Less haste, more speed

So I blocked my Aran Sampler Sweater  on Tuesday, let it dry until Friday, then Friday night I hand-seamed the shoulders together. This morning I thought "I'll just give those seams a quick shot of steam before I sew in the sleeves on my linker."

Then this happened.

And it won't wash out.

I was pressing onto a wooden ironing ham that my f-i-l made me, which I've used several times for quilting when you want a really firm surface to press on.  It's never made any marks on the fabric I've pressed, yet when I turned over my first seam to see how it had come out, there was this horrible brown stain all along the wool.  It isn't burnt wool - it almost seems to be some kind of dye or oil and yet I don't believe he used either when he made the ham. I tried various cleaning agents and it won't come out.

So I guess the only thing to do is to let it dry, and unpick the seam, unpick the stained knitting, and re-knit the back and front shoulders.  Luckily even though I don't have much yarn left, I've got enough to do that.

Earlier this week I seamed together the blocks of my Star Sampler Quilt with the inner border.  The pattern binds off the quilt around the outer blocks, but there is an alternative version which has an outer border.  I tried the first version on a double bed.

I thought it looked a bit skimpy and not covering the bed sufficiently to be useful.  So I went ahead and added the outer borders.  I didn't have enough fabric left to cut them all in one length, I had to piece four cornerstones to make up the length.

I like it better in the bigger size, it covers the bed properly and the blocks are set off better.  So that can move out of the 'needs to be pieced' queue and into the 'needs to be quilted' queue now.

I finished my first Mixalot Sock which I quite like apart from the badly-worked shortrow heel.  I'm considering cutting the heel out and knitting a new one back in, but I'll see how I feel after I knit the second sock (which I've started). The fit is quite good, although as usual with my handknit socks, it's not going to stay up my calf in wear.

Otherwise this week I've been working on my bobbin lace,  and knitting the Capelet.  It's been a fairly quiet week because I still wasn't feeling 100%.  Today was a gorgeous sunny day, up to 17 degrees C, so we went out and did a big clean up in the garden: cutting down all the dead stuff, raking up leaves, pruning roses etc.  There are loads of bulbs coming up and you can see them better now that all the debris is gone.  Spring is coming!