Oh fleece lined leggings, where have you been all my life?

 We're having a cold snap where it's been sitting at 0C or -1C during the day, and dropping colder at night. And this morning we actually woke up to an unusual sprinkling of snow (maybe 1/2" deep) which is actually sitting instead of disappearing.  So it feels christmassy.  However the gas fired central heating in our house has always fought an unequal battle against the icy draughts from our many large poorly glazed 1970s windows, and from the chimney flues in almost every room, and coming up through the many gapes between floorboards.  My sewing room in the basement for example has a wood-planked floor directly over an earthen void.  While this saved the room when we had the flood (because the water streamed down into the void), it means I am standing directly on poorly insulated planks over a -1C void at this time of year.  It's worst when it's windy outside and all the draughts come licking into the house.  So my discovery this year of the wonderful delights of fleece lined leggings has been a revelation.  I bought my first pair in November, then promptly bought two more pairs, and have been more or less living in them ever since.  Comfy and warm, warm enough for the void, even warm enough to wear outside with additional legwarmers (yes, I am a fashion plate, can't you tell?).  No more bundling up in bulky trackpants double layered with thin leggings underneath - where have these been all my life?    

Anyway, enough about my fashion choices.   I finished the Christmas Kep knit a few days ago, and have worn it outside twice.  It's lovely and warm with the deep double brim covering the sides of my head, and looks very seasonal.  It feels slightly odd not to have a ribbing band gripping the sides of my head, but because the stockinette band is doublesided, it just sits lightly and securely over the ears. This is knit in Jamieson's Spindrift wool, partly from stash and partly a few new balls I had to buy to get the colour gradiation correct.

I finished up the design wall creation of the New Zealand Kiwiana scrappy quilt using the Turning Twenty Around the Block pattern.  Then I sewed it together, which was quite straightforward because it's all straight seams and almost no seam matching.  My son helped me pick out the inner border colour before we took him home last weekend, he seemed to enjoy critiquing the various choices I was bringing out from my fabric stash - to the point where he put a bid in to own the quilt.  But this is my NZ souvenir, hands off lol.  Then I added the borders during a zoom call with the Chookshed in Australia.  For the backing, I spent a few more days piecing together all the larger remnants of the 25 Kiwiana fabrics because I can't see using them for anything else. And now it is upstairs in the 'to be quilted' queue by the long arm. It is an extremely busy quilt but I think it has come together surprisingly well to become a 'green quilt', considering I was just buying the fabrics I came across with no real plan on how they were going to go together.

design wall

completed top

I finished longarm quilting the Embroidered Blocks quilt and it's off the frame.  Since taking this picture, I have washed and dried it and it's now waiting to be bound.  This was another learning quilt where I was trying new things - most of them worked, some of them didn't.  I didn't get the quilting density very even so it's never going to hang completely flat.  It's the first time I've tried quilting around embroidered blocks so that was a learning curve.  I tried out some new free motion filling patterns and some of those are a bit messy.  I'm getting better at stitching in the ditch. This is the kit that I bought in Paducah in 2022, then I took the blocks with me to Japan in 2023 to embroider during my 7-week trip.  I modified the design to combat the asymetry by adding the nine blocks on the right, it's still a bit weird looking but I like the folksy Americana 30s  vibe.  I also tried out a cool new ruler I ordered from QuiltOff in America, which allowed me to stitch a very even 'ribbon candy' design in the inner vertical background space - not something I can manage freehand.

I am still plugging away on the Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament, adrift in the random pixellation of the sky area which is so far beyond my limited counting ability that I am at best producing an approximation of the actual chart.  I even drew a grid and have tried so hard but keep going wrong so I've kind of given up and am just going with it now, and just filling in gaps with whatever.  I just need to finish filling in the sky then I can get to the back stitching which is the good stuff that brings the design to life.  There are also some beads and sequins to be sewn on.

After finishing up the Kiwiana top, I have rewarded myself with a completely frivolous fabric folly.  I dug out the American Country panels by Masako Wakayama that I bought at her shop Crib Quilts in Tokyo in 2023.  I had already made up the projects from American Country 21 previously, so I was interested to see what 22 and 23 would offer.  The instructions for 22 (translated using my smartphone with Google Translate) were for very similar little projects to 21: little boxes, an oval zipped box, a tote bag etc.).  23 takes a different approach, you can choose to either use the bulk of the panel as a wall quilt, or, cut it up to again make similar little projects such as tote bags.  I decided to make the wall quilt from 23 so that has gone up to the 'to be quilted' queue.  But for 22, I decided to use the panel for a different bag shape from the Masako Wakayama book that I own.  This is like a little lunch pail with internal pockets and a central zip pocket.  It's been fun choosing which parts of the panel to cut up, plus I appliqued a few motifs onto the side gussets for decoration. I've interfaced the pieces with Vilene G700 woven interfacing, and a bit of light Decovil in the base, to give a bit of structure in addition to the wadding layer. I'm using the Japanese construction method where each piece is individually finished, then handstitched together to construct the bag.

I've taken down all the Christmas decorations and they are put away, leaving the house looking a little boring.  The tree is out in the front yard, awaiting collection by a charity that takes trees away in return for a donation.

I mentioned last week that I have been feeling tempted for quite a while by the idea of a weaving loom.  Reading the weaving magazine I got in my stocking led to watching various Youtube and Craftsy videos about rigid heddle looms and how to choose a first loom. But what tipped the balance was coming across a reference to a Japanese Clover loom for Sakiori weaving - which is weaving with strips of old fabrics - which can also be used as a rigid heddle loom for normal weaving.  I was intrigued and looked into it, and it sounds a lot easier to set up than a normal rigid heddle loom because the warp threads just sit in grooves rather than having to be individually pulled through slots in a heddle.

They are also quite reasonably priced - in Japan.  Shipping them to the UK adds on over 50%, bringing them in at a similar cost to a rigid heddle loom except that I was also able to include accessories such as a second heddle bar for sock yarn weight, additional shuttles and a few other things.  So I spent my Christmas money (and some more) on that and it should arrive over the next couple of weeks from Amazon Japan.  I am rationalising this by the idea of using up some of my knitting stash on the loom, and maybe even some of my quilting stash if the fabric strip weaving is feasible.  What is retirement for if not a time when you can try out something new?

Happy new year everyone!  And may 2025 bring you lots of crafting joy and success.