Was bitten by the Finishitupus bug.  Just need to make tendrils by wrapping starched yarn round a thin piece of dowel.  Thumbs on fingerless mitts are next.  

These are next....after the thumbs, unless I get distracted by the fingerless mitts I'vealready started.

Pattern for the colorwork hat using a seeding pattern from Traditional Fair Isle Knitting.  

A few years ago, I decided it would be fun to have the fall version of ugly Christmas sweaters and started a tacky pumpkin collection.  The only parameter is spend less than $5.  Sometime lat winter, I found a pattern on Drops(?) for a knitted pumpkin.  The pattern for the body is 3 x 1 rib and it's knit inside out.  It lay forgotten about until Saturday.  The pattern is long gone, so I'm winging it for leaves, stalk and tendrils.

The quilt blocks and I are not on speaking terms.  Maybe by next time I blog, we will have made up.

All paired up and ready to press.

Hat cast on.  Discovered I don't find knitting knitting toe up socks enjoyable.  Glad I tried it, as I know now.  Threw it in the frog pond, then cast on cuff down.   In the mood to cast on another scarf (purple).....and start drawing out the shawl pattern (burgundy,  close enough to purple).

Found this flower in the book Material Obsession 2.  It's 10 inches wide, so made copies at 75%, 65% and 55%.

The yellow is tonal and a bit washed out in this pic.  Thinking about adding stamens with hand embroidery.

I like this branch and flowers.  The appliqué will be in the left corner.  

It's from Like Home by La-D-Da.  It's one of my favorites.  I was stuck on the layout of the appliqué until I'd walked past this i don't know how many times this morning.  lol 

Added back stitch to the green....

....and around the moon.  I really like the way it makes the colors pop.  It's something I leave until the end no matter the size of a piece.  Partly because I mostly stitch in hand and I want it to lie neatly, but mostly because I don't like doing it.

Thinking the next couple of wips might be a Carolina lily and a peony.   Or, they could be something completely different, depending on what I find in this book.  Just out of curiosity,  I looked it up on Amazon.  On there, it sells for between $78 and $344.  It must be out of print.  I'm glad I have it, but if I didn't, I'd be searching Quilters Cache.

The fall quilt is still in the planning stages.  I've decided on a maple leaf block.  Just need to get it down on paper and started now.

There's a yard of green and also a neutral, which have been maturing in my stash for "a while" which I had planned on using in a Carolina lily quilt.  The only snag was, I could never find an orange I really liked.  Oranges are a bit low in the stash, so if there's not enough yardage or an orange that fits, I'll overdye another fabric.  There's a bright yellow and deep red RIT dye in the stash, which could be mixed to make a fiery orange.  

There's a pile of pressed and pinned paired pieces that's almost as tall as the Tower of Pieces ready to sew.  There may be a scrap of white tone on tone big enough to cut a flower or three out of.  If it's not wide enough, there may be a bunch of appliqué daisies instead of just one.   

When he himself quietus makes with a bare bodkin....

Whose to say Shakespeare wasn't suffering a case of second sock syndrome while knitting a pair of hose on dpns and he's been misinterpreted and the bodkin he was talking about was not a dagger?  "To rip or not to rip".....it's all open to interpretation!  lol

The sock on the left has been frogged, as the toe was an odd fit and felt uncomfortable.  I don't think it would have improved with washing and wearing.  Casting on 32 stitches is a much better fit.  When this pair is finished, I'm going to hold off making a second pair with the same yarn, so I can see what the 1st pair are like to wear.

The Leaning Tower of Pieces.  lol.   95 pairs  are stitched together.  The current plan is to sew these together as a rectangle, add one appliqué sunflower and quilt a few sunflowers in the background.  This may change at any time!  

Put a few stitches in this.  Where it's orange on the pic, it'll be stitched in green.  Changed my mind about stitching the flames with crosses.  They're being filled in and French knots will be added over the top.  The fabric isn't as dark as in the pic.  It's more of a cantaloupe color, which wasn't what was intended when it was dyed.  It was only after there was a fair bit stitched on it when I decided it wasn't quite right.  It will get a tea bath before the green stitches go in.

