Saturday, January 20, 2024

Dreamwork

Recently I saw this topic on knitpicks blog.  Or was it a podcast?   Either way,  it was about people who are doing the things they dream about. 

I want to suggest something different.  I'm not going to talk about dream jobs.  Or dream projects.  Or dream fibers.  Have you ever dreamed a solution to a problem?   Have you ever dreamed a pattern that seemed perfect? Until you woke up and tried to write it down or put it into real practice......

One morning,  my husband said I had kept him awake half the night because I was teaching in my sleep.   I asked what I was teaching.  He said I wasn't all that intelligible to be understood. So maybe teaching in my dreams is a bad idea.

On the other hand, I have dreamed of a shawl/scarf pattern.  It utilized the Fibonacci sequence.  It was a knit pattern and had lace in it.  I tried so hard to write it down.  But that was just a beautiful dream. However, the idea has not left my mind apparently.  It has formulated itself into a crochet pattern that makes much more sense.  It still uses Fibonacci.  It should be done with multiple colors. Let's give this a try.  For those who want the numbers...

1+1+2+3+5+8+13+21+33+54+87+

Here it is in crochet. I suggest that this could be a great way to use variegated yarn.  Use whatever yarn you want. Use a hook two sizes larger than usual for that yarn and your personal gauge.

(1)  Ch2.
(1)  2sc in 2nd ch from hook. Turn
(2)  Ch1.  2sc in 1st St, SC in SC. Ch4.   Turn
       Ch1.  2sc in 2nd ch from hook,  SC to end. Turn
(3)  Ch6.  2sc in 2nd ch from hook,  SC to end. Turn
       * Ch1.  2sc in 1st St,  SC to end.  Turn.  Rep this row. 
(5)  Ch9.  2 sc in 2nd ch from hook, sc to end.  Turn. 
       * Ch1.  2 sc in 1st st, sc to end. Turn.  Rep this row 3x more.
(8)  Ch 14.  2 sc in 2nd ch from hook, sc to end.Turn.
       * Ch1.  2 sc in 2nd ch from hook, sc to end.  Turn.  Rep this row 6x more.


What does yours look like?  If I ever find mine I will post pictures.  4 plus years post move and I still can't find anything 

Saturday, December 9, 2023

Have you considered doing this?

Years ago when my children were in elementary school, plastic canvas was enjoying a huge amount of popularity.  Does anyone else remember that?  Sadly I had boys who didn't really like anything made with that substance.  They were much more into match box cars and trucks and other modes of transportation.  Plastic canvas cars and trucks were more of a decorative than functional toy.  

I did find a leisure arts booklet for a plastic canvas circular Santa workshop.  I really wanted to make it .  However I couldn't justify the time it would take when I had things to do and make that my sons would like, want and use.  Things like hats, mittens and gloves and camping and digging in the dirt.


I was going to make this for younger son but he'd want to play with it and that would be bad.

Now that we have a next generation, the youngest wants a Christmas village.  I'm not sure if it was her hangry mood, her inability to express she didn't feel well or she really does want a Christmas village.  If she does, it's being made from recyclable materials and she can play with it.

I might crochet her a gingerbread house for next year.......

Wednesday, November 15, 2023

To Grinch Along or Not

Do you gift your needlework?  Do you do specific things for the holiday, any or all?  

The Knitmore Girls, Jasmin, Gigi, and Genevieve, subscribe to grinchiness.  They suggest that there should be no mad dash to finish Christmas gifts you are making for people.  To a point, I agree.  To a point, I disagree.  Hear me out.

If there are those in your circle who are worthy of your handcrafted goodness, do you really want to have the harried last-minute cursing that goes along with hurrying and making mistakes inserted in your project?  I don't mind finishing things at the beginning of the month the holiday is a part of.  Or two weeks before, whichever comes first.  This way I can enjoy the process and enjoy the decorative things this season.  I don't really want to finish things and have to pack them away until next year at the same time.  I'll probably forget them.

Right now, I'm working on a very large gift that is not a Christmas present but will be given at Christmas because this is when I will see this part of my family.  There are so many things going on and I can't enjoy any of it. My husband wanting me to go off with him every other minute doesn't help.  But there we have the wonderful chaos of life.

As soon as this large thing is done,  I have a couple pairs of slippers for my granddaughter and a quilt for her new bed. 


Fast forward to a new year and a new holiday season.  She received store-bought slippers and bedding for her new bed and she is thrilled.  She also got sheets that were her great-grandmother's and those made her very happy.  They were plush sheets with blue flowers.  The tie to Nana will deepen in the years to come I think.


