Handmade Things

Terra x 2

2012-02-18T18:16:00.000-08:00

I have another FO to show you for this month, the Terra shawl by Brooklyn Tweed. I love this one more than the first Terra that I knit out of something other than Shelter. This one's in a color called Homemade Jam.

I first used Shelter to knit a tea cozy last year, and I do like it. I wouldn't say it's scratchy, but it's a dry sort of knitting as opposed to luxurious. The yarn has lots of different flecks of color to keep things interesting, and it becomes a kind of spongy fabric after washing. I noticed the shawl tends to cling to whatever you're wearing, such as cotton or fleece, which could be good as it wouldn't fall off, but I did have a time arranging it for the photo! It's a keeping-warm sort of shawl, which I like. So I'm glad to have another project off the needles this month. I can see doing another one, maybe out of Felted Tweed--yes, I like the pattern that much.

There are still more days in February, so I'm moving on to a small project before starting sweater #2 at the beginning of March. My next project is:

Camellia by Kim Hargreaves, from her spring/summer book Whisper. The pattern calls for Rowan Cotton Glace, a fingering weight yarn, but I'm using Louisa Harding Jasmine, a DK, and it's going just fine. The color looks pretty boring in this photo, but it's really a light grey with silver sparkles in it. The project was commissioned by my mom who has a neighbor undergoing chemo, so the hat will be for her.

I've also added a couple balls of yarn to my stash recently due to a trip to Churchmouse and the closing of the yarn shop where I used to work. The Rowan British Sheep Breeds boucle and a matching ball of BFL chunky will make a nomad hat (pattern by Churchmouse). I don't have a picture of the hat to show you, but they had a really cute shop model. Well, silly and cute, and very warm!

I found a silver pin for my Billie cardigan:

. . . and made an addition to my library of The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook. Have you seen it yet?

It's a wonderful book about every kind of fleece and fiber, with awesome photos and descriptions of the animals, along with more photos of what the processed and unprocessed fiber looks like. I look forward to many teatimes browsing this book.

That's all for now! Oops, one more thing, I have recently discovered knitting video podcasts. Have you seen the one by Knit Me Happy? I think she does a great job--and they can't be all that easy to do. Let me know your favorites if you watch them.

Billie

2012-02-01T08:22:00.000-08:00

Hurrah, I've finished my Billie cardigan. I was so happy to have this one done because I really could use a warm thing this time of year. This project wasn't at all difficult but it did take me a while, what with the break in December to knit Christmas gifts, and it used up about 1,800 yards of yarn, which is almost two sweaters for me! Well worth it, though. It's so comfy and cozy I never want to take it off.

After seeing these photos, I went back and steamed the edging a bit more so it doesn't curl under so much. It's a 3-stitch garter edge so it will always fold under some, but now it lies flatter and nicer. (Funny how you don't see things until you take a picture of them.) And now I have a reason to go back to Churchmouse Yarns & Teas. They have a good selection of pins that I can use for a closure on this--although I like it just fine without a pin, too. They suggested I bring it in when I'm finished and try different ones--no problem, I can do that!

Now I'm in sort of a knitting limbo. Do I start my second sweater of the six I said I'd knit this year? Go back to an old WIP or start something new? Knit something other than a sweater? Like most knitters, I have a few WIPs, five to be exact. One of them is my Terra shawl, and another is the Peerie Flooers hat. I have been putting in a few rows on the shawl, without really committing to knit on it and nothing else (altho' that's usually how I finish things). As for the hat, I've made more progress than this photo shows and am just ready to begin the crown decreases, which looked difficult but are probably straightforward.

The new project I'm tempted to start is the Rams and Yowes blanket I spoke of before. I received a package from the UK with all the wool I need--well, almost all, since I didn't see I needed a second ball of Yuglet, but I'll sort that out later.

But I think I'll hold off starting it until I've finished some of these other things. In the meantime, I can read through the pattern to get it all straight before I begin. Looks like a fun one!

Happy new year!

2012-01-09T11:15:00.001-08:00

. . . a bit late, I must say, but anyway! I hope you had a wonderful holiday. Mine was pretty relaxing once the shopping got done--family come to visit, lots of board games, tasty food and an 8-year-old who was pretty excited about what was under the tree. The weather didn't hamper anyone's travel, and it was all very good. I did do some Christmas knitting in the final weeks of December:

A couple more hats for the menfolk,

a wonderfully sheepy Christmas wreath,

a slouchy hat,

and a cowl.

Not all of these were gifts; some were for me, or the house. With the exception of the slouchy hat, they are all Churchmouse patterns--I guess they're becoming a new favorite. The cowl was published in their quarterly newsletter and isn't available for sale on Ravelry or elsewhere. I inquired, and they said they didn't intend to sell it, but if you have the summer newsletter it came in, and I'm sorry I don't know which that was, it's a nice pattern.

While I didn't finish as much as I would have liked this year (isn't that always the case?), I did get a fair number of projects completed--23?? There were a lot more accessories than I usually make, and I finished some bigger projects begun in 2010 but didn't count that year.

Now I can think about 2012, and I'm full of ideas and plans. I joined a group on Ravelry to knit 6 sweaters this year, one every two months. Since I don't knit every day, this sounds more doable to me than the IntSweMoDo thing (one sweater a month). I have three WIP sweaters: Billie hooded cardigan, the Reindeer sweater, and my Alice Starmore Donegal. But the other three I don't know yet.

I'm also going to do a most marvellous project:

The "Rams and Yowes" Shetland lap blanket by Kate Davies of Textisles (credit: which is where I got the photo, but go check out the other photos, too!). It's fresh off her needles as of yesterday and the most wonderful thing ever. What does a knitter love more than sheep and Shetland wool?

With my free time in the coming year, I want to do more art projects, waste less time on the internet and be more productive in all my hobbies. I've been gradually changing my diet to mostly fresh fruits and veggies in their whole state which has given me a better kind of energy these days, so that's bound to help. What are your hopes and goals for the new year?

Santa's workshop

2011-12-08T15:41:00.001-08:00

With the holidays approaching, Santa's elves have been busy here. I decided more people ought to have handmade gifts than I had planned, so the needles are clicking. My DH took a day off and we took the ferry to Bainbridge Island, where I happily spent the morning in Churchmouse Yarns & Teas. (DH was also happily ensconced in an easy chair at the shop, working on his laptop, so he didn't mind.) I did have the important task of finding the right yarn for the right gift, which for me takes longer than shopping for myself. First project is this tea cozy for my mom. The pattern is one of Churchmouse's. There was a printed tea cozy pattern for sale, but I just winged it using their free Kureyon Watch Cap pattern on which the tea cozy is based, along with having the original to examine. This one has a rustic look in Brooklyn Tweed Shelter, color Wool Socks.

I also have two Turn a Square hats, pattern by Brooklyn Tweed. I used charcoal Cascade 220 and Mochi Plus, and one skein of each was plenty for two hats with some left over. The Mochi stripes look much more subdued in real life, so I assure you these are most guy-like hats. Only one of them is spoken for now, but I thought I should make a second while I was at it.

Churchmouse does a great job decorating for Christmas. The theme seemed to be restful, icy colors, with lots of creams, ice blues, pale pinks and celadons, etc. There were huge, wooly wreaths in their front windows, with smaller ones around the shop. I couldn't resist and brought a little one home with me! The kit comes with most everything to make the wreath, including the wire form and strips of muslin to wrap around it.

My gift for my piano teacher will be a pair of fingerless gloves. This is the project I'm most worried about, because they're gloves, which can tend to come out holey, the wrong size, or just handknitted appearing. Another hitch is that none of the eight copies of the book with the pattern are available from my public library; they're all checked out. The pattern was the Beer Gloves from the book Son of Stitch and Bitch, which is not one I have at home. But after some frantic searching on Ravelry, I've found another, plainer one that I can use, the Cigar gloves from Knitty. So we'll see. I did get some very nice yarn for them:

Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift, which I plan to double for a DK weight, in the color Mirrydancers. It's nearly black with flecks of color--suitable for a guy.

Oh, I also got some buttons for my Salina sweater (previous post), one of the reasons for going to Churchmouse in the first place. I knew they would have the perfect buttons, but I hesitate to show you because they look rather uninteresting in the photo. They are mother of pearl-ish with a gold hue and I think they suit the sweater well.

So there you have it. I had intended to make some of my Alan Dart Christmas mice, but they're getting pushed farther down the list. Something to begin in January, perhaps! I also need to get back to my Billie cardigan, which did not get finished by my birthday but I am puttering along on it.

You say Salina . . .

2011-11-07T09:35:00.000-08:00

. . . I say Sal-eye-na. Actually I say, "Hooray, it's done." This sweater seemed to be the project neverending, one reason being that I did knit and frog the body of a sweater earlier in this yarn before deciding to knit Salina.

One good thing is that it fits. Sorry for the not great photo (color adjusted to show those tweedy flecks), but I'll take some more pics once I find the right buttons for it. I suppose you could say that it's not completely finished, but I'm going to go ahead and wear it anyway.

The sweater used six balls of Felted Tweed, mine in a raisin color called Treacle. I very nearly ran out, which was kind of mystifying because both sizes XS and S called for six balls, and I was making the XS with some adjustments to make it smaller. I did go down a needle size to get gauge, but I thought as long as you get gauge, you use the same amount of yarn. If somebody knows about this, do let me know! Anyway, it all worked out, but I had to make the cuffs not quite as long as stated in the pattern.

I mentioned this before, but I did notice the yarn is kind of harsh on my hands. Once after a long session, the skin on my fingers was raw from the abrasion of the yarn. But I do love it and all the wonderful colors it comes in. It's not scratchy, and becomes even softer as it's worn. I've even got a hankering to try some of the other weights of Felted Tweed, the aran and chunky weights.

But for now what I'd like is a break from Felted Tweed, and what better than a project in the soft and luxurious Rowan Kid Classic. I shared earlier that my hubby bought me a knitting project for my birthday this month, and I chose Billie by Kim Hargreaves, from her book Precious. I have high hopes of finishing it before my birthday on the 27th, so I'd better get knitting, right?

I'm making mine in a color called Smoke, the same as the model in the book. I thought it was discontinued, but I hope I'm wrong about that because it's a great color. I got mine from Jannette's Rare Yarns, my favorite Rowan stockist whose prices and service can't be beat.

I won't have to worry about shaping too much on this one as it's slouchy. I look forward to sitting down with a mug of tea, something good to watch (right now it's Downton Abbey), and miles of stockinette ahead of me.

Wish me Godspeed!

That time of year

2011-10-29T14:57:00.000-07:00

Fall is upon us here in the Pacific NW. With Halloween just around the corner, I had to decide what kind of costume I was going to make this year. I settled on something both practical and silly. The "deer with little antlers" hat by Tiny Owl Knits will keep me warm while trick-or-treating and is enough to pass for a costume in this climate where we could be bundled up in raincoats as we make the rounds.

The hat was fun to make. It's the first of Stephanie Dosen's patterns I've tried, and the pattern was well written and showed its author's quirky sense of humor. I was a little worried about getting the antlers to turn out but I needn't have--they came together just as she said they would, and there were even pictures to show how they would look at each stage. I used handspun yarn for the antlers, which made the felting much easier because it's not so processed.

Otherwise on the knitting front, the Felted Tweed sweater is still in the works. It's been a long project, and I admit I'm tired of it. I am on sleeve no. 2, and once I finish the stockinette portion I have to knit the cuffs. I think I'll just knit them on to the bottoms instead of making separate cuffs and sewing them on. Then all I need is some cool buttons (an excuse to go to Churchmouse) and I'm done. Then I can get on with a project I'm really excited about!

I've gotten into quilting some. This is a little project from a pattern by McKenna Ryan, who has a studio/gallery on Bainbridge Island. Her stuff isn't exactly my thing, but I had the pattern and it's good practice for other things I might want to do. This piece is wall hanging size and will be about 13" x 26" or so when it's done.

One thing I didn't quite think through is that all the pieces need to be quilted or anchored in some way, and as you can see some of them are miniscule. Doh. I did get some invisible monofilament thread so I don't have to match colors of thread, and I'm trying my hand at free motion quilting, which is hard! It's something that takes a LOT of practice. I think I will be practicing quite a bit more before attempting a combination of straight stitching and free motion on this little piece.

Has anybody started thinking about Christmas crafting? I've committed myself to knit two small projects so far, although I have lots of ideas of things that would be great to make for family and friends. . .

Of sheep and dogs (and cats)

2011-10-04T16:53:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend we went to the Vashon Sheepdog Classic, a three-day event at Misty Isle Farms on Vashon Island. We were just there for the day, but we got to see some super smart dogs at work herding the sheep over the course.
The course was laid out over rolling hills. The dogs had to run about 300-400 yards to find their sheep, which they couldn't see at the start. Then they herded a group of five sheep through some gates and back to the shepherd, and then dog and handler worked together to separate two from the group of five and then finished by getting them all into a pen. The sheep presented their own challenge. They came from the mountains of Eastern Washington and were used to roaming in flocks of thousands and had not been exposed to herding dogs except in large groups. But most of the dogs rose to the challenge and performed amazingly.

The venue was very pretty and spectators had good views of all the action. There was also a sheep-to-shawl exhibition going on during the competition. Carders would take freshly shorn fleece and card it for the spinners, who spun and plied the yarn and handed it off to some weavers, who were weaving a shawl to auction off at the end of it.

*photos above from Vashon Sheepdog Classic website

A good time was had by all. Our retriever may have dreamed of sheep that night!

At home, I've been doing some lessons from my art books. This book features cats and dogs in a variety of styles and media: watercolor, acrylic, oil and ink.

I love doing step-by-steps, especially in a new medium, because I learn so much in the doing. This particular exercise is by Claudia Nice, who works in mixed media, mostly pen and watercolor. She provides lots of tips and tricks for anyone interested in following along.

Something's fishy

2011-09-27T15:19:00.000-07:00

My mom is a volunteer at the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery. Besides doing tours for schoolchildren and other groups throughout the year, they are gearing up for their big event as the salmon make their way back to the hatchery to spawn and die. The town celebrates this event by holding Salmon Days, where tens of thousands of folks make their way to Issaquah to watch the return of the salmon and generally mill around. I knit this quick project for her. I know my fish isn't anything like a real salmon, but he was fun to make.

It gave me a respite from my Felted Tweed project, which has met its end, too. I finished the back and front of the Paisley sweater, seamed it and tried it on. It was huge! I hadn't bothered to check my gauge because I had already done a sweater in Felted Tweed that turned out just fine. But my gauge was terribly wrong on this one, so I un-seamed and frogged it. I decided not to redo it but to cast on for a different project with the same yarn. So I'm now knitting Salina by Kim Hargreaves.

This sweater has been made by many and seems to look good on everyone. Hopefully I can have a success with this one! I'm most of the way done with the back (with some modifications based on others' comments) and have been measuring all along. I even frogged it once when I suspected the body was too long. We'll see.

This weekend I got to go to Churchmouse Yarns & Teas on Bainbridge. I had time to sit and knit and soak up some of the atmosphere. One thing I noticed is that the staff use quiet voices, which adds to the calming atmosphere of the shop. That and many other thoughtful things make this shop one of the best. The day I was there, a harpist was playing in the courtyard outside--unrelated to the shop but it sure was nice to listen to.

I bought one of their patterns after trying on the shop sample. The beret below is made of 1 skein of Handmaiden 4-ply cashmere. It's knit on very fine needles and by doing so, the yarn smooshes together to make a cashmere fabric, pliable but sturdy and so luxurious. I will make mine in black.

I also got this book by Kim Hargreaves recently. It is actually part of a birthday present from my husband, so I really should put it away since my birthday is not till November. I'll tell you more later, but the present comes with yarn! (I'm thankful to have a pretty great DH :o)

I hope you're finding inspiration for your fall knitting and any other crafty endeavors!

Project explosion!

2011-09-14T14:07:00.000-07:00

I don't know what happened but I've gotten myself into three new projects. Two were even started on the same day. Here is one of them: the mohair bias loop from Churchmouse Yarns & Teas. I saw a shop sample at Churchmouse this past weekend and immediately found a use for two balls of Kidsilk Haze I had. The pattern is knitted as a bias rectangle, more of a rhombus really, then kitchenered together. Although the dark raisin color above is probably not what I would have chosen, it was in my stash so the choice was made for me. The finished loop can be worn as a scarf, which is probably how I will wear it. Pretty, isn't it?

