Butterfly Quilt Borders

I got the center of my butterfly quilt pieced.  Those big blocks are very forgiving, a good thing since my piecing skills have gotten a little rusty from disuse. 

I have lots of this bubblegum pink for the inner border, so that was an easy decision, but the outer border stumped me.  I tried a few different pieced blocks, and I struggled with the size these blocks should be.  

In the end I decided on a simple string of 4-patch blocks, which emphasizes the hominess of the quilt.  Also, I'm determined not to add any of the left-over fabric back into my stash.  Whatever doesn't get used up by the border, will go into one or more baby quilts I can set aside for gifts.  I'm shooting for an empty drawer where this project's supplies once lived.  I think I can do it.

I want to finish this quilt and get if off the design wall.  In the past, I'd have let it marinate in the closet before I tackled the borders, but I think I'm slowly changing my ways.

A Chevron Scarf from Self-Striping Sock Yarn

I  have a stash of self-striping sock yarn, in spite of the fact that knitting socks isn't that compelling for me.  I love to wear hand knit socks, but it takes me, on average, three years to crank out a pair.
  

Now, I like to knit scarves, and I love chevron stripes.  Wouldn't you know, that self-striping sock yarn makes a pretty nice scarf too.

The free pattern is Kary's Chevron Scarf.  It's a simple 4-row repeat, and 2/3 of a 100 gram ball of yarn gave me this 9.5 x 68" scarf.   I knit it until I reached 70", but when I blocked it, stretching out the width took up some of the length.  To make it lacier, instead of the "knit front and back" in row 1 of the pattern, I did a yarn-over knit one. 

Lovely stripes, with none of the effort of changing yarn colors. 

Time Travels

I took my first trip of the summer to attend my 40th high school reunion.  We had a pretty good turn out: almost 1/3 of the Immaculate Conception Academy class of 1974.  ICA is a girls' Catholic school in San Francisco, and it's one of 3 that survives of the 9 girls' Catholic high schools that were available in the city when I was a teen.  That's me, third from the left in the back row.

It was a fun event,  some people I recognized right off, and others I recognized after looking into their faces for a moment.  People's personalities were remarkably consistent.  There's an 18 year old inside us looking out, not matter how old we get.  I was impressed by the number of people who still have teens at home, as well as by the folks who are already grandmothers.

On the same trip I visited my parents, who live in a town (Lodi, California) with great thrift stores.  I got the linens in these  photos for less than $2.  The handkerchief on the top left is actually a set of 3 identical hankies. 

 

I also got this embroidered luncheon cloth, and a monogrammed tea towel, and a doily embroidered with crewel yarn (not shown).

 

On the last leg of my trip I got to visit my daughter Allie, now living in the Bay Area, 6 hours from home.  She's becoming a big city woman.   It was a sweet journey all the way around.

Some Baby Duds and an Interview

One of Michael's nephews is expecting a baby, so I knitted up these little things to include with a present we're sending.  The yarn is fingering weight sock yarn, so it's machine washable even though it's wool.  It's very satisfying to knit for little babies because the projects generally are pretty quick.  Once I turned the heel on the little socks, it was almost time to start the toe decreases.

I'm finishing up grading, and looking forward to the Summer and Fall, when I have a sabbatical.  I've got some writing projects lined up, but I also have a crazy quilt planned as well.  The subject of the quilt will be Mexican Jenny, the protagonist of the title poem of my book. 

I had a chance recently to talk about the book and about Jenny and quilts in an interview on the Letras Latinas blog.  The interviewer had some good questions about quilting and it's significance to Mexican Jenny's story and to my book.  Now that I've told Jenny's story in words, I want to tell it in fiber. 

Project Round-Up

Between gardening, grading papers, and recovering from yet another cold, I finished knitting Different Breeze, which after blocking measures 6 x 74 inches.  Knitting the long color changes was fun, and the scarf is very stylish.  The blocking opened up the stitches very nicely.  I haven't decided whether to wear this myself, or save it for a future gift.

