Christina Creating

Fix It Fridays (2)

2012-02-10T10:19:00.000-05:00

So I had these socks:

They were fine socks. I made them back in the summer of 2009. (Obviously, I finished them on a road trip.)

But as I wore these socks, I realized that they really were too big. Too long in the foot. They were knit from the toe up, and I hadn't made careful enough calculations about how many rows the heel would take.

So I have worn these socks over the last couple years, but not often. They would slide around on my foot too much and would bunch up in shoes and boots. Not good.

Time for a Fix It Friday intervention.

First: figure out how much too big they are:

and make a plan. Since they were knit from the toe up, I couldn't just ravel them from the toe. (You can't undo your knitting from the "bottom.") I would have to snip them some distance up from the toe and then knit the stitches to make a new toe. I did some careful calculations about how far back I should snip them, redid them when I didn't like the results and took the plunge.

I snipped a thread just over an inch back from where my toe ended, and tinked out the row, picking up stitches as I went:

Once I had a whole row out, I had a sock on the needles and a dismembered toe:

(I was surprised at how disconcerting it was. It was unmistakably a toe and should be attached to a foot.)

Then I rejoined the yarn and pulled out more as I needed it directly from the "old" toe. I joined in about the crudest way I will let myself--I knit six to seven stitches with both yarns held together before continuing with the new yarn. (The crudest method would be a knot--I will never allow myself that!)

And then started shaping the toe immediately:

This was a very wide sock (72 sts) so I did decreases every other row to 48 stitches and then did the decreases every row to hurry things along. Otherwise the toe was way, way too long.

At 24 stitches (12 each side), I tried them on one last time to make sure,

Troy calls this the "catfish."

and then kitchenered them together:

Then I had one sock done:

If you can't see the difference between the right and left, I sure could feel it! Success!

Then I had to repeat it for the second sock. Also success!

I was left with two extra toes:

They look sad to me. I will not be saving them. Even with the infrequent wearings, the yarn was rather hard-worn and is not worth trying to use again. Plus, I still have some left over from the original ball if I ever need any of it for darning.

At the end of the process, I was playing with this leftover strand:

Troy saw it and asked what it was. I said it was a row of knitting, and it is. Every row looks like this, and it is just because they interlock with each other that it all stays together. Most yarns have a pretty strong memory and when you ravel it, it is kinky like this. In general wool has more memory than cotton, but they all do this. It's a very interesting texture to play with.
Fix It Fridays Summary:
Project 1: shorten sweater sleeves
Cost: $0
Time: ~1 hour

Project 2: shorten socks
Cost: $0
Time: ~4 hours

You wouldn't necessarily think my two Fix It Fridays projects have anything to do with each other, but after posting the summary, it occurs to me that they are the identical repair. And I fixed them both in the same way--snip a thread, undo a row to get live stitches on your needles, and knit back down the other way. On the sleeve I only needed to bind off the stitches, and on the sock I had to knit a new toe to finish it off. Otherwise, they are the same!

I am very happy with this fix and plan to wear my socks today to celebrate.

These are some self-satisfied socks!

In Preparation for the Big Game (Super Big)

2012-02-01T23:16:00.000-05:00

I've written all the news about my Superscarves (and I really hope you watch for them on Sunday!) but I wasn't the only one making them! (Current count is 13,024!) I ran across "GoodnightGram"'s blog, probably from the Superscarf newsletter, but I'm no longer sure. She's has made at least 45 scarves for the project and she has designed some zingers. I had to share! (All pictures are from her blog.)

My favourite is probably the Charlie Brown homage:

Isn't that fantastic!? She added a figure to each end of the scarf.

I heard the following one will be worn by Kelly Clarkson when she sings the anthem:

It's the whole first verse of the anthem charted out in lines of knitting,

each phrase punctuated by a little picture. (Like the setting sun above.) Delightful!

An even more ambitious project was this "uni-scarf" for the Colt's mascot, Blue, to wear at games:

What a mammoth lot of work!!

She took requests for themes, and someone suggested cheerleaders:

She used two full skeins just for the pompoms. Brilliant!

You can see lots more of her projects if you click here and look through the Super scarf posts.

I really admire the work she's done in not only producing so many scarves for the project, but making them so varied and creative. Great work!

Holy cow!!

2012-01-29T22:41:00.000-05:00

I just got a message on Ravelry letting me know that my Super Scarf was chosen to be featured on the cover of the February edition of the magazine, Indianapolis Woman. I am so stoked!

The woman wearing it is Allison Melangton, President and CEO of the 2012 Indianapolis Super Bowl Host Committee.

The woman who let me know is in Indy and is going to send me a paper copy. I can't wait!

Fix It Fridays (1)

2012-01-27T07:48:00.064-05:00

A blog I follow (Knitting Park) is having a "Fix it Friday" feature where each week she fixes a knitting project that didn't quite turn out right or needed tweaking for some reason. I have enough projects which "need fixin" that I decided to join in. Look for posts each week...for as long as I can keep up!

I have a friend who asked for a favour. She has a favourite sweater that she has been wearing for years and can't stop wearing, but the sleeves are too long. They started too long and she thought she could live with it, but they've only been getting longer and more annoying. So her question was, Could I shorten them? -Sure, I said, No problem!

First step was to have her mark the sleeves:

It's always better to do both so you can average the results and be more likely to get it right.

I checked out the sleeves and they were done in the most common way--knit from the bottom (cuff) up. This meant I could not just unravel them from the edge by pulling on a loosened end; I was going to have to cut the strand and unravel it stitch by stitch.

So I counted rows from the edge and made my first snip:

You'll notice I snipped a little below the safety pin. This was for two reasons: first, I needed to leave room to unravel a row so I could have enough yarn to cast off with; and second, because the sleeve will bounce up a little higher once I remove the extra length. We wouldn't want to go from too long to too short! (That would be a harder problem to fix!)

Once I had a loose end to work from, I picked out one row stitch by stitch, placing each released stitch onto a needle:

Once I had the stitches on the needles, I tinked the row to give me the yarn for the bind off.

Because I was tinking from the bottom of the knitting, it wasn't as straight forward as undoing knitting from the top down, but it just took a little extra care. Once the row was done, I went around again slipping stitches so I could make sure none of them were twisted. (Although possible to do while tinking, I prefer to do one thing at a time.)

Yes, I changed needles. The red ones were too small and slippery.

From there is was just a matter of binding off, redoing the part of the seam that I took out, and weaving in the loose ends:

Then repeat for the other sleeve.

When finished, you can see that this sweater looks like it will now fit a normal person with normal sized arms:

Mission accomplished!

Fix It Friday Summary:
Project 1: shorten sweater sleeves
Cost: $0
Time: ~1 hour

Quilting with Tile

2012-01-21T23:14:00.000-05:00

I've been working on the tile back splash in my kitchen. I got one wall up:

and today it was time for the detail I want to have above the stove.

I've been approaching this whole tile project from the perspective of a quilter so today I pulled out my ruler and marking tool:

and my pattern:

and my "rotary cutter":

and my squares of "fabric":

and got to work!

First to mark several tiles on the diagonal using the quilting tool made just for this purpose:

Then it was time to cut on the line:

(I know in traditional quilting there can be a lot of loose threads and an occasional rogue pin on the floor, but I have to say it's still a lot less messy!)

The next piece required marking on both sides of the ruler

along the diagonal:

I used the triangles from the white and the center strip from the green to make the stem. It's usually done in the same fabric as the leaf, but I had bought green tiles to try out the colour and decided to use one since I had it.

When I put it all together I had this:

Not bad, right?

Well, when I drew a square on the wall where it was going to go, the square shape really didn't look good--it needed to be a rectangle.

So I cut a few more white squares and added some red (I need to buy two more), and put on a mitered border, and got this mocked up:

If you fill in the missing pieces, does this remind you of anything??

Yes, I'm going to have a quilty rendition of the Canadian flag on my wall. This makes me giggle. hee hee.

In which I have strong opinions--completely, absolutely, utterly, obviously, unquestionably

2012-01-10T22:16:00.000-05:00

Although I didn't make a lot of hand made gifts this year, it's still a time of hustle and bustle and and trying to get things done. I needed to finish some slipper socks, as I recall. And working on my final (and finally mine!) Honey Cowl from the Kidazzle. It always seems appropriate to have a little recovery time after Christmas.

I let projects finish up as they do when you work on them and then didn't start any new ones. It provided a restful lull at the end of the year when I was concentrating on getting work done on my new kitchen and making sure not to dive into something too hastily.

But there is a strong pull for new beginnings at the beginning of a new year...

For the trip we took between Christmas and New Years, I did pack along some new yarn and work on a personal design for a cowl. I knit on it infrequently both because I didn't have a lot of knitting time and because I knew it wasn't going to work out. By the time I got home, I was willing to face up to the fact that I had to rip it out and swatch like a big girl.

I swatched up a few versions of the stitch I had in mind and there this project has sat for at least a week:

I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with the middle version--the one with the biggest visible holes. Each stripe is a different way to make an eyelet pattern on a background of garter stitch (with one variation with no holes).

I really like the colours in this variegation. It's very berry. Incidentally, this (right) is what it looks like when you have to rip out your knitting when you were working from both ends of the ball and then it sits at the bottom of your knitting bag for over a week while you carry it around everywhere.

It's a bit of a mess, but still recoverable, I believe. When I'm ready, I'll cast on a big loop cowl and see how it turns out on "take 2."

The next item was more of a necessity item. One of those cases where you're inspired to cast on when you or someone around you is cold, even though you may very well no longer be cold by the time it's done.

Troy has lost his big [fake] furry hat from Russia and his head gets cold. He was looking quite jealous of my new and much-loved subway hat. But he thought his hat would need to have two layers of felted wool, and on and on he went about how he thought it needed to be improved.

I said, "Put on my hat, go blow the snow outside and tell me if you think it needs more."

He did as I said and came in and said, "No this is fine. My head didn't even know it was outside."

"Yes, that is what I thought," I thought.

So I nabbed some black wool/acrylic blend (I know, I know, but I had it on hand) and started knitting. Start at the top with 10 stitches, increase 10 times around every other row until you have enough stitches. I stopped at 100 and that's about where I am.

A little note in case you are confused--the long bamboo needles
are just being used so Troy could try it on. I'm not actually
knitting the hat with them.

About 2-3 more inches and then I will have to decide what to do about covering the ears. After that, I will search for a suitably warm, fuzzy, yet manly felted sweater to line it with.

Let me say I hate working with these cheap, too short, metal dpns but I am too cheap to go buy good ones. How bad is that? Just a little bit? Not at all? I don't know. I just thought I'd say it out loud here in case you are working with tools that you hate too. You are not alone.

The most exciting project, by far, that I have going is a skirt from the latest Vogue Knitting. For the last few months I have been irresistibly drawn to knitting a skirt. And just before the VK issue arrived, I had queued a few patterns in Ravelry, one of them almost exactly like the Vogue one. But after some comparisons, the Vogue pattern won out. Not that it was too crucial as it is only a starting point--I am making plenty o' changes.

Let me first show you their picture, completely inspiring:

(I leave it open on my lap while I knit just so I can stare at it.) I do love their colours, but I wanted to use up my grey variegated and other "on hand" yarns. I went through what I had and picked up this assortment

From top left, I have the black wool raveled from a Ralph Lauren sweater (already used in my Circle Socks); green wool raveled from an American Eagle vest (already used in these socks), the grey variegated (left over from this vest), the orange, green and purple variegated from the same company (used in this vest), and black wool raveled from a ruined Gap sweater from a friend (used in my Mariah cardi). I'm not sure I'll use the last one. I also have a red American Eagle vest just like the green one that I haven't raveled yet. I think I will for this skirt.

A very different colour pallette, I know. I'm thinking I'll need to pick up a white or light cream for a few shots of brightness.

Here it is so far:

(I'm absolutely hoping for something Missoni-ish.)

I'm making it at a different gauge than the pattern and have had to adjust the pattern because of it. (Notes are all on Rav if you're really curious.) And although it may have the least effect on the final product, the biggest modification I am doing is knitting it in the round and from the waist down. Vogue Knitting is completely devoted to bottom up knitting in pieces. They knit this skirt from the hem up and in two identical pieces for front and back which are later seamed together. That is utterly bass-ackwards and I don't know why they keep insisting on this construction.

Obviously this should be knit seamlessly and from the waist down so you can
1. try it on as you go (which I did and it fits around my hips perfectly--hurray hurray!),
2. decide on the length as you're knitting.
Plus it's easier and faster to knit this way (no purling!) and more forgiving if you're running out of yarn (which I don't plan to do, but have a habit of doing so better safe than sorry). I could go on and on but I'll stop there.

Ok, I'll add one more thing. I hate knitting in the round and would love nothing better than to knit this on my favourite bamboo straights, but I'm not because it is unquestionably the wrong way to make this skirt. Ok, now I'm done.

I am prepared for this skirt not to be everything I've ever wanted from a knitted skirt, but I am loving it at the moment.

Lookie Lookie!

2012-01-01T14:25:00.005-05:00

Hey! Look what I saw when I got the last Super Scarves Update:

Yup, that's my scarf on the left (with the "Super Bowl XLVI" knit in). It's nice to see it with the patch sewn in the right spot. (I curved the letters XLVI to go around it.)

I'm a little curious why it's a yellow patch instead of the same as the other scarves. (You can see several with the Indy Super Bowl logo on top of the table on the right.) Or maybe the picture was taken while it still had the paper circle I pinned on with "Sew patch here" written on it. Yup, controlling, that's me!!

In any case, very exciting to see my scarf in a group shot. If you'll be watching Super Bowl coverage, make sure to keep an eye out for it! ;)

Good-bye, 2011!

2011-12-31T14:08:00.000-05:00

I am going to do a quick and easy year end summary this year...a slide show:

I hope you enjoy.

If you want any more detailed information about any of these projects, look for the list of 2011 completed projects in the sidebar on the right.

Happy New Year!

One More Christmas Gift

2011-12-28T13:40:00.000-05:00

Here's your warning--if you think you may get a gift from me and haven't yet, this post may be a spoiler for you. Consider yourself duly warned

Now, for the rest of you, I would like to share my Honey Gloves. I made them to match a Honey Cowl that I made last year. I based them on a basic glove pattern from Ravelry but started them above the cuff with a provisional cast on.

Once the gloves were finished to the tips of all the fingers, I took what yarn was left and knit the cuffs down from the cast on. To stretch the yarn a little further (because I was going to run short), I did a two-colour version by alternating each row.

The yarn used on the slip stitch row dominates so I used the main colour. For the alternate rows, I used a purple silk with sequins that I had left over from my Sahara. The effect is pretty subtle but it's a nice extra touch.

I think the gloves turned out pretty well. They are short, which makes them ideal for the long winter coat sleeves with no room for bulky gloves half way up to your elbow. They are also thin enough to not make your hands useless while warm enough to make a difference. What I think of as ideal driving gloves. I hope they work for the recipient!!

Project Stats
Started: 7 Sep 11
Finished: 26 Sep 11
Pattern: Basic Glove Pattern by Harry Wells (free)
Materials: Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light (Prune Mix), 1.2 skeins ($6.30)

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T14:56:00.002-05:00

The big day has arrived. I'm glad when Christmas falls on a Sunday because I grew up going to church on Christmas morning and my current church doesn't have services on Christmas morning...except when it's a Sunday. It doesn't feel like Christmas if I don't go to church first thing.

You may recall that I made a cover for our communion table to be used throughout advent.

When we last saw it, it looked something like this:

Each week of advent, another piece was added.

This morning, not only was the final center piece added, but they were all turned around to reveal an appliqued star:

I had to work to make it big enough to make an impact from the front of the sanctuary, but I think it came out ok.

For those of you who want the details, I applied the star with Steam-a-Seam double-sided fusible adhesive and then zig zagged the edges with a variegated rayon thread. (I used purple in the bobbin so the sewing isn't very obvious from the plain side.)

I didn't want to "outline" the edges of the strips so I left them raw. I thought zig zagging there would be too distracting as it goes up the middle of a ray. If the edges start to ravel, I can always zig zag them later.

Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, I hope you have a good day.

Happy Holidays!

Christmas Slippers

2011-12-23T13:41:00.000-05:00

Still need a Christmas gift? Well, if you have a little car trip ahead of you (where someone else is driving) you may still have time to finish these slippers:

I finished the second one in less than a day, and I don't mean a day where all I did was knit. My best guess would be less than three hours. The socks have a lot going for them as far as speed is concerned: they're worsted weight and short with a fairly simple construction.

I didn't even bother to convert them to toe-up; I just followed the directions. The pattern is a little dense (written in more of a paragraph form than line-by-line), but if you have any experience with socks you shouldn't have any problems.

I made these slippers as a gift and they are a little big on me. I hope the recipient likes them! (I know she likes wearing slippers so it's not a big risk!)

Project Stats
Started: 8 Dec '11
Finished: 18 Dec '11
Pattern: DROPS 125-15 by DROPS Design (free)
Materials: leftovers of Red Heart Super Saver (66 g)

Boxing Day (the other kind)

2011-12-17T11:24:00.000-05:00

Ooooo, clothespins...they are so handy for everything. I love them in that way you love totally simple and basic things.

But what am I using them for here? Well, let me tell you...

Some time ago I read someone's blog wherein she described making boxes out of cardstock to organize things in her drawers, etc. I'm sorry I don't have a link. I thought it was in my bookmarks but it's not and I have already spent more time than you would believe looking for it, with no success. :(

Anyway, reading her post planted the idea in my mind. In case you haven't heard, I am in the middle of a kitchen remodel. (By remodel I mean new foundation, new floor, new walls, new layout, new plumbing, new wiring, new cabinets, new lighting, new everything...you get the idea.) Anyway, we are getting very close to the point of putting things into the new kitchen and I will want to keep stuff organized. And I am unhappy with the "one size fits none" sort of options you get for drawer organizers in stores.

