Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Beauty shots

Peonies have got to be one of my favorite flowers. I always look forward to finding the first ones at the store so I can bring some home! When I bought these they were still unopened and I just loved seeing each bud open one after the other, every day another one. There’s just one now that hasn’t opened yet, but I bet it wont be long!

I made sure to buy them when I first saw them so I could enjoy them now before I leave on vacation. DH and I are going on a trip to Switzerland in a few days and when we get back maybe there won’t be any more peonies to be found!

My parents came down from Quebec for the weekend. It was a coincidence that if was Mother’s Day weekend but it was a good coincidence. Two years ago, on one of my mom’s previous visit we sewed a quilt top together.

It had been waiting to be finished all this time. After taking my quilting class I finally knew how to finish it properly. So I decided to finish the quilt and give it to my mom for Mother’s Day.

Last weekend I quilted the quilt and prepared the binding. Then last Friday, I sewed the binding on. I sewed both sides of the binding with the sewing machine since I didn’t have time to hand-sew. It didn’t take really long to finish it and before I knew it I had a finished quilt!

The next day, just before my parents arrived the sun came out and I was able to get some nice shots of the quilt.

Some of the fabrics I used were bits of fabrics that my mom had used in some of her projects and some were fabrics that I had in the stash. I’m really happy how the colors go so well together, a blend of pinks and greens. I used a cotton batting so the quilt is very light and thin and will be nice for the summer. I know that it will be well loved by my mom.

Happy Mother’s Day mom!

A couple weeks ago I mentioned that I had done a lot of sewing. I never posted about it back then because what I made were made for two special packages. Both packages have now arrived so I can now share them with you.

The first package was for my friend Kelly who lives in Iowa. She’s a knitter too and she likes to knit socks too. I had noticed though that she would carry her sock knitting in little plastic bags and that I just had to make her something nicer than that.

So I sewed her this little set:

My friend likes birds so I made sure to use a fabric with birds on it.

I had also knit her a pair of socks, the Ripples pattern from the Sockamania KAL. Here they are on her feet:

They’re a tad on the tight side and a pain to remove, but she likes them, so that’s what counts. I might need to knit her another pair though at some point!

The last package was for my May Day Sock pal. The packages were due out on May 1st and the package arrived to my pal’s doorstep on Saturday. So I can now show you what I made her!

My pal was Karen from Needles and Wool. She’s the one I was knitting the Schaefer Lola Red Dwarf socks for. I ended up giving her the Hand Maiden Casbah Sangria since they were too big for me and I knew she’d like them just as well if not more.

I also made her this little box bag and zipper pouch set:

She seems to have liked everything I sent her and the socks fit her perfectly. If you’re interested you can see her post about her package here. I really enjoyed putting everything together for her, it was fun!

Over the weekend I had time to spin the other half of the Iron Horse Farm roving I posted about last Monday. I also made sure to ply it and skein it so I could have some photos for today.

The roving didn’t come with a name so I asked DH if he could name it for me. He picked the name: The North Side of the Tree because it the yarn looks like moss. I liked the name so it stuck!

I found out more details about how the roving was made. It is made of long strips of 3 different colors that were carded together to make one strip. The first half of the roving I spun as is, leaving the 3 colors together. The second half I tore the 3 colors apart and spun one color after the other. That way I would have a subtle striping effect if and when I knit it.

I didn’t split the roving in two really well so my first half ended up being quite bigger than the second half. So I ended up with only 150yds of a fingering/dk weight yarn.

My friend Debbie from Iron Horse Farm told me to make sure to not overtwist it because the yarn would feel like rope if I did. So I tried to keep the twist to a minimum and I think it came out pretty nice.

The yarn still needs a soak but I didn’t want to wait! I’ll practice my Navajo-plying on the rest of the single but I’ll have to wait a bit for that.

I’m not sure when I’ll next get to spin because the next several weeks are going to be very crazy with my new job and two big trips, so maybe my next Spinning Monday will be in June!

There is still time to knit socks…

Things have suddenly gotten busier here at Knitting in Pink. After two years of working only part time for yarn4socks I’ve gone back to working full time. I’m still working for yarn4socks of course, but on top of that I’ve added another part time job, this time in an office in a neighboring town. So I now have the chance to share the joys of commuting…

I’ll probably be blogging a bit less than I already am until I get into my new schedule and figure out how to do everything else I need to do like everyone that has a full time job. Sadly, all my new found crafts will have to step aside for a bit too, but I’ll get back to them as soon as I can! I don’t feel too bad for myself though, because I’ve had a chance to enjoy a relaxing life for quite a bit now.

Nevertheless, there’s always time for some sock knitting and here is my latest finished pair.

These are my mismatched New Year socks from the Sockamania KAL. I’ve just learned that they’ve been renamed On the Run socks. Details here in Ravelry.

You can more clearly see in this picture the different dye lots that were used.

These socks were originally knit for my MIL but I didn’t want to give them to her like this. They’re a bit too big for me so I can’t really wear them either. I’m hoping they’ll fit my mom. My parents are coming down to visit next weekend so maybe I can give them to her for Mother’s day!

After finishing this pair I cast on for the second Simply Cables sock, also from the Sockamania KAL. I’ve got one repeat done so far. I hope to be able to get a bit more done this weekend!

I just love the color of this yarn, it really reminds me of being on the beach in the Caribbean. I can’t wait to wear the pair!

