Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Small and Big



Sometimes I need to remind myself how satisfying it can be to finish a small project. I tend to gravitate towards things on a grandiose scale such as big quilts and entire sweaters, but breaking up the pressure of these with knitted hats and quilted bibs can be so rewarding.

I finished this hat last week and I'm really so proud of it even though it's sort of big and I screwed up the chart in a few places. It's my first time doing color work, or knitting with two colors at once, and I am pleased to report that it's not near as difficult as I thought it was. I see many more colorful hats, mitts and sweaters in my future. In case you were wondering, the hat is a free pattern on Ravelry called Baikal, and I used madelinetosh chunky in Mica and Cousteau for this.

As I was slipping a crappy store-bought bib over Olivia's head awhile ago, it dawned on my how pathetic is was that a child with a quilter for a mother should not own a sweet patchwork dribble catcher.
So I dug into my scrap bin (which is bottomless, I've decided) and pieced this little number. Much cuter than the Target version, except now I don't want to get baby food stains on it.


The Granny Squares are still rolling right along. I'm up to these nine now with one more today. If you haven't seen this yet, Dana just started a Granny Square quilt-along on Flickr. You should join us!


Most of my sewing time is being devoted to finishing this growing beast. I've only got a little more than one row to go and it needs to be done soon in time for it's date with the long armer.


I'm excited to finish it up but also a little sad. I think I'll really miss working on it!






22 comments:

  1. Love it al! I can't wait to learn color work, yours is so pretty.

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  2. What pretty projects you have to work on! Sure brightens up any gray winter day. :)

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  3. Love all your projects! Especially little Olivia, she is just the CUTEST!

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  4. Olivia is so cute in her patchwork bib! And the hat looks absolutely perfect to me. Great choice of colors!

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  5. I cannot resist that granny square QAL - see ya around the campus!

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  6. HOLY COW !
    you are one talented mama.
    look at that bib, and spiderweb, and colour work ! boy,, i am impressed. x

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  7. Olivia in that bib? Cutest. Ever!

    Love your quilting projects, and am VERY tempted to make some Granny Squares (both the quilted and crochet variety). Block work appeals to me right now as I can dabble in it a little at a time until it unfolds. I have been so busy lately my quilting has been entirely stopped, with just some knitting here and there!

    Speaking of, I love the color work hat and am glad to hear it is not too tough! I won a color work hat kit from Tanis Fiber Arts (have you tried her yarn yet?? You would LOVE it, so soft and the hand dying is gorgeous! She has her own online shop and I just bought a bunch for a sweater at Eat Sleep Knit. Her aran weight knits up like WW, very versatile). Ahem. Rambling. Anyhoo, won it and was afraid to try it, will have to stick it in the (ever growing) queue!

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  8. Omg youre killing me with your wonderful projects.

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  9. Omg youre killing me with your wonderful projects.

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  10. Omg youre killing me with your wonderful projects.

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  11. Your projects are beautiful- Olivia too.

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  12. You've been busy! I love that hat - such pretty colors. Love free Ravelry patterns, aren't they the best?

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  13. your little one looks so cute modeling the new bib! adorable!

    also, loving your granny squares. such a fun layout!

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  14. So beautiful. That baby bib -- the colors and patterns -- is incredible, probably the only time the words "bib" and "incredible" have ever been used together.

    You have a wonderful eye for design, pattern, and color.

    I found you because of the title of this post. My blog is called Small & Big. It's a humor and cartoon blog over at smallandbig.blogspot.com. I'm glad I did.

    Take care!

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  15. Little Olivia looks just adorable in her new patchwork bib!! Love everything today. Your Maple Leaf Rag is going to be an epic finish!!

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  16. Haven't stopped by in a while, but I am glad I did. I need inspiration and i found it, THANKS!
    Lynn

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  17. I love this cap.It look so beautiful.Baby look so sweet.Baby food stains look with different shape of strips it look so creative.

    myob training

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  18. Awww! That is such a sweet bib! Honestly, I can totaly understand how you wouldn't want to get food stains on it. Dribbles, yes. ;)
    I'm getting freshly inspired... time to cut up the scraps I've just been sent! :D

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  19. Wow! What an incredible bunch of projects! Olivia would look darling no matter what she wore, but that bib is awesome! And about your nine-patch, how did you bring yourself to use up that much SK in one place? That'd give me a heart attack! Lol.

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