Thimbleanna – Page 5 – My little online diary.

Playful Stripes

6 Comments / September 27, 2021 September 27, 2021 / Knitting

It’s sweater weather – Yay! I can’t believe fall is here already, but I’m ready for it. We had a wonderful summer — it went by in a flash, it wasn’t too hot, we had lots of playtime with the grandbabies, and we had some fun family time. But now … falling leaves, pumpkin everything, cozy sweaters and lots of project planning. The change in weather (and ok, the looming holiday haha) always make me want to plan new projects — especially knitting projects. Before I run to the next project though, here is the latest little sweater that I made for FinallyAGirl:

It’s the Playful Stripes cardigan by Alaina Daikos of Never Not Knitting. I love her children’s sweater patterns. This is my second Never Not Knitting pattern — you may remember when I knit Sheepish for FinallyAGirl a few years ago. The yarn is Merinoull, a superwash yarn by Sandes Garn, and it’s just the right weight for this sweater. Choosing how often to change the stripe colors was a little stressful, but I loved knitting this sweater. It was a fairly quick knit and it just felt so cozy while knitting.

I changed the button band a little after looking at other Playful Stripes cardigans on Ravelry. The original pattern called for a 2×2 rib button band, but someone on Ravelry did a garter stitch band and I think it looks better on this cardigan. I backed the button side of the button band with the Acufactum Children and Sheep ribbon to give the buttons some extra stability. FinallyAGirl really likes the cute ribbon too!

My favorite part of the cardigan is the sweet little scalloped hem on the sleeves and main body. It was fun to knit and I think it’s just so pretty.

FinallyAGirl is 5 now and I knit the size 5 which is just perfect — it’s a wee bit big so it should last for a year or two. She’s such a little pill — the years are flying by and it’s hard to believe she’s old enough to wink back at me!

Next up: a cardigan for FinallyAnotherGirl. Luckily for me, a Grammy’s work is never done!

Have a great week!
XOXO,
Anna

May You Be Blessed With Love and Happiness

20 Comments / August 27, 2021 August 27, 2021 / Family, Quilting, Wedding

Yipee! The summer is almost over and we’ve had our long-anticipated little family wedding. MyDadLovesMeBestSister’s oldest daughter was married in a gorgeous wedding ceremony in Maine. The groom’s family owns a little cabin in the woods and they were married next to the cabin, overlooking a beautiful lake. Everything was was absolutely perfect (well, not everything — something always goes wrong — but if you weren’t in the family you wouldn’t have know about the little glitches.) We were asked not to take pictures during the ceremony (so that the pro photos wouldn’t show everyone with their phones in the air LOL) so there’s not much to show now, but I can’t wait to see the official photos. Our three little granddaughters were the flower girls and they were cute as can be. SweetiePie did a fantastic job of finding the most gorgeous dresses with some amazing beadwork on them. We need to have another occasion so they can be worn again! I LOVE this cute photo that SweetiePie shot of the girls as they were getting their pep talk from Daddy before the ceremony. Everyone is paying attention! ;-D

We’re back home now after our 16-hour each way drive (MeMum was a champ!) and I can finally share the wedding quilt that I gave the bride and groom. Unfortunately, the only place I could find to take a picture where the quilt wouldn’t drag on the ground, was in mottled sunlight. So, use your imagination and pretend those bright light spots aren’t there LOL.

CuteNiece1 is a flower farmer, so this quilt was mostly about flowers. I appliqued a vase of flowers with a man and wife, initials and year of marriage for the center panel. Then, I surrounded the center panel with a Rifle Paper Co. print that turned out to be the perfect size.

My favorite thing about the quilt is the Always and Always print by Bonnie Christine that I used for the background of the center panel and the sashing around the star blocks. The quote says “I must have flowers … always & always — Claude Monet”. When that print first came out, I knew I would have to use it for the quilt — because I imagine CuteNiece1 says that daily. The 2021 in the center block used to say 2020 — the wedding was originally scheduled for last year, but Covid delayed it a year. Fortunately, I wasn’t to the quilting stage yet when plans changed, so it was an easy fix.

