Mini Archie's October Furtle Around The Blogosphere

Hello!  How is it the end of October?!  I mean, really, where does the time go?!  This month I have been very diligent:


I finished the third and fourth pairs of socks from my Made By Penguins lucky dip.  Here they all are together:

Another four LV blocks have been made:

A pair of socks in double knitting yarn (very quick to knit up) have been finished, albeit with a slight adjustment as this is all the yarn I had left after finishing knitting the second sock:

I don't care how good you are at Kitchener stitch, that is not enough yarn to do it!
(There was a grand total of 13" left from the fist ball - one length of 8" and one of 5")

After doing a bit of pondering, I decided to pull back the final 'knit to the end of the third needle' round and the last needle of the previous round (so one whole round just not, technically, the same round!) and that left me with enough yarn to graft the toe closed:

They don't match because, as you've seen, there wasn't enough yarn!

This is item 18 on my Q4 FAL list and I will be linking up when the time comes.


The other thing I've been working on this month, and you might need to sit down for this news, is a long-term resident on my FAL list:

(Those of you with very (very) long memories will already know this!) These are going to become the alternate blocks between the embroidered Summersville blocks (must get back to writing and typing up those remaining block stories...) and will be, after a quite a bit of pressing and lots more sewing, nine patches. This quilt will make it off the list! At some point...



Well that's me done for the month, how did you get on?



Mini Archie got a wonderful parcel this week after apparently placing an order with his chum Pearl Mouse on instagram who assists the very talented Jackie of Brownshandmade:

It's Chriiiiiiiiiiiiiistmas!!!  *does a jig*  *stops*  What does you mean, not yet?!! *tuts*

Linking up to the October Furtle 

If you're linking up, please add a link (one per person, please) to your blog post, which could contain: a mosaic of all you've made in the month, something you've made/started/worked on, a goal which you'd like to achieve in the next month (and then in next month's post you can reflect on that goal and set yourself another one - I find this particularly handy if I'm in the midst of a big project and finding the making of hundreds of blocks to be interminable), anything crafty you'd like to share. This isn't just for sewing or quilting, but is for all crafts so if you knit, make lace, make clothes, do anything which could come under the heading of 'craft', then please link up. Please visit the link immediately before and after you and leave an encouraging comment, and more if you can manage it - we all know that comments create joy, so let's spread some around. Also, please treat all the linked posts and their authors with respect - I want this to be an inclusive space for all crafters and crafts and all are welcome. If you're not sure if you're welcome or you belong, you do - this is by no means a closed space and if you want to join, then you are most welcome. If you need help linking up, please leave a comment and I will do my best to help. Please add the Furtling button to your blog post: copy the code below and paste it into your blog post - it should then magically appear when you publish your blog post (I'll do my best to help if you have any problems) and it will help people find the Furtling page with all the details of the link up.

<p style="text-align:center"><a href="https://archiethewonderdog.blogspot.com/p/furtling.html"><img src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fJ7oo6tyMM0/XFF5HxcQW1I/AAAAAAAAEJU/BZnZPfse8k0BXwjt6KAOJIMwySjnfDHbQCLcBGAs/s200/textgram_1548790799.png" alt="Archie The Wonder Dog" /></a></p>

To link up, go to the link at the bottom of this page and click on 'link up' (it's a blue button) and then add your link (website URL), a title (this could be your blog name but could also be something interesting to draw people to it (keep it clean!) if you prefer), and your email. This last one doesn't appear on the link (I will have access to it - I won't use it unless there's a problem and I need to contact you) so don't worry that you're about to share your email address with the world (or the handful of people who find this link), you're not! The link will remain open until 10th November; if you're seeing this post after this date, I'm afraid you can't link up to the October Furtle, but you can link next month if you like.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

FAL Finish: Socks! (Yes, Again!)

One of the advantages of having something very close to being done at the start of the quarter is that you can get an easy finish under your belt while you're still reeling from the length of your newest FAL list.  The previous pair of socks fell into that category, but these weren't quite as far along. They were quick to knit, though, because I kept having to knit until the next pop of colour and then the next and the next and the next and before I knew it, they were ready to have their toes grafted!

