Projects completed and in progress

Please forgive the Myspace-esque photo above.  It's hard to model and take photos without a tripod.  Anyway, here's one of my knitted cowls that I finished a few weeks ago and [again] never posted.  I saw a great post from The Purl Bee on a herringbone stitch and so I tried it out, using this iridescent shimmering blue yarn that I bought at Artfibers.  The tutorial asked for circular needles and seemed quite difficult at first, so I thought I wouldn't be able to do the stitch with regular needles.  Thankfully, a helpful follower left a comment on the post on how to knit with separate needles, involving the use of a doubled up knit and purl stitch.  I am a fan of simple and mindless stitches that involve NO pattern.

 I'm currently working on another small knitting project and am unsure where it might be going  regarding the pattern but for now, I'll keep adding.  It will probably be another cowl/scarf, which is funny since summer is pretty much here and there would be no need for such things.  But being in San Francisco, I sadly found out that the summers can be very cool and foggy with temperatures staying around the high 50's!  Needless to say, I think that my cowl/scarf making is justified.  :-)

Finally, I received my quilt back from New Pieces Quilt Store.  I'm very happy that I made the decision to get my queen-sized quilt machine quilted by a service.  I choose I simple meandering line that added a subtle touch to the quilt without overpowering the nice patterns and fabrics.  While I was there, the ladies had suggested that I choose a yellow thread that complemented and tied in the mustard yellow color scheme.  It's such a small detail that I absolutely love and makes my first quilt that much special.  I am currently hand sewing the binding on and cannot wait to have it finished on my bed!  So many thank-you's go out to the helpful ladies at New Pieces for being completely supportive and helpful while I was there choosing a pattern.  They really know their stuff and the store has such a wide variety of fabrics.  It's probably a good thing that they're located in far away Berkeley or else I'd be buying fabric everyday!

I hope your projects are going along well and that you all have a wonderful Memorial Day!