Unique yellow and blue quilt finished

Here it is finally, my own design:

Unique is the leading charity providing specialist information and support to families coming to terms with a diagnosis of a rare chromosome disorder and the medical professionals caring for them. This quilt is for their fundraising. I had the idea of yellow and blue chromosomes from their logo with the curved lines. The string pieced strips are my artistic view of a chromosome. Twenty three pairs of chromosomes could not be divided on equal rows, so I filled the empty gap of the last row with the appliqued Unique logo. 

The twisting border reminds me of a DNA, the stuff the chromosomes are made of. I hope they like the quilt and raise a lot of money with it.

Socks of the week have stripes in light blue and turquoise, for a boy or a girl.

The summer flowers are still looking good.

New apron and other news of the week

Last spring I was sewing the Paper Lanterns quilt and used my big floral prints for it. This apron is made from what was left of one of the fabrics generously donated by my sister P ages ago. The curved bits left over from the top sides were big enough for two pockets, and that was the end of that fabric. This week I finally took the little time that was needed for sewing the apron, as I had already ironed all the folds.

To balance that unusual for me burst of colours, this week's socks are in black 100 % merino wool and the most basic sock pattern with no tricks whatsoever. Under the socks you can see the machine quilting of the yellow and blue quilt. I'm working on the binding today so I can show the finished quilt in my next post.

Bumble bees (the brown and black smudges) are busy visiting my salvias

and the silver bush (Calocephalus brownii) has grown to a big cushion with funny little flower heads.

Border blocks for the new quilt

The yellow, blue and white quilt is getting some borders.

These blocks will be 4" finished.

Socks of the week with half fisherman's rib in two colours. The rib is thick and warm and nice. Socks for a fashionable young girl who goes out with bare ankles even in cold weather.

Knitted in Schachenmayr's Regia 4-ply wool, perfect for socks you want to wear with regular shoes.

Our tiny strawberries. I get a handful every day, from the end of July to mid September.

Yellow and blue strings

Tiny scraps sorted according to colour. I used these to make 1" wide strings. No wonder my fabric stash is getting smaller so slowly!

Now I have as many blocks as I need, and the quilt centre is ready. A couple of borders will be needed to make this a nice size for a child's bed, or for a wall hanging.

My socks of the week are very traditional, in the warm and heavy yarn men seem to prefer, in the perfect pattern my mother always used for the best fit.

I hope you had a good week and will be enjoying a nice weekend.

Not a week without new socks?

Using up an odd rest of grey yarn I knitted this pair of socks. I called them Snowball.

My box of flowers is this year purple, pink and blue. I just replaces some pale pansies with some asters in purple, pink and white.

Antique Fair and end of knitting tour

Last weekend was the annual Antique Fair in our village. Well, they have started calling it antique, vintage and retro, as much of the stuff was far from being antique.

The birch bark shoes on the table look brand new but the technique is old and the shoes are probably only used for interior decoration.

Some fishing gear from the 60's, glass fibre rods and modern reels.

Glass from the 50's to 70's is a popular theme among collectors. It looks like people are looking for things they used to have in their childhood home.

Old copper pots and pans, washboards for mother and daughter.

By the end of the Tour de France cycling race I finished the lace socks in this upside down picture,

and a pair in the bubble pattern in yellow and green.

A baby thrush was "hiding" on the lawn and only moved after I had taken this picture. The future berry thief looked quite endearing!

My trick for knitting error problems

Recently I have widened my knitting repertoire to some simple lace patterns. Knitting and watching TV is OK as long as the pattern is easy, the hands can almost work on autopilot. The problems start when you ought to add and lose stitches, and sometimes a stitch is lost a couple of rows back before you notice the mistake. Earlier I used to lose my nerve too and unravel everything and take an easier pattern. Then I found that I could unravel the knitting past the mistake and to a recognizable row of the pattern. I hated having to do that too. Having two socks on the same long circular needle added to my disappointment.

A while back I had the idea of dropping some stitches around the wrong stitch all the way to the mistake and usually I could find a plain knit row below it. I picked those stitches on a double pointed needle, like here. I have gone three rows down as you can see from the three loops of yarn.

Then I just knitted the missing rows, not in the round but back and forth, purling the plain rows on the wrong side and knitting the pattern on the right side, using the loops of yarn I unpicked.

And here it is, all stitches in their right places, and it only took a moment to correct it. I don't know if this is a well known way of doing it, but I have not seen it anywhere but invented it myself in the spring.

I have started a new quilt with my very own pattern, and learning from my mistakes. Yellow string strips

combined with blue ones, between scissor cut lines.

I wonder what becomes of all this!