So I decided to give her idea a try. I figured it was a pretty low-risk option--easily replaced if it doesn't work out; easily completed if it does.

First things first: evaluate what you need to organize. Here is my old silverware container, which has been sitting on an open shelf in a closet for the last year:

It's ok but too wide for my drawer and doesn't really give enough slots.

I took the new drawer and tried different arrangements with the loose silverware:

From that, I took some measurements and laid out a plan:

The first time I just drew in the boxes, but I would recommend writing in what's going in the box. I don't know how many times I make a plan, don't write it down and then can't remember the plan by the time I get to the end. Maybe you are better than me, but my current policy is to write it all down. (In case you're wondering, "loseables" was the term I made up on the spot for the cutlery that Troy is permitted to take out of the house when he has to eat breakfast on the run. This will hopefully cut down on the number of pieces lost from my set.)

Second, gather up some cardstock:

I started with a number of pudding packages and added bean and peach boxes before I was done. Cereal boxes would be great too. (The pudding box was great because it was the exact width I needed for most of the boxes!)

I cut out very simple boxes like so:

(Cut on the black lines, fold on orange lines, and glue flaps marked with green "x"s.)

I originally had the sides go up the full height of the drawer, but that was way too tall. 1.5" seem to work pretty well.

You can see I used the clothespins to clamp the glue joints while they dried. As I made boxes, I fit them into place. I learned that you need to make the boxes slightly smaller than the exact measurements or they won't all fit.

By the end of the day, I had the drawer filled with divided storage:

The drawers are all full-extend, so we should have no problem reaching the items in the very back.

Here it is filled and put to service:

Only time will tell how the boxes hold up to use. If we really like the layout, Troy could make a more permanent divider out of thin plywood. If we don't like it, it's fairly easy to change at this point.

I know the bright packaging in the boxes may seem distracting or even tacky to some, but I kind of like the straight forward honesty of it. We'll see if the opinion lasts.

Socktoberfest isn't over until the socks are done. (Put down your beer; they're done.)

2011-12-07T23:20:00.001-05:00

I have to admit--favourite sock pic yet! :)

Ready for some pictures?

I didn't finish my Soctoberfest socks in October, but that didn't mean I gave up on them. As I recall, I got the first sock done in the month, but then the project sat for a while.

As other projects wrapped up, I set to the second sock and got it done in "no time." Then it took almost as long to get pictures done!

Tip of the day: if you're taking pictures of socks you are wearing and are using a tripod, set up the picture with a spare set of shoes. Then replace them one at a time by the shoe on your foot. I happen to have a 2-sec delay option on my camera and it works great for these situations.

Back to the socks...you may recall that I converted them to toe-up with a short-row toe. The original pattern had a purl ridge on the top where the toe meets the foot because of the way the sock was cast off. I liked the look of it, so I kept it in even though it was completely unnecessary.

I ended with just a couple rows of 1x1 ribbing and an "invisible" cast off:

I would normally do more ribbing, but I wanted to finish the pattern repeat and then I was running out of yarn. And I haven't forgotten that I promised a video on the invisible cast on. I think I'm really close to getting it done. (My poor Hourglass socks...they have been waiting since early June to be finished because I'm going to use them in the video!)

I think the mock cable pattern showed up fine through the colour changes:

I was worried the changing colours would distract (and detract) too much from the pattern. But I think because they were relatively long colour runs, it worked out fine.

You can see that the colour runs did not work out to make matching socks:

but I'm ok with that. (They're termed "fraternal" in the sock world.)

Yes, when I wore these socks for the first time, I wore them with these heels. (But I chickened out by wearing them with long wide pants.) Project Stats
Started: 1 Oct '11
Finished: 26 Nov '11
Pattern: Nutkin by Beth LaPensee (free)
Materials: Lang Yarns Jawoll Magic (colour 84.0063), 1 skein ($20.14)
I know there is a strong tradition of wearing your hand knit socks with heels (especially mules), but I have never felt comfortable with it. But close to finishing these socks it occurred to me that they would look good with these brown heels and then I had to try it.

Mock me if you want; I don't care!! :)

Little Christmas Pieces

2011-12-03T22:29:00.001-05:00

It's certainly "that time of year." Time to worry about all the little Christmas gifts you need for the people in your life. I'm not talking about your kids or your parents...they're kind of a given. But where to you draw the line? Co-workers? Friends? Friends' kids? Mailman? Teller at the bank that always gets your deposit wrong but he's so nice about it you're not supposed to hold it against him?

I usually draw a pretty tight circle. Partly because most people I know have so much (more than they need) that worrying about giving more seems almost improper. Not that I won't pick something up if I think a certain person will like it, but I don't worry about it. Except for work...

I know we are having a Christmas party at the end of December. I know that my coworkers will be giving gifts around (based on last year's precedent). And I will feel bad if I have nothing to give in return. A little resentful that we are playing this game, but bad nonetheless. Last year you may recall that I made mini knitted stockings. This year, I have just finished little mini quilts (about 6"x8") that can be hung or used as a "mug rug." (Think coaster, but a little bigger so it can hold a drink and a snack.)

I have to admit I think they are pretty cute. Maybe I will even have to make one for myself.

Before I show them all to you, I will give you advance notice that I will be asking you to vote for which one you think should grace the front of my Christmas card this year.

And so, without any further comments, here they are:

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

Ok, here's the poll. Please vote on which mug rug you would like to see on my Christmas card. You may vote for more than one, if you'd like.

You have until December 10 if you want your vote to count.

Returning to the quilts themselves, the backs of the quilts are all single pieces of fabric.

I quilted them all the same. I think you can see it here pretty well:

It's a basic outline of the tree and the box around it. (The inside edge of the border.) And then of course, I stitched around the appliqued star as you can see in the very first picture. I used my "light neutral" piecing thread for all of the quilting on all the quilts, regardless of fabric. And I used my shiny gold "lame" thread for zig zagging around the star.

The design itself was paper pieced and you can get a copy of the pattern for yourself here. (You're welcome!)

You may have noticed that even though I said the mug rugs could be hung if desired, I didn't add any pockets (like these) or loops to hang it with. I didn't want any hardware on the back which would unbalance a glass and decided a simpler, less permanent solution would work:

A safety pin! The quilts are small enough that they will hang from the pin--all you need to do is get it reasonably centered. Here's proof:

There it is merrily hanging on a wall from a safety pin. And if you don't want to hang it, just take the pin off.

And now's the part where I give you a little tip. It's something I picked up from my sister when we were having a quilting bee. We had four of us set up on four sides of a quilt we were binding so we could all work on the same quilt at once. I couldn't help but notice that my sister really was just whizzing along. Finally she showed me her secret, and now I'll show you:

I love simple tricks.So obvious once you're told.

I think I have gone on long enough now. I hope you've voted. I hope you are able to use my tip one day while binding. I hope you have a merry advent season, giving with a cheerful heart! (Set me a good example.)

Happy Advent

2011-11-27T22:39:00.001-05:00

Today is the first day of advent. I'm starting to get into it. (It's not quite the Christmas spirit, but it leads into it.)

What helped this year is that I was asked (just last Sunday, I will add) to make an advent cloth for our church. The communion table is generally "dressed" with a liturgical cloth suitable for the current season and we didn't really have an advent cloth.

Although purple has been traditional for advent, blue is becoming more accepted as purple is used for lent. It is also widely accepted to use pink for "Mary's Sunday." I think we found a lovely sort of compromise in this batik fabric which contains lavenders and blues. (The lighter lines of flowers are more blue in person.)

I was also pleased to note that some of the flowers are calla lilies since white lilies are a symbol of Mary. No, I don't go to a Catholic church and I don't venerate Mary, but you can hardly celebrate Christmas (you know, Christmas that still has Christ in it) without realizing that she played a pretty big role in the whole saga.

Anyway, I think the fabric is pretty ideal for the table covering. Plus the batik is so pretty and complex, I didn't need to do anything more than hem the ends and throw it over the table.

But since I can't seem to keep things simple, I decided to make several strips to hang down the front:

There was only one up today because it's only the first Sunday of advent. I'll add one more each week until it will be completed on Christmas. I'm working on a "surprise" to be revealed on Christmas day, but it's not ready yet so I'm not going to tell you about it. (Plus, advent being a time of waiting, it seems appropriate to make you wait to see the whole picture. Sorry if that drives you nuts. ;)

What I can give you today is a little tutorial on the blind hem I used. It's very simple, but it can be tricky to get your head around how it works. But it's well worth the "mind bending" even if it's a little painful because the result is so professional and effective.

First, you fold over the hem to the wrong side at the final depth that you want and press:

Then you fold under the raw edge, trying to make the exposed part of the hem even:

and press it down again: (I love to iron.)

Now you need to do a little flip to get it ready for sewing. It would be hard to describe so I made this short video:

See how simple that is? You don't turn the fabric over (the wrong side still faces you), but just give the hem a little flip, making sure to keep a little bit exposed as shown.

Pin as you go:

Now you'll need to head to the sewing machine. Most machines will have a blind hem option. It's a straight stitch on one side with an occasional zig zag. It looks like this on my machine:

You can see that my machine has the option to do a blind hem to the right or the left. Your machine may only have one option.

You may also have a special foot for your machine, but you don't need to have it. If you do, it will have an uneven bottom--one side will be higher than the other. You put the fabric under the foot so that the ridge of the foot lines up with the fold, as seen here:

As you sew, the seam will be straight along the right side (the upper fold of the hem) and then take an occasional "bite" of the left fold, which is the body of the garment (or tablecloth). You can see in this picture that the machine has just finished taking a bite.

Once it's sewn, you can unfold them hem (and press again). Watching this may help you know what to expect:

Here's the seam as it comes off the machine:

And after unfolding and turning to the right side:

From a little further away, you hardly notice the stitches on the right side.

This is one of the flattest, well hanging hems I know. Try it out!

Fridays

2011-11-18T20:54:00.000-05:00

Now that Friday has rolled around again, I have time to share what I did last Friday.

A woman in my church has opened up her home once a month for a "UFO" night with the bonus that she will teach you how to make several styles of cards if you want. She has a lot of paper craft/scrapping ~~toys~~, I mean tools and is willing to share. (She has come to my aid in the past as well when I needed a little something cut or made.)

Here is a sample of one of the cards they made last week:

Isn't that pretty! And they did three or four different ones in a night.

But you can bring whatever you want with you. One woman was removing old pictures from frames for a friend of hers who moved to a much smaller place and can't hang them on the walls.

She's going to arrange them in an album so her friend can still enjoy them.

Someone else was working on entering recipes into one of those searchable recipe programs.

And what did I bring along? My super-sized UFO--the old Kentucky quilt top:

I haven't done much (any?) on it since the last time I wrote about it, but I decided it was just the thing to throw in a bag with some supplies and take with me. (If only I had remembered to throw in a thimble--my finger was pretty ripped up by the end of the night. Ow!)

The flower I worked on was this one:

It was fairly thick cotton and working over some of the seam was pretty tough. But I got it done in the evening. My stitches still are large and amateur:

but like I said last time, I enjoy it. And I put this picture up for all of you out there who feel bad about your stitches and are unwilling to show them. It's ok! You can also see in this picture that the centre of this flower will never sit flat. The piece was not cut out or seamed correctly. It's a fun little wonky quilt.

So I now have four flowers done out of 64. 60 left to go. If we keep meeting monthly, the flowers will be done in five years...

Another Honey Cowl and a Class

2011-11-05T22:45:00.000-04:00

I had the idea to knit a thank you gift for someone, but no particular plan. Then I saw this yarn at Red Purl and it didn't take me 20 seconds to decide to get it.

It's a new yarn Amy's carrying from Fleece Artist called Kidazzle. It's 70% Merino, 20% Kid (mohair) and 10% Nylon. It's a DK weight, and like a lot of stuff from Fleece Artist, the colours are outstanding. I think this colourway is Forest Fairie, but the tag isn't labeled so I'm not sure. (Pet peeve alert there, if you're listening, Fleece Artist.)

Instead of spending a lot of time looking for a pattern, I used one that I already loved and knew would be great for a variegated yarn--the Honey Cowl from Madelinetosh. Yes, this is the third one I've made, but the first one was for the shop and the second was a gift so it's not like I have a pile of them sitting in my closet.

I have to say this one flew off the needles. Partly it was because I was ~~a little bit~~ obsessed and partly it was because I came up with another improvement on my technique.

As before, I knit it with no purling. The problem with this method is that while you are doing the K1, slip 1 row, you are looking at the wrong side and it is hard to tell if you are supposed to be knitting or slipping. I discovered a trick to not only make this problem go away, but to make it more efficient (and thus faster) as well. Yay, me!

Once again, a slip stitch pattern does wonders for
a variegated yarn.

But it can be "yay, you!" as well. I'm going to be teaching a class at Red Purl about both of these methods in December. Talk to Amy about signing up.

The class will be offered twice: Saturday, December 10 and Thursday, December 15. You'll get all the information in either class, but if you want to come to both to review or get extra help, you can--at no extra charge.

When I dropped off this cowl at Red Purl today (as a temporary sample only), Rose was there. After our obligatory catch up about house progress (she has a door on her bathroom now--let's all be very happy for her!), we did had ourselves a nice knitting talk.

She liked the cowl but was disappointed when Mary Ann told her there was no more Kidazzle in the shop. After she had already checked out, I found a couple more skeins, including a gorgeous purple (her favourite). She had that purchased in five seconds...I honestly barely had time to finish my sentence before it was at the register being paid for! And she's committed to the class so I am looking forward to seeing her there. (Make sure to reserve your spot.)

Can I say again how much I love these colours? You can see that they did sort of pool in the pattern but because the slip stitches add an extra layer it's more like the colours flow than that they pool. I am loving the effect, whatever you may call it. I'm giving the cowl to a blond and I think the colours will look very good on her.

I was also happy with myself for knitting pretty much the entire project in continental style. I've tried that on projects previously but never been able to do it. This time I did it! I can't be sure yet if that means I've passed a Project Stats
Started: 25 Oct '11 / Finished: 5 Nov '11
Pattern: Honey Cowl by Ann Maria for Madelinetosh, free
Materials: Fleece Artist Kidazzle (Forest Fairie, I think), $24
tipping point and will continue to be comfortable in continental style or if it was just easier on this particular project. In any case, I am sure that is part of why this project went so quickly.

I have to admit I'm going to be a little sad to see this one go (even as I'll be very happy to give it). This cowl used about 2/3 of the skein, which means I have 1/3 left to use. I think I'm going to see how big a cowl I can get from it. I'm not ready to be done knitting with it yet...

Happy Haunting...

2011-10-31T21:00:00.001-04:00

Wooooooo...is it an apparition?

That's the signoff on the message I've recorded on the answering machine at work. Today's the day! Happy Halloween to all of you.

I'm celebrating the holiday by showing off my Skully cap. I finished it at the end of last month and am very happy to have it done with lots of time to spare. Our work Christmas party isn't until December 30 so I'm a couple months early. (Imagine that!)

What I wasn't counting on was their inviting the "other boss" that I don't see as much. Now I feel obligated to knit a second hat...but I sure don't want to!

No, it's my Skully cap!

I started the hat at the top with a tiny I-cord and then read the pattern top to bottom.

I really like the ring of skulls around the top.

The skull pattern itself is quite convincing.

It's always amazing how much you can imply from a relatively simple dot matrix type pattern.

The hat itself came out a little loose. It's not so loose that it will fall off easily but still a little looser than I would have liked. I've decided it's better than too tight and maybe it will even be perfect for the recipient. Kind of depends on what he likes. (There's a good chance he won't wear it at all so I can't get too warped about it.)

But it is part of why I'm not overly enthused about doing a second one. I'm thinking I would just down one needle size, but then I worry it will be too much and the hat will come out too small. Ah, the angst!! (My Oma [grandmother] hated making things for specific people for just this reason--she worried too much about whether it would fit or be liked. Instead, she just made lots and lots of things to sell at the Project Stats
Started: 1 Sep '11
Finished: 30 Sep '11
Pattern: Skully Hat by Camille Chang
Materials: 20g laceweight lambswool recycled from a Ralph Lauren sweater; 24g laceweight wool from American
Eagle vest
annual bazaar. I relate to the angst, but I try to keep it in check so it doesn't control me. (Too much.))

The other reason is the difficulty of working the pattern on the short needles. I could use this as an excuse to buy 8" needles, but I'm feeling cheap. Not quite in the mood for taking the excuse, apparently.

But getting back to the pattern, I really like the pattern for the hat. I think I'll be using it on a pair of socks one day. (Did I give you the background on this pattern? I originally saw a sock pattern with the skull and crossbones in the Knitpicks catalogue that I was very tempted to buy. I talked myself out of it, but not a week later, I saw the same design in a hat on their website. I checked and sure enough, it was by the same designer. So then I figured I could buy the hat pattern and just use the colour chart for a pair of socks if I wanted. I always use my own toe and heels anyway...I can just plug the pattern into the rest of the sock.)

As to the pattern itself, however, I found it to be a little confusing and hard to follow. There are several versions of the hat available and it wasn't always clear what the directions were referring to. I think that is part of why I had a hard time getting started. (But only part. Another part was that I was using recycled yarn that isn't conveniently labeled as "fingering" or "sport" so it was difficult to know which pattern version was best to use.)

In any case, I hope you all have a good night, whether you are celebrating Halloween or not. And again, Happy haunting!

Socktober Progress

2011-10-25T18:31:00.003-04:00

Have you been enjoying Socktober? We've certainly had some cold and wet enough weather to warrant warm socks. I, for one, have been enjoying my hand knits. (Especially those Mini Mochi Circle Socks I recently finished. Best. Socks. Ever.)

