Happy Endings

This week brought this wonderful book into my life, Tudor Roses (2013 edition) by Alice Starmore.

It's a reworking of the 1998 book of the same name, but with the sweaters reknit, rephotographed and somewhat redesigned. Some of the original sweaters are posted on Ravelry.

Some of the new ones don't have photos available on Ravelry yet, but watch for them...unless you get the book, and then you can see them all.

The one I have been wanting to do is the Mary Tudor sweater, a pullover in 1998 and a cardigan in the new version. I( like the new version better.)

When I discovered that this book was out, I snapped it up. The 1998 version was out-of-print, and was selling on Amazon for $600+. I tried to find it in a library, but the libraries that had the book had it listed as "missing." I assume that is the same thing as "stolen." I had a gift certificate from Amazon for Christmas, so the the new edition of the book was virtually free!

We braved the snow on Thursday to meet for Common Threads at Ellen's. We had a great turnout, in spite of the weather.

Janet has continued to practice machine appliqué, including working on these chicks. (Sorry about the back lighting. Next time I need to choose my seat more carefully.)

She also finished her Heart Quilt. (Upper corners aren't rounded. Janet is holding on there.)

She used the leftover fabrics in this quilt top.

Margareth's pullover is coming along. She's working on the bottom ribbing and then just has the sleeves to go.

She's been smiling alot these days, but she had been smiling ever since she arrived and told us that her boyfriend had proposed on Valentine's Day. I think her "smiler" was exhausted when I took this photo. 

DH's Christmas Waffle sweater is dry, so I got a photo of it blocked and modeled.

Now I'm afraid DH will wear it in the house all the time and turn down the thermostat even further. That thought spurred me on to finish a warm sweater for myself. The Dogwood Blossoms is blocking! Here it is before finishing the steek edges inside, darning in dangling ends of yarn and blocking. 

We had a hard time putting the wooly board together inside my sweater. After we struggled it onto the wooly board, I took it out in the street to get a photo.

It's a little different from the pattern. I changed the sleeve to a drop shoulder instead of a capped shoulder, BO sts below the armescye steeks, split the top of the sleeve at the underarm by knitting back and forth for the last 2" and added a triangular gusset. For the colors, I substituted the discontinued color "Nutmeg" for "Almond" and reduced the amount of "Rose Hip" overall. I threw in a bit of greenish-gold colors, too. It makes me warm just to look at it!

My goal was to finish these two sweaters during the Ravellenic Games, which ended yesterday, so I'm pleased, even though I barely made it.

What's on my needles: Ready to CO new sweater for Rocky. "Green Tea" socks, second sock coming along, working on the foot. 

What's on my loom: Christmas present scarves, in holding pattern. 

What's on my Featherweight: Piecing the second I-spy quilt, this one for Soren. Sewing day didn't happen this week. Life got in the way.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished The Unknown Ajax by Georgette Heyer, from Audible. (Fantastic narrator!) Now listening to the sequel to A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night, by Deborah Harkness. Finished reading Yours Affectionately, Jane Austen, by Sally Smith O'Rourke. Now back to Dragonseye by Anne McCaffrey, procured again from the library after a long wait.

What's my app of the week: NBC Sports Live Extra. It came in handy during the Olympics. 

What's in my wine glass: Alice White Shiraz 2012, the big bottle. 

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.

The Groundhog Lied!

We drove through the rain this week to reach Vintage Stitchers, which met on Thursday.

We had lots of show-and-tell. Here's Carol's 1600 quilt. Here's the backing.

Kaffe Fassett fabrics usually manage to liven up a quilt. 

Diane got this quilt back from the quilter. I think this design is by Kim Diehl. 

It will be a great quilt to usher in springtime...coming earlier than usual this year, with Barbara's crocuses coming up already. 

Rebecca is working on this bunny cross-stitch on even weave. 

Diane is working on another appliqué. 

While everyone was quilting, I was finishing DH's Christmas Waffle sweater, a WIP of more than a year. I won't repeat the whole story. You can read it in my previous blogs. But ta-da!

Here is His Nibs trying on the sweater before blocking. He took off his glasses to try it on, in case you wonder why he has a dazed (nearsighted) look. He's still pretty cute, if you ask me.

I'll try to get a photo of him wearing it after blocking. It's still damp as I write this. I've picked up my Dogwood Blossoms again, and it's moving along. I discovered a hole close to where I stopped knitting. Moths? I didn't see any other holes. It was fortunate that all I had to do was rip back a few rounds and reknit. Maybe I shouldn't leave my knitting so long in hibernation. A lesson learned. 

Valentine's Day brought my latest Knit Picks order:

Sock dpns (the whole 6" Sunstruck set), Stroll fingering in Bare and Stroll Tweed fingering in Flagstone Heather, enough of each for a pair of socks. 13 skeins of Andes del Campo HW in Brass Heather (sale item), enough for a nice cardigan. Great Valentine's Day present to myself!

