Sapphire diamonds

This pillow top is one of my favorite projects I've done recently. This was another project I started back in October in anticipation of moving to Sacramento so I could have something handmade in the new digs. The blues were my first new fabric purchases in a while and I really love the combination of navy and ice blue. 

At this point, the top got folded up and set aside for a bit. I wasn't sure how I wanted to quilt it, and didn't end up bringing all the 'stuff' up with me I needed to finish the pillow, anyway. The same weekend this April that I finished my other pillow, I mustered the effort to quilt this one. 

I used a big piece of an old flat sheet that I've been using in projects here and there to back the quilted pillow top. The quilting is simple, just outlining the diamonds inside the background stars. This way the nested diamonds pop visually and dimensionally. 

All that's left now is to put a back on, and stuff it with a pillow. I haven't yet decided if I'm going to do an envelope closure or a zipper. I'm leaning towards zipper now that I've improvised my way through the process on the last pillow. It seems like it will be more 'finished' if I do, too. So close!

in the middle of it all

Quite literally in the middle of April, the ides so to speak, and in the midst of the legislative season, this got done.

I started this a hilariously long time ago, 6 months or so. Much to my surprise I haven't had the luxury of time to sew during this fellowship. (I can't decide if that's sarcastic or not.) I will admit, part of the reason was that I hadn't brought my iron up with me and I just couldn't see finger pressing all the seams I needed to get this done. I have since bought a lovely NEW iron and finished this in an afternoon. 

I was originally thinking of hand quilting to outline each of the navy stars, but settled on quilting a grid in orange thread instead. I'm glad I did because it ended up adding a bit of a 3D optical illusion to the stars that I like very much. I set my machine on the longest stitch it would let me do, so it ends up looking like unusually tidy hand quilting, anyway. 

I even conquered my reticence to install zippers! This orange zipper simply pops on the back, and much to Dave's relief means the pillow is actually DONE. (I may or may not have had other pillows to sew closed that stayed that way for …. a while.) It's living happily on my bed/couch now. Score one for Sacramento sewing!

progress!

I have to say, now that the office is all nice and pretty/organized/awesome I'm super jealous that Dave gets to work in it whenever he wants and not me! Alas. Still, it was pretty neat to walk into it last weekend. The kitty has of course managed to make a habit of hanging out on the windowsill above my desk. But I expected that. Predictable kitty. At least I know he's keeping an eye on my desk for me.

I took the train down last weekend, which meant lots of time for knitting! Sometime in the last couple weeks I made it through the ribbed yoke section of Split Rotation, managed to bend my mind through splitting off the front sections and the arms, and am now on the much breezier stockinette part of the body. I should have written down how I dealt with sectioning the stitches at the arm holes, but oops. I'm sure it will come out fine, but don't know if I could do it again the same way!

Two and a half hours on the train gave me a few inches of stockinette. This sweater is knit so the purl side is the 'right side' and there is a single knit stitch centered under the arms each row that makes a faux side seam. I kept forgetting that little guy when I was working the wrong side -- the purl is buried in the fabric while the knit on the other side is much easier to read going across. Luckily, I've become quite adept at fixing stitches in the row below my active row without too much trouble. It's harder on a bumpy train, but nonetheless I've got my little faux seams all neat and tidy.

It's looking a little funky on the needles, as half-finished projects do. Blocking will do wonders, I hope. But before that I've got quite a few stripes ahead of me! There's a little bit of shaping in the body section but mostly it's a sea of stockinette from here on out. After that I have to edge the armholes and add button bands to the front. That's a lot of stitches to pick up. Let's focus on step one for now.

weekend warriors

My weekends have been full. Full of errands, horses, friends, husband, cat, and … home improvement. Last weekend Dave and I decided to rip off the proverbial bandaid and finish up our office in Palo Alto. We've gotten rid of almost every piece of furniture in there (except the awesome couch, which is now in our living room), painted, got desks and chairs, and thoughtfully placed artwork. There was just one last task: detail on the wall. 

We decided when we conceptualized the room that we really wanted some striking painted detail on the wall in a deep turquoise color ("Realm" by Behr, if you're curious) to complement a beautiful vase we got for our wedding. So we settled on a herringbone pattern. 

It took some time to decide where to put it, how wide to make the stripes etc. In the end it was all about improvising something that looked 'about right'. 

