Sunday Stash

I haven't had much free time for sewing this week.  I have made up for it with shopping!! And attending guild meetings.  J

• Monday : Madison Knitters Guild
• Thursday : Madison Modern Quilt Guild
• Friday : An Evening with Franklin Habit
• Saturday : Knit-In (shopping only for me)

It's a pity that yesterday was National Quilting Day and I didn't sew a stitch.

I have plenty of additions to report to my fabric and yarn stashes:

These purchases were made at Stitcher's Crossing on Thursday.  One of the fat quarters is a Safari Moon print. 

Here are my pretties from Knit-in.  Caution-- I splurged!

This is from Hidden Valley Farm near Valders, WI. 

It is wool roving wrapped in silk.  The sample swatch was really different and intriguing! 

 

This yarn is from Shady Haven and is at least my 3rd purchase from them, if not my fourth?

They are located near Howards Grove, WI-- only about 10 miles from where I grew up!

The fiber is 100% alpaca and it is so incredibly soft!! I tried a colorway that is a little different for me.  I'm normally drawn to earth tones.

 

Lastly, is this Mohair from Bleating Heart Haven to go with the other skeins I won at my knitting guild meeting earlier this week.  I might make a color block shawl with them?

 

I did purchase a cute yarn ball/needles ornament and a scarf pattern, but I don't have photos.  I can't wait to dig into all of this knitting!  J

Linking up with Molli Sparkles and Sunday Stash.

Knitty News

This past Monday was the March meeting of my knitting guild (Madison Knitters Guild). I had a lovely time, as usual, but tonight was extra special--  I was one of four lucky people to win a door prize!! There are over 500 members in our guild! It is one of the largest in the country. Competition is stiff for the prizes.

A big, BIG thank you to Bleating Heart Haven for gifting me with 3 luscious skeins of MOHAIR!!! wow. 

Also, this is the weekend of Knit-In. My guild organizes a weekend of classes, talks and shopping in Madison. I didn't register for any classes, but I did attend "An Evening with Franklin Habit" last night. It was so much fun! He spoke about Victorian Era handcrafts and there are a lot of absurdities!
Weldon's Practical Needlework was the main focus of discussion and he had a few samples of their patterns, included a 'Child's Harness' and men's swimming trunks. The names they gave to patterns were hysterical: 'Houseboots for Invalids' and 'Cheap Shawl for the Poor'!! I wasn't able to buy a book, because they sold out before I made my way to the book signing. Instead, I had my picture taken with Franklin and his wool swimsuit. Priceless!!

I'll end with some of my recent knitting. A few weeks ago, I finally finished the world's cutest baby tank top.  This is for Baby Audrey who will be 1 in April.  I only cast on last September. =O

There is a baby mini-explosion at work and I'm trying to make sure each one has a hat. Two are done and two more to go.  =)

p.s.
Did you know Eleanor Roosevelt was a knitter??  Love!

Knitting progression

This will be the last post in my flurry of posts. I'm still not caught up with the posts in my head, but I've definitely made progress.

Last Thursday, I took beginning knitting 2 at The Sow's Ear in Verona. The goal of the class is to learn how to use circular needles, double pointed needles and how to increase and decrease. The project we are making is a hat.

Here's a picture of my gauge sample. I felt bad about ripping this apart, so I took a picture of it for posterity. =)

I'm very happy to report that this project is going smoothly. I'm about 2 1/2" into the hat and I haven't had any major issues (yet?).

This weekend will be a very busy one. It's Canoecopia time again and I'll be wrapped up in that all weekend. I did schedule a Caturday to post, because Putty felt he hasn't been getting enough blog attention lately. Bauer will be visiting, so maybe I can get some good pictures of them together.

Update - Part 2

While at my parent’s over the holidays, I found that I wanted to sit on the couch and knit more than I wanted to quilt in the basement on the longarm. Lazy vacation mentality? I made quite a bit of progress on my scarf, though! It’s been at a bit of a standstill lately and I would really like to get going on it again.

I joined my mom’s Monday night church sewing group when I was home. Here’s a picture of some of them basting a baby quilt



After arriving home from my time off, it looked like my sewing room was ransacked!



It was ransacked— by me in my wrapping presents/pack up sewing stuff/pre-Christmas frenzy. I still haven’t taken the time to clean it all up and it’s really holding me back right now. I thought this week it would get whipped into shape, but that wasn’t the case. =(

Charcoal has been using my ironing board more than I have. That stack of quilts next to him is what I need to bind. I’m in a bind over the binding! The Australian Open has been on the last 2 weeks and I got a little bit of it done while watching that, but I still have a ton to do.

Knitting progress

Slooooooowly I have been making progress on my knitting. The problem is that I make mistakes frequently and don't know how to solve them. Then I stop and wait until I can beg a knitter to help me. Did you know there are knitters everywhere! Amazing!

Something has clicked recently, though. I knit at least 10 rows without making a mistake! Hurrah! Here is a picture. It is the beginnings of a scarf. The yarn is Peruvian and is 60% wool, 30% alpaca, 7% acrylic, 3% viscose.

Funky Boxes - Top done!!

Hip-hip-HURRAY!

Today I finished the final seams needed to put the top together and then added a simple brown border. The quilt is uber-busy, so I think I can get away with just an inch of brown all around it. The timing is just right, because I am going to my parent's house this weekend and will hopefully be able to quilt it on the longarm. This might be the first baby quilt that I'll have completed prior to the baby being born. What a novelty!

In non-quilty news: I am taking a knitting class. As if I needed another hobby! I'm justifying this because knitting is very mobile and I can do it in situations where I can't quilt. The class is at a lovely yarn shop in Verona, The Sow's Ear.

This is my practice piece. DON'T LOOK TOO CLOSE!

They are having us start with practicing the knit and purl (pearl? perl?) stitches without a purpose of making anything with it. After we do that for a while (a week), we get to make a scarf. I've already purchased the yarn for it--it's gorgeous! (Mossy green, part alpaca, part wool--picture to follow).

I wish I could just wiggle my nose and have this whole thing figured out, because I have a lot of practing to do in order to be happy with the results.