Category: Crochet!

Crochet! · Quilting · Unraveled Wednesday / Knit & Read

Unraveled Wednesday

Vicki8 Comments

I’m joining Kat & the Unravelers for Unraveled Wednesday!

I had my 6-week check-in with my doctor on Monday and new x-rays of my titanium & ceramic hip! I had a few concerns — last week was rough in a few different ways & for a few different reasons (some self-inflicted… over-exertion anyone?) — but everything is normal/resolving. I’m still recovering & getting used to this huge physical change! And everything is so much better overall. I stand straight & walk with so much more ease. My “graduation” appointment is in another six weeks! I also had PT on Monday, and we’ve added just a few more sessions into September, and then I’ll be finished with that. Monday was an “assessment day,” and really great to see how much improvement has been made since the last.

So… the Unraveled part of the program. I haven’t knit a stitch in six weeks, but there’s a Farfalle Cardigan calling to me! Since I knit in the Shetland/Supported Needle style, most often using the crook of my hip to hold the right-hand needle (as opposed to a knitting sheath or knitting belt — though I have & have used both), the main hold up is physical as I can’t yet cross my legs! A few more weeks…

CROCHET:

So crocheting continues.

Thirty-nine! At least 40 since the photo was taken. They measure about 4.25″ square right now (unblocked) & it will soon be time to really do some calculations. I’m still working through some small leftovers but have pulled out reinforcements.

QUILTING:

In another testament to overall recovery & improvement, I spent quite a bit of time over my long weekend doing some cleaning/cleaning out/organizing — including in The Little Working Museum (aka, my workroom/office/studio), and that was with the goal of getting back to work on my quilt.

Those voids are where I fussy-cut the pansies from this “Big Blooms” fabric for some of the sampler squares. I cut up the rest yesterday to make the “goose” rectangles (along with some other prints) and then started to cut the “sky” squares. They’ll get sewn together & trimmed to make a large border of “flying geese.”

It’s going to be a crazy one — and I hope it works! These are the “sky” fabrics — there’s a lot of cutting to do.

I’m happy to be back at it. And I hope my quilt mathing is correct.

READING:

Continuing to read the Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart, and enjoying it quite a lot! I’ve also started listening to Brandi Carlile’s memoir, Broken Horses, which I’ve had on my radar for quite a while… and now her concert is on the horizon!

Crochet! · Unraveled Wednesday / Knit & Read

Unraveled Wednesday: Granny-ing

Vicki13 Comments

I’m joining Kat & the Unravelers for Unraveled Wednesday!

But first… this little nugget popped up in the family chat last night:

You can’t make this stuff up!!

CROCHET:

I’ve continued using up my Felted Tweed leftovers to make granny squares. Turns out, I’m not doing double crochets, as I thought, and they’re not half double crochets, either — they’re something in between. I relied on memory and, given that my crochet prowess is quite limited, I should have gone for a refresher. By the time I realized that there was an error, I was quite a few squares in. They’re fine, they look like granny squares, they’re not going to fall apart, they’re maybe a little smaller than they “should” be…

It’s now an “exclusive” design… and that’s how it’s gonna be!

There’s a growing stack of squares on my side table. I knocked out at least one more since I took that photo yesterday, so I’m up to 33.

I’m still not quite sure what they’re going to be, though a garment is what I’ve had in mind all along — a vest or a cardigan. JETHRO — or a riff thereof — is a strong contender, especially since we’ve been watching a lot of NCIS: Origins (IYKYK).

READING:

I’ve had Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart on my nightstand for a while and picked it up last night. I actually slept all night in my own bed last night for the first time in over a month (not sure if that’s permanent yet), so it was right at hand. On the couch, I’ve been making my way through the few copies of Quiltfolk that I have, the articles are informative but concise and there are lots of photos. The nighttime “reading” light at the couch isn’t that great, so it was a better choice than the dense text of a book.

Crochet! · Quilting

10.30: Coloring my world

Vicki8 Comments

It’s my friend’s birthday today & I was so worried that she’d become the newest member of The Bad Birthday Club… but, thankfully, I don’t think that will happen. It’s bleak & agonizing, though, no doubt about that. I hope that peace comes soon.

Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud. ~Maya Angelou

I decided last week that I wanted to make a quilt. Like, right now. I needed something to dive into, as none of my current projects is speaking to me in a satisfying way. (I may now have the reserves & bandwidth to persevere.) I returned from Nashville with a couple of Kaffe Fassett fat quarter collections, adding to the random KF FQs & other cuts that I’ve collected over the past couple of years (see image below), and it seemed silly to just put them away… so a simple quilt seemed to be the thing. Plus, we need something on our bed that actually fits, and hopefully these fabrics will help brighten my world as the dark days loom ahead.

A collection of Kaffe Fassett fabric cuttings arranged in vibrant colors on a green cutting mat.

I found a super easy/fast quilt pattern that seemed perfect for the mostly large-scale prints I wanted to use. I pulled out all the fabric, mixed it all up (accidentally), and then sorted it to find some combinations that worked.

A vibrant assortment of Kaffe Fassett fabric fat quarters spread out on a table, including various patterns and colors, alongside a small iron and craft supplies.

(In the process, other ideas were percolating!)

A colorful quilt in various large-scale floral prints, arranged in a diagonal pattern on a wooden floor.
A vibrant quilt displayed on a floor, featuring a mix of large-scale colorful prints in a patchwork design.

Naturally, I made it quite a bit bigger. And I didn’t mind the long diagonal stripes, but I liked it better broken up. Most of the prints were directional, or I’d probably have done a big chevron type thing.