Here it is worn as a shawl-type thing:

The next one really isn't a brand new project, but I haven't talked about it before. It's a basic pullover from the book A Season's Tale by Kim Hargreaves. I'm using Felted Tweed in a color called Treacle. I think I'll make mine a v-neck because they're so comfortable.

I originally got the yarn for these two projects to go in one sweater called Elfin, also by Kim H., which has a large mohair ruffle around the neck and at the wrists (it's better than it sounds). Somewhere along the line I realized that it wasn't something I would wear very often, whereas a v-neck pullover and a scarf are things I could wear casually all the time. So I chose to be practical on this one.

My next project is called Peerie Flooers ("little flowers" in Shetland dialect) and is by Kate Davies. It's done in the new Rowan Fine Tweed, a 4-ply yarn they've just come out with this fall. It's a lot like their Yorkshire Tweed which was discontinued, but in brighter, sunnier colors.

photo from Kate Davies' project page

I'm super excited about this one, and when my yarn arrived from the UK I had to start right away. My husband helped advise me on the colors, since I didn't want it exactly like the original and some of my colors didn't work (it's hard to choose from an online color card). So I mixed the new ones with some of my Jamieson's Spindrift, and came up with the colorway you see below. It's so much fun to see the pattern emerge. I see more fair isle hats in my future.

I hope I can keep going on all of these, and the knitting is kind of a mixed bag. I can take the mohair one to my knitting group, because it's just straight stockinette, and even the sweater. The hat stays at home since it takes more concentration and fiddling.

It's a shrug

2011-09-09T09:00:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to show you my shrug that I finished a couple days ago. I rather like it. It's done in Berroco Alpaca and took about 485 yds of yarn (3 skeins). I still have 150 yds left to make a hat or mittens or something.

I loved working with the Ultra Alpaca, but it grew substantially when I washed it. I read that others have found this, too. Of course I didn't make a swatch and wash that! But I believe it regained some of its old shape in the drying process. I also dried it in the dryer on the tray for laying things flat, and I think that helped. I don't mind it in this shrug, but I would be more careful making a sweater to check the gauge on a swatch after washing. Someone wrote in the comments for this yarn on Ravelry that they thought alpaca should only be steam blocked, but you'll have to wash it eventually, right? Once all that's worked out, I'm more than happy to work with this yarn again. I restarted work on a sweater in Rowan Felted Tweed, and it feels downright scratchy after the Berroco, when before I didn't notice that.

Gotta run--happy knitting!

Crafting and such

2011-09-01T17:44:00.000-07:00

Fresh off the sewing machine is this decorative pillow. I'm glad to have finished it since it was kind of an abandoned project for a while. The pattern is by Susan Pinick of "On Pins and Needles," but I can't find a website for her to link to--she had a booth at a local quilt show where I got the pattern.

The wool felt bunny is hand appliqued onto another piece of wool, which was then appliqued to my fabric. After trying her variations (see original below), I chose only a few plain embellishments for mine.

This project was rather labor intensive for what it actually is. I decided to do buttons on the back in case I should ever have to wash it (hope not). I used a vintage button maker my mom gave me to make covered buttons. I also had to refresh myself on how to make buttonholes on my sewing machine. The last thing I did was finish the seams with my serger, which required lots of manual reading to thread the thing. So all in all, a most useful project :o)

It's not without its design features, though. I love this fabric but it never occurred to me to see if there's an up or a down to this print. My little birds are all diving towards the ground because they are upside down.

I continue with the Ultra Alpaca shrug. I love 4-row lace! There's the benefit of knitting lace without having to slog through a lot of charts or use stitch markers, etc. It's a very enjoyable project. I've knitted into it the BBC documentary Windsor Castle: A Royal Year, about the inner workings of the Queen's official residence, which is by turns fascinating and bizarre.

I'm also reading this book by British artist David Webb and thinking of trying watercolor again now that school's back in session.

Bye bye, summer

2011-08-24T14:44:00.000-07:00

What happened to summer? We had a great time, but my poor blog has been neglected! I didn't realize that I missed posting in July entirely. We stuck close to home for the most part, except for a family vacation to Orcas Island in the San Juans, and my son enjoyed some day camps--his favorite being skateboard camp. We did some gardening, had family visit, and continued all our usual pursuits (exercise, etc.).

I've been knitting but don't have a lot to show for myself. On vacation, I finished my ode to Kate shawl, or Terra by Jarod Flood. Sorry for these pictures, they're not the greatest.

I loved making this! It's the perfect balance between the mindless and that which requires a little thought.

As soon as it was done, I cast on for the same shawl with some of Brooklyn Tweed's Shelter yarn in the Homemade Jam colorway:

This yarn is a real treat to work with. It's lightweight, rustic, and the colors are so beautiful. However, I've also been distracted by a project I saw one of my co-workers at the yarn shop making:

A cute shrug from one of the Ella Rae books, Classic Heathers #111. For mine, I'm using Berroco Ultra Alpaca, a 50/50 wool/alpaca blend. Not sure about the color. I was undecided between choosing a color like this or a neutral, but my thinking was that I could wear this with all my neutrals. The lace section is very easy but pretty, I think.

So with school starting up next week, I've got to think about what my fall knitting is going to be and what other crafty things I'd like to do, too. I have some quilting I want to get done, as well as some art projects. I can't wait to see what others have planned for fall, and I'll post about what I'm doing soon. I hope everyone had a fabulous summer!

Knitwerk

2011-06-19T07:04:00.000-07:00

Hooray, I finished a sweater. It was started in March but I didn't work on it continuously although I really tried to be monogamous with this one. It's called Sweet, a design by Kim Hargreaves in Rowan no. 26, another great book by Rowan. Here's mine:

I made it in Sunday Knits' Nirvana, which I really liked working with. It can be knit on a smaller needle for sure, but I used a US 4, which gave a nice fabric, not too airy and not too stiff. The sweater fits well but isn't skin tight as you can see below. It seems many sweaters and sweater patterns these days are really quite tight, but I don't like that for me.

I also got a new knitting book I'm excited about. After listening to a review of it on the Electric Sheep podcast (Episode 49), I happened to find a copy to browse through at my local Barnes and Noble. The book is Simple Knitting by Erika Knight. Even though it's got all the beginner how-to knitting instructions in front--which I think is rather a waste of space in these days of the internet--I still wanted it because the projects are all really great. Of course I didn't buy it at full price, I found a used copy on Amazon for eight bucks.

The projects are done mostly in neutrals, which I love, with most of the interest in simple stitch patterns or low-key stripes. I'm awfully tempted by the v-neck pullover you can see in the picture of the American version of this book (the British release is nicer, with a plain cover), and there's a boyfriend cardigan I've got the right amount of alpaca for. In addition, there is an awfully cute blanket with stripes, and some chair cushions.

I also finished a baby Aviator hat for a co-worker at the yarn shop. It's done with less than one ball of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in a lovely butter color (more yellow than the photo). The baby shower is this morning, so I'd better get that button sewn on!

Fox-friendly fur and other ideas

2011-05-30T19:13:00.001-07:00

Today I was going through my stash looking for yarn for something when I came across this poor, unfinished project in a bin. Having taken it out I was gripped by the desire to finish it. No matter that I'd waited nine years to do so, or that I was in that bin for something entirely different, I dropped everything and got to work. I did just happen to have some time since my boy was on the couch with a flu bug today, and only after making sure he had drinks and all the comforts he needed did I venture into the craft room. In a few hours I had the thing finished, and here it is, in all its silliness, the Vegan Fox from Knitty. I'm more of a "cheating vegan" myself, but one doesn't have to be a vegan to enjoy it.

The fox came in a kit put together by the designer with three fun yarns in one of two colorways, nice buttons for the eyes and nose, and a clasp for joining head to tail. My son and I had fun figuring out where the eyes should go--too close together and the fox turned into a possum, too far apart, more of a teddy bear. We finally agreed on the placement of the eyes and finished up.

Okay, cute as he is, he can't compare to the real thing. Aren't foxes just the neatest, most perfect creatures? I love them.

My head has been swirling with other ideas this past week. Don't know if you've been a part of the knitting frenzy in response to Kate Middleton's shawl, which she was spotted wearing recently while grocery shopping. Claudia and I exchanged messages saying how we liked it, and I decided to see if anyone had a pattern for the shawl. A search uncovered not one but several brand new versions of the "Kate" shawl, in different weights of yarn, and even a Ravelry group to keep track of them all.

I had the perfect yarn in mind for it, some Aslan Trends Del Cerro, a worsted merino I saw at my yarn shop. It's a green with some hints of blue in it so I knew it would work for me. The shawl I had in mind was this one by Cat Wong:

It's in worsted weight yarn, with a modest ruffle, and I thought it just might do to approximate the look of the original. However, the more knitting I did, the more doubts crept in about the ruffles, and I wasn't enjoying all that garter stitch. So I changed horses and got myself a copy of Terra, a shawl by Brooklyn Tweed that I've been admiring.

photo by Brooklyn Tweed

I'm enjoying the knitting very much, and while there is still some garter stitch, it's not every row. The pattern is a treat because it's so well written. I think my color looks a lot like the one called Button Jar in Brooklyn Tweed's Shelter yarn.

And now (sorry for such a lengthy post here), my last inspiration of today, which is an idea to crochet a throw, two words I don't often use in my crafting. I came across one in progress on a Norwegian blog called Dans pa roser and thought, I must have one like it. The blanket is made of granny squares. Here's my color palette of leftover (and not) yarns.

Now to figure out how to crochet a granny square!

Estelle withdrawal

2011-05-20T05:58:00.000-07:00

My Estelle cardigan is finished, and I have to say I'm sad it's all over. This was the most fun knit I've done in a long time, and I think that's due to several things. It was knit on larger needles so it really moved along; it had enough going on with new construction techniques (for me, knitting top down is new) and design features to keep my interest; and the yarn is wonderful to work with, so it was a nice tactile experience as well.

I like the navy color I chose for mine, but there are some equally great colors popping up in the KAL. One knitter is doing hers in a bird's egg blue, which looks really cute.

Here's the back, with the ribbing:

Full disclosure: I did have a moment of horror when I was completely done with the sweater and decided to soak it to even out my stitches on the sleeves from using DPNs. When I put it in to soak I could feel the yarn go soft and loose, and knew it was going to be an entirely different gauge when I took it out. I hadn't expected this, because the yarn is fairly sturdy and spun in a worsted fashion, not a loosey goosey yarn like an unspun single or something. I could not resist trying it on damp and it was a different sized sweater, about 3 to 5 inches longer than it had been! So I freaked out a bit and dearly wished I'd washed the swatch I'd made before starting to knit. However, the next day all was well. I got the idea to try to dry the sweater in the dryer on a rack that you insert to dry things flat. After about 20 minutes or so on the lowest heat, I took it out, and lo and behold, it had sprung back to its original size. Amazing! I've never worked with a yarn that does this before, and I don't know if it would have done it on its own without the extra heat of the dryer, but I'm awfully glad it did. Faith restored in my knitting, and I'm happy with the project.

Now that I'm done with Estelle, I perused the Quince pattern section and came across this cardi that had only just been added to the website. This is the Abigail cardi by Cecily G. Macdonald and it's worked in their fingering weight wool/silk blend called Tern. Tern doesn't come in the whole color range of their other yarns, and it takes the dye differently than the wool, but what they've got is lovely. I actually like the pale color above called Oyster. I've been interested in doing a project using small yarn on large needles, and that's how this is made. It's done on US 6s, so it shouldn't take forever to knit, even in fingering weight, and you get a lovely lightweight thing that's perfect for places where there's too much air conditioning or at the park before the sun hits or something. I'm debating on whether I should use some Hempathy I've got in my stash, or splurge on the Tern.

There are other things that I liked in Quince's pattern section. The cardigan below, really a jacket, is called Solstice and is also by Cecily G. (I'm reminded of the giraffe in Cecily G. and the Nine Monkeys by Curious George author H.A. Rey). Anyway, it's done in Osprey, their next heavier yarn from Lark, on 6.5 mm needles.

This one is called the Annabel pullover, by Carrie Bostick Hoge. Also done in Osprey, it's a cropped pullover. There's also a cardigan version sold as a separate pattern.

And last, the Fiona pullover by Pam Allen is made with their unspun bulky yarn Puffin. Isn't that a great name for a bulky yarn? An easy top down sweater. I could see this in several colors, but my favorite is the ice blue called Glacier.

Just a little bit of inspiration for you!

The yarn shop where I work part-time is participating in the LYS Tour of the Puget sound region, which takes place over four days. I've never done this tour of 25 local yarn shops, but quite a few knitters make the rounds to all of them, which makes them eligible for prizes. The shop should be quite busy today, but in a happy way.

Knitalong progress

2011-05-16T06:10:00.000-07:00

The Estelle knitalong is going well. Led by Paula of the podcast Knitting Pipeline, it began on the first of May. We all work at our own pace, and with our own particular fitting and gauge issues, with advice and encouragement offered in the knitting group. While some are just beginning, others are already finished with their Estelles. As you can see, I've gotten through the body of the cardigan. I had no major stumbling blocks in spite of the fact that I never knit anything in the round. This weekend I began the feather and fan neckband. It's going to take more than one ball of yarn just for the neckband, and since my row gauge was a little bit off, it's a good thing I got an extra ball.

I'm really happy with my color choice and love working with Quince and Co's yarn. The color Twig, a neutral light brown, is also a popular choice.

muzzerZ's completed Estelle

And here it is in red:

Paivis's Estelle

I think it looks good in any color, and the sweater will be a good addition to the wardrobe. It's simple enough to finish relatively quickly, but it has some points of interest as well, such as the feather and fan borders.

I'm still also knitting occasionally on my charcoal pullover, and I'm about halfway through the first sleeve. My cat chose to lie on the front piece when I had it out after steaming--do your cats do this with your knitting? I think it must smell faintly of sheep, or something they like. I've put it up where she can't get to it, but it does need to be de-haired, because this cat is a thick-coated silver tabby, and I'll wash the whole thing once I've got it all seamed up.

I recently noticed while looking thru my Ravelry favorites that even though I've knit only a couple of shawls myself, many of the projects I've admired enough to put in my favorites are shawls, shawlettes, wraps, and stoles--18%, in fact. I must really like them. So I thought I'd show you the top contenders for my next shawl.

The first two are by Robin Ulrich, or TruKnit on Ravelry. The top photo is Lesia Loop, and it is tagged as a scarf/cowl/wrap, but I consider it a wrap. I've already bought the pattern (just $2.50) since it gives me something to do with two balls of my Frog Tree Brushed Suri. The second is a shawl for which the pattern has not been written, but she's working on it. This one was knit in Madeline Tosh Light, and I love that color she made hers in.

Next is one that's been in my favorites for a while now by Emma Fassio, called Emma's Paris Shawl. It's a free pattern on Ravelry. I love the simplicity of it and think it would be lovely in any yarn with a halo to it, like alpaca or angora. This one was knitted in alpaca.

And last is the very popular textured shawl by Orlane. The original, and this one by Wovenhand, is made with Blue Sky Alpacas' Suri Merino. Again, I love the colors these were made in!

Wovenhand's version

I've got a couple of yarns in my stash that I would like to use for a shawl. One is this angora by Butternut Woolens, about 500 yds of it.

The other is this alpaca, provided by Alfie the alpaca at Meadowview Alpaca Farm in Canada, and I've got just over 1,000 yds of it. I would like to make a shawl that uses most of the yarn, though, so perhaps one of my other faves would work better for this one.

But I've got time to ponder this while I finish knitting my Estelle cardigan. Happy knitting!

Happy Wedding Day!

2011-04-28T16:30:00.000-07:00

Well, I didn't get up at 2 a.m. to watch, but there's plenty of coverage online to see. I do remember that I saw Diana's wedding real time, but on a small t.v., and with all the pictures and resources online, I think watching online really is better. From what I've seen, just a beautiful wedding. The bride's gown is exactly perfect--nothing extra, just right. It reminds me of a simple version of Grace Kelly's wedding dress. It will take much more perusal of Hello! magazine and such to get the debrief on all the other finery, but at first glance I think Camilla is the second-best dressed--she looks radiant in that pale color, and that hat!

This morning I'll enjoy my morning tea in my commemorative mug, which I begged my husband to pick up in London last week. Yes, we're royal crazy here in the U.S.

