Seeing Purple...or Red. Or Pink

I hope everyone had a happy Valentine's Day! 

We did here, starting with the story that came out on Friday, Valentine's Day.
In the story, which was really a poem with sort of a Victorian flavor, Billy wore the hat I finished for him on Monday. The pattern I used is here. It was a fun knit and very quick.

It looks like I'm into purple these days, but the purple yarn for Billy's hat was in my stash and went with his Victorian boy's outfit. More purple can be found in my Maine Memories Cardigan, which is coming along slowly. The pattern is Midcoast by Jennifer Steingass. If you haven't been following my blog posts, it's supposed to be a pullover, but I don't have much use for pullovers, so I'm going to steek it and make a cardigan.

You can see the sleeve I'm working on is a little longer now. I took this photo from the back this time, which looks a little tidier than the front with it's steek stitches. I didn't have much time to work on it this past week because last week's clue for the Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery Knit Along was more time consuming. It was a big lace section. Today the last clue comes out. After this week, I can get back to finishing up the cardigan, and maybe get back to work on my whole-cloth quilt.

I did get a little red and pink in my life this week. DH brought me a Valentine's present of a lovely azalea plant.

I made him some homemade ice cream for Valentine's Day. Here's my recipe:

1 32-oz tub of whole-milk plain Greek Yoghurt (I used Chobani, which is yummy just by itself.)
1/3 cup of raw honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract.
Stir them all together and freeze in your ice-cream freezer. It tastes a little like cheesecake.
We have a Hamilton Beach ice-cream freezer with the container you put in your deep freeze until you're ready for it.

We have walked every day, although it has been cold and sometimes windy. We aren't doing the two-mile walk this time of year; it's just too cold.

My Connecting Threads catalogue came a few days ago. There's a lot of yummy-looking fabric in it. However, it will be a while before I can order anything. I have a Knit Picks order coming to use the gift certificate I received for Christmas. I bought a set of their new Prism Interchangeable Needles. Of course, I had to reach into my budget and add a few things beyond what my gift certificate was worth, but it was a nice gift, and it's on its way.

What's on my needles: The Main Memories Cardigan, the Rose City Yarn Crawl MKAL, and maybe something else as soon as I finish one or both of them.

What's on my sewing machine: Waiting for another doll costume, as yet to be determined.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. Another week with no progress. I hope to get back to it soon.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Valentine's Day, a poem set in Victorian times, more or less.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Just finishing up Blowout by Rachel Maddow. It's very enlightening!

What's in my wine glass: Trader Joe's Charles Shaw Merlot (Two-buck Chuck, which costs a little more than that now, especially outside California, but still a bargain).

What's my tip of the week: Do you have a bathroom sink that's clogged? Before you try a caustic drain cleaner, pick up one of these handy little gadgets. This one is a Cobra Products Zip-it Drain Cleaner. It's available on Amazon, but you can also find similar devices locally at hardware stores and home-improvement stores.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

Handiwork

Back to this quilt:

I've been working on this quilt for years. I hope to finish it before we move.

Here's the story behind this quilt. When we were living in Texas the last time (1998-2000), newly returned from five years in Indonesia, I was watching reruns of "Simply Quilts" with Alex Anderson on HGTV, which I had missed during my time out of the country. This design and the fabrics were featured in an episode (but without the appliqué). A quilting friend who had also just moved to the Houston area from Indonesia, and who also fell in love with this design wanted to make this quilt too. She and I set about trying to find the fabrics, "The Language of Flowers" by Susan Branch. They were not available in the local quilt stores anymore. Searching online wasn't the wonderful (and time-consuming) option it is today. I was able to find out from the HGTV show that the fabric was made by Springs Industries. We wrote them (yes, snail mail) and found out they did still have the fabrics and could sell it in 1-yard pieces. The two of us each ordered half of them and we split them between us.

