Dragon Rambles

There’s a new linky party in blogland: The handmade parade

All things hand sewn. Why don’t you pop over and check out what else has been made. Or maybe even join in. If you miss this week, I think this is going to be a weekly event, so why not join in next time.

Regular visitors to my blog know that I prefer to sew by hand. Anything you find posted here, was probably done by hand. Even if is really should’ve been done by machine. I do own a sewing machine, but sitting down to it feels too much like work, so I’d rather get comfortable on the sofa with needle and thread.

There’s been more knitting than sewing happening here lately, but I did start a new sewing project on Sunday. I was hoping to have it finished by now but several things have gotten in the way. Including going to see Avengers. So for now here’s a preview.

Hopefully, if you come back on Sunday, you’ll see the finished item.

I bought the yarn in Nov/Dec last year. This was supposed to be my winter knitting project – keeping myself warm while I knit it and after it was finished. I got distracted.

But in April I picked up and finished 3 knitting WIPs and frogged one as I just wasn’t happy with the yarn match. I had my Spring shawl to start the border on, but haven’t yet bought a longer circular needle that I need to continue. And I wasn’t wanting to wait until I’d blocked the pieces of the jacket, coat and cardi I have in pieces waiting to sew up.

Wanting to have a knitting project on the go, yet unable to work on the WIPs I had left, I thought it was the perfect time to start Hourglass. I had the yarn, the pattern, the needles. I didn’t need to spend a thing, except time winding the first skein into a ball. So I did. And I’ve since wound more skeins. Soon I’ll start knitting with the 4th (from 6), so I’m definitely past the half way mark

Cathi posted today about her quilts in boxes. Everything packaged away nice and tidy and easy to find for the projects she is working on.

I only have two quilts in progress so it’s a lot easier for me to stay organised than your average quilter. Helped by me having a couple of boxes to keep each WIP in…

Moonglow in a box

FWQ in a box

I have the fabric, cut pieces, finished blocks, pattern/book, thread and needles, scissors etc, all kept in each box. Well, usually. Some of those items were raided from my boxes yesterday to make a cushion for Macros. They are now scattered across the couch. Told you I was organised, I know where everything is

And the best thing about a quilt in a box? You can have it sitting in the middle of the living room and tell yourself it’s ok cause it’s all packed away tidy

As I mentioned in my last post, there’s an upside to going dark… Lots of time for knitting and sewing. We finally had some fine weather this weekend, so I blocked the two pieces I worked on in April.

First is my Oktober Zest scarf. There are to be matching mitts and hat butbI don’t have the right size needles yet. I’d had the scarf about halfway done but hadn’t picked it up for a while. So it was the first item to be finished off.

It’s made from 50/50 wool/silk that I got for half price since it’s been discontinued. This next pic shows the colour so much better. I love this dark, midnight blue.

Finishing the scarf freed up a cable I could use to hold the stitches on my Spring shawl so I could pinch the needles for the body of my Squall shawl.

I couldn’t get a good pic of the colour. It’s a deep dark teal. The perfect colour to represent a squall at sea. Macros came out to enjoy the sun while I was trying to get a decent photo.

I didn’t get the photo I was after, but Macros enjoyed the sun.

Oops, this was supposed to be posted last weekend, when I finished the last of the blocks I had precut. I’m still working sequentially by block number but I’ve missed three out. Blocks 3 and 35 are the ones with the applique basket handle, and I don’t have that template printed yet. I’ll probably save these blocks to the end. I’ve also missed out block 37, flower pot. And I’ve flagged a few more blocks to skip until the end. Not because they’re hard but simply for colour reasons. See, I have this idea that has become stronger as I’ve pieced these blocks. I really love the light and dark background blocks, but I like the other ones too. So my current plan is to do a quilt made predominantly off dark and light background blocks. Imagine a diagonal line dividing the quilt in half. On one half, you have the dark background, one the other, the light. And scattered through both sides are the different colour combo blocks. How many of these “alternate” blocks will be needed to look good, I’m not sure. I know how many I currently have and I’m flagging blocks as possible alternates, then as I pass the 100 blocks made mark, I can finalise colour decisions.

But for now those last 5 blocks I finished sewing last weekend…

And yes, I completely changed the layout of block 33, farmer’s puzzle. I know that historically the swastika was not an evil symbol, and used to appear in quilts all the time. But for the same reason that it disappeard from use in quilts after the Nazis comandeered the symbol, I don’t want it in mine. But I like the way I rearranged the pieces to get an acceptable block.

This puts me at 35 blocks, so just over 30% complete. If you only count the piecing and not sashing the blocks together or quilting the quilt. Which I’m not, so 30% done

I’ll now be taking a break from this. I should give Nicki a chance to pick hers up again. Plus I have to move house in 4 weeks. So I’ll probably stick to knitting for the rest of the month and pick this and moonglow up again in my new home.

So, back in Jan, after a break over Christmas, I’d just started back working on the farmer’s wife quilt. I got one block done and a second cut out but not sewn together, so the block count was 23.

Then life interrupted. Fast forward to the beginning of April and me suffering from a nasty case of jet lag. I was too tired to knit or sew, but needed to do something. So I cut out pieces for a nice little bundle of blocks, packing away the pieces into envelopes.

