Little Wit Knits – Unplugged

Today wasn’t a very awesome bloggable day. I had a grumbly tummy most of the day which I decided to combat with an hour nap after work. The nap was good especially since I had a puppy to snuggle with. After the nap I got the boy’s birthday presents all wrapped up so he won’t accidentally find them in my cleaning frenzy. I also started to get things around for a finishing party we’re having in two weeks. I even grabbed my mending box out of the closet to see what all needed to be taken care of. It turns out I had a brown pantsuit, brown slacks, 2 black sweaters, a blue top and a red turtle neck that would all be very useful things to wear right now just hanging out in the mending box. I think I will go ahead and see if I can’t get on the ball and get those fixed up. Heck I can’t even locate the problem on one of the black sweaters.

After that discovery and my second or third (doh!) moment of the week I decided to focus on sending out requests for donations for Sticks N Stitches. Keep your fingers crossed that I am not the only one going into work tom’w! Hopefully we’ll hear back soon.

Today the boy and I headed to his Grandparents G’s residence for their Thanksgiving meal. They live in an assisted living facility that is run by absolutely wonderful people. They served us a meal that consisted of your choice of a salad and then a plate full of ham, turkey, sweet potato casserole, green beans, mashed potatoes and a roll. Then assuming you had saved room it was your choice of dessert – pecan pie, pumpkin pie or iced sugar cookies. I opted for iced sugar cookies with ice cream on the side. Needless to say no one left hungry. The staff told us later that they had 120 guests come in for dinner in addition to the full house of residents they usually have. It was so seamlessly organized it didn’t feel like a large deluge of people coming to eat awesome food! After we gorged ourselves we hung around for a few hours chit chatting. Then the boy and I drove home by way of my parents’ house. You see we had to pick up a friend who is staying with us for the week. My parents’ dog.

I had debated going home and dog proofing the house first, since of course I didn’t think of doing this earlier in the week, but I decided against it. Of course as soon as we walked in the door with her I could see everything in our house that was in just the right spot for her to get into. So we set about putting things out of her reach and doing some general picking up. While picking up I made some great headway in adding more clothes to the pile to donate. My sister came over and relieved me of many of the camisoles that are too short for me anymore.

Then I set about putting away a box of crafts that has been sitting around unpacked since our move. While going through the box I found something that I had been requesting as a Christmas gift – a walking foot for my sewing machine. Turns out I no longer need one because umm I’ve had one for 5 yrs. It seemed odd to me that that my “quilting sewing machine” didn’t come with one but came with all the other optional accessories. I attributed it to being a cheaper model or something. I’ve reached a point in my sewing where I thought it might be useful to have one so I located the part online and noted the location for the boy requesting it for Christmas.  It was in my room the whole time. Silly me.

Oh hai. I have been working on this OU Quilt since umm this time last year. Actually since July last year. I don’t have much to show for it. But! I did spend part of yesterday sewing the backing fabric together. Then I sewed together the top and backing for another quilt. It’s going to be a Six of One, A Half-Dozen of the Other quilt from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts.

For whatever reason, trying to get into quilting is making me completely devoid of all confidence. It’s a rather odd reaction for me. Especially when it comes to sewing. I generally barrel through things figuring I can do it. I think it’s the precise nature of quilting, that and people showing me that I have been doing it wrong when it comes to cutting fabric. Now I am afraid to cut for fear of not being square. (hahaha, does that crack any of you up as much as me?)

At any rate, Saturday I had to do some quick mending for a Halloween costume and just sitting there barreling through the sewing on this dress so that I could wear it that night got me excited to make sewn items again. So Sunday afternoon while the boy was attending his weekly Mario Kart gathering, I sewed quilt backings together. Then after some yard work I basted the smaller quilt using up all my quilting safety pins and googling furiously to try and figure out what I was going to do with the extra fabric. Apparently the extra fabric is there in case you need it and when you are done and before you put on the binding, you just cut it off. (Now why couldn’t my book just tell me that?) Then I went to another room and laid out the quilt sandwich for my OU quilt. It’ll probably sit there for a short while since I don’t have any pins to secure it right now. I also need to learn how to do this whole quilting bit so I can get the pins out of the smaller quilt. But enough rambling, you want to see photo evidence, don’t you?

OU Quilt laid out as a Quilt Sandwich

Six of One, A Half Dozen of the Other Quilt all basted

I will say that I did a pre-test of the small quilt and laid under it. It felt warm to me. I really do dig the colors too!

The boy and I drove to VA this weekend. We were off to visit his uncle who is in the hospital, rehabilitating from an aneurysm and a minor stroke. It was great to see him and he’s doing amazingly well all things considered. We also got to hang out with his cousins for a little while. I even let them talk me into going off roading. Holy cow. It’s a bit unnerving when the whole vehicle kind of rocks and you’re near a little cliff and it can’t get a good “footing”. Fortunately, we made it out alive so all is well.

After hanging with his cousins we drove closer in to DC to visit my friend who is working up there on a TDY from her TDY. Ahh government jobs, they always keep ya on your toes. We had a good visit and she took us out to eat to celebrate our engagement. The boy spent a lot of time playing with her cat by getting the cat to chase a laser around the hotel room. It was rather fun to watch. Sunday we moseyed into town and I finally got to go see the wonder that is G Street Fabrics. For those of you local to the c-bus, it’s a fabric shop that is probably bigger than the old Lazarus basement. I was a bit stunned at all the selection. I wish we had such a shop closer to home. Alas, the only project I knew the exact quantities of fabric I needed, they did not have the fabric I needed so I left without buying anything. But I did take a picture.

G Street Fabrics - View down 2/3 of the store

Then we headed into Alexandria where I went to Knit Happens and snatched up some Yarn Love – Charlotte Bronte Worsted. I have been wanting to try their yarns for awhile and I finally had a chance to see them in person before buying. I also snatched up a lovely little shawl pin to use with the shawl I was working on during the road trip. (More on the shawl later) All in all it was a good visit and I was happy to make it home and fold myself into bed.

I managed to drag my dupa out of bed this morning and sew the bindings onto two blankets before the power went out. The power conveniently came back on just in time for me to go to work. After work I headed to the monthly knit night at The Merc where I finished the repeat on the wrap that no longer exists. It was pretty unanimous that the wrap and the yarn did not like one another. So I ripped it out. I then took advantage of the giant ball winder the shop has and re wound my 440 yd skein of yarn. I will find a suitable project for this yarn some day.

Once back home the boy and I decided to go for a walk. We walked to the park but alas there were children on the swings so no swinging for us. As we were walking I suddenly realized a ton of our neighbors own Hondas. I counted 20 Hondas during our walk. Also many of the homes with Hondas had two, go figure. The walk was nice and I would really like for us to try and do that more often.

Upon returning home it was definitely time for ice cream. I took my ice cream upstairs to finish the sewing and the boy headed to the basement. I am pleased to say that about 22:30 I had completed all three blankets that I wanted to get done for this weekend. Now the question is, is it odd to give someone three identical baby blankets? Hmm. I shall ponder this as I drift off to slumber land.