A Little Yarn On The Side

What happened to the blog updates?  Well, I am dog & house sitting for friends, and in order to get ready for that, I spent Friday running errands and Saturday making salsa.  Then I wasn't here for 24 hours before one of the dogs chewed up my laptop cord, so as soon as my battery ran out, my laptop was done.  Andy ended up loaning me his cord until we can order a new one from Dell, so here I am.  Or at least as long as Andy's old laptop holds out. However, there has finally been some knitting, and the Sunshine Socks are done!!!!!!  They would be project 61, so 39 left to go and 117 days left to get there.  Theoretically, the part for Jeeves should have been shipped 13 days ago, and IF they couldn't find an even slower method of shipment than predicted, and IF the repair guy works this week and IF they bother to call me when Jeeves is actually ready and IF they actually fix the existing problems without creating any new ones, I could be embroidering i...

It's the first of September, and my totals for the year stand thus (don't you just love it when you can use an obscure old word like "thus?"): Finished projects:  60 Total skeins of yarn used:  39.1 Total yards of yarn used:  8673.5 Total yards of fabric used:  63.69 With 4 months to go, I need 40 projects, and I'm really hoping to hit 100 yards of fabric used for the year.  I would have sworn I have used up more than 39 skeins of yarn, but as there has been a lot of lace happening, that probably makes sense.  BUT..... could I at least reach 50 by the end of the year???????? And what am I doing working on a quilt????????????

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...