February Projects

Winter is a good time for working on sewing and craft projects as I'm not tempted to go out and work in the garden. We still have a good snow cover. Here's what I've been up to lately.

A small project:
A winter garland to decorate our shelf.
A large project:
Sewing squares for a summer quilt for our bedroom. I've never made a bed-sized quilt before. It takes more perseverance to do the same squares repeatedly. I used blues, greens and purples from my stash for the center strips. I wasn't sure until I laid the squares out on the floor whether I was going to do them in straight rows or at an angle. I decided I like the angle better. Now I'm sewing them into long strips to put all the squares together.
Good thing there is at least another month before the garden will be calling outside. I hope to get the quilt to the point where I can work on quilting it at night.

Recent Projects

Here are a few finished projects from the past two months. I knit this pair of socks for my dad for Christmas. He received the first sock on Christmas Eve and the second sock on New Years Eve.Some neighbors had a baby girl just before Christmas. I knit this sweater during our travels and gave it them in early January. I've seen it on the baby a few times, apparently its a good weight for going out in the car seat. I made this pair of pillow covers for my Grandma Ginny's birthday.
The back has two flaps that overlap so the pillow slips in. I decided to make the corners purple like the front.
I finally finished the curtains in our living room. I got the fabric in August and made one or two panels this fall. Other projects were more exciting and side tracked me but when we returned from Christmas I got the other two pairs done. At the end of January I finally hemmed them to be the same length.

Knitting & Quilting Round Up 2010

Here's one more collage, this time of craft projects from 2010. Comparing this one to last year's collage, I noticed that I'm doing more sewing and not as much knitting. I also have not done as well with photographing projects once they are finished. I had to pull a few sweaters out of the trunk to photograph for this collage. I miss the wide white windowsills of our old house which had great natural light for photographing. However, my new craft room set up has allowed more larger projects to be completed.

In 2011 I hope to finish the tree skirt for the Christmas tree, make one quilt for our bedroom, and my husband continues to remind me that I need to finish the curtains for the living room.

Recent Knitting Projects

Here are a few recent knitting projects.

I made a lace scarf from a skein of alpaca yarn I bought this fall. I finished it and blocked it but haven't worn it yet.
I knit a bag called a ball band bag, but it is waiting to be felted. It was an easy knit and I'm hoping it felts well. I'd like to make a larger one in the future.
I used some Christmas money to buy yarn for another sweater for myself. I designed the pattern on excel. Here's a picture from a few weeks ago, where I was working on the yoke. I've recently divided the arms off the sweater and am working on the body.

Last Projects of 2009

Over Christmas break, I finished two more projects to add to my total of knitting for 2009. The first is a sweater for my sister. I still need to sew the buttons on and then send it off to her in China.
The second was my teal fair isle sweater that had been neglected since the spring. I had knit to a point on the first sleeve and then couldn't decided how I wanted to finish off the sleeves. So it went away for the summer and fall. However, I knew I would have lots of time to knit over Christmas break and our travels to see family so I pulled it out to finish. After knitting both the sleeves I decided that the body was a bit too short for my liking. So I ripped out the design at the bottom and added another two inches of teal. Then I re-knit the edging design.
Both sweaters still need to be washed and blocked, but I'm glad to have completed them in 2009. That brings my adult sweater total to 6 sweaters!!

2009 Knitting & Quilting Round Up

Here is a collage of all the finished knitting and quilting projects from 2009. As you mouse over the image, most photos link to the blog post or to the ravelry link about that item. I completed my first sweater in January and since made 5 other sweater or vests for adults. There are also lots of baby items for friends and family this year. It has been a productive year!

Mini Sweater Ornament Pattern

After making mini mitten ornaments to go with our gifts to family last year, I decided I wanted to make something else this year. So I designed my own pattern for mini sweater ornaments with cables and two color designs. So far I've made 6 of them and I'm aiming to make more. In the mean time I decided to write up the pattern and publish it.

** Edit: I've moved my blog to my own host. Click here to find this post with the pattern link on my new site www.greensandjeans.com.

Summer Knitting

The cool rainy weather we had for most of the summer meant that I was happy to continue to work on knitting projects. Here are a few I finished this summer.

I made quite a few baby gifts for friends and relatives. I made two baby sweaters for friends. The one on the left is a Debbie Bliss Pattern. The one on the right is a heavily modified pattern from Knitting Daily called Cabled Ragland Baby Sweater. I had to change the stitch counts because I used a heavier weight yarn. I also didn't care for the cable in the original pattern so I used a lace pattern from one of my sock books.

Here is a detail of the lace. I'm very happy with the modifications and will probably make another.

I also knit some magic slippers and baby socks of my own design for baby gifts.