The current pair I'm working on had a pretty rough start. They were too big with the recommended number of stitches and needles. So I foolishly changed two variables at once and went down a needle size and decreased the number of stitches. This turned out to be too small so I made some increases after the short row toe. The right number on the smaller needles turned out to be what the pattern call for!

There were a few other small mishaps that affected how the sock looked. I told myself that I was going to just live with it because it in no way affected how the socks would work. But before I finished the first repeat of the pattern, I realized I couldn't live with it. So I ripped them out and had a much better second start.

One detail I really liked about this pattern was the purl row between the toe and the patterned part of the foot.

When I actually read the pattern, I realized this wasn't a purl row, but in fact was the cast off. The pattern calls for the socks to be knit from the cuff down. The short-row toe is knit from the bottom, around the end of the foot, and back to the top of the sock. The two parts (toe and foot) are then seamed together with a 3-needle bind off. This is what forms the ridge that I thought was a purl row.

I decided to mimic the design element with a purl row across the top of the sock after the toe, even though it was not necessary since I was knitting the sock toe-up.

Once the sock was off to a good start, it has been good knitting ever since. I made up some increases for a gusset and a larger short row heel. The leg of the sock is 72 stitches. (I started with 64.) I'm learning that I need a larger leg than foot. (Most patterns are written with the same number of stitches around the foot as around the leg. This just doesn't seem to work for my body.)

Once the heel is done, the cables are added at the back of the sock. To incorporate the increase stitches, I added two additional purl stitches between the mock cables. That reminds me, I decided to go with mirrored cables on each sock. (I mentioned I was debating between this option and mirror imaging one sock to the other.)

I have a ways to go on the leg yet. After the first two chart repeats, I changed to one size larger needle. I expect I may do that one more time yet. (If needed, I may add more purl stitches as well.)

So there you have it. Now that all the details are worked out, I just need to finish this one and then make a second just like it. The wool has been nice to work with (a little splitty but I can live with that) and the colours are perfect for fall knitting. There was a knot already so the colour change was interrupted and abrupt, but I'm not going to let that bother me. (I'm not!)

It's Not Easy Being Green

2011-10-22T13:01:00.000-04:00

Once upon a time, a girl fell in love with a yarn at her local yarn shop. She first wondered if it was a passing fancy. She resisted pursuing the relationship for a while but each time she visited the shop, she was drawn to the yarn. She would give it sidelong glances at first, but always ended up taking it off the peg and handling it for a while, getting to know it.

It was intriguing. It was super bulky with long curlicues. Curlicues that made you imagine a very curly and bushy sheep!

It was pretty. The deep teal colour was unlike any of the other curlicues that she had seen at the shop before. It wasn't a colour she used a lot but that just made her wonder where it could take her...

This girl could only resist so long before she did indeed give in to the temptation and take this yarn home with her. And not having anything that would remotely go with it, she bought some worsted weight to match. (Or she thought it matched; the shop owner seemed less convinced!)

Here is Sandy's Curly Locks:

It's a crazy yarn with literal ringlets coming off of it. It's wild.

In the shop it was used as an accent yarn on shawls made of very thin ethereal yarns. A single row of this curlicue yarn was added every 12 inches or so. It was very striking, but I've got enough shawls for a person that hardly wears them.

The yarn would also be perfect for a fur-like collar or cuffs on sweater or coat. But I wasn't sure that was a long enough lasting fashion statement to be worth the effort. I'm not making a coat for a single season's wear.

The yarn sat in my bug-proof tin for months as my mind kept coming back to it...what to do with it?? I finally got to the point where I had to do something with it--I couldn't just keep it for ever! I decided to take the matching worsted weight and to knit the front of a pillow.

I constructed it with a log cabin technique. You can see that I started with a small square in the middle, then added strips, one at a time, to build out the square. I wanted to shake up the variegated yarn so that it didn't just pool or stripe in big patches.

I used a slip stitch pattern (the linen stitch), which really helped to mix up the colours:

In the smaller squares, you can see that the slip stitch pattern settled into a subtle striping, which I really liked. As the strips got longer, the colour pattern changed, but only in one strip did it really pool in the way I was trying to avoid. (Very top strip in the picture of the whole pillow front.) Overall, I was really pleased with it.

I had considered trying to stripe the variegated yarn like I did my Belinda Shawl, but decided it wasn't the look I wanted and was more effort than I was willing to expend.

Once the pillow front was made, I did a search among my felted and to-be-felted sweaters (as mentioned in my last post) and found a nice green for the back.

It's not a colour I would have chosen to go with the knitted front, but it brings out the highlights in the curlicue wonderfully.

Next step, which took me a while to get my nerve up for, was to knit the curlicue around the front as a fringe. I knit it in the round because I knew there was no way I was going to be able to pick up stitches like I did for the log cabin construction.

This is a look at what I was knitting after a row or two were done:

Ya, try to make sense of that! It looks like a pile of mess. That's what I was dealing with! Here's a closeup of the needles:

You can barely see where the next stitch is!!

That was the "not easy" part. I have a running conversation with a friend about how knitting isn't hard. He sometimes comments on things I make, and I insist that all knitting is easy (it's just knits and purls), even though some of it takes a lot of time and some of it takes some care. But really, it's easy.

I have to concede his point on this one!! It was hard. Not impossible, but hard. Picking up the stitches around the knitted front with the super bulky yarn was not easy. Knitting the first row wasn't easy dealing with all the curlicues and making sure they didn't get tangled in the stitches. By the third row, I had got the hang of it and it was starting to "roll along." But I cast off on the fourth row, which wasn't that easy either, so that "rolling along" didn't last long!

But I pushed through because I really wanted to see how it would turn out!

Have you started wondering about the "being green" part?

Ya, that deep teal colour is rich and saturated for a reason: all the dye wasn't discharged. (Or rinsed? I'm not sure of dyeing terms.) So while I was knitting the trim, my fingers became a dark disturbing green colour. It didn't completely wash out either!Project Stats
Started: 1 Oct '11 / Finished: 21 Oct '11
Pattern: My own.
Materials: Farmhouse Yarns Andy's Merino in Grapes on the Vine ($19.50); Our Warrick's Border Leicester Lashes, 25 yards ($25); sweater for felting; pillow form or stuffing
I hope it doesn't rub off too badly when the pillow is being used--I certainly won't be putting it on anything white just in case!

Once the trim was on, it was time to sew the pillow together. Well, first I had to make the pillow itself. I could have bought a pillow form to fit, but instead I used the leftovers of a feather pillow Troy had just ransacked to restuff his own pillow. I sewed the pillow cover down to size (while pushing the feathers out of the way) and got a perfect stuffing. I really like the feel of feather pillows.

I then hand sewed the felted back to the selvage stitches of the pillow front, making sure again that all those curlicues didn't get sewn in.

Here's the back of the finished pillow:

And the front:

sitting comfortably on my couch.

I didn't think this colour would go with anything in my house, but now I'm not so sure. It seems alright.

I have one more ball of the variegated yarn. I think I will knit a simple square in the linen stitch pattern, this time putting the "wrong" side out. (It has a nice bumpy texture.) We'll see how the colours lie when knit in longer rows. I have just a little of the curlicue left and I'm considering how to use it in the next pillow. I had hoped to have enough to knit the front in the curlicue so I'd have one big hairy pillow, but there's not enough. You can be sure I'll let you know when I get to it!

A New Hat

2011-10-18T23:11:00.001-04:00

This evening, while allowing myself the luxury of rewatching The Blind Side, I exercised a rare moment of self-discipline and made myself sew the lining into this hat. I haven't been good at self-discipline the last little while and find that the only thing I can make myself do even if I really don't want to is to go to work. But that takes up all of my will power most days.

The very fact that the one thing my will power is strong enough to make me do is sewing a lining into a hat should say something about my life, but I'm not going to think about it too long.

In any case, I have a wonderful hat to show you. I don't think I've talked about it here before. And I didn't really have much chance. One evening I was struck with the inspiration to make a hat I've been eyeing in Kristina McGowan's Modern Top-Down Knitting. (I was probably avoiding other knitting I didn't feel like doing at the time.) By the next day I had the hat knit:

It looks a little odd, I know; but wait, it gets better.

The hat is finished with a sturdy
two rounds of single crochet.

The pattern tells you to line it with fleece, but to me that is the devil's fabric. Staticky, squeekie and not even warm--just clammy. Plus, even the superficial softness wears off in short order. It is like fingers on chaulkboard to me. Blech!

Cashmere, on the other hand, I rather enjoy. And I have some second hand sweaters just waiting to be felted and used for such a noble project as this. I pulled out my many sweaters which had already been felted or were waiting to be:

(And I've since realized that's not all of them!)

You can see that I have the green ones pulled up on the couch. They were the ones I was after, for two projects, actually. I'll write about the other one later.

So I tried out a few, and picked this lime-ish green:

I like the contrast. And although the purple (mulberry) colour is nice, I find it a little too soft. No punch.

So after felting, I laid the hat on the sweater, lining up the front edge with the edge of the ribbing, and cut around it leaving enough excess for a seam allowance.

It turns out you really don't need a seam allowance because the lining is to fit inside the knitted hat and needs to be smaller anyway. Even after cutting it down to a smaller size, mine still turned out a little long. It worked out ok though, as you will see. (You, of course, may or may not agree with me.)

The final step, then, is to hand stitch the lining in.

I didn't have the exact right colour of thread, but with all the fluffy fuzziness of the felted cashmere, it didn't really matter. I made sure to keep just inside of the final chain stitches so there is a nice border around the knitting.

And so I give you the "subway hat": (Long story about the name; you'll have to get the book to read it.)

I have to say it frames the face beautifully. (When my sister saw it, she commented that I'll have to always were makeup when wearing the hat!) The too-long lining is what is making it flare out slightly, revealing more of the lining. As I said, I like it.

The other big benefit of this hat design is that it lets you wear glasses without looking like doob, and it covers the ears without muffling them. (Plus you don't look like undergrad with earflaps and the obligatory tassels.)

The one weakness of the pattern is that it pouches out too much at the back.

Project Stats
Started: 8 Oct '11
Finished: 18 Oct '11
Pattern: Subway Hat by Kristina McGowan
Materials: Raveled Rowan Big Wool (Mulberry) 96 g; cashmere sweater to felt
Mine isn't too bad, but some of the pictures on Ravelry are just awful. It's like you have an extra 3 inches of hat at the back of your head. Next time I will increase a little faster so that part is flatter. Also, the slit in the bottom should start sooner because the way it is, the hat tends to ride up and then forward over your eyes.

All in all, though, I love the hat. Everyone that's seen it says it reminds them of a traditional Dutch hat. Since I'm Dutch, I don't mind. For those of you who don't know what I mean, here is a picture of some fans at last year's World Cup who put on some "traditional garb" for the Netherlands' match up with Brazil:

These ones are pointier up top, but you can see the resemblance with the pointy parts around the ears. (Go Oranje!)

With this hat in the arsenal, I can look forward to colder weather without worrying about a cold head. With the extra layer of the lining, the hat is extremely warm. Can't wait to put it to the test!

Project Spectrum: September into October

2011-10-04T22:58:00.001-04:00

I got so excited about Socktober, I forgot to wrap up last month's colour for Project Spectrum. September was all about yellow (and gold, copper, and bronze). I didn't work with any of those colours in my projects (I didn't even do a single yellow square in my Kaffe quilt-shame on me), but my surroundings have been full of it.

There was the goldenrod that filled half of our field.

As I drive home, I pass the five acres we have along the road and survey it each day.The goldenrod put on quite a show. I watched it fade from bright yellow to soft gold.

The corn fields around us (none of which I own) did the same fade from bright green to soft white-ish gold.

The corn itself, on the other hand, turned a very solid yellow gold.

A little closer to home, the "fake" sunflowers I have finally bloomed this month. They grow like bushes and have small sunflower-like blooms that run up and down very tall stalks. The bees really like them,

as did this butterfly:

In another bed, the nasturtiums really took off (and took over). The leaves were taller than the flowers so you had to do some searching for the blooms!

And the trees started their turning this month. Although the bright reds and oranges are the real attention getters, I also love the fluorescent lime yellow green that some maples achieve.

When they catch a little sun, I think they positively glow with life.

October celebrates the colour cyan/aqua. That is a very foreign colour to me. I honestly surveyed every single folder of pictures I have and came up with only a few paltry examples that might come close to cyan. I have a lot of blue, but that is not the same!

So, for a preview, I give you:

Clockwise from top left: aquarium at Disney World I have completely blocked from my memory; old thermometer I bought for Troy; beach in the Dominican (the blue sky dominates the space but I think the aqua sea is a scene stealer); one of the shawls I knit for my sister's wedding (being modeled by my niece); Antonio and Gertrude, made by my father-in-law.

I am not too comfortable with this colour and find it difficult to even describe. We'll see what I come up with over the next month...

Socktober Once Again!

2011-10-01T10:18:00.000-04:00

If you've looked at your calendar today, you should have noticed that it's Socktober!! (I know most calendars do not have it labeled correctly--let's work on that, shall we? Find your calendar. Grab a sharpie. Write a little vertical squiggle in front of "October" and it should now say, "SOctober." Problem solved. Well, unless you made your squiggle go the wrong way and then it will say, "ZOctober." I guess that would make it a German celebration of socks. In that case, problem zolved.)

Anyway, back to socks. Knitting a pair of socks would be the perfect fit for my current "knit small projects only" condition. I have selected a sock yarn from the stash:

(The name kind of looks German, doesn't it? "Jawoll." It might be, I suppose. The label says it was made in Italy for a company in Switzerland.) It is 75% wool and 25% nylon which means it should wear really well and last a long time. You can also see on the label that it is superwash. How convenient.

I purchased this ball at a yarn store in Bowling Green, KY, when we were there visiting friends last March. I searched out a yarn store and Troy and Isaac indulgently let me shop for a bit. They had a lot of nice stuff but this ball was the best thing that fell in the overlap of the categories of things I could afford, things I liked, and things I actually knew what I would do with. (And things I couldn't easily get at my LYS at home.) Now as I knit on these socks and eventually when I wear them, I will be reminded of the nice visit I had with my friends too. Like a memory book (scrap book) I can take with me.

But no wool is any good without a pattern to shape it. I have chosen Nutkin by Beth LaPensee. It is a very popular pattern on Ravelry and with good reason--I think it looks great!

I hope the colour changing properties of the wool don't overwhelm the stitch pattern. I looked up other projects using this combination of pattern and wool on Ravelry and many of them did not look great. But there weren't really good quality pictures in the batch so I am going to try it for myself and see what I get.

Automatic modification will be to work toe up and to start with a short row toe. I'm pretty sure I am going to mirror image the mock cables as well. Just not sure if I will mirror them within the sock (and thus each sock will be identical to its mate) or knit one sock according to the pattern and knit the second sock mirror imaged. So many choices...

Current Projects

2011-09-24T16:04:00.000-04:00

With my current lack of large chunks of time for knitting and even smaller chunks of time that my brain can focus (seriously, I come home from work and just stare into space occasionally thinking "I should knit" but not able to pick up the needles and do it), I have been working on small projects.

A few weeks ago I was finishing a number of projects (the red stole, Green Leaf beret and Mini Mochi Circle Socks) and debating what to do next. It occurred to me that I could make the decision easier by just working on some gifts for Christmas this year. I had a couple ideas already so it was a matter of casting on and getting going.

First was a "spooky" hat for my boss at the haunted house. (Yes, I work for a haunted house--specifically, the Niles Haunted House Scream Park. I went there last night, incidentally, and had a great time with the rest of the office staff! Oh, alright, while I'm on the subject I may as well show you the pic we got at the photo op:

The one on the torture table is my boss in case that's not obvious. I'm the one tightening the chains.)

Anyway, back to the knitting. I had seen several skeleton or skull design hats and thought I would make him one. I settled on the Skully pattern from Knitpicks and cast on with some raveled wool I had. Green from an American Eagle vest and more of the black I just used on the Circle socks.

The first attempt I did with the yarn doubled and it wasn't right at all. When I finally accepted that, I ripped it out and restarted with a single strand of each. That was much better and I've been making pretty steady progress. I thing I'm about half way down the length:

One thing that is slowing it down is that my needles are just a little too short.

This makes it a pain to work because I'm always having to watch the stitches to make sure they don't fall off the end or picking them up when they do. I don't have a circular needle in this small a size or I would have switched over already.

It should get a little better when I do the ribbing. And even if it doesn't, I'll get through it.

The second project is the gloves I mentioned in a recent post. They are just a simple stockingnette stitch and haven't given me any trouble at all.

I have not let myself work on them at home because I knew they would get done too quickly and leave me with no "travel" knitting. So it's been my Skully hat at home and these gloves in the few minutes I find to knit when out of the house.

I did get in a couple hours of knitting on them during small group on Monday so that helped a lot.

This week I finished the second glove and turned my attention to the cuff. I decided there wasn't enough wool left to do the cuffs. So I enacted my Plan B and added a second colour.

I had a couple choices on hand:

I debated between the light purple alpaca/silk in the middle and the darker sequined silk on the right. (The main colour is on the left.) I ended up going with the sequined silk even though sequins aren't really the style of the recipient. I thought I could get away with it because it's going to be very subtle once it's mixed with the main colour.

I picked up the stitches from the provisional cast on and started knitting in the other direction. I used the stitch pattern from the Honey Cowl I made last year and it worked out very nicely! I tried the contrast colour on the slip stitch rows first but it looked much better with the slip stitches done in the main colour and the contrast on the plain rows.

Once I had that figured out, I motored on the first cuff. I made it fairly narrow and was done in no time. The second cuff is about half done now too. No pictures? Nope. At this point you'll just have to wait until I'm done. But trust me, they're looking good!