Stitched on this one for an extra half an hour, cutting into chore time....sad lol  Speed vacuuming counts as exercise, right?

Starch, press, pin, sew, snip, repeat worked really well until I sewed a batch of 20 with no bottom thread.  lol

Ares feels my pain.  lol

A new sock start.  Woohoo!  Second time around with the "easy toe".  Like anything new, it was easier the second time around.  There's probably enough yarn to make 2 1/2 pairs of shorty socks from a ball.

 500+ 2 1/2 inch squares.   These were all made from the scrap bin.  The next time a slicing and dicing mood strikes, it will be probably be triangles.  Ive had enough of cutting squares for a while. 

Matching scraps could go on forever, couldn't it?  Taking photos in greyscale helps.  Especially when there's not a lot of difference in value.  😱

These survived culling and sorting.

So did these.  

209 pairs with pins shoved in them ready to be starched.  I'm no checking the grain on that many small pieces.  Starching the living daylights out of them is a much simpler alternative.     

Swatched 8 rows yesterday using the Oriel pattern on rubbish yarn.  It was just enough to decide I like knitting the pattern.  What I didn't realize was I'd picked the wrong needles.  Size 5 US needles are a lot larger than 5mm.  lol. That's part of the reason I swatch first, to sort out silly mistakes.

The shortie sock yarn came yesterday.  It's really fine, so it'll be knit on size 1 needles.  It's chilly this morning (happy about that) which means I need to knit monogamous on a pair if I want to wear them before the weather changes.

This arrived yesterday, too.  There's a ton of lovely samplers and houses I'd like to stitch....after I have a pair of socks.

It's always pumpkin spice season here.  It goes smoothies and coffee.  I like cooking with spices, so there's everything needed in the cupboard and I can make it to my taste.

Here's my recipe...

3 tablespoons ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons nutmeg

1 1/2 teaspoons all spice

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves

2 teaspoons cardamom 

Frosted Flowers and I had an amicable breakup.  Our relationship didn't get past the crap yarn swatch stage....where we are seeing if our relationshipis going to be a joyful one.

I've had my eye on Oriel for a while.  She's a sweet old thing.  Over 120 years old and  neglected, tossed aside like an old sock from Walmart.

I am smitten.  Her repeat pattern is 12 stitches + 1 wide and 28 rows long.  A joy to stitch and I can see her being happily married to Bullfrog, a discontinued yarn, who has been difficult to find a partner for.  I can see many happy hours of happy scarf knitting.  Then long, cold days and nights with the three of us snuggling together.

Startitus and I sisters from another mother type friends.  Her cousin, the morally selfrighteous Finishitupus, and I are not.  Startitus and I are giddily planning projects.

1.  A scarf made from the pattern on the cover of the left book (Frost Flowers, page 204).   It's an old pattern, dating back from the early 19th century and I think will make a beautiful scarf.

This is the yarn.  The needles were already with it, as I'd pulled it out last night to start a different scarf.  This happens a lot.  lol It needs two pattern repeats per row.  Planning done. 😁

2.  A triangular shawl with the Tiger Eye pattern as a center panel (page 312, 2nd edition).    This will take planning on graph paper,  as the panel is 25 stitches wide.  I like to knit triangular shawls from the bottom up and like them to come to a point, so I think this one will work well.  There's yarn already caked up for this one.

3.  A beanie/hat/toboggan/tuque using an all over stitch pattern from this book using a couple of never ending scrap balls that I've recently made two hats out of.

None of them take rocket science planning.....especially the scarf.  That's just a long rectangle.

Startitus and I are making quilty plans and waiting for the Cross Stitcher magazine CD to arrive.  More on those later.

Hand knit socks are strange looking things.  The toes always look weirdly pointy 

After knitting most of the heel on the sock, it was tinked, as I've decided to try a different heel.  I may fall madly in love with it or hate it.  I'll never know unless I try it.

