I made a baby faster than this quilt.

I've been waiting for 15 months to talk about this quilt. In that span of time, I went to four weddings, got pregnant, gestated the baby for 37 weeks, gave birth, and spent 3.6 months raising the resulting baby. Stay with me - all of these things are tied together.

We went to seven weddings in 2010. The last wedding was probably the most romantic wedding I've ever attended, including my own. It was outside of Austin on a family farm. The bride and groom (one of our dearest friends) were married under an enormous oak tree, and we played lawn games, ate delicious food, and danced the night away under the stars. I can't remember a better night. The wedding was so romantic, in fact, that we came home and immediately got pregnant.

I don't make quilts for everyone, but Paul is, well, Paul -- a wonderfully smart, kind, hilarious, and stylish guy. Justin, Paul and I all met on the first day in our dorm freshman year, and Paul and I were close friends before Justin would even hold my hand. The boys were inseperable throughout college. I've never seen Paul as happy as he is with Allison, and I wanted to give them a really special wedding gift.

So I bought 16 colors of Kona Cotton and got down to business in August 2010. Their wedding was going to be in November - no sweat! I'd mail it off before we left town! But then life got in the way, and it takes a really long time to cut 560 rectangles and then sew them together (not to mention all the pressing - oh, the pressing!). So August turned into December and all of a sudden I was pregnant. Then I lost my mind.

Pregnancy brain is a strange thing. I was fine with math, but hell if I could remember where I put things, or how big I had originally intended this quilt to be. I just kept counting my pieces and recalculating every time I sat down to work on it (which wasn't often, thanks to the little Bean growing inside of me). Sizes ranged from a small throw (those were dark days) to almost King. In February, I had almost all of my pieces together when I discovered five missing colors. I cut more rectangles, recalculated, and promptly lost my notes. We were working on the house all spring, and my studio moved to the basement in June. I had the baby three weeks early in July. At that point, I hadn't even pieced all the strips together yet.

This quilt was finally finished on October 12, 2011. I took it to Guild the next night for show and tell, and then spent three weeks trying to a) find a box big enough for it and b) figure out how to get this enormous box and a baby and his stroller to the UPS store. Last Monday, I managed to get there five minutes before they closed and waved a relieved goodbye.

So without further adieu, I present to you: The Babymaker.

(For the record: It turned out just shy of Queen-sized, 20 blocks x 14 blocks. The pattern is "Plain Spoken" from Modern Quilt Workshop.)

I love this quilt. It was a pain to put together (I love Kona Cotton, but man, does it ever fray), and I wish it hadn't taken me so long. But it's a lot like a marriage. You have all of these pieces that don't seem to go together, and the only thing that gets you through the dark times (small throw? Really?) is blind faith that everything will turn out right in the end. And boy howdy, did it ever.

Brainwave, and a finished shawl.

I just had a brainwave - I have 2200 yards of Madeline Tosh Merino Light in a lovely purple in my stash. I think it would be perfect for the Dockside Cardigan. I was planning on making something else with it, a pullover, I think...ah, yes, Olive. Hmm. Decisions, decisions. The Madeline Tosh is a singles yarn, while the Heritage is plied, and if I'm going to wear the cardigan a lot, I may want to go with the plied so it doesn't pill and show as much wear... I'm also thinking that the Heritage would lend a little more structure, which a curved piece like this needs. So yes, Heritage it is, I think. In one of the purples. Your comments were so helpful - thank you so much!

On to a finished knit. I finished this one a few months ago and never got around to blocking it. Really, it just looked like a wadded up piece of ick. But then it hit the water and BAM, did it grow.

This is Flamboyan, by Stephen West. I had hoped it would be a more interesting knit, but once you get to row kabillion and knit knit knit and then switch colors and purl purl purl, it's a little much. The ribbing at the bottom was particularly painful, especially when I had to rip back a few rows because I was going to run out of yarn for binding off. All that said, I think it turned out very nicely, and my mom seems to love it.

