Knitasha von Stashenskeins

Today's Post is Brought to You by the Letter Q

I really don't sew, but I have been known to quilt a little.  To me, they are two very different things.  "Sewing" is when you make garments that fit someone.  "Quilting" is playing with little bits of colored fabric and occasionally making something pretty and/or useful which may or may not be the item you set out to create.  Lots more latitude in quilting - at least the way I do it.

I haven't done any for ages, but seeing my sister spend hours at the sewing machine when she was here visiting brought out my inner quilter.  Unlike knitting, where I recklessly cast on giant projects without a backward glance, I tend to be a bit more intrepid on my quilting forays.  I have never made anything bigger than a throw or a wall quilt and those have been few and far between.  Little items are more my style, so I decided to start with a potholder.

I am proud to say that the fabric you are about to see came completely from my teeny fabric stash.  I even had matching thread!

Potholder #1 was a humble little square.

No binding.  Very rudimentary machine quilting.  I also did a dismal job of matching up lines and points.  It is a potholder only a mother could love, so I tossed it into my own potholder drawer.

Potholder #2 showed considerable improvement.

Much better job of getting the pieces aligned and the points to match.  The machine quilting is still not great, but I managed to outline one square and 4 triangles.  And check out the snazzy binding!

By Potholder #3, I was really hitting my stride.

The pattern is a little random - I was just using up the squares and triangles I had left - but the execution is pretty dang good.

Corners and points in good alignment.

Reasonably straight machine quilting in a pleasing pattern.

And honest-to-goodness mitered corners.  I am ridiculously pleased with the corners.

Now that I've had a little practice, I may try to make a couple of potholders in colors that match my mom's kitchen and coordinate with the placemats I wove for her birthday.

After nearly a month of yarn-overs, I finally finished the lace shrug I was knitting.  The pattern is "Viennese Shrug" from Interweave Knits and I made it out of Berroco Comfort.  My camera flatly refuses to admit that this yarn is shades of purple, so you will have to take my word for it.

It is ridiculous to take a picture of a shrug that isn't being worn - they look like blobs with sleeves.  Unfortunately, I can't put my shrug on for a picture until I alter it.  As you might guess from the photo, the part across my back is way too wide and the sleeves are too short.  I need to have someone help me pin it and then sew the underarm seams longer.  Maybe I'll tote it along to Yarn Cravin tomorrow night and recruit a helper.

The coolest thing about this shrug is that you start in the center back with a provisional cast-on and work one side down to the cuff.  Then you pick up the stitches from the other side of the cast-on and head off in the other direction.  I had my doubts that this transition would look seamless, especially with a lace pattern, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Can you find the line?

My most recent weaving is just a boring scarf.  The warp was generic gray DK wool from my stash and the weft is called "Swizzle".  It is a totally gorgeous superfine alpaca, but weaving doesn't seem to be the best way to show it off.

Just kinda blah.  Incredibly dense and warm, but blah.  I have another ball of Swizzle in rosy pink and I am going to have to find a better way to use it.  I'm going to check Ravelry for possible inspiration.

Don't Know Artisan, But I Know What I Like

I just got this book from Amazon and promptly lost my damn mind.  One quick browse through it and I was off to the kitchen store for a baking stone, oven thermometer, and a pizza peel.  (Turns out that is what they call those big wooden paddles you can use to transfer pizza in and out of the oven.)

I mixed up my first batch of dough on Monday night and Tuesday morning I baked me first loaf before I went to work.

I over-floured it a little, but L pronounced it yummy with some butter and honey.  I think I will alter the recipe a little next time and reduce the salt.

Tonight after work, I really went to town.  First I made a pizza, because when it is 94 degrees out, you really want to crank your oven up to 500.

I could have rolled the dough out a little thinner, but it was pretty good anyway.

Tomorrow is Thursday and I usually take a baked good to work for my staff.   I used a recipe from the book as a basic framework and came up with this little guy.

Doesn't it look like a cat curled up to sleep? 

It has to "rest" for a little while, and then I'll brush the top with egg white, sprinkle on some sugar, and bake until brown.  Wrapped up in the loaf is a layer of Nutella.  It will either be really good or really weird.  Haven't found a chocolate-related item that the girls at work wouldn't eat - could this be the one?

