Let the Holiday Knitting Begin!

I have started on my first present! I feel so ahead of the game, for now anyway. This delicious yarn, that was the yarn-of-the-month at sock guild last month, is going to be socks for these feet:

Don't they look in serious need of hand knit socks? I am using the free pattern that was recently posted on the Spud and Chloe Yarn website. I thought it would be really easy to find a simple child sock pattern online, but not so much. Luckily they posted this one a couple weeks ago and it was just what I was looking for and saved me from having to do actual math to convert the simple adult pattern I already had. These are pretty much the exact same socks as the first and only socks I've ever knit, just child size. Seems like the smaller size should be a quick knit, but you never know with how easily distracted I am. And of course, another pair must be made for the little sister next.

Close-Up Machine Sewn Binding

I have had a few requests to show a close-up of the serpentine stitich I used to machine sew the binding on my butterfly quilt and am finally getting around to obliging. I will start from the back, since that is the side where you are sewing when you start the binding...




The stitch is just an elongated S. It is one of the basic stitches on my bernina and I just increase the stitch length and practice on scrap fabric until I get it how I want it. Then you just carefully sew along the edge...



If you did a good job of folding your binding over the edge in equal amounts, then when you flip it over you will have also sewn along the edge of the front side...




However, if you have a spot that you accidently pulled the binding fabric too tight or too loose, you will run away from the edge on the front (because you were following the wonky edge on the back). Now, I don't pin or clip my binding in any way, I just fold it and stitch (gasp!), so if you are a methodic pinner or clipper you probably won't run into this problem. This was the first time I ever used this method, and it is a pretty big quilt, so I have to assume it would be a lot easier with some practice and especially on much smaller baby quilts (where I think machine sewn binding makes the most sense). This was the wonkiest spot I had, and I can live with it. I'm not one for pointing out imperfections, but didn't want you all to think this was some magic perfect technique :). Please disregard the cat hair in the close ups.

If anyone has any other questions I will be happy to answer in the comments!