I finally got to meet my niece a few weeks ago! She's almost a year old, but she lives very far away, and it took us a long time to (finally) make the trip. I started a quilt soon after she was born, but it took me a while to finish it up. I managed to get it finished before we traveled to see her. I still love making the Dresden Plate block, and this quilt was a lot of fun. I used a jelly roll of fabrics, but I don't remember the name of the fabric any more-- sorry! And since I bought it in-person, I don't have an electronic record of it either. But I liked color combinations and... Continue reading

I first heard about the Tosh Merino Light Tea Cakes kit from Jody at Savannahchik. I can't remember if I bought it the same afternoon that I saw it, or if I waited a day, but I had to have that kit fast. It was very much to my liking-- 12 colors of Tosh Merino Light in oranges and browns, with a packet of lemon ginger tea and a pattern for the Modicum Mitts. I determined the order that I liked, and knit with them lined up on my lap. I must have been enchanted with them blocking, because I took this photo. I only vaguely remember taking it last fall. And the result? Lovely, although they are a little small... Continue reading

I'm currently on a break between school, and well, more school. Although I volunteer at a couple of places (to get more Occupational Therapy exposure), I've had some free time on my hands. So I decided to open up an Etsy shop! Polka Dots and One Stripe Pillow Cover Right now it's quilted and sewn things, although it's possible I will add a knitted item or two in the future. Modern Flying Geese Pillow Cover -- I particularly love this on my new chair! It's been fun to just make things just because I want to try out a concept or a color scheme. I've also finished up some long-standing unfinished projects, which is very satisfying. I Spy Quilt I've had... Continue reading

I re-covered a chair! It is cat approved. I'm very proud of myself, which might be a little silly, considering that I covered this chair once before. Unfortunately, the previous fabric wasn't washable, and it got to be that I really needed it to be washable. I didn't save any patterning information the first time I made the chair cover, so I had to restart it again from scratch. I was looking forward to finding some fun fabric to use instead just a dark blue. I found this flock of birds fabric at a discount store in San Francisco, and it has the added benefit of being washable. I pre-washed it on hot before sewing anything. I'm hoping that the busy... Continue reading

I finished a CustomFit Cushing Isle, and it's great. I really like the CustomFit model. I can choose the yarn and gauge I like, and then the pattern is fit to my dimensions. I think it's especially nice now CustomFit has included some pre-designed patterns, and I don't have to do any design work to get a custom sweater. (I know I sound like an ad, but I just really like this model. It could be the computer scientist in me coming through here.) I used MadelineTosh Vintage in Robin's Egg. Lovely, lovely yarn to knit with, and the color is amazing. It's almost a match to my blog color! The front of the sweater is knit with texture, and the... Continue reading

I only did a little bit of knitting for Christmas this year. One gift I finished very early-- I think it was completed in November? It was a second Frission, because I loved the first one so much and it was fun to knit. My brother's girlfriend went with me to a knitting store once, and spent all of her time admiring the green yarn, so the color choice was obvious. I used MadelineTosh Pashmina in Jade. She loved it, and made sure that I knew she got a lot of compliments on it at work. I also made some mittens for my mother-in-law. I've made her socks for the past few years, but this year she requested mittens. And what... Continue reading

Hello! A few days after my last post, my husband got a job offer (near San Francisco, thank goodness, since we had already moved out here), and we found a place to live 2 days after that! Additionally, I was taking pre-requisite classes to apply for graduate school in Occupational Therapy. Things got very busy, very quickly! Now, however, we are completely moved in to our new place, my pre-requisites are finished, AND I got into my first-choice school (YAY!). So now I've got a little time to be here. In our old place, I had a little sewing room all to myself. Here, the wonderful flat that we found didn't really work for me to have a sewing room, but... Continue reading

