Well, I fell off the wagon on the concept of the monthly roundup. I’m not too surprised… I tend to put too much in something like that, and the more detail I want to put in, the longer it takes, and the more likely I am to put it off. So I’m going to try again, with an alternate approach. Instead of a list of questions to answer every month, I’ll answer one question at a time in a post, and not necessarily every month. So this post, I’ll address the question:
What crafts did I work on this month (not what I finished, but what did I work on)?
And instead of saying this month, I’ll address it for the summer of 2014.
So what did I work on? Well, I’ve been sewing. A while ago, I signed up for the Sewing with knits class with Craftsy, as well as The Couture Dress class last year. Both of these things have been inspiring me to focus on sewing a bit. So I’ve tried to make the yoga shorts from the class, a couple of t-shirts, started on the couture dress, stalled out, and recently re-started. In the meantime, I’ve gotten more material to do two knit dresses (one from the class, one from Colette Patterns), one woven (the Cambie dress by Sewaholic), and have also done three Hollyburn skirts (by Sewaholic) in increasingly nice fabric. The third one is not quite finished, as I had to stop and buy a zipper, but the zipper is now pinned in and waiting to be sewn.
Quilting-wise, I haven’t been doing much until recently, but I did just this past week buy some cotton flannel to make some baby quilts, one by request, one as the gift for a first baby at church. I’m going to do pinwheels on point for these two baby quilts, one in blues and yellows, the other in greens and yellows. Plus, I’ve finally found a couple of quilting patterns that appeal to me for the quilt top I finished last year and intend to give to my nephew and his wife. Since it has so much squareness in it, I’d like to try some curviness in the quilting.
Follow your dreams quilt
Two patterns have appealed to me: the Trapped Ripples pattern that Leah Day showed recently and the Paisley Feather by Angela Walters. The Trapped Ripples pattern has triangles and curves, and the Paisley Feather has just curves, but that all contrasts nicely with the squares within squares of the piecing. I always want the quilting and the piecing to work to enhance each other, and in this case I want to use curves to contrast because I think there are hidden curves created by the square patterns. They show most clearly in the border, and I want to bring them out without making things too difficult — it’s a large quilt, larger than anything I’ve quilted before, and stuffing it under the sewing machine will be a challenge.
In knitting, I was slowed down by right elbow pain in April. After some research online, I concluded I probably had a form of tennis elbow, triggered by knitting with too much tension and mouse usage that left my elbow unsupported. I had to take a break from knitting for a while, but have slowly been getting back into it. (Solutions found: brace that helps keep the elbow muscle from tightening up, stretching exercises, not overdoing it, and changing the trackball to one I can use with my right AND left hand, which is properly supported under the elbow)
But I have got things done in knitting! I finished a pair of gift socks,
Gift socks in progress
which will be given this week, working on orange cardigan for myself and purple pullover for my brother, and now ongoing socks for myself. I am not knitting as much as I was, but I am still plugging along, as I have too many things I want to make.
OK, what else have I been doing? Well, I finally finished spinning the grey Shetland top that was one of my first major purchases. With the last 8+ ounces of it, I spun a three-ply. I made a point of spinning it almost to the point of over-spinning so that I could ply tightly without losing too much softness. It’s drying in the bathroom right now, so we’ll see how it came out. I’ve also continued with the spinning study at the guild, although I’m behind, as always.
Weaving? The loom looks at me accusingly. All wound up and no movement happening.
Embroidery? The wool-felt applique gets and occasional bit of attention.
And I think that’s all for now…
Inside my head 