Lace Top Finished - and before Easter!

Woohoo!  I finally finished the 3rd lace top!  And before EASTER!  I did more ripping out on this one but it was well worth it.  I'm happy with the results and I like the length and the length of the sleeves.   This was before blocking.

A good soak in Woolite (small, small amt!) and water.  Always the scary part!

Next blocking to pattern measurements...almost as scary as soaking to get ready to block!  HA

Not the best picture...I was in my jeans and hadn't wash hair yet (but I did brush my teeth!  HA).  Only problem, up close you can see the color of my bra...SO, I might search for a cheap peach color bra!  

I did check out others who have knitted this same top on Ravelry and several  of theirs you can see the color of their bra unless they knitted in dark colors.  Who knew!  But that's ok!  Not a problem.  

And now I have my top for Easter.  On to the next project!  

Lace Top #3 - or project from H_ll!

I do so love to knit and now that I'm reading charts for lace work, I really enjoy it....except....the past few weeks I've struggled with some parts of my lace top.  

This is the original pattern picture...you can see it is more form fitting that the other lace tops I've made....no, I didn't even pay attention to that!  HA

 

So when I finished the body of the top, the ribbing and bind off was way too tight on the body and on the first sleeve I finished...so what to do!!  Un-rip...but as you can see here, I was having a heck of a time trying to find the end of the yarn so I couldn 'unrip'!! 

So I got out the old rotary cutter and actually sliced through the bind off edge!   This was the body bind off and ribbing.

Actually that worked out pretty well and I was able to find yarn that led me to a row so I could reknit!  

And I was able to pick up correctly 218+ stitches!

I finished ripping out the sleeve ribbing and bind off and reknitted.  I used the Italian Bind Off again, which I love!

I'm working on the 2nd sleeve now and hope to be finished in another week or so.  I usually only knit while dinner is cooking or at wine time before dinner...20 min. here....30 min. there....See why it takes me so long!  HA

My sister is looking at patterns for us to work on together...yes, she did finish her top but she also felt it was too small so she gifted it to her daughter in Pennsylvania!  Lucky Girl.  

Dye Dog Progress - not much!

 It seems like I'm not making much progress on my Dye Dog #2....stitching takes a lot of dedicated time, which I only do at night while we watch TV....that is as long as the dogs aren't on either side of me!  I'll have to take a picture of what that looks like!  

I watched our grandson's Lacrosse game on my laptop this past Saturday while stitching.   Multi tasking!!  I like when his college games are on YouTube or their home site.  Makes you feel like you're there....OK, kinda!

You can see in the next two pictures how much stitching I have to go.

I do have some other stitching in mind for this piece in addition to the background.  But I have to finish the background first!  

I still have the 2nd dye dog #2 up on my design wall but I haven't done anything else with it.  I need to finish this piece first and then my lace top!!  Easter is almost here!

I was reading that Blogger is no longer emailing out new posts to readers!  I was wondering why I wasn't getting some posts as well as a few have asked me the same.  That's too bad.  I'd much prefer to get emails of new posts as I don't always go into my Reader List and then I'm so far behind seeing what everyone is up to.  Darn!

Week's progress...

Well, Michigan weather has allowed us to have a few decent days of 40 degrees, which also allowed the dogs to be walked twice in two days!  Kalee loves her walks...Gigi is a fair weather gal so not so much..but good for all of us.  Donna and I walked at the church walking track twice this week.  So between dogs, walking, making dog food, cleaning and cooking not a lot of progress on two projects.  But there is progress!

Depending on how many dogs are on my lap at night and what's on TV, I can either knit or do stitching on my dye dog #2.  It's progressing and I'd say I'm about half way, well almost, half way  with the background stitching...???...close enough, right!

