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.

My red sweater

My garter yoke cardi is coming along great! In fact, I have only to knit the ribbing on one sleeve and then I'm on to the finishing. I made some changes to the pattern such as these increases at the bust (I'll post a full list of mods when it's completed).

I got a great tip from and old episode of the Knitmore Girls podcast. Jasmin mentioned that she likes knitting her sleeves two-at-a-time. I was almost to the elbow on the first sleeve when I got started on the second. I'm so glad I did this!

- I could more accurately decide on the length of the sleeves since I had two arms with sleeves to look at in the mirror.

- I was much more motivated to knit (it's really hard to start that second sleeve).

- I could make adjustments to tension, guage, size as I went instead of realizing it at the very end of the project.

Clever thinking!

Slow Magic

We borrowed a book from the library the other day that my daughter was quite inspired by. The book is called Slow Magic and it's by Pipa Goodhart. It tells the story of creating wool to knit the girl a sweater. There is one illustration of the grandma and granddaughter carding wool. I told my own daughter that I had hand cards and asked if she'd like to try them. Then, my son had to try it too! It was really fun.

If you spin and / or knit your kids might really like this book.

TMI?

I'm going to share some personal information (perhaps a little too personal) but it's for a good cause! That is, if you think the earth is a good cause.

Some women get their periods like clock work. They know exactly when they are coming. Other women, such as the one writing this post, never know when the period is coming. It's usually somewhere between 15 and 45 days between periods. To avoid accidents, I wear a maxi pad just about every day. I really can't be teaching and suddenly think, "I have to get to a bathroom!" The honest truth is that I can't just go to the bathroom whenever I want to in order to check and see if my period has arrived. So, I have to have a little extra protection.

I was offended at the amount of pads I was using "just in case" my period showed up. I also seem to use a lot of pads at the end of period when I don't really need a pad but I don't want to stain my underwear. (I know - too much information.) So, I went out to Etsy and bought one or two pads from a variety of sellers. I found one I was very pleased with and went back for more. Pleat has a shop full of pads, and a line of happy customers.


These pictures are of the pantyliners. They are way more comfortable than disposable pads (I hardly notice I'm wearing them). One of the reasons I preferred Pleat's pads to the others I tried was that they were substantial enough for me to feel confident in them but still pliable enough to be very comfortable. They are very well made and they come in cute fabrics. The pads are made to order so you'll wait just a few days for them to arrive. The turn-around time is very reasonable. The seller must be sewing like crazy!

So far, I've only used cloth pads for the "just in case" time of my period and for the end of my period when the flow is really light. (Once my period starts I've been switching to disposables.) I just change the the cloth pads a couple times a day (for comfort and freshness) and they go in my regular laundry. I'm planning to switch to cloth pads for use when I'm at home but there are many women who use cloth pads all the time. I read that they are great for extra protection with a diva cup.

Pleat sells pantyliners, regular pads, overnight pads, and even thong pads! Instead of buying single pads you can also buy them in sets.

They are not hard to use or clean. Here's what Pleat's shop announcement says (and it's true!):

"New to cloth pads? Give them a chance and join the ranks of happy cloth users. They are super soft and comfortable - no more chafing from disposables. Secure, highly leak resistant, chlorine free, environmentally friendly and frugal, what's not to love about them? Oh, and I bet you would be surprised how easy it is to keep them stain free and fresh: just rinse in cold water after use, fold and snap, and then run through the washing machine at your leisure (before they dry out is best). A bit of white vinegar added to your wash load is an amazingly effective, inexpensive, all natural deodorizer that eradicates odors and mildew and leaves them fresh as new."

That's the end of my TMI post. I hope you will all consider cloth pads as another easy way to reduce waste.

Too precious to throw away

I made some more weavette squares the other day. These were the snippets of yarn left over after weaving in the ends. I couldn't bring myself to throw them away! Seriously folks, look how small these are:

These are pieces of handspun yarn. They were spun and plied on my drop spindle. I just thought it was a shame to discard them - not because they are actually useful but because of the effort it took to make them.

Do you have any crafting supplies that you hate to throw even when they aren't very useful?

