ambitious quilt start

I did this color chart of fabric a while ago. Sunday night I finally started the quilt! It feels a little bit like a great journey has started. There were a few activation barriers I had to get over to get going. First, was wrapping my head around all the fabrics and how they mapped onto what was in the pattern. That I accomplished in February by making myself a little chart using snips of each fabric and some glue. 

Second was the fact that I am kind of intimidated by the very large cut of background fabric I have. The thought of cutting it into tiny pieces is not the best because that seems like an awful lot of work! Thankfully the instructions pretty clearly help you stage this process by the type of block and corresponding size of quilt you are making. When I realized I could do that by block design and not have to do it all at once, that was a much smaller problem. So I went ahead and got started on one of the simpler blocks. There are two stages of cuts - one for larger pieces and the second to subcut the individual pieces for each block. These are my piles of first stage cuts for the nine aloe blocks.  

I chose the aloe first because it seems like the simplest. It also has just two colors in it, so I felt like I could keep track without needing to label anything. The cutting is indeed detailed - some of the strips were different by just a quarter of an inch! And this will take precise piecing. This first aloe turned out a little bit less wide than it was supposed to even though I thought I was using a scant seam. Thankfully the width was easily remedied with some elbow grease and the iron. Still, go scanter. 

It will be interesting to see how this goes. I'm certain it will be slow. I'm also certain to learn a lot in the process about myself, my sewing tendencies, and my preferences. Avanti!
 

project planning

I cleaned up my craft space today.  It felt like an appropriate activity to refresh my headspace and take stock of what I was up to since I just got a big project off of my needles. I can tell I have the itch to start something new! I still have a couple of things going that I'd like done, though, so I am making the choice to wait until at least one of those (the blanket or the summer tank) is done before casting on a new project. I think I have been watching too many YouTube influencers start all. the. things. 

I had a couple items of yarn that entered the chat from LYS day yesterday so that got me playing with my stash and considering what I wanted to cast on next. Since I was planning and have been having an excellent time making project bags, I decided to tuck the yarn (and in one case, wind it) into bags so they are ready to go when I am. 

There is of course the yellow for my Agave sweater that I have been thinking about forever - a yarn crawl purchase and my next garment start. The other yarn crawl item is the dark blue cake which will become a textured scarf. I think that should be a fun project that's easy but interesting. The bright poppy red skein in the appropriately neon bag is going to be a micro scarf. I have been loving the little crocheted Sophie scarf my mom made me, and I've been thinking about a knitted one. I actually went to the LYS with the intention of getting JUST yarn for that little scarf and for checking out the DK stock for potential materials for a crochet row blanket project. There wasn't much I liked for the row blanket, but I did look at patterns and find one for a cute shrug. And lo, she also had the right type of yarn. That will be a fun no thinking project, so probably great for when I finish my blanket up and is hanging out in my big Firefly tote until I'm ready to start. 

It felt good to line up the next projects. Of course, I still have a few other long-term projects that will remain on the go (Clint shawl and tiny succulents, I'm looking at you) but I like the idea of waiting until at least one of the blanket or tank top is done before picking up a new shiny object. This process was fun and I kind of feel like I've already started ;) 

a good soak

I finished knitting my Geddy Tee last night! I had put it down for a few days this week (after finishing the body last Friday) because I had the impression that picking up stitches for the arms and neck was going to be annoying. It absolutely was not. The arms were super fast, and even the neck was a breeze. I picked up the neck in the morning yesterday and was binding off at the end of the day with a short amount of knitting time. I was feeling kind of like a knitting super hero. 

My next hurdle was weaving in ends! I sent a photo the knit night ladies after binding off and then intended on putting it aside to work on my throw blanket. Better sense prevailed and I got a needle to take care of the ends right away. If I had not, I'm sure it would have been another couple of weeks before that was done. There were a lot from the granny squares, though they were mostly woven in as I crocheted so I just snipped those off, and the rest in the body and ribbing weren't actually that difficult to do, I just don't love it. I chatted on the phone while doing them, so it went by fast. 

This morning I felt motivated to get it blocked right away; I'm hoping to wear it to work one day this coming week! Given how vibrant this yarn is I was not altogether surprised to see some dye coming out in the water, but it did mean I soaked this for very little time and mostly with the granny squares parked up on the side out of the water. I did not want the green to catch onto those bright pinks and muddy them up. 

