Good News/Good News

Good News: I can knit again! My OT gave me the greenlight yesterday to start knitting again. Only for very short periods of time though with long rests to make sure I'm not having any pain. I've knit less than two rounds of Girasole in two days. It's progress though.

Good News: I'm going on vacation. I'll be back to blogging in about 5 days. I have a Thursday posts all ready to go.

See you!

Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?

Several questions ran through my mind when I saw this new pattern.



1) When did Demetri Martin start modeling knitwear?
2) Do these come in adult sizes?
3) What time does their adult kickball league start?

Two Tops

The Santorini top and the scrappy blocks top are done. I hate basting and have been toying with trying the basting spray. Any advice from quilters out there?

New Knitty

Is up.

Rowan by Amy Butler

Amy Butler has created a yarn line for Rowan. I'm squeeing a little but am surprised this is the first I've heard of it. I've already emailed my rep. Hopefully I'll see some of it in person soon.

Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?

I just can't decide.

World's unhappiest brides...





Or most stylish toilet brushes?

I Was Mistaken

Yesterday I thought I was in possession of the best damned knitting swag bag that ever was. But today...today took things to a whole new level. Into the outer stratosphere of knitting swag.



A Della Q needle case and a set of Addi Clicks!

Wait a minute...



Something's different...



ZOMG!!! A proto-type set of Addi LACE needles with shorter tips so you can make a 16" needle in sizes 4 to 11. I will never buy another pair of needles. I am so happy. Thank you, Skacel for this incredibly generous gift. I cannot wait to start knitting again to use these beautiful needles.

Swag Bag to Beat All Swag Bags

I am attending the Yarn Market News Conference which is being held in Seattle for the first time. The swag bag is legendary and we yarn shop owners and managers are pretty inured to the charms of free yarn.



A free Namaste Monroe bag in Eggplant (you could pick your style and color).



Packed with all this stuff!

There's too much stuff to list here but needles, yarn, books, patterns, gift items, wool wash and more bags inside!

I should be pretty busy for the next two days. Not that I'm doing any knitting. I have a new quilt on my "design wall" or piece of felt. It's the Santorini samples I bought last weekend mixed with a few other yarns. The blocks are from Color Shuffle that I mentioned in this post. All of these are cut from stacks of four fabrics then shuffled and reassembled. Very quick to put together as you can see.

More Thursday on Friday

Yesterday's post was just the furry tip of a fur covered iceberg. You really must do yourself a favor and view the entire collection. Full fur suits for men and women, sparkle high heel furry boots, fur bell-bottom jumpsuits...you must see it for yourself.

Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?

Oh, Karl*. It's like you saw last week's post and said, "I see your fur shorts and I raise you."



*Lagerfeld

Measure Twice, Cut Once

After conning Wes into ripping out my mis-sewn block I put it back together. Incorrectly. But not only did I sew it incorrectly I also cut some of my fabric incorrectly. Now I don't have the right amount of fabric. I also realized that I'm not that crazy about this ENORMOUS block anyway. So I'm going to set it aside and move on.

I have a huge pile of quilting books from the library. I'm thinking of trying out some of the techniques in Color Shuffle. The blocks are based on taking a stack of fabric, chopping it up then shuffling the layers. Sort of an orderly scrappy look. Let's see if I can do it without screwing it up.

My hand is feeling better but the back of my wrist is still swollen. I see a physical therapist on Friday. Maybe I'll get a greenlight for some knitting. A girl can hope.

The Last Three Days

I saw the hand specialist on Friday and he just confirmed that I have DeQuervain's (tendonitis in my thumb). I was sent to another clinic and got a custom splint made that is way more comfortable than the generic one I got a few weeks ago. It looks like I have many more weeks of rest in my future before I can start knitting again.

So I have been quilting. I got Liberated Quiltmaking II which has been great inspiration. I made several blocks after looking the book over. Here's a wonky photo of my wonky blocks.



I was given this nifty foundation piecing stamp at the Knitters Guild last week by Linda K. You can see the stamp here with a finished block and a block in progress.



See how tiny?



I'm scared to try to get the paper off the backs of these since the seams are so short. I might use muslin as a backing next time. I have three other stamps I haven't tried yet. You have to be in a particular mood to work on these teeny blocks. And willing to follow the lines.

I got all the sashing on my scrappy blocks and put the whole top together. Here's an idea of how the blocks look with sashing.



I also pieced a back for this. I put a border on this crazy four-patch and pieced a back. I also went to a fabric and notion trade show in the area this weekend. A Moda rep was selling some sample sets. I got 31 pieces of varying sizes of Santorini (.pdf). I've already started cutting and trying to add other fabrics to make this Nest quilt (.pdf). I'm not sure the pieces I have will work for this quilt and I wanted to try to make a sample block. I got ahead of myself and skipped a step. Now I have to rip out several seams and I can't find a way to do that without using my left thumb. Maybe if I make puppy dog eyes at Wes he'll help me out.

Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?

As soon as the D@lce & Gabanna fall show hit the internet I started to get emails. It's just so Thursday.


From the waist up this one is so cute. From the waist down it's so...perplexing.





You've got knitted rompers.


How do you say romper in Norwegian?

Then comes the catsuit.



Oh, but wait. It's not really knit. It's faux.



But what makes this all seem completely reasonable in comparison?



FUR SHORTS. Please pass the hot pants.

Today's Post is Brought to You by the Letter S

Younger Son is Sick with Strep throat (again) and a Staph infection. While I'm Stuck at home I put on the Sashing for the Scrappy quilt blocks and Surfed the internet. This Sucks.