This is a queen to king-size afghan.  The pattern is courthouse steps taken from quilting.  I don't remember where all the yarns came from.  The center of each 30-inch block is the basic diagonal knit dishcloth.  This is a 10-inch center.  Each strip is 5 inches deep.  All blocks are mattress stitched together.  The colors are special to my daughter-in-law to remind her of home no matter where she goes.

This new holiday season will probably be just as chaotic and just as full of fun and life as previous years and I wouldn't miss it for the world.  Happy holidays friends.  Much of my joy of knitting and crocheting comes from working on things when the mood strikes me.  If I don't have a deadline things can get forgotten.

Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Simple Shapes and How to Achieve Them

Basic shapes make up most of life.  I see circles, squares, and rectangles all over the place.  Triangles are a little harder to come by, as are ovals. 

A brief search of Pinterest will bring up many graphics of circles and squares and how many increases to add each go-around.  Let's start with the basics.

CROCHET CIRCLE

CH 4.  Join with a sl st in the first ch.

Rd 1:  Ch 1 (doesn’t count as a stitch), 6 sc in ring. Join with sl st in top of first sc.

Rd 2:  Ch 1,* 2 sc in each st.  Rep from * around. Join with sl st in top of first sc.

Rd 3:  Ch 1, *2 sc in st, sc in next 2 sts.  Rep from * around.  Join with sl st in top of first sc.

Rd 4:  Ch 1, *2 sc in st, sc in next 3 sts.  Rep from * around.  Join with sl st in top of first sc.

Continue in this fashion increasing the number of stitches between the increases every round.

CROCHET SQUARE

CH 4.  Join with a sl st in the first ch.

Rd 1:  Ch 3, 2 dc in ring, ch 1, *3 dc in ring, ch 1 (3x). Join with a sl st in top of ch 3.

Rd 2:  Ch 3, dc in same ch 1 sp, *dc in each dc to ch 1 sp, (2 dc, ch 1, 2 dc) in ch 1 sp.  Rep from * around.  Join with a sl st in top of ch 3.

Rep Rd 2 to sufficient size.  Fasten off.

KNIT CIRCLE

Cast on using Judy’s magic ring, 9 sts.  PM

RD 1:  Kfb in each st. Slip maker each round.

Rd 2:  * Kfb, k.  Rep from * around.

Rd 3:  *Kfb, k in next 2 sts.  Rep from * around.

Rd 4:  *Kfb, k in next 3 sts.  Rep from * around.

Continue in this fashion increasing the number of stitches between the increases every round.  If you do the increases every other round or more, you will end up with a hat shape.

KNIT SQUARE

Cast on using Judy’s magic ring, 8 sts.  PM different marker from others.

RD 1:  *Kfbf, k1, PM.  Rep from * around.  Slip marker each round.

Rd 2:  k around.

Rd 3:  *K 1, kfbf (middle st of the increase) K to marker.  Rep from * around, slipping markers as you go.

Rep Rd 2 & 3 until sufficient size.  Bind off using a stretchy bind-off of choice.


These are basic shapes suitable for shawls, blankets, and if you choose to try it, sweaters and other types of clothes.  For ideas on how to put these shapes together, look for schematics for granny squares on Pinterest.  There are some really good ones.

Monday, May 15, 2023

Blanket for granddaughter

I made my youngest granddaughter her own snuggly, cuddly, very warm blanket for when she gets a big girl bed. In the beginning on her youth bed (for those who don't know, this is the crib mattress on a very low to the floor twin like bedframe.  She thought she was a big girl until she got her big girl bed) this blanket fit the length and 2/3 back up.  This was fine because she could be cuddled in the softness front and back and kept warm.   

So far here are my particulars.  

Yarn is yarnspirations Bernat blanket stripes.  The colorway is chocolate rose.  It's a size 7 super bulky yarn.  There is a center section of magenta before continuing the chocolate rose.  Six balls of yarn were used.

My needle is a boye circular needle size US 13 with aluminum tips. It's a 29-inch fixed length.

My gauge is 1.5 stitches per inch and 2.5 rows per inch. I used just a standard garter stitch.  It's wide enough for covering a twin-sized mattress to all four edges.  It was a fairly quick knit given the size of the yarn and the size of the needles.  I was able to work on it during campfires and while waiting for people while I was in the car.  After the first ball or so, it was too large for travel knitting unless I was stationery.  