I haven't pinned anything except the bottom ribbing, which I want to tame to be as wide as the body, or at least as close as possible. It is currently puckering the bottom in way more than I really want (and more than the pattern photos suggest is correct).  When I first laid it out it was 26" across, so nearly 52". This is supposed to be a 48", so I slid the fabric around a little bit vertically to make it longer. It is now measuring closer to 24.5", so 49" which is close enough. I tried it on before blocking and mostly liked how it fit so I'm a bit nervous about how it will be after blocking. Way too big? Way too long? I knit it longer than recommended by 2" to avoid it being too short so this would be ironic. It feels like some of the "spring" has come out of the fabric but that could come back as it dries. This is always the price I pay for not doing a gauge swatch - suspense while blocking! 

nesting baskets

This set of very satisfying baskets was what occupied me in the evenings most of this past weekend. I have been doing so much knitting lately, I wanted to play with some crochet for a change. The yarn for this project has been hanging around in plain sight in my craft closet for a very long time. I purposely put them where I'd see them, and kind of in the way of getting my ball winder out, because when I bought them I intended to start these right away. Ha! Best laid plans... 

I'm pretty sure it was cruising around Pinterest that led me to this lined basket. I was intrigued both by the nesting habit and the two color design. Curious, I went and found the pattern (free on Ravelry) and now here we are many moons later. I have a well behaved lineup of colorful cylinders. I played around with the middle size to see what swapping the variegated and solid would look like. I like it both ways, but the solid ball of yarn has more yardage than the variegated ball does, so I wouldn't have wanted to do all of them solid on the outside. This way I used up every last bit of yarn. (Disclaimer: I did make the second one last and ended up making it one row shorter than the others to do so.)

I love how the variegation behaves differently depending on the circumference of the basket. I especially like the pooling of the largest one. These are nested up and settled in with the other things I'll be sending to my mom at some point soon for an extremely handmade Mother's Day. I have another set of solid/variegated yarn to make another set for myself, but my RSI says I should take a break from crochet and go back to knitting for a bit! 

 

a quick mushroomy bag

I have been watching a lot of knitting YouTube lately which means I have been seeing a lot of lovely project bags. I've enjoyed my Firefly Totes very much (both big and small), and I've made small drawstring bags too. What I've seen that I haven't tried yet has been kind of angular, boxy bottom, zippered top project bags that look like they're kind of a standard type. I don't have a pattern for it myself so I went looking. I ended up using a YouTube tutorial from Voolenvine that was very clear to follow and looked like it was about the type I was seeing. 

I ended up not using the measurements given in the tutorial just because the scrap of this awesome mushroom fabric was a bit bigger. I kind of wish I had cut it down because the depth of the bag would be better suited to something wider, but I learned. No squares! Use rectangles :) Instead of fusible fleece, I used scrap batting I had on hand and just quilted the outer panels with straight lines spaced maybe 3/4" apart (followed an easy to see line on my sewing machine, no other reason for the spacing other than it seemed about right). No regrets there. It is sturdy and I think the vertical quilting helps it stand up as well. A fusible fleece may have been more robust, but I'm using what I've got and I've got a LOT of batting scraps.

I made the tab out of scraps of a cute snail print, a bit wider than called for - I cut a 4x3 piece (instead of 3x3) and made it 1" wide since my D ring was bigger. I ended up skipping the handle mostly because I didn't have a lobster claw finding to hand. I think I can hook a carabiner or something similar to the ring should I want something longer. Maybe a tassel! The inside is a heavy toile that is also in the canvas family. I've had it forever and it's nice to have another place to peek at it. It pairs quite well, if quirkily, with the mushrooms. 

I enjoyed making this, and it's going to be nice to use for something, whether travel or craft projects. If I make it again I'll fix the ratios. In the end, it's pretty darn close to the ones I have been seeing so that's awesome to know. I've seen a few other zipper installation configurations and it will be fun to understand those, too, if I can find a tutorial. I've been having a good time coming up with prints and zipper color combinations, so let the adventures continue.

big day for my geddy tee!

