In Memory

Memorial Day is the day we remember those fallen in service to our country.  Unfortunately for my family, this is also the weekend we buried my mother.  She lost her battle with cancer four months after diagnosis.  However, I do not want this post to be about how she died, but a remembrance and celebration of how she lived.

You see, in my admittedly biased opinion, my mother was a remarkable woman.  She taught us kids that math was a challenge to be met head on.  She could learn how to play any musical instrument she picked up in about a week.  By the time a plane could get her to a foreign country, she would have learned enough of the local language to get around.  She was also the woman who introduced me to crafts.

My earliest crafting memory of my mother, she was sitting at her sewing machine, making a little jumper dress for one of us girls.  Most of my youth, she sewed or quilted.  My mother always enjoyed sharing her knowledge and love for creative outlets. She taught a quilting class at the local fabric shop and taught me how to crochet.

This foundation, knowing that crafting was a good outlet for your creativity, spurred me to learn how to knit once I got to college.  I even poked around until I figured out that the little shuttle in my grandmother's sewing box was for tatting and learned how to use it.  Though only knitting translated back to my mother when I went home on vacation.

I knew that she liked to learn new skills, but I didn't fully appreciate the full spectrum of her dabbling until my sister and I helped organize her craft room for her. She had books on basket weaving and paper making.  She had leather scraps and stamps for leather working.  She had boxes of beads and ended up with a wall full of yarn.  She had upholstery fabric and embossing powder.  I'm not sure even now we know all of the crafts she tried.  I do know that she loved to create and never felt restrained to just the crafts she knew at the time.

When did you first become interested in your craft?  Have you tried more than just what you started with?

Dying for Stitches

Long time no see! I took some time off to deal with a family matter.  Now I want to dive straight back in because I have lots of yarny goodness to share.

A few weeks ago, I attended Stitches South in Atlanta, GA.  For those who have never heard of it, Stitches is a knitting convention.  As you might expect of a convention for people addicted to yarn, there were classes to expand your knowledge, social events because we all love to talk, and a market because *dude* yarn!  The meals were excellent.  You can see the mini pecan pie we had for dessert the last night.  The classes were extremely worth while.  As a long time English-style or throwing knitter, I'm trying to remember to practice the Russian continental style I learned.  I loved the class where I learned to spin for knitting.  I may yet end up adding another craft to my list of hobbies, but for now, I do not need a second stash for fiber.  They also offered classes for the non-knitter  There were crochet classes and combined knitting and crochet classes.  I took the class that explained how to combine knitting and crochet in one piece of seamless fabric.  Awesome!

Part of getting ready for Stitches South was to prepare homework and collect supplies before the class so you would be ready for the lesson the teacher had prepared.  For example, I had to crochet a granny square to prepare for the combination knit and crochet class so I had a piece of crochet to practice the variety of connection options while in class.  One of the classes dictated that you bring wool specifically because of some of the forgiving properties of wool that make it easier to work with when learning a new technique.  Some classes also called for yarn of more than one color, hopefully the same yarn weight and fiber mix because a change in size would change your gage, or the size of you stitches.  Well, I had a lot of natural wool lying around as a gift/destash from a lady I helped finish an afghan.  So, rather than haul 5 different kinds of yarn to Atlanta with me, I decided I would use the Fisherman's Wool for all the classes and dye some of it for my secondary color.

I had never dyed wool before, so I thought I'd look it up.  No one seemed to agree on everything.  So I followed some of the most common recommendations.  First safety rule for anyone thinking of doing this at home.  NOTHING that you use for dying can be used to prepare food EVER again.  Commercial dyes are BAD for internal consumption.  Now that we've gotten the PSA out of the way, here's how I did it.

First, I skeined the yarn so the dye could get to all of it.

(I love my new Amish swift, don't you?)

Then, I let it sit in a room temperature bath of water and white vinegar for an hour.  Some people recommended letting it soak overnight, but I didn't allow that much lead time.

Break for food.  Mmmm, three kinds of meat and two kinds of cheese.  I know there aren't any veggies, but I figure the whole grain bread is healthy, right?

At the end of the hour, the yarn should have bloomed.  It will look all swelled up and water logged.  This allows the dye to get to all the fibers.

