Jo's Quiltville Challenge

Not much progress to report. I've got a few more lozenges done....and I  realized that I want to make Random Ohio Stars.

The Old Barn

I can still tell you what was on which wall in the house I grew up in. The house was more or less constant.  Replacing stuff because it was "dated" wasn't an idea I grew up with. No one was running down to Target or Walmart (not that we had those to run to) because there was a cute new trend. 

This weathered barn hung in the utility  room (along with the 1905 painting, although I didn't know what that was until I was an adult.)  I'd been wondering what happened to the old Coca-Cola barn after Mom and Dad moved to the new house, then I saw it hanging at their place in Sisters, across from the washer and dryer. Some of the tole painting that I loved as a child has lost its appeal, but I still love this piece. 

It seems like there are fewer and fewer of these old barns in real life. I love how the weathered wood this one is painted on adds so much texture and detail. It's even neater than the chamber pot. 

I wonder if kids whose moms didn't paint things remember what was on their walls when they were little...

This post is linked to Let's Talk Vintage 

Practice

I've got lots of tops to quilt, but it's been a while since I did much free-motion quilting and I didn't want to work out the kinks on anything important. So I cut some squares of muslin and batting and found a couple of cute tutorials... 

These are inspired by Claire's Peony and  Pebbles, both from The Inbox Jaunt. I can't bring myself to throw away practice pieces and we always need more potholders in the kitchen, so I zigzagged the edges and we'll use them until they get grungy.

This post is linked to Free Motion Mavericks, Patchwork Times,

I'm Mad at My Socks

A couple of hours after taking the picture for my weekly Yarn Along post, I wound up frogging my plain stockinette sock. Something had gone very wrong with the short row heel and no amount of fiddling or cheating was going to make it right. I did try to rip back to the foot and pick up stitches, but that yarn is splitty and cranky and difficult and I'd had to cut and rejoin the yarn just above the toe because there was a knot in the skein. I'd dropped a stitch in the middle of a heel and my job of laddering it back up was less than perfect.

It seemed like the best idea to just frog the whole thing and cast on a new sock. I got through the new toe, being extra careful.  I was going to avoid everything that had gone wrong in the sock I'd just unravelled.  Just past the toe, I sat it down for a moment and managed to drop a dozen stitches. No one else was near the thing. I don't know what I did, but unless this yarn is possessed and able to move on its own, it was me.

I've unraveled the sock again and I'm going to try it again later. The first sock of the pair is finished, otherwise I'd be tempted to get rid of the yarn or hide it at the bottom of a bin. Maybe the jinx will wear off while I'm working on another pair....

Is this what I get for admitting that I don't use lifelines? I've knit twenty pairs so far this year and except for my decision to make the owl socks the wrong size, none of them has gone wrong.

Hopefully one of these yarns will be easier to work with.

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric used this week: 0 yards
Fabric used year to date: 6 1/4 yards
Added this week: 0 yards
Added year to date: 403 1/2 yards
Net added for 2015: 397 3/4 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 8000 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 9939 yards
Net Added for 2015: 1939 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

How to Knit Socks That Fit

How to Knit Socks That Fit: Techniques for Toe-Up and Cuff-Down Styles by Donna Druchunas covers several different techniques -- double pointed needles, magic loop, two circulars, one short circular needle, and knitting two socks at one time, although I don't think I could learn magic loop or two circulars from the short descriptions the author gives.   There's a basic sock pattern with children's and adult sizes, a section with some different heels and toes, and a stitch library with ten different types of ribbing. What the book doesn't contain are any photographs. The line drawings are effective for illustrating how to distribute stitches on the needles and the parts of a sock, but I found it difficult to visualize the ribbing patterns included in the stitch library. This is a dry book that gives you the basics of sock knitting, without any extra eye candy.