It's not done, but a milestone has been reached - the body and bottom ribbing are complete. I made it 1" longer in the body than recommended as well as 1" longer in the ribbing. I'm not sure if I'm going to end up regretting that in the final fit, but I am not exactly a cropped tee kind of shape. We shall see. I am going to decide now that I'll be brave and rip back and fix it if I don't love it after blocking. 

I'm a bit bummed about that one splash of pooling across the chest from the second skein, but that's what I get for not alternating skeins with a hand dyed, though tonal, yarn. I'm going to live with it and call it a feature. I have loved working with this yarn, and a woman at knit night this week put her finger on it when she said "Hella stitch definition!" I think that's what I love the most about how it looks. How it feels is pretty much the #1 feature - the silk in the blend is very apparent. It's also kind of hefty, so it will be interesting to see how this blocks out and drapes on me once everything is all done. I think it's going to be great. 

I just have to do ribbing around the armholes and the neckline now. "Just" may be understating how annoying it is likely to be, but it still feels like I'm in the home stretch. 

ring blanket progress

I have been making steady progress on my blanket project. This is about a month's worth of progress, and I have just two more stripes left! It has been great knitting for staff meetings and breaks at work when I don't have much brain power to devote to something but I still want to knit. This is where I am after this evening's knit night at the LYS. 

The yarn has been really nice to work with. It's just cotton, but it seems a bit softer and more slippy on the needles than other cottons which makes the knitting really easy on my hands. I'm still not a fan of ribbing, and this is a LOT of ribbing in the bigger rings, but I'm finding it a good opportunity to try out some different ways to knit rather than the lever style I usually use. I'm not a great continental knitter because I feel my tension is way looser and it's all messy but it is ok to do for a bit. I have actually have more luck with Norwegian purling than I do continental purling, so I've been playing with that, too. I don't think I will ever be an ambi-knitter, but it's fun to try.

new books

Look what arrived this week! I have been feeling in a shoppy mood lately, and I found myself wanting some fun non-wearable projects to contemplate. Mom told me about the animal book a while back, and I can't remember where I first saw the blanket one. These will be fun, for sure. 

I am quite enamored with the bright colors and geometric patterns in the blanket book. Also, it's a library of 100 patterns for strips - endless possibilities! It is a bit overwhelming to consider "the" design I want to do, so I may make a few strips here and there in colors that I like and see what happens in terms of turning them into a finished blanket or two. Some of the strips in the blanket below are appealing - that pink and white one especially. And the pom poms!

Pretty much the first thing that caught my eye in the mythical creature menagerie was this unicorn. I mean... c'mon. It looks fiddly but fun, just like the rest of the book. Not sure if I'll start there or if I need to do a dragon first. There are a lot of super cute options - I may need to pace myself. 

Speaking of which, I do still have a few yarn projects going that I want to finish before starting any of these. Granted, this is crochet, but I also have a couple small crochet projects started, too. Maybe if I finish one of those, I can start one of these. Either way, I am very excited that both of these books have now nestled into my library. 

bag lady reprise

Late in the evening of my "bag lady Saturday" I found myself wondering what would happen if I downsized the pattern I was using for the zippered project bags to make smaller ones. Voila! They are super cute.  I used a fun stripe print for the inside, and combined a pretty purple flower print with some sassy alpacas.

I was inspired by the piles of scraps leftover from the baby quilt I made recently, and I sort of improvised my way through the sizes based on whatever the scraps told me. I suppose I could measure and try to replicate this again, but of course I didn't write anything down so this could be like those dinners you sometimes make only once because there's some random combination of leftovers in the fridge. 

I made two, one for me and one for a friend. I think I'll keep the one with the little tab and give her the one with the purple zipper. 

bag lady

Today was quite a day! I spent the lion’s share of the day in my sewing room bookending a big organizing/clean up with sewing these perky springy bags. 

The first finish was the veggie quilted tote bag. I saw a tutorial on YouTube a while ago for a quilted tote and this has been on my mind ever since. Last night it got downright distracting - all I could think about was how much I wanted to make it! So this morning after watering my herbs outside, I sat down to realize the vision. It does not disappoint. I’m looking forward to using it at the farmer’s market next week. Both fabrics were from a box mom sent me, they must have been in her stash. (Bottom row, second over for the adorable tiny vegetable lining fabric). I was too lazy to make the fabric straps as called for, but I did have some navy cotton webbing in my stash which looks great. I ended up ordering some more webbing online because this was such a good solution, and I’d like to make more. 