A sweater for myself. It is a popular pattern on Ravelry called the February Lady Sweater. I wanted it to be a spring/fall weight so I made it with a cotton blend. I'm very happy with it and I've already worn it a couple times this summer.
Now that the weather is hot, my only knitting project is a pair of socks to keep my hands busy at church. Instead I'm currently working on two quilts for upcoming weddings. Pictures of those will have to wait until after the events happen this fall.

Purple Aran Sweater Finished

I designed this aran cabled sweater pattern myself using an excel spreadsheet. I find that in a spreadsheet it is easier to 'draw' a pattern and copy it to see what it will look like repeated with other patterns. It also made it easy for me to make a chart to knit off of. The central pattern came from a book I have, which I have yet to successfully make a sweater from. In fact the book had an error in the cable pattern and after one repeat of it, I had to rip back out and start over again to get the pattern right.

I knit this sweater in the round, starting from the bottom. I did a few decreases in the purl sections, but decided not to increase again after the waist. I knit to where the arms come in and then set the body aside.

For the arms, I knew I wanted a cable running up the shoulder and that I wanted the rest to be in seed stitch, mirroring the seed stitch on the side of the body. I puzzled for a while about how I was going to make the increases to get the change from the wrist measurement to the upper arm measurement while keeping in the 2 x 2 seed stitch pattern. Usually these increases are done under the arm where seams are usually placed. However this would be in the middle of the seed stitch and make it difficult to keep up the pattern. I decided to do my increases on either side of the cable. I kept a row of knit stitches on either side of the cable and did my increases on the outside of it. This way, my increases could always be what would come in the next part of the pattern. It worked very well and I'm pleased with they way the sleeves came out.
When I joined the sleeves to the body and began the raglan decreases, I started to do some fudging. I wasn't ready for the outermost cable to disappear half way up the arm, so I did decreases in the shoulder area instead. Then I decreased the cable stitches closer to the end of the raglan decreases. This caused my raglan line to not be quite straight. When I finished the raglan decreases, I did a few short rows across the back to raise the neckline of the back of the sweater.

I finished the sweater exactly two months after I started it. I was very pleased with the process and I think I'll be making a raglan of my own design again. I liked the challenge and the success of seeing my own design realized.
After washing the sweater, the wool softened up a lot. It took two days to dry and now it will be ready when cooler weather sets in (or in the case that summer heat never arrives).

Stats:
Knit on size 7 needles (5 for the ribbing at edge)
5 skeins of Bartlett yarn
Started 4/18/09
Finished 6/17/09

Dying Yarn

Last month, I picked up some un-dyed yarn at Green Mountain Spinnery's Tent Sale. Since then I've been saving onion skins to make a dye. I read about mordants, but didn't have any on hand and decided to just go ahead and jump in. However, I wasn't content to just try one thing. I knew onion skins would created a reddish brown color and I wanted a bright yellow. So I decided to try turmeric too. I was planning on just experimenting with one skein of fingerling weight yarn that is for Christmas ornaments, but once I got the dye baths going I decided to go ahead and dye the worsted weight yarn too. I split the fingerling weight yarn into two smaller skeins so I could get some in each color. I tied all the skeins in four places to keep them secure. The larger skeins of worsted wool were doubled up so that they would fit in the pan.
For the onion skin dye, I filled the pan with onion skins and then covered them with water. I simmered for about 45 minutes. After removing the onion skins, the dye bath was this lovely color. I added a dash of salt and a dash of vinegar because I saw people used both on other sites.

For the turmeric dye, I filled the pan with water and added three tablespoons of turmeric. I wanted a strong yellow color. I simmered the bath for about 30 minutes and added a dash of vinegar too.

I soaked the yarn in warm water before adding it to the dye baths. The yarn in the onion bath simmered for about 45 minutes. The yarn in the turmeric bath took only about 10 minutes. It was at this point I decided that the worsted skeins would be yellow. Only one skein would fit in at a time and it would be a lot faster in the turmeric dye. I was very happy with the color in the first few skeins.
However, by the time I got to the fourth and fifth skeins the potency of the dye was waning and instead of the vibrant yellow I started with, I had a paler shade. You can see them here on the drying rack.
I ran out to the local store for more turmeric and cooked up another batch. I forgot the vinegar, and the first re-dyed skein came out rather orange. I was more careful with the other skeins, and to even out the color, I dipped parts of all the other skeins onto the more orange bath. I'll have to alternate skeins ever few rows when I use this yarn for a project. Here's the finished range of yellow worsted weight skeins on the drying rack. Overall its a good set of color.

Here is the fingerling weight yarn: dyed with tumeric
and dyed with onion skins.
I'm very pleased with my first experiment with dying yarn. Now I'm waiting for the yarn to dry and am curious how long it will take before my fingernails loose the yellow color.

Yarn Finds & an Aran Sweater

At the end of last month, I was in a local yarn store and they had decided to clear out their stock of Bartlett wool yarn. She was selling it for $3 a skein instead of $7. So I picked up 6 skeins and decided to make a sweater with it. I couldn't find a pattern I liked so I designed my own aran cabled sweater pattern. I've finished knitting the body up to the arm holes and since I will be using the raglan decreases to add the arms in, I'm in the process of knitting the arms. One arm is done and has been added onto the body and I've just started the second one. Below are photos of the body and the first arm before I joined them together.