Walking on Sunshine

2011-09-20T18:49:00.001-04:00

My "Mini Mochi Circle" socks are finished. They feel fabulous and were a lot of fun to knit.

I got a little carried away with the length. I just kept knitting and knitting on them as they were a great "take along" project and I guess I was going places. I was also thinking that I was going to knit til I ran out of yarn. After all, that's part of why I knit from the toe up so that I can use up all the yarn.

But at some point I realized that just because I could doesn't mean I had to and that knitting toe up can also just prevent you from running out of yarn before you're finished. You don't have to use up all the yarn. So I tried the sock on one more time and then finished it off. (And then finished the second one to match.)

I used a folded over hem to finish. The "fold line" was made with a row of yarn overs which gives a nice picot edge. I took the time to Kitchener the live stitches to the purl bumps on the back. It turned out fantastic. Sturdy, stretchy and comfortable.

At its most basic level, the pattern on the leg of the sock is alternating knit and purl rows. This makes it want to stack up on itself (picture the slouch socks from the 80s). I hope it won't be too bad when I'm wearing them. The good thing, I made the socks long enough that even if they do sag and slouch, I think they'll still protect enough of my leg from cold drafts.

The raveled black wool worked out perfectly for this project. It sets a nice backdrop for the colourful circles. I think they look like stain glass windows.

For those of you who like the details, I used my current favourite short row toe and heel for the socks, disregarding whatever the pattern told me to do. (I didn't even read it, so I don't even know what I was "supposed" to do.)

I thought the short row heel was especially called for to keep the colour changes as continuous as possible.

I think that's all I've got to say. The weather's gotten quite a bit cooler the last week, but not quite cool enough to wear these yet. Can't wait!

Project Stats
Started: 27 Jul '11
Finished: 01 Sep '11
Pattern: Circle Socks by Anne Campbell (free)
Materials: Mini Mochi, 2 skeins in 108 Neptune's Rainbow ($18.40) and 21 g of lambs wool raveled from a sweater

Assemble-a-Light

2011-09-17T23:38:00.000-04:00

Walking through DIY stores is dangerous. I see lots of things I think I can use to make stuff. (Yes, I know that's the point, really.) I should add that I'm a sucker for a mix and match kit type product. All this is to say that I've walked through Lowe's several times and seen how cheap their pendant lights shades are. Less than $20. And how nice the styles are.

The light shades are for some "pick your own parts" kits. These kits, however, were for wired lights and I don't have quite that much ambition. But I have seen light shades converted to nice hanging lamps by what is essentially a bulb at the end of an extension cord.

So I started gathering parts in my cart:

1. An extension cord:

I chose black because the red, yellow and blue options looked a little too "neon bright construction" to me. You may pick what you like.

15 feet was as long as they had in their selection. It's barely enough so definitely don't go shorter.

Also, it has to be one of the cords with a single outlet at the terminus. It can't have three outlets with one on one side and two on the other.

2. A socket adapter:

You plug this into the end of your extension cord and suddenly you can screw in a lightbulb. Isn't that crazy convenient?!

3. Shade of your choice:

Although the lovely red shades were enticing, I liked this neutrally coloured but detailed pattern.

You want to make sure that it's long enough to hide a bulb and the adapter and the end of the extension cord. Unless you like bulbs hanging out the bottom...

This set up will definitely seat the bulb lower than what the shades are designed for so you won't be able to use some of the shorter styles.

4. Lightbulb

Around here nothing but flourescents will do. I made sure to get a bulb that was shorter than most to make sure it fit in the shade.

I tried the 60-watt equivalent first but it was way too bright. The 40 is much better.

I'll also add that the Sylvania's I first bought gave me some trouble. The first one shattered with the first bump and the second one burned out after less than 30 minutes. I took them back and bought an off-brand. It's worked great.

Ok, so I'm sure you can guess how to assemble most of these parts. The only thing that will give you trouble is getting the cord through the hole in the top of the shade. It's too big to fit. I had suspected that would be the case but held onto a hope until I tried it.

Resigning myself to the inevitable, I cut the cord a few inches above where it plugs in and started separating and stripping the three wires inside. Just as I was about to make a "cheater" connection--after threading one end of the cord through the shade--Troy came home and insisted I do it right.

He generously offered to solder two of the wires but only on the condition that I solder the third. I had done soldering when I had my optical training so it's not like I hadn't done it before, but it's still not a task I am very comfortable with. But to have a more elegant join and take advantage of the help he was offering, I did it. (Perfect "action" shot for my knitting blog, but I forgot to take any pictures. Sorry, you will have to to imagine.) We got the join done and taped and it blends in well (and works!).

The only thing I didn't consider and should have was an inline power switch. As it is, I have to lean over the back of the couch to plug it in and unplug it. Not so bad, but not so convenient either.

I got it put together and hung from a hook over one end of the couch. I love it and can't sit there without having it on.

At some point I expect to do this with a knitted shade--some heavily starched sphere or semi-sphere. It's still percolating...

New Splice Method for a New Project

2011-09-11T22:43:00.001-04:00

I have a beautiful yarn. It's half alpaca, half wool. It feels lovely. Not buttery soft, but sturdy and soft with a nice bounce to the spin.

It's also a beautiful "prune" colour with heathery flecks of every other colour. Subtle but delightful.

I used it for a cowl described here, but I still had some left over, so I thought I would make something else. It had to be small because I don't have a lot left and because I don't currently have the wherewithal to handle something big.

Oh, I should mention the one thing that's wrong with the yarn that I have left is that moths or some other bug got at it. The balls used for the cowl were ok, but this one has quite a number of breaks in it. Or sometimes it is not a complete break, but you have to treat it as one.

Like this spot:

Can you see that the middle section has only one of the three plies left? Not so good. What is good is that I recently read a post in Ravlery that described another way of splicing yarn that doesn't leave a bulky section or ends to work in later. It works best on wool or wool blends that will felt.

First I cut the yarn at the weak spot and raveled the plies back about 1.5 inches.

I raveled the top piece into its three parts and the bottom piece into two parts (one ply/two plies).

Then I cut one of the plies off the top one and cut the single ply off the bottom one:

You now have three pieces that you can braid.

Pin the top to anchor it:

and then start to braid.

I ended up doing almost two inches, but I think one inch would probably do.

Once it's braided, cut off the ends close to the top/bottom of the braided section. Then wet your fingers and rub the cut ends in--you just need to twirl the strand between your wet fingertips and the ends will felt down.

Can you see the braided section in the middle?

Here it is from a little further away:

and you can barely tell. The join is very strong and keeps the strand consistent. Even though it's actually four plies instead of three, the braid is tighter than the spin and it evens out.

The only bad part of this join? It takes quite a bit more time. I'll be saving it for when I really care!

And what am I making?

I started a pair of gloves. They fit...well, like a glove, and I just love the way they feel. (In case you're worried about the part at the wrist, I started with a provisional cast on so I will pick up those stitches later and knit the cuff down from the glove. Once again, I am worried about having enough yarn. Story of my life, but I have a plan B so I'm not concerned.)

All for now...go forth and splice!

Love it or Leaf it

2011-09-09T22:28:00.000-04:00

A finished project...and pictures to boot!

Pulling myself together is a little tough these days, but it should get easier now that I have a matching set to wear. Ok, I do have to wait for some cooler weather, but I am ready!

With all the knitting I got done at the game last week, the hat was ready to be Kitchenered together. I sat down to do that on Monday and then got the hat blocking on a large dinner plate.

It struck me that it sat a little looser than I imagined it would on the plate. Although I measured (roughly) and thought I was (pretty) close to what the pattern called for, I think my hat came out a little long. Not so long that I'm going to undo it though!

I think the "cap" that I knit top down came out nicely:

As I said, I like a little Icord tab on a beret/tam. (Btw, you can still have an Icord if you're knitting up from the brim but I just think they're such an elegant way to start--perfect for knitting top down.)

I've experimented in front of a mirror with several ways of wearing such a slouchy hat--to the side, to the back, pulled down low--and I'm not sure it's the best suited hat for me, but I'm not worried about it.

I still like it and I really like that it makes a set with my gloves.

One more detail...I started the brim with a tubular (or Turkish) cast on around a scrap piece of yarn. When I was ready to pull it out, I tied a stretchy cord that I have for beading to the end and pulled it though. As the scrap yarn came out, the elastic cord was pulled through.

If you look closely, you can see the "clear" stretchy band showing.

Project Stats
Started: 25 Aug '11
Finished: 5 Sep '11
Pattern: (Love It,) Leaf It Beret by Melissa LaBarre ($2.99)
Materials: James C Brett Pure Merino in PM16 Green, 1.5 skeins (gift)
When the hat was finished and I had a good sense of the size it needed to be, I tied the two ends together and now have a nice firm but stretchy edge to my ribbing. The tubular cast on makes the perfect casing. The elastic really makes a difference with how well the hat stays on.

Love it or leaf it? I'll take both, please.

And that's the end of a very long saga. I started a hat to match these gloves last January, got stuck when I ran out of yarn, considered redoing the pattern until I saw this new one. Had another adventure with this pattern as I ended up ripping out the first go and casting on 20 fewer stitches. But then smooth sailing. Phew! Let's hope for a "happily ever after ending" now.

It's Best to be Prepared

2011-09-04T15:53:00.000-04:00

Well, thank goodness I got that hat all set to go, sorted out and up to a point where it was straight stocking stitch. I took it to the ND game yesterday. (I didn't think I'd be knitting during the game, but I thought maybe at half time or who knows.) "Who knows?" indeed. Half time turned out to be a 2 hour weather delay. They evacuated everyone out of their seats and we spent most of the time sitting on the floor on one of the ramps.

That's ok--I had my knitting to keep me occupied. I got so much done, I am working on the Kitchener this afternoon and hope to be finished soon. wOOt wOOt!

Leaf Beret: Plan B

2011-09-03T08:17:00.000-04:00

Remember the green leaf beret I talked about here? I was heavily modifying a pattern to make a beret to match my Green Thumb gloves.
I ran out of yarn and wanted to rework the pattern. I ended the post with "until I have the energy for that, the hat can stay on the plate."

Well, it stayed on the plate for a while. Then it was stored with my wool stash for a while. I wanted to work on it for Project Spectrum's green month in June but that didn't happen either.

Then I got a notice from Vogue Knitting that they were having a pattern sale and one of the ones that was shown was this hat:

Pattern link.

I immediately recognized the true match to my Green Thumb gloves. This was it! So I checked that the pattern would work with the yarn I was using, both for weight of yarn and how much I had left and decided it should work. By the next day, the pattern was purchased, downloaded, and the old hat was frogged away. (I put the end on my yarn winder and it was gone like buttah.)

The hat itself got off to a bit of a rough start. I cast on the 120 stitches the pattern recommended--and did a very fine looking Turkish cast on, I might add--but it was way too big. I know it's supposed to be a bit of a slouchy hat, but it has to actually stay on my head. So I ripped it out again and restarted with 100 stitches. That is feeling much better.

Once I had the ribbing and chart done,

I started to get a little worried about having enough yarn. (The pattern called for two skeins; I had 1.75. Plus when you're substituting yarn, you just never know.) I did not want to work on this and then run out with a few rows to go on the decreases. When you're working bottom up, it's not like you can decide to make it a little shorter and just leave a hole at the top of the hat!

So I took the other end of the yarn and a set of dpns in the same size as the circs and started the hat again from the top. I did all the increases until the number of stitches matched the number on the main body of the hat. Now I know I will not run out before my hat has a top to it. In fact, here it is,

ready and waiting. It doesn't hurt that I also like the look of a top down hat better. I find the Icord tab is an elegant way to start.

I also was pleased with the amount of yarn I have still to work with. I should be able to make the hat good and slouchy (one of my original goals). The pattern says I have two more inches to go on the body. I think I'll get it in, but if not I can just work until I have only enough yarn to Kitchener the two parts together.

I know, that's a lot of Kitchener. But I don't mind.

Project Spectrum: August into September

2011-08-31T17:10:00.002-04:00

Have you been mindful of pink this month? I have to say I have not seen a lot of it except for the hibiscus bushes in my yard. And that's a big "except" because they have been blooming like crazy all month long.

I give you my pink collage in which the hibiscus figure prominently:

The other flower (lower right) are my poppies which finally decided to bloom. They are darling. And the top right picture is one of the bibs I made for my great-niece, my only pink or purple project this month. (I was busy with that tablecloth, remember?) It's 100% cotton and knit in the "snakes and ladders" pattern I made up for the 2009 Red Purl afghan with crochet ties.

But my favourite "pink thing" this month would have to be my great-niece herself:

Ella was literally born blue, so we are all so happy to see her pink and rosy now!

As the calendar turns to September, Project Spectrum moves on to yellow and metallics. Those are not colours I wear often, but I found plenty of pics in the archives:

Top row: bracelet knit with stainless steel wire; a block from my Kentucky quilt top; bee on sunflower;
Middle row: Knit stellated dodecahedron Christmas star; gold "boot socks";
Bottom row: Detail of last year's Christmas card; early crocus; sewing my Kaffe Fasset quilt; a binfull of popcorn Troy grew.

Here's to a month of yellows, golds, bronzes, coppers, etc. Let's see what we can see...

See a Penny, Pick it Up...

2011-08-27T19:22:00.001-04:00

Things have been such a rush since I got home, I have forgotten to share the "70" gift that my sister made for my mom. Since it was such a cute and creative idea and made a lovely hand-made gift, I wanted to share it with you.

You will recall that we set the theme of "70" for my mom's birthday and left it wide open from there. My sister, with her daughter, made this book:

They filled it with sayings and adages having to do with pennies.

Do you think money grows on trees?

My niece drew pictures to illustrate.

To be a penny pincher

Ok, so this is a cute idea already. But they made sure to use exactly 70 pennies in the book.

A penny for your thoughts?

And not only that, they found one from each year from the year Mom was born until this year, and used them in order. So clever!

It costs a pretty penny

This one has neat story. This silver coin on top of the page is not a nickel; it is a penny. A stainless steel penny that the US had to make during WWII because they didn't have enough copper for pennies. Pennies from that year are rare enough that my sister had to go to a coin dealer and pay 50 cents for it!

Surprise! (It's no longer a secret...)

2011-08-19T21:28:00.001-04:00

I can finally unveil the secret project I've been working on since the spring...

It was a crochet lace tablecloth for my mother. She turns...well...a certain age today and we got together to celebrate.

Ok, well, I tried to be polite, but I really have to tell you her age because it became the theme of our presents. My sister, Patricia, had the idea that we should all give Mom something that would somehow reflect the idea of "70." However you wanted to interpret that. It's not like Mom is in need of anything specific, and we knew she would enjoy seeing what each of us did with the theme.

Patricia herself made a wonderful photo book listing 70 things that Mom loves. Books, travel, grandparents day, balls, organizing things, etc, etc.

Anyway, you get the idea. The idea I finally settled on was to give a lace tablecloth made up of 70 motifs. Although she doesn't make anything of this sort, Mom has always enjoyed dressing her tables and appreciates the work of others. I searched for a pattern and found one I liked on Ravelry. It is a vintage pattern from at least the '30s.

After starting, I realized that there was no way I could finish it in time. Each motif was taking me two hours and I had to do one a day plus the connecting motifs. That was not going to happen!! With a little figuring I worked out that I could make it 5x8 (40) and count the connecting motifs (28). That would make 68 parts to the tablecloth.

If I added a doily to hang in a window:

and a loose doily that would look lovely on a round mirrored tray/stand she has,

that makes 70! Hurray!

You may have already read some of my adventures with this project. Now that it's done (and won a blue ribbon at the county fair!), I have forgotten all about those troubles. Ok, except my disappointment with the yarn itself. I had a hard time finding the right stuff and settled for something readily available from Joann's. I used three (1000-yard!) cones and no two of them were the same. It severely affected my gauge and the look of the units. The cones are wrapped in plastic when you buy them and there's nothing like a dye lot, so I had no idea how I was supposed to tell which was a good one and which a bad one. It was frustrating.

But I blocked the tablecloth with some pins on my ironing board and steam from the iron and it has pretty much evened out.

It was a big project to finish in a busy summer, but I had time for much of it during our vacation week. Troy didn't make me drive too much and I kept at it pretty steady. (I was prepared to submit it to the fair one row short and to finish it afterward, but I had it all done thanks to that vacation.)

Happy Birthday, Mom!!

Project Stats
Started: 29 May '11
Finished: 28 Jul '11
Pattern: Star Wheel by the Spool Cotton Company (free)
Materials: Aunt Lydia's Classic Crochet (Size 10), 3 cones ($14.40)Oh, yes, I was going to share one more thing. I really debated when this all started whether it was worth keeping it a secret on my blog. Mom's only access to the internet was my sister, Bonnie, who was living with her at the time, but who then moved into her new house. I thought, "Mom never reads the blog; I don't need to worry about it." I really thought about it when I was showing the fair results. But I played it safe and blocked out the item (although Patricia, who knew what the secret project was, thought it was pretty obvious anyway).

And what do you know! My mom calls Monday night of the fair and tells me how her sister showed her not only the fair results post, but also the previous post that laid out every single item I was entering. They were traveling together and had time to look through the posts. I don't think Mom even thought about the "secret item" (she certainly didn't mention it), but I'm glad I went ahead and blocked it.

And sorry, Maria, the secret project was not for your new Ella-baby. I hope you weren't counting on it! (So much intrigue over a little thing. But what's life without a little intrigue?) Ella will be getting this trio of bibs:

Can you make out the monkey on the white one?

A project so super secret I didn't even mention it! How's that for intrigue?

More Ts, Please

2011-08-13T20:22:00.000-04:00

I started on two more T blocks a few weeks ago using the jungle leaf fabric I bought in Missouri. I had to put them away during Fair week and for my sister's visit, but I pulled them out this morning and had them done in no time.

