I think I lost a monkey or two.



The pattern for Alex's quilt called for five little applique monkeys, but I got sick of them and didn't make that many. I'm sure I made at least three... but when I unfolded the top on Tuesday afternoon to get it ready for quilting, there were only two little monkeys.

Oh well. I'm not doing more of them. I just want this quilt to be done. It has issues. I made spectacular mistakes with the cutting. I used the wrong presser foot so my seams weren't 1/4 inch and the blocks didn't go together right. I quilted it yesterday when all I really wanted was to finish fast so we could go get some lunch and the thread kept breaking, so I'd lose track of where I was and which way I was looping, and Leif would grab onto my leg...

I hate it less now that it's quilted, but I'm never going to love this quilt. I do need to stay motivated enough to find the fabric I bought for the binding, because Alex wants it done NOW. She's only been waiting, um, eighteen months for me to finally finish it.

After the quilt was off the machine and we'd had lunch, we headed to Walmart so I could buy four skeins of Caron Simply Soft to cast on for a February Ladies Sweater. I've got some in my stash, but I really wanted to use one of those wonderful dark colors I fell in love with a few months ago -- and there wasn't more than a skein or two of each color. They're phasing it out.

I dragged the kids to three different stores, complaining about it the whole way, and never did find one of the colors I had my heart set on. I got a few other skeins to use for sweaters for the baby boys because one store had it marked down to $1.50 a skein, but I'm really annoyed about this.

Simply Soft is my favorite box store yarn, especially for sweaters for the kids. I could fall in love with a pattern and have the yarn in my hands fifteen minutes later -- if it was grocery shopping day.

The next closest place I know of that carries it is Michaels, fifty miles from home. If they still have it. I haven't had the heart to call and check.

I'm giddy.

I've been this way for two days now, all excited about the opportunity to play with yarn and fabric, which hasn't actually happened yet, but it's going to. Soon. Maybe within the next hour, if I'm not so totally wiped out by nap time that I crawl into bed myself.

We're back from our trip, the one that got cancelled and rescheduled so many times I spent my summer not knowing if I was coming or going or leaving tomorrow. The trip was great -- in ten days we drove through parts of California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho...oh, yeah, and back into Oregon.

Brown Sheep is in Nebraska. I've been suggesting a detour in that direction for a couple of years now and my wonderful husband, the same one who usually won't stop at Joann's so I can pick up a skein of yarn, drove through three states so I could shop for yarn. And didn't bat at eye at the two huge bags Alex and I walked out of there with -- although he did ask which kid I was going to leave behind to make room for them.

So now in addition to all of the stuff I was excited about casting on when we got back, I've got enough Cotton Fleece for three tops, wool for a French Market Bag, and a bunch of Cotton Fine and some sock yarn. And I'm not sure what else -- it was hard to shop and keep Leif from running off and helping Alex pick out her own yarn at the same time. Not everything I meant to buy made it into my bag, and since I haven't had a chance to go through it yet, I don't know what all came home with me.

Lately I'm finding more and more new patterns I want to buy. The trick is going to be walking that fine line between "I'll wait to order until I'm ready to start knitting the project" and "I'll die if this becomes unavailable before I order it." I'm not sure which category that alligator scarf fell into, but I've bought the pattern and knit the project, so I don't need to worry about that one anymore.

Today I found a pattern for a knit jackalope. We spend a lot of time traveling in the southwest, so my kiddos know all about jackalopes and would probably love to have one. Not that I plan on sharing.

I love the Kelso Lace Cardigan and Spring Vines is just plain gorgeous. I'm not sure what yarn would do that pattern justice and is within my budget. But I'm keeping my eyes open.

Flora is such a pretty little wisp of lace, and the pattern is only four bucks and calls for one skein of Shadow. I could handle that -- especially since I already have the yarn.

Cat Mittens and Fisherman's Friend both make my heart go pitty pat, but I'm not going to let myself buy more patterns for colorwork mittens until I finish some of the ones I've already got planned.

This really is an illness

I spent the past two afternoons fighting the layered squares quilt, which was an absolute bear to assemble. After lots of struggling and whining and grabbing for the seam ripper, I've finally got the top together.



