Sew I See!

Oh-so-long ago, I blogged about how I liked this quilt pattern I'd seen online, "Rainbow Rows", by Lissa Alexander.  I ended up making a version of it-- if you use the very loosest definition of "version". Basically, it ended up as a collection of 9-patch blocks made of light-and-dark four-patches and larger squares of low-volume fabric. I didn't feel up to the challenge of setting them on point, so I didn't, and apparently that on-point setting was a big part of what I liked about the inspiration quilt.  That isn't to say that I don't like my version at all, but it's not quite as charming as the original layout.  Also, after making that change, it bears little resemblance to the inspiration quilt. It's not so much "Rainbow Rows" as it is "Rainbow Slant". I didn't manage to take any good "whole quilt" photos.  (Really do need to try harder, next time!)  Let's start with the photo that shows the ...

I like the idea of naming things, but sadly, over the years I've come to accept that I'm maybe just not that great at coming up with names.  I tend toward the obvious/literal, and if I try to venture out from that into something more creative, I feel like I'm being obscure or pretentious or... just weird. What brought on this bout of self-reflection?  Why, trying to come up with a name for a recently-completed quilt, of course! It's a crumb quilt.  I'd like to think I'll make lots more crumb quilts, in the future, and don't really want a series of "Crumb Quilt the Second", "Son of Crumb Quilt", "Crumb Quilt 4: The Crumbling", and so on.  Begin as you mean to go on, so I need a real name (even if it is "just" a dog quilt). So I racked my brains and came up with something marginally more creative than "Crumb Quilt #1".  Well, I came up with something , at least... I could've sworn there was a phras...

I have one more doily blocked and photographed, and it's a doozy! Pattern: " Ahmanet ", by Grace Fearon Thread: America's Best Country Cotton, "Denim" (discontinued) "Ahmanet" is the largest doily I've crocheted for quite some time.  (Maybe it's even the largest ever; "Pretty Baby" might have turned out larger but with fewer rounds...) After blocking, it came to 23.5 inches from point to point.  (...I think... Somewhere around there, at least!  I have a hard time remembering numbers without a ton of repetition.  They just don't stick very well.) There are some challenging elements early in the pattern, and glancing at my project notes, I see that I had to go back and fix mistakes a couple of times later on in the pattern. With a doily of this size, there's a certain amount of "challenge" just in the sheer size of the thing.  Even a relatively simple round can feel like it will never end....

According to my Ravelry project page, this doily came off the hook in October, but I didn't block it until the latter half of February.  High time it gets its moment on the blog! Pattern: "Elysium" , by Grace Fearon This is a particularly lacy doily with something of the look of frost or a snowflake.  Thread: DMC Baroque Crochet Cotton (size 10), in "White" This thread has been in my stash for a while.  From what I remember, it's a nice thread, but it's not available in many colors, and working with plain white after the exciting variegation of Alize Miss Batik was, well, a little boring. Still, the resultant doily is nice, and one good thing about plain white thread is that it can go just about anywhere without risk of clashing with a color scheme. 

I ended up not doing much in the way of Christmas projects for 2018. The advent scarf went into hibernation mode.  (I'll pick it back up again, eventually, when I'm in the right mood.) I did make some progress on those long (long, long)-overdue hedgehog mittens, but they're also in time-out.  Next up is attaching the eyelash yarn "spikes", crocheting and attaching the ears, and embroidering the face.  (You see why it's in hibernation, right?) One thing I did  finish was a quick project to use up the leftover novelty yarn from the hedgehog spikes.  I didn't have much left, but it was too much to just toss-- and yet I didn't want that stuff in my stash.  It's not the kind of yarn I enjoy working with, these days.  The obvious solution was to use it up right away, so I decided to make a small cowl for my young niece to use for playing dress-up. (Young'uns are among the few groups of people who still like fuzzy eyelash yarns at the mome...