I think the fabric is not ideal for this block, but oh well; I like it and certainly am not replacing it with something else.

When I had those two blocks on the "design wall" (otherwise known as a curtain) I could see that I only had six more to do to get the 20 I need.

I had a few fabrics already cut and decided it was time to get it all done--make my final choices and be done with it. This meant I also had to decide which fabric to use for the alternating blocks. After looking at everything I had bought for this quilt and measuring what I had, I thought I was going to have to buy a whole new fabric. The fabric I had planned on using now looks too girly. I no longer liked it for this quilt.

But then I found a fabric I really liked but only had one yard of. I need three. It occurred to me that I could possibly buy more. A longer-than-I-wished search on the internet found me one supplier that stilled carried it. (It was copyrighted 2008.) I went ahead and ordered the two yards while I could get it. (The price was too high for me to get the additional "one just-in-case yard" that I wanted.) Things are coming together in any case, and this quilt is starting to feel more settled. Very good.

Once I had my plans in place, I started cutting and cutting and cutting...

and making little piles of pieces for blocks.

One of the first things to do for this block is mark a bunch of squares with diagonal stitching lines. I got a new tool in Missouri for just this job:

Instead of marking a line corner to corner and then trying to sew a 1/4" on each side of it, you line up the ruler and draw on the actual sewing lines. It wasn't the exact tool I was looking for--I think the Fons and Porters one is a better design but it's very hard to find, and the one time it did see it I couldn't pay the price they wanted for it. This one was cheap and works almost as well.

After all the cutting was done, I sewed all the half square triangles. (That's what I was marking above.) Then I was done with sewing for a while. It didn't help that the next step was to mark the diagonal on 16x6 2-inch squares. What is 16x6? 96? Oh my goodness, I can't bear the thought of it!! It will be a bit of a chore to do all six blocks at once, but each step I finish, I'll never have to do again on this quilt. That is very appealing to me right now. I'm sure sometime I'll have the fortitude to face marking lines on 96 squares.

Once those are done and my fabric arrives, I'll be getting a 9.5" square ruler to size all the T blocks and cut out the alternate blocks. Then pull out the design wall (aka a flannel sheet hung over the curtain) and start playing with arrangements. Sounds like fun, don't it?

Fair Results (2 of ?): A Showing of Quilts

2011-08-08T21:31:00.000-04:00

Fair week is over! We cleaned up and handed back all the entries Sunday morning.

Now that I have a moment to do so, I can share some of the quilts on display.

Let me start with the raffle quilt. If you read the blog last year, you followed the saga of my "Spirit of America" quilt block. This year we saw all the blocks sewn together and quilted in the colours chosen by the raffle winner:

The sashing and borders definitely go with the quilt blocks, but I have to say I find it far too dark for my taste. Usually the winner has the quilt by December, and then has to lend it back to the Fair for display. (You can find my block on the second bottom row, third from the left. It won sixth--the ribbon winners (#1-6) are in the centre six places, ranked from top to bottom.)

This year's raffle quilt had far fewer entries, and for the first time they did not have 20 blocks on the quilt. They picked 12 blocks from the blocks of lighthouses of the Great Lakes:

Most of them were quite good, and it was interesting to read where the lighthouses were located and the stories that some of them included. The one that won second place (with the red rosette) is the same lighthouse I was going to do.

Here is a close up of the six place winners:

And then of the ones that don't make it into the quilt, they pick six for pillows:

I believe I already showed you these, as my square was made into pillow #5 (middle of the bottom row). As Isaac pointed out, my mariner's compass somehow placed higher than a square that actually had a lighthouse on it. (I don't know why, but I won't argue.)

In case you're all wondering (or if even one of you is wondering), my mother won the pillow with her highest bid. All of the pillows sold (which I don't think happens every year, but I'm not sure because I haven't always paid that close attention): the highest for almost $80 (!!!--I know!) and the lowest I think for $10. Mine was somewhere in between. All the money goes to support the Home Arts building at the fair.

I did not win the raffle for this year's quilt. :(

I did buy a kit for next year's raffle quilt. The theme is "Down on the Farm" and the fabrics include a good barn red and two "farm scene" prints. I think this is another theme that suits applique over piecing. I think I will have to give in and do a "scene" if I want to win a prize. We'll see if I think it's worth it or if I just go with a block that fits the theme, even if it doesn't fit what they want.

Following are some of the other quilts that were on display. First, we have the grand champion:

A very lovely log cabin arrangement. I really like the stars with their halos. I think I already commented that the quilting was just a very functional big loose meander. Looks like it was done on a long arm.

There were lots of other fun quilts, like this quartet of ladies:

with their hats forming a Snails Trail block in the middle.

This was the only quilt done with batiks that was hung:

It was quilted with different patterns in different sections but it didn't show up very well against the patterned fabric.

This was a an arrangement of half square triangles and solid squares:

Very nice scrap quilt, I think.

This one was very prominently displayed immediately after the raffle blocks:

Troy thought the colours looked like a gracefully faded Persian rug, but I was not such a fan of them. The colours look a little too "off" for me. Impressive quilt, nonetheless.

A scrappy star quilt:

And a version of the Very Hungry Caterpillar:

This book has become very popular in quilting circles. There was a pattern published in one of the major quilting magazines and everyone was doing it. This is the first alternate version I've seen done with the fabrics. I like it. (A quick google search, however, reveals that it is just another pattern, not an original idea. In any case, it is cute.)

A great version of a trip around the world quilt:

I just love the big white and grey X across the quilt. This one was hand quilted in diagonal lines in one direction (i.e. not cross hatch).

And then we had these two nearly identical quilts:

One with a blue ribbon and one with no ribbon. Doesn't that seem a little odd? The one on the right was much more heavily quilted, and there are slight variations of colour and borders between the two. Troy definitely liked the one on the right more. I wasn't sure.

I was there when one of these quilt makers came through the building. One of her kids was amazed there was another one "just like yours, Mom!" Apparently they do know each other and had planned to make the project together on a weekend quilt retreat they had.

Ah...weekend quilt retreats...trying not to be jealous...

There were more quilts there but many of them had to be folded over racks and were hard to get a good look at. And the photography/art area keeps getting more and more crowded--they may have to add more shelves and take away even more quilt display area. That would not be good!

Alright, I think that's all I've got on the fair this year. It was interesting to get more involved in the behind the scenes stuff; and fun enough I've signed myself up for the same duties next year!

2011 Fair Results: 1 of ?

2011-08-02T08:44:00.000-04:00

I started this post and realized there is no way I'll be able to cover everything in one post unless it is very very long. So I've decided to cut to the chase and give you my personal results first. (It is my blog afterall!)

In the same order I listed them before, here are the results:

1. Knitted cardigan or coat: Making Waves Cardigan

Oh, yes! That's my little cardigan with the great big ribbon on it! Not only Grand Champion knitting, but also the Red Purl gift certificate!! My lucky day! (I have to be honest and say I'd like to hear how it beat out the tan sweater on the left that was made of someone's handspun. Spinning enough yarn for a whole sweater makes my head spin, but apparently not the judges. They seem to be very impressed with fine gauge knitting.--Remember when they couldn't believe it wasn't machine knitting that one year?)

2. Knitted pullover - adult: Truffle Tunic

This is how I found my Truffle displayed. It looked like a folded towel that no one had remembered to put away. I was very disappointed.

But then as I was sitting at the raffle table last night, I realized that I was working there and that put me in charge and that meant that I could rearrange things "if necessary." And it was necessary. (What got me started was that one of the tags was backwards. I had to go past the barrier to fix it. Once I was in, there was no stopping me.)

I really assumed the tunic was folded like that because they didn't like it, but I thought it deserved to at least have all that long-float colour work that I had worked so hard at on display.

So I unfolded the tunic and displayed it like so:

And what do you know?! There's a red ribbon attached. So they didn't disapprove, they just forgot! (Much better now, don't you think?)

3. Knitted vest or shell: Man's Crazy Vest of Many Colours
(Picture is above with #1.) Another blue ribbon for my vest. (I don't think I saw any others in the category, though.)

4. Any other knitted article: Belinda Shawl

That's it in the back center with the red ribbon on it. I put a note on the card to explain it was two sided and to ask them to note the vertical colour striping that I did. (That's the one where I had to make the variegated yarn pool just so to make the stripes.) Considering that it is being displayed with the purple side out, I'm not sure they got it.

Another indication may be that I think this pair of socks won first in the category:

They were knitted on a loom and are the simplest socks you can get. I think what I can learn from this is to start entering my socks because this is two years I've lost to a sock. A plain sock. I have some socks that will knock your socks off, if you know what I mean. So that's the plan for next year. We'll see how it works.

5. Secret Project and 6. Crocheted doily or table topper:

You didn't think I was really going to show you, did you? But there is a blue ribbon hanging off it!!

The doily did not get a ribbon. There were quite a number of items in the category and all of them quite a bit bigger than mine.

7. Queen Size Quilt -- machine quilted: Fibonacci Quilt.

They had a lot of quilts and couldn't hang them all, but I'm disappointed this one is all folded up. It really needs to be seen in the whole to be appreciated. But oh well. The third place is nice considering how strong quilting is here. (There are a lot of categories, however, so there may well have only been three entries in this one.)

Incidentally, here is the Grand Champion of quilting:

(The Grand Champion gets displayed on the bed which is ironic because if often means you can't see it as well.) The log cabin squares were small and there was a lot of piecing in the quilt, it's a very nice arrangement, but the quilting was a very big loose loopy all over meander. I wasn't very impressed with that. (Not to say mine was better--it was just straight lines. But mine wasn't Grand Champion, either.)

8. Quilting: Raffle Block: I'll cover the whole raffle quilt in another posting, except I will say that mine got made into one of the pillows:

It's #5 in the middle of the bottom shelf. You can bid to win this pillow! They have a secret silent auction where you just give your name, number and bid and at the end of the week, the highest bid gets the pillow. Last night there were no bids, so this could be a steal! I am willing to enter the bid, so let me know if you'd like to. (Obviously, if you like one of the other ones, I can enter a bid for those as well.) You have until Saturday morning to let me know.

9. Photography (colour): Head or Figure

No ribbon. I'll try to curb my ranting, but the little girl in the lower left won. As Troy put it, it looks like the picture that came in the frame which to my mind is a bit like saying your homemade cookies are almost as good as store-bought, or your hand knit sweater is almost as good as the ones at KMart. But I'll stop there.

The one on the shelf above it and to the right got second place (the guy in the field with the tractor behind him). It was an awesome picture, creative and look some time to pull together. But no, the little pouty girl in the ugly frame wins. Sigh.

10. Photography (colour): Landscape
No ribbon. (A lighthouse and an old barn won first and second. Lighthouses are almost as tough to beat as babies.)

11. Photography (colour): Still Life

Third place, which is quite something because there was a lot of entries. You can also see Grand Champion picture above it. It's a super close up of a flower.

12. Photography (colour): Animal

Second place. Also not too bad because there were a lot of entries there too. (I think I was beat out by a cat in a window, but it's a little hard to tell what's in the same category.)

13. Photography (colour): grouping.
No ribbon.

14. Pillow (sewn).
I forgot to tell you about this one when I wrote about the entries, but I brought in my paper pieced Canadian flag pillow. At first I thought it got nothing, but later I realized the red ribbon blended in with the pillow and I just missed it!

Ok, that's all! I haven't counted them up, but all-in-all not too shabby.

Don't forget to tell me if you want to bid on one of the pillows.

See you at the Fair--"Catch the Spirit!"

Travel Projects

2011-08-01T17:18:00.002-04:00

I brought a few projects with me on a driving trip last week. Most importantly, I got my secret project completely done and it is currently at the fair.

I brought along the red triangle stole and it is getting very near the end. The knitting part anyway, which is good because it's at the point where it is just kind of going on and on and on....

Thankfully, I also threw in some Mini Mochi sock yarn I had bought way back when I went to the Yarn Gourmet for the Super Scarf knit-along in February, my pack of sock needles, and a pattern. It's a good thing because I would have run out of things to do!

It took a couple tries to get the right combination of needle size and number of stitches, but once that was set, two feet flew off the needles. When I had one done past the heel, I put it onto some scrap yarn and made a second one to match.

I had noticed on Ravelry that this yarn didn't stripe quite fast enough for the pattern on the leg to work right. I wanted to follow a couple other people's example of using a second colour.

I thought I might have to buy one skein of black to finish off the socks, but before I did I decided to do some stash diving. When I got to the bottom of one bag, I found this sweater that I had bought to ravel:

It's a Ralph Lauren Polo lambs wool sweater. Or it was. Yesterday I made short work of it and got over 400 grams of usable 2-ply lace (or fingering?) weight wool.

It doesn't feel especially nice by the strand, but the knit garment was so soft. Mmm. I only needed a sleeve for the socks, but I went ahead and did the whole thing so it would be done:

Aren't they pretty all wound up and labeled?

I thought I would need to double it to match the Mochi yarn, but one (2-ply) strand will do. Hurray for me. With the added yarn, my socks will also end up a little longer which is good. I had noticed others that used this yarn had socks that were a little short for my taste.

Tonight I'm sitting at the fair for three hours with nothing more to do but sell raffle tickets. I think there'll be some knitting time!

Project spectrum: July into August

2011-07-31T13:23:00.003-04:00

Another month is gone. Project Spectrum is almost half done.

I didn't think my blue pictures lent themselves to a collage so I'm going to post them separately this month.

I got a polarizing lense for my camera and it can really make clouds pop against a darker blue sky. Here are a few:

It doesn't hurt that we have had some really amazing cloud formations the last few weeks. An ever changing delightful display.

I also took a few playing with the white balance:

It made this perfectly normally looking setting sun completely eerie.

And let's not forget my one blue project. (I guess I shouldn't feel too bad since I didn't do any green ones for June!)

Next month we move into PINK! A colour I was really into a while ago thanks to the pushing and prodding of my baby sister. I guess I haven't seen her enough lately because my pre-occupation with pink has definitely waned. Before that, I really hated pink thinking it was too cutesy and too girly for me. She let me embrace my inner girly-girl.

Here's a little collage from my archives to get us all in the mood:

Clockwise from top left corner: tulip in the garden; 3 cotton knit bibs; cotton toddler sweater; pink toddler bed quilt; fluffy chick I pull out every Easter; jewellery set; matching purses for my all my sisters to wear at the youngest's wedding (3 of the 6 anyway).

I don't know of any pink projects on the horizons, but who knows! I will also keep my eye out for pink in unexpected places. See what you can find, too!

Fair Entries 2011

2011-07-27T18:54:00.023-04:00

Ok, let's get organized! Here is a list of what I am planning to bring the the fair this year:

1. Knitted cardigan or coat: Making Waves Cardigan

2. Knitted pullover - adult: Truffle Tunic

3. Knitted vest or shell: Man's Crazy Vest of Many Colours
I knit this for my dad years ago. He wore it proudly for a while, and then it hung in his closet for a while. After he passed, I got it back and Troy wears it occasionally. I made up the colourwork pattern as I went and winged how to do a steek up the middle. (It's all cotton and instead of sewing the steek, I just knit some extra stitches between the two halves and worked in all those ends! after I cut it apart. It's really crazy if I think about it.)

I did a "plain" striped back but afterwards decided it was too plain and the blue was too bright so I embroidered all the gold on. (Click here to see details.) Didn't I say crazy?

4. Any other knitted article: Belinda Shawl

5. Secret Project. No, I'm not telling what it is but if you go to the fair, you should be able to spot it!!

6. Crocheted doily or table topper: "Star Wheel" Cotton Doily
I don't think I've written about this one, but it's just something I did to try out. It from a vintage pattern.

7. Queen Size Quilt -- machine quilted: Fibonacci Quilt.
Tom and Clures let me borrow this back to show at the fair...thank you!!

8. Quilting: Raffle Block

9. Photography (colour): Head or Figure

10. Photography (colour): Landscape
St Joe River, Niles

11. Photography (colour): Still Life

12. Photography (colour): Animal

13. Photography (colour): grouping.
This is a coneflower that grew up through a leaf of the neighbouring bush, piercing it quite thoroughly. When we were visiting Troy's Dad a couple years ago, he found this in his garden and brought it up to show us. I took a few pictures because it was just so interesting and then had them framed up for him. (If you want to see the pictures in more detail, go to this album.)

Ok, that's all! A couple more than last year and certainly more photography...and yes I could have done more if I wanted. I haven't entered any of my canning or scrapbooks. Maybe some year I'll get inspired for that too...

Wish me luck!! And of course, come on out to the fair to see everyone's stuff. I'm sure you'll have a good time. And there's still time to get your own stuff. Bring it to the fair grounds Saturday morning, July 30th.

I'll be working the table Monday and Tuesday nights--see you then?

The Beginning of New Projects

2011-07-25T18:55:00.000-04:00

Where does a project begin? Sometimes with an idea, but more often with the purchase of materials...and in this case I mean actual literal material.

Visiting Missouri always means a quilt shop hop with my MIL. There are tonnes of quilt shops here compared to at home. On top of that, the prices have always been astonishing. This time they were not quite so low, but the fabric was so lovely that didn't seem to slow me down. :)

First I will show you a collection of fabrics I accumulated from three different shops:

If they look a little bright to you, trust me, they are even brighter than they look. I am completely head over heals for them. The orange/pink leaf pattern in the middle started it all. $2/yd. Sounds cheap right? Then you have to buy 10 more fabrics to go with it. Ha ha. I am hoping I have enough there for a single bed size. The green on the bottom right will work as a sashing or border between the rest and the orange/yellow/pink on the bottowm left is for the binding. The rest of the pieces are from 1/2 yard to 3 yard pieces. (The two fat quarters on the left aren't batiks like the rest, but the colours match so well, I took them anyway.)

