Bed Sheet, Circa 1980

This is a sheet.  

Last seen in March 2015, when I started crocheting a rug with 1" strips torn from said sheet.

Size Q crochet hook

 Proud to say that I completed the rug!  Used up all of the focal sheet, plus a couple rounds from a cream-colored flannel sheet, and a bit of dark teal sheet as the outer border.

How big would you say this is?

 As I was working with the teal, I was determined to use as much of it as I could.  How to know which row would be my last?  I learned a trick from my sister about working with leftover bits of yarn.  So I tried it out...

I weighed the ball at the beginning of a row; it weighed 157 grams.

After one row of crochet border, it weighed 63 grams.  So, one round used 157-63=94 grams of "yarn".  And I didn't have another 94 grams left on the ball, so I called it done at that point.

Win!
Hope that the intended recipient likes it.  These rugs-from-sheets are pretty durable--I already have a couple in my house.  I encourage everyone to try one of these!

Finishing Details

Here are the bits and pieces that got completed during Christmas break (hand-stitching that I brought along with me to Oregon--yay, for once that strategy worked!)

All of them involved just the tiniest of finishing steps.  But, you know, those pesky details can just sit and sit (at least in my sewing world).

Clockwise, from top left:

Gah - can't I take a better picture?

Headwrap

"Morning Walk Headband Earwarmer" a free pattern available on Ravelry.  Begun in November 2014, I finished the knitting portion AND the crochet edging before the end of football season (January).

And there it sat.

Bought the cute moose button (seen in collage above) in July.  Wasn't until I went to a meeting of the Oakland Stitch and Bitch Group that I got the ends tucked in.

Just one button! Finished in December, and worn almost daily in the chilly Oregon weather.



Mystery Cube Puzzle

This feels like an ancient project--the prototype cube/block puzzle that I started in 2013 to see if the concept would work, before making one out of the Get a Clue with Nancy Drew fabric line.

I got far enough on this version to make adjustments and corrections so that the showcase version would approach perfection--but I didn't finish this one!

Lots and lots of hand stitching.  Tedious.

  

This cube was made out of fabric scraps--nothing larger than fat quarters. Fussy cutting made the 3 interior scenes super cute and kid-friendly!

Neck Ruff/cowl   

 Well, seems like I called this one "finished" back when I posted about it in March.  But I was too quick on the draw--didn't buy the buttons until July, and finally stitched them in place in December. Ah well, I do get ahead of myself sometimes...

Pi cowl worn with Pi t-shirt

Pi cowl


Lightning fast! Started in September, with yarn purchased in July.  Finished the knitting shortly after I posted my progress in November.  I knew I would need assistance to finish, as the Kitchener stitch was something I had never attempted.  The close-up in the collage at the top of this post shows my seamless join (can you tell which color was used for joining?)

YouTube--and my friend Tree--to the rescue!  I had the toughest time getting the steps down, even though they were very basic, and the video was clear.  Thought I was a visual learner, but I finally had to write down the steps, rather than just replaying the same 30 seconds of video.

This was another warm and helpful item to have with me in Oregon.  Win.


How do these items appear on my list of UFO's to finish?  (Sometimes I cheat and call things done before they are done done.)

Well, THREE of them are accounted for.  (The 4th one wasn't started in August, when I took stock.)

Proud of myself there.  I may not have gotten my UFO's down to single digits (a 2015 goal), but I finished the year in great style.

Piece of Cake

Well, this is me starting new projects--regardless of any previous promises to finish things before I start new things.  (Seriously: do I even listen to myself when I make promises like that?)

It's fall: Monday Knit Football season.  So I started a knitting project.  You know, a cowl, because the weather's gonna get chilly my sister gave me the pattern!

provisional cast on with waste yarn

The pattern is called Pi Cowl, by Emily Williams.  It is a simple tube, knit in the round on circular needles, no increases, decreases (or even purl stitches!), then joined at the end into a bit of a donut shape.  The color changes represent the digits of Pi: three (point) one four one five nine, etc...

Yay for nerdy projects!

So naturally, being such a basic pattern, I figured there would be no new skills to learn.  Wrong!  But no worries: I love learning new things.