The pattern calls for a wide border, but this quilt needs to hide for a while before I decide whether I've got the necessary enthusiasm to buy it pretty fabric. Right now, I don't like it enough to spend extra money on it. I'm tempted to just quilt the thing and bind it and call it done the way it is.

My biggest problem was that the squares are laid out in horizontal rows. The piecing is done in diagonal rows and I couldn't wrap my head around the whole thing. Towards the end, the layout was getting easier and I started to think that this quilt might look really nice in some bright florals and that if I used post-its and note paper and numbered the blocks...

I'm trying to talk myself out of it.



And, speaking of illness, I felted the second Dumpling Bag yesterday after putting away the quilt for the day. This one is in Paton's SWS, which is prettier than the yarn I used for the first one, but that pink stripe is too bright for me to love. I think the Paint Box will be better, but I can't remember which safe place I hid it in.

So I cast on for a double dumpling with some purple wool that spent its previous life as a thrift store sweater.

There would be pictures, but the camera is throwing its worst tantrum to date. I'm afraid the blog may be photoless for a while. (edited to add the pictures I took after more camera-fighting)

How much fabric?!

Earlier this week, I saw something in one of my quilt magazines about how many yards of fabric and spools of thread the members of their editorial staff had stashed. They estimated that three yards of fabric weighs a pound so, with an actual formula for figuring out how what that mountain of oddly shaped scraps in the sewing room adds up to, I called my mom and double-dog-dared her to take an inventory of her own stash while I was doing mine.

She wasn't nearly as excited as I was. I think her tentative agreement was mostly to shut me up for the moment. But that's okay. We both know she's got a whole lot of fabric.

What I didn't realize was how much fabric I've accumulated. I'm not done weighing and adding yet and the total is already more than triple what I thought was a high guess.

This is kind of exciting. I keep finding patterns for neat scrap quilts, and it looks like I've enough fabric to keep making them. This is exciting!

After the kid were in bed last night, I started cutting fabric for the new quilt. I really wanted to make this one, even though the construction scares me to death.

It's not assembled in blocks. You're supposed to lay the whole thing out on a design wall and sew it together a piece at a time.



I'm sure that works just fine for people who have design walls that aren't part of a sloping ceiling and can keep their sewing machine next to those design walls. I don't fit that criteria.

But I want this quilt, so I laid out the fabric on the flannel side of an old table cloth and as soon as the kiddos are in bed, I'm going to start piecing. Hopefully I can get it all together before something scary happens.

I pulled out fabric for the new quilt this morning and while I've got more than enough pinks and blues, I'd really like a few more yellow prints. And maybe another green or two. I like the yellows I did come up with, I'm just not sure there's enough of them to balance out the blues and pinks. And I'm not willing to give up any of those.

sigh

I think I'm just ready to jump on any excuse to go fabric shopping.

Forget the five inch squares for now, because this pattern is screaming to me louder --



I know I've got the right fabrics up in the sewing room, but dh has the shop keys in the pants he wore to work, which means I've been locked away from my fabric all day. I could've spent those hours getting the house absolutely spotless so I'd have nothing to do tomorrow but sort through my stash for the perfect blue and pink and yellow and green prints, but that's not how my life works.

I did tackle the housework, but I also spent some time finishing this guy --



I desperately wanted to knit an alligator scarf, but was worried about those ridges down his back. How did they do that? I was picturing complex short rows or something equally stressful. And then there were those wonderful eyes. How could those possibly work?

The little ridges and eyes are easy. I had to redo the nostrils a couple of times, which was a problem with the knitter, not the pattern.

After my struggles with the shark hat, I need a couple of projects where I can just follow the pattern as written and not fight with it.

I can't go quilting at church without wanting to buy fabric on the way home. Today, it was a yard and a half of black cotton I suddenly had to have. But Joann's would have been a 60 mile detour and I forgot about the itty-bitty quilt shop between the church and the house so, although it was less about self control and more about not having the time to drive that far, I didn't actually buy any fabric.

