ear-flap hat

My ear-flap hat is done! It is so warm and fuzzy, I used Blue Sky Alpaca Bulky and this yarn is beautiful. It was a little cold today so I didnt feel crazy wearing it. The weather has been so warm lately I havent been able to wear any of my cold weather knits. Its definitely going to be cold in Paris though.

lots of knitting

The only thing Ive been doing so far this break is knitting. This is a luxury I dont get very often and I am really enjoying it. Ive been working on some presents as well as my own knitted items.

What’s in this little parcel all wrapped up you ask?

A hat I knit for Chris! Im giving it to him today as an early birthday present. He’s already seen it and tried it on, but I wanted to wrap it up for him anyway.

The leg warmer knitting is getting ridiculous. This is the second time Ive knit that leg warmer and I dont like it at all. I ripped the other one back before I took a photo so I thought I’d post this one before pulling it apart. The first one was too big and kept slipping down and I just dont like how this one looks. I started another one in 1×1 rib and Ive decided to keep it one color this time. Hopefully these turn out better.

This was in the package I got today from Purl Soho. I squeal whenever I open on of their boxes! I got some bulky Blue Sky Alpaca for an ear flap hat I will bring with me to France, and Selvedge and Adorn magazines.

Im just hanging out knitting and relaxing, but should probably get to work on my other stuff soon. I hope you all are doing well, have a wonderful day!

finished travel quilt and knitting

The travel quilt is complete and I did very well in my quilting class! I think it payed off to do the quilting by hand. I love all the irregularity about it.

 

The back is assymetrical and the inside is the pink/magenta wool like this pillow. Ive worn it a few times and it is very comfortable and cozy! I’ll try to get some pics of me actually wearing it.

Ive been working on these mittens for a few weeks and its coming along slowly. They are alpaca and silk and feel so soft and warm.

Its knitted with a flap so you can pull it back and expose your fingers. I dont really like how the stitches connecting the flap and the mitten look. If I were to do these again I might knit it separately and sew it on. The pattern was way off too which was really frustrating. When I knitted the flap it came out long and pointy and it took me 2 more tries to adjust it.

This beautiful alpaca yarn will soon be legwarmers… hopefully. I dont have a lot of patience and I like quick projects so the thought of making two long tubes of stockinette makes me very unsure this will happen. But I really really want cute legwarmers to bring to France so this is my motivation!

My knitting needles were getting a little out of control and when I accidentally ordered the same size dpn’s that I already had I knew I needed to do something.

This was a really quick project. I think I made it a little more difficult then it had to be tho. I wanted to keep the wool in all one piece to fold over the needles, and the top in all one piece and just fold it over to make the pocket. Anyways, I pieced a little area with some scrap fabric and linen and wool on the inside. I really want to keep my needles nice and snug because I hate it when my needles fall out so I think the wool will keep them in place.

I used a vintage red button from one of the vintage button jars my mom gave me last Christmas. I love these jars and all the different buttons! That was such a sweet and thoughtful gift because she knew I had been collecting buttons (actually cutting them off of my friends donation clothing pile).

 

Ive been enjoying my first few days of break by knitting and Ive just started my Christmas gifts. I dont think I’ll show any until after I give them to their owners but I’ll keep showing progress of the other stuff Im making (for myself) in the meantime.

 

quilt squares and new books

I went through all my scraps this weekend so that I could organize them by strips, larger pieces, and little scraps. I was playing around in my process book and this is what I came up with:

Just a few studies but I like the way the fabric strips look with the pen drawing. Im planning on doing some drawings this way.

These are my four square studies of log cabin and string piecing for my class. I am really enjoying piecing the strips and figuring out color schemes. I just ordered some fabric from Purl Soho and I cant wait to get it!

These are two little books I made that you can carry with you all the time. Chris gets the leather one and I get the green one. I wanted to try new methods of binding and I needed a small book to put in my purse in case I get inspired and these worked out perfectly. They were a big hit with my class too. I am going to give them a bookbinding demo in 2 weeks (after midterms, yikes!).

I picked up the Knit Knit book this weekend at my favorite local yarn shop, Wild Fibre. It is so inspiring! It profiles artists and their work and there is some spectacular knitting going on!

a few things i meant to post last week…

My friend Jen’s quilts in the window of ShopSCAD, one of my favorite galleries in Savannah. It has the most innovative and creative art, and it its always inspiring.

Jen Jenkins is a graduate of the MFA Fibers program. Her fine art website blows me away. When working on her thesis show, a period of only a couple months, she said she sewed over 1 or 2 million stitches and had to have her Bernina serviced twice (or something like that, which apparently is a lot!). The surfaces are heavily stitched and textured. Her production design company, Double J Designs makes gorgeous (functional) quilts. Make sure to check her out!

Vogue Knitting Stitchionary and a handspun skein of yarn from Urban Gypz that I got while I was in Asheville. I love this book! Not only are the samples interesting but the layout is clean and easy to follow. This is really embarrassing, but since working on one of the samples Ive realized I have been doing yarn overs wrong! Wow. But now I know and I am following an eyelet pattern and learning a lot. Like, I dont really like following eyelet or lace patterns… but I do like the way they look so Im gonna stick it out for now.

Im going to use the yarn as the fringe for a dark brown cable knit scarf Ive been trying to finish for a year now. Check out her etsy shop, she is awesome!

Beautiful beautiful raw fleece. I got this from an art supply store in Asheville.

I had such a busy weekend because we were having a few events at my gallery for an Italian artist, Stefano Cecchini.

Thats me on the left, Stefano, Brenda and Joey. I had a great time hanging out with my co-workers and Stefano but I seriously have to get some work done now. I hope you all had a great weekend!

Oh! Before I go……

Chris got a Mohawk! Its awesome!

 

hit the ground running

I was quite bored with my daily practice of drawing the bird bones so Ive decided to do something different. In my effort to live more “green” and create less waste, I am going to make a collage a day using my scraps from other projects. This will keep (most) of them out of the trash and will be a fun creative outletThese scraps were from a book I made for Cori’s birthday. I learned how to screen print last week! I printed little alpacas on paper and I used the paper for the cover of the book. I bound it too loose the first time and I had to redo it so I had all these little bits left. I broke a needle on my sewing machine going through the waxed threads.

This was the book I made last week that I wanted to show you. Its my process book for Working Class Studio. It has a grey paper cover and green dots on grey fabric interior. Throughout the quarter I’ll add things like scraps or stickers to the cover to make it more fun.

This will be clapotis… eventually. Its taken me months to get this far, I think I started it in March. Geez! But when I do get time to knit its fabulous. Im using a silk yarn by Habu, just about the best yarn company ever.

This gorgeous hand dyed merino wool from Malabrigo Yarn will be a pillow cover. It is kettle dyed and the color is lettuce. I made up the cable pattern and its creating some interesting textures. This wool is like a cloud, it’ll be so nice to lay my head on…. eventually.

I generally dont get a lot of time to knit while Im in school, and this quarter already feels like its going to be a sprint. But thats when the good stuff usually happens in my work so Im looking forward to seeing what I come up with.

I have to go research trends in fabric wall art before I head out to WCS this afternoon, so have a wonderful day!