Little Wit Knits – Unplugged

The boy was out of town this weekend visiting his grandmother A. Knowing that I would have the weekend to myself I set aside today to get some much needed sewing completed. Up first was finally finishing the mending on his jeans that he asked me to repair last spring. Guess I am not so timely, eh? After that I worked on finishing up a Christmas gift for a dear chum. Yes, normally I am not so far behind on things, I really don’t know what caused all this stuff to be put off so long. I struggled a bit with the tension while sewing the gift but I kind of gave up and went with it for the interior seams. Once I got to the top stitching I called a chum and begged her to come over and tell me what was wrong. Turns out my sewing machine has a preference on thread and the thread I was using for the bag was not to its liking. I will be sure to consult with my machine from here on out as to which thread to use! Once she got me switched over to a different thread the tension was much better and the top stitching turned out wonderfully.

There may currently be a minor baby boom happening in my life. Somewhere around 8 babies will be born to my friends, colleagues and cousins in the next five months. (They gave me June off.) The second half of today I worked on getting the baby gifts started. My goal was to make 3 blankets today. I didn’t quite meet that goal but I came close. I have one blanket completed up to the finishing stitching and four more are completely cut out and ready to be sewn together. I bet once I figure out what I am doing for the finishing stitching I can knock those other four out in an evening. Which is good, because I need to take 3 of them with me this weekend!

Other fun things I managed to accomplish today, some laundry, putting weather appropriate linens on our beds (it’s too hot for flannel!) and I managed to get the cover off the whole house fan. Funny how the whole house fan doesn’t really work when the cover is on it! I am bit wooped and will be headed to bed soon.

Since my last to do list was actually rather helpful, even if it didn’t appear so on the surface, I think I shall start another one. These tasks are to be done before I head to Maryland Sheep and Wool Friday May 1st.

1. Finish Vivian.
2. Cast on one of the tops with the Shelridge W4. It looks like the Fern Fitted Shell may pull out as the winner there. Unless Green Gable makes a last minute effort to come through.
3. Knit at least 2 more inches on that lace scarf that’s been dawdling.
4. Make a decision about the Belgian socks, to rip or not to rip? Will they fit a normal man’s foot? Are they really that big? Who knows?
5. Pick out the next pair of socks to be knit and cast them on if everything else is progressing alright.
6. Spend at least half a Saturday in the sewing room – clean up and oil the machines and pick out projects for the fabric laying around.
7. Get the indoor vegetables planted.
8. Spend at least 2 hours on the drop spindle to see if I can reclaim that spark.
9. Begin the clean out of the backroom for our guests that are coming this summer.
10. If there’s another free Saturday start piecing together my t-shirt quilt.

Oh and just for something pretty to break up the monotony of the text – one of my recent yarn purchases:

This morning I finally got around to sewing together the bag that was intended as a Christmas Gift and has been laying around cut up since Dec 26, 2008. Sooo maybe when it isn’t a pressing deadline (we hadn’t planned a get together yet) I am not so quick to get things finished. It took me about 6 (ish) hrs total to make this bag. About an hour cutting out the fabric back in December and about 5 hours today. I bet this would go a lot faster if I didn’t have such large gaps between sewing escapades. My Brother sewing machine and I were going rounds with tension and I never fully got it figured out. I have been advised that my bobbin may not have been the proper one for my machine. I will look into that when I start the second bag and see if that solves the problem. At any rate the pattern is written well as long as one knows how to read. We won’t discuss my fiasco of cutting out bits I didn’t actually need. Now I get to find a fun small project to make out of those. On to the pictures.

Description: Christmas Bag #1
Pattern: Simple Bag by Joelle Hoverson from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts
Fabric used: So I am new to the updating of sewn projects. I bought all the fabric for this from Quilt Beginnings in Bexley. It took about a 1/2 yd of each pattern shown.
Care Instructions: Machine wash cool
Modifications: No mods
Finished Size: 15″ x 12″
Date Started: 12/26/2008
Date Completed: 1/25/2009
Notes: This makes a nice lightweight bag. If you want it to be sturdier for carrying heavier items it may be worthwhile to implement some type of interfacing.

Last weekend while the boy was gallivanting around Japan I got together with my pal to finish up the top of my quilt. The *couple* hours stretched into about 8 but it’s done. Now all I have to do is buy some batting, backing and some tape because I want to put it on the seam. That will all get done later. Later = umm probably next year as there are a few holiday items left to knit up. Pictures:

This most recent weekend produced a bunny body, head and one ear as well as a bust for Francis. More details to come later.