Lovin' the lace

Love this lace scarf. It is knit in Malabrigo sock in color Stonechat and after soaking/blocking it bloomed into this beautiful, soft scarf. The pattern is Checkerboard Lace Scarf from Purl Bee and it is a great pattern. I don't have enough adjectives in my vocabulary to say how much I love this scarf!! But I do, I really do!

Yippee-ki-aye

Grandson Kolby's cowboy quilt is done. It was a lesson in patience and listening to your inner voice. That voice said "YOU should quilt from the center out." But did I listen? No, I quilted from the outside in because it was easier at first and guess what ended up with a big old mush of wrinkled mess in the middle. Lesson learned after 6-8 hours of ripping out quilting.
Start with the middle and quilt out and all is well in the world. Now if I can just quilt in a straight line. I am very happy with the piecing on this quilt but the quilting still leaves some to be desired. Oh well, practice makes better. I love the fabric and the back of this quilt. Piecing his name was a lot of fun, like putting together a puzzle. On to the next one, sunflowers I think in a double friendship block...

Emerson's toes

These little piggies ... stole my heart!

Not fair!

Brother got a Spider man hat and I have to wear this pink bow. Not fair!!

Visited those wonderfully scrummy grandchildren this weekend. Got lots of hugs, smelled lots of heads and kissed lots of faces!! The fix might last me a week or two, but K & E are just too addictive to stay away from very long.
Took both of them a new hat. Kolby's was my second fair isle hat from a spiderman chart off of ravelry, knit with leftover yarn from my mittens. He liked it and it fit just perfect. Emerson's was a little too big, made from leftover sock yarn. Didn't get a pic of her in it, maybe next time.
Oh, mom and dad were great, too!

New skill for year

Fair Isle knitting is the new skill I want to learn this year and I hopped right to it after the gift knitting ended. These mittens are from one of my favorite books "Kristen Knits." As of now, I have just drooled over the pictures and read the book cover to cover. But now, I have knit something!! These are her dots and checks mittens and the pattern was very well-written. This a before blocking pic after blocking the Nashua Julia yarn blossomed and is very wonderfully soft.
I am now looking at all the fair isle patterns in my books and mags with new confidence. The year is potentially full of color!!
Oh, yeah, these are going to be a birthday present for my bestest friend! Not a secret, she knows!

BBQ Quilt

First finished quilt of 2010. Boring, Brown Quilt for Trey. Brown is his favorite color and the only color he wanted in his quilt. It was certainly a challenge for me to quilt shades of only one color. But by the end, I liked the quilt, it has a nice weight and feel to it. The pattern was a split rail with solid brown strips on the ends because I ran out of fabric. All the fabric was given to me, most of it from my mother-in-law, Trey's Mimi, and some from my bff. I like that aspect of the quilt, that it is from people that I love. I quilted each block and then did very small quilting on the ends. All done by machine.The next quilt of 2010, grandson Kolby's, has been giving me fits all because of my own mistakes. But it is at the binding stage and soon to be another learning lesson.

Belated holiday greetings

From my family to yours, may 2010 be full of peace and love!

As you can see we have a new little blessing from heaven. Emerson Rose was born Dec. 8th and greeted with lots of love and of course hand knits and quilts. I was in such a flurry of knitting that I was very remiss in picture taking and note keeping. But hopefully I will be able to get a few pics of her in her homemade lovelies.
Thing have relaxed on the homefront since the holidays have blown over. I have experienced a birthday (49) and am enjoying relaxed crafting without deadlines.
Several knits are completed already and a couple of quilts - pics to follow. My goals for the coming year are: to learn to knit fair isle, to continue quilting, to learn to accept what I can not change, and to love my family and accept their love for me.