Christmas Socks 2018

When I first started knitting over 40 years ago, I made  a few sweaters. I put the needles down for many years to pursue my teaching career and raise my 3 children.   Just recently I returned to knitting. It was a whole new world!

Aside from the new needles and independent yarn dyers that have blossomed, a plethora of knitting activities had emerged along with acronyms - KAL, WIP, UFL, BFL, etc.  What the heck!!  Now maybe some of you are familiar with these terms, but I had never heard of them before.  I needed to do some research just to work my way through them.  

Another interesting occurrence is that shawls had sprung into the limelight.  It seems there are many designers creating new shawl patterns and plenty of people knitting them as well.  And the yarns, don't get me started.  They combine such a variety of wool from sheep, yaks, goats, alpacas and more, that they put the yarns of yore to shame. 

All I can say is it's a wonderful and exciting new world for knitters.  

And this brings me to something else I discovered - knitted Christmas socks.  Yes, that's right.  People knit socks for the Christmas season and some knit more than one pair - many more.  I didn't really know such a thing existed, but after viewing various knitting podcast - and there are numerous ones out there -  and discovering this knitted Christmas sock phenomenon, I was hooked.   I found the perfect self-striping yarn at a LYS (local yarn store) .   It's made in England by West Yorkshire Spinners.  The color is Fairy Lights and it's so cute.  I paired it with their Cayenne Pepper for the contrast toes, heels, and cuffs. The yarn is a combination of BFL (Bluefaced Leicester) wool and nylon.  Really nice to knit. Also, bought their Chocolate Lime yarn for next year's pair.  I'm hooked.  I can see this becoming a tradition. 😊

Personalized Knitted Christmas Ornaments

So along with all the Christmas ornaments that I blogged about in my last post, I also made personalized ones for the grandchildren and great nieces and nephews.  With a bit a pattern adaptation,  I was able to knit each name on half the ball as well as a couple of designs on the other side to complete it.  Some letters shape better than others when knitting stitches.

Knitted Christmas Ornaments

This year I have been knitting Christmas ornaments.  They are just the right size project to get on my needles. They vary in design and I can finish them in a good amount of time.

These are Nordic patterns designed by Arne and Carlos.  

They are knit with 100% Peruvian Highland wool and filled with wool roving.  As they are handmade, no two are exactly the same - each is unique.

Hopefully these will adorn the families' Christmas trees for years to come.

Project Bags

Don't know what it is, but I love sewing these project bags.   When fabric catches my eye, I feel the need to make a bag out of it :) I'm calling this one Hudson Red because that's the name of the multicolor fabric.  Reminiscent of Hudson Bay's colours.  The red bottom is Kona Rich Red.  I'll be making more of these in other colors.

Hudson Red

  If I need a bigger project bag, I make adjustments to the pattern.  Sometimes I'll make a drawstring bag, instead of the zipper.  But, I generally prefer zippered ones.

Spring Drawstring

Zigzag

I quilt the exterior of most bags.

Woolly Red

Scrappy Correspondence

Sometimes I make a scrappy exterior with leftover fabric from my stash.



 All in all, a fun and useful sewing activity.

Peter Socks

Another great pattern, the Peter Sock,  by Kay Jones of Bakery Bears.  The second pattern of her Miss Potter Sock Club has a cute stitch that gives the sock such a nice texture.  

As a toe up sock knitter, it's a pleasant change to knit cuff down.  The heel is different from the usual type I knit as well.

I chose a self-striping yarn from Regia Design Line by Arne & Carlos .  I was determined to have the pair of socks as close to the same as possible.  After trying to find  the best place to start the yarn for the second sock,  I think I achieved it.  They are pretty close to matching lines when placed side by side. 

Love the colours in this pair of Peter socks. 

Christmas Stockings 2018

These cute Christmas stockings made with modern seasonal fabric are perfect for the holiday season. I purchased the fabric from Mad About Patchwork.  It was there I saw a sample of the stocking.  A workshop by Katy was planned for that afternoon.   It looked so cute that I had to make them.

 

There are lots of tutorials on-line or perhaps a workshop at your favorite LQS can get you started with these.  They don't take long to sew together and make nice gifts and ideal decorations.  

I may try some scrappy Christmas fabric stockings.

Applique Christmas Stockings

I decided to make some Christmas stockings and cut some quilted fabric using a stocking template.  

Once I  decided on the content, I picked through my stash for the right colors and prints.  

Then came the task of tracing and cutting out individual pieces from fabric backed with Stitch Witchery. A very time consuming and finicky job.













 I ironed each piece to the stockings making sure to keep to the correct sequence of application.  Finally,  I machine satin stitched around the pieces.  The stockings were sewn together and topped with a border and hanging ribbon.



Only made one of each stocking so these are certainly unique Christmas stockings.

Flying Geese Quilt

Fall here in Almonte has flocks of geese flying south for the winter.  Seldom a day goes by without seeing the birds flying in V-shape formation and honking loudly as they continue their journey.  This inspired me to make a quilt based on flying geese.  I saw the Grey Goose Quilt made by Beech Tree Lane .  I loved the symmetry of the flying geese and the shades of grey and negative space.

I wanted to make a much larger size - almost 94" square and use more print fabrics.  Instead of a white background, I chose Grunge in Paper White by Moda.   Mad About Patchwork staff suggested that as an alternative to the white.  It has a bit of grey in it and worked perfectly.

