Sheep On My Stuff

I have one more square done for the Quilt Square Thing. Even having finished the ^2 blanket and five quilt square thingys, I still haven't made much of a dent in the Wool-Ease. It all fits in a very large tote bag now, though, which is a step in the right direction!

In other news, ZOMG! They're reprinting Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting!! I don't even do Fair Isle, and I know what a big deal that is. This book is basically legendary and has been out of print forever. People are really hoping that, with the huge positive response this is already getting, they'll also decide to reprint some of her other very hard-to-find books, such as Aran Knitting, which goes for $200 used if you can find it (seriously). I think Fair Isle was going for close to that before the reprint was announced. I'm tempted to preorder (even though, as I said, I don't do Fair Isle!) just to make sure I can get a copy when it comes out.

The one Alice Starmore book I do have is The Celtic Collection, and I've not yet knit anything from it, though I did buy yarn for something out of it. The only reason I haven't actually knit it up is because it's a fingering-weight project that, to get gauge, I need to do on 2mm needles. And it's a sweater. On the bright side, having put it off for a few years means I've gone down two sweater sizes, so woohoo! Less knitting FTW! :D (I am planning on starting that project this year.)

I'm up to four (and the center square plus first stripe on another). I'm definitely enjoying how these are coming out, although it'll be really ironic if I need to go buy more yarn in order to finish a scrap project. I keep telling myself I can make small blankets, but I'm not sure I believe me!

For the last several years, I've thought about quilting. I love the idea of it; I love the idea of turning geometry into artwork. :) I love the idea of making things beautiful and neat and tidy and orderly, or going with the "crazy quilting" thing and making order out of chaos. Or chaos out of order! In short, it seems just awesome.

And thus I have stayed far, far, far away from it. I own a rotary cutter for sewing, but that's as close as I've ever gotten. I have lots and lots of hobbies, and never feel like I have enough time for any of them! Quilting would just be one more thing that would have to fight for its time with me, and I don't want to give up my knitting or cross-stitching or crocheting or reading or writing or World of Warcraft. (Although maybe that's something I should think about -- if I ever stop playing WoW, I can start quilting. It might help with the withdrawal pangs. But it's not too likely -- I just got myself a second account. >_>)

Anyway, recently -- probably due to my newfound lust for Vera Bradley bags (I own a book cover and three different bags and a wallet now. My only defense is that, since they're all in a discontinued fabric, they were severely discounted -- and also they're amazingly perfect as knitting bags, since they have tons of pockets but no zippers to catch on your work!) -- I started thinking that it might be cool to make my own bags and book covers. After all, then I could have bags and book covers with sheep-printed fabric!

After a while I ended up looking at books (I hear Eleanor Burns is awesome) and eyeing fabric and very, very nearly buying a self-healing mat and one of those enormous rulers. I held off at the last minute, and the urge seems to have passed... sort of.

I've had a bunch of Wool-Ease around forever; I had plans to make a mitered-square blanket with it. However, the mitered-square blanket has been languishing under the bed for months, and I had all these quilt pictures in my head, and I thought, "Scrap Log Cabin Blanket GO!" Two squares later, I haven't even made the slightest hint of a dent in the Wool-Ease. Not even a little. A square is about 80g, and I have a total of 2315g. It looks like I'll be able to make roughly 28 squares (without reclaiming the wool from the Powers of Two blanket); it would take 36 to make a queen-sized bedspread. On the bright side, squares take up very little space around the house and are easy to do while reading. On the not-so-bright side, I bet I won't be finished with this until September. On the other bright side, September is when blankets start becoming needed around the house...

Anyway, here's the other way in which quilts have insinuated themselves...

I own this beautiful book of cross-stitching patterns by (or inspired by?) Paula Vaughan -- one for each month of the year. This is the very beginning of the February quilt. I'll need to get more floss if I'm going to finish this one, but I can get along for quite a while just on the floss out of the stash.

...sigh. It sometimes seems like I'm never going to dig my way out of my stash or finish any projects.

But at least I haven't started quilting yet.