I wasn't quite sure how to block it - there weren't any instructions on that - so I went with a Farasoe shape (so it would rest nicely on the shoulders). This way, I was able to use my blocking board so that the point was at the short side, and then the shoulder pieces were able to go the entire length of the board. She can wear it as a shawl or as a scarf, which is great. I do love making shawls, but I'm not much for wearing them, so I'm glad my mom likes them.

By the way, I used Sundara superwash sock in Brambleberry (the brown) and Roasted Persimmon over Green Apple (the red). I have 1/5 of the red left, and used all the brown. I really like Sundara's colors (I got these through the Seasons club a few years ago), and they didn't bleed at all during the soaking. The price tag is a little too much for me - it's not the be-all, end-all yarn for me - so I probably won't be buying any more unless I see a great deal in someone's stash. I do, however, have enough Aran Silky Merino to make a Lady February...

Sock Stash Knitdown 2011

I'm in two stash-busting groups on Ravelry - Stashdown and Stash and Burn. This year, I'm going to focus on burning up all of this sock yarn. It's small in weight but mighty in yardage, and when it comes to yarn shopping, it's my biggest temptation.

I did, however, make a tiny dent in the sock yarn stash with my last socks of 2010.

They're delightful socks for my dad. The pattern is Conwy by Nancy Bush, and the yarn is some of my very old handdyed. I named this colorway Taper, since I knew it would be perfect for my dad and he used to be fond of tapered jeans. (I'm pleased to say that's no longer the case, but one must always be on high alert when it comes to tapered jeans.)

I would definitely use this pattern again, but with similar modifications. You start with 72 stitches and then decrease down to something like 60, but I decreased to just 66. I like my ribbed socks to maintain the ribbed look and not get all stretched out. Also, I'd probably try a different toe - the star toe is a little pointy.

He's becoming quite the foot model, isn't he?

Major mitten fail

So! I will not be finishing any of my holiday gifts before Thanksgiving. I was on the tip of a mitten thumb last night, the last of two, all ready to be bound off and given a nice soak, and then I decided that the mittens were too small. So small that they wouldn't block out. I didn't get angry. I walked upstairs, threw the mittens in the trash, and wound some different yarn. (I've ripped back those mittens so many times and, frankly, I couldn't give a hoot about that yarn anymore.) Cast on and...too big. Way too big.

So I've changed plans and am moving forward with holiday knitting. I'm proud of myself for trying to get everything done early, I suppose, but we all know that I'm a knitting procrastinator of the worst kind. Blurg.

Weekender Bag, v. 3.0

How many times am I going to make this bag? As many as it takes to get it out of my system, I guess. While I was making my mom's bag, I thought that her friend Pat would probably want one, too. Less than a month later, I get a call from my mother asking me if I would make Pat one for her birthday. I love Pat. She's crazy and carries an eye patch in her purse and performed our wedding ceremony.

I started more than a month in advance, but of course I let it languish until two days before I had to deliver it. When I picked it back up, I was tired and not feeling well, and the instructions didn't make any sense at all even though I'd already made the bag twice before. There was a lot of ripping of stitches that night.

It all worked out in the end. Phew.

The main fabric is a Kaffe Fasset home dec print, and the binding and lining is actually from a home dec fabric store. I never even considered getting bag fabric there, but man, it can be a lot cheaper than getting fabric from the quilt store. A lot more options, too.

I made the straps four inches longer for over-the-shoulder ease, and instead of using thin interfacing for building the bottom panel, I used some scrap quilt batting. Genius! Much easier to wrangle and it provides a little more stability. But really, I didn't feel like looking for interfacing that night, so batting it was.

Is this my favorite one yet? I'm not sure. I do love the fabric, and the more times I make it, the easier it gets. I love my original, and I fixed the straps before our trip last week so I could sling it around the airport. (I also noticed that I had only basted in the lining, which was quickly becoming a hot mess. I sewed that bad boy in by hand on Thursday night, and I used such stiff canvas for both the lining and bag that my thumb was numb for three days afterward.) But there are places where I didn't catch the seam allowance, and it's maybe starting to show a little wear. And I sure do have a lot of scraps left over...