I wiped away the weeds & foam. / I fetched my sea-born treasures home... Ralph Waldo Emerson







Thursday, July 24, 2014

Thinking About Knitting. And Quilting.

 
 
 
Hi guys! I hope your day is as sunny and beautiful as mine is here at the Beach!



I am still not getting much done. Mo and I are working out a new way of doing things, where he can sit with me here and hold his own chewy. Yes that's my leg,lol.



Of course he'd prefer I just surrender my chair entirely. So comfy now that he has shredded and bunched it into puppy shape.



Do not be fooled! Mo is a very bad boy. "The dog ate my knitting!"


I've mentioned that I like having a knitting project on hand. Sometimes one's guests are a trifle dull or the wait at the dentist is way too long. For me a simple hand work project can stave off annoyance and jitters. (I get a big kick out of telling the very long-wait specialist MD that I knitted an entire hat while waiting endlessly for my 2 minute turn. He looks bemused and carries on, clueless as ever. Male doctors' time is important, female patients' time is of no value. You knew this, right?)

Anyway this blue hat has been on my needles for awhile. Then Mo attacked the yarn. What a mess, plus he ripped it off its needles. Yummy. Dogs may be colorblind but he loves bright colors.  I was pretty upset because I love this bulky blue and turquoise tweedy yarn. It took me hours to untangle and rewind. And reknit.



I am now at the decrease stage, just where I want to be to try out my friend Hunter's beautiful spiral decrease for a watch cap. I believe it is based on Elizabeth Zimmerman's How to's but entirely written by Hunter.

To make her complete hat I dug out some colorful worsted yarns from my stash. These are alpaca or cashmere blends.



I wish I had more of this gorgeous bulky cashmere. I am hoarding it for a headband/ ear warmer thing.




But instead of being thrifty, I treated myself to a skein of 100% alpaca worsted from Purl Soho. here




It is soft like a cloud. And how could I resist the color's name of Sea Salt? It's a beautiful neutral taupe, the color below is the most accurate, and if the hat comes out as nice as Hunter's, here on her blog, it will make a lovely Christmas gift for some neutral loving NYC-ish friend or family member.




To avoid the Mo attacks I worked outside on my deck table. I use my little turquoise stool as a yarn holder when I wind wool skeins into balls. Look at that blue sky!



I'm looking forward to starting my new hat!



And I am very excited about Lori of Humble Quilts Patriotic Flags quilt along. I dug out the bin with all my patriotic fabrics. Here is Mo helping me choose.



I had planned to use only stashed fabrics for this project but it requires some fairly large pieces of material , especially the center eagle.

You need MORE fabric, Mommy?

Off we went to Joann's . I don't have a real LOS, local quilt shop. So my choices are a voyage to Joann's or online buying. And I needed thread!


I think what I found this time is really captures the look of the quilt in the photo. Especially if tea dyed in some cases. And evrything was half price! I was a very happy girl.



Here are browns for the eagle.



No funky olive greens, though, for the spacer stars. May have to do some Rit dying when we get that far.
IF I get that far. My little helper is, well, not so good at that. But he is a great puppy!~



PS Mo ripped the hated Dustbuster off its wall dock this morning while I was showering. He tore it down, charger dock and all!---and took it entirely apart. And he was so proud---he vanquished the evil interloper machine!
sigh.

Time for my swim!

love

lizzy

gone to the beach.............

 
 

 
Patriotoc flag quilt is designed by Jan Patek. Quilt along is on Humble Quilts