Besides royal watching, I've been knitting. The charcoal sweater is coming along. I've got back and front done and am now about to join one shoulder and knit the cowl neck. Why not knit in the round? Kim Hargreaves does things in pieces and I agree--I like purling, so it's just a personal preference.

But on the heels of this project, or rather inserting itself, is the Estelle Knitalong I just joined, due to start May 1st and hosted by Paula of Knitting Pipeline.

Estelle is a cute cardigan designed by Melissa LeBarre and knit in Quince and Co. Lark, a light worsted weight. One could also use Cascade 220 or a number of other things.

I wanted to try their yarn, so I got Lark in a useful navy color, not captured very well in this photo.

Paula has a Ravelry group where help can be found for this project. There's still time to join us!

Jane Eyre fashions

2011-04-15T16:17:00.000-07:00

A news flash for those who have been admiring the handknitting in the new Jane Eyre: Carol Sunday of Sunday Knits has gone to all the trouble for us and designed a shawl that could have been taken from the movie's costume department. Her pattern "To Eyre" is now available on Ravelry as a pdf, or it can be ordered with yarn as a kit on her website.

The shawl is like the everyday shawls I wrote about in my last post. The Sunday Knits one comes in two versions, one in which the bottom portion is longer:

and version 2, which I like better, with a wider back and little ruffle:

It takes about 500 yds of yarn for version 1, and 610 yds for version 2. While I think her own 5-ply yarns would be great, I've been spinning something I think would also be good. This is some Romney roving I bought from Homestead Farm not long ago. It's kind of silvery and kind of tan, a very nice color, and pretty soft.

The gauge for the shawl may be a little big for the way I'm spinning it now, but I can adjust that. I had a project in mind for this fiber, but it wasn't wanting to be that fine of a weight, so the fiber can be anything I want at this point.

I still haven't found any stills from the movie of this shawl, but I did find one that shows Judy Dench's shawl, but only barely:

Of course, if anyone asked me if I really needed a Jane Eyre shawl, I'd say, well, probably not. But it's a tempting prospect to have the pattern and fiber ready and waiting. Definitely worth some thought!

Spring projects

2011-04-10T18:35:00.000-07:00

Another old UFO finished! I sewed the buttons on my Maddalena cardigan this afternoon while we watched the very very old Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn, circa 1938. I thought the movie must have been colorized, but it was filmed in Technicolor. He's wearing a very green outfit. The movie also stars Olivia de Havilland and Claude Rains, who I always enjoy seeing and had forgotten was in this movie.

Anyway, the sweater fits pretty well and I'm happy with it, but I do need to get some tops to wear with it. Luckily, the yarn has a lot of colors in it to choose from.

I also have some pictures of the Belle beret that are better than the ones I tried to take myself while wearing it!

On a cultural note, I recently went to see the new Jane Eyre at the theater, and it was good, but not my favorite adaptation. I didn't object to Rochester being a bit too pretty, but Jane was so listless I was hard pressed to tell why anyone could have been interested in her. However, I loved the costumes and scenery, and there is some good knitting to be seen in the movie if one looks for it. There were little everyday shawls and fingerless gloves and a quite gossamer thing Judy Dench wears. None of which I could find pictures of online, but here are some nice stills from the movie.

My favorite version of all time is the Masterpiece Theatre one with Toby Stephens and Ruth Wilson. I thought Toby Stephens captured Rochester well; he's got this reputation as a cold, forbidding character but he really never stops talking. Ruth Wilson's Jane has some spirit, and the chemistry between the two of them gives the movie a sensual dimension that is lacking in other versions.

I had to watch this version again after seeing the recent one, and I'm confirmed that it's the best (although I have not seen the one in which George C. Scott plays Rochester and Susannah York Jane--that could be interesting. . .)

Knitting away

2011-03-28T16:36:00.000-07:00

I finished my Ysolda beret in no time at all. Unfortunately, my cameraman hasn't been around to take a picture, so here is my attempt to photograph it on my own head. The beret is knit in Louisa Harding Grace, a silk and wool blend that I mentioned last time. I did like knitting with this yarn. It's very soft to the touch and has thick and thin bits, and less-spun bits, but it did come out nice. I still need to get the elastic and ribbon to thread thru the band for a bow. I think I'll go with black, or a dark gray, for this.

It's kind of odd looking when you only see part of it--very urchin-like. When I get some better photos of the whole thing, I'll post 'em. I ended up with half a ball of yarn left, and I thought I could buy one more ball and make a second one to give to someone. Otherwise, I don't know what to do with half a ball of yarn. I hate having leftovers from a project! I have to think of something to do with them.

Instead of picking up another UFO, I moved on to a new project. I had a strong feeling that I ought to do something with my Sunday Knits Nirvana. I wanted something really simple, no lace or things that would require too much attention. Nirvana 3-ply is a sport weight (to fingering weight) yarn, and I chose this project from Rowan 26.

The color I'm working with is charcoal. I've got a good start on the back, and I'm comparing against a favorite Old Navy sweater just to be sure it's going to fit. Unlike some knitters, I really do not mind stockinette stitch. It's so restful and I can listen to an audiobook and not get lost with either. This sweater's accompaniment is Death on the Nile, read by David Suchet. The project is done on US 4 needles, which I like because it's a small gauge but not so small that you don't see any progress. The decreases and increases are done in the body of the sweater, as opposed to on the edges, and this looks nice even though they don't show up that well in a dark color. Well, there are also decreases on the sides, but I chose not to do them as they make too precipitous of a curve for my frame.

In the mail today I got a nice package from Quince & Co. of Portland, Maine. I had been interested in their yarns, so I ordered up a sample skein and their color card. Such pretty colors! Such nice yarn! It's spun evenly and looks very springy. This is their Chickadee yarn in Bird's Egg. And it is the right color of bird's egg.

I had it in mind for a little project, but now I'm not sure this weight is going to work for it. I can give it a try, but if not, it will certainly become something else nice. I also got snips of their other yarns and they look good, too.

I also received in the mail the extra ball of Castello to finish my Maddalena cardigan. So I have no excuse not to get on with that one as well.

New things, and old

2011-03-20T15:53:00.000-07:00

Unlike the rest of knitdom, I've only recently become a fan of Ysolda Teague, the Scottish knit designer with the most popular pattern on Ravelry. I've known about her for a while and remember when she published her first pattern in Knitty in 2005, but I've never made anything of hers, even though I've liked some of her designs.

That's all about to change, because this past week I got her book Whimsical Knits 2, in book form, from a local knit shop. The book itself is really cute, as are the projects. The first thing I'm knitting from it is this:

Called Nathaniel, it's a squirrel pillow. I have some Galway Chunky, which was quite inexpensive, to make a white squirrel. I'm thinking about adding a strand of mohair to make more of a fuzzy squirrel. I know it's not everybody's thing, but I think he's so cute.

I also have in mind the Belle Beret shown at the top out of Louisa Harding Grace Silk & Wool in black. I decided on black because it's bound to be useful, don't you think? This is one of her free patterns. The ribbon is sewn to a piece of elastic and inserted into a casing to get a good fit around the head. I could jazz it up with a different colored ribbon, or just keep the whole thing black or gray.

I know I will be making more things out of the Whimsical Knits book, because I like everything in it. There are 12 designs, an almanac of sorts. And her instructions and pattern layouts are so clear I think it will be a good experience.

As for finishing my UFOs, I've hit a stumbling block in the Maddalena cardigan mentioned last time. It was flying along until I began to run really short of yarn. Hmm. I hunted around for an extra ball, but I could pretty much see from the ends in the finished pieces that I'd knit all there was.

I tried to make it work and kept going till this was all that was left.

And it was not enough! After weighing the yarn to figure out grams and possible grams per row, I decided I had just enough to do a one-row neckband and button bands (without buttons). I tried it but it didn't work as the bands wanted to flip over and under and generally looked bad, as you can see.

I've made this sweater before and didn't have this issue. In fact, I used just over six of the seven balls I had. And this time I made the sleeves two inches shorter! So either I bought eight balls last time and didn't realize it, or the seventh ball for this sweater is hiding around here somewhere. This is one problem with putting a project down for a long time. In any event, I was able to find another ball in my color on eBay (thanks, Lisette, for offering!) and will finish it off when that comes in.

In the meantime, should I cast on a Ysolda project, or slog along on another UFO? Decisions.

Knitting on

2011-03-15T08:25:00.000-07:00

I finished two scarves and only recently got around to photographing them, but sans makeup so I'm headless today. This one's from the book The Country Diary Book of Knitting by Annette Mitchell and is a simple ribbed scarf. Knit in aran weight yarn, it goes quickly. I did a tubular cast on and cast off (great tutorial on that here), and just knit till I was getting to the end of my yarn. I used one skein of Lion Brand Fishermen's Wool, which is 465 yds, and the scarf is plenty long to wrap.

Yes, the Fishermen's Wool is scratchy, but I find that I'm not as sensitive to rustic wool as I used to be. I did give it a bath in Eucalan with some hair conditioner, and that helped. And I may be more kindly towards Fishermen's Wool in the future. It's not bad, once I cleaned it, and is good for sturdy, un-fancy garments.

If I get caught out on the moors, I'll wear it this way. I like her sweater and may knit that as well.

The next scarf I knit was in some yarn I got at Madrona last month. This yarn never made it to my stash, and it feels good to knit something up right away. The pattern is the Curlicue Fringe Scarf by Toots LeBlanc, using their 70/30 BFL/Pygora blend. One skein makes a modest sized scarf, not for wrapping but more for draping, I suppose.

I did enjoy working with this yarn. It was a bit expensive (about $25), but there are 250 yds per skein so it goes a long way. Although it's classified as a fingering weight yarn, I find their yarns to be heavier and thought it could easily be substituted for Rowan Felted Tweed in a sweater. It has a nice heft to it that Felted Tweed does not and would make a very classy garment. I do like the curlicues:

I got the pattern at the Toots booth without really reading it because I thought the scarf was cute, but it wasn't my favorite pattern to work from as it seemed a little loosey-goosey on the details even for this simple scarf. I suspect the original had longer curlicues; mine are a little lackluster in comparison--oh well!

Work on my UFOs continues. I picked up where I left off on my Maddalena cardigan, which turned out to be at the left front. That is, I started this sweater with the left front for some reason, so that was the only piece done. But I've finished the other front and the back now:

I've done this Louisa Harding sweater once before in green:

I liked the mottled yarn so much I had to buy it in another colorway. I'm not sure but I think this yarn (Louisa Harding's Castello) has been discontinued.

The finished version will look like this, although this plummy color is yet a different colorway:

I think I may make the ribbing on the sleeves shorter on this one. It looks kind of bulky on the upper arms and is slow going to knit, with lots of twisted stitches and k2togs.

Next post I'll do a UFO round-up as it seems to be what I'm working on these days. I'm unusually determined to clear the knitting slate!

On the fringe

2011-03-06T15:15:00.000-08:00

Lately I've been trying to finish some old UFOs, and both of the ones I chose to work on have fringe. I'm not that much of a fringe person as far as what I wear, but I thought these two things were cute when I bought the yarn for them. The first is the Cosmos Poncho from the book Handknit Style. I got 7 skeins of the Tahki Stacy Charles Cosmos a while ago when it was on sale at one of my LYSs. It's kind of nasty to work with but it drapes well. The poncho calls for 9 skeins, but I thought I would do mine narrower and just stop when I ran out of yarn. Here's the original from the book:

Mine came out pretty much the size of this one somehow. It should be a fun thing to wear in the spring with white linen pants or jeans. The fringe still needs some trimming as I haven't done that yet, but other than that, it's all done.

My next UFO project was less enjoyable for me. This is the Montego Bay Scarf by Amy Singer, published in Interweave Knits Summer 2007. What can I say? The same LYS had a shop sample, and I am a sucker for those . . . and it looked so easy. Described as "a mindless openwork pattern," I thought I'd have this done in no time, but I found it an exasperating project for some reason. I had trouble telling which of the rows I was on in the lace, and it wasn't till I picked it back up again after a long hiatus that I figured out how to differentiate between them. Here's the original, made in Handmaiden Sea Silk I believe:

And my version in alpaca:

I used Alpaca With a Twist Fino, a lace yarn, using two strands at a time, the yardage of which was supposed to work out to be the same length as the original. However, after a soak my scarf came out somewhere between eight and 10 feet! Must have been the alpaca, but it had to be frogged about two feet. Another thing is that I came to realize that coral is not my color, especially next to my face, so I decided to dye it lavender.

I have to say my approach to dyeing is to try something and see what happens, definitely not a scientific method. The scarf when it came out of the dyebath was a rather loud purple that would have gotten me mistaken for a Washington Huskies fan:

. . . or something like that. (I'm not a Huskies fan, and I'm not not a Huskies fan, I just don't want to wear clothes associated with a football team.) So, back in the dye pot it went. I managed to get a color I liked by adding some orange, and it came out a plum color. Apologies for the not great photos.

The fringe on the scarf didn't make it. It was already attached when I first dyed it, and there were some coral bits around the ties where the dye didn't penetrate. Overdyeing in orange sure didn't help, so I removed the fringe completely. Considering I had my doubts about getting something usable out of this whole experience, it's okay, I think. Here are the three colors this scarf has been:

What I picked up next is not a UFO but a scarf using new yarn I got at the Madrona Fiber Arts Festival that takes place in Tacoma each year. The yarn is a skein of yummy rustic Blue Faced Leicester/Pygora in a light brown. Both yarn and pattern for the Curlicue Fringe Scarf are from Toots LeBlanc in Oregon.

Now this is truly mindless knitting!

A few new things

2011-02-13T09:37:00.000-08:00

I recently finished a long-term project and wanted to show you how it came out. This is the Field of Flowers shawl by Evelyn Clark. I bought the pattern and yarn at the Madrona Fiber Arts Festival in Tacoma, WA, er, about three years ago. The yarn is from Toots LeBlanc and is a jacob/alpaca blend. I believe it's the DK weight but not sure about that. I plan on taking it by their booth when I go to Madrona this weekend, so they'll be able to tell me what yarn it was. I do remember that the owner knit this shawl in a week, having to have it done for something or other. Well, it took me quite a bit longer, but I finally got it off the needles.

I wore it to work at the yarn shop one day with a nice silver shawl pin. Since this is the first shawl I've knit, this project taught me some things about their construction, and I think this one is very traditional in its construction. The middle panel is done first with a provisional cast on, then stitches are picked up on the remaining sides and the old shale border begun. Then the lace edging is knitted on a separate needle and knitted together with stitches from the border.

I can't say I'm ready for another shawl project any time soon, but I'm glad to have one to my credit.

The other project is the Oatmeal Pullover by Jane Richmond, a Ravelry designer. It's a really quick knit as you can probably tell, and mine was done over two weeks, but there were some days in there when I didn't work on it (so you could knit yours even faster than that!). The original was knit in Lion Brand Wool Ease Chunky, and that's what I used, although now I wish I'd used something with more wool in it. The 80% acrylic/20% wool yarn is oddly comfy and scratchy to wear. But it can be washed and dried in the machine, which is good as the sweater pretty much has to be worn next to the skin.

Here's the back:

Now that I'm done with these, I've been working on my unfinished projects so that one day I have only one project on the needles at a time. I'm about seven projects away from that.

Sorry this post is so boring, I've picked up the upper respiratory crud that's been going around and have trouble putting two words together. But I did want to post because I haven't in a while, and besides, it's a nice distraction to be poking about online, with my cup of tea, where I can go look at things that inspire me (maybe your knitting!). Take care and hope you're all well.

New year, new projects

2011-01-13T19:31:00.001-08:00

In spite of the fact that I have some goals for the new year, I've fallen under the spell of a brand new project that necessitated the purchase of yarn (oops!). The sweater is from the book Homestead Classics by Martin Storey, which is chock full of great designs for men and women.

Who could resist this reindeer sweater? Not I.

I love the styling in this book. I think that's why I want to knit everything in it.

The reindeer sweater is the first fair isle project I've knitted flat, in pieces. I thought of converting it to be knit in the round, but most Rowan colorwork patterns are knitted flat, and a good deal of vintage fair isle is also knit in pieces, so I thought I'd give it a try. It's really not bad, and I can't say it's hugely slower than knitting in the round, for me. It helps to be able to knit with two hands to start with (i.e., holding the yarn in either left or right hand), and then I just had to figure out how to deal with the floats on the purl side. In less than a week, I finished a sleeve.

