An Amazing Knitting Project–Almost Done!

It has been a long time since the did the knitting on this project.  I am finishing it now. I knit the final row which is a combination of knitting and binding off.

The next step was to cut the tube open between the first and last stitch on the needle.

I have cut the tube open the entire length.

I have removed the knitting needle in preparation for dropping the loops that I didn’t bind off.

I have started to unravel the fringe one end of the shawl and one of the dropped stitch columns.

All the stitches that needed to be unraveled have been now.

This is a close up after I have unraveled the fringe and an open area.

You can see how curly and kinky the yarn is.

When I block this it will straighten the yarns and fringe and also make the entire shawl longer.

It will take me a while to do this as we had a new well pump put in two weeks ago and the water is still spitting iron and magnesium particles.

Stay tuned!

New Yarn Storage

I have been absent from blogging since I have been busy tying up a lot of loose ends – none of them blog worthy until this one.

I purchased this buffet and hutch at the same time I purchased the dining room table and chairs. It is almost exactly the size of the post office desk I store yarn in.The two pieces are now back to back in my studio.

I had acquired a lot more yarn and it was stored in my store room. This was the perfect piece to put the rest of the yarn. It allows me to see what I have and inspire me to create with it.

You can see the yarn better with the glass doors open.  I keep them closed to keep the yarn dust free and I am still able to see the yarn.

I was able to utilize the lower part of the buffet to store odd balls of yarn. It took me a while to realize I could use these leftover plastic drawers and wood crates I had which fit the space perfectly.

The only part I have not showed you is the inside of the drawers. One side holds my knitting needles and the other holds more yarn.

Stay tuned – I expect to start using some of this yarn now that I can see it!

Gallery Of My Quilts

I have a space to hang many of my quilts in the lower level of our home.

This is a great area to display quilts for clients.

There is no direct sunlight nor fluorescent lighting which could cause fading.

It also shows the quilts in an area much like someone would hang quilts in their home.

I try to hang a new quilt in the empty space when a quilt is sold.

It also gives me and my family a chance to enjoy the work I have done.

It adds color and interest to the area which is what quilts do for a home, office or other business.

It has been said if you are trying to sell your house, hang a quilt on the wall and it will sell faster.

I have seen that happen more than once.

Body Of Work

Throughout This post I am going to attempt to share some work I haven’t previously shown on my blog.

If you have seen any of these before, just humor me and pretend you haven’t!

Winter Garden

One of the things I have been working on recently is trying to document as many of the quilts I made made as possible.

I did not photograph my quilts when I first started quilting.

When I did start photographing them it was not done with a digital camera.

Yes, I have been able to scan those photos but they are not the quality of recent digital photos.

Shrine To A Polymer Clay Goddess

I will soon be putting out a call to my family asking them to bring the quilts I do not have pictures of to be photographed.

School House

Some of the quilts I have made have been given away, never to be seen again.

Others have been used up, worn out and probably tossed in the garbage.

I have finished 379 quilts to date. I started quilting in 1959, but didn’t take it up seriously until 1977.

After that there was no stopping me, even though their were periods of time when I had other priorities that slowed me down.

If you have been a regular blog reader you know I have been working hard recently to finish Works In Progress.

I have finished 18 so far in 2012 which pleases me. I hope to finish quite a few more.

As you have viewed this post you can see my style or work has changes over the years and I expect it will continue to change as I continue developing “MY” style.

Going Home Again

This was one of the first houses we lived in. It was a two story duplex and we lived in the left unit as you view the picture. If you look to the right you will see some very green grass. That is a golf course. In the evening you could play a few holes for free. The house was on Kausrud Street in Menomonie, Wisconsin.

This picture came from the internet. The next two are photos I took when we lived in the houses.

This was another house we lived in years ago. It was on Highway 20 in Columbia, Ohio – kind of in the middle of nowhere!

You can see Jeff playing in the snow wearing the snowsuit I made him and the hat I knit him. It was the best hat pattern ever.

This was the next house we lived in. It was on Indiana Street in Edon, Ohio. I LOVED this house.

It had 8 rooms, 10 closets, a car and a half garage, a full basement and built in dressers, shelving and a lot of cabinets.

We paid $50 a month for rent! We also had a landlord who kept it in tip top shape. Had we not left Edon, I am sure we’d still be living there.

I dreamt about it for years.

There were two others I have no pictures of. They have been torn down since we lived in them.

We also lived in Arlington, Virginia for two summers – both times in the same apartment complex. I was able to find current picture of one of the buildings on v-pike, but can’t copy the picture to share with you.

Where Is Kay?

Thanks for asking. I’m fine and busy with day to day and mundane activities.

