So this weekend was spent finishing a couple of projects.  It was a lovely cool grey Saturday, so it was perfect.

First was my biggest sewing project to date:

I made duvet cover for my bed!  And I’ll probably never do another one!

So, I hated the comforter on the bed – the fabric was a little rough & I was getting super tired of it – I bought it 3 years ago when we bought the bed.   When I bought Simply Sewing, I saw the pattern for the duvet & thought “prefect!” (after my first reaction of “12 yards of fabric? Are you kidding?”)  It’s not a difficult project when you read over it – basically 5 long pieces of fabric sewn together, then folded in half & sewn up again.  But…those pieces of fabric are LONG (especially for our king sized bed) – 105 inches in fact.  So first was the adventure of ironing the fabric & cutting it out while trying to keep the cat off the pieces since I had to use the floor.  Then sewing it together tried my patience.  That was a lot of cotton fabric, which is not light.  But it was worth it in the end, I even had enough for some pillows.

The fabric is from Connecting Threads – the other company I work for.  I saw the colors in the Twilight Frost collection & decided that those were the ones I wanted in my room.  Luckily, the fabric is really nice & not too expensive.    So I really love it – I’m trying to convince myself I sleep better with it on my bed.

I also realized, with this project,  it is unlikely I will ever quilt.

The other finished item is a pair of socks I’ve had on the needles for an embarrassingly long time.

Groovy

Started: April 3

Completed: September 19

Yarn: Handgefaerbt Merino Extra Fine (or as I like to call it, the “Other Pretty German Hand Dyed Yarn”

Pattern: Groovy Socks

Needles: Size 1.5US

Notes: No I don’t know why it took me so long to finish these.

The yarn is nice. The pattern is nice.  The first one I finished is nice.  I just couldn’t get motivated to work on the second sock.  I never used to suffer from Second Sock Syndrome but it hit me bad.  I finished one in, oh way back in April. I think I even cast on for the second right after I finished the first…and ignored it until Sock Summit.  Then I worked on it there & completed the heel…then I ignored it again.  Finally last week I picked it back up & finished it up.  And hey, guess what?  They are nice socks.

Mostly I wanted to finish them because I really wanted to start a new pair (I am going to conveniently ignore the other two socks with unfinished mates I have, as well socks for CoffeeBoy for now).  When Cristi stayed with me during Sock Summit, she made me promise to do a pair of toe up socks, especially after I learned Judy’s Magic Cast-On.  What better way to do it then with Cristi’s own pattern?

So this is my first adventure in a very long time of doing toe up socks (what can I say? I love my top down socks.) Judy’s Magic Cast-On made a huge difference – you know when people say they hate kitchner stitch? I bloody hate provisional cast-ons, which is what my other toe up socks started as (short row toes).  I am just an idiot when it comes to crochet hooks apparently.

The pattern I choose is Calvin & Ripple (although, sorry Ripple, I keep wanting to call it Calvin & Hobbs).  I freaking love the stitch pattern.  I still didn’t quite get the toe (forgive me, I did just a plain toe) but I’m having fun with it…partly because of the pattern, partly because of the yarn…it’s a Socks That Rock mediumweight mill end, no idea what color way it was suppose to be but I love it.  It reminds me of fall, which is officially starting tomorrow, (according to the calendar although Mother Nature isn’t paying attention because it’s suppose to be in the 90s again. UGH).  Anyway, I’m enjoying every bit of this sock…I haven’t decided if I’ll do another Calvin Sock or switch to Ripple…hey maybe that will solve my Second Sock Syndrome!