WiP Wednesday and TNT Thursday: New Addictions

 I had so much fun this week!  I picked blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries with a friend.  We went to a parade and carnival in a local town, I tried out knitting and Tuscan crochet, got a bunch of fun new crafty supplies, FINALLY made progress on my crochet fusion blanket, and made my first block in the Tetris Quilt-A-Long!  What a busy week!  I'm linking up with WiP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced and TNT Thursday over at Happy Quilting.

Here's my small fry with a blueberry.  He just LOVED them.  We started by picking raspberries and he thought those were okay until he tried a blueberry.  Later when we put both on his plate for lunch he ate all the blueberries and donated the raspberries to his Dad's cause.  The next day we went back for more blueberries and some blackberries.

Saturday brought a parade to the city next to us and our family had so much fun!  Don't worry, all those kids aren't mine.  I have the three next to/on top of me and the one in the orange ball cap on the red chair.  The rest are good friends old and new.

I attempted knitting for the first time ever!  I've crocheted for over seven years now but felt the urge to try what other people have told me was the easier skill.  It may be my years of crochet experience talking but I think they're on something.  Knitting was TOTALLY harder for me.  I'll have to hold the verdict until I've been doing it for more than two days.

Here's my first knitting attempt.  This is a garter stitch.  I was able to cast on, do the stitch, and later bind off.  I learned all of this from a book that came with my knew knit kit (Susan Bates Learn Knitting).  I think it might be easier if I did it while watching someone like on youtube but the computer was unavailable.  It's not perfect but I'm pretty proud of my first attempt.

I also tried Tuscan Crochet.  FAIL!  Seriously, this was an epic fail!  I tried three times and this is the best I came up with.  There are enough rows here that it should have been flat and pretty but it looks more like a Churro.....

See the resemblance to the above crocheted thing?  Yeah if only it was tan not pink I would have totally made this.  Too bad I wasn't attempting to make a churro.

Look at all my fun new crafty things!!  Thank you Joann for a fabulous coupon and sale combo, also my cute hubby for supplying the funds.  I got my learn knitting kit, some yarn, the crochet thread I need for my fusion blanket, two quilting templates (one as dragonflies and one has roses both with meander) and pencils to draw them on.  A Tuscan crochet hook, a walking foot, and a 1/4" foot.  I haven't tried as many of these as I've wanted to but I hope to in the next week.

I finally finished sewing and flipping all 99 charm squares for the crochet fusion blanket.  I had to sew 198 squares together, trim the corners and then flip them right side out.  It took a lot longer than I wanted it to.  I still have to do two rounds of top stitching before I can do a blanket stitch with my crochet thread and THEN I can finally start to crochet around them.  I thought this project would go much faster than this and it's getting a tad frustrating.  This is Sassy by Sandy Gervais for Moda in case you were wondering.

This is the stockinette knit stitch.  To make this I had to knit one row then purl one row.  I was okay with the knit row but the purl row gave me a bit of a challenge.  It was difficult for me to switch in my brain from one to the other.  I also learned that while the stitches may be "easier" there are so many more ways for knitting to go wrong.  For example, if your crochet hook falls off, not really a big deal.  If your knitting needles fall off, oh my freaking gosh it's a mess!  Yeah, not a fan!  As a consolation prize my hubby saw this and said, "hey, it looks like a sweater!  Could you knit me a sweater?"  Um, yeah right!  I've only been doing this for two days!

Here's the back of the stockinette knit stitch.  There are a few problem areas but I'm still pretty proud of it.

Yesterday was the first block post for the Tetris Quilt-A-Long.  I was so excited I had my block completed within an hour of finding the post.  See the full post on this block here.

I had so much fun crafting and playing this week!  I love it when productivity and good times come together.  Here's to another great week and thanks for stopping by!