 

The other three bags are project bags for hand stitching (or whatever, I suppose). Mom introduced me to these the last time she was here for the holidays, and I rewatched the tutorial so I could make some more. This is from an Elizabeth Ann Can Stitch video, and they are kind of addicting once you get into it. I loved pulling together the different fabric combinations and using the zippers as extra pops of color. These are all somewhat “precious” fabrics to me - I have resolved to use the lovelies instead of letting them sit around in piles. That bright blue bird print is a Tula Pink impulse buy from Golden State Quilting and I LOVE it with the royal blue zipper. I’m going to be keeping the gray/green birds with the eye watering neon lining and the other two will be gifted to mom and Samara. 

It has been a while since I have felt this relaxed and spacious. I had other adulting things to do too, which usually gets in my head, but none of it was urgent and I was actually able to put them aside for the day. That is pretty much unheard of. So proud of that and happy to have gotten some color play in today. Just look at them! Spring has sprung! 

another new cast on

I seem to want to start all the things this spring. Tonight I finally sat down to figure out how to get started on my Clint shawl, which has been #1 in my queue since I wound yarn for it a month ago. Somehow that green and pink sweater jumped the line :) 

It does require some attention, at least for now until I kind of internalize how it works, and the pattern is complicated enough that I just printed it out and tucked it into the handy outer pocket on my project bag. Having e-patterns is nice, but sometimes I don’t want to keep refreshing my phone screen or worrying if my iPad is going to run out of battery. Let’s enjoy some analog in life, eh? I can tell this is going to be potato chip knitting now that I’ve gotten going and I can’t wait to see the quilt block grow. I have three of my four colors knit into it so far and I can say that I’m really pleased with the palette. Adding the pop of fuschia is going to make it even better. 

I now have five things going in the yarny world, so I think I’ll cool it on the cast ons until I finish something. I do have a lot of projects planned with some more very pretty yarn crawl yarn, so I’m motivated. Plus I think all of them are going to be great and I’m looking forward to being able to have the finished objects. Onward!

geddy tee progress

I have been absolutely enjoying working on this project. The combination of colors makes me happy, and the yarn has been a dream to work with. I am particularly tickled by the way my granny square shoulders turned out. From the little yellow nuggets in the middle to the sparkles in the fuchsia, they are just perfection.

The main color green yarn is as soft to work with as it felt in the skein, and it has beautiful stitch definition. I ended up using metal needles for this which was a great choice - like buttah! I’ve been using my lovely rosewood needles for everything so I forgot how slick and quick these metal ones are. I have made a lot of progress with very little hand strain. 

These photos were taken on Sunday and I am all the way down the back to where the arm holes end and the body will be joined in the round when the front is done. Time to pick up stitches on the front next! I’m really looking forward to seeing how this one turns out.

outta dodge

I took a much needed day trip down to the Monterey Peninsula this weekend. Among the wave watching and pelican photography visits were of course made to my two favorite local establishments, Back Porch Fabric and Monarch Knitting. 

I enjoyed a browse around all of the colorful fabrics in BPF, as always. It was tough to not bring many things home with me, but I stuck to a few larger cuts that I imagine may be made into bags or similar non-quilt projects. I am not usually drawn to oranges and reds, but it was a vibe this time. I am looking forward to using that colorful kaleidoscope print especially.

And I couldn’t not come home with this yarn. It is so very Wicked in its appearance, I splurged. I have often seen but never purchased Spincycle. It’s a bit itchier than I would normally choose, but their colors are quite fantastic though I’ve often wondered if it just turns out looking muddy. There was a hat knit up that looked really striking just in stockinette (with shaping, of course) and it had a different lining yarn that was softer so I am wondering if I could do the same thing, potentially with any leftovers from the sweater I’m working on right now. It would be a green extravaganza. 

Along with that, I kept passing by the display of squishy ikigai yarn. I LOVE the colors and the last few visits I have eyed these skeins. Since I was viewing this as a “Yarn Crawl Addendum” for myself, I did decide to splurge and get some. I think they will end up being a scarf after browsing around a few patterns. Whatever it is, it’s going to be beautiful and so very soft. 