Little Origami Baskets

I made these baskets for my kids and niece and nephew to play with. It took about 20 minutes to make four of them.

The kids went around the house & yard collecting things. This one has rocks, "colored rocks" (sidewalk chalk that was left outside), and some bits of a building game.

Here's how they held up after a morning of use. They were really fun!

Stash busting: dishcloths

I have a fairly insubstantial stash (compared to most knitters). It's probably only about 3 garbage bags full of yarn. The trouble with my stash is that it's mostly odds & ends from projects I finished years ago. Much of the yarn is lower quality than I want these days (left over from when I first started) and most of it is in colors that I find less than fabulous.

Even though I don't have a huge amount of yarn, the fact that it's there bothers me. I don't like a lot of clutter. And, little odds & ends of yarn is clutter. I wouldn't mind a stash with sweater's worth of yarn just waiting to be knit. What I mind is a bunch of stuff I don't really want to knit with sitting in my basement.

Enter the dishcloth! I found this pattern from Maggie's Rags and really liked it. It's much more substantial than most knit dishcloths and it doesn't stretch the way they do when they are knit on the bias. It's very thick and a little nubby so it scrubs dishes really well.

My only mods were to cast on fewer stitches (I cast on 35). And for the red cloth I thought I'd try to eliminate a wrong side. (The yellow cloth has garter stitch on the back.) To switch the right and wrong sides I simply knit for about 1.5 inches and then knit two rows before starting back into the pattern. By doing that, I alternated from garter stitch to chinese waves and back again.

Dishcloths are great for stash busting. They are also very portable. And, honestly, they are dishcloths and I felt no need to correct my mistakes. Perfect projects for a car ride or visiting with friends and family!

Craft with your kids

My niece and nephew are here today visiting with us and in honor of our super fun morning I thought I'd share a few links to crafts for (and with) kids.

I have found two really cool craft projects while looking through the mighty wonderful One Pretty Thing. I found two tutorials from the Mama Dramalogues that I'm really interested in:

Coloring Book Pages (using your own pictures)
Bug Catcher

I made these origami baskets this morning (photos to follow).

I made Betz White's Super Foam-erator last summer and they were a hit. I better make more.

Have a fun and artful day, everyone!

An Oldy made into a Newy

Did you make God's Eyes when you were little? I remember making them in Girl Scouts. I got this great idea for using God's Eyes to display nature treasures. This crafter has quite a lot of posts about making God's Eyes and kids would most likely love doing these with you. There are the basic ones (excellent instructions here). There are beaded ones. And there are treasure ones.

We used ours to display some shells.

Scrap yarn left over from my Easter Ducks and Bunnies worked great! Can you tell what I used for the sticks? Chop sticks! I always forget to request no chop sticks when we get take out. I save them and finally found something to use them for.

Stick Garden

The kids and I painted some sticks to decorate our garden. The kids absolutely loved this project! In general, painting on something that isn't paper really ups the kids' interest in the project. Cut up your cereal boxes into shapes and watch your kids paint for twice as long! Let your kids paint sticks (or rocks) and watch them paint 4 times as long!

I got the idea for the project from one of my favorite blogs, Fun Projects for Preschoolers. Here's the tutorial.

CSI: Bunnies in the Backyard

Look at that bunny! There he sits, OUTSIDE my garden, eating the grass. That's right, suckah!

Drying Kid Art

Do your kids like to paint? Mine sure do! But I didn't have anywhere to dry their art except the table or kitchen counters. That was really inconvenient. So, I strung some yarn across the towel holders above my sink. I just clip the art on when they need to dry.

And the yarn can be pushed back against the wall when there's no art drying on it.

Shakers made from toilet paper tubes

My kids and I decided to make some shakers the other day. I didn't really know how to do it but it wasn't too hard to figure out. The kids had so much fun I grabbed the camera to write up a tutorial. There may be a tidier way to do this but they worked just fine and my kids have been making music ever since!

MATERIALS:

-toilet paper tubes

-construction paper

-masking tape

-glue

-scissors

-paint (or something else to decorate the shakers with)

-things to fill the shakers (I used dried pasta rings, dried lentils, and dried rice)