a fusion of textiles & smiles
This was so wonderful about the healing properties of knitting (and crafting in general) I had to reblog. Thank you Wild Daffodil for posting this and warming my heart (and moistening my eyes) on a cold and snowy day in Denver.
This is Mike, the Miniature Schnauzer that lives with Tierney and John. If you are new to this blog I guest blog post time to time.
Tierney has been doing something weird the past month or so and only posting to this blog once a week. I am trying to work with her to increase her frequency. She went from torturing you all to daily posts in the month of October, this blog’s 10th anniversary, to BOOM once a week posts.
So I had to step in and blog about the progress on “my blanket”.
My writing station at “my blanket” in progress
Tierney previous posted her progress on this blanket these post Update on Various Projects and 2023 Recap: A Year in “Makes” and WIPs Going Forward, but she has made quite a bit of progress since these posts – she now has 5 rows of 8 granny squares joined:
Look at all the progress I’ve encouraged her to make!
In case you are wondering why I refer to it as “my blanket” – isn’t it obvious she is making it for me when it coordinates with my fur so wonderfully?
Try not to become overwhelmed with my cuteness
She has 5 more rows of 8 blocks to join to it to make it an 8 by 10, 80 block blanket. But at this point it is sufficient enough for me to snuggle under. For some reason she wants to keep working on it.
I’ve caught her cuddling under it while working on it and she even wrangled it into the car when John is driving to work on.
Here she is working on it while in the back seat when we had a holiday visitor; and I am trying to snuggle in it too:
It should be covering me but she said that won’t work while she is crocheting
Well hopefully it will be done soon.
That’s the end of my guest post and I am going to return to guarding the house from my sunny guard post on the upstairs guest bed surrounded by my natural habitats: blankets (fleece!) and quilts.
DENIM QUILT
Finally I’m sewing together the blocks on my recycled denim and home decor fabric quilt “What Direction Do I Go?“
I am trying something new to sew the 81 blocks together by working on 9 blocks at a time, numbering them and then semi-chain-piecing them into a square:
So far I have three squares, which is 27 blocks total, sewn together:
I really like the look of the individual blocks sewn together:
In the post Blocks Completed for “What Direction Do I Go?” , I mentioned I was trying to figure out the layout for the blocks on this quilt. Well I decided to make it look as if light was coming from the center and radiating out…sort of…well as best I could with the blocks I made. I put the blocks with the lighter or more faded denim in the center and the darker ones on the outer areas:
GRANNY SQUARE BLANKET
As I mentioned in the post What’s on the Design Wall, Design Carpet, and the wall…, I finished crocheting 80 granny square blocks. I’ve started crocheting the blocks together and here is my progress:
It is a fun project to work on while watching TV and hopefully soon it will cover more of my lap (photo above) than it does right now (because it’s cold now in Colorado – 28 degrees!)
PANTRY UPDATE
A couple years ago John redid the pantry and built in shelves. Recently he repainted the pantry to a white with gray undertones and added a new butcher block shelf. He also added a motion sensor light that will turn out when you enter the pantry and turn off after a while when there is no motion; and 4 outlets so we could keep a couple appliances in the pantry and use them in there.
I’ve been taking a break from blogging after my push to do a daily blog post for the 31 days of October, my 10th anniversary month of blogging. Additionally recently I had a wonderful visit with out of town family that of course kept me from sitting down and blogging.
Here are some updates on my current adventures in creativity.
THE DESIGN WALL
Here is a follow up to the post ScrapHappy October 2023 – Recycled Jeans and Home Decor Fabric Scraps.
I now have 66 blocks completed and 15 more to go to make 81 blocks for a 9 by 9 layout:
This is not even close to the final layout, just blocks put up on the design wall to track my progress. I have a lot of cleaning to do on my sewing machine after all that lint from sewing denim and home decor fabrics!
THE DESIGN CARPET
This is a follow up to the post What’s on the “Design Carpet”.
I’ve completed the 80 crocheted granny square blocks for the next granny square blanket I am making. I am doing a 8 by 10 layout of the blocks and will set them in dark gray yarn as the lattice.
Mike the Miniature Schnauzer couldn’t wait to lay on the laid out blocks as soon as I moved away from them!
This also is not the final layout, just a general layout to show all the blocks (and a Miniature Schnauzer, ha!).
THE WALL
This is a follow up to the posts Quiltfolk Issue #28 Colorado Released (and I am in it!), Magazine in Hand, and Magazine in Hand, Addendum…. One of the other quilters featured in Issue 28: Colorado of Quiltfolk Magazine, reached out to me and shared pages from an extra copy of the magazine she had purchased in order to take it apart and put the pages featuring her in her portfolio.
I used the pages she sent me to make a display in my studio of the article I am in using these cool 11 inch by 17 inch frames I found. John did a great job helping me hang them.
I’ll close this post with a cute meme my sister sent me the other day as we all struggle with Daylight Savings Time (setting the clocks back 1 hour in the Fall and 1 hour forward in the Spring); that is US states that agree to play along with it (Hawaii and Arizona do not participate).