 

I constructed the flying geese using the 4 at a time, no waste method.  It really did cut down on the waste and I was left with only bits from each block.  

There are lots of tutorials on the internet for the No Waste Method.  Here's one I found quite helpful.
Wing Clipper Tool  I made the blocks without using the tool.

Once all the blocks were made - over 200 of them -  I used my 'design board' to play with placement. 

When I was happy with the placement, I sewed the blocks together in columns.  Then joined the columns, alternating the geese going up in one and down in the next column.

I quilted my quilt using the  longarm machine at Happy Wife Quilting.  Jen's new machine is fantastic.  I chose the Samuri pattern after much hemming and hawing. 

  

The backing of the quilt is Wideback Spackle Newspaper Clipping from Windham.  It's a busy fabric to contrast the simplistic geese pattern.

Finally for the binding, I chose a red with black print.  I was originally going to use a black with very small polka dots, but the red makes for a nice contrast.  Happy with the final result.

Jemima Socks

Knitting these Jemima socks was a delight.  I usually knit toe up socks so a cuff down with a gusset flap heel were new to me.  Kay's directions were easy to follow.  I used the Magic Loop method - for me it's easier to control 2 needles than 3 or 4.

Kay Jones of the Bakery Bears Podcast designed this pattern as part of the Miss Potter Sock Club - a 3 sock pattern club.  You can read all about the sock club on her Ravelry Page. 

The yarn I chose was the main body was Schachenmayr Regia 4-fadig Designer Line.   The toe and heel were knit with Schachenmayr Regia 4-fadig Solid.

Looking forward to the next pattern. :)

My Adventures with Brioche Knitting

When I saw the Ramble Shawl by Andrea Mowry on a Rosehaven Yarn Shop podcast I was thrilled with the design.  I had made a few different shawls over the last few years and decided I'd give this one a try.  I picked up the yarn and pattern at the Fibre Fest in Prince Edward County from Rosehaven Yarn.  

The yarn was Acadia from The Fibre Co. in colors of Mountain Ash and Thunder Bay.  It's a beautiful yarn made of 60% wool, 20% alpaca and 20% silk. 

As always, I started reading through the pattern and realized that this was something I hadn't seen before - brioche - hmmm.   So, that's what gives it that unique look.  Well, I've knit cable sweaters, colorwork sweaters and lace stitches, so I felt fairly confident that I'd be able to handle the brioche knitting. Always up for learning something new.

Stitches like brp, brk, brLsl and brkyobrk were like a different language, but lookups on the internet and some helpful videos on YouTube saved the day. 

The first half of the shawl is garter stitch and after realizing halfway through the rows that my stitch count was off I had to unravel the work to the beginning as I couldn't quite figure out where I went wrong.

Carefully counting and checking as I knit my next attempt, I progressed to the brioche section - with some trepidation. 

I have heard that "repetition is the mother of learning" and if that's the case I have certainly learned brioche.  I lost count of how many times I had to unravel back to the beginning of the brioche section (5 or 6 maybe) Not being familiar with brioche stitch, I wasn't able to tink back to correct my mistakes.😩

Along the way, I learned several things. 

1. Always read the pattern to ensure you buy enough yarn. (Didn't realize this until I was halfway through the brioche.)  I checked Ravelry to see if anyone had made the shawl with the amount of yarn I had.  Some did and they used smaller size needles.  So I gave that a try.  Ripped out once again and used the smaller needles.  In the back of my mind, I kept thinking just order more yarn as I kept on knitting.  Finally I  succumbed and phoned Rosehaven Yarn. Luckily, they still had the yarn in stock and I had them mail me what I needed. 
   
   
2. A 'lifeline' in knitting is a wonderful idea.  Lifelines are a marvelous idea when knitting a complicated pattern. Lifelines are thin strands of yarn that are run through a row of your knitting. I used some bright colored yarn.   I hadn't used this technique before, but it certainly came in handy as I progressed through the brioche section.
   
3. You can never have too many lifelines and checks and double checks.  This helped to keep track of rows and stitches as I still hadn't quite got the hang of the structure of the pattern.
   
    
   
   

   4.   It's fun to learn a new knitting technique.  It's always nice to add to one's knitting repertoire. This pattern was great - well written and large print. 

   
   

    
   Finished knitting and blocked the shawl. Now it's ready to wear.
   
   Not sure if I'm completely happy with the way the shawl wraps.  Perhaps blocking it again will work it out.
   
   
   After the steep learning curve and frequent rip outs, there are still a few mistakes.  As a quilter I have heard a story about Amish quilts that says a quilt can't be perfect because only God makes perfection.  I use that rationale when quilting and I think I'll apply that adage to knitting as well!! 😊
   
   

Radio Ways Charity Quilt

My latest quilt is based on the Radio Ways pattern by Jaybird Quilts. 

This is a great pattern for using up 2 1/2" wide pieces.   Using these scraps makes for a very colorful top.  The white bordered pieces create a nice contrast.

To keep with the guidelines of the Victoria's Quilt group that I make these for - I made the blocks 10" finished size.

I machine quilted it with my Bernina 770 QE with walking foot.

Bordered Nine-Patch

 Recently I put together a quilt from the Missouri Quilt Company.  The Bordered Nine-Patch was created with black, white and red fabrics.  This quilt will be another donation for Victoria's Quilts. 

Jenny's tutorial makes this an easy to make quilt that creates an overall interesting design.  The use of 2 1/2" strips in the construction of the blocks makes it ideal for jelly rolls.