I really struggled with what to put around the center panel, but finally decided to just use traditional star blocks after I saw a picture of a quilt with a big applique center, surrounded by similar stars. I machine quilted the quilt on my domestic machine and I think it took about 6 weeks working in the afternoons to finish it. This quilt is queen sized and finished about 90″ x 99″ which was a lot of wrangling under a domestic machine. The center applique is outline stitched and stippled, the Rifle Paper Co. border has a cable, and the outside border just has straight lines spaced about 2″ apart. The stars and sashing are all stitched in the ditch and I did a little free form flower in the center of each star — those were really fun to do after the tedium of all that stitching in the ditch.

I had to take a picture of my favorite star block below. For some reason I LOVE that fun fabric — I’ve used bits and pieces of it on several recent quilts and I’ll be so sad when it’s gone someday. This might be why I hoard fabric — I love so many of them and I’m afraid I’ll run out! ;-8

For the back I used a Cathe Holden Flea Market Mix floral and CuteNiece1 loved it. It was the first thing she saw when she opened the quilt and she said “Dahlias!”. She had the most beautiful dahlias in her wedding — when a flower farmer gets married, you know she’s going to have beautiful flowers! The binding is an American Jane polka dot — it doesn’t really “go” with the quilt, but I ended up loving it — it just adds to the quirkiness of a traditional star quilt with a funky flea market-ish back. I also added a little tag to the back of the quilt. I don’t usually name quilts, but if I were to name this one, I think it would be the sentiment I put on the tag – “May you be blessed with Love and Happiness”.

So, all done with this one! The newlyweds are honeymooning in Canada and will return to Ashville, North Carolina to start their new life. (If you need fresh flower bouquets, CuteNiece1 can hook you up!) Rumor has it CuteNiece2 will soon be heading down the aisle, so I need to start planning a quilt for her. It’s going to be tougher to nail down a “theme” for her — wedding quilt suggestions gladly welcomed!

Have a great weekend!

XOXO,
Anna

Summertime

8 Comments / June 21, 2021 June 21, 2021 / Chat, Sewing, Travel

Wow. I can’t believe summer is here and almost half of this year has gone by already. Spring came and went in a flash and I’ve been remiss in posting, but we’ve been having lots of fun here in ThimbleannaLand.

There’s been lots of sewing, which is good — it keeps me happy! I made this fun little Cute as a Button bag from a pattern published by Zakka Workshop.

I also used another print of that cute Belle and Boo fabric to make a beach bag using the free pattern from Polkadot Chair. (Now I just need a beach vacation LOL.)

Most of my sewing this spring involved machine quilting this big quilt. I think it’s about 90″ x 98″ or something like that, so it took about 6 weeks for me to get it quilted. It’s all done now (except for a label) but I can’t show it until it’s gifted, which will be in a few months.

And lastly, I made a cute little dress for FinallyAGirl, who, unbelievably, turns 5 years old today. I’m in denial — she can’t be that old yet! The pattern is “The Skipper” from Merchant & Mills and this is the second time I’ve made it for her. She loved the first one so much, but it’s almost too little for her now, so I thought I’d make her another one. As you can see, this one is a bit big (it’s a size 5), but that’s good — hopefully it will carry her through the school year. Both dresses were made out of Rifle Paper Co. rayon — the first dress was a different floral though.

It hasn’t only been sewing around here though. There has been lots of fun with the babies. I went every weekday for six weeks to swimming lessons with the girls. Or, really, I would call them survival lessons in the water. Each of the three girls had 10 minutes a day with the instructor and it was amazing to see their progress. The oldest two went from not wanting to get their faces wet to swimming and jumping in the pool. And the baby learned how to float. The instructor would flip her underwater (which is disorienting) and she would always come up and float. For graduation, they have to swim (or float in the case of the baby) in winter clothing. Here’s a picture of the two youngest in their snowsuits.

