, hopefully next week so I will have time to make them before he returns from his Dad's house. These are secret socks! The only thing I will say for now is that they'll be red (his favourite colour) and nerdy. Let those imaginations run wild!

This leaves me in a bit of a fix. I have some gorgeous Hand Maiden Casbah to make myself another pair of socks, which brings me to another issue...what socks should I knit? Honestly, I need a break from socks. I've knit four pair in what, two months? Clearly, it is time to step away from the sock needles and work with something a little different.

I have loads of yarn in my stash, so I got to thinking. What should I make? A shawl? No, I'm not in the mood for lace. I want something I can haul around without messing with charts and markers. A hat? Maybe, but I'm just not in the mood. I kept looking in my stash, and found this...

not all of the stash is shown here...
just what isn't in the shower drying!

It is a really pretty yarn, from Knit Picks. I'm not sure if it is worsted or DK, because I get 14 wraps per inch out of it and I know for sure it isn't fingering. I always find Knit Picks yarn weights to be a bit finer than they are stated though (with the exception of their lace and fingering yarns).

The yarn is Swish, and the colour is called Marine Heather, a gorgeous blue with sea green mixed in. I can't even remember why I bought it now... I made a hat for the boy out of it, and a little scarf that he never wore and has since outgrown.

But what to make? Since some of the yarn is reclaimed (yes, I unravelled the scarf and the yarn is currently drying in the shower) and I have partial balls, I had to weigh it. I THINK I have about 600 yards. I hope I have 600 yards, or you're going to be seeing a very frustrated post from me soon.

I decided to look on Ravelry for projects that take around 550-600 yards of yarn in what I suspect is a worsted weight (see above complaint about Knit Picks yarn), for adults. I want something for myself! I found a lot of shawls, cowls and scarves, but no. I'm not in the mood. Changed the search parameters around to look for sweaters (good luck, I know) and mostly found tank tops and shrugs.

I don't believe in knitted tank tops. If I'm going to wear a knitted top, it is going to be warm. If I want to wear a tank top, it is because the weather is warm. It just doesn't make sense to me. So a shrug it is. I did find some short sleeved sweaters, but I didn't have quite enough yarn for any of them.

So a shrug it is. Shrugs are great for warm weather, because you don't necessarily want a full sweater, but sometimes your shoulders and arms get a bit chilled. The only problem of course, is that a lot of the shrug patterns I was looking at just didn't appeal to me... until I found this one.

project by nonobaddog

The pattern is called Verdant, available on Ravelry. I was hoping for a free pattern, but this one is stylish and looks pretty versatile, so I shelled out the $5.35 (after currency exchange) to buy it.

It is just about perfect, really. Reasonably priced pattern, very popular (which means it is probably very well written and any errors have likely been corrected by now)... and the yardage? Estimated at 550-600 yards. Sounds pretty perfect if you ask me.

I'll be casting on today. It shouldn't take too long, since there's not a whole lot of yarn there, so hopefully by the time the yarn for the socks arrives, I will have a new shrug to show off.

Update on Day Style Designs order

I heard back from Leah Day (well, her husband) about the sizing of the gloves. I'm really pleased with how quickly I heard back from them.

I ordered the kit and some thread. I like the multi-coloured thread, but it keeps breaking. I've done a bit of reading on free-motion quilting, and it seems that cotton isn't so great for it, because it puts too much stress on the thread. So, I bought thread from Leah, given that she uses everything she sells, and with the amount of detail that goes into her FMQ, she must put a lot of stress on her thread!

I checked out with PayPal, which said 2-6 weeks for shipping. I doubt it will be that long, but I'm hoping it will be quicker than 2 weeks, as I'm itching to get the quilt finished, and so is the girlie!

And another pair of socks for the destroyer

I finished the third pair of socks for the destroyer while camping last week. I don't have a photo of him modelling them, so you will have to settle for a picture of them on the beach.