I am continuing on my challenge to post to my blog every day in celebration of October 2023 being my 10th anniversary of blogging month. And if you all can’t keep up no worries, this is WAY too much posting – ha! I think once October is over I will go to a once a week posting schedule (or perhaps a little more frequent than that…we’ll see…).
For today’s post, here is an update on this post from July 2023 – What’s On the “Design Carpet” – Road Trip Granny Squares.
I continue to crochet granny squares for a distraction while traveling as a passenger in a car or while traveling in general. I am currently working on an 80 square blanket (8 by 10) and I’ve progressed from this in July 2023:
To this (only 7 more granny squares to complete to make 80):
I don’t have them in their final order before they are joined together, I just semi randomly put them together for this update photo.
I store them in this bucket bag I made a couple years ago, as I complete them:
I have mixed feelings of getting near the end as it will be 1) time to work on joining them (a sort of pain in the booty) and 2) I’ll have to start work on a new one (and I am sort of attached to this one, ha) when I am a passenger in a car/traveling.
Luckily I have a couple blocks of this one already started (see post Plastic Yarn?) so this will be my next “road trip blanket” to work on!
A month or so ago (this summer is a little blurry as it has been rather busy), I went with John to a large food and shopping market in Denver/Edgewater called the Edgewater Public Market. John was meeting some previous job colleagues there for a reunion. They are friendly people but I decided I would just wander the market on my own for the evening (if you check out the market on the link above it is pretty cool!), grab dinner on my own from one of the many eateries in the market, and read my book/work on my portable crochet granny squares.
While I was wandering the Edgewater Public Market I came across this storefront for The Tangled Ball:
A “yarn lover’s delight”! I love yarn and I had time to fill so after I ate my dinner, I wandered in. Next thing I knew I was sitting at one of the big tables in the shop with the owner and her husband (who is also a knitter and was working on a pair of socks) and working on my granny squares while chatting with them.
Here is what the shop owner was working on – a lovely knitted vest:
While we were talking at the table, working on our projects, I admired a cute project bag sitting on the table. The owner mentioned a local crafter made those bags but was no longer making the bags for the shop. She said she was looking into another source for project bags for customers to buy. I mentioned I make Drawstring Project Bags and she was interested in potentially selling them at The Tangled Ball.
If you are new to my blog, here are some examples of the drawstring project bags I make:
I’d planned to sell them again on my Textiles & Smiles Etsy Shop but I haven’t done all the product photography and writing of the listings to get them up on the shop yet.
So we agreed I would bring the bags by her shop in the future for her to see in person.
Before I get back to what happened with the bags and the yarn shop, here is a little tour for my fellow Yarn Lovers of The Tangled Ball:
I really loved the giant knitting needles with a Work in Progress (WIP) on the needles!
A week or so passed and I returned to The Tangled Ball to attend Colorado Makers Night Out held several times at month at the shop; and to bring a large sampling of my drawstring project bags for consideration to sell at the shop.
At the Colorado Makers Night Out I worked on my granny squares, while dining at the community table and visiting with some VERY talented and engaging knitters. Below are photos of my section of the table (my food, my project, and a drawstring bag I brought it in); and and amazing sweater (the photo does not do it justice) that one of the knitters was working on:
The other makers at the table were all beyond my skill set of knitting! (and I was the only person not knitting, ha, I was crocheting!) It’s was like sitting around with some of my blogging buddies who are knitting goddesses (you know who you are…) and watching in awe.
As far as the bags, the shop’s owner purchased about a 1/3rd of the bags I brought to try out at her shop. I recently found it she’s sold a couple of them so far!
I am so honored to sell my bags at a yarn shop but I will need to see if I can afford to continue sell at “wholesale prices” that the shop owner offers, when I do not buy my supplies at wholesale, etc. She owns a small business and is limited on what price she can pay for and then sell the bags for in her shop. It’s just the reality of the market.
I am going to get my act together and project bags up on my Etsy shop soon.
If you are a Yarn Lover and in the Denver area, I highly recommend this lovely yarn shop!
I hate being behind on reading my blogging buddies posts, so I wasn’t going to post again until I caught up. I haven’t caught up yet but I am only like 3 – 4 days behind now so I am allowing myself to do this quick post!
As I mentioned in the February 6, 2023 post What’s On the “Design Carpet”, I am a nervous front seat passenger in a car. My best bet is to do something to distract me while I am a front seat passenger (especially when my partner John is driving, ha!). So I’ve been taking a granny square crochet project on the road whenever I am a passenger and I’ve made a bit of progress.
Instead of the “Design Wall” in my studio, I thought I’d show you my progress on the “Design Carpet” in my living room – ha!
Here is what the granny squares looked like in the beginning of the project:
I decided to add to more rows in a different color gray to float the centers:
And now 5 month later, I have 50 granny squares completed:
You might notice one very dark gray bordered granny square in the image above:
Well I have 30 more granny squares to complete and I plan to make a lot of them with that darker gray yarn (Currently I plan to make an 8 by 10 granny square blanket, so I need 80 blocks to complete it).