I did a bit of work on my butterfly quilt.  I finished cutting the triangles, and I'm slowly sewing borders on the butterfly blocks. The unsewn pieces take up my whole design wall, which is a flat queen sheet.  I even had to move the sewing machine table away from the wall to lay out blocks behind it.  Sewn together it will be considerably smaller, so  I'm starting to think about what kind of border will look nice on this quilt

I was one butterfly block short, and instead of making one more--something I really didn't want to do, I dug up four small applique blocks I bought some time ago in a thrift store.  I think they've finally found their true calling in this quilt.

And I spent a quiet Saturday morning crocheting up this throw rug from t-shirt yarn (the light blue) and strips of old sheets (light blue and tan).  This was an improvisational project: a simple single crochet stitch, I just added enough extra stitches in the corners to keep it flat.  Of all the rugs I've made, I've found knit and crocheted ones to be the most durable, and they're machine wash and dry.  This one will probably go to my daughter, who mentioned she needs some small rugs for her apartment.

Not bad work for a busy time of year.  Nonetheless, I'm looking forward to summer vacation from work.

Springtime Colors

Not much stitching going on here these days, but I'm slowly knitting this scarf, the free pattern is Different Breeze by Sachiko Uemura.

The yarn is a discontinued long color change single by Loops and Threads.

But if you want to see some real eye candy, here are the step-grands, smiling after their Easter egg hunt in our back yard. 

Butterflies

I've got the layout for my butterfly quilt.  This design is inspired by one I saw in Glenna Hailey's book Sugar Sack Quilts, which features more modern-looking design for vintage and reproduction fabrics.  I really wanted to minimize the white backgrounds in the applique blocks, and to add some primary colors to the pastels.  White and light-colored bed covers just don't fit in my cat-enriched life.

I'm cutting down the blocks and then bordering them with contrasting prints.

The butterfly blocks are 9.5" finished, and the sashing is 1" finished.  It's been fun to cut prints into large triangles by bisecting 16.75" blocks.  I had a stack of fat quarters, but sadly, a lot  of them were smaller than the 16.75" I needed.

...So I got to buy some half yards, which also will allow me to add more variation to the prints.  As soon as I can set aside more time, I'll finish the cutting and designing.

Two Looms are Better Than One.

I'd been thinking about adding a small loom to my tools for a long time.  My original loom, an Ashford Rigid Heddle loom, is 24" wide, the perfect width for towels and shawls.  You can make narrower projects on it too, though it's a pain to stretch across that frame if you don't need to.

I though about getting a Sampleit Loom, or a Cricket.  But I couldn't justify adding one more thing to the supplies I currently have.  Then, one day on Ravelry, someone posted a practically new used 10" Cricket for sale at a price I couldn't refuse.  It included all the heddles, 5, 8, 10 and 12 dpi, and lots of shuttles.  This smaller loom is easier to warp and it's perfect for scarves and for experimenting with warps and with fancy weaves I have yet to try.

So now I have the Cricket.  That's a sheet of paper inside the frame, so you can see the size.  To keep the karmic balance in my stash, and to make space in the Closet of Doom, I passed one of my old Singer sewing machines to a friend who needed one. 

This scarf, made with some fingering weight yarns, was a fast and easy getting-to-know-you project.  Now that I've given my back yard its Spring spruce up, I have fantasies of sitting out there and weaving with the Cricket.  

Wheel of Fortune (63 x 63)

What a relief to finally finish sewing this top.  The poor thing has been on my design wall in pieces for so long that some of the fabrics are starting to fade.  It needed a quick finish, and Spring break came just in time.

It's pressed and ready for quilting, which Debra (thanks Debra!) has volunteered to do.

I found this great flannel on clearance at JoAnn's for the backing.  I hadn't looked in awhile, so I was shocked to see that their quilter's fabrics are now $15.00 a yard.  Wowza.