Besides the bright and bold fabrics, I found a cute snail print in the sale corner that will potentially be pajamas, and I impulse bought a set of 8 fat quarters that are all different prints of bright kitties. No idea what they will end up being, but whatever happens it is going to be so fun. 

springy table topper

Last weekend I had a hankering to play with some more scrap sewing. I am really enjoying the stash of “precuts” I made for myself and squirreled away (this reminds me I should do it again with the growing stash of scraps from recent projects). I wanted to make something to grace my dining room table for spring/March so I pulled a quantity of greens and found myself a neutral linen (not surprising for me) to cut to match for patchwork improvising. 

 

I wanted to make simple four patches and combine them to make a sparkly patchwork panel. It was a lot of fun on my design wall moving things around for a couple of days. I bordered it with a great plaid that I think just takes it over the top straight to St. Patrick’s Day. That gave me a goal, to finish it before the holiday today. 

I used this pretty linen-ish garden print for the back and, as has been my habit lately, decided to hand stitch the binding down to the back. It took me a little bit longer, but I finished it by Friday the 13th! I’ve actually been enjoying the slower approach to binding. The hand stitching without need for a pattern or planning is meditative. 

I chose to do crosshatch quilting, in the light gray thread that was already on my machine. It was quick and simple, pretty much the same as the patchwork. This is not an overthinking project. 

It took me a few days to actually “style” the table so it looks festive, but here’s my springtime table scape! Shopping around the decor and things I recently organized was satisfying and fun. I love how it turned out, and I am really pleased with how the handmade items I’ve been pulling out and creating new have made my home cozy and full of personality. 

couldn’t wait

I couldn’t wait - I have several projects going right now that are really quite fun, but I kept thinking about this sweater. I just got done playing around in the yarn stash finding appropriate colors to combine with the green I recently bought. Lo and behold, I sense a movie theme! This should be fun. The dark pink even has some gold sparkles on it. Perfection. 

2026 yarn crawl

Well that was fun. It’s been a weekend full of lots of different things so this seems like it was forever ago, but in fact it was just Friday. I’ve got some vacation to burn, so I took the day off to have breakfast with a friend after which we moseyed over to the local yarn shop for the first day of this year’s Bay Area Yarn Crawl. Ahem. This is the chaos that resulted. The bag on the left is mine, the pile of books and the basket is hers. We certainly did some shopping!! 

I also snagged a couple of pattern books (free!) but I admit I didn’t have a whole lot of patience to sift through them all. I did, however, do a great job picking through the sale yarn outside and here’s what I got. It’s all cotton or cotton blends, which is something I appreciate so much about this shop - she carries great non-wool options. The four colorful skeins on the right, and possibly the hank, will be headed to my mom. The four neutral balls on the bottom are going to be great for gnomes, particularly the white and gray for beards and noses. I wish I had just one more ball of that fluffy yellow because then I would know exactly what sweater I would make, but as it is I might be a bit too short to want to play yarn chicken. Still, it’s so soft and I’ll find something to make with it. 

 

Once we managed to get inside, it was really fun to look around the trunk shows Kristi had displayed. She ordinarily has a great selection of yarns but boy these indie dyers did not disappoint! The whole bottom row of skeins is from those trunk shows. The left, highly variegated yarn is from Forbidden Fibers Co and will be my first (brave!) foray into a super variegated sweater and learning to alternate skeins. The rest of the bottom row is from a dyer with moody colors I just loved called Dragon Hoard Yarn. I limited myself to tonal skeins for projects I had picked out otherwise I would have come home with many more of her beautiful variegated works. The set of four purpley red will be a sweater, likely an Amrum. The dark slate blue will be an Architexture scarf, and the other one? Well that was kind of a compromise impulse buy. I think it might make a nice second Architexture, if I like knitting that pattern, or I will find something to do with it. I have many fingering weight shawl patterns, and it was too pretty to pass up. The bright green at the top is going to be a Geddy tee, the Noro (another sale yarn) and navy might end up as a sweater or vest - definitely a garment of some sort. And the last skein was a total no plan but I kept walking by the cubby and picking it up. There were many more so I could have gotten another sweater quantity, but this one seems to say accessory to me.