I stove-dyed mine.  You heat the water and the dye according to the instructions on the dye container.  Then you submerge the yarn in the dye solution.  I tried not to agitate the yarn too much because wool agitated in hot water tends to felt.  I also dropped in a few cotton handkerchiefs to see how cotton takes the dye.  Since I'm one of those people who figure curiosity may have killed the cat, but I'm bigger, I also wanted to see what would happen if I did't do all the elaborate preparation of the yarn.  So I wound another skein off the same ball of yarn and threw it straight into the dye pot.

I pulled the yarn and handkerchiefs out of the dye pot and dropped it all in a tub of slightly cooler soapy water.  I continued to switch it to cooler and cooler baths until the water was cool to the touch and ran clear of any dye.

This is the wet yarn and the handkerchiefs.  As you can see, the wool takes dye much better than cotton.  You may also be able to detect a slightly darker shade of red in the hank of yarn at the top.  Believe it or not, that was the yarn that I did not prepare, I just threw it in.  I'm not sure if it will come out in the wash, but there does not currently seem to be a down side to skipping the elaborate yarn prep.

I then hung the dyed items to dry.  Again, the darker yarn, on the left, is the yarn that was not 'properly' prepared.  The laundry baskets are set up so the cat does not try to help the process along.

After a few days of hang-drying, I wound the skeins into a pair of center-pull balls.  You can see my furry cheering squad in the back.

I wound another 4 center-pull balls of white wool to take along to stitches.  This wound up being a bit excessive.  One of each, maybe a second ball of white, would have been more than sufficient to complete all the homework and in-class swatches.  So now I have lots of yarn prepared to grab for small projects or to try a new stitch.  My next post should be mostly about the most recent additions to my stash.

Blocking

I guess I'll start with the prep steps for blocking.  You see, I have never had to block anything before.  For those of you who are reading this because I'm writing it rather than because you are actually interested in these crafts, blocking is the process of pinning a piece of fabric, either wet or damp, so that it dries in the desired size and shape.  Since I have mostly done scarves and socks, I have never even gotten a blocking board.  With the afghan I am working on, I wanted to make sure all the blocks were square and the same size, hence the need for blocking.  I didn't really like the current blocking boards available, so I decided to make my own.  I know, how weird do you have to be, right?


Well, there were a few characteristics that I really wanted that were not commercially available.  I wanted a board that would not adsorb water that might warp it or would have to evaporate back through the fabric.  It had to be soft enough to use straight pins, firm enough to hold its shape against the tension of the fabric, and light enough to move about easily.  My final requirement was that it possess a one-inch grid so that I did not have to get out a ruler and square every time I wanted to block something.  With these thoughts in mind, I went shopping.  I found  children's foam playmats very inexpensively online.  They fit the majority of my requirements.  The only thing lacking was the grid, but I figured I could do that myself.

These tools made it possible: a large square, a straight edge, ultra fine point permanent marker. I tried to use just the pens and the lines that are naturally on the mat.  Let me tell you, the lines are not straight.  So, the first block has a few slightly curved lines.  I still don't know what I'm going to do about that one.  So I grabbed a meter stick for straight lines and a square to make sure I made squares rather than parallelograms (crooked squares for those who took geometry as long ago as I did) and a few hours produced this.

So, now I had a grid.  Exactly 1" squares all over.  Then came the less labor intensive, but more time consuming process of actually blocking.  I could fit 4, 7" squares on each of my new blocking boards.  Since I was doing wet blocking, I would set each square in water before pinning it to the board.  Some of them took more work than others to make fit the 7" ideal, but I did eventually get all of them blocked.  I blocked them in batches letting each set dry roughly 12 hours.  Some of them took longer.  If I touched one and it wasn't dry, I left them to dry until I checked them another 12 hours later.


My next post should include joining the squares and maybe I'll be able to report progress on my socks.

Busy, Busy, Busy

So much has been happening this last week.  Blocking, winding, knitting, cooking, where to start?

Lets start with the blocking.  This was my first time blocking.  I wound up making my own blocking boards, which I will cover in more detail in a later post.  Since I am blocking wool, I decided to do wet blocking.  For those who are reading this because I write it rather than because you are actually interested in all this craft stuff, blocking is when you pin a damp or wet piece of fabric so that it dries to a specific shape and size.  It took about one week for me to block all 52 squares once I finished the blocking boards.  The next step is to lay the blocks out to decide how to arrange them in the final afghan.

