Final Finishes

With the end of Tour de Fleece (TdF), most of the participants have moved on (or back) to other projects. 

One of the projects I returned to was the pillow covers, the class project for my Craftsy class, “Floor Loom Weaving.” After the fabric was ready to take off the loom, the next step was to look for errors. Of course, the teacher didn’t have any on hers, so she had to make a sample with an error, so she could show us how to fix them when they occur. 

I was saved that step. I had four (that I could find) places where the shuttle had skipped the warp threads. That meant lots of practice. I’m showing you the one using white weft thread, because it’s easier to see.

When you find an error, you thread a needle with the same thread as the weft in the area of the mistake. Then you follow the weft thread in the shot where the error occurred, only doing it right. If you can take it all the way to the selvedge, it will save some trouble. Here’s what it looks like with the extra weft thread added:

Next, I pulled up the incorrect thread, so I could see to remove it:

Here’s how it looked with the incorrect thread pulled out, leaving only the correct thread:

After making all four repairs, I was getting good at it. Here are my pillow covers ready for wet-finishing (to you knitters, “blocking,” only the process is a little different:

After the fabric was dry, I overlapped the ends and sewed along the selvedges. You can see the finished pillows in the first photo, above.

Thursday, my friend Ellen and I went to Vintage Stitchers. As usual, there were some great projects to see.

Here’s Barbara’s Tessellating Pinwheel, similar to the one Carol made. (Shown in my blog post from 7/15/13.)

Diane’s appliqué is coming along:

Rebecca’s appliqué has progressed, too.

Diane and Rebecca are doing prepared appliqué. I'm doing needleturn. I took my "Delectable Pathways" appliqué panel to work on. It’s coming along...slowly.

I’ve put pieces together for some of the elements in the appliqué and pinned them together to the background roughly where they go. The stems have to go down first. Mary Sorensen's (designer of this pattern) technique for making very thin stems works well for me. (You cut the bias strip much wider than you want your finished stem to be. Press it in half, then appliqué down one edge. Trim the underside very close to the stitching, then trim the top to slightly wider than you want your stem to be. Turn it under and appliqué down.)

Barbara showed us this “Jelly Roll Race” quilt, put together according to this tutorial.

The tutorial is from the Missouri Star website. There are some other great tutorials there, too. I'm glad to learn about it.

Barbara makes books using Shutterfly for special occasions or to commemorate her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Recently she made a book for a member of another quilting group, who is moving away. It was filled with photos of the quilts people in the group had made and had shown off to the group.

(This was similar to the book I made about Daphne’s first year, except that I put mine together on my Mac and ordered the book through Apple.)

While I was at Vintage Stitchers, Daphne’s Bunny Suit was blocking.

I plan on sewing it together as soon as I’m able after it dries.

We were at the Park City Farmers’ Market this week, registering voters. This young busker came along and played some Blue Grass fiddle tunes. She was very good!

For this week's cuteness, here's a "Zach in the Box" for you. He was having fun stepping in and out of the box. (I'll get to see him soon!)

That's because I’m off on vacation for a couple of weeks. I have a substitute blog post for next week, but I may not probably won't have Internet to send out the notices to let you know when it’s up. If you want to read it before I get back, check my page on Mondays after 8:30 AM PDT or 11:30 AM EDT. I should have some interesting photos when I get back.

What's on my needles: The Lantana socks, first sock almost done. Daphne’s Bunny Suit is off the needles and ready to sew together.

What's on my loom: Empty! I finished the Craftsy Class Project, as mentioned above.

What's on my Featherweight: Piecing the strips to go with the hand appliqué. (Second appliqué panel about half done.)

What's on my wheel: Full Circle Roving “Fawn,” second bobbin. I don’t have my wheel with me on this trip, but I decided to take my Golding Tsunami drop spindle in case I didn’t have enough spinning time during TdF!

What's on my iPhone: The Mists of Avalon, book one, by Marion Bradley, good so far. Also listened to The Serpent’s Shadow by Mercedes Lackey and James Patterson’s 1st to Die, which is the first in the Women’s Murder Club series. 

What's my app of the week: OverDrive. You can check out books from your library, including audiobooks, to read or listen to on your phone or other device. When the lending period is over, it will disappear from your device, although you can delete it sooner. It’s increasing the number of audiobooks I can listen to without having to download them to my computer first.

What's in my wine glass: Corbett Canyon Merlot, again, the “Slurpee” size!