Instead of using RYC Baby Alpaca, I'm using Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light (does anyone else have to look up how to spell Berroco every time?). I love the feel of this wool/alpaca blend, it's so inexpensive, and I'm just impressed with it all around. The sleeve took a bit over one ball of the light gray, and about half a ball of the dark gray, which is really good, yardage-wise.

My favorite part is, of course, the reindeer (Rachel, they are reindeer, aren't they? :o).

Happy 2011!

2011-01-01T06:32:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year! I hope you're as excited about the new year as I am.

Here is a look at my knitting for 2010:

This is the lazy gal's mosaic, a Ravelry screen grab, so you'll have to click on the photo if you want to see anything! Except for the Starbucks bear, which was knitted at Christmastime the year before, this is what was finished in 2010.

There are several projects I'm really happy with, such as Magnolia, the gray pullover on the bottom row. I wear this all the time, which is kind of a first for me because I don't usually wear any one of my sweaters a lot. I also get random compliments on it from people who don't know I made it, which is nice. The other one I'm happy with is the black Origami Pullover in the middle row. It's another simple knit that's easy to wear.

Like most knitters, my goal for 2011 is to knit more! I know to be successful this has to be quantified in some way, but that's the basic desire. And, like many knitters, my other goal is to knit from my stash. I've become very discerning about what knitting books I allow in any more, but not so about the yarn. Over the past year, I added four sweaters' worth of yarn to my stash, one skein of Malabrigo sock made it in, and some other single balls were gifted to me during the year. All beautiful things, now just waiting to be knit.

In addition to knitting goals, I also have other crafting goals in the form of finishing some quilt projects:

getting back to my drawing:

and doing more reading, sewing, and even reading about sewing:

Ah, the possibility of a new year!

Another year, another chance
To start our lives anew;
This time we’ll leap old barriers
To have a real breakthrough.

We’ll take one little step
And then we’ll take one more,
Our unlimited potential
We’ll totally explore.

We’ll show off all our talents
Everyone will be inspired;
(Whew! While I’m writing this,
I’m getting very tired.)

We’ll give up all bad habits;
We’ll read and learn a lot,
All our goals will be accomplished,
Sigh...or maybe not.

Oh well, Happy New Year anyway!

By Joanna Fuchs

Xmas crafting

2010-12-21T17:48:00.001-08:00

This year I made a decision not to get myself too caught up in Christmas crafting. Last year, there were hats, toys, and quilts to make, and they were made, but this year time seemed to be speeding up on me. I chose only one project to do, the quilted wall hanging you see here.

This was a kit my mom came across somewhere (maybe a thrift shop find?) by a company called Alaska Dyeworks, now defunct, I think. The bright colors suit her much better than me, so I decided to make it for her.

I have to say, it didn't look too exciting until I started piecing it. Then the colors came together so nicely that I found myself really liking it. All of the fabrics are hand dyed cotton and thicker than regular quilting fabric, which made it very easy to piece. Cutting the pieces was kind of nerve-wracking, because there was only a small strip of each and no way to get more if I messed up. The finished quilt is something like 26" x 35". Even though it was the shortest day of the year yesterday, the sun peeked out long enough for me to take some pictures. These are really bright, happy jewel tones.

The backing I found at my local quilt shop and it's sort of an ombre fabric that is hard to photograph in its true color.

I hadn't done any quilting since the last project for mom, so my machine skills aren't all that accomplished but I can usually do these small projects. I like to put a handmade label on the back to date it:

Otherwise, I'm just puttering on some small projects as the holidays approach. I decided I'd like another pair of bed socks, so I got these going in Patons Classic Wool. It's a yarn I can always find at Joann's, and I can make these two-color socks for about six bucks. In fact, I could probably make two pairs from this yarn if I reverse the colors. I like this wool and would consider making something else out of it.

The pattern is Mrs. IBH's Toasty Socks from the Green Mountain Spinnery book. I've made these before and they are well-fitting, easy socks to make. They'll look something like this when finished:

Other than that, I've finally reached the lace edging on my Field of Flowers shawl, a very old UFO, but I can't work on that when there are people buzzing around me, so it's in the basket until after the holidays. I did finish my other burgundy Toast mitt and have worn them some. I'm also still working on my ribbed scarf from the Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady book.

With a birthday gift card from Webs (thanks, sis!), I recently purchased some Rowan Kid Classic in lavender, and I'm eager to start Emily from Kim Hargreaves' book Heartfelt. But first I will finish these other things.

I wish you all the happiest of holidays; may you get all your crafting done in time, and if not, wrap it and put it under the tree anyway!

Pom poms!

2010-11-20T12:28:00.000-08:00

I have a finished project to show you--a pom pom hat! I cast on for this a couple of days ago, and it was pretty much an unplanned project. Earlier in the week, I'd been thinking of moving along my collection of Interweave Knits and was looking through them when I came across this hat in the fall 2007 issue (the one with the Tilted Duster by Norah Gaughan). I don't think I'd ever noticed the hat before, but suddenly I had to have a pom pom hat! I think lurking in the back of my mind was this podcast from Stash and Burn. I've only recently discovered knitting podcasts, and since I like Stash and Burn better than any I've listened to, I went back to the first episode to begin at the beginning. In this one dating back to 2007, Jenny talks about how she was in Italy and kept seeing all these hats with enormous pom poms on them. The one I made is not quite as large as the Italian ones, but good sized all the same. Here's the original hat from Interweave.

I bet I'm the only person to knit this who rewrote the pattern to be knitted flat instead of in the round. I started it in the round but frogged it and began again. One thing was that I kept having to think about what row I was on, and I realized when there's a purl side, it simplifies things: I'm either on row 1 or row 3, but it can't be row 2 or row 4, for example. With cables I find it hard to see what row I'm on anyway, I'm hopeless with row counters, and I guess I like to keep things as mindless as possible :o). Actually, I prefer to knit things flat, and I like seaming, too.

The hat was made in Rowan Cocoon. Since I was using leftovers, I weighed it to see how much yarn it took. The finished hat weighed 90g, which is a few yards less than one ball (about 113 yds). I knew Cocoon would make a good pom pom--so fluffy and definitely my favorite part of the hat!

And, I decided that, much as I'd like to lighten up my bookshelves, I can't get rid of my Interweaves! There's just too much good stuff in them and I notice things on rereading that I hadn't noticed before.

For anyone interested, here's how I made the pom pom. I cut out two 4-inch circles of repurposed cardboard, made a smaller hole in the center and cut out a wedge from each.

I sandwiched the thread I planned to tie the pom pom with between the two pieces. This yarn or thread should be something very strong. Leave a long tail to be able to sew it to the hat.

Sorry, I didn't take pictures of the rest, but I'll describe it. I just wound the yarn around the cardboard until it was covered and looked like it wouldn't hold any more. I cinched up the tying thread, tied it in a half knot and cut the pom pom apart, with the blade of the scissors between the 2 disks of cardboard. Then I removed the cardboard, tied the strong yarn tightly in a knot, fluffed up the pom pom, gave it a bit of a trim, and sewed it on with the tails. The resulting pom pom was 4 inches, although I've read that you should make your cardboard circle 1/2 inch larger than the pom pom you want.

This method was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I did look online for pom pom making and found this neat device and demonstration by Susan B. Anderson on the pom tree, so there's another option.

Each day my hand is better, so I've been able to resume some of my crafting, including spinning. I thought I'd share a few pictures of my wheel.

It's pretty simple, with just the bare minimum of hardware. The wood is curly maple. And like pom poms, it makes me smile just to look at it.

Happy crafting, everyone!

A note from the sidelines

2010-11-13T07:18:00.001-08:00

I finished one of my Toasty mitts this afternoon. Toast is the wonderful arm warmer pattern by Leslie Friend of A Friend to Knit With, and Toasty the mitt with the thumb added. The yarn I'm using is called Leche, by Queensland Collection. It's nice and toasty!

I'm happy to have finished just one of them, because my right hand and arm have been strained this past week, due I believe to the work I was putting in on the Lizard Ridge blanket. It's disappointing, but I've decided to stop work on it for the meantime. I can't carry on at this pace without risking injury to my hands, but without carrying on at this pace, it won't be finished by Xmas. The recipient didn't know she was getting a blanket, so she won't be disappointed, but I'm sad it won't be done in time. Well, with any luck, and working in small bits of time, I'll finish it by her birthday in June. I'll have to come up with a small project for her, because I usually make my mom one of her birthday and Christmas gifts each year. She's a big tea drinker, so she might like a tea cozy, or I could sew her something for her table.

Oh, I nearly forgot to mention Tony Curtis! I read his second autobiography, American Prince, and found it funny, touching and incredible (Hollywood was pretty lively in those days). I got this photo just after he died earlier this year, and since I love classic movies and movie stars, it's inspired me to start collecting autographs of my favorite old Hollywood stars, the ones who are still with us, that is. I'm not prepared to pay top prices for the long-dead ones just yet! It's too bad that Dana Andrews, Jimmy Stewart, Glenn Ford, Gary Cooper, and Rita Hayworth aren't still around, but I'll continue to do more research. Next up, Lauren Bacall.

Since using the computer mouse for very long is irritating to my hand, I've been looking at knitting books, and I'll show you some things I've been thinking about knitting.

Isn't this a fun jacket? It's not my usual thing at all, but I like it a lot right now. The pattern is by Cirilia Rose. Love the chunky-ish yarn, the tweed, and the quirkiness of it all. What's cool about the back are these ruffles:

PurlDiva's photo

The original was made in Blackstone Tweed aran and chunky weights. I haven't sorted out which one is used where in the garment, but maybe it could all be made in this red Rowanspun Aran. I'm one of those people who is very influenced by the color of something in a photo and have trouble visualizing it in any color other than the one shown. If I had gray, I would choose gray. I'm not a big "red" person, but this yarn is so saturated and a really good red, and that is how it came to live with me in a Ravelry trade.

The other sweater that's caught my eye, and one I will definitely knit since I have the pattern already, is Tortoise and Hare by Kate Davies. There's a lot that's captivating about this pattern, such as (obviously) the little tortoises and hares, the braid just above the ribbing, the natural colors used, and okay, it's just so cute. There are also some new techniques to learn, like the braid and short row sleeves knit on from the body of the sweater. I may have said this before, but I like short sleeved sweaters. They're warmer than they look and no getting stuck on Sleeve Island!

Finally, look at this awesome bike--it's the 2011 Madsen cargo bike. Okay, I admit it, by posting a link to their website on my blog, I've entered myself to win one of these in a contest this month. But can you see riding to the grocery on this (with or without dog)? It could be the SUV of the future. If you think this bike is as neat as I do, get yourself on over to Madsen Cycles and get your own link. Winner announced on November 17th.

Fall colors

2010-11-10T07:43:00.000-08:00

I've been spinning! Just last week, I got my spinning wheel back from the fellow who made it. It had been making a funny squeak, and he took a look at it and fixed the problem, but my wheel was traveling for a few weeks. You wouldn't think this is such a sacrifice since I hadn't been spinning much these past months, but I had just gotten into it again, and I was happy to have my wheel back after all its travels. At first we sent just the round part of the wheel by itself, but that wasn't enough to diagnose and fix the problem, so we had to send the entire wheel cross country to Maine. Gilbert, the guy who makes the wheels, was most obliging.

I've been wanting to improve the quality of the yarn I make, and that's all a matter of practice. The photo above is more yarn from Happy's fleece, a sheep from Homestead Wool and Gift Farm that I've posted about before. This batch came out differently from the other batch, so I don't know what I'll end up using it for, since the two batches are different weights, one being finer than the other. One thing that caught my eye was this:

A handspun shawl called Indigenous by Lynne Vogel, pattern online at Knitty Fall 2010. I like the irregular look to it, which would suit my irregular yarn.

I also cranked out samples of some other fiber:

The top is some BFL, I think, from Weaving Works in Seattle (note to self: record what the fiber is when I buy it, for goodness' sake!). Very soft and easy to spin. The bottom not-in-focus one is from a big ball of mystery fiber I got off eBay when I first started spinning. I'm trying to come up with some 4 ply yarn to do a fair isle project I've been thinking about, and I think it just might work.

On another note, my mom stopped by this week with a gift of yarn. She'd bought this beautiful yarn in Victoria BC a while back and didn't think she'd get around to knitting it. It's from Fleece Artist, and the label has a pattern on the flip side for mittens and socks. The recommended needle size is US 8s, with a gauge of 14 st/4". Candy the dog is trying to identify the fiber content--ah, 100% mohair!

I thought it might make a nice Opal by Kim Hargreaves. What do you think?

And, if one gift isn't enough, there has been more stash enhancement to report. Funny how I've started thinking of November as my birthday month; that way, the celebrations go on for more than a day. This was a treat to myself. I love the feature on Ravelry to search stashes for sale/trade yarn. One can find really good deals on yarn in general, but also yarn that has been discontinued and can't be found in any shop. (This can be dangerous!) I was searching for anything by Rowan and found many treasures, but I could not resist 10 skeins of Rowanspun 4 ply in charcoal from a Raveler I trust, Susan Crowe of the entertaining Damn, Knit & Blast It blog.

*photo by mustaavilla

Rowanspun is a really nice yarn, I love tweed, and I don't have a lot of fingering weight in my stash. I used this yarn before in a cardigan from the book A Season's Tale, a collection of classic designs by Kim Hargreaves. Here are two other designs from that book I'm considering:

The first is Berry, which has a Kidsilk Haze border on the bottom. The KSH is used doubled, by the way, which would make a cozy border. The other is Isla, and it has a Lurex Shimmer rib in two colors. I like the look of it, but may just do the very edge in Lurex Shimmer. It's also a discontinued yarn, so I'd have to scramble to find some if I wanted to use it. I'm really torn between the two designs. The top one is something I've admired for a while, but the cardigan would be more useful.

Xmas update: I'm still plugging away on the Lizard Ridge throw--on square 8 now. Seems like it will be always with me.

Inspiration

2010-10-28T17:03:00.000-07:00

I came across this book one day at my local secondhand bookstore, The Country Diary Book of Knitting by Annette Mitchell. Published in 1987, the designs in it are based on Edith Holden's book The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady showing English country scenes in watercolor. The author of the knitting book is described as a teacher and knitwear designer, but I've never heard of her before. Ten other designers also contributed patterns to the book, but their names and what each one contributed are listed in the small print on the last few pages.

The book has designs for every season and all family members. There are accessories and toys. If one ignores the 1980s atrocities that you can't help but see in books published in the 1980s!, there's inspiration to be found. Below are my favorites.

Many of the original yarns aren't around any more, but I thought this sweater could be done in Cascade Yarns Eco Wool, or else in a chunky acrylic/wool blend for more softness. It was originally done in a Sirdar chunky yarn.

I could see this sweater knit in something like Black Water Abbey yarn, which is a crisp, heathery yarn, or else something wonderful like Alice Starmore's Bainin, which she has started offering again. The guy's scarf (same as the woman's above) is the pattern I'm using for my scarf in Fishermen's Wool.

For this sweater, I could see using plain old Cascade 220 because it doesn't require anything fancier. Recently, I saw one nearly identical to this on Ravelry, listed as a new design, which tells me this is a classic.

I would have thought this one was from Meg Swansen or one of her summer campers.

This reminds me of a Kim Hargreaves design in A Yorkshire Fable. It's got huge bobbles on the front, guaranteed to cause any knitter grief.

And the last has many nice elements, though I wouldn't wear them all at once. I love that big cowl, the mittens, and the sweater underneath. All are knit in DK weight yarn, and I don't know what I would use here.

When I see these pictures together, they look so much like pages from a Rowan magazine. A vintage Rowan perhaps, but that's all right in my book.

Update: I returned three of the four skeins of the Fishermen's Wool to Joann's. I'd already knit up about a third of the remaining skein and decided to look up reviews of this yarn on Ravelry. Well, let me say that before this, I was disappointed to see on the label that this yarn is made in China (it used to be made in the US). On Ravelry, there were wildly varying reviews, from "it's okay and a workhorse yarn" to "it's awful and I'll never use it again." The quality control on this yarn seems poor, and people noted weird smells and strange stuff spun into the yarn, like plastic and long hair. I don't mind rusticity, but I do mind stuff in my yarn that's not supposed to be there!

After being creeped out by some of the reviews, I did give my yarn a bath today and it was pretty dirty. I admit to just popping my half-knitted scarf into the bath, still on the needles, to get it clean! We'll see what happens down the road there. But it seems to have bloomed nicely.

All of this by way of saying, it's important to do my research before buying a new yarn!

