Slow Sunday Stitching

 The good thing about slow stitching is that it is slow and relaxing. The bad thing about slow stitching is that it is slow and progress from week to week can be difficult to see. I picked up my Peppermint Purple blackwork stitch along and am two weeks from being caught up. I love the looks of this and it will look fabulous framed and on my wall so I want to stick to it. Each week on Wednesday there is a new square or rectangle released. My plan from here on is to try and get it done each Wednesday rather than fall behind again. For the next two weeks I will do the new release and one of the squares from October. 

I am mostly concentrating on knitting this Anisia Sweater. 

It is a very challenging knit requiring quite a lot of concentration. I am enjoying the challenge, but at the same time I am looking forward to finishing the yoke and separating off the sleeves and doing some fast and easy stockinette stitch. According to the sweater pattern, part of the yoke design continues down the sleeves. I will decide when I get to the sleeves whether or not I will do that.

I have joined a small group of ladies up here in Muskoka who are forming a Prayers and Squares group. Thank you to Carol, who reads my blog and saw that we had moved here and suggested my name to them. It’s a small group and given my introverted nature, that is a good thing. They meet in a church which is a 30 minute drive from home here. What a glorious and beautiful drive it is too! Although I may change my mind about that should I end up caught in a snow squall sometime this winter. I took a couple of boxes of fabric with me last Monday, leftovers from my fussy cutting obsession from 5 or 6 years ago. The ladies had a grand time teasing me about turning perfectly good fabric into swiss cheese. I had a great time laughing along with them. I am looking forward to seeing those fabrics get new life into new quilts rather than being stuck in  boxes.

I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

Slow Stitching

 I’ve been feeling a bit better this week and so have been able to get more accomplished. I finished the stitching on the fourth Noah’s Journey block just in time for the new one to come out. Here’s the fourth, 
kangaroos and monkeys. The fifth has a couple of moose, perfect for Canada, and some hippos one of which is delightfully pink polka dotted.

I’ve also made progress on my The Night Forest sweater. I’m up to five inches done on the body which makes it much easier to get a picture of the colour work around the yoke. I need to do 4 1/2 more inches on the body and then there is more colour work to do before the final ribbing around the bottom.

It’s a lovely sun shiny day with cold blue skies. So I am going to spend the rest of the day resting and stitching by the window enjoying the light. I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

Slow Stitching

 There hasn’t been a whole lot of anything happening in the stitching department in the last week or so. I’m in the middle of my annual November fibromyalgia flare up. It seems to always happen at this time of year. Probably a combination of the time change from daylight savings back to regular time and the resulting lack of day light. Add to that seemingly endless days of overcast grey clouds and here we are. So energy for doing anything other than watching stuff on TV or computer is sorely lacking. 

At some point I did get the colour work on the yoke of my The Night Forest sweater designed by Casapinka finished and the sleeves divided off. But nothing has been done on that since. 

I also got a little more done on the Noah’s Journey camels block. But again, that has stalled too. All that’s left to do is the ribbon on the camel’s hat, the monkeys and a little bit of grass.

Oh yes, I also made myself a new winter hat. I had some Aran weight 100% wool in a couple of complementary colours. Enough to do a hat and a pair of mittens. I really feel the cold, especially in my fingers, so I think I am going to do a pair of thrummed mitts. I already have the roving here, purchased years ago and discovered while cleaning out my yarn boxes.

I’m going to link up  to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

Slow Stitching

 How did another Sunday come around so fast? It seems like each week goes by faster and faster. It’s the middle of November already. Didn’t we just start the summer a week or two ago? It’s quite disconcerting how fast our days go by. It’s good to have these blogs to keep track of just what happens from week to week and see what is accomplished. I got the fourth of the Noah’s Journey blocks all coloured and the stitching started. 

I’ve also done some more on my The Night Forest sweater. The colour work for the yoke is almost finished. Six more rounds to do and then I’ll be able to separate off the sleeves at which point it will go faster. 

I’m planning on changing the colour of thread in my sewing machine to white so I can sew up the seams for Abbie’s Paw Patrol sweater. Then I’ll be able to pick up the stitches for the zipper band and do the duplicate stitches for the Skye picture on the front of the sweater. I really do have to get that done before she grows out of it.

So with that in mind, I’ll post this and link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and then get at the sewing machine.