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

Leonbergers and Spinners and Bears...Oh, My!

Common Threads met this week. Joanie was working on her second Mother Bear bear:

Her first bear is in a knit shop in Salt Lake City, hopefully recruiting more people to make bears for the project, which sends them to children who have HIV or AIDS, mostly in South Africa.

When I said I wanted to take a photo of Joanie’s bear, Karan said it looked like a voo-doo doll with all the pins sticking in it, which caused me to point out that somewhere in the forest there’s a bear wearing a pink tutu, clutching her stomach and moaning....

Joanie is working on another quilt. She wanted to make a pine tree wall hanging for Christmastime. It’s her first paper-pieced block:

It’s pretty easy, and a good way to learn paper piecing. She’s going to do several of the trunk sections before she tackles the tree section alone. She will have twelve of these blocks, all with the same background, but with dark sashing, a lighter border and binding to match the sashing. Watch for posts of her progress.

Janet made this quilt for her mother. It has Minky on the back. She started out with a bunch of Kaffe Fassett fabrics, and built from there.

I worked on my appliqué during the meeting  but I’ve also made progress on the second leg to the pants for Daphne’s Bunny Suit and the first Lantana sock:

The Full Circle Caramel, spinning for Tour de Fleece (TdF), is finished:

It still needs washing, but before washing, I have 20 WPI and 238 yds. 

I had to wash my hands after spinning all that Caramel. Now I’m finishing up the first bobbin of Fawn. TdF finished yesterday. I managed to spin a little every day during the Tour. I still have some spinning to do to finish the yarn for my woven blanket, though.

Speaking of weaving, I’m almost to the end on the third pillow for my Craftsy class, “Floor Loom Weaving.” I really like this twill pattern, called “Janet’s Favorite Twill.” (Janet Dawson teaches the class.) I had to redo the tie-up for this twill, because it was different from what I had on my loom before, but I’m really liking the pattern, so it was worth the extra work.

My yarn is Wool of the Andes Worsted in Hyacynth, Camel Heather, Winter Night, Currant and Bare.

Craftsy had a great sale on their online classes through the weekend. I grabbed Franklin Habit’s class, Heirloom Lace Edgings. 

Someone who's friends with him on Facebook said, “Look Franklin Habit is 75% off!” Well, he just jumped into my cart! (I recently discovered his blog. Fun reading!)

This week’s cuteness is provided by my friend Liana, who just acquired a new family member:

His name is Dante. This Leonberger is nine weeks old and weighs as much as our girl, Sunny. Rocky was small enough to fit in my hand when we got him! Dante came over to play. I think our pups were a little intimidated at first by a "baby" who was so big, but they made friends. This breed is very calm and compliant, so he will be nice company on hikes. He will be the size of a small horse when he grows up.

What's on my needles: The Lantana socks, The pants to Daphne’s Bunny Suit, second leg coming along.

What's on my loom: Craftsy Class Project, finishing pillow #3.

What's on my Featherweight: Piecing the strips to go with the hand appliqué. (Second appliqué panel about half done.)

What's on my wheel: Full Circle Roving “Fawn.”

What's on my iPhone: The Mists of Avalon, book one, by Marion Bradley, good so far. Also listening to The Serpent’s Shadow by Mercedes Lackey. 

What's my app of the week: Craftsy. With a newer-model iPad or the iPhone, you can watch your classes right on the app! I’ve just bought iWeaveIt for my iPad. I’ll do a review after I get back from vacation...unless I get to it by next week.

What's in my wine glass: Foxhorn Vinyards Cabernet Sauvignon, the “Slurpee” size!

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

In All Directions

The Tour de Fleece (TdF) continues. My third “bump” of Full Circle Roving is more than half done. This is the first bobbin of "Carmel."

The second bobbin is on the wheel.

In Bunny Suit progress, the right leg is done. The left leg has been cast on and a couple of inches finished.

The Lantana Socks are coming along:

The pattern is the Waterfall Rib, a six-stitch pattern from Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks. The yarn is Knit Picks' old Essential sock yarn in "Lantana," hence the name.

Vintage Stitchers met at Diane’s. Her “Hop to It!” quilt is finished and mounted on the wall.

The pattern is from the book of the same name by Edyta Sitar. Diane kept the sashing simple.

She’s working on this quilt. It give the impression of mountains:

Carol has finished this tessellation quilt and is sewing the binding on. She used the back of the quilt to practice sewing with metallic thread.

