Why yes, I AM still knitting these days, contrary to my current obsession with my sewing machine. I've been steadily working on the Dainty Bess scarf that I started on my trip to SAFF; this is an older picture, but the only thing I had on hand. It's twice as long as that now.

The laceweight that I bought at SAFF and had custom dyed for me arrived last week, and y'all. Y'ALL. Ms. Melanie does one kick ass job of making my yarn super pretty.

She asked what I wanted, I gave vague direction in the way of "silvery gray", and man, oh man, did she come through for me. The base yarn is from a very small company that wasn't even on Ravelry and it's 100% silk laceweight. I have no clue what I'm going to do with it as of yet, but trust me, it's going to be something spectacular. I can't just use that on any old stole, you know. It's too pretty.

However, the next few weeks are dedicated to this:

I have cross stitched stockings for my family, and my daughter's stocking needs to be done. We're a few scant weeks away from The Big Day, and I'd like to have this hanging there for her on Christmas morning. I've got a LONG way to go on it, though, so knitting and sewing are going to take a backseat to this until it's done. And then I think I may never cross stitch again - this one broke me. There are a bajillion little color changes and tiny details that, while pretty, make me twitch a little as I'm stitching on it. I'd rather knit a wool thong than do THIS again.

Stages of a Quilt:

See pattern.

Stalk fabrics.

Buy fabrics.

Debate on how fabrics look together.

Stalk more fabric.

Decide that first fabric was right, stash additional fabric purchse.

Hope husband doesn't notice.

Cut fabric.

Cut MORE fabric.

Realize that if you'd been doing this on the table instead of on the floor, your back probably wouldn't hurt as much.

Curse softly.

Sew first blocks together.

Take dorky picture of first blocks.

Sew LOTS of blocks together.

Attempt to lay them out in a pleasing pattern.

Spend two hours trying to lay them out in a way that doesn't make your eyes cross.

Give up and just sew them together willy nilly, because really, all of those patterns together isn't going to just magically look soothing.

Decide that's how you wanted it to look in the first place, dammit.

Sew together backing.

Let someone convince you that you can machine quilt it on your own machine.

Start quilting.

Think mean thoughts about overly-ambitious quilty friend.

Finish quilting.

Realize that you don't have enough of any one fabric to bind it.

Decide that since it's already such an eye test, you might as well bind it with random scraps you have left over.

Cut strips from scraps.

Sew into binding.

Attempt to lay quilt down in living room to pin binding down for sewing.

Quickly jump out of the way when your husband screams because you are blocking the TV during one of the biggest games of the year.

Sew binding onto quilt.

Flip and handstitch to backing.

And handstitch.

And handstitch.

And handstitch.

Finish handstitching.

Take pictures.

Bask in glory.

(Y'all, I will have to update with pictures later, because Ze Flickr is not working at my office for some odd reason. And yes, I'm updating from the office.)

I got up at the unGodly hour of 4:30 on Friday morning, packed everything into the car, and set out for the airport on what was my very first Flying By Myself experience. I got through security, got through the wait, and boarded the plane with no problems. And that is where the traveling stopped being easy and got CUH-RAZY. The plane was delayed by an hour and a half because of the weather in Atlanta; they didn't let us in on this little tidbit until we were already on said plane, so we had to sit there on the ground until we got the all clear. Still, not TOO bad, and we took off. When we landed, and I emerged into the Atlanta airport, I started to think that maybe I'm not cut out for traveling by myself; I had no frakin' clue where the hell I was, which direction to go, or even what I was trying to do, to be honest. The wonderful Carrie was trying her best to direct me, but I'm a doofus. Eventually, I found a tram that zoomed me to baggage claim, which led me to doors that went outside, and I was able to explain where I was so that Carrie and Ms. Melanie could pick me up and we could head out.

Except it's never that easy.

And by that, I mean an 18 wheeler overturned on the highway and we were stuck in traffic for two hours. But I had my knitting!

So, in the end, what was supposed to be a trip that put us in Asheville by 4 at the latest actually had us checking in to our hotel at 8 pm. Thank God there was an Outback in the parking lot, because we all needed a drink STAT.  Even though the waiter sneered at my dinner choice (a steak sandwhich, which was good so SUCK IT SERVER DAN), we still managed to end the day with some fun.

The actual fest was a blast - SAFF isn't huge, but there was more than enough to do in one day, and there were so many independent yarn dyers and vendors that it was absolutely worth all of the hassle. I didn't go crazy with the yarn purchases, but I did manage to score some pretties. I met Lynnea in real life and patted The Baby Belly in person. But by the end of the day, we were exhausted and we decided to check out of the hotel early and head back to Carrie's house instead of spending another night there. So after spending some time in Athens, I got up on Sunday and made the trip back home. I walked in the door and was immediately dog piled by the kids; Sarah refused to let me go all evening, which was charming and cute and I took full advantage of it since she's not what you'd call a Super Cuddler. I gave them the presents I'd picked up for them - Bryan got a new airplane like the one Mommy was on, and Sarah got a new stuffed animal from Atlanta - and we all settled in, happy to be back together.

