Mr. Tilty

Guilt goes a long way with me . . . just saying. We have a new visitor at the bird feeder. Actually, we have a lot of visitors. I think I am supplying the entire little neighborhood of squirrels food for the winter. But one little guy stands out. I have named this little black squirrel Mr. Tilty. Why? Well, he tilts. And holds his head weird. And sometimes falls over. And runs off to the side a bit. #1 was outside and looked closely at him and noticed that Mr. Tilty is blind in one eye. Poor little guy. And all the other squirrel boys and girls make fun on him and pick on him. So, I am putting seeds on the ground so the squirrels (especially Mr. Tilty) have easy access. And he does appreciate it. He comes early before any other squirrels and stays later. So, you may ask, just where does the guilt come into this picture? Mr. Tilty arrived at our bird feeder about 3 days after Cesar caught a little black squirrel for a split second before he got away and ran up the tree. Hmmmmm.

Another one of those moments . . . Rag Quilt

Pinterest! Yea, I blame Pinterest. I saw some interesting and cute little quilts and thought to myself "Hhmmmm . . . I wonder if I could do that?" I looked on You Tube at a couple videos and then took the plunge.

First, it was off to the fabric store. This sounds easier that it was. The first store was a cute quilting store I found last year. I drove to it, only to find that it had closed. :( The locals told me where it went and off I went in search of it. I ended up in a neighborhood and decided I had misunderstood the heavily accented French/English. Off I go to a different store. Now by the time I get to the store, I have been driving for an hour and a half. Sigh. But its a store, and it has fabric. My goal was to make a rag lap quilt for MainMan as a little welcome home from his trip. And WHAT did I buy?

Yep, pink and green fabric. I couldn't help myself. It was cute and I was in a spring mood. This is flannel fabric. In the video it says to get 5 different coordinating flannel fabrics-half a yard of each. But that is for a little quilt. I wanted one that would cover a lap and feet too. So, I got a yard (actually a metre) of each.

Of course, one has to have the right tools. Cutting all the squares by regular scissors would be too time consuming as well as painful on the hands. I bought a new and "improved" rotary cutter, a mat, and a plastic ruler template thing. When I got home, I looked up the rotary cutter online and saw that it was to be used with a different plastic ruler thing. So, off I went back and exchanged them. There is a little groove/lip that keeps the cutter straight up against the ruler so the cutter doesn't get a mind of its own and goes off in the wrong direction.

While I was at the store, I decided to also get some fabric that would actually be more manly. Manchild suggested a different fabric. Gee, doesn't he think his dad would like pink and green? Anyway, I got the ruler and more fabric . . . and a spring loaded pair of scissors. These will be used to clip the edges after sewing to make the raggy, ruffle. I used to have some, but they were used for paper which we all know is not good for scissors that you want to use for fabric. And, also, I have no idea where they are.

I would have preferred Friskars, but that brand wasn't available. These cut well but the little latch at the bottom did tend to occasionally get in the way. Not sure if you are paying attention, but this cute and easy Pinterest project is now a cute and easy and expensive Pinterest project.

Time to cut the squares. The link said to make 8 inch squares. But my ruler was for 6 and 1/2 inch squares. So, its gonna be 6 1/2. Cut, cut, cut. The first few were a little slow and I was a little nervous about cutting myself. These rotary cutters are sharp. But once I got the hang of it, it was easy. Hint: Do NOT prewash fabric. And cut it as you bought it-don't open it-just leave it with the fold on top. You will be cutting through two pieces of fabric. This is cool cause it leaves the fabric ready to sew-wrong side together.

Once all the fabric is cut, its time to decide how to place it. It was suggested that I place the fabric on the floor or table and play with it. I thought, gee, I will take pictures of it and arrange it on the computer. And then I printed it out. But, once I started placing it, I realized that I didn't rotate any of the squares. So all the images and stripes were vertical. Let's rethink and relax on how things line up. Once I decided on how the squares will go together, I realized I missed a step. The site said to sew around each square. This will be two pieces of fabric- the top and the bottom. Sigh. So, I pick up all the squares, sew around the edges on each and then redid the placing on the table. THEN, I took the first row and pinned the squares together. I sewed that row and placed it back on the table to make sure I had the placing correct for the next row. This is an important step as one time I had flipped the row and would have had some of the same colors sewn together.

Once the rows are done, sew them together. One site said to do it in twos-so the first two rows, put the down and then sew the second two rows. Then sew the two sets together. This way you are now fighting the total quilt each time.

Once it is all sewn, the "fun" starts. You get to clip the edges. This is tedious as well as time consuming. It is really a TV watching, don't really think about it moment. The spring loaded scissors are a MUST here.

This is how it looks on the back.

Once the quilt is all clipped, time to wash. I did a cold water wash first. No fabric softener this time (not sure why but that is what is said). Into the dryer. They say to clean the lint trap twice during drying. Do it more than that. Check after 10 minutes and you will be surprised on how much is there. Dry it and then wash it normally (however normal is to you). Dry again and check the lint trap once or twice.

Next rag quilt will be for hubby, this one is for me. :)

Afghan is finished and he loves it

Now, I realize this is a little late. After all, manchild #1 received his afghan before Christmas. But, I didn't post a final picture for you. Earlier when I said it was half finished, I was wrong. More like a third finished. This was a learning project all around.
Let me just say, I had help with the afghan. I have learned to have a little ball of yarn beside me to throw across the room when the cats decide to help.

It was a shock to see how fast C can cut the yarn. 2 seconds flat! AArrrgghhhhhhhh. Again, that little ball of yarn really helped, since saying no didn't really do much.

