pumpkin coaster reprise

I had a great day of making on Monday. I finished up a chicken in the morning and then spent the afternoon in my sewing room playing with scraps. I sent my mom this picture and asked "want some coasters?" since my scraps were still out and ready for play. Happily, she said yes.

I had a nice time playing and ended up with another two pumpkins that look festive and fun. Mom likes bright colors, so I chose the brightest pieces I could find. I also made sure the fun cats and owls made an appearance. 

For the back I fussy cut a Disney haunted mansion print. I would use these with this side up too! I just love this fabric. It's so creative and quirky, and the mansion was one of the rides I remember liking the most at Disney as a kid. Pirates of the Caribbean was another favorite. I ran out of the felt I was using for the stems after cutting only three pieces (I needed four) so I pivoted and used a grayer green for the back of the stems and the original more olive toned green for the front. I actually quite like the way it turned out; in fact the grayer tone works very well with the colors in the print. 

I'm going to pack these up in a little envelope and send them off to mom, hopefully before October gets underway. 

Lucille

A chicken from the neighborhood has adopted our barn. The barn owner originally did not want to encourage her, especially not name her, but has since started feeding her. I named her Lucille. We may get a coop :) The owner's birthday is coming up soon, and I decided to be cheeky and gift her another chicken. 

I went scrap diving and came up with this lovely combination of muted rainbow colors that have turned into quite a pretty little hen. I am enjoying how the blue makes it seem rather French and chic. Not sure where I get that impression but it is quite strong. As expected from prior experience, this was a joyful knit and I will continue making them. I cannot help but smile when the stuffing goes in and the personality takes shape with the extra stitched details. So stinking cute. Again.

satsuma progress

This set of four calling birds (teehee) is finished except for some beads to stitch on. I’ve never done that, so it will be a fun new thing to experience. Stitching went quickly and enjoyably. Each time I picked it up the progress was significant. The colors substituted from stash turned out looking wonderful, I love the grey background, and I am SO glad there is no backstitch outlining to do. 

I went drawer diving to see if I had a hoop in an appropriate size and alas, no. It’s a toss up as to whether this will actually end up fitting in a hoop even if I do get a bigger one. When I cut the fabric I basically forgot to take into account the room around the design that would be required. I may end up making this into an ornament by stuffing instead of hooping. My preference is for a hoop though, so I’ll go out and pick one up soon and give it a try. It feels good to have this much progress on it and to have found a designer whose work I enjoy stitching up so much. 

Immediately after setting this down I picked up my Clint. I’m done with the center quilt squares and on to adding background strips around it. After that comes the wings. Very exciting. 

a tiny emotional support chicken

I got a bougie bath board and we had our inaugural experience Monday night after I got my back adjusted. Rather than candles and wine and cheese, this crafter decided to take some granny squares into the bath. I don’t know that I’d work on a big project, but it was pretty fun to combine two relaxing things. Would do again. 

The next day, the first thing I wanted to do when I rolled out of bed was combine those granny squares and finish this chicken. It is incredibly cute and I want to make more. I’m pretty sure I saw this on Pinterest and saved it ‘for someday’ and I’m proud of myself for actually returning to the idea and making it happen. 

I rummaged through my worsted weight yarns and came up with some scraps I thought created a pleasing palette and improvised my way through their pattern placement. Luck was with me along the way helping me use up exactly the amount I had both of the maroon center and the peachy outline yarn - very satisfying. There’s plenty of that psychedelic variegated yarn left, which is excellent because it suits the piece really well. The only downside to making this was that the needle size is quite small compared to the yarn, presumably to make a nice tight piece for keeping the stuffing in, and I kept catching it and splitting my yarn on the double and triple stitches. Annoying, but perseverance was well worth it. 