Next up is another collection I put together:

I couldn't resist the half yard of Asian style fabric. The blue is really gorgeous. But once again, it was on clearance, but then you have to buy stuff to go with it! The fabric along the left are three different abstract designs in bronzes and light blues. I thought I might do a wall hanging with all of this so I just bought 1/2 yards of the left fabrics.

And then, I can't stop noticing browns and tans since I'm making the Big T quilt. I just love this leaf pattern:

It was with their jungle prints but I think it will be just fine in my quilt too.

And finally, I picked up a few more red tones:

I can't stop buying them either. I have some vague idea of a log cabin with red and ??? something. Ya, not a real solid plan there, but I'll enjoy buying reds anyway.

Believe it or not this isn't all of it either. I picked up a few other odds and ends too. I'll show them to you when I use them.

The knit shop was closed. She has irregular hours and we never have managed to catch her.

All in all, we had a great time of it. And I think the fabric will hold me til the next visit! (But don't hold me to that.)

Guess What I Got Done!

2011-07-20T20:48:00.002-04:00

Yup, that would be my Making Waves Cardigan!! It is so perfect I want to wear it even though we are having a heat wave. (It is so warm out, I actually am deciding not to.) Just a few degrees lower, though, and I will be rocking it with a pair of shorts...

Yeah, kind of like that.

I mentioned that I blocked it the other day. That went very well with the blocking wires. I did end up having to steam the side seams flat. The hem got a crease blocked into it at the side seams and it stuck out funny when I was wearing it. A little steam took care of it though.

The fabric is light and airy but still warm. I think it will be perfect in cool air conditioned places and on summer evenings. Not right now though. It really is stinking hot. Whew!!

I got the clasps in the mail on Tuesday and sewed them on that night. They're not real metal and are very light weight.

That's a good thing with this fabric because it wouldn't be able to support anything heavier. I ordered four and thought I was going to use them all, but two seemed enough. I think they are sweet without being cutesy.

I don't have too much else to write about the final project
so I will let the pictures speak for me.

So happy to have it done!! So happy with it!!

Now for a little cooler weather, please?

Project Stats
Started: 30 Apr '11
Finished: 18 Jul '11
Pattern: Making Waves by Mary Annarella ($6)
Materials: Fleece Artist Saldanha Two, 1 skein Ruby ($31.80); 2 petit fleur clasps ($4.50)

Lessons...Which Might Sound a Bit Like Whining

2011-07-18T22:21:00.000-04:00

I'm not going to show you my secret project but I can share a few lessons I've learned over the last couple months:

There are a lot of types of mistakes to be made. For example, you can not understand a new pattern and do it wrong a couple different ways before you figure it out.

You can got lost in the pattern and skip parts or do some parts twice or do parts in the wrong order.

You can convince yourself you know the pattern and not look at it and make very interesting but unhelpful variations on the pattern.

Just because you go back and fix a mistake, doesn't mean you won't make the same mistake the second time through. Or a new mistake. You won't notice these mistakes until you get to that spot in the next round. Once you learn that lesson and start to check your work before starting a new round, you can still miss mistakes. (Kind of like proof reading your own text. We're not wired to see our own mistakes very easily.)

Once you have several parts, you can put them together wrong. You can put them in the wrong spot. Or you can put them in upside down. One time I even put the first part in right, thought it was wrong when I put in the second part so I took it out and made it match the second part only to discover that the second part was wrong after I completed the third part.

That section I took out this evening and tried very hard to put it in the right place. It took me two more tries.

Then when you unravel a part and then go to use the yarn again to redo the very same part, you can discover that it isn't long enough by about six stitches. It was long enough the first time, but for some reason isn't long enough any more. (That's where you stop for the night and whine a little on your blog, just in case you were wondering what put me over the edge.)

You can count wrong. You can even double count wrong. You can count right, but then still attach a piece to the wrong part. You can think you counted and double counted correctly but find out later that you missed one.

But, you can also concentrate so hard during the final row that you never make a mistake on it. This is important because there's no "next round" to find out you made a mistake. So far I think I'm good on that. (I may learn the lesson that you don't talk about success for fear of jinxing yourself, but I don't really believe in that so I'm not going to worry about it.)

You can also continue to chug along (even if it's two steps forward, one step back) and make excellent progress. Despite many little setbacks, it looks like I will get this done on schedule. Who will give me a wOOt wOOt on that?

Attempt at a Save

2011-07-17T18:43:00.000-04:00

I wasn't willing to give up on my quilt block even though I had used up most of the fabric and didn't have an appropriate design. It occurred to me that if a Dresden plate block could win second place last year with the theme "Spirit of America," (read about it in the first section of this post) then I may as well put something together with my mariner's compass and see how it does.

I briefly considered constructing a lighthouse in a 4" wide strip that could go beside the main compass block but just didn't believe it would ever look good. Instead, I finished piecing the mariner's compass and added some borders:

I'm pretty happy with the block and I figure that's a start. I mean an ugly block's not going to win anything, right?

Here's a little closer view of the center pattern:

I like this mariner's compass; it's got a nice extra star in the middle. I would have liked to have my two reds contrast a little more, but at this point, you know, I'm just going with it.

Besides the big question of whether the judge(s) will let this pass even though it doesn't meet the lighthouse criteria, I think how well the block does will also depend on how well my yellow looks with the rest. (You were allowed to add up to two additional colours to the kit you got.) I originally added it because it was going to be the light coming out of the lighthouse. If others had the same thought, then maybe this block will play well with others. If there is no other yellow, then I think the best it will do is to be made into a pillow. (That's like the consolation prize if you're not one of the 20 blocks that made it into the quilt. It is still a prize, because there are also blocks that aren't made up into anything.)

Anyway, this is the end of the adventure which was the process of making this block. If I had started earlier and used practice fabric first (like I did last year), I would have avoided this disaster. Lesson learned. (But I won't promise it'll never happen again...)

Fatal Error

2011-07-16T22:15:00.000-04:00

Fair time is coming up very soon. I'm going to be gone the week before the fair starts so I have to have everything ready to go a week early. Plus this year the fair is as early as it ever could be. All this is to say, I've been feeling the crunch.

Sometime on Friday I realized that this was my last weekend to get the quilt block done for the raffle quilt. You may recall you buy a fabric pack for $5 and make a block in the chosen theme. This year's is Great Lakes lighthouses.

I had an idea early on but had not done anything about it...until recently. I sat down with a ruler, some scrap paper and some pencil crayons and made an initial sketch:

The entire block needs to be 12"x12". Although the drawing above is not quite to this scale, I decided to go with 8"x8" for the larger subsquare in the lower right corner and 4"x4" for the upper left corner.

I drew out a mariner's compass design myself (that's the "star" in the upper left), but wasn't very happy with the fact that I wasn't getting it very symmetrical. So today I went to the computer and found two very suitable designs.

The one I chose is from Carol Doak. (Pattern link here.) I figured out how to scale it on my printer and printed out copies onto some tearaway paper-piecing paper.

I pulled out my supplies and set myself up in my sewing corner.

And started cutting the fabric (no going back!) and piecing the mariner's compass blocks. Here is the first one:

I was a little scared about running out of fabric (you don't get very much of each) but at some point decided not to worry about it since the worst that could happen is that I'm out $5 and don't get to enter the quilt block contest at the fair. I should be able to live with that, right?

So once I had the first one done and figured it was good, I made the other three all at once. Here they are "dry fit" together:

(I still have to finished the centers of the last three, but you get the general idea.)

As I was taking this last picture, I realized that something was wrong. Very wrong. Fatally wrong. I had wanted the entire mariner's compass to be 4"x4". But I had made each of its blocks 4"x4". That makes the whole thing 8"x8", not 4"x4".

Head meet desk.

Again.

Again.

Since I was quitting for the night anyway, I didn't even think about attempting to fix it tonight. This, at least, explains why I was using so much fabric, but I don't know what I'm going to do.

Except go have what passes for beer around here. And pick up some comfort knitting to make me feel competent again.

And probably lay awake tonight thinking about it.

Sneak Peek

2011-07-14T22:18:00.001-04:00

Going to the airport and getting some serious hand-craft time in and meeting this week's deadline on my secret project early has led to some serious progress on some other projects.

Here's a sneak peek at what I finished this week:

All the knitting is done and I got it blocked tonight. The blocking wires were a great convenience. I managed to slide a set in the folded hem of the front and back. It worked perfectly!

And I also managed the whole sweater from one skein!! All I had left was 5 g (out of 100):

But this wasn't a "cutting it close" as Troy accused me. I had bought a second skein because I thought I would need it. Now I'm in the beginning stages of thinking of knitting a matching T, shell or even dress to go underneath. Hmmm....

I'm waiting for some cute clasps I ordered to come in and then I'll be able to wear it!!

Summer Swap Report

2011-07-12T22:28:00.003-04:00

I just realized I didn't post about the Red Purl swap. I was too busy going to the airport over the weekend. (Lots of progress on my secret project...I made this coming Friday's deadline already!)

Once again we had a great group of people at the shop. Quite a crowd...let's say about 16, 17. I was not organizing the swapping this time so I could just sit back and relax!

The package that got every one's attention right away had "boob" balloons on it. You don't need two guesses to get what was inside! The funniest part was that it went to one of the least likely to model them...even over top of a shirt. We all had a good hoot about it anyway.

One of the swappers was giving away the second thing she had ever made! That's a very brave and generous thing to do! It was a lovely linen face cloth with various appropriate accompanying gifts.

And what did I make? Well, I took some recycled cotton from a sweater and made a cuff:

with some silver buttons.

Here it is stretched out.

Here it is folded up.

And what did I get? I got a lovely cotton bag/sachet with sandlewood soap:

I love the colours and texture of the bag!

Amy has a whole basket of felted balls she couldn't stop making:

Her gift was three of these and a book on juggling! (The book was bound with two wooden needles. It was too clever.)

It was a great night...thanks for all the laughs, ladies!!

Project Stats
Started: 03 Jul '11
Finished: 04 Jul '11
Pattern: Pretty Twisted by Cat Wong (free)
Materials: 15 grams of mercerized cotton from a 2nd hand sweater

Oh, I almost forgot to point out this is my blue project for Project Spectrum this month...way to sneak one in there, eh?

Summer Swap

2011-07-03T20:36:00.000-04:00

If you work a little fast, or make something small, there's still time to put something together for this week's swap at Red Purl.

This month's knit night is on Friday the 8th. Amy has invited people to bring a small project (one skein or less) made out of summer yarns (cotton, linen, hemp, bamboo, silk). Several themes were bantied about, but none of them won an overall majority. Amy eventually left it at "Anything goes from pasties to broaches to market bags to whatever."

When it was looking like "naughty knitting" might be the theme, I started planning a pair of stars and stripes pasties. I abandoned the idea when it was no longer the major theme. (Plus how would I get a modeled picture of the finished objects!?!)

Bonus "blue" shot.
I think that's my mom and Isaac up there.

I'm not going to reveal what I will be bringing, but I can say that it is blue and therefore gets counted as a project for Project Spectrum this month!

Feel free to show up at Red Purl this Friday night if you'd like to join in. (I'm sure you feel safer coming now that you know you won't be getting pasties from me...)

Wherein the question, "What do you mean it's not the same?" is answered with, "It's not."

2011-07-02T20:08:00.001-04:00

Confession time. Confession of dumb things I do.

Remember my recent post bemoaning the change in gauge in my Making Waves cardi?

I ripped back the sleeve this weekend and started knitting with the larger sized needles, the ones I purchased just for this project. Before I had finished two rows I knew it wasn't right.

I got a sneaky suspicion of what went wrong and checked my Ravelry notes to find out. Sure enough, I had been using the wrong size needle in the first place!! Instead of using the size I used for the first sleeve, I was using the smaller set that I had used exclusively for the last rows and cast off.

Two results:
1. I learned (again) that you can never have so much experience that you stop making dumb mistakes.
2. All is right in the universe once more: using different needles produces a different gauge and using the same needles does give me the same result. Phew!

I have recommenced the sleeve with the correct needles and all is going well.

Plus I am very relieved to have solved the conundrum of getting such different results from the "same" needles. I can't tell you how much that turned my world upside down. (Honestly, it's like finding out putting the car in reverse makes you go forward faster. It just wasn't right!) Now, deep breath. All is good.

Project spectrum: June into July

2011-07-01T20:15:00.000-04:00

June has ended and with it has ended the month of green. I thought I might tackle my green leaf beret this month, but it didn't happen. Not enough crafting time (and not enough energy to take it on). I did not work on a single green crafting project the whole month.

I did, however, take a few pictures. It seemed like everything was green around me. We had a lot of rain and grass, and corn, and weeds, and leaves grew and grew. Some of them you would swear you could see them grow as you watched.

Here are a few green images captured this month:

From top left around clockwise, we have looking through the leaves as I did when laying on my yoga mat in the park; grass gone to seed; corn just coming up; a young green peach in our yard; a bend in the St. Joseph River (this is the corner where we've been doing yoga in the park); and a leather dress I wore as part of my challenge to wear a skirt/dress every day in June. (Which I did! Album here.)

I don't seem to find green very inspiring, in general. I think it is a "base" colour for me; a background onto which other colours should be added. Of course, there are trillions of different greens and it would be silly to say I "don't like green" but I don't think it does much for me.

July we move onto blue...(now if ever there was a "basic" colour that would be it!) But again, there are so many different blues; I'll try to explore more of them this month.

Here are some shots I found already in my archives:

From top left, a ditch landscape; alliums against the sky; blue lace scarf; detail of my Crossed Canoes on a Starry Night quilt; glass bead necklace; and fancy slippers.

Right now, I can't think of any blue projects I have in mind to do. But I got a new lense for my camera and it's making me very interested in the sky. We have had an amazing variety of amazing cloud formations over the last few weeks. I have been fascinated.

And I even took a pic or two to practise:

We'll see what that may lead to...

What do you mean it's not the same?

2011-06-25T23:17:00.001-04:00

When I last wrote about my Making Waves cardigan, I was finished the body and waiting for my new Harmony dpns in the right size to start the sleeves. The needles arrived in good time...and then sat around waiting to be opened. (Troy almost couldn't stand seeing that unopened package day after day, but I knew what was in it and wasn't ready to tackle the sleeves yet.)

When I was ready, I moved the stitches from the waste yarn to the new needles and started stitching. The needles didn't feel right though; they felt too fat. I measured them in my needle gauge to check them against the needles I had been using for the body, and they matched. So I soldiered on. After about 3 inches, I couldn't ignore it anymore.

I got out my gauge ruler and measured about 7 sts/in on the top portion of the sleeve and only about 5 sts/in on the new portion. Gah!! That was not going to work. So I ripped back to the beginning of the sleeve and conservatively chose to work with one size smaller needle. Of course, that was one I already had and this meant I hadn't needed to buy a new set!

After only about an inch with that size, I could see that I was still getting too loose a gauge. So I went down another size. This one was "just right" as Goldilocks says and I marched on down that sleeve like nobody's business:

Things are quicker when it's only a 3/4 length sleeve! Here is a view of the ruching at the cuff:

I'm not sure it has enough gathers so I may try adding even more stitches for the front trim. We'll see.

I did cast off "firmly" as instructed by the pattern, but it was too tight to sit comfortably on my arm. I undid and tried again, and I think I found a good balance. The designer made the point that if you cast off too loosely, the ruching isn't drawn in on the outside edge and you get something more like a ruffle. (Could be nice, but not what we're going for here.)

After the first sleeve was done, I let the poor project languish around for a few more days. I finally got started on the second sleeve on Wednesday. I was so happy to have all the figuring of the needle size behind me so I could just knit and knit without thinking. I got between 1 to 2 inches done:

Can you make out the problem?

Ya, for some reason the gauge is way too small.

Can you see how it pulls in about an inch below the needles?

I don't ever have trouble with my tension. It's smooth and even. (That's assuming I'm throwing like I'm used to. If I'm picking, all bets are off!) I have never measured a difference between my tension knitting back and forth or knitting in the round. Usually I can just pick up the needles recommended by the pattern and go.

And now I can't even get the same result doing the same thing twice. Frustrating. I have read that your tension can change from the beginning of a garment to the end if it is a complicated stitch pattern because as you get used to it, you are able to do it more handily. (Knitting a large swatch will ameliorate this.) But this is bloody stocking stitch!!

Nothing to do right now but take it out and try the larger needles (after I moan and groan a little here, of course). I'm jumping up two sizes to the new ones I bought, however. It would be nice to be able to put them to use.

Red Stole Redux

2011-06-21T23:29:00.002-04:00

I've been wanting to touch base here, but I don't feel like I have a lot to report. Such is the bane of working on large projects! (Never mind that I'm keeping one of them secret. And it really is taking a lot of my time.)

I can say that my red triangle stole is going much better since I ripped it back and refigured it.

Here is the old version of the stole:

You can see how after the initial shape (on the left), the whole things pulls in severely. That was the problem. The new one:

is so much better. But of course, with almost 50 percent more stitches, it is going slower.

Here is a view of the piece spread out: (just to remind you, I will be cutting it down the middle to form the left and right sides)

You can see the triangle shapes here, I trust, and I captured where the yarn is transitioning from one colour to the next. You can see the right side triangle was done first because the lower part of it still matches the previous triangle pretty closely. After the right one, the left one was knit, and you can see how much more it contrasts with the previous one on that side.

For you knitters out there who are wondering how I adapted this scarf pattern to a two-sides-at-a-time stole, here is an overview:

1. The fabric--essentially two scarves knit side by side at the same time:

2. Here I will outline the triangle shapes so they are very obvious:

3. The yellow lines demonstrate the direction of the knitting on each triangle:

4. After the initial shape is done (a modified bias square that I think I talked about in my first post), you begin the alternating triangles:

Starting at the bottom of the picture, I am knitting across both centre triangles as demonstrated by the lower yellow lines. There is an increase at each green dot which is what makes the knitting flare out and form the triangle, and the steek stitches are between the increases. When the last row is done (top yellow line), I start one of the side triangles.

