Treasures in Knitting

The one I knit

The one I used as an example.

My last post about knitting the Christmas stocking showed you the results of the knitting.  I delivered the stocking on Wednesday of last week, just in time for the Thanksgiving reunion of the family for whom it was knitting.



This week my co-worker said the family who saw it was impressed.  Everyone came to his house for the holiday except the family of the little boy for whom the stocking was intended!  His poor mom had some sort of stomach ailment and was throwing up in the car on the way, so they went home again.  Aww... I'm so sorry she was ill, but I'm glad she was wise enough to go home and be comfortable in her own home until she's better.

So when my friend asked what he owed me, I had to say nothing.  No money changed hands.  And the reason is treasure!  Yes, treasure.

Not gold or silver or even jewels.  Gems for sure though.

When his mother stopped being able to follow a pattern to knit, she left a stash of some size.  He had asked me last week if I was interested in any of it.  That's what happens when you are known to be a crafter, people bring you stuff.  Sometimes it's trash, sometimes it's treasure, sometimes it's a mixed bag.

Speaking of bags, there were several of those.

 

Inside of this bag was a big surprise!

 

Ruth was evidently quite the knitter.  There were at least six projects that were not finished.  The first one I came across was a rug, knit with Aunt Lydia's Rug Yarn, in blue and white.  Quite patriotic!

 

 

The pattern was in the bag too.  The book it's in is from about 1976.  You know why patriotic themes were popular that year!  (Hint:  anniversary of important date in history... 'nuf said.)

It's only two colors, right?  My daughter, Alex P. Keaton young republican, likes this one very much.  She thinks I should finish it right now. 

Maybe after Christmas...

Another project was a blanket with a Raggedy Ann and Andy theme.  This one is knit with sport weight yarn.  For non-knitters, that's skinny.  Think many more stitches per inch than the rug or even the stocking!  Plus all those intricate details!  Ugh, not my thing.  If it's yours, and you think you would like to give it a go, send me an email and I'll gift it to you!

 I'll show you more of the stash in another post.  It's been sorted, the bits and scraps have been tossed, the little balls that might be big enough for a doll item have been organized.  A large bag of miscellaneous partial skeins were donated to the preschool at church for projects.  And I feel rich in potential projects!

Of course I now realize that not only do I have my OWN UFOs... I own Ruth's too!

Mixed blessing indeed.

Knit on...

One UFO Finished!

I wasn't actually counting UFOs this year.  WHO am I kidding, right?  I never will have a UFO count of zero, that's just wishful thinking.

Remember that stocking I was knitting for the grandson of a co-worker? 

I am happy to report that is it DONE!!

Yep, finished.  Sewn together.  Ends buried, clipped and hidden!

I delivered it yesterday morning, and granddad is pleased and impressed.

 

The pattern was from the Mary Maxim catalog.  Probably purchased in the 70s by his mother.  She knitted the entire family stockings beginning with him, his wife and three children.  She added the in-laws (sons- and daughter-) and then the grands (her greats).  But she developed dementia and is unable to knit anymore.

So I pitched in so the last grandson wouldn't be left out.

My knitting is a different gauge.  My KLEIGH stocking came out much larger than her last 'KREWE' stocking, by about 2 inches.  But at least Kleigh is no longer left out.

I'm feeling kind of virtuous.  I know, I should get over it.

In return for all that knitting, I am the recipient of mom's stash, or at least a good portion of it.  She had about six UFOs of her own.  I'm blown away by her fair isle knitting.  There are several projects with very intricate patterns.

• A blue cardigan with Raggedy Ann and Andy knitted in
• A brown cardigan with an owl
• A pink sweater with beautiful cables
• A pink carriage robe in a lace pattern
• A purple vest
• A white rug with an eagle outline in blue

My daughter voted that I should finish the last one.  We'll see.  Maybe after I read the pattern through.  I will consider it.

So my dears, the lesson here is this:

TRY to finish up some of your UFOs!  You don't want the people who are going to have to deal with your stash to have to take a chance on finding someone who will appreciate your stuff!

So Ruth, when you get to the other side and you know what's what again, know that I appreciated your work.

