Knit Overalls

Elliott's new duds.

I finished these knit overalls today (bind off straps, sew on buttons) but I did the actual knitting a year and a half ago on the plane to St. John Virgin island. Good memories :)

I followed this free pattern using old/'vintage' worsted weight wool and size 7 needles; buttons from my stash.

I need to improve my short row shaping, you can see little puckers (above).

This pattern fits babies very well; here is the crotch gusset to accommodate their diapered derrieres.

Seed Stitch Cable Hat

My sister, Briana, had this yarn in her stash (which I inherited) so I decided to use it to knit a hat for our sister, Candice. Candice just started Fall semester, so, I think of this hat as a ‘back to school’ hat :)

I followed this free pattern using Manos del Uruguay wool clasica.

It looked like my yarn was thinner than the yarn suggested and the hat looked longer than I wanted, so I made a few changes: -CO 4 extra stitches, 64 total in rib section -2 additional stitches in the cable section, 14 stitch cable. -cables are 13 rows tall instead of 12; only made two actual cross-overs, the third ‘crossover’ is from decreasing rapidly.

Began decreases in seed stitch as follows: -row 39 (k2tog, p2tog, k1,p1,k1,p1 - repeat) -k1, p1 for 2 rows -p1, k2tog, p1, k2tog for 2 rows -pull yarn through remaining stitches and pull tight.

Grandma's Shawl

Over the last few weeks, I have dedicated some time each day to finish lingering projects. It feels great to make progress on things I should have done 2 years ago :)
One of the projects I recently finished is this knit shawl. Last summer, my grandma started knitting a shawl and when she got stuck on the lace border, she mailed it to me to finish. I was excited she thought of me to help her since she was the first person to teach me how to knit (then I forgot, then I relearned from her knitting books). Unfortunately, it took me forever to work on her project because I had other more exciting projects I wanted to do. Once I took out a few rows and actually started knitting, I finished the shawl pretty quickly (2 weeks), considering I had had it for 8 months.

The pattern is Aestlight Shawl by The Shetland Trader

The pattern was simple and easy to follow; I had no problem with the "Bird's Eye Lace" portion. I would not knit this shawl pattern again (too much garter stitch) but I will DEFINITELY knit the Bird's Eye Lace again. It was easy to knit and I love how it looks - I think it would make an interesting throw blanket for a couch if made from a soft, worsted weight yarn (instead of this fingering weight).

I am not a fan of varigated/handpaint yarns - like this one - because I think they make a knit piece look "busy" and you loose track of the knit details. The yarn in general was nice, though. It is Malabrigo sock, which is a little pricey.

All in all, I'm happy with how the shawl turned out, I learned some good stitches for future use, and I finished a lingering project! YAY!

too many knitting projects

I got some new yarn!

It's rainbow lace weight and after about 200 hours of work, will be a soft, finely knit rainbow scarf.

-I am dyeing some yarn in black walnut! (test swatch above)

-I have piles of already dyed yarn

-I have three hats partially knit, here is one:

-I have a sweater almost finished

-And socks that need knitting

-Actually two different sock projects (and I haven't even knit socks before....)

ai-yai-yai

knit quilt squares

Our Relief Society is knitting a quilt for charity. Everyone (who can knit) knits squares in various colors and stitch patterns that will then be pieced together to make a large afghan/quilt.

These are a few of my favorites I have made so far.

We started a few weeks ago and it may take a while to finish, but I'll post a picture of the final quilt when we finish it.

Haust

I knit an autumn hat! Just in time for the wonderful fall colors that have hit Seattle.

I named it haust, the Icelandic word for autumn.

I used scraps from my yarn shopping spree in Iceland October 2005 - I can't believe it was 5 years ago!
I still have quite a stash of Lopi (Icelandic yarn from Icelandic sheep), but unfortunately not enough of any single color to make a sweater :(
Sad face. A multicolored sweater would be wonderful, but those can be tricky to make just right and the colors I have are not varied enough to make a good multicolor print.

Basic specs:
CO 100 sts
8 rows of 1X1 rib
25 rows main body of hat, then decreasing to shape.
leaf pattern of 10 repeating stitches from Selbu Strikke

Adam hoped it would be for him - and I would gladly give it to him!- but it's my size. I think for Adam, I would use 110 stitches instead of 100. The poor man still doesn't have a proper hat. The one I made for him earlier this year is too itchy for his head and needs to be lined so I frequently sneak wear it.

Family Tree

"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree..."

Me with my Grandma Nancy.

Sweater update

I've been knitting a sweater for the last month. It is going to be a tight-fitting cardigan with elbow length sleeves. I am knitting in the round because I can't stand knitting back and forth (and because my stitches look terrible that way). It's a free pattern from Drops, here is a link. I like the lace pattern on the yoke. I think it would be cool to take parts of it and work it into a cute border on a knit hat...

