WIP Wednesday - Just a Little Bit of Knitting

     Missed posting on Monday since I didn't have a very crafty weekend and had nothing to show. Spent several hours in the garden on Sunday, clearing it out and getting it ready for planting. We are going to try pumpkins for the first time in several years. And we had such beautiful weather, we were outside a lot playing with sidewalk chalk, frisbee and bubbles. Monday, I got my crafty self going again and made progress on some knits.

      I finished the cowl/ neck warmer I was test-knitting. It is currently blocking. Hope to have post-blocking pictures on Friday. Then Sarah asked me to test knit a hat, and I said yes, so now I have to knit a cabled hat in a week. It looks like a great pattern so I don't mind. No pictures of it yet though. I just got the pattern this morning and haven't cast on. I think I have enough yarn leftover from the neck warmer for the hat. Then the yarn should be all gone.

Monday afternoon I cast on the second sock.

     And for Shannon's Tops, Tanks and Tees KAL, I cast on a shrug for my daughter's birthday. I am frogging a tank I made for myself. I think I'm going to try and find a summer dress to go along with it and gift both to her.

     And yesterday we found a Robin building a nest on top of our ladder. I'm not sure how restful this will be for the baby birds. A shelf with outside toys is right beside it. Then our garbage and recycle bins. And the sandbox is about 10 feet away. We hope to see some baby Robins later this Spring.

What are you working on this week?

Friday Finishes

     I think my brain may have been taken over by a dresden making monster. I can't seem to stop making them! They do work up pretty quick. Or at least they do at this stage. I know sewing them onto the background is going to take a little longer but I think I've made some decisions about where this quilt is going.

     I made the last 4 dresden that I had cut the pieces for. And then I made one small dresden. I think I like the big ones better. I have 11 big ones sewn together so I...

     ... covered my bed in all the white fabric I had and played with layouts. Here is a classic layout. I used the smaller one to give me an even 12 to play with. If I did this layout, I would cut white 18.5 inch squares to attach the dresdens to. 

     I tried a more sporadic layout, which I thought I would like and had envisioned doing as I was sewing. For this layout, I would piece together the white fabric into the size I would like the finished quilt to be and then sew on the dresdens. I didn't like this layout as much as I thought I would. I think this layout would be better if all the dresdens were different sizes.

     This layout has them really close together. Kind of reminds me of a yo-yo quilt. Again, I would make one big back, then sew on the dresdens.  After doing all three, I decided I liked the classic best. That kind of surprised me.

 Now I have a big design decision to make. First I could make 9 more big dresdens which would give me a quilt that is 76 x 94 - 4 blocks across, 5 down. Option 2, would be to do one more big dresden to give me 12. Then make a bunch of small ones for side borders and a border along the bottom. After taking the pictures above this morning, I went through my cut scraps and separated fabrics for 9 more big dresdens, thinking I would go with the first option, but now I'm not so sure. Any thoughts?

     My toddler has been taking lots of pictures this week. He snapped this picture of me sewing dresdens a couple days ago. The fabric in the foreground is for his quilt. I was able to iron some of it this week. Need to iron a bit more, then it will be time to cut.

      And I finished a sock this week. I ran out of yarn and had to use some leftovers to finish the toe but I think they match enough that it isn't too obvious. Both are Kroy sock yarns. I'll probably cast on the second sock this weekend.

     The toe looks okay, right? And the only people who will really see are my family when I'm home. 

Did you have any finishes this week?

Linking up at Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday.

WIP Wednesday - Some Knitting and Dresdens

     Making progress on three projects this week. Trying to stop myself from starting a bunch of other projects - both knitting and quilt projects have been calling me. However, I hope to start a new quilt this week for my son's birthday next month. And Shannon announced her annual Tops, Tanks and Tee KAL. I'm thinking of casting on something for my daughter (for her birthday in June) and maybe a little something for me, if there's time. Here's what I've been working on this week.

     Finished the heel and now I'm playing yarn chicken for the foot. Might have to knit the toe in a different colour. Or make them on the small side and gift them instead of keeping them.

     About halfway done the test knit for Sarah of Imagined Landscapes. There are 2 different patterns on the neck warmer. I'm using the yarn leftover from my Thermal Tunic.

Here's one side (cloisters).

