What a Mess

I finally finished my Carol Doak Block of the Month (BOM) quilt top. I probably shouldn't say "finally". After all, I only got one block per month x 12 months, so I'm not sure I could have finished it that much more quickly. I am very happy with the way it turned out - I put all the blocks on point and used Carol's China Star to offset the BOM blocks. Of course, the problem with paper piecing any quilt is the mess it makes when it's time to take all the paper off. This picture REALLY doesn't do justice to the mess in my house when I was finished pulling off all that paper!

It really looked like it snowed in our basement there for a while. The SigO (those are his feet in the picture - so cute!) tried to keep it under control by picking up papers every so often, but he was fighting a losing battle.

Of course, the real mess came when I nearly chopped off the end of my finger. We were watching Horatio Hornblower while I was trying to cut some fabric with the rotary cutter. I mean, honestly, who can expect anyone to be concentrating on quilting when Ioan Gruffudd is on TV? So, off came a sizeable chunk of my index finger, and off I went to the ER to get some coagulant stuffed into the hole (nothing there to sew up) to stop the bleeding. That put a real damper on the weekend, needless to say. But it's almost all healed up already, so ho hum - moving on...

I just signed up for a class to learn how to do colorwork in my knitting and - you might want to sit down for this - learn to cut (Yes! Cut!! Yikes!!!) my knitting. I'm working on the Enid Cardigan and I'm learning to knit continental for this project since Olga (instructor) wants us to knit the colorwork using both hands. So, that's somewhat awkward.

The reason for steeking (cutting) this knitting is to put in the button band - so if I chicken out, it just won't be a cardigan - it will be a pullover - see how easy life can be! This class is a three day class held over six weeks to give us time to do all the knitting. Olga wants us to have the body done up to the yoke and the sleeves done for a bonus before the next class, which is in two weeks. If I weren't trying to knit continental, this would be a breeze, but I'm not so sure I'm going to make it. And I can't just switch back to the good ole comfy throw method since my tension is completely different between those two techniques. So, I might be the problem child in this class. Oh, let's not kid ourselves - definitely, I am the problem child.

Thursday night I'm taking a crochet class from the same instructor. I decided it might be a good idea since one of the projects I have on my needles right now is the Beachcomber Tunic:

Which, as you can see, is knit for the top, and crocheted for the bottom. I don't think the actual crochet is all that tough, but reading the pattern has me thrown right now.
I'm knitting the Enid Cardigan in my current size, because it's a cardigan, so who cares if it's a tad large, but I'm still knitting all my other tops in a size too small because I'm devoted to losing some of this weight, although I can't say I've been very dedicated to the process. I blame the SigO. I'm not saying it's his fault. I'm just going to blame him.

I have finished all the knitting for the Filatura Di Crosa top. Here are the sleeves, all nice and blocked:I still need to crochet the belt (see, another reason for Thursday's class) and then it's just a matter of seaming it up and sewing on the sleeves - yeah - the dreaded finishing. That's why it's still on the blocking boards, even though I finished it well over a month ago.

Not much exciting going on in the way of trips lately. Not for lack of trying. We tried to go camping for Labor Day weekend and all the campsites in our chosen weekend spot were full. So, we went winery hopping. Such a hardship! And that pretty much sums things up for me for the last few weeks - lot's of knitting, wining, quilting, some trauma, some work, mostly fun.