The Enchanted Bobbin

 Well...hello!

It has been a while, old blog. And non-monetized blogs are no longer a "thing," are they? Nevertheless, here I am, in need of a place to document what I make. 

If anyone stumbles across my posts, please feel free to comment! But I suspect that these posts will be primarily for me and a few of my closest friends.

So here we go (again)!

MITTENS ('tis the season)

My absolute favourite book of mitten patterns has remained one that is relatively hard to get ahold of (so I'd better not lose it, ever): Solveig Larsson's Knitted Mittens. Here it is, side-by-side with my sweet pup Heidi (a longhaired miniature dachshund, best doggie pal EVER, almost a year old now. Extra pic of Heidi, for good measure).

Isn't she the BEST? Well, yes. She is!

Anyway...

Among other small knitting projects I have been doing in recent months (including lots of sweaters for Heidi and her cousin, who lives around the corner and a hat for myself), I just finished a pair of Larsson's "Eva's Mittens" from stash yarn (mostly Jamieson & Smith) and gifted them yesterday.

CRAFTING (re-jigged)

My sewing life came to an abrupt halt a few months into the global pandemic, when my cat Lulu chewed through the cord to my Juki's foot pedal -- and then proceeded to locate and swallow 5 hairbands which required life-saving emergency surgery. 

Phew. That was a stressful sentence to type, because it was a stressful period of time to live through. 

We live in a small house and I have to craft in shared, common spaces. I thought that perhaps my free-wheeling, multiple projects-at-at-time crafting life had come to an end. But as the months wore on, I felt terrible without these forms of creative expression that are potentially dangerous to two cats with compulsive pica (yes, Coffee Cat has it too -- but his compulsions are for tape and plastic).

I restarted my knitting life with small projects like mittens and hats (easy to stash works-in-progress in zippered bags, no more open baskets for me). 

And I recently managed to reboot my sewing life with -- TA DAHHHHHH! -- my new and very beloved Elna Lotus 2.

Excuse the mess -- but sewing on our kitchen island, on a machine that can be closed safely and fully in a few seconds, has been a LIFE SAVER! This machine was made for me and my obsessive-compulsive chewer cats. I am back, baby! I am now piecing on the Lotus and reserving the Juki 2010Q for the actual quilting.

CLEARING THE DECKS: finishing gift quilts

I have a thousand ideas about what I would like to sew...but first I am clearing the decks, wrapping up projects I had started for friends and family but abandoned when the pandemic and cat neuroses and puppy-raising made sewing impossible for a time.

I am DELIGHTED to report that I finished a quilt for my SIL and BIL, both of whom are now happily retired (as of December). They chose the fabrics when visiting (they live 1000 miles away)...ummmm....8 years ago. Oops. 

Anyway, here are some progress shots -- pieced on the Lotus and quilted on the Juki 2010Q -- and (drum roll) the finished quilt, mailed off yesterday.

You'll see that Coffee Cat kept an eye on me the whole time. Heidi often napped at my feet. It was delightful and no animals were harmed in the making of this quilt. Phew.

Block pattern by Kim Brackett.

After mailing this off, I managed to finish piecing another gift -- this one for neighbourhood friends who chose the pattern and colours. It is queen-sized, so basting on the kitchen island (my VERY NEW approach, developed for cat safety) may be a challenge. We will see.

More soon :) 

xx

J