Pattern - Errol from Charmed Knits, Yarn - Gerwerken Knits, Sock
I actually finished this project a while ago, but never posted about it. I admit I really didn't like this pattern very much, but my son loves the outcome, and that is what counts.
Pattern: Mandrake Plant by Phoenix Knits
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, and Hemp for Knitting AllHemp3
Needles: HiYa HiYa Bamboo US 2.5
My kids are finally interested in Harry Potter. Finally! You have no idea how excited I am about this. I am a huge Harry Potter fan, and I have been trying to get them interested in Harry since they emerged from the womb, but the books were boring (not enough pictures) and the movies were scary. Eventually I found the Harry Potter "gateway drug," Legos.
Harry Potter Legos, lead to the Lego Harry Potter video games (that do a surprisingly good job story telling without words), which lead to the Harry Potter books books (finally!).
For the pot, I made doughnuts of foam covered in strips of brown cloth, and glued them inside pot to act as the "dirt". In the video game mandrakes scream and break glass until you put them in their pots. The kids have been enjoying pretending that he is screaming and then shoving him back in the pot.
This Saturday the girl ran her first 5k. She ran with Fire Beard, in the pouring rain, and loved every minute of it.
I was very proud, from the top of my head to the tips of my wet frozen toes. Seriously though, it was miserable out there. I stayed cold for hours after we left, and we didn’t even stay for the big Christmas parade after the race. I was shocked and proud when she came over the finish line with a smile on her face, and told me she wanted to do it again next year. I guess the girl is one tough cookie!
St Nicholas Day is a children's holiday celebrated on December 6th throughout much of northern Europe. It is celebrated in memory of Saint Nicholas who was known for his generosity and gave treats to poor children around Christmas Time. On the night of December 5, kids leave their shoes out for St Nick. If they have been good, they will wake to find little presents St Nick has left in their shoes. Often these presents are candy, or small toys.
My family has never celebrated St Nicholas Day before, (and neither has the vast majority of Americans from what I can tell), but we did this year. On December 5th my kids left their shoes out, and the hope that I would fill their shoes with treats if they were good (they were).
The Pavlova blouse is a wrap shirt pattern by Cake Patterns, a wonderful new pattern company from Australia.
Steph C, the owner and designer at Cake Patterns has an innovative approach to sizing that makes her patterns easily adaptable to a wide variety of body shapes and sizes. Unlike most patterns in which your size is determined by only one body measurement (usually the bust), Cake patterns allow you to mix and match your pattern pieces based on several body measurements. In addition, the suggested fabric is usually a knit, which also make fit a bit more forgiving.
I decided that in this, my first foray into using Cake Patterns, that I would follow the pattern instructions blindly, trusting in Steph C’s fitting and drafting ability, and see what came out. After completing the pattern, I am glad I didn’t try to go my own way. Cake patterns are NOT like any other patterns, and while I am a fairly experienced seamstress, I would have been lost if had had not followed the pattern exactly as written.
I ordered the PDF version of Pavlova from Cake’s etsy shop. I printed the pattern, put it together, started to cut out my size, and only then realized that my size wasn’t present. Warning: Unlike the paper version of the pattern which contains all sizes, the PDF pattern does not contain all sizes. This mistake was entirely my fault. It clearly says in the etsy ad which sizes you are buying, but I looked only at the picture, and bought the wrong size. So then I bought the correct size, printed it, put it together, and cut out my correct size.
After putting together both PDF versions of Pavlova, I feel qualified to comment on the quality of the PDF version of the pattern. I have used many PDF patterns, and while most are perfectly useable, few seem to have had any thought given to the orientation of the pattern pieces on the paper they are printed on. As a result, PDF patterns often have empty pages, or nearly empty pages or multiple pattern pieces converging on the same piece of paper. In contrast, there was obviously intentional placement of the Pavlova pattern pieces on the printed pages. There were no empty pages printed. The pattern pieces intersected as few pieces of paper as possible. Multiple pattern pieces intersected the same piece of paper only when necessary. All of these thoughtful touches made putting together the printed pages of this PDF pattern easy compared to most of the PDF patterns I have used before. The pattern pieces could be put together in chunks which fit on my dining room table. I did not have to clear the entire floor of a room to tape together ~40 pieces of paper at once. I highly recommend the PDF version of this pattern (just make sure you buy the correct size)!