Disclosure - The publisher provided me with an ARC.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {11/6/15}

 Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

Eagle's Flight Socks

There's a school of thought that goes along the lines of "if you haven't started (or finished) that by now, you're never going to do it." I usually don't know what I'm going to do or when I'm going to do it and, unless I've got a specific deadline, the last thing I'm worried about is how long it's been since I got the idea or bought the supplies.

When I added the Eagle's Flight pattern to my Ravelry queue back in 2007, I had a specific yarn in mind. The whole reason I wanted to make those socks was because I had yarn in my stash similar to the one that designer had used and I loved  the way the feathers looked in that mottled brown.  I finally cast on back in September and wound up using a different (but equally old) yarn from my stash. The yarns are similar and it took me a while to realize that I'd changed my original plan.

Because I don't think it matters if my feathery stitch pattern is angled up or down, I switched to toe up and used my usual short row heel. The yarn is Patons Stretch Socks in Taffy. On Black Friday in 2008 it was $2.62 a skein and I bought it in every color they had in stock. This year, I'm happily using it up. Sock yarn doesn't have an expiration date and it was waiting for me to need it.

This post is linked to Crazy Mom Quilts and Patchwork Times.

Clean Day

I found the pattern for this little kitten on Flickr . There are lots of cute images in this photostream, including the rest of Kitty's week.

Something New

This pattern  calls for an eye of partridge heel, a technique I've never tried before. That heel flap doesn't look as long as I think it should be, but I'm following the pattern as written.

When I need some mindless knitting, I'm working on the socks I took to the pumpkin patch. Until I took that picture of them in the rain, these stripes weren't nearly as obvious. After seeing them in the picture (which doesn't look much like the socks do in real life)  I can't un-see them. It's driving me batty.

And of course I've been reading...

In From Skedaddle to Selfie: Words of the Generations, Allan Metcalf has gone through our language and picked out the key words of each generation. The first chapter or two reads like an American History quiz (when's the last time you heard "Nature's God" or "Gerrymander?"), but things quickly get more interesting when we move on to "fans" and "hot dogs" and the origins of "O. K."  By the time I finished  this short little book, I had a whole list of intriguing things I wanted to look up and read more about.

The cover of Slasher Girls & Monster Boys makes some big promises, but not all of the stories deliver. According to the publisher, "After you've teased out each tale's references, satisfy your curiosity at the end, where the inspiration is revealed." I was expecting author's notes, but they reveal it by printing the name of the inspiration upside down at the end of each story.

This post is linked to Yarn Along and Patchwork Times.  The publisher of From Skedaddle to Selfie provided me with an ARC. Slasher Girls and Monster Boys came from the library,

Antique Store Temptations - Mother Goose

Since I started embroidering vintage designs for the Garden Party quilt, I've been keeping my eyes open for real vintage stitchery. Last summer, Mom and I found a treasure trove at an antique mall, including this Mother Goose crib Sheet.

I've been worried that some of my own stitching looks too heavy. This stitching looks like it might have been done with three strands. As many Little Miss Muffet patterns as I've found, I don't think I've seen this set.

Anyone have a guess who this turtle, or the one with the cane is? I can't remember any nursery rhyme turtles. Except the tortoise and the hare, and that's a fable not a nursery rhyme. Looking at the picture of the whole sheet and that black and white striped critter who may or may not be a zebra, I wonder if someone mixed patterns from a couple of different sources into one project....

This post is linked to Let's Talk Vintage, Knick of Time, Thrifty and Vintage,

Jo's Challenge

I didn't manage to get up to the sewing room and look for a bag of scraps that I hadn't already gone through for Scrappy Little Trips, but I spent enough time at the sewing machine to finish another forty spools. Even project hopping is progress, right?

They're Coming to Get You...

The weather forecast for Halloween night was cold and rainy. Hubby had the weekend off with no overtime. The weather on the other side of the mountains was supposed to be nicer... so we packed up the boys and their plastic machete and chainsaw and the zombie scars and spent three days at Mom and Dad's place in Sisters.

