The Finish Line

I have been diligently trying to create and release 12 new designs this year, and hopefully, in every year to come, in an effort to make up for far too many years when I couldn’t work on many new designs.

The 2 designs below are #’s 9 and 10 for this year, and as it’s October, it seems I am on track for this year!  At least until the holiday season and hubby’s new batch of upcoming surgeries derails me a bit, as well as the weaving I’d like to get back to, if only for a short time.  

And lest I forget, I still have outdoor garden work to finish, as well as cleaning the rest of the outdoor windows I began a week or so ago!

As I *am* only one person, some things have long ago fallen by the wayside, like the bi-weekly bread baking, or continuing with the bagel-making experiments, or even getting to finish this year’s spring cleaning!

12 patterns may not sound like a lot, but patterns do take a long time.  There’s knitting the samples, making the charts, writing, editing, and proofing the text, taking and adjusting oodles of photos, to get the best ones, then tweaking the layout, so everything logically fits into just as much space as it needs, and no more.  I tend to spend as much time writing the patterns as I do knitting the samples!

Some knitters may wonder if I use test knitters or tech editors.  Short answer: I do not.

Not only have I been designing and publishing my work for over 30 years, but my experience with designing for print publications for many years, as well as being a juried member of the AKD (Association of Knitwear Designers), previously known as PKDG (Professional Knitwear Designers Guild) helped hone these skills.

LOL, now I wouldn't mind having an assistant to take some of the load off, leaving me more time to design.  If said person was also good at creating social media posts and newsletters, all the better!  Like many creatives, I’m not very good at promoting myself.  

Although, to this end, I spent some time recently reinstalling the IOS into the older iPad.  It’s amazing how clogged up that thing got over the years.  Even after deleting everything that the iPad allows one to delete, its entire memory was still full.  

As we no longer depend on it for day-to-day productivity, I just re-installed the IOS from within iTunes on my iMac.  Now, it has under 400 MB memory used up for system, leaving me plenty of space for work. Yay!

I am not one to throw away old technology, willy nilly.  It will serve me to take photos, and hopefully, videos, to upload to instagram.  I do not need a cell phone, and hence do not have one, and although I researched how to upload to IG from a desktop, it was too bothersome to do it that way.  

Now I just need to find time to make IG posts, as well as the FB ones I normally do, and the Mailchimp new product emails, after uploading new designs to 4 websites!  But as the world has long gone visual, instead of written (more’s the pity, as I do love words!), I do need to try and fit into customer’s expectations.  We’ll see how it goes!

Now, those 2 new patterns!

Marina

About the Design:
This is an easy-to-knit and wear triangular scarf / mini shawl. I knit the first one many years ago in aran weight cashmere, although without the I-cord edging, and have used it almost every day! It serves as a scarf, and as a head scarf on cold mornings. It is knit from the center bottom outward, with Applied I-cord, and can be knit to any width.

I’ve sampled it in squishy, soft, undyed 100% superfine merino, as well as in frothy Cascade Yarns Kid Seta in a shimmering aquamarine held with Kraemer Yarns Stotts Ranch Limited in navy.  

Dimensions - before blocking
Width, tip to tip: 50”
Depth, at the center bottom: 12 to 12.5”

Finished Dimensions
Width, tip to tip: 52 to 54.5”  
(The aqua/navy fabric blocks a bit larger than the merino.)
Depth, at the center: 12.5 to 12.75”

Materials:
Natural Sample: YarnUndyed non-superwash merino, 182 yds/100 gr: 2 skeins
Sample weighs 159 gr. (5.6 oz.)

Aqua/Navy Sample: Cascade Yarns Kid Seta, 70% mohair, 30% silk, 230 yd / 25 gm: 3 balls #24 aquamarine; and 
Kraemer Yarns Stotts Ranch Limited, 52% Luxurious Diamond Fiber Kid Mohair / 48% Superfine Merino Wool, 610 yd / 100 gr: 1 skein
Sample weighs 109 gr. (3.85 oz.)

24-32” US size 10.5 (6.5 mm) ckn
2 Size 10.5 dpns

Tapestry ndl

Gauge:
Natural Merino Sample: 18 sts sts & 24 rows = 4” (10 cm) in St st, and 14 sts and 28 rows (7 ridges) = 4” in garter stitch with size 10.5 ndls.


Aqua / Navy Sample: 16 sts sts & 20 rows = 4” (10 cm) in St st, and 13 sts and 28 rows (7 ridges) = 4” in garter stitch with size 10.5 ndls.
To save time, take time to check gauge

Substitute Yarn Weight: Worsted to Aran (WPI = 11.5 to 13)

Skill Level: Beginner

Beach Roses Hat & Mittens

About The Design:
I first used this Fair Isle pattern for a cell phone cover, then immediately planned these women’s mittens and hat.  Most of the color changes are easy to work, only the center motif changes colors frequently.