Memorial Day Weekend is a big weekend for yard sales in our area. I'd also seen that Green Mountain Spinnery was having a tent sale. So we meandered around this morning to yard sales on our way to Putney. At one yard sale, I bought a bag of yarn in a basket for $5. Here's some of the treasures inside.


The pile of blue above should be enough for a sweater.
This skein below has a tag copyright 1961!
We finally made it to Green Mountain Spinnery. I bought some of their mill tests in neutral colors. These off-white ones I'm going to use for experimenting with dying wool this summer.

The skeins below are a sock weight and will probably end up as either a pair of socks or Christmas ornaments.

Baby Placket Pull Over

I knit this sweater for some friends of ours who are about to have their third child, and first son. I made it out of cotton since he's a spring baby and because it will easily go in the wash. It always looks as though the proportions are odd when I knit this pattern, but then I have to remember that baby's bodies are odd proportions. It's a free pattern from purlsoho.com called Child's Placket-Neck Pullover and will download as a pdf from the link. It's a very easy pattern that is knit from the bottom up to where the arms join in. You knit the arms and then use a raglan decreases to knit the body and arms together. The only seaming to do is joining the underarms to the sweater. Next time I make one I might try some stripes.

Teal Fair Isle Sweater

As I mentioned before, I picked up some teal yarn at our school's holiday bazaar table. They were on the 25 cents table, and I got three skeins. The skeins are Cascade 220 wool and so it I have roughly 660 yards. I was puzzled by what to make of it, but thought I might be able to stretch it into a sweater. I mulled over it for a bit and came up with a ball of white wool and a ball of charcoal wool of long-forgotten origins. So I decided I could break up the strong teal color and stretch the yardage by designing a fair isle yoke.

Using guidance from the Knit.1 magazine article about top down sweaters in the round, I knit a swatch to set my gauge and figured out how many stitches I would need around the body, plus what I would need around each sleeve. I subtracted the number of stitches for the neck and this gave me the number I needed to increase between the neck and where I put the arms on stitch holders. I started trying to draw a pattern on graph paper but quickly switched to an excel spreadsheet where I could easily move colors around. I had to figure out which rows would get the increases, how much they would increase and ensure that the number of stitches would fit the number of stitches needed for the pattern repeats at that point. This is my first time with a fair isle type pattern and carrying multiple colors at once, so I designed it so there are only three rows where all three colors are used. My skills have developed for the two color work and I think I'll enjoy doing it again.


The yoke pattern is 64 rows long. When I get to the 64th row, I put the arms on scrap yarn and will continue down with the rest of the body in solid teal. I may add a few rounds of part of the design as I near the bottom of the sweater. Then I plan to come back and pick up the sleeves and knit them as short sleeves. If the yarn allows, I'll take them longer.

Here's a photo of me trying it on so far, after finishing the yoke and putting the arms on waste yarn.

Double Cuff Felted Mittens

A friend loaned me the book Knit One, Felt Too to get some ideas about what to do with three skeins of teal yarn I got at the holiday bazaar. The teal is so bright that it is hard to decide what it would look good as.
While paging through the book I came across the pattern for Double Cuff Mittens. I didn't really want teal mittens, but I knew I had lots of odds and ends of purples blues and pinks that I could knit up and felt into some mittens. Here is the collection of yarn I started with (the pink is missing).I knit two strands together for the whole mitten because the yarns were thin. I really wanted to use up the large purple-blue skein that had gotten partially bleached by the sun. So this strand was knit through the majority of the both mittens and the faded portion just added to the variegated nature of the mittens. I have small hands so I knit them on 10 1/2 needles instead of the size 11s called for. However after knitting the first cuff I found that I was getting the gauge, so I decreased 4 stitches for two rounds before beginning the thumb gusset. This makes them have the flair around the cuff.
Here are the two mittens finished with the knitting. I wish I had knit the whole hand using the purple/blue/pink variegated yarn but I was afraid I wouldn't have enough for the thumbs so I switched to a pink. It ended up I had a little left over after making thumbs but I didn't want to go back and rip out the tops of the hand. They still look fine.
I felted them in a zippered pillow case in my washer with some dark sheets on the hot water setting. I set the timer for 9 minutes and would return to check on them. Each time I set the water back to the beginning of the agitation cycle. It took 27 minutes for them to felt. The last step was to make the knitted cuffs that get sewn on the inside so that the mitten hugs your wrist. I used up the Elsebeth Lavold Angora yarn that was left over from my Koolhaas hat to make the inner cuffs. It is my hope that now that it is March I won't have a chance to try wearing them until next winter. However, my husband assures me I probably will need them yet this month.