Vintage lace

What could I make with this?

On my needles: Vacation knitting

Today marks the middle of our three weeks' vacation "down the shore."  I brought a ton of fiber with me, along with my entire collection of knitting needles and my spinning wheel!  Last year I wound up having to buy yarn and needles to work with, but I wasn't going to make that mistake twice.

I spent the first week swatching with Atacama yarn by Arucania, a discontinued DK weight alpaca that looked kind of skanky in hank form, but knit up into a lofty confection of a fabric with the big needles the Neck-Down Wrap Cardigan called for.

Yes, it took me a week to get gauge.  I knit three funky-sized swatches (which, incidentally, I did not wash because the ball band indicated that dry cleaning would be most appropriate -- I suppose I should have steamed them, but what's done is done) and alternated the boring swatch-knitting with some hippy-dippy crocheting.

The Rickrack Kerchief, in Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, is right up my alley.  It's the right level of challenging, which means that I can watch TV or daydream while I work on it, and it's the right type of finished product, meaning that I will totally wear it when it's done.  And it has a ribbon woven Right Into The Headband.  I am completely mesmerized by ribbon these days -- buying it, saving it, making it, using it.  The Christmas packages are going to be so much fun this year!

So finally I finished the swatches and started on the wrap cardigan.  I had thought that I could not do another row of stockinette-with-raglan-increases when this number showed up.  There is something about this pink-cotton-candy knitted fabric that makes it such a pleasure to work with that I don't care if the knitting itself is uninteresting.  The yarn is fascinating and I cannot wait to see what it will do next.  The thought of making a little more of the fluffiness in my hands is enough inspiration to keep me going, and I hope this will  be a project where the process and the product are equally important -- I want to wear this loveliness.

I have also been reading a lot about knitting this vacation, and have many big ideas concerning fair isle, ganseys, log cabin knitting, organic cotton washcloths and multi-media knitting, but that's for another post.  What's on your needles this summer?

Emergency Quilting: Stacked Coins

A little over a week ago, I needed a teacher gift.  Like, now.  For K's other teachers, I had made small quilts, but I hadn't started one for Mrs. First Grade.  What could I do?

I got out Last Minute Patchwork and Quilting.  There, under "8 to 12 Hour Gifts", was a wonkily cut Stacked Coins quilt.  Surely I could complete it in, say, 24 hours tops?  I hightailed it to the quilt store because I did not have time to diddle around with scraps.  Fat quarter bundles, baby.  Yeah.

I cut the wonky coin strips and tossed them like a salad before I realized you were supposed to leave them in piles and sew them in "random" order by choosing them deliberately.  Also, I cut half the fat quarter bundle into the wrong size coin strips so had to put them away for another project and was left with only orange and yellow fabrics for this quilt.  But it all worked out okay.

The finished panels:

Cut into strips and arranged into rows:

The sewn quilt top, basted (I used over 1,500 pins on this small quilt top -- I am slow, but I am learning to be thorough!) and ready to be marked.  I used a Clover chaco liner, which was great except that the chalk would rub off and I would have to re-apply it right before I quilted an area.  If I were doing it again I would use my Hera marker.

Three things I learned about quilting from this project:

1. Buy the very best batting you can afford.  It really does make a difference.  Really thin cotton batting is a dream to work with, and it was perfect for this quilt.
2. The tension on the machine needs to be adjusted up, not down, at least in the case of my Kenmore.  Adjusting it down leads to loosey-goosey stitches on the back.
3. I only ever want to machine-quilt with my Kenmore, unless I am using a longarm.  That machine is a real workhorse!

The finished quilt -- washed and dried, it crinkled so beautifully that the imperfections in my quilting melted away and it looked really gorgeous.  I am totally making one of these for myself!

Holiday weekend treasure!

Memorial Day weekend is the official start of Yard Sale Season for me, and D and I kicked it off this year by heading to a 40-family yard sale in Lancaster, PA, where the pickings always seem to be a little more exciting than they are at home.  

