Sandy-induced Cabin Fever Quilt

Once we knew on Sunday that the storm was going to be very big and real, I scurried out to my local grocery store to buy water and milk. I knew I had no work on Monday. I watched TV while the reporters speculated incessantly and I got antsy. While I have several quilts in progress I was so restless I couldn't settle on one of them to work on. So I started something entirely new.

A few months ago I mentioned going to a rainbow themed party, and as part of the preparation for that I'd scoured my local thrift store for anything remotely rainbow. And I came out with these delightful culottes.

 

While they were the most unflattering things to wear, the shot cotton was really pretty so I decided to keep them for some future reuse.On Sunday night I carefully picked them apart, ironed all the seams out flat and cut out 5.5" squares. Then I chose a searingly bright coordinating solid (kona papaya) and sashed with 2.5" wide strips. For backing I chose a bright green polka dot (from Sunday in the Park by Piece o' Cake Designs) that I also found at the thrift store, and binding was cut from another thrift store find, a fuchsia pink curtain panel printed in navy with boats and nautical text.

By Monday night, just as the worst of the storm hit, I was finished.

 

 

 

Luckily my building was spared any damage, although my building at work did flood (in the basement server room - I'm trying not to think about the consequences of that). I'm shocked by what I'm seeing on TV, it's hard to fathom what is happening just blocks from my home let alone the devastation along the shore...

Second Bout of Insanity is Over

Given that I'm not really sure why I started the first blanket, the second is an even bigger mystery to me. All I know is that I wasn't ready to stop and given that I still had so much yarn left over I couldn't not keep going. And so the second blanket was born, an improvisational log cabin made out of sock yarn on the the same ridiculously tiny needles. This one was much less photogenic but I tried my best to document my progress over on flickr.

And now... after several nights of applied i-cord, a wash in the tub and a surprisingly quick block, the second blanket is finished!

 

Blocking on the living room floor...

 

And hanging up with its sister blanket in the same atrium I photographed the first, with little old me for scale.

I'm feeling a little conflicted about the end of my knitting era. I've been knitting these blankets for over two years. It was time to finish, and it's time for me to graduate and move on and away from Grad school, two events that are very much linked in my mind. One thing down, the other much harder one to come.

End of a knitting era

I've been posting some "tantalizing" instagrams on Flickr this week.

 

And that can only mean one thing.

 

 

The insanity in over.

 

My turn in the Bee!

After totally dropping the ball and forgetting that this was my month, I stayed up til the wee small hours Thursday night prepping fabric for my Lucky 13 Bee-mates.

The quilt I want to make is called Trajectory and is designed by Monkey Beans (finished quilt here). Each Bee member is going to get a packet with five 6.5"x6.5" squares in various shades of pink through purple, five 8"x6" rectangles of various shades of yellow, and the paper templates. I decided not to print out instructions on how to paper piece the blocks because that seemed very wasteful. Instead, I asked people to follow the very clear directions found HERE.


I'm looking forward to getting these back and playing with the gradations of colour!