Ready!

We woke up to a light dusting of snow yesterday. So, I decided it would be a race to the finish and quickly whipped up my daughter's hat and my liners for my mittens. My family is now clothed and ready to face the long cold winter! I don't ever remember being ready so early in advance before! We are usually out buying warm coats to fit the newly bigger children a couple weeks AFTER it's turned cold. I am usually knitting new hats and mittens in January (long after they are actually needed). Not this year, folks! We're the warmest family in the midwest!

Hand spun

I made this yarn with my kids. They helped me card it with my hand cards and they helped spin my drop spindle (for the singles). They didn't help with the whole process but both of them helped out. Then, I plied two singles together using my spinning wheel.

I love how it turned out. I used it for the Hello Kitty dress and bow.

This fiber was originally purchased to be a part of a winter hat. But, upon further investigation I found it to be too itchy. Then my daughter and I read a book called "slow magic" and we carded some fiber. I still wanted to use this yarn for something more precious than a toy. But, my daughter wanted a toy.

I think knitters and spinners are inclined to place yarns on a heirarchy. And for some people hand spun yarn is the most precious of all yarns. Some people won't knit with it because they are scared. I had to rearrange my thinking in order to use it for a toy. It's hand dyed, hand washed, hand carded, hand spun yarn. And it made something very precious for my daughter.

Beware: Cheesy Post!

I made these little hearts yesterday. They are to send with my kids to school so that when they see the heart they know their family loves them. This is the first year my kids won't be together at home or together at the same school and I wanted to send a little reminder.

This one is going in a pencil box.

This one is going on a backpack.


They took me 30 minutes to make both. You only need the smallest bits of felt (I used synthetic felt but any type will do). Here's what to do:

Find a heart shape you like on the internet and print it out.
Trace the heart onto butcher paper. (I love using butcher paper for patterns! I iron the butcher paper (plastic side down) at a very low setting right onto the felt.)
Cut out around the pattern.
Discard the butcher paper.
Sew the edges of the heart together using the blanket stitch.
Stop sewing when you have about 3/4 of an inch left to go.
Stuff the heart.
Finish sewing.
Tell someone you love them!

Hats That Fit

I'm making this hat for my son. I'm knitting it out of my own handspun yarn. It's turning out great! I wish I had captured a better picture of it, though.

Let me just put in a little plug for a pattern I go to time and time again. If you knit hats, this is a great basic pattern that will help you get a custom fit every time you knit. You can add your own cables or colorwork to any of her hats. The pattern is called:

Hats That Fit (and also check out More Hats That Fit).

Hat for my Husband

I am in "prepare for the winter" mode over here. I've finished my outer layer mittens and started my inner layer. I've finished this hat for my husband and started a hat for my son. And it's only September! Nobody is waiting for warm hands or heads this year!

Tomatoes!

I can't remember the name of this tomato. All I know is it's an heirloom, it's gorgeous, and it tastes like heaven!

These are the chocolate cherries. They are also amazing. They are puple-ish and green. And look at the insides! They are delicious.

My tomatoes may be just about done fruiting. I've taken to picking them early and ripening them on the counter because I have some jerky animal eating all my tomatoes. It ate through three of my big ones! Jerk.

Buttercup

This is my first attempt at knitting a warm weather garment. I am quite pleased with how it turned out!

This is "Buttercup" by Heidi Kirrmaier. It was a lovely pattern to knit. And it's free! You can get the pattern on Ravelry.

I only modified the sleeves on the pattern. I simply knit them longer (the original pattern has cap sleeves) and then finished the sleeves using Heidi's directions.

Check out all her patterns. I love the flowy and simple look of the tops. I'll be knitting more, for sure!

PS The yarn is Hempathy by Elsebeth Lavold. Yummy yarn, people!

Hello Kitty

I found the pattern for this doll on Ravelry. It was a really fun knit and a free pattern! The only change I made was that I made the dress as a "wrap" so my daughter could easily change her clothes.

The dress and the bow snap on and off. I plan to make more "outfits" for her.

New Yarn

This yarn will be knit into a winter hat for my son. I love how it turned out. I think it'll knit up into a really interesting fabric.

I have approximately 210 yards of it. It's BFL from cloudlover69. I bought it in May at the Shepherd's Harvest Festival. I was very pleased with the fiber and how it spun up! I'm sure I'll be buying more fiber from them in the future. They are having a sale this week! Time to stock up!

Swoon

Melissa LaBarre (the person who designed the pattern I used to make my red cardigan) hearted my cardigan on Ravelry. And she said she had been thinking of doing something similar and she liked my mods! I'm over the moon.

Swingy Garter Yoke Cardi

It's done! It's done! It's done! (And it only took 3 1/2 months.)

I'm really happy with how it turned out. I had hoped it wouldn't gap at the front. And I was sad at first. But, it's growing on me. If at some point I don't want the gap anymore I can just sew some snaps to the button band and fix that right up!

I made these increases just under the yoke and added a few more at the underarm to give it a swingy A-line silhouette.

I sewed grosgrain ribbon to the wrong side of each button band. I'm so glad I did! I may go back to another older cardigan and add ribbon. It gives the sweater such a more finished look.

I also went for snaps instead of buttons after the grosgrain ribbon made buttoning my buttons too difficult. I like the snaps! I may just add ribbon to all my future cardigans.