I am almost ready to cut it up the center front and knit on the button bands!
I'll post a photo when it's finished :)

flying dove crochet bag

About a month ago I helped a friend sort through her deceased friend's old handiwork supplies. She was kind enough to offer me any of the supplies I wanted in exchange for the help and support going through the boxes.

I went home with a bundle of wool yarns and vintage crochet and tatting threads. Beside the wonderful colors and packaging labels, I love these threads for small crochet projects like bean balls/hacky sacs for kids, necklaces, flowers, etc...things I can do while riding the bus into Seattle for work.

I also came home with a stack of vintage patterns and pamphlets. These you already know I love....
After scouring the pages, I found 2 projects I wanted to start right away.
One is this cool leaf shirt and skirt. I think I will make the skirt narrower and lower waisted, and in green, of course.

The other is a mash-up project inspired by this lattice crochet corner hankie:
and this lattice crochet bag (via the House that Lars Built)

I didn't like how the dove looked in the hankie pattern, though I liked the dove idea. I drew up a pattern on graph paper and started to crochet the bag "by the seat of my pants" (Adam is convinced I do everything by the seat of my pants...)

I was so anxious to begin the dove part that in hindsight I began it too early, resulting in the dove way down at the bottom of the bag. However, the most obvious problem here is that the dove doesn't even fit on one side of the bag...oops.

Also, in my unplanned haste, I failed to add some rounding to the bottom corners of the bag, so there are little points down there. I don't like how it looks at all. Adam's opinion of it is "Why did you make it all Grandma-y in pink?" Good point. my defense is that pink is the only color of which I had two balls and I didn't know how much it would take and didn't want to run out mid-project.

Anyway...before I even finished the first trial run, I started the second. I used orange thread and made the lattice squares 2X2 stitches instead of 3X3 stitches to give the bag more structure and prevent my items from falling out :)
I began the base with a few rows of single crochet stitches followed by a few rows of double crochet stitches to give the base more stability. I remembered to round the edges by increasing at the corners. So far it looks good; a little large, actually, but it will be a more useful bag that way, I suppose.

While making the first bag, I thought of all the fun things you can draw/write into your own graph paper pattern. I still like the dove, but I decided I also wanted to write Tree Peeps into the other side.
Updates to come!

weave it!

Remember this Mushroom Dye Sampler?
I just realized it was made on a Weave It, a hand held weaving loom that was a popular craft medium back in the 1930's-1960's.
The website Eloomanation has a collection of vintage Weave It looms and vintage Weave It patterns (click projects to see the awesome vintage patterns. I spent quite a long time checking through them, they are pretty cool!
Here is are two how to make your own weave it loom 1 and 2 tutorials.
...I'm thinking of making one.
I want to make the vintage Weave It loom bathing suit!

And if I don't, a multicolored, multipatterned blanket would at least be a great way to use up my bits of mushroom dyed yarn lurking around the house.

Have any of you used a Weave It loom?
Ever seen your mother or grandmother use one?
Have any heirloom Weave It creations in your family?

Mini Me

I finished the knitting project I mentioned previously.
And, yes...it's a little baby Icelandic Sweater, with a hood!
Or, a "Barnapeysa med hettu."

It's knit from Lopi, yarn from Icelandic sheep's wool. Icelandic sweaters with yoke patterns and seamless, knit-in-the-round construction are called Lopapeysa.

I made this tiny one to match mine:

I made my Lopapeysa when I was in Iceland for 3 months in 2005. While I was there i fell in love with Icelandic sheep, Icelandic knitting, and the Lopapeysa.

While in Iceland, I asked a friend’s grandmother to coach me in knitting a lopapeysa for myself. She was wonderful! She helped me draft a personalized yoke pattern and even went with me to the yarn shop to pick out the yarn.
Once a week I would walk to my new grandma’s house for a knitting session. We drank tea, ate pastries, talked about life, photography, travel, hiking, we listened to Joan Baez, and we knit.

Lopapeysas are always knit from Lopi, Icelandic sheep’s wool. The colors I chose were symbolic to me of the colors I loved about Iceland. On a general day anywhere in Iceland, the main colors you see are: white, from snow, ice, or the cloudy sky; black/brown, from the lava rocks (the entire island is lava rock); and moss green, from the copious amounts of moss growing everywhere. At times moss can be seen growing several inches thick, rolled out like dense batting over the landscape.

Back in California, Utah, and now Washington, I wear my lopapeysa with pride! I love the memories it carries of Iceland, my adopted Icelandic grandma, and of friendships created through knitting.
Now, I have one ready and waiting for the first fat little baby that comes along!

winter dye party pt. 10

Dandelion Dyes!

