And here are a quilt, burp cloths, booties and Owl Vest by Cora (Waterwitch):

Here’s baby A looking dapper in the Owl Vest. (Ravelry link to pattern here)

The two knitted items I have been happiest with were the Manos Four Seasons blanket bought from a kit from the Yarndogs booth at Stitches and the Glee top. I thought it would take a long time to make the blanket because I have a hard time completing rectangular objects (i.e. stoles, scarves, and other things that require long sections of repetitive knitting). But the switching of the various colors and stitches kept it interesting and I was able to complete it in just a few weeks. Even the seaming wasn’t bad.

Here’s the Glee top using Sheep Shop 3 yarn from my stash. The only changes I made were a little shaping around the waistline and shortening the slit of the neckline (joining the piece to work in the round shortly after the sleeves.)

Recently, though, I have been focusing on sewing. My mom was in a town for a few weeks and I decided to enlist her expert sewing skills to help me complete a few projects. Plus, I had been inspired by all the fabrics and projects I saw at this year’s Southern California Quilter’s Run, which I missed last year because I was moving. Here are some of the small projects, some pillow cases and a table runner:

The table runner was my mom’s selection of fabric and her first attempt at free-motion quilting. Great job I think. It’s nice to grow up with someone with such talent. I have fond memories of helping her with her sewing projects as a child, and now the tables have turned!

And she found this great peacock fabric (made by Hoffman California Fabrics purchased from Cozy Quilt Shop in El Cajon) and we just had to make something from it. So to show off the fabric, we chose a pattern from the book, 9-Patch Pizazz. We were debating over whether to have a teal blue inner border or beige-gold inner border. We decided on one, but I will reveal it later. Here are both versions as seen on my design mat:

I am busy with more sewing, trying to get some of my quilt tops done. Here’s one that’s been lying around for a while, the Aloha Carlsbad quilt:

I kicked off my new year of knitting with a great sock class given by Cat Bordhi and hosted by Common Threads in Encinitas, CA. Cat recently published a new book on socks called, New Pathways for Sock Knitters (Book One). If you ever have an opportunity to attend a class by Cat, I highly recommend you to jump on it. She’s entertaining and has a great way of explaining knitting techniques using lots of visuals and stories. Here she is demonstrating Judy Becker’s Magic Cast-On. Notice all the charts and directions spread out on the floor in front of her:

Cat’s recent book shows new ways of looking at sock architectures, that is, the various parts that form a sock — the cuff, leg, heel, instep and toe. She shows how you can shape the sock by adding increases at the bottom of the foot, the side, or even spread out around the foot. In the book, you learn each new “architecture” by knitting a baby sock. Here are the baby socks I made for the Coriolis pattern (using Dream in Color’s worsted weight yarn in Dusky Aurora). Notice how the increases swirl around the arch of the foot in different directions on each foot:

The baby socks are followed by adult designs and a “master pattern” that you can just plug in your own numbers to knit with any yarn at any gauge for any size foot. That’s probably the hardest part, measuring your feet and gauge to get the right size. Here’s my first sock from her book, the Rushing Rivulet sock (using Claudia’s Handpainted in the Purple Dot colorway). I think I didn’t get an accurate gauge because it seems a bit large in the instep area.

The book’s instructions and illustrations are clear, written for DPNs, 2 circulars or Magic Loop. I especially liked Cat’s technique of right and left increases (La-Link and La-Rink), and she has the clearest and best instructions I’ve seen on how to pick up wrapped stitches when knitting short rows. Cat’s web site links to some You Tube videos showing some of these techniques, including the Magic Cast-On.

My second class this year was a class held at Sowing Sisters in Carlsbad, to make a wall hanging or quilt of batik elephants using the paper piecing method. This technique requires that you sew small pieces of fabric onto the paper pattern. You pin the fabric pieces to the back of the pattern, sew along the lines of the pattern and trim. It’s a great way to sew smaller, more complicated designs. It’s not difficult but does require a bit of concentration because the pieces are so small. These elephants measure about 4 1/2 inches square each. Here are my first three elephants and the batiks I am using:

The elephants’ tails will be made of braided embroidery floss. The teacher used seed beads for eyes, but I think I will embroider the eyes instead because I am making a crib-sized quilt and don’t want any choking hazards. Here are some of the supplies I’m using: a cutting mat, a small rotary cutter, a quarter-inch ruler, flat pins and a fabric turner for the ears. To the left is the border fabric in black and the background fabric in cream.

