Late Night

There is a little triangle of a public park near my work at the Yarnery.
I took the Hug-a-Bugs there this week and they had a great time pretending that this little shelter was a castle.
The lower picture is the Elder Hug-a-Bug as Rapunzel.
She's letting down her hair.
The younger Hug-a-Bug then ran around to the other side of the 'tower' and said "I am going to rescue you princess!"
It was pretty super duper.

My Hubby is out of town for a couple of days, and I had to work last night, so the Hug-a-Bugs spent the night with my parents.

For a moment I entertained the idea of going to the Sex and the City movie after work, but it didn't start until 9:55, and that is just too close to my bedtime.

Instead I decided to come home and get my Firth on.

I had a difficult decision to make; Love Actually, Pride & Prejudice or Bridget Jones' Diary.

I realized that I would never be able to make it to the end of P & P, and Love Actually didn't feature Colin Firth prominently enough.

Bridget Jones it was.

Good Decision.

I was able to make a little headway on the Jess sweater as well.

I am just finishing up the collar and I can pick out buttons today or tomorrow!

It is in serious need of a block, but I am happy with it overall.
I decided to go with a regular button band and collar instead of the long tie at the collar that the pattern calls for. I couldn't see myself keeping the sweater tied and I think it would have looked silly untied.


I leave for Germany for 12 days in about 2 weeks, so I am trying to figure out what to bring along with me, clothing-wise.

I have to bring a couple of sweaters, of course, for plane rides and concerts in cold churches.

I have a couple of sun dresses in the queue of sewing projects, along with some loose pants.

My hope is that by mentioning it here I will feel the need to get something accomplished.

Let's see how much sewing I can get done before I leave...

Wishing you a fun and frolicksome Wednesday,

Jess

Distraction on a Saturday

So, for the last hour and a half or so, I have been playing on Ravelry.

I am supposed to be vacuuming the living room.

I told the Hubby if he took the kids to the gym with him I would clean the living room.

Instead, I have been taking pictures of sweaters and WIPs and looking up patterns and filling up my queue and now I am thinking about going through my stash and listing that as well.

Krista and Theresa! when B asks why the house is such a mess, I will tell him to blame you.

O.K. seriously, how much fun is Ravelry?!?!

I think I am hooked, if you'll excuse the pun.

So, in that vein, I will update on the much-neglected Jess Sweater.

The back and both fronts are finished.

I have one sleeve started, but I left the book at the Elder Hug-a-Bug's dance lesson on Monday, so I have stalled out on that for now.

I was at the Yarn Store last week and saw a note from a co-worker saying that there was yarn on the back porch for a ridiculously low price if anyone wanted it.

I know, I said that I would work through my stash, and I have all of those WIPs, but it was so! cheap.

Also, since I am painting my craft room, everything is put away right now.

So, since I couldn't work on the Jess, I started Eris on Wednesday.

It is a totally cool pattern, and probably the longest one I have ever seen.

The pattern is a downloadable pdf and it is 40 pages long.

That Girl From Auntie is a detail-oriented lady.

To be fair, there are instructions for a pull-over and a cardigan included, so I didn't need pages 3-11.

O.K, I am going to go vacuum the living room now,

Have a relaxing Saturday!

Jess

More Works in Progress

I have assembled a list of the most active works in progress in my knitting and other categories.

First, I have finished the Love From Wooly pieces.

Here is Kit the Kitten wearing her mittens. She has a friend named Tom Kitten, but he didn't come to visit.

Here is Finlay the Fox. He is wearing socks. The photo doesn't do Finlay justice. He really is a total fox.

I also am working on my Jess Sweater. The Prime Alpaca is a dream to knit with. I have the back and one front finished. The first sleeve is about a 5th of the way complete and I cast on the second front.

The Jess Sweater has to take a back seat to the custom project I am knitting.

I have a client who's favorite sweater was losing shape and so she asked me to duplicate it. I have the back and some of the front finished.