I used ONline Supersocke 100 for these socks, which is a self-striping yarn. I am rarely disappointed in yarn (unless I make the mistake of buying it at Michael's), but this yarn was a huge disappointment, especially considering the price of it. It was full of bad joins and knots. I think I ran into five joins in the ball, and I didn't finish it. I wouldn't buy it again. You can also see a section in the sock on the left where the colours are very saturated (right where the gusset begins). The ball was enough to knit a pair of socks, so this shouldn't happen.

I promised the destroyer that I'd mail him his blue socks while he's away at his dad's, so I'm glad I got them finished in time to do so. I'll be off to the post office tomorrow.

I'm back working on my purple socks, which I expect to finish this week.

Much respect

Remember my post about Leah Day's blog, The Free Motion Quilting Project? I really have a lot of respect (and admiration) for her work...then today, I read this Techdirt article on Leah Day. I think I adore her. Her business model makes a lot of sense, and she sounds to be very realistic and level-headed. I already know I love her video tutorials, and she's incredibly talented. But after reading more about her business model, I have even more respect for her as a businesswoman, a crafter, and a person.

Also, what's not to love about quilts like these?
Release your light
Life and fire
Hot cast

I love that she writes about the creative process and the inspiration behind her quilts. And her Goddess quilts make my little tree-hugging, dirt-worshipping heart happy.

Props to Leah Day. And I'll be spending money in her shop as soon as I receive a reply to my email!

Dear Google,

I like Google. I don't really use Google+ as I'm more of a Facebook person... but since I'm using Blogger, I'm stuck with Google+.

I have a complaint though. I've found through searching the internet that apparently I can disconnect my Google+ account and my Blogger account. And yet, the instructions on the help page tell me how to do so, yet I can't do it because I think the instructions are old and no longer valid.

So rather than plaster my full name all over the internet every time I comment somewhere (and here on my own blog), I will now be known as Hazel D. Thanks a lot Google, sometimes you're a real pain in the patootie.

But I still like you.

Hazel

One sock down...

These are the first socks I'm knitting for myself. I started them a while ago, but they hibernated for a while so I could knit socks for the destroyer. I have to put them aside again, because I promised the destroyer that I'd make his blue socks and mail them to him at his dad's house.

This whole project started because of my lovely, comfortable Fluevog Sandra shoes. Aren't they cute? My feet love them. And they begged me for hand knit socks.

I've only finished one sock so far, and the second will have to wait until the destroyer's next socks are done. If you're interested, the pattern is Primavera, and I used Knit Picks Gloss Fingering in Cosmos.

For the record, I am not a sock knitter. I have tried it in the past, and didn't enjoy it. Something has changed since my last attempt however, because I'm not finding sock knitting torturous. In fact, it is great on-the-go knitting and perfect for summer because I don't end up with a lap full of yarn. It appears that I've been converted to sock knitting. I am planning a pair of red socks for the destroyer, and I have yarn for a red & purple pair for myself.

The sham is finished

I finished the pillow sham today. I quickly took photos of it, because Girlie was desperate to snuggle her pillow.

I decided on a simple brown fabric for binding the whole project. I have plenty left for the quilt. On previous quilts, I've hand-sewn the binding because my old machine was a bit... difficult, shall we say. The needle was a little off-centre, and it just couldn't handle the thickness of four layers of fabric plus batting. Oh, did you know it was sold as a "quilter's star"? Yeah, sure it is. It made me see red.

Detail of all of the different crazy patterns I used to quilt this thing. Does lit look like I'm a madwoman, or does it look like I had some fun with it? If you click on the picture, you'll see my imperfect stitching, but even so, I'm pretty chuffed with it.

To bring out the stitching, I SHOULD spray it with water and let it dry, but as I said earlier, Girlie wanted her pillow NOW, so that will have to wait.

Just for fun, I ran a border of cats and tulips along the opening at the back of the pillowcase. My machine has loads of decorative stitches, but I've never used any of them, so I thought I'd play with them. She's pretty thrilled that there are cats on her pillowcase, and since they're at the back, they're a bit hidden so that when she's older and they're not as "cool", nobody will see them.

