Color Impaired

A cold snap has hit South Carolina!  And coincidentally, I hurt both my leg (at the gym) and my back (slept in a funny position and twisted a muscle), so I haven't been outside much in the past week.  I've been keeping busy inside, though, both with work and craft projects.

I finished these knitting projects a while back but forgot to photograph them.  First, and my favorite, is this aviator-style hat with a really cute ribbed brim and earflaps.  The pattern is Amelia E. on Ravelry.com. 

Next, I finished that slouchy pink hat knitted in seed stitch with a side cable.  This picture isn't exactly representative of the final project, but it looks really nice on!  I'll have to have Todd take a photo later.

I finished a pair of gloves that have been languishing in my knitting basket for about six months.  I have a matching hat so I'm pleased to get this project completed.  You'll notice that one is slightly larger than the other.  That's what happens when you let so much time go between mittens and forget what size needle you used!  They basically fit, though, so that's what counts. 

I gave up on the socks I was knitting in a very lackluster way this week.  I always knit socks with size 2 needles, even fair isle socks, but I used size 1 for this pair (per the instructions).  The leg was just too small.  I wasn't pleased with the colors, either.  I definitely don't have an eye for color and can't seem to predict what a finished design will look like, even when I scribble a sample sketch with my colored pencils.  And, ahem, sometimes I am too impatient to even take that step.  My mistake here is easy for me to see and hopefully learn from, though.

I used scraps from leftover balls, so I was somewhat limited in my color choices, but see how I picked colors that didn't "pop" together?  Yellow/white and green/blue were the worst culprits.  The grey is a little too dark with the red, and the overall color choices are not cohesive and completely obscure the star that the pattern makes. 

In a way, I did the same thing with the quilt I'm working on.  I have about 12 different fabrics that I'm working with, and my only plan was to try not to have two octagons with the same fabric side by side. I think the blue fabric is a little too dark and doesn't blend well with the cooler colors of the surrounding octagons.  The white stars between the octagons don't really "pop," either.  I gave it a good critical look earlier this week and considered stopping after this current row.  I could still quilt it and then make it into a pretty bit of fabric to hang over the back of one of the couches.  I'm enjoying it quite a bit, though, and have decided to go ahead and finish it.  It's good practice and I've got a lot of fabric.  It will go on a full-size bed.  To get an idea of the size here, each octagon is 8" across.  I try do do one square of two wedges per day.  It's really coming along! 

Otherwise, some smaller projects completed...I made a couple of trips to thrift stores this week in search of picture frames for some art prints I've had laying around here for several months.  I was able to frame all 3 pictures perfectly for about $5.  Score!

I cleaned out my office closet, which was almost dangerous to open before.  I got rid of almost everything and I'm so pleased to have some new space.

Finally, Todd and I started working on our first piece of furniture for the mouse house.  It's a tiny dresser with real removable drawers, done at 1/12" scale!  First we measured the drawings...

...and made the cuts!

I was somewhat hampered by my sore back (sawing is not as easy as it looks!), but we have almost all the pieces cut out.  Then it's just a matter of gluing everything together.  Todd is really excited too and it seems that we get a FedEx shipment of this special wood almost every day! 

Hopefully I'll be able to get outside later this week and try out my new fancy lens that magnifies images x5.  Have a great week!