Mittens to the rescue

Butter mittens

After the disappointment that was my first attempt at challenge 3 for Iron Craft, I pulled out some needles and yarn to see if it's possible to knit a pair of mittens in two evenings.

And, it's a qualified yes.

First up, you want a pattern for mittens that uses DK or worsted. Second, you need it to be interesting, but not too complicated.This is no time to be mucking about with fingering weight yarn, intarsia or complicated lace.. Knitty to the rescue!

cable cuffs

Then, of course, you need to actually have yarn to hand, and fortunately I had some of this lovely Madelinetosh Tosh DK in Butter left over from a beret. It's slightly light for the pattern (really should be a worsted weight yarn), but they've come out beautifully.

They will look fabulous with the beret and my red wool coat. When winter finally gets here. Like in about June.

Not so hot - or misadventures with felting

Challenge number 3 for Iron Craft was "warm up", which is what Kat wanted to do, given it's February, and she's in Minneapolis.

Of course, down here in the Great Southern Land, it's summer - so warm is what we already are. And, although we've just had our wettest January in a decade, and it hardly seems like we've had a summer at all (not many hot, dry days), the January average of 26.1C is above the historical average - and it's the 12th consecutive January of above average temperatures.

Still, winter is a comin', albeit slowly, and not packing the kind of punch she does in Minnesota. And I shall require slippers when she gets here.

So, via Pinterest, I found these:

Crochet version from mommyknows.com

which had a link through to a knitted version:

Knitted version from craftzine

I went with the knitted version because I knit faster than I crochet and I wasn't sure how much of what was left of the two weeks it would take to make them. In retrospect, I could have done either version in the time.

I was surprised at how little of the yarn in my disturbingly large stash looked likely to felt. Who knew that all that soft, yummy Zara was machine washable? (I never machine wash anything hand knitted. I grew up with hand-washed hand-knits and it feels wrong to do otherwise.)

Anyway, I discovered some Cascade 220 which I thought would fit the bill, and knitted and felted a small sample square to give me a rough idea of how to adjust the pattern.

For what it's worth, I went with 15 sts and 24 rows on 6.5mm needles. I have a fairly average sized foot - a 38 in European sized shoes.

They aren't felted nearly enough - way too much stitch definition still showing. But, if I keep felting till I'm happy with how they look, I'm going to have to find a six year old to give them to.

Rosa does not approve

So I kind of wish I'd either:

• gone with the crochet, because I think it might have felted better - the stitches would create a more uniform surface than garter stitch so less felting might have been OK
• made it in stocking stitch, for the same reason. To do this, you'd need to make a paper version of the L-shaped pattern to work out which bits needed to be right sides.
• or just made the damned things bigger :).

From memory, and this yarn has been in the stash for awhile and adrift from any ball bands, the colours are:

• green 8903
• blue 8905
• cream 8505

Meh.

Hearts and flowers (and spots!)

Red and aqua tote bag

Happy confluence with challenge 2 for iron craft, as the theme - hearts and flowers - matched some fabric I'd bought with the intention of making a tote-ish bag.

I'd been procrastinating over just what I wanted the bag to be (how big, how deep, handles, pockets ...), so the two week time limit for the challenge forced some decisions.

See, hearts as well as flowers

The bag is largely based on the Summer Madras Tote by Anna from Noodlehead. My main modifications were to divide the exterior pocket into three, rather than two; to put a pocket on the inside as well; and using quilt batting to give the bag some body (the original uses cotton canvas).

Red and aqua tote bag

After using the bag for a couple of days, I think the batting might have added a bit too much body. If I make another, and I probably will, I'll opt for canvas or similar as the interfacing and make it slightly longer and wider. Which isn't a criticism or the original pattern, or of my version. It's a reverse-engineering of the amount of stuff I take with me to and from work.

I know we're all supposed to be over red and aqua because it's been everywhere for the last year or so, but hey, who cares.

The fabrics are all from Michael Miller's Aqua and Red - Lil Plain Jane in Aqua, Quarter Dot in Red and Sweet Hearts in Red.

Seen from afar

The first challenge for Iron Craft 2012 was "paper".

Paper waratah earrings

I wasn't quite sure where to start, so a bit of googling found lots of things I was tempted to make, but this one stood out.

The cleverness is all in the original pattern from eveningsong ink. See her excellent tutorial.

I choose to interpret Roger's expression as approval.
You might think he's just fascinated because they move in the breeze.

For those unfamiliar with the waratah, here's a real one for comparison:

Telopea speciosissima - the New South Wales waratah

The waratah is the floral emblem for the Australian state of New South Wales, and also the name of the state's rugby team.

It's one of the proteacaea family, along wiht proteas, grevillias, banksias and macadamias.

The generic name "telopea" derives from the Greek for seen from afar - waratah bushes can grow up to 3-4 metres high, with the flower on long stems at the top.

Sunshine

Log cabin - lots of cabin, not so many logs

Inspiration: Alice from Red Pepper Quilts
Fabric: Fabricworm custom fat quarter bundle
Black and white daisies wide backing fabric from Quiltsmith (backing)
Count with Maisy Yellow Pebble Dots on Red from The Fat Quarter Shop (binding)

Mod green pod fabric bundle from Fabricworm

Fabrics:
Robert Kaufman Pure Organic Solid Orange
Poppies Orchid
Daisies Sunflower
Posie Stripe Sunflower
Posies Sunflower
Robert Kaufman Pure Organic Solid Marigold
Flutter Bunch Sunflower
Daisy Doodle Sunflower
Links Sunflower

Sunshine was for Niece-the-Elder for Christmas.