Yes, Mum is sneaky.

Now to quilt the actual quilt. That ought to be an adventure! Any tips would be appreciated! I'm leaving it for the weekend, and will be back at it on Monday.

Yet another quilt update

I'm done quilting the sham. It is far from perfect, but it was a great learning opportunity.

As you can see, I mostly did swirly curls. I like the wavy lines on the green triangles, and will replicate those on the quilt top. The curls on the blue section were the most labour-intensive, as they overlap, so I only did them on that section.

I did end up speeding up my machine, because I was finding that my stitches were too long, as I move too fast. I need to slow down a bit more, but speeding up my machine helped a lot with the stitch length. Of course, when your machine is going fast, you really want to move your fabric faster! I am working on that though, and the last section I quilted was more even and consistent than the earlier parts of the sham.

One thing that I did notice is that it is really difficult to handle the fabric as it is quilted. It caused quite a lot of wrist strain. I'd like to pick up some quilting gloves like Leah Day uses, as well as the slider. I'd order them from her, but I want to start on the quilt on Monday, and they probably wouldn't ship until then. I know that my local fabric store doesn't sell the slider, as I was looking at their quilting tools yesterday. They sell Clover quilting gloves though. I'll have to look and see where the local quilt shops are and see if they sell these items.

Today, I'll assemble the sham. More photos later!

Quilt update

I wasn't able to pick up backing fabric last night, as I didn't realize the store closes at 5:30 on Wednesdays, so I did it today. I found some great double width fabric in pink paisley for 70% off. Not too bad, eh?

This will be my first time trying free-motion quilting, so I figured I ought to try it on a smaller project first. I had enough fabric left from the quilt to make Girlie a matching pillow sham. Here it is, before quilting.

The sham is pretty much exactly the same as the quilt, only I had to fudge the measurements, as there is no pattern for a matching sham. Hopefully my sham is not a sham! Ha ha! Okay, stopping now.


Before starting to quilt the sham, I decided to watch some video tutorials on YouTube. This one was excellent.


I'm not taking ALL of her advice. I did drop my feed dogs, as I don't have a slider to add to my machine. And I've slowed my speed to half-way, only because she's an experienced free-motion quilter and I'm not.

Of course, only a fool would start immediately on their project without fooling around first. I like spirals, and figure they will work well with the fabrics I picked. Just for fun, I did this with some scrap.

Funny thing is, I just noticed that the blog I found the spirals on is the blog of the woman who did the video. That was not on purpose, I just happened across it.

I've got my sham top, batting and backing fabric assembled... wish me luck!

Edited to update! I didn't want to make another post today, so I'm updating this one... How's this for a first attempt? I'm not entirely happy with it, but I'm probably just being critical. I need to slow down, which is why the stitches are so darn long. But other than that, I'm pretty pleased.

I even splurged on fancy multi-coloured thread and proper quilting needles. Aren't you proud of me?

Wedding shawl

One of my oldest friends got married a few weeks ago. I wasn't able to attend her wedding, but I wanted to do something special for her. It was an outdoor wedding, so I asked if she'd like me to knit her a lace shawl.

 The pattern is Flylleryd, and I used Jaggerspun Zephyr, which is a wool/silk blend. The pattern has nupps, but because it was for a wedding, I decided to substitute faceted Czech glass beads in place of the nupps.

Unfortunately, the beads didn't photograph very well. They're aurora borealis beads, meaning that they have a transparent coloured finish, which adds a bit of interest to them.

They also made the shawl rather heavy, but that is good because it means it wasn't very flyaway like some shawls can be.

Socks for the destroyer

Boychild destroys socks. Well, he destroys cheap socks from the store. He picks at the little thread inside the cuff, then manages to unravel the entire top of the sock. It is incredibly frustrating, so I told him I wouldn't buy him any more socks until he stops doing it. Socks kept dying, heaps of curly thread on the floor.

Time for a different tactic. I asked him if he'd like hand-knit socks. I don't knit socks usually, but I was willing to give it a shot if it meant he'd quit destroying his socks. He liked the idea, so off I went. He picked out some yarn, I picked a pattern, and got to work.

