Still Stitching

Posted on April 17, 2023 by MissCarlotta

Its been awhile; a long while. I debated the continuing to blog vs not, and I guess I have decided to continue after all. (Either that or my arm is bugging me and so updating a blog isn’t stitching so perhaps it will be less stressful)

I am pleased to report that the Christmas Advent handing calendar seemed to be a success. So too with Santa’s laundry line. I did not finish my 365 quilt, but I did make it to August 4th, so that’s past half done. I did assemble the center and there is a pair of borders (dark double and light single) and larger foundation corners yet to go. Back on the goals list it goes for 2023 I guess!

On the knitting front, I did finish my sparkly lace shawl. I ended up frogging the sweater that was in progress. I decided the hem line was not particularly flattering and I’d be happier making up something new. And found a cardigan pattern with pockets! I’ve cast on but its early yet. And we are once again in Sock Madness season, which I’m partaking in because I always learn something new.

At the end of last year, I decided to do some work on my antique train set and its mostly been researching and finding storage solutions at this point, but seeing as I’ve already branched this to both knitting and quilting, and I’m actually not all that deep into the trains (they were inherited from my rail fan father) I’m not going to go much into detail here.

Mostly, this year I have been deep into a very late spring and planning to remodel the bathrooms in our home. I am eagerly looking forward to no more carpet in the master and the tile countertop. You may see a bit in the future as I’m likely to be making the curtains again.

Between sock rounds, I generally do a brief pick up of my crafting space. Earlier that led to a mini rug being made for under my jade plant that lives in that space, but this time around I decided to write out my various quilt projects to-do list and where they were at…. it was A LOT. Like 18 quilts long not even counting the latest request from my mom-person. Three of those are at the just need to be quilted stage; one being my wedding quilt and I am not sure I’m at the skill level I want to be to quilt that. One just needs backing pieced and then it moves into that pile too. I have five kits and one all the fabric bought for front and back so… just need to make the time. Of course the 365 is on there. So my goal now is to make significant progress on this list this year.

Rounding the Curve

Posted on October 13, 2019 by MissCarlotta

Well here we are bottom of the 9th of 2019 and I am just now posting my first finish of the four quilts I had planned to finish this year.

Now too be perfectly fair, I finished all four quilt tops and its technically just the quilting portion left, but I’ve discovered that part is not my particular favorite part in all of this quilting business. I love the designing and assembling the tops and backs and even greatly enjoy the hand stitching down my binding… but most of the quilting is a bit of a snooze. Though to be perfectly fair, I don’t have a long arm so its quite a bit of quilt wrangling yet. And this particular quilt called for simple lines which I had just (or at least it felt that way) did on my last quilt. But at least this time I had a variegated thread for my quilting!

This is an Echoes Quilt kit that I bought to learn how to piece curves.

I didn’t trim down my curved blocks quite like they did so its more chunky… and I’m not super great at piecing curves I’ve discovered.

For the back I found a wonderfully greens and blues ombre fabric on sale (lucky me).

This was also my first use of a black batting, which was suggested by my auntie. I didn’t even know there was such a thing!

So quick 2019 quilt status update: One done, two ready for quilting, and one top completed need to buy and piece the backing.

Now Passing 8 Miles of yarn

Posted on August 23, 2017 by MissCarlotta

So one of the fun things I enjoy doing with Ravelry is tagging my projects by year so that I can see how many things I do year over year. I also use tags to sort projects into various groups so I can see all the socks I’ve ever knit at once, or lace work, or whatever floats my fancy. There is an added bonus that at the very bottom of these project group pages if you’ve tracked your yardage it will tell you how many yards you have knit across those projects. A simple google and you can convert that into miles.

My personal best was 2015 with 9.4 miles of yarn knit up across 33 projects. With all the KALs happening this year I noted that not only have I blown my Socks per Year (SpY? is now at 14!) number way out of the ballpark, but I’m already working past 8 miles!

All of which is to say I’ve not gotten much on the quilting front done… but here comes the Finished Objects Parade!

