Do you want to learn to quilt?

And live somewhere near LA?  Then I suggest you take this class at Home Ec/Reform School.  I’ll be going, so if you’re a friend, which I’m sure you are since you read my blog, feel free to hitch a ride.

Even if you don’t want to come take the class with me, check out Alissa’s blog.  Her work is amazing.

I took an embroidery class at Reform School a couple of months ago which was wonderful.  I’ve done absolutely no embroidery since then (honestly, not a stitch), but that’s because I got caught up with a few other projects and the embroidery got pushed to the bottom of the pile.  I need to dig it all out again.  Of course, that’s after I finish all the rest of the projects that seem to be piling up around here.  Why is it again I’m adding something else to the list?  Just kidding!

What else have I been up to?  Honestly, not much that’s blog worthy.  More sampler quilt blocks coming along, but not done yet.  I’ve been messing around with several knitting projects, most of which have failed and had to be ripped out.  The only successful knitting I’ve been doing is the socks from this post (started over a year ago, sheesh) and they’re coming along quite nicely.  One sock is done and the other one is almost to the toe, so I should be done by the end of the week (fingers crossed).  Mostly I’ve been being the good little homemaker I’m supposed to be, doing a little decorating and lots of housework.  We’ve got quite a few home improvement projects planned for the next couple months and quite a backlog of things that need done around here.  The joys of owning a home, right?  At least I have this great class to look forward to.  Hope you can make it!

 

A Parade of Dishcloths

For Mother’s Day I whipped out a bunch of dishcloths for my mom and grandmothers.  Here’s the pattern and yarn details:

Waffle knit dishcloth in Peaches & Cream color #170 Winterberry – for my mom

Music notes cloth in Sugar’n Cream color #18083 Cornflower – for my mom (who loves music and plays the piano beautifully)

DW Darrell Waltrip dishcloth in Peaches & Cream color #170 Winterberry – for my mom

Springing up flowers dishcloth in Sugar’n Cream color #18083 Cornflower – for my Grandma Sharon

Waffle knit dishcloth in Sugar’n Cream color #02244 Landscape – for my Grandma Sharon

Ballband dishcloth in Sugar’n Cream color #21705 American Stripes and #00009 Bright Navy – I actually knit this one from the Mason-Dixon Knitting book (which I HIGHLY recommend to any knitter)

I ended up giving one grandmother and my m-i-l (who is not a fan of the knit/crochet dishcloth) different gifts, so the ballband dishcloth is sitting somewhere in my stash.  I haven’t decided yet who to give it to or if I’m going to end up keeping it for myself.

I also knit these two dishcloths to try out the pattern. I decided I don’t like it pattern as much as the waffle knit or DW one as a basic dishcloth pattern.  It’s very easy, but the cloths are small and, honestly, I just prefer the other ones better.  I gave them to people who commented on my sweater issue post/giveaway as thank-you’s.

Grandmother’s favorite dishcloth in Peaches & Cream #207 Bubblegum

 

Sampler block number 4 – Dresden Plate

This is my favorite block so far.  It was so fun to put together and I love the way it looks.  It makes me want to do a whole quilt of Dresdens.  Like on the cover of this book, which I picked up yesterday at Joann’s with my 50% off coupon.  I highly recommend it – based on just looking through it.  I obviously haven’t sewn anything from it yet.

I quilted in the ditch around the center circle and the outside of the flower, then a quarter inch out around the flower.

I took a shot of the back because that’s my favorite part of the quilting – how it looks on the back.  The picture doesn’t do it justice (stinkin’ camera).  I might go back and quilt in the ditch along the petals.  I haven’t decided yet if it needs it or not.

I’ve finished block number 5 as well, but I keep missing the sunny days to take pictures of it.  I’m not complaining, though.  I love these June Gloom cloudy days.  It almost makes the 100+ days coming later in the summer bearable.

 

Two more FOs

One Everlasting Bagstopper.  Knitting finished last fall.  Handles added three months ago.  Pictures taken two months ago.  Blogged about now.  (Yeah, I know, I stink at this.)