The pattern itself is brilliant and weird. I have never see a pattern that looks anything like this pattern. I wasn’t even initially sure if I was holding it right side up or upside down. There is no obvious neck line. There is nothing on the pattern to indicate where the neck line is. The main pattern piece is the front, back, and sleeve of the blouse. Imagine cutting a blouse in half through the front and back of the blouse, then cutting cutting the side seam one of your blouse halves from the hem up to the armsyce then through the bottom of the sleeve. This leaves the sleeve attached to the body, and the shoulder seam intact. Now lay your blouse half out flat with the back hem at the top and the front hem at the bottom with your neckline forming a “C” in the middle. Now on the front half, on the side opposite your sleeve add a triangle shaped flap with the narrow part closest to the neck opening and the wide part closest to the hem. This is basically what the pattern looks like. Fire Beard described it as looking like “half a bear skin rug,” and frankly I think that is pretty accurate.
The directions and construction diagrams are very good, but made no sense on my initial read through. I decided to follow the instructions blindly without really understanding what I was doing, and the blouse came together perfectly. I was sure I was reading the instructions incorrectly in step 5 in which the neck facing is applied. The neck facing initially looks like it is being applied upside down. I followed the directions anyway, and realized that the neck facing edges are enclosed by the neck facing itself. The end result is like tucking the two short ends under and top stitching. This is easily the most difficult part of the pattern, but it really isn’t hard once you wrap your mind around it. The last step (step 12) really isn’t that well written. It basically says finish the rest of the edges. In this step you fold over the neck facing and the facing of the front wraps and ties and sew them all down at once by starting at the end of one tie, sewing up one side, around the neck, down the other side to the tip of the other tie. I would recommend pinning starting at the neck. You will have to double fold the edge under at the neck line so that the inside edge meets the outside edge and the inside is finished rather than raw. You can then use this amount as a guide for how much you need to fold the front facing under to finish the edge. The front facing narrows as it goes toward the end of the ties. The amount you fold under will go from about .5 inch at the neckline to nothing at the end of the ties. If you do not fold the edge under and instead just sew down the raw edge where it meets the body of the blouse you will end up with an unattractive jog at the neck facing.
Now that I have completed the Pavlova and wore it around a few days, there are a few things I will do differently next time I sew it. The pattern is made with the back slightly longer than the front, so that the back has a flap that would make it easy to tuck in. I would extend the length of the front so that it is at least as long as the back, and I may lengthen the body overall, because it is very short. It is also made so that the front ties simply overlap each other, making them compete for space. This is much easier than sewing an opening in one side that one tie can slip through, so I understand why the pattern was written this way, but I will opt for a side opening next time.
So the big questions:
Does the finished pattern look like the picture? Yes, the resemblance is remarkable.
Would you sew it again? Absolutely, but I would modify it slightly to better fit my body and lifestyle. I am actually already planning another.
One of the many things I did this summer was a bit of home improvement, starting with my bathroom. We decided to change out many of the towel rails, hooks, etc, leaving us with holes in the walls that had to be patched. I became very good at patching these holes over the course of the summer, and thought I would share my technique.
The most recent hole to be patched was a rather large one in my kitchen. I decided to remove an ill-fitting and unused phone jack, and patch the hole it left behind.
After removing the phone jack and box, and making sure that the left over wire was safe to leave in the wall, I sanded down the edges of the left over hole.
Next I applied the patch. Since this hole was so large I could not simply fill it in with spackle. While there are many ways to fill a hole this large, I decided to use a commercially available patch. This one is a 4” by 4” patch by Workforce. It was available in the paint section of my local home depot. The patch was just big enough to cover the hole. I believe that there were slightly bigger patches at my local home depot, but honestly, I think this is about as big a hole that should be patched with this technique.
Then I spackled over the patch and a small margin surrounding the patch. I recommend doing several thin coats of spackle, letting the spackle dry between coats, rather than globing a bunch on. The spackle I used was Dry Dex. It starts out pink, and dries white, making it easy to tell when it is safe to apply the next coat.
