Thursday, April 03, 2008

A More Upbeat Post

I apologize if my last post was too depressing for you. This cause is really dear to my heart since I have been where these families are today --- grieving the loss of a child. Though it has been 12 years since the loss of our daughter Brianna, my heart still wonders where and what our family would be like today if she had lived. Something to look forward to -- "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." Revelation 21:4

Onto more fun things. I haven't posted about my quilting activities lately so here are a couple of projects. The first I am calling Scrappy 9 Patches. The pattern is "Treasure Trove" by Nancy Mahoney from the Clothworks website (though I don't it listed there anymore). A good reason why I try to print out both knitting and quilting patterns I find on the web that I think I will make one day. They seem to disappear if I don't print them out! Clothworks has about 82 other free quilt patterns on the above link. Check it out!

This is all scrappy with fabric that was donated to our quilting group. The quilt is about 50" x 66" and will be donated to Encompass in September.

This next quilt is still a WIP (work in progress). It is pinned and ready to be quilted which will start on Friday evening at our quilt group. I am still not sure how I will quilt it ...

The pattern is from the TreadleOn website and is really simple and goes together quickly --- making it a great charity quilt.

Speaking of TreadleOn --- did you know that I own a White treadle sewing machine? I have even used it to make a bunch of quilt squares that I exchanged with other "treadlers". Though they still sit in a nice little pile!

As for knitting, madly cast on and finished a child's size 10/12 sweater for Afghans for Afghans. They had a "quick turnaround" campaign for sweaters, mitts, and socks. Done in about 8 days, whew!!

The pattern is from Margaret Hubert's book One Piece Knits that Fit. The yarn is Patons Classic Wool in wedgewood and size 4.5mm needles. Not a stunning sweater by any means, but should keep a child warm.

And Roam is coming along veerrrrryyyyy ssslllooooowwllly ... just like a snail. It will get done eventually, it just seems like knitting for me gets put to the side to fill other needs. That's not a bad thing, just means that my stuff takes a long time to finish!

All the pieces are finished and sewn together, and now I am onto the hood. The end is near!

May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us— yes, establish the work of our hands. Psalm 90:17


5 comments:

Sandy said...

You knitted a whole sweater iin 8 days!!! OMG, you're incredible. I love it, the look of the yoke, very nice pattern. Doing some blog walking this am, and came by through a mutual friend. Your quilts are beautiful!

I never thought about donating older dresses, those we were once at weddings etc. for such a worthwhile cause. Wished I'd known about them before I cleaned out and donated tons of stuff to GoodWill, AmVets, Kidney Foundation etc. Must make a note of it for the future.

I hope you'll stop in for a visit, welcome mats always out. I've recently completed my first adult sweater (adaption of the 5 rect./sq pattern from that TV show...can't remember the name of it.

I've crocheted for years, and only a year ago deciced to pick up knitting again, so my skills there still need to improve. I've not gotten comfortable yet reading a knitting pattern either, but hopefully that will come as well with time.

Have a great day, keep up the good work, and please swing by for a looky.

Sandy

Sandy said...

Hi Cheryl
Me again. Love the basket weave blankie you made. What a really neat texture. You made it with sport and smaller needles. I'd like to give this a try, but don't want to use sport....since I'm not a seasoned knitter, want to use heavier yarn and larger needles. Do you have some thoughts about how many I would want to cast on to keep the pattern, or how it would be altered size wise?

Also, is this a reasonable pattern for begin-intern type knitter? I'm trying to visualize the yarn forward and yarn back, I've done one of those basic patterns where you do a yarn over to increase, is it similar?

Thanks for the use of your brain.

Sandy

Posting here again rather than on your area where the picture is, recently I found out the tons of comments I've made to peoples previous post have probably never been seen. Guess blogger doesn't have a good system of letting us know someone has posted on an older blog note, unless we make everything wait for approval. I really hate the waiting for approval before comments are posted.

Unknown said...

Hi Sandy --- the basket weave blanket is pretty easy. If you are getting about 20 sts to the inch you could cast on 80sts. This would give you a blanket approximately 16" wide. The stitch pattern is a multiple of 4sts so you could cast on any number of stitches that is divisible by 4 and then add 8 more stitches for the garter stitch border on the sides. Have I completely confused you LOL ....

So yarn forward is bringing the yarn forward like a yarn over except you will slip the next two stitches instead of knit them. Keep the yarn on the right side of the blanket while you slip those two stitches. Then bring the yarn back to the wrong side of the blanket and knit two stitches just like usual. When you bring the yarn back don't bring it over top of the needle like a yarn over, bring it back like you have just done a purl stitch and are now going to do a knit stitch. Is this making sense? You don't want to create any yarn overs :-)

You can always email me at
quiltmommy at hotmail dot com if you have more questions.

Happy knitting!
Cheryl :-)

Sandy said...

I must come back and write down the directions you left me here, when I'm not ready to go to bed. You must of thought you were leaving me instructions on my page when you answered my questions. lol

Anyway thanks for infor.
Sandy

Sandy said...

Waving...me again Cheryl. So, awake this am, reading your directions now after a cup of caffeine. Think I get it. Thanks. What have you been up? No new post--bout as long as mine was in between. lol

Take Care, have a great day
Sandy
come visit