Pineapples

About 6 years ago,we cut off the tops of some pineapples, placed the tops in a pot with soil, and some time later, the plants rooted, and started growing. I have a small greenhouse room, and put these plants ( I now have 5 of them) in the sunny window....3 years later, two of the plants sent up some buds, and produced fruit! The pineapples were only 4 inches tall, but they were delicious. A few weeks ago, one of the plants decided to fruit again, so here is the developing pineapple! It is so cute! There are little purple flowers around the bottom, and the typical shape. It is such fun to watch this grow...

Divide and Conquer

As it is raining today, I apologize for the color of these photos (the incandescent lighting gives a yellow cast), but here is the current state of sweater progress. I have divided for sleeves, after reaching my target number of stitches, by folding the square in half along the shoulder lines, then marking every 14 sts and picking up at the underarms to make a mitered square from the 4th group of stitches from the corner. In my enthusiasm to knit this, I forgot to take photos of that process. Oops. In the upper right, you can see a folded square hanging off which becomes the bottom of the sleeve. In this design, I discovered that I could make a little underarm gusset by joining ( in a 3 needle bindoff) a group of sts on the diagonal section between the body and the arm. I think this will give a better fit and slimmer arms.
Here is a photo of the back:
I was clever here to get the colors to line up symmetrically on this row of mitered squares, but I'm sort of going for a random look, so on the front I'm letting the colors fall where they want.
Here you can see how the fronts relate to the back row of squares. I started at the underarms, and worked downward from there, as I wanted the center lines of the squares to be vertical. In this sequence, I can pick up along the sides of one square, and use the live sts from the straight portion, one group of 14 sts at a time. The only sewing is at the center back corner., where I must join the edge of a square to the corner. Sewing it gives a neater join than picking up and K2tog at end of rows, I think.

Olympic Sweater 2 part 2

So, now I've been knitting away on the straight portion below the first row of mitered squares. It is a lot of knitting; I'll need 30 rows to make up for the row. I could have added another row of mitered squarees instead, but I thought this would be easier. However, every other row is longer by 8 stitches ( 2 at each corner) so it is getting really long! My target is 112 sts in each section , so that is 448 sts. Lots of knitting! Here I've marked off roughly where the points to add next row of mitered squares will be, but those will be added after I divide for sleeves. Stay tuned for this!
My dear friend Melody Johnson ( http://www.fibermania.blogspot.com/ ) spent the day yesterday knitting a teensy version of my basic top down diagonal pattern, and posted it on her blog! It is so cute! Here I'm adding squares, but it is the same basic idea. If you would like a copy of the basic pattern, email me. It is a long pdf, and I'm charging $8 for it.
Off to work I go...more tonight...

Olympic Sweater #2

I have accumulated a stash of Noro Kureyon, and had the urge to make another version of my Olympic sweater, so I started it a few weeks ago. I love knitting modular one piece top down stuff, as I am lazy about seaming, and I don't like to worry about gauge issues. As I've worked with thisyarn before, I happen to know what to expect, so I plunged right in. The first order of business is to make a big triangle for the back, then establish the shoulder line, then increase until each section has 60 sts. Then I can add one row of 29 stitch ( 14+1+14) mitered squares along the diagonals to complete the square, starting them at the shoulder corners so I can continuously knit squares down until I reach the center back and fronts.
After that, I pick up 90 sts ( 15X6) along each side, and knit a bunch of increasing rows until I reach 120 sts ( 15X8) in each side. That is a lot of stitches! I have to use all the size 7 Addi turbo needles I have, and still it isn't long enough to lie flat. I suppose I could use my Denise cables, but those are presently holding some other projects hostage. At that point, I'll fold the whole thing up, and join for knitting the body and sleeves....better get back to knitting for now...

J&J Sweater

I was very pleased to finally finish this sweater. It is a combination of many influences, which began when a customer came to my shop with a photo of a cardigan that she wanted to make. As I didn't know of a pattern, and wanted to knit a similar sweater myself, I offered to design and write up the pattern so we could do it together. The first thing we decided was to use a worsted weight yarn and make it a pullover, which was a departure from the sweater in the photo. I chose Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted, and a size 7 needle, and went to work swatching the large cable for the yoke. As I couldn't find one in Barbara Walker's Treasuries that fit my specifications, I modified one that she had, and knit the yoke cable first. I then picked up for the yoke and knit that, ripping it out twice to get the effect I wanted. I originally went with reverse stockinette, but later decided on a wide ribbing, which pleased me. The body and sleeves were picked up and knit downwards, so I could customize length and shaping. I narrowed the sleeves on my version to provide a tapered look, and went up to a size 8 needle for the hips. I added a section of wide ( 3X3) ribbing at the hem, which balanced the look and provided more length to the body. I am very pleased at how the sweater turned out, and I love the feel of the yarn.

Facings for Quilts

This past week I had the pleasure of teaching two workshops on facing a quilt. The usual methods of applying facings are very bulky at the corners and require a lot of handling of the quilt, so I came up with an easier method. For those who missed it, here is the Jeririgged method of facings for rectangular quilts:
1. Quilt your quilt as desired. Square the edges.
2. Cut 4 strips, 2 1/2 inches wide, one for each side of the quilt, a bit longer than the length of each side of the quilt.
3. Press under 1/4 inch on the long side of each strip. If you want, also cut a strip 1/2 inch wide X the length of each strip out of Wonder Under, and fuse it ( keeping the paper on) atop each folded side on each strip.
4. Choose 2 sides to be the "corner" sides ( opposite each other) and pin strips to quilt matching raw edges. Sew the short edge, starting at the crease , turn the corner with a single stitch on the diagonal, then sew the long edge, gently pulling the strip as you sew to take in some of the stretch of the fabric. If you cut these two strips beforehand, make them 1/4 inch shorter than the width of the quilt and ease it while you sew so they match. Sew to 1/4 inch before the corner, turn at the corner and continue sewing down the short length, stopping just at the fold crease. Trim the facing strip even with the quilt top.




6. Now lay long edges with raw edges aligned, overlapping the first strip only as far as to cover the turned under edge of the first strip. Sew this strip to the side, continuing the line of stitching, 1/4 inch from the edge of the quilt. This leaves the corner with only a single layer, and overlaps the strips an inch down the sides where the bulk will be unobtrusive.Repeat for both pairs of strips, then Clip corners. Now, turn the whole shebang to the back, pushing out the corners to make a sharp edge, and iron them flat. If you used Wonder Under, now remove the paper strips, and fuse the facing in place. You might have to iron carefully to get everything lined up, but the turned edges hide the raw edges of the facings, and the fusable holds it in place until you can slip stitch the edge to finish permanently.

The Quilt's Power

This quilt, which I made in November and December 2001, was recently juried into a show in the Museum TwentseWell in Enschede, The Netherlands, which will run from April to September, 2008. The quilt is entirely machine pieced, and quilted on my home sewing machine in various patterns. The show is called "De kracht van de quilt, or, The Quilt's power, and features 10 large quilts and 6 small quilts, which were all made in response to the events of 9/11. Here is a wikipedia article which describes the motivation for the show:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vuurwerkramp

You can also see more of this quilt on my website ( www.jeririggs.com ) in the first gallery page, at the bottom.