Classes

Since I first mentioned more than a year ago that I was putting classes online, I have had a roller coaster learning experience.

I've been learning editing of video.  I've been learning set design and making my set.  I've been learning about lighting.   I've been learning more about timing and scripting.

This almost makes me think I should have been in the AV club oh so many years ago in high school.  Although I don't think many of the technologies I'm using today actually existed in those days.   The "word processor" I learned to use then was 10 times larger than the laptop I use today in size while holding a millionth of the data.  It operated on the 5.25 inch floppy disks.

I'm getting closer to putting up video content both on my site and YouTube.

Review:: Love Knitting for Baby

Ok.  This app appears to be baby patterns on the surface.  What it actually is is an app for purchasing magazines by the name of love knitting for baby.  If I understand the whole thing,  these are digital downloads.  Once subscribed,  there is a free 14 day trial.  Each magazine is $6.49 US.  There is a tab for other magazines by the same publisher. 

I'm not saying one way or the other if it should be downloaded.  I would be interested in this if I didn't have hundreds of baby patterns and a new grand child on the way.

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.

A Year of Stitches Week 46

In my locale, the temps much cooler than they were in summer.  There might be snow, if a miracle happens.  The days are shorter.  Candy has been distributed and probably inhaled before it was gotten home and checked by diligent parents.  What's it like where you live?

As a small child, I liked Halloween up until the actual day.  There was usually a Halloween party in my classroom.  But because it was very cold in my hometown, my costume was always hidden when we went out trick or treating under my coat.  Some years we just wore a half mask similar to those worn during Carnival in Latin America and New Orleans for Mardi Gras except without the glitz and glitter.  Unlike little Zuzu from It's a Wonderful Life, I didn't have the option of leaving my coat open or even home.  If I tried putting the costume over the coat, I looked like a miniature hockey player who was a bit crazy in wardrobe. 

I did like Thanksgiving and Christmas much better.  There was the cooking and baking.  My sister and I weren't allowed to do much other than watch.  But we did get to lick the bowls.  This was decades before you would get sick from raw eggs and other new things to worry about. 

So Here is a fabulous chart for color work sharing one of my childhood memories.  The Peanuts was always the first show to air during the month with a holiday.

Work the knit version in stockinette and the crochet version in single crochet.  It appears the designer intends for each large square to be 4 smaller ones.  OOPs.  I'm wrong.  Each large square is 8 or 10 small ones.  This done in worsted weight would make a great wall hanging or afghan if you decorate for the holidays.  I suggest blowing it up and taping it together. 

Review:: circular knitting tutorial

Don't bother with downloading this.   I've tried to use this numerous times.   It tells me I need to update the app.  I have the option of now or later.   Update now takes me to the Google play store and install a beginner crochet app.  Later takes me to a new screen where I assume there is supposed to be a list of videos.  There's nothing except a banner ad for games.

Don't bother with this app.

A Year of Stitches Week 45

Charts rule!!  I know not everyone feels this way.  So here is something easy and non charted.  The butterfly stitch.  I hope I haven't used this before.

Knit version

Works over Multiples of 10 plus 9 Stitches.

Rows 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9: Knit 2. *Move yarn to front of work, slip 5 stitches, move yarn to back, knit 5 stitches. Repeat from *, end last repeat with knit 2.
Rows 2, 4, 6 and 8: Purl.
Row 10: Purl 4. *Pick up loose strands with ​the right-hand needle, slip strands onto left-hand needle and purl together with the next stitch, p 9. Repeat from *, end p 4.
Rows 11, 13, 15, 17, and 19: Knit 7. *Move yarn to front of work, slip 5 stitches, move yarn to back, knit 5. Repeat from *, end last repeat with knit 7.
Rows 12, 14, 16 and 18: Purl.

Row 20: Purl 3. *Pick up loose strands with​ the right-hand needle, slip strands onto left-hand needle and purl together with the next stitch, purl 9. Repeat from *, end last repeat with purl 3.
Repeat these rows for pattern.

Now for the crochet version.



I couldn't resist.  Here are the written directions.  I really like Pinterest.  A picture is worth a thousand words.

Multiple of 22 sts.

Ch 44.

R1:  Sc in second ch and each ch across.
R2, 3, 4, 5:  Ch 3, dc in second st and next 3 sts, ch 11, sk 11 sc, dc in next 10, ch 11, sk 11 sc, dc to end, including top of ch 3
R6:  ch 3, dc in second st, and next 3 sts, * ch 5, sc around ch from r 2-5, ch 5, dc in dc to next ch section.  Rep from *.  End dc in each dc.

Rep r 1 - 6 for pattern.

A Year in Stitches Week 44

Rolling right along, our year of stitches may have gone astray for a bit, but we are making up time. 

Charts will again come to the rescue.  With imagination, a single chart can be utilized with astonishing results for both knit and crochet.   This chart is for crochet.  How would you interpret it to knit?

All these lovely post stitches in the lower chart, I can see them as ribbing with a garter stitch background.  Can you?