The roomy mittens are worked Norwegian-style with a back of hand pattern, palm pattern, and 3-st stripes running up each side.  

You can knit the hat first, to get familiar with the patterning, as its only shaping is at the crown. I left the hat pompom-less to show off the flowers circling the top, in between the crown shaping stitches.  

This set would make a special gift!
 
Finished Dimensions
Hat Circ: 21.5”, Hat Depth to Top of Crown: 9”
Mitten Circ: 9”, Total Mitten Length: 10”
Cuff Length: 3”, Hand Length: 7”

Materials - Mittens
Lamb’s Pride Worsted, 85% wool / 15% mohair, 190 yd / 4 oz.:

2.64 oz. / 125 yds. #M10 Creme (MC),

.28 oz. / 13 yds. #M04 Charcoal Heather (A),
1.67 oz. / 79 yds. #M166 Plum Smoke (B),

.51 oz. / 24 yds. #M157 Orchid Blush (C),

.31 oz. / 15 yds. #M159 Deep Coral (E),

.08 oz. / 5 yds. #M03 Grey Heather (F), and
Harborside Aran, 100% wool, 162 yd / 100 gr.: .2 oz. / 10 yds. Sandstone (D).
One pair weighs 4.3 oz.

US size 5 (3.75 mm) dpns, set of 5
Tapestry ndl

4 stitch markers

Stitch holder or waste yarn

Materials - Hat
Lamb’s Pride Worsted:

1.87 oz. / 89 yds. #M10 Creme (MC),

.26 oz. / 13 yds. #M04 Charcoal Heather (A),

.46 oz. / 22 yds. #M166 Plum Smoke (B),

1.17 oz. / 56 yds. #M157 Orchid Blush (C),

.2 oz. / 10 yds. #M159 Deep Coral (E),

.11 oz. / 6 yds. #Mo3 Grey Heather (F), and
Harborside Aran: .19 oz. / 9 yds. Sandstone (D).
One hat weighs 3.88 ozs.

US size 7 (4.5 mm) dpns, set of 5
16-24” size 7 ckn

Tapestry ndl

6 stitch markers

Substitute Yarn Weight: heavy worsted

Gauge:
22 sts and 30 rnds = 4” (10 cm) in St st, and 24 and 26 sts = 4” in color patt with size 5 ndls, or size to give gauge.


20 sts and 28 rnds = 4” (10 cm) in St st, and 22 and 25 sts = 4” in color patt with size 7 ndls, or size to give gauge.

Marina is $3.50, Beach Roses is $6, both on Ravelry, Etsy, my site, and Lovecrafts.

Happy Knitting!
Dawn

This and That

I am nearing the end of the current spate of household projects.  8 of the 10 new LR and DR curtain panels have been shortened and re-hemmed, my bedroom curtains have been turned into Swedish blinds, another Swedish blind was made for the bathroom cabinet, and I revamped some disused curtains for the kitchen.

I still need to finish the last 2 curtains and sew new heat packs. But I needed a break from sewing, to re-knit several pairs of house socks that have worn out, and am knitting a couple/few more pairs, as I must have thick socks to wear around the house, but can run out of time as the holidays draw near.  

The re-knitting of socks seems to taunt me!  I get a pair re-knit, check that off the list, so I can get onto other work, then a week later, another pair needs re-knitting, then another.  It’s like laundry, cleaning, and cooking – they’re never done.

In between, I am trying to focus on knit designs, as I need some of them done, so I can get back to getting the floor loom put together and re-warped for the rest of the rugs I began  before the loom had to be dismantled and moved.

There’s 3 designs in the works with more to CO, which I won’t start until some of these projects are done and published.

After 30+ yrs of knitting socks, they are second nature to me, so sock knitting is a good way to fill the hours when I’m too tired to work on ‘real’ projects.  LOL, with everything I am responsible for, becoming too tired for ‘real’ work can sometimes be the rule, not the exception.  

Digression – I have recently taken notice of a well-known knit designer, who, in just 8 years or so has amassed hundreds of patterns, translated into a handful of languages.  

Granted, most of her work is uncomplicated stockinette, but I don’t know where she finds the time!  I’d love to be able to work full-time on my designs, whether knit, weaving, or spinning, but then nothing would ever get cooked or washed, as well as things done for hubby that he can no longer do.  I’d be lucky to have the time to squeeze in paying the bills and ordering ‘all’ the things we need ordered, and forget about having a garden!

Such production, and her massive popularity, has been making me feel small, like I’m wasting my time.  I don’t normally compare myself to others, eh, until now.  

I realize I am not her, I don’t have her life, and although a plain stockinette sweater or two are welcome additions to any wardrobe, I’d be bored to tears *only* making plain sweaters or plain anything.  I love cables and color patterns, especially the latter.  I need to honor that, and remember that.