     And the other (droplets). I think both of these patterns would be great by themselves and as I work on it I think about how to adapt the pattern so I could make just a cloisters cowl or just a droplets cowl. 

     And the dresdens have officially distracted me from editing. I made 4 more, 6 in total. My current plan is to have a white background with the middle circles being cut from a variety of solids. 

5 more to go. 

     And the stack of fabrics to the left is for the quilt for my son's birthday. I plan on using Cluck Cluck Sew's Stack n' Whack tutorial (9.5 inch size). 

What have you been working on this week?

And Floyd, or toddler, just went down for a rare nap as I wrote this post so I need to decide what to work on now. Editing? Ironing dresdens and the fabrics for his quilt? Or dishes? I think dishes, ironing and then editing. I wonder why I'm not further along with editing my novel?

A Little Knitting and Some Quilting

     I had hoped to be craftier than I was this weekend. I'm still editing a novel for Camp NaNoWriMo but it's been slow going - chapter 6 took me three days. Making it my priority this weekend really cut into my sewing time. I took some time today to recharge and did a little sewing. I was just going to clean up so I can start a new quilt that has a deadline of next month but got distracted. Here's where my crafty projects are at as of this afternoon.

     I'm done the leg and am almost done the heel of a sock. I usually knit this yarn (Kroy) on size 3 needles and 56 stitches. After reading that several people use size 2 and 64 stitches with this yarn, I decided to give that a try this time. 

I started a test knit for Sarah of Imagined Landscapes. Loving it so far. 

Went to a thrift shop this weekend and picked up a couple fabrics. First was this piece.

     It's Strawberry Shortcake and only cost me 75 cents. Not bad. You can read the measurement on the tag. I think I'll be sending this north to my sister who liked Strawberry Shortcake growing up.

Looked at the selvage as I was folding it back up and saw that it was almost as old as me. 

I bought this off white with a flower design for me.

Can't beat almost 3 yards for $3.20. 

Today I finished sewing up 2 inch square pairs for some Scrappy Bento Box blocks.

     And as I was clearing off my desk, I thought I'd sew a few dresden wedges together to see what they were like. Did I want them scrappy or not? Turns out I like them scrappy.

      And they are very addictive. Above is wedges for 9 more blocks (organized so each dresden will have 18 different fabrics). I had to cut a few more fabrics to help the last few dresdens have a variety of fabrics. Lucky me, I already had 4.5 inch squares already cut that I trimmed into wedges. That will make 11 blocks, each 18 inches wide. I might use the white I bought this weekend for the background.

Were you able to have some crafty time this weekend? 

Two Knitted finishes for Friday

     This week I was able to finish 2 knits. I also finished cutting up all my fabric scraps. I'm hoping to start sewing up some of the scraps this weekend. The editing of my novel for Camp NaNoWriMo has been slow going since I don't often get to it until late at night and am low on energy. I'm hoping next week will be better with the older kids returning to school after having Spring break this week. 

      Wednesday night I finished my third pair of socks for the year. These will be a Christmas gift. I did my best to line up the stripes, which they seem to do, except at the ankle. 

You can see that they are a little big for me. It was fun doing a gusset heal again.

     Other gusset. If you dare to go back and look at some of my first knitted socks, you'll see the picked up stitches look much better on these ones.

     Last night I finished another hat for charity. Jen has written a blog post about the KAL/CAL that you can read, here. This is my fifth hat this year. I'd like to get a couple more knit up this month to send to her.

     And I haven't touched my Beacon Hill cardigan all week, but I did cast on another pair of socks. I took pictures outside trying to get the purple to show up right but I think that might be impossible.

Did you have any finishes this week?

Linking up at Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday.

What I Read in March

     I've been busy editing and entertaining kids home on Spring Break this week so I don't have any WIP's to show today. Instead I thought I 'd share what I read last month. A couple novels and lots of graphic novels. I really want to finish the Fables series and get them off our library shelf. I read 7 last month and am down to the last 2. I should finish the series this month and can't wait to find out how it all ends.

      Here's what I read in March.