These are the first socks. He didn't like them at first, because apparently they were itchy. Uh oh. I've knit for him before without any complaints about the yarn being itchy, so I thought maybe they just needed washing. Apparently that did the trick.

This photo was taken at the edge of the stream at Cathedral Grove on Vancouver Island. I think he likes them, in spite of the fact that the socks have purple in them. That was a big deal, apparently, but once the yarn was knit up and he saw that the yarn didn't look "girly" the "cool factor" increased and he gave them his stamp of approval.

 This is the second pair. No, they're not different lengths. He calls these his "camo socks". I can see why. I think he prefers these to the others, which remind me of a sunset.








I still have blue & white self-striping yarn to make a third pair. None of the socks have met an untimely end just yet, so I feel pretty good about this project. He's away for the summer with his dad, so I'll knit up the blue socks and mail them to him. It took me about two weeks per pair, but I wasn't working very hard on them. I can probably get the next pair done within a week if I keep on task.

More quilting

I took a break from quilting yesterday to go hang out with Girlie for the day. I'm back at the sewing machine today, and here's the progress I've made so far. I expect to get more done unless something distracts me, but I need some lunch so I'm taking a break.

I left off on Monday with the green triangles. The first border is blue. This is almost exactly the colour of Girlie's walls.

When she saw this part, her response was to say "ooooh, pretty!" I think she likes it, don't you?

Since I'm showing off, I'd like to introduce you to my new best friend. I think she needs a name, don't you? What you would name a workhorse like her?

I got a screaming deal on her too. A Fraser Valley sewing shop had some "show machines" left over from a quilt show. She is a Janome Horizon 7700QC, new in the box, but because they were for the show, they were selling them at a deep discount, as they were "floor models" that just never got opened. I was pleasantly surprised when my man picked up the machine for me, which I committed to over the phone, as it included accessories I had expected to purchase separately. The biggest thing that was unexpectedly included was the extension table, which will be very handy when I machine quilt this project. I hated machine quilting on my old machine, as it had a very shallow throat and I was always wrestling with the weight of the quilt falling off the table. I won't have that problem with this machine. The extension table is over $100 to purchase separately. I can't thank my man enough for picking her up for me, or his sister-in-law for telling me about the deal (she bought one as well, and told me about it over brunch one day, unaware that this was the machine I'd been lusting after).

This quilt isn't the first thing I've sewn on my new, nameless best friend. I've got some catching up to do, as there are projects I have worked on in the last couple of months that I haven't shared on here. I set up the blog and walked away from it to get my projects finished, so now I will be posting like mad to get caught up.

Okay, time to eat, then back to sewing! You can see the pink border being sewn on in the photo above... the final border is purple, then the quilt top is finished. I have my knitting night tonight, and it just HAPPENS to be near the fabric store. Girlie asked if she could join me the next time I meet the knitting ladies, so it is a perfect opportunity to take her to pick out backing fabric. I already have batting. I'm planning on making a pillow sham to match the quilt, which will give me something to practice machine quilting on. I may even buy some funky trim for the sham. We'll see what they have when we get there.

Quilting

I promised my daughter when we moved that I'd make her a new quilt. We moved a year ago. I bought the fabric right away, and it has been sitting in my cupboard, calling my name ever since...

"Hazel, remember us? You promised to make us into something beautiful! We've been waiting so patiently!"

I decided to make the quilt this summer. It has to get finished. And I hadn't even started it yet.

I originally wanted to make Amy Butler's Sexy Hexy Love quilt, but the thought of that much cutting made my head spin. I love fabric. I love sewing it. I do not love cutting. In fact, if I could get someone else to do all of my cutting for me so that I could just get on with sewing, it would be a perfect world.

