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Thursday, February 12, 2009

The boring part

There seems to be a boring part which has to be undergone before I can get to the next fun bit for nearly all the crafts that I practise. In knitting it's the swatching, in spinning it's setting the twist, in lace knitting it's the blocking. In quilting it's pre-washing the fabric and batting (especially the batting which feels really rough against my winter-worn hands). In fact there's a pattern here as all the boring bits seem to involve waiting for something to dry overnight (and often the next night too) before I can stitch with it. This is why, despite buying the backing fabric for the sashed quilt on Saturday I didn't manage to get around to any actual quilting until last night. The quilting flew by* and so now I'm onto the next 'boring bit' (OK, it's more meditative) which is hand-stitching the binding. There are compensations though as I get to sit under the quilt whilst I sew.

There are no pictures of the quilt yet as it's (hopefully) going to be a surprise for the recipient so lets have some yarn candy instead.

Merino sock yarn

I ordered this from Socktopus on Monday night and it arrived first thing on Wednesday morning. The yarn is Merino Chubby sock in Minty (left) and Merino Slim sock in Merlot (right). The chubby is only really chubby in comparison to the slim, which is very slim. Time to break out the 2mm Knitpicks I think.

* thanks to some advice from stitchers at Felix's knitting group before Christmas I sorted out my bobbin tension and there's nary a missed stitch or tangle.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beautiful yarn! I've just obtained a skein of the slim sock yarn in Merlot as well, and that stuff sure is slim. I love it! I'm actually thinking of making a lace shawl of some sort with mine. Can't wait to see what you make! :)

Anonymous said...

I know the feeling, but it is worth it in the end (I've just got two lace shawls actually blocked, and I'm seeing the magic!) Bravo on the quilting :)