New Toys

I can go for several months without internet shopping, keeping my credit card in my wallet and resisting all the links on Lime & Violet and all the tempting offers in my in box.  Then I'll trip and have a small relapse.  This invariably opens the floodgates and I'm a shop-a-holic for a week or two before I get myself reined in again.  Since my sister went home and I went back on Weight Watchers, I have been filling the company and food voids with online retail therapy.  Nothing too extravagant, but enough to feed my package addiction.  Is there anything more fabulous than coming home to goodies on the doorstep?

My first toy was ordered approximately 27 seconds after I received the latest Spin-Off in the mail.  I have always craved a Woolee Winder flyer, but I held off because they seemed pricey and I wasn't sure it was worth it.  But now Ashford has their own "Sliding Hock flyer", made especially for Ashford wheels and costing about a third of the Woolee Winder price.  Woot!

It was waiting for me when I got home from knitting on Tuesday night and I had to try it out right away.  I dug around in my fiber stash for something I didn't care much about and came up with this Masham that I bought at the Ann Arbor fiber fest last October.  A prior attempt to spin it had produced a two-ply too coarse and scratchy for any garment.

What makes the new flyer cool is that instead of fixed hooks that guide the spun yarn onto the bobbin, you have mobile guides.  You slide them incrementally up and down and the bobbin fills smoothly instead of in lumps beside each fixed hook.  The bobbin can hold a lot more this way.

The Woolee winder moves the guides up and down the flyer arms automatically and mine has to be moved by hand, so the Woolee Winder is still cooler, but I like my new gadget and it did make a very smooth bobbin of singles.  Because I was just playing, I decided to chain-ply it this time.

I learned that A) I am still really bad at chain-plying and B) this fiber is not any softer in a three-ply.  The colors are absolutely lovely, but the resultant yarn has no tactile charm.

I was trying to think of something I could make with it and remembered a craft my mom and I used to do years ago.  She called it "warp wrap" at the time - it probably has other names.  It entails wrapping yarn around rope or cord and coiling it.  After a set number of wraps, you stitch the new coil to the last one to hold it all together.  We used to make bowls and baskets, but I contented myself with just a little hot pad.

I didn't have any suitable rope or cord lying around, so I used some pencil roving that I held doubled.  Worked like a charm.  It isn't stiff enough to hold its shape if I was trying to make a bowl, but just fine for a flat piece.  Beautiful and horrid yarn all used up!

My next toy came yesterday.  This one I am blaming entirely on the Keyboard Biologist.  She had a post about a cool braiding tool that she was using to make some sample cords.  She's going to weave a pillow and then edge it in braided cording.  That would have been all well and good, but then she had to go and post a link to the braiding tool supplier.  (Click at your own risk)

This disc is made of foam and the notches in the edge end in slits that hold the threads tightly.  The braid is formed in the middle hole and feeds down, kind of like spool knitting.  Apparently there are endless braids with varying numbers of strands, but I started with a simple 8 strand spiral braid, using some sample thread that came with the kit I ordered.

This was crazy-simple to execute, it just takes some time.  I think I could even read a book and braid at the same time once I finished the initial set-up.  It was certainly no strain to braid and watch TV.  I'm going to play with it more today.  My instructions tell how you can add beads to the braid, so maybe I will try a simple little bracelet for M.  I will also bring it to Knit in Public day at Yarn Cravin' tomorrow in case anyone wants to check it out!

Okay, one last thing.  I've been weaving again!  I ordered an amazing book - Textures and Patterns for the Rigid Heddle Loom by Betty Davenport.  This book is (shockingly) full of different weave patterns for the rigid heddle loom.  (Who'd have thunk?)  I should probably order a second copy while I can because I suspect my original copy will end up in tatters from frequent use.  The minute I got the book, I was ready to try something new.

We have a guest room in the basement with a long dresser and when my sister visited I wished I had a runner or something to spruce it up.  Once she had headed back home, I measured the dresser top and got to work.

In the interest of "reduce, reuse, recycle" I used some silk/cashmere blend that I had started an ugly shawl with and never ripped out.  It is not as soft as it sounds, but it has a subtle sheen and is strong enough for warp.  I chose to alternate between what Betty calls 3/1 lace and 1/1 leno.

Forgive the dark photo.  Natural light has been hard to come by in Northwest Ohio this week and the flash photo obliterated the pattern.