Knit on...

I Was Trying...

Honest, I was!  I was knitting one more of those little doll sweaters with the hood. 

I was writing down the instructions faithfully.  The yarn seemed a little bit chunkier than normal.  It was a lovely shade of red.

When I finished that one, I thought to myself, better test one on regular worsted weight, in case the gauge is different.  So Friday night, I sat down with my basket and found a ball of brown.  I knew I had a whole skein of that brown somewhere.

The problem was, well, you know what I said in October, I needed to clean up so I could find stuff.

I got down to mid-chest level on the sweater and had about six inches of yarn left.  NOT ENOUGH!!  But that 4 ounce skein was at least three balls of yarn.  So what have I done with the rest of it...

Saturday morning bright and early I started sorting and organizing.  Tiny balls of yarn went into a plastic fish bowl.  I put away all the needles I've dragged out all summer.  I found small quantities that will make doll slippers, balls of various shades of blue, and the Christmas stocking I have to finish before Thanksgiving.

No brown.  Dang.

Saturday afternoon I went into the craft room and started cleaning up and putting things away.  It felt like a bomb went off down there.

I lugged.  I tossed.  I filled bins.  Miss A came and 'helped' me.  We made Miss E a birthday card.  We had a snack.

No brown yarn.  I admit defeat.

Sunday after church, I searched closets upstairs.  No luck.  I give up!  I'm not tearing down that sweater.  I'm just. not. going. to. do. that.  No way.

OK, off to Michaels to buy ONE more skein of Impeccable by Loops & Threads in brown.

This yarn.  I love it... it's so nice to knit up!

In this color brown, but solid, without the flecks.

Stash alert!! It's on sale this week for $2.29 a skein.  I also had a coupon for 25% off my entire purchase.

I spent $32.

Expensive doll sweater??  LOL!

Knit on...

Getting Ready for the Craft Fair Season

A little while ago I asked the question 'where did the summer go?'  I'm starting to PANIC!!

I made a deal with a couple of friends to go into three craft fairs this fall.  Three!!  OMG What Was I Thinking?? 

OK, they're in three different months.  There is some space between them.  I made a rule for myself, one day fairs where the cost to me would be below $50.  You have to sell a lot of $5 items to make that back and show a profit....  And no driving many miles to get there, it has to be in the counties touching the one I live in.  I can't/don't want to add the cost of a hotel room to the mix.

Good plan, right?  And the first one isn't until October.

October!  It's almost September now!

I checked my doll clothing stock.  I have been doing things all along but I put it all in a box and don't think about it again.  Well I guess I'd better start thinking about it!

I put some things up on the design wall, in outfits.  The girls and their moms/grandmoms want things that go together.  I learned last year that you can't just lay out the jeans and tops, you have to put them in sets. 

I need some kind of top to go with that blue and white skirt on the bottom.



The aqua and green striped top, the green top and one pink top came from discarded adult tee shirts.

This is a portion of what was in the box from spring and summer.

I added some other things....



The denim skirt is made from the leg of a pair of jeans worn out by my DH.



I made these patterns up as I went along... wish I had made some notes!



Dresses can be made from scraps, they just take a quarter of a yard each.

These and a few other pieces are all done... I have to sew some tops for the multiple number of jeans and denim skirts I made.  I have multiples of the white pants and skirts too.

I was digging in my stash of tee shirt knits, I need to supplement with some pastel colors, specifically pink and blue plus maybe yellow.  The pajama pants need some tops.  I made some adorable zebra fleece hats and scarves but didn't take pictures. 

My friend Carol and I are working on a plan... our color scheme is pink-purple-aqua-bright green, with denim and red tossed in for good measure.  She's making some things, like robes and aprons, and I'm making others, like the tee shirts and pajamas.  Hopefully when we get together to take inventory, we'll be working on the same plan!  She's working independently so we haven't compared notes yet.  Fingers crossed!

I am a little worried that after the October fair, I'll need to restock and there are only three weeks between that one and the one we're doing in November.  So I'm cutting out huge stacks of basic things like denim skirts and white tee shirts, and I'll keep sewing until it's all done.  Or until I get sick of it?? 