Safe to say I have supported my local yarn shop, and I have plenty of projects planned for the year! These of course are all in addition to the ones I already have queued up from my stash. My I’ve gotten ambitious. There may not be enough hours in a day. I did decide I don’t need to do anymore yarn crawling over the next week. I have a trip down to Pacific Grove next weekend, so I will certainly come home with something fun from my other favorite yarn shop, but other than that this is plenty of yarn to keep me busy for a good while. 

neapolitan, finished

Fastest sweater ever. I finished this sweater 3 and a half weeks. I even blocked it the same day I bound off. Can you tell I am excited about it? I was intending on writing some in progress posts, but this just flew off of my needles. I did not want to put it down. This is the Coloring Book Raglan by Aimee Sher and I would highly recommend the pattern as an easy and fun knit. I like the twisted ribbing at the neck, arms, and hem, and I really enjoy the wide 3/4 length sleeves. I realize the colors are a slant rhyme to Neapolitan ice cream, but I can't not think of it when I see the stripes. The whole sweater feels a little cotton candy-esque to me, too. 

The stripes are from yarn that Dave got me on one of his trips to visit our friends in Bend, Oregon (before we separated, obviously). He met the alpacas, which is pretty cute. He brought me back four skeins of beautiful yarn that I have not known what to do with since. (The fourth color is white and is a slightly lighter gauge). I thought about different types of projects with one or two skeins in combination, but nothing really excited me. I did want to try to keep them together if at all possible because they actually look really beautiful together. When I saw the pattern for this I decided using them in this way was a great idea. I debated adding the brown in the mix with the pink, purple, and robin egg blue, but its actually my favorite part. It adds a maturity to the overall mix so it doesn't look so little girly. 

The main color is a yarn I will definitely use again in a sweater. It is Woolfolk Luft, and I "met" it on yarn crawl last year. I forget which shop had it, but I remember picking up a skein and thinking it was so very soft and I could probably wear it next to my skin (which I usually don't do with wool yarns, itchy). That particular skein was black, so when I went looking for a color to use in this sweater I wasn't really sure which way I wanted to go. Gray seemed fine but unexciting to me, and a natural would have looked great with the alpaca colors but likely would have washed me out. The blue was a risk on a couple of levels, first computer screens are notoriously bad at translating real life color and second it's kind of an odd choice, but it's a color I really love on its own so it felt worth giving it a shot. I'm so glad I did. It's a beautiful shade. 

The sweater feels like a cozy old sweatshirt already. The heft of the Luft yarn is just REALLY satisfying, especially in the twisted rib sections. The hem hangs great and, surprise surprise, I really like the neckline. I would definitely make this pattern again in other yarns, maybe in the same one (!) and I'm interested to try out all of the various options for sleeves, length, etc. I'm happy that I have plenty of the alpaca left for other projects, maybe some mitts. I'll have to wear this a few times to really know for sure, but I think I may have just met my favorite knit so far. 

blanket knitting commenced

I finished knitting on my Coloring Book Raglan on Monday and I found myself still wanting to knit. I've been pretty good about planning projects out of my stash lately and this has been sitting in the queue for a bit. I had the yarn wound already and the pattern in my Ravelry library. It was pretty quick work to find the right needles and dig out this super cute stitch marker to match. 

It will be a large circular blanket, which is something new for me. It's been a while since I've made a non-quilt blanket and I have never done circles. It's delightfully simple and requires very little attention aside from making sure the increases are in the right spot and the stripes are the right width. It has grown fairly quickly already! I'm sure it will slow down as the rounds get longer, but this is just one evening of progress and it's looking quite smashing already. 

floral fun

Finishing up the baby quilt and clearing off the card table felt like it deserved a palette cleanser. I was watching a favorite YouTuber the other day and she whipped up one of these drawstring bags in like a half hour so she could put a new sock project in it. I have used this particular tutorial (from In Color Order) before, so it was kind of fun to reconnect with it. 

These lovely zinnia flowers are from a Pacific Grove trip with my folks. They are so bright and happy! I also got the coordinating print on the same trip (accidental coordination, I'm pretty sure they are not related fabric lines) and I just love that greenish yellow combined with the electric pink. I used a very old print for the inside - it's curios in light grey and white. It's girly and bright and I just love it. And it was SO FAST. I plan on making more of these in different sizes for project bags. The Firefly Totes have been fun to make, but sometimes something simpler is most appealing. 

No zinnias outside yet, but my favorite daffodils are blooming!