Daily Fiber

SAHRR 2026: The first round

Posted on January 26, 2026 by Laura Kate

It’s been a week of trial and error, as I struggle to make the first round of blocks suggested by Brenda of Songbird Designs: Hourglass, aka Quarter square triangles. I had come up with a plan for my Costa Rican inspired design and pulled suitable fabrics from my stash.

For this round, I chose green, yellow and pink fabrics. My objective was to have groups of blocks on either side of the center panel. The first attempt did not please me.

The border just didn’t look like a Costa Rican rain forest. My second attempt used more of the green with the blocks arranged to resemble the ginger flowers of the center block.

This looks a little better, but the scale was way off. The shape dwarfed my poor bird, which is the focus of this row. At that point, I dropped my rotary cutter and gave up for the day.

After a good night’s sleep, I had a new plan: Make the blocks smaller, placing the flowery colored fabrics in a more random way. That might suggest the lushness of the rain forest in an abstract manner. And if I cut the blocks to finish out at 2 and 1/2 inches, four of them stacked would fit the 10 inch length of my center block. Eureka!

Next came ripping apart, cutting down and sewing a total of 24 hourglasses. I added some pale blue fabric to represent the sky and separated the flower colors into discrete patches.

And here they are in the final layout.

To see what the other SAHRR participants are doing, visit our hosts and take a look at their interpretations of this round.

January 14	Everyone shares their center blocks	Gail @ Quilting Gail
January 21	Round 1	Brenda @ Songbird Designs
January 28	Round 2	Kathleen @ Kathleen McMusing
February 4	Round 3	Emily @ The Darling Dogwood
February 11	Round 4	Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts
February 18	Round 5	Gail @ Quilting Gail
February 25	Round 6	Anja @ Anja Quilts

You can find the link to see the rest of the participants’ quilts on Brenda’s post.

knitting, painting

Unraveled Wednesday from Here

Posted on January 22, 2026 by Laura Kate

Waking up again to new snowfall. The wind blew it all about, and it’s clear that we are in for some of the coldest weather I have ever experienced.

Not to fret, I have my yarn (and blog friends) to keep me warm. Here’s what’s on my needles today.

In December I promised Bill that I would knit him a pair of socks. At Christmas, I formalized the promise with this gift, wrapped up with a swatch of the yarn.

This yarn has been in my stash since last January. It is Regia, by Schachenmayr. I have wanted to try this classic self-striping sock yarn for a long time. It was a bit fiddly getting started. I chose to knit from the cuff down using a 1 by 2 rib pattern. Getting cast-on with four sock needles was hard and the first few round tedious. But now I have my rhythm going.

As far as reading goes, the desire to stay inside and curled up has me almost desperate for new reading material. Succumbing to the stacks of detective novels that Bill has sprinkled throughout the house, I chose StillLife, by Louise Penny. I pretty much raced through it in two days. As murder mysteries go, it was fairly gentle, with more writing about relationships than graphic descriptions of violence and cruelty. It turned out to be just what I needed to get through the long, cold nights of January.

To read about posts by Kat’s other Unravelers, visit her site and link into the party.

knitting

First Finish of 2026

Posted on January 18, 2026 by Laura Kate

Hello friends. Despite the fact that I have been silent for more than a month, my needles have been busy. I cast on this shawl pattern by designer Andrea Mowry in early December. I cast off on Friday. The close-up above gives you an idea of the shawl’s textures and colors. In the past, I would have photographed my yarn selections as I bag them up into project bags. This project got all knitted up without any photographs of the yarn. Reviewing my yarn buying history, I found these Knit Pick skeins were purchased in January of 2025. So I’ll just link you to the vendor’s site.

Hawthorn in colorway Goddess

Hawthorn in colorway Sweet Home Tonal

Twill in colorway Lavender

I am particularly fond of the Twill yarn. Because it is a 3-ply yarn in a plump merino wool, it makes very nice stitches that have good definition. I’ve already bought more for a fun cardigan that is planned for later in the year.

Anyway, back to the finish: This shawl is Big:

It stretches beyond the width of my queen-size guest bed. I’m guessing the wingspan is about seven feet. That will make for a good couple of wraps around the neck. Iowa is COLD. I have discovered that the more wool items I have on, the better I feel.

To learn more about Andrea Mowry and her fabulous designs, click here.

What’s on your needles?

painting, quilting

A New Stay At Home Round Robin

Posted on January 14, 2026January 14, 2026 by Laura Kate

Yes, friends, Quilting Gail and her talented co-horts are at it again. The Stay at Home Round Robin for 2026 (better known as SAHRR 2026) is on, starting this week. For readers who are unfamiliar, I offer a link to Gail’s post, which explains it all.

https://quiltinggail.com/2025/12/18/announcing-the-2026-sahrr/

. As usual, there will be six rounds, plus the kick-off round. That’s happening now. Each participant makes or chooses a center block from which to build the quilt, then adds a border to it each week. This will be my sixth year to make one. The thing I love about SAHRR is how it provokes my creativity while providing a gentle amount of structure to keep me corralled and focused. For 2026, I want to make an art quilt that tells the story of our Costa Rican adventure last September. My DH took terrific photos, which support my memories of what we did and saw.

My center block is a fiery-billed aricari, a smallish toucan.

Using one of Bill’s photos as my subject, I painted the background fabrics with Jacquard Dyna-Flow, fused appliques into place, stitched them down, and painted details with Jacquard Textile paint. I’m pretty happy with my choice. If all goes well, I will draw on other vacation photo images to incorporate into future rounds.

I’m aware that my choice is complex and unconventional. But that’s just me. If you want to participate in SAHRR 2026, you can start with any block you have left over from a past project, or sew up a new one. There are no rules, only suggestions.

To see the co-horts who are providing the weekly clues, check out their posts from the list here:

The Schedule

January 14 Each of the co-leaders will be sharing their centre blocks (you will have to visit each of their blogs to see them). Gail will host the first linky party where you can show your centre block.
January 21: 1^st Round: Brenda @ Songbird Designs
January 28: 2^nd Round: Kathleen @ Kathleen McMusing
February 4: 3^rd Round: Emily @ The Darling Dogwood
February 11: 4^th Round: Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life
February 18: 5^th Round: ME!!! @ Quilting Gail
February 25: 6^th Round: Anja @ Anja Quilts
March 25: Parade: showing all of your finished SAHRRs!

knitting

12-03-25 Unraveled in DBQ

Posted on December 3, 2025December 3, 2025 by Laura Kate

It’s time to share my second CuscoCozzy Kimono project with the band of faithful Unravellers. On Wednesdays, As Kat Knits provides a link for sharing – Thanks, Kat.

By Monday, I had finished knitting both halves.

The pattern calls for these to be joined at the center back using 3-needle bind-off. I tried to work this step, with no real success, giving up after about an half hour. The edges were so curly that I couldn’t pick up the stitches. It was clear to me that the pieces would need to be blocked now. Because I had only one set of drying blocks, I washed and blocked each piece separately.

Two days later, after both sides had dried, I completed the maneuver: Using two long cable needles, pick up stitches at each center back edge. Align the two edges right sides facing. With a third (short) needle knit together a stitch from each needle. Repeat. Pull first stitch up and over second stitch. Do this until all stitches are worked into the bind off.

Viola:

I know, friends, the finished object is enormous. And the intended recipient is narrower than I am. (sigh) Hopefully, she will not mind being swamped. At least the sleeve length looks good.

For those who are curious, here is a link to my first kimono knit from this design. My yarn for this version is Cascade 220 in Teal and KnitPicks Chroma in Lava Party.

To see what the other Unravelers are making this week, click here.