The last item on the list today is a project that I began about 2 months ago to help the kids with their fine motor skills. My first idea was to sew buttons and laces and zippers and snaps to one big pillow. I rethunk that idea when I saw someone out here in the internet using pieces of clothing. My new plan is to make individual pillows and label them each with needle felting. I have to think up how to do the lacing one. I haven't started that one yet, but I have some ideas bouncing around.

I will now pledge to finish these projects by the summer. That will be perfect because I will feel more like sewing then anyway.

I hope that Thursday is treating you all well,

Shout out to my mom. Happy to see, or hear, you at home!

Bye,

Jess

Fiber projects

I am teaching a class at the yarn store about teaching kids fun stuff with fiber arts.




We will dye yarn with kool-aid and make fun needle-toppers with Sculpey, we will also use felted sweaters to make book covers.




While I was felting some sweaters I realized that a women's medium vest felted to exactly the size that my nearly-4 year old could wear.




So I cut out the zipper and sewed on a button. It should keep her pretty warm, if she deigns to wear it...



















I also made some dinner buns and they looked so pretty rising on the pan that I just had to include them here. They are wheat buns so they also have plenty of fiber.




















I have also made a small amount of progress on the semi-neglected sweater. The sleeve is more complicated than I want for watching tv or sitting in a class or ECFE, so I moved on to a front.














Talk to you all out there soon,
Jess.

Friday Craft Club

Just got back from Friday Craft Club.

There is a neighborhood group of ladies who meet every fri night and do fun craft stuff.

Tonight we were soldering stained-glass pendants to sell at a craft sale in December.

What fun!

I was talking it over with another friend who just joined (I joined about a month ago) and we agreed that we had until now had a narrow view of Crafting. Sewing, Knitting, Scrapbooking, these were things that we would expect, but cutting glass and soldering and making soap and building things from wood, these are pleasant surprises. The group of ladies in Craft Club are all full of talents and each brings something very special to the experience. I am really glad that I can be a part of that.



Whew, also, we always have fancy drinks, and tonight was hot buttered rum. very yummy, perhaps adding to the verbose nature of the post tonight.



I only have an update on the sweater, I have, sadly, been neglecting the quilt.

I am a little unsure of the fitness of my sewing machine to do the quilting. It gets kinda hot when I sew one long line.



The elder hug-a-bug is a little bit of a camera hog. in the next couple of pics of the sweater back (completed) she is sitting on top of it much like a cat would do.






Also, I was delighted to see that we still have blooming flowers in our severely neglected back garden.

Have a great weekend, all you out there in the web. I hear the weather here in Saint Paul should be lovely on Saturday, so go out and enjoy it.
Thanks for listening,
Punky

Quilting begun

Hi out there,


I have made a little progress on the quilt.


I pinned it out yesterday, and got a start on the quilting. There are 26 lines of stitching and I have completed 4.


The quilt is rumpled in the bottom picture because its appeal was inescapable for the resident 21 month-old and he needed a snuggle.

I have also made some headway on the sweater...

And here is a preview of my next project. The neighborhood ladies are having a table at a craft sale and more about that later.

first post

Hi.

This is my first post.

Fifth Lamp Down is my favorite spot on the Smith Bridge over the Mississippi River.

I have been a skeptic about blogs in the past. Who really wants to read about me?


However, I think this blog here will help me keep focused on the many projects I have going in either sewing or knitting at any given time.


I also don't like the word 'blog'. That said, I will think of this as my blorg.

Currently I am working on two main projects; a quilt for my brother's impending nuptials and a sweater for myself.















The sweater is from RY Rowan Classic book 23 AM to PM.
My husband is always calling me a narcissist, and it must be true because the sweater is called Jess.
I am knitting it in Galler Yarns Prime Alpaca. Loving it! The yarn is undyed and you can really feel the difference. So soft and lovely. Also, I love to imagine a little silver alpaca frolicking about the countryside in Peru.

The quilt is from Joelle Hoverson's fantastic new book 'Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts'
It is the Color Wheel Quilt.

I have the top finished and now the real work begins for me because I have to pin and quilt it.












Luckily for me the wedding date is not yet set, so I have plenty of time.



I look forward to speaking with all of you out in the world wide web again soon.

Thanks for listening,
Punky