Small, Beautiful World!

On Wednesday, Karan and I went to Joanie's to help her with her paper-pieced pine-tree blocks.

She has such an aesthetically pleasing work space! Here's what it looked like when we arrived:

It's a lovely spot to sit and knit, quilt or work on cross stitch. (This is where my loom used to be.)

Karan used to teach quilting, and paper-piecing was one of her specialties. She was more than willing to help Joanie with her block. Joanie had designed it, based on a pillow she had had for years. I drafted the paper foundation for her, but it really helped to have Karan teach her how. (When I tried to teach Joanie, it was like the partially sighted leading the blind!) You may remember her block.

When we finished at lunch time, we had three blocks finished. I made one, and Karan worked with Joanie to sew the other. I learned a lot, too, and was able to ask questions as I worked. The quilt will have 12 blocks, three across and four down, with sashing and borders, a wall hanging.

Vintage Stitchers met on Thursday at Julie's.  Julie had finished her Butterfly Quilt:

Vintage Stitchers is primarily a quilting group, but most of us knit, and some people were working on knitting projects. Joanie brought her third Mother Bear bear:

Rebecca has been working on Elizabeth Zimmermann's Baby Surprise Jacket (BSJ). She was at the point where you pick up the stitches along the sides of the "flap" that hangs down, to make the buttonhole/button band strip. She wasn't sure how to do it, so she went to an LYS for help. (They charge $5 for help with a project.) What she was told was basically to go to YouTube and watch the video. She still wasn't happy with how it looked, and ripped it out several times. She brought her BSJ to Vintage Stitchers to get help. I showed her how I pick up the sts, basically sliding the left needle through the garter st loops that hang out, then using the right needle to pick up and K the sts. She caught on very quickly, and finished the one side and then did the other side with no help from me. Here's how her BSJ is progressing...coming down the home stretch!

This is a fun project, and her yarn really made it special.

Speaking of the BSJ and the yarn making it special, remember when I was on vacation, and I stopped in Jackson, Wyoming, at the LYS Knit on Pearl? They had a BSJ made from a Zauberball Crazy. Unique!

Remember the lovely young woman who waited on me at the store?

At Vintage Stitchers, Diane told me that her step-DIL works at Knit on Pearl. I showed her this photo, and she said, "Yep, that's Cindy!" Small World!

I got a little bit done on my appliqué at Vintage Stitchers. It progresses slowly, but it progresses.

The Waffle Sweater is moving along finally:

This is a unique pattern. It has Tunisian knitting in horizontal striped between stripes of a lacy traveling stitch. Fun, but still manly. It's a pullover, but I'm thinking about steeking it and making it into a cardigan. The pattern is the Men's Texture-striped Raglan by Jon Gilliam. The yarn is Swish DK in Lava.

And I managed to get the warp on the loom for some more placemats.

Warp and weft are Dishie in Fiesta Red, Conch, Clementine, Creme Brûlée and Swan.

The weather has cooled off. The leaves are changing, but it isn't going to be a very pretty autumn this year, except for the rose hips. The nights aren't cold enough, and it has been too dry. The leaves seem to be just turning brown. However we did get some rain the last few days, which meant some walking in the rain:

On the grandchild front, Daphne visited her new school this week. She's starting out at the university level. (The preschool at University of Wisconsin.) That's Zachary, getting something from under the table. He'll go to school there, too, someday.

 

What's on my needles: Waffle Sweater and Dogwood Blossoms.

What's on my loom: Warped for warm colorway placemats.

What's on my Featherweight: Helping Joanie with her paper-pieced pine-tree blocks.

What's on my wheel: Still the Full Circle Roving in Caramel, bobbin #2. Making progress, but slowly. Too many other things going on.

What's on my iPad/iPhone (books): Just finished Dean Koontz's The Face of Fear and Craig Johnson's Death Without Company, both from Audible. Now listening to Comfort Food, one of the Friday Night Knitting Club novels by Kate Jacobs, this one from the library through the OverDrive app. Also reading the eBook Twenty Wishes by Debbie Macomber, one of the Blossom Street novels, also from the library by way of OverDrive.

What's my app of the week: The Wooly app for Ravelry. You can't post in the forums with it, but you can manage your projects, queue, stash, etc. It imports all your info and photos automatically from Ravelry as soon as you give it permission, so you don't have to do that.

What's in my wine glass: Domino Cabernet Sauvignon, 2011 vintage. Very nice.

Note: This blog post was produced entirely on the MacBook, using the iPad and iPhone for photos and photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for or cleaned.