You've Come A Long Way, Baby

I know of people who never go back to old projects. They look at them, see the mistakes, or see how much their technique has improved, and scrap the whole thing for the real or perceived flaws in it.

Not me. I love to look at them, cherish them as a reminder of where I was, a milestone on the road to where I am now, and a reminder that I had the courage to start something, even if I wasn't sure it would be perfect when it was done.

Isn't this where most of us should be in life? Nothing is ever perfect, or turns out as planned. Instead of bemoaning our lack of perfection, or lack of that new car, or new job, or hunky husband, shouldn't we look at where we are now and view all these things as what made us who we are? No, you may not have gotten that promotion, but if you had, would you have met the really neat person in the cubicle next door? Maybe your car broke down, but if it hadn't, would you have ever discovered the fantastic coffee shop next door to the car repair place?

Today's featured finish is Midwinter's Eve, which was started about two years ago. Since then, I've discovered I was twisting my stitches when knitting, learned a lot about lace knitting, and knitting in general. There are several mistakes that, to me, are glaring. You know what? It's still wonderfully warm and cozy. It still impresses people to find out I made that. You can still see the pattern - the snowflakes coming down over the snow covered mountains, with the trees, stream and snowbank at the foot of the mountains.

Yes, you've come a long way, baby, but you wouldn't be here, if you had never been there.

(p.s. It appears Blogger is testing my theory. It's refusing to load pictures right now. I promise they exist - looks like I'll have to edit the photo in later. Now off to figure out what I'm supposed to be learning from this.)

Finding My Mojo

Backtracking to the month of intermission time - I came down with bronchitis/pneumonia/respiratory crud that landed me on a week of antibiotics and general icky. Once over that, I seemed to have lost all ambition. Apparently "over" and "OVER" that crud were two different things. (Either that or the ferrets stole my Mojo and hid it under the couch. Hmmm....it did seem to resurface right after I had to get the broom to chase Frack out from under the couch so I could put him to bed before going to work....maybe my Mojo was in the pile of toys and day old treats that came out with him.)

I finally think I'm getting back on track with actually getting something done. Just since Wednesday, I've finished two - yes TWO things! (After nothing for a month!) OK, so it's not major projects or impressive finishes, but it's something!

Circle socks, done in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport. Due to the yarn being heavier than called for, I dropped one repeat out of the pattern - cutting down from 64 stitches to 56 stitches. Miracle of miracles, it actually worked!

I also finished (JUST under the wire!) the October block for the Basket Case block of the month group. I'm not sure I'm entirely happy with this one, I think I will at least add a bow to the top of the handle, but will probably wait until I have more baskets and can evaluate adding embellishments to them as a group.

Now to wander off and try to mojo up some more projects! Woohoo!

Knit Knerd

This week is FlGaWeen at work. Yeah, kind of a bizarre footballholidaymashup thing. We're having theme days all week. Yesterday was Think Pink. Today was Nerd day.

Normally I either forget, or just flat don't get around to doing a dress-up for these things. For today though, I managed to get it together. About 10 minutes quality time with some glitter glue and my scrap bag of yarn ends and I had this nifty shirt.

To complete the outfit, I had on hand knit socks, hand knit wrist warmers, a hand knit shawl, knitting needles and a small ball of yarn stuck in my hair, and instead of the standard nerdly tape wrapped around my glasses, I had yarn.

Fortunately, or unfortunately no pics - but yes, the image is as silly as you're thinking.

Intermission's Over

Wow, over a month? How did that happen? Well, you know what they say, I try to take one day at a time, but lately several have been ganging up on me all at once.
Due to the general non-fun, life-induced mayhem, not a lot has been done in the last month.

I did finish the basket block the coffee dyed fabric was made for.

Only a week behind on mailing, but I finally finished the next two blocks for the Yes We Can group quilt. The flag is an original design. (OK, so not too original, and not too much to it, but I thought it turned out nicely.) The other - well, just let's say if anyone hears me suggest I'm going to do that many flying geese to put into that small a block (4.5" finished), please come over and smack some sense into
me.

Hopefully things have settled down a bit, and I can return to the regularly scheduled mayhem. This business of doing nothing but sleeping or working just isn't much fun!

Not Quite What I Was Expecting

I decided to go ahead and tackle the basket block for the Block of the Month group this morning. Not being the kind to plan ahead, I had no idea for color scheme, and had not done any purchasing other than a few fat quarters of assorted browns for the basket portions. I wandered off to the stash closet to look for background fabric, and discovered that I have successfully managed to diminish my quilting stash at some point. There are a lot of small scraps, so I'm set for the applique, but background size bits? There were very few in a light or neutral color, and none that were really suitable - most were too busy. This left my old standby of muslin.

Now, muslin is what I consider a staple, so I have plenty of it. It's the kind of thing I wait for the 50% coupons, and buy a bolt. I had a couple of different weights, I had bleached and unbleached, but even the unbleached seemed cold and stark for baskets. What's a girl to do on a Sunday morning with no quilt shops open?

Fortunately, I hadn't done my weekly grocery shopping yet - so, remembering bits and pieces of tips and tricks from the many magazines, blogs, and random tutorials I wander through, I picked up a jar of instant coffee. The intent was to create a splotchy antiqued tan background. I've put the step out on it below - it didn't quite do what I envisioned, but I still have a very nice, warm background ready!

I started by cutting the muslin into suitable squares. The blocks are going to be 6 or 12 inches, so I went with 14 inch squares to allow for shrinkage during the applique process, as well as room to square up. I tossed these in a sink of plain, warm water to soak.

I then scattered instant coffee over the top of the damp fabric and misted it with more plain water. (I usually have plenty of spray bottles thanks to the ferrets. The enzyme cleaner for their cages comes in spray bottles, so I wash, save and reuse those for this type of thing.) I think I would have had a more splotchy end result with less water - either wring the fabric out more, or spray less. I then let this sit covered for about an hour.

Not being particularly patient, I then popped the fabric squares onto baking sheets (the cheap kind they sell as disposable oven liners are great for this type of thing!) I set the oven for 200 and let the fabric set for about 20 minutes. If I had let it go longer, until it was dry (or at least dryer) I may also have gotten more uneven results. (I'll keep everyone posted, as I'm sure there will be more experimentation!)

I rinsed the still damp fabric, at which point I discovered I had more of an overall tan, than completely splotchy.

I ironed it to set the color that was there, then gave it a final wash to make sure the coffee was out (since coffee is acidic). The strip across the middle is a trimming of the untreated muslin on top of the fabric before the final wash. You can definitely tell a difference!

This is the final washed and pressed version, again with a strip of the untreated muslin for comparison. I'm pretty sure that with more patience and time and less water, I would have completely different results. As it is, I'm still pretty happy with the end product. I think it's definitely warmer and more inviting than the original color - and there is still a little bit of subtle variation that doesn't quite show in the pictures.

P.S. The ongoing projects stand at: Pillar socks knit through today, Midwinter's Eve knit up to today, still needs today's two rows knit, and Per Terras has been a Very Naughty Shawl and is in time out until I am focused enough to rip back about a dozen rows.

Corporate Zombies

Yes, it's come to this. Even the zombies have gone corporate.


see more Engrish

A Good Run

Well, the potholders are finished. Everything except the Per Terras is caught up. Per Terras is not quite at Friday's target. Depending on ambition, it may make it to Friday's goal before the evening is up. The quilt block wasn't on the schedule anyway for this week, so I'm going to declare it doesn't count.

Even if I didn't get caught up, I think that's a pretty good run, considering where I started the weekend!