Back to socks – the DK, worsted, and heavy worsted wt. socks last longer than the bulky wt. ones as I don’t wear them as often.  The bulky wt. ones give a nice padding underfoot, esp. on hard floors, so they wear out more quickly.

They can either be knit with a bulky wt. yarn or stranding a chunky wt. yarn (around 130 yds/100 gr), which gives the thickness of a bulky to SB wt., with even more squishy padding than when using a single yarn!  As with this latest pair of re-knit socks.  

I pulled out some old Cascade Yarns Pastaza and a skein of their Sitka, both discontinued, both soft singles, which one doesn’t ordinarily think of using in socks, but I thought, What the heck, I’ll try them together.  I chose the smallest possible stranding pattern of K1A, K1B, alternated on the following rnd with K1B, K1A, creating a tiny dice, and used US size 5 (3.75 mm) dpns, if I remember correctly, though it could have been US 4's.  Bad on me, I didn't keep notes.

 

 

Yes, I could have kept the pattern repeating the same rnd for stripes, but, as with heel stitch vs eye of partridge stitch, stranded stripes tend to pull in more than alternating the color placement on each rnd.

Thus far, they are soft, cozy, and warm.  They do pill, but I expected that.  We shall see how long they last.

Onward!
Dawn

Favorite Movies

 I thought I’d post all the movies I love, and have watched more times than I can recall!  These aren’t all the movies I’ve ever seen, of course, just the ones I enjoy re-watching.  I tend not to re-watch high drama or sad stories, much preferring comedies or romantic comedies.

In alphabetical order:

27 Days
84 Charing Cross Road
9 to 5

About Time
A Fish Called Wanda
A Good Woman
A Good Year
A Knight’s Tale
A League of Their Own
Always
Amadeus
Amelie
A Month by the Lake
An Affair to Remember
Anne of Green Gables (1985)
A Room with a View
Arsenic and Old Lace
Auntie Mame

Baby Boom
Back to the Future trilogy
Barefoot in the Park
Becoming Jane
Bed & Breakfast
Beetlejuice
Beverly Hills Cop
Big
Biloxi Blues
Blame it on Rio
Blazing Saddles
Blind Date
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Brighton Beach Memoirs
Bringing up Baby

Caddyshack
Casablanca
Catch Me If You Can
Chances Are
Charade
Cheaper by the Dozen (1950)
Chocolat
Christmas In Connecticut
Christmas Vacation
City of Angels
Clara’s Heart
Clue
Clueless
Coco Before Chanel
Cold Comfort Farm
Cousins

Dangerous Liaisons
Death at a Funeral
Death Becomes Her
Defending Your Life
Dejå Vu
Demolition Man
Desk Set
Desperately Seeking Susan
Dirty Dancing
Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood
Doctor Zhivago
Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead

Easy Virtue
Eat Pray Love
Emma (1996)
Enchanted April
Erin Brokovich
Ever After

Family Stone
Father Goose
Feds
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Field of Dreams
Flying Down to Rio
Follow the Fleet
For Keeps
For Pete’s Sake
Foul Play
Four Weddings and a Funeral
French Kiss
From Time to Time
Funny Farm
Funny Girl

Gaslight
Ghostbusters
Gigi
Girl with a Pearl Earring
Gosford Park
Guarding Tess

Hannah and Her Sisters
Harry Potter (all of them)
Heartburn
Hello Dolly
He Said, She Said
His Girl Friday
Hope Floats
Houseboat
Howard’s End
Hysteria

Indiana Jones movies
I.Q.
Immortal Beloved
Indiana Jones (all 4 mvcies)
Inner Space
I Remember Mama
I Was a Male War Bride

James Bond movies (all of them)
Jewel of the Nile
Joy Luck Club
Julie & Julia
Jumpin’ Jack Flash
Just Like Heaven

Kiss Me Goodbye

Ladies in Black
Ladies in Lavender
Legally Blonde
Leap Year
Life with Father
Love Actually
Love Punch
Love’s Kitchen

Mamma Mia
Mannequin
Mansfield Park
Meet John Doe
Mermaids
Milk Money
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Mission Impossible
Miss Congeniality
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
Mona Lisa Smile
Monkey Business
Moonstruck
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House
Mr. Lucky
Mr. Mom
Mrs. Dalloway
Mrs. Doubtfire
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris
Mrs. Henderson Presents
Mrs. Miniver
Murder Ahoy
Murder at the Gallop
Murder by Death
Murder Most Foul
Murder on the Nile
Murder She Said
Murphy’s Romance
My Cousin Vinny
My Blue Heaven
My Fair Lady
My Favorite Wife
My Old Lady
Mystic Pizza