At the start of the quarter, the socks (well, the sock - this is the first one) looked like this:

And now they look like this:

They're knitted with yarn from Made By Penguins and I can wholeheartedly recommend Lisa-Lou's yarn.  And yes, the yellow is that bright!  As with the previous pair, I think there must be some UV reactive dye in them because the colours are even brighter in sunshine than they are in normal 'inside' daylight - I love standing at the window and taking them from shade to sun and back again! 

This is item 13 in my Q4 FAL list and I'll be linking up when the time comes.

You'd think two finishes this early in the quarter would mean I could sit down with a cup of tea without being grilled on what I'm going to finish next, wouldn't you? Not in this house.

I launched #StickyProdAlong2019 yesterday and I needs to question you about your lack of progress wif your project...

Thanks for popping in!

FAL Finish: Yes, You've Guessed It, Socks!!

I have three pairs of socks on my Q4 FAL list and this is the first of them to be finished.

At the start of the quarter, they looked like this:

And now they look like this:

The yarn is from Made By Penguins and is absolutely gorgeous, both to knit with and look at. And yes, the socks really are that bright in real life!  I suspect they have a UV reactive dye in them because they glow in sunlight - Mam will have ReadyBrek Man feet this winter!

This is item 12 from my Q4 FAL list and I'll be linking it up when the time comes.

Needless to say, Mini Archie isn't letting me rest on my laurels:

I has mine beady eye on you...

Thanks for popping in!  (Don't forget that next Thursday is Furtling Day!)

FAL Finish: Not Socks!!

I've managed to squeeze in a final finish this quarter and it's one which has been languishing on my FAL list since Q1 2015 - I think it had given up all hope of being finished, but I knew I'd get to it one day.  It is item two on my Q3 FAL list and I'm linking up with mere hours to spare!

This is what it looked like at the start of the quarter (and the start of every quarter since Q1 2015!):

The best photo I have of it - a blurry one.  What a surprise!

The reason this made a reappearance on my FAL list (it was finished for the first time in Q2 2014 - here's the 'It's finished!' blog post from then) is because the bobbin thread kept snapping.  Initially, I was going to re-quilt each line (one at a time so I could keep the binding on) with a heavier thread, but the thought really didn't appeal, which is why it has remained untouched for so long.  A couple of weeks ago, I got it out, had another think and decided that I could add quilting in the ditch in the heavier thread to help stabilise the bias stretch and hopefully reduce it enough to stop the original quilting snapping.  (As well as replacing the snapped lines in the original thread - I re-quilted eight in all, I think.)  So I set to using my preferred quilt management system: shoving! I quilted along all the sashing strips and then round the frames of each block - it meant lots of ends to darn in (remember that I left the binding on so had to darn in each and every end!), but it was worth it.  Or, rather, I hope it will be because I don't want this to be on the list for a third time!

The one drawback of the shoving system with my machine is that the reverse tab is right above the needle and the bulk of a quilt quite often pushes the tab back and activates it. Most annoying when you're chugging along and suddenly start going backwards! To combat it, I use a cocktail stick snapped in half (and a bit of washi tape to keep it in place) which means the tab can't go back even if pushed. The washi doesn't leave any residue and the sticks are then put back in the box for next time.  I sometimes have to put a piece of paper/thin card over the sticks (before the washi) to help keep them in place if I'm quilting a very bulky quilt, but it wasn't necessary with this quilt.

Here's what the front looked like once all the extra quilting was done, but before it was washed and dried (something I've not dared do before for fear more threads would snap!):

And here's what it looks like after a go in the washer and then Mam's drier:

The weather has been, um, wet, so inside photos it was given that my preferred fence was soaked and I wasn't about to put a freshly washed quilt on it!

If you peer really closely, you can see the extra quilting lines on the back.  The diagonal lines are the original lines, the horizontal and vertical lines are all new.

You can see the extra quilting lines better in this one

I didn't think I'd say this, but I actually prefer it now!  The extra quilting lines mean it's beautifully crinkled - the extra quilting lines only show on the back so from the front it looks like an extra crinkly quilt, and from the back all the texture from the quilting (in a matching thread - grey on top, aqua on the bottom) show up.

I had help taking the photos:

What the hell are you doing?!

Mini Archie has been climbing the sunflowers:

I knows I looks spiffing up here! And Mr Sun and Mrs Blue Sky comed out specially for I!

Thanks for popping in!  Why not pop over to the finishes link and visit a few people and their finishes?