Sunday, February 26, 2012

Heavens! More Knitting!

It's true I haven't been knitting much lately; I've been giving in to my hands, which have wanted to quilt and embroider instead.  Still, I always have something on the knitting needles, and the latest Finished Object is a pair of slippers for my friend, J.  She's sensitive to both wool and acrylic yarns (gets a rash!) so I went with some Elann.com Peruvian Collection Pure Alpaca that I have in my stash.  Because its a lighter weight than what's called for, I knit it double and that seems to have worked well.  This is also a very soft yarn, so I'll be sewing soles on the bottom of the slippers to ensure longer wear.  She tried them on this a.m., though, and they fit perfectly, so I'm pleased -- and I still have enough of that yarn in my stash to make a sweater!

In the City & Guilds studio, I've finished another assignment -- this one involves designing the quilting for one of the sample blocks I've made.  When I created this one, I noticed that the seams showed through the sheer fabric in the corners.  Challenged by my tutor to make this a feature of the block, I designed the quilting accordingly and came up with this:


My next assignment involves creating a free-motion quilting design and executing it on yet another block I've already made.  Stay tuned!

Last but not least, I actually finished my TAST block for Week 8 -- ahead of schedule (well, at least here in the northern hemisphere!)  We had a snow day of sorts yesterday, so I stayed in and stitched this from another funky 1970s necktie:


The featured stitch was Chain.  The necktie fabric is that red-orange print; the gold fabric is from the tie's lining.  I even managed to resurrect my rusty knowledge of silk ribbon flowers to make a wee rosette.  I'm very fumbly with it, so definitely need more practice!

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