Two finished knitting projects

I finished a couple of knitting projects recently. For many years, my main knitting time was during meetings at work.  It helped me keep to keep from talking too much, and let me feel like I was getting something done, even if the meeting happened to be unproductive--like doodling.  I would always choose a pattern simple enough that I didn't have to look at the work as I knit, and I would make regular eye contact, so people knew my attention was on the meeting. One of the benefits of retirement has been many fewer meetings, but when to knit?  Now I knit for an hour during the evening, when my husband and I watch one or another TV series. When I was working, I very rarely watched TV; I spent the evenings either doing work-related stuff or doing sewing projects.  Now I'm able to enjoy watching TV, perhaps especially because it's a good time to knit!

The bigger project completed is a lovely baby blanket, made with a variegated yarn that wanders between gray and lavendar.  You can see the pattern on Ravelry, a great site for knitters.

I generally knit baby blankets with a thin, fingering weight yarn.  I think it's a nicer product, but mainly, I'm looking for something that will take me a long time to knit, so I use thin yarn.  I knit because I enjoy knitting, more than I'm looking to the final product.  So, when I start a baby blanket, I never have a particular baby in mind, as it takes many months to finish the blanket.

As it happens, another baby is due soon in my social network, and I look forward to sending this off.

A few months ago I started a scarf for David.  He chose a really nice two-color pattern, easy to knit and a lovely finished look.  It's a Purl Soho pattern, available here.  Again, I used fingering yarn for this project, a very nice wool/silk mixture from KnitPicks. The colors are teal (Kenai) and a lovely light gray (Robot); the photo below is on the yellow side

The edges of the scarf came out a bit ripply.  I could disguise that with some added tassles, but they were nixed by the recipient.  He likes it as is!

Other summer projects

Starting in May of this year, the main project I worked on was Accident 2, still in progress.  On a large, difficult piece like this, I need smaller projects to give me occasional relief, and there were also stretches where I was waiting for a dyed piece to batch for a week or two when I could turn to other things.  This post will give you a glimpse of the variety of other things I've worked on this summer.

I needed bandanas for myself and some friends going on a camping trip, so I decided to dye some of the ready-made bandana blanks sold by Dharma Trading Company.  I really liked six out of these seven, and dyed several others after this as well.  (Double-click on any photo to enlarge it.)

I used two different thermofax screens (done from photos of tree bark) to see if I could print on a T-shirt.  Came out quite nicely, although I like the back (blue/black) better than the front (red/black)

I made a few baby quilts, starting with a Cobblestones quilt from Kevin Kosbab, The Quilter's Appliqué Workshop.  I stayed close to the color scheme shown in the pattern, which I liked very much.

The back is hand-dyed fabric, made by pinning the fabric to a clothesline, and dripping two colors from the top.

 Fun to get a photo of the baby on the quilt!

I miscalculated how many squares of color I would need for the cobblestones, so I had a lot left over.  I used them in a "disappearing nine-patch" technique, that yielded the central column for a second quilt, with side panels using other leftover fabric.  When I started, this was going to be the back for the first quilt, but I liked it enough to make it the front of a second quilt.

And its back is another piece of hand-dyed fabric, this one shibori-dyed around a large piece of plastic pipe left over when our main sewer line had to be repaired earlier this year.  Dyers are always on the lookout for tools!

When I was on Whidbey Island earlier this summer, visiting my friend Mary Beth, we went to a quilting shop where I found this lovely turquoise fabric for the background of another cobblestone quilt.  Mary Beth encouraged me to "shop her stash" for some small pieces of novelty fabric, to use for the "cobblestones."  I decided that circles of these fabrics looked better than the improvised squares.

For the binding of this one, I put on a "faux-piped" binding, orange for the piping and light blue for the binding, both fabrics I happened to have on hand.  I like the way this finished.

I also finished the hour-glass quilt that I started this spring (see this post for details on the pattern from Modern Quilt Studio and some early choices).  I finished this with a "pillowcase binding," no batting, as I made it to use as a tablecloth for the large table at my synagogue where we gather for Shabbat prayer when we have a smaller group.

Here's a glimpse of the backing, which is one large piece of hand-dyed fabric.

I saw a pattern for a small zippered pouch on the Crazy Mom Quilts blog, and it looked like a fun way to use up small pieces of some favorite fabric.  I actually made six--I sent one away before I thought to take a photo.  I think I have to make a few more. . . 

That got me in a sewing mode, and I decided to try an Anna Maria Horner dress pattern that I'd bought a while back.  I've tried making a few garments in the last several years, but am usually disappointed with the fit or how it looks on me.  But this one came out quite presentable!  I used only fabrics I had on hand; the color of the side panels is not optimal.  But when worn, they're less visible.  Great pockets, and a comfortable fit overall.  

