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...

Stash Update

Oh my goodness... I am truly horrible at keeping track of my stash.  I need to make this a priority!

On the half-square triangles, I took fabric from my stash and cut off chunks from 22 or 23 pieces.  I cut a four and a half inch strip from each, width of fabric.  That totals about 100 inches, or 2.75 yards.   Then I used about the same amount of white for the other half of the HSTs, plus about a half yard for the corners.

I wanted all the same white background because the blocks are so scrappy.  I can't remember if this is one of my 2014 acquisitions or not.  I think I purchased six yards, because you always need whites.

So six yards out of the stash this week!  Who KNOWS how many are left???

The church quilt group needed backings and solids, so I went into the blue bin and the brown bin and took out eight cuts that were two yards or more and put them in the supply closet.  Sorry, no picture!

Feeling rather virtuous for having moved at least 20 yards OUT of the stash...  I know, don't let it fool you like it fooled me.

I was thinking about getting some more background stuff for the church group, and I visited one of my favorite places, Connecting Threads.  And there was my MARCH 28 order, staring me in the face!  In March of this year I purchased 8 yards of pink stars and 16 yards of two different blue dots.

Yikes!  I forgot I had those!  Wonder where I put them???  Did I intend to donate them?  WAAA!

At the very best I'm down in the count by a couple of yards, at the very worst I've come out even.

That's what I get for being proud of myself!

Sew on...

Triangle Paper and Half Square Triangles

For my birthday last month, my aunt gave me a project we had been working on for several Friday night sewing sessions... a package of blocks in black and white, and a few that needed to be sewn.

Some quilt shops sell a program called Buck A Block, and she had signed up for one of those.  You pay a pre-arranged amount, and monthly you get a mailing that includes two width-of-fabric strips of contrasting fabric and a pattern that is made with squares and half square triangles that are made with triangle paper.

There are many varieties of triangle paper.  Some is actually named Triangle Paper, some is called
Thangles, some can be printed from a computer program.  You can even draw your own if you wish.  The theory behind the paper is that you don't have to do the math, you don't have to worry about whether your points match, and pressing those pesky bias seams is easier.

The black and white blocks I was making were 6 1/2" finished, the patterns were for various blocks like the Friendship Star, the O block and others based on a nine patch layout.

The directions said to make positive/negative blocks, that is two identical blocks but with dark and light reversed on the second block.

Pardon the blurriness, it's the center of another picture.  Would that I had documented the entire process!!

After I had all the b&w centers done, that pattern said to make a bit larger HSTs and turn these little beauties into a 12.5" finished star block.

I love b&w blocks, and putting one color with b&w makes a striking quilt.  I have a bin of reds, so I dug in that and found a bunch of reds that were in the same color group, with prints, near solids and geometric patterns.

Awesome!  The next step is some sashing strips and cornerstones.

Here's the triangle process...

I used the kind that is printed from a computer program to make the larger HSTs.

You cut the triangles on the black line after sewing on the red lines.  Then you press open.

After that you can tear off all the paper.  That's a good job to do while watching TV.

After the paper is removed I went through and pressed open all the center seams.  On this pattern, this is the easiest way to put them together to sew.

I pressed them with my Little Wooden Iron.  Neat!

After that, trim off all the little dog ears.

My HSTs finish at 3 inches.  The dog ears are very small!

Sew two HST blocks together, making four sets.  Two sets get attached to the b&w center block.  Two get a background square sewed to each end.  After sewing the shorter pieces to the center, then the longer pieces to the resulting rectangle, I had this batch of blocks:

 

I have about a dozen more to go. 

 

Sew on!

Being Human

hu·man be·ing

noun

noun: human being; plural noun: human beings; noun: humanbeing; plural noun: humanbeings

1. a man, woman, or child of the species Homo sapiens, distinguished from other animals by superior mental development, power of articulate speech, and upright stance.

Sometimes I wonder...

 

The part about the Superior Mental Development, is that optional?

 

In our culture, we are experiencing the phenomenon called Mean Girls.  There was even a movie by that name.  Now girls are not the only creatures to be mean, by any estimation.  Boys, men, and women are mean.  People are mean to strangers, but sometimes people are the meanest to those whom they are supposed to love.  And there is no shortage of people who verbally abuse small children, the elderly, the kid behind the cash register, the hotel clerk, pets, well you get the picture.

 

Why??

