Saturday, January 28, 2012

It's Me Again!

I've had a string of busy weeks, today I'll be cooking for a family birthday dinner tomorrow. I'm making a fajita bar, which will have 3 kinds of meat with sauteed mushrooms and onions, peppers, beer battered onion rings, 2 side salads, and dessert. I'll do as much as possible today to minimize time in the kitchen tomorrow and maximize time with the family!

No day is complete without some needlework, though, and even on my busiest days I can usually find a few minutes somewhere. My current project is a quilting job and I hope to be on the borders later today in spite of all the time I'll need in the kitchen. One more simple block after the one in the hoop and I'll be on the borders, there are three.




Knitting is here to stay and I'm really happy about that. While quilting has been my obssession for the last 20 years, and still is to a large extent, the ease of making quick gifts has brought knitting back out of hiding. This is the color of the next pair of socks I'll have on my needles.


This picture was taken the evening of Ruthie's birthday dinner day back in November, she's sporting new jammies, a new hat and shoes and posing with her new dolly.

My cooking day is well under way, the roast chicken is about to come out of the oven, pasta salad is made, meat is sliced and ready for cooking, and the vegetables are cut and ready to cook as well. All that is left is to make the cake, which will go in the oven when the chicken comes out. I didn't expect to be so far along at noon, and am looking forward to spending the rest of my day quilting and sprucing up the house.

Happy Quilting!
Sue

Thursday, January 26, 2012

I'm Back....

and hopefully can keep up with plan B.

I got myself in a rut with this blog, not updating for too long then having so much to say that it took forever to do.

So I'll be trying to do short little updates every 2-3 days in hopes of keeping up...and keeping motivated.

Today's post would fit better on a blog called "Knitting Chatter." For the first time in many years, I didn't quilt a thing for Christmas. I did sew a few bags, but other than those, I knitted.

I started knitting at 10 years old, making mostly purses/bags for a long time. Whenever I had new yarn on the needles, my Dad would ask me what I was making, knowing full well it was a purse...it's all I knew how to make! I didn't follow patterns in those days, but made bags of all sizes, long handled and short, until I felt ready to learn to read a pattern.

From there, I went on to blankets and sweaters and that launched me into all sorts of needlework. Once I picked up a quilting needle, though, most of those other things went by the wayside.

For the first time in many years, I didn't do any quilting. I did do a bit of sewing, making several of these bags in different fabrics, a few for myself and some for gifts. They have a really long handle, which can be knotted up to be shorter or worn cross body. They are small, big enough to hold a few essentials needed close at hand.

I was inspired to pick up knitting needles by some online friends, starting with a couple of easy cowl scarves. Rachel loves unusual accessories and I'd heard a lot of talk of fingerless gloves so searched for patterns. This is a really simple one, I made a few pair for gifts and a pair for myself.

I also tried my hand at some more involved patterns, I love these and Rachel does, too. Several other pairs of wristwarmers also got knitted for gifts and my foray back into knitting had my mind racing. In the past, everything I made was big, these smaller things are quick and fun to knit and had me looking for more.

I have various pairs of knitting needles around, but hardly any double pointed ones. I made do with what I had, but talk of sock making, along with other projects, had me searching for sets of them. I found this online and Mike bought it for me for Christmas, it has 14 sets of various sizes of double pointed needles, which really open up the possibilities.


With leftover yarn from a wristwarmer and scarf set, I made these little socks for Ruthie. I was hooked.


I bought sock yarn and made this pair for me. They are slightly too big, so I may save them for my son's girlfriend for Christmas next year.



I found an easy hat pattern, Lucas was in need of one, so I asked him what colors he wanted. Ruthie was NOT happy when that hat wasn't for her, so she got one out of leftover fingerless glove yarn.


Currently on my needles is another pair for me, this one is made from baby yarn and the first one is made.  It fits perfectly so sock number two is well under way. I've been buying skeins of yarn here and there for various things and will probably be doing nearly as much knitting as quilting for a while. More about that in later posts!

 No post is complete without a Ruthie picture. She got that Santa hat from a nice woman at church who knows she loves hats. She tried it on her new birthday dolly as soon as she got it home.

 There is so much more going on here, but that will wait for another day. Though this post was all about knitting, I have a quilt I'm hoping to finish by next Tuesday so I'd better get to it!

Happy Quilting...and other pastimes!
Sue