A vibrant quilt layout featuring a mix of colorful fabric pieces, including floral patterns and geometric designs, arranged on a floor surface.
A colorful quilt top featuring a patchwork of large floral and patterned fabrics in vibrant hues of pink, blue, green, and red, laid out on a wooden floor.

After a bit more rearranging, everything is sewn together. I had to rip & re-sew more than a couple of seams and there are some woefully mismatched corners. I’m not sure I’d be very good at more intricate designs. I’m contemplating finished size, whether to add a border or just binding, and how to actually quilt it. I’ll be taking it to the quilt shop soon (maybe tomorrow) to get a professional opinion.

We live in a rainbow of chaos. ~Paul Cézanne

The crocheted granny square blanket is finished! After all the squares were stitched together, I went around the whole thing with a row of double crochet in each color to finish it off. There was just a small ball of each color remaining.

A colorful crocheted blanket featuring a grid of squares in various colors, including purple, red, green, yellow, and white, with a white border.

The back story of this project is that the yarn was given to me by an Airbnb guest who has stayed with me a few times over the years — the first time was when she brought her dad for his first game at Lambeau Field. She booked early and was very communicative, as her dad was undergoing treatment for cancer at the time; thankfully, his treatment was successful & he/they’ve been visitors a few times since then. The game last year was right around Christmas… she’d asked me, at one point, what my favorite colors were & I said “jewel tones” (because that can be SUCH a hard question to answer). Lo, she gave me a big skein of acrylic yarn in each of the colors you see. I added the “antique white” to pull it together. I really felt that I needed to honor her gift, even though I’d never have chosen that yarn (which wasn’t too bad, actually, outside of being just a tad splitty). I’ve talked about the rest of my process for this project before — and it really was fun, start to finish.

And I’m glad I’m finished.

I hope all is well out in blogland. I am so behind, I may have to draw a line in the sand — “mark as read” older posts and move on.

Crochet!

9.25: Sewing up

Vicki5 Comments

The original plan for this crocheted granny square throw was 5 squares wide by 7 tall. As of Tuesday night, I had 35 squares — 33 according to the chart I made, and 2 that I’d made previously.

A stack of crocheted granny squares held in one hand, showcasing various colors and patterns, with a soft background of a room.

There’s my stack o’ squares!

A colorful arrangement of crocheted granny squares in various shades, with a white border, laid out on a patterned carpet.

And there’s my final layout. I considered adding another column, but I grabbed Parcheesi to compare, and this is exactly the same size — and it will be substantially heavier. (I can’t believe it’s almost 15 years since I finished Parcheesi!)

It took about four tries last night to wrap my head around joining these squares! It was a challenge just figuring out which loops to join on each square so they’d match up reasonably well. Add in my apparent inability to count — I ran across more than one place where I made two double crochets into a space instead of three, and I’ve only joined four squares so far — yeah, challenging!! Anyway, I want to crochet it all together, rather than sewing, and initially thought I’d join the squares in each row and then join all the rows together. Turns out, that would be a lot of starting, stopping, cutting, knotting, weaving in. It makes much more sense to join the columns, starting at the bottom & working up. (Thank you, YouTube tutorials!)

As of now, the four squares at bottom left are joined up the middle. I’m hoping to make a little more progress this evening! And already contemplating border possibilities.

Crochet! · Unraveled Wednesday / Knit & Read

9.17: Unraveled Wednesday: FO (finally)

Vicki8 Comments

I’m joining Kat & the Unravelers for Unraveled Wednesday!

KNITTING CROCHETING:

It’s been signed, sealed & delivered… finally an official FO*:

A close-up of a crocheted blanket featuring colorful hexagonal motifs in various shades, with a text embroidered at the bottom reading 'Made by Class of 2023'.
A person standing on a porch holding a large, colorful crocheted blanket made of hexagonal patches in various shades and patterns.
A colorful crocheted blanket featuring hexagonal motifs in various colors, with a handwritten message that says 'Love ♥ Aunt Vic' at the bottom.
A person smiling while holding a large, colorful crocheted blanket with hexagonal motifs in various colors.

Kate & I met up with Addie to deliver the blanket & take him out for breakfast on Sunday morning before heading home.

I didn’t start this blanket in 2021 with Addison’s high school graduation in mind — I didn’t even have his older brother’s graduation blanket in mind at that point — but obviously it’s taken a few years of on/off work to make. He’d visit at least twice a year and I’d be working on the blanket, or he’d ask about it, always commenting on how cool it was… so eventually I decided it would be his! (Flattery will get you everywhere! haha)

A vibrant array of yarn skeins organized by color, featuring shades from dark browns to bright yellows, greens, and blues, displayed on a white textured surface.

It all started with the purchase of a Unicorn Tails Prism Pack during the pandemic, and figuring out what to do with them — along with Unicorn Tail remnants from other projects (mostly gnomes). I’ve posted quite a bit about the project in the Crochet category (along with some of my favorite photos, tho some are not showing & I haven’t been able to fix them yet), if you care to scroll. It was for this project that I first used the Granny Squares Color Pattern Generator.

READING:

I finished Kaffe Fassett: Dreaming In Color: An Autobiography last night. I’d started Kaffe Fassett in the Studio in Minneapolis, so am continuing with that. It’s even more of a “coffee table book” than Dreaming In Color — lots of big pictures & spreads — so I’ll finish it before too long. It’s a visual bonanza.

_ _ _ _

In other news, Davy jumped off the bleachers at lunchtime the other day…

A young boy wearing pajamas with a colorful pattern, sporting a medical boot on one foot, smiles while holding a piece of candy in a fast-food restaurant.

…from a substantial height! Turns out, he broke the first metatarsal in his foot. He has a visit with ortho tomorrow and may end up with a real cast. Stay tuned.