Knitting – Page 2 – Kelly's Kwilts

On the Needles – June 26, 2015

I finally did it! After ripping out and starting over multiple times I finally got the hang of Judy’s Magic Cast On and Magic Loop to get the toe done. I had forgotten to take it on vacation with me, so I couldn’t work on it until we got home. Took me a whole afternoon to get it figured out and now I have all the increases completed. Now it’s just mindless stockinette until I get to the point where I need to work on the heel, and I’ll have to figure out how to do the heel too! I’m liking the way it’s knitting up with the stripes, doubt I’ll be able to get the second one to match exactly, but that’s ok with me, as long as I can complete them! I’m using Red Heart Heart & Sole yarn in the Razzle Dazzle color-way.

Go over and visit Judy at Patchwork Times to see what others are knitting this week.

On the Needles – May 15, 2015

Ok, so I haven’t finished the blanket for my sister yet, but who says you can only have 1 knitting project? 🙂 I’ve always wanted to learn to knit socks and since hubby and the kids got me an Amazon gift card for Mother’s Day I decided to buy the circular needle I needed to learn to do magic loop from the toe up. I did the cast on today and now I need to watch the YouTube video again to learn how to start working it, this might be a good project to take camping!

Linking up to Patchwork Times.

I’m back!

UGH! I can’t believe it’s been so long since I’ve posted! SO much has been going on around here and I really haven’t had time to work on projects. Cassie turned one in March and yes, mommy made her onesie! I found the design on etsy and stitched it out twice – because the first one I cut the applique wrong and the satin stitch didn’t cover the edges. It was a wonderful party and she looked beautiful!

I started working on the end of school year gifts for Alex’s teachers, both teachers are getting alphabet/number magnets out of felt that are done in the hoop on my embroidery machine. These are pretty quick to do, just need time to work on them! I’ll take pictures when they are done.

In the last 2 months I also created a shop on etsy. I used to have my own website with a shopping cart and never got any hits/business. So I did some thinking and decided that since anything I make on the embroidery machine is custom, and there’s no shortage of items that are decorative that I can do in bulk that I’d create a shop and start filling in items. The listing fee is pretty cheap and are good for like 4 months. Please visit my shop! 🙂 I need to come up with a logo, but I’ve needed that for a long time!

Earlier in the month at guild we had a speaker from a semi-local quilt shop and I bought a pattern for a Mondo Bag by QuiltSmart. I had previously made some Lone Star quilts using their interfacing panels and I really wanted something different for a diaper bag. I wish I had realized how BIG this bag would turn out! It wasn’t too hard once I figured out the instructions, and I do like how it looks. I’m planning on using it as a diaper bag until I can see what size the Midi bags turn out to be. I’m going to get some of those panels once hubby gets paid.

I’m still slowing working on my knitting and my hexies, I’ll have to do some update posts of those soon!

Friday Night with Friends

I was reading one of the many blogs in my feeds and found that the first Friday of the month is Friday Night with Friends over at Gone Stitchin’. So I signed up for this month. I spent a little time knitting (see yesterdays post) and then I switched to hexagons. I finished up one I had started and then kept going! I now have 40 of the 158 diamonds finished. Thank goodness this is a long term project! I still can’t decide if I want to work on some white hexies and start putting it together or wait until I have all 158 of them done. I like the idea of doing a rainbow effect, but random appeals to me too. I don’t know why I’m so indecisive!! Oh well, off to see if I can finish Alex’s quilt while the kids are napping.

On the Needles – February 6, 2015

Wow, it’s been a few weeks since I posted my knitting project! I’ve completed 3 full repeats and started my fourth. It’s slow going because there are so many stitches in a row and I am slow! It also seems that the only time I can knit is at night after the kids are in bed, and by then I’m so tired I mess up so much that I put it away! I managed to get a couple of rows done this morning while Cassie napped and Alex watched a movie, and another couple this evening while the hubby played with the kids. I’m so tired today (up 3 times with the baby last night) that I just can’t work on it anymore tonight. I mess up when I knit tired! I guess I’ll work on hexies for the rest of the night – if I can stay awake!

Linking up with Patchwork Times – check out what everyone else has on their needles!

Hexie Insanity Update

I’m happy to add another 8 diamonds and 1 flower to my hexie insanity quilt. The count is now 32 of 158 diamonds completed and 18 of 64 flowers completed for a total of 4% done! LOL Last week I cut up one of the jelly rolls that I got for Mother’s Day last year, today I finished cutting up the other one. Between the 2 jelly rolls I have 1600 squares ready to be turned into hexies. I still have 3 charm packs and 4 quarter yard cuts that need to be cut up too, but I’ll do those once I get some of these other squares used up. I also bought a yard of white for the paths between the diamonds and I also decided to cut some of my white 2.5″ square smaller so there’s a variety in the white. I won’t cut any of that for a while though I want to get all the diamonds and flowers finished first. I keep trading off between this project and my knitting at night, depending on how tired I am. It’s a lot easier to fix hexies than the knitting – I hate taking stitches out of the knitting!! Hopefully be back tomorrow with a knitting update!

On the Needles – January 2, 2015

OMG it’s January! Last week I mentioned that I took apart a crochet blanket I was making for my sister and started it over as a knitting project instead. I’ve got the border and first repeat completed and I’ve just started the second repeat (26 rows) tonight. This is going to take awhile to complete, I’m a very slow knitter! Since no one bought me the Addi Click Interchangeable needles for Christmas, I’m going to save up my teaching money and buy them for myself. I’m already halfway there, so it’ll only take another month I think. I have a Craftsy class for socks that I want to start when I have time, but I’ll need needles for it. I’m really comfortable with needles on cables, so hopefully I can do socks that way!