I am starting a new job at the beginning of next month, and I am gifting this to a coworker who has been both a close friend and a fellow knitter. I’m not going far, I will still be on campus, but we won’t be seeing each other quite as often so this will be a humorous avatar for her to have at her desk to give the side eye when she is frustrated at something. A very enjoyable, quick project that turned out so great even on the first try. Everyone needs a tiny chicken!

nearly there

Clint and I have gotten back together. We put our relationship on hold for a bit while I worked on socks and cross stitch and coasters, but we have settled our differences. In a stroke of adult knitting maturity, I made myself pick up one of my two current wips rather than casting on something new. I did cake up yarn for the next thing, which made it even harder, but I am determined to not let things languish too long. Well. Things I started this year. Let’s not discuss the couple of hibernating projects. Move along. 

I think it’s looking really good. I really like the colors together and can’t wait to see how they play together in the wings of the piece. As of this writing I only have the two uppermost squares of this center panel left to do, so I am very motivated to try to get those done tonight. Then I have a gaggle of ends to weave in before moving on. I solemnly swear I will not let that be a point where I put it away for weeks again. 

mercury socks, finished

All done! I am apparently in the mood to name my knits after Holst’s Planets. Mercury is my second favorite movement from The Planets, extremely close behind Jupiter. Starting immediately on the heels of the Neptune socks, no pun intended, this piece was already on my mind. The orangey speckles brought to mind a planetary landscape, but it couldn’t be Mars - that music is way to intense for the feel of this yarn. The frenetic energy of the micro stripes and the mild flashing map quite nicely onto the perky fluttering lilt of Mercury the Winged Messenger, so there we have it. 

This pair turned out looking very different than what I imagined when I impulse bought the skein, but I have now learned something about reading yarn that I think I will stick in my mind. I’ve read lots of articles about the topic, but there’s nothing quite like experience to make something make sense. Truly a fun knit, I think they turned out quite successfully. I knit these on US 2 (2.75mm) needles though, and I’ve been hearing other people say they use 2 or 2.25mm needles, so I think I’m going to spring for some US 0 (2mm) 9-inch circulars and try those out for my next sock. For science. I think the gauge here is totally fine since I think I knit quite tightly on the tiny circulars, but I am curious to see what a difference it will make. Why not? For true scientific method, I may try to make some shorties from the leftover yarn so nothing changes besides the needles. We’ll see what I decide when I get around to my next pair. I’ve got some other things I’d like to give attention to, but the sock mania has been really fun. No regrets. 

pumpkin coaster improv

This was another beautiful mess I made on the 'Sunday of stitching' at the beginning of August. Spooky season is nearly upon us, and has already firmly arrived in the realm of retail. I found some joy inducing towels depicting a horse wearing a witch's hat. I got a set for myself and a set to share with some friends who will appreciate them as much as me. For one of the gifts, I would like to pair the funny towel with some quirky pumpkin coasters. This is another project inspired and taught to me by Pin, Cut, Sew on YouTube, and it was so fun. 

As with any scrappy project, one must start with a mess. At least I must. From the chaos emerges sensical discrete combinations and lines to sew one at a time. Then in the end, from mess comes magnificence. I do enjoy the improvisational process once I am in it, but sometimes starting it can be hard to let go of expectation and control and ending it can be hard to look at the piles and know they need to be put away. These piles are still languishing. I tell myself I want more coasters, but that's not strictly true. I will likely make more because the piles are still there but that was not the intent at the end of this particular day of making. 

My first effort was made as described in the tutorial. It is a kind of wonky log cabin construction of strips around a central starting point. It was fun but time consuming and I don't have many spooky fabrics that lend themselves well to strips. I really like how this one turned out, but I didn't really feel the pull to keep going like that. Making more meant changing my tactic.

Instead what I did was combine larger pieces of fabric in a more improvisational patchwork type of layout. This worked well with the larger scale foxes and owls, and let me showcase a bunch of black kitties on one. The recipient has four black cats, so I am glad to have found that scrap to include. She also likes purple, so for the back of each pumpkin I used the same purple geometric print. This makes them reversible to all match or be scrappy as the mood strikes. 

I enjoyed the improv play in making these and I like how unique the finished product is. I like that I have one of my own to keep and a set to give, that they didn't really take up that much in the way of supplies, and that I actually would like to sit down soon and make some more.