First new skill: provisional cast on.  Not too difficult, since I already knew how to wield a crochet hook.  Brilliant additional idea from the YouTube video that I watched to learn this: mark every 10 stitches, so you don't have to keep counting as the cast on progresses toward the requisite 94 stitches.

Second new skill: changing colors in the round in a way that looks almost seamless.  Thank goodness for YouTube videos!  The name for this technique is "jogless stripes" and it is not difficult at all.

These are cakes of yarn; now you know

My yarn colors.  Fun, no?  They remind me of sporty clothing from the 1970's, especially when knit into all those stripes.

Plymouth Select DK Merino Superwash

Not being well-versed in all things knitting, I didn't realize you can't knit straight from the skein as it comes from the yarn store.  That is a no-no.

Action shot: unwinding a skein

But, that doesn't mean you need to wind your yarn into balls by hand.  The well-equipped knitter (my awesome Sister) has a fancy contraption that winds it all with a few turns of a hand crank. 

I was mesmerized watching it.

And the end result is not a ball of yarn, but a cake.  Yummy.

This project will probably last me well into football season.  Just a-knittin' away.

Do you have "football season" projects?  What makes a good candidate for working on while watching (or listening to) sports on tv?

We interrupt the crochet interruption...

Shunted aside already? But I just started...

...to Knit!

Went with my lovely sister and two of her very passionate knitting friends to the Rose City Yarn Crawl--like a (quilt) Shop Hop, but for the fiber-obsessed.  Fifteen shops on this route, all in the greater Portland area.

I stood firm: no need for yarn, thank you.  My plate is full (more than full, actually).  My stash overfloweth, and I recently culled my yarn supplies down to a very minute amount--an amount I might actually be able to use up on reality-based projects.  (You know, projects you can see yourself finishing.  For reals.)

Fabriholic? Poseur with the yarn enthusiasts

I succumbed.
Saw a cute pattern from ArgentGal Designs, and I was a lost cause.

(New stash: Cascade Yarns Superwash Paints in Rainbow Sherbert [discontinued, I believe]; Euro Yarns Orion, a fantasy in gold and sequins; Plymouth Yarns Encore Mega in color 0692)

Ended up buying two patterns, getting a free cowl pattern, and adding to my yarn stash.  Although I showed restraint.  All purchased yarns have a known pattern to nestle themselves next to.

Arrived home from the Yarn Crawl and got my knit on.

Ta-Da!

Gotta love a super bulky yarn--size 15 needles, a few romantic comedies on the dvr, a few YouTube videos on the knitting increase stitches I didn't know how to do (LIL? LIR? how many different kinds of increases are there?)

Impetuous! neck ruff from ArgentGal Designs

Couldn't quite get it to stand up like the photo on the pattern showed, but it's a cute design.

I chose the Encore Mega yarn because of its indefinable color--is is mustard? is it chartreuse?  I held up the skein in several different light sources in the store before purchasing it.  I am nothing if not unique, and a seeker of the eternally odd.

Gonna make this pattern again as a gift.  Next time I want to incorporate some of the wacky Orion novelty gold in the rows towards the ends.


Thanks, sis!

Help me out, fellow stitchers: Is there a website equivalent to Ravelry for quilters?  How about an online site for garment sewists?  I thought maybe Pattern Review (for garment sewists) might be kinda similar to Ravelry, but I don't think it's as universally used, and I don't see a place to keep track of your fabric or notions stash, just your patterns.  And I know of no unifying web community for quilters--are we just too diverse to all line up in one corner of the Interwebs?  The folks on the yarn crawl seemed to all be big Ravelry users...

Linking up with the always-fabulous Molli Sparkles for Sunday stash.  I am going to have to give an accounting of all my 2015 acquisitions soon, since one of my goals was to use up a (cough) significant (sputter) amount (ahem) of my stash this year.  Oh dear; day of reckoning ahead...


Finally, for your viewing pleasure: yarn bombing, flamingo-style.  This photo taken at Wool 'N Wares Yarn Shop, the site of a festive flocking in honor of yarn crawl weekend.

On a Magic Carpet Ride

And we're off!

Off on a new project, leaving plans for finishing old projects cast aside along the way.  I am helpless to resist, I tell ya.