First up…. I had to buy a new winter coat last year because I got too small to wear my old one. I love my new coat, but because there are days when one wants to maybe be that ladylike person with actual matching accessories, I clearly would need to update my winter accessories to match. I found some great matching yarn way back in January, and even a glove pattern I loved, and since we have scheduled our Holiday road trip now… its time to make it up. I had to improvise on the hat since the designer did not already have a hat pattern to match, but I think I did ok in that department. (Pattern is Red Bud Gloves)

Ben had said before Sock Madness he wanted a pair of purple socks and we picked out Bora as the pattern from my Op Art Socks book. Since the Sock Madness people started knitting along and it was one of the pattern options of the month… BAM! Purple Boras. (Pay no attention to the baggy toes… Ben wasn’t home so I did my own finished photo. They fit him perfectly!)

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I really try to use up all my gifted yarn. But its a bit difficult for me at times because gift items get filed in special places in my brain under “You can’t just make ANYTHING! it has to be worthy.” So sometimes it sits in the stash, peaking out of the yarn bins to niggle at you. The shawlbingo KAL gave me an opportunity to find the right match for a worsted gradient kit set that my mother gave me for holidays.

Photos do not really do it justice in my opinion, but it goes from a vibrant teal to a deep indigo at the border edge. Pattern for this one is Wavedeck, which is free, worsted, small yardage and quick!

I wore this out to dinner last night for my Anniversary.

And last, but certainly not least in the FO parade, our bi-monthly KAL theme is short rows and a garter ridge basket was chosen. I used up a thrifted yarn and a bit more of my remaining fun fur from days when I didn’t know any better and turned mine into a felted easter basket. Here’s a photo of it drying in all its glory.

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You may recall an earlier basket for gothic easter bunnies…. this is the cutter purple cousin. I am actually attempting to knock out a second version that will turn into a bin for stashing things… depending on how the size turns out will depend on which things!

So here we are at five projects so far this month, and we still have a whole week left. If only I were so efficient at the quilting side ¬.¬

The 32 days of January

Posted on February 12, 2016 by MissCarlotta

No, that’s not a typo in the title. As I mentioned in my last post, I signed up for a 365 block-a-day quilt. The designer of which offered two blocks for the first of January, one for the beginners and one for the more advanced. Well I decided having an extra block might be nice for the grand scheme of things so I made up both.

The Beginner Block

The Advanced Block

So while I am still a couple weeks behind (which considering I didn’t sign up until the 22nd of January is closer to caught up than where I started!), I am now able to show all my January blocks. These are all finished size 3 inch blocks (so 3.5 inches unfinished)

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As for the knitting front… Its getting closer to time to gear up for Sock Madness, so I’m working my WIP and knocking out my February/March KAL shawl early so I can be prepared to knit all the things!

Here’s a few teasers of knits yet to come!

These Goldfishes are so Delicious!

Posted on July 29, 2015 by MissCarlotta

Ok so yes.. I love the Goldfish crackers that inspired the title. (Its my go-to snack for road trips.) During the 2014 Shop Hop I picked up some adorable goldfish fabric which I then set out to decide how to use. I came across this design that used some of the same fabric in combination with some small pieces and appliqué and it all snowballed from there. So today… I’m bringing out my Goldfish Bargello Quilt, fresh out of a run through the wash after I finished binding.

Front Side

Back Side

I’d never tried a Bargello, but a tutorial on the tube method looked simple enough to give it a whirl. I tried to get a wee bit creative with my quilting on this one, and let’s just leave it at… I still need some practice. But it was a fun experiment all around and I think it turned out pretty darn cute.

Experienced Level, Beads and Knitting with Novelty

Posted on October 1, 2014 by MissCarlotta

Apparently September was just one of those months where you are doing just so many things that finding time to photograph your knitting and update your blog just wasn’t going to happen. If you really must know.. there was spaghetti sauce being made, and rooms being painted, and the buying and selling of cars happening… and yes, through it all there was knitting.

So first up… let’s chat about novelty yarn. Its one of those things that seems to change over time and finds itself marketed to a new knitter or learning to knit knitter, and then as you learn and grow your skill you don’t need fur and ruffles to hide your stitches and suddenly its the bane of your yarn stash. So in my latest round of stash assessment, I was a bit taken aback by the quantity of fur and other bits that “seemed like a good idea at the time” and went on a quest to find something to make with it. And I’m happy to report that the Suzy the Cuddlebunny pattern, is a pretty quick and simple knit that turns out rather well.

