My Knitting is Possessed!

Bet you were expecting to see fuzzy T.V. screens ala Poltergeist or Spinning heads courtesy of Linda Blair.  Instead, I woke up the other day and saw this.  

Yes, the Noro Butterfly sweater is knitting itself, which is much prettier than demon possessed woman.  I talk about possession because I have had very little time to donate to knitting this sweater lately and yet every time I turn around it has increase in size by leaps and bounds.  Right now I am looking at it and I have an inch to go before I start the arm holes.    Man! Why can’t every knit be this motivated to become a sweater (do you like how I blame the inanimate object?).  So far, it is turning out to be much nicer than I thought and I hope to have the back done this weekend.

Speaking of things that are done…I am now completely finished with my quilt top.  I figured I would not subject you to more quilting new until the actual thing is done, which at present seems like a long time coming but I will persevere.  I also finished my first sewn shirt that will have a finished object post all its own in the near future.  In the meantime, here are the fabric buttons I made for it.  Aren’t they so neat!  I LOVE fabric buttons!

But what about Orangina, you ask? Well, she is on the back burner because (1) my hands hurt, (2) knitting on size 2 are not as gratifying as knitting a variegated yarn with size 8 needles, (3) although it is June here it is still on and off cold so I have to milk the wool knitting season for all it is worth.  Hopefully she will be back in my knitting good graces in a few weeks.

 

Unseasonably Beautiful

This is about a very unseasonable knitting project that I will probably start on very very soon. When I think of summer I think of flowers and sunshine and Butterfly’s

Noro’s Butterfly to be exact!

This became an addition to my knitting “To Do” list when I saw one of my knit group members wearing it. Holy Cow!, I thought. I stalked her the rest of the night..touching and felling. Pregnant lady belly rubbing was nothing in comparison to the harassment this lady must have felt. But alas, it was not to be because I couldn’t justify 14 balls at $8.80 or $11.00 depending on what Noro yarn I decided to use.

Well, As the knitting fates would have it, Little Knits was having a 40-50% off sale on Silk Garden and Kureyon. And once again fate stepped in when I stumbled upon their blog and read 5 posts in to find out they were going to list this yarn with limited quantities. Lastly, I stalked the site until I was graced with 14 balls of Noro Kureyon in my basket at 45% off.

I really liked the dark colors in the original, but the lighter colors are ok too.  They are a little more drab in real life but I was also happy that they had it in the lesser expensive Kureyon. My knitting co-worker also liked the pattern when I showed her, so she bought some Silk Garden so she could knit along with me.

Since it will be too hot to actually wear this, it may be on the needles for some time, but on the needles it will be. I already swatched for it too!  Butterflies are so beautiful!

 

Light at the End of the Tunnel

I can feel it coming…

 

it is not here yet, but I can taste it!

Now don’t go getting all excited and congratulatory because this is baby ain’t finished yet….oh no.

I still have to add the 2 borders before the quilt top is complete. But doesn’t it look beautiful! Like I have said before, it is not quite my style but I love the colors and the ring pattern the yellow fabric makes…can you see it? I had my hesitations but they sure did turn out pretty. This quilt also broke my machine. I had to take it into the shop on Friday because it started getting jammed and eating thread. I had to borrow my mom’s White sewing machine which took me about an hour to adjust and thread due to the age of the machine and the lack of instructions. But it purred like a kitten and sewed like a champ once we got through the first hurdles.

Another great thing that makes me feel that much closer to completion is that I found my backing fabric! Yes I know it is quite busy, but it was $5.00 a yard, has all my quilt colors, still has the yellow I like but won’t show the future dirt as much, and most of all I LIKE IT I say this because one of the quilt ladies at the store was slightly offended when I didn’t take her advice on the backing but instead went with my instinct and the opinion of another quilt lady. Although I wouldn’t say I am 100% in love, I am 100% about paying 40% of the cost of the other fabrics there. I also didnt’ find one that I liked more. Besides I always have the excuse that this is my first quilt! I still have my first scarf which reminds me of my extremely poor taste when I first started knitting (*cough* orange fun fur *cough*).