Nadine
Nanny McPhee
None but the Lonely Heart
Notorious
Notting Hill

Ocean’s Eleven
Ocean’s Twelve

On a Clear Day You Can See Forever
Out of Africa
Overboard

Peggy Sue Got Married
Penny Serenade
Persuasion
Peter’s Friends
Postcards From the Edge
Practical Magic
Pretty in Pink
Pretty Woman
Prime
P.S. I Love You

Radio Days
Rain Man
Raising Arizona
Real Genius
Remains of the Day
Roberta
Robin Hood Men in Tights
Romancing the Stone
Roxanne
Runaway Bride

Scrooged
Searching for Bobby Fischer
Seems Like Old Times
Sense and Sensibility (1995)
Shadowlands (1993)
Shall We Dance
Shining Through
Shirley Valentie
Sister Act
Sixteen Candles
Sleepless in Seattle
Soap Dish
Something to Talk About
Somewhere in Time
Star Wars (ßoriginal trilogy)
Steel Magnolias
Stranger Than Fiction
Sunday in New York
Suspicion
Sweet Charity
Sweet Home Alabama
Swing Time

The Age of Innocence
The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer
The Best Years of Our Lives
The Big Chill
The Bishop’s Wife (1948)
The Breakfast Club
The Bridges of Madison County
The Color Purple
The Colour Room
The Devil Wears Prada
The Divorce of Lady X
The End of the Affair
The Favor
The Fifth Element
The First Wives Club
The French Lieutenant’s Woman
The Gathering Storm
The Gay Divorceé
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
The Goodbye Girl
The Help
The Holiday
The Importance of Being Earnest (2002)
The Inn of the Sixth Happiness
The Italian Job (2003)
The Lake House
The Last of the Blonde Bombshells
The Long Walk Home
The Love Letter
The Magic of Ordinary Dats
The Money Pit
The Notebook
The Odd Couple
The Pelican Brief
The Philadelphia Story
The Prince and I
The Prince and the Showgirl
The Princess Bride
The Proposal
The Quiet Man
The Red Violin
The Saint
The Talk of the Town
The Thin Man
The Thomas Crown Affair (1990)
The Trouble with Angels
The Trouble with Harry

The Way We Were
The Winslow Boy (1999)
The Winter Guest
The Women (2008)
Titanic
Tootsie
Top Hat
Trading Places
Troop Beverly Hills
Two If by Sea
Two Weeks Notice

Under the Tuscan Sun

Victor/Victoria

Waking Ned Devine
Weekend at Bernie’s
What a Girl Wants

What's Up Doc?
When Harry Met Sally
Where Angels Go…Trouble Follows
While You Were Sleeping
Who’s That Girl
Witness
Woman of the Year
Working Girl

Yentl
Young Frankenstein
You’ve Got Mail

Onward!
Dawn

Windows to the World

Now and then I’ve been looking online for fabric so to sew new living room and dining room curtains.  The rooms are open to each other, bisected by the upstairs staircase, so the rooms need coordinating decor.  The wine colored swag valances, which we’ve had since we moved in now remind hubby of a funeral home!  So, they need to go into storage, aka the too small linen closet.

We both like the Waverly Charmed Life and Rustic Life toiles, but I actually found it to be far less costly to just buy the curtain panels and tie backs, then the fabric, to sew them myself.

Amazon has the curtain panels reasonably enough.  As they didn’t have a 54” length, which we need to clear the top of the long radiators under the windows, I bought the 84” length, which I’ll trim and re-hem. This will also give me extra fabric for pillows and whatnot.

Caveat:  The listing says the color is cornflower.  It isn’t, it’s much closer to navy.  I have this toile in cornflower, which is much lighter.  The color isn’t what I prefer, but hubby doesn’t mind it, so I’ll live with it.

They are unlined, but a heavy enough fabric which doesn’t necessarily need lining.  So, I’ll press, cut and re-hem and hang them as they are, BUT, 4 of the 5 windows face south, with no trees out front to block any of the sun.  The 5th window faces west, so is only slightly less sunny.  Sun = fading. 

Even the curtains on the east-facing kitchen window and kitchen door window have all faded, and that’s just east light!  SO, one pair at a time will come back down and get a muslin lining.  It will be a less onerous task to tackle that project a bit a time instead of lining all 10 panels at this particular point in time.  Sewing is done in the dining room, which is warm in the summer with no AC in that room, so, small doses of working there is preferable.

As the sewing machine was coming out anyway, I figured I’d tackle all the other windows that needed a redo.

I began with the bathroom cupboard, which stores toiletries and medical supplies.  The sink is a pedestal, so there’s no built-in vanity to put all this stuff.  I’ve been wanting to make a Swedish blind for the cupboard for quite awhile, ever since I sewed new bathroom curtains and a shelf topper in this blue, white. and yellow plaid fabric.

