Handel's Messiah

Jon and I enjoyed a lovely afternoon concert at Fort Street Presbyterian Church in Detroit this afternoon. Our friend, Jodi, bravely joined the chorus this fall (yes, she would be the one who refuses to hum in front of her classical guitar teacher) and made her concert debut last night and this afternoon.

The church was stunning and hearing the verses come to life through the singers and instrumentalists was an amazing way to hear the Christmas story come to life. Jon and I both agree that we felt chills and heavy waves of emotion throughout the piece.

My favorite part is definitely the chorus: "For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9 : 6)" Oh, to be able to play the trumpet for this chorus! I'm still bumming that the flute was not invented in time for Handel to include it in his score. I would have loved the chance to play in the accompaniment!

And, how can you not go through a Christmas season without hearing the Hallelujah chorus at least once?

Thanks, Jodi, for letting us share in this special day with you!

no more granny squares

I have finally finished this never-ending granny square afghan! I'm so glad to be able to cross another project off my to-do list. Plus, I've been wanting to make an afghan like this for at least 8 years and have had just about everyone under the sun try to teach me basic square construction, so it feels great to have a finished project that can actually be used!

I had originally intended to make this 8 blocks by 10 blocks, but after lining the blocks up side by side I realized that I'd need to make some extra blocks to increase it to 9 x 12. Well, after starting the additional blocks, I ran out of yarn and was only able to finish an additional 18, so the final size is 9 blocks by 11 blocks (52 in x 64 in). The sizing is a little wonky because my gauge change about halfway through the project. Actually, I had to re-crochet the outer round of about 20 squares because they were way too big in comparison with the other squares. This helped to make the square sizes more uniform but contributed to the crookedness of the whole project In Jon's words: Aren't afghans supposed to be crooked? Thanks, Jon!

This is my first and probably only crochet project for quite a while. I've found crochet to one of the only craft projects that really agitates my left wrist, and I had to limit my time on this due to pain, so I'm not sure I'll be able to do another large scale project any time soon. Because of this, I ended up sewing the squares together instead of using the single crochet method. I'm happy with how the afghan came together and the sewing was much easier on my wrists!

I used Vanna's choic acrylic yarn on this. Unfortunately, about halfway through the project I discovered my preference to merino wool, so at times it was just a bear to work with. On the whole, it's a great acrylic yarn, though and was great to work with...very soft, not too much splitting and no knots within the ball of yarn. I used about 19 balls of yarn (170 yards each). 2 each of the 6 colors included and 7 of the main color, so the project cost about $50 total. A great price considering how long this project helped to occupy me.

Our little kitties have taken a liking to this afghan, so they've been kneading away at it and in turn pulling out all of my sewn in ends. Oh, well! I guess they get to enjoy it too.

Now it's back to the regularly scheduled knitting and stitchette-making!

long, relaxing weekend

Well, Jon and I had a wonderful weekend...the kind of weekend that makes us wish that we had more vacation days so that we could have more four day weekends to enjoy. We did lots of visiting with family and friends and we balanced it out by hanging out at home enjoying our newly decorated Christmas tree, working on little projects and watching movies.

I had lots of time to work on the granny square blanket and I'm really hoping that it will be finished by Saturday. I've got six out of the twelve rows assembled and now I just need to make up a few extra squares because the size I had originally planned for it was too small.

And...I'm still cranking out these little stitchettes. I've got 6 more to go before I can start on the quilt.

Sam Skates

Izzie on Ice

Ula's Umbrella and Granny Squares

I'm still cranking away at these stitchettes for my patchwork quilt. This time I finished up Ula's Umbrella from the Spring collection.

And, I have been cranking away at these granny squares here and there. Luckily, they get a few hours of my attention every Thursday night at my knit/crochet group so the project has been progressing at a steady pace. I am finished with about half of the squares for the afghan and only have to add the last round to the other half and single crochet them together (oh, and I also need to sew the ends in...ugh!). Here's to hoping this holiday weekend will give me some extra time to finish this project up (or maybe I'm just in denial about how long this is actually going to take...)

Parker's Purchases

Well, I've been cranking away at these stitchettes, hoping to finish all 16 by the end of this year. Ever since seeing this doll quilt made with four of the stitchettes, I've wanted to make a quilt featuring all 16 of the stitchettes (four for each season). I discovered the quilt on the cover of the new Kaffe Fassett book, Quilts in the Sun, and I plan on using it to feature the 16 stitchettes. If all goes well, the quilt should be 60" x 60" and feature 16 different 15" squares, each with a stitchette in the center. I'm not exactly sure of the color scheme for the bordering fabric, but I've been adding and subtracting fabric from my shopping cart when I have time (virtual window shopping, I guess?).

Here's another finished stitchette for the quilt: Parker's Purchases

Anna Angles

another stitchette from wee wonderfuls (only 10 more to go!)

happy things

a cheery gerbera daisy from Jon

a finished stitchette from wee wonderfuls

a set of matryoshka dolls from my friend, Erica