A fun way to discover color

I haven't been knitting all that much lately because of my hands. And while my hands have gotten better and they no longer hurt me throughout my work day, I'm still taking it easy on the knitting front. I am using the quilting as a necessary diversion to try and give my poor hands (though its really mostly my right hand) time to heal properly and not push it. Because like most office employees now a days, the computer work will not be stopping any time soon.

However, I did discover a loop hole to the knitting issue...Continental Knitting. Since it doesn't stress my right hand, it doesn't seem to be a compounding factor to the computer stress the same way that English Knitting is. (Basically my poor right pointer finger is getting its arse kicked between throwing the yarn and mouse work.) Since I got super inspired to knit Aftur, I knew there would be some Continental Knitting in my future (I'm a two handed colorwork knitter). Its been since the Deep V Argyle Vest that I've knit with my left hand, so I figured the body and sleeves to Aftur might serve as the perfect practice, plus allow me to continue to knit while my right hand is on the mend.

I've already finished the body of the sweater since I took this photo and started working on the first sleeve. And since this is pretty much my only knitting project right now, it's seeing a lot of progress.

As you may know, I am using the yarn from the Weekend Getaway Satchel kit for my Aftur, so this has posed an interesting challenge to picking out my new colors. Here is what I have to work with, plus charcoal gray:

As you can see, they aren't even close to those in the original. I checked out Ravelry to see what others had done (Ravelry link) and besides Lolly's beautiful example, it looks like most people who deviated from the original ended up going with a cool pallet. This wasn't really an option for me given that the point of this sweater was to use up the yarn from the satchel kit and needed go with the Crimson yarn I am using for the body and sleeves.

I am also a planner and while I know it is possible to choose the colors as you go, I just felt that would be limiting me. What I wanted was a way to try them out ahead of time to see what might work the best and not be afraid to try crazy combinations. Marnie had posted a great Excel tutorial on how to do this very thing and I made plans to build up the Aftur chart in Excel using her guidance. However, in talking to B about what I was going to do, he offered up his Illustrator services to accomplish the same thing. And while I always enjoy learning something new, sometimes speed wins in the end.

In about an hour (he knows all the short cuts :-), we had the chart built and the final colors chosen. It was a great experience to make computer versions of the yarn colors and to move them around into different places to see how they changed the entire look of the sweater. Once the final configuration was selected, he also extended the chart and removed the lines so that we could see what it would look like over several repeats. So cool! I do plan to do this again myself so that I can learn the process and not have to rely on him - even if it does take ages longer.

In the end, I have a combination of colors I never really expected and I am so happy with. I can't wait to see it come together in fiber! I figure I better harness this excitement to get me through the sleeves, since they are my least favorite part of sweater knitting and the only thing separating me from all that color!

Lots of cutting, lots of sewing

I fully intended to take photos of my quilt class project at every major step, but with the pace that we work at in class, I kept forgetting to get out my camera. And then it seemed like anytime I was at a 'photo spot' during the week there wasn't any decent light. So, I'm going to cheat a little and just skip past the fact that I don't really have any photos of my pieced blocks coming together. I did manage to take a photo of this interesting step in the quilt process (at least this particular quilt process), since being a novice quilter myself, I had never even dreamed you could construct blocks this way.

Basically, for each of the pieced blocks, you put together one side made of three smaller pieces and one side of 2 larger pieces. I had assumed before I started the class, that all five pieces would be cut out and sewn together for each of the blocks. Wrong! You create each side of the block by cutting long strips of fabric, sewing them lengthwise and then cross cutting them into the final 1/2 block size to get this:

It seems this method would lend itself best to projects where you are buying the fabric specifically for it or if you have an amazing fabric stash because you really need the lengths (we cut the first strips from bias to bias) to be most efficient. Fat quarters would require some adjustments since you don't have the length to do all your pieces in one strip.

Now the other cool thing we learned how to do was match our corners. I was thoroughly intimidated by this when our teacher showed us her sample quilt and it was perfect! Each little corner made a perfect intersection with its three mates. I had resigned myself to the fact that this would not be the case on my quilt...and to be honest it isn't for 1/2 of mine. But! I pulled out a fat quarter pack of fabric I had and set about to practice! And look!:

It's all about alternating the seams on the back! Who ever would have guessed!?! Basically the technique is that when you plan out your quilt, one of the things that gets planned is which direction each row's seams are going to be pressed. So for the quilt top above that is made of 6 rows of 5 squares, I alternated the direction of the seams from one row to the next. This makes for a nice little interlocking seam at your corner that you can match up, bump end to bump end, pin together and sew a perfect corner. This is what it looks like from the back:

You can see how the seams when alternated make a pretty little spiral, letting everything lay flat and line up evenly! But you know what else I think is pretty? The scraps. I love the little pile of coordinating scraps you get when you are cutting everything up. They are almost too pretty to throw away!

So I took a picture...It will last longer.