Knitting to the exclusion of all else

2010-10-27T19:33:00.000-07:00

I posted a while ago about an eight-legged project I was working on, and it's finally finished. This cute guy came from the book by Hansi Singh called Amigurumi Knits. My son really wanted the octopus because he's interested in underwater life. I got the tentacles done and put together and then poor octopus sat that way for some time. Every now and then my son would ask about his octopus, and then he stopped asking. Fueled by "mom guilt," I finally sat down and completed the head and grafted top to bottom. It really was an afternoon's work yesterday and then 45 minutes to seam today.

Not only am I and the recipient happy with it, but I got to learn some great techniques in the process. I can see that's where these small projects can really pay off. I learned fake grafting and some things about short rowing I didn't know could be done, such as having numerous wraps on one stitch. I can't say that all this fiddly stuff is the most pleasant knitting, but it's good to learn something new.

I also cranked out my Toast arm warmers and have been wearing them nonstop:

These were done in Classic Elite Portland Tweed, which I knew I would like. It's a heavier yarn than I thought it was. And this is another reason small projects are so great: you get to try out lots of different yarns. I don't know if I'd want a whole sweater out of Portland Tweed, but it's pretty nice. Maybe a vest. . .

I also started a pair in Queensland Collection Leche. These will have the thumb option. Leche is kind of a weird yarn. It's 40% merino, 30% microfiber, 20% milk protein and 10% silk. It knits up very thickly, and I notice the microfiber as kind of a plastic-y feel. But I want to see how it wears, if there's any pilling or if it's sturdy.

I've also been knitting away on the Noro squares and have five of them done now. I hope all these colors find some cohesion at some point! The Kureyon is very rustic and either it, or all the short rows, or my bamboo needles is being very hard on my hands. The minute I switch to another project it's easier going. I'll try the Addi Turbos and see if that makes a difference, but in the meantime, I got myself distracted by some more rustic knitting:

A simple ribbed scarf. The yarn is --gasp-- Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool. I've been wanting to try this yarn, and Joann's obliged by having a "buy two" sale, so I'm trying it out now. The scarf is in a brownish grey color, but these three also came home with me. Three huge skeins is enough for a cabled sweater.

This yarn is very rustic, and very sheepy smelling when steamed (like, may be a bit of ram in this batch!). I want to know how much it softens and blooms after a soak in Eucalan, but it sure seems hard wearing. I have some ideas for a project that will have to wait till next post!

More knitting!

2010-10-20T06:34:00.000-07:00

The Harry Potter scarf is finished--we're ready for Halloween! The scarf turned out well and is just the right size. I'm sure only a knitter would think this, but a hand knitted scarf makes all the difference. That and the wand my son and his dad made: They rigged up a light bulb at the end and colored the brown tape to look like wood. My own Halloween costume is coming along, but it's more complicated (involves sewing).

I also finished my scarf, although it's not the one I told you about in the last post. I was thinking aloud to fellow Raveler Lisette (Ilovescarves) about my Malabrigo, and she mentioned she'd made the scarf Just Enough Ruffles with two skeins of Malabrigo. Of course it was the perfect pattern for this yarn. The scarf is by Cosmicpluto, and I somehow managed to get it on sale for $2.80 during Rhinebeck Weekend (but normally it's just $3.50). I ordered up the pattern, and the scarf came together so quickly. Here's the result:

Just off the needles, my gray scarf looked a bit like an octopus's tentacle wound around my neck! I was a little worried, but some steaming got the ruffles under control. Thanks, Lisette, for suggesting this pattern! By the way, if you haven't seen her Ravelry page (she's ilovescarves), go right now and look at it. She has some amazing projects, and they're all photographed so prettily.

Yesterday I visited a new yarn shop in the area, Serial Knitters Yarn Shop in Kirkland, WA. We've had a few shops close in the last few years, so it was good to see one open, and also to see that one of my favorite staff members from an old shop has resurfaced at this one. I didn't get to stay very long, but I liked what I saw. The shop has good natural light and carries many yarns I like: Rowan, Habu, Debbie Bliss, Mirasol, and Noro to name a few--along with some I haven't tried: Hazel Knits, Madeline Tosh. But something they do that I haven't seen anywhere else is sell their customers' knitting and crochet books on consignment. What a great idea, because everyone has books they'd like to move along. With the sale of the books, the customer earns "yarn points" to spend in the shop. Look what came home with me:

Rowan 36 on the right is one of the last volumes where Kim Hargreaves is designing for the company, and there are lots of gorgeous things in it. Rowan Book 10 is the most sought-after of the early publications. It features designs by all the Rowan heavy hitters (Kaffe Fassett has some of his best work in here), and Kate Moss as a model when she was still an unknown. The third one is Kim Hargreaves' Thrown Together. I paid half the original cover price for these, which made them a very good deal indeed, since Rowan Book 10 goes for a lot on eBay. Needless to say, I'll be visiting Serial Knitters again soon, and may even check out the yarn next time.

Next up are some arm warmers using the popular Toast pattern on Ravelry, and then on to some of the other things on my list like Christmas knitting. Hope you're having fun with your fall knitting, too!

Taking detours

2010-10-14T14:57:00.001-07:00

I finished my Haven scarf yesterday and can't wait to start wearing it. This is from Kim Hargreaves' book Heartfelt and I think it's the first thing I've made from the book, although I've admired about every design in it. I got some Cocoon in a Ravelry trade with a local gal and really wanted to make something nice with it. The two sweaters I started just didn't grab me, and then I read on Ravelry how this yarn pills horribly (and saw proof of that from someone who made a sweater out of it). So I abandoned the sweater project and decided to make Haven, my logic being that a scarf will not pill as badly as a sweater (we'll see). I still have two balls leftover, and someone suggested the Bella mittens. I think that's a great idea.

October is a weird month because there's Halloween, and our family likes to make stuff for Halloween. I'm sewing my own costume this year, for example. In years past, I've also made my son's costume, but this year we bought a Harry Potter robe for him. The Gryffindor scarves at the store looked purple, not maroon, and so I decided to knit one:

I made it 7-year-old size, so it's just 4 inches wide, knit in the round with cheap yarn. Doesn't show here, but it is a true maroon, not cranberry. So that's coming along--5 more repeats left, and fringe. Of course, it wasn't on my list of fall projects, and neither is this next project featuring:

yes, Malabrigo. After seeing what looked like a nice grey at the shop where I work, I just had to try it out. I bought enough to make Idlewood by Cecily G. MacDonald. Everything was going along well, or so I thought.

Let's say I'm not happy with my first Malabrigo experience! The variegations in the skein started pooling and, in my color, left darker "smudges" of grey that looked dirty next to the lighter ones. It's funny because the yarn doesn't look like it would have that effect in the skein. Even if I alternated balls of yarn, I didn't want the stripey look for this sweater, so it was frogged. Since I had wound two of the skeins, I can't return them, so I found another project for these and will return the other two that I bought.

While perusing Anthropologie's website, I noticed a lot of these big loopy cowls for fall:

Since I needed loooong color repeats, I thought this would be just the thing. I'm using a Drops pattern, although a pattern isn't really necessary. Below is the cowl doubled around the neck. It's pretty much just stockinette with garter borders. Such a long circle gives me a better chance of eliminating the pooling with this yarn. But I think I'm done with Malabrigo. I don't like finicky yarn!

I also saw on the Anthropologie website something that made me smile:

Fake fox stoles! But did you catch the prices on these?! Well, it makes me want to dig out my own Vegan Fox that has been hibernating a very long time. Who knows when people will be wearing them again. Mine's a silver fox, by the way.

So, while I did knit something with one of my chosen yarns for Fall 2010, I've gotten myself off on a tangent with these other projects. I'm also considering joining the Slogalong in Stash & Burn's group on Ravelry to finish up even more WIPs.

Oh, Melody asked about my drawing, which seems to have vanished from this blog! Well, I really miss it and fully intend to get back to my little studio soon. I still have a partially finished drawing of a cat and lots of ideas percolating for other things. So stay tuned :o)

Origami fini

2010-09-26T14:30:00.000-07:00

The origami sweater is finished, and I'm liking it pretty well. It's quite a hard thing to photograph, not only because it's black but those sleeves! This is a kit from Frog Tree Designs using their 100% alpaca sport weight yarn. It's perfect for this type of design because it drapes so well. If you like mindless knitting like I do, this is the project for you. The sweater is two rectangles, one knit as tall as I am, and the other much smaller, in k1, p1 rib throughout. The smaller piece is folded in half for the front:

And the other piece is folded like origami to make the back and sleeves, hence the name. There are four seams to the whole thing, one for each shoulder and one on each side of the front. And that's all there is to it.

Methinks I need another one in a light neutral. Did I say I liked this knit? Most of September was spent finishing this up, but in keeping with my list of projects for fall, I started one of my new fall projects, Cocoon from the book Haiku Knits:

. . . and wasn't liking it! I began to have second thoughts about this sweater for me. It's all right, but I felt I might not wear it that much. I looked through The Cocoon Collection, the book I got in my Ravelry trade with the Cocoon yarn, and found no fewer than 5 designs I had enough yarn to make. I consulted my wardrobe assistant (hubby), and he very practically pointed out the one I would wear the most:

This is Lyra, a scoop neck pullover. It's plain, yes, but I like the simplicity of it. It certainly fits the mindless knits category, so I know I will enjoy making it, and probably the finished product as well.

Since I took the Haiku Knits detour, I will not have this sweater done by the end of September, which was my random goal. I thought it would be neat to do one of the projects on my list and finish a WIP each month. That works if the project isn't too big or complex, but not all of my projects are that way. But regardless, it's been a fun month of knitting, with more to come.

I wanted to say thanks to you folks who stop by my blog when I post something. It's nice to know you're out there, and I do appreciate your comments. I don't know how to get in touch with some of you to respond, although sometimes I reply in my own comments, but here's a great big thank you to all of you!

Endless possibilities

2010-08-28T16:03:00.000-07:00

Last year, I bought--on sale--9 balls of Kid Classic in this lovely color called Oats. I had something very specific in mind, having seen this project on Ravelry, and just had to have the same, in the same color even. The project was Icicle from Rowan 42.

The longer this yarn sat in my stash, the more doubts crept in about poor Icicle. For one, it's a little eccentric, and the construction exasperatingly cumbersome (gathering and easing in sleeves, for example--what about decreasing somehow? and hemming, i.e., turning up the edges and sewing--can the designer think of no other way?). I'm happy to get on the bandwagon with all that if only I didn't have doubts about the practicality of the garment itself. It's eccentric, but Rowan-y eccentric, which I've always thought more acceptable in something I knit. But should it be? I don't, for example, have a handknitted sweater that I've ever worn out because it was so useful.

Thus, the possibilities. So I made these mosaics to crystallize my thoughts. All of these garments were actually designed in Kid Classic except one. I haven't even looked up patterns in this gauge on Ravelry for fear of what I might find, so for now I'm just looking at things made with Kid Classic.

The top left is Icicle, which I've already talked about. Top right is Emily by Kim Hargreaves from the Heartfelt book. Then two more sweaters by Kim H. from various Rowan magazines. The bottom left takes only 5 balls, so I'd have 4 left to make an entirely different thing.

In the mosaic above, the top left design is from Teva Durham's Loop-d-Loop book. It's a unisex pullover with two different sleeve settings, one raglan with the toggle and the other set in. Also eccentric but this oversized sweater appeals to me. Top right is Snowbird by PipiBird on Ravelry. A popular, well-fitting, simple garment. Would likely see a lot of wear. Which reminds me, based on my other sweater, Kid Classic is kind of scratchy, which is why more of these are "top layer" garments vs. close fitting. The bottom two are from Kim H's Heartfelt book once again. I could knit them both with 9 balls (or the pink sweater above and one of these).

I had to delve into my vintage Rowan magazines to find these. The top left is an oversized sweater in reverse stockinette, and the right one is more fitted. The bottom left is actually current, from Winter Blooms by Kim Hargreaves, and the bottom right is Marsha from an old Rowan and would need to be shortened by 1 ball's worth of yarn if I were to make it with 9 balls, but it appears plenty long.

And oops! There's one more possibility, the Bed Jacket from the book Romantic Style by Jennie Atkinson. Utterly romantic and impractical, I still consider it a contender. Wouldn't it be lovely just to own this?

(photo is of dskinla's version)

I get into this mode when I have yarn in my stash that is not specifically assigned a project. I can't stop mulling it over until I come up with the best thing to make. Most everything here is designed by Kim Hargreaves, so how can I run amok, really? But I would love to hear your opinions.

Fall forecast

2010-08-26T08:03:00.001-07:00

I've been poring over my patterns and stash to plan out what my fall/winter knits are going to be. Although I never feel the need to do this for spring or summer, I do enjoy planning my projects for the fall. Fall to my mind is more fresh than the new year, especially where knitting is concerned. I came up with quite a few new things to make, all from my stash, but once they were written down on a list, they really added up and now I see it's a tall--if not impossible--order indeed! Not to mention I have a few WIPs to finish! And other hobbies and obligations . . . well, you see. Nevertheless, here are the knitting projects I just have to get to this season :o)

St. Columba vest by Alice Starmore. A challenging, but not endless, project.

Glade from Rowan 40 by Marie Wallin. I bought these yarns during the Webs super sale (a sale worth waiting for). The beautiful colors of Tapestry and Kidsilk Haze will be a joy to knit, although I've heard some things about the pattern that I'll need to sort out for me.

Cocoon from Haiku Knits, in Rowan's Cocoon. I have the Frost color, like the cream color shown, which I acquired through a Ravelry trade.

Lizard Ridge Blanket in Noro Kureyon. This is a Christmas gift for mom. I plan to make a lap blanket of 4 x 4 squares or so, and started in February to get ahead, but I think I have only 3 done so far.

Sweater in my own handspun. Claudia was asking about this project, and I haven't forgotten it! But it definitely needs a new injection of life. Here's the inspiration board for my handspun sweater:

I should just stop here, but there's more. Manu, by Kate Davies. I have enough Joseph Galler 100% alpaca, as Knittimo on Ravelry did, to make this. Isn't hers lovely?

And the original:

And last, I must try to make a couple of Dickensian party mice this year:

Original pattern by Alan Dart. I have the "party mice" version, which includes a Christmas tree, Santa mouse, and mice with punch bowl and figgy pudding. I figure I could add a new mouse or two each year, like I do with my nativity (which obviously doesn't have mice in it!).

I didn't add in the 4-ply project mentioned in the prior post because I don't know if I'll get to it this fall/winter season unless I'm just dying for a 4-ply project, which does happen. Add to this my WIPs of Field of Flowers shawl, Donegal, and Origami Pullover, and it's a list to behold!

What are your fall knitting plans--or desires?

New knitting

2010-08-23T14:51:00.000-07:00

Here is a new vest I just finished up for fall from the book Feminine Knits. This design and the book are by Lene Holme Samsoe, a Danish designer. It uses really very little yarn for a garment and could almost be made with leftover yarn. I made this one out of two skeins (420 yds) of Honey Lane Farms 100% alpaca. Honey Lane Farms is an alpaca farm close by in the San Juan Islands and they make the most wonderful yarn! Here's the original from the book:

It turned out very close to this, I think. My second project is Cherry from the book Winter Blooms, by Kim Hargreaves. I knit mine with Sunday Knits' Nirvana, which is 92% merino and 8% cashmere. It's a good enough substitute for the Rowan Pure Cashmere DK recommended in the book and is just $8.95 per skein, which is a generous 246 yards. This beret can be made with one skein.

It turned out to be a big hat, even though I took a few rows out, and I think I was on gauge since the original looks similar. I'm not sure about the color of mine (it's a pale blue), but I think it would look nicer if I knit a matching scarf and/or gloves in the same color to go with it. But that would require buying more yarn!

I do have enough Sunday Knits Nirvana 3-ply in charcoal for a sweater. I had originally planned on making this:

But my husband was a little "meh" about the design for me, and since the pattern is a little complicated, I think it may end up becoming this, Chaise from Kim Hargreaves' Winter Blooms. It's a plain sweater with little pockets on the front and seed stitch edgings, the sort of thing I would wear all the time. I'm definitely a pullover kind of gal. I've made a number of cardigans and I never have the right thing, in the right fabric, of the right length, to layer under them. So I find I don't wear them all that much.

I enjoyed doing the beret because I really like working with 4-ply on small needles, so I look forward to finishing up some things so I can start this. One of these is the project below, another ribbed vest just like the alpaca one in Tahki Cotton Classic. Got the back done!

