August FNSI - Multi Crafting

 Not having a definite plan as to what to work on this FNSI I was pleasantly surprised how productive I ended up being.

In the continuing plan of working through WIPs I decided to continue with the toile for a pair of Tilly and the Buttons Jessa shorts (these have been a WIP for a year so far and if I was a betting person I'd say the finished article won't be ready for this summer!) I thought I'd just get the zip fly in. 

But I was wrong... 

... and actually got the toile to a stage where I could try it on for size. It fit. I have decided to stop making the toile at this point, without as waistband and cuffs, as the fabric is horrible to work with (cheap, thin, with a tendency to shrink if ironed), some of my pieces seem poorly cut (or could've been affected by the iron), and I need to re-use the zip from the toile for the actual shorts. Also if I stop here there's a better chance of the actual shorts being finished in 2020!

I then went on to a bit of baking prep. 

 Pasties are the plan for lunch this weekend and the recipe suggested that the pastry was best if left to rest overnight. 

And after all that excitement I even had timeto squeeze in a bit of sock knitting before bed. 

Hope everyone else had a successful and enjoyable FNSI. 

Fearless Fair Isle - After Seven Years!

 I'm getting through my crafting projects pretty well at the moment, I guess I'm being assisted by all the current Coronavirus restrictions meaning more timd to craft. For example as I'm working from home I can do a bit of knitting during my lunch break (I could've done that at my office and I may do in future) and rather than spending an hour in the car at the end of the working day I get another hour to myself as my partner finishes work an hour after me (he does start an hour later in the morning). I'm also avoiding adding too many new projects to the list or pre-emptively buying materials for projects that are a long way off. 

Sock yarn doesn't count.

I thought pre-emptive buying was a habit I'd got into last year. When sorting out the yarn for my next knitting project I found this wasn't the case.

Price hidden intentionally.

Luckily I still want to make the project as much as I did if not more.

Hard to tell from the photo but this will be the Reindeer Romp Xmas Stocking from Fearless Fair Isle Knitting by Kathleen Taylor. Started well but turns out 7 years ago the shop was out of stock of one of the colours, after umming and ahhing I've now ordered a ball of the correct colour from what may be the same shop I bought it from originally (same name other end of the UK). This is a daylight project due to needing to read the chart so it may take a while, hopefully not another 7 years! 

Feeling the fear and doing it anyway...

...or maybe a more accurate title would be "Having to quilt the quilt on my frame because the central heating engineer needs space to work!".

The Sparkle Punch Quilt was attached to my quilting frame in late March.

In the normal course of things I would have started quilting it shortly after but whilst setting it up I found that, due to being clever when purchasing the fabric and the forgetting that I had been clever, the backing fabric was too short for the quilt. Loading up the frame had been quite an effort so I wasn't massively keen on starting again having bought new backing, likewise the alternative of makinvbthd top shorter also didn't fill me with joy.

This dilemma took me ages to resolve.

Eventually I decided that the better of the two options was to buy a new backing, which actually was quite easy to swap onto the frame. I actuallynalso prefer this second backing and I know the recipient does too.

A couple more weeks of procrastination passed, I enjoy using me frame and once I get going all is fine but this is a big quilt and the machine a use tends to play up a bit in the early stages requiring unpacking.

Eventually confirming that our central heating replacement was going to take place at the end of July spurred me into action as th frame takesmip a lot of space and would make lifting floorboards in the room tricky.

After all my procrastination the quilting went well, no unpicking required.  I also tried out glide thread which had been recommended in various places and it was brilliant and didn't break once. My free motion quilting it still a big wonky but overall I'm pleased with the effect and am thrilled that this quilt that's been on the go on and off since 2013 is almost finished.