a Year of Stitches Week 52

Well, we made it to the end of the year.  Here is our last post in 2017 for a year of stitches.  Let's use these.  There should be something fabulous to meet your fancy here.  Enjoy these.  They offer a variety of looks.  The traditional winter and Christmas specific motifs and then things that can stand the test of time for the whole year.  Done in heavier yarns, there are afghans and pillows.  Done in finer yarns, sweaters or accessories.

This is only a quarter of the pattern.  Mirror image in each direction to form the whole.  This would be stunning worked in silver or gold thread in filet crochet or as a pillow.  For the pillow, sew the pocket for the stuffing in line with the points where the two scallops meet.

Weeks 17 to 33 of A Year in Stitches

I am going to offer a bunch of different charts and stitches in  this post to finish the catch up from the spring to mid summer weeks when I was working on a wedding and a carnival.

The charts will be for both knit and crochet.   There will be color work charts, cable charts, and lace charts. 

There will be written stitch patterns.   These are harder to use universally without a lot of creativity and thought behind them.  However, I'm sure everyone will have fun with at least some of these.

Week 17

For knitting, work in stockinette/reverse stockinette or colorwork.  For crochet, work in fair isle or tapestry.  If you choose color work, you can do bands of colors or keep it 2 colors throughout.

 Week 18

As for week 17, the same applies here.  Have fun with this.  Can you make it a lace?

Week 19

Enjoy the weather with some fun spring/summer motifs.  Color work is the way to go for these.  The brighter the better.

Week 20

This would be great as a pillow, purse, or in an afghan as panels.

Week 21
Lots of fun motifs here for gearing up for the colder weather that is sure to come or simpler items.  All these can be done in texture or color.  Use fingering weight yarns or lace weight and make these into bookmarks or book covers for those books that you read over and over.

 Week 22

Play with tapestry crochet and make change purses, make up bags, pencil pouches.  Play with texture and have even more fun now that you know the charts better.

 Week 23

Week 24

I can see the potential for coasters, mug rugs, cup cozies and napkin/flatware holders in these.  Who wouldn't love a picnic when these beauties are on the table with yummy food.  Don't forget to put the picnic table's feet in bowls of water to deter ants from joining you and hang a red ball covered in sweet smelling sticky in a tree away from you to deter flies and bees.  The bowls of water can be pie tins for wider feet and the balls can be washed off.

Week 25

This could be an early gift made up when we don't even want to dream of hot cocoa or fireplaces.  The markings on the side look like yarn color names.  However, I don't know which company this came from to give credit.  Anyone know?

Week 26

Here is a lovely little block from Japan.  It's Crochet, done in one of the join as you go methods.  For Knitting here's a lovely Russian lace stitch.

Week 27

Here is a granny type square.  Imagine this in the colors of the summer!  That would be one smart tote bag.  This knit stitch pattern on the other hand reminds me of roses in summer.  This could be a beautiful baby blanket or a made into a sweet dress for your little girl.

Week 28

Here are a bunch more square and hexagon motifs.  Mix and Match them unifying them by color choice or pick one or two and go crazy with the patterns.

Week 29

Here's a fun little crown for the prince or princess in your life.    It's crochet.  Try in worsted weight yarn and you can do fewer repeats.  Glue "gems" around the band for a really regal look.

The Knitting stitch reminds me more of a flower I see growing along roadsides, Queen Anne's Lace.  But this isn't the name of the stitch.

Week 30

Architecture has given us some beaurtiful knit and crochet patterns.    This arches pattern is crochet.  I can see it as a pillow cover, afghan, baby gift.... What can you see it as?  Meanwhile the seersucker knit stitch pattern just sounds like summer.  Done in a light weight cotton, linen, hemp or silk yarn it could be a beautiful shell.

Week 31

Interlocking crochet has fascinated me for quite a while.  It shows a different stitch to each side.

Meanwhile the knit stitch below it is a fake Entrelac stitch pattern.  This is done with a trick of the eye and is in a fair isle type of knitting.

Week 32

Mitered, Ribbed, handy as can be for dish cloths, hot pads, potholders.  Do them in cotton for good heat protection.  Chain an odd number of stitches plus 1 for turning or cast on an odd number of stitches.  Mark the center stitch.  Using Garter stitch or single crochet, work to the stitch before the marked one.  Dec3tog or k3tog.  Continue to the end.  Turn.  If you are crocheting, crochet in the back loop only. Work even to the stitch before the marked one.  dec3tog or k3tog.  Continue to 1 stitch.  Bind off.  Weave ends.  Can be done in 1 row stripes, 2 row stripes with unused color carried up the side or almost anything.