Awards Season

Yes, I admit it- I'm a sucker for a good awards ceremony. I went to this one backintheday, and on Sunday night, I had the opportunity to accompany a very handsome nominee to this one:

The VES (Visual Effects Society) Awards. Fancy Schmancy! I am so proud of B for being nominated for his work. So cool! Alas, he and his team did not win, but that didn't stop us from having a great time at the awards ceremony. It's not every day we have the opportunity to get all gussied up in black tie attire, drink champagne, and eat food like this:

Even closer to home, big (belated) hugs and thanks to MLE and Margaux for bestowing the You Make My Day award onto me. I am very flattered- thank you so much - you guys made MY day! Such is the pay-it-forward nature of the YMMD Award, I suppose. And so, I would very much like to pass this along to just a few of my faves. If you're reading this, know that you make my day. Truly. I never lose sight of how lucky we are that you take the time to stop by to give us your support and feedback. We've got the best blog friends ever! Consider yourself awarded!

That said, there are some people whose blogs I really do enjoy reading and draw inspiration from, which is why I feel like a little extra shout out is in order. I've decided to adopt Jillian's set of rules and mention a few people I only know through their blogs (who I haven't met in person). Some may call this a cop-out, but I call it a useful tool. :) After all, some of the people who I admire and who inspire me the most in blogland also happen to be personal friends who should know good and well by now how I feel about them, as my affection for them has been well documented on this blog already. (Love you guys!)

So even with my self-imposed criteria, it was hard to narrow down to 10, especially because I chose to include a couple of non-knitting-specific blogs into the mix. But because I try to follow the *real* rules whenever possible, here is a list 10 people I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting in person, (who I may, in some cases, merely stalk, but only in a most friendly, unaggressive way) "whose blogs bring me happiness and inspiration and make me feel happy about blogland": Alicia, Amy, Anna, Elli, Jared, Kara, Lolly, Margaux, MLE, and Steph. You either a) make me smile and laugh, b) make me think, c) inspire me, both in knitty and other crafty endeavors and in my everyday life or d) all of the above. Thank you!

A little side project...

Thank you so much for all of your wonderful birthday wishes! They really did make my birthday special, which was much welcomed since I ended up getting the plague a couple days before. Nice timing, right? Anyway, being sick didn't (for the most part) keep me from enjoying what turned into my birthday week. Because it fell on a Wednesday and on a class night at that (more on that below), it worked out best for B and I to go out for dinner Friday...which coincidently coincided with San Diego's Restaurant Week (YUM!). Nasus and K also whisked Nonnahs and I away for a little wine getaway last weekend, but I'll let one of them tell you the details. All in all, not a bad way to start out 33.

As for my class, I decided to take a quilting class offered by one of our local quilting shops. I realized last summer when I started making some simple skirts that I couldn't get enough of the fabrics out there. So many colors, so many themes, so many opportunities! But, I just wasn't drawn to garment making. I did, however, find that I got really excited whenever I saw these fabrics in a quilt or a pillow or a 'thing'. This is an interesting fact considering that I am almost completely opposite in the way I feel about knitting, where I almost always choose to knit a garment over a 'thing'.

I played around with making a throw this summer on vacation and while I could follow the pattern, I quickly realized that I was in desperate need of the techniques you learn from a class and a teacher. After quite a bit of research, I found a class that was exactly what I wanted. It takes me from picking out the fabric to a finished quilt in 6 weeks.

In the first class we selected our fabrics. Now, I'm a sucker for those cute and coordinated fabric packs that fabric shops sell, but I was determined to learn how to select fabrics outside of a designer's line or collection. So on the first day, I brought a piece of fabric (the cream fabric with the little pastel dots) with me to serve as my inspiration. I had originally purchased it online several months ago to go with another fabric for a skirt. But once it arrived and saw it in person, I knew the two would never work right together. It also isn't a fabric I was likely to wear, so I thought, here's a chance to actually use it!

I knew I didn't want a pastel quilt, so I walked my fabric around the shop until I found something that would bring the pastels into a brighter color pallet...the pretty floral print on the left. With these as my anchors, I found 4 more fabrics that combined fun colors with various stylistic elements to mix it up a bit. The photo below will show you more or less how the fabrics will look in their relative sizes to each other in the final quilt.

The floral will serve as my large blocks and outer border and the other 5 fabrics as my pieced blocks. I will also use more of the small pastel dots as my inner border and the stripe fabric as my binding around the outside. I think it will provide a nice contrast to the floral border, plus I love the way striped bindings look on quilts :-) .

I'll share some more photos as the quilt starts to come together! I'm really excited to see the blocks done and the top sewn up. Wish me luck!

Super Tuesday

While I am very politically minded, I prefer to keep the blog a politics-free zone (for the most part). Except, I would just like to say this one little thing - if today is your chance to vote, please do so.

...and now, back to our regularly scheduled blog...