Carrie is trying to convince me to fly in for MS&W next year.  As long as it does not involve crazy Atlanta traffic, I might be convinced.

PHOTOS! From the top, that is Sanguine Griffon Little Traveler in Nepal, Plain & Fancy Sheep & Wool Co. Sport in Blue Variagated, and Miss Babs Yummy Superwash Sock Yarn & Baby Yarn in Ironweed. I made two other purchases that aren't listed here - one is for my Christmas swap partner, so that will just have to be a surprise, and the other is a skein of 100% silk lace weight that the fantastic Melanie is custom dyeing for me. Because she likes me so. Y'all, I can't tell you how stoked I am about the laceweight, and about the dye job she's going to do for me. It will be awesomeness personified.

 

And here we all are, at SAFF, the CESOB crew REPRESENTING. From the top left: Melanie, myself, then Carrie on the bottom left and Lynnea.

It's funny - I love the colors and the patterns of fabric and yarn, but once I get something that I've just fallen in love with in my hands, I'm almost paralyzed with indecision. What pattern would make the best use of it? I don't want to misuse a perfectly good bolt of fabric or skein of yarn; this is how I end up stashing things away for years and, in some cases, forgetting I've got them. Thank God for Ravelry and the pattern queue over there, because that has kept my knitting going at a fantastic pace. However, for quilting, I have no such luck. I end up browsing for patterns that are worthy of the fabric. It doesn't help that I'm extremely picky about patterns, either. 

However, when I run across things like this Bento Box quilt, suddenly I see possibility in my mind.  I haven't really liked any of the other Bento Box quilts that I've seen, but that one caught my eye. I mean, wow! Just pair a solid colored fabric with some of the insane fabrics that I've picked up over the years, and presto! Instantly cute quilt! And from there I browse that site and see other cute things, which link to other sites and other cute things...I could spend hours just browsing and looking at how other people create such intricate designs and patterns. I have a healthy amount of respect for anyone that can design their own pattern - I struggle enough when I've got the pattern right there in front of me. 

The quilt top from the last entry now has a backing sewn together and ready for quilting; I've got two tests to study for, though, so it might have to wait patiently until I get the opportunity to sit down and do some serious work on it. In the mean time, I'm already dreaming of what is coming next.

That's the completed quilt top - it actually went together much easier than it looked like it would, and it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself. However, I learned these things about myself while sewing it:

• I love my rotary cutter. Seriously. I'm not sure that I'll ever use scissors on anything ever again - ANYTHING. I was considering cutting my chicken with it the other night at dinner.
• What I thought was a quarter-inch seam? Not a quarter inch seam. Each of my blocks was supposed to be 12 x 12, but they ended up 3/4 of an inch shorter on almost all sides. After squaring them, they ended up 11 x 11.
  
• Patterns that coordinate don't always look fabulous when placed together in a block - solids or a vaguely patterned fabric would have done much better than the weirdness in some of the blocks. 
  

Overall, though, I'm pleased with the result, and for a first cutting and peicing exercise, I think I did damn well. Tomorrow, I'm going to pick out the backing fabric and get the quilting pins put in so I can give maching quilting a shot.

I have been killing my back for the past few nights, but dammit, I got all of the peices cut out for that quilt.

I've had this grid board for a long time, and I apparently bought a rotary cutter at some point, because I found that little beauty just waiting for me in my sewing box when I opened it up last week. I guess I've been subconciously wanting to sew and make a full quilt for some time; it took a complete knitting burnout to turn me towards it. 

At heart, I'm a knitter. It's my go-to craft; socks, lace, scarves, whatever is handy and easy to cast on with. I love the varieties of yarn, the different textures and colors and the amazing independant dyer movement that is going on drives me crazy with variety (hence, I have a yarn stash of ridiculous proportions). But occasionally, I get bored with it. I need to put it down and try my hand at something new. And I'm pretty sure that it's the Knitting Olympics that did it to me this time; knitting an entire sweater in a span of two weeks can make you cross eyed. In walks quilting, with the gorgeous fabrics and it's promise of easy projects, and I'm hooked. But we'll see how I feel after I've sewn together thirty log cabin squares and then put those squares all together in some sort of a pattern. I've only got two of the squares together so far, but I think they'll go faster now that I have a clue as to what I am doing. 

ETA: All right. Pictures taken.

And the only cure is MORE COWBELL!

(So, my last entry? I went to edit something in it, and I don't know if it was my stupidity or a server hiccup, but BLAMMO. It was eated.)

