My first quilt!

I recently moved back to my hometown after a short period in Brooklyn. One of the things I lacked in New York was space, and now that I'm back in Kentucky, I have plenty of space for my sewing table and the giant pile of fabric I keep stashed away for unforeseen projects. To celebrate all of my new space, and my return home, I am making a quilt. My first quilt!

For the pattern, I wanted something classic and clean, but with a little personality; I looked for something more interesting than a paintbox quilt, and not too traditional--I don't want to feel like a squadron of calico prints is disapprovingly looking over my shoulder, wondering why I am sullying their precious eight point star. And I also wanted to be able to make the quilt with scraps of fabric, since quilting can get expensive. So, after hanging ten on the world wide web, I came across the fabulous blog Oh, Fransson! The writer creates beautiful quilts and also post tutorials on her website, including one for her "Map of the States" block. Behold:

These pictures aren't the best, but you might be able to tell that each column is slightly different from the rest, with varying block sizes and widths throughout. I have to make 48 blocks total, for a modestly sized quilt (approx 70"x90"). My goal is to make ten blocks per week, so in four weeks I will be ready to do the sashing and binding. The fun thing about making a scrappy quilt with color-themed blocks is that you get to use a lot of different fabrics. Here is some I bought today, on sale at my local corporate fabric store. Yeah.

Old News...

Two old friends of mine got married back in early October, and, since the bride had just graduated from pastry school, I decided to make her a fun apron that she could either use professionally or in her new role of "wife". Since she, like me, is not much of a girly girl, I thought I'd try to find a way to make it somehow a little subversive- and I found the perfect fabric to make that happen! The front is a nice sunny yellow, but the back is all sorts of rad! I can't believe someone actually made this fabric- it looks like 1980's skateboarders designed it, and it's a little hard on the eyes, but I love it so much and it was just perfect for my friend. I bought a little extra so I can make myself something with it, but I don't know what I'm going to use it on yet, so it's gone in my ever growing pile of awesome fabric that hasn't been made into anything yet.

Work in Progress--Convertible Gloves/Mittens

My boyfriend is one of those hearty northeastern folks who like to go the whole winter without a proper coat. Instead, he piles on layers of thermal shirts, button-ups and flannels and hopes for the best. A few years ago (before we were dating), I insisted on making him a hat. This winter, I decided he needs some gloves.

I combined two patterns to make fingerless gloves with a mitten flap. I used almost the entire pattern from the Flap-Top Mittens pattern from Melanie Falick's Handknit Holidays. The other pattern is a fingerless glove pattern from, I believe, Weekend Knitting, which is another Melanie Falick title. I have knitted both of these patterns before, so I felt comfortable combining them. The only real adjustment to the Flap-Top Mitten pattern I had to make was that after I knitted the flap, I had to increase 12 sts so I would have the right number of stitches for the fingers. I did this by doing an m1 k1 m1 increase at the beginning and middle of the row (corresponding to the sides of the hand), followed by a row of all Knit stitches, until I had increased 12 stitches. Easy! Then I just followed the pattern for the fingers.

I don't have a clever name for these yet. Fingerless mittens? Glittens?

Two views of the same mitten. I'm still working on the second!

Six months of my life....

were dedicated to this baby blanket. My boss and his significant other are expecting their first child this October, and I, rather excitedly, decided to knit them a baby blanket. I figure that handmade baby items tend to carry more emotional weight; when I was a child, I was pretty attached to the crocheted blankets and hand-sewn quilts that my maternal Grandmother made me. I knew that it was going to be a big project, but I didn’t realize exactly how long it was going to take. I’m glad I chose the easiest type of blanket imaginable- it’s straight garter stitch, with no fancy borders, meaning I could basically zone out and watch the entire season 5 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer while only having to pay attention to the colorwork. I read somewhere that newborn’s eyes can only really tell light from dark, and that high contrast colors would help them train their eyes to focus. I didn’t want to make a black and white blanket, so I chose two colors that would contrast nicely- pale yellow and dark blue. These colors are also the colors of the Brazilian soccer team, and since the mama-to-be is Brazilian and the father-to-be is a soccer fanatic, that worked out nicely, even though I didn’t plan it that way. Anyhow, I made the stripes in an alternating shuffle, so one end starts out blue and then the blanket fades to yellow, and vice versa!

I finished it with an hour to spare before I had to go to the baby shower! Frankly, after completing this task, I didn’t feel like knitting for a good long while, but unfortunately, with not a lot of disposable income lately, tons of yarn, and Christmas approaching, I have to get going on some presents for the family and the boyfriend. I find it pretty gratifying that, since finally learning how to knit two years ago (my aforementioned crafty Grandmother tried to teach me in vain when I was younger, but it never stuck), I’ve actually only made myself a scarf and a pair of gloves. Everything else has always been for other people! With that in mind, I did decide to sit down and make myself something new for the fall- a ribbed cowl. It’s already almost done, so I hope cooler weather will soon come to Louisiana so I can wear it out and about. Optimistically, fall will be here in about another month, but really, it most likely won’t be cool enough until November. Sigh.