These two sets are a teaser for a new product I’ll be debuting at Flame Con: wine glass charms! 
The blog may be a bit Flame Con centered until August, but never fear — I’m still fundraising for Doctors Without Borders for all of 2017!
Items that debut at Flame Con will be available for non-attendees after the con is over.
Hello, all! I’ve been quiet because keeping up with Etsy orders, school, and work has been keeping me quite busy, but I’ve got some news to share with you!
First of all, in 2017 I’ll be fundraising for Doctors Without Borders. The work they do around the world is sorely needed, and their charity ratings are excellent and overheads are low.
Secondly, I’ve been thinking about moving the shop to a new platform for a while: the fees Etsy charges take more of my fundraising profits than I’d prefer, and so this year I’ve taken the leap to a new site. You can now find the shop at knitspinquilt.com. I’ve done the math, and moving to a Squarespace backed shop will allow me to donate a larger percentage of my prices to charity.
I’ll be transitioning away from Etsy gradually: for now I’m letting listings expire as their time comes, and I’ll be setting up new links on social media to direct traffic to the new site over the next two months. I hope to have everything moved over by the end of April, 2017. New products and exclusives will be released on the new site over the next few weeks and months.
You’ll see when you visit the new site that I’ve changed the percentage I’m donating to 30% of purchase prices. This is because I have had so much more traffic than I ever expected, and I simply can’t afford to donate materials costs and overhead anymore: you have helped me donate $3,000+ to charity since 2015, and I love that so very much, but since materials and overhead are the majority of my expenses, I can’t do that out of pocket anymore. Grad school stipends at my university are generous, but NYC cost of living isn’t low!
I will always be transparent with you about what I’m doing and how I’m doing it, and why. Please comment or email me at info@knitspinquilt.com if you have any questions and I’ll do my best to answer them!
Some of you may remember that I made a Scrappy Trip Around the World quilt a few years ago as a wedding present for friends, and another one for a friend’s baby.
The larger quilt was queen size: here it’s being held up by my father (6’4″) who is standing on a chair:
The smaller quilt was for a baby:
Both were made using the Quiltville Scrappy Trip pattern.
I initially thought about doing a pieced back for the large quilt, and I’ve had blocks 12.5″x12.5″ cut for ages with no purpose. Instead I decided to use them for a new, small, scrappy trip around the world quilt.
The newest quilt will be a lap quilt, in differently-formatted blocks: they’re blocks of 4 instead of blocks of six. The colors are a departure for me, and I’m not sure I’m going to want to keep it in the end, but it’s been really soothing to get back to my machine for a quilting project again.
I’m fortunate enough to be traveling for research this summer, and doubly-fortunate enough to be staying with friends for much of the trip. I’m doing research for my dissertation and visiting London, Oxford, Paris, and Munich.
Right now, I’m staying with a friend in a rented house in London, with a lovely back garden:
In that picture, you may have noticed my drop spindle. I had to finish spinning that project to clear off my spindle because today, as many of you may know, the Tour de France began – which means that the Tour de Fleece also began. Here’s what I’m starting with:
The rainbow is a 35% mohair/65% silk blend, and the blue is a Polwarth/merino/silk/alpaca/stellina blend. Both are from Hilltop Cloud, because I thought that I should buy fiber from UK suppliers while I’m in London. It turns out that VAT is about the same as shipping to the US, but I’m loving the fiber so very much that I can’t be sorry.
A few months ago I agreed to barter for quilting services: I would quilt an acquaintance’s quilt top, and she would pay me in yarn and fabric. Life intervened, and she was very patient as I proceeded to have zero free time around the holidays.
But now it’s done! Here’s the front, post-washing:
I stitched in the ditch to emphasize the swirly quilting:
The back (pre-washing, and quite wrinkly) shows the outline of some of the curves slightly better:
If you look carefully on the right-hand side you can see a sleeve for a dowel, so the quilt can be hung from a wall. I’d ordinarily do corners, but this was so wide that I was afraid it would sag in the middle.
I’m delighted to have this done and in the mail back to its owner – and can’t wait to get a box of yarn and fabric in exchange. Now if only the postman would show up to pick it up the way the USPS says they already have!
Hello, all, and welcome to KnitSpinQuilt.
My first finish is a DPN/knitting notions roll I made for my mother. She loves the subway fabric from City Quilter, here in NYC, so I’m always looking for an excuse to make her something out of it.
I’ll be adding more images over the course of the day of hand-woven dishtowels for my sister, and socks for my mother, father, and sister’s boyfriend. So keep your eyes peeled, and check back often to see not only my updates (I’ll tweet the pictures too) but also to check other people’s linked finishes!
If you haven’t done this before, here’s how to participate in TGIFF:
Sneak peek of projects shared: (click the InLinkz button above to click through and comment on blogs!)
Hello, all! This Friday, December 25 — Christmas Day — I will be sharing some finished projects with you all.
I know it’s a busy day, but perhaps you might want to take a break from your holiday celebrations to share photographs of finished gifts that you’ve had to keep a secret until they were opened! I’m planning on posting the linky party and then updating it with mid-unwrapping-pictures of presents I’ve woven, knitted, and sewn.
Not familiar with TGIFF? Click the image below to go learn more about it, or come back on Friday and participate!
Another baby quilt – this one using up scraps from the Little Prince baby quilt I made last month.
I had extra 5″ squares of yellow and grey, so I decided to make a half-square triangle quilt. I had just enough triangles to put them in two corners, and used scrap grey for the borders.
The backing is the same as the Little Prince quilt – just enough of it left, too!
And I used strips of the backing fabric for the binding – Riley Blake cottons really seem to like being bindings in my hands, so I’m pleased with how it came out:
The stitching is a little awkward – I attached the binding to the front instead of the back, but I’m still pretty pleased with how it came out.
Now to find a baby for it to go live with!
Linking up to TGIFF!
Knit-Spin-Quilt 