I’m working on pillow #3 of the class project for my “Floor Loom Weaving” class from Craftsy. I'm doing a broken twill, as part of the design I'm making up myself.

The rolled-up paper is adding-machine tape, used to keep track of my pattern.

The pups and I found time on Wednesday for a hike and picnic. This was what it looked like on the trail.

While the weather is nice up here in the mountains, our neighborhood has a happy hour, rotating through the neighbors’ homes. This was Friday night:

For cuteness: Last week, Daphne had her first dentist visit. No cavities! They gave her some sunglasses to wear while she was being checked, so the bright light wouldn't bother her.

Welcome back to Utah to my friend Ellen. (I'll get more quilting done with her to inspire me.)

What's on my needles: The Lantana socks, The pants to Daphne’s Bunny Suit more than half finished.

What's on my loom: Craftsy Class Project, pillow #3, working on a broken twill pattern.

What's on my Featherweight: Piecing the strips to go with the hand appliqué. (Second appliqué panel more than half done.)

What's on my wheel: For TdF: Full Circle Roving “Caramel.”

What's on my iPhone: The Reluctant Widow by Georgette Heyer was good. Also listened to Cross Country by James Patterson. Now listening to The Mists of Avalon by Marion Bradley. (Again, lots of audiobook listening while spinning this past week.) Also trying out the KnottyGirls Knitcast in the Podcasts app.

What's my app of the week: NonGMO, put out by the Non-GMO Project. They have a list of certified non-GMO brands and have included them all in this app, which is arranged by products, brands and supporting retailers.

What's in my wine glass: Crane Lake Malbec...good value and tasty. We get this one often.

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

The Tour Continues....

After the first full week of the Tour de Fleece (TdF), my second “bump” of Full Circle Roving is finished. 

This was my exhausted wheel, Stanzi, a Kromski Sonata, who was ready to ply after a night’s rest. Here’s a look at my progress. (Notice she has her back to the TV. Guess she can't bear to watch the Tour de France!) First the finished “singles” on two bobbins:

Then the plied yarn, ready to put aside for the blanket I plan to weave.

Quilters, don’t despair. I managed to find some time to work on the second appliqué panel for my Delectable Pathways Quilt. I think I’m officially halfway done with the appliqué panels.

The colors aren't entirely accurate. The flower that appears to be navy blue is really more like a royal blue. (The blue part is right, at least.)

The quilt was designed by Mary Sorensen, and I’ve been watching her DVD, “Learn to Love Needleturn.” It’s not only a good review of the class I took with her at the Utah Quilt Guild’s “Quilt Fest” several years ago, but I’m learning some things I’m pretty sure weren’t covered in the class, but perhaps were covered in the more advanced class, which I was unable to get into.

Common Threads celebrated July 4th with an informal meeting at my house. Joanie and Kathleen came, and Georgette brought her sister by to say hello. Joanie is working on the second bear for the Mother Bear Project. People make knitted bears for the organization. The bears are sent to comfort children who are affected by HIV/AIDS in emerging nations. So far, 89,300 bears have been donated, according to the website. The bear’s an easy pattern, if you have some knitting skills, and can be knitted with yarn scraps. I plan on making one or two bears, and maybe some others will join Joanie and me.

I finished Pillow covers #1 and #2 of the class project for my “Floor Loom Weaving” class from Craftsy.

I’m finding the Craftsy classes a good value, especially for someone who lives a long way away from stores that offer classes. Currently I’m hard at work on Pillow #3 for the class project. I’m on the basket weave part, which starts the pillow cover. Then I can choose for myself which patterns to use, how big to make the stripes and what colors I’ll use.

In adorable grandchild news, Soren turned one year old on Friday, and we had a Skype session. He's holding back on teeth and walking, but he's making up for it with being very socially advanced and swimming like a fish!

Not enough cuteness? Here’s a recent photo of cute Daphne:

In other family news, DS2 is working on a new film for Laika. Here’s the trailer for the film, “The Boxtrolls,” coming out October of next year (2014). DS2 is a technical director for Laika, but he's better known as Soren's Daddy.

What's on my needles: The Lantana socks, The pants to Daphne’s Bunny Suit half finished. (Picture next week, I hope.)

What's on my loom: Craftsy Class Project, pillow #3, working on the basket weave.

What's on my Featherweight: Piecing the strips to go with the hand appliqué. (Working on second appliqué panel.)

What's on my wheel: Full Circle Roving “Caramel.”