(I'm especially loving the blue rosebud cotton print that you see in nearly all of the pictures below!  There's enough of it to make myself a pair of summer pajamas...)

Those big needles are called "Jumbo Jets."  The little ones beside them are size 17!

Yard-sale notions are practically free! To heck with Jo-Ann Fabrics! 

That big hoop is 17 inches across -- huge!  I'm going to use these to make a wall display of my favorite fabrics.

I love vintage greeting cards. Six different kinds in this box!

A souvenir tablecloth with cocktail napkins. I don't really know what to do with this, but I thought it was interesting-looking.

I have so much fun on these adventures, and I am so lucky to have a husband who enjoys them too (even if we did end up with a copy of Men In Black II.  Ugh.)  Thanks for a great day, D!

Planning a Vintage Linens Quilt

This is what happens when the vintage linens pile gets a little too large in my fabric closet.  I had in mind a yellow-and-orange quilt, but the green insisted on coming for the ride. 

 

My plan was to do a strip-style quilt like the one in Patchwork Style.   Somehow, though, I couldn't visualize a vintage-linens version of that.  I checked out another Make Good:  Crafts + Life book, Natural Patchwork, but nothing there moved me either.

Fiddling with the yellow-and-orange linens didn't help.  I remembered that Anna Maria Horner had some free quilt patterns up on her blog, and I went to take a look.

 The Folk Dance Quilt was intriguing, and I wondered if I could pull it off with the linens I had.  I printed it off and began yanking things off the shelves and swapping them around.

This would give me the chance to use patterns I had thought would never see the light of day!

Playing with colors and patterns is so much fun!  I can't wait to see how they look in the zig-zag patchwork.

Having done all this, I am thinking rather guiltily of the *ahem* four unfinished quilts (plus two wool blankets) on my shelves -- so I hastily remind myself that it is the process for me, not the product, which is most satisfying -- and also that I try to spend some part of every day on a work-in-progress, and so do in fits and starts get things completed.

What a joy to start a new quilt! and with my beloved (and overflowing stack of) vintage linens!  What a joy!

Potato-Chip Tea Towels

I have been sitting on a bunch of feedsack material for several years now -- I think I bought it when I was getting ready to paint the studio and was planning to make my own curtains.  Then I found the pretty eyelet curtains that are still hanging from my windows and tucked the feedsacks away. 

Recently, I noticed that my kitchen linens were in rags but was reluctant to buy new ones.  I went to get some plain white birds-eye cotton to make dish towels, but the feed sacks caught my eye.  What good were they doing anybody in my fabric closet?

Enter Potato-Chip Tea Towels, so called because you can't make just one.

I followed the dish towel pattern in Linen, Wool, Cotton, omitting the zig-zag stripes and adding mitered corners to the hems (which I needed to learn how to do, and am so glad I did)  after doing about a few towels without them and getting annoyed at having to stop and pick out stitches at the lumpy ends.   My favorite thing about these towels is the hanging loop detail -- I plan to put up hooks in my kitchen so I can put them on display!

(Not too) swift

Yeah, I should have known that I was not going to be winding yarn without ending up with a kitten in the swift. The title of this post, of course, refers to me, not the cat, who managed to navigate his way around the contraption pretty, um, swiftly.

Ten Things: Three

I am a poet.  At the moment, my poetry is dormant, but I have made a decision to wake it up.  Look for it here. 

I wrote pretty good poetry as an elementary-schooler, pretty typical (read: angsty and obscure) poetry as a middle-schooler, and pretty decent (if somewhat controversial) poetry as a high-school student.  My eleventh grade teacher was a wonderful mentor, and I was published multiple times in the school literary magazine, Pen and Ink -- admittedly I was literary editor my senior year, so there was some serious nepotism going on there.  I spent a summer learning about the ins and outs of life as a poet at the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts, and I wrote prodigiously in my journals and read constantly.

