It's definitely winter now. We've been having cold, snowy weather lately, but I just remember that spring is just around the corner and it will be March in a couple of weeks. We'll have more snow then, but the days will continue to be longer and warmer now.
I've made some good progress on my projects. I finished the center of Japanese Garden, the wedding quilt for my niece. This quilt started as the Punch Bowl Botanicals Plum Quilt Kit from Bluprint, but I've changed some of the fabrics to add an Asian element and to add some greens to the purples of the kit:
The actual colors are brighter than in the picture, but you get a good idea of the movement the quilt creates. I love how this is turning out! I still need to decide on borders, but I decided to step back and work on some other stuff for a little while. After all, I have until the end of August to finish this one.
I've also done some sewing for Relief Crafters of America, which is a Facebook group that organizes sewing/knitting/crocheting projects for animal organizations. I originally joined them to make things for the Australian wildlife affected by the fires, but just as I got started the word came down that the Australian organizations were getting overwhelmed by the donations so they were asking us to hold off for a while. So the group changed focus and they are now picking several animal charities in America each month and are organizing crafting for those organizations. This month I signed up to make some things for The Pipsqueakery animal rescue in Indiana. I signed up to make 2 little snuggle sacks:
and 10 animal hammocks (I folded over a corner so you could see both sides of each hammock):
A friend of mine might recognize one of the polar fleece fabrics since she gave these scraps to me many years ago.... I'm washing the donations now and will package them up to mail to the collecting hub in the second half of the month.
I've also been doing some knitting. I finished by Umami Mitts by Laura Nelkin:
This was the November 2019 Lola's Choice kit, but I didn't have time to work on it until after Christmas. These are knit with a Fisherman's Rib stitch, which creates a fabric that is really spongy and airy so that it creates warmth from trapped air while remaining light weight. I'm keeping these!
I also made my Cassio Collar by Laura Nelkin. This was the Lola's Choice kit for January 2020:
This was a fun, quick knit and ended up really cute. I do love knitting with beads!
Finally, I started knitting an Aller by Laura Nelkin. This is a cute short-sleeved shrug that ties in the front. It is knit from the top down. I've gotten past arm holes so you can start to see the shape of the shrug:
I'm making this one exactly to the pattern, but I might also try another version with long sleeves since I think that might be useful when I get a little cold in the summer, but not cold enough for a full sweater. It's nice to have a project to work on that has long stretches of knit or purl stitches that I can do without much thinking. I've been doing a lot of lace knitting lately, which takes a lot of attention to make sure you don't make mistakes.
That's about all I have for now. I hope the winter is going well for everyone!
Nancy
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