If you haven’t guessed it, I’ve been using up my collection of random gray acrylic and acrylic/wool blend yarn, including two different variegated grays/blacks yarns from my stash. So it will be another “scrappy” granny square blanket like these two I made previously:
I seem to have a thing about gray yarn as I notice there is a lot of gray in that blanket above!
I’d love to someday make a super “scrappy” granny square afghan like the one I came across in the blog post Scrappy July by View From Our Hill. She has like 16 different yarns in each granny square block – check out the link!
Last week, sometime mid week, I needed an outing and John took me to JOANN FABRICS to wander around.
I didn’t have anything in mind that I needed but I took a leisurely stroll (as leisurely as one can stroll on a knee scooter) through the yarn section. There I discovered a collection of skeins of yarn made from RECYCLED PLASTIC!
I bought a couple skeins of the Lion Brand Re-Spun yarn to try it out.
The yarn has a slightly strange texture, almost like a little bit slippery, but it looks like regular acrylic yarn, perhaps with a little sheen to it.
I made a couple sample blocks for a future granny square blanket with the yarn:
I love the idea of plastics being recycled into something you make crafts with – a much better alternative to the landfill!
I didn’t have the best light when I was photographing and I am limited where I can do a photoshoot in my knee scooter (recovering from broken ankle and subsequent surgery if you are just joining us). I took photos on the table John made (see post From the Woodshop: Floating Top Hall Table) in the entryway.
I stepped back…okay I rolled back (on my scooter) after I finished the photoshoot for this post and realized the light, although poor, was sort of interesting on the whole area:
Postscript
Oh and speaking of granny squares, here is little follow up on my post What’s On the “Design Carpet”, about the gray and black granny squares I’ve been making while riding in the car, for a future blanket.
Here is what they looked like:
I decided they needed a couple rounds of gray border to make them less busy looking (I was using a solid center of black or gray, surrounded by a variegated black and gray yarn):
I like them better now (by the way, notice they are now on the “Design Floor” instead of the “Design Carpet”, ha!)
This post is from my blogging buddies who love yarn as I have some yummy yarn colors to share!
Before you panic for me, after reading all my recent “unfinished project audit related posts”, I just wanted to remind you that the audit only focused on sewing projects. As I mainly work on knitting and crochet projects while I am in the car riding as a passenger (see post What’s On the “Design Carpet”) or occasionally when watching television in the evening in the living room, I don’t stress about them as “unfinished projects”. Also I have the attitude on nearly all knitting/crochet projects: “I’ll finish it whenever I finish it, it is busywork”.
Yes I am not that serious knitter or crocheter, but I do love it.
And as far as knitting, I mainly knit hats, and some of you know – I’ve only knitted the same one hat pattern (since like 2013 or so)!
But a wonderful friend sent me a “get well” surprise a couple weeks ago, as I recover from my broken ankle and subsequent surgery (see post A Little Bit of Magic from the Universe? ) that contained a kit to knit a hat with a DIFFERENT PATTERN!
(Look of terror and panic…no I am okay now, ha!)
So I’ve opened the kit and looked inside, checked out the requirements (I needed to pick up a couple circular knitting needle sizes I did not have as well as a different size of double pointed needles that I did not have) and here is everything to get the hat going:
And talk about “yarn porn”, look at this delicious collection of 21 yarn “mini hanks” (what a cute name for these little bits of yarn yumminess):
Mmmmm mmm mmm! I’ve seen these little hanks (or perhaps “baby skeins”) of yarn in other knitters blog posts and I was envious. Well now I have my own set – ha!
So I guess I need to start casting on the stitches and make the hat. Wow does it have a lot of color changes! Wish me luck (panic and terror starting to set in again…).
The good thing is the pattern is easy to follow, I’ll just have to get comfortable with the 20 yarn changes after I cast on the dark gray color which is the base.
I do have a super sweet project bag to keep everything in: the same friend years ago made me this awesome project bag:
She brilliantly figured out how to make it from an image she saw on Pinterest!
Oh while I was pulling everything out on the coffee table in the living room, Mike the Miniature Schnauzer was being cute while nesting in his “natural habitat”: a crochet blanket and a quilt. So I’ll close this posts with some images of my sweet Mike captured in “the wild” 😉
He looked up at me as he knows the sound of the iPhone camera shutter clicking!
I am a nervous front seat passenger in a car. My best bet is to do something to distract me while I am a front seat passenger (especially when my partner John is driving, ha!)
So I started carrying around either a little knitting to work on in the car or a crochet project (usually granny squares) in this bag:
Last year, after I finished making the granny squares for the granny square blanket I share my finish of this in this – First Finish of 2023 – Granny Square Crochet Blanket Done, I began a new set of granny squares for a future blanket to have something to work on in the car. Here is what I have completed so far, laid out on the “design carpet”:
I am using black and gray acrylic yarn I got from the thrift store, including a variegated yarn of grays and black. So far I have 34 done and I think I will eventually make 100 granny squares to someday join into a blanket.
