From the knitting department, I needed a quick baby gift for a church member. He is a football coach and I thought a baby toboggan to match his team uniforms would be cool. Or warm rather…..during the chilly fall game nights. It turned out cute although I am not sure I like the style. It is definitely modern. It was in one of the most recent of my knitting magazines.

I hope they like the colors. You never know about gifts; if the like them or not. Oh well, I tried.

I really think the tiger stripe sashing makes this quilt top. It blends perfectly with the other colors and the black border provides the final finish for a fabulous combination. I’m excited about getting this one quilted and out this week. If nothing happens, that is. The way things have been going, I can never tell.

Every “artist” needs a portfolio. Every craftsman needs to maintain a catalog of their works or at the very least, a catalog of samples of her work. I realize that. So I keep trying to make pics of completed items and add then to my “catablog”. But evidently my photographic skills have gone down the toilet. The last few pics I have taken have been fuzzy and out of focus – definitely not up to my high standards of excellence! But in an effort to capture images of my work, here is one, although fuzzy. These are a pair of wristers made from Coats and Clark yarn called Wiggles knit using the Wristers pattern in the latest issue of Creative Knitting. CK is a publication I dearly love. The patterns are great and practical. I loved Wiggles but it did not speak to me until the boss wanted a set of wristers for the wife. Then it screamed out her name. She is a musician, a pianist to be exact, and has several items that match them.

One more completed project! But I managed to pick up 3, maybe 4 more projects over the weekend. I have 2 prom dresses coming up for minor alterations and an adult Snow White costume! How fun is that!

The shirts have been stabilized and cut. I got the final word on the shirt layout from the Princess so I am ready to proceed with stripping and piecing the top. I can’t wait to see how the tiger stripe fabric looks with the black and gold shirts! Then on to the borders, backing and quilting.

Times a-wasting because I have more projects lined up behind that. I slipped in a coffee corset for T. It was my own design, of course, based on the ones I saw on Etsy with her name embroidered on it with her own sister’s embroidery machine. She says she loved it but I don’t see how it will be practical to use, but then I don’t drink coffee.

Next project is a pair of banners for church. Banners are near and dear to my heart and I have fabric and a vision for a new pair for Easter that coordinate with our Easter musical. Being married to the Music Director, I kind of know what the musical is going to be ahead of time. And then there are purses to design, a wedding memory quilt UFO that I MUST finish soon, and ……and……and…………..

There is nothing more fun on a cold January night than getting together with friends and having a Knit nite. Throw in a good pot of chili and you have a real party! We all got together last night and showed our skills and our completed items. We even had a fashion show, of sorts.

Its always fun to teach someone new to knit and that is what I got to do with the Princess. She was such a fast learner! She put all of us “older” women to shame. I enjoyed talking about projects we loved and yarn we hated.

I think we all enjoyed just unplugging from the rest of the world and just sitting down, chatting with friends and indulging in some handwork for a couple of hours.

Thanks, M, for a great time and I guess we probably need to thank the King for the chili!

I finally found the solution to the earlier scarf problem. In knitting scarves to sell, several people requested some in local school colors. I remember when those were a hot item to wear with your letter jacket. Evidently, they are not available any more. I tried to knit a few in garter stitch using some fancy yarns but I wasn’t happy with the results. Then I remembered a pattern for team scarves in an old magazine article. I stumbled across it and made this one up for my husband. (Go Vols!) It’s a simple knit 1, purl 1 rib on about 40 stitches and 24 rows per color band. All of the samples in the magazine were 2-color, but I think they can be made with a third accent color. There are 15 bands, starting and ending with the base color. Then I made the fringe 2 color instead of the base color like the samples. That’s me. Never one to go by the directions. I always have to be unique somehow. That is the fun of making things by hand–adding your own personal style.