I was really surprised that the baby’s snowsuit episode was done with glasses, patch and contact but the objective is to simulate if they were to fall into water fully dressed. And I think the two-year-old is giving me the stinkeye in that picture LOL. Anyway, highly recommended swim lessons!

Also, a few weekends ago, TheSecondChild and I had a little weekend hiking getaway to the upper peninsula of Michigan. We spent an afternoon on Mackinaw Island riding bikes. Luckily, tourist season was just barely starting — we had the ferry to the island all to ourselves, but the return trip was full. I can’t imagine how crowded it must be in the summer. We were there at the perfect time too — there were lilac bushes all over the island that were in full bloom — Sooo Beautiful!!!

The second day in the UP, we made a quick stop to see the bears at Oswald’s Bear Ranch. We were worried that it would be a bit Tiger King-ish, but it was pretty interesting and they seemed to be taking good care of the bears. My least favorite part was watching people get their pictures taken with the bear cubs — it definitely seemed exploitative and cheesy, but I guess they have to pay the bills. {Sigh.} It was worth the stop though and I’d recommend it if you’re in the area.

The rest of the day we took a 10 1/2 mile hike in Pictured Rocks National Seashore. It was beautiful and the weather was perfect. And, I suppose, for posterity, I should note that halfway through the hike I tripped on a tree root and face-planted on the trail. The mouthful of sand, bloody forehead and scratched glasses weren’t pretty, but it is kinda funny. I was just glad not to have broken anything LOL.

Soooo, if you stuck it out this long, Thank You! It’s been a fun spring and I’m looking forward to summer. I’m hoping to spend lots of time with these yayhoos and maybe get back here a little more often.

Happy Summer!

XOXO,
Anna

An Easter Party

22 Comments / April 2, 2021 April 2, 2021 / Family, Holidays

Happy Almost Easter! TheFirstChild and SweetiePie had a little spring getaway and I was lucky enough to be able to take care of our three grand babies while they were gone for 6 days. Amid the usual routine, I decided to have a little Easter party and we had so much fun! I invited MyDadLovesMeBestSister and MeMum for the festivities, and having extra adult helping hands was a huge help!

We started off the party by decorating cupcakes the way MeMum decorated cupcakes with MyDadLovesMeBestSister and I when we were little. We colored some coconut with green food coloring and then made little bird nests filled with eggs (jelly beans) on top of the cupcakes. (I should add here, FinallyAGirl (age 4) loved every minute of this party — she was so excited and had so much fun doing all the activities. FinallyAnotherGirl (age 2) didn’t really understand some of what we were doing, but still had lots of fun, and HurrayAThirdGirl (age 1) was completely oblivious to the party LOL.)

After the cupcakes, we decorated Easter bonnets. I bought little paper bowls for the base of the hats and had lots of Easter grass, ribbons, lace, pompoms, artificial flowers, plastic eggs, and little bunnies and chicks for the decorations. FinallyAGirl had the best time decorating her hat — she was so into every little detail. She planned where every item went and then I attached the items with a hot glue gun. After she had everything on her hat, she saw some lace that she really wanted to use, so we put it around the edge and it made a cute ruffle. MyDadLovesMeBestSister helped FinallyAnotherGirl and they made a really fun little bonnet. FinallyAGirl also insisted that we make a hat for HurrayAThirdGirl too — maybe because she wasn’t ready for the decorating fun to be over LOL. Here are our three little pixies in their Easter bonnets:

After the hats were all decorated, we had a little Easter Parade. Earlier in the week, I told FinallyAGirl that we were going to have a party with a little parade and she was just beside herself with excitement all week over the thought of a parade. She was SO cute and led the little parade out the front door, down the sidewalk and all over the driveway. Everyone (MyDadLovesMeBestSister and I had bonnets and were in the parade too) had noise makers and luckily it was a beautiful day outside. I didn’t really get any good pictures, as we were enjoying the moment, but this one provides a little bit of an idea. The girls, of course, needed to wear princess dresses for a parade!

