Dodgeball, Dodgeball, Dodgeball!

Some of you might know about my stint as president of the Portland Co-ed Adult Dodgeball league. That first season I was president, our fearless founder did what she did best: complete the t-shirt order at the last minute and at great expense. What this meant in reality was that although everyone (that I know of) got their t-shirt, I also had a box of unused ones in my basement. I had them for a looong time. I gave a few of them away, but still had a bunch left over. When it came time to move, I refused to move all those t-shirts, so I gave more of them away. Then my roommate had a brilliant idea: turn them into a quilt. (I'm a bit ashamed I didn't think of it first.)

So, I *did* move all those t-shirts, but by then I was down to (only) 21 shirts. Yeah, only. 21 is a lot of shirts. They make for a nice 4x5 quilt, with one left over for a pillow. The pillow isn't done yet, but the quilt has just been finished. I didn't get my grading done over spring break, but I did make a whole quilt. Woo-hoo!

A few things to note: this is the first thing I've made with my new sewing machine. It is a pretty rocking machine. I managed to put the thing together with the absolute minimum of puckering, which is amazing considering I was working with jersey with screen printing on it. I credit the built-in walking foot on my machine. That's right, baby, built-in. It is so rad. I also used my super-cool 1/4" presser foot and my special quilting-foot. I don't know what's so special about the quilting foot, but that's what it's called, so I used it.





Please don't look to closely at the quilting, though. It's the first machine quilting I've ever done, and with the new machine and left-over thread (I was trying to use up a bunch of odds-n-ends I've got lying around), well -- the lines aren't perfect (I meant them to be wavy, but not so jaggedly so) and the tension isn't alway the best. I think it works, though. I do love it. And although I have it posed on the bed, it's really a sunggle-up-on-the-couch quilt. Just like snuggling up in your favorite t-shirt (that really needs to be washed a few more times so it gets nice and soft).

Setting the World on Fire ...

... One broken iron at a time.

Yup. Almost set fire to my house yesterday morning. I knew my iron was on the fritz because sometimes it wouldn't work. I meant to get a new one, but I kept on forgetting. Let's just say that after the sparking and burning smell, I got a new iron last night.

And it's a nice one. It has this super-steam setting thing that's pretty cool. I can't wait to iron some cotton for the next quilt!

Baby's New Knits

My friend M just had a baby. Well, two months ago, but still. And while I started a blanket for him back in June, I waited (of course) until yesterday morning to finish it. Yesterday morning as in an hour and a half before the baby shower. That is, after staying up until 1am working on it on Friday.

And because I'm me, I adapted the pattern from one I found online. So my gauge was a bit off. It's really hard to tell these things when the yarn is on the needles. And it's really hard to tell when you've only got one row cast on. Knit fabric stretches and it always seems much smaller with one row than with 150 rows. So... I ended up making it a bit too wide.

But, as I mentioned, I was running out of time. When it looked like I'd gotten it to an appropriate length, I finished up the border and cast off. And when it was off the needles, it became very apparent that the blanket was far more rectangular than square. Of course, had I just made it narrower by 30-40 stitches, that extra would have gone into the length and it would have been damn-near perfect. Drat. And I take such bad notes I don't even remember how many stitches I cast on in the first place. So the next blanket is likely to look the same (or too narrow for its long length).

However, J (the baby) doesn't seem to mind and M doesn't seem to mind, either. I am not-so-secretly hoping that this turns into a blankie (my blankie was one knit for me by my mother) and at that point, the size won't matter at all. A blankie can be any size; it's about the comfort, not the coverage (or the komfort, not the koverage). Of course, kids (cids?) will latch onto whatever they please, and the blanket might just get relegated to the bottom of the toy box -- and it won't even be personal.



Also, M's family is awesome. They invited me over for dinner after the shower, forced me to stay the night, then fed me breakfast. They also insist that I join them for Thanksgiving, even though M will be back in Utah by then. They are friendly, supportive, and offer everything one could hope for in a surrogate family including food, wine, and teaching materials. (Just in case any of you were worrying about my support structures out here in the valley.)

For those of you who have ever put me up for a holiday, know that the tradition of my crashing your family events survives.