Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Checkers Center Done

Hi all -

It's been a rainy, foggy, snowy week here in the mountains of Colorado. It's good to have all the moisture, but I'm really ready for some sunny days! Of course, I'll be missing the rain and coolness once August gets here! So for now I'm going to try to stay positive and enjoy it.

I made some good progress this week. On the quilting side, I finished piecing the center of my Checkers quilt:


It still has a pieced border and two solid borders, but it's well on it's way. And I'm loving it! And I think it's going to be fun to quilt. I already know what I'm going to do in the white areas.

I've also made some good progress on the knitting end. First, I made a pair of fingerless mitts:


These are from the Prolix Mitts pattern in Laura Nelkin's book Knockout Knits. I love Laura's stuff and will do one of her beaded patterns sometime soon. I have several of her Craftsy classes and I find her a pleasant and amusing teacher. Here is one of the mitts on my hand:


I want a pair of fingerless mitts to wear in the winter in the house because it gets pretty cold. I think they'll be nice to wear while knitting or sewing. But I probably won't keep these because I think I want something shorter on my arm.

There was a bunch of yarn left from the skein so I decided to also work on a hat. I was a little worried about having enough yarn because the length of the full skein as indicated on the wrapper was less than the total yarn amounts indicated in the two patterns, but it looked like I had a lot left and I figured everyone would be conservative so I decided to give it a try. Luckily, I had just enough and here is the hat that I made:


This is from the Lacy Liberty Wool Hat pattern by Meg Myers in the book Lace One-Skein Wonders. I'm definitely keeping this one! I love the softness of the yarn and the hat is really light on my head. And I think it's beautiful!

For you dog lovers, here is the obligatory Lance modelling picture:


The poor guy absolutely hated wearing the mitts! He started flicking his tongue and moving around as soon as I put them on, both of which are dog calming behaviors. But being the good mom that I am, I made him sit still so I could take a couple of pictures before taking them off and giving him a treat. I'm so nice!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful spring!

Nancy





4 comments:

  1. I love Lance and I wish someone would have helped me learn how to love dogs when I was little. The converse is true. My Dad and brothers had very yappy, barking, jumping (on me mostly) hunting dogs and I was terrified. All my friends who have dogs keep telling me how much their dogs love me. I just don't read them right. I see what friends tell me means "wanting to play" as a sure sign of eminent attack. Anyway, in spite of that, I do love Lance. Perhaps it's the safety of distance. Love your quilt. The hat and mitts are luscious colors. I am glad you are keeping the hat.

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    1. Thanks, Lois! You actually would love Lance if you met him. He's scared of people, so definitely no jumping on people he doesn't know. You would probably like older dogs who tend to not be so playful. There are also less-excitable breeds. Unfortunately, dogs really react to our emotions so tenseness that you are feeling will often cause more excitability in high energy dogs. But that would go away with exposure to calmer dogs IMO. Dogs are great!

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  2. Your checkers quilt is stunning! I look forward to seeing your plan in the white! Lance is such a good model and he did earn all of his "reward" for modeling those mitts which are unique. I like the design up the arm!

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    1. Thanks! I think I'll keep Lance, even if I give away the mitts! ;)

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