Thimbleanna

Month: April 2014

Union Jack

28 Comments / May 17, 2014 / Quilting

Well, Boys and Girls, it looks like my posts are getting less frequent, rather than more often like I was hoping.  Lots of work happening behind the scenes here, with not much crafty goodness.  BigDaddy came home from the hospital last week and it’s been slow going.  MyDadLovesMeBestSister and I have been busy busy managing Dr. appointments, caregivers, and just spending time with MeMum and BigDaddy — not to mention our day jobs.  Thanks to many of you for the sweet e-mails — it seems that several of you are in a similar boat and working hard to help parents.

Thimbleanna: Union Jack

After my last post, Wendy left a heartwarming comment that I found very comforting.  In case you missed it and you’re also caring for someone, I thought I’d share her words of wisdom:

“I have had a hand in caring for someone who is ill also. It’s amazing how much time is consumed, and how you can feel like you have accomplished so little. But it isn’t true, bedside sitting is invaluable, and is an intangible benefit to the patient. I have always been in healthcare, and you can see the difference when patients have the support of loved ones around them. You can’t put a price tag on it, but its value is often overlooked. Sometimes it helps to have a visual result (like a hand-knitted sweater and a loved one on the mend) to “quantify” the value of one’s efforts. Am I making sense? I have recently been working on “teaching” someone I love how to be a calm and peaceful bedside companion. It can feel so helpless, when you want to be “doing Something”. It can be important to realize that “Being There” *is* “Doing Something”.”

Thanks Wendy — you’re a peach!

Thimbleanna: Union Jack

Wendy’s peptalk really puts things into perspective and I know that there will be plenty of time for sewing and knitting.  For now, I’m content to sneak in a quilt block here or there.  I’ve always wanted to make a Union Jack quilt and I’ve been collecting fabrics.  When the British Invasion line from Riley Blake arrived, I thought I’d make a few blocks and play.  I’ve seen several patterns and I wanted one that was proportionally correct so, I’m using the pattern in the January/February 2014 McCall’s Quilting magazine.

Thimbleanna: Union Jack

The four quadrants of each block are paper pieced.  I’ve probably never told you that I detest … urm … HATE paper piecing.  It’s so fiddly and slow and wastes fabric.  But, I can’t see any other way to piece all those little strips with any hope of getting them remotely even.  So, paper piecing it is.  VERY slow.  I want to make 32 blocks, so this will be a long term project for me!

Thimbleanna: Union Jack

Okey Doke — I’m on night duty tonight, so I’m outta here. Oh — if you’d like some British Invasion for your fabric stash, I have a few fat quarter packs left in my little shop.

XOXO,
Anna

Kross

28 Comments / May 17, 2014 / Knitting

Thank you for all your sweet comments about BigDaddy. He’s in a rehab hospital now and verrrrry slowly getting better. Not much fun stuff is going on around here as most of my non-working hours are spent at the hospital with him and MeMum. I do manage to sneak in about an hour each night before bed though, so I’m hoping I can piece a few blocks this week.

In the meantime, when BigDaddy was in the regular hospital, I finished a sweater. (And boy, I don’t know what happened this year, but I think I’ve had BIG sweater karma. It took me for.ever to knit the 10-year sweater (about 10 years!) but in the last 7 months I’ve knit my first Lopi, Kilmory, and now this sweater. Yay for sweater knitting!)  I was going to wait until I’ve blocked the sweater to show you, but who knows when that will happen?  Definitely before next winter, when I expect I’ll be wearing it as much as I wear my first Lopi.

Thimbleanna: Lopi Sweater

Around the time I was getting ready to start this sweater, I was telling Berglind how much I love Lopi yarns and that I was planning on knitting another lopi sweater. She mentioned that she was going to knit the Kross pattern by Vedis Jonsdottir. As luck would have it, the pattern is in the Knitting with Icelandic Wool book that Berglind sent me this winter, so I thought it would be fun to knit a version along with Berglind. Of course, she finished her sweater in a week or two, because she has way more than sweater karma — she has Icelandic sweater karma. You know, being Icelandic and all! It’s fun to see both of our sweaters in the different color combinations.  The pattern says to use five different colors of yarn, but like Berglind, I thought three would be just fine.  I didn’t look at her sweater while I was knitting mine, and  we’ve done our color changes in different places, so that’s fun to see too.

Thimbleanna: Lopi Sweater

This sweater is knit on bigger needles but with fewer stitches than my first lopi sweater, so the fabric isn’t as dense. It also fits a little looser than my first sweater, but it’s not too big to wear it. One thing that I thought was interesting is that the crossover stitches (the rows in white and light blue in my version of the sweater) are done differently around the neck than they are at the bottom of the sweater and the sleeves. The neckline crossover stitches are knitted in groups of four stitches but the others are knitted in groups of six stitches. I much prefer them done in groups of four (the resulting “hole” isn’t as big) so, if I ever make this pattern again, I’ll do groups of four around the bottom and the sleeves. (That will probably only make sense if you actually knit this sweater!)

Thimbleanna: Lopi Sweater

Ok kids, it’s off to bed for me — work comes early in the morning these days. I hope you have a wonderful week!

XOXO,
Anna