When I realized that Nolan could take the afghan back to British Columbia the first week in December-I buckled down and knitted my brains out. I knew I have two weeks to finish it. I couldn't figure out why it was taking so much yarn. But once I took it off the loom I figured it out. I wanted it long-long enough to cover his feet and go up to his neck. So, the length was going to be about 6 feet. But when I took it off the loom, it ended up being 6 feet wide. OOOhhhh yeah, its big. And heavy. And did I say big? yeah, big!

He loves it and sleeps with it. And that, folks, is what makes it all worth it.

Nolan and Mount Royal

Our nephew (in-law . . . how does that work when he is married to our niece? I will go with nephew cause, well, he is.) visited us in November. He got to to share with our US Thanksgiving, fish the lake in the cold (nothing biting), go for a chilly walk and see the beaver sitting on top of the beaver house, visit Mount Royal and take Thomas' afghan back to British Columbia.


This is how the cathedral looks in the spring. I didn't take this picture but thought you would enjoy seeing the entire shot.

Ummm, we didn't visit in the spring, but rather the bleakness of late fall. A little snow was falling. The photos are not in order . . .

Inside was impressive. Modern but not. The scale was massive. Second highest cathedral in the world. Second only to St. Peters.

Larry and Nolan looking over the edge at the top of the stairs.

"YOU looking at me?" Ok, fine, he didn't say that. I think his thought was, don't fall old lady.

And finally, my fav shot. Nothing special, just stairs.

Afghan is halfway

This is the afghan I found online that made me decide to try making one for the oldest child. Something for him to cover up and snuggle under while watching TV.

When I was looking around the online world for ideas for afghans, I really should have read the articles closer for the amount of time it took to make it.

There are times in my life when I sit back and ask "wwwwhhhhhyyyyyyy did I start that?!?" Yeah, this might end up being one of those times.

I suppose knitting an afghan on a loom wouldn't be such a big deal if I actually knew what I was doing, or what I was getting myself into. But, if I did know either of those things, I might not have tried this. And as big of a project as it is becoming, I do like how it is turning out.

It's about half finished. The stripes actually look better in person than in this picture. The idea is for the multi color yarn to be the main yarn and the cream to be an accent.

So far, I have learned-it takes a heck of a lot of yarn for a large afghan, afghan knitting is truly a fall/winter project because it covers you as it gets bigger, the yarn causes a light fuzz coating around where I work (not a lot but enough for me to think- what is this dusty stuff and then realize its yarn fuzz), cats really do like to play with yarn, Cesar can cut yarn with his teeth in one second flat (his new trick).

My goal is to have this finished for the oldest kid for Christmas. I am not sure I will meet that goal since it will have to be shipped.

Another Lucy Moment . . . in the knitting world

I started loom knitting a couple months ago. Making scarves. I was working on my second scarf (which I took apart) and my son said he really wanted an afghan. Every time we talked on the phone, he would ask about me knitting one for him. Hey, kid, I don't even know what I am doing with scarves. But I told him I would try.

I surfed the web. What was the best way to make an Afghan with looms? I finally decided on the method of my madness. I went to the website and clicked on buy.

The box came the other day. I have waited over a month for it to arrive. And the postman (lady) actually brought it to my door. I never know if they will bring it to my house or leave a note in my mailbox in the group mailbox a block away. I love getting packages. I should order more but the shipping is always so expensive. And customs, fees, etc. Back to the box . . . it was a nice long box. Ooooohhh, goodieeee.

This is my next little tool for knitting. Ok, fine, not so little. This is a Infinity knitting loom. You can knit up to 50 inches wide at the same time. I did some research and decided it was worth the time and $$ to get. Well, maybe not, but I wanted it. :)

This is the very beginning of #1 son's afghan. It is a multicolor cotton yarn. No stretch with the yarn, but I like the way it drapes when knitted.

This is a day and a half of knitting. Let's just say its gonna be a long project.

Once I started knitting, I thought "Hey, how about a stripe in there?" Off I went and bought some light cream yarn. I have more than enough of the multi color yarn as I had to special order it last month but for some strange reason, I wanted a few stripes. Not sure where I will put the random stripes (guess that's why it's called random). MOST people would plan this stuff before they started. Not me. Whatever happens, happens. Hopefully, it will look ok for the kid.

Let's knit or at least pretend to knit.

Recently, I took a knitting class. It was fun, interesting and a little strange. The strange part was the teacher who was sort of a earth lady. But strange in a nice, funny sort of way. I am even taking another class next month. But, I also picked up a little loom and tried that for scarves. Its fun and easy. I have to admit that I took my first 6 scarves apart and started over, but I have now finished three scarves that I like.

So, lets start knitting. You will need a loom. The Knifty Knitter is a plastic loom you can buy in the states. I use a slightly different brand here but they are basically the same. The looms come in lots of sizes and shapes. I went for the long shape instead of the round ones. Why? Well, cause it was the one in my hand at the store.

This is the loom I like best-the pegs are closer together. Oh, and this is a scarf I am doing for Matthew. He was looking at it closely and laughed and said the color looked like Caesar (our cat).

Loom set from Amazon.

This is the wider tooth loom. Good for really thick yarn. This is a Knifty Knitter Loom.

I think a good set to get would be one with several sizes. I started out with one size and went back and got several others. Yeah, it would have been cheaper to just go for the set in the first place. The one I use the most is the 10 inch loom with the smaller spacing between the pegs.

In the package you get a loom, a hook and really bad instructions. Don't even look at the instructions. Go to You Tube and look at the posts. I will post some of the You Tube instructions later that helped me.

This is the loom I like.

Oh, and pick up a crochet hook (like the orange hook in the picture above) when you get your loom. You will need it when you cast off the loom. Sounds hard but its not.