Slow Stitching

 I gave in this past week and started a new sweater. Is anyone surprised? Somehow I doubt it. And no, I haven’t finished Abbie’s Paw Patrol sweater. I did get the shoulder seams sewn, if that counts as progress. After I did that I tried it on her and it seems to be long enough, so I can go ahead and get the rest of the seams sewn. Then I need to pick up stitches to do a button band and also do the duplicate stitches for the figure of Skye that she wants. I think I need to start alternating projects again so that it will get finished. I’m also going to try and sew the side seams and the arm seams using the stretch stitch and walking foot on my sewing machine. 

So the sweater I started is by the designer Casapinka and it is called The Night Forest. I am totally enjoying this one. I love doing colour work like this.

I’ve also finished up the 3 little stitcheries for the third month of the BOM Noah’s Journey, just in time for the release of this month’s pattern. I traced out this month’s release on Saturday and got a start on the colouring. Another day should finish that portion of the process. 

Not much else to tell about what’s happening here. I’ll post this and link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

Slow Stitching

 First off I want to wish everyone in Canada who may be celebrating thanksgiving this weekend a very happy and safe one. We have scaled way back and are only meeing with the people here in the house. I am continually thankful for our happy multi generation household here. 

I have 2 slow finishes this week. I participated in Casapinka’s mystery knit along that began a couple of months ago now. It had 6 sections of clues all written from the perspective of one of her cats, named Sharon. It was so much fun to do, not only because of the wide variety of stitches but also because of the way it was written. It’s hard to tell the size of it from the picture. It blocked out to 20 inches wide by about 72 inches long. Wide enough and long enough to make a nice shoulder wrap type shawl.

The second finish is the second block of the Noah’s Journey BOM by Crabapple Hill. The third block has been released. I have it all coloured and the colour fixative applied. It is drying now before it gets heat set and I can start stitching on it.

In the meantime I started a new embroidery project since I know the smaller ones from the Noah’s Journey BOM will only take a week or two. I am on a quest to make myself some seasonal pillows. I have one for spring/summer and one for Christmas so I decided I needed one for fall. Actually, I should clarify that statement to say that those stitcheries are finished. The actual pillows have yet to be constructed out of them. I found a lovely colouring page that I transferred over to fabric and then coloured in. I’ve started the outline stitching. The apples, pear and peach are finished.

I’m also working on a little Paw Patrol sweater for our grand daughter, found here on Ravelry. It’s still in pieces so there isn’t much to take a picture of as yet. And if that isn’t enough, I indulged and bought myself some more yarn. I love Casapinka’s designs and while working on the mystery found another sweater design of hers that I fell for. It’s called The Night Forest. These are the colours I’ve chosen. Close but not exactly the same as the designer’s.  I love the dark purple. I’ve done the tension swatch but past that I have promised myself that I will get Abbie’s sweater done first. So with that in mind, I will post this, link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and then get back to working on Abbie’s sweater.

Slow Sunday Stitching

My new yarn for my Grenadine sweater arrived this past week and I immediately wound it into a cake and got to using it. I love the transition from the multicoloured to the red.



I am two rounds away from casting off the body of the sweater and beginning the sleeves. I’m not sure whether I’ll work on the sweater more this afternoon or get back to machine piecing a quilt. I’ll decide after posting this.

I got as far as pulling out one of my hand pieced quilts this past week. I spread it out and looked at it and pondered what next needed doing and that was as far as I got. I seem to have lost my hand sewing mojo. I’m sure it will come back and so I will wait until then rather than forcing it and ending up with results I don’t like.

I don’t really have anything else to post about today, so I’ll go ahead and link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

Slow Sunday Stitching

What’s a girl to do while staying home, not going anywhere or even venturing outside because it’s too cold and damp....... knit of course. Consequently I’ve gotten lots done on my Open Skies sweater. Here’s the front.



And the back.



 I love the lace and moss stitch on the back. It’s one of the things that attracted me to this particular pattern.

My new yarns arrived this week and with the exception of one skein, they all work together. I now have four blues that work together.
And three yellows that work together. Three skeins will do a sweater so I’m good with that. And I think I may have a little bit of yarn left from another project that might work with the yellows to stretch it a bit further. Of course, the other option, now that I have the yarns in my possession to see the colours would be to order one that I know would go. I’ll decide later.
In the meantime, I’ll post this, link to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and then go get some lunch,

Slow Sunday Stitching

As life goes slowly forward while we all keep our distance from one another in order to keep each other safe, those of us with stitching hobbies are keeping ourselves happily occupied.

I finished my Loeanneth sweater last week.