Halloween Tip -- if you take the kids hiking earlier in the morning, they'll declare that they're done and have enough candy after only an hour of trick or treating. I think this was our shortest Halloween night ever. And the first time Hubby has been able to go door to door with us. It's nice to have adult company.

Halloween night, Leif called me upstairs to show me something. He wanted to know what the quilts were doing. This is one of my favorite quilt show posters, but it never occurred to me before that the quilts are stalking the streets under a full moon. Maybe they're looking for cold people to wrap up...

I didn't get as many projects done as I'd hoped to, but this October was better than last year. What didn't get done is on the list for next Halloween.

Now I'm wondering what to work on for November. Someone over on Stashbusters suggested a quilting marathon. I just went through my UFO list and I've definitely got tops that need to be basted and quilted --

Nail Polish Quilt
Heath's Ocean Quilt
Low Volume Nine Patch
Pink Birds Baby Quilt
Sixteen Patch Baby Quilt
Blue Dresden Plates 
Turtles

The Hocuspocusville Employment Agency

I decided to see how many Hocuspocusville blocks I could stitch up in October -- and as soon as I did that, I started finding all sorts of patterns I wanted to stitch up for the Garden Party quilt. Now October is done and the broom lot and I've got two more houses stitches and I'm torn between tracing the next house or those angry looking clothes pins... No good reason not to do both, is there?

Fabric for a New Quit

I make most of my quilts with what I've got in my scrap bag stash. If I don't have what I need for a project, I probably won't be making it. But the quilt I'm planning requires solids in specific colors, so I did a little shopping.  

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric used this week: 0 yards
Fabric used year to date: 6 1/4 yards
Added this week: 3 1/2 yards
Added year  to date: 403 1/2 yards
Net added for 2015: 397 3/4 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 0  yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 8000 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 400 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 9939 yards
Net Added for 2015: 1939 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

{Let's Knit a Pair of Socks!} The Heel

If you've been knitting along with me, it's time to work a short row heel. If not, and you want to jump in, you can find all of the details in this post. In the last step, I showed you how to knit your foot and make sure that it's long enough.

(This might be a good spot for another lifeline, just in case.) 

1/4 of your stitches are on needle #1, 1/2 are on needle #2, and 1/4 are on needle #3. We'll be working the short row heel back and forth on needles #1 and #3.

Knit to the last stitch on needle #1.

Slip the last stitch onto your right hand needle (without knitting it).

Bring your working yarn to the front of your work, forward around the base of the stitch, then slide that stitch back onto the left hand needle.

Turn your work so that the purl side is facing you. (At this point, you've got one unworked stitch on the left hand needle.)

Purl across needle #1.

Purl across all but the last stitch of needle #2.

Slip the last stitch onto your right hand needle, wrap your yarn around the base of the stitch, this time from front to back, and slip the stitch back onto the left hand needle.

Turn your work and knit to the second to last stitch on needle #1. Wrap the stitch the same way you did the stitch in the previous row, then turn your work and purl to the second to the last stitch on needle #3.

Each row, you'll leave one more unworked stitch. If you look closely, you can see the wraps at the base of each stitch, but I've found that it works better for me if I count.

For fingering weight socks, I keep going until I've slipped and wrapped all but five stitches on each needle. This pair is worsted weight and for little feet, so I'm using four stitches.

Now, we're going to pick up and knit those wrapped stitches, one at each end for each row.

Knit across needle #1 to the first wrapped stitch, then slide it onto your right hand needle. With the tip of your left needle, pull up the yarn that's wrapped around the base of the stitch, then slide it onto the right needle and knit both the stitch and wrap together into one stitch.

Turn your work and purl to the first wrapped stitch. Slide that stitch onto your right hand needle, lift the wrap onto the needle and purl the stitch and wrap together into one stitch.

Keep going, knitting or purling a wrapped stitch at the end of each row until you've worked every stitch.

Now you've got your heel. There are lots of different heel options for sock knitters. This just happens to be the one that made sense to me when I first started knitting socks. 

If you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer, just be sure you're not set to no-reply (or leave an email address in the comment.)