This was a very looooong project, so it took me several evenings to finish, but I just love how it turned out.  I soaked it in wool wash and then blocked it with pins on the living room floor.  Now my boring old dresser is all spiffed up.

Knit in public tomorrow, wherever you are!

Hey look, it's June!

What's cuter than teeny tiny baby booties?

A new baby wearing teeny tiny baby booties!

By an extraordinary coincidence, my sister's sister-in-law also lives in the Toledo area and she just had a new baby.  My sister arrived with the start of a beautiful baby blanket, so I set her up at the sewing machine and worked on booties to keep her company.  It was a real shock to her system to be able to sew for hours without anyone yelling "Mama!" or demanding that she get up and do something else.

I didn't get a good picture of just the blanket, but it is the quilt in the background of the photo above, partially covered by a blue receiving blanket.  It turned out just beautiful and my sister makes it look so easy! 

We had a great visit.  When we weren't holed up in my craft room, we went to a Mud Hens game, walked at Oak Openings, browsed the fabric store and a thrift store, and went out for ice cream waaaay too many times.  (I have since re-started Weight Watchers - beach week is mid-July!)  It went by so fast.  She had a crack of dawn Detroit flight to get back home and L graciously volunteered to make the drive for me.  Now my sister is back to her own crazy life, but I know her little Ohio break was as nice as I could make it.

My other knitting project while she was here was a little summer top for her oldest girl. 

  

This is the Sleek Ribs Tank from Interweave Knits Summer 2005.  I used stash yarn - ancient Berroco Cotton Twist in color 8464.  It turns out to be a cute top, but it was a painful knit - endless miles of K1P1 rib.  Snore! My sister tries hard to keep her daughters somewhat covered up, so I would guess this will be worn over another tank or a tee.  I may get a picture of her wearing it someday, but I won't be holding my breath.

My present for her middle girl was already done before my sister arrived.

The tried-and-true Boobholder, which I have knit at least 5 times now.  Of course, kindergartners don't really have boobs to hold, but it is still a cute little jacket over a dress.  My niece is reportedly deep into an obsessive dress-up phase, so I am hoping it will come in handy.  I used Cotton Fleece, also from the stash.

My poor nephew, who is bigger than me now, got a book.  His birthday isn't until August, so maybe I'll hook him up then.

The only other FO I have to show is some hand spun.  I spun this at knitting night at Yarn Cravin' a few weeks ago.  I didn't feel like knitting and I never took my poor spinning wheel out of the car after the big retreat.  I bought some roving right there at the store and set up happily on the porch.

It was only 3 oz and I spun it pretty thick, but I bet I could get a hat out of it.  More importantly, I got to spin on the porch.  If there is a better cure for high blood pressure, I haven't heard of it.

11:25 on a Monday morning and I am still in jammies with wet hair.  Guess it is time to impersonate a grown up and get ready for work.

Another Milestone

As though my 40th birthday a few weekends ago wasn't enough to make me feel old, now I have also celebrated my 20th wedding anniversary.  I have now been married for half of my life.

Hubby and I went to Navy Bistro for dinner and sat out by the river in the glorious sunshine.  We decided to skip dessert there and took ice cream home to the kids instead so we could all toast the occasion together.

For the last few days before my anniversary, I was weaving like a madman to finish a present for him.  I wanted to try another blanket, so I wove three separate panels that were 21" x 36" and then seamed them.  The seaming went a lot better this time thanks to an on line article I found.  Then I sewed on a satin blanket binding again.  I just love how the binding pulls it together and makes it look finished.

Hubby liked it but was worried it might be too nice to use and suggested we should hang it on the wall instead.   I disabused him of that ridiculous notion and now it is living on the foot of our bed.  I'm very happy with how it turned out.

I have other stuff to show you, but it will have to wait.  My little sister is coming to visit me for the first time ever, leaving her 4 rugrats behind.  There is much cleaning and laundry to finish before then.  I took all of next week off so we can hang out together - we are going to have so much fun!!

Weekend Post III

Admit it, you didn't think I had it in me.  To be truthful, I really didn't either.  People that manage to blog every day amaze me!

First, let me show you a sweater I finished ages ago and never blogged about.  I wanted to try out a top-down raglan a la Barbara Walker and I had a bunch of leftover bits of Wool Ease chunky left over from Christmas slippers.

