Thimbleanna – Page 11 – My little online diary.

Remember When …

17 Comments / May 5, 2019 May 5, 2019 / Around the House, Chat, Family, Liberty Love, Store

It’s been a long (yet somehow speedy) and busy spring, so I thought I’d just check in and dust off ye ol’ blog …

Remember When I posted here about our little newlyweds just starting med school? Unbelieveably, that was ELEVEN years ago. FINALLY, all that hard work has come to an end and it’s time to start their real life without school. We’re very happy and excited that they’ve accepted a job here and will move back home this summer. Yay for living close to the babies!!! SweetiePie sent this cute picture a few weeks ago. The babies are growing quickly. I’ll let you think on this picture until the end of this post too LOL.

Remember When I went to Shetland last summer? And I promised to write all about my trip? I finally did just that and posted about it here in the travel section of my little blog.

Remember When I posted here about the squirrels using my patio chairs for nest materials? Well, I replaced those chair pads a few years ago, but last fall was so busy I totally forgot to bring my chairs in for the winter. Maybe I’ll learn my lesson {sigh}. (Oh, and they’ve stepped up their destruction level — they’re now gnawing on the metal parts of the table and chairs — you can see it along the edges of the chair handle.)

Remember When I used to actually quilt and sew around here? There is still a little of that going on these days. I do occasionally drag my Trip Around the World UFO out to work on it. I think I’m on round 38 or so and I think I decided I need about 44 rounds. Only 5 or 6 more rounds to go! Sadly, each round is taking me about 15 hours to complete, so there’s still a LOT of work left. Not to mention ironing all those seams — not looking forward to that part.

Remember When I had an etsy store and used to tell you when new fabrics arrived? Well, I still have that little shop and new fabrics arrive alllll the time, I just can’t seem to find the time to post about them. Here are the latest arrivals in the Liberty department. I LOVE the classic prints. That 4th-down-from-the-top print makes me all twitterpated.

Thanks for sticking it out to the end. Now … did you have a think on that first picture??? And get the message??? We’re beside ourselves with excitement that FinallyAnotherGirl is going to be a Big Sister late this fall (let the blog naming begin LOL). And if you’re counting, that means those two little babies will only be 14 months apart. Good thing the kids are moving back home — they’re going to be BUSY!!!
Have a great week!
XOXO,
Anna

A Stripey Sweater

13 Comments / March 11, 2019 November 1, 2019 / Knitting

Boy oh boy — this poor little neglected blog skipped the entire month of February — I can’t believe it’s been so long since I posted. Isn’t it funny — back in the old days of blogging, if I went 4 or 5 days without posting, I thought it was the end. Of something. How things have changed! Maybe I just said everything I had to say. Or, more likely, it’s just been pretty busy and yet boring around here, so nothing too exciting going on. {Sigh}.

I have managed to finish a sweater though. I started this sweater forever-ago — at least several years. I’ve worked a lot on it this winter and now it’s done. Yay!

I walked into my LYS a few years ago and one of the sales ladies was wearing her version of this sweater. I saw those variegated stripes and knew it was a sweater for me. I LOVE the way the colors subtly change — especially the blues as they fade into green {Swoon}

The pattern is Diversey Cardigan by Dawn Slugg. If I’d only seen the pattern, I would have never made it. But seeing it on a real live person did the trick. It’s made by alternating 2 rows of Kauni Effectgarn yarn in color EQ with 2 rows of Kauni Effectgarn yarn in, I think ES (I can’t find the ball band ;-8) The EQ is the variegated ball in colors and the ES is a variegated gray and black yarn.

I used size 5 needles and I lengthened the main body by about 20% — the pattern had the length end just about at the hip bone and I like my tops to be a little longer. I SO wish you could feel the drape on this sweater — it’s so light and, well, drapey LOL. Those little square armholes look a little weird when the sweater is laid out flat, but you don’t really notice them when it’s on ’cause they hit near the underarm.