 

I know, there is no answer for this.  It was a rhetorical question. I have been hearing stories recently about people who are just unable to be civil to their fellow humans, let alone actually nice.  My mother was a believer in the Golden Rule, you know the one:

 

Do unto others as you would have them to unto you.  Matthew 7:12

 

Yes, it's biblical.  The second half of that is 'for this is the law and the prophets'.  Or 'this summarizes the law and the prophets' from another translation.  this means that the Law (the ten commandments) says to do it, and the Prophets have told people what will happen if they don't.

 

I know judgment will come for everyone someday.  But sometimes someday just isn't soon enough.  People who hurt, maim, shoot, stab, kill other people, yes their day will come.   Some of them might get their dues in this life, but many will not.  It's hard to live knowing that bad people might escape punishment, live high, do whatever they like and get away with it now.

 

But remember those who say bad things about others, gossip and spread falsehoods, insult others, tease and bully, those people are just as guilty as the ones who physically abuse or murder.  It's just as hurtful to the person to whom it happens.  If you kill me my troubles are over, but if you bully me I live on with the pain.  I don't know which is worse but I have an idea.

 

George H.W. Bush had it right with his Random Acts of Kindness.  He was pretty clueless about real life a lot of the time, like most rich people are.  He probably has lawyers who could sue anyone who tried to bully him!

 

So I beg you, be nice to your fellow humans.  My mom was also fond of saying to us "edify"... which means build up.  Again biblical, which I didn't know at the time.  She's say "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything".  1

Corinthians 10:23  "I have the right to do anything," you say--but not everything is beneficial. "I have the right to do anything"--but not everything is constructive.

 

Dear Lord, help me guard my unruly tongue!  And help me to remember that every dog has his day even when it's obvious that it isn't mine.

 

Oh, and be especially kind to animals.  Who are sometimes more like the definition of human than are humans!

 

Peace...

On The Knitting Needles

A coworker saw me knitting in the lunchroom one day and asked me if I could knit a Christmas stocking.  I can knit socks, and my 'no' was broken that day, so I said sure, probably! 

He's a granddad and his mother had in the past knit stocking for the entire family to hang on the mantle during the holidays, but she has dementia and is no longer able to knit.

He brought in her folder and a picture of all of the stockings she has made, and one actual stocking for me to see.

It's pretty awesome...

My camera has a dead battery so this is a scan, it's folded in half, and the toe is showing up at the left corner.

This is charted knitting, something I hadn't attempted before.  Last night while watching Rizzoli and Isles I thought I'd do a gauge swatch and see whether the letters would look decent.  The child's name is Krewe (pronounced like "crew"), and it's from the family's ancestry somewhere.

Here's my chart:

The stocking is 55 stitches wide, folded in half.  So that means you have to fit the letters into half the number of stitches or 27.5.  Leaving at least one stitch on either side and disregarding the half stitch, that leaves 25 stitches for the letters K-L-E-I-G-H.  (Pronounced 'klee').

The chart for the alphabet showed all letters being four stitches wide.  Four times six is 24 plus five spaces between letters is 29.  Too big.  I had to skinny up some of the letters.  K and G didn't work but the rest of the letters did, so I got it down to the proper size, at least on paper.

Of course if you're a knitting, you know that you read the chart upside down in this case because it's a top down pattern.  Mom had actually written out the stitch by stitch instructions to the other names in her folder.  As in "Row 4:  k1r, k2w, k1r" for knit 1 red, knit 2 white, knit 1 red"... etc.  I can totally see why she would have done this!  Once you get into the snowman pattern, this would come in  so handy!

Then there's the whole knitting with two colors thing.  You have to twist the yarns around each other in order not to leave a hole in the knitting.  And don't pull too tight or the letters bunch up, and not too loose or they stretch out resulting in a different kind of hole.  I had to stop at some of the more exciting spots in the TV show during this part!

My gauge appears to be OK, and my letters are even decent. 

Of course I didn't read the directions completely so I cast on too many stitches (64 instead of 54) so I have overhang, and the name was supposed to be on the OTHER side of the seam, so I'm glad I was using this for gauge instead of it being the real deal, or I'd be ripping it all out and starting over!

All in all, I'm pretty pleased.  Now I just have to buy a skein of blue yarn because of all the colors I have in the stash, that's the one I don't have in sufficient quantity.

Can I knit this before Thanksgiving??  Don't know, but I'm giving it a try!  This much took me most of an hour last night.  No, I'm not showing you the back.  It's not bad, but it's not great.  I hope this gets easier, and I've been watching knitting videos on YouTube.

I've got more projects in the works, a few quilts going, and I cut out some pants for myself last weekend.  It will be a busy summer!