To start off, here's the last poem I remember writing:

Ten Things: Two

Although I haven't done it in many years, I love to make pysanky -- Ukranian Easter eggs.  That is one of the reasons I am trying to clean out and sort my world.  I want to go back to this absorbing and challenging craft, and try some new adventures(such as hand-dyeing wool, yarn and fabric) in a more organized, well-defined space.  I think that, as a crafter and artist, I am at my best when I allow myself access to many different media, but concentrate on just one or two at a time, flowing from project to project as my mood dictates.

Ten Things: One

A friend blogged recently with a challenge to post ten positive things about herself that had nothing to do with a particular demon she had faced in her life -- that her readers might not know about her.  I was most impressed with her response, and I would like to respond in kind.  I am going to do my post a bit differently, however -- I am actually going to do mine in ten separate posts, and focus (in keeping with this blog's theme) on creative aspects of my self -- so here goes:

I love to read and write poetry and was literary editor of my high school's literary magazine, Pen and Ink, during my senior year.  It has been a long time since I wrote regularly, but I am thinking about ways to get started again and how this blog might help me do that.

Leslie

Meet the newest member of our family!

Mostly about rick-rack

There are how-to-apply-rick-rack tutorials all over the blogosphere.  I did a search when I went to make these lavender sachets.  I had the lavender, the rick rack and some charm squares and a need for sachets (read: a burgeoning fiber collection) but the thought of pinning all those rick-rack bumps in between two pieces of fabric to make the pretty rippled edging on the sachets made my head hurt.  So, through a series of tutorials, I devised a better way for myself.

I started with one charm square and some rick-rack.  Did you know that you can heat-seal the end of the rick-rack with your iron so that it doesn't fray?  I didn't.  I did that, then laid the rick-rack down on the edge of the charm square (look, Ma, no pins!) and began to sew, keeping slightly to the right of center.

As I neared each corner I stopped sewing and turned the rick-rack, then pivoted the fabric under the presser foot and moved the needle by hand several stitches until the needle was in position to sew straight forward again.  I sewed all the way around the charm square until the rick-rack overlapped itself.  After I finished sewing, I cut the thread and then cut the rick-rack carefully just beyond where the thread stopped.

I used the iron to heat-seal the cut end of the rick-rack once again.  Then I cut a six-inch length of grosgrain ribbon and folded it in half.

I centered the ribbon on the right side of a second charm square, with the cut ends of the ribbon at the top, laying the first charm square on top of them.

Then I sewed around four corners and three sides of the charm squares along the stitching line for the rick-rack.  I left the fourth side open for turning, and I trimmed the corners, being careful not to cut the rick-rack.

This one did not come out perfectly -- some of the rick-rack bumps have little holes underneath them, and the rick-rack doesn't meet exactly at the end.  I used my scissors to trim the rick-rack so that it looked a little more even, then heat-sealed it, but I am not particularly happy with that solution.  The next step, top-stitching around the edges of the charm squares to close the hole and add a decorative touch, helped to cover the holes. 

I think they're cute!

Thanks for bearing with me -- this post was mostly for my own benefit, so I can remember my own method for applying rick-rack, but I'd be glad to know if it was helpful to anyone else -- or if any readers have their own methods they'd like to share.

created -- Easter joy

focusing on the good things created during the week...

Alleluia! The Lord is risen!

 

K studies clues from the Easter Bunny to follow the steps to her basket of goodies!

 

Mugging for the camera after church.  You can't see it, but her socks match her purse match her dress!

 

Racing to hunt Easter eggs!

Hope your holiday was a blessed one!

In the studio -- Thrifted, etc.

Treasures from a birthday jaunt to my favorite antique and resale shops in Lancaster, PA -- a mason jar, some tapestry wool, a painted wastebasket.

From The Lancaster Yarn Shop, because I was there:  four skeins of New England Highland Wool, #67 Marigold, and one skein of Kettle Dyed Wool & Mohair Yarn, Heirloom Tomatoes colorway.  Totally irresistible.