My youngest grand has her eye little on the black and white knit dress in the picture at the top, and this sweater...

I'd make another one, but the reason it has three colors in it is that I ran out of the main color after partway through.  In my sizable yarn stash I have many things that were close, but not close enough!  So I frog stitched it back to half of the yoke, added the other colors, and used the tiny bit that was left over for the base of the hat.  I guess I could do one with different shades of peach or maybe pink and give her this one for Christmas!

I asked my sewing grand if she'd be willing to help me... maybe she could sew some simple pieces like pants, or do hems or something.  She's thinking it over.  I guess she's not motivated to earn any extra cash right now!  But she did offer to make some doll jewelry...  we'll see.

I've said it before and I'll say it again... I wish making clothes for myself was this easy!

Sew on...

Multiple Color Knitting

Intarsia.  I think that's what it's called. 

intarsia or tarsia  (ɪnˈtɑːsɪə)
— n
1.	a decorative or pictorial mosaic of inlaid wood or sometimes ivory of a style developed in the Italian Renaissance and used esp on wooden wall panels
2.	the art or practice of making such mosaics
3.	(in knitting) an individually worked motif
[C19: changed from Italian intarsio ]
This is from the website dictionary.reference.com. Intarsia knitting is when you knit a 'motif' in one color on the background of another.  So you have to manipulate two (or more) strands of yarn, make sure you leave no holes, that nothing shows on the front that shouldn't... it can be simple or get complicated. Mine is complicated, at least for my previous level of knitting. Thus far this is probably the most complicated thing I've done... I had to make those thumbholes and work with four needles in a tiny spot to do it. Oh and there was this hat... rounds of different colors.  But only one color at a time. So now I'm attempting to knit a Christmas stocking for a co-worker's grandson.  The person who knit all the previous stockings was my co-worker's mom, and she has dementia and doesn't knit anymore.  I think I blogged before about the stockings she did for the others.  There were Santas and snowmen of various kinds, some in red and green and some in blue and white with red and green accents. This is the pattern for the one I'm making. Yes, it looks upside down, which confuses me sometimes.  But I'm knitting it from the top down.   So the white band at the top is where the name goes.  Then you start with three rows of blue background, and pick up some black for the top hat.  The next addition is red for the hat band.  Then more black for the hat brim, followed by white for the heads.   You knit front and back at the same time and fold in half.  After tearing out a few times I was SOOO tempted to just knit the front snowman half and make the back all blue!  But I am soldiering on...  here's my progress so far:   Yup, at the point of adding the top of the hat band.  It's slow going.  I now have seven 'bobbins' dragging along the back.  I discovered that it isn't wise to carry a color across more than about four stitches of another color.  The opportunity for snagging, tension issues and error is just too great. Here's the back: And with the bobbins: I stopped at 10:00 p.m. to watch the news and because I rediscovered that it's very hard to knit at night on black and dark blue...  something I should have remembered because it's hard for me to sew at night on those colors too! Duh. So what does it say on that bookmark?  "This is where I fell asleep"?  This is where I stopped and went to bed. Six or seven inches done... only about 18 more to go! Knit and sew on...

Knitting Project in Process

There are a bunch of blogs and web sites that I check frequently that have user updates on what's 'on the needles', what's going into and out of the stash of both yarn and fabric.  At one point I thought I would do that too.

Hmmmm... not working well so far!

I've blogged about the yarn shop the Loopy Ewe in Colorado.  I bought this yarn a couple of weeks ago:

It was so pretty the colors really popped while it was twisted up like that!  The teal is very prominent, as is the red/coral/purple section.  It actually looks black but up close it's more purple.

I read about (and blogged a bit about) Camp Loopy too.  Camp Loopy started June 1.  You have to knit something with 400 yards of yarn you bought at the Loopy Ewe between June 1 and June 30.  I didn't officially sign up for camp, but I thought I'd work unofficially, just to see if I could finish a 400 yard project in that amount of time.

I started late, June 6.  I picked a pattern for a pair of socks that appeared to be pretty easy.  I've knit at lease one pair of socks in the past two years, so I thought I could do it.  This yarn is a sport weight, the recommended needles are a size 3 US.

