Digging through stash

Last Saturday was the local quilt guild's sewing event, which I love to attend! Since moving to Cordova I have been able to finish a number of quilts that I had started by attending these monthly events. It gives me time and space to sew, which is always nice! Friday I spent the morning going through my fabric stash and pairing fabric I had with patterns so I could get some new things started...and hopefully finished! Lucy found some fabric that she just loved so I got started on a quilt for her.

I have fabric for a quilt for Sawyer as well that has dogs flying airplanes...ha! The hope is that I can have two twin sized quilts finished by winter for their bunk bed. Not that we are lacking any blankets, but it is nice to have a quilt that was made specifically for you. 

I am also still knitting away on a few things. Sawyer's sweater actually has just the last 1/3 of a sleeve and the collar left to knit. Man, I forget how much I dislike knitting sleeves. On a top down sweater they are such a chore! I have the whole sweater to haul around to knit these small sleeves. I know Sawyer is really looking forward to it though as he keeps asking when his new sweater will be finished. 

I have quite a bit finished on Weston's sweater (probably should get a picture of that)...I think it is over 12" long now! It lives in my purse and I work on it while the kids are playing. I started a new project that I can't share yet as it is a swap gift but it is working up quickly and I am happy with it.  I might knit myself one I like it so much! It was also my birthday last week which was fun.  One of the gifts I received was an awesome new book (and a generous gift card!) from my parents which I was really excited about! The kids each picked an animal for me to knit for them and I can not wait to get started. 

Finished Objects!

March is the month of my favorite sporting event, the Iditarod... and with it comes a knitting event called the Iknitarod! It is a fun way to challenge yourself to knit something as you follow the mushers along the trail.  This year I had big plans to knit a baby blanket, but after cleaning the house one day and finding a few too many (cough, cough) unfinished objects I decided to change plans and finish some of those up.  First up was a pair of mittens for Sawyer.  He had asked for Spider-Man mittens a while back and I jumped at the chance to knit them.  Color work is my favorite thing to knit, and I know the time that he will ask for knitted things might be coming to a close...I finished one mitten quite quickly but the other one just sat in the bag waiting to be cast on.  The Iknitarod gave me the push I needed and I finished the pair in three days.

Sawyer is happy with them. He has been wearing them to school (the first day he tried to even wear them during school) and the play ground. I wish I would have made them a bit longer (I could have repeated the chart that is in the blue one time in the red section before starting the spider) but Sawyer doesn't seem to mind at all and they will work this year at least. The nice thing about Alaska is even in the summer there are days where we can get wear out of our hand knits. 

The next thing I decided to tackle was my Lilli Pilli shawl that I started last May.  Knitting that is for me always gets pushed to the bottom of the queue. I enjoy knitting just about anything, but I really love getting to see my knitted things get appreciated by the people I gift it to. The other thing that slowed me down a lot with this shawl is the beaded lace. It was tough to work on that with the kids awake and I didn't often have the energy to work on it once they were in bed.  This shawl traveled with me to Washington and Hawaii and it is finally finished.  

It needs to be blocked still, and I need to figure out how to wear it. I wore it like a scarf yesterday but it is a bit too wide to be comfortable around my neck. The pattern is written for three colors, but I didn't have the yarn for that in my stash...I was able to pull all of this (minus the beads) from my stash! Plus, I love rainbows, so it worked out great. 

I am now feverishly working on Sawyer's latest sweater. It needs 1.25 sleeves and a collar and it should be finished.  The winner of the Iditarod has crossed the finish line, but I am going to keep on knitting until the last musher captures the red lantern. (And beyond...)

With all the finishing going on, I was cleaning up my Ravelry project page and I only have four active WIPs. I feel so monogamous! Ha. I really think I can finish Sawyer's sweater in the next week or so and then I have a dress for Lucy that is almost finished as well.  I might be casting on a number of new projects then! With summer time coming up I will be needing a few smaller projects to take to the park with me...a few hats, maybe some baby things...casting on soon!!