You Might Want to Sit Down for This One ...

Because in this post, I am actually going to show you that this blog is not just a "pretend" knitting blog - yep, I've got something to show you!  And, wonder of wonders, there are others to come!

So if you are still with me, let me show you my last FO of 2012.  This was finished on November 11, but various photo sessions did not work out, so rather than show you The Tim wearing this hat that was knitted for him, it was time to rely on the old medicine ball ...

A few years back, I knitted a Turn a Square hat for The Tim for Christmas.  It was a big hit, and was the first time I had knit something with stripes.  At the time, I had no idea what the Jogless Stripe method was, so if you looked closely, you could see where one color changed to another.  Neither of us cared, and to some extent, neither of us still do.  (*Note:  Rather than link to a specific version of the Jogless Stripe demo, I'll leave it to you to choose from the many available if you just Google the term.)

Anyway, The Tim mentioned really liking the hat, and when I found myself with a) some yarn that didn't cry out to be anything else, and b) in need of a birthday gift, I thought I'd go ahead and knit another.  This time, though, I decided to give the Jogless Stripe method a try, and I must admit it does look nicer when the item is finished.

Anyway, here you go:

The top

The side/front/whatever you want to call it

The details:

Project:  Turn a Square Squared

Pattern:  Turn A Square by Jared Flood

Needles:  US size 5 and 7

Yarns:  Brooklyn Tweed SHELTER (gray) and Classic Elite Inca Alpaca (yellow)

Modifications:  None

Comments:  If you haven't  made one of these, you really should.  The pattern is free, you don't need a lot of yarn of either color, and it goes really quickly.  Plus, it's well received.  The Tim started wearing this one, and gave me his original one to repair, as it had become unraveled!  I asked him why he didn't give it to me to repair sooner, and he said, "Because I just like wearing it too much."

**********

And to "officially"close out 2012 (now that it's April!), here is a shot of all of the projects completed last year:

Not a lot, and not necessarily world-shattering, but a) I'm happy with it, and b) it's not a contest!

And now that we have closed out the last year, we can move on to things completed so far in 2013 ...

Some other time, that is.  :-)

As Promised

The quilt, it is finished.

And the back:

I am thrilled with how well it turned out, and anxious to try making another one.  If you have a chance to take the Beginning Quilting Class at Spool, and the teacher is Ashley, SIGN YOURSELF UP!  She is not intent on making you create a perfect quilt to her specifications - rather, she wants you to choose the fabrics that you like, and pay attention to the instructions and her demonstrations.  Every single time someone (including me) would be upset or freak out because they made a mistake, or it "didn't look right," she would say, "This is quilting.  You are supposed to enjoy yourself, and it will be fine.  Trust me."  Every single person in our class (six in all) had a beautiful quilt at the end, and wanted to try it all again. I've taken plenty of crafty learning classes, and there are usually always a couple of people that you just know will never, ever try to do the thing again.

I have some other knitting and sewing projects that I want to finish up first, but it won't be long until another quilt is in the works here ...

What Can I Say?

Sometimes I just suck.  Sigh.  Oh well.

Happy [belated] first day of Spring!  Which to be honest, has not been all that different from our alleged Winter here in Philadelphia.  Other than knowing it was officially here, the weather has not been as different as usual, so the first day of Spring just sort of came long.  And then went.

Anyway, I didn't mean to disappear for so long.  But at least I had things going on - a trip to WV to hang out with the family for St. Patrick's Day weekend, enjoying a zeppole for St. Joseph's Day on Monday, and then my last quilting class this past Tuesday.

Our trip was a blast.  And Dug came with us, meaning that as The Tim said, "He expanded his fan base westward."  He was a perfect traveler in the car, and a well-behaved guest at my sister's house.  Of course, he loved all of the extra attention and new smells.  We spent a lot of time just hanging out on the porch, and Dug thought that was pretty great.  The cats stayed home, and I told The Tim that they probably spent the time partying like it was November 2011 ...

My last quilting class was spent adding the binding and then learning how to finish it by hand sewing it, which I hope to do this weekend.  I'm very glad I finally took the class, I enjoyed it, and can see more quilts in my future.  At the moment, I am not feeling as obsessed as I felt when I first learned to knit, so maybe I can be more reasonable with quilting.  Who knows?

