Month: February 2017

Finished: The Amethyst Fair Isle Sweater

3 Comments

It’s been finished for a couple of weeks, but it’s also birthday season here in Brooketopia, so I’ve just been too busy for blogging while finishing up birthday presents and the inevitable Valentine’s Day stuff that moms of school-aged kids deal with.

But, yes, the big purple sweater is complete, she loves it, and I thought I’d share some more photos of it outside of Instagram.

I loved sketching out the fair isle designs, my cat got in the way constantly, and the long expanse of purple body knitting was something I really enjoyed–so mindless and soothing.

But the best part, ALWAYS, of knitting fair isle anythings is the actual fair isle knitting.  People, I had a fabulous January, even in spite of a really mean chest cold that I caught from my kids.  Who cares if you’re sick and can barely breathe when you can just weather it out in bed watching Netflix and knitting away on a big, beautiful bunch of colors?!?!  Best bout of sickness EVAH.

201701231058252172

20170125170990139

I had the goal of finishing it up before my girl’s birthday at the beginning of February, and I’m pleased to say that it was blocked by her birthday, but still needed its underarm seams and end-weaving, so not completely finished, but definitely finished enough!

I got those last bits out of the way over the next few days, and she was able to wear it to church the following Sunday.

20170205-1629046211

Yes, I’m monstrously pleased with how it turned out.  I did a little bit of shaping in the waist, and the fit was just so good!  Pre-blocking, the neck was really wonky and caused me a great deal of worry, so I blocked it rather aggressively and the photo shows that it turned out just fine.

I haven’t done a whole lot of knitting in the past few years, so this was a bit of a crazy undertaking, but I’m so glad I went through with it–it’s very beautiful, and I got a bit of a “Heck yeah, I can still do this!” ego boost from it, ha ha.

I don’t really see any knitting in my immediate crafty future, but I’m sure the bug will bite again come autumn and its chilly air.  I heart fair isle knitting so much!

My New Plan for Battling UFOs and Scraps

2 Comments

I made no resolutions this year because I knew that, by mid-February or so, I’d be looking for justifications to abandon them.  Instead, I decided to stew on the things I would normally make resolutions about, and hope that feasible solutions would present themselves to me.  Lo and behold, whilst scrutinizing my bulging scrap bins and the big ol’ bin o’ UFOs a few days ago, a plan magically unfolded in my mind:

20170211_164545

How freakishly simple is that?!  Lather, rinse, repeat.

I always start out my year with the resolution to finish as many UFOs as possible, but then new patterns, yarns, and fabrics start popping onto my radar, and it’s just such a teeth-clenching battle to not chase after the new bright and shinies.  And that sums up my entire creative year.

Now, instead of white-knuckling it as much as possible, I’ll plan for finishing up a few UFOs each year, a few “new-to-me” projects, and a few scrap bin-based projects.  No guilt required.

AND…if it’s time for me to work on a UFO, and I pull out a UFO and decide to just donate it instead, IT COUNTS.  The goal is to whittle down the UFO pile and close those open loops, and that happens even if I donate a half-finished project to Goodwill.

I am super excited to give the plan a try!

What are your methods for finishing UFOs and managing scraps?

 

Rachel Wishes She Had a Crafty Mother

3 Comments

I was in my craft room, trying to locate a pattern that I know I purchased this week, when my youngest daughter, Rachel, bounced into the room.  This was not ideal, as I was planning to commence sewing her birthday present once I found the missing pattern.

She’s a bit of a flit-on-by kind of girl, so I assumed she’d blast me with a bit of hurried chatter before continuing on her way to some other unsuspecting member of the family, but, of course, no.  She stopped next to me and watched me for a few seconds, then said, “I want to use the sewing machine.”

I looked over her, raised an eyebrow, and said, “Oh, really?  What for?”

She giggled, “To sew a quilt!”

“Oh,” I said, “what kind of quilt?”

She shrugged, “My usual, you know…the one I always make.”

“Why don’t you make a different one?”

“Because that’s the only one I know how to make…”

“Hmmm,” I said, “wouldn’t it be nice if you had a mother who could, like, I don’t know, TEACH YOU how to make other kinds of quilts?”

“Yeah, it really would,” she said, “I really wish…WAIT! I DO HAVE A MOM THAT CAN TEACH ME HOW TO MAKE A DIFFERENT QUILT!”

And that, my friends, was how I came to start another quilt instead of working on my kid’s birthday present.  Now, if you’ll excuse me, there is some massive pattern perusal happening that I need to get back to…