Project Progress

Robert Benchley once said: “Anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn’t the work he is supposed to be doing.” Yeah, that's me, and what led to my foot dragging about a few things that then led to it being a stressful week as I could no longer put them off (multiple tries before rental insurance document successfully uploaded to renter's portal, getting over dread of seeing NP re suspicious moles, etc.). Still, I actually got quite a bit done on the "fiber" front.. Sometimes it doesn't seem that way because I am doing small bits on more than one project, but I have managed one finish and marked major turning points in others. Let's start with the leftovers from the antique quilt. To refresh your memory, above is what I had to work with, more than I wanted to just toss, less than would make for an easy way to use them.

Pieces overlapped, pinned and ready for stitching

Zigzag stitching hardly shows

Several of you suggested I make a needle case, which I thought a great idea. I fitted the pieces together like a jigsaw puzzle, overlapped slightly and zigzagged together with white thread. Nothing fancy here. Not terribly pretty either, but I forged on. After squaring up, I had a piece 11" x 15". Way too big for a traditional needle case. But you know what I really need? A needle case for my circular knitting needles.

I took up knitting as a teen, and once my mother saw how into it I was, she found a beautiful zippered case for my growing collection of straight needles. It had one wider slot that would hold my first circular needles, bought so I could make a poncho (it was the 60's, what can I say?). But once I discovered Mobius scarves that required different sizes and lengths of circular needles, and started finding sweater patterns requiring them too, my circulars no long fit in my case. I've been stuffing them in the front pocket of the binder where I keep patterns, and although it sort of works, a separate case for them would be much better. I spotted this piece of hand-dyed fabric left over from my business days with friend Judi, and decided why not? Matching old with new would perk things ups a bit and the hand-dyed tightly woven fabric would make a sturdy lining for my case.

I decided a layer of batting would be a good idea and sandwiched a piece of Thermore between the patched together outside and the lining folded to create pockets. I found a piece of red twine for a closure and caught it in the line of stitching down the center.

I finished the edges that holds the whole thing together with the same blanket stitch I used on the tote bag. 

Front

Messy back

And that's it! Here's the front and back - again, not the prettiest but very functional. I may decide to run another line of stitching down the center of one side - some of my needles are packaged such that they would fit in the smaller pockets that would make - but I'll wait until some of my circulars currently in use are freed up and ready to store. 

So that's my finish. A partial finish could be that I completed the back of the red sweater (which unlike the other two sweaters is knit in four pieces that will be sewn together later). Lots of curling in this unblocked piece so it was difficult to get it arranged, but there IS a little shoulder/neckline shaping at the top, but not much - it's a drop shoulder design. Sitting on it is the crochet basket which, once the base was completed, magically started up the sides with the change of a stitch. When I worked that first row, it felt a lot like when I made my first coiled fabric bowl on faith and found that the slight tipping of the flat base made the sides appear. As for my other knitting projects, the Autumn Wave sweater is past the yoke "wave" pattern and sleeve stitches have been put on waste yarn for later while front and back are now joined and worked down an inch or so. The Watermark sweater continues its slow progress but I was excited to get out the measuring tape and realize I'm only a few inches from starting the ribbing at the bottom. Now that cooler weather has arrived, I'm very anxious to get these done so I can wear them!