I decided I wanted to fill the big empty why spaces with appliqué, a technique that I was hoping to learn. I copied the design from a quilt I found in American Quilt Classics by Patricia Cox, page 58. It was a quilt kit from the 1930s. The appliqué motifs were in the corners. I photocopied the picture of the appliqué, blew it up to the size I wanted, and set about making four of them. That part actually went pretty fast. Not wanting to ruin my fabrics, I began experimenting different ways to make the Lemoyne Star blocks and partial blocks. I finally gave up trying to sew them by machine. I bought a Jinny Beyer book on hand piecing and began sewing them together by hand. Having started by hand, I decided to sew the borders on by hand, too. I'm hand-quilting, and I plan to sew the binding on by hand. (Yes, call me crazy.) I have to say that I have definitely had my money's worth of fun from the cost of the materials.

I was working on hand-quilting this quilt when Vintage Stitchers met at my house.

I decided to host Vintage Stitchers this time so they could go through the quilting books I wanted to give away and see if there were any they would like to take. I started out with three boxes, and now I have two (not quite full) boxes.

You may remember this quilt of Marilyn's. She was planning to drop it off at Quilts on the Corner after our last meeting.

This store is a favorite place to have quilts quilted for the Vintage Stitchers ladies. Here's the back:

They also quilted Barbara's quilt.

And the back:

She used the special hexagon ruler from Missouri Star Quilt Company. It makes half-hexagons that can be sewn with the background fabrics and other hexagons using one straight seam. Barbara matched up the strips with the same fabrics so you don't notice that they were sewn in two pieces.

I served the ladies some products from Flourish Bakery. I had picked up some at my church on Sunday. One of our priests was a baker in her previous life and runs the Flourish Bakery project.

It's a training program for people who are recovering from substance abuse or have been incarcerated. Fifteen students spend a year in the program learning how to run their own bakery business. Then they receive mentoring and support when they go off on their own, either to work for another bakery or to start and manage their own business. If you would like to help, you can donate on their website. If you're in the Salt Lake City area, you can order baked goods from them.

The girls thought the little pie should have been for them. (I can't begin to tell you how decadent the chocolate-toffee pie was!)

I stopped by the rummage table to donate on Sunday, because the diocese was matching anything we could raise for missions on Super Bowl Sunday. I found this.

It was a hit with the girls. (I paid more than they were asking for it, because I had planned to donate anyway, and it was so cheap.) You will see this item again.

Speaking of the girls, Mandy and Lotte each wanted a Steampunk Blouse pullover like Vroni's. I didn't have any T-shirts the right color, and I don't like making them wear something will holes over their bare skin, so I made them each a camisole to wear underneath.

I cut a girls’ sock 1/4″ below the cuff, turned it under and zigzagged it, then attached straps I made from the soft side of Velcro (5/8″ cut in half lengthwise) to the front and sewed little squares of the Velcro with the hooks in the back. No back closure, Mandy just stepped into it and pulled it up. It was really easy. I don’t know what size girls’ sock I used, but the foot was 7 3/4”or 19 3/4 cm long. Here's Lotte wearing hers, along with her new slacks from the same pattern I developed for Vroni and used for Mandy.

Mandy's Steampunk Blouse pullover is finished.

...and I'm working on Lotte's.

(Mandy and Lotte are Götz Happy Kidz, and Vroni is a Classic Kidz.)

And speaking of Vroni, she tells me to wish everyone a happy Valentine's Day, and please help yourself to one of her chocolates (but watch out for the pins).

In other news, the lady who used my steeked Fair Isle doll sweater as her first steeking project is making another one in different colors.

What's on my needles: Lotte's Steampunk Blouse pullover.

What's on my Featherweight: More pants and skirts for the girls.

What's on my loom: Scarf to use up last of the warp.

What's in my hoop: My hand-pieced "Spring Flowers" quilt.

What's on my wheel: Stanzi is still awaiting her next task. I hope to spin as part of the Ravellinic Games on Ravelry.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished Murder on Black Swan Lane by Andrea Penrose. It was excellent. Very visual, artistic language and interesting science (of the time) background. Now listening to Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet by M. C. Beaton. 

What's in my wine glass: Lindemann's "Bin 45" Cabernet Sauvignon 2016. Tastes better than you'd think.