When the patch was no longer visible under the spackle, and the last coat of spackle is completely dry, it was time to sand. I like to sand from the outside edges of the patch toward the center, using a circular motion. When I was finished I had a giant mess, and a smooth surface. I rubbed my fingers over the surface of the patch to make sure that I did not feel any bumps, high or low points, etc. Mistakes will be easier to feel than see at this point.
When I was sure that my patch was perfect, it was time to paint. The glossier the paint, the more visible mistakes will be. I used satin finish paint in my example and I am pretty happy with the result.
Good luck on your next home improvement endeavor.
October 2002 was a good month. Grad school was going well, Firebeard and I went on our first date, and Surly was born. However, I wouldn't know about Surly's birth for 4 more months. It was February 2003 when I first met Surly. He was a skinny puppy, being bullied by the other dogs at the pound when I decided to take hime home and keep him safe.
He had already had a hard life. Surly had been removed from the home of his previous owner because he had been badly neglected. When I got him he was 15 pounds, and the pound informed me that he had been only 7 pounds when they received him. He was up to 30 pounds about a month after I took him home.
Despite his early malnutrition, Surly was never food aggressive, however, he did eat a few odd things early on. Very soon after I brought him home he decided to ingest a large christmas light bulb, and a steal wool pad. I thought he was a goner, but he was absolutely fine. I would say that it didn't effect him at all, but he never ate non food items after that incident.
Surly and I did a lot together those first few years. When I rode my bike he ran after me, when I went swimming he jumped in too, and when I layer down he snuggled with me. Then in February of 2005 he started acting strange. He seemed depressed, and didn't want to snuggle with me like he used to. Instead of crawling on me to get to a good spot on the couch, he carefully avoided crawling on me. After about a month of this strange behavior I had decided to take him to the vet, when suddenly his behavior made sense. I was pregnant with the girl, and he had been carefully avoiding my stomach the entire time.
I never had to worry about Surly when we took the girl home from the hospital. He immediately included her into his pack. He carefully watched over her during the day, alerting me when she woke up or lost he pacifier, and at night he slept in the hall between our rooms.
As the kids grew Surly watched over them, and tolerated everything they did to him. He even protected the other animals in our household. I was a bit worried about what he might do when we brought chicks home, but I need not have been. He watched over the chicks just like he had the children, herding them to safety, and even protected them from other dogs.
It was around July 2012 when we found out he was sick. He had a lump in his throat, a large lump, that we knew was cancer even before the vet confirmed it. He had late stage lymphoma, that had spread all over his body. The vet didn't expect him to live more than a month. We immediately started feeding him whatever he wanted, not expecting him to live long enough for there to be consequences. Firebeard left for school about a month later, with Surly still alive, and me expecting a quick decline.
The decline didn't come, at least not right away. For months he was his normal self, not needing the steroids the vet had given him, and getting fatter from all the extra food instead of thinner from the cancer. He slept in the kids bedroom, watching over him at night, and stood guard during the day as they played in the yard. Eventually he needed the steroids. He started sleeping more, and slowed down. At the end he developed type 2 diabetes, and had difficulty eating. He lived a year after his diagnosis.
I miss him.
If you were part of Surly's life, and would like to leave a comment or story about him I would appreciate it.
In Florida summer temperatures can last well into November, so the end of summer is marked by events rather than the changing of the season. Today officially marked the end of summer in my household. It was the first day of school.
The girl started second grade, and the boy started first. Fire Beard also started his second year of law school. He moved back to school last week so it is just me and the kids again. It was really nice to have him home this summer, and for that reason and many others I am sad to see this summer go.
On the up side, now that our schedules are back to normal, I should have more time for crafting, organizing, blogging, and maybe even a few other things. I have done a lot this summer, and I can't wait to tell you all about it. So stay tuned.
Fire Beard found this little guy in the wood chipper and pulled him out before he got hurt. Now he is living beside our house, and hopefully keeping the rodent population at bay.
Martina Behm is my new favorite pattern designer! Her shawls are wonderful. They use simple shapes, lots of garter stitch, and are designed to use the amount of yarn that you actually have, so they are great for stash busting or a special skein. I love that they are feminine without being lacy.
I have been very inspired by all of the wonderful garter stitch shawls out lately. Designers like Martina, Veera Välimäki, and Ysolda Teague have recently shown how beautiful and versatile garter stitch can be. It is nice to focus on color and form without worrying about which stitch to use, and whether you will be able to block the finished object enough that the edges don’t roll up.
