High Fiber—Daphne Days

Daphne is fascinated by her new quilt.

It's the I Spy quilt I made for her. It was a special present for her, and the train quilt is for her brother, Zachary, who is due to arrive any time now, which is why we're in Wisconsin. She knew who we were, thanks to Skype.

We've been doing things with her. Daphne is such an angel, complete with halo!

Grandpa's 'puter is fascinating! Daphne can tell you the names of all the keys, including the numbers.

We've been here two nights. After nap time yesterday we went to the park.

The slide was fun.

Rocky used the slide, too. Then Grandma and Daphne went on the swing together.

We brought Daphne the little table that belonged to Grandpa when he was a child. All three of my children used it when they were small. I bought her a chair to go with it at the antique fair in Ogden last fall. Here Daphne uses her table and chair for the first time. She likes to color.

It took two days to get here. The project I took along on the trip was my Dogwood Blossoms sweater. While we were driving, I got several inches of the second sleeve done.

I don't know how much knitting I'll get done while I'm here. We will be in charge of Daphne's needs from now until after Zachary comes and we're no longer needed. I'll let you know when the baby comes.

What's on my needles: Dogwood Blossoms sweater, maybe some socks soon.
What's on my iPad: On The iPod app, A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin from the library. I'm still reading Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's book All Wound Up: The Yarn Harlot Writes for a Spin. I read a chapter every night at bedtime on the Kindle app.
What's my app of the week: GasBuddy, for finding where to get the cheapest gas on our trip.
What's in my wine glass: Fisheye Pinot Noir 2010 vintage. Very nice!

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

High Fiber—Something For Me!

You may remember this quilt I was making for Daphne.

I got it back from Julie, the professional quilter (Julie Thorum, thorum@xmission.com), and just finished sewing on the binding. It's an I Spy quilt. Each square has a picture of something she can identify and name. Julie quilted it with an all-over pattern (pantograph), and her quilting was great, as usual.

Here's the back. It has a panel with the complete story of The Cat in the Hat, Daphne's favorite book. The red-and-white fabric is from The Lorax, as is the border fabric on the front.

Julie also finished Zachary's Train Quilt.

Julie custom-quilted this one. The center panel is cross-hatched, and the trains have circles on the wheels, swirls in the smoke and hearts in the air. It turned out great, too!

Both quilts have been washed and packed. The doctor thinks Zachary may arrive within a week rather than the three weeks until his due date. We're going to leave early to go to Wisconsin, maybe by the end of this week, even if nothing happens by then. We have everything packed and just need to transfer it to the car.

The next baby isn't due until June. I'm close to being done with the felted diaper bag, so I'm taking a break from baby knitting to work on my Dogwood Blossoms cardigan.

I have the kit from Knit Picks using their Palette yarn, but I'm making some changes. I've substituted colors, removing one color completely (Almond) and adding several (substituting Nutmeg for Almond and adding Sweet Potato and Turmeric). Also, I'm going to make the sweater with drop shoulders, rather than the cap sleeves. My stomach and hips are bigger than my shoulders, so the drop shoulder looks better on me, and stranded colorwork doesn't stretch as much as ribbing or cables. If I made the sweater to fit my shoulders, I would have to do some major shaping around the waist and hips to be able to button it up in front.

I printed a copy of the sleeve and body charts and the lists of which colors are used in each row, so I won't be thumbing through the pattern in the car.

Also going in the car with me will be my project for the Mary Scott Huff Mystery KAL. We should get another clue today, so I will be able to work on it while we're driving. I have sock yarn, too, so I can have some mindless knitting.

The car seats for the pups have been installed in the car, and their toys and food are packed and ready to go. Sunny just had her teeth cleaned. I'm glad we got that done before we had to leave. 

I'll send a PM when we leave. We should have Internet on the road, so I'll try to check in.

What's on my needles: The Dogwood Blossoms sweater, the diaper bag and my Mystery KAL project.
What's on my wheel: Same old, same old, but making progress. I'm taking my Golding on the trip so I can work on the Ashford "Mulberry" I started ages ago.
What's on my iPad: Finished Death Comes to Pemberly from Audible and am waiting to see what DH wants to listen to on the trip. Reading the written word in the form of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's All Wound Up on the Audible app.
What's my app of the week: Netflix. We switched from the DVDs to streaming for the trip.
What's in my wine glass: Fish Eye Pinot Noir 2010. Doesn't sound appetizing, but it's very good.

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

High Fiber--Second Baby Syndrome

I finally got the buttons on the BSJ for Baby Stuart, the one due in June:

This BSJ is identical to the one I made for Zachary except for the color way, which is probably why it took so long. Also, I wasn't under as much pressure to finish it. There has also been some progress on the diaper bag for the same baby:

I actually have more done than shows in the photo. Soon it will be time to BO and make the handles. It will be felted and lined with the fabric in the photo. There's plenty of time, though.

