Pat's Knitting and Quilting
September 29, 2009 When I found out that the SKA September Mystery Socks were going to be designed by Nancy Bush, I had to go for it! This pattern had so many of her wonderful features- including a lateral Vikkel braid, partial ribbing down the back of the leg, lovely lace, dutch heel with eye of the partridge flap and a toe I had never seen before (just like regular toe decreases, but with 3 points instead of 2) which fit my rounded toes perfectly. While knitting the lace pattern, it looks like little fox faces - hence the name.
Pattern: Fox Faces by Nancy Bush (this pattern will be deleted from Ravelry in a few days, so if you're interested....get it now) - September SKA Mystery Sock Sorry - not the best photos, but I had to get them up quick to qualify for the red Solid Sock KAL for September :-)
They were a little bright for the full sunshine - here is a non blinding photo....
On the quilting front....I don't really like the final quilt for the Christmas Lights Mystery, so am not sure what to do with these blocks - I've tried other settings, but nothing seems to work - I may have learned a "mystery quilt" lesson :-) So for now I'll make quilts that I know I'm going to like....
Galactic Explosion BOM in the warm colors version!
September 21, 2009 If you only have a teeny tiny bit of very special yarn - say some qiviut or cashmere - this is the perfect pattern - I used only 22 grams of laceweight yarn and have a beautiful elegant lace scarf!
Here are a few more photos - click for bigger - and if you want to really see the nupps click here.
Only 8 more blocks to go and I'll be done with the blocks for my One a Day 9 patch KAL Quilt. I've decided to stop at 48 blocks and make it 6 X 8, but still haven't made a choice on sashing or borders yet - I'll know when I know :-)
OK - I promise I'm not turning this into a spider blog BUT SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED that I need to at least finish off this part of the story! A few evenings ago we watched her very busily shoring up the egg sac and building another web near it - I thought she was going to move over closer to her babies, but when we woke up in the morning, here is what we saw... yes - she had been getting it on!!!! Egg sac #2 with at least a thousand more eggs - we will have over 2000 spider babies next spring! I took this picture of Mom and the sacs yesterday - At 7:00 this morning (it was very cold last night) she was gone - her web was in shambles and she has never come back. Until today she had never left her web - not even for a minute, so we know she is dead. The egg sacs are sturdily attached to the zinnias and hopefully will be safe this winter. We will be keeping a good eye on them!
September 14, 2009 I have got so many quilts and knitting projects going right now that I don't know where to start, so here are a few pictures - there are more to come....
There are also more socks, a sweater and 4 additional quilts in progress including a fun new BOM...be back soon :-) Oh - I almost forgot the spider news - she is a very common Argiope aurantia and we are thoroughly enjoying watching her daily life. The 1st thing we do each morning is go check in and see what's happening. She spins a gorgeous new web every night (eats the old one) and is very busy catching yummy bugs during the day while fiercely protecting her egg sac. She will die in the 1st hard frost - her babies will hatch INSIDE the sac this fall, but stay inside the sac all winter and then emerge next spring with no Mom to help them - I won't be cutting those Zinnia stalks down this fall!
September 4 , 2009 Remember when I pulled out all my blue fabrics? Well they have finally been turned into a completed quilt! I used every blue fabric I own and ventured a little into the purples and aquas for sparkle.
Pattern: None - scrappy 6" stars straight set with a border designed on Electric Quilt 6 by me - here is the EQ plan Since I have not mastered the art of free motion quilting, it is always a challenge to figure out a quilting plan. I machine quilted with the feed dogs up using my built in walking foot - LOVE my Pfaff! The only marking needed was the 1st set of curves on the border - otherwise I used the block/star lines for reference and decided how to quilt as I went along, starting with the diagonal straight lines. For the border I used a dessert size plate and marked curves around the light triangles then followed them out every 1 1/4".
and just in case you want more pictures.....
We have been absolutely engrossed in this spider's life cycle. She has been living in the Zinnias for several weeks. 1st thing every morning and then off and on throughout the day, I go out and just watch the spider happenings. 3 days ago she looked like this, happily gathering bees and flies in her web...
Yesterday morning she was all shriveled and looked exhausted to me. She is very protective of her new egg sac. I cannot believe all of that happened in one night!
Today she is even more shriveled - Linda reminded me she is going to die after the babies are born :-(
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