This sock has a looser gague and more stitches than I usually knit, so I'm not sure about the fit.  If they're a bit big, they can be bed socks.  The yarn for the summer shortie socks is supposed to arrive on Tuesday and I'd like to start the first pair (ie do battle casting on the toe lol)

This cd mysteriously found it's way into my Amazon shopping cart at the beginning of the month.  It should be here sometime this week.  I'd like to stitch some more patriotic and Thanksgiving patterns and am having a hard time finding patterns I like.  There should be at least 9 of each, which will keep me busy for a while.

This is my patriotic basket of smalls.  I have one Thanksgiving small.  Time for more variety and more displays!  Quilting is easier, as I can adapt color schemes.  So, I'm thinking about that, too and how to be creative with my stash.

Word of the day: Armamentarium

I no longer have a stash.  I have an armamentarium. 😋

I have a bad case of quilting startitus.  I want to "sew all the things" and want to start them all NOW!  In between chores and studying today, I unpicked the top and bottom from the pillow front and a bit down the sides before evening it up.

I finished it this evening and it has a temporary home on a quilt from the 1940s, an antique rocking chair and some stump work I found in the spare room that I made into a pillow. 

This mini (from the same book as the pillow top) is a jumping off point for a small quilt.  There's a pile of about 400 2 1/2 inch squares from scraps cut out.  There's another flower in the book, which I prefer, so will use that.  The borders will be lwft off, too, as I think it will be too much.  Not sure on the size, as it will depend on how many squares will play nicely together.

Plans for the fall runner are coming together..  The size was easy to work out...same as the runner in front of the fireplace.  It's going to have maple leaf blocks.  Just need to decide on the size, layout etc.  

It rained this arvo....a lot!  This is two minutes round the corner from us.  There was a lot of flooding round town, too, includingdown the bottom of our place, which is not unusual...it'sa flood plain.  I love the rain, but....

Happy World Cross Stitching Day.  Started Hot Cocoa by M Designs this evening.  It's on 14 count Zweigart Christmas Red, not orangish red like in the pic.  lol  There's a bit of frogging to do, just the white backstitching.  It'll look better in navy.   If I don't get distracted by something else, it will be finished this weekend.

The pillow top not being square is starting to bug me.  Looks like I've got a date with Jack.

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Happy International Left Handers Day!  I love a good stitch dictionary....especially when it's for lefties!  There's instructions in this one for right handers....just reverse it.  

On the last ball of yarn for my Boneyard shawl.  The blues show up more purple than in real life.  It's my current car knitting project and I'm starting to think about the next one, so it will be ready to go.  My criteria is....it has to be simple and on circular needles.  That means no socks, as it's too easy to drop a needle down the side of the seat. lol. It also has to be easy to memorise....like this one....Boneyard by Stephen West.

It will probably be the back on my grey cardigan, as I'd like to have it ready to wear sometime this fall.  

Snowflake (another Stephen West design) is in the preparation stage.  The yarn is being wound, ready to dye.  The diamond shapes are knit in garter stitch, which I'm changing, as it stretches and I think k that will be a problem, as it'sat the top of the shawl.  I don't want a saggy shawl top! I'll need to swatch to make sure it's the same size and also work out which stitch pattern to use.  That section is knit in separate sections, then joined, so it'll be fun working it out.

This weekend I'll sew the cushion cover together.  (Writing it here means it will happen lol)   There will be some stash diving and planning for a fall table runner, too.  It may go no further than petting fabric and looking through quilt books, but that's all part of the fun!

  

Meet Heracles.  He's an eyelash gecko.  He's a baby, so may be a girl.   He just needs to grow a bit more before I can check if he is male or female.

We went to the pet shop to get snake food today and came home with him and two more....Athena and Ares.  They're bigger than Heracles, so I'm pretty sure I've named them right.

Managed to make a hash of this top by stretching it out.  Ripped a couple of strips on each side and making it a pillow cover instead.  I may make some more covers that can be swapped out seasonally and for holidays.

It may be a bit long, but it will do!

Making progress on the toe up Frankensock.  It feels like it's going faster than top down, which is weird, as there's more stitches on this one than I normally have.  I'm on the gusset now, so will have to wait and see if it goes as fast on the leg.

Ordered Universal Yarn's Bamboo Pop Sock today, so I can make short ankle socks for the warm weather.   I may even be able to squeeze in a pair for the end of this summer.