She Completes Me

Mary Tudor is finished!

It was 68 days from start to finish, and I was obsessed. Nothing got in my way! She and I had some adventures along the way, though, some of them during the last week of construction.

I don't know what happened, but my math was off for the sleeves, and they came out too long:

With knitting, many things can be fixed without frogging your project. Here's how I fixed the sleeves: First I picked up the sts right about where I wanted the cuff to start.

While doing the first sleeve, I discovered it wasn't as easy to come up with useable sts when there are two colors in a round. After ending up in a real mess, I finally got the cuff knit and everything was OK, but I lost one round of sts.  I used what I learned on the second sleeve, which went much faster. This time I picked up the sts where I wanted, as before, but instead of taking out the row below, I knit one round, then removed a round of sts two rounds below, leaving the extra round until I made sure my sts were stable and I wasn't going to pull out sts I needed:

Then I knit the cuff, following the chart from the top down.

I needed a single button and thought I would pick it up on the way back from the veterinarian’s office on Saturday. When I got to the yarn shop, though, it was 100 degrees in the shade, and even with the windows and sun roof open and parked in the shade, I didn’t want to leave the pups more than five minutes. I popped my head in the door, saw there was only one employee winding yarn and four people waiting, so I left and went home. Going through the box of buttons my DBIL had given me after his wife died, I found this great gem:

It was meant to be! After sewing the button in place, I trimmed the steeks and sewed them down with a row of cross stitches.

Even here in the mountains of Utah, it's getting too warm to do too much heavy knitting. I promise my quilting readers more quilting next week...but first I have to clean up my studio! Then the first thing I'll do is make that house block for the Habitat for Humanity quilt.

We got some hiking in last week and then had a quiet Independence Day with the pups. Soren enjoyed his second birthday at the beach. (We'll be seeing him soon when we go to greet his baby brother.)

What's on my needles: Cat Bordhi's "Bavarian Twisted Stitch" socks from her book, Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles and getting back to my Mr. Foster. Finally!

What's on my Featherweight: Back to Delectable Pathways, still working on the hand appliqué for the last panel. Also ready to start a house block for a quilt for Habitat for Humanity.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished James Patterson's 2nd Chance, from the library through the Overdrive app. Now listening to Beauty and the Werewolf by Mercedes Lackey, one of the Elemental Masters series. Still looking forward to Dean Koontz's The City, as soon as I get my Audible credit for July. Reading Black Diamond Death by Cheryl Bradshaw from Book Bub on the iBooks app.

What's my app of the week: Public Radio from PRX. We can't get radio here in the mountains, but with internet, we have Public Radio whenever we want.

What's in my wine glass: Corbett Canyon Merlot in the big bottle to finish the holiday weekend. Nice finish!

What's my tip of the week:  Make ice tea using solar power. I use salsa bottles, because they make pouring easy. Fill the bottle, add two tea bags and place in the sun until the tea is the color you like. I put a black lid on for regular tea and a yellow one for decaf. You can use a gallon jar if making tea for a crowd.

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.