Mona Socks

These socks slipped through the cracks (of the blog). I posted them on Ravelry when they were finished in early June but forgot to get them loaded up here.

The pattern is Mona by Cookie A., my favorite sock designer. I've knit so many of her patterns already but there are so many more that I like. The sock club keeps new yarn and patterns rolling in every month but I think I won't sign up again for the club next year. I seem to have enough yarn in my drawer and patterns in my queue and, lord knows, plenty of pretty socks to wear already. I'm glad the weather has finally cooled off. It's been months of shorty cotton socks and now it is time for wool. 

Wine Spill

Not everything that is pictured on the blog lives happily ever after. Red wine leaves a tough stain so the new pillow didn't stay pristine very long. It's no big deal, really. The front was spared. 

Keeping it real...

Clamshell Pillow

I have always appreciated clamshell quilts but a whole quilt seemed a little too ambitious. Making a pillow is a great way to try out something new and still get it finished in a reasonable amount of time.

I had a charm pack of Malka Dubrawsky's Simple Marks so the 5" square became my starting point. I drew a cardboard template, traced around it on the back of the fabric and cut out the shells with a seam allowance. Then I used aluminum foil to iron the piece around the template, which gave me the precise curved shapes that I needed for the pillow top. They were hand stitched together and then hand quilted with Perle cotton and embroidery floss. The rest of the finishing was by machine.

Rainbow Hats

The rainbow yarn was a gift.

The rainbow baby hats will be donated.

Passing it on.

Cassis Shawlette

Here is a finished project from the archives. It isn't that old, just a couple of months, but I'm glad I took some pictures before I sent it off in the mail.

My friend and I were looking around a new-to-us yarn store in Oregon and we saw a version of this pretty pattern hanging up on display. The design is called Cassis Shawlette. I get used to looking at images online but it was nice to see something in real life. I bought the yarn that day and it turned out pretty much as it was supposed to.

I didn't take any modeled photos or include anything that shows the scale but it is not real big and she will wear it around her neck like a scarf.

Bijou Sunprint Quilt

About a year ago, I contacted Holly DeGroot and got her permission to use one of her designs after I saw this quilt that she had made. I had some of the same fabrics that she had used (Sunprint) and some of the Collage fabric pictured above. I figured out the pattern based on her photographs. The triangles are paper pieced and I tried to make the blocks as big as possible using the fat quarters I had to work with. 

I was inspired at the time so I sewed up the blocks pretty quickly. They sat untrimmed and neglected for a good many months until I finally resolved to finish what I started.

I think the pictures tell the story so I will omit the narration of borders, backing binding, etc. For the quilting, I did some funky FMQ by machine on the main part and some hand stitching with Perle cotton on the borders. The finished size is 68" x 83", before washing. It's the size I usually make as it fits well on the floor of my studio and isn't too big to wrestle with.

Striped Cardigan

Here is a project that was five months in the making. It started out strong; I had an intense focus on finding the perfect pattern for a striped cardigan. I liked elements of several different designs and ended up making up my own mash-up pattern based on measurements I took of a sweater that I had on the shelf. 

After choosing the yarn and the colors for the imagined perfect sweater, the knitting went along without much of a hitch. But often, even as I was making good progress, I just put it aside. The original drive to make it seemed to peter out. Everything turned out pretty much as I had planned and I didn't have much ripping out to do. So, I should be happy but somehow, it is just one of those projects which is a bit "meh". 

I'll wear it and when I find some different buttons, I'll replace these that are a bit thin and not quite the right shade of blue. I think some metal or pewter buttons with a traditional flair would look better.