You can see my highly technical improvisation method here. Yes, that's tape in my hair.

Once I decided about how big to make things and what angle to use, I got out my trusty quilting ruler to help me along the way. It was a loooot of tape, four hands, and quite a bit of patience, but we got it all taped out in an hour or so.

And I even got to painting it that evening! The first coat went on with me feeling like the Karate Kid: paint the house, paint the fence.

My arms were pretty sore for the second coat the next day, but I'd say the results are worth it. We are both excited to have a space to work in that provides mental space and simplicity but is also reflective of our somewhat quirky personalities. 

wip it good

The thing about knitting is, there's a hierarchy. New projects are pretty much always at the top of the heap in my house. This leads to the hilarity of having several projects I've been working on for-ev-er. This project is one of those that I brought up to Sacramento with me and it's been languishing in the storage ottoman while I've knit literally half a dozen other things. I've been working on this sweater for quite some time now. That's totally fine with me, but I can't really rationalize trying out a multitude of other sweater patterns until I give one I'm working on a fighting chance.

Back to the hierarchy. When I end up working on a project that requires a lot of concentration, new projects look even MORE attractive. What I've managed to make my brain do now, however, is to want to work on this project because a) it's literally the only one in my possession right now (I left my attention-requiring project in Palo Alto by accident last weekend) and b) because it's actually not that brain-intensive now that I've read through the whole pattern and planned out how I will change it to be a cardigan instead of a pullover. I also think it helps that I've done a lot of knitting since I started this, and I've learned a thing or two. I'm hoping this also ends up being a learning experience that I can use to be confident in trying out a bunch of appealing sweater patterns I've been ogling on Ravelry lately.

Onward!

evening wear

Last night I looked down at my feet to see this: 

Yep, I'm at it again. True to prediction, now that I've started working on the hand quilting again, I've been thinking about when I get to work away at it next. That's a good sign. I put in an hour and a half or so and got a lot of progress made. My hands are letting me know, too. Those quilting betweens are tiny and hard to grip! Between knitting, quilting, and typing my poor metacarpals are getting quite the action lately. 

You can't tell, but the center panels are almost done. All that is left is 22 little squares to outline in the patchwork, not that I'm counting. When those are done it's on to the task of marking and quilting the moat of blue. That should actually go pretty fast because there won't be so many stops and starts, just those required to start another long piece of thread. But I'm sure that actually getting the marking done is going to be another activation barrier….

I'm reasonably sure I'm deviating from the class instructions on this, but that's ok. I'm just sort of quilting as I see fit. I especially like my choice to go with an off-axis 'x' in this corner patch here. Additionally I don't think I'm going to quilt in that Storm At Sea patchwork to the upper left. I just can't see anything that won't take away from the little vignettes I've incorporated from the toile I used. Vivre la difference!

Charm scarflet, finished

This evening I curled up in my chair, feet up on my fuzzy purple ottoman, and finished this keyhole scarf. It's headed to Tara, and judging by her response to my texted picture, she likes it already. I think it suits her quirky sense of style (a gal after my own heart, indeed).

I decided not to block it at all. Reviews of the pattern I read were mixed with some folks saying it looked a lot better after blocking and some saying the curling of the neck section made it nicer to wear. I settled for a compromise and hand-stretched the piece. It's sitting folded up on my ironing board right now and it's staying flat just fine. When I tried it on, I liked that the leaves puckered a little bit. It will look really nice peeking out of a wool coat or a trench rain coat -- something we are finally using up here in Sacramento. 

The pattern, Anthro-inspired Scarflet, called for aran weight yarn but I wanted to use this teal/blue that was DK so I just held two strands together throughout and it worked out just fine. A lighter weight yarn likely wouldn't hold the structure this requires with just a single strand. The 'ribbing' is less pronounced than I was expecting, in that the fabric is quite flat instead of heavily ridged. In the end I think that's ok because I'm not sure I'd want a big fluffy leaf sticking off my neck anyway. 

Happy to have had this project turn into a stash buster. I just about used up this yarn I bought in Delft -- a little left over for some fun scrappy project in the future. I remember originally wanting to make this yarn into panels for a purse that mimicked the Delftware motifs we saw all over the Netherlands. Alas, it never came to be, but I think this yarn is much more at home as a scarf and it's going to a good home.