I didn't mean to make this, actually. I was working away on a Rebecca sweater with the Cotton Classic and began to suspect I would not have enough yarn. I wouldn't know until I'd put much more work into it whether it could be achieved. I happened to notice the stitch count of the back was exactly the same as for my vest, so I made it a tad longer than the other one and finished it as the back of the vest. I will probably have some leftover, but that's way better than running out of this discontinued color! I think it will look a bit different than the alpaca one, more rustic and perhaps even a slimmer profile compared to the fuzzy alpaca. Since it's cotton, it may even be a great thing to . . . layer under one of my store bought cardigans for work! We'll see.

Magnolia

2010-07-19T13:22:00.000-07:00

At last, something finished--it's been a while! This is Magnolia, a sweater from Rowan's Vintage Style book. Original model here:

And my version:

As you can see, it's a basic pullover but one I'll probably wear often when the weather cools down. The original in the book was knitted in Kid Classic and Kidsilk Haze held together on US 9s. Mine was done with Cascade's Kid Seta (just like Kidsilk Haze but a little cheaper) and some yarn I got as a gift from my sister, probably from a farmer's market or fair or something. It was from Serendipity Farm in Suffolk, Va., and is 30% alpaca and 70% wool. I'm thrilled to use it because this yarn has been in my stash for ages. I really pondered what to do with it, because it's quite lightweight and airy but perhaps a little dull on its own. Anyway, I like how it turned out and it fits pretty well.

The only feature of interest is the collar with buttons. These are a grey shell that matches perfectly, but in this photo they look white. Oh well, they do look nice in real life!

I'm very into knitting of late and hope to have some more projects to show here soon. One of them has eight legs!

Knitting and sewing origami

2010-06-06T19:44:00.000-07:00

I've been working on some very mindless knitting these days, in the shape of this origami pullover by Frog Tree Designs. When these kits came in at the yarn shop, I was intrigued, and after trying on the shop sample, I had to have one. With about 60 colors of alpaca sport weight to choose from, I decided on black :o) Well, I wanted it to be a really basic thing that I could just throw on whenever. And although I wear a good bit of black, I rarely ever knit anything in black.

What I like about this garment is that it's just two rectangles knit in k1, p1 rib all the way. They are sewn together in a clever way to make the sleeves and the front bit. The alpaca drapes really nicely and the resulting sweater seems to look good on a variety of body types. That said, the picture above does not do it justice; it looks kind of lumpy there, and it's actually much more drapey.

Even though it's just two rectangles, I wanted to make it really nice with a tubular cast on, and then I remembered there is a tubular cast off, too. After consulting some of my knitting books, I didn't come away with anything that made sense to me. Montse Stanley didn't have enough details and seemed even to be wrong in places (or it was how I interpreted the instructions). Then I found this tutorial over at So Much Yarn, So Little Time that solved my problem. Lots of pictures at all the critical junctures and a straightforward way of doing things won me over. I made a swatch-sized one first to make sure I knew what I was doing before launching into it in my hard-to-see black yarn. See what you think--one end is the cast on, and the other cast off, and I can't remember which is which:

Sometimes I'm resistant to learning new techniques because I have my own way of doing things that I'm comfortable with. But I'm glad I learned this one. I'm a big fan of k1, p1 rib for sweaters and this technique will give it a less homemade look.

I've also been working on a sewing project, a blouse in some linen I've had in my stash. It's an "easy" pattern from one of the spring Burda magazines. Kinda hard to see what's going on with that wild print, so I've included the schematic, too.

I have no good pictures of it because the light wasn't good. But here's the interesting bit on the sleeves (that needs a better pressing). I'm taking my time making it, doing a lot of basting and hand sewing to make it nice. I even hand finished the seams, in spite of the fact that I have a serger to do that job. Just thought it would be nicer with less weight in the seams, and I like the slowness of it. It's true that sewing often has nothing to do with using the sewing machine. It's all the prep work and pressing that take up most of one's time.

Anyway, having fun here at project central! Hope to post again soon.

Sewing in May

2010-05-03T14:36:00.001-07:00

Gosh, is it May already? Time it does fly. Today I have to show you some things I've sewn for myself. A friend lent me her serger and, after having it a long time, I finally got it out of the box to try. I guess it was thinking about having to get it threaded that made me put it off, as I'm not the most technically minded person. But, am I glad I got it out of the box, because this is just the best thing. I love it!

I read up on sewing with knits by checking out this book from the library:

Great book, and I recommend her books highly. The book comes with her own patterns in an envelope, but I made a tester shirt using another pattern. It would have been cute if I hadn't used a "tester" fabric. I made it again in a slinky rayon (had to photoshop in the "mom" tattoo to cover up what the slinky fabric revealed, and sorry, the shirt does look wrinkled!):

The rayon fabric is too slinky to wear on its own outside, but I thought it would be a fine pajama top. Then I made two tops yesterday, one is a cowl necked shell out of the same slinky rayon:

I can wear it under a cardigan and it looks quite all right. It was so easy to make, just two pieces to cut. And the other shirt I decided to draft my own pattern for and copy my favorite long-sleeved shirt. This was a black one I got at the shop Janeville. It's just a basic shirt, although the original had seed beads around the neck ribbing before some of them popped off and I had to remove them all. My favorite one is the right length, fits me well, and is pretty much worn as often as it's clean and in the drawer.

I used some pretty cheap rib cotton from Joann's. It was really easy to work with after the rayon, and I was amazed when the shirt came out pretty much like the original.

I have all kinds of ideas for other projects. First, I'm going to make a knit top using one of the Built By Wendy patterns. Then I have one more piece of knit fabric to use before I run out, and it's just like the blue rib used for the long-sleeved shirt except it's sea green. I may make another t-shirt out of that, or try a tank top. My friend has told me I can use her serger as long as I like, but I'm very tempted to shop around for one of my own. They are really a great thing and these few successes have injected a little life into my sewing.

This n that

2010-03-17T08:28:00.000-07:00

Just started a new drawing. This is a kitty whose photo I found on Flickr!, a handsome cat in my opinion. Love those little white feet. I'll be doing the background, too, so this one may take me a while. I've just put a couple of hours into it so far, and most of that was transferring the drawing to my hard press watercolor paper. This paper just eats colored pencils, but it really gives the best result for me. I can do a lot of layers and it's very forgiving as far as lifting out color (erasing), etc.

What else is new. I got a one-day-a-week job at a yarn shop, Cultured Purls in Issaquah, WA, and it's been great so far. I get to see new yarns as they come in, and it's nice to be able to help people with their projects, whether it's picking up dropped stitches, making sense of a pattern, or helping to decide on yarn or a project. What's not to like! Here's the shop:

And being part time it doesn't cut into my knitting time too much. People have this image of what working in a yarn shop is like, and it usually involves lots of time to knit and drink tea--well, it's not like that! It's can be quite busy, and there is always something to do.

Anyway, as I forge ahead on Donegal, I have this lovely image from the Virtual Yarns website to inspire me. Looks like Alice Starmore has made it in yet another colorway.

Going along

2010-03-15T20:27:00.001-07:00

I got a sudden burst of interest in my fair isle sweater again. It's Alice Starmore's Donegal, which I began oh so long ago. See what it's supposed to look like below. I like very much.

I put the sweater away, not wanting to face that it really won't get knitted that way! I observed no progress during the time it was in the cupboard. So I gotta work on it :o)

It's really a nice one in my opinion, although my colors are the Jamieson Shetland version instead of the original colors in Rowan Donegal Tweed, which I like slightly better. Mine is a bit more muted--manlier colors, I think.

Can you tell where I learned about splicing? It's really saved my bacon on this sweater because I'm changing colors every row or two. I'll have to go back and weave those ends in.

I just started the armhole steeks this evening, and that's an adventure in itself. Good thing I picked up a copy of Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting to keep me from getting too lost. The book is a reprint of the original published in the 80s, which went out of print and was selling for large sums on eBay. I'm glad they decided to reprint it. Although the patterns are 80s vintage, there's a wealth of information in it about fair isle history and designs.

A vintage post

2010-02-13T15:36:00.001-08:00

Hooray, my vintage sweater is done. It was begun 9 months ago and then went into hibernation for a while, as sometimes happens. I got the urge to finish it, and once I put aside other stuff it went pretty fast. The pattern is Ena's Sweater from the book A Stitch in Time by Waller & Crawford. It's done in Rowan Yorkshire Tweed 4 ply with a bit of Kidsilk Haze added on the yoke. I like the buttons at the top.

It came straight from a vintage pattern. Here's the original:

My photographer was making me laugh.

To continue the vintage thread, I love to visit antique malls, and on one of my recent trips found this cute beaded bag of sorts.

It's made to be worn on a belt and would fit a compact, lipstick, and such things.

I like how Zechoslovakia is spelled.

After finishing my sweater, I was looking thru my vintage knitting mags for a new project and took out this Bernat Handicrafter. Gosh, that model on the right sure looks like Grace Kelly, I thought. Wait a minute, I think it is Grace Kelly! This magazine was published in 1949, when she would have been living in New York City and doing all kinds of things, including modeling and theater. She didn't become a star until 1953, after High Noon, Mogambo, and two Hitchcocks, so it's entirely possible that this could be her.

What do you think? Here's a confirmed Grace Kelly photograph, and the teeth are very similar. If so, that would be very cool.

Happenings

2010-02-08T12:16:00.000-08:00

Coming down the home stretch on the Sheltie drawing. I just have to tweak some things--colors, shadows, etc.--before I call it done. To know when it's done, I do any or all of these things: let it sit for a while and marinate so the wrong things become more obvious; take a photograph and look at the drawing that way, because very often things stand out in a photo that don't in real life; and ask my husband, who's good at seeing things that aren't right when I've grown blind to them myself. Particularly in the end stages when I'm so eager to have it done, the eye will ignore mistakes.

Knitting-wise, I've got my hands (and needles) full. I'm about to seam my vintage sweater and determine once and for all if it's an ugh! or okay. And I'm almost to the halfway mark on this easy poncho:

It's the City Style poncho from Handknit Style, a book by Lindy Ward and Beryl Hiatt of Tricoter in Seattle. It's knit out of Stacy Charles Cosmos, which is kind of a slinky yarn but it knits up into something bearable, er, wearable:

Here's the pattern up close:

I'm using 7 instead of 9 balls because that's what was on sale when I bought this yarn ages ago. It will come out a little shorter, which is fine with me.

But the thing that is using all my brain power at the moment is trying to figure out what to do with this yarn:

It's a dull grey alpaca and wool blend that will probably be quite springy and nice knitted up, but perhaps a little boring. I had the idea to mix it with Cascade Kid Seta in a silver color for this robust fabric below in my swatch. It sure is different that way. The gauge that most suits it is 16 x 24 sts to 4" on size US 9s.

Too scratchy for next to the skin, I ruled out pullovers. At that gauge, I could knit Katarina from CocoKnits, which would involve finding 2 more balls of Kid Seta.

But by itself, I could knit myself another Maggie, and then use the Kid Seta to make a really nice shawl.

I like the challenge to find the right project for the yarn. I've had this yarn for a long time and want to turn it into something. So more swatching and thinking for now.

Knitscene preview

2010-01-16T06:53:00.000-08:00

Has anyone seen the new Knitscene for Winter/Spring 2010? Here's a preview. I've never bought a Knitscene magazine before, but I got really excited about this issue and will look for it when it hits the newsstands in a couple of weeks.

What I like about it is that it has a lot of reasonable sweaters that are long enough to fit me. I just spent some time looking through my old Interweave Knits, and while I was reaquainted with some things I'd like to make, there are many things I would not wear because they are too weird or too short. In my opinion, long-waisted people like me should avoid cropped sweaters. It's taken me a while to figure that out, but I think I look better in more fitted things that hit just below my waist. And I don't like a draft on my back :o)

Anyway, here are a few of my favorite things from this issue:

Connie Chang Chinchio's Tudor Henley done in all wool DK weight. I love the cables on the cuffs.

Berrocco Design Team's Ninebark Cowl. Look how cute the cowl is! Each knitter can put all her favorite colors in the cowl.

Heather raglan by Cecily Glowick Macdonald. Simple and wearable. Made in Classic Elite Inca Marl, a 100% alpaca, this would be a luxury to wear.

Debbie O'Neill's Equinox Raglan in Noro Silk Garden. I guess knitting it in the round makes the stripes smaller and also gets the stripes to match on the sleeves. I'm not a big fan of wearing Noro, although this colorway is awfully cute.

Those are just some of the sweaters I like--there are also accessories, a couple of lovely shawls, and some guy stuff as well. Looks like an awesome issue.

Mountains of Noro

2010-01-14T17:13:00.001-08:00

I've started a new project that is supposed to last me all year. It's Lizard Ridge, an afghan pattern by Laura Aylor, that can be found for free on Knitty. It's a very popular pattern on Ravelry: 1,355 knitters have made their own version of this colorful blanket.

The blanket is made with Noro Kureyon of all colors. I started mine with 7 balls from Skein Scene, which had the best prices I could find anywhere (although I just checked and they've gone up $1.50 a ball since I bought mine Saturday--they're now $7.95). After I've done these 7 squares, I'll see where I stand, color-wise, and adjust accordingly. I thought it was very hard to pick colors on a computer monitor, so the remaining colors I may buy at local shops so I can see what I'm getting.

I planned this to be a gift for my mom for Christmas (I'm really ahead of the hounds here!), and thought to make it a 4 x 4 square lap blanket she can use while watching t.v. in the evenings. But the squares are going so fast I may add on to it.

The waves are made using short rows. When you take the finished square off the needles, it has an "egg carton" look to it. But it flattens out nicely after steaming:

My 6-year-old assistant has chosen the next color from the ones he's holding:

New beginnings

2010-01-13T06:33:00.001-08:00

Its a new year, and I've started a new drawing. This is Maggie, a Sheltie who lives across the street. Shelties are known to be quite intelligent, and she is a smart little thing, although she barks a lot and doesn't like children. Our neighbor Tim takes her out in a DoggyRide bike trailer and she runs alongside it, and when they come to an intersection she'll jump in the trailer. This isn't her in the picture, by the way, but just shows the trailer. DoggyRide is a local company and their trailers are super cute.

Anyway, I digress. The drawing is in colored pencil and it's been fun to work on so far, but I've only put in a few hours on it. It will fit an 8 x 10" frame when it's done.

As another new beginning, I've also been looking at some style books to figure out what clothes look best on me. I had a friend come over and help me sort out which colors work for me and which don't, and then I went through all the clothes in my closet, moving along or consigning things that I haven't been wearing anyway or which no longer work for me because of size, color or age (mine and the clothes'). These books are great, very helpful, and offer good advice on what colors to try and what shapes are most flattering to my shape.

I hope to carry this over to my knitting and find projects that are both the right color and the right style. Haven't purged any yarn yet but I do have quite a few things I'm willing to part with on my sale/trade page on Ravelry (where I'm JulesM). I did not get rid of any of my handknitted garments, by the way. I have in the past moved along some of my knits, such as my very first sweater, but wish I still had them for nostalgic reasons.

One of the treasures I bought myself with a Christmas gift card is this really cool book Reversible Knitting by Lynne Barr. The book has 50 reversible stitch patterns, so I can have hours of fun making swatches. There are 20 projects as well. I haven't sorted out whether the shapes or styles would actually suit me, but the projects look so fun I might have to try something regardless.

One last gift

2009-12-23T17:27:00.000-08:00

Here's the very last thing I'm going to be able to finish by Christmas, the table runner for my mom, displayed with some help from my six-year-old. It's made of Kaffe Fassett scraps and a few others I bought to coordinate--although it's pretty much anything goes with Kaffe Fassett. The back is a fabric by P&B Textiles, but can't recall what. The finished runner is 72" x 18.5", so it's for a small table or sideboard. Here's a closer view. Really hard to get everything in one picture when it's such a long thing.

And a homemade label for the back:

There was one project I decided to let go until later, a stuffed toy based on a drawing my son did of a rock monster (any of you with kids who play Legos will know what this is). I figure he's going to be so overwhelmed by Christmas that this can easily wait till later. And I need to say enough for now and take some time to reflect on the season. Deep breath!

I wish everyone a fabulous holiday, however you choose to celebrate it, and hope you enjoy the season!