Dear Emma by Katie Heaney

      This isn't classified as Young Adult but I think it might cross into that genre a little bit. The main character, Harriet, is a college student who writes an advice column for the school paper. Of course some boy treats her wrong and and starts going out with a girl that Harriet works with. That girl writes into the Dear Emma column not knowing Harriet is Emma or that Harriet had dated her boyfriend before her. Chaos and angst follows but everything works out in the end. Harriet learns the lessons she needs to learn and is happy. It's an alright novel. Not exactly what I was expecting but was a quick read. Could've been better.

Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland

      This one was recommended to me by my mother. The novel is a fictional account of Renoir painting the artwork used for the title of the novel. I didn't really enjoy the first 100 pages but they were necessary to set up the rest of the book. I was constantly looking at the painting while I was reading the book. There are insets of the painting and others that are mentioned in the book which saved me from looking them up on the internet. Overall, it was an enjoyable read. Vreeland has written other novels with art as the inspiration that I might read.

A History of England from the Tudors to the Stuarts. Lecture Series with Professor Robert Bucholz

      I've mentioned before my love of history, especially the British monarchy around the time of Henry VIII. I don't know why this time appeals to me, but it does. When I saw this lecture series at the library I thought it would be fun to have on in the afternoons. There were 48 lectures, each 30 minutes long. I enjoyed most of them, and learned about some of the Kings and Queens that came after Henry that I didn't know much about before. Some of the background lectures were a bit boring but it was still interesting to learn what everyday life was like for citizens of England at that time. I enjoyed the series enough that I am currently watching one about European Art with my daughter and have one about Impressionist Art that we will watch after that. I've tried watching several lecture series the past couple years. This is the first one that I actually finished. One had a lecturer with such a monotone voice that I fell asleep every time I watched. Needless to say, I returned that one. This series I enjoyed and am looking for more history series to watch.

      Here are all the Fables I read last month. They have been dropping hints about how it might end but I know there will be several twists before the series is over. I'd definitely recommend this series for anyone interested in reading graphic novels but doesn't want to read about Superheroes.

Fables: Rose Red

Fables: Werewolves of the Heartland

Fables: Super Team

Fables: Inherit the Wind

Fables: Cubs in Toyland

Fables: Snow White

Fables: Camelot

       And my March bookmark. The Fables were all I read for the last 3 weeks of March. I'd finish one and get the next one off the shelf so I was reading them pretty quick. 

What have you been reading lately?

Sock Knitting, a Concert and some Editing

     This weekend I spent some time on the couch knitting. Some time at my desk editing. And a few hours at a concert. Overall, a pretty great few days.

    Friday evening I finished the first sock. I decided these are going to be a gift so I made them a little bigger than I would make for myself. Saturday morning I cast on the second sock.

     And here is the second sock compared to the first, this morning. I decided to try and make them match. It seems I'm not far from doing the heel. I haven't done this kind of heel in a while - I've been doing a short-row heel and this one is a heel flap and gusset. I looked in the sock knitting guide I used to teach myself and discovered that I have been picking up the gusset stitches wrong all these years. I won't say what I had been doing, but it wasn't right. I blame that on being a beginner and not really understanding what the book was trying to explain. And I was mainly going by the pictures. This time I read the actual steps and my picked up stitches look much better. 

     Saturday evening I took my daughter, Calliope, to her first real concert. We went and saw the amazing Ani DiFranco. It was my second time seeing her.  We had a great time and I'm so glad I bought the tickets (they were a Christmas present for Calliope). 

    And this month is Camp NaNoWriMo. I wasn't sure whether I was going to participate or not. Camp is not like the NaNoWriMo that takes place in November. For camp you can choose your own word count. You can write a script instead of a novel. Or short stories. Or even edit. I decided to edit. I have a terrible time editing so I am hoping the deadline of April 30th will keep me motivated. I cleared off the corner of my desk (again) and have been working away at the novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo in 2014. The only editing I did on the first day was change the title of the novel but since then I have edited 3 chapters and added over 1,000 words. When I started the novel was just over 69,000 words. I am hoping by the end of the month the novel will be around 90,000 words. I'm going to be taking out/ reworking most of a subplot and I need to decide between one of two endings that I wrote for the novel. 

     And Floyd has been very supportive of my editing. He brought me a cup of tea this morning while I worked. What a good boy.

     My kids are home for Spring break this week so I'm not sure how much crafting will be done. My daughter wants me to teach her how to knit socks but that might be a summer project. 

How was your weekend? And what are your plans for this week?