Pat's Knitting and Quilting
Uinta Cabin socks are definitely not for summer - more like nice wintry wooly socks! I made these using all leftovers from socks and mittens - You'll recognize some of the colors from Maimu's Mittens - another favorite Nancy Bush pattern.
Pattern:Uinta Cabin
The patterns on these socks are all ranch brand and logo designs from ranches near her cabin in the foothills of the Uinta Mountains. I like the plain foot on these - I may do that with future colorwork patterns - not as bulky in shoes, but still all the prettiness of color and design on the legs.
I always seem to drift toward quilting in the summertime. I'm perusing lots of quilting blogs, looking through my magazines, planning future quilts - the pendulum has swung - at least for the summer! I think I might make this Christmas Lights Mystery Quilt by Bonnie Hunter using only scraps from stash - it's a little scary and goes against all my control/perfectionist tendencies, but that might be a good thing! When I planned the center of this quilt I forgot that there would be 504 star points to match up!!!
After a weekend of playing with EQ6, this is my final border plan ... Click the mini picture if you want a nice big view. I wanted a pieced border, not only for the beauty, but for practicality since all my fabrics are small pieces. I came up with many border plans that were discarded - some more intricate and some simpler - I like this one! Now to execute it.... So much fun to watch this starry quilt come to life! June 21, 2009 I couldn't decide what to do with my blue fabric, so finally I just started making 6" stars and I'm loving it! The plan right now is for 63 of them (7 X 9 blocks) - 25 more to go. I started with mostly blues, but have ventured toward the purple and aqua and have reversed some light/dark background/stars for a little sparkle. Scrap quilts are so much fun - picking out the fabric for each star and seeing the result is like making a tiny quilt.
I'm already starting to plan the borders in my head -my ideas are changing daily.
Here are the wonderful dads of my 4 children - They are great friends and 2 of the best men in the World~ Here is a picture from last night - they thought they both looked dorky, so I didn't put it up :-)
Uinta Cabin socks are done - just need to take a picture ....the next sunny day.
June 12, 2009 This was a fun simple mystery sock by Yarnissima - "Kiila" means "gusset" in Finnish and that is where the fun was in these socks. The small side foot cable cleverly increases in dimension for the widening gusset. But my favorite thing about these socks is the beautiful sky blue yarn - "Heavens Above" is the perfect name for this colorway!
Pattern: Kiila
I started a new pair....Uinta Cabin
June 4, 2009
Pattern: Alpine Knit Scarf with Double Rose Leaf Center Pattern and Diamond Border (that is the actual pattern name!) by Jane Sowerby from Victorian Lace Today.
A beautiful soft, light and airy rectangular shawl - which I tend to wear more often (though still not too often) than triangular shawls. I enjoy knitting fun shaped shawls, but love the wearability and drape of large rectangles. The Laci is gorgeous to work with and wear - such soft beautiful extra fine merino - heavenly next to skin! The color of this shaded black with green/purple is PERFECT - I love it!
You can tell I don't often wear a shawl - I look a little stiff and awkward and have no clue what to do with my hands. The jeans and vneck tshirt don't quite do it justice either! My mornings now feel a bit empty without a lace project - SOOOO as soon as Alpine was blocked, I ordered this book and it arrived today :-)
May 28, 2009
Pattern: Kai-Mei Great pattern and simple beautiful socks with a little bit of flourish! I realize how much I like the look and fit of ribbing - this 3X3 is especially pretty - The lace panel is lovely and makes it fun, but I should just knit a pair of plain ribbed socks for myself someday!
My Alpine Lace Shawl is blocking - yahoooooo!
May 21, 2009 I've been faithfully knitting along on my beautiful lace shawl - My 1st knit of the day - 4 rows every morning. It is always scrunched up in my lap and on my needles. I never even spread it out to look anymore because I know this pattern now - I'm SO sure of myself with it - every row is lining up perfectly and it will be done in 5 days.