This blanket is heavy enough that she doesn't drag it off the bed but not so heavy as to be a weighted blanket and not let her move.  She still manages to take it quite a few places and likes it when she doesn't feel well.


Sunday, April 30, 2023

Blankets for grandchildren

When I decided to do blankets for my grandchildren, I shared them with my knitting guild, and now you have the ideas I was thinking of for each.  This idea gelled for me in September 2019.  Things happened including a move, caring for aging in-laws, caring for a granddaughter, and losing some of the children for whom these blankets were intended due to relationship breakups.  Suffice it to say not all of these are done.  In the move, most have disappeared.  Finished ones?  Lost in the packing.

Blanket 1 is all but finished and ready to wrap.  I have to join the ends of the i-cord bind off, give it a little blocking, and zoom into a box.  I have no clue where this is.

Blanket 2 is currently on the needles for the 3rd time.   Attempt/rejection 1 was in the round as a 10-stitch circle blanket.   Attempt/rejection 2 was a 10-stitch square blanket.  Attempt and success 3 is the dishcloth blanket.  I have no clue where this is.

Blanket 3 will be a feather and fan pattern.  I.  Using the same yarn in a pink with chocolate stripes colorway.   I plan to use the same needle.  Feather and Fan pattern was scrapped for a simple garter stitch.  It is finished and in use.

Blanket 4 will be a zigzag stitch with us yet to be determined the number of stitches between the peak and valley. The yarn is the same in a blue ombre. The needle will be the same.  Yarn is packed from moving and still in an unknown box.

Blanket 5... I might do a center out square again or a dishcloth blanket again since it won't go to the same family.  It might be a circle blanket with spirals of yarn overs each round. But it is up in the air. The yarn is the same as the rest. The colorway is called storm.  The needle will be the same.

I determined I don't want to do the pick-up required for the 10-stitch blankets.

Particulars are yarnspirations Bernat blanket ombré yarn in burgundy ombre.  Same as blanket 1 it has 220 yards per 300g cake. I'm again using US 13 circular needles.

I started with 3 stitches cast on with the long tail cast on.

R1:  k1, kfbf, k1
K2:  k2, yo,  K to end of the row
Repeat r2 until you reach the end of the cake with a whole row.  Repeat this. Kitchener the two halves together with the garter stitch version.  

I'm hoping to find these blankets/yarns this summer so I can get this project done and off to the children left in the family.   If I had any inkling that the blankets would be received and kept, I would have no problem knitting the for the kids who we are not in contact with any longer.  But I don't and have no idea how things would be received.  What would you do in these circumstances?

Saturday, April 15, 2023

My Booklist

 Recently, I read a story about a woman who wanted to go to college but couldn't afford it and kept her high school English teacher's reading list.  She figured she would get a liberal arts degree equivalent by reading everything on the list.  This got me thinking about what kind of reading list would be helpful for a knitter or crocheter?  Let's see what kind of list a well-read knitter should read we can put together.

  • The Principles of Knitting – June Hemmons Hiatt. 
  • The Knitter's Book of Yarn – Clara Parkes. 
  • Japanese Knitting Stitch Bible – Hitomi Shida. 
  • Knitter's Almanac and Knitting without tears – Elizabeth Zimmermann. 
  • A treasury of Knitting Patterns – Barbara G. Walker
  • Vogue Knitting - The Ultimate Knitting Book -- Vogue Knitting Magazine
  • The Knitter's Book of Knowledge -- Debbie Bliss
  • Ultimate Sweater Book -- Amy Herzog
  • Stitch 'N' Bitch Nation -- Debbie Stohler
  • Knitting Workshop -- Elizabeth Zimmermann

Why are these books on this list?

These books are basics in the knitting world for getting you started learning how to knit.  A few of them will start you with getting a ball of yarn and these needles and here is how you cast on, here is how you do the knit stitch, here is how you bind off.  Let's make this now that you have the knowledge.  

One of these books is a literal encyclopedia.  It shows you many ways to cast on, and do the various stitches (knit, purl, increase, decrease, bind off.  It doesn't do a lot with stitch patterns, but there is an education in drafting a pattern and gauge.  Blocking is also heavily discussed.  (Hint:  We all have our preferences for this.  I'm of the opinion that some things require it like lace and some things don't like garter stitch scarves.)

Stitch Dictionaries are incredibly useful.  With your plain basic garments and accessories, you can add stitch patterns, color work patterns, cables, and lace.......  The sky is the limit in these.  Mix and combine them to your heart's content.