Since blocking is not very labor intensive (set and walk away), I found time to finish the first ball of yarn for my socks and wind the second ball for each.  The winding process being greatly facilitated by my mother's willingness to act as a human swift.  For some perspective, this is what 618 yards of yarn look like a balls (309 each).

This is what 618 yards of yarn looks like as socks.

I am very glad I decided to invest in a yarn ball winder.  This making 3 balls of yarn I've wound on it, each yard cost roughly $0.02 at this point.  Having wound more than a few by hand before I got it, I think it was worth every penny.  A simple yarn swift may be one of my next investments.

Our garden has also been busy producing lots of fresh vegetables.  I must admit, a good number of those veggies don't even make it into the house.  A cherry tomato still warm from the sun and fabulously sweet is one of my favorite things about having a garden.  This year, we are growing pumpkins for the first time.  So, it is our first time trying make pumpkin pie from an actual pumpkin or roasted pumpkin seeds.  The pie was my sister's domain, the seeds were mine.  The pies came out delicious.  The seeds took a little more trial and error.  For example, if you are doing seeds in the oven, a little oil goes a long way.

I guess that does it for this week.  Until next time!

Delayed Reporting

Last week I hit the 100th row after the heel.  Yay!  I even went out later that day to get a blizzard with my family to celebrate.  Truth, I was the only one who was celebrating my knitting, the family just likes ice cream.  This would probably be a more impressive milestone if I remembered how many rows I needed after the heel.  Looking at it, it is hard to gage.  Probably means I ought to dig out my notes to see what my math said when I started messing with the original pattern.  By a strange, meaningless coincidence, my car's odometer flipped to 40,000 earlier in the week.

Other news I am happy to report is the first floral display from my mother's african violet since moving into my office's window sill. The flowers are daintier than the ones on my african violet that has yet to bloom since I moved.  Maybe it would be happier in my office, too.

We are also dealing with all the excitement Mother Nature decided to deal the north eastern coast recently.  The earthquake shattered my nerves, but no permanent damage to either my home or office.  Now we are battening down the hatches for Irene's visit this weekend.  I'll post again next week with my hurricane progress on the socks.

Preservation from the Garden

Before

After

Summer is progressing nicely here in northern Virginia.  Some of the plants and seeds we planted in the garden have not done well.  However, enough of the plants are very happy that our garden looks like a jungle.  Having lots of some herbs,  I have decided to venture into the art of preserving our garden produce.  My first attempt has been with drying herbs. I have had moderate success drying camomile flowers.  This time, I decided to try drying some of our basil.  Basil has a very high moisture content when picked.  This means that I can't dry it in a paper bag on the counter the way I have been drying the camomile; it would spoil before it dried.  So, I decided to try drying it in the oven.  I turned the oven on the lowest setting while I prepared the basil leaves, turning it off just before I put the leaves in.  The heat was to get rid of the majority of the humidity in the oven.  I turned the oven on for a few seconds again before turing in for the night.  The basil was in the oven for approximately 10 hours.  As you can see in the before and after pictures, the basil shrunk a LOT in the drying process.  I am storing the leaves in a cleaned glass jar.  We may not know how effective this preservation technique was until sometime this winter, after fresh basil is no longer an option.  I may try ice preservation next time I preserve basil.  Has anyone else ever tried preserving their garden produce?  Any success stories?  Please share in the comments.

Progress

Working a full time job and owning a very energetic puppy has had two effects on my crafting.  First, I have lots of inspiration.  I have plans for a puppy carrying purse that currently qualifies as a work-in-progress, half assembled in the basement.  I would like to make a nice vest to go over my button up shirts and have some sketches for that.  How ever the second effect is that I no longer have the energy to really work on more than one project at a time.  As you can see from the picture, though I have made progress on my socks, I still have a long way to go.

Some of you may have noticed Udvar sunning himself in the background.  This is in part because he loves lying in the sun and in part because he is all wet.  You see he had his first bath today.  I wa not the only one involved in this process.  My sister gave me her old dog shampoo, my younger brother helped with judicious application of bacon and my folks contributed the VERY deep sink.  Helpful since Udvar doesn't like getting wet.  However, quality time in the sun has dried him off sufficiently for me to consider puppy cuddle time while I try to make progress on my socks.  Until next time!

Baseball!