I am working very casually on this project (only when a passenger in the car with John and only if I am not working on knitting a hat) so who knows when it will be done!
As I mentioned in recent posts, I unraveled a scarf I wasn’t using and recreated a beloved knitted hat I lost during my trip to Ireland in October 2022. Well I’ve finished knitting it and it is my 2nd finish in 2023, which is a A Year of Finishes – 2023 (this is a link to my new blog category with all the posts on crafts I’ve finished in 2023).
I am so happy to have a new version of my beloved hat back!
I am going to write a post in the future about my plans for 2023 of finishing outstanding projects. I want to wait until I am more mobile (recovering from broken ankle) and can catalog my outside projects. Before I was injured I did put all my outstanding projects together in a section of the closet.
Speaking of injuries, I did have a follow up appointment with my orthopedic surgeon yesterday (who repaired my broken ankle) and he moved me from a splint/cast to a walking boot. I still cannot bear weight but before you know it I will be starting physical therapy and progressing on my three month journey to full recovery.
Here is my new reality – the walking boot:
And someday I will be actually walking in it (smile), but for now the knee scooter remains my trusted sidekick – ha!
While I was writing yesterday’s post The Horizontal Diaries, January 30, 2023 which included a little tour of the Tattered Cover Bookstore, I decided that I needed to add a new “blog post category” Independent bookstores, as I’ve written more than a handful of Independent Bookstore tour blog posts over the years; and adding them to a blog category would make them easier to find.
In order to tie all the previous blog posts about trips to indie bookstores, I needed to search for all my old posts using the WordPress search tools. While searching I came across this post from June 2018 – Beastie Adventures: Sisters, Oregon about a day trip I took with my late husband Terry, Mike the Miniature Schnauzer and the tierneycreates Beastie to Sisters, Oregon. That day trip is a wonderful in a lifetime of wonderful memories of my life with “Terry the Quilting Husband”.
Here is a photo from that blog post from June 2018:
Look at the right side of the photo – there is the SAME kit a wonderful friend recently sent me in the mail as part of a “get well” package (see blog post The Horizontal Diaries, Continued):
I was absolutely floored (I gasped) when I discovered this. It was obvious that I liked this hat kit as I took a photo of the tierneycreates Beastie with it in June 2018 on a wonderful day (and now memory) with my late husband Terry.
Once I realized this serendipitous occurrence, I immediately texted my generous friend who had sent me the kit, to tell her of this magical occurrence along with the blog link and the photo of the tierneycreates Beastie with the kit in June 2018.
Here is what she responded (paraphrased):
Oh my goodness! That is crazy! Well…I think you should consider it a gift from Terry if that isn’t too painful because here is what happened… I went to the yarn shop… I already had the Noro yarn for you and your box was pretty much full so that is all I was going to get. That kit caught my eye from the register and I couldn’t quit thinking about getting it for you. I walked back and forth, brought it to the register and then put it back several times. Finally I just couldn’t leave it there and walked out with it for you…There was the same kit with neutral colors in it and I kept swapping which of the two I was going to get you. I thought the neutral one looked more like you but for some reason I couldn’t bring myself to it it. I had to buy this one!
A little magic from the Universe? Pretty awesome! Now that kit has an additional meaning/significance (beyond a wonderful gift from a friend) and I cannot wait to make this hat!
Featured image – Pexels free images
Sharing some updates and I am continuing to use “The Horizontal Diaries” as a blog post title (like I did in the recent posts The Horizontal Diaries and The Horizontal Diaries, Continued) because it semi describes my current reality.
I am doing much better as I recover from my left broken ankle and subsequent surgery to repair it (I got “screwed” and “plated”!) and all the swelling has gone down from my foot and lower leg as I behaved and spent a lot of time horizontal! My swelling went down so much (foot/leg returned to normal) that my splint/cast has gotten sort of loose. Good thing I have an appointment with the surgeon tomorrow – looking forward to finding out what comes next…and when will I be ready to compete in the Olympic Gymnastic Trials?!??
I’ve been knitting non stop (just like you suggested @mariss/fabrications) and I am nearly done with the replacement hat for the one I lost during my trip to Ireland in October 2022. I am at the point of decreasing the stitches for the top of hat (soon it will be time for my favorite part of hat knitting – the double pointed needles). I think I will get it done today – yay!
Perhaps with the leftover yarn, that I harvested from the matching scarf I never wore, I can make a second hat…or perhaps a small (quite small) scarf – ha!
I mentioned in the previous “Horizontal Diaries” post that I was working on an irritating English Paper Piecing (EPP) Project. It’s the one I’ve been working on for years (feels like I’ve been working on it for decades). Here’s what inspired the project – the first issue of Quiltfolk magazine:
I need to make 99 hexie rosettes (each rosette is composed of 7 EPP hexies), and I am happy to report I now have 75 done (I’m going to actually “do math” now and report that I only have 24 more hexies to make)! I’ve been working on the rosettes while horizontal, they are a fabulous (if not tedious) hand sewing project:
I’ve made more in the past week than I’ve made in the past 6 months! 24 more and I can start to think about the fabrics to set the blocks in – each rosette is appliquéd to a square of fabric (but I will probably use my sewing machine to do that so it isn’t actually DECADES before I finish the quilt – ha!)