The Easter long weekend helped to clear my jet lag, and by the end of it I had started sewing again. Yes there were still some episodes of sewing the wrong seam and having to undo it, but a bit each day through to the end of the next weekend, and I had an extra 7 blocks done.

Putting me at the grand total of 30 blocks. Still a long way from the 111 total, but a nice little pile all the same. Sorry Nicki, I know we were doing these together and we’ve both had a largeish hiatus, but now I seem to have galloped ahead. I should probably go work on Moonglow until you pick yours up again. Well, maybe after I’ve finished emptying the envelopes of precut pieces

What you’ve all been waiting for….

I’ll be taking a break from this now as I need to order in a longer circular needle to pick up the border. This is probably a good thing as it gives me a chance to work on some other projects that I also love and to make sure I don’t overindulge on Spring and turn myself off it for a time.  Kinda like you can do with chocolate.  Ok, not chocolate, or ice cream, but I’m sure there’s some food item out there that fits the analogy.

Yes, all has been silent in DragonRambles land this last week or so. And as well as my absence from here I still haven’t caught up on very many blogs. There are a few reasons for this, but the biggest is my Spring shawl. I have been seduced by the yarn and the shawl and most of my free time is spent knitting. But I don’t want to show another pic here until I have the centre finished. Don’t worry though, the rate I’m going, that’ll be before the weekend. Though you may have to wait until Sat so I can get a photo in decent light.

So that’s where I am. In case anyone was wondering

Yes, there has been radio silence from me for about a week. I hadn’t caught up with everyones blogs since I got back, and now I’m behind again. Ah well, I’ll catch up eventually.

As you’ve probably all guessed, my plans to get the Spring shawl knitted in Feb completely flew out the window. I didn’t even come close. But I love this shawl, and the yarn and colour I’m knitting it in, so I plan to keep going. Here’s what little I did manage to get done in Feb.

I tried to open the lace a little to help you picture how this section will look once blocked. Not easy to do on this size cable so it looks a bit odd, but it gives you an idea.

And this weekend I really needed to be a hermit. Well, after I really needed to get drunk on Fri night . So I stayed at home and knit. Not all weekend, but a nice chunk of it. So I got a bit further.

Hopefully I’ll get the center section finished by the end of the month. I’ll show you more then.

As promised, here is a post from the train on my way home. I should be home in about 1.5 hours, though the train has just been stopped for a while (we were told it was due to kids throwing stones at the trains from the railway bridge near Swindon), so maybe it’ll be later. Hopefully not by too much though as I’m really hanging out for a shower.

Thanks for the welcome-back’s I got from my last post. I’ve missed blogland and am looking forward to catching up with everyone. I’ll start replying to individual comments again from this post, now that I’m almost home and will have some more time.

So what have I been doing in my absence? Well aside from trying to grapple with some grief and a last-minute trip to NZ, I’ve been busy applying for jobs. I had a phone interview for one over near Cambridge just a few days before I flew out. Then a follow up phone interview for the same job the morning I flew out, and I got an email while I was away asking me to do a technical test. Basically this means write some code to do two tasks and email it to them. They knew I was away though, so I have until Wed to do it. Fingers crossed it all goes well. The tech test seems fairly easy, but there’s always the chance that I won’t solve it the way they want me to.

I’ve also submitted two more applications for jobs at the same place, so I’m waiting to hear whether I have any more interviews.

On the knitting front, my Feb plans for the spring shawl fell apart. First because I needed to quickly knit up a shawl using the second batch of wool I bought for Granny. It had to be finished and blocked before I left for NZ. Thankfully, I managed to get it done in time, and Granny loved it.

Oh, and yes, you will see the jewellery I bought at Auckland airport. I’ll take a photo this weekend and show you in my next post. I can guarantee that none of you would be able to guess/imagine what it is before I show you. Yes, I know, I’m such a tease. I’ll also share the huge amount of foodstuffs I brought back with me. Just imagine, a 12kg outgoing suitcase with lots of room, a 30kg allowance, an epic supermarket visit to stock up on kiwi favourites that I can’t get here or pay a huge price for.

And of course there were the things I made sure I had while I was there that couldn’t be brought back. Like fresh feijoa juice, hokey pokey tip top ice cream, boysenberry trumpet (also tip top ice cream), jelly tip (another tip top ice cream, what can I say, they make the best ice cream I’ve ever tasted and it was warm and sunny), mainland tasty cheese, and choc-mint milk (though I have an idea how to make that last one).

While I was in NZ I spent most of my time visiting Granny, but I was also able to catch up family members that I haven’t seen in quite some time. I stayed with one of my cousins. We’d only seen each other briefly twice since I was a kid, so it was great to be able to get to know her as an adult. And also to get to know her new husband. They seem the perfect fit – similar in ways they need to be, different in ways they need to be. Evenings were often very entertaining.

We also saw footage of Granny’s wedding for the first time. She was beautiful! And Grandad was very handsome! I wonder why the looks in the family didn’t pass down, ah well, lol. I spent one afternoon with Granny going through old photo albums, and so I’m also travelling home with a usb stick of scanned photos. Including one each of Granny and Grandad as chubby little toddlers . The wedding photos need to be scanned professionally though, so my cousin will get those done and send them to me.

So there you have it, my absence was busy, stressful, emotional and sentimental, but also with plenty of laughter, possibilities and food thrown in.