I’m off to Stitches West tomorrow to take some more classes and add to my yarn and project stash. Hope to report on my adventures soon!

No blog updates in a month because I have been out of town, then was furiously playing catch-up after I got back home. My DH then went out of town for a week and came back with the flu, which later spread to me and now the little one. So, I will have to update with knitting news at a later date. I plan to talk a little about Cat Bordhi’s new sock book and a great class I took with her earlier this year.

In the meantime, here’s a hilarious knitting-related spoof article courtesy of The Onion. Check out the sweaters in the photo:

Congress To Raise Alpacas To Aid Struggling Economy

I made a bunch of these last year and gave them away to the little kids in our family. The above photo is the prototype I made for my son. It was inspired by Poncho, a very gentle Shetland Pony that my son used to ride at REINS, a therapeutic horseback riding program for kids with special needs. (If you click on the horses link at the REINS web site, you can see a photo of Poncho — he’s the horse of choice for the toddler crowd.)

Materials: I used fabric remnants found in the clearance bin of my local Joann store and novelty yarn I had in my stash for the mane and tail. You can also cut thin fabric strips instead of yarn.

I drew an outline of a horse on a piece of paper (the simpler the better), cut it out and pinned it to the fabric (folded right sides together). Cut the fabric around the template, making sure to leave about a quarter inch or so for seams. Lay your yarn pieces as pictured in the photo below:

Carefully sew around beginning at the saddle area, leaving open about an inch and a half at the saddle area for stuffing. Make sure you leave some shape definition around the head. I also recommend double stitching over the mane and tail area to secure the yarn. Snip fabric where there are sharp curves, making sure not to clip into the seams. Turn inside out, stuff, whipstitch shut. Use pinking shears to cut a rectangular saddle with contrast fabric. Cover the whipstitched area with the saddle and use a decorative stitch, e.g. running stitch or blanket stitch to attach. Further embellish with sequins, bead, or ribbons if so desired.

This is my final installment of last-minute gift ideas. Merry Christmas!

Lastly, if you like the terrier pictured above, you might want to check out the amazingly life-like kits at FleeceDog.com or get the Fleece Dog book, which contains lots of photos and is fun just to leaf through. Happy jabbing!

So looking for some last minute gifts? Let’s turn to sewing, which usually takes less time than knitting the same item. Here are two books I bought a month or so ago, one to make gifts and the other could make a gift:

These are Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson and Midwest Modern, a coffee table book by Amy Butler.

Hoverson also wrote Last-Minute Knitted Gifts and owns Purl and Purl Patchwork, in New York City’s Soho district. Like LM Knitted Gifts, the projects are broken down by estimated time to complete: less than 2 hours, 2-4 hours, 4-8 hours, 8-12 hours and more than 12 hours. Projects range from pincushions and pillows, to large-sized quilts. Here are some of my favorites:

Color-wheel quilt, a striking wall hanging

(Sort of) Crazy Quilt, inspired by the quilters of Gee’s Bend and Denyse Schmidt

and Peanut, the wee elephant, designed by Hillary Lang of Wee Wonderfuls fame. This looks like a good way to use up scrap fabric.

The book also includes chapters on color theory and quilting basics, although I wouldn’t use this as a reference on quilting as there are no how-to photos. Last Minute Knitted Gifts is one of my favorite knitting books, and this one will likely become one of my favorite sewing books too, alongside Denyse Schmidt’s Quilts and Amy Butler’s In Stitches. (P.S. I forgot to mention the book comes with full-size pattern templates that you can photocopy or trace) Grade: A

For those of you looking for sewing patterns, Amy Butler’s Midwest Modern may disappoint you. There are only two, for floor cushions and an envelope pillow. Instead, this book is more of a behind-the-scenes peek at Butler’s designs and aesthetics. For example, here’s a photo of her workroom

And here are some of her sketches:

Many of the photos of Butler’s projects used in the book can be found on her web site, but there are also some shots of her garden and other places where she finds inspiration. The photos, taken by her husband, are beautiful and there are tons of them. This book is eye candy for the hard-core Amy Butler fan. Grade: B+

I’ll end this entry with a quotation from Butler’s book: “I wanted this book to inspire you — not to look at my life and work in awe, but to see how simple and approachable a creative life is. It’s not about adding layers to our life, but about stripping away obstacles. Fear is one of the biggest obstacles any of us can face….Don’t allow your fears and anxieties to overshadow your passions.”