Starting at the left lower blue lines, I again increase at the green dots. When that triangle is done, I swoop all the way down, across the steek stitches in the centre and to the beginning of the second (right) side triangle. Again I knit following the lower blue lines (this time on the right), increasing at green dots.

Once that side triangle is done, I am back at the center and can begin again. Easy, peasy, right?

One thing this project has going for it is that it is easy to pick up and put down. I've done quite a few sessions waiting in the drive through line!

I still have not worked through all the yarn that I raveled from the first try, but I'm getting there. Whenever I have to rip something back, I always feel a little unsettled until I've knit up all the raveled yarn again. Usually this makes me work on something long past when I should be doing something else, but in this case it was so much that I had to admit it was not going to happen in one sitting!

Found!

2011-06-17T22:17:00.000-04:00

My socks are found!!

I hadn't stashed them in one of my many bags; I stashed them in one of my many containers.

It will only take me about 30 minutes to finish them (maybe 60 with the additional time it takes to make the video). I hope to get to that soon. Yeah! (They've only been sitting around waiting for weeks and weeks.)

These socks have produced their fair share of drama. Here are my Ravelry notes to summarize:

3/14 Gotta love vacation knitting. I turned the heel of the first sock. Lots of redesigning going on here...

3/22 Did I mention that I broke a needle on vacation last week and this project is now full-on stopped? Grrr. Oh, yeah, and all that redesigning? I left my pattern with all my notes at the restaurant at breakfast. Double grrr.

3/25 Got my new needles and am making progress again. This colourway is definitely too "lively" for the pattern but I'm going to tell myself that I don't mind.

4/1 I tried the Turkish (tubular) cast off for these socks and it completely did not work. The set up rows were way too tight. I improvised a new cast on (at least I don't think I've seen it anywhere else) and it worked great. I separated the stitches onto two needles--knits to the front, purls to the back--and then Kitchenered them together. Looks great; works great. Woo hoo!

4/3 Started second sock

6/7 I would like to finish these as I only need to cast off the second sock. They've been waiting for weeks. I can't find them. :(

6/17 I found them!! Should finish them soon now.

It's the "new" cast off that I hope to record on video and share on my "socks-are-finished" post.

Until then, keep your needles clicking!

P.S. My secret project is moving along nicely which is why I feel I have a little time to bob my head up for air and possibly work on something else like these socks!

First Swap

2011-06-12T18:49:00.001-04:00

I can finally share with you a project I did back in April.

On March 31st, I signed up for a "mug rug" swap in the quilters group on Ravelry. (What's a mug rug? It's a little placemat-like object to be used as a combination coaster and plate for a drink and snack.)

This was my first ever swap! I was excited. I thought the project was just the right size and commitment for me (small) and was also a good object to receive--no worries if it doesn't match or you're really not that crazy about it. (You may call me a cynic or a pessimist but I do worry about these types of things.)

Actually a bigger problem is that I don't drink or snack much while crafting, but I wasn't going to let that stop me from participating.

Anyway, when I saw the idea being floated, I jumped on the band wagon, and it's a good thing because it filled up fast! (Fast enough they had a 2nd and 3rd chance swap going in short order.)

The rules: make a quilted mug rug and send it soon enough to be received by June 1st.
The organizer matched people up, and for the most part you didn't receive from the same person you sent to. And, of course, it was a secret so it was all hush hush until the package arrived!

There was a thread for progress reports so people could share how they were doing and one person was done on April 5, only days after the signups closed! Most people posted pictures of the mug rugs that they received and it really was a marvel at the variety. So many lovely ideas!

and so many more... There were 30 people in the swap, I think.

I finished my mug rug about the middle of April and finally got it mailed the day after Easter. I made a free form rose, of sorts, with a side panel in the "focus fabric."

and quilted it in parallel lines that followed the shape of the side panel.

The back was made of strips of the fabrics from the front and I signed it in marker:

I even had the perfect mug to model it with:

I was excited to finally send it off...but then it wasn't acknowledged in the thread for about a month. That took some of the shine off, unfortunately. On the up side, the recipient seemed to really like it and that is the main thing.

I patiently waited for my own mug rug and heard on the day of the deadline that it would be late. I waited patiently some more and yesterday received my mug rug: (It actually had been so long that when the package came, I assumed it was something my husband ordered and gave it to him. He was surprised to open "his" package and see a mini-quilt!)

You can see it's in the very colours that I did mine in!! (And she didn't see mine because the recipient didn't post pictures.) Perhaps she was spying on my projects and saw that I liked red. Or maybe she just got lucky. Or maybe we're both riding the same trend right now. In any case, I really like the bold colours and sharp contrasts.

She also sent along a nice selection of teas (I did specify that I drank tea over coffee).

She also chose to piece her back. I really like that trend.

Although I'd have to admit that I will only cautiously commit to another swap, this was fun. I enjoyed making my mug rug, and I very much appreciate the mug rug I got!

Where are You?

2011-06-09T21:48:00.000-04:00

I would like to write a post but I'm awfully busy with a semi-secret project. (I'm still deciding how much I can share with you.)

I have a post I can share with you written in my head, but I need to make a video to go with it of my orange Hourglass socks.

I can't find the socks. I can't find them anywhere.

Please think some positive thoughts about me finding my socks. I would really like to know where I put them. I am out of possibilities.

Project Spectrum: May into June

2011-06-02T23:26:00.001-04:00

The first month of Project Spectrum 5 has ended. May was the month to explore the colour red. I don't need any extra encouragement in that. (I thought about photographing just my red shoes, let alone the rest of my wardrobe, but decided against it. Off the top of my head, though, I could think of six pairs...and that's before I started digging!)

To my surprise, I did not see a lot of red in my daily life. No red front doors I hadn't noticed before. No surprise of red flowers in the ditch. I don't know...whatever I was expecting didn't happen. But I brought some red into my life.

I started the Making Waves Cardigan and got the body done. (It's now waiting for sleeves.)

I started a stole out of my slow colour changing Evilla Artyarn 8/2 wool.

I also captured a few flowers that did catch my attention.

Here is my May collage [click to enbiggen]:

Clockwise from top left: the first blossoms we've ever gotten on our peach trees!; trying on Making Waves; fuchsia buds at my BIL's family nursery; a "surprise" tulip in the yard that a squirrel must have planted; early bday present from my sister--a brooch and earrings in fire engine red enamel; Evilla Artyarn wool for my triangles stole.

June is a month of green. I don't have plans to start any new knitting projects but maybe a little sewing/quilting will find its way in and I just may use this as an excuse to finally fix my poor neglected Leaf Beret.

Here's collage of pictures I found in my archives to celebrate the many shades of green [click to enbiggen]:

From left to right and top to bottom: Pine bough in Kentucky; Leaves Beret; vintage thermometer; various threads; Texas Cactus Apple; Troy's sprig green soap; Outside In socks; necklace of green stones; palm tree, Dominican Republic.

Starting and Restarting

2011-05-30T09:36:00.001-04:00

I mentioned a new project that I said I was obsessed with--I've started a stole. I plan to give it to my church if it turns out nice enough. I asked someone there a while ago if they needed a new red one because I had this project turning in my mind. If they had said yes, I would have got right on it. But I never heard back. Then I decided I had to get this project out of my mind whether they wanted it or not! If not, I'll find something else to do with it.

So what is a stole? It's a little confusing as the word is more commonly used for a fur wrap worn about the shoulders. (Well, not that I see too many of those these days.) But this type of stole is basically a long scarf that is worn with its center at the back neck and each end hanging down over the front of the shoulders.

The only difference between what I'm knitting and a long scarf is the shaping given at the back so that it turns the corner while lying flat. That's the basic idea anyway.

I wanted to use my colour changing wool and I wanted to make the gradation mirror itself on the two sides. I did not want to start at one end, knit all the way around and have the colours just fall where they may. So where did that leave me?

I decided to start at the center back, knit a bias square and then knit the two long pieces off of two adjacent sides. (So it would be like two long pieces meeting at a 45^ angle.) Except I couldn't knit the two long parts separately--I would have to knit them at the same time by casting on a few extra stitches and steeking it down the middle when I was done. That way the colour changes would be the same on both sides. Brilliant right?

But what pattern to use? I was drawn to the Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf which I had suggested to Amy as a Red Purl knit-along a while ago and it's been a big hit ever since:

It's constructed from triangles in a garter stitch and you can see that it really does interesting things with colour changing yarn. After knitting about a third of mine, I think the scarf is better on quicker colour changes than what I'm working with, but it will still be effective. I like the triangle construction because it's interesting and because of the shape's association with the theology of the trinity. (Or Trinity? Do you have to capitalize that?)

After making some headway on the two long sides pieces, I noticed that the beginning square was wider than my pieces were now. I mulled on that for a while and finally realized that I had let my math training down (again) and failed to realized that I needed to apply a basic geometric principal. The way I had put it together I had assumed that the side of the triangle was the same length as the base. But it's not. So although my beginning square was the right dimension, my long scarf parts were too skinny.

For a while I figured it wasn't "that bad." Then I figured I could "block it out," but yesterday morning at church (before the service) I finally acknowledged that I had to redo it. So I tucked it away and on the way home, I ripped and ripped and ripped. (I really had quite a lot knitted.)

So now I am back to the beginning. I have figured out the math (thank you, Pythagorean Theorem!), how many stitches to increase and when. I have a feeling I won't be quite as obsessed now that I have a better feel for how the project is going to go (when I start something like this it's always, "just one more triangle" or "just until I finish the colour change") but it's a very easy project to take along with me and knit anywhere. That is always a good thing for finishing projects.

The only disadvantage to knitting this in public is the funny looks and blank stares when I answer the question of what I am knitting. "A stole." Yup, then comes the blank stare or funny look. People just don't know what to do with an unexpected response.

Maybe I'll just tell them I'm knitting a scarf. That should keep them happy.

Making Progress on Making Waves

2011-05-29T14:50:00.000-04:00

I have made good progress on my Making Waves cardigan. I finished the body a week and a half ago. The instructions tell me to do the sleeves next. I debated starting the ruffled trim instead so that I could use the same ball of yarn and the trim would match the front.

But I decided that I would rather have my sleeves match the body and the trim contrast than the other way around. (The only reason they might contrast is that at some point I'm going to have to start using the second ball of yarn. They looked pretty close, but hand painted stuff is notorious for varying from skein to skein.)

In order to do the sleeves, I "had" to order some more Harmony dpns. The size I needed was one size too big to be included in the socks set that I got. I didn't mind waiting for them, however, because I started another project that has me obsessed. I'll write more on that later.

In the meantime, I will show you where I am with this piece. I pinned the front so it would mostly hang right (remember that the trim will make it a little wider in the front yet):

I have to still fold under the hem and sew it, but the length looks pretty good. (It'll block slightly longer if anything.)

I did waist shaping as instructed as I decreased, but I only did the hip increases on the back--something I learned from making the Sahara. I do not need increases in the front; it really doesn't hang right on me.

The armhole seems to fit well. You can see the raglan shaping here:

A lot of raglan styles really emphasize the line made by the increases, but this sweater really downplays them. That's good in my opinion. I don't think the raglan style is particularly flattering on my body.

My new needles arrived this week and soon I will get going on those sleeves.

Gob Smacked

2011-05-28T19:31:00.001-04:00

Vogue knitting has done it again.

I really liked the issue I got yesterday (Early Fall 2011) and they have a style I have to, have to, have to make. Like right now.

Ready?

Another grey and white tunic:

Here's a slightly different view:

Are you drooling too?

Oh I love it!! I'm thinking in cream and grey from Rowan's Purelife British Sheep Breeds. (I used the DK weight of this yarn for Troy's cabled sweater. I loved working with it.) You may recall that it is an undyed wool--you get the unaltered colour of the sheep!

I also would change it to be asymmetrical. The button band would only be on one side, and the colourwork would flow continuously around the other side from front to back. As it is, it makes me think a little too much of the "card soldiers" from Alice in Wonderland. (This would be a great pattern to adapt for that, if you were really into cards.)

Now don't go and say that I just finished a grey and cream tunic and isn't one enough. I figure I won't have to buy any extra accessories. Whatever will go with one will match the other! Convincing, right? The other thing that makes me happy is that this one is an aran weight (slightly bigger than worsted) so it should fly off the needles. Convinced now?

Either way, I think I must to go to Red Purl tomorrow. I hope she's not closed for the whole holiday weekend...

P.S. Sooo many of the styles in this issue were oversized, had drop shoulders and/or other loose large square fits...as does the tunic I just finished. I felt so a la mode looking through the magazine!

Quilting: What's Your Season?

2011-05-22T13:28:00.002-04:00

I think for most people the season for quilting is winter. I seem to run on a different clock: summer is the time for me. (Ok, we're not really full into summer yet, but the woodstove has been retired for the season and that's close enough for me.)

In any case, I have been doing more quilting lately than I usually do. A week or two ago I made some more Big T blocks:

Last time I wrote about them, I had only five blocks and in two sessions, I managed to double that! I do two at a time now which makes things a little more efficient without being too overwhelming for me to keep track of.

I'm still enjoying picking out which fabrics to put together. So far I haven't repeated any combinations but I definitely have favourites. The blocks are still pinned to my window blind and I like being able to see them all the time!

Today I pulled the Kaffe Fasset quilt again. You may recall that I had run out of red thread. I bought a spool when I was at the store for something else but had to guess at the colour because I was unprepared. I bought the wrong colour. I managed to exchange it a week later. After all that, I thought I had better at least make some progress!

The three pieces of the quilt are all at different stages. The furthest along has all the circles done, all the red squares done and the yellow squares started. The next one has all the circles done. And the final one doesn't even have the circles done (that's where I ran out of red thread).

I decided that I needed some "no brain" quilting, so I picked up the third one and threaded the machine with my new red thread to finish sewing the circles. I was surprised that I couldn't find a red bobbin to match. How could I have run out of thread on the bobbin and spool at the same time? Even though the question occurred to me, I didn't stop to consider it any further and just started sewing.

The back of a block I did today,
with the proper blue thread.

After I finished the first section, I realized that the reason I didn't have a red bobbin was because the bobbin thread was not supposed to match; it was supposed to be blue. ::sigh::

So I did a little ripping out. When I wanted "no brain" quilting, this wasn't really what I had in mind.

After ripping, I did get that section finished and now all three pieces have at least the circles sewn.

While I had the red threaded in the machine, I figured I would continue with it. I sewed two red blocks with free motion quilting before running out of time and desire.

Thankfully, my machine has been behaving while I've been doing free motion quilting. I think the sharp needle, slowing down and cleaning out the lint formula is working.

Besides the changing of the season, I may have also been inspired to quilt by "feng shui"ing my living room. My sewing table is now in front of a window and has more convenient access to the ironing board.

The whole room feels more open the way it is arranged. I hope it leads to lots of sewing!

It's a Truffle, not a Trifle

2011-05-19T23:23:00.000-04:00

I'm sure you will all be relieved to hear that I have finished my Truffle Tunic! No more complaining about its unending stitches. The needle/yarn combination made my arms ache, the rough wool made my fingers sore and the colourwork was a big pain in the butt. (It's hard to believe I started this as "comfort knitting"?) But it's now done done done!

The first time I wore it, it got rave reviews from my friends. (Thank you, all.) The next day I wore it to work and not a comment from anyone. :( I guess this goes to show that we chose our friends and not our coworkers, eh?

As I suspected it does wear like a tent:

You can see it has a very simple construction--a great big T. The sleeves are super deep and there is absolutely no shaping.

A big belt is enough to tame the tent-like fit.

You may have also noticed the separate collar:

It's just a long ribbed tube pulled over my head and folded in half. It's not attached to the sweater in any way, but it looks like an attached collar when I wear it. I actually finished knitting it the evening I wore the tunic for the first time. Project Stats
Started: 4 Sep '10 / Finished: 24 Apr '11
Pattern: Truffle by Susan Crawford (was free, but apparently now must be purchased)
Materials: grey tweed wool from 2nd hand sweater (500 g, ~$5) and Blue Sky Alpaca Sport (3 skeins, $24.30)
I knit and knit while visiting with friends and when I ran out of wool I stopped. Then I worked in the ends, snipped them off and slipped the collar over my head. Voila!

Since I ran out of yarn, the collar is about 2" shorter than the pattern called for. I think that might even be good with the alpaca I used as it is very ~~droopy~~ "drapey" and doesn't stand tall on its own.

I am so happy to have something long enough to wear over my jeaggins. That's what started this whole project!

The Start of Making Waves

2011-05-15T12:19:00.010-04:00

I have started a new cardigan. I have been watching Mary Annarella's work for a while on Ravelry. I had noticed her sweaters were lovely and in fits and colours that I loved. (She was one of the first people I friended so that I could follow all her projects.)

I didn't notice at first that she designed most of them. But when I saw that the pattern for this design was just coming out, I knew I had to have it. I really like the ruching trim detail even though I know it will be a big tedious pain in the butt. But totally worth it.

It also happened that at the same time, Amy at the Red Purl had a completely gorgeous shade of red in Fleece Artist's Saldanha (a lace weight merino wool) that would work for the pattern. Lucky me!

I cast on the last day of April just in time for the "red" month of Project Spectrum. The cardigan is knit from the top down, and I have all the shoulder and neckline shaping done. I tried the project on quickly when I got to the bottom of the armholes to make sure the armholes weren't too tight. Once that was done, the sleeves were put on waste string and the back and front were joined.