So, this was the first project to get done.  Swedish blinds are great – they only need a face and lining fabrics not much wider than the window, which can contrast or coordinate, a couple of 1” plastic O or D rings, some cotton cord, a window cleat, and about a 1/2” dowel or scrap length of narrow wood for the bottom of the blind.  As the blinds use far less fabric than a pair of panels, they are less costly to sew.

Traditionally, the blinds were attached to a wood batten and secured to the top of the window frame, as shown in "Swedish Style" by Katrin Cargill.

I prefer something more impermanent, so I just hang the Swedish blind from a tension rod.  This makes it super easy to take down, vacuum or wash the fabric and cording.

The cotton cord on this blind, and the 2 coming up below, was some soft cotton 2-ply yarn I had no other use for.  I ran it through my spinning wheel, adding a lot more twist, then cabled it back onto itself.  Although I have some proper cotton cording, I find it to be rough on the hands.

Next up was revamping my bedroom curtains.  I sewed plain, lined panels with ties several/many? years ago, but not only did I get tired of tying the curtains up every morning, then letting them down at night, but, even with the double layers of fabric, they still let in too much light at this time of year.  

So, they came down, got washed and pressed, then cut down to size.  The face fabric then became the reverse side fabric, and I added a darker allover print to the face, then sewed tabs from the wide selvedge.  As we were all out of scrap wood or dowels, I temporarily used the rollers I saved from the old living room and dining room roller shades, when the vinyl went kaput and we needed to replace them.  

As you can see, I need to take the shade down and resew the tabs at the top that hold the 'O' rings.  I should have sewn the tabs down much closer to the rings, to the tabs don't pull over, as you can see in the photo.

I am seriously no fan of vinyl, and avoid it if I can, but I share the house with hubby who needs the living room as dark as possible at night, as he’s needed to sleep there since the first of the recent bout of surgeries, with more to come.

Next up is making new curtains for the kitchen, the toughest project, as the kitchen window is 70” wide x 33” deep.  This window needs a plain, light blocking panel that ties up at 2 places, as the window faces east.  All that light is far too bright in the morning, especially for someone (not me) who tends to wake with a massive headache.  So, it needs to tie up and then be let down at night.  It’s too wide a span to easily have a Swedish blind.

Whatever I sew for the window, though, also needs to coordinate with the kitchen door window and the valance for the sliding glass doors in the breakfast room.  LOL, all using just what I have on hand.

All for another post!

Onward!
Dawn

June Update

Every season except a couple months in winter seems to be rife with time-sensitive work and projects – so much has been in the process of needing to be done, with no time to blog.  So, finally, here is what I’ve been up to, and how things are progressing.  Naturally, it’s all interspersed with the usual cooking, baking, laundry, and cleaning, esp. the spring cleaning, which is still in progress – my bedroom and the entire upstairs still need doing.  It would help if I had the 6 arms of the Buddhist goddess Vasudhārā.

I weeded then manured the 2 raised beds, made hills, and planted Italian zucchini in one bed, which is coming up well,

and Ronde de Nice (French heirloom) zucchini in the other bed, which isn’t coming up well.   As you can see, our picket fence is sorely in need of repainting, though not sure if hubby will be able to get to it - his hands are now both needing surgery.  We'd just get them replaced, but the fence sections are 10' wide, not the 8' wide which seem to be all that can be bought now.

I grew this variety exclusively back in the mid-hudson, and it flourished, but not so much here, so yesterday I added enough Italian zucchini seeds to fill out that bed.

The pine of these beds *really* needs to be ripped out, as they’re rotting, which means ant fodder, but that will need to wait until autumn – springtime is just too busy!

8 heirloom tomato plants are planted in amongst the heirloom roses, where I hope they’ll be happy.  I rigged up simple bamboo pole teepees around each one, which I may need to reinforce with some thicker bamboo poles, if there’s any left in the bamboo patch in the back yard.  I used to have a slew of them, which have magically disappeared!

The 2 gutters hanging on the stockade fence have been seeded with Five Color Rainbow beets.  They won’t grow large in their shallow beds, but there’s no other place to plant them, and at least their colorful leaves will brighten up that area of the fence.  One of these years, I’d love to plant some kind of flowering vine along the entire stockade fence, as it’s just a long, tall, boring brown wall.  It’s screaming for a living adornment.

Pots of chives and parsley seed on the back deck railing.

The 2 hydrangeas I planted a couple years ago, on both sides of the front of the house, seem to have taken well, but not the 4 azaleas which flanked them, so I’ll need to rethink what to plant there next spring.  Buying bulbs and plants seems to be as iffy a proposition as buying veg from Stop and Shop!  LOL, which is why we don’t, we only get veg from Shaw’s.

 

Remember these 3 white begonia plants? 

