Ten Month Socks

Named Ten Month Socks because I finished them on August 8, 2009, ten months after I started them on October 4, 2008, these are very comfortable. I used Wendy D. Johnson's Fingering Weight Toe-Up Socks with Gusset and Slip-Stitch Heel pattern and worked the instep and leg in knit 2, purl 2 ribbing. The pattern is available on Wendy's free patterns page.

The yarn is Fortissima Colori Socka Color Mexiko by Schoeller Stahl, colorway #13. It was a gift from my stepsister, Sharon, chosen because it looks good with jeans.

I knitted the foot with 72 stitches on 2.0 mm (US 0) needles, increasing to 76 stitches on the leg. My gauge was about 10.6 stitches per inch in stockinette stitch. I switched to 2.25 mm (US 1) needles about 1 inch above the heel and to 2.5mm (US 1.5)needles about 3 inches above the heel because my calf stretched the ribbing a lot. I increased the needle size after frogging about 5 inches of leg on both socks. Lesson: make sure you try on regularly.

If you are a Ravelry member, there are pictures of the heel and toe on my Ravelry project page. Look for "Ten Month Socks."

Project Linus - Third Sunday Group - April through August

Our third Sunday Project Linus group still meets at JoAnns in Independence, MO every month. For various reasons, we're down to just 3 that work the whole 3 hours. About 3 others frequently drop off donations while we're working. A couple of those sometimes stay long enough to tie a quilt, but don't stay the whole afternoon.

This month, Jodie was working on an H-block quilt and strayed off course while cross-cutting her strip sets. So she created this variation that's part H-block and part something else. Bright as Jodie's quilts typically are, the blue print is sharks.

I added the borders to this pinwheel top and LoriAnn took it's mate home to stitch its' borders on.

Jodie made this quilt top with the yellow borders and prepared it for quilting about 4 months ago. I brought it home to quilt and finally quilted it about a month ago. Jodie pieced blocks for the multicolored strips, but you can stitch squares of fabric together for a quicker version. The squares and strips are cut 8" wide.

This is a 3 dimensional bow-tie quilt that Anita started last February at National Make a Blanket Day. She brought it in all finished a couple of months ago. The dark background fabric really makes the bright bow-ties stand out.

One of my challenges is to find free places to advertise Project Linus and get some new volunteers coming to our 3rd Sunday group.

Jumping with Joy

My phone rang this morning and it was my local Wal-Mart store calling to tell me that my Community Involvement Grant application had been approved and they have a nice check for my Project Linus chapter. I need to go to one of their morning employee meetings and talk about PL for a couple of minutes and pick up the check.

That news really made my day. A few of my volunteers and I submitted grant applications at Wal-Mart stores in the Kansas City area last February and this is the first grant that we've received. Hopefully more will be approved, but this will cover our newsletters and essential expenses for the next year. Additional grants/donations can be used for blanket making materials.

I haven't blogged for a while. Project Linus keeps me somewhat busy. And AARP introduced a new game, Mah Jongg Dimensions, in their games section in late May. Between the two, I haven't got back to blogging since my annual vacation trip to Albuquerque at the end of May.

Quilt Top Finished

As planned, I cut borders and finished this quilt top today. It took less than an hour this morning. I took it to show our Project Linus group this afternoon.

Here's a close up of a corner, so you can see the border fabrics I added to Mrs. N's original top.

Remaking a Quilt

I've never met Mrs. N, but I know she's a kind, generous woman. She donates a few tied quilts to Project Linus almost every month. I see how she lovingly uses the bits of fabric she has. However, her fingers are not as nimble nor her eyes as sharp as they used to be and her quilts don't meet Project Linus' quality standards.

I know Mrs. N does her very best work for Project Linus and really wants to help comfort children. My heart aches because I cannot put a Project Linus label on her blankets and give them to a child. Part of the Project Linus mission is to provide a rewarding and fun service opportunity and I hope we are fulfilling that for Mrs. N.

I recently had two blankets from Mrs. N with nice, heavy white flannel on the back. I decided to deconstruct the blankets to reclaim the flannel, perhaps to use as "batting" in a blanket. The ties were easy to clip. The handstitching on the binding was a bit stubborn in spots. The machine stitching on the binding easily pulled out.

The fabrics in the top began talking to me. With the layers of the quilt separated, I started pulling the seams apart. The sewing machine tension was off just enough that little effort was needed. Free up an inch or so of thread and then pull the rest of it out in one piece.

This is a Quiltathon weekend, according to JudyL at Patchwork Times. Right after "Sewing With Nancy", I headed to my quilting area. I separated the rectangles in each strip and trimmed each one, straightening the sides and squaring the corners. I did a couple of strips at a time, trimming, then stitching the rectangles back into strips, to somewhat preserve the way Mrs. N made the top.

When all 16 strips were nice and straight, I did a bit of reordering of the strips and started stitching them together. I found a maroon print and cut 2" strips for sashing between sets of 4 pieced strips. This added 4½" to the length.

Tomorrow, our 3rd Sunday Project Linus group meets. I'll cut border strips and complete the top. The inner border will be the same fabric as the sashing and I found a print with a blue background for the outer border. With the sashing and borders, it will be a bit larger than the original 36" x 42" size.

It feels good to remake this quilt so it can comfort a child.

A Finished Blanket!

What makes this finished blanket notable is that I not only finished it, I did all of the stitching on it. These days, I'm mostly finishing blankets that someone else started.

The pre-printed quilt panel, batting and backing fabric were in a bag of give-away fabric that a friend, Jesse, brought to a quilt retreat last September. This and a few pieces of fabric came home with me for Project Linus blankets.

I put the layers together pillowcase-style in mid-October and started quilting. A few days later I became a Project Linus coordinator and this cute blanket went to the bottom of my to-do pile. It would probably still be there except the Greater KC Project Linus chapter divided into 2 smaller chapters 5 weeks ago.

With my smaller PL chapter, I'm no longer picking up blankets in Kansas. For now, all incoming blankets wind up in the hands of my able assistant, Louise, and she does the quality control and blanket labeling. This allowed me to get to the bottom of my stack of blankets needing more quilting. Not that I'm caught up on everything else yet. Is anyone ever caught up on everything? Sounds boring.

It was thrill to finally finish this blanket this morning, about 6 months after starting it. I did a little happy dance.