What's my tip of the week: If you need to keep seams from coming apart, but you don’t want to backstitch, try this simple tip: At the beginning of the seam come onto the fabric at a right angle to where you want the seam to be, or at the end of the seam make a right angle turn off the seam allowance. However, when I sew a seam that won't be covered by another seam (such as a border piece on a quilt), I do backstitch. Unless I'm piecing by hand, ha-ha! Then the normal tying off works just fine.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

Altered States

Last week I started working on a doll sweater pattern to help people learn how to make steeks using a small project.

Most of us are intimidated by steeks until we make something using this technique. Cutting up a project you've worked on for months can be pretty scary if you've never done it before. A sweater for a doll or teddy bear is the perfect starting point, and the dolls and teddy bears appreciate it, too.

The colors were inspired by my "So-not-my-palette Cardigan." I'm calling Dolly's sweater the "My-palette-after-all Sweater." "My-palette-after-all" because the color combination has grown on me, and "Sweater" because it can be a cardigan or a pullover. (Dolls are difficult to dress if the clothes are made the same as for humans, so a "pullover" normally buttons down the back.)

As you can see, the body is done with one sleeve attached. The bead in the middle of the buttonhole band is an example of what I'll be using for buttons. I started with Dolly because she is closer to the size of an American Girl Doll than the other two "girls." With luck, I'll have possible adjustments for slimmer dolls in the 18" range.

When you make a steeked sweater, you knit a tube in the round up to the armholes (with extra stitches in the center front for a steek if you're making a cardigan) and then add additional extra stitches for steeks where the armholes will be. Sometimes there is shaping for the armholes or front neck, depending on the type of sleeves and neck. In this case, I just worked the sweater up to the neck, which would be cut later. (Not as scary as it sounds, because I made two rows of machine stitching inside the seam allowance every place I was going to cut.)

I ended up having to make the section from the bottom of the armhole to the shoulder longer than I had planned, so when Dolly had her first fitting, (after the armhole steeks were cut) it looked more like a dress than a sweater. This also made it a little tight around the tummy and backside...not what I had planned. Dolly was nice about it and said it was OK, but I knew she wouldn't wear it like that.

Fortunately, this problem is easy to solve. I removed one round of stitches between the first gold band and the black/magenta band, taking out the top round of stitches in the gold band, keeping the black/magenta band intact. Then I picked up the bottom round of stitches from the black/magenta band, and worked new ribbing down in reverse.

I decided to cut the center front steek and work the neck and front bands before doing the sleeves, so it would be easier to try on as I went. I bound off the shoulders and sewed fronts to backs, then made machine stitches over the new stitches.

Next, I made two rows of machine-stitching down the front just inside the steek on each side, moving to one side the loose ends of yarn that came from where I changed colors as I knit the sweater. I had made knots every time I had two ends close enough together to tie together without making a pucker. Those knots came in handy when I was ready to cut. 

After the machine-stitching was done, I turned the sweater body inside-out.

I got out my nice, sharp scissors and snipped off the loose ends. (After you anchor each piece of yarn with machine stitching, it won't come loose.)

Next I turned the piece right-side out again, put a rotary-cutting ruler between the layers, so I wouldn't accidentally cut the floats on the other side. (Always use protection.) Then I could cut right up the middle. You can see the center of the steek, because there is a jog where the new round starts. (If you make a pullover instead of a cardigan, you will put the beginning-of-round under one arm, possibly using some fancy tricks to make it look jogless. In that case, you won't have any steek stitches, unless you choose to make a seam at the underarm instead. But we aren't doing that.)

I sewed a couple of rows of machine-stitching within the seam allowance for the neck, to give it a slightly scooped shape. (You can make this as big or as small as you like, or for a boat-neck sweater, you can just finish off the top of the body without cutting anything.) Then I trimmed the area outside the stitching. From the front, I picked up the stitches for the neck ribbing and worked it in K2, P2 ribbing. Next, I picked up the stitches down one side of the front and made a button band, repeating the same thing for the buttonhole band (with buttonholes, of course). You can refer to the first photo where Dolly is wearing the work-in-progress, to see what the neck and front ribbing looks like.

All was going well, so I picked up the stitches for the sleeves, working the motifs in reverse order from the order used for the body, this time from the top down, and making knots as I did for the body, and ending with a few rounds of ribbing.

