Monday, January 23, 2017

Can I Take a Nap?

Common Threads met at Janet's on Thursday.



Janet was sewing the binding on Joanie's pine tree quilt. This is a wall hanging we (Joanie's friends who quilt) helped Joanie make, using a very simple paper-pieced design. The concept and the fabric choices were Joanie's, and she made one of the blocks. We had a work party at her house and helped her. Julie donated the batting and the machine-quilting services, and Janet, as I've said, is sewing on the binding. 

Margareth has turned into an accomplished quilter. She has just finished this queen-size quilt top for the bed in her cabin. She put a lot of herself into the design. (If you look closely, you can see a bear cub in the tree next to the moose, who looks concerned about the activities of the beaver.)



Her first quilt is all done but finishing the binding. This was a log-cabin pattern, to which she added bear appliqués. It will go on the wall of her cabin.



Susan, one of our part-time members, showed up with this lovely scarf.



She also brought this shawlette. The edges fall in a delicate spiral.



The Women's March on Saturday had a Park City location. This was complicated because, as you can see, the Sundance Film Festival had begun. It took us an hour to reach the staging area by car. (Georgette's DH drove us.) It was only 13 miles, but it took us an hour because of the snow and traffic. About double the number of people turned up as were expected, and authorities estimate that there were 8,000+ people in the march, not counting the festival goers who didn't participate (some did) or the skiers. 



Our "plan" was to take the bus back to Quarry Village, the last bus stop, where Lynda had left her car. The buses covering the route we needed to take couldn't get back to the transit center a block off Main St., and buses were unable to turn around in the transit center because of all the people. We were unable to board any buses for a while, because they were full. We had to walk to the Deer Valley bus stop and wait for a bus to take us out of the area to a place where we could catch the bus we needed. The next bus that came was going off duty for his lunch break, and the one after that didn't go where we needed to go, but we took it anyway, because it got us closer. Rather than wait at the next bus stop for another hour, we walked about half a mile to the bus stop where we could catch the correct bus. There was another 45-minute wait before we finally boarded the bus that went to Quarry Village. There were no seats, and it was a real crush, but eventually enough people got off so we were able to find seats. When we arrived at Quarry Village, we were exhausted and hungry, so we decided to go to Billy Blanco's for lunch.

When I got home, I crashed on the couch and took a nap with the pups. We've been having a lot of snow lately. When we had one day with a few hours of sun in the middle of the week, I took the pups out for a romp. (The snow is deeper than it looks. The pups don't sink in very far.)



Dusty and Rocky have become good pals. Rocky loves is little brother so much he actually is willing to accept some kisses. (I think it's why they're called "French" poodles.)



My fiber fun this week was to finish dressing Gabi and Dolly. After I gave away most of their clothes, leaving them with only summer attire, I found I couldn't look at them without feeling cold. Debonair Designs is having a Polarscape KAL (Knit Along) featuring her newest pattern, and it seemed a good time to join in on a fun project and make the girls look warmer.

I CO Gabi's sweater a week ago Saturday, so I would have something small to take along when we went to the theater that afternoon. After I finished the sweater and hat, using Knit Picks Palette in "white" held double, I took Gabi out to get photos in the real snow.



The pattern is designed for Götz dolls, which are slimmer than American Girl dolls. Gabi is closer to their size, so it worked out well for her as written. Dolly is almost the same size as most of the American Girl dolls, though. When I tried the sweater and hat on Dolly, it would close in the back, but the button band stretched out, and the sweater and hat both looked tight. I wanted to try working the sleeves in the round anyway, so I went up a needle size for both ribbing and body knitting to get a looser knit and produce a bigger sweater. I worked the sleeves in the round using two circular needles.

Using larger size needles makes the fabric longer as well as wider, so, to keep the sleeves from being too long, I stopped the sleeves one pattern repeat (one cable) short for the BO for the underarm. I described my modifications on the Ravelry page for the project. It was snowing yesterday when I finished the hat. I'll try to get photos out in the backyard when the sun comes out again, hopefully in a day or two.


I worked Dolly's hat in the round with two circular needles. It required a bit of though, because I had to reverse the stitches in the instructions every other round, not just K to P and vice versa, but also working backwards on those rounds from how the pattern was written. It worked out well, though. Gabi's hat has no pompom, but I improvised one for Dolly's hat. It's nice to have the girls hang out in my fiber studio without feeling cold every time I see them.



I'm ready to CO for the Impari Shawlette using the yarn DDIL2 gave me for birthday (Twisted Owl Superwash Merino Worsted). She and I are going to knit these as a KAL. I may get back to my Trickle Brick Socks, but I also have plans to start the March of the Fibres sweater for DH.

My priority this coming week will be to work on the scarf on my loom and the hand-quilting on my "Sistine Chapel" (Delectable Pathways) quilt.

What's on my needles: The Trickle Brick Socks, and just CO the Impari Shawlette. The March of the Fibres is waiting in the wings.

What's on my Featherweight: Still waiting for a new assignment.

What's on my loom: No progress on the scarf for DD this week, but I went to the loom and admired my progress a few times. 

What's on my wheel: Stanzi is set up again with more Full Circle spinning fiber, no progress this week.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen, a very interesting story. I think I have another series of stories to listen to. Now listening to All the Winters After by Seré Prince Halverson. Very interesting so far. On the Kindle app, I'm reading Mistletoe at Moonglow by Deborah Garn. A cozy story in the tradition of Debbie Macomber and Marie Bostwick. Nice for bedtime.

What's in my wine glass: Crane Lake Malbec, one of our staples.

What's my tip of the week: When taking photos of quilting or textured knitting (such as Aran, cables, etc.), don't use a flash, diffused or reflected light or other light source from the same direction as the camera. Placing the quilt or knitted item with a light source from the side creates slight shadows that emphasize the quilting or the texture of the stitches.



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

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