Quilt in waiting

I've finally finished laying out the Sparkle Punch Quilt.

Took about 3 hours all in all and it's lucky we have a large living room.

The next step was to break it down into manageable sections for sewing up.

Plenty of photos were taken during the bagging up process so hopefully it should all go together the right way.

There is likely to be little sewing going on at my house for a few weeks due to a break out of social events, but as soon as I can I will get back to this quilt.

Snowy Sunday

Even though it was freezing cold and gently snowing last night I hadn't expected to wake up to this ...

Luckily we hadn't got any outdoor activities planned for the day (although some serious pruning and a little planting is on the list of garden jobs) so snow didn't stop play.

In fact it seemed to make us more productive. As well as helping to strip most of the wallpaper in the dining room I also managed to start the layout for the Sparkle Punch Quilt.

I managed to get a little more done by the end of the day but it does take a surprisingly long time and it's amazingly easy to put a square in the wrong way round. I am loving the way it's coming together though, I may even get chance to sew some of it together this week.

The end is in sight!

At least the end of the prep work is in sight.  I have less than 20 sets of squares (five per set but who's really counting) to press and square up (and a few to unpick a little and re-sew but let's brush over that) and then I can figure out the lay out and start sewing the squares together (all 480 ish of them).

I wouldn't say the end is particularly near but at least it's in sight and there's a chance that this quilt will be finished this year!

Read Between the Lines - Week 4

This feels like it's becoming a yarn centric blog; I am still working on the Sparkle Punch Quilt but it's at the trimming and pressing stage so not particularly photogenic!

I'm continuing with the RBTL shawl as it gets wider it grows more slowly.

I was also starting to doubt any colour change was happening but I saw a tip on the make-a-long Facebook page to fold the bottom up to the top...

And hopefully you can see a very subtle change.

New skill - New year aims

I haven't even finished the RBTL yet but I'm making plans to make the crochet version (CBTL). The first step in those plans is to learn how to crochet (luckily that was already one of my aims for the year). In actuality, the first step has been choosing which colour combination to use for another shawl, which I think I've nearly done.

It's not likely that I'll be finishing the RBTL any time soon but I'm not sure how long it'll take me to get good enough at crochet to want to own a shawl I've crocheted so I've started learning now.

With a combination of a nice, clear DK crochet book, YouTube videos and hints from my sister I managed a crochet chain.

It was then suggested, before I tried anything more complex, that starting with sock wool may not be my best move. So some acrylic yarn and larger hooks were purchased and I've continued practising...

...and continued practising...

The increases are intentional

I think I now understand all the stitches I need to make the shawl I just need to continue practising and try using finer yarn.  So far so good and it's quite enjoyable (until the fiddly final stitch), fingers crossed it's still enjoyable when I start a large shawl!

Read Between the Lines - Week 3

Week One

Week Two

Week Three

Progress is happening but slowly due to reduced knitting time this week. The pattern is easy and enjoyable and it's fun waiting for the colour to change (which is happening strand by strand).

Weekend in London

I wasn't able to partake in this month's FNSI as we were in London for the weekend, we usually go for a few days but there was an unmissable hotel deal for the weekend so...

On the Friday, after a little traffic delay, we visited Hampton Court Palace

We didn't have time to look round the whole of the grounds and palace but what we saw was fantastic. Unusually there was very little textiles in evidence except for the tapestries purchased by Henry VIII and a door with a little Embroiderers' Guild sign.

We had dinner in a very pleasant German restaurant and the next day had our traditional London breakfast from Pret...

The next tourist attraction on our list was the Imperial War Museum.

We visited here last year and got two years through the World War 1 exhibition, so the plan was to finish it off and see a few more exhibits. Two and a half hours later we finally finished World War 1! It was a fantastic exhibition, lots of interactive displays and a broad range of topics. Then it was shops, dinner and pubs.

All round a good trip.

Read Between the Lines - Week 2

There is a craft I can do with all the kitchen work going on - knitting ( and EPP but I haven't started that project yet) (and cross stitch but that's well and truly relegated to the UFO pile)(and crochet I suppose but it doesn't seem the time to learn a new craft). Anyway...

I have managed to get quite a lot done on my RBTL shawl due to dedicating my Friday sewing time to knitting (and binge watching Scandal) and some time off work.

From this

To this

The yarn colour gradually changes strand by strand, the point at which a new coloured strand is added is known as a #Fuzzbuzz in the make-a-long (MAL) I'm part of for this shawl.

So far only one #fuzzbuzz per yarn whirl for me, but plenty of yarn to go!

Work In Progress stops Work In Progress

We're having our kitchen re-done, it's looking great but in the mean time we've had to set up a temporary kitchen. That's working well for us but maybe not so well for my sewing projects...

Our temporary kitchen was previously known (and will be again in the future) as my sewing space.

Think I'll have to dig out one of my other craft projects for a while!

Read between the lines

I'm sure I had something planned to do next on my list of knitting projects but as I've already said I fell for the persuasive powers of Facebook and decided to knit a Read Between the Lines shawl using the previously posted and totally gorgeous Scheepjes Whirls - 2000m of yarn in all.

First thing first I actually followed the instructions and did two test swatches to decide on the correct needles. Unfortunately this meant I couldn't use my beautiful metallic green circulars, but luckily the correct size is a set of rainbow wooden knitpicks.

This is about 30 rows in. I chose to go with the inside of the purple and the outside of the strawberry.

And this is after about 150 rows, taken from two angles to show the illusion effect. At least another 200 rows to go!

Monthly Round-up - January

Definitely a month of trying to finish things off.

I've finished binding both my fruit and veg table runners, now I just need to decide who they're for! I've also finished my first Xmas things, if I can keep going at a rate of one a month there might be some hand crafted Xmas gifts this year.

I have started, well at least done a gauge swatch (first time ever), the Read Between the Lines shawl; the yarn seems very fine to me and I'm used to knitting with sock wool.

I have also made what feels like good progress with the Sparkle Punch Quilt. With a sneaky bit of sewing after work yesterday I'm now at the point that every white square now has at least one coloured triangle attached. Still need to do something about the pile of mis-sewn blocks.

And to add to the list of things achieved I've finished all the squares for my mystery blanket and hemmed a pair of work trousers.

It feels like January has been pretty productive, roll on February!

Finally

I have completed the final square in my 2012 Debbie Abrahams Mystery Blanket.

In the time it has taken me to knit these squares I have bought and sold two homes, two of my siblings have got married and one has gone to university. This has definitely been a long term project.

Unfortunately finishing the squares does not mean I've finished the blanket - I still have to block, sew up and knit a border. I reckon a full finish by 2020.

There is a slight issue in that I'm not sure if I still like the blanket! But I am going to sew together the strips and see how I feel then. Plenty of mattress stitch in my future; I also have to sew up the first Xmas things.

Another project!

Being somewhat persuaded by the power of the internet I have decided to join in with the Scheepjes 'Read Between the Lines' make along starting 31st January. It's a make along (MAL) rather than a knit or crochet along (KAL/CAL) because the shawl pattern is available for both knitting and crochet.

I'm going to knit mine, but if it goes well I might also make a crochet one.

The yarn we're using is Scheepjes Whirl and it's gorgeous colours definitely strengthened my decision to do the MAL.

I've chosen Strawberries and Scream and Lavenderlicious. I was surprised by how big they are, but I guess they would be with a 1000m of yarn in each one.

First decision is whether to start from the insides or outsides and which colour I want most prominent. Decisions, decisions!