This time, I was careful to tighten the knots securely before trimming, because there is nothing to cut away. Here's the inside of the first sleeve, looking at where the rounds join.

Of course, you can weave in all those ends on the inside of the sleeve, maybe not a bad idea, since whoever wears it will move around in it.

If you take a look again at the first photo (where Dolly is still posing so patiently), you can see the steek still at the top of her right arm, while the other arm is encased in a finished sleeve. She should be able to wear the sweater this week. I still have the second sleeve to do and some finishing inside, just to make things tidy. Virtually no ends to weave in, though. They're all cut away.

I actually started the sweater on the Saturday before I wrote my last blog post, but neglected to change the "What's on my needles" comment. Oops! This project is taking a little longer because of my errors in design. First I thought I was getting 9 sts/in when I really was getting 8, making it too big. I worked the extra stitches into the steek. I ended cutting all that off anyway, but that took time I won't need to spend with the next version of this sweater.

Meanwhile the "girls" had a great Valentine's day. They spent six hours watching the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice. After a nutritious lunch of soup and sandwiches, they indulged in some popcorn and chocolates.

On Thursday, Common Threads met at Karan's. Margareth finished this quilt as we enjoyed each other's company, and Karan popped it into the washer. (We're a full-service stitching group.) It looked lovely when it came out of the dryer. Margareth machine-quilted it herself. She's turning into quite a quilter. Here it is before it went into the washer.

Karan has been working on some red work for a quilt and finished a purse that she has decided will be a project bag, as it's bigger than she had planned on.

We've been getting more snow. During a break in the weather, the pups had some fun playing in the backyard.

The crummy weather does lend itself to some other activities, though, like a cuddle on the couch.

What's on my needles: The second sleeve on the “My-palette-after-all” sweater for Dolly.

What's on my Featherweight: Steeks for the “My-palette-after-all” sweater.

What's on my loom: I haven’t started anything with the leftover warp from the Multi Scarf. I’m thinking about what to make.

What's on my wheel: Stanzi is still ready to go with more Full Circle spinning fiber. Maybe this week.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Listening to the choruses we’ll be singing from The Messiah for the performance April 9th. Finished Pets on the Couch (nonfiction) by DVM Nicholas Dodman. It was extremely interesting, entertaining and informative. I learned a lot. Now I’m listening to The Invasion of the Tearling by Erika Johansen, a continuation of The Queen of the Tearling. On the Kindle app, I’m reading Dying to Read, The Cate Kinkaid Files Book #1.

What's in my wine glass: Black Box Mendoza Argentina Malbec 2015. All mine!

What's my tip of the week: If you’re knitting a solid-color sweater from the top down and want to add ribbing, you can just start the ribbing when you’re ready. However, if you change color for the ribbing, the color from the previous row/round will visit the front with the first row/round of purl bumps. I started K2, P2 ribbing on the black round on purpose, so you could see what happens. The arrow points to the black purl bumps showing in the ribbing.

You can avoid this problem by working 1 round of all knit in the ribbing color using the ribbing needles before you start the ribbing. It will leave you with a clean-looking boundary for the ribbing.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals were harmed during the production of this blog post.

January Projects

Common Threads met at Margareth's on Thursday.

Three of our members have been participating in a class at Davidene’s called “Stitching Society.” I’ve shown off some of their projects previously. Janet is working on this appliqué. They’ve been making needle books, notebook covers and various other items using flannel and/or wool with patterns, motifs and templates from the class. The class meets once a month.

Birna has been making some fun hats, like this Ninja Turtle:

Susan brought this bobble sweater to ask our advice. It’s lovely, but very scratchy. She wanted to know if there was any way to make it softer. She has tried fabric softener. We suggested wearing a turtleneck under it. Any more ideas?

This wrap of Susan’s was designed to be worn with the reverse stockinette side out, but Susan liked the stockinette side better. The only problem is the edges keep curling the wrong way. She’s trying to figure out how to get the edges to curl out if she wears it with the stockinette side out.

Karan used a multi-colored sock yarn to weave this scarf:

Susan and Margareth (both weavers) made a tour of Margareth's weaving studio.