It’s interested to see how my EPP hexie assembly progressed from when I began the project is 2016 (gasp). My first EPP hexies were basted with thread to keep the piecing in place:
Then I learned from a friend that I could baste with fabric glue stick instead which saved a lot of time!
I think I’ve struggled with completing this project because the late “Terry the Quilting Husband” punched out many of the hexies for me as well did a lot of the glue basting of the hexies (he was like a master at it after a while!) for me. I would say he helped me make 60% or more of the hexies for this project. I’ve finished after he passed in December 2018 other projects he started such as The Last Baskets , The Last Quilt and The Ball of Yarn (which eventually became a hat) , but for some reason this one was dragging on.
But 2023 is a YEAR OF FINISHES (I might write a separate post about that later) and this project is on the list to be finished!
To get out of the house the other day, John took me on an errand with him and then took me (and my knee scooter) to the Tattered Cover Bookstore in Littleton, CO (near where his errand was). I love independent bookstores and I had a brief but wonderful wander is this old bookstore in knee scooter!
I wonder if they have a music night where someone plays the piano in the center of the bookstore. If I wasn’t injured and needing to return home to my “horizontalness”, I would have grabbed a stack of books and nestled in one of the chairs. This bookstore has a large collection of both new and used books.
I did pick up two cool new stickers for my older laptop (my newer laptop is fully covered with stickers now) at the Tattered Cover Bookstore:
Well that is this installment of “The Horizontal Diaries”, thanks for reading!
Although my blogging buddy @mildlygranola commented on my previous post The Horizontal Diaries, that the title of the post made it sounds like it was a naughty blog (and I nearly spewed my tea across the room laughing), I thought I’d use this blog post title once again! (Even if I could not stop giggling as I typed the title for this post, ha!)
No, sorry, this is not a salacious post about my time in an alternative (but perhaps quite lucrative…or not…not sure if there is a “kink” for middle aged women with broken ankles on knee scooters…but you never know…) career. I am just sharing some updates in my life with my leg elevated since my left ankle break and subsequent surgery (boring, right?)
Mike, with his cone (see post Guest Blog Post: It’s All Fun and Games Until Someone Ends up in a Cone) and I have been just hanging out, knitting, working on some hand sewing (a pesky English Paper Piecing project I’ve had forever), listening to audiobooks, watching television and of course napping.
Good news on Mike – he is practically completely healed from his minor surgical procedure. I took his stitches out yesterday (I might as well occasionally do some nursing since I am a RN) and tomorrow we take off his cone. He has fully accepted his cone and when John takes Mike’s cone off so he can eat, Mike immediate comes over to the cone after he finishes eating to have it put back on!
We call him “Cone Boy” or “Schnauzer in a Cone” and he loves to come over to have us reach into the cone and get face and neck pets and scratches (since he can’t scratch his face or neck with his back leg with the cone on.
I continue to work on knitting a replacement hat for the hat I lost in Ireland (see previous post) and I am slowly making progress (it is always slow for me at the beginning when I have to start with smaller needles for the rolled edge and then switch to larger needles for the body of the hat):
I did get to do something fun the other day after a doctor’s appointment – John took me and my knee scooter to a local thrift shop and I got to wander the aisles for a bit. It was a little awkward navigating the tight aisles of the thrift store so I didn’t last too long shopping, but I did have a fabulous find:
Over three yards of ArtGallery Fabric fabric – two pieces from an older line and one piece from a newer line – for $1.99 each! I do appreciate when people donate wonderful high quality quilting cottons to thrift stores AND the thrift store staff price them to move (smile)! I was happy to help the fabrics “move” to my fabric stash!
Yesterday brought two awesome surprises in the mail (the timing was awesome as the “immobility blues” was hitting me hard) from two very thoughtful friends.
First a collection of delicious Oregon (I used to live in Oregon) based Moonstruck chocolate bars:
And then another package from another friend filled with all sorts of goodies (it seemed like the goodies would never end as I was unboxing them…):
Included in this mega gift package was this:
Hmm…is someone trying to tell me it’s time to try a new hat pattern? Ha! I am looking forward to working on this hat kit after I finish the hat I am working on now.
Well back to finding something to binge watch. Recently I binged the first 3 episodes of the AMC show The Mayfair Witches; and I’ve been watching very silly science fiction and horror movies (they are great to nap to, ha!)
I’ll close this post with this card I came across that made me laugh:
Feature image – Pexel free photos
I am recovering from a broken ankle after fall on ice and subsequent surgery to repair the fracture (with lots of fun stuff like screws and plates inserted into my ankle). I’ve been unhappy about my sudden immobility and I’ve been trying to be as independent as I can in daily tasks with not much success. I have to rely on my partner John more than I want.