For those of you who are unaware: It's baseball season!!!  There are a few things I love about baseball.  One, it's a fairly straight forward game.  Two, I actually understand all that's going on.  Three, it's knitter friendly.  In late March, I joined my father and younger brother at a game right here in the DC area.  The Twins, my dad's team and one that I enjoy watching immensely, played the Orioles in Baltimore.  The best part, they won!  Yes, I took my knitting.  The little Knitpickers bag was just perfect for carrying my socks and my phone.  It also did double duty as a ticket display so I didn't have to keep pulling it out every time we reached a check point.  I finished the gusset on the first sock on the several-hour-long drive up to Baltimore (oh the joys of rush hour).  In spite of a very exciting game, I still managed to finish the first heel flap during the game and the gusset section on the second sock.  My own little Stitch 'n' Pitch.  As you can see we had great seats, just on the third base side of home plate.  We were on one of the upper levels and took a break just before the game started to grab a surprisingly good supper from one of the restaurants in the stadium.  Our seats also seemed like a prime flyball-zone.  Two were close enough that the guys had a shot at getting them.  So much fun!

After the game, I kind of stalled on my socks.  The gusset portion is rather tedious.  Fortunately, the heel flap is quick and easy, with just enough of a pattern to keep me interested.  Since then, I feel like my socks have been flying, though when I look at them they don't look nearly long enough yet.  I crunched some numbers and figured out the increases needed in my gage to turn the socks into knee-highs.  I'm even replicating part of the pattern in the increase portion of the sock.  Honestly, with such a pretty pattern, I could not resist.  Especially since I'm using stash yarn that I know I have enough of.  So, the increased are coming along and every now and then I'll try the socks on just to check.  They are snug without being too tight.  I'm looking forward to the finished product.

In non-craft related news, I am now employed!  The craft repercussions are two-fold.  First, I will have less time to work on any projects.  This was expected and though a little disappointing, an acceptable compromise.  The second side-effect was unexpected, more ideas!  I'm starting to think I may need a better way to record all my project thoughts.  Loose sheets of graph paper don't seem to be working as well when you have so many different project.  They tend to get mixed up.  Or stashed in a variety of places when the house gets cleaned.  Does anyone have suggestions for ways to organize projects that consist of multiple pages of doodles and notes?  Please leave a note in the comments!

The Good, the Bad, and the Sweater

The good news is that I have made progress on my socks.  I have finally reached the turn in the heel.  The bad news is that I have well and truly broken my New Years' Knitting Resolution to not cast on another project until I finish what is on my needles.  Not only have I cast-on, but I have also cast-off, a quick project.  That project was a sweater.  Before I go into detail about the sweater, I would like to introduce you to the newest member of my family.  Please welcome Udvar!

Udvar is a rescue puppy.  He and his brother were surrendered to the Lost Dog Rescue.  Isn't he adorable!?!  Our best guess is that he's a Dachshund/Chihuahua mix.  Did you know that's actually a designer dog mix?  There are people who pay exorbitant amounts of money for the type of puppy I rescued!  We always look in the local shelters or rescues for our new pets.  Especially this time of year, there are lost of puppies and kittens who need loving homes.  They come fixed and up to date on all their shots.  As you can tell, at least some of them are much cuter than any puppy-mill puppy. If you absolutely must have a specific kind of dog, find a reputable breeder where you can meet the parents and visit the location where the puppies are living. *end puppy rant*

As you may have guessed, the sweater I made was for Udvar.  I came up with a quick, ribbed design for a puppy sweater using some old acrylic yarn I had inherited and hidden in my stash.  By quick, I mean that I finished in within a 12-hour window.  I do not intend for this sweater to be used for long.  It is a prototype pressed into service when the mornings were still cold enough to make him shiver.  I need to change the neck section and want to give it a more interesting design on the back.

In addition to knitting up quick little puppy sweaters, Udvar has increased my use of a craft that I have fallen out of the practice of using: mending.  You see, puppy teeth are very small, but very sharp.  We got him two stuffed toys shortly after bringing him home.  One has a tear smaller than my pinky nail that I will probably sew up tonight while watching TV.  The other is a favorite for tug of war and required mending of multiple holes and tears large enough for stuffing removal.  My next quick project could be a felted puppy tug toy, hopefully reducing repairs required.  The next puppy sweater will have to wait.

Different crafts don't count, right?

Last post, I mentioned that I wanted to avoid casting on a second project until I finished the project I was working on.  Since this project was crochet, it wasn't cast on.  How about only working on one project per craft at a time?  Regardless, I think this hat was worth it.

