“Rye” Mitts

February 10, 2016February 15, 2016 fdigitalisLeave a comment

I had the most awesome little Cupcake mitts that I knitted a couple years ago… they were warm, perfect for taking out the dog, and allowed me to be able to stay warm while keeping my fingers uncovered to do…well, the stuff you do when you have to take the dog out.

Confession time: for a fiberhead, I’m terrible about fiber care, and tracking what I make stuff out of so I can actually take care of it properly. I’d have sworn on a stack of bibles that those adorbs little mitts were made of superwash, but alas… a bad day at the washing machine. They were felted so stiff I couldn’t even pass them along to one of the kiddos in our circle of friends. And it’s the middle of winter, no less! I needed replacements—stat!

I found the perfect pattern on Ravelry to meet all my needs… the “Rye” mitts were soft, slouchy, long on the arms, and kept my hands and arms warm but kept my fingers freed up to put on leashes, use my phone, and unlock the front door.

I bought a bunch of yarn (surprise) to try this pattern, and opted instead to try something from my stash: This beautiful blue/grey/eggplant Malabrigo Rastita. So beautiful, soft and drapey.

I worked it true to the pattern, but I worked it a little longer on the arms, since I wanted them to extend pretty far up my arm when I wanted to be extra warm. I tried the magic loop technique for the first time, so I could use my favorite Knitter’s Pride Dreamz circular bamboo needles from the Knit Shop in Eugene. Love that place! The lovely buttons are from Gossamer in Bend.

I love this simple, elegant pattern… I’m going to work up a pair of these for my mom next, out of the dreamiest, lightest weight stuff I can find. And multiple colors for every outfit!

A Very Star Wars Christmas

December 19, 2015February 19, 2016 fdigitalisLeave a comment

You’d have to live under a rock to not know that this holiday season has been all Star Wars, all the time… especially if you happen to have little (or even big) boys in the house. One of my husband’s birthday presents was tickets during opening weekend for Star Wars: TFA. We loved the movie and are so excited about the new characters, new droids, new villains… and questions. So many questions!

A few years ago, my mom gave me my old Christmas stocking, which was knitted by my grandmother, not long after I was born. I think every one of the grandkids got one of these homemade beauties, personalized with his or her name. I found a copy of the old pattern, a classic from the mid-40s on the Internet. I love mine, with the fuzzy angora Santa’s beard and the sequin sparkles. So kitchy and cool!

I’ve wanted to make one for J for years, and let’s face it, I’ve only got a few more years where he’ll still put up with this kind of fussy Mom-ness. So I decided to find a pattern and make it with a more modern spin, and personalize it with more than just his name.

I found the original pattern online, and then proceeded to find some really awesome Star Wars Intarsia patterns created by Leah Fenton and available on Ravelry as a free download. I kept it to a simple color combination, to honor the spirit of the original.

I made mine from an affordable, basic cotton worsted weight I found at the local Hobby Lobby. Probably, if I had it to do over, I’d choose a sport or dk weight to make the overall size less gargantuan. But, since I hate colorwork, keeping it larger and easier to manage ensured that I’d actually complete it by Christmas.

I did the lightsabers in duplicate stitch, with a strand of metallic thread worked in. This was the first project where I tried duplicate stitch, so that was a nice bonus! It’s rough in places, but overall I’m happy with the results. Plus, we were done in time for Christmas. May the Force be with you this season, everyone!

The one on the right is the original inspiration stocking, the one my Grandma Berta made many years ago.

I picked a combination of symbols of the Rebel Alliance and the Empire…. Darth, Death Star, Millenium Falcon and the Rebel symbol

For the bottom section, alternating red and green lightsabers, with handles in two shades of grey.

I added a metallic thread to the yarn when doing the lightsaber blades in duplicate stitch.

The stocking turned out huge, but it was fun, and holds a ton of loot!

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Home Stuff · Knitting

Moving madness–tension and tencel

October 5, 2015 fdigitalisLeave a comment

It’s no lie that our summer has been more hectic than usual… we spent the majority of July and August running back and forth from the new house and the old, and doing about a hundred projects that we’ve been meaning to do, but never got around to because of time and/or money. Well, no time like when you’re ready to leave it all behind, eh?