Week 33

One of my other loves is quilting.  I happen to live on the outskirts of Pennsylvania Dutch Country, which has a rich history in quilting and frugality.  This is the Trip Around the World Quilt Pattern Or Sunshine and Shadow Quilt Pattern.  It depends on what you do with it.  Trip Around the World uses a variety of colors, where the Sunshine and Shadow uses shades of one color similar to what is shown.  The trip around the world is symbolic of travel. something most Amish don't do.   However, the Colonials, way back when, would trade fabrics or sometimes piece a quilt top for a friend who was leaving to pioneer either in the New World or out West.  One ring of fabric or even just a quarter of a ring symbolized that friend.  

In Sunshine and Shadow, the colors are kept to 3-5, going from a very pale to very dark (black or as close to as you can get) and starting over or fading back to very pale.  It symbolized that we can't appreciate the sunshine without the shadows, just as we can't appreciate life without death or separation.

Choose to do these in granny squares, mitered squares, or something completely different.  Start at a corner and work one block. Working in the join as you go, continue adding blocks in the colors your choose.

If you don't like the color choice given below, get your own 4 squares to the inch graph paper and a box of crayons or colored pencils and draw out what you want yours to look like.  Just remember, the colors need to be in concentric rings for this pattern.

Christmas in July day 7

Today is all about shawls.Whether they are triangles, rectangles, squares, circles or half circles, they are incredibly useful and stylish.  They can be just for show or keep you warm as well.

Here are links to just a few

Lacy Shawl

Square in a Square shawl

Here is a link to the Patons Yarn company list for shawls

Things are getting back to normal

Over a month ago, my husband was in a car accident.  Things are looking up in my household.  He's almost back to his previous abilities.  In his recovery, I have been thankful that I had my knitting and crocheting.  Simple things with simple stitches helped me stay on an even keel in the early days and helped pass the time in waiting rooms.  Now I have been developing new classes and projects and trying to finish my classes.  I also have put together a knitter's scavenger hunt for my guild's retreat at the end of the month.

My new projects have included learning a mobius cast on to do an infinity cowl/shawl for class in two ways.  One way is to teach this technique.  Another way is for me to wear it in the winter.  I have also been binge-ing on charted crochet patterns I see offered on websites.  I have worked a bunch of flowers, saved a slew more to my computer, used a few in classes, and am halfway done with a purse from a charted pattern. 

I have also developed a short row class complete with a round dishcloth.  I am in the middle of developing a double knitting class.  A hot pad will be the project for that.  Also in the works will be a machine knit workshop for winter, tapestry crochet, intarsia knitting, and more.

Stay tuned for more information and pictures.

Yarn and sewing machines and knitting machines

Yesterday I set about to clear some room in my sewing/craft room in the basement.  That sentence alone gives a hint of things to come.  The reason I needed to do this was a I have a big sewing project to do for my day job and wanted room by my machine.  I did actually get there.  I did not get the job done to my satisfaction but that is for another time.

I'm convinced that yarn balls, skeins, hanks, even fleece multiplies while left alone in a darkened room.  Silly you say?  Hear me out.  I found yarn that I do remember buying, yarn I have never seen before, yarn I have seen but don't know where it came from nor what I used it for.

Yarn I do remember buying I accept.  It was close out cottons for dish cloths and such.  It might have been part of a leftover ball from a Christmas present or worse whole skeins.  I try to keep fibers together and weights  in those broad categories, kind of like yarn departments.  I'm not lucky enough to have the nice bins.  But then I also don't have to worry about my pets nesting in them or having yarn get dusty before it gets used.

Yarns I have never seen before or don't remember where it came from or where I used it but do know I have are more perplexing.  I found the bit of sweater that needs frogging still that had been son #2's.  He has his finished sweater so all is fine.  I have found things that completely bewilder me.  Why would I buy that????  Where did I buy it?  What did I use it for?  What was I planning for this yarn?

I also clustered together the UFOs found.  I have all in their own bags, a shawl, a pair of worsted weight socks for a son, a baptism shawl that is no longer needed, 5 skeins of worsted alpaca for a Miss Lambert's scarf started on a guild retreat, 3 pairs of vanilla socks for me, cotton yarn and tulle kitted up for dish cloth and scrubby creation, pumpkin hats for a guild fundraiser started but not finished, mittens also for the guild but in mismatched sizes, a feather and fan prayer shawl, granny squares for an afghan, 3 unfinished quilts of varying sizes, a kit of yarn and pattern for pocket pals also for a guild fundraiser, lavender alpaca for a scarf for my soon to be daughter in law before discovering she hates lavender, an adult surprise jacket for me, 1/4 of a hippo (?????), and an unfinished dog sweater.

Some of these things are for classes.  Most are clearly guild related and should be finished.  Other things should just be finished so they are done and can be utilized.  The quilts are going to take time and lots of it.  

Once all the yarn is away.  Once all the Christmas decorations are also in their appropriate spaces.  Once I sort the summer clothes and get them where they need to go and the winter stuff has a place to go.  Once all this is done, I might actually be able to work in that room as I intended and get Christmas done early.