After seeing someone else's finished quilt, I'm dying to make my own version of the scrap quilt the group is working on. It's a pattern I've seen before -- I think it's called "Exquisite," but I'm having no luck with a Google search to verify that. Too many people are using the word to describe their quilts. And while I'm sure they're all absolutely lovely, it's keeping me from finding what I want!

Now I'm going to go finish the dishes and start cutting five inch squares. Because if I have the squares done, I'll really need to go buy the black fabric.

The bead store didn't have lucite rings. I'm not convinced that the lady there even listened to my question, because she steered me toward jump rings and said that was the only thing they had. So I went to the craft store and found some little metal rings that I hoped would do the same job. Then I went home and got to work felting the bag and dying it with Black Cherry Kool Aid.



I love this little bag! It's the perfect size for my wallet, phone, and keys, and doesn't gape completely open to spill everything out. Keep in mind that I've been carrying diapers for most of the past 11 years and cute little purses are a totally unrealistic fantasy at this point in my life. But I do plan to knit another one as soon as I figure out what yarn to use.

StandsWSicks has one on Ravelry that's done in Knit One Crochet Too Paint Box. I've got some single balls of that in my stash...maybe I could stripe them?

And llamalady has made a "double dumpling" that's more of a shoulder bag. That would even hold diapers!



This shark hat has been driving me nuts. There's an error at the very beginning of the patter nthat brought me to a screeching halt about five minutes after casting on. I got that figured out, but once I got about halfway through the dorsal fin my shark's tail didn't look right so I ripped out the whole thing and started over. This time, I got almost to the teeth before deciding that the body is still too short and fat. He needs more plain rows between the tail increases and before the dorsal fin and between the last fin decreases and the ribbing...knitting this pattern as written definitely won't give you a shark shaped like the one in the pattern pictures.

I looked at the other shark hats on Ravelry -- should've done that before casting on! It's not just me. All of the shark hats there have modifications.

So do I start over a third time, or do I just move on to the teeth? Because I'm not sure how that part is going to work out, either.

Show and Tell Friday

It's been a long time since I've played Show and Tell Friday, but I'm so excited about today's new treasure that I've got to share.



Mom has this book that Great Grandma passed down to her. It's an absolutely massive thing, about a thousand pages divided into sections about medicine, and homemaking, and how to take care of the cows and chickens and the most obscure, fascinating stuff you could imagine, published in 1916. The spine was gone and the poor thing was falling apart until Mom took it and had it rebound.

I was always fascinated by that book but even though I could have looked carefully through it, it always felt too fragile to touch. So I didn't. I've never seen another book like it, not that I've been on a great quest for one. There could be dozens of them sitting on shelves in every antique store around.

I found this one at a garage sale today, sitting on someone's driveway beside a table of Danielle Steel paperbacks. As soon as I saw what it was, I scooped it up and started to figure out how much I could justify spending on it. I got it for a quarter. The sign said that books were twenty-five cents each, and that's what the lady charged me.



Considering its age and the fact that apparently no-one wanted it, it's in great shape. I can't wait to curl up with it and read how to treat hydrophobia and properly store fresh eggs!

The garage sales were good today. I found a huge bunch of black floral fabric (hopefully enough to finish and back the kitty cat quilt), an old blue Nancy Drew book I don't think I already have, and some decent yarn.

If I had two 3 centimeter Lucite rings and a packet of cherry Kool Aid, I'd finish my Dumpling Bag tonight. But we live in the middle of nowhere, so I have to wait until I'm up in town tomorrow to buy the little rings and the grocery store near the house is out of red drink mix. I really want to get this thing assembled and felted and dyed a different color!



When I cast on the night before last, I didn't expect to have it knit up before I left the house again, but it's a fast project. I'm using the same mystery wool I used for the Firefighter Hat, since it felted so well and came out such a nice shade of red.

These little projects are piling up quickly. I finished two more dishcloths, got the I-cord for the little froggy bag's mouth done and in place (he wasn't feeling photogenic today, so you'll have to imagine how he came out), and made a hat for Alex with yarn and a pattern that have been drifting around my sewing corner for at least a month now.