Let me show you one of my favorite sweaters ever. Pattern: Pomme de pin Cardigan by Amy Cristoffers Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash Sport in 1946, 8 skeins Needles: US 5 and US 6 Time to Knit: August 23 - October 31 I knit a large portion of this sweater while riding the bus to and from classes I'm taking at city college. (By the way, I'm applying to masters programs for occupational therapy, and right now I'm taking a couple of prerequisite courses. They are challenging and fun.) I thought knitting a sweater would be unweildy on the bus, but it wasn't too bad. Once I had body and sleeves combined, though, I saved it for at-home knitting. It's been fun... Continue reading

After I moved to San Francisco at the beginning of July, I needed a new knitting project. I went to my now local yarn store, Imagiknit, and I picked up some MadelineTosh tosh sock in Farmhouse White. It isn't a color that I would normally pick, as I usually like a lot of color, but at the time I needed something soothing, I guess, after all the stress of packing and moving. I started out making a sock, the very lovely Roger Ackroyd. Alas, it was too small, so I started it again on larger needles. And alas, it was too small again! Rather than face re-starting a second time, I decided to put the project aside for other things. As... Continue reading

Hello, thanks for forgiving the blog break. We went to Paris in March*, and then a few weeks after that decided that we were going to move from New Jersey to San Francisco. Much packing and very little crafting ensued, and I finally became a Californian in July! I then had this mental block that I couldn't tell you about it until I had a picture of me with the Golden Gate Bridge, because that's what one does when in SF, right? Well, here it is, although the bridge is a little small in this picture, I have to admit. In sewing news, I made pants! I have three pairs (in different colors) of the same pants from Gap. They fit... Continue reading

This is the last post summing up what we did on our trip to Paris. Day 6: After picking up breakfast at a local bakery (chocolate hazelnut beinget and a violet eclair), we went to the Louvre again because David was determined to finish looking at the highlights. This was... Continue reading

Let's continue with our Paris trip, shall we? Paris Day 3: We picked up breakfast at a bakery (chocolate croissant and coffee eclair) and headed to Notre Dame Cathedral to begin. We walked around the Cathedral (short security line), but we weren't able to go up in the tower because... Continue reading

David and I just got back from a wonderful trip to Paris! I have several posts in my head to write here, but I thought I'd start with what we did. At the end of each day I wrote a little diary with pictures so I would remember what happened.... Continue reading

There have been two projects that I have recently been enchanted with knitting. The first is these socks. Knit with some Gypsy Girl Transitions yarn, I was completely drawn in by the slowly changing color. And for the first time probably ever, I wished I could have made the socks a little longer so that they could have gotten a little more purple at the end. Maybe this will be a strategy I could emply when knitting socks for David? Speaking of knitting for David, I started a sweater for him that I have been thinking about for years. It incorporates 11 different colors, and I roll a die to see which color to knit next, and whether to knit that... Continue reading

I wanted to make a little something for my husband for Valentine's Day this year. He loves hedgehogs, so when I came across the Hedgehog Love Scarf, I tried to think of a way to use it. This is the result. This is just a little pouch with a single button closure. I continued the hearts pattern on the back. I found trying to knit with 3 colors on a single row challenging, in that it was hard to tension the yarns carried behind the stitches. If I tried this again, I might have done more with duplicate stitch instead. The inside is lined with some red and pink polka dot fabric, so that those yarn floats don't catch on anything.... Continue reading

I've shown you one of my finished Olympic projects. Let me show you another. These are Mongolfiera Socks, knit in some Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light, in a delightful bright pink. I got this yarn with a gift card to Imagiknit that a friend gave me for Christmas. I'm happy that I was able to use this yarn so quickly! This pattern was fun to knit. It was originally a mystery sock pattern, written in four pieces. Even though I knew ahead of time what the sock looked like, the four sections made it easy to segment the work. I actually left off the last clue, and just contined the purl lines to the toe. And as for the sweater, it is... Continue reading

