Adventures in Knitting

After seeing all of the wonderful socks being knitted in blogland, I decided, once again, to try my hand at knitting a pair of socks.

I found this book at JoAnn's


and thought that the instructions looked like something even I could follow.



So, acting like I knew what I doing, I started knitting. I got some stitches cast on and then knit for little while. I picked a random pattern and just started moving.



I was not unhappy with my progress, and I really kind of liked the yarn. Even though it was just some stuff that I got from JoAnns. Stuff that if I never finished knitting the socks I wouldn't be that upset about buying - because it fairly cheap inexpensive. I worked last night on them as diligently as I could, seeing as how I was catching up with some of my TV programming at the same time. I actually got pretty far (okay, far for ME).


(Please ignore any stray leg hair that you might come across in this picture)

And then, AND THEN! I realized something. The wonderful author of this book was going to walk me through, yes, I said walk me through, the knitting of an actual sock(!). How did I miss that (when I looked through the book at least 5 times before actually starting to knit)? Who the heck knows. So, I did what all beginning knitters should do when someone offers to walk. them. through. the knitting of an actual sock. I ripped out everything that I had previously knitted.



So now, I'm ready to start all over again.

And I think it's just in time. Because I'm going to see Twilight. This afternoon. On opening day. And I'm pretty sure that I'll have time, while waiting in line to get into the theater, to get a little something going on my next try at getting me some socks knitted.

This blog break brought to you by

the Beautiful Gypsy!

This was The Costume that caused me such heartache. In retrospect, it really wasn't that hard - it was just that I didn't want to make it. And because I didn't want to make it, I didn't really do anything as far as sewing. I had to make some alterations to the pattern because it was a women's size XS costume, and my daughter is petite for her age. I got the corset pattern off of Threadbanger. I made one corset, and it didn't fit, so I had to make another. Then, after wearing the corset to school, she said that I had to make straps for it.

With that being finished, I had to finish the quilt for my girlfriend. She was coming on November 6, so I had a dealine to meet.

After discussions with my middle child and her girlfriend, I decided to just do a straight stitch on the diagonal for the quilting.

I have to say I was quite pleased with the result. It was fairly easy to do, and it adds an "old fashioned touch" (according to my daughter) to the whole quilt. I think the quilt looks much nicer in person. Everyone who has seen it really likes it. The pictures just don't show the warmth of it.

The girls also helped me choose the binding - which I have to say, I love. I used Don't Look Now's tutorial for matching stripes. And it worked! And even better, at the end of the binding, the quilting gods were with me - and the stripes matched there, too! I sure wished I had a quilting friend nearby so that I could have shown them all of my matching stripes on my binding! It was rather exciting.

I used a green fabric for the background, since my girlfriend loves green. I also did something different - I quilted the signature block into the quilt. I remember reading somewhere that if you quilt the signature block into the quilt, then if someone steals the quilt, they can't easily remove the signature block. Now, I'm sure this sage wisdom was meant for heirloom quilts - I can't really imagine someone stealing this quilt! But it was still kind of fun.

To top it all off, we went to see the play Wicked. It's leaving Los Angeles in January, so I thought that it was high time that we saw it! My girls and my girlfriend and I all loved it. It was wonderful. I am now trying to read the book. I say trying, because I tried to read it about 7 years ago and didn't get very far. I think, however, that this time I might make it through.

My next quick project is a dog bed for my (not spoiled) dog. It's getting cold, and I think she needs a new soft bed to plop her beautiful little body in.