Ta Da!  All the time I was working on this, people were complimenting me on the color scheme.  Hard to take credit for it as I was just using up yarn I already had.  Given all the colors in the world, I probably would not have come up with this particular combo. 

Because the yarn is chunky, this sweater is WARM.  I wore it once to work when I finished it, but I don't think I'll need it again until November or so.

In between the spinning and knitting on the February Lady Sweater at the knitting retreat, I also managed to start something else.  Dale Ann was teaching a class on the Ten Stitch Blanket and she also had the pattern for the Ten Stitch Twist.  Instant infatuation!!  I had to try it, so I used the little ball of neon yarn I had spun on my spindle.

It is entirely possible that this yarn can be seen from space.

This will never turn in to a blanket - it would take me years on size 4 needles - but it may grow up to be a little mat.  It is definitely a cool pattern to show off hand spun.  The starting circle is a bit fiddly but then the pattern is easy-peasy.

Last show and tell of the weekend:

Warp is Wool Ease worsted and weft is Moda Dea Tweedle Dee.  I am going to weave two long panels and then seam them for a throw.  I found a tutorial for seaming a woven blanket, so I hope it goes smoother that the baby blanket.  I'm ruminating on edging it with some crochet - we'll see.

I think I am officially out of stuff to show you!

Weekend Post II

M dragged me out shopping today and wore me out completely.  I did find a couple of tops for myself and a very cute pair of summer shoes.  I also got my mom a book for Mother's Day that I better get in the mail on Monday.  No knitting for her this time.  My nieces' birthdays are May 11 and 13, so I am busy knitting for them.

When you are looking to knit something cute, copying Sarah is a good rule of thumb.  She was knitting Katja at the knitting retreat for her own niece's birthday and it was just so adorable I couldn't resist.

This is for Adleigh, who will be turning 2.  I used Bernat Handicrafter cotton.  It comes in monster 9.8 oz skeins, so I have tons left over.  Will probably use the rest for weaving - would make some pretty towels.

Before I started Katja, I finally finished a project I have had on the needles forever.  It really wasn't a hard knit, I just kept setting it down and wandering off to do something else.

This, of course, is the February Lady Sweater.  Ravelry currently has 5461 of these in people's project notebooks and 8847 more people have it in their queues!  It is easy to see why.  It is a cute sweater and a fun knit.  I think it looks better in a semi-solid color, but I am really trying to use up stash.  This is Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Kinmount.  I used 9 whole skeins and needed a teeny bit of skein 10.

Did I find perfect buttons or what?!

Did you see that the Yarn Harlot has been weaving?  I'm telling you, all the cool kids are doing it.  My project this week was a couple of placemats I made to try out a new weave pattern.

I used Lion Cotton for warp and Sugar 'n Cream for the weft.  They are about 12 x 18 inches.

If any weavers should stumble upon this blog, you can find the instructions for this weave here.  It's reversible!

One weekend day left to blog - place your bets!

Way Behind

I have been crafting a lot and blogging rarely, so the finished objects that I haven't blogged about are starting to pile up.  Rather than submit you to one mega-post, I have resolved to blog EVERY day this weekend to try to get caught up.

The pink Monkey socks are done.

I finished them Friday before the retreat.  I didn't get pictures of the cuff redo - it was too dark at the time.  I just snipped one stitch in the row right below the cuff and then carefully unraveled, picking up live stitches one by one.  Much like putting in an afterthought pocket.

The retreat was great.  We had gorgeous weather, so we got to sit outside and knit.  There was more food than you can imagine, including TWO birthday cakes!!  I got a massage, I got to knit, eat, spin, giggle.  Pretty perfect birthday if you ask me.  Karen was our official event photographer - you can see her photos here.  I did take a nice one of the view from the back patio where we sat to knit outside.

Green grass!!  Actual dandelions!!  There are even little green leaves popping out on the trees.  You have to imagine the sound of birds singing and a hot cup of tea close by.  Heaven!

Just before I went on the retreat, I received some roving I had ordered from Gale's Art.  It is an alpaca and silk blend.  Words cannot describe how soft this stuff is.  I ordered 4 oz total and I bet a third of it is in this skein.

I spent a couple of hours at the retreat spinning it up.  I wanted a thick squishy yarn, so I worked hard to keep from spinning it too finely.  I haven't checked the WPI, but it is somewhere in the DK to worsted range.  I will have to find a super cool pattern once I spin up the rest.  This fiber demands to be worn.

