Meanwhile, back at the ranch

I didn't get a whole lot done yesterday.  A few rows in the morning a few rows at night, and that was it.  Today though, today, my name is knitting.

I intend to move this one forward.  It shouldn't take too long, really.  It is after all down hill from here.  

After knitting a very large part of the sweater without knowing just what kind of sleeves I would do, just what I was doing on the shoulders, I have finally come to a decision.  It will be bottom up, simultaneous set in sleeves with a saddle.  Of course, at this point, the saddle is still negotiable.  That is part of the fun of not following a pattern.  I can change my mind as I go, depending on what I feel like doing the moment I need to start doing it.  Sometimes, it blows up my face, but that is part of the fun of it too.  The adventure of the unknown.

There will be a point today, when my hands are going to give out.  I know that already.  When they do, I am going to be working on this.  

I have had this quilt topper on the go for at least 10 years.  There was no rush on it.  I worked on it in batches of time when I had nothing else to do.  Its the style of quilt topper from when quilting meant sewing the layers together and elaborate patterning in the stitching was the focus as much as the sewing the top together.  I was doing it for the stitching not sewing the topper.  The white squares will eventually have a stitched fan across the corner topped with an elaborate spray of roses.  The stitching on the white squares will be done in soft dusty blue thread.

Or that is the plan.  Its always been the plan.  It stayed as a plan for a very long time.  Till one day last week, when my hands needed a rest from knitting.  I had knit a ton, had wound as much laceweight as I could bear in one sitting, and I still needed to be doing something so I wouldn't drive myself nuts. I dug in the cupboards till I found the quilt top and decided now was the time.  Up till now, only half the squares were sewn together and it is time to move this puppy along.  

At the time I started it, I meant it to be a quilt for my bed, a queen size.  Now I mean it to be for the guest bed, a double.  The half done top was magically a 3/4 done top.  Its plenty large now, so the only sewing left to do is the plain blue borders.  

There has never been a rush to do this, but things change.  There is a sort of rush on it now.  Remember these?

Taking up a lot of room.  It would really be nice to put the 'turn down the furnace, sleep under wool quilt' part of that plan into action.