Filemot

 Hi all -

I hope everyone is enjoying their spring! We've had quite an April here! This is a La Nina year, which means conditions favorable for big snows, and it has panned out! We had a foot of snow a week ago and another 2 feet yesterday. Luckily, the days in between have been warm enough to melt everything. Today the temperature is 51F and the ground is covered in snow and a couple of inches of water. This is great for our water table! Of course, lots of heavy, wet snow leads to power outages and we've had our share! Our power was out all day yesterday and the night before except for a while yesterday morning when we had power, but it blipped out every 30 minutes. Luckily, I prepared a bit since for me lack of power also means lack of water, internet and phone. But it didn't feel that bad yesterday since a couple of weeks ago we had a big wind storm in the area and the power company proactively turned off power to much of the region. I'm really glad they did that, but it was tough! What I didn't realize (but made sense after they told us) is that the power company has to inspect every inch of line (and, of course, fix any problems found) before they can turn the power back on. For us, that meant over 3 days without power. It was an eye opener, especially since the house never got above 45F! It was certainly better than a fire and now I've purchased some more items (a large battery to run the wireless router for a few minutes periodically to check on power status and make any necessary phone calls, a bluetooth speaker so I can listen to audio books longer before running down the battery on the iPhone, a solar powered backup batter for the iPhone and iPad, etc).  This outage was easier than snow outages since I could always take my car to town to escape the house and fill up a large container with water so I could flush the toilet. Next time this happens (and there's sure to be a next time), I feel like I'm more prepared to handle it!

Anyway, on to the crafting.... The biggest thing I've been working on is my Filemot shawl designed by Hunter Hammersen. I actually started this project in 2018 but had to put it away because it was too difficult for me at the time. The pattern is twisted rib based. So you're making a lot of stitches through the back loop (which is more awkward, for those who don't knit) and the decrease stitches are more complicated. It also has yarn overs placed between knit and purl stitches, which I hadn't encountered before when I first started this pattern. A yarn over is just making a new stitch on the needle by laying the yarn over the needle. Between two knit stitches or two purl stitches, that means wrapping the yarn once around the needle. But, between a knit and a purl stitch you either don't move the yarn at all or you wrap the yarn one and a half times, depending on which stitch is first. It took me a while to figure out how that worked and I kept making mistakes when I first tried to make this shawl. So I put it away, but now I pulled it out and found that I got into the rhythm of the stitches pretty quickly this time. I also switched to the sharper knitting needles that I generally use now. Here is the finished shawl:

Filemot

And here's a close-up of the stitch pattern. The color is off in this picture. The above picture is true to life.

Filemot close-up

I haven't blocked this shawl yet. I was hoping to do that yesterday, but couldn't with the power outage. Blocking will increase the size of the shawl, open up the stitches a bit and allow me to emphasize some of the shaping of the edges.

Another project I worked on is my monthly blanket project -- the Wildflower Crochet Blanket designed by Lena Skvagerson. This is the Jimmy Beans Wool blanket club project where we get some yarn and another part of the pattern each month. Here are the blocks for this month:

Wildflower Crochet Blanket - block 10

Wildflower Crochet Blanket - block 11

Wildflower Crochet Blanket - block 12

Wildflower Crochet Blanket - center block progress

I'm really enjoying the variety of this project! I'm learning a lot and getting a lot of practice! I'm always looking forward to the next month's installment!

Finally, I got Grace set up for doggy daycare so I can now take classes with my different quilt guilds. My first class was a needle turn reverse applique class with Margaret Willingham of Eye of the Beholder Quilt Design. In class we learned her techniques and started working on her pattern for a pineapple:

Crown Pineapple - front

Crown Pineapple - back

Her pattern had both reverse applique and regular applique. You start by tracing the pattern on the lowest layer, then baste through the layers with thicker thread to transfer the pattern to the front. This pattern has two colors of reverse applique, which is what I'm working on now. There are two additional colors of regular applique that I'll apply to the top once the reverse applique is finished. I think this will be really cute when it's finished. I'll probably make it into some sort of a bag since that tends to be my go-to project for small pieces like this. Wallhangings don't generally work for me because my walls are already filled and I don't tend to swap things out on the walls. But I use bags a lot!

I'm also looking forward to starting another crochet blanket project next week. I was really taken by the Blossom & Buds Spring Crochet Blanket from Sirdir. Here's the picture from their web site:

Blossom & Buds Spring Crochet Blanket

Isn't that cute?? This is a crochet-along (CAL) and the first installment of the free pattern comes out on May 1. I can't wait to start! Today I also ordered several other crochet blanket kits from Lion Yarns since I just got my federal income tax refund and I think these blankets are great ways to get better at crochet. I can't wait to get those, too!

Well, that's all of the crafting. I thought I'd leave you with a picture of Grace enjoying the snow from a week ago:

Grace enjoying the snow

I wish I enjoyed it that much!!

Nancy