The Knit Dishcloth Dress is a pattern I'd printed out and completely forgotten about. I used short rows to shape the neckline in an effort to avoid rejoining yarn and weaving in extra ends.

The Pinwheel Dishcloth was easier than it first looked, if I don't admit that I couldn't figure out how to knit the fourth triangle to the first one. Mine is seamed.



Alex saw a picture of Pretty in Pink Ribbons over my shoulder when I found the pattern on Ravelry and liked it. She's up with Grandma and Grandpa for a couple of days and hasn't seen it yet -- hopefully she'll agree that it came out cute!

My hand is feeling a lot better. It seems like knitting (as long as it's not seed stitch with dishcloth cotton) loosens it up, and I can go for longer stretches each day. So I'm a much happier knitter this week!

There's a radio ad playing lately that says something about making lemonade with free lemon slices and sugar packets. In my case, I'm using leftover bits of acrylic and suddenly feeling better about my knitting than I've felt in weeks. These little fiddly projects are distracting me from the fact that I can't knit for long stretches. So now I'm going through my Ravelry queue and looking for more of them.

The Sideways Short Row Watch Cap has been hovering near the top of my Ravelry queue for a couple of months. I thought it would be a good way to use up the leftover Bernat Camouflage from Heath's ugly raglan, but never got quite motivated enough to cast on.



Quinn promptly decided it was for him and insisted on wearing it to the grocery store because if he didn't, the wind would get in his hair. It was a fun little project and left me with a couple of ideas I want to try on my next short row hat.



I'd printed out a pattern for a Frog Bag ages ago because it's so silly and cute and I've got little kids to knit for. One of those projects I thought I might knit someday but wasn't actually planning to start because of those fiddly little arms and legs and eyes.

I love those little froggie legs and the way that a couple of "knit 3 togethers" make them bend just right!

My camera is having fits today and this is the only picture I could manage, but it proves I managed something last night --


(edited to add a better picture)

Pattern: Miniature Kniting Bag Ornaments

I used some Vanna's Choice left over from Leif's cabled sweater, and made the skeins with some old needlepoint wool that I had in my stash. It was quick and fun and left me feeling a lot better about my knitting.

I've got too much yarn to quit knitting, but I may have to learn a new way to hold my fingers around the needle. It still hurts when I bend my fingers. Not nearly as badly as it hurt the last time I posted, but I still can't knit for any decent length of time without feeling it.

Which probably explains why I'm getting so antsy in the evenings. I don't know what to do with myself if I can't knit!

I've managed a few more rounds on the Noviembre socks and got to within an hour or so of finishing Alex's new tank top before trying it on her and realizing that it's just a little too tight and a little too short. I was tempted to finish it just for the sake of finally finishing SOMETHING other than the fluffy red scarf, but I ripped the whole thing out this afternoon.

It was cute. I liked the texture of the yarn and the shaping and I had a whole skein of the yarn left over, more than enough to reknit it with a couple more inches of ease and make it longer.

I'd feel better about this if I was going to be able to actually get the knitting done anytime soon.

Maybe if I cast on something little and fiddly, I won't notice that I have to put it down and rest my hand every few minutes. I just went through my Ravelry queue and found some possibilities. The Miniature Knitting Bag Ornament pattern looks pretty cute!

The break will be good for my hands -- that's what I tell myself when life keeps me from knitting for a while.

Well, this last break was not good for my hands. On the second day of dh's vacation, I was doing dishes and the big glass mixing bowl slipped out of my hands. I closed my fingers around it at the same time as it hit the edge of the sink, with the exact result you'd expect from grabbing at a big shard of broken glass.

The doctor says I didn't cut anything vital and that any bits of glass still in there are so tiny they'll work themselves out. I was due for a tetanus booster anyway.

Another person who shall remain nameless (the who can expose a vein in his finger and still finish gutting a deer in the driveway before doing anything about it) tells me I'm a sniveler and that my little cut wasn't nearly bad enough to require medical attention, but it hurt a lot more than it seemed like it should, the throbbing was getting steadily worse, and we were were up in town and I was becoming more convinced by the second that I'd done real damage to my hand. I can handle natural childbirth. I can handle migraines. I cannot handle icky squeamish stuff.