I read about knitting two socks at one time using one big circular needle.  It's called the magic loop.method and it didn't LOOK too hard... there are some You Tube videos out there, and Knitting Daily has a tutorial.  Just Google 'sock knitting magic loop method'. I actually bought a book on the subject too, if I could just find it.

 

Evidently I can't follow You Tube directions or something because my cast-on didn't look like this picture from Knitting Daily!  I knit several rows and it felt clunky.  It messed up my tension too.  So I went back to one-at-a-time sock knitting using double pointed needles.

 

Here is what that first sock looks like on the needles.  As far as the color goes, I see the teal and I see the coral.  White's there too... but somehow I've lost the feel of what it looks like in the hank.  Time will tell!

So stash report is:

How many yards I started with this year:        No idea, maybe a gazillion.
Used so far:    Oh, was I supposed to be keeping track???
Purchased this year:   Um, let's see, seven or eight skeins from  Loopy Ewe, six or eight more from a Michaels trip, two more last week from Joann's...

OK.  Just forget the stash report.  It's not that important until my house starts bulging at the seams.  Besides, then I'd have to admit to myself that I just love having the stuff around!  Remember, people, I am a process person, not a project person.

Ah, well, knit on...



Weekend Sewing

I spent the weekend in sewing land...

Remember DD's quilt?  I trimmed the big brown border and remeasured, then pieced a blue/blue/blue backing.  I have to square them both up and then it's off to the quilter!  I usually go to Patched Works in Elm Grove for professional quilting.  The ladies are nice and they do a good job and quickly.  I think I'll get this back in time for Christmas.

One gift down.  A zillion to go...

Saturday my friends Marlene and Judy and I went to the Original Sewing and Quilt Expo in Tinley Park, Illinois.  This is the south side of Chicago.  In the spring there's another one in Schaumburg. 

http://www.sewingexpo.com/Home.aspx

It's expensive to go to Tinley Park!  We paid more than $10 in tolls.  That cut into our lunch money in a big way.  Admission was another ten.  I should have hit a TYME machine before I left town, but it was so early and I'm lucky I remembered my purse...  so when lunchtime rolled around and I went to the concession stand, there wasn't much cash.  It was OK because the choices were not great.  Think high school football concession only worse.  I had a hot dog.  It was comparable to what the street vendors sell in the summer so I wasn't starving.  But I had to save $$ for tolls on the way home and to contribute to the gas fund for the driver.

There were lots of cool vendors there (who took credit cards!).  I picked up some black and white fabric cuts from Vogue Fabrics, a piece of batik from SewBatik from North Dakota.  The stuff was to die for!  Rayon and cotton were available, and some of the cottons were 108" wide for quilt backs.  WOW.

I also bought a few patterns, some thread from a Floriani dealer, and a fabric decoloring kit from June Colburn's booth.  When I got home and told Miss E about the decolorant she said it sounded very interesting, so we hope to have a craft day or two next week when we're both home.  (I'm taking vacation, she has days off of school.)

Marlene bought a few nice things too, but the big winner this time was Judy.  She picked up a cutting table floor model at the booth for Tracey's Tables from Stratford WI.  She got it at a super-duper price and he will deliver it to her house for a very small price.  We tried to figure out if we could get it into her SUV but since it was already assembled it was about four inches too tall.

He says they sell his tables at some quilt shops in the area, but so far I haven't located one.  He has a web site but there's no list of locations where his products are available.  I had my eye on a cutting and pressing station.  It has storage, a big pressing surface, and if you lay a cutting mat on top you can have a two-station station!

It looks much sturdier than my cheapo $60 table from the local chain, and it has storage!  Maybe Santa will  bring one to my house...

I'm taking a knitting class tonight at Fiddlesticks Yarn Store in Kenosha.  It's a cowl style scarf on bulky yarn.  I have to confirm the needle sizes though.  The blurb on the web said 3, 4 and 5.  Really?  For bulky yarn?  I think I'll call before I drive all the way down there and find out I have the wrong sizes...  and I'll post the finished product later.

Sew on!