Later this week I should have some knitting updates for you. Yes, I am still knitting. In fact I may be knitting up some out of season attire pretty soon. Is it crazy to knit a sweater made of Noro Kureyon (read: 100% wool) in Southern California in JUNE!?! We shall see…

Update: Hey wait a minute..I forgot that I knitted Lady E in summer, with Noro Silk Garden. Guess we know it won’t kill me to knit with wool in the summer. Besides Lady E was the knit project that brought me back to knitting full swing. I have gone a full year with few knitting lulls….knock on wood.

The Good Times are Killing Me*

So as you have seen, I have expanded my crafting horizons to include both sewing and quilting. Both of which are classes that I am taking, one of which is kicking my butt….that would be the quilting. Technique wise I can handle it, it is the TIME!!! I know, I know…a knitter complaining about the time it takes to make something,but OMG this class is killing me. So let me give you some background to this class…

I discovered this class through my clothing sewing teacher who mentioned that the North Orange County Community College Continuing Education School offered 10 week sewing and quiliting classes for $5.00. $5.00!!! That was too good a deal to pass up even if the class had a strong chance of being lame. So I told a few colleagues at work and the three of us signed up for the class. Well, the instruction was better than I ever expected. We got a teacher who has taught for 30 years and published a few books. Her class were strongly technique based which was right up my alley and the class was small. I couldn’t have asked for more.

So here is where the problem set in. This teacher is INTENSE. She LOVES quilting and probably quilts every spare moment of the day (once again, the pot calling the kettle black with the crafting addiction thing…geez). So our class project was a 74″x74″ quilt called Raise the Roof. She did communicate that we would be working at our own pace, but every week we move on to the next part of the quilt and every week we would race to keep up with the pace of the class. People I am talking about 6-10 hours of quilting homework a week.

Needless to say this pace was not for the crafting faint of heart. Those with lives without a crafting addiction and an abhorrence to unfinished things were soon weeded out. This included my two coworkers who now cheer me on from the sidelines as I continue on the crafting Marines-like pace.

32 star blocks done…8 hours

32 log cabin blocks to go…8 hours

Only 3 more weeks of class…priceless!

 

*Title courtesy of Modest Mouse

Finished Object – McCall’s M5053 Skirt

This is the second time I have worn my new skirt. This was my outfit to my sister’s graduation. I got quite a few compliments and was very happy when I was able to say that I made both the skirt AND the sweater. Hee hee, I am such a sucker for a compliment but too embarrassed and self conscious to fish for them. That is probably why I blog.

Fabric: Flat Folds from M&L
Inspiration: McCall’s M5053 Skirt
New Tech: This was my first time making a sewn article of clothing for a real person, so all tech was new tech
Cost: Approximately $10.00
Enjoyment Factor:9

The Good:

• This was my first skirt ever. It was one of the three projects I am doing for my sewing class. I think it came out pretty good construction wise
• The fabric was extremely inexpensive since I got it from the flat folds at my favorite fabric store M&L. The flat folds are the lower quality fabric areas of the store. It does not mean bad quality, but just not the heirloom quality you use for quilting. There is an area for those fabrics and they are still less expensive than the quilt stores. If you are ever in So Cal and just want to get tons of fabric, go to M&L. It is not a pretty store, but you definitely get a HUGE selection.
• This skirt cost me about $8 bucks in fabric, the rest was the zipper and thread
• I put in my first zipper, which should allow me to use my zipper foot with confidence for a knitting bag I want to make
• It matches my new Apricot Jacket!!!

The Bad:

• The fit on the skirt is a little big. I always second guess my body measurements, with knitting I only have the deal with the bust. With this skirt I had to measure my hips and waist for the first time. Dear God!! This is my womanly self conscious area so I normally deal with the lower body with the adage “ignorance is bliss”. Well, I made the right size but just thought it might be too big because I kinda wrapped it around my body with clothes on it class. So I opened the yoke a little more. I should have left it as it would have fit better.
• My bottom hem is a little wonky because it was a huge curved surface with a “neat hem” meaning it was rolled twice. My teacher gave me a technique to make it easier, but even then it took forever.
• I had to hand stitch the yoke facing. It looks good, but it took the entire viewing of “Blood Diamond” to finish it.