My father is a die hard Vikings fan.  One day, while the family was driving around, we realized that my nephew did not have any Vikings paraphernalia.  I decided to correct this egregious oversight.  I decided to crochet it so that it had more structure to support the horns.  Unfortunately, since I made this ad hoc, I forgot to write down the instructions.  Apparently, the little horns are a hit with my sister and her husband, which is good because they are not Vikings fans.  I'm hoping the hat is cute enough that they let him wear it frequently anyway.  :)  Though truth be told, I think he's pretty darn cute with or without the hat.

He may not need to wear a hat much longer.  The weather is warming up and we are starting to get more rain than snow.  Yesterday was nice enough that we managed to tackle some gardening projects.  I planted pea seeds in a pair of containers.  My father and I managed to wrestle our rhubarb plants out of their pots and settle them in the ground.  We've had these plants for a few years now so I'm hoping we finally get some usable rhubarb out of them this year.

Yesterday also provided time for us to go to the Capital Home and Garden Show.  We came back with a garden stool and a neat little product called Rainbow Crystal Soil.  It works like this.  You start out with the packet full of little beads about the size of the head of a sewing pin.

You then soak them in water over night and they swell up to the size of marbles and feel a bit like the tofu balls in bubble drinks.

Then you can use them as soil replacement.  I'm unsure how they will work with plants that require more nutrients than they get from water so I'm starting with some philodendron cuttings.

This plant can actually grow in just water, so I am certain they will do well in this new medium.  The Rainbow Crystal packet also gives directions for use as an air freshener.  I may try that next.  All in all, I find them to be an interesting novelty and look forward to experimenting with them.

My socks are coming along nicely.  I like the cable pattern.  It's involved, but I was able to figure out the pattern enough that I no longer had to reference the chart about halfway through the first repeat.  I've reached the gusset section.  This is the first sock I've done with a gusset so I hope I started it at the right place.  I'm supposed to continue increasing until I have twice as many stitches on the sole as I have on the instep.  That's going to take a while.  I love this sock patten, especially how delicate it looks, but one of the drawbacks to knitting something this fine is that it is time consuming.  I try to work a few rows a night while I'm just sitting watching TV with the family, but it will still take a while before they are finished, especially if I tweak the design to make them knee highs.  But one hurtle at a time, I have to finish the foot and heel before I start worrying about final length.  I love that about toe-up socks!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  The first project I finished in 2011 is my Jester's scarf.  I love it!  It's worm, colorful, and unique.  A perfect pick-me-up on dreary winter days.  It ended up taking about a ball and a half of each color.  All in all, as my first entrelac project, it was fabulous!  I will probably end up doing more in the future.  I especially love lack of a wrong side that this pattern gives.  The ribbed entrelac is fun and easy.

My Knitting New Year's resolution is not to cast on a new project before I finish what I am currently working on.  I didn't quite follow that for the ribbed entrelac scarf, taking a brief hiatus to knit up a Weekend Scarf as a quick gift over the holiday season.

My first project of the New Year is a pair of toe up socks in a baby pink, cotton yarn.  I was going to use this for a baby project until my expected niece turned out to be a nephew!  So, now I am using it to cast on for a pair of Ballet socks from Melissa Morgan-Oakes 'Toe-Up 2-at-a-Time Socks' book I am borrowing from my mother's library.  I am thinking of adding an alteration to the leg portion so they can be knee highs.

I am also considering designing a pattern for my sister.  This Christmas she decided she wants to make a set of stockings for her family.  She wants to be able to personalize the tops with each family member's name.  She has a specific look she wants for the toe and heel and since no one will be wearing them, sizing is not a big issue.  I'm excited.  I love a challenge!

On the Road

It has been a while since my last post.  Since then I have driven to the DC are, flown across the Atlantic, and stayed at numerous places in Ireland (more detail here).  All this travel has kept me busy, but airplane, train and bus rides are excellent opportunities to knit.

