June Wedding

It’s hard for me to really believe it, but my baby girl got married last week. She was such a beautiful bride and I really wish her and Geoff all the happiness in the world. The wedding was wonderful. She arranged for parents, siblings and grandparents to spend the week together camping/cabining at a resort in Northern Minnesota. Everyone got along and it couldn’t have gone any better.

Of course there was a wedding quilt. This is the Shakespeare in the Park pattern by Judy Martin. The pattern was not terribly difficult, but there were A LOT of flying geese! It took quite a long time for me to get all the blocks done and then assembling the rows was a challenge. It is set on a point and I didn’t really have a space large enough for the entire quilt, so I had to be super careful to keep things in the correct order. Of course I did goof a few times, but thank goodness I caught it all in time.

We had a very long car ride from Connecticut to Minnesota, so I got a lot of knitting time in. I finished my Night Circus socks. The pattern is actually Hermione’s Everyday socks, but the colors of the yarn reminded me of a book I was reading when I bought the yarn. The book was Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and in it there is a circus where everything is black and white and some fans of the circus always wear red. I know the yarn is black, red and gray, not white, but as soon as I saw it that is where my mind went. The book was a great read, I highly recommend it.

I finally started the sockhead hat. This pattern has been in my queue for a long time!

I started another pair of socks, I simply cannot not have socks on the needles!

I worked on my sweater. I really thought I would get a lot done on the sweater in the car and I might have if I had remembered the yarn! I only brought the yarn that was currently being worked, when that skein ran out I did not have another with me – darn it.

On the quilting front, I want to finish up some of my Christmas WIPS in time for Christmas this year. I have a really cute quilt I made from charm squares that just needs to be quilted, it would look great on the table. I sew in the basement and it gets a little stuffy feeling down there when it is warm and humid, but hopefully I can get motivated to get some more projects finished up.

Finally Finished

I finally finally finally finished these socks. I started them so long ago, that I can’t even remember when I started them. I am loving the way they came out and can’t wait for the return of cooler weather so that I can wear them.

Speaking of weather, it is starting to heat up around here. I know that the mid 80s isn’t actually hot, I know that people in the desert would scoff to hear me whine about the heat, but this humidity business is awful. My hair is frizzed out like a mad woman and it is just sticky. I blast my AC and then freeze inside my house. As the kids say, I must be cray cray.

I have been knitting away on my Vodka Lemonade sweater. I have my stitches saved for the sleeves and am working on the body. I love this yarn and the color, I can’t wait to get this one done. The yarn is a blend of cotton, rayon, alpaca and wool. I am really hoping that I can wear it in the spring and summer without overheating. I wish I could knit faster, I am having a serious case of “castonitis” right now and want to knit all of the things.

I am also working on these Hermione’s Everyday Socks. I am calling them my Night Circus socks because the colors of the yarn remind me of the Night Circus, a book by Erin Morgenstern, that I read a couple of months ago. It is not my typical genre, no one was bludgeoned to death in the first chapter, but I really enjoyed it. I read as a part of a read-a-long in the BookishStitcher group on Ravelry. It is really fun to get pushed outside of my own 9 dots sometimes.

On the quilting front, I have the top completed for Emily’s wedding quilt. Now I just have to load it onto the frame and get it quilted. Hopefully the learning curve of a new machine and adjusting the tension don’t take me too long, I have less than 2 weeks before we leave for the wedding – whew, writing that out just made my heart pound, I must hurry!

Here is my updated tracker for StashDash2015, I need to get my little puppy moving!

Knitting Frenzy

I haven’t posted in ages! And so much has changed in the last year and a half. The biggest change is that I have relocated from Arizona to New England. I moved for my job, which I am loving. The transition away from family and friends has been hard, and I miss everyone so much. But it has been fun traveling around New England and seeing new things and there is still so much to see.

I am still knitting and quilting. My new home has a finished basement which I have converted into a giant sewing palace for me. I am currently sewing away like a mad woman on Emily’s wedding quilt. She and Geoff are getting married in a few weeks and in true typical Kellie fashion I am not done with the quilt. My parents are here to visit and drive to Minnesota for the wedding with us, so I have recruited my Mom to help me get the quilt finished. Yes, mrsquilt’s sweat shop is back in business!

Moving to New England has really rejuvenated my knitting mojo. The weather is much more conducive to wearing knits here than it was in Phoenix and a majority of my creating time has been spent knitting.

Here a few of the things I have done recently.

I’ve gotten pretty good about keeping my projects on Ravelry, so check them out there. My user name is mrsquilt. I’m also mrsquilt on Instagram.

I have decided to join the Stash Dash 2015 KAL with the Knit Grills group in Ravelry. The goal is to knit either 3K, 5K or 10K meters between today and August 14. This little tracker should help me to keep track of my progress.

As you can see, I am trying for the 5K, which is 5,468 yards or yarn knitted into something wonderful. I have grand plans, including socks, sweaters, hats and cowls. Wish me luck!!