The Ugly:

• Nothing on the outside, but man the inside finishing is not all that great. My zigzag stitches for the clean edges is quite a bit away from the edge, so it will fray a little with washing.

Sewing Time: 12 hours – Not hard, but I only did it in class and had to learn all sorts of new techiques.

Mid Week Vacation

These part few weeks have be chalked full of activity. Both fun and stressful at the same time. One of the fun minus stress activities of the week was that my friend V can to visit from Florida. That gave me the perfect excuse to take a day of mid work week. She arrived on Monday night so we went to a local Cuban place and had the prerequisite huge glass of Sangria to start the visit.

On Tuesday, which was the actual vacation day, we did a lot of running around to take in all the things she missed about So. Cal while living in Florida – Ikea, Vietnamese Food, and freeway traffic. The main attraction of the day was the Getty Museum, a place that I had never been before so it was nice to be a tourist in my own area. There were of course quite a few exhibits, the majority of which I don’t remember. I like museums, but they don’t always stick with me. But some of the exhibits I liked were

• The Leviaton by Tim Hawkinson

• Painted Menagerie Exhibit by Oudry

However, my favorite part about the Getty was the garden areas. I love gardens, especially photographing them. V and I sat on the grass and relaxed. We ate, knit, napped, and poked fun at the unruly children playing on the grass while their parents tried to corral them in.

Then we walked around the grounds and enjoyed the beauty that is nature. Hope you enjoy it too

Special Thanks

Thanks everyone for the great comments on both the Wicked Sweater and the Chevron Scarf. I really do love them…both the knits and the comments. I will get back to each of you as soon as I can. I just didn’t want you to think I forgot about you or didn’t love all the suggestions you gave for that damn leftover yarn

Finished Object: Chevron Scarf

Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Super Sock Merino Yarn
Inspiration: Last Minute Knitted Gifts
Needles: Size 5
Yardage: 3/4 balls of two distinctly different colors
Modifications: None, except the finished scarf is not 77″
Enjoyment Factor: 6.5 – Loved the scarf but this was a slogfest after awhile

The Good:

• Sale yarn – This scarf only cost me $10.00 instead of the $40.00 it would of at full price for the yarn. This yarn was acquired during the Banana Berry liquidation sale back in February. I had just seen the scarfalong started by dogged and knottybits and just knew this yarn would be perfect for the scarf.
• This yarn is super soft so it works perfectly around my neck

• It was a good project to have on the needles so that I had something to work on in between projects.
• I loved the surprise of the color changes as well as how wonderfully these very different yarns worked together

• I also love the reverse side of this scarf. It is as beautiful, if not more so, than the front

The Bad:

• OMG!!!! This thing took F-O-R-E-V-E-R!!!! The pattern calls for this scarf to be 77″ long. Man was a cocky when I started this scarf. I didn’t understand how anyone could become tired of this scarf. Boy was I wrong!!! By the time I finally decided to end the misery my love was replaced by a manic need to get rid of it off my WIP list. The funny part was that when I finally decided to finish the scarf I was already at 77″ or there about.
• Can’t really say it is bad, but when I blocked the scarf it grew significantly from the 77″ finished size to a whopping 90″ long !! It wraps a lot and still has some over hang. It is just a note to self that if I had wanted this to be 77″ it would have been disappointing. But who can be disappointed at a scarf

The Ugly:

• What the hell am I going to do with the leftovers? This is probably the worst part about stash busting. Having leftover stash yarn.  The point is to rid yourself of the guilt of having stashed it in the first place.  I don’t even know how much it is but it looks significant. Baby booties maybe??  Sad part is…I don’t really like knitting for babies.  Oh well, what else can I do with it?

Knit Time: February 28 – April 23