It also is my Birthday month and I celebrate ALL month!

That is why you haven’t heard from me. I’ll be back when I have something to post.

This is my grandson Blake and his friend that play in the Iowa State marching band.

Blog Statistics

Quilts + Color

I love numbers and love to watch my blog views from all of you out there.

There are so many ways and services to count the number of viewers for a blog.

One of the services I have used is Ice Rocket which had announced that it was shutting down permanently September 1, 2012. It seems to still be working though, although it does not give as much information as it used to.

Each service seems to have it’s own way of counting visits and page view of a blog.

I have Neocounter on my blog. The numbers it shows are far less than what it shows if I check Blogger.

I don’t use Sitemeter which is a favorite of many bloggers. I just couldn’t figure out how to get it on my blog way back when.

If I check my Blogger statistics I can see I have had 279,216 page views in the time I have been blogging.

What does this all mean and what does it show a blogger?

To me it just shows a LOT of people read my blog and the readership is constantly increasing.

It also shows when I don’t blog for an extended period of time the readership goes way down, but still remains higher than when I first started blogging.

I know people are continually searching for something and end up on my blog as a result of their search.

It has also been interesting to see that I have had visitors to my blog from 168 countries. I couldn’t even name that many countries!

3 New Hand Knit Sweaters–Vintage, Too!

While reorganizing my studio I found 3 sweaters I had knit and never quite finished.

They were no longer my size! My granddaughter came over tonight for a visit.

She tried them on and loved them all. I told her it would not hurt my feelings if she said she didn’t want them, but she really loved all of them.

This one was totally finished and fit her perfectly. The color was perfect and we both agreed it was right in style. I knit it soon after 1984 – which means it is older than she is!

This was very roomy and I thought it might be too big for her. I hadn’t stitched the side seams yet. She loved it and I will finish it and have it ready for the next time I see her. I caught her laughing as I took this picture!

This was done with the exception of two yarns that I had not woven in. It will need to be blocked to make it fit perfectly and I will do that.

She now will have 3 new vintage sweaters as soon as I finish the last two.  Heidi said they are all current styles which pleased me – timeless!

I spent a lot of time knitting these three sweaters and I am so glad she will be enjoying wearing them.

NOTE: these were all knit the old fashioned way - on two long needles by hand - no machine!
Cooper wanted his picture taken too! It's getting harder to get pictures of him as he is starting to get into that making funny faces stage. Took a few tries but this one makes a good puzzle. He loves to be the puzzle and loves to see the puzzles using auto solve!

I’m Knitting On My Bond Again

I am guessing it is probably 8 years since I did any knitting on my Bond Knitting machine.

I am knitting some scarves to get in practice again.

It took me a while to find all the parts. I then had to read the directions again and follow them as I did a test piece.

It took about 5 false starts before I could make things work the way they were supposed to.

I will be getting the feel for this again by knitting scarves and can progress from there to more complex items.

The Bond is actually considered a knitting frame, rather than a knitting machine.

Once you learn to use it you can do most things you can do knitting by hand.

The advantage is it is much faster. I can probably knit 4 –5 scarves in a day.

I can knit a sweater in a day.

I usually still do the ribbing by hand, even though I have a ribber for it. It gives me the satisfaction of doing hand knitting.

By using the Bond again I will be able to knit up a lot of the yarn I have quicker. And I DO have a good supply of yarn!

I will not be able to use it to knit socks or my bulky afghans, but it will be perfect for knitting sweaters, scarves, vests, hats and other items.

I can convert many hand knit patterns to be knit on the Bond. I’ll be sharing some of these things soon.

It’s Quilted!

I just finished quilting this quilt.

I had the perfect threads to quilt it with. It is hard to see the quilting on this picture since the threads blend into the fabrics. In person the quilting is more easily visible.

You can see the quilting clearly in this closeup. It is also obvious how well the thread blends with the colors in the shibori fabric.

It pays to have a collection of thread in different colors, weights and fibers.

And a puzzle!

Colorful Cuddly Hand Knit Afghan

I don’t do commissions! this is as close as I come – for a special friend.

I only share my decorating skills with my best friends and family now.

But I did knit this afghan twice to decorate their new family room.

It coordinates perfectly with the room and adds just the right accents to the room.

The first time I knit it I knit it quite loosely and didn’t tie the yarns together as securely as I should have.

There was a little accident and my friend had no choice but to throw it in the washer.

It unraveled in several areas.

I though I could just fix those areas, but under closer examination I knew I’d have to unravel it and reknit it.

I had not kept track of the number of stitches nor the needle size.

I only knew I wanted it to be knit tighter and not quite as wide.