I want to use the Andes del Campo HW for this great cardigan:

I may do this cardigan first, using City Tweed HW in Romance, which is in my stash. 

I also need to make a new sweater for Rocky, who feels the chill in the winter. I have enough Swish DK left over from the Christmas Waffle sweater and Daphne's bunny suit to make this sweater for him. I'm thinking about this one in two colors.

That was Friday. Saturday some friends and I drove (well, I drove, and they rode) up to the Acorn Antique Fair at the Weber County Fairgrounds a few miles north of Ogden. It was about 50 miles each way, stopping in Morgan for breakfast on the way there.

We saw some great quilts, like this 9-patch:

Anyone know what this is called? It looks like a four-leaf clover or a shamrock.

Then we saw this Grandmother's Flower Garden. 

Also an interesting variation on the Flower Garden. 

There was also this Churn Dash:

My only purchase this time was this set of bunk beds for Daphne's dollys. I'll make some nice bedding for them and send them to Wisconsin in time for her fourth (!) birthday. Her Bitty Twins will have their own beds to sleep in. Wanna bet they still sleep in her bed?

We had lunch at the Union Grill at the train station, as usual. Then we went on to The Needlepoint Joint.

Joanie picked up some yarn and buttons for a baby sweater for a friend's grandchild. I nabbed some Eucalan to wash my delicate knitted items, and this wonderful book I've been lusting after for more than a year. 

DH is half Finnish, so we have an interest in all things having to do with that ethnic group. (And now I know I have some Finnish, too.) I find I like weaving rugs more than any other type of weaving. Kay found a nice sweater pattern in the sale bin. The whole day, we left our coats in the car.

In adorableness news, Soren's mom posted this photo of him wearing his Green Pastures Cardi:

It's good to know its wearable but slightly too big for him. He'll be able to wear it for a while. 

The Bees' Knees cardigan I made for Daphne a couple of years ago is now worn by Zachary, still holding up after many washings.

What's on my needles: Christmas Waffle sweater done and blocking. Finishing Dogwood Blossoms. "Green Tea" socks, second sock coming along, working on the foot. 

What's on my loom: Christmas present scarves, moving along slowly. I'll try to get back to it after the Olympics are over. 

What's on my Featherweight: Piecing the second I-spy quilt, this one for Soren. Planning a sewing day for Wednesday.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman, a story about an Australian lighthouse keeper and his wife living on a remote island after WWI. I just learned that it has recently been make into a movie. Just started The Unknown Ajax by Georgette Heyer, also from Audible. Almost done reading Yours Affectionately, Jane Austen, by Sally Smith O'Rourke. Also listening to the Fiber Hooligan podcast and the Knit Picks podcast, as usual.

What's my app of the week: My credit union's eDeposit. I had to take a disbursement on an annuity. I used this app to deposit the check by email. So easy! So quick! No stamp needed! You just take a photo of the front and the back, and voilà! It's in your account within 20 minutes. Ain't technology wonderful? (When it works, at least, and it did this time.) I've also been getting some use out of the NBC Olympics Highlights app. 

What's in my wine glass: A white for a change. Fisheye Chardonnay 2012. It isn't going to get any better during storage. Might as well drink it.

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.

In the Bleak Midwinter

Now that the film festival is over, it's time for lots of snow. It's a good time to stay indoors and quilt or knit. 

My "wow" for this week has to be Julie's Double Wedding Ring quilt, which she designed for her parents' 50th wedding anniversary. Julie used pillow cases for the photos because of the higher thread count. She uses Bubble Jet 2000 to prepare the fabric for printing with her dot-matrix printer. The fabric is ironed onto freezer paper, so it will go through the printer.

Common Threads met at Joanie's this week. Karan and Lynda show their amazement at Julie's beautiful quilt.

Margareth has made progress on her pullover. She's a very fast knitter and is already looking forward to the next project. Kathy was working on a beaded scarf. 

Joanie's kitty, Kasha, enjoyed hanging out with all the fiber, hoping for an unattended ball of yarn.  

I had pieced the backing for Zachary's I-spy quilt. It's a country landscape, so he can use the back side of his quilt to put his train set on.

The binding will be a green check cut on the bias. I gave the quilt to Julie to quilt for me. 

DH's Christmas Waffle sweater is almost done! If you have been following this project of mine, you know that it has been on the needles a long time. It will be good to have it finished. 

The Ravellenic Games have begun. As part of the Games, I'm going to try to finish the Christmas Waffle sweater, and then move on to the Dogwood Blossoms, which I want to finish to wear this winter. 

Most of the snow we've been getting the last few days is the wet, goopy kind, not the powder the resorts want. There have been avalanches all along the Wasatch Front. There was even a substantial avalanche in our neighborhood, Summit Park, so we can't snowshoe. We're used to—and equipped for—the snow, though, so most normal activities continue for us. Soren's family hasn't been as lucky (or luckier, depending on your point of view). They live in the Portland, Oregon, area, which was hit with a freak snowstorm with accumulations of several inches this past week. Everyone got a couple of days off as "snow days." Many local businesses were still open, although best reached on foot. Soren got to ride to the local coffee shop. Such is life!