Looking for somebunny to snuggle.

I made mine with a flecked fur and an acrylic held double for all the body parts, and just a plain acrylic for the inner ear. The body was deemed “so soft and snuggly” but the test snuggler, so I think, FuzzyWuzzy here will find a good home this holiday season.

Which brings me to the experienced portion of this post. At some point in the learning of a skill you may find yourself confronted with determining your skill level. Are you still a beginner? Comfortable calling yourself Intermediate? What do you feel about “experienced”? Its kind of intimidating, but here’s the deal with knitting… if you can’t figure it out, or you screw it up beyond all hope… you can just frog it back to your source material.

For me, this bit of bravery involved a pair of socks labeled as experienced level. Someone else had posted their finished pair and they were marvelous…. so even though it was only my third pair of feet wearable socks… let’s go for it!

Socks of Grand Experience

This pattern relies on twisted stitches, where you knit into the back loops of the stitches instead of the front of the loop at points. The bottom of the feet is flat stockinette, but the pattern then picks up from the base of the foot and wraps around the heel and up the leg.

Second Sock Syndrome…. it was hard but I managed to overcome it!

So… what’s an “experienced” knitter to do, but finally tackle using beads. So here’s a vary patriotic themed Fabergé shawl for one of my aunts.

Thankfully the autumn rains gave me a photo op break.

I really like how the eyelet section is worked to make the stitches look mirrored from the center spine.

I especially like how the top eyelet section is worked to make the stitches look mirrored from the center spine. Beading is surprisingly less complicated then you would think.

So there you have it… the month of September. Now onto all the holiday knitting… which should include a new pattern revolving around gifting canned goods, some mittens both as gifts and as my first mystery knit-a-long. (yep, I’m finally giving up the “but what if I don’t like it?!” worry on this one.) And more quilting… because I’m falling way behind on my Super Mario QAL project.

PS – I am totally wearing those socks right now!

Colorworkin’ it! (And some Berries to Dye for)

Posted on August 25, 2014 by MissCarlotta

Ok so the KAL challenge this month was colorwork, and to make it more interesting it was a dueling KAL of a cowl or some fingerless mittens. I couldn’t decide which project I wanted to commit to, so another member told me I was joining the mitts team. (Sometimes its rather caring to be bossed around and out of your indecision.)

Well here’s the thing… I was born in a state where you get snow; as in build snow forts and snow men, make snow angels, and generally freeze yourself in the cold, but its all ok because there is cocoa. The concept of an item of hand wear that doesn’t cover ones fingers just does not fit into my brain on a very logical level. However, I do have a friend that has expressed an interest in such a silly (to me) item of clothing, AND even in the subject matter upon which the pattern was based (See: Agents of SHIELD, sub catagory: villians – Hydra) and so…

Right in your super-powered keester!

These are made using what is called stranded colorwork. You carry the non-working color along in loops called floats on the wrong side of your work.

Gifted

This is the palm side of the mitts.

The borders are called a Latvian Braid.

But…. in my fit of indecision and due to the size of the yarn in my stash… I decided to also tackle the cowl, because it had interesting looking stitches. the cowl is knit as one piece with three different stitch patterns, all of which use the knit into the stitch below technique.

Cowling on a rock

There were some amazing color choices from the group, and a few people adapted their cowl stitches to work for hats and scarves. I went with a color group that I’m hoping will match a pair of mittens I want to knit up for a holiday gift… we shall see.

Its too warm around here for cowls these days

A better look at all those stitches

In which I attempt to take a sinister selfie and look stupid instead.

And now onto the berries portion. I considered making this a separate post, but I didn’t want to pester anyone who actually is being notified of updates with multiple notifications.

Around these here parts (the Pacific Northwest) we have wild plants called salal (Gaultheria shallon). And about this time of year, they grow dark berries, which I had heard in my quest to first identify the plant were edible. So this year, surrounded by the myriad of berries, I decided to try them out.

Here’s one of my berry harvests, the stems are very sticky.

Summer Salal has waxy looking leaves, and unlike the blackberries, NO thorns.

