An update on the “log cabin” quilt – I’ve been building light blocks to fill in around the coloured ones:

Eight of the light blocks are only partially constructed – I hope to complete them today. I think I’m also going to add one more row to the top end which will mean three more light blocks – that addition will add 6″ to the length of the quilt which will give it better balance: ~50″ (width) x ~68″ (length).

To be able to continue making the fill-in blocks I went shopping two days ago to pick up a half-dozen more light fabrics. I wanted a bit more variation in the colour pallet for those blocks than I had. Hard to tell from the photo but I’ve blended those fabrics into the blocks as I’ve been constructing them.

This project is coming along block by block. I’m not pre-cutting pieces, but rather working with the long strips and trimming after I’ve attached each piece to the block. When the blocks are finished, I need to do the triangle elements for the edges – those will be tricky because I want to include narrow contrast elements in them and will have to anticipate placement as I construct each of the large blocks (10 1/2″) from which the triangles will be cut!

Finished Socks

When this yarn arrived, I thought I’d never bother knitting it into socks because the black was such a stark a contrast to the red and orange. But as my yarn stash has dwindled (I’m trying to use up what I have) I picked it up and started working on it. The dark red cuff/heel/toe balanced the black nicely. I finished the socks and put them in my sock drawer – perfect to wear with burgundy, or black, or dark grey pants.

JoAnn’s Socks Finished

JoAnn is a member of our Friday afternoon knitting group here in the building. Since everyone is knitting, she wanted to knit, too. Her hands no longer coordinate well enough to work with needles, but she was fine with a knitting “loom”.

She’s worked away at her socks for the better part of two years, I’m sure. But last week she completed the foot on the second sock. I took over from there, taking the sock from the loom and knitting the toe for her. Then I washed and blocked the socks. I decided to add a row of single crochet to the top of the socks to stabilize that edge (careful not to make it too tight).

[I also knit the heels – I couldn’t figure out how to do that on the loom, so when it came time to turn each heel, I took the sock from the loom, put it on needles, turned each heel, then restored the sock to the loom so JoAnn could continue her knitting.]

I was happy with how they turned out. I’m sure she will be, too. The mismatch happened because the pattern didn’t play out precisely the same in each ball of yarn and when she got to the second toe (the one on top), I had to work with a small ball of yarn leftover from the first sock so the pattern didn’t synch. Who cares, right? The toes are inside her shoes.

I even did up a “Certificate Of Completion” to celebrate her accomplishment!

More Sock Repairs

My friend Ruby slowly knits away making socks but when it comes to repairs, forget it. The socks on the left belong to her daughter Debbie. The heel (of the sock on top) came to me with a very large hole in the heel (why one heel and not both I can’t explain). So I cut out the old heel and knit a new one. I had more yarn like the original (it’s no longer in production), just not in the same colour. Same with the toe replacements on Ruby’s socks – the mismatch is less obvious there because I was able to find a spot in the yarn that kind of matched with the original socks.

I still have one last repair job waiting for me. My very old LL Bean cotton sweater has worn out in one arm – I discovered a large hole the last time I wore it. The question is whether to do a visible repair, or to see what I can find in a matching yarn, to close in the hole. I want to get to it soon so I can clear off the table beside my chair where I knit in the evenings (while watching TV, of course).

One Last Thing

Today my boomerang quilt was showcased in Nancy’s Notions Thursday Newsletter! I submitted the information (with photos) a couple of weeks ago. I’m delighted the quilt will be seen by a lot more people. It may inspire some to improvise from quilts they come across, or at least try to replicate them without a pattern. As a teacher my aim is to help people learn to deconstruct how a quilt is assembled so they can improvise quilts of their own based on traditional quilting techniques. In the piece, I explain how I made this quilt so others can give it a try themselves.