I bought the 3 begonia bulbs when I bought the gladiolus, astilbe, ranunculus, and lily of the valley bulbs for the driveway bed.  As I posted to FB last year, “Like race horses, one shot out of the gate at breakneck speed, one can’t get out of second place, and one remains firmly in last place, dragging its butt.”  

Well, Mr. Dragging Its Butt went kaput.  Mr. Second Place has been on the way to kaput, leaving just Mr. Breakneck Speed remaining.  Fortunately bulbs cost a lot less than plants.  So, I am adding that to the List - find other bulbs I can grow indoors. A plus would be if the flowers are scented.  Unscented flowers always seem pointless to me, though showy flowers make up for it.

Adding to the scentless flowers is this waxed Amaryllis, which was a Christmas gift from a neighbor.  Not wanting to throw it out, after the flower died, as many do, I googled and found this video that walks through the process of removing the wax and planting it.  Susan also points out that these Amaryllis really aren’t, they’re Hippeastrum.  And the bulb is re-growing, so I'm very pleased!

They’re rather pretty shown together in the softer colors, so I’ll be looking to get some – the house needs more plants!

Speaking of which, after the scent of lilacs and lily of the valley filled the air for several weeks, the air is now redolent with roses, especially wild roses!  Hubby gave this bush a massive haircut a few years ago, which the bush seems to have not minded at all, as it’s blooming wildly now!

He also gave this rose bush a huge pruning last fall, which I’m sure was necessary, as everything growing on that side of the house was planted too closely together (by previous owners), and it was all getting tangled up.  

The huge, ugly holly bush took awhile to cut down and out, but now the rose bush gets the sun it needs.  As it was all so overgrown, we couldn’t see the *form* of this rose bush until now.  Its canes are tall and arching, so now I need to think about a trellis of some kind to anchor the canes.  Come autumn I will need to re-prune it and try to root the cuttings.

The small honeysuckle I planted 2 yrs. ago by the arbor is finally growing.  I think it was just an inexpensive qt. size plant, so I knew it would take several years to grow up into the arbor and the adjoining picket fence, so I’m pleased that at least it hasn’t gone kaput like the azaleas and a couple of the white begonias.

The driveway bulb bed is mostly flush with green and buds, esp. what looks like hollyhocks at the front of the bed, that I thought I had all pulled out last year!  Summer is so humid here, that the hollyhocks get a fungus and die off, eh, like my heirloom roses.  BUT, I searched for natural DIY anti-fungals and have a batch mixed up, awaiting several spray bottles (in 3 diff. colors) to come from Amazon, for the anti-fungal spray, and for the bunny-stop spray!  So, we’ll see if I can keep the hocks and roses looking healthy this year. 

 I can't wait until the astilbe bulbs below get to their full width and height - their feathery flowers will be a nice textural change from the gladiolus and hocks.  I've not seen many ranunculus come up yet, so they might not have survived, despite the 4 layers of frost cloth on the bed this past winter – will see!

 

Indoor work is no less busy!  The very long (70”) kitchen window, kitchen door and sliding glass door in the breakfast area all need new curtains.  The kitchen window faces east, and the morning light is blinding, esp. if one needs to get up to pee at 5 am and through half-closed eyes one gets a shock of unwanted bright light, making it hard to return to sleep.  So, the color and thickness of the fabric for that window is critical.

The other issue with curtaining that long window is the type of rod.  The current tension rod is wimpy.  Even being supported midway, the rod sags on both sides.  I don’t want a surface mount rod, which hangs the curtains 2.5 to 3” from the window, so I’ve begun the search for a better tension rod, whose ends will fit the 3/4” available for them.

For this project, I’ve pulled out every unused curtain and valance we either had or bought at local thrift stores, along with my small stash of fabrics, and am in the process of seeing how to rework what I have into something pleasing yet situationally functional for all these windows.  My vintage Brother VX-710 still plugs along sewing straight and zigzag.

 

After that is tackled, I need to rework my bedroom curtains, as this time of year lets too much early morning light in as well!  The 5 windows in the adjoining living and dining rooms also need a rethink, although I may just buy all new curtains, instead of getting a 20 yd bolt of fabric, which is about what would be needed to sew 10 panels, not counting lining fabric!  I really don’t want to be glued to the sewing machine for weeks on end.

Now, this is more enjoyable - knitting a pullover design sample in heavenly extra-fine merino, from Yarn Undyed.

It’s listed as DK wt. and has the exact same yardage/100 grams as the Nature Spun Worsted, in the first design sample, but I am finding that both yarns also knit rather well at the usual 5 sts/1” worsted wt. gauge.  I never judge a yarn by the words ‘worsted’, ‘dk’, or ‘bulky’ in its name or its suggested gauge, as I’ve seen enough yarns that are mis-classified.  

