Podcast Stuff

• Blanket MAL 2017 – It’s over!
  • Prize winners–
    • $10 Ravelry Pattern from RoMillet – post 378 – filipamc – Filipa
    • Prize Package 1: A Hundred Ravens Yarn Poppers, Araucanía Huasco yarn, and DPN holder – post 76 – AuntyNanaNz – Megan
    • Prize Package 2: Handmade blanket project duffle and Once Upon a Corgi Series of Unfortunate Events minis – post 563 – mariberu35 – Maribel
• 2018 Blanket MAL! There was a lot of encouragement and progress made in the Rav group and I think we should keep it going! There’s a thread up on Rav for photos and discussion, so please join us there as you work on blankets. There are no plans for prizes at this point this year, but I think we can all use a little encouragement for those long projects.
• Quilt Along! There’s been some interest in having a quilt along, so I wanted to throw some more ideas out there to get people thinking about it.
  • Time Frame: March 2018 – September 2018 – 6 months
  • Quilt size: smallest side 3 ft/36”/92 cm
  • Quilt top pattern: Half Square Triangles – The entire quilt does not have to be half square triangles, but half square triangles should be a feature. I created a Pinterest board with some cool ideas.
  • Quilting: No rules about the actual quilting! Long arm, machine, by hand, or tie quilting is all welcome.
  • Link HERE to Jacqueline/Brooklyn Knitfolk’s quilt along tutorials
• New Year Giveaway – I’ll open up a thread in the Ravelry group with the prompt, what do you want to accomplish is 2018? Resolutions? Trips planned? Projects planned?

 

Life Stuff

• Christmas – Good Christmas. Gabby, Jake, and the pups came up for the day and we all had a good time.
• New Year’s – We had a lazy New Year’s this year. My parents put out a sort of buffet that we like to do so that we can just graze instead of sitting down to a meal, but we didn’t have anyone over or anything. I fell asleep and only woke up for midnight because the fireworks down the street sent the pups into a frenzy.
• Declutter/Organization – I’ve been itching to reorganize and declutter for the past couple weeks, which has been interesting for a couple of reasons.
  • 1 – I paid off my student loans, which has opened up a huge chunk of my paychecks and means I can seriously look at potential job searches and/or make serious considerations into moving out of my parents’ house
  • 2 – Because of my hand injuries, I’ve really had to look at how I craft, what I craft, what I can remove from my crafting, and what I potentially want to add to my crafting
  • There’s also been a trend of living simply, living slowly, and minimalism in the knitting community, so I went looking for some other sources outside of this community to see what other perspectives are out there. Lots of videos about the KonMari method (from the Life Changing Magic of Tidying by Marie Kondo)
    • Messy Minimalist
    • How to Get Your Shit Together
    • GeekyChic

 

FOs

• Sewing machine extension table – I’ve been sort of on and off looking for an extension table for my sewing machine since getting into quilting, but I haven’t been able to find any ready-made ones. I would have had to pay over $100 to have one custom made for my machine, but there were plenty of DIY tutorials on Pinterest for inexpensive ones. The foam tutorials looked like the route to go, since I’m pretty sure that I’ll save up and invest in a quilting-oriented sewing machine (wider neck, comes with an extension table, etc) in the next few years. I used precut 15”x17” pieces of 2” foam, 1” foam, and a couple pieces of foam poster board that measured about ¼” thick to get to the 3 ½” height of my sewing machine. I also found a cut of vinyl in the remnants section of Joann’s for less than $3, so I’ve covered the foam platform so that fabric will slide right over. There’s also some overlap onto the bed of my machine that I secure with masking tape so that the edge of the extension table and my machine bed don’t create a speedbump.

 

WIPs

• Weaving Project – Finished strip 4 with Sincere Sheep Tenacious 100% SW Merino in the “Up and Down Button” colorway and some very old handspun by me, started strip 5 with hand-dyed yarn from the NYRF warp and Once Upon a Corgi S.O.R.E. as the weft
• Dwarven Mittens by Ginger Monkey Knits – Plymouth Homestead Tweed in grey – US 3/3.25 mm needles
• Halloween Squares Quilt – “Finished” WIP
• Halloween Candy Stripe Quilt – assembled, pending border ideas
• Quick strip quilt – assembled, pending border ideas – Video I watched for this is HERE
• Handspun striped sweater – Silver Reed LK 150 – Tramontane by Amy Herzog using her custom fit site – Classic Elite Yarns Mohawk wool and my own handspun out of a corriedale/finn/rambouillet wool from Spinners Hill
• Free motion quilting practice squares using concepts from Quilting the Grid: Structured Free Motion with Christina Cameli on Craftsy
• Swatches for future projects on the knitting machine

 

New Stuff

• Addi Express Professional circular knitting machine
  • Did some swatches on the machine to get a feel for it
  • Bought some Patons Classic Wool Bulky to try making a pair of mittens
• Hand Knits by Machine by Susan Guagliumi
• More Hand-Manipulated Stitches for Machine Knitters by Susan Guagliumi

 

Other Stuff

Stuff I’m Listening To:

• Outbound Flight by Timothy Zahn narr by Jonathan Davis
• The Drowning Girl by Caitlin R. Kiernan narr by Suzy Jackson
• Been catching up on my audio podcasts over the past couple of days, mostly Mabel, Wolf 359, and the Magnus Archives

Stuff I’m Reading:

• The Last of the Jedi #3 – Underworld by Jude Watson
• The Last of the Jedi #4 – Death on Naboo by Jude Watson
• Of a Linear Circle by flamethrower – catch up
• Reprise by elfpen – reread
• How We Throw Our Shadows Down by anonymous (for fic collection challenge, I think) — Draco has finally found the perfect, rare piece to complete his collection. The only problem is that the item belongs to Harry Potter, the last wizard on earth Draco wants to ask another favour from.
• Things Worth Knowing by anonymous (again, for a fic collection challenge, I think) — After the Battle, Harry thinks he’s left Hogwarts for good, but Minerva insists that all students return for an Eighth Year if they wish to sit for NEWTs in the spring, and Harry needs those NEWTs to go into the Aurors. Draco’s just grateful not to be in Azkaban. Or the Manor. He’s hoping he can steer clear of Potter this year and grapple with his own problems. Unfortunately for him, Potter appears to be one of those problems. And that’s not even addressing the fact that Potter’s got serious issues of his own, which Draco realises as he’s forced to share an Eighth Year dormitory room and several classes with the Gryffindor Git. If only they can make it through the year without killing each other, it should be all right, shouldn’t it?

 

 

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