A beary Merry Christmas

2009-12-22T18:01:00.001-08:00

In the nick of time, another Christmas present ready to go out the door! This is a gift for my Starbucks bearistas, their very own mascot. I first saw this bear made by Susan Crowe of knitblog Damn, Knit and Blast it and thought it would be just the thing for my favorite Starbucks guys and gals. Susan has actually made three bears, because the first went missing from the Starbucks and never came back, so Bucky version 2.0 came along, and then a third one was made for a favorite barista. She shows the steps involved in making them on her blog, and I was able to find on eBay my own copy of the pattern for the bear, which is a vintage one called Teddy Bear Parade (by Sirdar, it often comes up for auction--there's another booklet like it called Teddy Bear Picnic). In them are patterns for these bears and lots of outfits to crochet for them--among them a chef, a pirate, Robin Hood and such. I used the chef's apron for the Starbucks bear:

But my rudimentary crochet skills were put to the test by the little shirt, so I made up my own raglan sweater and pants to knit. Note to self: learn more about crochet more than one week before Christmas!

Anyway, I hope this little gal, for she seems like a gal to me, finds a happy home at my local Starbucks.

Christmas is coming . . .

2009-12-17T15:29:00.000-08:00

. . . and I have more crafting to do. Above are two Xmas gifts, twin hats I made for my piano teacher and his partner. They are in the same squishy merino I used to make a hat for myself, so I know it's nice stuff (DiVe Autunno). The pattern is from the book Holiday Knits.

I dubbed them Dog Walking Beanies, because this is the kind of thing I can see my friends throwing on when they walk their three poodles in the morning drizzle. It's sort of a revolt against the kinds of hats one sees for sale at places like REI, like the Shred Alert! beanie or the Sherpa Adventure! beanie. Mine are more likely to be used for daily rituals than a mountain ascent, so they're just regular ol' dog walking beanies.

Patchwork cats

2009-12-07T17:26:00.000-08:00

One of my Christmas gifts is coming along. These patchwork kitties are intended for my sis, who works as a volunteer at a local cat rescue in McMinnville, TN. There are about 80 cats the group takes care of and tries to find homes for. I stuffed mine with catnip so they'd be especially appealing to the kitties.

The pattern is by Keiko Goke from Kaffe Fassett's book Quilt Road (2005). Here's how they look in the book. The only thing I did different was resize them; the cats in the book are big, about 15 inches. But since I wanted them to be catnip toys, mine are only 7 inches tall.

I did use my neverending supply of Kaffe Fassett scraps that I have from other projects. I could keep making cats for some time yet.

Finished drawing

2009-12-03T14:45:00.000-08:00

This week I got to finish the drawing of Nuke the ancient Siamese cat. Well, he's no longer living, which is different, but the photos I worked from were taken in his last days, and he was 17. Here he sits on his favorite leopard cushion. It's all ready to be given to his human companion Sally for Christmas, except that I can't decide on the framing. The frame itself is one I know Sally will like, because it's more exotic looking than your average frame. But I can't decide if the shiny gold mat is better or the cream on top of the gold.

Any opinions out there? Send 'em my way, I'm hopeless at this sort of thing. Next up is a Sheltie, and I plan to do a close-up of her face in my favorite medium, colored pencil. Should be fun.

Knitting-wise, I finished a cowl that looks almost exactly like the one pictured here by BrownBerry on Ravelry. She calls it The Neck Poncho, and it's very comfortable to wear. But do you know how hard it is to take a picture of yourself in a cowl? I'll get proper photos when husband is home to take care of such things.

I started on a ribbed hat with the leftover yarn, and just in time, as we're expecting snow within the week.

Vintage knitting

2009-11-22T05:01:00.000-08:00

I like to look for vintage knitting patterns, especially ones from the 30s to the 50s. There are lots of nice cardigans and pullovers to be found in them, and I like to see what people wore in those days. I happened to see this 1958 Bernat magazine on eBay, which I already have, but in case anyone is interested, it features Elizabeth Zimmerman's first published sweater pattern on the cover. On the left is her fair isle sweater pattern which she tells us was adulterated by the pattern company by taking her knit-in-the-round design and rewriting it for the pieces to be knitted flat. You can see this very picture in her book Knitting Around, along with the pattern as originally written. The story can be found in a couple of her books, I believe, maybe The Opinionated Knitter as well.

That claim to fame aside, I wanted to have this publication for its value as a vintage knitting magazine because there are many other nice things in it. If you'd like this copy, you'll have to hurry as the auction ends in two days, but I suspect it can be found on eBay again.

Quilt II

2009-11-17T18:31:00.000-08:00

I'm on a roll here with the quilting! The quilt top pictured above is from a kit called "Flora" by Valori Wells. I wrote about it quite a while ago when I got it as a gift from my mom, and I've been wanting to get it out and work on it. It's going along pretty fast. The columns are made of rectangles that are 4", 8", 12" and 16". While there's a schematic for putting together the different lengths, they advise just to pick up the next strip on the pile for piecing. I'm pretty much doing that, except when I get two of the same fabric, and it's turning out great, better than I would have done myself. I'm more than halfway through with the piecing of this not-huge quilt top. This is one of those addictive projects where one keeps going to see what the next strip looks like.

I've got the table runner all ready for machine quilting. Wish me luck--my first attempt at machine quilting :o)

Busy, busy

2009-11-08T14:32:00.001-08:00

This weekend I started one of my Christmas gifts, a table runner for my mom. She loves bright colors and Kaffe Fassett fabric (and doesn't frequent this blog). I've never sewed anything other than tote bags with his fabrics and was looking forward to mixing all the different colors and patterns to create that saturation of color which is his trademark. Fassett's design partner Liza Prior Lucy assures me in the book that I can't really mess it up since it's a scrap quilt. I'll have to take her word for it because I was awfully confused in the quilt shop trying to find the right fabrics to supplement my scraps.

The finished size will be about 18" x 72". Here's the one shown in the book Skinny Quilts and Table Runners, where I got the pattern. Volume II of this book just came out, and there are some gorgeous things in it, too.

The thing I like about table runners and wall hangings is they're manageable projects. I just started yesterday and I've got all the one-color blocks cut out and about a third of the nine-patch blocks done.

The dye shop is still in operation here, too! Learning as I go. Yesterday, I popped a not-much-worn handknitted sweater in the pot and had my least pleasing result. It came out splotchy and kind of a muddy color, as I mixed denim and a brown color. Did some research and they recommended Synthrapol, which helps prepare the wool for dyeing. Also, I found out that softer colors are more difficult to achieve even results with. So today, back in the pot it went, with more dye and the pre-treatment with Synthrapol. It is very dark now, but I don't yet know if it's still splotchy. It appears to be a dark raisin color, which does please me. I went ahead and left the buttons on, and they came through just fine.

I had a success yesterday when I dyed this scarf made with Morehouse merino in a very light brown. It came out as you see here--not purple, more indigo. It does more for me than the light brown did.

Hope you're having a wonderful crafty weekend, too.

A dyeing experiment

2009-11-03T09:32:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I tried out some of my dyes by dyeing a scarf I made a few years ago that I never wore because the color didn't really go with my skin. The scarf is "Dew" from Rowan magazine 26, one of my old favorites (I also made the sweater to match but felted it by mistake!). The scarf was done in Rowan's DK Soft, a yarn that's been discontinued now but it was very nice to work with. Here's the color mine was:

And here it is in the murky dye bath:

And now it looks like this:

I'm happy with the color, even though I didn't measure anything or really have any idea how I wanted it to look. I guess I didn't want it to be a dull gray, and it's not that! The dye kit I have is from Sheep Hollow in Oregon, and it's their new Lanaset dye colors (or they were new when I bought them). Here are the colors in my kit. Each will dye a pound of yarn to that strength, or more if the color isn't as strong.

I'm amazed at the dyeing process, how one can put wool in a pot and bring it almost to the boil and not have it felt. It's fun to watch as the water gradually becomes clear by the uptake of the dye into the fiber.

Clemence

2009-11-02T14:45:00.000-08:00

I finally finished a handknitted garment! Hooray for me. This sweater is Clemence, from Louisa Harding's book Nouveau. I love all her books, and this one has lots of pretty things for spring. My sweater is made with Blue Sky Alpacas 100% alpaca sport weight, so it can be worn in other seasons. It's warm and cozy.

The original model looks like this and is made with Merletto, a linen blend that looks light and delicate:

I decided to leave off the intarsia and do the eyelet pattern throughout. I would have wanted to do the contrast band, but I had already started this sweater as something else. I was able to switch it to this cardigan easily and keep my 1 x 1 ribbing. Here's the back view:

I like the sweater and think I'll probably wear it a lot. It looks fancier in the book, but jeans usually figure into my daily wardrobe, so that's how mine will be worn. It could be dressed up with gray pants or a skirt and a scarf, though.

Here are the blasted buttons that took me forever to get just right. I love cardigans but forget about all the extra finishing they require. I'm quite proud of my efforts, though, even if I did the math wrong and ended up with one less button than stated in the pattern.

And now for the most exciting part: the next project! I've got ideas, but that's for another post.

Katzen and dogzen

2009-10-20T19:50:00.000-07:00

Still at work on Nuke (new kitty) over here, in fact, Nuke version 2.0. I was getting frustrated with the watercolor, so I started over in colored pencil, a less wieldy medium for me. Also made it a bit bigger. I had an idea for a gold colored mat for the one on the right and this was a tester. Since Nuke is no longer with us, I had thought to do a night sky with stars above him, and have him sitting on his cushion. But I don't know if I'll still do that with my drawing or opt for something simpler. His dark eyes are quite frustrating, as this cat has kind of an "out of it" look to him, but I suppose I'll know when I've got it just right. However, I do enjoy working on him and really want to try to capture him in this drawing.

In other news, we saw a bobcat at the bus stop today! The bus had already picked up the kids and gone when it moseyed across the street right in front of us, headed for a wooded trail. It was the largest bobcat I've seen, so large that I looked up lynxes when I got home to see if it could be a lynx (no, lynxes don't like the suburbs). This photo isn't our bobcat, by the way--I didn't have my camera with me. It was a very cool creature to see here in the Pacific NW.

My neighbor just got a field spaniel puppy yesterday that looks quite a bit like this one, except theirs is black. So adorable. I love their little domed heads. I may have to add her to my list to do a drawing of some day.

Reknit, reuse, recycle

2009-10-19T09:42:00.000-07:00

As an experiment, I thought it would be fun to recycle yarn from a thrift store sweater. Recycling yarn is popular these days and I've seen some really neat stuff made with what began life as an awful sweater, or perhaps became one after the styles changed. First, I read up on what others had done. Then I had to find the sweater, so I paid a visit to the Seattle Goodwill, which is a big establishment with lots of turnover in stock. Looked in the men's department because the yardage is better and I thought it likely that some of those sweaters had seen little wear. Men can be picky about their sweaters! Found a plain gray stockinette sweater in a brand I like and brought it home, where I put it in a tub of warm water and Eucalan to soak.

After it was dry 2 days later, I began to deconstruct it. I have to say it's time consuming and took the better part of Saturday morning. I also made a real mess, with threads and bits of yarn all over. It took me a while to figure out where the seam threads were, and turns out the seams on mine were sewn with a finer thread. In fact, my yarn turned out to be 5 thinner threads loosely plied together.

I'm glad I called this an experiment, because that's what it was. I have many many little balls where, from incompetence or lack of patience, I missed cutting the seaming thread and cut some of the main sweater yarn instead. But when it was all done, I had a bag full of yarn, and best I can tell from weighing and measuring, there's at least 1,200 yds of yarn.

Now, I did try the sweater on before unraveling it and found that it was quite scratchy, which may explain why it was living at the Goodwill. Old J. Crew didn't use the best yarn on this one! The other reason is that it had a hole in the front I hadn't noticed before, so I really didn't feel bad about recycling it. Anyway, I was thinking of an outerwear garment. After much time poring over patterns (word to the wise: skip this step until you've completed next step), I started swatching, and did not like the resulting fabric at all.

So I decided it would make a wonderful bag of some kind, and found this one I liked that my son would also really like. He's only six, and he loves any kind of loot bag or treasure bag, because he collects treasure wherever he goes--rocks, buttons, twine, shells, etc. The bag is from the book Greetings from Knit Cafe.

And depending on how old he is when I finish it, ha ha!, he can use it for his iPod, too.

I think recycling Goodwill sweaters is a useful occupation. At $7.99, had the yarn been of a better quality, it would have been a gem of a find. As it is, it will make something neat and useful in its second life.

Which ewe are you?

2009-10-15T05:26:00.000-07:00

Take the quiz.

I guess I'm a Perendale: "This longwool knows that taking it easy isn't just a good idea -- it's a great one. With an open-mind and dependable attitude. Perendales always make the best of any situation. Flexible and adaptable, they are great negotiators and compromisors, as well."

New kitty

2009-09-30T12:08:00.000-07:00

Meet Nuke, or "New Kitty," his name originally was. If all goes well, this watercolor will be a gift for a family friend in remembrance of Nuke, who recently died at the old age of 17. He was a funny cat, very friendly, who was well known in his condominium complex because he liked to visit all the neighbors. As he got sick, he became very thin, thus his face is even more narrow than usual for a Siamese. And he was a bit crosseyed. Here's the original photo.

For my watercolor, I wanted to try a miniature, and while it's not truly "miniature," it is a small painting at about 3.5" x 4" (but will probably be about 4" x 6" when done). I figure people might like a smaller painting they could have on their desk, as opposed to a big 8" x 12" that would take up quite a bit of wall space. I just got going on it, there's lots more to do yet.

Knitting update: I'm still knitting away on my Clemence sweater, but it's not too exciting to show--I'll finish the front today and move on to the sleeves. Or maybe I'll seam what I've got so far and see how it looks. But now I'm off to take the boy to the dentist for his check up, so I won't have time till this evening. Have a great day, everyone!

A white sweater

2009-09-24T17:57:00.000-07:00

One of my bigger crafting goals this year was to spin enough fiber to knit a sweater from the book A Fine Fleece. I can say I'm a little behind on my project, because here it is September and I've spun only about 15% of the yarn I'll need. My fleece is a white fleece that is a cross of some good kinds of sheep, such as Corriedale and Romney. I have the exact kind written down somewhere, but it's a pretty basic white fleece. It's easy to spin as roving, and the two-ply yarn, as I've spun it, is soft and kind of fluffy.

I've spent a lot of time thinking about it, but I can't decide on a sweater from the book to knit. There are many great designs, but I'm having trouble visualizing myself in them in a natural colored yarn. Dyeing would add a whole other layer of difficulty to this already lengthy project, so I'm not thinking of that. The mosaic above (click to view larger) shows some things I'm considering, and only two of them are from the book. The rest I've gleaned from vintage publications, Rowan magazines, Sirdar publications, etc. I haven't even narrowed it down to a pullover vs. cardigan.

I like vintage patterns because they come in sizes that are closer to mine. Many of the sweaters in A Fine Fleece are 40" around for the smallest size, which I think is more knitting than required!

Simple would be good:

But wouldn't these be nice, too?

I'll have lots of time to consider my options as I spin, but if anyone has a suggestion or advice on patterns for handspun, your comments would be appreciated!

Something new

2009-09-15T20:12:00.000-07:00

After frogging my last sweater, I decided to let the blue yarn marinate for a bit while I tried out something new. My latest venture is Clemence from Louisa Harding's book Nouveau. There are some differences. Hers is knit with Merletto, a shimmery linen/viscose blend, and mine is knit with Blue Sky Alpacas sport weight, a 100% fuzzy alpaca blend. Hers has an intarsia panel and contrast color at the hems, while mine will be an unadorned version. The alpaca in my stash was roughly the same gauge, and while the yarn itself is not lumpy and bumpy, it knits up irregularly--a rustic feel I thought might work in this case.

This project started out being something else, a pullover from another of Louisa Harding's books. I was quite happy with my tubular cast on and was deep into the ribbing when it occurred to me to read some reviews of this yarn. To my dismay, most of the comments said that it itched, and I had to agree when I held it up to my neck--not at all good for a pullover! So rather than frog what I had done (there's been too much frogging lately), I fudged the stitch count and picked out this cardigan pattern to go forward with. Since intarsia hearts and flowers were not my thing, I eliminated them and started on the eyelet portion.

I have no idea if this will have a happy or heinous outcome. But I do like the idea of adding a few plain neutrals to my closet.

I would say about half of my knitting projects are garments of folly, patterns I love but which do not function as the workhorses of my wardrobe. Such as my colorful Robin sweater:

While I like making wonderful things out of cool yarn, it would also be nice to have more of those useful, if plain, things as well.