Both these yarns have 70 yds/oz. which screams DK wt, They both can easily knit a dk wt. gauge, but, perhaps its their 3-ply construction, making rounded instead of flattened sts, which also allow for a worsted knit gauge.  Whatever the reason is, I’m happy with the fabrics, which is saying something, as I’m rather fussy about knitting good wearing fabrics, which usually means more snugly than recommended.

The merino also still smells lightly of the sheep it came from, which I love!  Every now and then, I stop and take a deep sniff of this lovely wool.  

And knitting it?  Stitches seem to just fly off the ndls.  It does only come in the one natural white color (hence ’Yarn Undyed’), but I am sorely lacking in white sweaters, as in I have none, so in addition to this v-neck pullover, I definitely see a cardigan and perhaps an aran design in my future, not to mention that it would also be fab in hat, scarf, and cowl designs - SO much to dream up!  

Onward!
Dawn

On the Go!

It’s not usually like me to have more than 2 projects on the go at the same time, aka *startitis*.  Until recently it seems!  

I’ve had 5 projects in various stages, filling all available storage and horizontal spaces in my bedroom/office/knitting room, not counting the yearly sock re-knitting projects: 

* a stockinette knit bag (to be felted),
* a pair of slow-going fingering wt. socks at 8.5 sts/1”,
* a Fair Isle mitten and hat design, with just one mitten knit thus far,
* a worsted wt. striped pullover, and
* the last 2 samples for my newest design - Midnight Snowfall Stockings (whose first 2 samples sat waiting since 2020!)

As the Christmas stockings are done, I’m down to 4 WIPs.  But, only temporarily, as I have a Bohus-style yoke design to swatch.

As for the sock re-knitting, almost every spring to summer I assess my sock drawer to see which are worn enough to need their cuffs through heel flaps cut off from their feet, so to reknit the heel turns and feet.  When re-knitting, I use whatever yarns I have available, as, inevitably I won’t have the exact yarns or colors with which they were originally knit.  But I’m not fussy about such things – they don’t need to be pretty or even matching, just functional and warm.  One pair has been mended again, and will eventually be re-knit again!

Re-knitting makes good use of down time, when I need a rest, or just need something mindless to knit on, while I mentally figure out a design or other issue.  

For a long time, I’ve been fond of a k2, p1 rib for cuffs, as the repeat translates well into the stitch counts my socks need:  36 sts for bulky wt., 42 sts for chunky wt., 48 sts for heavy worsted, etc., and which work with my preferred 6 pt. round toe dec.  I also prefer how the this rib looks, as well as being less tedious to knit than k1, p1 rib!

And these WIPs are just the knitting projects.  We still need to finish putting the floor loom back together, upstairs, then I can rethread the rug warp for the remaining 3 rugs in a new series.  

The first rug in the series is still sitting, waiting for me to knot the warp ends, sew the hems, trim the tails and adjust any weft irregularities, then wet finish it.  I have read that rugs don’t need wet finishing, but I don’t find that to be true.  A good soak relaxes the materials used, helping to even out the fabric, and drying,  whether outside on a warm day or in the dryer, lets me know how the rug will wash and dry, for its new owners.

I’ve been putting the finishing off, rationalizing that until I can weave off the rest of the rugs, *this* one doesn’t really need to be finished, as I do want to present the entire collection at the same time.

As for new pattern – Midnight Snowfall Holiday Stockings – I began this design in 2020, then I went off on a tangent, designing the tea cozy, then the hat and mittens, then the cell cozy of the same name! 

In this design, I’ve kept my usual round toe shaping, but used wrap and turn short row heels, the shape and size of which seemed to suit the stockings.  I also tried the German short row heel for this design, but I find it easier to *read* the wrapped stitch heel turns rather than the pulled-snug double stitch heel turns in the German SR heel.

I've not knit SR heels in my socks, or wearable sock designs.  As you might guess, I’m a dyed-in-the-wool heel flap and V-heel sock knitter!  I like that a heel flap can be reinforced with heel stitch, eye of partridge stitch, or color patterns, none of which can be used in a SR heel, without a fair bit of trouble.  A heel flap's height and width is easily adjustable – it can also have as little or as much depth as is needed.  It seems that the only way to easily reinforce SR heels is by knitting a finer, strong yarn along with the sock yarn.

Thankfully, Christmas stockings don’t need to be reinforced, and SR heels *are* quicker to knit than a flap, heel turn, and gusset.  In an allover stranded pattern, like these stockings, a SR heel also eliminates the need to add in a separate gusset pattern, which I can imagine turns off some knitters, as they are more complex to knit, especially if the sole is *also* in a separate, though coordinating pattern.  Keeping track of 3 patterns while decreasing the gussets is a lot to be getting on with!

The pattern offers two sizes each in two yarn weights.  