Jelly time

Now, first disclaimer here… Salal berries are not true berries, but is actually from the sepal of the flower, and thus is considered an accessory fruit. (apples, pears and pineapples are also considered accessory fruit) So what I discovered when I was boiling out the juice was that the berry remains were actually very much still a dark coloration, and still giving off an enormous amount of dark liquid. So… in the spirit of “this main stain” as a yarn person and not as the laundry lady, I decided to see how it would come out in yarn.

First up, I tried it out on some plain white 100% cotton:

Some more pink, some more blue

This lighting makes it a bit more lavender berry.

And then because it didn’t turn out like a car wreck… with wool:

A loose hank after drying

lighting varies

My first dye attempts!

So there is my first go at dying something… using the most free ingredients, hand picked from around the yard. (Is Free Range Dye a thing?). Not sure it is a vibrant enough dye job to make people jump for joy and throw money at it, but it was something to try and now I do have plans for at least some of this yarn already… so stay tuned!

And one more thing…. my giftee finished her Nyan Cowl, and made some amazing mods to the pattern!

The Seams of the Many, outweigh the Seams of the Few

Posted on June 22, 2014 by MissCarlotta

Just in case I am not the only beginner in the room… I thought I’d take a moment to talk about lining up your seams. Now there are people that are quilting perfectionists that can be rather passionate about seams and be a little bit more judgmental about such things; I am not even going to get into that. I will say if you are starting out and you have one of those moments where you just aren’t feeling very perfect, I’ve been there. You will get better.

So here’s a tip about how to lineup your seams that works well for me. Its called “Nesting your seams.” When you are ready to join two seamed pieces, you will want to iron one section so the seams lay facing one direction, and the other piece where you want the seams to match up so they are going in the other direction. So that as you line up your pieces, and give them a little finger wiggle, the seams but right up next to each other in a bit of an X formation.

Like so:

I’m holding the seam a bit open here so you can see how they come together.

And here's what it looks like when its closed, as it would be for seaming.

And here’s what it looks like when its closed, as it would be going into your machine.

Now for me, the best results come from having the seam that is folded away from your body to be on top as you feed it into the machine, and the seam on the bottom is folded towards you. This way you can guide that top layer under the foot and your machine feed is going in the direction of the fabric. It doesn’t always work out that way, but if you have the option when you are ironing and pinning, aim for that on the more difficult seams you have on your project.

I do tend to pin across my seams. I am a pin person. I see videos of people that do not use pins and they amaze me… but I am not one of those people, and I’m ok with that.

Now when you unpin and unfold your seams they should match up pretty well.

TA-DA!

Now, since I have teased you with a title and reference photos, it seems only fair that I share a photo of the latest Star Trek quilt top! This one is a lap/crib size quilt done in a very large disappearing 9-patch style.

I waste no time in using up some of my Shop Hop fabrics!

Originally this was to be a commissioned quilt piece, but its not looking like that will be the case at this point. So once I pick out backing and quilt it… it will probably go up in the shop.

The Good, The Bad and the Brioche!

Posted on January 23, 2014 by MissCarlotta

The Good

Thus far this month, I’ve tackled a few smaller quilting projects. One of which started out as a simple conversion of a bedskirt into a set of valances for Dale (of the Sunflower Dresden quilt fame). But then I had fabric left, and if you do any kind of scrappy quilting that you can’t let so much as a perfectly good 2 inches of fabric go to waste, let alone any amount larger than that!

So I made a normal pillow case, trimmed in “valance plaid” and then I had more fabric so I made a few quilt block decorative pillows too.

Three pillowcase fronts.

The blue and yellow floral is new, but the dark blue and yellow are scraps from her sunflower quilt, the light blue from my first quilt. Both smaller pillows are backed in her “valance plaid” to help tie the whole ensemble together. The inside pillow forms were made from some of the plain white that was a part of the bedskirt. So all told I bought a yard of fabric, and ended up with 3 pillows, 3 valances and I still have a smidgen left.

Smaller pillow features my first ever button holes on my sewing machine too!