I am still working on a project I started before leaving the States.  I think of it as my jester scarf because it has such bold colors and odd shapes.  It is based on the Carolus Rib Entrelac Scarf by Andrea Krüß-Anders I found on Ravelry.  I loved the different shape of the blocks forming each row, and I wanted to make the shape more obvious.  I also wanted a multi colored scarf.  After some figuring, I discovered that entrelac lends itself to a three ball rotation.  I debated using 6 balls, three of each color, in order to create a two-color scarf.  I didn't like that idea as much as using three colors.  I pulled two colors from my stash and purchased a third color of the same yarn.  I love the way it is turning out.  As my first entrelac project, I am surprised at how quickly it grows and how easy it is once you have the rhythm.  Frequently, I will find myself staying at it for 'just one more block' realizing it only when I reach the end of the row.

I have worked on one other quick project while I've been here.  I designed it one night after coming back to my trailer at the end of the day and knitted it the next day in the car.  I wanted a sky blue neck wrap.  I found that I had accidentally included the remains of the ball of yarn I used for my nephew's hat in my travel stash.  A little bit of experimenting and minimal frogging, and I came up with the pattern for this.  I call it Throat Chakra.  I still need to wash it and find a way to block it.  I may make some modifications to the pattern to help reduce some of the curling in the lacy ends.

Change is in the Air

I has been a while since my last post, and I've been able to complete a few things in the mean time.  I have seen a few tatted earrings posted on other blogs and thought I'd try to make some myself.  I created these as a simple introductory project, but I absolutely love them.  These earrings are motif #7 in the 25 Motif Challenge.  I made them out of a variegated purple and white thread and the color bisection was accidental, but I quite like it.  The picture doesn't show it well, but I also included three seed beads on the bottom of each earring.  These add some weight to keep them from flopping around.  I like these enough that I can definitely see myself making more earrings in the future.  They are fast and easy ways to use new designs.

I started this simple shrug in the hopes of wearing it to the wedding of one of my best friends.  Unfortunately, with work and school, I wasn't able to get it finished in time.  However, it is done now. The short sleeves keep it from getting too hot, but it adds a layer to your shoulders and back.  It helps fight off a slight chill by keeping your core warm.  The original pattern is the Circular Shrug by Julia Allan.  I changed the stitch pattern in the center section from a mock rib to a seed stitch.  I just love the texture of a seed stitch.  It also helps that there is no wrong side.  I made it out of plain white cotton.  What is sometimes called kitchen cotton.  It's the same stuff I use for dish cloths etc making it very easy to take care of.  All in all, I think this will become a solid accessory in my wardrobe.

As the title of this post suggests, changes are coming.  One major change is that I will be moving.  I am leaving this little college town and heading for exotic destinations; first the Washington, D.C. area then onto Ireland and Sweden.  After my jont across the pond, I will be finished my master's degree!  I can't believe I'm so close.  I hope to continue posting while I am in lands far far away.  Wish me luck!

Long time gone

I'm afraid I haven't been as busy with my crafts as I might have been since my last post.  Unfortunately, being a student makes my craft time rather sporadic.  But I have made some progress.

Last post, I was working on socks for the knitting olympics.  Unfortunately, I did not finish them.  As you can see, I still haven't finished them.  I'm a bit stalled on the after-thought heel.  This is actually my third attempt at the heel.  The sock went well until now.  I actually like the pattern, but I think if I do it again, I will include the heel with the rest of it.  The mitered squares are quite addictive and easy to work on in quick bursts between studying.

Over Spring Break, I got some old, acrylic yarn from my grandmother.  I decided I would use some of it to test some theories and make some prototypes for some projects I've been stewing over.  A double knitted swatch with increases, decreases, a yarn-over, and a cable section.  The other sample is a first prototype of a slipper, a double knit sole, no seaming, and an i-cord bind off.  I'm not completely happy with it, and will probably work on another version or two before I'm happy with it.

I am also ecstatic to announce that my sister is pregnant!  I finally have a good reason to knit baby things!  I immediately dug out my cotton yarn stash.  Cotton being easy to care for and less likely for the baby to be allergic to.  My sister and her husband are both BIG Pittsburgh Steelers' fans.  Since we don't know the gender of the baby, I thought I would make a Steelers-themed bib.  So, I created a pattern and made my first stranded knitting project.  I think it turned out well.  I still need to wash it, but I like how it came out.

What's new?

Lots has happened in the last month and a half.  It's a new year.  I'm back at school and classes are moving along at a very fast clip.  I've also moved, I changed dorms so I don't have to move for the summer during finals week.  It is also the Olympic Season.  As far as crafts go, I've slowed down since school started.  I finished the convertible fingerless gloves.  I added silver snaps after the fact to help hold the mitten part in place when I use them as fingerless.  I am happy with the results and glad I finished them before the cold snap hit us here in Oklahoma.  On to what's on the needles now.

