Ashbury Mitts and More

These Ashbury mitts were fun to knit as I enjoy knitting fingerless mitts and I enjoy lace knitting.  The pattern is Ashbury Mitts by Simona Merchant-Dest.  The yarn is Bijou Spun by Bijou Basin Ranch Lhasa Wilderness (75/25 Yak & Bamboo) in a lovely cream color (the photo does not do it justice).  These are for one of my nieces.

With the leftover yarn I made two baby hats.  This first one is a Christmas gift for a grand-niece who was born this fall.  The pattern is Lacy baby / toddler hat by Linda Kuzma.  I used some unknown leftover pink yarn to crochet the ribbon.

This one used not only the leftover yarn from the Ashbury mitts but also yarn left over from two other projects -- Malabrigo Yarn Lace in dusty rose (left over from the swirl jacket)  and Rowan Kidsilk Haze Glamour in blood red (left over from the modified girlie mitts).   There was only enough of the Kidsilk for the lower half.   It’s a little small so not sure it will fit the other grand-niece born this year or not.  I may have to donate it to the local children’s hospital.

Fantasy Footwear Finished!

I have finished the quilt except for adding the sleeve for hanging and a label.  The quilt is machine appliqued and quilted.  It measures 31.5 in square.

The next several quilts are my attempt to show the details of the quilt.  Here is the toe  of the shoe.  There’s a small blood stain near the daffodil closest to the toe which is difficult to see in this photo but easy to see in this instagram photo.  It' didn’t come out.  I may have to add a ladybug or bee to cover it.

Here is the heel of the shoe.

The flowers around the "ankle."

The butterfly and flower buds.

One of the daffodils and the straps across the instep.

And the back

The previous posts on the inception and making of the quilt
Fantasy Footwear Quilt-- the Beginning
Fantasy Footwear -- Part Two
Fantasy Footwear -- Part Three

I plan on entering the quilt into The Great Arkansas Quilt Show 3.  Not sure this one will win anything but I did win best hand quilting in The Great Arkansas Quilt Show 2 back in 2007.

Two Pairs of Non-felted Slippers

I really like how these slippers turned out.  The pattern is Non-felted Slippers by Yuko Nakamura.  It suggested so Yorkshire Tweed Chunky which I couldn’t find so I ordered Plymouth Encore Tweed Chunky.  The first one I knitted single strand was too flimsy so I decided to knit them using two strands of yarn which turned out lovely.  The soles are a blend of black tweed (color #217) and grey tweed (color #3525).  The tops or insteps of the one on the left used two strands of red (color #6389) while the one on the left used one strand of red blended with one of grey.

They fit my husband's feet (though I didn't manage to get a photo of him wearing them).  He's a size 9.  Here you can see them on my size 8 feet.

In an attempt to make them skid resistant, I used the technique suggested in this blog post (link removed 3/2017).  My husband found the Plasti Dip for me at Home Depot. 

I might should have added another layer of the Plasti Dip but I could definitely feel the resistance on my wood floors.

Niche in Blue -- Finished

I finished this sweater recently.  I used the pattern Niche by Norah Gaughan.  The yarn is Berroco Maya™ in blue,  color 5632.  When I first tried on the finished sweater the boat neck was very stretchy and wanted to constantly fall off the shoulder.  I decided to do two rows of single crochet around the neckline to prevent that effect.  For me, it's much more comfortable now.

I really thought I got the sleeves the same length but looking at the photo above it looks like the right sleeve may be shorter than the left by a 1/2 or so.  Oh well, I didn't notice it when I wore it.

Here you can see the cable pattern goes from one cuff to the other across the front. 

I wore a short sleeved scoop necked white t-shirt under the sweater.  It's tucked into my jeans which is why the upper part of the sweater looks lighter than than bottom.  Here's the back.

Fantasy Footwear -- Part Three

Let me refer you back to the these two previous posts (beginning, part 2) for the back story of this quilt.  It took me a while to decide how I wanted to do the actual quilting.  As you may notice in the photos below I made a few false starts with my marking.  I'll have to be careful when doing the quilting to not take a wrong turn onto those false start marks.  I finally settled on a circle around the shoe.  Inside the circle will be hatch quilting in a horizontal direction.  Outside the circle will be hatch quilting on a 45 degree angle.  The shoe will be outline quilted.  All of that will be done with white thread.  Then I will most likely do some additional quilting on top of the larger green leaves and tulips, we'll see.

In this photo, you can see the freezer paper I used to sketch my quilt design (after I had made the earlier false starts).   I marked the actual quilt using the freezer paper to get my outside square marked, then trimmed each corner from the circle and marked the circle.

And here is one corner marked.  I don’t plan to mark the inner hatch marks until I have stitched around the shoe and stitched the circle plus another inner circle 1/4 inch from the original circle.