I noticed today that I still have some post operative swelling in my toes that I think I should have gone down by now, but I’ve been naughty in regards to not completely following my post operative instructions to keep my leg elevated above my heart.
Shortly after realizing my limited compliance with post operative instructions (and I am a nurse and should know better!), I came across a blog comment by one of my New Zealand based blogging buddies (@cedar51) on the other side of the world on my post Sheep to Brighten My Day :
The more your leg is horizontal – the faster it will heal – and yes it will be annoying but then when it’s all better – you will be back doing all those things that you love.
– @cedar51
Yes, she is right and I know it. So spent most of today horizontal instead of trying to busy myself on little tasks around the house in my knee scooter.
And the swelling in my toes has begun to diminish.
I guess I need to keep this horizontal existence up for now.
While binging all sorts of strange things on YouTube (like how to can a year’s worth of food; how to crochet baskets; living in a van; and being a digital nomad) I’ve started working on another knitted hat (yes same pattern of course, ha!):
The hat is being knitted from yarn I recycled by unraveling a scarf I was not using. It is the yarn that my beloved knitted hat my friend who taught me how to knit hats made me. Unfortunately I lost this hat while I was in Ireland in October 2022.
I had that hat forever (at least 10 years) and I wore it all cold weather season long. It was sort of like my security blanket. Here I am in 2015 in the hat when I appeared in an advertisement for SAQA in the FiberArts Now publication:
I was so heartbroken when I lost my hat; but so happy when I returned home and realized I could unravel the matching scarf that I never wore and knit myself and new version of the hat.
In addition to working on the hat and binging YouTube videos, I’ve been listening to audiobooks and snacking on delicious coffee cake. Another thoughtful friend sent me a get well package, that I received yesterday, of some delicious jasmine tea and gourmet coffee cake mix. John made me the coffee cake the same day the package arrived!
Well that was enough sitting up to write this blog post. Headed back down to full horizontal to take some more pain medications and dose off to yet another YouTube video…
Feature image – Pexel free photos
Here’s a follow up to the post from January 9, 2023 Update on Autumn Colors Granny Square Afghan :
It only took me a year but I finally finished the Autumnal Colors Granny Square blanket.
It measures approximately 70 inches by 70 inches and is made with 100 crocheted Granny Square blocks.
I wanted 2023 to be a year of finishing up old projects and now I have one down (and oh so many to go!)
It was a great project to finish up while I spend a lot of time in the recliner in our living room since breaking my ankle last week:
And now the blanket is on the top of my recliner awaiting my snuggle under it:
I had John take photos for me since I can only use one leg these days, and at first he took this photo (as a joke, little did I know) for this blog post:
I thought at first he thought this was a good photo for the post!
Now to decide what outstanding project to work on next…
Yesterday John helped me get my studio (from main bedroom, see post A “New” Studio) better set up to sew and craft in ready with my new reality – the knee scooter:
I am going to try spending part of the day tomorrow sewing in my studio instead of sitting in my recliner with hand projects (moping that I am no longer as mobile as I used to be).
Oh and I have to close this post with a photo my friend Wendy sent me from @themercerie on Instagram:
Is that not the ultimate granny square sampler? That would only take me 5 years to finish 🙂
I was going to write a post about my 2022 travel next (my excuse for the lack of completed projects in 2022 as I discovered when I wrote my previous post 2022 in Review: Crafting Projects Completed) but I decided to write about a project I am working on completing – a granny square afghan in Autumn colors.
Previous posts on this blanket are:
Update on Latest Granny Square Blanket
Update on the Latest Granny Square Blanket
What’s on the “Design Carpet”: Update on Granny Square Blanket
Those are a lot of posts for a blanket that is still not completed. Luckily some of the previous posts included cute photos of Mike the Miniature Schnauzer with the blanket in progress to distract you – ha!
Searched through those posts to see when I started working on it – and the answer is January 2022 (whew it is barely a year old, ha!)
Part of my New Years Resolutions are to complete the projects I have uncompleted. I want 2023 to be a “Year of Completions”. So a couple of days ago I pulled out this dusty project and made a lot of progress (seven out of ten rows now done!!!):
I was laughing to myself as my original plan was to have this afghan completed by Autumn since it has Autumnal colors but then I realize the colors are all season as far as my house as they coordinate with my living room decor:
I have 7 rows completed and 3 more rows to go and then the border.
In previous posts about this blanket I discussed putting several rows of borders on using several of the colors in the individual granny squares.
I thought more about that and I think that will be too busy. I am just going to border it with one row of the brown I am using to attach the granny squares together.
Plan = focus on completing this project, work on it every evening while watching TV and get it done!
While we were stuck in Alexandria Virginia after Christmas thanks to the Southwest Airlines meltdown (see my post A Christmas and a New Years Miracle? (Part II) ) we had fun wandering around Old Town Alexandria.
During our wanders, we came across an awesome yarn shop called Fibre Space and I thought those of you who love yarn might enjoy a virtual tour.
I knew it was going to be a cool place when we were approaching the shop. They have outside seating surrounded by sheep sculptures!
