by princesshotflash

Sweater to Blanket

A long time ago, I knitted a sweater for Oat. He wanted a fisherman cable sweater, but he overestimated my knitting skills. He got something more in my realm of technical ability. I got the yarn from a sheep farm shop, Morehouse Farm. I was there for a photo shoot. This was in my distant past when I worked as a book designer. The yarn was squishy and soft. I knitted the sweater in double strands, it was super warm, so he didn’t wear it often. Here’s the sweater on our trip to Prague. It did great with all our walking around the city.

Oat and sweater in Prague

Once I moved back to Hawaii, I decided to repurpose the sweater into a blanket for my dad. Not that dad needed such a warm blanket in Hawaii but there a couple of weeks a year when a cozy warm blanket is appreciated.

I decided on a basketweave pattern with a chunky stockinette border. It was easy enough that if I put it down for a while I could pick right up. I made the blanket wide enough to cover a person and I would knit the blanket till I ran out of yarn.

Well, as expected, I put down the blanket, probably because it was too hot to knit a wool blanket. I think it’s been about at least four years of sitting is a bag waiting for the right moment. And I guess it’s the right moment. I’m not feeling creative to start a new project (I guess it part of the mourning process). And the weather has been cool and breezy. Things have fallen in place to finish this blanket.

Left to right: one of many balls of double-strand yarn, getting bigger, close-up of 3/5 basketweave pattern

It went quicker than I thought. I bought a Japanese floor chair (no legs, seat cushion with a back) to sit on in front of my monitor to watch my shows as I knitted. It took a little over two weeks to finished. There was a bit of yarn chicken at the end. But I won with about 12″ of yarn to spare.

Left to right: just the ends to weave in; I won yarn chicken

The finished size is w. 38″ x 42″. The pattern is a simple basketweave in a pattern of 3 stitches/ 5 stitches with a border of stockinette 8 stitches wide. It makes me happy that I finished a project. Maybe I can move to a new project soon.

by princesshotflash

Sad News

“I have some sad news to share about my mom, Cora. She passed away peacefully at home on February 24, 2024, after a wonderful day spent conversing with family and friends. I am grateful we could fulfill her wish to be home during her final moments.

My mom was a great lover of flowers, and her garden, full of blooms, inspired the creation of my “From Cora’s Garden.” She loved that I shared her garden with you. But now I’m the caretaker of her garden and trying my best to keep it abloom.

I wanted to share the latest blooms in the garden.

Top to bottom, left to right
This geranium was one of her last flower purchases, and it’s enjoying the cool, wet winter we are having. It’s presently in the plastic pot from the shop. My goals is to transplant it into that cement pot it sitting.

Her phalaenopsis abloom. I don’t know what I’m doing right but three them have buds or blooms on it. The one in back is a gift from Christmas and the front, is a save from the distress rack from the garden shop, her favorite place to shop. She is the plant whisper.

The plumeria is from a cutting from one of her caregivers and just started to bloom this year. She wanted a minature plumeria to make it like a bonsai. I still haven’t gotten a cutting to take.

Mom’s bougainvillea plants are always blooming. This one is doing exceptionally well.

Mom always saves her poinsetta from Christmas and gets them to rebloom the next year. She always said to trim it back hard on months that start with an “A”. This unusual bloom is probably from lack of one trim and probably needs and transplant.

by princesshotflash

From my train ride

First-morning sunrise

I took a long-distance train trip from Chicago to San Francisco on the California Zephyr at the end of January. I woke up early to see the sunrise. I took images from the observation car with my phone pressed against the window. The images aren’t the best, but the view was spectacular. It was worth the early morning rise.

This is somewhere in Nevada. The emptiness and fog were so beautiful. Wake up early, so worth it.

by princesshotflash

No. 7

Note: I was trying to get this post done for a while, but life throws curve balls, and things are just a little delayed.

No. 7 started with wanting to make a quilt with a star pattern. I looked through my stash and found what I thought would be enough scraps for a throw. The scraps also gave me an idea of who the quilt was for.

Test star pattern on my tiny design board

Once I tested the star pattern, I realized I may not have enough print scraps for a star-only quilt. I worked up a few sketches and chose the simplest solution.

My solution

I decided on a square of four prints surrounded by pink. I had the pieces mostly cut, and sewing up the blocks was fast. The layout was easy, as I laid it out in my sketch.

On my temporary design wall

After a few mistakes, the blocks are done. One last check to see if I’m good with the placement. I did wonder if it needed a border.

Border or no border?

I decided against the border because it didn’t go well with the backing and binding I planned to use. I found a perfect piece for the backing in my stash. It was large enough that I didn’t need to be stitched together. The backing print had a reddish-purple background that went well with the quilt top. Then, I found an olive green swirl print that worked well with the backing print. Both prints had similar greens that worked well with the quilt top.

Quilt, binding, and backing

My Quilting Pattern, or as I call it, “because I can’t sew that straight.”

I didn’t know what I would do for the quilting. I hate seeing my wobbly stitch lines that should be straight on the quilt. And when I was testing out free motion quilting (which I didn’t do), I did some test quilting with random intersecting circles that I enjoyed. That was my plan.

We all should remember (well, I should say “I”) that my test quilting was done on small pieces of scrap versus a quilt the size of a throw. Thank goodness it wasn’t a bigger blanket.

test
quilting #7
random
Not as easy as I thought it would be

Tah Dah! Here it is. I thought I would have more control of the swirls, but the quilt’s size made a big difference from the test I did. A bit of ripping out and starting over again was involved. It’s been done for a while and has been with its new owner. I hope she likes it or finds someone who does.

The quilting on the backing looks even crazier than the front.

I need to work on my quilting skills, which means more quilting. Next in my queue is a throw for a friend of a friend who gave me some 70s prints from her mom. I just have to get my sewing room back up to working order. I moved my machines inside, but I still need to set them up to make my quilting more efficient.

by princesshotflash

After they are gone

Daily writing prompt
Do you spend more time thinking about the future or the past? Why?
View all responses

I spend more time thinking about the future and what life will be like after my parents are gone. I may complain about my life as a caregiver. But once they are gone, what will I do. It scares me a bit because I will really be on my own.

I hope I will have the ambition to keep up doing things creative and looking for things that are beautiful.