Apron Swap

The Denver Modern Quilt Guild met the other week, and this month's activity was an apron swap.  I can't believe my luck this month - I got to pick first and ended up with this beauty:



All the aprons were super lovely and I would have been thrilled to receive any of them. But getting to pick first... ooh that was fun! :) Here are all the aprons, modelled by the lucky recipients:

 

Next month we are doing a name tag swap. Each participant wrote their name, and some basic guidelines on a piece of paper and we drew at random. I received Sara, who simply wanted something bright on a lanyard. I'd seen some pieced spool designs online and thought it would be fun to try my hand at creating one, and using the spool's "thread" to spell out the letter S. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, although it is a tad larger than I think it needs to be (more postcard size than name card size). Hey ho, at least it's not sandwich board big :))) and no-one has an excuse for missing her name.



I'm looking forward to seeing the results of this next swap.

Well, I hope you are well, friends?
It's been a little hectic here (mainly work, but also some bug that has worked its way round the 3 of us) which has resulted in low energy levels and no desire to craft (shocker... I rarely ever feel this way). Consequently I've not really had anything to blog about. All that to change... starting with fun Mummy Daughter sewing plans tomorrow, as soon as we are wrapped up with swim class (little water baby just loves going to the pool).  Here's a fun swim pic that just makes me beam each time I see it:



Enjoy the rest of your weekend,
Sam xxx

Birthday Boneyard

I've been doing some secret knitting for a friend's birthday, which is part of the reason it has been a little quiet here.  But now that the big day has come and gone, I can share what I've been working on...

It's the Boneyard shawl from Stephen West (don't you just love his shawls!).  Bonus:  the pattern is a free Ravelry download!



Before I start any given project, I like to look through the finished versions on Ravelry for inspiration.  For this pattern I saw that a bunch of folks had knit their shawl using one skein of Madeline Tosh Pashmina.  I had one particular colour of Pashmina in my stash - Pop Rocks - that I knew my friend, Stacey, would love.  It's a super bright pink, and just up her street.



Looking through the finished projects on Ravelry I also saw that some folks had chosen to work the shawl in stripes of differing colours.  I love stripes, and thought this would add a touch of fun to the finished shawl.  I found some Coral online that would contrast well with the Pop Rocks Pink.  Yes, this combo would be a good, bright, fun one!  Perfect for Stacy.  Ooh and the Madeline Tosh Pashmina is just devine - soo very soft.



The folks that had used one skein of MadelineTosh Pashmina were able to get about 9 repeats of the pattern, which is a good size for a neckerchief sized shawl.  I wanted to make something bigger and cuddlier and worked 12 repeats of the pattern.  The end result is a really good size - enough to truly be called a shawl, without being too big and 'drowning' the wearer.  FYI, the 12 repeat version used 1 whole skein of the main colour - Pop Rocks - and the majority of one skein of the contrast colour - Coral.



Finally, the pattern calls for the Elizabeth Zimmerman sewn bind off.  It's a perfect bind-off for the shawl due to it's strectchiness.  But man, it took me forever to bind off in this manner!  Well worth it though.



The gift is a winner (yay!) -- Stacey loves it.  Which means I am also over the moon:  I do love gift knitting when the finished project is soo graciously received.



Hope you are having a lovely weekend my friends,
Hugs,
Sam
xxx