My favorite part was learning how to do a loop buttonhole with pearl cotton (back neck closing):

Moving over to knitting, I finished an afghan I started about 6 months ago.  Since retirement, I've been watching an hour (sometimes two) of TV in the evenings, so I've been getting a lot of knitting done!  I don't think I could watch TV without it.

 When I finished that, I needed another knitting project.  I found a modified log cabin pattern in Mason-Dixon Knitting, their "Moderne Baby Quilt."  I've changed the colors and dimensions a bit, otherwise following the pattern.  Here it is about one-third done.

And finally, I'm in search motifs to use with stamping or screen printing--something I've been wanting to do for a while, but have yet to settle into.  One thing I did this summer was to take some sketches of mugs that I did a while back, import them into Photoshop and try some arrangements and colors.  I would like to take these further at some point.

So, along with Accident 2, that's how I spent my summer!

And some knitting too

I made a decision on the colors for the inner border for the appliqué quilt (red/orange) and for the colors within the border (medium blue and dark blue)—thanks to Mary Beth for helping me figure this out! I'll put up a photo once I've gotten some of the appliqué basted on the border. I didn't have enough of the red/orange and medium blue batik, so I went over to Peoria yesterday to get some more fabric. The quilt store in Morton is next door to an excellent yarn shop, Ewe-Nique yarns. I went in just to look around, but ended up spending an hour there and came out with two new projects. This store has a lot of samples knitted up, so you can see how things will come out, which is really helpful. I've knit since I was a child, and always have something on needles, but I stopped knitting garments (other than sweaters for babies) a while back, as I was so often disappointed with the final results. The sweater might look just like the pattern, but it didn't look good on me. I hadn't though of knitting a scarf, since I have plenty of good ones for winter, but they had a sample in the store like the one above. It's just 5" wide, and meant as an accessory—like one would wear a silk scarf—rather than to be worn with a coat. The yarn is lovely—50% silk and 50% mohair, Silk Rhapsody by Art Yarns. The lace pattern is simple enough that I was able knit it when watching a movie with subtitles last night.

I also was able to try on the sweater made from this pattern, and bought some black tweed yarn for it.

So, I've now gotten myself into the same situation with knitting that I have with quilting—multiple projects in the works at once. For knitting, the multiplicity is handled mainly by situation/location. A simple garter stitch baby blanket during meetings at work, a complicated afghan pattern for train rides, and now the lacy scarf for watching movies, or to pass 5 minutes of time here and there. I won't start the sweater pattern until I finish the scarf--or at least that is my current intention. . .

Hand work

Photo by Ken Exum for the Galesburg Register-Mail

Isn't this a lovely photo? That's me knitting during a recent forum for city council candidates; the photo was published in the local newspaper, with the caption "Multitasking." Appropriate caption, as I only knit while doing something else as well--mostly attending meetings of one sort or another. Here's a photo of the finished socks, my first pair:

I've been knitting since I was a child, but it never occurred to me to make socks. They've become a popular item in the current knitting revival, and there are such great sock yarns out now, that I thought I'd give it a try. This pair is made with just one yarn (Opal); it automatically makes these patterns as you knit. Very cool!

Mom's Needles

Today I needed some #4 double-pointed needles to finish the neck on a sweater, and then I needed a #13 circular needle for knitting a string bag. No problem—I had them at hand, along with about every size of regular needles and crochet hooks too. Pulling out this stash of needles floods me with memories of my mother. These are her needles, accumulated over a long life of knitting. My mother always had something on her needles, alongside other projects she did over the years: macramé, beading (flowers, necklaces, earrings), rug hooking, needlepoint (including the chair backs and seats above). Those projects came and went, but knitting was constant. I don't know what she made with the teensy crochet hooks—perhaps doilies that were around the house, made earlier in life than I knew her. Or maybe she inherited them from her mother, Annie Schine, as I have inherited them from her.

My mother made sweaters and afghans for the whole family; later on there were babies to make gifts for—not just her own grandchildren, but all through the family, and friends' too. The basic baby gift was a toddler sweater, with the child's name knitted in or embroidered onto the back, with a stripe on the sleeve and a number representing the child's order in the family. If my mother had been invited to the wedding—a convenient marker of closeness of relationship—then my mother would knit a Scottish lace baby blanket for the newborn, a thing of beauty that could also double as a shawl for the new mom.

When I was in my mid 30s, accepting infertility and the unlikelihood I would have children, I asked if my mom could knit one of the baby blankets for me, so I could use it for a shawl. She did, and as life turned out, I could use it for our adopted son a few years later.