Lazy Sunday Knitting

It seems a little odd to sit outside on a hot sunny day and knit a scarf for winter ... but that's where you'd find me today.

And my plan for Sunday evening is TV, more knitting–inside with my feet up and likely a cat on my lap :-)

I chose to make the longer version of the pattern and it seems like this scarf will go on forever ... the making of it is definitely a good fit for slow stitching Sunday.

The end is in sight.  Next weekend, I hope to be back to stitching on fabric.

Record High Temperatures and Yet ...

It makes no sense and yet I feel like knitting.

I picked up this yarn earlier this week and am going to make this scarf ... to be worn much much later this year.  (That gives me a lot of time to finish it, right?)

Maybe it's because the past week was Knit In Public Week.  I didn't see anyone publicly knitting in Santa Fe, but I carried this project around with me and managed a few public stitches.

My plan for Slow Stitch Sunday is to take this project out onto the deck this afternoon, with a big glass of ice tea and make some good progress with knitted stitches.  How about you?

Finished?

When you do you consider a project finished?

Is a quilt finished when the top is complete and it's sent off to a longarm quilter or added to the to-be-quilted pile? When it's quilted and bound, label and hanging sleeve added? This little quilt, pieced in December is now, as Amy once called it, "done, done."

For more details about this little quilt, and measurements for making your own mini-Tall Shoo Flies, see my post on the Block Lotto today.

Is a knit project finished when the knitting is done? When it's sewn together? How about when you wear it for the first time?  I finished the cowl to match my Aran hat last weekend–unfortunately, as a feared, the  yarn requirements in the pattern were wrong and so there will be no matching fingerless mitts.  I am otherwise happy with how it turned out and have been wearing it out in the cold and snow this week.  The cable pattern was easy to remember and fun to knit.

Last Fall, I finished another knit, the lacy mystery beret, Meret. When I failed to find a right-sized plate or platter in my kitchen to use to block it, I tucked it away ... until earlier this week, when I was making a stir fry and looked at the cover of my wok in a new away. It was perfectly sized.  After blocking, I added a ribbon inside to keep the edge of my extra-slouchy beret the correct size. Now, this one also feels REALLY finished and ready to wear. 

I'm joining the link list on Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?  Check out how productive quilters in blog land have been. 

Feeling Fall-ish

With the first cold snap of Fall, I feel the urge to knit, make soups and roast vegetables,  get outside and enjoy the outdoors during the day and curl up in the evening with a pot of tea and some hand-stitching.

Last night, I finished this beret. It's a quick knit from some wool-cashmere yarn (Debbie Bliss Cashmerino) in my stash using the Meret Mystery Beret pattern.

The fit is pretty good, but I'll probably add a ribbon on the inside to maintain the correct head size and keep the edge from stretching. I also need to block it so lace pattern will be more apparent-last night I tried a large dinner plate and a round serving platter and neither was quite large enough.

Last week, I finally sewed down the binding on an old quilt project and am basting the layers of an older one so it can be finally finished and enjoyed–photos soon.

The makings for vegetarian stock are in the fridge along with a butternut squash.

Are you feeling Fall-ish?  What does that inspire in you?

The Color of the Weekend is YELLOW

Yellow is the color for June in the rainbow scraps challenge. The most challenging thing for me about working with yellow scraps is that, like others, I just don't have many of them.

I enjoyed making the small pink yo-yos last month (for a project that is not yet finished) so I thought I'd make some yellow flowers using the Clover tool–purchased at a quilt show a long, long time ago, but never used . . .  until now.

Here are my first efforts. 

I was thinking of black-eyed Susans when I added big black beads to the centers . . . even though these flowers really look nothing like them.

My idea was to chain them together and use them as a hatband for a wide brimmed straw hat that I'm cleaning up and re-working, but once they were in place, I didn't like it :-(

I'll wait for some new inspiration.

While I like the Clover tool, I don't think I'll be makng more flowers from quilting cotton.  I think it would be wonderful to use with a silk chiffon, a handkerchief linen or other lightweight fabric.   The flowers finish around 1 3/4 inch wide.  I also bought the smaller 1 1/4 flower tool.

On a more successful note, I removed the blocking wires and T-pins from my shawl (Grace helped) and I am quite happy with the result.

World Wide Knit in Public Day is being celebrated this week–I haven't heard of any public knitting events near me, but I'll be casting on a new project soon and being on the lookout for kindred knitters.

Pay No Attention to the COLOR in these Photos

The real news is that the extra ball of yarn arrived a couple days ago and it seems to be a close enough match, despite coming from a different dye lot.

I finished knitting last night and blocked the shawl this afternoon. The brightly colored modular interlocking rubber mats under the shawl really challenged my camera . . . but I still wanted to share my progress.

The biggest challenge of knitting this pattern in the Aran weight yarn was the P5 together that makes the "nubs" in the Lilies of the Valley pattern. Once I developed a technique for that stitch, it went very smoothly.

Here's a detail photo showing some of those lovely bobbly "nubs" and the final lace pattern.

 

I'm not sure if the knitting police would consider this "done," but I'm counting it as a finish ... and maybe, since the shawl was knit from some leftover skeins and the color for this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge is yellow, it can count as a challenge project, too ;-)