I have now finished the waist shaping and wanted to try it on again to make sure I was headed in the right direction. The big advantage of working from the top down is that you can put all your stitches onto a string and try your piece on at any time.

It is a big advantage, but I also find it to be a pain in the butt. It takes too much time to put the stitches onto a waste string, and then to put them back onto the needle. But I have to remember that it's all to save time later by preventing reknitting because of a bad fit. The problem is I think I'd rather do more knitting than spend time trying on the piece. I know...that is a rather immature way to look at things so I try to test the fit as often as necessary. (If I worked on cable needles I would probably be able to try it on with the needle in, but I like straights so I'm stuck with transferring to a string.)

Enough talk. End of the story is that I tried it on tonight and tried to see what it looked like from every angle:

The fit seemed good. I still have to add the trim to the front edge and it needs to fit with a little negative ease so that there's enough pull on the hook and eye closures to keep them closed.

And I'll just throw this one in because I thought I was having a good hair day:

Ok, quiet in the peanut gallery...I do consider this a good hair day so pipe down.

I hadn't really thought about my progress on this sweater, but looking ahead in the pattern shows me that I don't have that much more to do on the body. I could be about half way since the sleeves are 3/4 length. Oh wait...there's a lot of knitting in that trim. Ok, so maybe I'm a third of the way...

It would be nice to finish it this month for Project Spectrum, but I'm not going to push too hard on it. No matter how far I am, all I can do is keep knitting. That's the only way to get it done! The lace-weight yarn is a little thin for my taste (for how easy it is to knit, I mean; it looks great) but I am using my bamboo straights and that is always a pleasure.

May Mulligan

2011-05-13T21:30:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I know some of you were beginning to doubt. Were thinking that I had given up and just not told you...but no, I am still working on my March Mulligans.

...and just got one finished, as a matter of fact!! I reknit the Hat Fit for a Boyfriend that I had made for Troy. He uses it as a nightcap and it was too big, too stretched out to stay on his head overnight.

I didn't notice when I knit the pattern but it calls for an aran weight yarn and I was using a worsted. So the needle size was all wrong, for one. The 2x3 rib wasn't right either.

When reknitting the hat, I started at the top so I could just increase until I had enough stitches and knit down from there. I just used the basic formula of increasing on every other row, eight times per round.

Doesn't the centre where I started look good? I cast on 4 stitches with my favourite provisional cast on (over the tail), slid the stitches to the other end of the dpn and knit one row (like you would when making an I-cord), then did my first increases and started knitting in the round. Then when I had a few rows done, I could use the tail to pull the stitches together where I first started. Worked like a charm.

I didn't bother to ravel the old hat before I started knitting. I just unwound as I needed.

So instead of a ball of wool, I had a knitted piece as my source of yarn. Sort of like a sock blank. When I was finished I only had this much left:

(But there was no adrenaline used in the making of this hat. I had half a ball of the same colour ready in case I need it.) And of course, I was trying to make a smaller hat, so I had no reason to think I wouldn't have enough yarn. (Although stranger things have happened!)

I knit the body of the hat in a smooth sturdy stocking stitch. Eliminating the rib and using smaller needles made sure the fabric wouldn't stretch out. I finished the hat with a few rounds of garter for a simple flat finish.

Troy has tried it on and deemed it much improved. Now let's hope we won't need it for a good long while!

Super Scarf II and Mosaic Knitting

2011-05-10T23:36:00.000-04:00

I haven't written much about it, but I did make a second SuperBowl scarf. In fact, it looks like this scarf didn't even make it to my current projects list in the sidebar. Oops!

Well, I have been working on it on and off since early April. I saw this new pattern for a football themed scarf and couldn't resist doing a second SuperScarf.

I made the scarf one repeat shorter than the pattern called for because I was short on yarn but it is plenty long. Final dimensions were 7" by 64". I liked the pattern a lot and I hope the volunteer who gets it does too!

I filled out all the forms and hope to [finally] have the two scarves shipped off to Indianapolis this week.Project Stats
Started: 6 Apr '11 / Finished: 29 Apr '11
Pattern: Football Mosaic Scarf by Sarah Burton (free)
Materials: Universal Yarn Classic Worsted, 651 White, 638 blue (1 ea @ $6)

One reason I wanted to make this scarf is that the pattern is made with a technique called mosaic knitting. I had never done any mosaic patterns before but have been intrigued by the look of them.

In mosaic knitting, you only ever work with one colour at a time and alternate which colour every two rows. The result is a pattern that looks like you used multiple strands when you didn't.

Here is an introduction to the technique:

This pattern starts with a row of all white stitches:

(That part's easy enough, right?)

For the next row, you knit in blue all the stitches indicated by the chart:

When you come to a stitch that is marked white, you don't knit it, but just slip it from the left needle to the right:

Then continue to knit blue stitches as indicated by the chart:

and slipping the white stitches as directed.

For the wrong side row, you're still knitting with blue and all you do is knit the blue stitches and slip the white stitches (with yarn in front):

That's the best part of Mosaic colourwork--the wrong side rows are so easy and you don't need a chart for them.

At the end of the two rows you have some blue stitches which have been knit and some white stitches that have been slipped:

As you start the next row, you are using white and simply knit the white stitches as indicated by the chart and slip the blue stitches. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

So if you've been scared of doing stranded colourwork for some reason, you may want to check out some mosaic patterns because you'll only ever have to work with one colour at a time. (But because it's a less common technique most people will still think you're a genius because they've never heard of it. Go ahead and use that to your advantage. I give you permission to do so.)

I will end with the note I included with the scarf:

Thank you for volunteering, for taking the time to make sure that things run smoothly and people have fun. The SuperBowl couldn’t happen without you!

I wish I could be there to help, but since I can’t I’m happy to contribute this scarf. I hope you like it. I hope you wear it in good cheer.

The scarf is knit in a mosaic design by Sarah Burton (not me). If you would like more information, you could snoop around my blog www.christinacreating.blogspot.com. I write about all my projects there.

When your scarf needs to be washed, it can be done by machine. I would recommend cold water and a gentle wash. Dry on low heat or lay flat to dry. The materials are 80% acrylic and 20% wool.

Michigan Lighthouse Project

2011-05-06T18:35:00.003-04:00

Ok, here's the scoop. I need to make a quilt square for the 2011 County Fair raffle quilt. (Yes, "need to.")

And I need your help!

But don't worry, your help won't go unrewarded.

This year, the quilt theme is Michigan lighthouses. That is a very nice theme. The organizers want a depiction of an actual Michigan lighthouse. I have to submit the block with the name and/or location of the lighthouse.

I do not have pictures of any Michigan lighthouses. Read carefully now, this is where your part comes in: If you have a picture of a Michigan lighthouse that you think I could translate into a quilt block, please send it to me. (christinacreating [at] yahoo -dot- com)

What do you get out of it? Well, if I chose to use your photo, I will send you a quilt block of your picture. Wouldn't that be great?? I will chose the fabrics, and it will be one of the practice blocks I plan to make. (Last year I made two practice blocks before cutting into the fabric provided by the fair.)

Now, I can't promise you that you'll like the block--that is up to you. But I can promise you that I won't send out anything that I'm not proud of.

So, please look through your vacation photos, search your tags or peruse your "My Pictures" files and see what you've got. The picture should show a clear image of the lighthouse and I will need to know which one it is. (I'm sorry I can't use a picture that you know is from your trip in Michigan but can't remember where it was.)

The fair's not until the beginning of August, but I need to start working on this if I want time to do a couple practice squares...please send pictures as soon as you find a minute.

THANK YOU!! This should be fun, right?!

Project Spectrum Starts

2011-05-04T20:04:00.001-04:00

I have "signed up" to be a part of Project Spectrum started by Lolly over at her blog. I'm not sure I can explain it very well so you may want to read her post about it. But the basic idea is that she wants to focus on, or you might say pay attention to, a particular colour each month with a bunch of other people online. She has a Tumblr blog going, a Flickr group, a Facebook group and of course a Ravelry group where you can share your pictures relating to the Project.

And of course, you are welcome to join to because this is certainly not just a knitting, sewing or crafting enterprise. Lolly herself will be focusing on photography and cooking this time around. (This is the fifth round of a Project Spectrum collaboration.)

It's a very loosely organized thing. You are not committing to every month or a certain number of projects. It's just a way to live in a different mindset for a while.

So each month from May to November there will be a different focus colour. We are starting in May with...RED!! Wow, what a great start for me. I pulled together a collage of red pictures I already had to get me in the mood, and I will share whatever I've collected throughout May towards the end of the month.

For knitting, however, I can tell you that I've already started...there were the slippers I made for the AIDS Walk. (With their red ribbon campaign, a good cause for a RED month!) And then I've also started Mary Annarella's Making Waves Cardigan in a most gorgeous red in Fleece Artist's Saldanha Two. It's barely started right now, but I'll show more when I have more to show.

Meanwhile I'll be keeping my eyes open for flashes of red, and why don't you try it too.

AIDS Walk Report

2011-05-03T19:44:00.001-04:00

Sunday turned into the one shining specimen of a beautiful day in an otherwise crappy week. It was a great day for a Walk.

There was a good crowd and they were all in the mood to have fun. After registering and eating a lunch, I pulled out my knitting and continued working on my second slipper.

The knitting drew some attention, but the best interaction was with a fellow Raveler. Instead of opening with, "Hey my grandmother used to crochet!" she opened with, "Hey, are you on Ravelry?" For both of us, it was the first chance meet up with another Raveler. (And when we got home we immediately friended each other.)

I continued the slipper as we began the Walk and very near the end, I finished it:

Yeah!!

And who won the slippers?? A random number generator selected Mic and Martha who have been generous long time supporters of my walk. I hope they will enjoy them!

Until next year, then!

Project Details:
Pattern: Slippers Triangle Sock (vintage, free)
Materials: Red Heart Super Saver in Cherry Red (0319) (86 g)
Start Date: Apr 19 '11
Finish Date: May 1 '11

Joyful Eastertide

2011-04-25T21:47:00.001-04:00

Easter came and went without my getting up a post, but Eastertide has six more weeks. Plenty of time to enjoy our Easter installation at church.

You may recall that a painting was divided into 42 panels and each panel was taken by volunteers to be made to look like its part of the painting. We all knew it was up on the wall by the Wednesday before Easter, but it was covered by a veil.

No peeking during choir practice on Wednesday night.

No peeking during the Seder dinner on Thursday night.

No peeking during the Good Friday service...or the Easter vigil service on Saturday night...

And no peeking even on Sunday morning when we arrived. You could just feel the excitement in the pews as we all sat and waited.

We started the service in a dim room with the lights off and the windows shrouded. We heard the story that "while it was still dark," Mary went to the tomb and found it empty. How she ran to get the others. How Peter and "the other disciple" ran to the tomb and also found it empty, and then went back to their lodgings.

But Mary stayed and encounters Jesus, the risen Jesus, but does not recognize him, until he simply says her name, "Mary."

At that point, the lights came on and all the curtains and veils were pulled away. The sun cooperated nicely and shone so brightly it felt blinding after the dimness we had gotten used to. There was an audible reaction from the congregation as the "painting" was revealed:

Yes, a little hard to see, isn't it?

I'll give you a closer look:

That's ok, take your time. I'll wait for you to finish looking.
Takes a while to take it in, doesn't it? Believe me, no one was paying
attention to the service for a while either!!

Fabulous, isn't it?

And it really didn't matter who did what. There was a "map" available after the service, but that's just curiosity. The main thing is how all those very different parts come together. Some matching, some not, but in the whole just fantastic.

There were mini marshmallows (I kid you not):

There was glitter and pompoms (but who wouldn't want a glittery halo?) and pencil crayon:

There was pasta:

and lots of painted squares and fabric collages and paper collages and felt. I don't mean to single out the ones above as anything better or weirder than any others, but I had to pick a few to highlight as examples.

One thing I couldn't get over was how well all the lines in Jesus' robes lined up:

Ten different squares had to come together and they pretty much all line up. (A relief for me since mine is right in the middle!)

After the service, there was a crowd of people milling around on the platform trying to get a closer look. It was a really neat thing to be a part of. And after the service the party went on all day as people found time to Facebook about the event before, after and in between Easter get-togethers.

The whole piece is 11' x 14' and here's a pic to give you a sense of scale:

It is quite dominating. (In all the right ways.)

If you're curious about the image we started with, check out Tamara Rigishvili's work at her website.

The Walk

2011-04-21T22:28:00.001-04:00

That's what they're calling it now: Help fight AIDS by joining "The Walk." When I started doing this (back in 1995 in Halifax, NS), it was called the AIDS Walk. It's also been called the "Stop AIDS Walk." That one's my favourite.

But whatever you call it, that time of year has rolled around again. I am walking in the Michigan area ~~AIDS Walk~~ "The Walk" to raise money for AIDS Ministries/AIDS Assist of Northern Indiana. They focus on prevention but also help with referrals (housing and medicine mostly) and support for people affected with HIV and AIDS.

Knitting on the Walk, 2010

Last year for the first time, I made a prize for a randomly drawn person from my sponsors list. I debated and debated this year about whether I could add one more project right now. And then I said, "Bring it on!" So I brought it!

I decided to knit a pair of slippers. They will be given to one of my sponsors. If you would like to be on the list, please send me an email (it's near the top right of this page). I figured something for your feet for giving to a walk would be appropriate.

I looked and looked for a pattern. Something [more or less] unisex; something simple (so I could knit it on the Walk itself--that's my favourite part of all this!); something fast. (I did say, "Bring it." but don't bring too much!)

I settled for a pattern called Slippers Triangle Socks (which I have to say is not a very well thought out name). Triangle Square Slippers would be more apt. Essentially you knit a bias square and then fold it in half to make a triangle and do some sewing. Presto - origami - chango you have a slipper.

Today I was at a seminar all day and managed to knit one. (Really it was one and a half because it came out too large the first time and I had to rip out half of it at lunch. That really confused my tablemates who 1. couldn't figure out what I was making in the first place and 2. really couldn't figure out why part of it seemed missing after lunch!) P.S. I'm really glad my boss who paid for the seminar "doesn't believe in the internet" and thus will never read this. (Seriously, I listened very well, took notes and even participated--so there!)

I have to say the slipper looks a little...odd. Like many things made with bias fabric, it needs to be worn to really be appreciated. On the plus side, it feels good on, will be really warm, and the bias will stretch to accommodate a wide variety of sizes.

In the interest of full disclosure I should also admit that I am making them out of acrylic. I don't know who will be getting these slippers and I would rather give acrylic to someone who appreciates wool than give wool to someone who would treat it like acrylic. So wash, wear, repeat to your heart's content!!

Don't forget, the Walk is Sunday, May 1. Email me if you'd like to sponsor me. I love sponsors!!

Art in Pieces (Two)

2011-04-17T15:45:00.001-04:00

In my last post, I mentioned I was done the "brute knitting" for my knitted square of my church's Easter project. I did manage to get it spun out in the washing machine and pinned to shape before going to bed that night.

The gauge was a little hard to figure out because the yarn really liked to shrink in the vertical direction and spread in the horizontal. If I didn't stretch it out, the piece was only about half as long as it needed to be. But a little persuasion with some pins, and I had it to size:

By the next morning it was dry. I left it pinned to the carpet while I continued to work on it. (Although I figured it would help, I did not trust the blocking to make the piece actually hold its shape. The yarn content was very high in acrylic and only 20 percent wool. That's not enough for the blocking to really hold up.)

First thing to do this morning was get the grid marked on the fabric. Obviously, marking the board it would be mounted on wouldn't do me any good.

Instead, I took some cheap craft thread and ran strands from side to side and top to bottom to mark the grid, anchoring them with just a back stitch (no need for knots).

Then I cut strands of wool left over from my February Fitted Pullover and roughly laid out all the shaping lines that I was going to add with needle felting.

Then I started punching with the needle felter.

That took a lot of time. For one thing, with the piece lying on the floor, I couldn't punch straight down. I had to push it through at a steep angle. (Only hit my fingers twice. The warnings are right--the needles are very sharp.) For another, with the base fabric being primarily acrylic, it didn't take very well. But it took well enough, and with a little patience and careful working, I got the lines "drawn on."

A little more time and a break for brunch and I had the piece done! Only thing left to do then was to glue it on to the mounting board. A little work with the glue gun got that accomplished:

Again, here's the picture I was given for comparison:

The colour looks a little off, but I'm thinking with so many people doing this, it's going to vary from piece to piece anyway. (We'll see...)

The knitting itself was finished relatively quickly. I knew with scale of the project (24" square) and just a week to get it done that bulky was the way to go. I purchased a bulky cream colour (Wool-Ease ~~Chunky~~ Thick & Quick) and held it with two strands of a variegated chunky (Deborah Norville Serenity Chunky). I used the largest needles I had (US15).

After knitting seven or eight inches I realized that it was was too thick and would take too much yarn at that rate. I took it out to the first row and then reknit it wrapping the yarn around the needle twice for each stitch. That made for a much better fabric. (That's a good trick in general, btw, if you don't have big enough needles.)

The black was also the Wool-Ease Chunky. I thought holding two strands of it would equal the three other strands, but something was off. I don't know if I bought an even bulkier weight of the same yarn in cream (I no longer have the label to check) or if the black just isn't as thick, but two strands was not enough. I ended up Navajo plying one strand of the black as I went and that resulted in four strands being knitted at once. That seemed to do the trick. (ETA: I found the label for the cream yarn. It was "Thick & Quick" so I did buy the wrong weight in the black.)

Final post-blocking gauge? 6.5 sts and 4 rows per 4". That's huge!!

When I dropped off the squares at church this morning I took a minute to flip through the others that had been dropped off. Besides paintings, there were paper collages, fabric collages and construction paper cutouts. They were all really neat and I can't wait to see how the whole comes out. But I'll have to wait until next week (as will you)...