I already have Martina’s other patterns inspired by the Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, and will probably start another one when I am finished with Liesl, although her Leftie shawl is very tempting as well! All of the little leaves would showcase some hand dyed yarn very nicely. Then again, there is a world of patterns out there that is growing all of the time…
These pretty monogrammed napkins are a great last minute gift. They take less than 1 hour to make, with the exclusion of washing and drying the napkins.
How To
Materials:
Process:
I became smitten with Malabrigo Rios in Pearl Ten when my LYS (Really Knit Stuff) had a sale recently, but there was a problem. They only had 4 skeins (about 800 yards)! Being a selfish knitter, with more than enough hats and scarfs, and not nearly enough adorable cardigans, I had a problem. I wanted a cardigan, but I couldn't possibly knit one with only 4 skeins. Enter Liesl.
Liesl is a Ysolda Teague Cardigan with impossibly little yardage. Liesl’s yardage is advertised at between 175 and 733 yards. Frankly I thought it was a typo until I saw several people on Ravelry claiming they had knit the cardigan with less than 300 yards. I thought surly, if they can knit Liesl with less than 300 yards, I should be able to knit it with 800! Right? I didn’t believe it, but I cast on anyway.
I have knit a bit over 100 yards at this point and have already reached the underarm (the pictures were taken a few days ago). I am starting to believe that I might actually have left over yarn when I am done!
While Fire Beard and I were in North Carolina I visited a few yarn stores up in Ashville. Ashville, if you are not familiar with the city, could easily be referred to as the Portland of the South East. It is packed with Locally Owned stores, coffee roasters, breweries, street musicians, and crafters. I am a big fan.
Downtown, on Wall street, a few store fronts from a climbing gym and vegan friendly restaurant, is Purl. It is the only yarn store I have ever been in that had more male customers than female, and the only yarn store I have ever been in that is organized primarily by color. I expect it would be a dream come true for a yarn driven knitter, but as a pattern driven knitter, the yarn organization is not my cup of tea. I find it hard to find what I am looking for at Purl without asking for help, but it is wonderful visual inspiration.
I was very happy to see truly local, North Carolina Spun yarn represented at Purl. The local yarn was a surprisingly competitive price, but I was a bit disappointed with the quality of the spinning. The local yarn that I saw was inconsistently spun singles. It looked lumpy, rather than artistically thick and thin. I did not buy any. Nevertheless, it was very nice to see a local product, and I plan to buy some next time if the quality is better.
We also stopped at Yarn Paradise, on the south side of Ashville, and there I did buy a couple of skeins.
Yarn Paradise is a fairly average, but well run yarn store. It has a large selection of well-known yarn brands, and the staff was friendly, helpful, and quick to steer me toward the sales. I picked up two skeins of Malabrigo Finito in Paloma, a yarn Malabrigo produces only once a year from the finest quality wool available. It is incredibly soft and beautiful. I think it may become a scarf or small shawl.
I still have a few yarn stores to visit next time I’m in Ashville, and I am hoping I will find one that has the character and personality of Purl, with the management of Yarn Paradise. Any recommendations?
The mountain cabin is nestled into the side of a mountain, fairly high up, but not at the top. While it is not a big house, it is very comfy with its wooden floor and ceiling, over stuffed couch, and it’s wide back deck looking over a sea of wild flowers and Irises.
My favorite thing to do at the cabin is sit in a rocker by the fireplace and read or knit while a fire crackles merrily in the grate.
If we are feeling ambitious we hike up the nearby Whiteside Mountain. The mountain is considered one of the best climbing areas in the southeast with its uninterrupted sheer cliff faces, but it also has an easy hiking trail to the peek. In recent years, handrails have been added or repaired so that the access to the cliff face is more limited, but it is still possible to hike to the very edge in some spots.
About this time last month was my 9 year Wedding Anniversary. Fire Beard and I were finally able to celebrate on memorial day weekend. We took a trip up to the family cabin in North Carolina, and had a wonderful time.
We took my old dog with us, knowing it might be his last trip since he has late stage lymphoma. I don't think anyone would have guessed he is ill. He seems to have forgotten himself.