One last project to show today.  It's a baby blanket made of two woven panels sewn together.

I wove the two pieces just before our weekend in D.C. and then I hand-sewed the seam and the binding on the long car trip.  I actually sewed the seam three different times and I am still not happy with it, but it is as invisible as I could manage.  Final dimensions are 35.5" x 24"  I don't have a recipient in mind, but new babies seem to be show up on a regular basis.  I'll set this blanket aside and a baby shower is bound to pop up.

I slept terribly last night, so now I'm falling asleep over my keyboard.  A nap is in order.  Watch this space to see if I can meet my lofty weekend blogging goals.  (Past performance does not favor success.)

However

This new sweater from Knitty is super cute and I plan to run off and queue it immediately.

However...

Have you ever seen a sweater model in a less appropriate outfit to model said sweater?  And why did they put clown makeup on the poor soul?  Least flattering sweater presentation EVER!  The fact that I still want to knit the sweater is powerful testimony to its innate cuteness.

Have a good weekend everyone - I'm off to my big knitting retreat!

Weekends Out Of Town...

...are catching up with me!!  I usually spend at least part of the weekend doing laundry, house cleaning and grocery shopping.  It is much harder for me to squeeze them in during the workweek.  Lucky me, Hubby and M went grocery shopping on Sunday before I got home form Pittsburgh.  They did a pretty good job - I have only had to pick up some milk since I got home.

Laundry is a different story.  Turn your back on those hampers for one day and it's all over.  If I get a load in every night this week...well....okay, so I still won't be caught up but it might make a dent.  House cleaning?  Meh.  The dirt doesn't seem to be going anywhere, so why should I worry?

Our weekend in D.C. was nice enough.  We had a couple of days of warm weather and it was nice to see everything blooming.  Hubby worked almost every day in his dad's old house, getting it ready to sell, but he did take one day off so we could ride the metro downtown and see museums and monuments.  My favorite was the entertainment exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of American History.

M and an old friend.  If she looks a little stoned in this picture, it is because I am still struggling to master the red-eye reduction feature.  Better stoned than demonic.

Last weekend, I drove myself to Pittsburgh to visit my best friend.  (M decided she did not care to log any more highway miles and I really couldn't blame her.)  My friend is also a pediatrician - we met in medical school.  Her house is full of three or twenty cute and loud little girls.  Most of my little girl pictures turned out super blurry, but here is a good one of her youngest.

Can you see the mischief lurking just under the cute?   Not a lot of words yet, but a really great laugh.

I couldn't lug my loom along and only a maniac would try to use a drop spindle around small children, so I actually got a little knitting done.  I am now nearly done with a pair of Monkey socks that I started ages ago.

Know how Vanna White has her own line of yarn?  Well, this is Deborah Norville yarn.  Isn't that hilarious?  And can Jane Pauley yarn be far behind?

This color is called purple spice, which tickles me because there is not one shade in there that I would identify as purple.  Perhaps Deborah harbors a secret wish to join a 90's girl-power band and she's trying out names.

When I finish the second sock, I have to go back and redo the ribbing on the first sock.  I started the second one in line at the Smithsonian and the first sock was back in the hotel, so I had to rely on my memory to tell me how long to make the ribbing.  Not so much with the steel-trap mind these days.  The first sock has 7 rows of ribbing and the second sock has 12!  I like the 12 better.  It is a little tricky to go back and redo the cuff on a cuff-down sock, but not impossible.  Perhaps I will be super clever and remember to take a picture or two of the process.

I really want to finish the socks by Friday.  Saturday is the Yarn Cravin' knitting retreat.  From 9am Sat to 5pm Sun we have the run of a conference center outside of Toledo.  They feed us our meals, we all bring snacks for the in-between times, and then we knit and gab to our hearts content.  I got to go once before and it was fabulous, so I am really looking forward to it.  Of course, I have to pick a couple of really cool projects to take with me.  I'm also going to take my spinning wheel and some drop spindles, as there are evil plans afoot to infect other knitters with the spinning bug.  I just got some amazing silk+alpaca roving from The Loopy Ewe in the mail - no one who gets to touch it will be able to resist the Call of the Fiber.  Mwaa-haaa-haaa!