Seattle has seen some beautiful, sunny weather for February.
There were dandelions everywhere!
I really wanted to collect them for eating, but typically found them a little too close to roads and pollution (on my way to and from work).
So, I used them for dying.
If you look closely at a dandelion plant, there are 3 main colors: yellow petals, green leaves, and red/purple streaks at the base of leaves and stems.
I read online that technically you should be able to capture that red/purple color as dye.
I set up 2 dye baths: one with the yellow petals, and one with as many red/purple parts of the plant as I could manage.
I used alum and cream of tartar as mordants.
Here are my (surprising) results:

The dark color on left is from the yellow petals and the yellow dye is from the red parts of the plant. And I didn't mix them up!
(I suspect you need tin as mordant to obtain the red/purple, but i have deemed it too toxic a substance for my household).

Here is an update on Copper Penny Blue dyebath.
It's still going strong. Every few days I put in some more yarn for between 2-24 hours. In this photo, the light blue is from about 2 hours and the darker hues about 4. The green is from mushroom-dyed yellow yarn that I over-dyed with copper penny blue...I like it a lot!

vintage patterns

"The Call of the Sea"

I first learned to knit when I was in kindergarten; I was 5 years old.
My grandma Nancy taught me at her house in Central California. I probably begged her to teach me because I was always wanting to sew and knit and craft things.
Here's a memory from about that same age: I remember staying home with my dad while my mom went to a church Relief Society sewing night. I was determined to learn to sew even if I wasn't old enough for Relief Society. In reality, I probably cared more about sewing than any of the ladies that met that night! Even though I didn't know what I was doing, I was going to take matters into my own sweaty little hands that night; I needed to learn to sew. I went to my mom's hand painted sewing box to see what I could find. After threading a needle (perhaps for the first time, I'm not sure) with black thread, I looked for something to sew. I couldn't find any fabric so I settled for paper; computer paper-the old kind with the perforated edges you tear off (edges which, conveniently, could be used later for even more crafting). I hand sewed lines down the paper with varying stitch lengths and was pleased I could sew like the best of them. I triumphantly showed off my work to Dad and then to Mom when she came home. I have no idea what SHE sewed that night, but I made some crucial first steps in what I knew would be my favorite past-time.
Back to knitting-
My first project was a "doll blanket;" a rectangle in garter stitch. I went to a big store with Grandma Nancy and bought cheap, acrylic yarn in variegated pastel colors and straight, single point metal knitting needles; they were silver and were size 6, I remember because I still have them.
Grandma Nancy taught a knitting lesson at her round table at the window in her kitchen. I can see her now telling me over and over how to work the stitches, carefully watching me try, and congratulating me as necessary. Despite knitting being only variations and combinations of two stitches, I know now that it can be difficult to teach to beginners. They main problem is learning to hold the needles and handle the yarn with correct tension, not completing the stitches themselves.
With guidance, I knit several inches of this doll blanket before our vacation to Grandma's house ended. Back at home, I continued as best I could but soon the blankie was a mess of skipped stitches, dropped stitches, too few stitches, and too many stitches all together for a little girl to figure out.
Several trips to Grandma Nancy's house later...I was in 6th grade when, while rummaging through her sewing room, I found old - vintage - knitting and crochet pamphlets. I loved thrifted and vintage clothes, dreamed of living in the 60's and wearing wool suits, poufy hair do's, and slingback kitten heel shoes, and I still hadn't technically learned to knit or crochet. At least I hadn't retained that first lesson, so I gave myself another by following the pictures in these magazines.
I save everything so of course I still have them, here they are:

I thought (and still do) that these handcraft magazines were so cool. I could not believe they were from as early as 1936 and only cost 10 cents, etc. I loved looking at the patterns, and found what "they" thought fashionable sometimes cool and sometimes hilarious.
Here are a few examples:

This one says: "Isn't this a lovely way to look at night?"


This one's called "double date" ecause it's a matching hat and bag:




So, that's how I learned to knit, crochet, embroider, and this will be how I learn to tat (tatt?) as well :)


So...all this was preparation for what I really wanted to show you, though I enjoyed reminiscing and locating those ancient pattern pamphlets.
I found that two ladies (Jane Waller and Susan Crawford) have produced a new kitting book of vintage patterns! It can be bought at knit on the net, but you really have to go here to see the photos! Please, please go see them!
"Have You Made a Jumper Yet?"

So, they picked through old women's magazines and craft pamphlets to knit up the best designs, modified the patterns where necessary to fit modern women's bodies, AND THEN...had an awesome photoshoot with the clothes.
"Such Flattering Puff Sleves"

Why didn't I think of that?!?!
"Fair Isle Yoke"

And the best part is they named the patterns after a funny line in the descriptions.
"This one for Parties"

oh! It's too much! It goes on an on...