What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

What can I say? It was a crazy day, but everything is done. I spent most of the day at the computer! 

It took me FIVE hours to complete the labels. I know—five hours to make 30 labels! But they had to be formatted, and some of them needed a little bit of editing. But all is good. 

I had a few other things to print, so I prepped those and was about to load them on my USB to take to the print shop when I remembered they needed to be in PDF format. I wonder if I ...

I'm pleased I have a sock finish, this pair seems to have taken ages.  But only because I don't work on them all the time, I tend to flick from one project to another.   These are for my daughter, I asked if she would like another pair for Christmas.  "Yes please" she said, "I'd like pale blue this time".  So they are done well ahead of time, which is good.

YES --- I like SmartWool as well. I have one pair! When I first bought hiking socks, I bought several brands! It was just that I noticed the bottom disappearing slowly on the WrightSock! 

My SmartWool sock

I just went to their website, and WOW—it's easy to pick what you want, as they have a checklist. It's very civilized. I signed up for the newsletter and got 15% off. I might be buying some new socks today! 

I must check with my brother, as the socks he buys have a lifetime guarantee. They are more expensive, but they ...

I'm home! The girls are happy! Everybody is happy! 

There's a new dog in town! This is Crosby - a puppy just adopted by our neighbors! I haven't had a chance to meet him yet, but I can't wait! I sure hope we get to babysit from time to time! He looks so soft and cuddly! 

Meet Crosby

An update on the Machine Embroidery Retreat: We had so much fun! The two days were long, and I was exhausted. I slept like a log last night. But everyone learned something about their machines and went home much ...

My pink socks have been a long drawn out project.  I received this lovely skein of sock wool from my daughter for Christmas 2023.

It's about time I worked on my purple clam shell quilt again, goodness knows when I last got it out of the bag.  This project came with me to a monthly craft group I recently joined.  We can take anything we like to work on,  there was knitting and crochet happening, needle felting and one lady was setting up a hand loom, that looked rather tricky to me.  After doing big stitch hand quilting around all the clam shells, I'm now up to the borders.  I won't tell you just how old this project is, but believe ...

 My girls assure me that they love my hand knitted socks, so that's what they got for Christmas again this year.  Three pair of 4ply socks, one each for them, plus a couple of other small gifts too.  They probably don't realise how long they take me to knit, but I started early, and had them done with time to spare.

 I have finally finished this pair of socks for me.  This 4ply sock wool is branded Happy Feet, no colour named, just a number, and I received it as a birthday gift last year from Sew Wot friend Mary.    As most of you know, I knit my socks flat, two at a time, and packed the finished socks in my knitting bag on our recent caravan trip planning to get side seam stitched up.  That never happened, and I finally completed this task once we returned back home.  It's about time I finished them.

Although it is now Spring ...

I'm obviously much to busy to do too much knitting while we are on our road trip.  The only thing I've worked on is my pair of pink socks, mostly knitted while traveling in the car.  This pretty yarn was a gift from my daughter Nicky last Christmas, so I'd like to get them finished soon.  They are coming along, I think I'm just about up to the heels by now.   In case you don't know, I knit my socks flat, two at a time.

My pink socks

Not only have I packed my pink ...

 Our last night in the South Island was quite a worry.  A storm came rolling in as the day wore on, and was fully fledged by night time.  We could swear that the thunder was right over head, and each noisy clap spooked Gemma.  She ran around the van looking for a hiding place, hunkering down on the carpet at the foot of the bed, with the overhanging duvet giving her the illusion of cover.  Lightening cracked around us, torrential rain came down, and the caravan was buffeted all night by strong wind gusts.  Dear oh dear, what would our ...

Poor Murphy had a good news/bad news kind of day. I'll tell you the quilting stuff first and then what happened. 

We had Monday Sewing, and I love our conversations. Between the group, we know EVERYTHING! Plus, we get to learn about tools (both old and new), and everyone has a different view of them. It's all good. OK—I confess that I'm VERY opinionated about many things. I'm also the first one to compliment someone on their skills, but sometimes, they also have some very bizarre ideas, and what is that all about? 

I ...

 Now they have been received, I can show the birthday socks knitted for my long term friend from my schooldays, Merilyn.  These were rather special as I used Merilyn's double knit cream home spun wool which she had sent to me, plus a commercial sock yarn.  These two yarns knitted up to triple knit, or 12ply, and make a lovely cozy pair of socks.  This is what remains.

The left overs

I've hunted high and low for a photo of the completed socks, to no avail.  But I can show this one, looks like I have just finished ...

 I seem to be busy knitting a lot lately.  Probably because we have been away for several trips in the caravan, and had a bout of Covid too last month.  So sitting at the sewing machine just didn't happen for a while.

So what have I been knitting?  Socks of course.  My daughter chose this pretty pink sock yarn a while ago and I've been diligently knitting away.  As soon as I grafted the toes I just had to cast on another pair of socks, navy blue yarn I received for my birthday, so this pair is for ...

Pattern:"Tiril Topp" by IdaVictoria. I used the arms a size bigger than the rest of the top, since my previous top got very tight in the arms. We are all different!

Fabric "Monstera Leaves" Digital Collection by Poppy; purchased from Rainbow Textile in Oslo; 

My mom knitted this set with at and neck, not bad for an very old lady! I helped starting and finishing the project ...

I'm going to confess right up front- this will not be a pretty blog post. 

I'm having one of those days—a pity day, perhaps, but I'm so frustrated that I feel like throwing in the towel, ditching all the technology and people. Curling up in a chair and reading—not just for today but forever—is tempting! I told you it wasn't going to be pretty!

OK, I feel better having written my frustrations out and then deleted it! 

I feel that there is too much of everything in this world, and people are trying ...

 I know I'm a slow knitter, and  I finally finished this pair of socks some time ago.  But I was even slower getting around to stitching up the side seam.  There they sat, and sat, waiting patiently for that single inside seam on each to be sewn.  At last they were completed, a nice pair of 4ply socks.  I wanted to use up the remaining white and coloured sock yarn from a previous pair, so had to go and purchase the blue wool to go with it.  Now I've got left over blue sock yarn - that's the ...

 A little stitching, knitting, and shopping, that's what I've been up to lately.  I always seem to have a pair of socks on the go, and these are my current triple knit (12 ply) pair.  Made with white/cream home spun wool, a gift from my friend Merilyn, with added speckled yarn, they are coming along nicely.  Once past the heels, I'm now on the homeward stretch.

We have moved on from the family small holding after four very pleasant and relaxed days.  Before we arrived, I was a little worried about the family dog and how he would react to a strange cat on his property.  Noodle would come and look at Gemma through the closed screen door.  Then one morning Robin had the screen door open, Gemma was on her lead, and the two met nose to nose!  I was amazed that nothing untoward happened.  It may well have been a different story if Gemma was outside the safety of the caravan door.

First meeting ...

The caravan was packed, and we were on our way to Kiwitea, to stay with my daughter and her family.  Santa Bear and the Christmas cushions were coming away with us on this trip, and we mustn’t forget the bag of Christmas gifts for the family.

Christmas in the caravan

Expecting the holiday traffic to  be very busy, we kept off SH1 and drove along some quieter rural roads. It’s always good to be safely off the roads in the busy holiday period, and we were soon parked up on the property.  My bacon and egg pie went ...