Here is a not so recent pic of Elizabeth trying to learn to ride her bike without training wheels.

Crazy quilting

100_1621, originally uploaded by drlafall.

Here is some of the quilting I have been messing around with. Elizabeth chose all of the fabrics and insisted I make something for her so I made a 'blankie' for her and one for Max. Max's is still sitting in my studio, waiting to go out in the mail...probably tomorrow. These were kind of fun and gave me a chance to experiment with my walking foot before moving on to some serious quilts.

I am officially over socks for the time being. And I'll finally admit that I don't like STR for making socks. It is too harsh, especially the heavy weight. So I have a lovely skein of yarn in purples, supposedly for the Cleopatra pattern, that I will be converting to a scarf or shawl. At this point, I really need to FINISH some of my un-FINISHED projects, but have not had the motivation. I did finish two of my towels, hems and all. Still four more to go...

Its a beautiful Monday, although slightly chilly for June. After work, I will be ferrying E to swimming and then to Karate. I'm still loving Karate and have a ground defense class tonight. On off days, I am picking up some pilates and toning classes at Energy Pilates, and really enjoying it.

I've been working without a purpose these last few weeks. My knitting has not really had a focus and I haven't been able to focus on getting a specific project done. I have done a lot of organizing. I now have a pile of projects that only need minor finishing (such as buttons or a few small seams). I have tried to avoid starting a bunch of projects but did start http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEsummer08/PATTshetlandshorty.html lovely little sweater using some of my Alaska yarn. It is a slow knit because of all of the K2tog but the yarns are gorgeous and I am enjoying it.
The other thing I've been able to knit are squares to make an afghan out of my fingering scrap yarn--mostly leftover from socks. The squares are a la Oliver's blanket from the Mason-Dixon website, and in this green era, it makes me feel virtuous to put all these little scraps of yarn to a good use.
I spent Fiber Friday working on basting the quilt from Last Minute Quilted gifts.

Next will be the actual quilting, likely to occur during the next Fiber Friday. I also started to pull together some stash yarns and fiber for a throw for our bedroom. I love the warps that Sweet Georgia makes and want to do something similar, completely spontaneous and simple, for this throw.

Here is some of the fiber I dug out of my stash. Some is Romney, Color Bits from Judith McKenzie McCuin, I got it at SOAR last year. Some is random dyed scraps from Detta's Spindle, they just happe to be the right color. Since I tend to spin with a high twist when I drop-spindle, I am spinning these on a drop spindle. I have one small skein completed, about 30 yards. The weft will be a solid color, perhaps a fine mohair. I will have to play around a little. And I will definitely make a small sample.

More later