Fiber Babble: September 2010

A Successful Failure

September 28, 2010

"F***stockings," Jones said. "Fool" by Christopher Moore ♦♦♦♦♦

After nearly 18 months, multiple rips, frogs & re-starts and hours and hours of planning, learning and knitting enjoyment, the Royal Arches socks are now officially off the needles.

And in the rubbish bin.

It's not as bigga deal as you might think. The picture isn't the FINAL-final, but one of the incarnations of the toe. I think I was getting artsy-fartsy on the drive down to Mom's a few weeks ago.

Was there a 'straw' that sent these to the bin? Not really. I never found THE toe method I liked (nor the fit). Once I decided to 'make do' with the toe, I still had to pick up and knit the leg of the sock, since I started it at about ankle height.

I did some stockinette on the leg for about 10 rows and realized that the gauge was such that the leg was too loose. So I decided to do a cable rib that could fold down like an anklet. But to make it look right when folded down, I had to knit it inside out. Or some such bother.

I wasn't "mad" at the project and it wasn't really boring me... but I'd abused the soup outta this yarn and I finally admitted that no matter how many (more) alterations I made to it, the poor socks were just NOT going to spring back into any recognizable shape.

Okay. A bit overdramatic. They would have been just fine, if a little thick. They started feeling like FrankenSocks. No harm, no foul, I got plenty of entertainment for my minimal $ investment.

Now I'm ready to move on to another yarn, another color, another new pattern - just because I've been working on this ONE pair for so long doesn't mean I haven't been buying sock yarn and collecting interesting patterns!

Labels: knitting

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It Was Inevitable

September 24, 2010

Abandoned book "The Front" by Patricia Cornwell ♦◊◊◊◊

Yep. I made him. As a gift for BossLady's birthday, a ridiculously cute knitted squirrel as both a quasi-store mascot and a not-very-"in" joke.

The movie “Up!” is required watching for employees of our quilt shop. The owner and manager are both so easily distracted, just as Doug/Dug the Dog is in the movie, and we feel it only right to be sure the other employees know what to expect.

If this doesn’t mean anything to you, here’s an 11-second YouTube clip:
Dug Dog

First off, I overstuffed the poor little guy. Didn’t realize it until after the sewing-up had been done, though. Did you know you can remove fiberfill stuffing through the stitches if you use a pair of long-nosed tweezers (like serger tweezers) and a cut-off bit of drinking straw?

The pipecleaner skeleton was pretty wimpy, so I replaced it (after relenting and un-sewing and unstuffing) with doubled pipe cleaners. After lightly restuffing & re-sewing, I find that he’s still not really all that ‘poseable’. Had I not had a deadline, I may well have unsewn yet again and stuffed & sculpted the little guy into more of a gentlemanly pose.

BUT the pattern was written well, it was a quick knit (took much longer to deal with pipecleaners and stuffing than the actual knitting) and he was a major hit and now sits upon a jeweled pedestal for all to see!

Pattern is "Knitted Ultimate Squirrel", designed by Brigitte Read and purchased from Roman Sock (go see some ridiculously cute stuff there!). Yarns are supa-old and wonderfully squishy needlepoint wool by Columbia Minerva and one of the LionBrand Jiffy products.

Labels: knitting

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Football Season

September 20, 2010

Abandoned book "Animosity" by David L. Lindsey ♦◊◊◊◊

The beginning of September heralded the kick off (pun intended) of College Football Season.

I am so fortunate that I'm not a 'football widow' or any other sport-related-'widow', but Mr. W. does like to watch the occasional game (or listen to it on the radio). Being from Middle-Of-Nowhere, MN, he is naturally a Vikings/Twins/Gophers fan.

Funny, he doesn't display masochistic tendencies in any other aspect of his life...

So anyhoo, last year a couple of wonderful people I know from an online group were kind enough to locate, purchase and send to me not one, not two, but THREE different Minnesota Golden Gophers (go, Gophers!) fabrics so that I could make a quilt to comfort my dear husband in his time of distress - or the occasional jubilation.

Put together in pretty much one afternoon, this is a variation (translation: Fussy Cut) of "Patti's Quilt", 9"(-ish) blocks in a 5x5 set.

No, it's not an interesting shape, there really are four corners to it. But since I didn't have A Plan when I started cutting and sewing, it wasn't hard to outgrow the available space on my design wall.

I still need to baste & quilt it and I hope to get on that this week. It would be a shame (though not an earth-shattering surprise) if I didn't get it finished before the conference finals!!

Yep, it's a big "K" so he knows it's all for him. That's the center block.

Because you know he is the center of my world.

Labels: quilting

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Fair Play

September 06, 2010

What I need now, he thought, is a drink. "Trouble in Paradise" by Robert B. Parker ♦♦♦♦◊

Sometimes it's difficult to convince myself that I have anything new to say to you, dear Blog Reader. Now, it's not that I want to break new ground every day or to be clever or thought-provoking or funny, but I don't want to bore you with repetition.

Because, uh, I have a terrible memory and I tend to forget what I've already said.

Of course, I can wander back through my blog and check to see if I've shared Tracy's Greatest Hits, Rant #121: What's The Big Deal About Facebook? (I haven't shared this), but that doesn't address the people that I actually talk to or communicate with in other ways.

The point is that I'm sitting here writing a blog post that's not News to many of you. But if you are one of the people who has had an 'in real life' conversation with me, you already expect that I'll be repeating myself - so I won't disappoint you!!

Okay, here it is - the ribbon that has garnered me the (hopefully) loving title of "Domestic Arts Diva".

Yes, ladies and germs, Yours Truly received the Cowlitz County Fair's Domestic Arts Grand Champion honors. Mr. W. nearly hurt himself stifling his laughter when he found out (he found the quilt & ribbons before I did when we went to the fair). His first comment? "Domestic Arts? They've obviously never seen our kitchen floor."

He went on to (ever-so-gently) admit that if they were to take the "S" off of "Art", he'd go with that. Apparently he's okay with the Grand Champion moniker if it's just related to my quilting...

And I do have to admit. June Cleaver I'm not. Heck, sometimes I'm lucky to get to the same level as Peggy Bundy.

But I do enjoy my quilting. And though it's not that often that I have a new Finished Object to show you, I have been practicing for years and years so I'm pretty comfortable with my skills.

(Go ahead and click to biggify, no, Huge-ify)