Shoot, man. It's been such a long time since I've posted about my crafting....

that it's hard to remember where I left off.

I feel like we need to have a "Last time on Frog Monkey..." synopsis like they do on The West Wing and other complicated plot shows.

Well, let's just go through the photos I uploaded to Flickr, shall we?

1. The nephew quilt. No photo of this, but when I washed the backing for my nephew-to-be's quilt, I washed it with another piece of flannel that I was considering piecing it together with. That stupid piece of flannel bled on my pretty duckies. I could not believe it. I reviewed the quilt sandwich process and started thinking about putting it together last night, but decided that the imperfect flannel just wouldn't do (this is partly on the advice of my perfectionist sister, and (surprisingly) against the advice of my usually "just so" husband). So, La and I hit Joann's this morning and found lots of good stuff. We found some flannel for the back that was even more perfecter. Two choices even. Both pick up the colors in the front and have decidedly boy themes. One with trucks and one with trains. They're both clean and ready for a decision.

2. I finished my socks! (My sister is getting the jaywalkers.) I finished sock 1 last Friday at work and was so desperate to start sock 2 that I made a yarn needle out of a paperclip. Not a high precision instrument, but will work in a pinch. I started Sock 2 last Friday and worked on them through a lot of the Lake Howell vs. Lake Brantley football game. The Monkey made his marching band debut at "Middle School Night" with Lake Howell's band. Frankly, it was disturbing to me (a) to sit on the band parents' side of the line and (b) how little marching band has changed since 1989. Well, no one played Peter Gunn, and the other band played "Dr Who" (which is "after my time"). I finished Sock 2 in under a week - I think on Thursday.



3. In other FO news, I finished a trio of hats.



This one is done, but not photographed. It's also really a cranberry color, not that crazy pink you might be seeing. It's City Lights yarn - got a grab bag from Patternworks a while ago and it's been marinating since. The texture is interesting. The hat features a rolled brim followed by a 2x2 rib, similar to Alison's green and yellow hat on the free patterns page. It's for a charity. Don't know which one yet - I'm open to suggestions. It was inspired by Fig and Plum (Sep 7 and Sep 10). I'm thinking about making a scarf to go with it - the cranberry is less than ideal for the neck of a scarf, but I'm thinking about making that zig-zag one from Scarf Style with the red towards the end and a more comfy yarn in the back-middle.



And here, modeled by Coffee Cup is a doll hat and a toddler sized hat for a little girl - a friend of a friend. They are in Cotton Ease. The little girl hat also has a bit of the roll-brim combined with rib, but only 3 rows of stockinette and then the 2x2 rib. I tried like heck to embroider something on the hat, but it was drowning in dorkiness. I still kind of think it needs something, but I'm just not sure what.

4. Hey Look! It's another FO!



The curtains for LaLa's room. She has a sliding glass door for a window. I have no idea if I went about making tab-top drapes the right way, but they seem to work fine. They could probably use a lining on the back - but they're probably OK. Turns out these were mostly done. All they needed were the top and bottom hem on one panel and the tabs sewn on. Within an hour of finishing them, DH was putting up the rod - she had verticals in the room before. La seemed to be very pleased with them.

5. An impulse quilt!



This is made out of the leftover blocks that I cut out for my SIL's baby quilt, and I believe it's destined for Project Linus. It's from before I changed the palette, adding red and orange to the gift quilt. It's still not really a palette I would have picked out, but I'm starting to appreciate it. The colors feel soft and gentle to me, and I guess there's a place for that, but that's not usually my approach to kid projects. My usual strategy is to aim for "fun and exciting", and I think that comes in with the disorder of the block layout. It'll be about 31x36" when I square up the right side. I'm not sure what to put on the back. That ducky flannel that I had for SIL's quilt would be perfect, if it weren't smudged with blue. I also like the blue that I have for the edge of SIL's quilt, except it doesn't have that flannely fuzz. I think it needs something delicate and soft for the back - maybe a solid baby blue flannel or a smallish regular print.

Current and future projects?

I'm working on the sweater for the monkey:


Jaywalker socks (no new photo.)

Still anticipating the Shetland Triangle (Thanks for your help!)


I picked up a slew of remnants at Joann's today for new bags. I've started matching the fabric to aunts.

For some reason, I just really want to make a pair of mittens. Don't ask me why. They're quick? They're mostly stockinette in the round? They're fun? They're kind of interesting? I get to use my favorite DPN on them? Who knows. All of the above?