I really like this yarn and this color, plus its a great pattern and super functional bag.  I need to put some kind of glue on the back of the ribbon though because I’m afraid I’m going to rip it to pieces.  It’s the kind that has all the little threads going across the back (I think its called jacquard, but I’m not sure).  I’ve had the ribbon in my stash for a couple of years, just waiting for the right project.

I finished this scarf months ago as well.  I posted about my first attempt to use this yarn here and an update on it (right before I finished the thing, actually) along with pattern details here.

This ended up being REALLY short.  As in less than 36-inches.  I figured I’ll save the thing for whenever that ONE (hehe) daughter of mine shows up.  It’ll be the perfect length for her.  Or maybe I’ll figure out something to do with it in the meantime.

This one’s just a gratuitious shot for me.  Scarf sushi rolls, my favorite!

 

Jess’s baby blanket

I have a bunch of knitting FOs to show you all, I just either haven’t been able to post them yet because they’re gifts or, honestly, because I’ve forgotten about them.  So, here’s the first one.

My friend Jessica and I had a conversation about a year ago about how she’s had two babies and has NEVER BEEN GIVEN A KNIT BABY BLANKET.  Or crocheted.  No yarny goodness to wrap her precious newborn in.  I was, of course, shocked and immediately promised to knit her one the next time she had a baby.

So, a few months ago she had a beautiful baby girl, and I sent her her first knit blanket.  A little bit late, but that’s not my fault.  That baby just wanted to get here early!

 

Home

I’m home.  And I brought Cami a present.

A North Idaho sunset, just for you.

I went “home” for a week.  I still think of my childhood home as “home,” even though I haven’t lived there for almost a decade.  I wonder if that will ever change.

I wish So Cal had sunsets like this.  Sigh.

 

A winner!

Wow.  I thought way more than 5 people read my blog.  Oh well, I guess its my fault for not posting very regularly lately, right?  Anyways, a big thanks to those of you who did enter the giveaway.

I’ve read each of your comments and have looked at all of the yarns you suggested.  I really appreciate the time and effort each of you spent on picking out colors.  I haven’t decided yet which one I’ll use (I still need to show them to Aaron).

As promised, I’ve gone over to the Random Number Generator and drawn one of your numbers.  Without further ado, the winner is:

Commenter #3!  Bladerunner, check your e-mail.  I need your address and what you’d like to receive.  Yay!

And since there are only the 5 of you, I’ve decided to send the rest of you a little something as well.  Check your e-mails!

Thank you again for taking the time to go to the yarn sites and help me out.  Kudos to each of you!

 

With a little help from my friends (a giveaway)

Hey ya’ll,I need some help.

Image from http://www.knithappens.com/content/view/17/1/

Aaron asked me to knit him a sweater for his birthday this year.  Not just any sweater though.  No, this sweater had to have a hood, a zipper down the front, pockets, and be made out of warm wool.  I did a bit of looking on Ravelry, showed him some ideas I had, and he ended up choosing this sweater, modified to have a zippered front.

Then, when Webs put Cascade 220 in their anniversary sale, I had him pick out the yarn.  He chose 7 skeins of this yarn, plus I chose 2 different oranges for him to choose from for the stripe.  Did I forget to mention he also wanted the stripe to be orange?  Solid orange.  Jeesh.

This week, the yarn showed up on my doorstep (btw, it’s Cascade 220 in Yakima Heather).  I showed Aaron, who absolutely loved the yarn but now has different ideas about the sweater.  After some discussion, he has now decided he wants this hat:

Image from http://www.knithappens.com/content/view/17/1/

in the Yakima Heather yarn with orange yarn for trim.  And this sweater:

Image from http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/biker-boy

also out of the Yakima Heather yarn, but no orange yarn for the trim.  And no hood (which is why I’m now knitting a separate hat).  So now I’ve got to figure out what color of yarn would look good for the trim (the gray parts of the sweater in this picture).  That’s where I need the help.  And don’t worry, I’ll be sure and reward you for your efforts.