In the flurry of painting, staining, painting, cleaning, schlepping, painting, downsizing, packing… oh, and did I mention painting? I needed a few diversions of the fibrous kind to keep me from losing my mind completely.

I had attempted to get started on a shawl or capelet using that gorgeous carbon-gray heavy laceweight tencel yarn I purchased at the Black Sheep Gathering. I spent the better part of the summer deliberating about what to do, downloading a jillion patterns from Ravelry.com, and trying my hand at a little lace knitting. Well, I started several times, but stopped and ripped it back in frustration. The patterns I kept trying had lots of twisted stitches and kbl involving knitting two and three stitches together, and it was just too hard using the slippery tencel. I struggled to find the right lace needles that would grab those stitches without everything slipping off the needles, and nothing seemed to work. Never happy with baby steps, I tried to eat the whole elephant in one go (like that mixed-metaphor-fest?), and wound up annoyed and bored.

This is what happens so much more easily when I’m stressed and overwhelmed—I struggle with sticking with stuff and flit from project to project. So I distracted myself with a couple of baby hats and a few small, portable, mindless projects while we bobbed from old to new house.

During my jillion back-and-forth trips to the Knit Shop on Willamette in Eugene (have I mentioned lately how much I love these guys?), looking for a variety of needles in different materials and sizes to find the right fit, I found Zooey, this awesome cotton-linen blend from Juniper Moon Farm. When in doubt, go for more washcloths, I always say. Well, I don’t always say it, but when I’m unable to find a fun knitting project, I do.

Isn’t it pretty? I chose this cool brownish color, since I thought these would make awesome face cloths—and they’d never get ruined from a little make-up, so that’s even better! I used the usual straight-up grandma’s dishcloth pattern that usually does the trick. I think these are going to make awesome holiday gifts!

So, now that things have settled down a bit, I have some nice yarn to take along to music lessons and other away-from-home activities, and then I have… well, this other weird project I’m working on. After all the aforementioned fiddling around, I have found a nice lace pattern in my go-to The New Knitting Stitch Library that didn’t involve any wild tbl stitches and knitting more than two stitches together so I could keep the stitches on the needles. And, I found a great set of rosewood needles that are grippy enough, but not too much. Instead of a lot of shaping, I’m going to try that taking-baby-steps thing that everyone’s talking about, and just enjoy making the pattern on an open field for a while, without a bunch of decreases and shaping. I’ll make a stole-scarf-shawl thingy, and leave it at that for now.

I never use point protectors, but with this slippery, slidey stuff, I can’t risk it going off the needles EVER, so I actually secure my work when I’m done knitting. It’s turning out pretty, no?

Here’s another photo of the lace in more detail. It’s nothing super-fancy, but I think it looks nice with this lovely yarn. We’ll see how large this measures after I’ve used the first ball, and after that I’ll figure out what I’m making, and whether I want to take on more, such as an edging or shaping of some kind.

Home Stuff · Knitting

It’s Spring! More baby blankets!

May 28, 2015February 11, 2016 fdigitalisLeave a comment

It doesn’t end! We have so many babies coming!

It’s usually my commitment to get the baby blanket done by the baby shower…. I did my best this winter and spring, but there were just too many babies coming to keep up!

I started this one just after the new year and the holiday buzz was over…. while I was getting the last blanket assembled, the squares from this one became my portable project.

This is the first blanket I ever made using Sugar n’ Cream cotton…. the mama-to-be likes things that are natural and simple, so I thought something in USA-made cotton with simple, earthy colors would be just the thing. Plus, they elected to be surprised by the baby’s gender, so these colors and designs were nice and neutral, and were sure to go with all of their other baby gear.

The squares were the usual 40 stitch width that I like to use. I’m fond of the number because it’s divisible by tons of numbers (1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 20… you get the idea) so I can do plenty of fun different patterns. I did a swatch and determined that I’d need to knit 55 rows to get a perfect square. I wanted a large blanket this time, so I went with a 4 x 5 square design.

