Week 13 of 2024

I finished sewing the quilted jacket! 

This was made using a heavily modified Lutterloh pattern (#77 from supplement #320 - a vintage pattern that I made a French Terry jacket with a while ago). I removed the collar from the pattern.

Increased the centre fronts so I would have room for buttons and buttons holes.

Also made the sleeves longer and narrower. To finish the seams on the jacket I used an overlocker/serger, but I covered the seams for about 6" on the sleeves, so that they would look nice when folded back.

The bias binding on the jacket was leftover from a quilt I had made years ago (I had just enough!).

This was the original quilt top (more details on a previous post found here).

I also finished weaving some more tea towels. Made from 2/8 cotton, and one woven with some cotton chenille too, in a Huck pattern.

I sewed a top for my Mom from fabric my sister had given her (some kind of a stretch rayon).

It is from a Lutterloh pattern - #123, from supplement #322 (I had made her one last summer without sleeves and she loves it).

I turned the heels on my socks, so now this will become my take along project since it is just round and round knitting until all the yarn is used up (knitting from both ends of the ball).

Three months on the temperature blanket, and I should start seeing new colours soon with winter over!

Photos from Around -

Sunrise a few days ago.

Miss Maggie on a mission (more than likely to find a snack).

Molly playing catch (we had more snow this past week).

All the best!♥︎

Week 12 of 2024

Knitting for this week -

I started a pair of socks with yarn that I spun last week.

Toe-up, two-at-a-time, 64 stitches, on 2.5mm needles.

Temperature blanket.

Photos from Around-

Not too much snow left, but temperatures are cold again.

Sunrise.

Our yard is like a skating rink now.

Some interesting ice patterns too.

All the best!♥︎

Week 11 of 2024

One of my favourite things is dyeing fibre for spinning - playing with colour. 

I am not scientific, I just mix different colours, and pour them on the fibre. It is always exciting to see how it turns out.

I love spinning the fibre up (for a 3 ply yarn),

and seeing how the yarn turns out (this is from the bundle on the left in the above photo).

In 2022 I dyed and spun yarn for 12 pairs of socks, and since then I haven't made handspun socks, so I bought some fibre for socks. I find that I can be very experimental with colours for socks, I use about 120g of fibre. This one is a BFL/Nylon sock blend from Nikki Slipp on Etsy.

A birthday stripe on the temperature blanket this week.

Photos from Around-

Miss Maggie had a trip to the vet, and Molly was quite concerned (luckily Maggie has a white triangle on her neck so we can see her when it is dark). She always burrows into the quilt and stays quiet in her carrier.

Lots of signs of spring now - so many flocks of geese (swans too).

Jack Rabbits are starting to show signs of brown on their backs.

The snow is really melted on the surrounding fields.

Dirty looking snow in the yard.

Beautiful sunrise!

All the best!♥︎

Week 10 of 2024

This past week I started a quilted jacket -

This was a medallion quilt top that I made over 6 years ago. I wasn't really happy with it and I knew that it probably needed more, but I didn't think I would like it any better. I would pull it out occasionally to try to think what to do with it, then put it away. It was the only quilt top that I have made that didn't get quilted as soon as it was finished. After seeing so many quilted jackets recently I thought this would be perfect to try. I used a Lutterloh pattern - the same jacket I made a few weeks ago, but removed the shawl collar.

I roughly cut out all the pieces and layered them with a very thin batting and a backing.

Then machine quilted it. I enjoy quilting Clam Shells because there are a few options for quilt designs.

Once all the pieces were quilted, I serged the edges and washed them. Then they were ready for the final cutting. I don't know if I will like the jacket any better than the quilt top, but at least something will have been done with it.

Quilt Group today so some more blocks added to the pile for the Broken Dishes quilt.

Another week for the temperature blanket.

Photos from Around-

A Jack Rabbit (white with black ear tips standing close to the pole) and a Crow having some kind of get together.

A couple of snow storms this week, so we have snow again.

7:30am Friday.

So sparkly.

Annual memorial hockey tournament this weekend - my three nephews participated this year so it made it extra fun.

Sunrise this morning - 7:30am (first day of daylight savings time).

All the best!♥︎

Week 9 of 2024

Not much crafting this week, it was more about cooking and baking (my quest to be more self sufficient means there is more food preparation which I enjoy too).

The only thing I finished was a little pincushion for my sister out of an old Christmas light reflector from our sister-in-law (I think they might have come from one of her grandparents). I have made a few pincushions like this and find them a great size. It is stuffed with crushed walnut shells (lizard litter), with a little piece of textured rubber on the bottom so it stays in place.

I did find time for knitting this week.

Another week on the temperature blanket - we had a bit of a cold snap early in the week.

The over-the-knee-socks are growing nicely. I add 2 stitches about every inch and it is interesting to see how the colour pooling changes. This has become my new take along project.

I am also working on a modular vest (I am sort of following the Tetris Pullover pattern). This is some leftover handspun yarn - hopefully I will have enough. All my knitting seems to be blue now.

Part of my cooking this week was some canning - usually a summer/fall thing for me.

This is some marmalade for my Dad.

He bought a kit that just needed the sugar. The marmalade turned out really good - lots of peel and a great flavour (it made five 500ml/1 pint/half quart/2 cups jars, only canned 4)

We had a snow storm early in the week - even Miss Molly seemed surprised (she is barely visible looking out the window by all the plants on the right side of the photo)

The next morning the skies had cleared.

All the best!♥︎