WIP Wednesday

Trying to keep my focus to just a few projects in hopes that I'll have a few more finishes before the month is over.

Knit several inches on my Cocoa cardigan since I shared a picture on Monday's post. 

And the sock is a little longer, too.

And I started quilting the next quilt for charity. Doing diagonal straight lines with a variegated thread.  Fun and mindless quilting can't be beat. Quilt top is the Patchwork Olympics quilt shared here.

I think I can get the socks and quilt done by the end of February but there's no way I'll finish the cardigan. Half a body to knit and two sleeves? I need more than a week to knit those. Or do I?

What have you been working on this week?

Busy Knitting Weekend

A rare Monday post since I made a lot of progress this weekend on several knitting projects. I think my husband and I watched a movie every night after the kids went to bed, so I had lots of knitting time.

Friday evening I finished the first sock in the current pair I am knitting. I also separated the sleeves from the body of the Cocoa cardigan I am knitting for myself.

Saturday and Sunday I tried to be a monogamous knitter and only work on my Hogmanay shawl. I had 10 pattern repeats completed. I did the 6 remaining repeats the pattern suggested. Then I did 2 more to use up all the yarn. Above is before blocking. It is currently drying on our bedroom floor, so I hope to share finished, modeled pictures later this week.

All the yarn I had leftover.

Second sock has been started and cuff is finished. I hope to finish up more WIP's the rest of the month so I can cast on some new things next month.

What did you work on this weekend?

Finish It Up Friday - 2 Quilts!

 I'm happy to share 2 finished quilts this week! One was finished this week. The other was finished last October, but I hadn't written a blog post for it yet. Enjoy.

I finished putting the binding on this quilt yesterday. My daughter and I took it outside for a photo shoot after she got home from school. Made of 2 inch squares with some white stripes added in for length. Measures roughly 60 x 80 and will be donated. Can't link to the charity as I'm not sure which it is - I make the quilts for my mom to donate to a charity affiliated with their church, which asks quilts to be 60 x 80. This is the second one I've made for her to donate (first one is here) and I have the third one basted and ready to be quilted. I have two more in progress that I'd like to have done by this summer.

Patchy back. I made the binding for the quilt from the strips I cut off the back after quilting. Helped keep the scrappy look.

I free-motion stippled over the whole quilt. I had to rip quilting out twice when the tension on my sewing machine caused lots of puckers and yuckiness on the back.

The second finished quilt I'm sharing today, didn't get many pictures taken of it. This is the only finished picture I have of it. I talked about the health problems my mother had last fall in this blog post. I had this quilt top pieced before she became ill but decided to finally quilt it and give it to her as a get-well soon gift to give to her when we visited in November during the American Thanksgiving break. I didn't take a picture of the backing, but it is the same blue as the binding. 

In an earlier post, I talked about how I pieced the blocks but I'll just go over it again. I used a black layer cake (I used 42, 10 inch squares) and a charm pack of Cuzco, plus a few squares I had leftover from other charm packs to make enough. I cut the charm squares into 2.5 inch squares and sewed one onto each corner of a 10 inch square. The quilt is 6 x 7 blocks. There are some finished quilt top pictures in this post.

The quilting was pretty basic. I quilted diagonal lines across the whole quilt, using the Cuzco squares as a guide. I was pretty happy with my pin placement, I didn't need to pause and remove a single pin during quilting.

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

And Kat and Cat Quilts Charity Link-up.

WIP Wednesday

I have quite a few WIP's to share today. Both knitting and quilting! Been focused this past week trying to finish some things up. 

Been working away at these socks. Decided these will be a gift but I have yarn lined up for the next pair of socks, which will be for me. This is only the first sock but it feels like it is knitting up quickly.

I started a cardigan for myself. This is the Cocoa cardigan. Finished the detail at the yoke and have a bit more to go before dividing the body from the sleeves.

Did some chain piecing the other day...

... and ended up with over 70 of these units. Part of a Scrappy Bento Box quilt. I cut these pieces last year, but they got set aside for gift making. Finally pulled it out this week and have been piecing when I have time. (Wow, it looks like I sewed the square pairs together last April! And haven't touched it since. Bad me.)

I also finished quilting a scrap quilt, that will be going to charity. I had to rip quilting out of this quilt twice so it had been sitting in timeout for a couple months. I picked it up on Monday and decided to finish it. Now I'm putting the binding on. (Looks like I finished the quilt top last March!)

And with some quilting mojo back, I basted two quilts yesterday. They are rolled up and ready for their turn. One is the Patchwork Olympics quilt top and the other is the Christmas Scrappy Bento Box quilt top. Can I finish both of these this month? I'd be thrilled if I did.