The current state of my cream-and-gray blanket -- behold, The Princess and the Pea.  I hope to get back to this ASAP, but I am currently so engrossed in my knitting that everything else is on hold.

 

 

And there's knitting class this morning!  TGIF, and Spring Break for K as well -- the Aunties are coming to visit and she is hoping to have some Girls' Only Craft Time.  I have an idea brewing; look for it soon!

SCI Knitting News and Challenge

Thanks to those who have begun knitting for the Seamen's Church Institute.  Here is a little more information about the project:

• The hats and scarves we are knitting will benefit specifically the Seamen's Church Institute of Philadelphia and South Jersey, which "greets merchant ship workers at ports along the Delaware River and provides services to meet mariners’ practical, spiritual, and emotional needs."
• The mariner's scarf seafarer's scarf and watch cap patterns are available on the SCI of New York and New Jersey's website, but it should be noted that any items donated through St. Mary's Church in Burlington will go to the SCI of Philadelphia and South Jersey.
• Scarves are the most needed items.   If you can knit the mariner's scarf seafarer's scarf pattern with the ribbing around the neck, that is wonderful, but if not, a plain garter-stitch scarf is fine.  The watch cap is the most desirable pattern if you would prefer to knit a hat.  Solid-colored items only, please!
• Yarn should be worsted-weight machine-washable-and-dryable and of dark and/or "masculine" colors.  We gladly accept donations of yarn!  It takes about 4 oz. of yarn to make a scarf and 3.5 oz. to make a hat, so please keep that in mind if you are donating leftover balls of yarn.

For new knitters:  there are wonderful tutorials on the Knit Picks website to help you with tricky things like casting on, binding off and even that pesky ribbing on the mariner's scarf.

Now, for the challenge:

For those of you who are taking on this project with me:

Will you knit every day?

For half an hour while you watch the news, or half an inch while you watch the game, or fifteen minutes after you say your morning prayers, or however you decide you'll do it, will you make a commitment to work at this a little at a time, over a period of time, and see how much you can get done?

It's not for everybody -- and nobody will be able to do it perfectly.  I know there will be days I will miss and I can even predict some of them now -- but it's worth a try.  If you can use little bits of your time to finish one scarf to warm one neck this winter, think of that goodness.  There will be other things you will want and need to do, but see what you can do with this one, if it's right for you.

Note:  My apologies for including the wrong scarf pattern in the original post.  The link to the correct pattern, the seafarer's scarf, has been added.

created -- shalom!

Focusing on the good things created during the week...

It's hard to take a picture of yourself wearing the sweater you made, especially when the cat wants to get in on the act!

The sleeves I added are enough to keep me toasty without roasting me in alpaca.  A shout out to Myra at Woolbearers in Mount Holly for helping me work out how to do them nicely!

Knitting for Seafarers

At a friend's request, I am organizing an effort at church to knit scarves and hats for the Seamen's Church Institute.  They will be placed in "ditty bags" to be given to the seafarers at Christmas, along with toiletries and personal items that are, naturally, hard to come by during long stretches of time at sea.

Last evening we held a "knitting workshop" that was billed as "just for fun -- no commitment required" in order to encourage new and/or "out-of-shape" knitters to consider knitting a scarf.  Although turnout was low, we had a pleasant time, limbered up our fingers and got two beginners chugging along nicely.

Making progress

 

 

 

 

 

A giant box of yarn donated by a young parishioner!

Some questions for you:

• Can you knit/would you consider knitting for charity?  Do you have the time, money, willingness, the what-it-takes?  It's not for everybody.  I'm not sure that, in the long run, it's for me.  I want to explore this question more.
• Which organization(s) would you be willing to knit for, and why?
• Are there other crafts or services you would be willing to do/perform for charity, and why?

In my next post I will give information about how you might help out with our efforts, should you be interested in doing so.