I joined Yarn Harlot's Knitting Olympics.  The rules are fairly straight forward: you choose a project, cast on during or after the opening ceremonies, finish before the Olympics end.  I browsed Ravelry for a simple sock pattern, I have some nice sock yarn I wanted to put to good use.  I will be attempting to finish the Peppermintoes in the 14 days between lighting the torch and the closing ceremonies.  I started my project last night while watching the opening ceremonies.  Between last night and this morning, I've completed the first diamond and started the second.  You might not be able to tell, but I'm doing two at a time.  I really like that technique because any mistakes you make are at least the same on both socks.  I haven't done any mitered squares before, so I've been very excited to watch the square take shape.  I think I'll be using a lighter yarn for the next round of squares, but I'm going to wait to see how I feel when I get there.

Another project I've started is a scarf for one of my friends who helped me move earlier this semester.  While packing, he found a color combination in my stash and mentioned that he would love a scarf in those colors.  Of course, I couldn't resist.  What a great way to repay him for his help and help clear out my stash a bit at the same time!  I wanted to knit something simple, something I could knit during lectures or during a study break.  But I also wanted something that would look nice.  So, I browsed Ravelry and found the Double-double Scarf from Le Blog de MichelineL (yes, it's in French; no, I don't read French).  Two things I really appreciated: she posted an English version of the pattern, she included pictures of how to knit the stitch.  I really like how easy this is and how polished it looks.  It's based on a basic garter striped scarf.  Lovely.  However, it's going into a holding pattern until the end of the Olympics.

Post-Christmas Post

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!  We had a lot of excitement here in the Washington, D.C. area.  The Saturday before Christmas, we woke up to about 10 inches of snow on the ground, and it kept falling all day long!  We ended up with 2 feet of snow before it stopped!  My family spent the day inside watching movies and playing card games, a favorite past time of ours.  Luckily, I had all my shopping finished.  The entire area shut down.  It was still so bad on Monday, that the government took a snow day!  This also allowed me to have my first experience shoveling snow off the driveway.  I was SO sore the next day!  How can something so light and fluffy weigh so much?  But it was very pretty and it stayed long enough for us to have a white Christmas!

The time we were all forced together in the house made it difficult for me to find time to finish my present for my mother.  These are motifs #4, #5, #5, and #6 (the middle two are the same).  They are Kindle bookmarks!  My mother has loved books for as long as I can remember.  She got a Kindle and loves being able to carry around multiple books at a time.  However, she could no longer use her accumulated collection of bookmarks.  So, I decided to make some she could use with her Kindle.  These motifs are attached to cords leading to a loop.  They are very easy and a great way to make little, 'practice' size motifs.  I learned how to make a neat join, use beads and charms and create a strong, flexible cord using only my shuttle and some imagination!

I've also been working on the Rose Tyler fingerless glove pattern.  Here is the result so far.  My knitting muse refused to either leave the bed or look at the camera.  He keeps me company while I knit here at my folks place, or do anything crafty point of fact.  I am loving this pattern.  The cables up the side are unusually tight, but simple.  This pattern also uses one of my favorite stitches, the seed stitch, in the middle of the diamonds.  It creates a really fun texture.  I'm just starting the third complete diamond of the pattern.  On the eighth row of this repeat I'm supposed to start the thumb gusset.  I've never done gloves before.  I hope I can figure it out!

'Tis the Season

'Tis the season for family get togethers, presents, and holiday crafting.  It's also the season for snow.  Finished with finals, I headed back east to visit my folks.  This morning, I woke up to 8-10 inches of snowfall!!!  As you may have guessed from my name, I didn't grow up in this sort of place.  I'm really looking forward to a possible white Christmas, or at least a really good snow fight with my brothers.

As far as crafting is concerned, I've been working o a few things since my last post.  This is a scarf/hat set I made for a local charity my school supports.  I have very little money to donate, but I have a lot of yarn.  So, I knit up a quick garter stitch scarf and a 2x2 rib hat out of a fun yarn in my stash I hadn't ever decided what to do with.  It's my first time working with this yarn.  It was a Yarn Bee fun yarn that had been given to me by a beginner who just couldn't quite make it work.  I believe it.  It had two very different yarns twisted together to make this yarn, and eyelash yarn and a yarn with different colored bumps every few inches.  It was interesting to knit and required much more attention than I was planning on dedicating to a charity project, but I'm glad I did.  The unusual yarn created a fun fabric that was thick and warm as well as colorful.  I donated the pair to a shelter for victims of domestic abuse.