I'm now turning my attention to these hand appliqued blocks that have been taking up space for a few years.  I've got a drawer full of 30s reproduction fabrics to go with them, and I think I've settled on a non-traditional setting design.  Another UFO may bite the dust.

Mondo Zig Zag Blanket (58 x 64")

 When you get a really bad cold, bad enough to stay in bed for a few days, you'll have time to work on you big crochet blanket.

The cats will cheer you on and keep you company while you do another row between coughs.

When the cold turns into bronchitis, you'll have time to crochet three or four rounds around the edges.  The cat will be so impressed.

 

When all's said and done, you'll have a nice blanket to lay with on the couch while binge watching episodes of Lark Rise to Candleford on Netflix.   

The free pattern is the Easy Ripple Afghan, and the yarn is vintage acrylic donated to me by my aunt.  I'm hoping that along with the antibiotics, it's a recipe for a cure.

The End of the Red Sweater Saga

I finished the red sweater, and I've been wearing it a lot.  It's very cozy and warm, and the pop of bright color is an added bonus.  It's amazing what I can accomplish when I practice project monogamy.

I wore my sweater several times on a recent conference trip to Seattle.  What a fun city.  It's been hard to come back to the old grind here at home. 

I will be popping in and out as things have gotten pretty busy at work.  I'm looking forward to the end of the term, when I hope to have more free time. 

Sweater Update

With a few missteps (like having to re-knit the end of one sleeve because it was too short) I've made good progress with my sweater.  I've re-engineered the pattern, so I wasn't exactly sure that knitting the front bands separately and sewing them on would give me the results I wanted, but it worked perfectly.

I've got both sleeves and both front bands knitted up.  The bottom is still on the needles so I can add length and make this sweater reach at least the top of my thighs, if not longer.  I tried it on, and it looks great.  I think I will be able to finish this one soon.

Ravellenic Games

Every time there are Olympic games, the knitting site Ravelry has the Ravellenics: a sort of knitting competition with teams, badges, and lots of hoopla.  The spirit of the thing is to challenge yourself with a project that is to be completed (more or less) during the time of the Olympic games.

My challenge is to finish this sweater.  I set it aside before the holidays to focus on other things, but now I'm hoping to finish it off in a couple of weeks.  Here's my project page.

When I started I needed sleeves, the front bands, and I'm going to use whatever yarn is left over to lengthen the body. 

At the end of day 4, I've got one sleeve done, and one on the needles.  I'm making pretty good progress.

Chevron on the Brain

There's something irresistible about chevron, and I'm afraid the trend will evaporate as quickly as it's started, but for the time being, in addition to my crocheted chevron afghan, I've cast on this little scarf.

It's an easy and repetitive pattern, the Wavy Lace Scarf, and self-striping sock yarn does the hard work.  I had picked up more than a few of these big balls at Tuesday Morning.

The new year sparked a bit of self-indulgent knitting after making mitts for the family for the holidays.  I finally found the perfect pattern for a ball of mohair yarn with a hint of shiny lurex that I brought back from Italy a couple of years ago.  The Melissa Scarf is an easy, fast and satisfying pattern (even though it has no chevrons).  It feels cozy around my neck in the cold wet weather that has finally blown in.

Mexican Jenny and Other Poems

My new book of poetry, Mexican Jenny and Other Poems, has recently been published by Anhinga Press.  The book was awarded the 2012 Philip Levine Prize.

The book features the story of a Colorado prostitute who in 1913 killed her abusive husband and then served time for murder.  Legend has it that while incarcerated Jenny made a crazy quilt from the clothes she had worn as as a sex worker.  The long narrative poem about Jenny addresses the question of what we can know about events of the past.

Mexican Jenny and Other Poems is available now from Anhinga Press and Amazon  The Ahninga page has a sample of the book and my artist’s statement for your perusal.  I feel a sense of accomplishment that I've found a way to fuse my textile work with my writing, and I'm very proud of this book.

