Conquering the Miter Monster

In order to get the pieced chevron border to fit evenly, I did the math to figure out how wide to make the white, unpieced border that went on before it. I stalled and dragged my feet about the mitered corners of that white border, but in the end it was no big deal.

However... the chevrons didn't turn the corners the way I wanted them to, so I ripped out the white border and made it wider. With this wider border, two corners of the pieced border came out correctly, and two didn't. At that point I wasn't going to do that white border a third time! I decided two paired corners was a design element and it was my quilt anyway.

It's amazing sometimes the gyrations I go through to get the current project to match up with what I see in my mind's eye.

Macro Shot

Frank took this photo yesterday. If there were a dime in the picture, it would be about half the size of one wing. Amazing beauty.

Slipper Socks

I love making these slipper socks. If I had a chance, I would knit everyone in my family a pair. So when my DIL recently borrowed mine and said she liked them, I decided I could get away with making a pair for her. Oh wait! Her birthday is coming up, even better. AND I'll be staying at their home on her birthday on my way through town so I can gift her myself. Fun!

I searched my yarn collection and found I had suitable yarn in her favorite (and mine) color. I LOVE it when that happens. I decide to make something and I have the perfect-whatever in my collection.

Overdyeing Reclaimed Yarn

I was so pleased with the blue linen hand towel that I reclaimed yarn from a sage green ramie cotton blend vest. Sage green is the color in my kitchen, so it made sense.

But the yarn was just a little too pale. I decided to experiment with over-dyeing it with food coloring. I figured if it didn't take, it wouldn't be a great loss. This is a picture of the yarn before I dyed it.

 This is a picture of the yarn after I dyed it.

There's very little, if any difference in the color. I don't know if it's because ramie-linen doesn't take dye too well, or the food coloring wasn't up to the task. Oh well... nothing ventured, nothing learned. I'm still going to use it for kitchen towels.

Baby Uggs

When a friend of mine announced she was expecting her fifth child, I decided that baby needed something special of its own. So I made a pair of Baby Uggs.

I went to my yarn collection and came up with this:

It wasn't until I was part way through the first Ugg that I realized I'd chosen a color similar to the one used in the pattern. The power of suggestion.

Log Cabin Quilt

It's a flimsy! It's often a relief when I finally get the borders on and press it one more time. This is an easy pattern to piece, but the process was slowed way down because I had a hard time finding just the right shade of green. I shopped 4 stores in 3 towns without luck. Shades of color in quilt fabric come and go like fashion, so it can be hard to find what I want sometimes. In the end my quilting friends helped me out and gave me greens from their collections. Thank you ladies!

I love purple and green together, such a natural combination. Also inspired by the irises in the woods around our home.

Linen Cotton Hand Towel

Darn that Mason Dixon Knitting site! If Ann or Kay writes about it, I find myself wanting to make it. So this blog post for a hand towel was no exception. Except their towels are made of Euroflax linen, which a google search revealed is discontinued. What to do?

I went to the LYS in search of a linen/cotton blend suitable for this hand towel. All they had was linen/silk, which would be great for a summery shawl or a tank top, but that wasn't what I had in mind.

I don't know if it was on the way home or the next time I was in town, but I went to the thrift store and found a blue crocheted linen/cotton cardigan - for $2.50. Yeah!

I'd never reclaimed a crocheted garment before. Man, does it go fast!

Here is the sleeve.

Skeined, and ready to be soaked.

Wound into a center pull ball.

This pattern is my adaption of MDK's Moss Grid Towel.

Linen gets softer the more it's used. This towel is so soft and absorbent, I wish I had half a dozen. Well I have enough yarn, I could do that...