I finally broke down and got my hands on one of these…

I think that I’ll soon be casting on for a pair of simple stockinette socks! (Noro Kureyon Sock 185) I’ll let you know what my thoughts on the yarn are as soon as I start working on it. A good friend of mine has been knitting a pair of socks with this yarn and didn’t dislike it at all so it got me convinced to give it a try myself!

Yes, I have been spinning again! I’ve decided that with all my new crafty interests, I’d have to make time for all of them, including spinning. So my new plan is that every weekday I’ll work on a different craft and last Friday was spinning day.

I’m not sure what made me chose this as the roving of the day,

Maybe because it’s the last roving I bought, I don’t know. This roving is 70% Shetland, 30% Mohair from the Iron Horse Farm. This roving doesn’t have the colors in sections like other rovings I’ve worked with. Instead, it’s like the 3 main colors were blended together. You can see it a little better in this picture.

As I was spinning this I realized that the ply I was getting was mostly dark green with a few yellow spots here and there. I considered Navajo-plying it but there isn’t enough color definition to make it worth while. So instead I’ll just 2-ply it.

The resulting yarn will be a nice deep green, I’m looking forward to seeing this! And hopefully I’ll be able to take flashless pictures next time.

I apologize in advance to those who come here only for knitting, I will try to post about my knitting soon!

Since I first talked about embroidery back on Friday, a lot of things have happened.

I embroidered the drawing I showed you.

I used a combination of split and back stitch. The results are very naive but I find it really cute and enough for me to fall in love with embroidery.

The next day I found out that a very good friend used to embroider and had lots of stuff to give me.

She gave me all of her embroidery floss, a hoop and some needles. She also lent me both books.

This

Plus this

Became this

Doesn’t it look pretty?!

A great sale at AC Moore brought about the purchase of about 2 dozen more colors of floss.

Last night I decided to embroider a little something of my own design to practice a few more stitches.

I also purchased a pack of flour sack towels to embroider these beauties by Posie gets cozy.  Those will probably be up next!

I am not quite sure what I should be blogging about today. Should I blog about my just finished quilt? Or about my new embroidery hobby? Or maybe about what I’ve been sewing lately? Or what I’ve been knitting?

I guess that today I’ll share with you my pride and joy. My first proper quilt.

Oh! You want to see the whole thing! Ok, ok, here it is!

Last Wednesday, in my last beginner’s quilting class we sewed the first side of the binding on. I didn’t want to wait around so I started hand-sewing the back of the binding a couple days later. Many tv shows later I finally finished sewing the binding. It was my first time hand-sewing something this big and I wasn’t sure of what I was doing but I think that by the end my stitches were looking pretty good!

Here’s a shot of the back of the folded quilt

And a shot of the full back. You can see the quilting lines pretty well there if you click on the picture to make it bigger.

I’m really happy with this quilt. It was my first so the piecing is far from perfect and the quilting goes all over the place. But overall, I think it’s quite pretty!

Now I’m ready to sandwich and quilt a (much simpler) quilt top I made a couple years ago!

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I guess you’ll have to wait until the next posts to find out about the stitching, sewing and knitting!

For the past few months my eyes have been drawn to yet another hobby. I’ve been dreaming about stitching. Stitching beautiful things like those made by Soule Mama, Heather Hales Designs, Wee Wonderfuls, Sublime Stitching and Merwing.

Yesterday I finally got myself to ACMoore and made a few purchases.

I bought a hoop and some embroidery floss. I bought some needles too but I’m not quite sure they’re the right kind for this. I browsed around to find a simple design I could try and found this free pattern on Heather Hales Design flickr account.

I copied it onto some fabric from the stash and now I’m all set to try!

I’ll be using the How-To section of Sublime Stitching to get myself started. I’m hoping to be able to find this Stitch-It kit at the book store soon too as it would be a great help. I really would love to be able to stitch something like this soon!

I’ll let you know how it goes!

If you’re a stitcher and have tips for me, I’d love to hear about them!

There are many stages of socks and here are a few:

First there is the completed pair

This is a slightly too large pair of gorgeous Red Dwarf socks in a beautiful color and awesome yarn… Can you tell I’m a bit bitter that these are too big for me? I haven’t quite figured out what to do with them yet. I can give them away to my May Day Sock Swap pal, who has feet about the same as mine. The other pair that I knit for her is a bit snugger than these, at least pre-soak. I could give them to my mom but I’m not sure they’ll fit her quite right… Or I could find someone who wants them!

Stats
The socks were knit between February and April 2008
Yarn: Handmaiden Casbah in Sangria
Pattern: Red Dwarf socks by Turtlegirl
Mods: None either

Then there is the almost 3 quarter completed pair of socks

These are the January pattern for the Sockamania pattern. I just started working on the second sock a few days ago after I finished knitting the last Red Dwarf sock. The first sock striping colorway came out so nice I was thrilled when after starting the second sock I realized it was going to do the same. Until my hopes were dashed and there was a big knot in the skein… tyeing together 2 entirely different dye lots. Lets just say that I am quite bummed about this too. Oh well, I have another pretty sock to distract me for a while.

Then there is the wee beginnings of a sock

This is a sock I just started working on for the Socks-O-Wool KAL. For this KAL I am using O-Wool Classic 2-ply in Robin’s Egg. It’s a very pretty light blue and it goes very well with the Rococo sock pattern by Knitspot. I’m really enjoying the pattern. I’ve knit 4 repeats so far and I’m getting the hang of how the decreases and yarn overs are working out.  This sock seems to fit so far so I shouldn’t be as disappointed with these as I am with the other two.

So you see, I’ve still been knitting!