I’m planning to wear it with a little denim top. Just like the model in the shop — if it’s good enough for her, it’s good enough for me! ;-D

Someday I’ll have quilting to show again — winter just makes me want to knit though. Hope you’re surviving the season — hot or cold, wherever you are. Have a great week!

XOXO,
Anna

Brace Yourself, Effie!

15 Comments / January 28, 2019 November 1, 2019 / Knitting, Sewing

Or Batten Down the Hatches. Or something like that! It’s going to be brutally cold this week — I sure wish I didn’t have to go to work — I’d love to just hole-up this week and stay in front of the fire all day in my jammies. Our HIGH on Wednesday is forecast to be -9F (that’s -23 for you Celsius people) and very windy, which puts the windchills well below -40F (which just happens to be -40C). OUCH!

It’s been a busy winter here in ThimbleannaLand. We’re still working over at MeMum’s and the light is finally at the end of the tunnel. A few more months should do it — I’m looking forward to checking that BIG job off of our list. In the evenings I’ve been working on an old UFO sweater, and I’m hoping to wrap that one up in the next few weeks. I also recently finished a few more things for our little cherubs. I made them matching little pink dresses. It was a fun, quick project. The pattern is The Karina Dress from The Freckled Pear and the fabric is a cute little floral that I have in my etsy shop. I made sizes 6 months (which is currently drowning FinallyAnotherGirl) and a size 3 (which is almost just right for FinallyAGirl.) (Sorry for the terrible, dark pictures — it’s winter, you know. ;-( )

I also made a fun little coordinating mustard colored sweater for FinallyAnotherGirl. (FinallyAGirl already has a cute mustard colored sweater, so I made her the sheepie sweater that I showed in the last post.) I loved knitting this sweater and will surely make this pattern again. It’s the Norwegian Fir Top Down Cardigan from OGE Knitwear Designs and I used Cascade 220 from my local yarn shop. It has a little button at the neckline, which was added after I took this picture ;-D.

And here is the cardigan with the little dress. They were made for each other — meaning, I actually planned it this way LOL. I’d decided to make the little sweater, and then I went shopping in the shop and I loved the little pops of mustard in the floral print. I like pink and gray and mustard together and I actually had several other fabric choices in that color combo, which was a little surprising.

It does seem like this blog has just turned into baby makes, but that’s the stage we’re at now. I love (LOVE) sewing and knitting for babies (in particular little girls) and, as you know, they won’t be little for long. Before we know it, they’ll be too old or sophisticated for Grammy’s makes, so I’m making hay while the sun shines (or something while the snow flies LOL.)

Have a great week — February is almost here! Stay warm out there (or cool if you’re down under!)
XOXO,
Anna

Sheepies

13 Comments / January 14, 2019 January 14, 2019 / Knitting, Store

Well Hello — is your new year off to a ripping start? It’s busy, yet slow here. I guess that’s another way of saying that it’s busy, but nothing much going on to write home about. It’s all good though — we have snow on the ground and a working furnace, so we’re happy campers!

Last summer, during my trip to Shetland, I was working on a little sweater for FinallyAGirl. I finished it shortly after I returned from our trip, but couldn’t post it because I was saving it for a Christmas present.

The patter is Sheepish by Alana Dakos of Never Not Knitting. The yarn is a variegated gray yarn by Swans Island with some scraps of a darker gray for trim and some cute fuzzy mohair yarn for the sheepies. (I used this same yarn on the little pink sleep sac that I made for FinallyAnotherGirl in the fall — warning! — the yarn says it’s washable, but it WILL shrink. ;-8 ) This was a super fun knit and it worked up pretty quickly. I made the 2 year old size (the largest size on the pattern) and it fits our little cherub just perfectly right now. She’s 2 1/2 and, although the pattern calls for size 6 needles, I went up one size to a size 7 and it worked perfectly.

Many thanks for Ms. CityHomeCountryHome for helping me find those adorable little sheepie buttons. I think they’re just perfect for this little sweater!