Usually, I pick five colors, and attempt to do one each of solids, stripes, intarsia, and a knit/purl or lace design that features each of the five main colors. This time, I picked only four colors, and had to mix it up a little differently. I did one in each color of a solid, intarsia, knit/purl patten, lace pattern, and a stripe/block of color. I fudged a little and did two stripey blocks in the darker brown, mainly because I wasn’t sure I’d have enough of it left to do a full block in that color, and I had a fairly decent amount of the green left to do some more stripes with.

I wanted to do some basic shapes, and circles are always hard, so I needed to create a chart. Whenever I need to make a chart, I go to this page on the Sweaterscapes site to pull up the exact size graph paper to match the gauge of my knitting for a particular project. To get the correct proportions, you need to calculate the aspect ratio of your gauge–that is, the relation of height to width of your project. By dividing 40 (stitches) by 55 (rows) I got 1.375… and lo and behold, there’s the perfect size graph paper for that! I printed it out and got out the colored pencils to make the shape I wanted.

I had a lot of fun choosing some different sorts of lace patterns to try on this blanket, too… I particularly loved this cool diamond lace pattern.

I am a horrible seamstress (I’m working on that, I promise), so I do my assembly the easy way–I crochet the edges together. The secret to this is very loose cast-on and cast off–makes it easier to get the crochet hook through all the layers and keep them all even. BTW, Aren’t those rosewood seaming pins so pretty? I use them every chance I get.

I spend forever arranging and re-arranging to get the right mix of patterns and colors…. I never remember how they go, and things always get mixed up, so I usually take a few photos so I can remember where I wanted everything. I took the photo in the evening, so on our black dining table, it looks like the blanket is floating in an ominous alternate universe.

Here are a few more photos of the blanket in the gallery below, both under construction and finished. I’m super happy with how it turned out, and so very happy to be welcoming little Parker Jude, a healthy little baby boy, into our family.

Home Stuff · Knitting

Stash Management

May 5, 2015May 18, 2015 fdigitalisLeave a comment

So, after a long hiatus from posting, I thought I’d start here… with my slow but constant effort to trim down the various nooks and crannies where I store things. Our move to Bend is only a few weeks away, and I just don’t want to move all this stuff across a mountain range just to realize we have no room for it.

I wanted to start with Cody’s stuff, or maybe JL’s, but let’s face it, I need to work on myself first. So behold—the bench next to our fireplace, the home of my yarn stash.

From this day forward, this bench will forever be known as the clown-car bench. I had no idea how much stuff I had jammed in there! Hundreds of spools of crochet cotton, half-used skeins, and a few dozen unfinished projects, instructions, and bundles of yarn that I had no idea what I’d bought them for.

So, my resolution with every one of these projects—whether it be my clothes closet, my cedar chest or the office supplies in my computer hutch—is to reduce it by 50%. Half must go.

I thought this was going to be difficult, but it was much easier than I thought. After going through it, I realized that most of my stash was yarn I really wasn’t ever going to use. Half-skeins of yarn with no label and indeterminate fiber content just isn’t useful to me anymore. If I don’t know how to care for it, I certainly won’t use it in something I’m giving as a gift.

All scraps–gone. All spools, balls, and skeins of questionable yardage–gone. No more crunchy, scratchy yarns I’ll never use. Nothing with weird stains, no tangles, no vintage stuff kept just because it’s old and someone I love gave it to me.

I filled an entire Priority Mail box with wool blends–mostly Lamb’s Pride acquired over a decade of knitting hats and felted bags and slippers. That is going to Paul Henry, my friend Lisa’s son who lives in New Hampshire. He’s taking up knitting, and this stuff might break a high-schooler’s budget. He is a creative person, and will probably find a delightful way of using up all the scraps and bits.

All the finished projects that wouldn’t work for Cody’s half-brother’s new baby (who’s due in a week or so)–off to Goodwill. All the half-done projects–gone. If they’re not done, I’ll never finish them. All the scraps and bits of knitting that aren’t being used–gone.