This rather sad effort is the only full length photo I got.

Sunshine

I love the backing fabric - a rather dramatic black and white print of daisies. Luckily there was just enough left on the bolt for what I needed.

Daisy, daisy

And the binding

The quilting largely follows the seam lines.

Close up of the quilting

I was inspired by RPQ's Alice, although with a very different colour pallete. However, once I'd made up both the log cabin blocks and the four patch blocks and started to think about putting them together, it started to feel like there might be just a bit too much going on. I think it's the brightness of the red and yellow, perhaps. (Alice is in  much calmer blues and greens.)

Anyway, instead of alternating the two styles of blocks, I split them into two quilts, alternating each with plain white squares.

The Other Half of Sunshine

This got me two quilts for the price of one (well, plus a whole lot of extra white solid and twice as much backing and binding fabric and all the extra work ...).

On the other hand, I did have some help.

Rosa assisting

The Other Half of Sunshine is on the bed in the spare room, meaning it's very occasionally for visitors and very frequently for the cats.

4 patch

Additional fabrics for the second quilt are:

Tiny flowers in Buttercup from Hawthorne Threads for the binding

and Ditzy Dots Orange wide backing fabric from Craft Depot

Breezy

Inspiration: Windy Days from SarahB Designs via Moda Bakeshop
Fabric: Fabricworm custom fat quarter bundle "Crisp Morning" (quilt top)
Blue and white spot wide backing fabric from Quiltsmith (backing)
Animal Party Too by Amy Schimler for Robert Kaufman from The Quilted Castle (binding)

Crisp morning fat quarter custom bundle

Fabrics:
Robert Kaufman Pimatex Basic Pin Dots Lime
Robert Kaufman Pure Organic Solid Chartreuse
Kokka Japan Sweet Fruits Granny Smith
Carolyn Gavin Spring Street, Spring Stripe Green
Suzanne Ultman Metro Cafe Mugs Bermuda
Alexander Henry In The Kitch, Rolling Hills Yellow
Kokka Japan, Sweet Fruits Blue
Robert Kaufman Quilter's Linen Sunflower
Monaluna Circa 50 Starburst Pool (organic)
Suzanne Ultman Metro Cafe French Press Bermuda
Hello Kitty Dots Blue
Robert Kaufman Quilter's Linen Teal

Half square triangles - lots and lots of half square triangles

Although I only used 8 fabrics, so I have a few FQs over.

Left overs from the pinwheels made into strips for one of the borders

Breezy is a bigger quilt than the original, achieved with a few more pinwheels and a lot of border.

Again, the laundry doubles for a design wall

Breezy is for Niece-the-Younger for Christmas.

I did take a full length photo, but can't believe I didn't check whether it was any good before I wrapped up the quilt. It isn't. Wonder if my sister can be prevailed upon to take a decent photo for me once it's unwrapped at the other end?

I'm especially happy with the fabric for the binding.

Binding and quilting

I love the spotted backing, but I'm not sure I made the best colour choice for this quilt - it's not really quite the right blue to match the colours on the front..

Spotted backing

Some actions shots of Thomas who provided assistance when I laid the sandwiched quilt out on the bed to try to decide how to quilt it.

Tangerine squeeze

Tangerine squeeze

Inspiration: Rectangle Squared from Film in the Fridge
Fabric:  Fabricworm custom fat quarter bundle

Summer Squeeze fabric bundle from Fabricworm

Fabrics:
Alice Kennedy Apple Flowers Aqua (100% Organic)
Mod Green Pod Daisy Doodle Aqua (100% Organic)
Angela Hoey Sherbert Pips Skipping Square Dots Light Blue
Michael Miller Ta Dot Sea
Momo Wing It! Solid Stripes Turquoise
Joel Dewberry Sparrow Aqua
Joel Dewberry Damask Saffron
Robert Kaufman Metro Living Rings Orange
Robert Kaufman Kona Solid Tangerine
Monulana for Birch Fabrics Circa 60 Beach Mod Dot Rust (100% Organic)
Deena Rutter Happier Floral Orange
Denyse Schmidt Pie Basket Fiesta

There was juuuust enough fabric in the bundle (12 fat quarters) to make 80 blocks.

Mind, this is after I made a couple of errors while cutting: the Ta Dot Sea doesn't appear in the quilt at all, because I managed to cut the whole fat quarter in 2.25" strips instead of 3.25" without noticing 'til I was done. There's less of the Pie Basket Fiesta than there should be for a similar reason.

The clothesline doubles as a design wall

To up-size the quilt (finished size is approx 80" x 98"), as well as making more blocks, I increased the size of the sashing between the blocks. Other than that, she's pretty much faithful to the original, down to the detail in the border.

Nothing new here - this cute detail is from the original too

Double fold bias binding

Fabric for the bias (and also the plain white backing) from Craft Depot.

Shelley Rodgers fabulously detailed continuous bias tape instructions (via a comment on Jezebel) made a huge difference.