Linking up with Patchwork Times.

Merry Christmas!

I know, it’s a few days after Christmas, but I haven’t had time!! These kids have been keeping me busy with school for Alex and just taking care of a super mobile 9 month old! I still don’t have much time to sew, but I’ve been working on some knitting and hand work. For Christmas I asked the hubby to get me a sample kit from a site called KnitCrate.com. They have a monthly subscription where you get yarn, a pattern and some other items, and I wanted to see what it was like. While I think it’s a good idea, I don’t think it’s for me, it’s a lot of money for yarn and other silly items that I just can’t use. The one I got is here and I love the yarn color a lot, I just have no use for a big pom-pom!

Let’s see, to catch up the last few months. We had our guild quilt show in October, and I entered 5 quilts. We don’t do awards or anything in our show, maybe in future years we will. The only quilt I’ve been able to finish this year was Cassie’s wall quilt – I finished the binding 2 days before it needed to be turned in for the show! We had a great show and raised a lot of money for the guild, our next one isn’t until 2016, maybe I can get hexie diamonds finished to enter!

I didn’t make any presents this year, well except for the calendars I make every year. I just did not have as much time as I used to have and unfortunately sewing was on the bottom of the list. I did make 25 little candy cane holders for Alex’s 2 classes (daycare and preschool). They were so cute and the kids liked them (or so I’m told!). It took me quite a few days to make all of them, I had some issues with the embroidery machine that I had to work out before they started moving smoothly.

I finally finished the blanket for my sister’s friend. They loved it and I’m happy to have given something to that sweet little boy! The 18 rows of border went fast, and I don’t think there are that many errors in it. I know there are a few, but I doubt they’d ever notice it! Once I finished working on the blanket I decided to take apart the blanket I was crocheting for my sister and start all over with a knitted pattern. I found a nice pattern called Ziggy-Zaggy on Ravelry and I’ve gotten 1 repeat done already. It’s slow only because I only knit at night and lately I’ve been too tired to do any work! I’ll get a picture next time I have it out.

Back in August I started working on a new hexagon quilt. I’ve been slowly working on it and currently have 18 of 158 diamonds and 17 of 64 flowers completed. I had won a gift certificate to our local quilt shop at a guild meeting a few months ago and bought 5 quarter yards of some nice bright Moda Marbles and a yard of a white for the background. Now that the holidays are over I’m hoping to get more of this fabric cut up so I can work on prepping more hexies. Hexies are just the perfect thing to work on at night, as long as I’m not falling asleep!

I can’t remember if there was something else I wanted to mention, but I can always do another post if there is! I’m hoping to start posting at least once a week, whether I have something done or not!

Off the Needles!

I finished it!!!! I actually finished on Monday (3/3), but just got around to taking pictures today. I kept forgetting to take the good camera upstairs with me and I only go up twice a day anymore. It took me 2 months (almost exactly) of work and I did leave 2 of the repeats out because I didn’t think it needed to be any longer and because she’ll be here soon! Of course I finished it before my c-section was scheduled, but we found out yesterday that it is planned for 3/21, that’s only 2 weeks from tomorrow!!!! I can’t wait to wrap her in this blanket totally made with mommies love! Now I can work on hexies until I get more yarn so I can start a blanket for Kimmie’s friend who is due in July. Gotta keep practicing!

Before Alex was born I made a signature quilt and had everyone at the shower sign it. Well we aren’t having a shower for little girl so I couldn’t do the same thing. However I have decided that I will make signature blocks and anyone that comes to visit at the hospital or here at home needs to sign them. Then eventually I’ll put it all together into a quilt and it can hang in her room like Alex’s does. I’ve already designed the quilt and I’ve pulled some pink fat quarters out of the stash. Need to check one more place to see if there are any more pinks, might get a few more at the new Joann’s that’s opening tomorrow. Alex will be staying at my parents Saturday night, so hopefully Sunday I can cut everything out on the Studio and start sewing. Alex likes to help me push the pedal on the sewing machine, so maybe he can help me next week too!

Off to rest my back, teaching EQ tonight and my back hurts after sitting at the computer too long!

Linked up with Patchwork Times.

On the Needles – February 14, 2014

Happy Valentine’s Day!!! We don’t really do much to celebrate, we really just get each other cards. We are going out to dinner tonight with Alex, and I guess we are taking him to Amazone, so he can play with other kids and we can sit and enjoy him having fun.

I have been working VERY hard on the blanket for little girl and I’m happy to say I’m almost halfway done. I just finished the third repeat of the pattern and have 3 to go, plus a half repeat, plus the border. I might decide to make it a little smaller and skip a few of the repeats, I’m not sure yet. We’ll see how big it looks when I get the next repeat completed. I only have 6 weeks until she’s born, and it’s already taken me 6 weeks to get this far! I’m really liking the pattern and it has gotten LOTS easier as I go. I had a problem last week where I was missing a stitch and had done 2 rows, thank goodness I only had to take out 1 row and a little bit of the second row to pick up the dropped stitch. Unfortunately I didn’t see where the dropped stitch was until after I got that first row out. I’m still working on getting my stitches to be uniform in tightness, but it’s really difficult for me.

I still haven’t worked on any quilting in the last few weeks, I’ve just been too busy trying to get this done. I really miss my hexagons and I have a new design I want to do with either 1/2″ or 3/4″ hexies – the pattern calls for 1/2″, but that might be too small for me I need to do some testing first!

Gotta run, time for lunch and get Alex to bed for his nap, or we’ll never be able to go out tonight!

Linking up with Patchwork Times.