So I went back to the proverbial drawing board. The girlchild said last year that she wanted her room to be "like a garden". She has a fluffy green carpet, a tree decal on her wall, and I painted her room a lovely robin's egg blue. The quilt is going to be a rainbow. All good, right? Well, I wanted the quilt to be not too traditional, but not too modern either. That's why I loved the Sexy Hexy. So I figured I'd look at other Amy Butler patterns. They're free, after all, and funky as all get out.

Girlie and I looked at patterns, and finally decided on Amy's Window to the Soul quilt. The pieces are large, so there's not too much cutting (or piecing) to be done. And it works with the whole rainbow theme, don't you think?

I started it today. Of course, I didn't read the pattern before attempting to start, so I didn't realize that this quilt required anything beyond a cutting mat and sewing machine. We ended up having to go to the grocery store to buy freezer paper. I'd never done freezer paper piecing before. The reason this quilt uses this technique is because the centre of the quilt is all cut on the bias, so the likelihood of stretching the fabrics is high. By using the freezer paper technique, the edges of the fabric are stabilized, and nothing gets stretched out of shape.

By 5pm, I had this finished. The corners are all sharp, thanks to the freezer paper. I was quite satisfied with my progress, and loved how the quilt was coming together.

It is always nice when you can work on a project and be satisfied with your progress despite any hiccups (like not having all of your supplies in order and having to walk to the grocery store in 28 degree heat to buy what you need).

I learned two lessons today. Always, always, ALWAYS read the pattern before you begin (you'd think I'd never done this before) and beware of pins. The quilt foot on my new machine doesn't play nicely with pins, and if I'd been working with smaller pieces of fabric, I wouldn't have bothered with pins. But that wasn't the case.

Since the foot doesn't work with pins (yes, I do sew over them), I had to pin parallel with the edge of the fabric instead of perpendicular. I'm right handed, so I pinned from right to left (the pointy end stuck out of the left). This doesn't sound like a big deal, but as I sewed, the pointy ends of the pins went toward the machine, and stabbed me in the finger as I was sewing. This is a new sewing injury for me. Usually it is shoulder tension and neck pain, as my posture while sewing is terrible. I have, on occasion, stuck myself while pinning. I've never had this injury before. So, rather than try to continue working with a bum finger, I decided that I'd made enough progress for one day.

More to come as I progress!

welcome

I'm trying this blogging thing again. I've had a few blogs, but never stuck with them. Hopefully this time will be different.

I'm a mum of two, a tween girl and her younger brother, living on the Wet Coast of British Columbia, Canada. I used to sew a lot for them, but as everyone warned me, as they've gotten older, they don't think homemade clothes are "cool" anymore. I miss sewing for my kids, but they do still ask me to make pyjama pants, so that's some consolation.

I've been a seamstress since I was 13. My love of fabrics started with my paternal grandmother, whose attic sewing room I remember vividly. At a very early age, I used to sit by the window and watch her sew. While all of my friends were complaining about being "forced" to learn to sew in eighth grade, I was excited and looked forward to sewing class. I spent all of eleventh and twelfth grades enrolled in sewing and pattern drafting classes. I had ambitions of being a fashion designer. Sadly, school was too expensive, so I put that dream on a shelf. It didn't end my love of sewing, however. I do go through dry spells from time to time, but most of the time, I'm passionate about this craft. I love making things, and have a stash of fabric that is just begging to be turned into something wearable.

I'm also a knitter. My maternal grandmother taught me when I was about 15, but I only learned how to cast on, knit, purl and bind off. She didn't teach me to read patterns, and I got bored with dishcloths, so I gave it up until 2006, when some online friends started talking about knitting, and the bug bit me. The basics came back pretty quickly, and I've since learned how to read patterns and have discovered a passion for knitting lace shawls. I'm an English style knitter. I learned that way, and though I've tried knitting Continental several times, it feels unnatural to me. I'll stick with English style, rather than making myself crazy trying to fix something that isn't broken. So far, most of my knitting has been gifted, but in the last couple of years, I've started knitting for myself more.

I'll share photos and information about the things I make, with a smattering of life stuff, photography (I'm not that good at it yet, but I am learning) and maybe a recipe or two. Enjoy.