Ahhh, Stockinette

Like a lot of blogs I read, when the weather gets warmer, we spend lots more time outside, and the blog posts get fewer and farther in between. Hope there's somebody still out there!

There's been lots of gardening and home improvement progress around our place, but I'll spare you photos of the flooded basement and new sumpump, and get straight to the knitting:

The only project on my plate right now (besides socks, those don't count) is Remembering Honey. The progress has been slow. All that lace knitting.

I finished all the back and the front up to the armholes while on spring break, and the past two weeks have been very slow lace knitting.



The yoke seemed to take forever. The lace pattern on the right in this picture was only 6 rows, but was impossible to memorize:


When I finished both sides of the yoke, I still had to get through the lace edging on the sleeves. Even though I couldn't memorize it either, for some reason it was easier for me to "get in the groove" and it was more enjoyable. (And it's so pretty!)

And now I'm onto the stockinette portion, so it's smooth sailing! Except for one thing, and I'd love your opinions on this:

See the place right above the lace pattern, where there are six little "dashes"? That's a stockinette row, where you stop every so often and wrap the yarn around 3 stitches, then continue. I think the purpose is just decorative, and I like it, but it kind of gathers the row in. I'm afraid it will give the sleeve a "puffy" look, right above the lace, like an old fashioned blouse. Not sure I love that. (And the photo in the magazine doesn't really show this part, it's too dark, so I can't tell what it looks like on the model.)

I'm thinking of going back and taking it out and just doing stockinette, so the sleeve is straight to the lace, then flares out a bit with the lace. Thinking that would be a more updated look. (?) What do you think?

In Case There's Anybody Wondering What I've Been Doing While Not Blogging

This was Wednesday night:

I gave a talk to my knitting guild. Swatching, measuring, fit. (Big nerdy fun!)

Then there were a few nights when my knitting got bumped due to these:


Status as of 11pm tonight:

You are looking at 1,300 filled eggs. What started out five years ago as a last minute idea with four other neighborhood kids, has grown a bit. The first year I had 50 eggs. Last year (year 4) I did about 700. You can see a pictures of last years yard in my March archive.

And here is the status of the Easter dress:

A Hodgepodge of Quilts

I've been going through my vacation pictures, trying to put together a cohesive post without too many farm animal pictures.

It's hard. They were cute.

And I'm under orders from a friend to stop with the laundry already, and give you a post.

So here's something a little different.

--------------------------------------------

Melody has a great post today about Anna Williams and Nancy Crow. I know a lot of you read her already, but if you missed it, you must go see. It co-incided with some stuff I just came across when I was organizing. Instant post!

I am a happy owner of a small but wonderful Anna Williams quilt top. It was a birthday gift from my husband about seven or eight years ago. I bought it for him (how convenient for him!) while attending QSDS.


I originally intended to send it off to Katharine Watts to be quilted by the "country quilters" as she called them, who were used to quilting Anna's quirky (puckered) tops. But the more I think of it, the more I want to do it myself, so it will have some of myself in it.



Here's a tiny piece--just a top, not layered or quilted, that I originally intended to be a full size quilt. I think I might have some other blocks lying around. I made this, inspired by the Anna Williams quilts:


Segue into the Nancy Crow stuff:

Nancy was the one who introduced us all to Anna Williams's work, by hanging it at QSDS.
Here's a top I made in a Nancy Crow class. I was pregnant with Ethan so it was seven years ago. I sandwiched it with the batting and backing, and started a little random seed-stitch quilting, but abandoned it. I thought it might make a neat baby blanket, I'm not sure why I put it away.


Here is a slightly more recent (probably done about 4 years ago) small quilt that I made to sell at a show, again inspired by the Nancy Crow look. (Denyse Schmidt, of recent fame among young hip quilters, learned quilting from Nancy.)




In my opinion, Nancy is The Quilt Jedi. This is the book that started my quilting life, in 1991:


And here's a baby quilt I made about seven years ago. When I had a boy, this quilt looked too girlie to me. My second baby used it a little, but it's kind of big--about 50" square. I should get it out again because it looks perfect for picnics.


And lastly, thank you for all the nice comments about the totebags. You can expect more tote-bag-posts in the future. I still have the Tote Bag Fever. And I still owe one to my sister, my mom, and I have a couple more fabrics I want to make for myself. I'll have more photos and answer all your questions about how they are made.

Here's another shot of Sophie's tote bag, since it didn't show up well in the photos last week:




It's probably my favorite. I'm a sucker for all that Kaffe Fasset fabric. (It's too bad it didn't come on the trip with us. It was accidently left behind, on the dining room chair, filled with tiger, cow, and blankie.........all the essentials for a happy bedtime baby.)

Mother of the Year, you all vote for me, okay?!