Quiet on the MidWest Front

Did you think I had fallen off the face of the planet?

That I had given up knitting needles and taken up some other form of addiction?

Or something more sinister? Or depressing?

I know I worried my friends, my email box was filled with notes, some of which went along the lines of "you don't even have to type anything, just hit reply so I know you are still alive, if not ok".

It has been a rough 6 months.  And, really, that is all you get to hear about it.

If it wasn't for the fact that it has been 6 months I wouldn't even have any knitting to show you!  I wish I could say it was because I have been working on test knits for books (I have but nothing that extensive) or secret knitting rather than some weeks it being an accomplishment for me to knit one row on a sock!

Luckily, there is a little bit of a back log of knits now, after all Christmas knitting did get done although not as much as in prior years and there is a new pattern from Andrea to talk about!

But when last we spoke I was working on my "Copy Cat Kelpie" which involved a yarn in a colorway called Vincent and the Doctor.

The pattern was another one of Andrea's, a Moebious that we had knit as part of a group project.  Another knitter had used this yarn and I instantly fell in love and needed one for myself!  As yarn wasn't in my budget for that right then, I bemoaned my lot and suddenly it arrived in my mailbox courtesy of a friend.  I have to keep stealing the finished scarf from TDQ, she loves it as much as I do, so I have taken to hiding it...but I won't say where, I think she stalks the blog when I am not looking!

But, I mentioned there was a new pattern to talk about!  One I haven't actually finished knitting, but that is more about my reluctance to be as free spirited as I should and just run with some randomness!

Andrea has a pattern in the next Knitting Traditions magazine, Margarita's Coverlet.  As with all test knits, a select group of us got to try out the charts and read through the pattern long before it will hit the stands and we started making hexegons.

The whole idea was to use up those ends of yarn from making socks, join them together and make a blanket.  Andrea has very clear instructions about making different sizes, from crib blanket to bed coverlet.  I dove right in and started knitting with the leftovers from Christmas socks past.

 And created the first "flower"

 But rather than continue adding hexes to the outside of the flower, my mind wandered to quilts.
 
Specifically a Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt (which truth be told is my second favorite quilt style, my favorite is the Double Wedding Ring, but I am not up to knitting one of those!)

I should have done some math first though, even if I make a smaller blanket, and not something big enough for my bed I will be knitting something on the order of 127 hexes before I am done!

The individual hexes go pretty quickly.  Cracker knitting really, you know, you can't just have one!  But they got put aside in favor of other Christmas knits and then.....Well, I still have a lot of knitting to do!  I lost a lot of knitting time the past few months, maybe by next year I will have the finished project to share. When I get there, Amanda has promised to sew in the last three yarn ends for me!  :)

~M