We spent nearly every evening at the dock near the cabin, throwing sticks into the water for the old dog to fetch. He is not as buoyant as he used to be, but he didn't seem to mind.
I hope you all had a wonderful Earth Day. My family celebrated by spending some time outside in nature at the lake near our house.
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While we live in Florida, no it was not warm enough to go swimming this weekend.
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This was the result of indulging in cold water fun.
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Once they warmed up a bit, the kids decided that playing on the shore was just as much fun as swimming.
~Gerwerken
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Rit is an inexpensive dye that can be found in the laundry section of grocery stores across America. If you are an average American that wants to dye a piece of cotton clothing Rit is probably the dye you will turn to. I myself have turned to Rit on multiple occasion to dye clothes, and on multiple occasions I have been disappointed with the results.
What I had not realized is that Rit is an acid dye, and despite the proclamation on the box that it is suitable for dying cotton, Rit, like all acid dyes, is terrible at dying cotton. To dye plant fibers, like cotton or linen, you would use a fiber reactive dye. To dye an animal fiber like wool or silk,you would use an acid dye, like Rit.
How to Dye Wool Yarn with Rit - Uniform Color
I started with some yarn I had previously dyed with a food safe acid dye. I had not been happy with the washed out red, and decided to over dye it with Rit's dark red wine color.
Since I wanted uniform color, I started with a dye pot large enough for my yarn to move freely. I filled it with water, my dye, a cup of vinegar, and my yarn (already wet). Then I turned up the heat.
Slowly heat the water to almost boiling, and occasionally move the yarn within the pot very gently. As the dye is absorbed, the water will become lighter in color.
When the water is as light as it is going to get (clear if you added just the right amount of dye), and you yarn is the color you want, turn off the heat, and let the water slowly cool.
When the yarn has cooled, fill a container with water the SAME temperature as the water in the dye pot, then rinse your yarn. If all of your dye was incorporated you should see little to no color run off.
Now it's your turn! ~Gerwerken
Note: When dying your yarn take care to change temperatures slowly and move the yarn gently. Abrupt temperature changes and agitation of the yarn will turn it into a large felted lump. Also, don't use kitchen implements that will later be used to cook food!
A crafter's stash consists of the materials required to engage in that craft. It may consist of yarn, fabric, paint, beads, bits of metal, or anything else required to engage in the craft. I would venture to guess that all crafters have some stash whether it is boxes and bag full of materials that would last a lifetime, or only enough for the next project. I would also guess that, given enough time, crafters will experience the inexplicable phenomenon of their stash growing of it's own accord. Given the number of crafts that I engage in, and the amount of time I have been crafting, my stash is pretty small; however, the amount of space allocated to my stash in my tiny house is even smaller. After cleaning up the working area of my little craft studio last week, and putting away all of the pieces of my stash that had been left out, I realized that the cabinet in which my stash is stored needed a good de-cluttering too.
Here is the before and after! Wow, look at the difference! What is the secret to my success? Bags that can fit 3 blanket into the space of one, baskets whose interior dimensions are greater than their exterior dimensions, or hiding everything under the bed? No! I also didn't spend any money on clever organizational gizmos, or new baskets, or magical vacuum bags. In fact, I didn't spend any money at all. So how did I do it?
I got rid of stuff. A lot of stuff. 3 garbage bags full of stuff. I mercilessly purged all of those items I did not love, or could not think of a purpose for. The small bits of fabric, too small to even make a napkin, suffered the worse. I put them all in a pile, and told my kids to give me those that they would like doll clothes made from (the only thing I routinely use small pieces of fabric for). The rest went in the trash (sorry quilters).
My left over bits of yarn went in a basket my kids can reach so they can access them. They will now be easily accessed for kids projects, wrapping and tying things, and knitting experiments.
The left over bits of fabric, and squares large enough for napkins (but not much else) are now in a drawer of their own.
And my interfacing, stuffing, and dye have their own space now too.
I have to admit that I was scared to get rid of my stash at first. After all, it could be used to make something. And I love to make things. But now that it is over I feel a huge sense of relief. I am now left with those things I actually WANT to make into something, and I no longer have an insurmountable mountain of stuff bearing down on me waiting to be worked on.
I encourage all of you to turn a critical eye on your stash, be it big or small, and cut out the chaff. I think you will be glad once you have done it.
Crafting a Life.
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