Plus the front door looked inviting, so I just had to go in (smile):
My photos do not fully capture the experience but when you fit walk in your get hit with a very visually appealing and delicious looking yarn experience:
Upstairs they have their classroom, more yarn (because I guess there just wasn’t enough on the first floor), and a sitting area for non fiber art aficionados (I put John there and he had a relaxing wait while I browsed):
The shop was wonderful as the friendly and helpful staff were wonderful also. I behaved myself and didn’t bring any new yarn home (there is enough yarn currently living at my house) but I did pick up so cute stitch markers and a cedar needle case.
If you happen to find yourself in Old Town Alexandria and you are into yarn, I recommend a visit to this shop.
If you’d followed my blog for a while you know I keep making the same hat over and over again (but in different yarns).
The pattern is called Rolled Brim Hat and it is very comforting to me to knit it (and I think I could knit it in my sleep). No matter how much I try to convince myself to expand my skills and try and more complex pattern (or just any other hat pattern), I keep returning to this pattern and I’ve customized it to fit my head how I like the hat to drape.
And this hat is great to work on during travel (as I can mindlessly make it), I worked on one during our trip to Ireland in October as well as on various other trips.
I’ve made the hat in numerous colors – for me and for gifts for family and friends, however one of my favorite yarn colors of hat was gray. The yarn was an acrylic/wool blend (Lions Brand Yarn).
Here I am a couple years ago wearing one of my favorite Tierney-knitted hats and tormenting Mike the Miniature Schnauzer to selfies:
Last year my friend Blair really needed a winter hat and he has an usual shaped head for hats. He and his wife were having trouble finding him the right hat. We were out to dinner with them one evening and I let him try on my gray hat and it worked perfectly for him. So I gave him my beloved gray hat.
I thought I would be okay as I have a lot of other hats but I kept missing that hat.
Summer 2022 I found a skein in the back of my yarn stash of the same gray acrylic/wool blend yarn I used for my first gray hat and decided I need to just make myself a hat to replace the one I gave up.
The other day I finished my replacement gray hat!
I am very pleased. It might look boring to you but it makes me very happy!
But here is the real reason for this post – I wanted an excuse to share with you all – HATMAN (no relation to Batman, ha!).
While we were stuck in Washington DC (see post A Christmas and a New Years Miracle? (Part II) ) I worked on this hat and at one point I wanted to make sure it was long enough before I began the process of decreasing my stitches to the crown/top of hat to complete it.
My partner John agreed to let me test it out on him (which the knitting needles attached) and he got quite silly with it and became HATMAN.
I am not sure if he plans to fight crimes and serve justice while wearing it (and will those knitting needles give him super powers?!?!). We had quite the laugh, especially when John added in his sunglasses!
Closing this post with a little history on this hat: I first knitted the Rolled Brim Hat in 2011 and I shared photos from 2011 of my first knitted hat in this post from February 2021 – My First Knitted Hat.
Here I am in 2011, braces and all (oooh less wrinkles 11+ years ago!) with the first version of this hat (which I made too small for my head):
Knitter blogging friends: Prepare to be underwhelmed.
Non-knitter blogging friends: Oh wow look I knitted another hat 😉
I follow several amazing knitters who are busy making complex colorwork knitted hats, socks in their sleep, shawls with fancy lace designs, and tiny Aran cabled sweaters. And I have made ANOTHER simple knitted hat with the same pattern I’ve been using since the early 2010s.
But it’s another hat (option to wear) and its DONE!
Before my trip to Ireland I wanted to have a knitted hat to work on during the trip (a very portable travel project). Here is the hat early in its creation during my train ride from Dublin to Galway:
Since returning from Ireland in October, on subsequent my recent travels (to Omaha, Nebraska, to Fayetteville, Arkansas, and to Atlanta, Georgia) I’ve been working on the hat, especially when on planes:
And last night I finally finished that hat!
Here I am wearing my new hat (which is the same as all my other hats, ha!):
Oh and here is a follow up from my post earlier in the week Cute and Curious Kitty Quilt Trunk Show – I got the quilt that my friend J gave me while I will in Fayetteville, AR, on the wall yesterday.
I am so honored to have one of her mother’s quilts hanging in my home, I put it in the downstairs guest room:
It goes with the beach-y/nautical theme in the rest of the guest room as when you think of Colorado (hint: landlocked state), you definitely think of the ocean – ha!
Her mother hand quilted the quilt and I am amazed at all the work that went into that quilt!
I was hoping to be further along, but at least I am progressing a little with crocheting together the 100 granny squares I made for my second granny square blanket.
Last time I updated you on my progress was on April 12, 2022 in the post Update on the Latest Granny Square Blanket, where Mike the Miniature Schnauzer was wearing one of the granny squares on his head:
Well now he can actually nap under the blanket as I’ve finished 4 of the 10 rows (and two additional squares – I am now 42% of the way done):
Here is the basket I use to house the rest of the squares for the remaining rows awaiting to be added; and the blanket in progress:
Here is my living room crafting area, where slowly I work on putting the blanket together (it is also where I am writing this blog post right now) while watching TV in the evening:
And to close this post, here is Mike napping under the partially completed blanket:
Howdy, this post is a follow up to the post What’s on the “Design Carpet”: Update on Granny Square Blanket.
