Christmas in July.......

Aren't you ready to cool down during these hot summer days?  Wait no more--it's time for Christmas in July events--of course, you must do your sewing, knitting, weaving, spinning, stitching while you watch one of the Hallmark Christmas movies! 

and do you need a Christmas in July project?  Here are a few that might peek your interest:

Yes!  12 days of Christmas--check out the projects here!  Something for everyone!

A Christmas Stitch along from Days Filled With Joy

And Gingerbread Village Block of the Month

Something for the kids--Crafts!

We All Sew has a long list of sewing projects.

July is always a good time to begin knitting for those holiday celebrations:

July Christmas gives you a free pattern each week--

both knit and crochet

Cute little spaceman for first week.

There is really no excuse for idle hands during Christmas in July.

One Stitch At A Time

I was so excited when January 2019 rolled around--there was going

to be Knit Along with a Japanese pattern!  I loved doing the first one

I knitted.  Every other month a pattern would be released--which was

designed by Toni Lorenz 

I have my handspun fiber ready to take to the needles--

Then the first pattern was released--didn't look too difficult

I can do this--it was a ruffle!  I wrote about my ruffle in a previous

post--I didn't set the twist in my yarn so the ruffles leaned one way!

oh bother--take the yarn to set the twist so that put me back from

knitting.

Okay, yarn is set and I'm ready--got the ruffle knitted--looks great! 

Onward to knit the ruffle--then whoa!  I looked through the rest of

the pattern and thought....

There are several charts--A-B-C--gee whiz!  can I do this?!!

Tried to read the charts from the printed papers--that didn't work--

I couldn't see those small bits!  Even tried to enlarge them on the

printer--that didn't work either--

Put off knitting for a while--can we say five months--

yep--put it off till I finally found a knit companion on my tablet

that would enlarge the charts--now, I could see the symbols--

doesn't mean I could keep my mind straight about what this and

that symbol meant--

But--

We're knitting!!

One stitch at a time!  

If you see a mistake--I'm sure there are some--just

overlook them please!

Group Project

I'm following through on our Expatchers group project.

It was suggested at one of our gatherings we should

try to do something together--

decision--make Pat Sloan's Out of the World

monthly quilt blocks.

Couple of the gals are using patriotic fabrics,

Judy is using sheep prints--I decided I needed

a summer quilt for decoration--

hence--sunflowers!

This is the first block

There are four of these blocks which will be the corners of

the setting

I needed more sunflowers in the corners so I cut out some

iron on ones--might add extras to the block later

Another block--you'd think you could find lots of

sunflower fabrics, but alot of these are pulled from

my stash

I like adding blue--nothing as refreshing as a

blue/yellow quilt

And why not add some green too--

This is July's block--I've not thought about the setting yet--

some of the gals are working on theirs as they make their monthly

blocks

Pedal to the Treadle..............

Today is the sixth day into Tour de Fleece--
I have made some progress--not as much as I would like--

taking time to spin can sometimes be a 'chore'--

It should be a pleasure instead-to sit down at the

wheel and make fibers appear into yarn; have my

favorite glass of lemonade, a bit of music of 

a good movie; pull up the wheel and go to town.

I found this fiber in my stash--it's cashmere, weighing

in at 4.7 ounces--I know who I bought it from and when,

definitely well aged!  It has been processed into a pencil

roving--easy to spin that's for sure!

I spun one bobbin and quit--dull, boring, lacking

color--my spinning sense went out the window!

looked for some color to brighten my hands and

wheel

Found this bag of BFF (Blue Faced Leicester) that I

bought at Spin-in one year from Carol at River's Edge--

let's have a go with this colorful bundle--

I stripped it lengthwise and found I was getting muddy mixture--

I pulled out large sections of green--will spin those at later time.

Then I just took out one section of color at a time--

--like that better.

Then I read this article  from Knitty about spinning

combination and combo--interesting!!

July Agatha Read

The Murder on the Links--

I actually have this book!  It was the second one she wrote--I

ordered several of her first books thinking I would read them in order-

that flew out the window in a hurry!!

Doesn't matter if I have the print book--I'll look for a video or audio that

I can knit to as I watch!

When I looked for patterns pertaining to links, golf, etc.

ones that popped up were mostly golf club covers--

hubby already has his special covers--so

I won't waste my time.

Then, if you read further in this book--you find that Poirot is

in France--ooh laa!  I can knit something French related

I found this darling baby cap--so quick to knit and so

useful for a baby gift

"French Braid" from Sarah Lou Knits--isn't it darling?! 

Stash Buster!

Last night I pulled out one of my knitting bags to see

what it contained--okay--let's finish knitting this scarf--

after all there was only about four rows that needed to be 

added before running out of yarn.

There were several of these balls left from an early 2018 project--

There were just small bits from each ball so I used each one

in this scarf--it made an interesting accessory and finished

the stash of fuzzy yarns

It's a Party Lace scarf--easy to knit--although I would

forget the pattern at times--this will go in the charity bag

for our "Helping Hands" theme for 2020 January spin-in.

Time Again--To Spin Those Wheels--

While Tour de France is beginning their first leg of the multi day race on their fancy

bikes--we spinners are oiling our fancy spinning wheels--

From July 6 through July 28, we'll be spinning miles and miles of

yarn--some of us will join groups; some will spin independently--

read the 'official' guidelines of Spinfoolish here--join their group for inspiring daily emails--

There is no special amount you need to spin--you don't need to measure

what you've spun--you can skip days--this is a personal challenge --

 first of all--have Fun!

• Spin every day the tour rides (if you can)--our tour is 23 days long, includes 2 rest days
• Spin something challenging on the challenge days
• Wear yellow on the final day to announce victory
• Sign up for this group to receive emails each day to encourage you, educate you--most of all have fun!  Don't compare yourself to others on the team--you are unique!
• Ready, set, spin!!