Sew I See!

No photos this time, I'm afraid.  Just jabber.  - - - - - - - I've finished "Secret Project".  It was quick, easy, and fun to knit.  (Hurray for those projects.)  When that was done, I promptly began "Another Secret Project"-- also knitting, but not quite so quick and easy.  Still fun, though, as it has been my introduction to knitting cables.  It's worked in chunky yarn, which always makes for satisfyingly speedy progress.  (Well, speedy by my standards.  Some of those speed demons out there claim they whipped up this project in two hours .  I'm simply not that fast at knitting or crochet.) I'm currently stalled on that one, though.  Shouldn't take much more to finish it, but I have to kick myself back into gear on it... So, together with a thread crochet project I've already finished, that makes three gifts (that will be) completed in January.   I'm impressed!  ;o)  Unfortunately, that also means fe...

Progress Reports: I'm getting close to the end of the Very Vintage V-Stitch-Ghan.  Maybe a handful more rows until I'm happy with the length, then taking care of tidying up the sides, which are a mess, since I haven't woven in any of the tails.  I plan to crochet over them when I crochet along the selvedge... and then weave the last bits in the opposite direction.  (Maybe... Or possibly just crochet over them and say "good enough".) I had trouble when I picked up the Strangling Vine Lace Scarf, so I ended up having to frog it. :o(  Then I had an awful time getting it restarted, but I'm finally back about where I was when I stopped, last time.  (Progress?  Yeah, right. (g)) Otherwise... I'm mostly working on a Secret Project gift item, so no details on that one... Just that it's an easy-breezy project that's loads of fun to knit.  - - - - - - - What I Found at Wal-Mart: I know it's not fashionable to shop at Wal-Mart, but whatever. ...

My husband is in the process of gaining American citizenship, and to make it to his interview/test, we had to drive up to Atlanta on Monday (and back again on Tuesday), which amounts to, I don't know, ten (or so) hours of driving and/or riding.  That's a lot of time, so I made sure to have plenty of knitting and crocheting projects with me-- the already-in-progress Chickadee Cowl, the barely-begun Strangling Vine Lace Scarf, and the pattern and ball of thread for my next doily.  So, what did I get done?  Not much.  Apparently I don't knit or crochet much when I'm riding in a car.  Of course, it was dark for 2-3 hours of our drive home, but I think a bigger issue is that I feel guilty focusing too much on knitting/crocheting when poor Donald is driving for hours at a time.  (For the record, I always offer to do some of the driving, but he never takes me up on it.  What does that say about my driving ability? ;o)  Seriously, I think he prefers dri...

I chose and sewed on some buttons for the Nostalgia Neck-Warmer, yesterday: It's pretty cozy.  Could probably benefit from blocking, but for now it works as it is.  I haven't made much progress on my Subterranean Strangling Vine Lace Scarf , but then again, I haven't worked on it much, either.  (g) I did go ahead and copy out the 4-row chart so that I'll have it handy when I do sit down and put in some stitching time on it... And because it just seemed like I needed a portable crochet project, in addition to the portable lace knitting project, I've chosen a doily pattern and am all ready to start hooking.  I'm planning to crochet the doily on the cover.  (It's "Majestic" by Patricia Kristoffersen, in the booklet titled Masterpiece Doilies .  I've already made "Gallant" from the same booklet and found it a very pretty doily design.) But at the moment, I'm smitten with another project already in progress-...

I'm to the point on the Nostalgia Neck Warmer (after a lot of trying to decide how long to make it-- I ended up adding a little extra length-- and fussing over how to make the buttonholes) of needing to choose the buttons for it. All the ends are woven in.  I just need to choose the buttons... and sew them on.  (Unless I decide to block it first... Thing is, it's acrylic, and I don't think acrylic "grows" with blocking, does it?  Maybe I'll try, anyway... Because it might affect where I need to sew the buttons... ) I need four buttons-- four of a kind, because I'm not feeling kooky enough for mix-and-match.  I have a variety of polymer clay buttons that I think will work.  Here are (most of) the styles I've narrowed it down to, so far: It's always so hard to make a decision!  (But I want to decide so I can go ahead and finish it...) Meanwhile, I've cast on my next knitting project.  It's my first time knitting with laceweight yar...

If you've ever sewn a rag quilt, you know what a mess they can be to wash and dry those first few times. Even after they come out of the dryer, the work isn't done, because they usually need a little haircut-- mostly for threads that are too much longer than the rest. Then there's the fuzz.  The pilling.  Admittedly, I mostly use fairly cheap flannel-- bought for 99 cents a yard at one of Jo-Ann's Black Friday sales a few years back-- for the backings of my denim rag quilts, and possibly you'll get less pilling with pricier fabric.  (I'm not sure, honestly.)  But I can't imagine you'll ever be complete pill-free, with flannel.  It's the nature of the beast.  That pilling nature and the loose threads from the "ragging" combine to make a big old mess. For my first few rag quilts and rag-quilted bags, I went through the painstaking process of picking off all those pills and threads-- the ones the clothes dryer left behind and that shaking...