I'm about half way on the sleeve for the knitted top...BUT I am going to 'unknit' the ribbing.  I think it's too tight and I should have used a larger needle to bind off.  I'm knitting the Italian Bind-off again, which I really like.  It is stretchy but the more I look at this pattern, I see it's fitted quite a bit more than the other two I knitted.  I'm hoping I didn't mess up and the top will be too small.  I will try on after I finish this sleeve but I do know the ribbing/bind off is too tight.  SOOOOOOOOOOO.  

We're due for a rather large snow storm of 6-8 inches starting later this afternoon.  It's good they forwarn us but it doesn't alway happen in our area...but we could have run out of luck.  Our winter has actually been very mild this year!  Can't complain and other then going to the library to volunteer, I don't have to go anywhere until next Wednesday!  HA  So I should get a lot done, right!!!  

Dye Dog #2 - Two'fer!

 So what is Dye Dog #2 - Two'fer you ask!  Well, I decided to use up the other two fabrics and any leftover from the Dye Dog #2 for the backing of my piece.  So, I started just doing some patchwork of pieces and adding some other shibori fabric (I used some pink shibori in the original piece in the strips).  

This was one of the layouts I played with.

 

Another layout...actually, I flipped the piece!  I had started this piece horizontal then I decided to change to vertical, which looks so much better.

But then the more I played with it, the more I decided to make a 2nd quilt piece!  Why waste this on the back of the quilt!  This is my favorite layout, so far. 

I can see LOTS of hand work on this one too!!!!  

So this is my DYE DOG #2 - Two'fer!

Dye Dog Progress

I'm working away on handwork on my dye dog #2!  This is the best part, as far as I'm concerned.  I just love any type of hand work.  It's so relaxing to me...even if I have to 'unrip' at times...who me!...it's still a fun process to do.

These are pieces of ultra suede that I had leftover from other projects!

In addition to some of the embroidery work, I had to add beads, right!  I played around with different colors of beads (hence, the 'unripping') but decided on turquoise beads, which look very pale here but they are a pretty shade and match the turquoise in the quilt.

Here is the side panel finished with beading and stitching.  I'm happy with how it turned out.

I am making progress...now to do hand stitching around the tree!  We don't have a target date so I don't feel that pressure, which I don't care for!  We have enough pressure in our lives.  HA HA

Again, I'm using a turquoise thread.  It's Lana Madera, color 3875 and only using one strand.

On a side note, I'm working on the ribbing of my lace top!  Woohoo!  And should be starting on the sleeves next week...depends on which mood I'm in...to knit or hand stitch!

Dye Dog #2 Progress

 

I've been working off and on the design for dye dog #2 this past week.

And started on quilting the piece!

Makes it easy to quilt...just follow the lines!  HA

Didn't do any fancy free motion work.  

I had to color in some of the black lines with a black micro pen.

I traced the stencil of the tree on back of fusible web then cut out the tree in black fabric.

And now it's handwork to get busy with!

Once I finish with the square embroidery, I'll be adding black beads (I think!) around the circles.  I plan on doing some stab stitching on the main piece...but that could also change.  I'm busy the rest of this week, so might not get to the hand work until next week.  

Hope to finish up the body on my knitted lace...I have about 2 more inches of the body then ribbing...THEN I can start on the sleeves!  Well, Easter is a long way off, right!  It will be finished by then...fingers crossed!

Washi Paper Making

 I found this YouTube on 'A Movable Feast' blog.  I've followed her for quite sometime and always fascinated with some of her posts.  Lots of her posts are about textile, weaving, papers, Japanese influenced.  I thought this  video was so interesting and wanted to share with my readers!  Enjoy!

Grandma's Quilt is ALL DONE!!!

 

The binding fabric worked great.  I used the machine to sew the binding on.  I wasn't going to hand sew the binding.  Don't forget this is just a project I want

 

finished.  It's nothing my kids are going to say "WOW, LOOK WHAT MUM MADE".  HA

It's more of an emotional tie to myself because I recognize the quilts I made with so many of the pieces of fabric.  And this was a pattern I started back in 2000!!!!  Bob keeps saying "it doesn't look like your work".  Well, it did back in 2000 but he's right...I don't do this type of quilts anymore.

