Ready, steady, quilt. And knit.

Firstly an update on Soy Amado.

No. 128

No. 129

No. 130

No. 131 - love everything about this one: the setting and the quilt itself.

No. 132.
Blue sky.
Haven't seen that in a while.

No. 133
Another lovely one from @grannyjack123 on Instagram

No. 134

No. 135

No. 136

No. 137

No. 138

No. 139

No. 140
All the blocks were sent to me by @obsessivequilter on Instagram. I believe they were from some block of the month thingy. They were random sizes so I just whacked them together, using my own fabric to fill in the gaps and then I quilted the whole quilt.

It's a whopper. I had to take the pic inside because of how chuffin wet and windy it was outside. That means it's not the best of lights which is a shame because the blocks are beautiful.

No. 141

And No. 142 which brings me up to date.

Artistic jaunty angle courtesy of the persistent wind and rain.

The latest batch have been delivered to South Africa where it's now summer. Once the cooler months return, the school where they have been delivered to are going to hand them out and have told me they will sit with each individual child and talk through with them the patterns on the quilts, explaining that each one is as individual as they are. Apologies for the blurry photo but this is the quilts arriving.

Knitting has continued. I spent a small fortune knitting this for eldest daughter as a going away to university present. The yarn is Woolfolk Far and although lovely to knit with is, by far and away, at $22 a skein and a whole lot of skeins required, the most expensive item I've knitted. I liked the yarn but it does have a slight tendency to bobble and I question my sanity at spending so much on a uni sweater.

The pattern is called Los (all the patterns I find are available on Ravelry) but I lost the will to live doing the actual body pattern so switched to garter stitch for a swifter finish. I actually think it looks great and I loved the way you knitted the front and back hems separately and then joined them when the back was longer.

Then I became obsessed with making the Pondhopper hat. It's so quick to knit up - I can do it over two evenings. If you are interested in making it, I did one full repeat extra of the pattern because other people on Ravelry had said it was quite a snug fit and I wanted it more slouchy. So far, I have knitted seven but I'll only bore you with three.

There seemed to be a lot of interest on IG on where I got the pom pom bobble balls from  - Cowling Country Crafts on Etsy. I've done your research for you because I feel a cheap looking pom pom can make or break a hat and these are great quality. Plus, they are fixed with snap fasteners, making it very easy to put on said hats.

I made a Gryer Shawl in worsted yarns.

And a Brida Shawl.

I hopped on a plane and train to my first ever knitting convention  weekend and took two classes with the brilliant Olive Knits. Those classes alone were worth the expense.

It was also my first time wandering around a place where a complete myriad of styles of knitting, both in the things you can make and the yarns you can buy, were available to peruse. I came away convinced more than ever that I like classic and conservative colours and styles. There were so many yarns that looked like the result of a bad decision the night before, they made me antsy with their splattered colour randomness.

Which is not to say I am the authority on what is classy. Just that it was a good chance to understand what I found appealing and what left me scratching my head and at times shaking it in an internal, OMG way.

This made me happy.

And this left me cold.

Which leads me to conclude I like my quilts a riot of colour and my clothes not so.

I made a Guernsey Wrap.

Well I had to really because of the name.

And I made it with two colours.

Just because.

And a 2nd Avenue Wrap which is lovely and wide and I wear it to work and it's great for keeping warm.

And my favourite knitting make to date is the Humulus Sweater.

When the pattern for this came out, I followed the hashtag religiously on Instagram to see other people's makes. I went subtle. Too subtle as you can' really see the green contrast pattern.
However, I love it, it's a great fit and I am going to make another one some time with more contrast.

On the quilting front, I continued with my open love affair with all things Anna Maria Horner.
I have quite the pile of excess squares cut from a previous quilt so I put them to good use and made this.

It's just the humble half square triangle which I made by whacking two squares together, pencil line diagonally across, seeing 1/4" either side of the line and then cutting on the pencil line.

Really simple but oh so effective.

And then I decided I needed a Courthouse Steps quilt in her fabric so this is the start of something I am already hugely in love with.

And that, if you have got this far, brings you bang up-to-date :-)