New Year's Eve Spinning

For the past few years I have participated in a New Year's Eve Spin-In on Ravelry (in the Spinners' Study Group).

This year I cleaned and combed part of a raw fleece to spin. This was a section of the fleece that was very coarse, with a long staple length (about 4-5 inches).

I dyed the fibre,

then drum carded it to blend the colours.

I spun the second bobbin of singles and then plied the yarn on New Year's Eve. I ended up with 130g/273m of 2-ply yarn, about a Dk weight. I spun this yarn for a weaving project.

 Today was a beautiful, clear day with lots of frost.

The last post of the year, and the last of the decade! 

All the best!♥︎

Growing Puppy

Little Miss Molly sure is growing. Here she is yesterday-

And almost three weeks ago (the day she came to live with us)-

Last week she started dropping her ball at the top of any slope, watching it roll down and then chasing after it.

Here she is at the top of a snow bank-

dropping her ball

watching it roll down

chasing after her ball

We have been enjoying the skating rink. We had our family Christmas party on the weekend and it was perfect skating weather.

Here are my boys skating yesterday-

Season's Greetings, and all the best!♥︎

A Pair of Mini Quilts

I enjoyed making the Tiny Tree quilt so much, that I couldn't resist the Temecula Quilt Company's Thanksgiving quilt too.

I loved the colours of the original one, that I made mine the same. After I was finished I realized that since my house is decorated for Christmas, one in Christmas colours would be nice.

So I made a second one. 

Both are quilted simply with a walking foot and 100 weight thread. They are about 8"x11", made with 1+1/2" squares and strips - a perfect way to use up the little bits of fabric from my scrap bin (I love coming across fabric that I haven't seen in a while).

Photos from around -

 

We recently had some high winds which left interesting patterns of dirt from the fields on the snow.

The puppy found something new to chew on.

In the above photo you can see that the pond/skating rink is the same level as the surrounding ground. The skating rink is huge, but it didn't freeze well. Hopefully with a bit of work and cooperating weather we will be able to skate soon.

It has been two weeks since the puppy came to stay, and the cat hasn't gotten used to her yet. She is incredibly quiet (she used to have lots of say and be so loud), plus she doesn't play much now. She does come for walks with us - if it isn't too cold. I hope one day they will be friends - the puppy really wants to get closer. In the above photo Maggie is in a spot that she spends a lot of time - waiting for food.

All the best!♥︎

Sewing and Knitting

I finished the Tiny Tree quilt from the Temecula Quilt Company blog.

 

For my home I thought it would work better as a Christmas cushion, so I added some pinwheel blocks to the side, and some filler strips to make a 16" square. The pinwheels were made with the same size squares as the one in the tree, but I didn't trim the half square triangles as small, so the blocks are a bit bigger.

The cushion goes really well with our Christmas quilt - which was the TQC mystery quilt from last Christmas (Secret Santa Sew Along).

I free motion quilted with 100 weight Invisafil thread.

This week I also sewed a coat for the puppy-

I used a couple of online resources to figure out how to make a coat - wikiHow for the basic shape, and this YouTube video for sewing.

This was my pattern (on 1" grid paper). After I made the first pattern I cut one out of a scrap of cotton fabric to see how it would fit, and made some adjustments to the final pattern.

Since Molly is just a puppy and has a lot of growing to do over the winter I added long strips of velcro so the coat can grow too. The outer fabric is a piece of leftover fleece from a top I had made my son when he was little (Molly is his dog), and the inner fabric is a piece of flannel leftover from a quilt backing.

We have had a cold snap this week so she is getting lots of use out of her new coat.

I finished knitting a pair of socks out of handspun yarn-

I had bought the fibre from the Manitoba Fibre Festival in September. It is Pyrocumulus Top from Cloud 9 Fiberworks, in the colour way Apocalyptic Sunset (a blend of SW Merino, Nylon and Stellina).

They are incredibly sparkly.

All the best!♥︎

A Couple Little Things

The Temecula Quilt Company is having another Christmas quilt along, this one is called Tiny Tree.

I have done the first seven blocks. They are 2+1/4" blocks - a great way to use up small bits of fabric.

We have a new addition to our family -

Apparently this little thing will grow up to be our guard dog (all the neighbours seem to have a German Shepard in their yards too). Molly is about 10 weeks old, and is doing so well. I am amazed how well behaved she is, and how much she has learned in the five days we have had her - and how much she has grown.

Maggie wasn't too happy to meet her new fur sister, but she is getting better.

Maggie is even coming for walks with us - she is the black dot at the top of the photo.

All the best!♥︎

Another Cowl

 I knitted another Brioche Vine Cowl (pattern by Mercedes Tarasovich).

This is the fourth one I have made - I think it is the warmest cowl. I made this one for my Dad.

I learned to knit brioche using one colour at a time, but for this cowl I tried one pass two colour brioche. It was much faster, but I ended up with odd mistakes that I didn't know how to fix - I am hoping that it is just inexperience, and I will get better. I have enough yarn leftover to make another cowl with the colours reversed. The yarn is Knit Picks Preciosa (a 100% Merino singles yarn), that I dyed. The cowl is incredibly soft. I learned to knit one pass two colour brioche from this tutorial from Sockmatician. The tutorial didn't cover increases and decreases and I explained what I did on my project page on Ravelry.

My sweater is progressing nicely now that I have finished the sleeves. I also finished the ribbing on the neck so that I would be able to use the rest of the yarn for the body. I am past my waist and have almost half the yarn left so it should be a tunic/mid thigh length when finished.

Photos from around -

 Second bathroom renovations - we discovered a blue tub under the Bath Fitter insert.

 Surveying her world.

Geese on the open water on the  river.

All the best!♥︎

Japanese Sewing Patterns

This weekend I sewed a tunic-

The pattern is from this Japanese book-

The book is roughly translated as Basic Adult Clothes, and it contains all these patterns-

I bought this book in Japan for 1400 Yen - about $14 Can, which is about the price of one pattern here. The patterns come in four sizes - small to extra large.

I made this tunic-

With the collar from this dress-

As you can see the sewing patterns are super simple. I used the Google Translate app on my phone to translate the instructions.

I made some changes to the pattern-

I added pockets, which meant that I had to round out the points on the side because the tunic just didn't hang right.

The fabric is 100% cotton knit with little loops on the back. I used a ribbon to stabilize the seams (I bought a few rolls of ribbon for pennies at a fabric sale in the summer). I sewed the seams and finished off the hem edges with a serger.

I used a twin needles for the hems.

I love the collar.

The tunic is super fun to wear - oversized and pockets - a great combination! Of course it is so comfortable.

I have plans (and fabric) to make a few more things from the book.

Photos from around -

 While we were away my son took this photo of a fox - he said that it had been looking in the window when he came in the room.

 Geese flying south last week

 Miss Maggie never liked boxes before, but she seems to have found one she likes.

 Snow melting off the grain bins.

All the best!♥︎