SWEATERS DONE -- with hours to spare

WHEW, they are done and I still have a little less than 24 hours left before we leave. YIPPEE!
Not the most charming of photographs; they would be much better with the recipients in them!
But for what's is worth, here they are.

The Aran that I have been working on for MONTHS:


The cardigan:


and the hoodie:

I even lined the pockets with some "stash" fabric to make them a bit more "user friendly".

So if there are a few nippy mornings while waiting for the school bus (or for the little one, a trip out with Mom), there will be a sweater to keep a few of my precious grandchildren cozy.

Nicolas got his in January, on time for his birthday. And I'll work on Joseph's for his October birthday when I get home. Oh, and I guess I'll have to be starting on jammies about then too. And then of course next year it will be the other 5--oops, now 6--other grandchildren's turn for sweaters.

And, of course, my friendship star quilting will be waiting for some hand quilting when I get home, too. I guess I'll have plenty during the cooler winter months.

So I'm signing off for a while. There won't be any quilting or knitting messages from me for a while. Jim and Shirley, the house-sitters, don't knit or quilt so this site will be pretty quiet until I get home.

May you all have blessed days while I am gone, and I will look forward to seeing you all in a few weeks.

THE "GRUNT" WORK OF KNITTING

OK, now the fun part of most of my knitting is done. (I only have a few more inches on the sleeves of one of these creations.) That leaves me with the "grunt" work of knitting--blocking and sewing the pieces together. It's my least favorite part of knitting, but once it's done, I can sit and look for hours at the finished product. Not this time, though: I will probably barely have them done in time (if I even make that) to take them to daughter Anna Maria's girls next week. It's their turn for birthday sweaters this year. I'd say I'm a little behind on the 2 January birthdays! But the August birthday one will be there with a couple days to spare--that is if I get them finished! AND they will have them in time for the nippy fall school mornings--so I just HAVE to get them finished.

So here's the Aran (These are all wrong side out for blocking; I'll show you the finished projects in a couple days, hopefully) for little Eleni,


a cardigan for Isabela, (still have a few inches on the sleeves of this one to knit)


and a hoodie for Juliana.


I never did get the hang "weaving" the edges together for a smooth seam on the hood--Sorry Juliana.

Hopefully, I'll be able to figure out the pockets!

Off to my knitting chair and I guess tonight it will start with "Jeopardy" keeping me company. And I think I saw that there is a movie on tonight with Mel Gibson--now there's some knittin' company.

MY QUILT, YET ONCE AGAIN

I hate to bore you all with the fun I am having with this quilt, but as it's my first "real quilt" it is very exciting for me. Remember a while back when I cut many of my half square triangles too small? Well, as one who learned from her mother NEVER to waste anything, I found the perfect use for them! Even after adding my own blocks around the ones that I received from my dear quilting friends, I decided that I needed my quilt to be a little longer. After all when I use it for an afternoon nap, my tootsies can't be sticking out! So I made a border for each end using the once too small triangles to make a diamond square block border.






(The purple/brown you see with it will be the binding.)

And here it is, all pieced together, waiting to be pinned for sandwiching (which I also managed to do last night).



And speaking of not wasting anything, I had 2 blocks left, so I made myself a little quilting bucket. And while I was at it, I made a pencil holder for my quilt markers too. (That's a hairspray container with the top cut off. I put a few florist marbles in the bottom so it wouldn't get top heavy with the pencils in it.)


And now that my ironing board is "freed up" I have some sweater pieces being blocked. I MUST finish those sweaters before I put my quilt on the frame. Oh, dear, will I be able to keep the discipline? Stay tuned; I'll let you know!