I’ve completed crocheting a 100 granny square blocks! Here they are in piles based on yarn combinations:
You will notice I do not have an even distribution of color combinations. That is because the blanket is very “scrappy” as it is made from a collection of coordinating thrift store yarns. I had similar but not exact colors and varying amounts of each color.
After sorting piles it was time to do the daunting task of laying it out on the “design carpet” of my living room.
My eyes were crossing as I tried to find a way not to have the same (or similar) squares touch each other but after a while I gave up and said “good enough” and settled on the layout above.
Mike the Miniature Schnauzer tried to distract me while I was sorting and laying out the squares, with his cuteness:
So I decided it was time for him to try on a granny square hat:
I am going to join the granny squares with brown yarn to make a lattice between the squares and then finish off the blanket with a green border, and perhaps a rust border too. We’ll see how it evolves, but first I have to put on a YouTube video on how to join the granny square blocks again (I forgot what I did on my first granny square blanket – Attack of the Giant Granny Square Blanket).
But before I work on joining the squares, I had to organize them into the layout I decided in someway, as I could not just leave them out on the “design carpet”.
So I figured out putting them in piles, with the top of the pile being the first square on the left for each row; and then numbering the rows. Here are the piles laid out:
As you can see in the images above, I ran a piece of yarn through each pile, so they did not get separated/out of order if a pile accidentally got knocked over.
I’ve been traveling a lot lately with my partner John going on his business trips with him and since I actually finished these 100 blocks a couple weeks ago now (so behind on blogging) and I can’t take all of them with me when traveling to start joining them into a blanket, I’ve started another granny square block series to work on while traveling!
I seem to be a little obsessed with making granny squares, they are the perfect portable travel project!
Here is an update on the second granny square blanket I am working on (the first post on it was in January – Granny Squaring Again!).
The weather has been weird in the Denver Metro area. We get teased with Spring with 60 degree Celsius days, and then the next day it is 20 degrees Celsius and a blizzard! I’ve been spending some of those blizzard days staying warm with a cup of tea and crocheting granny squares for my second granny square blanket.
I completed 63 granny square squares so it was time to lay out what I’ve made so far on the “Design Carpet” so I could decide how many more I need to make for a decent sized blanket:
I decided to make the blanket 10 x 10, which is a 100 blocks, so I needed 37 more blocks.
I also realized I need some additional combinations to keep the blanket visually interesting. It is made from thrifted acrylic yarn (I paid one dollar or less for each skein) and I worked with what I had so it is very “scrappy”.
Here are the combinations I have so far:
Since taking these photos, I’ve started working on new combinations and here are some of the centers I’ve made:
I still haven’t decided what color I am going to set the blocks in (like a sashing crocheted between them) but I am still leaning towards brown. I made sure not to make the outer color of any blocks brown so they will not blend into the setting yarn color and look smaller than the other blocks.
I just love working on these little crochet squares and it is mindless perfect crafting for in front of the TV in the evening or even sitting around visiting with friends.
I am planning to continue my series of posts on the quilt retreat I attended at the Missouri Star Quilt Company but I thought I would throw in a quick post to show a hat I knitted for my partner John.
It’s the first hat I made him. He asked for a gray hat and I thought I was knitting him a gray hat but a couple rows into knitting it and finally in direct sunlight with the yarn, I discovered the yarn was actually dark green with grayish undertones. (Oh I better explain – it was yarn someone gifted me – a beautiful soft nubby wool – and pulled it out of my stash in a semi-dark room).
He was still happy with it so I finished it for him. Here are some photos, and yes it’s my one and only hat knitting pattern I know. There might come a day in which I try a new pattern…perhaps!
In the first two images below, you can see the dark green:
But in this image below, which I guess was in a different light, it looks gray:
So it’s like I knitted him TWO HATS (ha!) – a dark green one and a gray one (smile).
I am pretty excited about the yarn I am using for the next hat I am knitting (which is for me!) and will blog about it sometime in the future.
Now I will return to reading the blog posts of the knitters I follow that are busy making quadruple layered cabled (I made that up) Fair Isle Icelandic sweaters with wool they spun and then dyed themselves…lol…
This post is a quick follow up on the post from November 2021 – The Itty-Bitty Hat and Fun Surprises in the Mail. I knitted a colorful hat which was too small for my head.
I ended up giving this hat to my friend Wendy as a gift and it fit her perfectly (she is very petite and has a petite head).
I still had leftover yarn from this hot mess of yarn (which I did roll into a ball of yarn):
So I decided to try making myself a hat with the yarn again, this time one appropriate for the size of my head and my hair. I finished the hat in January and I’ve been enjoying it!
Now it’s time to use the only hat pattern I know, to knit a hat from my partner John (who has been waiting for a hand knitted hat from me for some time…).
tierneycreates 