 It has yet to get all the ends sewn in. I am saving that chore for when I can be outside in the warm sunshine. In the meantime I wound up the new yarn that I bought last week and started a new sweater. This one is called Open Skies. The pattern so far has been enough of a challenge that it requires concentration, which is good thing as it keeps my brain focused on something other than what is going on in the world around us. The neck line had a different stitch to it. Most ribbed necks are a knit 2 purl 2 stitch. This one was a knit 4 through the back loop then purl 4. Knitting through the back loop on freshly cast on stitches is not for the faint of heart.



 But it resulted in a very pretty ribbing. There is lace at the front and back of the neckline, which is also very pretty.



Like most people who are avid stitchers of any kind, I am always thinking at least one or two projects ahead of the one I am currently working on. Back at the beginning of the year I took advantage of a discontinued colours sale of Mad Tosh Vintage sock yarns at Eat Sleep Knit. This was before our dollar tanked in comparison to the US dollar. I had in mind to make some more fade type sweaters, so I ordered single skeins of yarn in colours that I thought would work together. One of the sets works quite well going from light to darks with shades of pinks and greys.



But this second  set does not work together well at all. And of course I can't have yarn sitting here that I can’t use because the colours don’t work together, can I? Go ahead, agree with me please......  thank you! So on Friday I went searching for a local store that carries this particular brand of yarn. None in our area carry it.  So I then went searching for a Canadian online store that carries it. I found one in Toronto called Eweknit that had a really good selection of this brand of yarn. I’ve ordered 4 colours that I hope will work with the yarns I already have. Two of the new ones are blue based and the other are yellow based. I will know more when they arrive.

So now that I’ve rambled on long enough, I think I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and check out what all the other slow stitchers are up to.

Slow Sunday Stitching

Another week staying put at home means lots of time for sewing and knitting. I have finished the
body of the Loeanneth Sweater.

 I have weighed the ball of Royal blue yarn. It came in at 38 grams, which means I can use 19 grams per sleeve before I have to make a decision about what else to do with the sleeves. When I was working on the body of the sweater, I did some math and I figured out that I can get 210 stitches out of a gram of yarn. So, going by that I can get 2 1/2 rows on the sleeves per gram of yarn. Given that each row has 84 stitches, I should be able to get 47 1/2 rows out of the 19 grams. That gives me about 7 inches worth of sleeve, which on me is elbow length. So I will have to do something using another colour again.... perhaps just a strip of the light blue before changing to the denim, rather than adding colour work to the sleeves. I don’t know yet. However, given that the sleeves will work up faster than the body of the sweater,  I will probably have made a decision and have it ready to show by this time next week.
In the meantime, I’m going to take Kathy’s advice. I’m going to link to her Slow Sunday Stitching and then read through the other posts to see what everyone else is up to in Slow Sunday Stitching land.

Slow Sunday Stitching

When I left off last week I was working on my Loeanneth sweater and wondering what I was going to do about the fact that I wasn’t going to have enough of the royal blue to finish the sweater. I looked around to see if any of the local yarn stores sold this type of yarn, which is Cascade Heritage Sock, but they don’t. Then I looked at Canadian online yarn sources to see if they had this type yarn. Some of them did, but not the right colour. With the Canadian dollar tanking the way it has, ordering in from the States was not an option. So I had to get creative with what I have here. I looked at the colour work chart that was done in the yoke to see if there was a section of it that could be adapted to do a colour transition from the royal blue in the main body over to a denim blue. There was a section that looked like it would work so I tried it. And it worked. The royal blue is at the top and the denim blue at the bottom.



It looks like it belongs and was supposed to be this way. It would have looked better if I could have incorporated some of the white into it, but I’m running low on that as well. I’ll continue on with the denim blue for another couple of inches before the hem colour work section.



I’m not sure if I’ll have to do the same thing for the sleeves as well. I’ll figure that out when I get there.
I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

Slow Sunday Stitching

My slow stitching continues to be done with two needles attached with a cord. I’ve gotten past the colour work chart on my Loeanneth Sweater and will shortly be dividing off for the sleeves.



I might have to get creative with the colours this one. I am going to run out of the royal blue before I run out of sweater to work on. I can either order more yarn and hope that the different dye lots don’t make too much of a difference. Or I can introduce a different design element to use a different colour. Maybe even make up my own colour work chart to transition from one to another. I have a fun skein of denim blue and an almost full skein of navy blue. I suspect I’ll try the easy way first and order more of the royal blue and hope it matches.

I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching. We may not be able to visit and stitch and sew and knit in person, but we can keep each other virtual company and share what we are doing. As long as there is yarn to knit and fabric and thread to sew, we’ll never be bored.