It ended up quite a bit narrower and shorter.

It is soft, cuddly and warm.

It is still big enough for one person, but not for two!

It is still just as beautiful as it originally was and I know someone will be using it soon as our temperatures will start to get chilly in the evenings.

“Yellow Quilt”–Broken Star

This is another one of my “soon to be finished” quilts. I would guess I started it over 15 years ago.

It was the first time I had used yellow in a quilt – since yellow was probably my least favorite color.

The inspiration and the starting point was the 8 yellow floral printed squares I cut from a decorator fabric.

I loved this quilt and realized what yellow could do.

From that point on I have used some variation of yellow in a majority of my quilts.

This is only the center section. I have the pieced borders completed and they will come next.

After that I will add a solid border.

Then will come the quilting and the binding and I can add it to my FINISHED list!

I thought you might enjoy a puzzle of this quilt.

eBay Is My Friend!!

In case you haven’t guessed I love decorating. I enjoy finding vintage Scandinavian teak in good condition on eBay.

This draw leaf dining room teak table and chairs was the first furniture I purchased on eBay. We have used it in both the dining room and the breakfast room.

It has been a perfect set as the table is narrow to fit our narrow rooms. It is still in the same excellent condition it was when we purchased it about 10 years ago.

I am thinking about selling this set. It works as well for just 2 people as it does for 6 with the leaves extended.

I am always browsing on eBay and recently found another set.

 

I found this on eBay last week. It was within 15 miles of our house.

It’s a beautiful set in great condition. Since our dining room is small, the glass top works well.

We set it up so we can seat 6 people although there are only 4 chairs. We can use 2 chairs from another room.

Since there are 6 of us I think we will celebrate the birthdays tonight at this table!

Hope you enjoy this puzzle.

Jessica Got A Box Of Special Kleenex For Her Birthday!

Jessica was expecting a yarn ball like her brothers got for their birthday.

Instead I got her a special box of Kleenex!

I sewed a bunch of dollar bills together with water dissolvable thread and rolled them up.

I sewed one Kleenex to the top.

You can see she was enjoying her gift.

This was my own original idea!

Ladies Who Lunch Are Back!

The reason I haven’t had Lunch Ladies posts recently is I forget to take pictures.

Today was a very special day with long time friends.

Bev (in aqua) and I taught together for many years at our local Technical College. I think we started teaching there the same year.

Lyn (in red) is Bev’s daughter and I have known her for years too.

Lorrie (in purple) is someone I have known since I was twice as old as her. I am now only about 1 1/3 times as old as she is.

She was one of my youngest ever students and was definitely one of the best I ever had. She took many classes from me and also worked with me.

We all have sewing and quilting in common.

Before we went for lunch I gave them a tour of my studio and some of my quilts.

We had years to catch up on and we’ll need to get together again before long to do some more catching up.

This definitely was the highlight of my week. There are no friends like long time friends!

More Recent Quilts

This is another grouping of my recent quilts that I pinned to my design wall. I enjoy seeing them hung around the studio. They are in no particular order – just what will fit the space.

This one fits the one blank wall in my studio perfectly!

A little crazy cut for this puzzle!

Recent Quilts

These are some of the quilts that I have completed recently.

I had one section of my design wall empty so I was able to put up these 6 quilts.

The section you see is about 7 x 7 feet which gives you an idea of the size of each quilt.

I wish I had wall space in my studio to hang more of my quilts. I do rotate them from time to time and I will be doing that soon with some of them that are on the stairwell walls.

Can you see my design signature in this group?

Today you get 6 quilts in the puzzle!

Reverse Applique–Channeling Mary Evans

This is a small reverse applique I did years ago. I made it in a class with Charlotte Patera at Quilt Festival in Houston.

Charlotte watched me sew and remarked on the fine quality of my hand sewing.

I had to laugh as I was not known for my handwork – in fact I only did things by hand if there was no other way to accomplish the task.

This is the back of the piece. You can see my tiny stitches.

This is a Baltimore Album quilt that is possibly a Mary Evans quilt.

Earlier in the day I had visited a show of Baltimore Album quilts at the museum with two friends. We played “Let’s Pretend” and picked the block we though we had probably done in a previous life. Since I was the teacher I picked the fantastic large center block which I guessed had possibly been done by Mary Evans. Mary was credited with being the force behind the wonderful Baltimore Album quilts. This is not the exact quilt we were discussing.

When I was working on this small bird piece I guess Mary’s spirit entered my body and I did the quality work she would have done!

From time to time I have done some other fine quality applique, but it is not what I am known for!

Of course I had to use the bird cut for today's puzzle!