What's on my needles: Christmas Waffle sweater moving along, yoke almost done. Sewing together Dogwood Blossoms. "Green Tea" socks, second sock coming slong, working on the foot. 

What's on my loom: Christmas present scarves, holding. I went ahead and mailed the Green Pastures cardigan to Soren. His dad will have to wait for the scarf. I was going to mail them together, but decided not to wait. Soren might grow out of it while I was finding time to weave the scarf. With luck, it will be finished before it stops being cold.

What's on my Featherweight: Piecing the second I-spy quilt, this one for Soren. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished Phoenix and Ashes by Mercedes Lackey from Audible and have started The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman, a story about an Australian lighthouse keeper and his wife living on a remote island after WWI. Finished reading Pemberly to Waterloo by Anna Elliot in iBooks, bought through Book Bub, and have gone back to Yours Affectionately, Jane Austen, by Sally Smith O'Rourke, which I had put aside to read a library download. Also listening to the Fiber Hooligan podcast and the Knit Picks podcast, as usual.

What's my app of the week: I haven't actually tried this yet, but one of my quilting buddies swears by Duolingo, a free app that helps people learn a second language.

What's in my wine glass: Smoking Loon Merlot 2007. O.M.G.! Unfortunately, it has been in our cellar for some time, so we can't run out and get more of this vintage. I'm just wondering how it survived 5-6 years in our wine cellar. (The bottles turn over pretty fast in our household.)

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.

Back to Whatever is "Normal"

Lynda has finished her Dogwood Blossoms!

She's the first one in our group of four or so to finish it. She wore it to our Common Threads meeting on Thursday. Mine is close to finished (has been for a long time), and I plan to get it done during the Ravellenic Games. 

Here is the sweater Margareth and I were trying to resize to fit her at our meeting two weeks ago. She says that she has tried it on, and it fits perfectly.

The pattern is the Bayside Pullover from Hannah Fettig's Coastal Knits. 

Margareth is adding subtle stripes, because she didn't have enough of the main color yarn. I love her color choices. It's going to be worth all the math we had to do. 

Now Lynda's working on this great shawl. It's called "Dream Bird," and was designed by Nadita Swings.

Lone is working on felting and paper projects. 

Here's Ellen's garage-sale find from several years ago. The circles are yoyos, appliquéd down. She's thinking of using this piece as the center medallion of a quilt.

My first I-spy quilt top is finished. This one is for Zachary's second birthday in April. I have another one virtually the same to make for Soren, who will be two in July. I picked up the border fabric for both quilts on Tuesday at our local quilt shop after a sewing session at Ellen's. Because I'm using the same fabric for both quilts' borders, I have enough fabric to get the length of all borders without piecing them.

And...the endless Christmas Waffle Sweater is coming along. The second sleeve is finished. 

You may remember that I wasn't happy with the top-down sleeves. These were much easier to make, and I like the way they look better. Starting on the yoke.

I've been enjoying the new slow-cooker book I bought when I was in SLC with Ellen and Brenda. (Vegan Slow Cooking for Two or Just for You by Kathy Hester.) I made the "Pumpkin Polenta" overnight for breakfast, and it turned out great. I used water instead of nondairy milk and real cheese instead of the faux cheese. (I don't eat meat, but I'm not vegan.)

The other "excitement" for the week was Rocky's injury. We think he did it playing Frisbee in the snow a week ago Saturday with some other dogs. We didn't notice anything until Monday, when he got up unable to turn his head to the left. Our vet had us try aspirin for several days, but it was taking a long time to get better, so we took him in on Friday. Pulled muscle was the diagnosis. Now he's on two different medications to relax the muscle and reduce the pain, and seems to be recovering significantly. Never a dull moment with the pups!

Finally, the local groundhog saw his shadow on Sunday. Six more weeks of winter. I wish it were only six more weeks. That would be unusual for us. 

What's on my needles: "Green Tea" socks for me, second sock, and Dogwood Blossoms holding, and Christmas Waffle sweater moving along, with the second sleeve (second version) finished. Starting the raglan decreases for the yoke. 

What's on my loom: Christmas present scarves, a few more inches done.

What's on my Featherweight: Piecing the second I-spy quilt, this one for Soren. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished Phantoms by Dean Koontz, from Audible and started Phoenix and Ashes by Mercedes Lackey. Still reading Pemberly to Waterloo by Anna Elliot in iBooks, bought through Book Bub. Also listening to the Fiber Hooligan podcast and the Knit Picks podcast, as usual.

What's my app of the week: I'm really getting a lot of use out of The Recipe Box.  I'm adding my favorite recipes, so I can find them easily. It even let's you include a photo.

What's in my wine glass: Proximo by Marqués de Riscal Rioja, 2009, from Spain. Nice! It says "Alc. 135% on the bottle. No wonder it tastes so good! (No, that has to be a mistake.)

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.