Slow Sunday Stitching

I started a new sweater this past week. It’s a design by Cheryl Crow called Loeanneth. It initially caught my eye because of the colour work in it. But when it turned out o be named after a house in one of my  favourite books called The Lake House by Kate Morton, that decided it. I had to make it. I am halfway done the yoke colour work.



 I would have been even further than this except for the fact that I used the wrong colour. where the navy blue currently is. So I had to slowly reverse knit about 6 or seven rows back to where the navy blue starts. Maddening, but necessary and makes the slow stitching aspect go even slower when going backwards. I contemplated leaving in the mistake, which was using the royal blue where the navy is, but decided that I wouldn’t be happy with it that way, hence the slowly going backwards.

I am feeling the effects of the  time change today. I love having the extra hour of day light in the evening, but the change does nasty things to me and it usually takes a few days to get used to it. So today is going to be spent very low key, working on some more knitting and maybe spending some time at the sewing machine working on a new project that I started yesterday,  I’ll show more about that tomorrow. In the meantime, I’m linking up with Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

Slow Sunday stitching and other things

I’ve been missing in action for the last couple of weeks. I had a flare up up my blocked common bile duct which required another ERCP procedure. Basically that means they put a tube down the throat and thread it into where the bile duct is and they clear out the blockage. Unfortunately, one of the side effects/risks of this procedure is that the pancreas, which opens in the same spot os the bile duct, can get irritated. If it gets irritated it does all sorts of nasty things. Well, mine got irritated and it was nasty and led to 4 days in hospital on IV fluids and IV anti nausea meds that didn’t really work. That was 2 weeks ago and I’m still feeling the effects of it in decreased energy levels. But it’s getting better.

At the beginning of the year I came across a design for a temperature tracker quilt that I really liked. I’ve been tempted by the concept for quite some time, but haven’t liked any of the variations of designs enough to actually do one. This design is found on the blog Canuck Quilter designs in her post Temperature Tracker Quilt. After I saw that I went shopping for fabrics and found a wonderful Kona Fat Quarter bundle at Mad About Patchwork called Aviatrix in Summer which had enough colours in it to be able to get a gradation for the temperature quilt. I started the quilt last week and have the first three weeks of January done. I’m planning on doing the rest of this first month of the year today.

My slow stitching has been knitting on a sweater. It’s a pattern called Flat White by Casapinka. There are so many of her designs that I really like. All that’s left to do is the sleeves and they will go fast since it is made using  one of my favourite yarns, worsted weight Malabrigo Rios. The purple is the colour Sabuduria and the colour work part is Sand. If I keep going on this sweater without getting distracted by something else it will be my second knitting finish of the year. I finished a long cowl earlier in January but don’t have pictures of it yet.

I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

Slow Stitching Sunday

I did not take a single hand stitch in a quilt this past week. I have done some knitting. I found a pattern on Ravelry that I liked and I thought it would be good for some odd bits and bobs of sock yarn I have hanging around...... kinda like a scrap quilt, only knitting. Who knew I’d end up with the same leftovers/scrap problem in two different hobbies? The design is called All Points South and I thought it would be a fun thing to knit while I wait on my new yarns to be delivered.



It’s very difficult to get a decent picture of any knitting project while it is still on the needles. It should be lovely and warm and cosy under a winter coat once it’s done.
The biggest reason why I haven’t done any hand stitching this past week is because I’m trying very hard to get this Log Cabin quilt done, and it is all by machine. Our daughter and son in law were away last week, so I took advantage of the situation and set up in the glorious window they have in

their kitchen. Sewing in the natural light was a real treat. Up till then my sewing machine had been tucked away on a table in the furnace room. Not exactly a desirable place to go to spend any creative time. They are home now so I had to give up my sewing spot and have now set up in our living area where there is light rather than go back to the furnace room. Hopefully I can keep the mess under control so it doesn’t end up too disruptive. The centre of the log cabin quilt is done, as are the 4 corner squares for the outer border. 

I have 24 border blocks to do and then it is done. I’m really enjoying being back at the sewing machine. I think I am going to have to go exploring into some older projects once this one is done and see if there are some that might want to get finished.
I’m linking to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

Slow Sunday Stitching

I have a slow stitching, or make that slow knitting, finish this week The pattern is called Canyon Road. I have fallen in love with this persons patterns and have happily fallen into the rabbit hole of colour work sweaters. 

 It still needs to be blocked. After it is blocked the lace and colour work around the yoke will be even prettier.