For the last of three activities, I planned a scavenger hunt. We’d had a Halloween scavenger hunt last fall and the girls loved it, so I thought it would be fun to do it again. On Halloween, we used the Belle and Boo Halloween scavenger hunt print-outs and luckily, Belle and Boo have a darling Easter Egg Hunt print out available. I gave the girls a copy of the map and they loved coloring in the little eggs on the map as they found each character on the hunt.

At each stop on the hunt, there was an activity or a surprise. Activities were things like do 5 jumping jacks, hug each other, and call Uncle TheSecondChild and sing Happy Birthday to him (because it was his actual birthday.) Surprises included bunny hair bows, bunny treat bags (filled with animal crackers), and, because it IS that time of the year, Easter Grammy Surprise Boxes.

I also made each of the girls a Little Cotton Rabbits mouse. I REALLY wanted to have the mice finished in time to be a surprise that they found at one of the steps of the scavenger hunt, but I couldn’t get them finished in time, so they were a few days late. (Silly me, I thought I might have a little knitting time during the week while I was watching the girls LOL.) I LOVE Little Cotton Rabbits patterns — they take me forever to knit, but they are so darn cute.

I took the mice to the girls a few days after our party. They were busy driving their little pink car around the driveway, so, of course, they had to load up their little mice and give them a ride too!

I’m almost recovered from my Grammy week and I had a great time — these little girls make life so fun! Maybe an Easter Party will have to be on the schedule every year!

Have a Wonderful Easter!
XOXO,
Anna

The Tale of Two Little Sweaters

9 Comments / March 13, 2021 March 13, 2021 / Knitting

Way back in the fall I started knitting two little sweaters, one for FinallyAGirl and one for FinallyAnotherGirl. They were intended to be Christmas presents and things were going well … until I ran out of yarn on FinallyAGirl’s sweater. I could have made it work if I’d made the sweater with 3/4 length sleeves, but that just didn’t seem like a good option. So, I decided to just wait until I could get some new yarn.

I had purchased the yarn the previous year at Litla Prjónabúðin in Reykjavík, Iceland, when TheSecondChild visited in 2019. I contacted Dagga, but she had no way to bill me internationally, so that wouldn’t work. I searched online and there were only three places in the states that carried the yarn and they were all out of stock. So, all I could do was wait until new stock arrived. That finally happened in January at Fairlight Fibers and I was able to order the extra ball of yarn and get back to work.

But, boy oh boy, having enough yarn didn’t make the task any easier. The pink sweater fit FinallyAGirl just fine, but the yellow sweater just didn’t want to co-operate. The first problem was that the neck was too small to get it over FinallyAnotherGirl’s head. I ripped it out and knit it looser (and since the sweater is knit top down, the ripping out wasn’t the easiest!) Alas, a looser knit didn’t work, so I decided to steek it and make a little button band. The first button band was only two buttons deep and just not big enough. So, I ripped that out and made a bigger button band.

That seemed to do the trick (hopefully it won’t fall apart, it’s a very shallow steek — luckily the yarn is nice and sticky.) After the neck was done, I decided the sleeves and body weren’t quite long enough so I ripped back the ribbing and added another row of triangles. Luckily, ripping from the bottom was easy and I had plenty of yarn. So, all’s well, that ends well. The little sweaters fit and hopefully they have enough room in them that they’ll both be able to wear them a little bit next year too.

A few details about the sweaters:
Pattern: Thufa by G. Dagbjört Guðmundsdóttir
Yarn: CaMaRose Lamauld 1/2 Llama Wool in Dusty Rose, Ochre, and Natural
Label: This is the Back by Kylie and the Machine

I didn’t get any pictures of the girls in their new sweaters, but SweetiePie sent me this picture the other day. FinallyAGirl was all dressed up and ready for Wacky Wednesday at school!

So now, off to work on a sweater that I started for myself last fall — and ran out of yarn for that one too. This is a trend that hopefully will end soon LOL.

XOXO,
Anna