I was working on the Ugg boots to Dolly’s Valentine Outfit. They were the last component of the ensemble, and here it is, finished:

I got inspired (aka “carried away”) while participating in the January KAL in the American Girl Knitters forum on Ravelry and ended up making up an overstuffed chair and ottoman for Dolly using a pattern I bought years ago and had never used. It’s Simplicity 8641, out of print now, but Etsy and eBay still have it. (If you go looking for it, there is another pattern with the same number, some kind of costume. Make sure you’re getting the doll furniture.) I found the chair difficult, but persevered and got it done. There were places you had to stitch something on the outside to something on the inside, and it was hard for me to see what I was doing. The ottoman was easy. I haven’t done much in the way of clothing sewing in years, and this wasn’t as straightforward. Still, I’m glad I did it. Miss Daphne will enjoy it when she gets it for her birthday.

When I posted in the KAL, I showed the required finished outfit first and said Dolly had just come back from an outing on Valentine’s Day. This is what followed:

Look what came for Dolly while she was out!

Dolly's plans for the entire afternoon: Sit by the fire with her knitting, a nice cuppa and her chocolates, watching the entire BBC version of "Pride and Prejudice" (all six hours) with that dreamy Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy. [Sigh!]

Dolly likes to share. Would you like a (very small) chocolate?

(I’m getting the feeling that Dolly is my alter ego.) 

The box of chocolates took some engineering. I started with this pattern for making the box. As I was putting it together, I covered it with satin. The glue gun got a workout. The base for the chocolates is styrofoam from some packing materials, which I covered with satin. The “chocolates” are large black beads. I used appliqué pins with their white tops painted black with a permanent marker to fasten the bead to the base. The beads are pushed into the styrofoam, making an indentation. The fireplace and fire was provided by my iPad. The cup of tea is…a cup of tea (teabag cut down to size), and the “cookies” were kibble borrowed from Sunny and Rocky. I used two 4” dpns with beads stuck on one end of each for knitting needles. The balls of yarn are balls of yarn, of course.

I had a lot of fun doing this, in spite of the difficulties with sewing the chair but I think the photo shoot was the most fun. I took a lot of photos for this before the outfit was finished, but my favorite is this one, where I caught Squeekers having a look.

He saw me in the window and came to beg me for peanuts, but seemed a bit intimidated by Dolly standing there. The wig brush arrived, and I found it did a good job on Dolly’s hair, which is now soft, smooth and tangle-free.

Here’s the Ravelry project page will the information on pattern and materials.

There was a full skein of the darker yellow left, so I’m going to try making a cardigan to go over the outfit, matching the hearts and kisses pattern around the bottom. Stay tuned….

In other news, we’re having a Spin Along next month on the Knitting Community if anyone wants to join in.

Where? Right here, in the Knitting Community Spin Along.

When? Noon on Friday, February 5 - noon on Monday, February 8, 2016, in whatever time zone you're in.

Equipment: Spindle or wheel. (If you want to use the pencil method to spin, that's OK, too.)

Materials: Any spinable fiber. (Dryer lint, anyone?)

No prizes, no pressure, just spinning together and sharing what we’re doing.

What's on my needles:  The little cardigan to go with “Dolly’s Valentine Set” and still the crossover cardigan for “Dolly’s Out for Shopping” outfits for Dolly. The Trickle Socks, waiting.

What's on my Featherweight: Ready to work on the last two blocks of the Kaleidoscope Quilt. Hopefully this week, but I have to clean up my fiber studio first.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to The Dead Key by D.M. Pulley, from Audible. Still reading The Other Harlow Girl by Lynn Messina on the Kindle app.

What's in my wine glass: Gato Negro Malbec 2014. Very nice.

What's my tip of the week: I clean my toilets frequently, at least once a year, whether they need it or not. They can be hard to clean while still full of water. You don’t have to turn off the water to your toilet and empty the tank to get rid of the water in the bowl. Just get a dishpan full of water. (The water you used for washing the dishes is fine, just make sure you have taken all the dishes out.) Dump the water into the toilet bowl, and almost every bit will disappear down the drain. I think it’s the sudden force. It will stay that way until you flush again, giving ample opportunity to scrub that year’s worth of gunk out of the bowl.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals were harmed during the production of this blog post.