Stitching, Knitting and Quilting

I really resisted adding "Oh My!" to the end of my title :) It seems to be so easy to add that little phrase to things in threes, doesn't it? (Guess I couldn't resist, since I just wrote it here!)


I'm sorry to say that I still haven't finished the Prairie Schooler design I've been working on, "When Witches Go Riding". My plans were to have it done for Halloween, or at least that weekend so I could begin a Thanksgiving design, but, I got involved in a few other crafts and haven't gotten back to my stitching. Here's a picture so you can see that it's almost done. Actually, I need to look at a few of the past PS autumn charts because I don't want to use the witch. I think mine is going to have a cat sitting on the fence next to the house. I'm going for cute instead of Halloween-scary.








For some reason, I decided to get back into knitting. This might be because I was going through some things in the crafts room the other day, and came upon a few knitting items that belonged to my grandmother. Here you can see an old pattern book (just 10 cents!) for some knitted items using only 2 needles. I used this booklet years ago to make tons of mittens in various sizes (child to adult). I didn't have anyone to give so many mittens to, so I took them to a nun we knew at a local hospital and she gave them out to several families their charity watched over.






The knitting needles were my grandmothers. I also have a few bone crochet hooks that belonged to her which aren't in the photo.







The patterns or directions in the plastic page protectors are for Christmas stockings that my grandmother made back in 1971. There was a regular booklet of directions, but she always liked to chart the designs on graph paper so she could mark them off as she followed along. She also did the same with the directions themselves. I know this is something she passed down, because my mother always did the same thing when she was knitting.




Onto my knitting... I'm in a scarf mood since they're easy to do, and since I haven't knitted in several years, decided to pick a pretty yarn with character so I could just do basic knitting without having to think. It's working out well, and I know that the more I'm doing this, the more I want to get back to knitting some mittens, slippers, baby items, and sweaters. That will all wait until after the holidays, because for now I'm working on scarves.





This pretty aqua shade and the peachy pink will be two scarves for my daughter. I'm planning on getting an ivory color and a cranberry color in the same yarn (75% silk, boucle) to make two scarves for my step-daughter. It will be fun to roll them up and tuck them in their Christmas stockings (that were hand knit by me many Christmases ago).




As for the quilting... I was going to post some pictures of fabrics here, but I think I'll do that on my Christmas blog instead. I've been terrible keeping up with that and it's been months since I added anything new. I think it's about time ~ don't you?? Needless to say, the quilting projects I have in mind are for Christmas gifts and will be small quilts to cuddle under while curled up on the sofa, as well as some table runners. I realize I'm running out of time, so yesterday afternoon all the fabric (many, many, many yards!!) went into the washing machine and dryer, and I spent a few hours last night watching a basketball and football game, and ironing. Now I'm all ready to begin work.

There are a few other projects in the works, but those can wait for another day :)