Knit in Lamb’s Pride Worsted and Bulky along with Nature Spun Worsted, held single for the worsted stockings, and doubled, for the bulky stockings.    

Design details include:
corrugated ribbing,
allover stranded pattern,
duplicate stitching in a 3rd color,
wrap and turn short row heels,
rounded toe shaping, and
applied I-cord edging with a hanging loop.

Pattern includes 4 easy-to-follow color charts, and 4 short row heel turning charts.  The heel turnings are also written out.

Substitute Yarn Weights:  heavy worsted and bulky

Pattern is $6, available on: Ravelry, Etsy, Payhip, and soon, Lovecrafts

Start them now, and they’ll be done long before Christmas, to hang from your mantel, or string up and hang on your staircase!

Onward, to, hopefully, finishing more things than I start!

Happy Knitting!
Dawn

I Have a (Bohus) Dream

Ever since I bought Wendy Keele’s “Poems of Color, Knitting in the Bohus Tradition”, I’ve hankered after a ‘Blue Shimmer’.  Pullover or cardigan, it doesn’t matter!

The book was released in ’95, so that’s a long time to wait on a sweater, but the kit is expensive, and I need my luxuries to be frugal.

What quelled this Bohus desire (actually the desire to knit *any* sweaters) was discovering secondhand cashmere sweaters years ago at Goodwill and on Ebay.  Every other year or 2, I would spend $45 to $60 and get 3 new-to-me cashmere sweaters, to replace the ones that were falling to bits.  I still kept the bits going with patches and mending, and would relegate them to wearing to bed.  If you’ve never worn a cashmere sweater to bed, instead of a cotton or cotton blend top, you’re definitely missing out!  

The only way to get sweaters as soft as cashmere, is with baby alpaca or angora, both of which are pricey, so I put sweaters out of my mind.

What made me think of Bohus again was reading Meg’s blog post recently about the new-ish “Bohus Stickning på nytt, The Revival”, by Viveka Overland.

Yes, an 8-yr old book isn’t new, but it is, compared to the books in my library!  It seems, though, that the first edition is sold out – I can’t find it anywhere.  I can only hope they are planning to reprint it.

But, it got me thinking.  Specifically about the leftover skeins of Yarn Undyed’s (non-superwash) superfine merino DK and baby alpaca DK in a natural white, which I bought to weave a couple batches of winter scarves, along with Valley Yarns’ Becket, Sunderland, and Hampden - all beautiful yarns, the latter two of which are especially soft, and purchased during one of Web’s 30% off sales.  I was saving them for more weaving projects, that iss, until now.

I have a few skeins of lt. grey, med. grey, a deep blue, and charcoal in the Sunderland and Hampden, which get the same 6.5 sts/1” gauge as the 100% baby alpaca DK.  I may need to add more lt. grey or perhaps a fawn/sand – I won’t know until I swatch a few ideas to see what the final design needs in order to sing.  

The majority of the sweater, however, would be in 100% baby alpaca, and, of course, I’m questioning the wisdom of doing this, unless knit snugly enough.  All this softness, though, is yummy, so, I may go for it, regardless.  

As it turns out, the superfine merino DK works best at 5.5 sts/1”, where the baby alpaca (with the same yardage) is denser/thinner and knits at 6.5 sts/1”, as would a sport wt.

If I was just knitting stockinette, the gauge difference would be an issue, but, all the finer yarns will be in the stranded yoke pattern, so the overall fabric thickness of the yoke and the body will be similar, so long as the st count is adjusted at the transition.  

As I don’t have the lovely blues and teals needed for the “Shimmer”, my eye then turned to “The Large Swan”, another beautiful design, where the colors I have might work better, although I have less colors in total.  Part of what makes Bohus designs so beautiful is the total # of colors used.

But I also really like “Regnmoln - Rain Clouds Pullover”, which looks similar to the “Red Palm”, or “The Mists”.  I’m especially fond of that effect, as no matter the color used, the simple pattern just *glows* – it’s so striking!

So, I have a fair bit of configuring to do. If I do decide to rework a Bohus into a DK wt. gauge, it will also be affected by having less colors to shade, and the fact that i never work top down, only bottom up, so I’ll need to reconfigure where the purl sts go, as the (adjusted) yoke chart will be worked upside down from the usual Bohus top-down method for yoke sweaters.

All in all, it will be a good mental exercise, if not actually mental, although we knitters are used to adjusting designs, right?!  

And, it will still be special.  LOL, if I actually stick with making an adjusted Bohus, instead of doing what I am usually inclined to do, and that is design my own pattern, in the Bohus genre.   Which I have already embarked on!  It is a genre in which I have, thus far, only made 2 designs, so there is much more exploration that can be done.

I’ll re-post when I get these niggly details worked out.  In the meantime, i can dream of a lovely, super soft, yoke-patterned sweater!

Onward!
Dawn