David bought me some cross-country skis a few years ago, but we didn't have very much snow for me to use them often. This year has been a big change, as New Jersey has had one major snowstorm after the other! When we go skiing, I am bundled up in various knitted and fleece things, and since this is a hard workout for me, I usually get so warm that I have to un-bundle a little bit to stay comfortable. David, super athlete that he is, does not get so much of a workout and has been complaining of his hands getting cold even while wearing his glittens. Something had to be done. These are a pair of RAGBRAI Mittens. I... Continue reading

There was a thing started back in 2006 called the Knitting Olympics. The Yarn Harlot started it back then, calling for people to cast on for a challenging project during the Olympics' opening ceremonies, and to have it completed by the closing ceremonies. I've participated almost every Olympics except for 2 years ago because we were in England at the time. This time, I'm taking a more laid-back approach to the Olympics. Instead of starting something new and challenging, I'm going to try and finish a lot of works in progress (or WIPs). This is kind of what I do anyway, with perhaps more concentration on finishing than usual. I'll also have more knitting time than usual, because we try to... Continue reading

I've got two options for sashing my star quilt. I like both of them, and I'm still trying to decide. So I thought I would ask you as well! Here is the original option, white sashing fabric. I'm estimating about 2 inches in between each column. The other option is white fabric with lavender dots. What do you think? I like both. Continue reading

I finished the final block needed for my star quilt last week on a snowy Saturday. I kind of made this up using leftover strips of fabric. This Saturday I laid out all of the quilt blocks to decide on placement. Oberon helped a little. They have since been sewn up in 5 long strips. I want to sash in between the columns of stars. I'm waiting for some sashing fabric to arrive in the mail. After four years in the making, it's a little strange to be waiting for fabric to arrive! This is going to be an awesome quilt. Continue reading

Several years ago now, I was part of a virtual quilting bee. There were 13 of us, and each of us had a month assigned to us. My month was towards the end of the cycle, in December 2010. I mailed fabric to each participant, and she was to make 2 quilt blocks for me that met my specifications. I specified that each person should make blocks with a large star centered in it. I didn't want to limit creativity too much (because that is the fun part of a bee), but I wanted something that would look cohesive. I also said that I didn't care exactly how big the square was, anywhere from 8" square to 12" square was fine.... Continue reading

Last October, when I was home sick for four days (One of them being my birthday! It was sad.) I decided that I was going to knit some cowls for my co-workers for Christmas. I was feeling well enough to knit, but not much else, so Christmas gifts seemed like the perfect idea. It worked out pretty well, as I had two gifts crossed off my list by the time I made it back to work again. The first one done used some yarn that I bought at Rhinebeck this year. I had been wanting an excuse to buy this yarn (Shepherd's Wool Worsted, from Stonehedge Fiber Mill), and I hadn't come up with a good one until I thought about... Continue reading

This summer, my brother texted and said that he'd like me to make a quilt for him to hang in his office. I was flattered, of course, that he would choose to have his office artwork be something I made. We talked about what he might like, the main thing being that he likes orange a lot. I showed him a pinboard I made of quilts that he thought he'd like, and he chose one of them. (He liked Sedimentary best, except with more orange.) I got the orange message pretty clearly, so I bought several orange solids and geometric prints online and made this stack. He approved. I tried to follow the Sedimentary basic shape at first, but I wasn't... Continue reading

I have two more knitted Christmas gifts to show you. My brother's girlfriend didn't specifically ask for me to knit her something, but she did have a pair of grey, cabled fingerless mittens on her (Amazon) wishlist. Alas, they were sold out. What is a knitter to, but to make a pair? While not exactly like the ones she chose, I felt like this was a close match to the spirit of her request. The pattern is Sweet Fern Mitts from the Knitter's Book of Wool. My yarn choice was such that the mitts were too big as written, so I took 8 stitches of ribbing out of them. This made the cable sit closer to the thumb instead of the... Continue reading