In the interest of keeping it real, here's a new project:

 

57 inches wide, I'm crocheting this chevron afghan from a basket of complimentary stash yarns.  I'll keep going until it gets to hot and big for my lap.  I've still got a ways to go.

Ode to Socks

I'm happy to report I finished my socks.  I don't know how many years it took me to finish this pair, but I remember knitting the leg of sock one on the train from Nice to Florence when we went to Europe a couple of years ago.

I love these colors, and nothing beats the feeling of hand knit socks.  Finishing up a pair of socks reminds me of the poem "Ode to My Socks" by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda:

Mara Mori brought me
a pair of socks
which she knitted herself
with her sheepherder's hands,
two socks as soft as rabbits.
I slipped my feet into them
as if they were two cases
knitted with threads of twilight and goatskin,
Violent socks,
my feet were two fish made of wool,
two long sharks
sea blue, shot through
by one golden thread,
two immense blackbirds,
two cannons,
my feet were honored in this way
by these heavenly socks.
They were so handsome for the first time
my feet seemed to me unacceptable
like two decrepit firemen,
firemen unworthy of that woven fire,
of those glowing socks.

Nevertheless, I resisted the sharp temptation
to save them somewhere as schoolboys
keep fireflies,
as learned men collect
sacred texts,
I resisted the mad impulse to put them
in a golden cage and each day give them
birdseed and pieces of pink melon.
Like explorers in the jungle
who hand over the very rare green deer
to the spit and eat it with remorse,
I stretched out my feet and pulled on
the magnificent socks and then my shoes.

The moral of my ode is this:
beauty is twice beauty
and what is good is doubly good
when it is a matter of two socks
made of wool in winter.

There are so many striking images in this poem.  I think I'll borrow the image of "woven fire" as a nickname for my socks.  

Inspired, I've cast on another pair.  Although I have successfully used a variation of the Roza's Socks pattern several times to knit socks that fit me perfectly, I'm feeling adventurous, and trying a new pattern, Laura Linneman's After Thought Heel Socks.  I figure if they don't fit me, they'll fit someone, and bring them the pleasure of feeling their feet like"two fish made of wool."

2014 Goals

I'm not typically one to make new year's resolutions, but it seems efficient to have some creative goals for the year.

I want to finish the quilt that is taunting me from my design wall.  Quilts are slow going for me these days, so finishing this one will be an accomplishment. 

I want to make one smallish crazy quilt.  I have an idea and a plan, and will not start until summer.

I want to make a quilt for my bed.  Something sedate (unlike the one on my design wall) and tranquil.  It's possible I'll resurrect a UFO for this.

I will finish knitting the two sweaters I have on the needles.  The first one I'll tackle in February.

I'm going to knit myself more socks.  I love hand knit socks.  The pair above have been in process for years.  Over the weekend I picked up sock 1, which only needed the toe knit.  Since then, I've made substantial progress on sock 2: I turned the heel this morning.  If I set my mind to it, I could knit a pair of socks in a week or two.  I'm going to knit lots of socks this year.  For my next pair, I'm going to experiment with after-thought heels.

I think that's enough: a guideline for the new year, but nothing too rigid, with room or spontaneous projects and for some on-going charity stitching.  Wish me luck.

More UFOs

It seemed only fair to finish up some UFOs before I started to plan for projects for the new year.

This free shawl pattern Dream Stripes indulges my stripe fixation, though the pattern has a lace border, and I'm not a fan of lace, neither of knitting it nor wearing it.

I found a nice ribbed border in another free pattern Mizzle, which worked like a charm.  The yarn is some vintage Lion Brand worsted.

 

This other shawl, knit in fingering weight yarn that I recycled and koolaid dyed, proves my point about lace knitting.

Weekend Shawl has a substantial lace border made up of two separate patterns.  I'd done okay with the first, but the second was kind of a mess.

I was able to finish this shawl by ripping out the second lace pattern to a place where I hadn't made too many mistakes.

Done and Done!  Now I'm eyeing the unfinished quilt on my design wall.