I had a couple of days off from work last week before we went away, and I realized that I have missed a lot of things, and that I often suck as a friend.  Even as a cyber-friend.  Both Marji and Kim tagged me in a meme that has been going around, and I missed that altogether.  I have missed several birthdays, anniversaries, and written notes.  Once this knowledge hit me, I tried to figure out what I was doing instead of all the things I feel that I missed or just failed to do.  I was willing to admit that the pneumonia in January threw me off, and until recently, I felt like I was playing catch up.  But I could not think of anything else that kept me from doing things for the past few months.  I'd like to say I was living in the moment, or treasuring the time I spent at home, etc.   But - I.Have.No.Idea.  And it is also not lost on me that this is not that kind, during a year when I have pledged to try and be more kind.

So I am recommitting myself to being more aware of time - my own, the universe's, whatever.  Because time is really all any of us have, and I don't want to fritter the bulk of mine away!  I know from experience that I do need to be conscious of the here and now, because life can change in an instant.

I would therefore like to apologize to anyone I've neglected, or has found me to be incommunicado, or that I seem to have forgotten about.  I can honestly say it was not a conscious decision on my part.

In other news, I do have some pictures to share.  And I promise to do so, if I ever get them out of my camera ... !

The Fastest Route from A to B

... is not a straight line, at least if it's something I'm doing.

Tomorrow evening will be the fourth session of my five-session Beginning Quilting class at Spool.  You may recall that I was signed up and ready to go earlier this year, and then whined to all of you when I had to cancel out of the class due to the return of stupid pneumonia.

Fortunately, Laura - the owner of Spool - said that I could just be in the next session of the class, so this time around, I finally got to see what quilting was all about.  I'd been curious for a while, but kept telling myself that I didn't need another hobby.  Each time I'd see the class schedule though, I'd think "Hmm, maybe I should try it."  Finally, I just thought I would do it.  I figured that there could be three possible outcomes:  a) it would not appeal to me at all, and I'd have it out of my system; b) I'd love it, and want to make at least a couple of other quilts; or, c) I would like it well enough, but not care if I ever went any further with it.

Part of my hesitation is that I am simply not able to draw, cut, follow, or line up a straight line.  I see it as straight, but once I've "done" it (drawn, cut), it's obvious even to me that it is not straight.  Since I know this about myself, I don't mind.  But I've taken classes for things that ideally use straight lines, and even if I'm fine with my work, the instructor can't deal with me.  (I took a bookbinding class once and the instructor developed an ulcer ...)

Our instructor, Ashley, is not that way at all.  She keeps telling us that quilting should be fun, and not to overthink it.  When one person in the class was freaking out because she didn't have the correct number of strips in one of her fabrics, Ashley just told her not to worry, and use another one of her fabrics instead.  It was nice to hear a class instructor say something like that.

We've also had homework for most of the weeks, and this week we were to cut  and sew the inner and outer borders onto our quilt tops.  At the end of last week's class, we were all holding up our completed squares sewn together, and one woman in the class said to me, "That looks like something a blind person made!"  (Everyone else had very classic, coordinating blocks.)

(folded)

I responded, "My husband is blind."  Which as I've said when I have told people this story, was not the right thing, but it did shut the woman up.  (The instructor was out of the room at the time, or I'm sure she would have said something.)

In any event, I cut and sewed my borders onto my squares, and I'm very happy with how it is looking:

(again, folded)

Ashley has said that tomorrow night, we'll do the actual quilting, and then next week will be backing and bindings.  I've really been enjoying the class, and when I showed this to The Tim yesterday, he said, "I know you will take this the way I mean it, but I can't believe that you made that!"  (For the record, I knew what he meant - I couldn't believe it myself.)

So the last two classes will tell how much of a quilter I will or will not become. At a minimum, now I know what is involved, and the various steps that must be followed.

And that - at least in my case - straight lines are vastly overrated.

No Quilts for Me

... at least not right now.  Sigh.

You may remember that I was all excited, having signed up for a Beginning Quilting class at Spool.  It was a five-week course that started on January 10, and I was really looking forward to it.  And I was anxious to report on it here.

Well, as you have probably guessed, Pneumonia = No Quilting Class.  No way could I have made it to the first or even the second class, I was so sick and out of it. And to be honest, even tonight would not have worked out that well, as I'm doing better but not that great.

The good news?  Another session begins February 21.  Let's hope that a) it's not filled up already, and b) that I am so much better by then, there's no question that I can take the class.

If not?  Someone will pay.  Don't say I didn't warn you.


;-)