Come back November 14 and we'll knit the leg and do a stretchy bind off. 

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {10/30/15}

 Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

Stick a Needle in My Eye

Isn't it amazing what some people can design with just a little bit of felt and some embroidery floss? 

I found the tutorial for this freaky little pincushion last Halloween...or maybe it was the year before that. The embroidered eyelashes and the detail around the iris are just too neat for works. Click over and look at the ones she made, which are amazing.

It's just the perfect size for jabbing on needle into while I look for the next color of embroidery floss. This may be the one pincushion I wind up actually using on a regular basis!

This post is linked to Idea Box Thursday, Share Your Cup,

Knitting in Rainy, Windy Public

I'd hoped that this picture would show you how wet and rainy and cold it was at the pumpkin patch on Sunday. It doesn't even come close. I knew it was going to rain, but it was the last weekend of the season and I'd promised the boys, and the dark maze, which wasn't dark last year, is back to the way it should be. And, in all of the years we've been going, the rain always stops and we wind up putting our coats in the car.

Not this year! It absolutely poured. Quite a few of the activities are in covered areas, so we dashed from one greenhouse to the next and while the boys did their thing I sat on a damp hay bale and knit (as opposed to to last year, when I sat on a damp hay bale and wished I'd brought a project.)

In addition to not showing the rain, the picture really distorts the color of the sock. In real life, the stripes aren't nearly that dramatic and the colors are totally different.

Along with the knitting, there's been reading...

Nine Lives by Weny Corsi Staub really pulled me in. After the death of her husband, young widow Bella Jordan has packed up her young son and what few belongings she can fit into their car and set off for her mother-in-law's house. Engine trouble and a pregnant cat intervene and she winds up in Lily Dale, an odd little town where everyone seems to be psychic. Even Bella's son is making predictions -- he just knows that the cat will have seven (or maybe eight) kittens, and that his loose tooth won't come out until the fourth of July. Without a way to leave until the parts for her car come in, Bella finds herself taking care of the cat and kittens and helping to run the guest house owned by a woman who recently died. She doesn't feel that she can stay in Lily Dale, but she's in no hurry to move in with her husband's overbearing mother. I enjoyed this book, but the fact that it's written in present tense was sometimes jarring.

In Haunt Couture and Ghosts Galore, the third Vintage Mystery by Rose Pressey, Cookie finds herself haunted by a second ghost, this one a failed PI who was separated from his favorite hat when it became evidence in a murder investigation. (Cookie has been haunted by socialite Charlotte Meadows ever since she bought the deceased woman's favorite clothing at her estate sale.) With the help of the two ghosts and her psychic cat, Cookie works to figure out the killer's identity. I like Cookie, but the two ghosts flirt like a couple of giddy teenagers and I kept wondering why, instead of waiting for the owner of the occult shop next door to come by, she didn't buy the cat its own ouija board.

The publishers provided me with ARCs. This post is linked to Patchwork Times and Yarn Along.

Five Days to Go and No Costumes in Sight...

So the reasonable thing to do is make a little mummy out of wire and scraps of muslin. (I used this tutorial from Honest to Nod.)

No one is allowed to go as a possum this year. Quinn asked for a costume and I almost caved because he wants to be a wildlife rehabilitiator when he grows up and it would make total sense for him to go as a possum, but he's going to be a serial killer zombie. That's a zombie who was a killer while he was alive. Or something like that. Leif wants to go as the guy with giant scissors. My oldest son is "too old" for Halloween and my daughter is more than capable of making her own costume.

So if we can find some of the neat zombie tattoos we found last year, I'm good.

Isn't that just the view you want in your rear view mirror?

Lozenges

Back in July, I was wondering whether to just sew together the rest of my cut pieces and made the quilt top using however many I wound up with. I put off the decision until I dug through the sewing room a bit and responded to that ad I saw on Craigslist. 

And now I'm cutting more 2 1/2" and 1 1/2" strips because more variety in a scrap quilt is always better, right?