Anyone out there recognize this fabric from the 1970's?  It was a sheet.  In fact, the very sheet that was on my brother's bed when he was in junior high/high school.  (Don't ask why I have it.  Some questions are better left un-asked.)

This is what happens when you take a full-size sheet and rip it into 1" strips, knot them together securely, and roll them into a ball.  A rather heavy, dense ball.

And then, you take your size Q crochet hook, and begin a single crochet adventure, making the turns up as you go along, hoping that you end up with something more rectangular and less oval.  And you start to appreciate the colors, now that they are reassembling themselves randomly.

Don't know how far the sheet will take me, but I have a coordinating solid sheet as backup (outer edges of rugs look better with a darker border, I have found).  I will keep going until I either run out of fabric strips, or decide that it is "big enough".



Should I happen to finish this magic carpet ride anytime in the near future, I have a backup rag rug all planned out--using strips from t-shirts.

Got a lot of t-shirt pickings, and random perusal of blogs on the internet found a tutorial for a knit rug.

 
Oh yeah, not gonna let any grass grow in between my toes.  Or whatever...

Monday Knit Football

In an effort to be a supportive partner, I have been knitting on Monday nights in the same room where Sweetie is watching Monday Night Football.  This has worked out well as a companion activity.  My friend Tamarra often joins in--I am teaching her beginning knitting (which is about all I'm qualified to teach).

Here is two weeks' worth of my latest project--an earwarmer/headband.  Two weeks, you say?  Isn't that a very small amount to accomplish in two weeks?  (Especially if we're talking the length of time it takes to watch a football game--even fast-forwarding through many of the commercials.)

Two things:
(1) I'm slow.  This has been previously established on numerous occasions.  I blame ADD.
(2) This is knit in a ribbing pattern, with increases*** every other row, in the center of the row.

The pattern, available for free on T. Matthews Fine Art blog (and in a bulky-yarn version available here), uses four different increase patterns--M1B, M1F, KFB, and PFB.

***I don't know how to do these stitches.  So, each time I come to the increase, I have to re-watch the YouTube video that explains the stitch.  And maybe watch it two times, just to be sure.  And practice on my sampler (see how much of a perfectionist I am?)

Pattern: "Morning Walk Headband Earwarmer" found on Ravelry (links provided above)
Yarn: Rozetti Yarns Tempest
Needles: size 6

This will eventually be my project to link up with Barbara at Cat Patches for her NewFO linky party.  It is my new project for November--clearly won't be finished by the end of the month--no worries, winter is not even here yet.

Thanks to my sister for being my knitting cheerleader, and for teaching me about Ravelry.  Thanks to Tamarra for being a willing learner, and for not making fun of me when I have to go back to YouTube every other row to re-learn a stitch I just did 20 minutes earlier.  (And thanks to Monday Night Football for providing a convenient meeting place once a week.) 

Here's to learning new things!

Russian Wedding Band

Finished just before my recent two-week vacation: a knit cowl.  (Now why wasn't this on my goal list for the quarter?  Oops, oversight.)

My sister made me one of these cowls as a present, and sent me home with the directions (available as a free download from Ravelry).  It's super simple: just knit, on circular needles.  It's a stash-buster: uses small amounts of any worsted weight yarn, in 3 different colors.

She's a sweet sister, and pretty inspiring, too.  I pulled out my longest-stashed yarn (since college!), determined to get my knit on.  Had never knit on circular needles before, but I am now a big fan.

So, the pattern goes like this: knit a tube, about 7" long; bind off.  Let it curl up like a soft kitten, which is what it wants to do anyway.  As you cast on the second ring, put the first ring in the center, so the two loops will be intertwined.  And follow the same intertwining method with the third ring.

Those of you who knit in the round know a particular pitfall.  But my lips are sealed.  I called my sister in mid-panic about having screwed up the third ring.

Me: do I have to rip it out?  It's a pretty big error.
Sis: send me a picture, Ms. Perfectionista

I'm knitting with a crazy yarn, here

Me: Well???
Sis: Is it a gift?  Then redo it.
Me: I think it's just for me.  I was kinda just goofing around with old yarns...
Sis: Then leave it alone.

Sis: And don't tell anyone about it; they'll never know unless you go blabbing.

This is me, not blabbing.

First knit project I have completed in probably four years.  Feels kinda good!