Oh, Sapana!

2009-09-04T12:31:00.001-07:00

Sapana is no more, but don't cry for me. I seem to forget the hours spent knitting something and it doesn't really bother me to frog it. The deed isn't done yet, but it's sitting on my counter with the needles out, waiting to be ripped. I got as far as the K3tog shoulder decreases and realized my row gauge must have been off, because I was quickly running out of neck. That is, by the time I had done all the shoulder decreases, the boatneck would have been covering part of my neck. But the main reason I've given this one up is that the yarn is begging to be something else. Classic Elite Soft Linen is a very nice yarn, but I believe it would be best as a cardigan or something loose fitting, because it could be itchy next to the skin. I'm not sure I paid enough attention to the fiber content when I bought it--linen, yes, but also alpaca and wool, which can be quite warm--and not very suitable for a body-hugging ribbed sweater.

But the good news is, I wanted something else to knit, and now I have something else to knit. Here is what I have in mind:

It's called Nantucket Red, by Thea Coleman of Baby Cocktails, and I think it's adorable.

There's even one in blue on Ravelry, so I have a better idea of what mine will look like. So, onward!

I hope to get back to my drawing board soon, but I sure am enjoying this time to work with yarn.

Tuning in

2009-09-01T19:57:00.000-07:00

Fall is nearly upon us, and I've let too much time go by between posts (doh, sorry about that! all is well, Melody!). I meant to finish a post last night to be able to get one in for August, but decided to wait since my iPhoto is not working properly to upload my pictures. But I really don't need my own pictures because they just show knitting in progress, and it's not all that interesting to see pieces of something.

My son starts first grade tomorrow (big day!), and one thing that means is that I'll have more time for my hobbies and things I couldn't devote much time to over the summer. I was also in kind of a knitting funk and let all projects languish, which often happens to me during the summer. I get much more excited about knitting and doing crafty things in the fall. I've also been reading a lot, and I'm not one of those who can knit and read at the same time unless it's a no-brainer book and a lot of stockinette.

With September in sight, I picked up an old project last week and began anew. I probably would have had it finished except for a math error in the pattern that I didn't notice soon enough. Frog frog frog. Now I'm back to where I left off, at the shoulders of this sweater knit in one piece, so it's getting closer to being done. I think it's going to be all right. I substituted Classic Elite's soft linen in a marine blue, which is probably a bit meatier than Elsebeth Lavold's hempathy so mine will be fairly warm and I hope not too bulky.

I also picked up a few new magazines for fall, the new Interweave Knits, which has some cute things in it, and two Debbie Bliss publications: an older book called Simply Soft and the new fall/winter 2009 magazine. I can spend a lot time leafing through these, but here are some things that caught my eye.

Don't know if I could ever make this tunic work, but I think it's cute--somebody will look great in it! The cover of the Debbie Bliss book is below. All the knits are done in cashmerino chunky or cashmerino astrakhan, a boucle yarn that's been discontinued. Must get my hands on some because there are some really cute things in it.

The fourth magazine I got was Norah Gaughan Vol. 5. Here are some things I especially liked, all similar in concept, I guess. I like that she puts the size of the garment and the size of the girl modeling it, for example, "Size 36, modeled by xxx, who is 5'8" and size 2." That helps a lot to determine how the thing will fit, because oversized things can be tricky. Interweave has started doing that as well, but they say, "size 34, modeled with 2" negative ease," for instance. Very helpful.

Anyway, fall is looking up for me, and I'm getting into the swing of it again. While it's fun to look at what's new, there are also some awesome things in my stash I want to get to as well. I hope everyone is excited about their fall knitting!

More anon.

A finished quilt

2009-07-01T16:29:00.000-07:00

Finally, something worth blogging about. I finished my sister's quilt today, just in time for her visit. Of course, I'll end up mailing the quilt to her -- who saves room in their luggage for a quilt? -- but I wanted to have it done for her bi-annual trek from Tennessee to the Pacific NW.

You may remember this is the $8 flea market quilt top my sister asked me to turn into a quilt for her as a Christmas present. I like its quirkiness and all the different fabrics which were shirts, dresses, and maybe trousers in another life. As I worked on it, I thought about the person who hand pieced the quilt and what their circumstances might have been. I wonder if they liked this quilt. Who knows? I'd like to think they would be happy to see it quilted; I know I was.

Here is the label I did for the back:

Butterflies & kittens

2009-06-12T07:36:00.001-07:00

I just finished a tote bag for my mom's birthday. She's a quilter who likes bright colors and I thought this fabric would be just the thing. It's from a P&B Textiles' collection called Bliss, which I found at my local quilt shop, Quiltworks Northwest. The bag pattern came from a Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting supplement called Sew Your Style. It also has instructions for placemats, pillows, and other things. What I thought was cute about it are the pleats on each side:

Here's the inside:

It's reversible so she can carry it either way.

Here is my kitten drawing as it stands now. I'm not happy with the background or the blanket yet, so you may be seeing an improved version soon! I like the kitties, though.

This 'n that

2009-05-14T09:31:00.000-07:00

Still at work on the kitties over here. The stripey one looks kind of funny with his middle missing, but that's today's job. The rest of him needs more work as well, but it's getting there, slowly.

But even when I'm drawing, I'm thinking about sewing, which is the thing I'm crazy about right now. I'm all set to make these pants out of a linen blend fabric from my stash:

They're just slouchy things for summer, and this pattern is from the Burda magazine from 02/2007. Here's the schematic, for anyone interested. They have pleats, a fly zipper and wider legs. I thought that would be easier to fit than skinny leg capris.

I also scored a cool Vogue Paris Original pattern off eBay. It's a vintage Claude Montana, who I think did some of the best suits around in his day. I think this one is a classic.

Both the dress and coat have interesting features. While I don't know if I'll ever construct these garments, although I'd like to, I gain a lot just by studying patterns.

Hope you're having a great day!

Blouse finished

2009-05-09T17:04:00.000-07:00

Yay, my blouse is done, and I'm happy with how it came out, considering how long it's been since I've sewn any clothes. The pattern is Vogue 7906, which has five different views, the other ones with long sleeves. I like it well enough to try one of the long sleeved versions.

The blouse was made with "sea island cotton" from my stash, and this fabric is pretty unforgiving as far as needle and pin holes left from picking out threads. In this more fitted garment, I also think it shows folds and wrinkles in places that might have been worked out if I had done a muslin beforehand. (Muslins for me are kind of like gauge swatches in knitting; I'll do them if I think I'll really mess up, but otherwise . . . ) Anyway, I'm happy I used the cotton for this project, because it's what I intended to use it for. Here's the back:

And the front again:

And here are the button loops that consumed me in the last post. For my money, they turned out well. I also learned how to use a really cool feature on my sewing machine, the button sewer on-er. It was really easy! I thought it would take less time to sew the buttons on than to read the manual and learn how to do it, but it didn't--the machine sews much faster, stronger and more accurate buttons than I ever could.

This project was not without its "doh!" moments. For example, I couldn't figure out where the buttons should go, since they weren't marked on the button band, so I kind of eyeballed it. It did not occur to me to make sure to line up the two sides before starting to sew the buttons on. The buttons were beautifully sewn, but the two sides didn't completely match when they came together, not so much that I had to snip all the buttons off, but still . . .

Anyway, it's an encouraging outcome for me, and I look forward to sewing something else and looking through patterns. I'll be working from my stash, so that will dictate what is to come.

Making things

2009-05-05T14:11:00.000-07:00

I'm still working on the kitten drawing and have moved on to the darker one now. Today I got most of the work on the head done, except the eyes and nose, which were done earlier, and will keep going on the body next. He looks a little weird with just the head floating there, but this will change soon enough. Then I'll have to come up with some suggestion of a basket for them and a background. I think these two guys are so cute. The tiger striped fur of the darker cat will keep things interesting.

When I'm not drawing, I've been sewing. I'm working on the cotton blouse mentioned in the last post that is an "Easy Vogue" pattern; however, it's not all that easy for me. It's a sleeveless blouse, so there aren't any sleeves to deal with, but an odd neckline, facings, and button bands all make it challenging for this rusty sewer. I'm worried about the size I chose being too small. I do enjoy it just for the process, though, and said when I started that it's okay if it doesn't end up fitting, I will have learned something along the way--but it sure would be nice if it did!

My mom taught me to sew when I was young, and I still remember sitting on her lap as she showed me how to use the old green Singer that weighed a ton. As a teenager I would tackle projects that I didn't know were hard, like a ruffled sundress or a pleated skirt, and they would turn out fine for the most part.

I love fabric stores. It's the way they smell, I think, and all the possibilities of finding something wonderful. Libraries have the same effect on me, but not "new book" bookstores, or clothes stores for that matter. Anyway, I was in Joann's yesterday and found two new patterns, on sale of course:

I got this one because I want to try sewing knits, and the other one because I liked both the pants and the skirt. I've already read up on them on Pattern Review, and I know there are some errors in the skirt pattern, which I've corrected on the pattern sheet in my copy. We'll see how it goes!

A tutorial: How to make button loops or spaghetti straps

2009-05-02T17:38:00.000-07:00

Today I get to share a really useful technique for those of you who sew, and that's how to make button loops or spaghetti straps. I just learned this and have to share in case anyone out there is looking for a solution.

I've always avoided spaghetti straps and button loops because I never could get the darned things turned. Most instructions tell you to thread a needle, attach it to one end, and work it through backwards with the eye first, "turning the fabric as you go." Well, for me, the result was lots of cursing but no turned button loop. I also know of devices called loop turners, and I have one but have never gotten it to work for me. So in the past I just gave up in frustration and either made them with the stitching on the outside, or else just didn't make things requiring spaghetti straps or button loops.

Until now. I'm sewing a blouse and it calls for 7 button loops for the front closure, and I really wanted them to look nice, so I thought I'd give it another try. After about an hour of no success turning this long, tiny thing, my husband came home and we both worked on it. He's a techie type and came up with the perfect idea for a loop turner that he could probably patent. But I did some more searching online and found a solution so simple and brilliant I'm still amazed by it. It came from Woody on Pattern Review, but she didn't have pictures to illustrate, so I am offering this tutorial with pictures.

Here's how to do it. Cut a strip of your fabric on the bias. Mine is 1 1/2" wide but for narrow straps it doesn't have to be this wide. It can be quite long.

I sewed 1/8 inch in from the fold for mine (it depends on how wide you want your straps/loops). I used a narrow zig zag stitch and stretched the fabric towards me as I went. I think this will make the loops stronger and less likely for the thread to break on the finished strap--I got this bit from the Sewing Divas' blog.

Trim the seam. I trimmed mine about the width of the seam I just sewed (don't make it any bigger, for sure). I tapered the seam a bit towards the end just to make the feeding through process easier.

Now for the cool part. About 1/2 inch from the end, snip the folded edge up to the stitching, making a hole into your tube.

Insert one half of a bobby pin into the end, and the other half into the hole you just cut. You might want to bend the end of the bobby pin that flips up a bit just to make it straighter and easier to get into the tube.

Then start pushing the bobby pin through. The coated ends make it easy to slide through, and once you've jiggled that first end through (unlike other methods, this should take seconds), it's smooth sailing. Really!

When I finished turning mine, I gave it a steam with my iron and stretched it a bit to plump it up (that's why you want some seam allowance inside--to give it some roundness).

There, all that frustration turned into elation! As you see, you can make incredibly small spaghetti straps using this method (and no jabbed fingers like my poor husband!).

A lovely painting

2009-05-01T11:10:00.000-07:00

I just have to show you this little painting that came in the mail for me yesterday. It's by Ed Terpening, a California plein air artist whose work I really admire. I was happy to hear that Ed is featured on the cover of April's American Artist magazine. I have a few other paintings of his but hastily added this one to my collection before he gets too well known for me to afford them! Actually, I think his prices are quite reasonable and this one came from his "Bargain Basement." My painting is called Off Edgewood Road, a piece of land in the Bay area just off I-280 that I know well. Here is the magazine cover showing one of his seascapes from the California coast, and another of the beach at Half Moon Bay.

His paintings are just the type of thing I like in my home. They show the natural beauty of a place I have fond memories of. I'll have to find a special place for this one.

My own drawing has not progressed much this week. I should have been through with this one but I've only just finished the first cat, which I think was the easier of the two to do. The other kitty is brown with stripes, which will be a lot of fun, but I just need to get moving! Warm weather beckons and dog needs walking, though.

Embroidery, anyone?

2009-04-24T14:16:00.001-07:00

It's been all crafting, all the time over here lately. Two days ago I was flipping through an old Marie Claire Idees magazine when I came across a project for an embroidered bag in linen. I thought I'd just dive in and make it. I had some linen but it was cream colored and I wanted mine blue, so I dyed that with some Procion dye I had (only in blue, as it happens). I didn't have all the colors of yarn I would need, but I did have a bagful of wool/mohair fleece samples from Kid Hollow Farm, so I got those out. Look at the colors! (there's also some other handspun, regular yarn and roving in this pic)

So I've been spinning up little batches and combining colors to use for the flowers and stems.

Here's where I was yesterday, but now I'm done with the big flower and have started spinning fiber for the smaller flower. You can get a glimpse of the finished bag in the magazine here.

I've done very little embroidery and very much have Kaffe Fassett in mind as I do this--his main focus seems to be on color and not technique. If I had to do it the right way I might never begin. But it's been going so well I'll probably finish the embroidery in the next day or so. Then I can sew the bag together after finding something nice for a lining (hmm, maybe a Kaffe Fassett fabric).

On the knitting front, I got a nice surprise when my LYS worked out a deal with Knitting Fever to reimburse me for the cotton yarn I used in a striped sweater that bled and ruined the sweater. So today I decided on enough Bamboucle yarn in the same dusty rose color to make this:

It's also Elsebeth Lavold yarn. I hope it goes better this time!

Boogie boogie hedgehog

2009-04-22T10:31:00.000-07:00

I'm still trying out things on my new sewing machine today so I thought I'd make this hedgehog softie using the tutorial from Molly Chicken. He's done with linen and some scraps I had around, with the nose in felt and eyes embroidered on. His little pocket on the back will fit a Starbucks card perfectly.

I love hedgehogs, but they will forever be linked with this silly YouTube video (thus the title of this post). Warning: The song may get stuck in your head all day.

Have a great day everyone!

Loot bags

2009-04-21T16:37:00.001-07:00

Today I spent some time at a friend's house working on sewing projects. She's making a baby quilt for her sister, and my son had asked me to make him a bag using some dolphin buttons he had.

Five-year-old boys are into treasure and the bags and boxes to carry it around in, so I thought he might like a loot bag with a drawstring. It's nearly reversible with a nice lining in similar fabrics. They were reject blocks from a quilter friend, put to good use.

And here is a loot bag of my own--a sewing basket given to me by my friend, who, when I said I wished for a sewing basket, brought out this one she wasn't using. Hurrah, I'm happy to have a place to organize the odds and ends of sewing.

And I started another Maddalena! There were other designs in the Venezia: Felice Mai Dopo book that I would have tried, but they all required more yarn. A few calls to local yarn shops told me it would be impossible to find, and I was a little concerned about the difference in dye lots, anyway. Since I know and like this sweater, I thought, why not make it again, and right away while the pattern is still fresh in my mind. Now it really qualifies as mindless knitting. Oh, I did look for different ribbing patterns online and didn't find anything interesting enough to substitute.

This one from her book Rajasthan would have fit the bill, but I don't have that one.

Mad about Maddalena

2009-04-19T19:15:00.000-07:00

I finished Maddalena this afternoon and here she is. I'm very happy with this little cardigan. It turned out the right size (that's always a relief) and is comfortable to wear. I need to find a cute top to layer underneath, but that would require me to go shopping and I don't enjoy shopping.

I rethreaded the ribbon to match what was in the book, and I think it looks better this way.

Right now I've got 10 of the 11 buttons. I bought all they had at Joann's and found a matching leftover one from my Charlotte sweater. The top buttonhole's there, I'll just add it later.

As I may have said before, Louisa Harding's patterns are some of the best around. Everything is clearly written and works out like it should. The sewing up on this was very easy, and sewing up fitted sleeves isn't my favorite job. I really like her yarns, too, so I guess I can't say enough about her!

Now I also have more of this yarn in my stash in another color:

It's enough to do something about the size of this project. I may use it as a template and do a different type of ribbing. We'll see!