The backing is actually an old sheet that I dyed with Tea Bags!  Yep...in fact, there are some areas were I left the tea bags in the water and it looks like the backing is stained.  Well, it is...but with the tea bag!  It really is more pink than anything but I can't get the color correct on my pictures.  Not sure why pink!

Both the pic above and this one are showing the hand quilting I did back in 2000!!!

This is the back of the quilt...see how pink it is!  Who knew!

Closeup of some blocks and the hand quilting!  

This is a true scrap quilt for sure.  Nothing goes together but I have memories of so many of the fabric scraps!

All Finished!!!  Whew!!!

So now, it's back to the Dye Dog #2!!!  So glad to have this project/homework behind me!  HA

Dye Dog #2 Progress

 Before I get into my post...I had lunch with my BFF, Carol, on Tuesday...and come to find out Thursday she tested positive for Covid!  She didn't get sick with fever, sore throat until Wednesday but I'm hibernating until next Tuesday just to be safe and not infect anyone.  I don't think I'll get it but better be safe than sorry.

Of course I have a few ideas on my Dye Dog #2....hard to control my mind!  I see so many different ideas and go back and forth, but, I think that's just what the process is or should be, right!  I should have turned this pic of one of the dye dog fabrics.  

Just reminds me of branches of a tree.

So out came my tree stencil which I used a few years ago.  You can read that post here.

Ran the stencil through copy machine

traced tree onto fusible web

I really like the look of the tree on Kay's dye dog piece.  

So next up is deciding on the rest of the arrangement.  The piece on the left is another one of the 'dye dog' pieces.  This 3rd piece is quite light BUT I have an idea there as well...maybe using thickened dyes to enhance the black in the fabric.

Worse case, I'll use this 3rd piece as backing for the quilt.

I'm also looking at using some of this ultra suede I have.  Putting 1/8" of the pink in between black fabric looks pretty good.

Hard to tell but that 'reddish' strip is actually the same pink you see here. I have plans for doing quite a bit of hand work too.    I didn't have any solid black fabric so I ordered some from JoAnn's (with my gift card, Susan!).  They had cotton sateen on sale for $7.99 and free shipping...can't beat that with a stick, right!

So this is where I'm at with my dye dog project.  And before you know it, I'll have changed my mind and will have come up with an entirely different design!  Just the way my mind works!  

Knitting! And Grandma's Quilt!

 

It's been a busy two weeks...between doctor, dental extraction, eye exam,; blood workup; picking out new glasses; grocery shopping, cleaning, cooking (ok, let's be honest - I used up a lot of leftovers from the freezer lately!  HA) and a few lunches out I've not been at home as much as I would like!  But I'm not complaining...especially about the eating lunches out!  

I still have about 6-8 inches for the body to knit on my 3rd lace top.  I was able to knit this past Sunday watching two football games!  Woohoo!  Once I'm done with the body,  I can start knitting the sleeves, which are 3/4 length...

Closeup of the lace work.  Pro bowl is on this weekend and then Super Bowl next!  I will miss football for sure!  And miss knitting time...I don't sit and watch golf with Bob very often (which will be on in place of football!) so knitting will be while in my sewing room watching shows that I have taped - like I have several, several series with 3-5 shows waiting to be seen!  

I will knit at night if we're watching some program I don't need to watch every scene!  

I've squared Grandma's Quilt so edges are all ready for the binding.

Because this is a true scrap quilt, I looked for some yardage I had to make the binding with.  Remember this is a huge bugger so I need quite a bit. 

And look what I found....actually, it's not that pretty to use for the binding but I have tons of this leftover from Ian's T-shirt quilt.  I used this for the backing and binding strips.  You can see some of that quilt here.  I may pin some of the binding on to see if it's too icky looking!  Then it's back to the fabric stash to see what else I can find.  

I'm making progress on the Dye Dog #2 quilt...well, at least from a design idea!  Hope to post later this week.