The Bad

First off, I decided to join in a Quilt Along (QAL) with an online group. (Details here) Now the joining wasn’t the bad part; its probably more of the good part since I don’t belong to a quilting guild or tend to get very social with my knitting and quilting. But… the shop was out of the recommended interfacing, and the line was forming behind me at the cutting counter so in the words of the third knight in the Temple at the Canyon of the Crescent Moon, I chose poorly. I chose a non-fusible/non-sticky kind, and its too narrow to do a whole block at a time. I am attempting to forge ahead with some spray adhesive to see if I can make it work. Thus far I’ve laid out the first block:

Here’s a photo while I was waiting for the adhesive to dry. You can see where I will need to seam the two sections together.

Like most of my quilt projects, I tend to take several cell phone photos of it as a work in progress and post them in an album. Which you can check out here. Wish me luck! I might just need it.

In other mixed good/bad news, I did forge ahead with three more stars on my giant star quilt. I am not super thrilled with how some of the points came out, and was feeling kinda crummy about it. I do think the later pillow project actually helped, as it has similar cuts and came together very well.

A Green and two blues

The Brioche!

A while back I fell in love with a certain pattern for a shawl on Ravelry that uses Brioche stitch. So this year I told myself I was going to learn. And with the help of some left over Seahawk Action Green, I started with a nice beginner brioche scarf.

Brioche doesn’t look like it has a wrong side. Just a side of a different color.

And so just before the Seahawks finished up with the 49ers, I finished up with my Brioche Scarf!

The tails are done in single color.

Now I just need to find the yarn I want for the shawl project and I’m all set. I’m looking for a spring green for one color and autumn spice for the other.

There are no Resolutions in this post, only ideas.

Posted on December 31, 2013 by MissCarlotta

I don’t really make New Years Resolutions… more because people seem to think its a great thing to think of and then don’t take them all that seriously. So I always have ideas and things I want to do and I do list them out as goals. In 2012 it was a new Christmas Stocking each month from January to October with a goal on selling them. I exceeded that plan in the crafting department, but I wish I’d done a bit better in the selling. In 2013 it was sweaters, gloves, and working on my Star Quilt.

Well I did get the Sweaters part done… I made 3 this year.

The Ben

Luscious Post Op

My Spoke Sweater Finished just in time to make the 2013 cut off

I didn’t get any gloves made and the only mittens were for a 6 month old which didn’t really have separate thumb holes so I am not counting them towards the original goal, and not much work on my star quilt so those will just have to move into 2014.

Instead I tackled some lace shawls.

First Spring Thaw

Evening Grosbeak inspired Gamayun

A second Spring Thaw

And doubled the amount of quilts I’ve made with four more. (BONUS: A Christmas gift of a quilted table set that I designed and hand appliquéd)

Endless Stairs

My first ever Dresden Plate

Disappearing 4 patch Star Trek

Half Square Triangle Star Trek

Technically just table set, but hand appliquéd presents

I also made up some great plushies, custom curtains and finished my first ever double knit scarf… so there was certainly quite a bit going on in 2013.

So now its time to think about all I want to achieve in 2014….

I have six quilts on my list this year!

A movie inspired gift quilt (lap size)
An Art Quilt (3-4ft square) Inspired by one of Ben’s favorite Artists
A Commissioned Baby Quilt
My Star Quilt (Back again! – King size)
A Christmas Cathedral Window Quilt
An as yet to be determined 2nd quilt for the family room. Ben loves our VideoGame quilt, but thinks there should be a second quilt, because after all there are two of us.

In the knitting front I’ve got some other unique projects planned.

A Scarf and Shawl from my wonderful new Alpaca yarn! I’m debating making my own patterns for these, but we shall see!
Gloves are still on the list! I’ve already got the conductive thread to make them Smart Phone capable!
I’m going to tackle a second pair of socks. I think with my skills I’ve worked on I might be able to do some patterns that won’t make me so bored by sock #2 (aka Second Sock Syndrome)
I’ve got a few more shawls planned. Including one bird inspired based on the Stellars Jay

These Jays from the PNW are vibrant Blue and Black!

I’d also like to tackle Brioche stitch as a new stitch this year. Perhaps I’ll use up my “Action Green” from the Seahawks Stocking on that.

So its a bit of a list looking at it all at once… but if I can tackle 3 sweaters, 4 quilts and learning so much about lace in a year… I out to have a good start on some of these… RIGHT?

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