A Little Yarn On The Side

A LOT of progress.  With a sidekick who is still not quite sure if he likes Bernie, I finished the last block for the Christmas quilt, sewed all the blocks together, added a small border, then swept the floor downstairs so I could do this I'm sure other people have different ways of doing this, but taping the backing onto the floor and then pinning everything onto it is the only way I don't get massive puckers in the back of the quilt.  In the future, if I were to use this quilt design again, I would make even numbers of blocks for each row--that way all the edges would end with the same color.  But, I think this is going to be a nice size, and I am STILL hoping to finish it for a Christmas gift (I know--I could have brighter ideas during the 100-projects year), so I'm going to live with it as it is.  The backing is massive because I first had tried putting together a back piece that was only slightly bigger than the quilt top....and discovered after washing it,...

Really, what is the world coming to? I have taken a bit of a break on the sewing marathon to give the sock a bit of attention, and I have turned the heel!  It's a really interesting heel It's a basket weave pattern, using the slip 1, knit 1 pattern I usually use on heel flaps, but making a 4-row pattern of it, moving the slip 1 over by one stitch on the 3rd row, then back again on row 1.  I'm really pleased with it--it gives the thickness of the slip 1, knit 1 pattern, but looks more interesting.  I've done the gusset decreases & am now just at the foot knitting, so I'm hoping that moves pretty quickly.  I have a whole second sock to do, after all...... Not that I've taken a break from sewing entirely.  I decided to take a break from garment sewing, so I played around with my first attempt at applique.  I was pleased to find that there is actually something good about all those darn reply cards packed into every magazine, they make decent pat...

Last night we were meeting a friend for dinner at 7:30, so I was sewing like a madwoman to finish this which is the FIFTH paisley piece from this pattern.  I've made the dress (above), pants (complete with Joanns logo,  so they are now known as "house pants" and will eventually be joined by another pair of pants that won't be advertising anybody on my hips), jacket, tunic, and sleeveless top--which looks exactly like the tunic but shorter and without the sash.  Later I'll add a black jacket of some sort and maybe some sort of black tunic, and will have a pretty complete ensemble , provided I don't get sick of paisley.  The vintage pattern is done as well, though I seem to have messed up the closures and need to figure out a way to close the piece that wraps around the back without the loop that I thought was to go on the front.  I'm thinking snaps, but I was so annoyed when I discovered my mistake that the dress is currently in the Project Protecti...

Bernie and I are taking a break from our mad sewing marathon to give you an update: We have finished SIX projects together so far! Eat?  Sleep?  What???????????? Just a little over 4 months left in the year and 40 projects left to go!!!!!!!!! (And the weather is lovely here in Crazyland........just in case you were wondering.......)

Meet Bernie!  I tried finding a used one, but the used Berninas were going for more than I wanted to pay for a used machine, so yesterday I mustered up my courage and bank account, and bought this--which technically solves my stash problems too, because now I don't have any money to spend on yarn or fabric anyway...... It's a purely mechanical machine, and this is the one that home ec and theater classes used, so I figure if it can withstand teenagers, it will work for me for the next 40 years.  And even when I eventually DO get Jeeves back, it will be a good idea to have a heavier machine for bigger sewing projects since Jeeves has more things to go wrong. Speaking of Jeeves, I called and left a message at my Husqvarna dealer yesterday before setting out to run errands and pick up Bernie ........and no one has called me back yet--more than 24 hours later.  I think I would have gotten Bernie even if Jeeves had been ready to be picked up yesterday, but the poor servic...

There are 137 days left in the year. I need to finish 46 more projects in order to reach my goal. That means I need to do slightly better than a project every 3 days for the rest of the year.  And I'll be starting on that right after I get some oxygen............

I have less than half of the edging left to do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  YAY! (And tomorrow will be the 6-week mark of Jeeves's second trip in to the dealer, and of course no word yet. I wonder if I even have 50-50 odds of getting him back by the end of August?)