I started the project at about 4 pm… by about 6:30, I had a disaster in my living room, no dinner cooked, and the dog looking a little dejected that there wasn’t any carpet left to roll on. But I had separated the full skeins and organized everything by type and size, and had set aside a ton of stuff that would go… including the knitting looms that I bought when I broke my arm (pretty much never used), and a few other tools and goodies.

I didn’t have help, but I did have a heckler, who said things like, “Don’t forget you’re going to have to clean all that up.” I can’t imagine where he heard a statement like that.

I packed the thread back in the snap case, and separated the Goodwill donations from the remaining fiber that was going to MECCA, the local art-supply recycling cooperative.

A drive-up dinner and a cocktail later, and here’s what the “after” photo looked like:

The only items I kept are on the right: one large blanket bag of nicer yarn, the middle sized blanket bag containing the rest of my bedspread cotton and and a few large hanks of vintage silk yarn, and the snap case with the smaller crochet thread. A few bags of needles, and that’s it. In all, I donated about 10 lbs. of fiber to MECCA, not including the half-finished items and odds and ends donated to Goodwill.

You might think I felt deflated after getting rid of so much, but it was liberating! I cannot wait to go through all of the beautiful, high-quality yarn that remains to find inspiration for my next project.

Knitting

Building another baby blanket

April 26, 2015February 19, 2016 fdigitalisLeave a comment

Babies, babies, babies! We’re expecting no fewer than three babies in our little circle of friends and family in the coming weeks—all of them are due between mid-May and mid-June. So that means that I’ve been in high production mode ever since fall, with a little break to make goodies for Christmas.

Here's the early attempt at getting all the squares assembled. And JL can't help but photobomb even the most mundane of photos. — Here’s the early attempt at getting all the squares assembled. And JL can’t help but photobomb even the most mundane of photos with some portion of his body….

This is my most recent one…. one that I’ve (somewhat) managed to create from my stash of Berocco Comfort worsted weight yarn. I have probably done about seven or eight of these types of blankets over the years, so I’ve amassed a decent-ish stash of extra bits. I bought a bit of yarn in a single dyelot for the joining and edging parts, so any variances wouldn’t look too wonky.

I usually try to organize them on the dining table as I create the last two or three squares, just to make sure that I have a good mix of colors and textures. I always try to do one of every color in solids, stripes, intarsia/colorwork, and some textured or lace single-color squares.

Here’s the finished blanket. I was planning on joining the squares with the cream color and edging too, but I had a ton of the dark brown left over, and it looked much more masculine and pretty. Leslie and Brandon are having a boy, and his room has a lot of this lovely espresso color featured.

Finished baby blanket for Leslie and Brandon’s new baby boy.

As you can see, I changed up the finished version a little bit after the initial assembly shot above, but I’m super happy with the results. I really enjoyed doing the little Fair Isle type pattern on the center square, with the sheep, rabbits, flowers, and hearts. Some of the lace-patterned squares turned out nicely.

Extra-Special Gift Wrapping

Then, because I wasn’t behind enough on the blanket for the next baby (!!), I did something extra-special for the gift wrap for the finished blanket.

I love to wrap baby shower gifts in receiving blankets—they’re cheaper than gift bags, and have so many great uses for new moms.

I saw this clever little chain stitch on Pinterest that I’ve been dying to try, and I found some awesome little muslin receiving blankets. In my stash (I know, are you so impressed?) I also had this awesome fine cotton yarn that was the perfect shade of dark blue. I also dug up one of my old vintage crochet pattern books and found a page with some classic linen edgings, and thought this one was just awesome. (Sorry, the dark leather chair doesn’t really give you much to go on.)

Here’s what it looked like folded and wrapped around the finished baby blanket, and fastened with a diaper pin.

They’re having a grown-up baby shower brunch at their newly remodeled house today, and Cody’s taking care of their two kids over at our place, so I’m going to get a morning of mimosas and yummy food, kid-free. Can’t wait to see their reaction!

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Extra-Special Gift Wrapping

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