Go to either Webs or the Cascade Yarns website and pick out a color of Cascade 220 you think will look good for the trim of the sweater.  The Yakima Heather (body of the sweater) yarn is color number 9459.  Here’s a better/closer-up picture of the yarn:

Image from http://www.yarn.com/webs-knitting-crochet-yarns-cascade/webs-knitting-yarns-cascade-220/

Leave the color number of your choice in a comment along with a way to contact you (which just means make sure and fill out the “e-mail” part of the comment form).  The comment button is back up at the top right underneath the title of the post.  If you need more details on how to leave a comment, click this link.

Comments will close at the end of the day on Tuesday, May 19.  Wednesday morning I will pick a winner via the random number generator.  The winner will receive their pick of either a skein of Lisa Souza sock (fingering weight) yarn or a yard of this out-of-print (I think; if its not, its definitely a “hard-to-find” print) Alexander Henry fabric.  Or, if you don’t like either of those, your choice of something else from my stash.  To my non-crafting local friends, be sure to comment as well because if I draw your name, you and I are going out for some dessert.  Best of luck!

 

Sampler block number 3 – Star of Bethlehem

My third finished block for the sampler quilt I’m making.  Hand pieced and hand quilted.

 

A cruise, eh?

Why yes, we did go on a cruise.  Several months ago in fact.

The problem is, we didn’t take very many photos.  We went with a bunch of friends who took lots of photos for us, though.  I just haven’t gotten them from them yet.  So here’s what I do have.  When I get more, I’ll post more.

Right after we got on the ship and met up with our friends.  Also the only soda I bought on the ship (I think it was over $2 for the can).  Now we know why there were so many people checking in boxes of Coke with their luggage.

Seawolf Park on Pelican Island and the open ocean behind it as we’re leaving port in Galveston.  We were not particularly happy with how cloudy and cold it was.  Not our idea of good cruising weather.

If we had only known then how windy it would REALLY get.

Yep, that’s how it was the entire time the boat was moving.  Luckily, the farther south we traveled, the warmer it got.  The only time it was really “tropical” weather though was when we were off the boat.

Map of the cruise (thank you Google).

After three days at sea, we were SO ready to get off the ship in Jamaica.  After a little wheelin’ and dealin’, we all crammed in a tour van and drove to Dunn River Falls.  Little did we know it was over a two hour drive.  Jeesh.

We got to see a good bit of the island along the way and quizzed our tour guide Peter on all things “Jamaica.”

Once we got to the Falls, we hiked down to the beach.   Notice it’s still cloudy, but it was much more humid and definitely warmer than on the ship,

Then we went straight up the Falls to the top.  We didn’t hire a guide so we didn’t have to link hands like all of the people you see in the photo.  We just climbed up the best we could.  There were only a couple “hard” sections and Peter had assured us beforehand there was nothing scary in the water (or in the jungle).  We’ve got some other great pictures of the Falls trip, just not on our camera.  Gotta remember to nag some people for those.

You can’t go to Jamaica and not eat a little Jerk, right?  This stuff was gooood.

Self portrait of Aaron chillin’ in our room.  He literally slept 50% of this trip.  Most of the time on the boat, I was off doing my own thing and he was back in the room sleeping.  Hey, to each his own vacation, right?  We also spent a good chunk of time eating, no pictures of that, but trust me, it was good.  I highly recommend cruises just for the food factor alone.  I hit the gym a couple of times, but mostly out of sheer boredom after a couple of days at sea.

The only picture I have from Grand Cayman.  Again, there’s lots of amazing ones, just not in my possession.  My aunt recommended finding Captain Marvin’s and going out to Stingray City.  I’ll admit, I squealled quite a bit, even though I tried real hard not to.  Luckily the guys were pretty freaked out with it all too, so I didn’t feel very dumb.  The rays just don’t feel like you think they should.  Anyways, the photos can say so much more than I can.  You’ll just have to wait.  We got some pretty good snorkeling in as well while we were out there.

Last stop, Cozumel.

We rented a couple of jeeps ($40 for the whole day – awesome) and drove around the island, snorkeling and relaxing on the beach as we felt like it.  Again, very few pics.  Sorry.

We did get a picture of this guy on the way to lunch though.  Pretty cool, huh?

My view from the deck while knitting and reading (guess where Aaron was, hehe).  Another day and a half at sea on the way back to Galveston, including a very nice Valentine’s Day with more great food (of course).  All in all, a pretty great trip.