I learned a LOT yesterday.  Some of it quite by accident--probably most--but all rather helpful: *  Used sewing machines, while being everywhere when one doesn't want them, are nowhere to be found when one does *  Even a shop that built up a long reputation on being able to service old sewing machines can be sold, and the new owners might decide to sell new machines only, even though presumably they paid for a reputation regarding repairs that they are quickly losing *  Ebay really does have everything *  Browsing Ebay is a great way to lose 2-3 hours of one's life *  After a couple hours of browsing on Ebay, I have an insane urge to learn to make Fedora hats.   *  Bidding on used sewing machines is rather exciting, though the idea that I could win an auction, pay for it, and have a machine shipped to me possibly before I get my own sewing machine back is pretty amazing.   We'll see. *  Even though I'm bidding on an i...

It's official.  I am OBSESSED. I have now done 9 pattern repeats on the edging, so if we ignore the whole grafting-yet-to-come part, I am 28% of the way through the edging.  Whoo hoo!!!!!!!! I admit, I have become obsessed about seeing how this turns out.  I'm now far enough along that I can sort of stretch it out a bit over the ironing board, but the part I'm most curious to see is this I tried blending two designs over the last increase section, and I am hoping they'll blend fairly smoothly when blocked.  Pi shawls do take some severe blocking because of the way the increases work, so this may or may not work well when stretched, but I will find out soon! And tomorrow is Finishing Friday, and STILL no word from Jeeves, and unfortunately I just saw someone on the Husqvarna Facebook "fan" page post that she had been told a MINIMUM of 6 weeks to get a part for her machine as well, and hers is brand new and still in production.  So....it looks like it is...

Actually, I'm on the edging.... but as today marks 5 weeks since I took Jeeves in to be fixed for the second time , the first one may be pretty accurate as well. I'm using an 18-row edging pattern, so I'll need 32 pattern repeats total, which leaves 30 left to do.  That sounds SO much better than saying I have 1152 rows of edging to do total--of which I have done heartbreakingly few....There are times when being ABLE to do math and it being a good ideaI to do math are just not the same thing........

Okay, I admit, I'm getting a little bit cheesed at Husqvarna in general and my local dealer in particular.  Tuesday will be 5 weeks without Jeeves, and I have no idea if the part has shipped or if it's still on back order.  So, I decided to do something different on Friday, so I went out to lunch and to my favorite used bookstore. These were $2 each, and have some clever ideas--along with some seriously outdated pictures, but for $2, who can be picky? And.... I cast on the yellow socks!  I am using the Ribbed Lace pattern from Sensational Socks, and so far I love the pattern.  It's actually a k1, p1 rib-based pattern, so I have high hopes for socks that will actually stay up , which none of my knitted socks really do.....except for that pair that cuts off circulation just a bit, but I think one pair of tourniquet socks is enough for anyone..... Someone is refusing to hang out with me at all..... If there isn't sewing soon, I may have to relinquish my status a...

I'm glad I'm finally learning to work the serger, but it's still very foreign and hard to do--and I may never recover from the "blind hem episode"--so I felt like spending a day with yarn.  It's friendlier, never cuts or grabs anything, and never requires such a thing as a blind hem.  But I needed a break from the lace shawl, so Some friends gave me a dye kit and this yarn back in March, but I've been a bit nervous to try it because I was afraid of messing up the yarn somehow, but since I still can't do any sewing I decided to give it a shot yesterday.  Since the yarn is gift yarn, I wanted to make something for myself with it, and decided that I wanted a pair of yellow socks and a pair of red socks.  I started with the yellow, thinking it might be easiest to fix if I messed it up, but this was actually pretty simple.  The instructions say to simmer on the stove for 30 minutes or until the water is clear, which for me took a bit longer, but it did...

As of tomorrow, Jeeves will be at the dealership for an entire month, NOT counting the original 2 weeks before he came back with less working than when I took him in.  I have no idea when I might get him back, though I admit I am hoping I might have him back (and fully working) by the end of August, though I am trying not to depend on it.  Which creates a problem for the August Project of the Month.  It can't be a sewing project as I may not have a sewing machine this month, and starting another knitting project would just delay all the other knitting projects which seems counter-productive when I'm trying to reach 100 finished projects this year.  So, I'm hoping I can learn enough about the serger to make an entire project on it.  Granted, I've done napkins completely on the serger, but we have more napkins than we know what to do with--I just can't think of any additional napkin options.  So, for right now, there isn't an August Project of the Month. I ...