Two-Ply Corriedale Cross

Day 15: If you were to look around my living space, you'd see multiple projects of various types in different stages of completion. I like to have a variety of crafts going at once because (as I so often say aloud, sometimes in frustration at myself), I have the attention span of a gerbil. A week or two ago, I caught the spinning wheel glaring at me for having ignored it for an unreasonable period of time. I consoled it by completing the two-ply skein of grey yak hair it was holding, and then promptly began a new project of creamy white Corriedale cross wool. One four-ounce skein is finished except for washing and stretching, and the first ply of another is currently in the works. Underneath it, you can see a quilt in progress. It's taking far less long than I expected and I'm only a few weeks away from having it finished, but another quilt has supplanted it and must be completed first.

There are three of us, sisters-of-the-heart for lo, these many years. One lives in New Hampshire, one in New York, and then there's me, out here in the Pacific Northwe't. We haven't all been together for a decade or more, but our multiple daily emails are always shared. Very recently, the New York member of the contingent asked if I would be willing to do a huge favour for her: make a quilt using a top her grandmother had sewn by hand. I was inspired by the "heirloom" aspect of the project and agreed, somewhat along the principle of buying a pig in a poke. I had no idea what I was letting myself in for. Alison understood that, and assured me that I could back out of the commitment if I so desired once I'd seen the quilt. It came in the mail ten days ago. I gave it a preliminary assessment, hatched a few ideas, ran them by Alison and we came up with a Plan. But, as plans of mice and men are wont to do (or I should say "of a Mouse and a needlewoman"), it went a-gley. There were problems with grandma's spacing (four inches between some appliqued plates and seven between others), and my designs just weren't working. I gave the project a serious chunk of think, and proposed a daring idea to my heart's dear sister. I would cut up grandma's quilt and reassemble it with coloured strips in between and a wide border to bring it up to king-size.

Needless to say, this has become a much larger project than initially anticipated, but with Mouse's approval, I went to town today and bought the additional fabric. I also bought some more Corriedale wool because I'm going to need a lot of breaks over the next two or more years.