I would definitely knit this sweater again. The original pattern is fitted and I might make one of those (you know, just knit the pattern instead of messing about with it). I think this pattern also would work with some stripes or lacy pattern at the bottom.



Here's my full list of modifications to the Garter Yoke Cardi by Melissa LaBarre:

1) Knit yoke with a needle 2 sizes smaller than necessary to obtain gauge.

2) Immediately after finishing yoke, on first round of stockinette, add increases. I increased using a 3 stitch repeat of: purl into the front and knit into the back of the same stitch, knit into the back and purl into the front of the next stitch, knit one stitch. If I were to do this again I would have knit 4 - 5 stitches next to the button band and then started increases and continued increasing all the way to the raglan increases.

3) After separating the sleeve stitches knit 1 inch at the underarm. Increase by knitting in the front and back of the same stitch 4 stitches from either side of the underarm marker (increasing 4 stitches each increase round). Knit about one inch and do the increase round again. Note: I only did this 2 times. I think I might have been able to get my cardigan to stay closed in the front had I done more increases on the “front side” of the underarms.

4) Don’t do the waist shaping.

5) Sew grosgrain ribbon to back sides of button bands. Sew snaps for closure.

Look what happened yesterday!

My tomatoes are huge! I have a few tomatoes turning orange and red.

And yesterday morning I couldn't help myself when I saw this little beauty.

I shared this tiny thing with my daughter (my son doesn't really like them). The kids and I were both ecstatic that a tomato had grown and was ready to eat. This tomato was delicious! It was either a Mexican Mini or a Chocolate Cherry. I lost track of which ones I planted where. I doubt that would even matter at this point as the branches are all a jumble.

Bring on the tomatoes!

Blocking Board

Here are my mittens blocking. They were pretty snug before I blocked them but now they are perfect.

Here's the thing - I block my knitting. I know some people don't but I always do. It's just really a hassle when you live in a very small house with no where to put a blocking board. Usually, the knitting would get moved to the bed when we were awake and to the dining room table when we were asleep. I couldn't really pin into my knitting because I would just have it on a towel. Not any more!

I was looking into buying Knitter's Block. This looks like a great product but I didn't want to spend close to $100 to get it. I wanted the ability to have small blocking boards as well as big ones. My sister solved the problem by suggesting I use something available at home improvement stores. I bought a sheet of foam board insulation from Menard's. It was 4 feet by 8 feet and 3/4 of an inch thick and cost $8.

It was too big to fit in my car so the nice gentleman in the warehouse cut it down for me. I have two boards big enough to block sweaters on and two thinner ones wide enough to block scarves, mittens, hats, etc.

Here's how it looked after I pinned into it. Obviously, it makes small holes. It's rather durable and I don't think the holes will be a problem.

When I was done blocking my mittens and my sweater I just packed up my boards and took them down to the basement. It's excellent!

Knitters have a huge number of very useful products available to us. I think we often only shop at yarn stores or craft stores when we're looking for knitting supplies. Consider what your local hardware store can do for you. I bought this blocking board and a new tiny hook for my broken drop spindle the other day. I saved a bunch of money by buying something that wasn't "cute" and wasn't being marketed to a specialized market.

Winter Ain't Got Sh*t on ME!

Every year it starts getting cold and I realize I need a new pair of mittens. Because I realize I need mittens when it is already cold (and I'm talking 30 degrees) I go two weeks with freezing cold hands. Not this year! It's July and I have a pair of seriously warm mittens. I knit them with double-stranded worsted weight wool. And I'm not stopping there. I'm knitting another pair of thermal mittens to wear underneath. I laugh in the face of winter!

I knit these mittens from inspiration I found in two different places. They are based on Cosy’s subtle stripes spinning kits and an article about using color I read in Spin-Off Magazine. The article is called, “Blending Colors at the Wheel”. Instead of blending the colors at the wheel, I blended the colors at the needles.

I knit with one color all throughout. To make the stripes I changed the 2nd strand of yarn after knitting 8 rows of color. By keeping one color constant it makes the stripes more "subtle". Incidentally, the greenish stripe is make with some handspun yarn that I didn't really like. So, I found a way to use that yarn! Stranding a color you don't love with another color can make it pop, or calm it down, or bring out certain tones. Give it a try!

Aluminum Foil River

I found this fun activity over on Filth Wizardry. Seriously, you need to check that blog. Fun stuff!

We turned long sheets of aluminum foil into rivers by simply folding up the sides of the foil. Then, we turned on the hose and raced our "boats" (juice bottle tops) along the river.

It started as a single long river. But, we needed a more challenging course. The kids all helped make the river and keep it working. It's a very fragile system but the kids liked fixing the river when the banks were squished.

This activity was really fun for young kids (and me!). They played outside for a really long time. And when they were done I rinsed the aluminum foil and threw it in the recycling.

Oh, Balls!

I made these little balls the other day. The pattern is available for free. They don't even take an hour to make (probably more like 30 minutes) and they are endless fun. You can throw them inside and nothing gets ruined. Kids can throw them and you don't get an eye full of ball.

These are a good stashbusting project. They don't take much yarn to knit (not too satisfying when you are trying to use up yarn) but I stuffed them with yarn as well. Awesome.