Quilts Completed This Spring

Although this blog is titled "Fairfaxknitter" I also do a fair amount of quilting. So in between all the baby sweaters I've completed a few quilts this spring.

This first quilt was started in a Springfield Quilters Unlimited workshop with Pepper Cory in October 2007. The workshop was "Two Blocks are Better than One." The small quilt, titled "Tribute to Vincent," is the result of two different quilt blocks united by the unique placement of the fabrics to create a secondary design. Then I took the 9-block top and placed it on point by adding strips of fabric to each side. The resultant quilt will be given to a baby in the Fairfax Hospital NICU.

This "Trip Around My Garden" large lap quilt was made of floral fabric squares and four-patches received in the Springfield QU swap in May 2007. Thank you to Elli Molstad for managing the fabric swap. I machine pieced and hand quilted this quilt. The hand quilting is in straight diagonal lines in a trellis-like design.

A year ago one of my quilting friends bought color-coordinated jelly rolls of 16 color-coordinated strips of fabric. We each drew one of the rolls at random from a bag and were challenged to make a quilted object from those fabrics plus one other fabric. I drew the red fabric roll and designed the quilt below, "Red Pinwheels," using elements of Annette Ornelas' "Peeled Back Patchwork" techniques. I machine quilted the quilt in an overall meander design, and the quilt now resides in the pile for a future grandchild.

Lastly, this quilt was made for Mikayla Mann, the new daughter of our friends Sara and Nate. The design is "Yellow Brick Road" by Atkinson Designs and is a wonderful quick quilt to make using just six fat quarters of fabric with little to no waste. Again, this is machine pieced and machine quilted.

Grandchild's First Sweater

I could not post a picture of this sweater until I mailed it to Rebecca in Anchorage - didn't want to share it with the world until she had received it. We do not know the gender of our first grandchild but, boy or girl, the first sweater just had to be knit in Carolina Blue. This is a pattern in the Dalegarn book # 142, knit in the 5-9 month size. I knit it mostly during Carolina basketball games as a good luck token. That worked until the Final Four. There are, of course, more tiny sweaters in the works - no surprise to Rebecca and Jason, but you won't see pictures until they receive the sweaters.

Knitting for Others

Recently completed "knitting for others" items include a toddler vest sent to Children In Common, and two Baby Jiffy Knit sweaters sent to the Anchorage Stork Project:The two baby sweaters are knit of "Esmeralda Spring" - an acrylic yarn I bought at a shop in Damascus, Syria in the mid 1980's when we were assigned to the US Embassy there. I had visions of knitting myself a narrowly striped vest of the blue, cream and gray yarn which is a fingering weight - what was I thinking?! So the yarn has been "aging" in for over 20 years, clearly the oldest yarn in my collection. I'll never make the vest so have decided to use the yarn double- stranded to make baby sweaters. There's enough blue and white yarn leftover to make another of this Baby Jiffy Knit sweater pattern (http://wishingiwasknitting.blogspot.com) and I think I'll use the gray to make the smallest size Wallaby hooded sweater.

Birthday Socks, and other things

March is birthday month in our home - daughter Rebecca, daughter Kate, and husband Denny. Two of the three have new socks from my needles.

Rebecca's socks are "Carolina Blue" knit of Crystal Palace Merino 5 yarn. this was a lovely yarn to work and a pretty quick knit. These were knit during UNC basketball games - she is a UNC graduate and we watch as many UNC games as possible. The swirling pattern wasn't evident until I took the picture. These socks will keep her feet warm up in Anchorage.

Kate wanted a pair of orange socks and I just happen to have a skein of Tess' Designer Super Sock yarn in the right color. Kate is also a UNC graduate, but already has a pair of blue socks to wear during games.

We have a new member of our family. Maggie was born December 22nd at Wick's Ski Shop in Exton, PA and, through my sister Peggy, was designated as our Christmas kitten. Maggie joined our household on February 10th and has taken over our home and our hearts. She is such a cutie - one minute running around chasing toys and playing hard, then a sudden catnap. Having a pet again feels so right. While our daughters were growing up we had cats, a dog, and the requisite hamsters. It's been almost a year and half since our Ginger, a beautiful golden retriever, passed away and finally time for a new pet. With the girls grown and gone, and now living in a townhouse, a cat seemed like the logical choice. Here's Maggie stalking the camera:

No more socks on the needles for a while. Our first grandchild, Rebecca and Jason's first child, is due in October and most of my knitting will be for him/her. Grandchild #1 will be born in Anchorage so lots of little wool sweaters are needed - I'm having a great time selecting patterns and yarn, and have already added to my stash enough for six or seven small sweaters.

