Finished this pair last evening. I’d actually finished the first sock – my standard sock for a women’s size 8 shoe wearer, but learned the recipient wears a 9 1/2 – 10 shoe. I took the toe off, added ten rows, put the toe back on. Then I finished the second sock.
And here is the next pair already underway:
Check back in about two weeks – that’s how long it takes me to knit a pair of socks.
Ann Williamson shared some lovely spring photos from Portland OR today: 
This is one of several photos of spring in full bloom.
Then I look at my back deck: 
The towering cap of snow on the shed has grown smaller but we’ve a long way to go.
And out my front door:
It’s a wonderful sunny day today, but more snow is in the forecast for tomorrow.
I’ve taken this crazy winter in stride for the most part but I am beginning to wonder if we’ll ever see spring. I sure hope our vegetation has survived under the snow!
Take knitting – I can’t leave the needles idle – finish one pair of socks, I have to start the next.
It’s become the same with quilting. One quilt finished, the next starts.
Here’s the one I’ve just begun:
I had a jelly roll of forty 2.5″ strips of batik fabrics in shades of blue / turquoise, I went to the stash to pick out some complementary fabrics in the same hues as well as some greens that would blend – from these I cut 2″ strips from the width of fabric.
Why 2″? Well, my idea was to build blocks from six strips of batik with a complementary background – I auditioned several solid colours, decided white created the liveliest contrast.
For a lap quilt I want a finished width of about 45″ – six standard 2.5″ strips would give me 12″ blocks (too large for my purposes). I wanted to end up with a 5 block X 7 block quilt so I needed blocks no larger than 9″. Six 2″ strips result in a 9″ finished block. So I trimmed the jelly roll strips to 2″, cut a bunch of 2″ white strips and started improvising. 
10 blocks done – first I arranged them in rows with all the stripes in the same direction, but tried flipping a couple.
Then I took a photo from the end on:
Now that’s an interesting idea! Still a 5X7 quilt but with the columns having horizontal stripes and now maybe a contrasting vertical sashing.
That’s where I am at the moment – 10 blocks created, 25 to go….
jmn 