Since that's about the extent of my knitting prowess, I'm not knitting gifts for my family.  A massive amount of scarves under the tree would probably not be appreciated.  I am tatting a present for my mother, however, since I don't know if she reads my blog, you will have to wait for the post-Christmas post to find out what it is.
I still have a new project for the Challenge however, an anklet! I tatted this based on a picture I saw in an old book in the school library.  It's a simple ring-chain-ring line.  It took me a few tries to get the ratio correct, but I like what it turned out as.  I was trying to figure out how to incorporate buttons into my tatting, this is one way.  I like it because it's a little frilly piece of jewelry and I can wear it through airport security.  :)


I am trying my hand at knitting something new.  I'm trying my hand at a pair of fingerless mittens.  I found a beautiful pattern for Rose Tyler's Fingerless Gloves.  I love the cable and seed stitch detailing.  So far it seems like a very simple pattern, but I haven't gotten to the thumb gusset yet.  I guess we'll just see how it goes!

How about you, what are you working on this fine holiday season?

Motif #2

Motif #2
Originally uploaded by Desert Sonnet

Welcome to December! Glad to see everyone made it through Black Friday alive. Now that Thanksgiving is past, it's time for me to start looking to Christmas. I have some unloved yarn in my stash that I hope to turn into scarves and hats for the local Mitten Tree. They collect cold weather gear for women and children suffering from domestic violence.

I've been busy with end of school work, but I've still managed to find time to slip some time in for tatting. I found some lovely variegated purple and white thread at Hobby Lobby, home of the Poor Broke College Student (PBCS) crafter. I also picked up my second motif pattern, just a free heart pattern hanging by the thread. I didn't notice until after I was practically finished that it went quite well with my African Violets. I like this pattern, very easy. I also learned a lot. I followed this tutorial from Paradise Treasures to add a new shuttle thread when I ran short. I'm still trying to figure out how I want to handle the ends, I've seen a few ways, but haven't really found a way that works for me yet. I'll keep looking. Until next time!

Tatting Away

So, I have completed my first motif for the 25 Motif Challenge.  Behold:

This is my first motif.  It's actually from a book from Project Gutenberg called Beeton's Book of Needlework.  The Gutenberg Project is an online e-book library of public domain books.  I absolutely love it because in addition to the classics like Shakespeare and Jane Austen, you can find obscure little publications like this.

I was also going to try the clover pattern.  It didn't turn out too well.  For some reason I can't upload the image.  However, it didn't turn out well enough for me to call it a success, I haven't even figured out how to get it to attach to the paperclip.  So, the clover will have to wait until I have a bit more practice.

I've also been working on a scarf from some stash yarn I need to use before I can buy new yarn.  It's surprising how much knitting you can go through during a Dr. Who marathon.  As that develops, I'll try to get pictures up.  It's my own imagination that's creating this project, so we'll just have to see how it goes.

Oops! I done broke it!

I am completely new to the whole tatting thing.  As such, I have very limited knowledge about what one should or should not attempt during the beginner phase.  A little advice, don't start out with size 80 thread!  I was using my grandmother's old supplies, shuttle and thread.  The shuttle works great, however the thread was so delicate that it broke off as I was trying to tighten a ring!  So I've decided to proceed in a more traditional fashion.  I've been reading LOTS of tatting blogs over the past few days and I thought I would start simpler and with bigger thread.  And to keep me going, I thought I would try the 25 Motif Challenge.  In short, I'm going to attempt just over two motifs a month and try to finish 25 of them before next November.  Here we go!

I thought I'd try my first motif fairly simply.  I found a pattern for a four-leaf- clover on Georgia Seitz's Online Tatting Class.  I thought I'd try it because who couldn't use a little extra luck in their lives?  I found a dark green ball of size 20 cotton thread left over from an earlier crocheted project that has been languishing in my stash.  I thought it was time to see if I could use it for my next attempt.  I thought I would try the version of the pattern that has the little four-leaf-clover on a paper clip.  We'll see how it goes!