What's on my iPhone: Finished Cotillion by Georgette Heyer and Magic’s Pawn by Mercedes Lackey from Audible, both very good. Then listened to And Then You Dye by  Monica Ferris. Now listening to another Heyer novel, The Reluctant Widow. (Love the humor in her books! Lots of audiobook listening while spinning this past week.)

What's my app of the week: Snapseed app for iPhone. Good for processing photos right on the iPhone.

What's in my wine glass: Fisheye Chardonnay, 2012, the big bottle. Good, as always, although Chardonnay isn’t one of my favorites; this one is pretty good. 

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

Around and Around With Tour de Fleece...and Other Stuff

Tour de Fleece has begun. Here’s my first finished bobbin:

If you aren’t a spinner and don’t know about the Tour de Fleece, it’s a spinning activity that coincides with the Tour de France every year. We started Saturday. The one I’m participating in is on Ravelry. I’m on Team Knit Picks Lovers 2013 and Team Kromski 2013. My challenge is try try to spin up all of my remaining Full Circle Roving. The one I just finished is "Espresso." I plan to weave a blanket with the finished yarn, a plaid with a 2/2 twill.

I added a needle-felted Apple logo to my iPhone Cozy, for my new iPhone (my first ever), which arrived on Monday.

I used KP’s Wool of the Andes Roving in “Bare.” Just a tad. The full instructions are on my Ravelry project page. I made a stencil for the logo.

The project for my Craftsy Class, “Floor Loom Weaving,” is coming along. I’m finishing up the second pillow in the class project. Now I’m doing the “Extended Point Twill” pattern. This pattern was the “Point Twill”:

I think the neatest thing I’ve learned so far in the class is this nifty way to change yarns. 

• If you're changing because you ran out of yarn in your shuttle and just using the same color, you pull several inches out, use the new yarn to finish the shot and pull several inches of that out, leaving a gap of 1-1 1/2 inches. Then you unply the yarn, overlap one ply (or two, if there are four plies) and let the ends hang out. Then you beat and...an invisible join! Love it! 
• If you're starting or ending a color, you do that at the selvedge, but with just the one strand. You cut it leaving a tail of several inches, pull it back out for a couple of inches and unply it. Then you take one of the plies and stick it the rest of the way through, overlap the selvedge thread and put it back through the same shed, bringing the tail back out where the other tail is.
• If you just have a two-shot accent, you leave a long tail on the first shot, then bring the tail back through on the second shot, pulling it out and leaving a tail in front. Then you finish the shot from the other direction using the shuttle and stopping an inch or so from the other tail, pull it out and then do the join as you would for the same color.

The tails will be cut off to the surface of the cloth after fulling (wet finishing/washing).

I cast on some socks, so I would have something easy to grab when I leave home to run errands:

The pattern is “Waterfall Rib” from Charles Schurch’s Sensational Knitted Socks. The yarn is KP’s old “Essential” brand sock yarn in “Lantana.”

In quilting news, the appliqué project is coming along:

The pattern is Mary Sorensen’s Delectable Pathways, a combination of appliqué and pieced “Delectable Mountain” blocks. (She has a great DVD on needleturn appliqué!)

It has been hot by our standards (~80s), so we’ve been saving our hikes for late afternoon, since DH won’t hike early in the morning. The pups are happy to get out, especially on trails where they can run.

For this week’s baby cuteness, here’s a photo of Soren at a concert. Last year at this time we were awaiting an overdue baby. His first birthday is this Friday!

Writing my blog has become sort of a Ménage à trois. I’m often using my iPhone for quick photos and processing, but the iPad is still my go-to device for photo processing, and the MacBook makes it easy to post and edit.

The Tour de Fleece continues...check in next week!

What's on my needles: Some socks, just to have something small and easy to grab when leaving the house to run errands. Ready to CO for the pants to Daphne’s Bunny Suit.

What's on my loom: Craftsy Class Project, pillow #2, on last “stripe.”

What's on my Featherweight: Piecing the strips to go with the hand appliqué. (Working on second appliqué panel.)

What's on my wheel: Full Circle Roving “Quarry.”

What's on my iPhone: Finished The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larssen. Very good and hard to put down. I got a lot done because I didn’t want to drop the book. Now reading Cotillion by Georgette Heyer from Audible, something entirely different, but also diverting.

What's my app of the week: Camera+ app for iPhone.

What's in my wine glass: Corbett Canyon Cabernet Sauvignon. Big bottle. Good, as always. (We never have bad wine at our house.)

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