Not once, but twice I made a huge honking error - how did I do that TWICE? How did I miss seeing this blatant error over and over again while knitting on it for months? It's very obvious now - I know exactly what I did. If you look at the center 8 row repeat, everything is perfect. I repeated the 1st 4 rows of the edging chart twice (Those 4 rows are the same and line up, so while knitting I couldn't tell. Instead of knitting row 5, I knit row 1 again when my chart keeper was knocked off or something). Can I live with it? YOU BET I CAN! a close up of IT...
Next time you see my Alpine Lace Shawl, there will be no mention of this - It will be blocked, beautiful and I'll be happily wearing it around my shoulders! Got my tsock kit for Daughter of the Regiment - what a sock art masterpiece!
Aren't the little boot laces great?
May 15, 2009 We've been doing a lot of this....
so I haven't had as much time for fiber fun. 10 days later and this is where I stand on the WIPS from my last post ...
Andes Socks
Kai-Mei
I'm continuing with Kiila
I've pulled about 40 more blue fabrics to add to the pile bringing the total to over 100 different blues - now I just need to start cutting! At this time of year I get strongly pulled outside to my flowers, berries, and vegetables, so the knitting, quilting and blogging may suffer a little bit for awhile!
May 5, 2009 3 new pairs of socks cast on in 2 days!
This is my current favorite WIP - I dug deeply in my stash and found some Trekking Pro Natura (variegated) and Lorna's Laces in Chino colorway that I think will work for Andes Socks (something about the dancing ladies and birds just got me!) which were designed by Robyn Gallimore of Red Bird Knits. Christy and I just started a Red Bird Knits Ravelry Group
Next I cast on Kai-Mei in STR lightweight in pretty pastel Siren Song that Marcy picked out for me at Camp Knitty HaHa last month. The wide swirling stripes were a surprise - part of the fun of handpainted yarn!
I'm questioning whether to keep knitting on Kiila This wouldn't all be so bad, but THIS KIT (they are red/blue/black - not orange/gray) will be here in the next day or 2 and I know I will not be able to resist casting on the coolest socks ever! Can you see me wearing these out in public???
And last - some of the fabric for my next BLUE quilt - haven't made a final decision on the pattern - either log cabin or stars.
April 28, 2009 We had a fantastic vacation! I was not very good at remembering to take pictures, but here are a few ... I did finish Vilai - Beautiful socks from every direction!
(click pics for bigger)
A close up of the 2 stitch patterns
Pattern: Vilai
As for my top down v-neck pullover...I worked on it all week and it is right back where it was the day I left! How could that be?? A few unfortunate events - Worked on it in the car all the way to VA finishing all the raglan increases and then realized I had missed one V neck increase - tried to figure out a way to "live with it", but just couldn't do it - ripped back 26 rows! Got it back on the needles and started knitting again right away so as not to let it languish and die -THEN while sitting in the car on the way to Busch Gardens, Dave elbowed me while I was holding a full cup of coffee and SPLAT the cup flew out of my hands and the coffee all landed right in my lap - my sweater was the bucket that caught it! I screamed like a crazy woman - knowing my sweater was doomed. Dave immediately pulled into a grocery store parking lot (he understood the severity of the situation) and I ran into the bathroom holding my coffee dripping sweater on it's 40" circular needle. I washed it in the sink (there were several people there watching and no one said a word - definitely not knitters!) The only water that came out of the faucet was very hot and I knew the heavenly soft angora/cotton was not going to survive even if I got the coffee stains out. I left the wet heap of pullover in the car all day while we ventured through Busch Gardens and when we got back 10 hours later the sweater looked PERFECT - I couldn't tell anything had happened! The story doesn't end there (another missed v neck increase - how could I do the same thing AGAIN?)), but I realize this story is getting too long and I won't bore you anymore - if you want to see what it looks like, just look at this picture from the last post - exactly the same! I'm determined to continue on - I can't let this simple sweater get the best of me! When I got home this is what was waiting for me....
I've also pulled lots of blue - all blue - fabric for a new quilt - will show you that next time...
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