While on breaks at work, I've been working on my cable scarf. I found the pattern for it here. It's a good beginner cable pattern, and I'm enjoying working on it very much. I'm using WoolEase yarn and it's so wonderfully soft. I'm not a very fast knitter, so I don't expect to have it finished this year - but as long as I'm still enjoying it, it'll still see some working time.
The other thing that's been on the work table lately is the Circle Quilt. I had found sticky dots that were the size I needed for the circles, and was in the process of basting the seam allowances around the dots. But it was going very slowly! And, I couldn't iron the circles with the sticky dots in there - they became permanent! So, one day, as I was working on appliqueing some more of the leaves, it occurred to me that I enjoy needle-turn applique. And why is a circle considered harder to applique than any other shape? Sure, getting a perfect circle can be tough, but if you have a perfect line to follow - it can't be impossible. Also, I was having some trouble getting the circle's seam allowances to stay tucked under (as you can see in the picture below). So....I changed my approach.
I've begun tracing around the sticky dots on the front of the fabrics and things are moving along much quicker! I got about 150 of these done last night while watching a movie with DH.
I also wanted to share with you a recent purchase I made. I found both of these glass jars at Hobby Lobby. I think they work perfectly for my spools of thread and my fabric scraps. And I just love the look of clear glass bell jars.
This last picture is included only because I felt it was time to introduce you to another of our family members. This is Boots. She lives with us both by accident and force of will. You see, her mother was a member of our family about 10 years ago. We rescued her and took her home. We lived in a 3rd floor apartment in a large city. We used to leave the sliding door to the balcony open for the cats to get in and out when they wanted to. One morning we woke up to a cat missing. Apparently she had jumped from one balcony to another and disappeared. Imagine my surprise when I spotted her hanging around the apartment building in the middle of winter the following year! After 2 or 3 days and nights of trying to catch her, we finally succeeded and brought her back home again - only to find out she was pregnant. Later that spring we welcomed Boots and 2 brothers into our family. We found a home for one of her brothers, and finally decided to take the rest of the family to my uncle's farm so they could live as barn cats (we were currently at 7 cats in a 2 bedroom apartment!) When we got to the farm, the mother and brother took off, happy as larks to be outside running around. Boots, however, hunkered down and started wailing. Well, soft-heart that I am, we ended up taking her back home with us. She's been with us ever since. And you can see, she loves getting involved in everything we do. In fact, right now she's circling my chair as I type, trying to find a way up on the computer table. :)
