It's green, very green

G'day all!

Oh I live in busy times at the moment.  I seem to run from one thing to the next.

A couple of weekends ago - it is already a couple of weeks ago! - we trawled out to Vashon Island to visit a friend and also see my quilt hanging up in Island Quilter.

Nice, eh?  Even if I'm not going to wrangle Blogger into displaying the pictures nicely.

I made the back (the grey and green version) first.  I liked it but not as much as I thought I would.  It is too grey and we see enough of grey in Seattle.

Then I had another go, this time with white.  I also changed up the blocks - in the grey version, all the blocks are surrounded by the opposite colour and then feed into the same colour.  In the white version, the edge ones float - they don't have a border.  That looks pretty cool, eh?  It makes it look completely different.

I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.  It is the largest quilt I've made.  And I made it all on my little sewing machine (it doesn't feel so little when I have to lug it around... sigh).

If you want to go and see it displayed, you'll have to hurry up.  I think it comes down at the start of February and I get it back (lord knows what I'll do with it then...).  It is hanging at Island Quilter, as part of the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild's Binary Challenge.  Island Quilter is on Vashon Island, and is only accessible by ferry, boat or possibly microlight plane.  I wouldn't advise swimming across the Sound ;-)

I would love to share more pics of my daily happenings but Blogger now has decided not to talk to picasa and tells me I have not taken any pics on my phone since the 7th of January.  It lies, I tell you, as my friends on a certain social network will know.  I shall have to try an old fashioned way of inputting photos and...  it worked!

Did I ever share this?  I love it.  Resharing is good :-)

I started making myself a pair of gloves, of course from the tip of the fingers down.  They look fascinating in this pic but I may not be knitting on them much at the moment because

Fingies!  Mmm, cashmere blend.

I have knitted 1.5 socks and started on another sock as well.  One can't have too many socks....   I even got to sit outside for a little while today and knit in the sun - it's been foggy a lot recently but it cleared for a couple of hours and it was lovely sitting out on the back deck.

I've almost rounded the heel on this one now.

I've discovered that the lymphedema sleeves I am paying over $80 for are the wrong compression level for me - no wonder I have issues.  I am supposed to wear the sleeves when I exercise, when I'm using my arm for lots of things like say painting walls or lifting things.  The sleeves I've bought are too lightweight and are about as good as no sleeve at all.  I'm pretty grumpy with the place I got them from - I thought I needed class 2, they said the sleeve are class 2 but they aren't - they are class 1 but size II.  The 1s and 2s vs Is and IIs makes it hard to remember which should be which.  Over $160 down the gurgler.  I'm yet to have words with them.

We've been wrangling with the planning department.  That is a story for another day.  It did help me get a lot of sock knitted.  I knitted from the start of the pattern to the gusset increases in the time we sat waiting for a permit that we couldn't get.  Yet.

I've also found if I lift anything heavier than a few kilos, my voice goes.  It seems to be related to strain in my neck.  It is never perfect but sometimes it is better than others.  It is a real pain in the butt, so to speak, because I am capable of lifting somewhat more than say 5 kilos (11 lb) but I shouldn't and I forget.

I have some quilting stuff I need to do before the end of the month, when I go to a quilting weekend on Vashon.  I'm actually a bit terrified about going away for a weekend with a bunch of quilters - I don't really know many of them very well, I have stupid food challenges and I'm a bit shy.  Really.  My sewing machine is loud and not at all fashionable or expensive.  Plus I'm still making weird noises when I'm asleep (some might say I make them when I'm awake as well) and I think we are sleeping in dorms and I need to take along a mattress pad to sleep on and gosh, it is all scary!  LOL 

It will be fine and it will be fun when I get there.  It's the getting out the door part that is hard.

anon!