A couple of wee quilts

The Rhinebeck weekend was a very productive one for the labs on my floor. Not one, but two babies made their entrance into the world while I was petting wool and meeting knitters. So as soon as I got back I set to work making a couple of tiny little blankies for the new tots.

First up was this little quilt for Ryotaro, who arrived two months earlier than anticipated.

Made from leftover Lizzy House Red Letter day prints and neutral sashing from Dash's Mod Sampler Quilt, plus a little bit of new kona cotton for the binding.

I added a wee name tag because, um, I botched attaching the binding in this spot but I liked how it turned out anyway. The back was also pleasingly simple.

Next up was a quilt for Diego (born on time and twice the size of Ryotaro!), the son of a post doc in the adjoining lab to ours. This quilt was made with blue and green charm squares from a pack I bought on Ebay eons ago.

It's not my normal aesthetic, in fact I find it to be a little bit psychotic what with the Ducks! and Planets! and Maps! and Watermelons! and Coffee! and Flowers! but I figure that just makes it more visually interesting for a baby. Or something. The back is a little bit more sedate and oh! ... there's that Lizzy House again.

I had thought I would use this little patch on the back of the first quilt but I didn't have room so I appliqued it onto the back of this one just to add a bit of visual interest.

So there you have it, two little quilts for two little people. I am working feverishly on one larger quilt for two larger people but shhh, that's a secret.

May the Force (and very large underwear) be with you

If you've been around these parts for long enough, although lord knows why you would be considering my dearth of blogging in the past, oh years... you'd know that I like Halloween.

I like Halloween mostly because I get to make my costume. And this year was no exception (last year was, but we don't talk about last year around these parts.) A couple of nights with a white sheet, magical sewing skills I never knew I had, some polyfil, duct tape and a glue gun and voila!

Can you guess who I was?

And it's done.

Did I mention how much I heart my new 70mm macro lens?

I heart it A LOT. In fact it hasn't been off my camera since I got it a week ago. Heart heart heart.

Bonus picture of me looking stupid if you click through to flickr on the last shot. Never let it be said that I take myself too seriously.

Pattern: Sexy Vesty by Canary Sanctuary.
Yarn & Needles: Two skeins of Brunswick Ballybrae that I got at a thrift store for $6. US6 for the body, US4 for the ribbing around the neck and arms.
Modifications: Knit the ribbing at the edge for only 2" and did the necessary decreases in the first knit round before starting the lace pattern (K5 K2tog/ssk depending on which stitch of the two was the knit from the rib). The ribbing around the neck was done for 12 rows, the arms for 9 since I was running out of yarn.

The yarn did soften a lot on blocking but this vest is still very definitely made from Wool with a capital W. I think it will definitely see a lot of wear over the winter once I buy a few more button downs to go underneath. I love me a good sweater vest.

Rebound Knit

I was knitting something beautiful beautifully. Then I ruined it. I'm a bit crushed to be honest, it was oh so pretty, a fantastic colour and then - poof. I ruined it. I'm not ready to say how but it was my own fault and until I've figured out how to fix it I'm not going to own up to what I did and to, um, whom (can a knit be a whom?).

As is often the way when something good comes screeching to an abrupt halt, I rebounded. Hard. I basically knit a sweater vest out of twine in two days. Rebounds aren't supposed to be meaningful, there is no emotional investment. Just like with this knit.

The yarn is some Ballybrae that I picked up in a thrift store a few weeks ago. It's as rough as a bear's arse and horrible to knit with. But it's a pretty colour and like I said, rebound. This should be finished by the end of the night and hopefully blocking will take it from brillo pad to something less wire-wool like. Or not. Who cares?

Knitting? For reals?

It's been a while, knitting needles, but I thought I'd show you some love again.

I took the quilt to Canada where it was very well received. I had a fabulous two week holiday in Vancouver and Victoria. I can not wait until I can go back! (I've only been home a week....) While I was away I packed a little knitting something-something to keep me entertained. Turns out I didn't need much more entertaining than the two cities, but travel between towns afforded me a little bit of knitting time and I managed to finish up one little knit.

Pattern: Ishbel by Ysolda.
Yarn & Needles: 2 skeins of Artyarns Ultramerino 4 in 161 (a sort of burgundy semisolid), 4.5mm circulars.
Modifications: I knit the large stockinette and small lace but I ran out of yarn early, possibly because I used slightly bigger needles than called for. So I tinked back to the last pattern row of section D and did the bind off from there.

The yarn turned out to be much more variegated than I thought from the skein leading to a bit more striping than I would have liked but whatevs. Considering I'm more than likely never to wear it like a shawl the variegation shouldn't be so obvious. See?

And if I wear it like this:

... I think most people would be distracted by the fact that I look like an idiot rather than the vagaries of colour.

Ta-Da!

I am inordinately proud of myself. Everyone can expect quilts for Christmas. This is too much fun to stop now!

Onwards ever Onwards

The quilt is progressing despite my sewing machine's best efforts to thwart me. The back was sewn up in a snap and on Tuesday I took a slightly longer than normal lunch to baste the sucker together.

The front....

... and ze back.

And now the bit I was dreading - the quilting. I knew there was reason to be afraid! My machine is NOT LIKING. Not liking AT ALL. I did little test sandwiches that my machine loved, breezed through making perfectly even stitches that were a thing of beauty. But put the actual quilt in there and nuh-uh.

There is something wrong with the tension of the upper thread and it keeps snapping. I checked my machine's manual and it said to lower the tension (duh!) but when I do this even by the merest smidgen.... the stitches on the bottom look like Ass with a capital A. And the thread still snaps anyways. I have called my machine very many names over the past few days, none of which bear repeating and at one point I almost punched it. I didn't, though. I've come to the realisation that it might actually be the thread that is the problem. I bought 1000m of Gutterman 100% polyester as recommended by the quilt-along, but as I've got further into the spool I've noticed that the thread seems to be overly taut.

With time running out to get this sucker finished before I head to Canada (where the intend recipients have moved) on MONDAY, I have no leeway to figure out a solution other than to curse, curse some more, and knot and hide the ends of all those rows of quilting by hand. I really hope this thing makes it through the wash....