Knit and sew on...

Blog reading

I was cruising some of my favorite places over lunch.  This made me bust out laughing.

 

 

This is how I feel about supporting local merchants and says why I don't shop at Wal-Mart...

This one is for all my sewing sisters... you know who you are!

 

This one is for my hubby:

 

Sew on!

In My Backyard This Week:

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...



Growing Up -- Too Fast For Me!

How do you go from this:

 

 

To this:

 

in just one year?  Well, actually I guess it was more like a year and a half between kindergarten and birthday number 7.

My youngest grand had a birthday last week, and we celebrated all week long.  The actual day was a weekday, but the party was on Saturday.

We went to one of those places in the mall where they have the big inflated bouncy affairs, slides and trees and cars to climb, jump on and fall out of, plus many other video kinds of games that require quarters and a big 'tornado' booth that would blow your hair around for 15 seconds for $2.

As birthday parties go, it's not a bad way to do things.  The kids run around and scream.  Oh yeah.  Girls especially.  My ears are still ringing.  Then someone brings in pizza and soda.  Everyone eats.  More screaming.  Then someone brings in cake and ice cream.  MORE screaming!!  Then presents!  MORE screaming!!!  Two hours after you start everyone goes home exhausted and someone ELSE cleans up.  Ahhhh, great idea.

What did you say again?  My ears are still ringing...

Happy birthday Miss A.  I can't believe you're not that little baby anymore. 

And yes, Gramma is going to get busy and make your new dolls a few outfits.

Sew on!

Friday Night Projects

When I go to my aunt's house on Friday night, sometimes we're working on projects and sometimes we're not.  It just depends on what's cooking, so to speak.

Last Friday she had just returned from a quilt retreat and had some blocks to show off.  She's got a stash of fabric (OK, not as large as mine...) and is always saying she doesn't need more.  I don't remember why but she had pulled out a pile of blue fabrics to do something with and we were talking about making something with them.

My other aunt, her sister, said she wanted a summer quilt, one that was lighter and not so hard to pull up onto the bed when she makes it. She's tiny, well they're both tiny, so I would imagine hauling a full sized quilt or comforter could be a chore.  Also she's already had a couple of heart attacks and probably shouldn't be overexerting herself on anything.

Aunty Two has a blue valance and I think a blue dust ruffle on her bed.  Auntie One has a pile of blue fabric ready to be made into something.

I have a rotary cutter.

Match made in heaven, right?

So Aunty One ironed the pieces and I cut 6 1/2 inch squares.  I had a plan... I saw this blue and white quilt on the cover of I think a McCall's quilting magazine a couple of years ago, and made one for my queen sized bed.  I have a bin of neutrals and basic whites, creams, etc., in my resource center.  Any two color quilt is great in my book but blue says summer to me.

I cut 80 blocks and took them home.  All night this project was rolling around in my head. 

Saturday morning I was so stoked to get going that I got down to the basement and brought up the largest piece of white-on-white that I had.  After some quick measurements I started cutting on the coffee table because it was too nice to go into the basement.  After all, we haven't had that much nice weather in southeast Wisconsin lately.

Now I am as good at math as you can get without a college degree, and I have pretty good spacial recognition, but I wanted to be SURE as can be that this quilt, when done, would fit a double bed and that I would have enough fabric,

So I started sewing ONE ROW.  Just to see what the final measurement would be.

 

It's like potato chips -- you can't sew just one!

 

I guess our Friday night project will be backing, sandwiching and quilting.

 

Sew on!

 

Springtime in Wisconsin

I love my neighborhood.

Yesterday was a beautiful day.  Once I turn off the busy main street, here's what I see all the way home:

 

Turning into my driveway... I guess I was looking into the sun or something.

 

My back yard from the end of my patio.

 

I put my patio chair right next to this bush.

 

Sew on!

 

Bits and Scraps of This and That

Sometimes I'm at a loss for something to write and sometimes I get on a roll.  Every once in a while I start typing with an idea in my head, and it takes a left turn at my fingers making the keyboard go in a totally different direction.

I wonder about my brain!  Whether it's even tethered to the earth...

Oh well.

Last week I finished up a quilt for the preschool at our church.  It was one of those kiddie hand print block things and was probably the only thing besides mending that I actually sewed on during the month of May.  It was so nice to see it completed.  I posted it to Facebook and got some 'likes'.  The lady who does the actual quilting is so talented and we make a good team.  Good job, Suzi!

