Today I spent some time working on a quilt that's my part of a Christmas 2008 gift to my sister. I think it's just the cutest thing and I kind of wish I could keep it, but it's going to be a great gift. My sister came across this quilt top in an antique mall in the little town in Tennessee where she lives. They had it outside with all the rusty farm equipment and she paid just $8 for it. It's a genuine antique from the days when people made quilts from scraps, all hand pieced and made up of old flannel shirts and dresses that most likely real people wore--that is to say, none of the fabrics in this quilt came from a Quilt Shop. Anyway, my sis doesn't quilt or do domestic crafts that I know of, so she appealed to my mom and me to make it into a picnic blanket quilt for her as a Christmas gift. Well, I fell in love with it so I've taken on the quilting of this funny thing.
At first I thought I would make a tied quilt, because they're fast and I thought it would go well with the rustic-ness of it, but after trying a few of those, the ties just didn't do much for it. So I decided to quilt it with big stitches in embroidery thread, as Kaffe Fassett might do (see below). It's going to be about 80" x 83".
We told her to go look for more quilts, and yesterday this one arrived in the mail. A similar story. She asked the guy at the antique mall how much it was, and he said it was $20. She offered $15, which he agreed to, and when she got home she found a $10 price tag on it. But this didn't bother her because she's happy to support her local antique mall.
This quilt needs a few more blocks added to the border and will make a twin bed size quilt.
I don't like it as well as the first but it does have a certain charm when you back away and view it from a distance. More on this one later.
Finished up my Petersburg sweater this weekend. Once I got to work on it, it was done in no time. I did most of the right front, and the seaming, belt, and ribbing yesterday. This sweater was an experiment for me, because I had to do quite a few calculations to make up for the gauge difference in my yarn, Lamb's Pride Bulky, and the recommended yarn, Rowan Cocoon. The Lamb's Pride is very nice to knit with, it just makes a bulkier garment. I took out some of the spaces in the front cable pattern and recalculated for almost everything except the belt. I know people do this sort of thing all the time, but I'm usually one who slavishly follows the pattern. Since it turned out fine, it's given me confidence to tackle other projects this way, or even create my own design.The only thing I would change about the vest is the way the belt ties. I liked the belt loops as a design feature, but it does make one look rather chunky, or straight up and down, which I am already! But I knew this before I started, and it is nice and warm, and I think I will probably wear it.With the leftovers, I went on to make this little beanie from Rowan 42, Cawdor. It called for Little Big Wool and size 13 US needles; I set out with my Lamb's Pride and 11 US needles and it came out fine, no alterations necessary. I didn't realize the flap went around the entire back of the hat until I was actually knitting it. I thought it was just a tab, because the photo in the book doesn't show the other side of the hat. It's got two buttons to hold the flap up, but no buttonholes, they're just sewn on.
I think I'm more pleased with the hat than the sweater.
I also started a new drawing this week. It's going to have two Corgis in it, just head studies, and here's the first one. They've got such big ears, those guys.
I'm now working on the vest from Rowan 42, Petersburg. I think it's adorable and would be a very useful thing for the climate in the Pacific Northwest much of the time, where you need some layer on top but not a lot. I have also found that I wear my shrug a lot just around the house, being the always-cold person that I am, so I wonder if I will do the same with this. Here's the one from the book:
And here's mine. It's really an easy project, and I got started on it over Super Bowl weekend, but then did not work on it consistently. I have the right front and ribbing and belt left to do. I ended up substituting Lamb's Pride Bulky for Rowan Cocoon, as I mentioned before. It's making a bulkier garment but I think it may be okay.
On to new project ideas I have floating around in my head. I have a fairly large stash, as you might see if you visit me on Ravelry, and as I'm trying not to spend money on yarn this year, I've been messing around with ways to make new yarn out of what I've got by combining my yarns into more interesting ones. Not only will this make use of my stash, but also it allows me to make my own one-of-a-kind yarn! For example, I've had this rather uninteresting grey yarn for ages but could never find a project for it that excited me. On its own, it makes a fabric that is thin, kind of clingy and snaggy, and probably not a color that I look my best in. But after combining it with some ice blue GGH Kid mohair, it makes something that is substantial and soft, with more depth of color and interest to it than the single thread of either yarn. Here is the resulting fabric, the fuzzy stuff on top, with some experiments in garter stitch at the bottom with the grey yarn by itself (may be hard to see since the bottom is a bit out of focus!). Anyway, I'm stoked about all the possibilities lying await in my stash.
With this yarn combination, I thought I might make this sleeveless jumper from DROPS Design:
I also wanted to post this sweater. I think it's so cute and would like to design one like it, since this one was from a Japanese magazine and I have no idea how to find it again.
Here is that pastel I started ages ago and finally finished yesterday. It's another version of Lily Bart, the cat I did in colored pencil last year. Even though I started this a while back, the total hours spent on it was quite small, perhaps only three sessions. That is a big advantage, because my colored pencil drawings take many hours. I dropped my box of pastels and those things break easily, so I've been working with shards. I enjoy working with pastels and find it a great medium to achieve many different effects, such as smudging, that are not as easy to do in colored pencil. With the Wallis sanded paper, there are many chances to layer. I think I reached my limit with the background, which has at least six layers on it.If you're interested in watercolor, go see this really neat demonstration by Tracy Hall, a Scottish watercolor artist. Be sure to click on "watch in high quality" for the best images. She's a very talented artist indeed.
I finished my Robin sweater over the weekend and I'm pretty happy with it. The pattern is from Colinette's Tagliatelli Collection. The yarns are Tagliatelli, a merino ribbon, and Mercury, a slinky rayon thing.
I spent half of my knitting time wondering if I had enough yarn to finish it, but that always seems to be the way with Colinette yarns. Because they're chunky, the yardage is low, and it seems there isn't going to be enough. I finished with yards to spare, but it wasn't the relaxing knitting project it could have been. 
You'll note that the one in the book also has a ruffle on the bottom. That's where I first started knitting, but ran out of the Mercury before I had even finished that ruffle, so I decided to use it on the sleeves instead. There must have been an error in the pattern, which called for two skeins of Mercury. I would think you'd need about four, but knowing that I never would have bought the yarn for this sweater, which was dear enough as it is.
What I like about it is that it's basically a comfortable pullover. The Tagliatelli is soft and squishy, and it fits nicely. It's more interesting than some of my "store-bought" pullovers, so I can see throwing it on when I want to look a little nicer than I normally do.
Now I've moved on to Petersburg from Rowan 42. I thought I would knit it out of Rowan Cocoon, but after seeing how much it was at my LYS, I just couldn't do it. So I'm making it from Lamb's Pride Bulky, something I've never used before. It's an 80/20 wool/mohair mix, just like the Cocoon, but it doesn't have the silkiness, sheen, and probably drape to it that Cocoon does. But at less than half the price, and since this is more of a rugged knit, I'm willing to try it. I had to make some adjustments to the pattern because the Lamb's Pride wanted to be knit at a larger gauge. Plus I had a really hard time trying to attain the gauge stated in the pattern, 14 x 16 for 4". At that stitch gauge, my row gauge would have been way off, which I think a lot of people on Ravelry ran into as well.
Anyway, it's been a fun knit so far, with some math thrown in to boot.
