Quilt!

My 2nd baby quilt was made in 7 days. I was told "red, white and blue", and couldn't quite come up with the right crochet/knit blanket pattern and yarn.





But then I saw some fabric that I couldn't resist. Do you recognize the book this came from?*







And then I realized that I had a few coordinating fat quarters and it came together very quickly.

Actually, a little too quickly...
(Do you see the "oops" at the bottom of the green section?)








Problem fixed, machine quilting done, Mommy happy! I work with H's mother-in-law at the public library, so it was the perfect project for me.


*Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see? by Bill Martin Jr., illustrated by Eric Carle. By the way, Happy 40th birthday, Very Hungry Caterpillar!

We now return to our regularly scheduled knitting - onward, to Marta!

See, More Knitting!

Rarely am I compelled to knit up brand-new yarn right away. Usually it has to tell me exactly the right pattern and then I hem and haw over whether I can afford to cast on a new project. I think about all the other UFOs and other projects that need some concentrated time.

Not this time...
Enter Marta.

I've had her in my Ravelry queue for quite a while, with the intention of using some Malabrigo Worsted (in Mineral Red) that's already in the stash. Blast you, Stitches West! I found some Malabrigo Worsted in Purple Mystery.

[Hello! (Waving wildly) Queen of Purple Yarn, here! Duh!]

That picture is, of course, not really accurate, as purples are notoriously difficult to photograph. Think more of a darker blue-purple: my color, for sure. This is 10" worth since last Friday's cast-on. I'm not even trying to work at it, and it's flying along. Loving it immensely and wanting to work on it every waking hour (nevermind that time suck called "work" ...)

Come on, Kathy, quit blogging so you can get back to work on it. Or go to sleep, which may be the better option.

I'll leave you with a picture of the silly dog who took a plant pot and thought it should be treated like a ball...

Who, me? What'd I do?

Whew!

(warning: picture-heavy post)

Wow! Stitches West is over for another year and I'm exhausted after working for the Purlescence Girls for the last 3 days. But let me tell you, I wouldn't miss it for the world!

There was lots of laughter and finding friends I haven't seen in a while, and making new friends along the way. There was lots of fiberlicious goodness everywhere and an incredible creative energy that is difficult to find anywhere else. I definitely love being a librarian, but those library conferences don't quite have the same vibe! (No, we don't spend the whole time shushing people...)

I can't even remember a lot of the people I saw - but I remember meeting KnottyLa, Cockeyed and EttaMae from Blue Moon, WonderMike from the YKnit podcast... and so many more wonderful local creative people in the Bay Area.

Oh - you wanted to see what I bought, right? Ummm, I vaguely remember telling someone not to let me buy any laceweight yarn because I already had a lace stash that will take a while to deal with. So how did this Malabrigo lace end up in my bag? 2 skeins of Purple Mystery and 2 skeins of Cypress. Got those at Carolina Homespun. And where did the MerinoCash (in the Pearl Ten colorway) come from (the one on the left)? Hmmm, can you say "Malabrigo Junkies"? Say the magic words at the Malabrigo yarns booth at Stitches and something wonderful may just fall into your bag!

A skein of merino/tencel from Ellen's Half-pint farms is on the left, and 3 skeins of a merino/silk blend from Redfish Dyeworks on the right.






2 skeins of BFL Sport from Blue Moon in Motley Hue.







For the Hubby (his request for his next project or two), 2 skeins of Fiber Fiend's Bulky Wool in the Mars colorway, and a skein of Brooks Farm Mas Acero.





Some knitting actually happened during the last few weeks!

Katrina Rib (a Cookie A. pattern, unfortunately no longer available)
Yarn: Rowan Calmer, 3 1/4 balls
Needles: US 8
Started Feb. 7, 2009
Finished Feb. 28, 2009
I'll be making the sleeves a little longer though.


A few other projects have happened recently. I made this beanie for our housemate out of a couple skeins of Noro Kureyon (from a swap)








A garter-stitch scarf from Lion Brand Watercolors (discontinued).







A scarf that The Hubby knit out of a skein of Malabrigo worsted.








And here was one project that took about 7 hours to completely untangle. This hank of laceweight was so badly tangled that it took that long to unwind it. You can see part of the problem: too many ends!




I will leave you with a picture of Nathania on Saturday night during the show and tell at the shop. Do you think she likes that plummy color?