summer days, drifting away

First off, I’m running a birthday sale on Ravelry – 30% off all my self-published individual patterns (excludes third party publications and ebooks). Ends tonight, August 2, at midnight so hurry on over to my Ravelry page!

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This summer has been flying by! We’re staying in town this year instead of travelling, so it’s been pretty quiet. Super glad we were able to get air conditioning installed before the weather really heated up since we’re spending lots of time at home.

We went strawberry picking (along with everyone else) on Canada Day weekend. Super crowded but it wasn’t too hot that day, and we came away with about 14 pounds of berries. I made 5 pints of freezer jam – I love the fresh taste since it’s not cooked, but it does take up a lot of room in the bottom-drawer freezer. I also made a batch of cooked, canned jam, and some strawberry buttermilk ice cream from that batch.

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We’ve gone down to the beach a few times. The eastern end is off-leash, so there’s always a lot of cute dogs to pet there (and it’s less busy). The water levels are super high this year and sections are closed – it’s crazy to see the water over walkways that are usually several feet above!

Can you see the CN Tower?

Cherries went on super sale in July ($1.67/lb!) so I bought three bags and made some cherries in syrup and a bit of cherry compote.

Dale’s birthday was in July, and we decided to go out to the Aga Khan museum since we hadn’t been yet. Unfortunately I should have made a reservation for the restaurant as it was full up when we got there. Oh well. It’s a small museum but really interesting.

I made a cake to take up to the farm for his family party – it’s funfetti (vanilla with sprinkles) with raspberry frosting. I, um, didn’t measure or stencil so the 30 is a bit off centre, whoops!

I’ve been sewing a little bit: I finished a Dress No. 1 from the awesome Sonya Philip in some cotton that I got at the Textile Museum sale a few years ago – the print matches well on one side but not the other! I added in-seam pockets as well. The fabric isn’t great for this, it rides up a bit, but at least I know what to fix for next time.

I also finally finished up a dress I started last summer, Alabama Chanin’s corset dress. The front and back each have 3 pieces, and I added in-seam pockets here as well. The whole thing is hand-stitched, including felling all the seams. I’m really happy with this one! It’s in a very light t-shirt jersey that feels like cotton to me (it was unlabeled).

Knitting-wise I’ve mostly been working on secret stuff, but I found some time to play around with a new idea. Yarn is Lichen and Lace worsted.

I also just finished up a nice light pullover out of Quince & Co’s fingering weight linen, just needs the ends woven in and a good blocking.

The garden is going bonkers – it’s the first year we’re not gardening on a balcony and it’s great! The raised beds are from (several) kits that just slide together, and we made sure to put up a lot of protection from critters. We were pretty late getting everything in the ground but things have really come along nicely. There’s some tiny little beans, peas, zucchini, cucumber, and tomatoes!

June 20:

August 2:

We had to add extra stakes to the tomatoes – they’re 8 feet tall! At this rate we’re going to need stepladders to harvest.

For my birthday we went out to the Ontario Science Centre and saw an Imax movie, then went out to sushi. We usually go to a lot of museums on vacation, so going to 2 museums in a week definitely had that vacation feel!

My cake was a hilarious half-cake made by cutting one layer in half and stacking. Black Forest, yum.

How’s your summer going?

Treading Water

Whew. Getting a job outside my house has been pretty exhausting! It’s been pretty good though, lots of nice people, and just a 10 minute walk commute. Finding knitting and crafting time has been hard though. My pile of WIPs (works in progress) has been staring at me from beside the computer for ages.

But it’s finally September, and although the weather hasn’t cooled down one bit, I’m ready for fall!

I want to finish up this squish black garter stitch cardigan, which is nearly done the body. I probably should have knit the sleeves first (before the body) so it wouldn’t be quite so difficult to wrangle, but it’s okay. I think I’ll go with elbow or three-quarter length sleeves on this one.

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I finished up my Snooker Mitts in Mountain Colors’ Crazyfoot fingering weight and I love them! I’ll have to take some pretty photos and add the fingering weight instructions to the pattern.

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Dug out some Koigu lace weight that I had basically completely forgotten about – I had picked up a few skeins from Shall We Knit at the Knitter’s Frolic in the spring. I started a scarf, then changed my mind and started a sweater. I might end up changing my mind again…

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And I’ve been hand sewing a little bit! I finished an Alabama Chanin A-line tunic and have worn it a bunch of times. Now I’m working on a longer dress, with princess seams and pockets. I love hand sewing, I really do.

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In pattern release news, I have a new pattern out with Woolfolk! The fall collection is just beautiful and I’m honoured to be included. You can find my new pattern SPOR on Ravelry or ask for it at your local Woolfolk stockist! The yarn is so so soft and amazing.

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Photos courtesy Woolfolk. Thank you Andrea for pulling my butt outta the fire on this one – my sample was lost in the mail (SOB) and Andrea knit one up for the photoshoot right quick! You’re the best!

A Quilt for Jess

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My friend Jess lives in Brooklyn with her two adorable kids, and we’ve been online friends for years! She was lamenting that she had all these beautiful fabrics that she’d brought back from a trip to India, but never enough time to do something with them.

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I’ve really been enjoying hand quilting the last few years, so I volunteered to make her fabrics up into a quilt! It seemed like a nice opportunity to put a quilt together without having buy all the materials (which can be a lot) and sometimes I like the act of making even more than the finished product.

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She packed up all the fabrics and batting and mailed them up to me, with the understanding that it might take me awhile to get the quilt done. I was aiming for a year, but it took a little longer – about 17 months. Of course I didn’t work on it intensively, there were times when I would put it down for weeks. The top went pretty quickly because I did it on the machine – this strip piecing tutorial came in very handy. Each block is about 4.5″ square, finished.

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I actually make the top a little too big the first time, so I just took a couple of strips off the side and bottom. I used one pieced strip down the middle of the back, and the others to make the striped binding.

The back is made up of width-of-fabric strips that I didn’t use for the top, with blues/greens on one side of the centre strip and pinks/yellows on the other. Once everything was pieced, I made my quilt sandwich and thread basted it together really well before I started hand quilting.

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A Quilt for Jess
Time: March 2015-August 2016
Materials: Printed cotton fabrics from India, cotton batting
Techniques: Machine pieced, hand quilted, hand bound
Size: 80″ square

It’s not perfect, but I know it’ll be cherished for years to come!