A Glutton for Punishment!

Yes, I'm certainly one of those people who think they can knit lots of things at the same time--no matter there are several UFO's in my knitting bags--BUT--along comes two mystery knit alongs--and I'm hooked!

The first one is FLG mystery--from Elizabeth Ravenwood--The knit version is Royal Skillmistress Gauntlets--you can find on Ravelry, of course--look under Fingerless Mitts to get started.

For the crocheter--you have Tea Party Make along--Wish I 

liked to crochet--bet I don't!

I had these two rather plain yarns in my stash--I promised

myself I wouldn't buy any more yarn--I can always

dye them after completed.

The other mystery is a sock mystery!

I haven't done socks for awhile--here I come!

This yarn will work nicely for that pair of socks!

So Far Behind and IN No Hurry........

I wrote about the Japanese pattern scarf we were

knitting--well, I'm trying to knit--I'm so far behind but I'm in no hurry--

Add a bead--usually no problem when I have my

handy dandy little crochet hooks--couldn't find them--

must be in another bag that's hiding for the time being.

So-----how do you add a bead without a hook?

Always have dental floss on hand--

take a long piece of floss, 

place bead, pull one end of floss through the knit loop

double back though the bead and pop that little

sucker right on the stitch!

I can't find my cable needle either--darn--now what?

wait, I have toothpicks--not so smooth but can

always find toothpicks!

onward we go..................

Jelly Rolls................................

-- "A bear walks into a bar and says to the bartender, "I'll have a pint of beer and a ......................packet of peanuts."
The bartender asks, "Why the big Pause?"    I'll wait while you get the punchline!

Here's another one:  A nose walks into a bar and asks for a drink.  The bartender says,
"sorry, I can't serve you.  You're already off your face." HA! HA!

Why did the Jelly Roll? because he saw the apple turnover!!!

Now, to the point of this post--I sometimes have these jelly rolls--no, not the kind you eat, but fabric rolls--and they are called Jelly Rolls!  

Here is a jelly roll--which is 2.5" strips cut the width of the fabric--

you will get 45-2.5" strips in each roll--

I've never had much luck in using these rolls--I usually end up

cutting them up into small pieces for blocks.

Then I found this 

in my stash--batik strips--looks like I began something and walked away--

another one of those UFOs--

Several of the strips are sewn together--and look there is

the pattern

I know I said no more quilts--in my defense, this one

is already started (sort of!).

Today while I wait on a repairman--I'll tackle this--

looks easy--not much attention is needed to iron strips

and cut into 4.5" lengths--

see you soon with a completed top---

I hope!!

Here it is on my design board--looks good so far.

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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!!