When I did finally pick up my knitting a week later, it was bad. I could manage two eleven stitch rows before my stupid finger (which isn't even doing anything, it's just bending along with the rest of my fingers) forced me to stop. It's gotten better, but I don't know when I'm going to be able to knit normally again. And my arm is still throbbing where they gave me the tetanus shot, although that might be from sleeping on it wrong or hauling around toddlers or one of the other stupid things that frequently make me hurt.

Did I mention how not happy I am about this whole thing?

I am happy that the Alligator Scarf from Morehouse Merino is available as a pattern now. I think I waited a whole three minutes between finding that out and placing my order.

Alex has a new treasure and I've got a new challenge.



We went to an estate sale this afternoon and while I was trying to figure out why anyone would have boxes and boxes of Young Miss from 1983, Alex came running up to tell me "Daddy said to tell you there's fabric back there!" I got distracted by a box with knitting magazines in it and she dashed back to beat me to whatever good fabric there might be.

By that time, I'd found two old copies of Burda and a couple of Japanese knitting magazines for a dime each and wasn't thinking about fabric.

I probably wouldn't have picked up Alex's find because I don't look for finished knitting at estate sales. I want to knit my things myself. She came running up with a round shawl, totally in love and wanting to know if she could buy it.

I know a hand knit shawl is worth a whole lot more than $3.50. But I wasn't paying attention to the shawl itself, Alex didn't have that much money, and my first impression was that it had big holes in it. I told her she could ask if they'd take less money since it was damaged and she bought it for fifty cents.

She wants me to fix it. And, now that I've taken a good look, I realize it's worth fixing, if I can pull it off. I'm sure I can at least stabilize it and keep the holes from getting any bigger, but I'd like to do a better job than that.

Someone had odd taste in magazines and incredible lace knitting skills.

This afternoon, I got my second batch of quilted postcards for the Quilters Knitting Group over on Ravelry done and drove them down to the post office. Now my fingers are crossed that they get safely where they're supposed to go.



I'm seriously loving these quilted postcard swaps!

They cost next to nothing -- the only thing I've spent money on for these two swaps is stamps. It looks like I'll need to buy fabric to do what I've got in mind for the Fall swap, but that's only because I want the exact right colors.

Making the cards doesn't take a whole lot of time. I haven't actually timed myself and done the math, but it's taken less (a lot less) than an hour to finish each card. And the couple of evenings I did spend were divided between a bunch of different people, so even though I didn't get cards from a couple of the quilters I sent to last time, I don't feel like I got cheated. Maybe their cards got eaten by the post office, or maybe they were never sent. Since I didn't hear from either after letting them know I didn't get their cards, I've got my suspicions, but life happens.

And the cards that I did receive are fantastic.

I sunburned the backs of my knees today. How the heck did I manage that?! I burn easily. But I don't think I've managed that particular trick before.

The kids don't have sunburns. Which makes me feel better about my own.

We spent most of the day roaming the Sisters Quilt Show with my mom and a couple of friends. It didn't seem as hot as last year. There were a lot less people than usual. And there didn't seem to be as many quilts.

I did get a bunch of new ideas, but I'm too tired to remember any of them right now...

Casablanca

I feel like a bit of an imposter being so excited about this KAL, since I've never seen the movie. It's on the DVR, though, waiting for me to have some time. I wasn't sure about the first two clues, but the third one hooked me and now I'm dying to see what comes next.

Fancy Fulness

Yup, I'm still giddy about my pink lace. I absolutely love this shawl! The pattern, the yarn, the needles -- it all worked together just right.



The pattern was relatively easy to keep track of. With the wide edging and whatever that pretty pattern in the middle is (at first I thought the chart looked like hearts, but now I don't see those at all), it was quickly obvious if my stitches weren't lining up the way they should.

The wide border is gorgeous and I have a feeling I may use it again on something else.



Knitpicks Shadow is my absolute favorite lace weight yarn. I'm sure I spent more on the diet Coke I drank while knitting this than on the yarn. It took just a couple of yards from the second skein to finish the last rows.

I definitely need more Harmony circulars.