Okay, maybe not. But the cure IS more quilting. Since I don't want to die of the fever, I was forced to take a stroll through eBay looking for ideas. This is what I came up with:

Those are fat quarter packs; the first one has 8 total, and the bottom has 7 (I bought two of those, so I'll have 14 fat quarters). The top one will be for keeps, but the bottom one is for a special project for someone that I need to cheer up. I'm not what you'd call an advanced quilter, though I do have a lot of enthusiasm. So I went on the hunt for a project that I could do a bit at a time and if it wasn't perfect, really, it wouldn't be a big deal. I do have the Turning Twenty book which seems to be the standard for quick, easy quilts, but this caught my eye at the grocery store:

It's just a bunch of strips! I can do that! I think. I want to have the quilt top cut over the next week or two, get it peiced, and then I'm going to do something so heinous, you're not even going to be able to control yourself: I'm sending it out TO BE QUILTED BY SOMEONE ELSE. I know, right? But my machine just can't handle all of that fabric; I don't have a long arm quilting machine, and I need to take classes to know how to use one, and I want this quilt to be awesomeness personified. I'm still going to bind it and blindstitch the hem all by myself, but as someone noted in a Rav forum (I belong to a quilting group on a knitting forum. Go figure THAT one out) if you don't quilt it yourself, you're not a quilter - you're a TOP MAKER.

Consider me a top maker...this time around, at least.

Remember that fabric I showed you a few weeks ago? Look at what it has become:

 

The second one is a bit blurry, but we've been overcast for the past few days. I'll get a better picture when I get a chance. But the big point here is that during the making of these quilts, no one died, or threw a hissy fit, and no sewing machines were damaged or pitched off the roof of our house. I think that the machine and I actually came to an agreement on how to work together. And! The walking foot! I ordered the right one, attached it properly, and used it. 

I am a genius.

The hardest part of the whole thing was getting the entire quilt through the machine on the longest passes; you think it is no big deal, but then you try wrestling with five feet of batting and fabric through a machine while you're trying to steer it down a rather narrow line, and then get back to me. We'll chat. I took breaks during the quilting and managed to knock out four squares for a baby blanket, knit in good ol' boring stockingette, but they are finished and blocking as I type this and will be mailed off next week. I'm on a freakin' roll, y'all.  Up next: I'm tackling the Forest Path Stole, which I'm currently up to the second tier on, and pushing through the cross stitch stocking that will end up being my daughter's for Christmas. And somewhere in there I'll manage to go to school, work, and take care of my family. When I can fit it in.

I know, edge of your seat, right? But I did manage to finish it within the time I was given. And here's proof:

I did modifiy it; when I went to knit the sleeves, they were so heavy that I doubted that it would ever get used. Here in Texas, there really isn't a need for a heavy, thick sweater; for most of the winter, I wear long sleeved shirts and throw a jacket or coat on over that when I go outside. Heavy sweaters are pretty useless 'round these parts. I wanted to make something that I'd get some use out of, so off came the sleeves and i just knit a few rounds to lengthen the armholes a bit. There is a definite difference between the skeins that I used; I can see it in this picture. Most of the lace is a tad bit lighter than the garter stitch or the bottom three inches of the sweater; it's not horribly, unwearably noticeable, but it's there.

This sweater made me realize something: I don't really like knitting sweaters. I get an itch to knit one every so often, and after I'm done with it, I always think the same thing: that sucked. I'm not saying that I'll never knit another sweater in my lifetime, but I'm saying don't be surprised when I'm trading off all of my worsted yarn for lace and sock yarns. There is just something so soothing about a nice, thin lace yarn that I just don't get with worsted.

I've moved on to my winter projects: a stocking for my daughter (we've all got cross stitched Christmas stockings, so I gotta get hers finished), and the Forest Path Stole. The stole may turn into my next lifetime project.

I've got a love/hate relationship with my sewing machine: I love to use it, and it loves to turn out projects that look like a fourth grader was set loose with crazy glue and a doobie. I rarely am successful, in other words, with my sewing projects. However, a while back, I was able to make curtains for my kitchen:

And ever since then, I've been itching to do something fun. While I'm supposed to be working on my Ravelympics project (and I am! I promise!), my attention has been snagged by something else.

I intend for those fabric combinations to become extremely simple quilts for my kids; the University of Texas for my son, and the blue/brown combination for my daughter. And by simple, I literally mean that I'm going to cut a 60" x 45" panel from each bolt, slap some quilting batting between them, and then quilt diagonal lines across them in a contrasting thread color. Then, I'll use the solid colors to attempt to bind the quilts. On the surface, this seems like it will be easy, but just like anything else - I know better. I'm sure I'll learn a lot, and the kids will end up with useable blankets at the end of it, and the sewing bug will be out of my system for a while. 

But first: finishing up the sweater. I'm 18 repeats down the body, and only two skeins of yarn down so far. I'm think that I will need somewhere around 25 repeats to make it as long as I want it to be, and I've also got the arms to do, so I could possibly break into the fourth skein to finish this thing. But it looks like I'm on target to finish on the deadline!