Found It!

Two weekends ago, I took a mini vacation to Chincoteague for a knitters retreat.    It was a small group of 20 women, lots of laughing and relaxing.   Learned about gauge.   Oh, I know gauge, I know you are suppose to swatch and block and adjust and not just dig right in when you're knitting.   Especially a sweater.   But I do it anyway.    I now have a little better appreciation of gauge, and will try to do it more often.

Several years ago when I started going on these excursions by myself I opted to not try and find a roommate and just suck it up and pay the extra money to have a room to myself.    It is lovely.    I'm not particularly messy, especially when staying in a hotel, but it is SO nice to know when I open the door the room is my room.    I travel with my laptop, knitting and kindle.    I take the kindle because I often eat breakfast alone.   In the morning, I want coffee and quiet.    Conversation can happen later - about half a pot later.   I'll confess that I travel with my own coffee maker and coffee too.    Okay, some people take cookies and candy, I take coffee and tea.    Oh, and wine.   But that's another story.

I came home sick, had to work anyway, tried to get caught up on all the housework I didn't do the last 8 weeks while I took a class.   Also another long story.   Tonight, I decided to sit down with my kindle and catch up on reading.   oh, oh.   It wasn't where it belonged.    It wasn't in my suitcase which only had a shawl and flashlight in it.   It wasn't in any of the knitting bags I took and/or came home with.   It wasn't on my desk.   It wasn't in my knitting room.   It wasn't anywhere.

Did I leave it at the hotel?   After 10 days would they even admit it if they had it?   How was I going to explain to TinkerSpouse that I lost his Christmas present to me?   So, I combed my room, the dining room, the kitchen, my truck, the knitting room, my desk.   Finally I dumped my main knitting bag.   Apparently when you look four times in a knitting bag, your kindle will magically appear.

phew

First Quilt

It has been a lot of years since I sewed anything.  I even pay to have my pants hemmed because I just can't be bothered.  I learned  to sew when I was young, did quite well.  My mom taught me when I was about 7, I was in 4-H and won a few ribbons, made a lot of my clothes though my early 20s.   Then made the kids clothes, pretty dresses for TinkerDaughter, Halloween costumes, and stuff.   Then it wasn't fund anymore.   Life got in the way, and I found that when I sat at the machine for very long, I got a knot in my neck that took days to release.   So I put the machines away, donated the fabric after a few years, and though I was done.

Right.    TinkerDaughter is going to produce our first TinkerGrandbaby this summer, and she needs maternity clothes.   Mostly scrubs which apparently they DON'T make as maternity wear, they just suggest you buy a larger size.   Well, that is just great.    I couldn't find any scrub patterns either, so just bought the largest one they had, and we have modified it to suit our needs.    Well, we got some xxxlg tops and pants from a friend who went through this last summer, and this weekend will be the weekend to alter the pants and finish the scrubs.

While at the fabric store, TinkerDaughter got a little carried away with baby related material.   I'll admit the fleece she saw that she said would make a great blanket was cute, and I could bind it easily enough, she said no, the other side needed to be a quilt, and then she went around picking out fabric she liked that would go with the fleece.    I didn't have the heart to tell her I'm not a quilter and I haven't used the sewing machine in about 20 years, I merely said of course I can do that!

Then I dug the machines (regular and serger) out of the storage trunk and took them to the repair shop for some TLC.    The shop was a little skeptical since they had sat for so long, but I told them to give it a shot.  $300 later they are working just fine, and while the embroidery machine is certainly old and I could get a fancier one, they actually said the serger was a great workhorse serger that should serve me well.   So will be continuing to use he Viking I spent so much money on when it first came out and my serger with joy.   

I thought since I can knit, embroider, needlepoint and even have dabbled in bobbin lace, surely I could make a simple patchwork quilt.  I took my time, thought about if for a few days, had to go replace a lot of sewing notions I no longer had, and then took that first cut.   I spent three days laying out the squares and while maybe not original, they worked (we were a little short on one fabric).   Away I stitched.   

Getting Started

 

 

First Side

 

The Fleece that started it all

I am not displeased with the end result.  And I've got a few ideas for the leftover fleece.....

Begining Again

Well, I had grand plans in January.   I was going to start writing the blog again, every day.   And it would be happy news only.   Right.

Well, then I got a wild hair and decided that there was no reason not to take the last class I thought I needed to get my degree.   It remains to be seen if I need one or two more classes, once I get my grade from this one, I'll go find out if the rest of my credits are still good.   So while I was on that roll, I decided that instead of going to one class a night for 16 weeks, I would take the condensed 8 week class.   On line.   Easy Peasy.   No going in out in the winter, no sitting for three hours in a room with possibly sick people,   I COULD DO THIS!

Well, yes.  I could, and I did.  It was pretty horrible.  They syllabus suggested about 12-15 hours worth of work per week.   Hmmm.    Some of the reading was hard to get through, I kept falling asleep.    The on-line quizzes were not difficult, and the assignments weren't bad either, except I was reading 3-4 chapters a week, taking 3-4 on-line quizzes per week, and submitting 3-5 papers.

After week three it was time for mid-term.  Really?    Oh, that really didn't go well.   I don't test well, and this was a lot of questions and essay questions at one time.   But I muddled through, passed the test.   Then came the group project.   With strangers.   Who I never see.   There were five of us.   One person never ever showed up, one person was good until we had to produce the first draft of our portion and then he sorta just disappeared.   The other girl in the group msut be young because her portion was pretty slim, and the day before the re-write ofour portion was due, she posted that she couldn't find some information, and could anyone else?    I did my part, did part of hers and then quit.   For two glorious days I didn't think about homework, tests, project papers or the final that was coming up in three days.  I did proof our paper after our teamleader got it pulled together. 

The final was strange, it was a basic summary of our group project paper and just was odd.   And that was it.   No true/false or multiple choice questions.    Just answer these five questions about your project.   We shall see.   Papers haven't been graded yet, we are to expect grades to be posted on the 17th.    I've got a good grade right now, so even if I bombed the final, I should come out with a passing grade.

Once I'm done with this degree, I'm only taking classes for fun.