knowing when to hold 'em, when to fold 'em
Even though Leah and I missed the Feb. quilt club meeting because we were away, we got the supplies and were back on track for the meeting on Friday.
Leah's blocks are to the left, with the green-background polka dots. Mine are to the right, with the purple batik. As expected, her blocks are turning out better than mine because we bumble through on mine first, learn from those mistakes, and then do better on hers. That's fine with me. We're being gentle on ourselves with this project because we don't want to get bogged down in the details, just want to keep it moving, knowing we can refine our techniques as we gain experience. We're laughing a lot about how, hopefully, someday we'll look back on this and laugh at how clueless we were and how we went about things, similar to how I cut my first linen threads for a hardanger project using an exacto knife and a cutting board, because I didn't know any better and wouldn't have had the right tools at hand anyway. I can only hope that Leah's love for sewing grows like my love for hardanger did (and still does)!
Anyway, quilt club is fun. There are probably 40 people in the group and we get to see everybody's block for the month, plus ooh and ahh over all the other projects people bring in, as well as all the enticing goodies in the store. It's amazing how different the blocks look. Even though they're all the same pattern, different fabric combinations and borders (which we're not doing yet, but some people are) have a completely different effect.
Last week I also tried my first laceweight knitting with Claudia Hand Painted Yarns' silk laceweight. I was using the Gust pattern from Knitspot. I blocked what I had, so I could get a feel for what it would really be like, because this knitting pre-blocking was a teensy crumpled bit of nothingness. I knew it would behave much better once it was blocked, but I didn't know if that would be improvement enough to forge ahead with it.
You'll notice that the above is all in past tense, because I ended up tearing it out. I wasn't enjoying the laceweight knitting, didn't think the handpainted yarn was working well with this pattern, and decided I wouldn't wear it anyway because I like my scarves to have some heft and really keep my neck warm when I wear them. But the pattern is well-written and the yarn is gorgeous (even though it may not appear so in the above pic), and I did indeed knit lace with laceweight yarn, if only a little bit!
Maybe I'll try this yarn again at another time, maybe another pattern, or maybe I'll try this pattern with the laceweight yarn paired with a strand of some solid yarn.
Someday, but not now, because now we're moving on to some other things.
Anyway, quilt club is fun. There are probably 40 people in the group and we get to see everybody's block for the month, plus ooh and ahh over all the other projects people bring in, as well as all the enticing goodies in the store. It's amazing how different the blocks look. Even though they're all the same pattern, different fabric combinations and borders (which we're not doing yet, but some people are) have a completely different effect.
Last week I also tried my first laceweight knitting with Claudia Hand Painted Yarns' silk laceweight. I was using the Gust pattern from Knitspot. I blocked what I had, so I could get a feel for what it would really be like, because this knitting pre-blocking was a teensy crumpled bit of nothingness. I knew it would behave much better once it was blocked, but I didn't know if that would be improvement enough to forge ahead with it.
You'll notice that the above is all in past tense, because I ended up tearing it out. I wasn't enjoying the laceweight knitting, didn't think the handpainted yarn was working well with this pattern, and decided I wouldn't wear it anyway because I like my scarves to have some heft and really keep my neck warm when I wear them. But the pattern is well-written and the yarn is gorgeous (even though it may not appear so in the above pic), and I did indeed knit lace with laceweight yarn, if only a little bit!
Maybe I'll try this yarn again at another time, maybe another pattern, or maybe I'll try this pattern with the laceweight yarn paired with a strand of some solid yarn.
Someday, but not now, because now we're moving on to some other things.
posted by livnletlrn at 7:23 AM
1 Comments:
I think the blocks look great. One of my early quilt teachers said, "If you can't see it from a galloping horse, it ain't a mistake."
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