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Category: shawl

Over the weekend

Judy1 Comment on Over the weekend

Over the weekend I managed to get a few things finished or worked on here at the house.  Not everything I wanted got done, and now it’s Monday and back to work, but several things were finished.

First up, the bathroom remodel, that was started last spring, is finally OVER!  DONE!  COMPLETE!!!!!  (according to me, DH is thinking new countertop but I kind of like the brightness of the white).

 

Those walls took forever to finish.  First the drywall compound gave me fits, then finding the right color for such a small room that was warm, neutral and went with the two pictures that were to remain was challenging.  And of course that type of work is slow for me to accomplish.  In the end I’m pleased with the results.  All of the woodwork was custom made by DH (with a little help from the youngest grand over the winter holiday visit).  And it was done one step at a time.  Which is how we do things.  First piece goes in, then the second piece is decided on.  In the end I have exactly what I want, open shelving, some decorative, some functional, and the room kept it’s open feeling.  I didn’t want the room to feel overwhelmed with the storage needed.

DH also got my lighting under my kitchen cabinet changed out over the holidays.  I can now see when I pour my coffee into one of my darker mugs.  He would have done this ages ago, but I balked on the cost of the fixtures, they’re LED lights.  As per usual, I should have said yes ages ago!

And we finally have hens, or one of them, laying again.

 

My hens went off laying in early November when they went through a molt.  Then the shorter days kept the lack of eggs going.  Yesterday I got my first fresh egg of 2018!  I’m down to five hens now, re-homed the older ones.  Five hens is more than enough for a two person household once they all start laying again.  And they’re not all seven day a week layers, so I’m anticipating about 3 eggs a day.  Perfect numbers if it all works out!

 

I also spent some time this weekend with knitting, both working on the in process mystery shawl and some new stitch markers.  Once the stitch markers are knitter tested, I’m planning on adding them to my etsy shop.

 

 

All in all, it was a busy weekend.  But now it’s Monday and it’s time to head back into the studio and the office for the week.

 

 

January 5, 2018

JudyLeave a Comment on January 5, 2018

As I sit here having breakfast, I thought I’d share a few projects that I worked on over the holidays and this week.
One of my online groups had a WIP challenge over the holidays.  After two years languishing on the needles, the challenge was the perfect boost to finish them.  The pattern is Louisella by Mary Hough Designs.  Mary is one of my favorite sock designers on Ravelry.  

  

I also worked on a custom quilt for a customer.  I’ll share just a sneak peak.

And a class sample in progress.  More details are on Quilters Loft blog, this is one of the mini lap quilt series.  http://quiltersloftcompany.blogspot.com/ 

And finally, I rejoined WPKnits Stunning Mystery Society 2018 knit a long.      http://wpknits.com/ This year we’re knitting a total of five shawls.  Four are quarterly projects and one is a year long knit.  The quarterly shawls release one clue a week, the year long shawl releases one clue a month.  This is the start of the first quarterly shawl after the opening clue. And yes, it has beads in it!

My toast and fruit are done, so it’s time to take my coffee and head to work. The question is to which job first, the office or the studio?  

On the needles (and longarm)

Judy1 Comment on On the needles (and longarm)

Although I may not get a chance until late tonight to link this to the Patchwork Times “On the Needles” post for the day, I thought I’d take a few minutes and share with you what I’m working on currently.  I’m not even sure all of these are in the “projects” listing in the sidebar that really needs to be completed; but they’re my current knitting projects.

 

First up, the never ending socks!  Why am I calling them that?  Because I decided to knit each skein to the end (or close to it) and they’re much longer than I normally make my socks and seem to be taking forever.  Perhaps because, while I know they’ll wear like iron, I’m not particularly keen on the color combination.  Yes, these are the SAME socks I attempted to finish for the pooling challenge way back when.  But I’m almost done now:

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I’m also currently working on a shawl for my mom (photos are okay since there’s no surprise there, she got to pick the yarn).  This pic doesn’t do justice to the color, but I needed to use the flash so the pattern could be seen.  I’m using the Zephyr Shawl pattern (one of my favorites) and the yarn is actually a deep denim blue, very dark, almost a black blue from a distance:

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My last project “on the needles” are swatches!  Simple little swatches.  LOL  I’ll be taking a finishing class later this month on seaming knitted projects together and our homework before the class is to knit several swatches.  Makes sense, you can’t learn to seam knitted pieces without having knitted pieces to seam in class!  So it’s a boring little mindless take with me project:

DSCN1253So are you asking why a person who learned to knit as a teenager and has been knitting steadily since the late 1980’s would be taking a finishing class?  Well, it’s because I truly believe a person can always learn a tip or trick or another way to do something that might result in a nicer end product.  And since I rarely do sweaters, in part due to seaming the pieces together and in part due to getting gauge, I thought this might be a good class to improve my skills.

 

On the longarm this week is a large, really large, Christmas quilt for a customer.  The customer requested a freehand holly meander for the background, then custom work in the piecing.  I’m on my 3rd day now of holly fill and getting better at it with every new holly leaf.  It’s not a feather, but there is a rhythm to it, or would be if certain things didn’t interrupt me, but then again, life here is never boring so disruptions exist!  😉

 

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That’s what’s on the needles at my house (and on the longarm too).  What’s on the needles at your house today?