I have some yarn left from this one, but of course it wasn’t enough to do a full sweater so of course I had to order more yarn. And then after I ordered the yarn to make up the difference so I could make another sweater, I got a notification that I had reached a milestone and therefore had a $25.00 store credit. Which meant, you guessed it, I ordered yet more yarn. With the yarn I already have here and the yarn that is coming I figure I have enough to do 5 more sweaters. And that’s not counting all the leftovers from all the other projects. Yep, I’m building a whole second stash, with yarn instead of fabric.  

In between the knitting I’ve been working on my Hold Onto Your Heart design by Esther Aliu. I’m working on the houses and the foliage surrounding them. 

Her design for the houses had shutters by the windows. I’ve left those off and have instead added some lace trim inside the windows for curtains. I’m doing embroidery for the stems of the foliage rather than using bias fabric. This afternoons job is to prepare the leaves and get them glue basted in place. And maybe get some more of the stems done.

I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

Slow Stitching

I’ve pulled my Battle of the Stars found in Willyne Hammerstein’s Millefiori 3 book back out. I went over to Gail’s Thursday evening for a stitching evening and got a star surrounded by the navy pieces and then got to work on a couple more. One regular cut and another fussy cut. I think I have two more stars to do. Although they still need their navy setting pieces before it can start assembling around the centre.
I’ve also been doing some knitting. I found this pattern when looking for a project for Eat Sleep Knit’s 3rd quarter challenge which is to make something by a Canadian designer that was published before 2010. This pattern is called Sweet Spot and uses hand died yarn that has the potential to pool. The pattern caused a really unique and interesting stripe to form. I really like it. It will, some day, be big enough for a blanket or at least a small lap throw.
We are heading out today for a 5 day camping break. These projects are coming along with me. I hope to get lots of relaxing and stitching done.
I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

Connections progress

I haven’t done a Slow Sunday Stitching post in a couple of weeks since I wasn’t making a whole lot of progress and there wasn’t much change in any of my projects. But now I can show a section of the Connections quilt is finished. It measures about 22 inches square right now. I’m planning on working on it in sections this size and see where it goes and how big it gets. The scrappy squares were all gifted to me by friends at the London Friendship Quilters Guild. Here’s a close up of some of the fun squares.

I’ve also finished a sweater in the last week. It is one of the fade projects. It’s a pattern called Spectre by Joji Locatelli. I’ve made a few of her designs now and really like them.  Here’s a close up of the yarns and how they fade together. There are three different coloured yarns in here. I did 3/4 length sleeves on this project. First because I’m always pushing up my sweater sleeves and also because I was running short on the yarns and didn’t want to run out before the second sleeve was finished. I have another of this sweater pattern almost finished, that’s how much I liked it.
I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching before going back to making more Connections blocks.

Multiple stitching personality disorder

I really do need to stop adding in new stitching projects. I definitely have a disorder of some sort. Some call it “startitis” which fits. But so does the title of this post..... multiple stitching personality disorder. Why do you ask???? Because I’ve started yet another hand stitching project. In my touring around blog land I came across this post from Jenny of Elefantz. In it she mentioned a friend of hers named Allie and provided a link to Allie’s blog which took me here which was a post about the final block in her series called Grow in Grace. That then took me to Allie's facebook page which I requested to join because Allie provides free embroidery patterns there.  I printed the pattern today



and got started with the stitching. 

I’m also continuing to work on the class sample that I started last week. All the components are made and just need to be stitched together. Another day or two should finish it.



And finally the other thing I’ve been working on fairly steadily is my EatSleepKnit second quarter fade sweater. It’s a pattern from Joji Locatelli called Spector. The colours in the picture aren’t quite right. The fade from the one colour to the other is actually more gradual than it seems in the picture. I love this pattern!!



So, after I finish writing this I have a decision to make.... what shall I work on for the rest of the evening? I’ll be linking up with Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching in the morning.

Edit: Last night I decided to keep on with the embroidery for a while before picking the knitting up again. The planter is done and I can move on to the greenery now. I’d forgotten just how much I enjoy doing the embroidery. It was actually the very first stitching I learned as a child. I remember my Mum getting a scrap of fabric and drawing a house on it and teaching me how to do the stem stitch. I used to take my allowance and buy the heat transfer patterns from the dime store..... Kresges if I remember correctly.... along with floss and pillow cases. Then I’d sit on our old front porch in the summer and stitch away. For that matter, it was my Mum who taught me to knit and to sew. I don’t have a lot of pleasant childhood memories, so these are precious. Does anyone else remember Kresges? They used to have the best hamburgers and cokes at the lunch counters.