There isn't as much time to get ready for the arrival of the first baby of the year for us, Zachary, due to arrive in just under a month, assuming that this bun stays in the oven until done! (His sister was three weeks early, so my bags are already packed.)

We will be driving from Utah to Wisconsin in the car with the pups. I'm taking my "Dogwood Blossoms" sweater to work on in the car, but I also needed a mindless project for times when I can't concentrate, so I picked this yarn, Knit Picks Stroll Glimmer in Fiji. I'll use a pattern from one of my favorite sock books, More Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch.

I'll be missing a few meetings of Common Threads and Vintage Stitchers while I'm gone. While I was working on baby quilts, the ladies in both groups have been busy. Julie had our Peace House quilt on the long-arm when we were at her house for Common Threads. Janet sewed on the binding, and Brenda is doing the hand-finishing. A group of us pieced this quilt, which will be donated to the Peace House for a fund-raiser. This organization shelters women and children who have left abusive homes.

Besides the quilting on this quilt, Julie has been busy making quilts for people she knows. This is a wedding quilt:

And here's the back:

She also made this quilt for a neighbor who did a favor for her:

The photos of houses are Julie's house, the home of the neighbor who will receive the quilt and that of another neighbor. She used a photocopy process to transfer the photos to fabric.

Speaking of houses, Janet has been doing an appliqué block-of-the-month. She's making two of each block, so each of her two children will get one of these wintery quilts when they're finished. Julie's kitty was fascinated by the 3-D quilts on one of the blocks.

There's a cute video of Daphne reading the ABCs out of a book on Facebook, but I can't figure any way to post it here. If you're friends with me on FB, you can find it on my page if you scroll down.

What's on my needles: The aforementioned "Dogwood Blossoms" and the diaper bag.

What's on my wheel: Still the KP Full Circle roving in "Caramel." I had to move my wheel for Vintage Stitchers, but should be back to spinning soon.

What's on my iPad: P.D. James' Murder at Pemberly from Audible, All Wound Up: The Yarn Harlot Writes for a Spin eBook by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee on the Kindle app.

What's my app of the week: Skype for calls to telephones. It came in handy when I needed to do a lot of calling from someone else's house. (My cell phone is paid by the minute.) I have the subscription from Skype that allows me to use my iPad as a phone connected through the Internet.

What's in my wine glass: Foxhorn Vinyards Merlot, "It's so Aussie!"

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

High Fiber—A New Thread

I'm running a week behind because of the review of the yarn shop last week. 

This week, I'll be showing off some of the work from my friends at Vintage Stitchers. Brenda has a new long-arm quilting machine. She practiced on the quilt above. Here's her chicken quilt, done on the new machine.

Barbara's done with the binding for her great-grandson's car seat cover:

Here's the back. I think he will like the bugs.

Carol made this for a friend. She's sewing on he binding now.

Julie showed up with Rebecca's quilt. Here's the back, showing the quilting...

This is the quilt top, showing Rebecca's lovely quilting.

I didn't make too much progress on my own projects this week. I managed to get a couple of inches done on the second sleeve of the "Dogwood Blossoms" sweater done, and while we were watching the University of Utah Lady Utes ("Red Rocks") defeat the Oregon State Beavers in women's gymnastics, I got several inches of the diaper bag done.

One activity this week has been putting together the things we need to take when we go to Wisconsin to help DD and her family when she has her new baby. Daphne arrived three weeks early, so I was caught off-guard. DH and the pups are going this time, so it will be a little more involved. I still have work to do to get ready.

Another thing that has kept me busy has been working as a volunteer for the Democratic Party, trying to keep it alive in very red Utah. So far, we have been registering people to vote (all parties and unaffiliated), but will move on to other activities. I hope everyone gets involved to some degree in their party of choice.

We Skyped yesterday with Daphne and her family. She's talking a lot. Some of it is very clear, and some is difficult to understand. She can already identify the letters by name. Potty-trained would be more useful at this point.

Later, we Skyped with DS2 and DDIL2. They were getting ready to go to the symphony. They said that BS likes music and dancing. If he takes after his parents, he will be great at both!

What's on my needles: Still the diaper bag for BS, Dogwood Blossoms sweater.
What's on my wheel: Full Circle roving in Caramel from KP, well into second bobbin. Not much spinning this week, but I got a few yards done.
What's on my iPad: P.D. James' Murder at Pemberly from Audible, All Wound Up: The Yarn Harlot Writes for a Spin eBook by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee on the Kindle app.
What's my app of the week: Photogene for photos. A very good basic for editing and exporting photos. They've fixed the bugs. It works great now.
What's in my wine glass: Foxhorn's Merlot in the big bottle. It will last awhile, now that Lent is underway!

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