Thank you Marie

Last month Marie B, a member of at least two of the Yahoo groups to which I belong, offered to send some vintage Brunswick Germantown worsted to knitters for community service knitting. I responded to Marie and she sent me three skeins of the most lovely "Winterberry" traditional 100% wool worsted. From those three skeins I created a "Toddler Center Cable Vest" and a "Quickie Baby Sweater" and a matching hat.

The toddler vest will go the the Children in Common group, and the baby sweater and hat have been mailed to the Anchorage Stork Project in Alaska.

Marie, thank you so much for sharing your stash with me. It was a real pleasure to knit with the vintage yarn and create these garments to keep little ones warm.

Stash Projects Update

I have made some progress on my Top 10 Stash Projects - more knitting than blogging this past month.

The first weekend in February my husband and I traveled to North Carolina to visit our daughter Kate when she was running the Uwharrie Mountain Trail Run - the 20 mile trail run - for the sixth consecutive year. She completed the 20 miles, through the woods, up and down hills and across streams, in just under six hours. I cannot imagine the endurance required for such a run! My husband and I met her at one checkpoint then waited for her at the finale - lots of time in the woods on a beautiful NC day for knitting!

So two pair of socks are off the needles ... the first pair completed were the Canal du Midi II socks for the Knitting On The Road knitalong, and the second pair were the Black Madder Rib Socks for the vintage_sox_knitalong ... both pair completed that weekend.

The Canal du Midi is my favorite pattern from Nancy Bush's "Knitting on the Road." I really get into the rhythm of the traveling stitch pattern and enjoy watching it develop. And the Madder Rib Sock pattern from "Knitting Vintage Socks" has just the right amount of rib to keep the sock snug on my legs and feet, yet not disturb the beautiful flow of the variegated shading of the yarn. The Madder Rib socks were knit of Tess' Designer Super Sock yarn I purchased at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival in May 2007, and this yarn has become my favorite for socks - the tight twist, the softly variegated colors.

Another Stash Project completed is a baby sweater made of one skein of James Brett Marble DK bought on a whim about a year ago. The pattern is "Bamboo Baby" in "One-Skein Wonders" and there was only a small ball of yarn left - a perfect stash-busting project. This sweater has been mailed to the Anchorage Stork Project at the Providence Medical Center in Anchorage, Alaska.

Three completed Stash Projects! More to come ...

Sock Progress, and Stashbuster Progress

This month my sock knitting is not progressing as smoothly as I would like.


First I had to frog the Madder Ribbed Sock (from Knitting Vintage Socks) because it was just too tight on my size 7 1/2 wide foot. So I started over with 66 stitches instead of 60 and am happy with the leg fit and sure the foot fit will be better. By the way I'm using Tess' Designer Super Sock yarn and a 2.5mm circular needle. This is the sock knitting I take to knitting groups and in the car because, once established, the pattern is easy to follow. Also on my needles is the first Canal du Midi sock of a pair (from Knitting On The Road). The heel of the sock has been a struggle and I'm on the third try. The first two times I tried two versions of the Square Heel, per the pattern, Neither one fit my foot. Now I'm back to using the Round Heel which I know works for me. The lesson learned - keep good, permanent notes on socks knitted. I knit this pattern back in August 2006, and now recall trying the Square Heel , froggin it, and using the Round Heel. From now on I will not be hesitant to write in my books, and will keep a notebook as well of modifications of patterns used. No need to make the same mistake twice and waste valuable knitting time!

Snowflake Medallion and Klaralund

Happy New Year to all my knitting friends!

All of November's work on the Snowflake Medallion Sweater is for naught. This is the first sweater I've knit for myself in a long time and there are just too many problems with the sizing - body too short, sleeves too narrow. I am determined to use this yarn for this sweater, but the next time around I am going to measure much more carefully, using a current favorite sweater as a measuring tool. A friend's niddy noddy is in position so I can reskein, soak, and rewind the yarn, and start over. The Reynolds Lopi Lite yarn is delightful to work with, and is special to me because I bought it at the Far North Yarn Company in Anchorage, so it doesn't deserve to be stashed away.

In the meantime I've knit a much simpler pattern that I could take to knitting afternoons at Caribou Coffee and work on while watching UNC basketball games. I've admired my friend Beth's Klaralund sweater and she was kind enough to loan me the book from which the pattern came - very straight forward knitting, no fit issues. So the sweater is off the needles and blocked. Hopefully this week in some quiet moments I'll begin the sewing together of the pieces. By the way, the yarn is Visions by Moda Dea in the Forest colorway. There are some interesting striping effects, especially on one sleeve.

The blocking board is ingeneous, and an idea from my friend Virginia in the Vienna Knitters. Simply take a sewing cutting board, the cardboard fold-up type, and cover it with a clear vinyl inexpensive shower curtain. You get the grid of the board, and protect it from the moisture in the knitted pieces with the vinyl. I already has the cutting board and spent all of $3 on the shower curtain. And it all stores away neatly and compactly.