In other news, Tilda’s BEAUTIFUL new Apple Butter collection of fabrics have arrived in my little Etsy shop. I LOVE this sweet collection! Tilda kind of went off on a little tangent of more modern designs for the last few years, but with her last collection and now Apple Butter, she’s returning to her sweet floral roots. These little retro-chic flowers are just SO adorable!

Ok — must run and cut some fabric. Happy Monday — I hope you have a fun, productive week!
XOXO,
Anna

Happy New Year 2019!

10 Comments / January 2, 2019 January 3, 2019 / Holidays

Happy New Year! It seems impossible that we’re here at a new year again– 2018 whizzed by — at breakneck speed! I guess that’s a good thing — at least we weren’t bored and wondering why time was passing so slowly. I could do with a happy medium though.

The normal custom here in ThimbleannaLand is to have a Kitty animal greeting and then look back on the year of travels and projects. The cats are just recovering from a major trauma — Winston AND his favorite two-year-old-tornado were here for the weekend. It’s funny — the cats tolerate Winston pretty well now — they’ll even lie down beside him. But the 2-year old? No Way! They hear her voice at the door and dive under the bed. She’s never hurt them or anything, I guess it’s just her volume that scares them LOL. Anyway, I decided not to bother them for a New Year’s picture this year so that they can recover a bit.

Here are my 2018 pictures in review:

It was a good year here in ThimbleannaLand! Our biggest excitement was the arrival of FinallyAnotherGirl. She’s three months old now and is the best baby. She’s MUCH easier that FinallyAGirl — she hardly ever makes a peep. Both babies are just happy as can be and SO fun to be around. FinallyAnotherGirl was preceded by my fun trip to Shetland and London — definitely a highlight of the year. There was some knitting (all baby!), sewing, and quilting (technically those folded memory quilts were made in 2017, but they weren’t posted until 2018 and they didn’t make it into the 2017 round-up, so I’m counting them this year LOL). It wasn’t all fun and games here this year though. Part of the reason blogging has been fairly light is because we’ve spent the year cleaning out MeMum and BigDaddy’s house. It’s been a huge job and tons of work. We started in February and spent a lot of weekends going through papers and closets and dishes and fabric and papers and more papers and … you get the idea. It’s been the worst thing I’ve ever had to do and I can’t even describe the sadness. So, that’s about all I’ll say about it ’cause I’ll start crying. This blog has been a record of our little family for quite a few years and the clean out has been a major part of our 2018, so I didn’t want it to go unmentioned. {Sigh.}

Anyway, you might have noticed some quilts up there that haven’t been posted yet — that’s because they were Christmas gifts and I didn’t want to spoil the surprise. I broke into my hoard of Cat in the Hat fabrics (and didn’t make much of a dent LOL) and made FinallyAGirl a quick quilt. It was a last minute decision and having that big center panel made it go much more quickly. Hopefully she’ll have fun with it when she’s reading her Cat in the Hat books — it’s a great snuggle size — about 56″ x 70″. (It’s so hard to get quilt pictures this time of year — pretty gloomy and dark and too windy outside. So, I had to randomly stick them up around the house, but you get the idea.)

And then, the Christmas quilts. I loved the retro Santa by Urban Chiks from the moment I saw it and knew I had to make some. I actually made three of them (two kits plus an extra Santa panel will make three quilts, fyi) but couldn’t get them all together for a photo. I made them for MeMum, MyDadLovesMeBestSister, and SweetiePie.

These quilts were super fun to make. And, for the first time, I rented time on a long-arm to do the quilting. It took a day and a half (with the lesson), but so worth it — I’m thinking it would have taken me 2 or so days each to quilt them on my regular machine. I did an overall stipple on the log cabin blocks, and then did a few different things on the Santa. Everyone seemed to like the circles on the cheeks the best.

Now to plan for the new year. Are you a resolution maker? I’m not really, but I do like to plan my next quilting and knitting projects. Hopefully, between a little cleaning and organizing around here, I can do just that.
Happy Planning and Dreaming — I hope all your New Year Wishes come true!

XOXO,
Anna