While it's been quite a while since I posted, blogging hasn't been far from my mind. Work has been particularly demanding lately, and I really needed to vacate some of my usual (however self-imposed) deadlines to regroup and refresh myself. My mini-vacation was wonderful, and it was difficult to leave it behind to return to my everyday life. I attended a spinning class at a modest local fiber festival and emerged with my first
handspun yarn! It's rather ugly and painfully inconsistent, but it's the first step toward my becoming an honest-to-goodness spinner. The class instructor gave us lots of different types of fiber to spin during the class, and I had plenty leftover to do some more practicing at home. It's been a lot of fun, though I must admit that I've not yet moved into the"Wow, this is so relaxing!" part of spinning. I still have quite a mountain of things to learn about spinning, but it certainly has provided me another creative outlet when I'm not in the mood to knit. I've got some gorgeous fiber in my stash now, which makes me very motivated to continue to practice so that my skills can be worthy of spinning it up!
Last Sunday I had the sudden urge to do some more sewing, so I seized the moment and raided my stash. I'd purchased everything I needed to make one of the baby quilts in the book
Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts months ago when the book first came out, but I'd just never gotten around the executing the project. Now that I have my new sewing machine(s) and some time during my mini-vacation, I jumped right in. It was a great way to introduce myself to machine quilting on my
Janome 6600. The quilt is designed to look tied, but it's all done with an embroidery stitch on your sewing machine. It look me a bit longer than the book suggested, largely because the batting I used required stitches no more than 3 inches apart (the book's author's batting allowed for up to 8 inches between quilting stitches), meaning that I had many more stitched places than the book's example. Still, I was thrilled with the result. I even had a lady at work as me if I'd make one for her to give as a baby gift (for pay!). I used 100% cotton fabric and batting, so this would be perfect for a summer baby. I'll be tucking this one away in my theoretical hope chest for myself.
I've been waiting for some time now for Debbie Bliss' new book,
Design It, Knit It: Secrets from the Designer's Studio, to come out, and so I popped into Barnes & Noble yesterday after work to take a peek at it. I was really hoping it'd be a textbook of sorts on knitwear design, and at first I was a bit disappointed that it was really more pattern book, less instruction book. Then I allowed myself to accept what it was and to see what was really there. Debbie Bliss has always had an aesthetic that appeals to me - beautiful classic designs with elegant details and shaping. However, I find that many of her books have similar
silhouettes and patterns that make collecting them a bit of a
deja vu experience. I found that this book has a freshness about it, and I was intrigued by the way it's organized to include a written monologue of sorts of Debbie's inspirations and design processes with a handful of patterns that demonstrate her ideas. When I came to the
Garter Stitch Coat, I knew I had to take the book home with me. I love the
swingy, casual feel about it, and of course, the glorious garter stitch sold it. I can really see myself knitting and wearing this. I never tire of garter stitch! I might even have yarn in my stash for this one!
Just in case you thought I'd given up completely on the Cable-Sleeved Cardigan, here's proof that I am actually still working on it. It is slow going as the cable is rather laborious. I wish I could wave my magic knitting needle and have it all finished! I've got so many other knitting projects that are tempting me! I'm trying desperately to focus on this project and only this project, but the cable requires so much of my attention to knit it properly that it really isn't practical for it to be my To Go project. And oftentimes I find that when I finally sit down in the evenings, I'm just too fatigued to concentrate on it as much as I need to. Surely if I can make it through all that ribbing on
my Margaret sweater, I can make it through these sleeves, right? Send me any of your extra or leftover knitting
mojo, would you? I really need to get this sweater finished!
While it's been quite a while since I posted, blogging hasn't been far from my mind. Work has been particularly demanding lately, and I really needed to vacate some of my usual (however self-imposed) deadlines to regroup and refresh myself. My mini-vacation was wonderful, and it was difficult to leave it behind to return to my everyday life. I attended a spinning class at a modest local fiber festival and emerged with my first handspun yarn! It's rather ugly and painfully inconsistent, but it's the first step toward my becoming an honest-to-goodness spinner. The class instructor gave us lots of different types of fiber to spin during the class, and I had plenty leftover to do some more practicing at home. It's been a lot of fun, though I must admit that I've not yet moved into the"Wow, this is so relaxing!" part of spinning. I still have quite a mountain of things to learn about spinning, but it certainly has provided me another creative outlet when I'm not in the mood to knit. I've got some gorgeous fiber in my stash now, which makes me very motivated to continue to practice so that my skills can be worthy of spinning it up!
Last Sunday I had the sudden urge to do some more sewing, so I seized the moment and raided my stash. I'd purchased everything I needed to make one of the baby quilts in the book Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts months ago when the book first came out, but I'd just never gotten around the executing the project. Now that I have my new sewing machine(s) and some time during my mini-vacation, I jumped right in. It was a great way to introduce myself to machine quilting on my Janome 6600. The quilt is designed to look tied, but it's all done with an embroidery stitch on your sewing machine. It look me a bit longer than the book suggested, largely because the batting I used required stitches no more than 3 inches apart (the book's author's batting allowed for up to 8 inches between quilting stitches), meaning that I had many more stitched places than the book's example. Still, I was thrilled with the result. I even had a lady at work as me if I'd make one for her to give as a baby gift (for pay!). I used 100% cotton fabric and batting, so this would be perfect for a summer baby. I'll be tucking this one away in my theoretical hope chest for myself.
I've been waiting for some time now for Debbie Bliss' new book, Design It, Knit It: Secrets from the Designer's Studio, to come out, and so I popped into Barnes & Noble yesterday after work to take a peek at it. I was really hoping it'd be a textbook of sorts on knitwear design, and at first I was a bit disappointed that it was really more pattern book, less instruction book. Then I allowed myself to accept what it was and to see what was really there. Debbie Bliss has always had an aesthetic that appeals to me - beautiful classic designs with elegant details and shaping. However, I find that many of her books have similar silhouettes and patterns that make collecting them a bit of a deja vu experience. I found that this book has a freshness about it, and I was intrigued by the way it's organized to include a written monologue of sorts of Debbie's inspirations and design processes with a handful of patterns that demonstrate her ideas. When I came to the Garter Stitch Coat, I knew I had to take the book home with me. I love the swingy, casual feel about it, and of course, the glorious garter stitch sold it. I can really see myself knitting and wearing this. I never tire of garter stitch! I might even have yarn in my stash for this one!
Just in case you thought I'd given up completely on the Cable-Sleeved Cardigan, here's proof that I am actually still working on it. It is slow going as the cable is rather laborious. I wish I could wave my magic knitting needle and have it all finished! I've got so many other knitting projects that are tempting me! I'm trying desperately to focus on this project and only this project, but the cable requires so much of my attention to knit it properly that it really isn't practical for it to be my To Go project. And oftentimes I find that when I finally sit down in the evenings, I'm just too fatigued to concentrate on it as much as I need to. Surely if I can make it through all that ribbing on my Margaret sweater, I can make it through these sleeves, right? Send me any of your extra or leftover knitting mojo, would you? I really need to get this sweater finished!
1 comments:
Love the baby quilt, no wonder someone wanted you to make them one. The cable on the sleeves does look lovely, worth every minute of the hard work.
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