2012 January 05 — Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara

January 5, 2012 · by JudyL

I may have to re-think that “no sock yarn in 2012″ pledge, since on the 4th day of the new year I had a little accident and fell completely off the wagon and must’ve bumped my head and temporarily forgotten that I wasn’t supposed to buy sock yarn. Seriously, I think I’m going to revise my commitment. Is it possible to revise the no buy contract I made with myself? I’m changing my pledge to this:

I will not buy more of the sock yarn I already have. No Wollmeise. No Tosh Sock, No Lorna’s Laces. I will buy minimum quantities of any new yarn that I see and can’t get out of my head, if it has gotten rave reviews from users. I will knit it up as soon as it arrives and will promptly post a review of the yarn.

OK . . that works. Consider my yarn buying in 2012 to be a public service. Whew . . I feel better already.

Last night while watching that dreadful Clemson game, I was trying to shield my eyes from the TV . . couldn’t take it, and I was reading Ravelry. By the way, we switched teams about half time and began rooting for the mountaineers, so in the end, our team won! How’s that for dedication and loyalty? On one of the Ravelry posts, in the 12 in 2012 group I think it was, the sock knitters were talking about their favorite yarns. I accidentally clicked on a link. I’m sure it was before half time and my hands were trembling at that “almost touchdown for Clemson that ended up being a touchdown for the other team play” and before stopping myself, the Springtree Road website appeared on my screen.

It was so much easier looking at that website than looking at the TV. We had not yet realized we were mountaineer fans instead of tiger fans and I was feeling really sad and then I saw the Muscadine yarn. I was wishing I had a piece of toast with muscadine jelly but the muscadine jelly is still packed! Then I saw a color called persimmon (which is not in the picture because I bought it and now it’s unavailable for you to buy). We love persimmons and are going to plant a tree. And then I saw that the skeins have 460 yards. The current yarn I’m working with has 395 and I’m so afraid I’m going to run short on these socks I’m making. Because of my new and extremely strong love for orange, I really wanted the tangerine and the bajiao but, if I’m just using the yarn to be able to write a review, one skein will have to do, right? Maybe!

Then I saw the Julip yarn – superwash merino, cashmere and nylon and 434 yards. Who could resist? With a game like we were watching, I needed some cheering up. Be Bright (check it out!) and Saffron hopped right into my cart. A yarn like this, it just might take two skeins for me to be able to give an accurate review. (I just made that up!)

My tastes in yarn are definitely like my tastes in fabric. I’m loving making pretty socks with the solid or almost solid yarns. Most of the patterns show up so much better. For plain socks, self-striping and speckled yarns will do but if I’m going to the trouble to make 5,439 cables, which I think I might be doing on my current pattern, I want those rascals to show up very clearly.

The Springtree yarn should arrive early next week. If I’m lucky, it will not arrive on Saturday when Vince is home!

And if you’ve read all the way to the bottom, you must be a knitter so here’s a little contest for you! Leave a comment and tell me which yarn you think I’ll use first and why. I think I already know which one I’ll use first so your reasoning isn’t going to change my mind. On Saturday evening, I’ll let the random number generator choose a number and you’ll get your choice of one skein of Muscadine yarn from Springtree Road Yarn & Fiber — a gift from me!

Sewing the Pesky Pieces

January 5, 2012 · by JudyL

For years I avoided making blocks that looked hard — those that had weird triangle pieces, or rectangles with angles on the end . . like this piece:

Since I’m a self-taught quilter for the most part, I sometimes go about things way differently from how the “rule book” says it should be done. Linda Baxter Lasco is my editor at AQS and I know she pulls her hair out with some of my instructions. When I look at something like the above piece, all I think about is getting it done as accurately as possible and as easily as possible. As I tried to decide how to piece this unit, I knew I could paper piece it, which would involve printing 56 of these pieces, or I could cut the triangles the exact size they need to be cut and make a template for the center rectangle or, I could cut the triangles a little larger, cut the center rectangle a little longer than needed, sew the whole thing together and then trim it up, which is what I did.

First, I placed the pieces over the paper piece to make sure there was plenty of extra so I didn’t have to fiddle with it to get it to come out right.

Then I placed a triangle ruler over the paper piece to see where I needed to cut my sewn unit to trim it up perfectly.

I sewed my pieces together and marked the center of the yellowish green rectangle. I really just creased the center with my fingernail but so you can see it, I made a mark. On the pieces I’m sewing for the blocks, I’m not making a mark – just a fingernail crease.

Next, the ruler is lined up with the line that at the bottom that creates the right size triangle unit, while the point is lined up with the center mark.

The excess is cut away and I have a perfect unit. No fuss. No fiddling. I could have cut the triangles a little smaller but I’d rather make them bigger and not have to worry.

I wonder how the “rule book” would have said to piece this segment.