And I made some good progress on the Sarah Fielke 2017 BOM. All I have left to do before the next clue is released at the end of this month, is to hand appliqué 26 stems. Which will be a good introduction to hand appliqué, I guess.

What have you been working on this week?

Friday Finish - Pair of Birthday Socks

Glad to be sharing a finished birthday present today. And I finished it 2 weeks before the birthday! However, I still have to ship them to Canada (and maybe finish another knitted item to go along with them), so they'll probably still be late. Oh well.

One finished pair of funky socks. (Please ignore the pale legs that haven't sun in months.) To help with the wackiness of the socks, I stared one with the end from the inside of the skein. The other from the end on the outside. They still line up in a couple spots. The skein used for the right sock had a knot near the end and a big part of the colour scheme had been eliminated. I didn't have enough yarn to get to the correct stripe, so I left it - you can see the purple worked after the heel, multicolor stripe, orange and then it goes back to purple. It was suppose to go to a multicolored stripe after the orange. I'm sure my sister will still love them.

To make a more fitted sock (that feels wonderful), I cast on 56 stitches, instead of my usual 64, on 2.75mm needles. Fish Lips Kiss Heel (which I now have memorized) and these socks will be very hard to give away.

However, I started another pair as soon as I cast off the birthday socks. Not sure if I'm keeping these or gifting them as well. Decisions, decisions.

Both socks are knit with Kroy sock yarn. 

WIP's Interrupted

The usual Wednesday WIP post got bumped today after I was inspired this morning to do a little stitching. It now hangs beside my desk, reminding me to keep going on both good and bad days.

I felt the "P" needed to be capitalized.

A Finished Test Knit

Have a little finish to share today. I agreed to test another pattern for Sarah of Imagined Landscapes. When I received the email asking if I could test, my gut said no, I have enough to do. Then I looked at the pattern and after knitting 4 pussyhats in a week for the Women's March, I knew I could knit this hat up pretty quick. And I tested the child's size which was even quicker. 

Floyd was a willing model, as long as he could hold onto his magic 8 ball. 

Only detail is this cable. It would be neat to see a hat full of these cables. Or perhaps a cowl. 

Took an in progress photo to share in yesterday's WIP post, but I had already finished it by the time I wrote that post so I saved it for today.

Floyd looking at his magic 8 eyeball. "Is this a great pattern?"

"Indications say Yes."

One side.

The other.

And the back.

A little big on him. And he doesn't seem interested in keeping it. Thinking I might frog it and make one in my size. Yarn is Universal Yarn, Cotton Supreme, worsted. Pattern will also work for chunky yarn and should be released later this month.

Oh, and I'll be making some of these for the March for Science on April 22nd. Any family members need one?

A WIP Post

Oops, I didn't mean to go two weeks without posting. I took pictures to share and then... didn't. It's been hard living in the states the past two weeks and it's been difficult to do anything that seems like fun. Our time and energy are really needed elsewhere, but we all need to take some time for self-care every day. Or we'll go a little nuts. So here is how I've been taking care of myself the past couple weeks.

I started socks for my sister's birthday later this month. I cast on this Sunday and finished the first sock in 3 days. This picture was taken yesterday morning. Then I spent four hours at my son's school for a fundraiser and was able to knit almost half the leg. I didn't bother to take another picture so you'll have to take my word for it. Plain sock with a Fish Lips Kiss heel. For some whimsy, I started one sock from the outside of the skein, the other from the inside, so the stripes will reverse. Kroy sock yarn.

I did a few more pattern repeats of the first Run Around Mitten (also for my sister's birthday - damn, she's pretty lucky). Almost time to add the thumb. Yarn is Lorna's Laces and is discontinued.

And a few more repeats of the Hogmanay shawl have been done too. 

There is a neat lace pattern in there that will blossom with blocking. I hope. Links and info about yarn is on my project page.

And the afghan is getting bigger. This was near the end of the third skein. I just started the fourth. 

Love how colourful this is.

And my other WIP was to tackle my desk. I was beginning to wonder why I was getting nothing done. So many stacks of stuff. 

Got through it all today and am much happier. Now the stacks are organized. Books I'm reading are furthest to the right, nearest to the couch so they are easy to grab. A small pile of writing  books beside them. To the left of my computer, are my notes for the novel I'm editing and a notebook to write down other ideas. Beside it is a pile of fabric that I pulled and set aside a couple weeks ago. The green bin in the back - beside my sewing machine that has been covered for all of 2017! - is fabric for Sarah Fielke's 2017 BOM. The first clue was released this week. One of the motivations to clean my desk was so I could start working on it.

What have you been working on?