Presents!

Yesterday I came home to find the latest present for me from the Loopy Ewe.

I love their little 'box of fun' sticker... here's what was in the box:

This is called Socks that Rock Heavyweight from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, it's hand dyed and the colors are fabulous.  There are three shades of blue/green.  The center skein looks gray but in real life it's kind of celery green and cream.  The colors are from top to bottom:

Dip-It-Us

Winter Solstice

Big Brain Blue

 

Who would not want a yarn called Big Brain Blue??  LOL!

I spent an hour pulling the two dark skeins apart and rolling balls that I can actually knit from. 

I found a pattern I want to make called the Downtown Cowl by Christy Becker.  You can get it free at www.ravelry.com if you're a member.  Sign up, that's free too.

The pattern was designed with variegated yarn in mind... so any one of these would work, but I'm thinking of using a bit of all three.  There's much more than I need for one cowl so we'll see what else I come up with.  Maybe a matching hat...

Also I got a gift from Loopy Ewe with my order!  I love that.

It's a small ball of yarn, a pattern, a button, and some posties so I can mark where I am on the pattern or make notes.

Color me happy.

Knit on....

Goodbye, July!

Well, where did the summer go??  I don't know.  But I'm looking at the calendar and it's not that long until Labor Day.

What have you accomplished this summer?  Do you feel like being outdoors instead of inside sewing?  Maybe you can sew while looking out the window, or even on a porch!  I would get more done in the summer if I could do it near an open window.

I finished up a couple of projects I had going:

• Sewed top, layered and bound my aunt's blue quilt (quilted by my friend Suzi)
• Cut at least ten kits for the church quilting group (and recut the big squares for two after an error was discovered!  Does that count as 12!)
• Made three sets of binding strips, sewn and pressed
• Hemmed three blouses of mine that fit but were too long
• Sewed about a dozen AG doll outfits
• Knitted five AG doll sweaters
• Repaired two stuffed dinosaurs and one piggy from Angry Birds
• Cleaned up and reorganized the church guild's storage cabinet, with help from Suzi, Bonnie and Shirley.  Wow we're so organized now!

I also totally misread the Joann's flier last week.  I went in on what I thought was July 28 to get the big roll of batting that was on sale and it turns out it was actually July 29!  Bummer.  I hadn't gone to work on Monday so Tuesday FELT like Monday!

I also made another blankie for Miss A.  She was over and helped me pick out squares to sew together.  Then she picked out a border.  After that we picked out a fleece that served as both batting and backing.  She said if we did this, she would use it for sleeping and stop carrying around the ratty old blankie that she's been dragging everywhere for seven years.

Today she came over and was sleeping on the couch when I came downstairs for work.

With both blankies...

Sew on!