I have so many projects in my head.  This week has been mad crazy busy at work, and of course I have lots of financial things that must be done, so no slacking off!  But I'd so much rather be off work and sewing.  Maybe this weekend, since it's a long one, I'll be able to go into the sewing room.

But the weather finally got nice here, so even though last Sunday was a free day, I was loathe to go into the basement when the sun was shining so delightfully!  Besides, I needed to rest up from our last day of Sunday School.  The kids were so excited to recite their memory pieces, they were literally vibrating as they stood.  It was adorable.   My little opening message was using Legos to tell them how they're building a foundation for their faith by learning the commandments and prayers.  I do so love them all.

But now I'm excited that my book that was backordered from Nancy's Notions is being shipped, so I want to get back to sewing again.

First, I got all those nice patterns from Samina at the Sew Everything blog.  I am looking forward to making that Sandra Betzina green blouse.  I have the perfect fabric in mind...

Then I bought that lovely stash of stuff from Sewing Weekend.  And I also won a book from Randi at the Barrister's Block blog.  And here is where I would post photos of all that stuff if my camera was working.  Imagine cool stuff.

This week I did sew up a little skirt for Miss A.  She was in the sewing room with me while I was finishing up the quilt.  She spotted this pink plaid half yard of fabric that I bought to make some doll skirts.  I should have predicted she would love it, it was three shades of bright pink. 

Not the right fabric but the one she has is this color.

Miss A:  that's good dress fabric.

Me:  it's too small a piece for a dress.
Miss A:  well, is it enough for a skirt?
Me:  Probably, if it's a small skirt.
Miss A:  I wear a small.
Me:  I can see that.  Do you want a skirt from this fabric?
Miss A:  Yes, please.  And can you do it now?  You're not doing anything right now anyway.
Me:  to myself -- you mean not doing anything with YOU right now...

So she went home wearing a new skirt over the top of her leggings.  No picture though, she ran too fast.

Tonight when I get home, my book "It's All About Embellishment" by Gail Yellen should be there.  Time to read and dream about more projects.  And wish for more time.

Sew on!

A Finished Quilt

For the past several years, the preschool associated with our church asked the quilting group for assistance with their year end raffle quilt.

The four year old classes do a paint hand print on muslin when they're learning about the letter Q, and the teachers ask the parents and/or grandparents of the children in the classes if someone can make the squares into a quilt.

Almost every year there is at least one class with a quilty mom or grandmom, so usually we'd only have to do one.  A couple of years ago we had to do both of them!  This generally isn't a huge problem, except when we don't get a lot of advance notice... like this year.

This year, one class needed a 'foster-quilter', and graduation is this Friday, May 23.  I received an email on May 7 asking if we could do a quilt.  Now these quilts are generally small in size, more a wall hanging than a blanket.  BUT some things can complicate the process:

• The teachers generally use unbleached muslin.  Sometimes it's pretty rough stuff.  One year it shredded pretty horribly while I was cutting it down.  The other thing is, the color is so anti-anything you find in kids' prints for sashing and borders. 
• They use whatever color paint trips their triggers.  This year, one class used only orange and teal paint, making it easy to match to some solid-looking fabrics.  This was, unfortunately, NOT the one I was working on.
• The teachers write the names of the students on the squares with a sharpie marker.  One class wrote the name right below the thumb print.  That was so cool.  That was NOT the one I was working on. 
• The muslin squares do not all start out life the same size.  This year, the set I was working on had one square that was so not square, I ended up cutting down all the other squares so much that it was a near thing to get the hand print and the name all within the block and not in the seam allowance.

But honestly, my sewing partner Suzi does such a nice job on the quilting, hardly anyone notices my challenges, and the sum total is so cute it all works out.

The school will raffle the quilt off on Friday and funds will go toward some project they have going for the kids.

Here's the results of this year:

My attempt to fill the empty square since there were only 15 in the class.  I wish I'd had time to get more creative...

This was as small as I could go without cutting off names or fingers!  I guess I could have moved his name up, but the handprint was so close to the top, it was a near thing.

So many colors makes picking a border a challenge.

Suzi channel quilted in the border and around the blocks, then I ran a line of stitches around the hands.

If I had had just a bit more time, I would have unearthed a lamb embroidery, but with the date fast approaching it just didn't work out.  I am sure that while the teachers appreciate the output, they really don't have an idea about how long any of this takes, all of it done while you're working full time and taking care of your own obligations. 

All I can say is, thanks for keeping the class sizes small!!  But I am counting this as a finish for 2014.

One down...  sew on!