My Magnolia Lane Mini is a finalist for the final month of Celebrate Color! I'm so excited!!
There's lots of great entries in each category; I'm interested to see which projects win this month!
If you haven't already, be sure to vote for your favorites!
Oh, also, I'm having a cookie making session with my mom and sister this weekend.
Do you have any MUST MAKE recipes to share?
I might have to make these this year...
Back in May, I started a new project using Oh Fransson's Map of the States tutorial. It's the block we used back in February, for do.Good Stitches, and I enjoyed it so much, I thought I'd do it again.
Using mostly Laura Gunn's Magnolia Lane line, which I love, I added a few coordinating stashed fat quarters. Unfortunately, I lost steam and only finished three of the blocks and then the project sat. Until last month, when I accepted that I would probably never make enough MOTS blocks for an entire quilt. As much as I love them, they're not the fastest block to complete.
So, a mini was born.
I added my favorite shade of Painter's Canvas - the hunter green - to finish out the front.
For the back, I used a leftover piece of Magnolia Lane along with Kona Brick. To quilt, I wasn't quite ready to try free motion, but I made a semi circle in the corner, and then from there quilted diagonal lines radiating from it, sort of like sunshine, I suppose!
For a little FMQ experimentation, I added my initials and the year in the corner. I've never really labeled my quilts, but I'd like to start, and I like the way this little addition looks. I really love the yellow border I chose. I was initially going to use Kona Brick (same as the side back piece), but the yellow really pulled everything together (I think it's Kona Curry?).
I was extra motivated to finish this last night (although it's not yet been washed!), so that I could link up with amylouwho's mini party. I'm also submitting the mini to Celebrate Color this month!
Also, Claudia shared her SGS Scarf progress! I'm so excited about this. Claudia, thanks for giving it a try! It looks awesome so far!
So, on to today's post!
Colorwork freaks me out. I LOVE it (as evidenced by my growing pinterest board), but I find it really daunting. Last year in late October, I decided to cast on for a much-loved pattern, Opus Spicatum. I tried two colorwork tools to see what worked for me, this metal one, and this plastic one. But because of my knitting style (not really correct, but a version of English style), neither of these tools really worked, and I left my progress here:
Yeah. For pretty much an entire year, that's how it looked.
But then, while I was on my little vacation, I knew I'd be finished with the SGS Scarf pretty quickly, so I grabbed this to work on. I'm so glad I did, because I was able to finish it.
I don't know if it was the time away from it, or the fact that I got more comfortable with holding the two colors of yarn (with no tool, just held them both in my left hand), but something clicked!
I used two lovely shades of RYC Cashsoft Aran, and size 7 needles for the brim/size 9 for the body. Followed the pattern exactly!
Now, I'm trying to decide what colorwork project to knit next!
I'm entering this into Celebrate Color.
I have to say, I've always had aspirations to write my own patterns.
Then Rachel gave me the push I needed when she asked me to contribute to Celebrate Color. I was thrilled, and a little scared. I originally started this scarf pattern back in June, but when I made a trade on Ravelry for this gorgeous wool/alpaca blend in my favorite color of the season, well, I was inspired. I love, love, love this shade of yellow. And I didn't think I could wear the shade, but I think it works!
I'm proud to share with you this free scarf pattern.
I hope there are more patterns in my future.
SGS Scarf Pattern - Jaceycraft 2011
You can click on the link to download the free pattern, or you can also find it on ravelry later today.
Thanks to Rachel for the push that I needed!
I hope you will try out this pattern. If you do, I'd love to see!
I think the gathered stitches make such a great texture! The pattern is easy enough that you can probably knit one up quickly as a gift. And don't be intimidated if you're new to knitting; this pattern only uses: knits, purls, K2Tog (knit two together), and KFB (knit front and back). I recommend Knitting Help if you need help with these stitches.
And here's a shot of me (and the scarf) with the cutest kid ever.
Oliver (Elliott's nephew) is so sweet and special to me!
I used a DK weight yarn for this scarf, but a worsted weight will work just fine!
If you have any questions, please feel free to comment here or email me!
Thanks for checking out my first pattern. I hope you enjoy it!
So, Deirdre, sister of Yarndude, and I have been blog friends for years. Like, I found a comment from her on this 2008 post, which in blog years, is forever
(side note: I love looking at older posts and seeing such improvement in my knitting and photography skills!).
So Deirdre and her husband moved a few months back, just across town. But she had some serious issues moving into her new place. Her great sense of humor made light of the situation.
My favorite tidbit she shared was the doorbell. Hilarious. So, as she was sharing her moving woes, I started thinking about some sort of housewarming gift.
Enter the 1001 Peeps mini.
Deirdre is learning to sew, and she's always so encouraging to me about my finished sewing projects (btw, she's an amazing knitter! AMAZING.). I knew she'd enjoy a little mini quilt to hang in her new place.
I started with some Lizzy House 1001 Peeps. By the way, I seriously love Lizzy House. She's awesome, and I may have nabbed one of her destash boxes last week.
I'm eagerly awaiting Outfoxed!
So, back to the mini. I pieced my little hexagons, and instead of piecing them together (mostly because I was still not feeling very confident on doing so), I decided to try something a little different.
I really liked how the hexagons looked with the quilter's linen, and decided to just randomly sew them onto squares.
I backed the quilt with a favorite Joel Dewberry print, the herringbone from Modern Meadow, and it's bound with a Tina Givens print (part of a giveaway from Erin last year!). I hand-stitched the back of the binding (I think I'm getting better at that!).
Deirdre emailed me that she received the mini last night, and I think she really likes it! So, yay!!
I'm entering this into Celebrate Color, in hopes of winning some Outfoxed!
Have a great weekend!!
This photograph was not taken in Houston. I took this at Berkeley last December.
I so desperately love the colors of fall foliage, and I dream of living in a place where I can really experience them. Then winter comes, and I feel pretty good about my locale.
To pretend fall is nearer than it is for me, I started a pin board to get me inspired. Now I'm dreaming of warm fall shades, jewel tones and ashy gray. I'm thinking about bonfires, carnivals, trench coats and knits.
Speaking of knits, I finished half of one this week.
My first Toast mitt is finished, and I'm halfway done with the second.
In thinking about fall, I'm also pretty excited about this month's color focus for Project Spectrum:
It's yellow! I do love yellow.
I'm going to link up with Rachel today as part of Celebrate Color.
