Baby roll-neck sweater

Grandpa Sweater for Baby

I fell in love with the buttons on this baby sweater and decided to knit my first sweater pattern (on a small scale: For babies!) It's a pretty easy pattern and so fun to knit. So I made two. One for baby Jacob and one for baby Desmond.

Yarn Wreath

Check out this cute idea for a wreath posted here on Apartment Therapy. I don't have time to craft myself, but that won't stop me from making suggestions for other people!

Holiday Sweatshop Item #7: Felted Slippers

These slippers were one of my first serious knitting projects. I needed to take a class to decipher the pattern. Able to memorize none of it, I had to cross each stitch off the pattern once complete. Since that first pair I made one pair for my mom (with the wrong yarn - they felted up into huge fuzzy Muppet slippers. Blessed be the mothers who wear these sorts of "gifts" with pride).

I love my slippers so much that I keep wanting to make them for people. This pair is for my stepmom. Thank goodness I paid attention to the yarn this time.

Here's what they look like before being felted.

Holiday Sweatshop Item #2: Knitted Neck Scarf

The pattern for this neck scarf is in Martha Stewart. It's surprisingly easy, although I had to re-knit this particular scarf three times in order to get the sizing to perfectly match a single skein of yarn I wanted to use. That's a little bit crazy, but so satisfying when it finally worked.

So far the holiday sweatshop is successfully churning out the necessary pre-holiday gift preparation. Plus, I like this scarf so much I'm knitting one for myself.

Holiday Sweatshop Item #1: Strawberry Hat

The Christmas crafting has begun. This strawberry hat is a classic. I think I remember Sharon knitting one in college. This little morsel is going to my niece Cora, who was a huge fan of the Super Cora T-shirt she got last year.

Plant Dyes

This morning was my first trip to the Kingfield Farmer's Market. One vendor was a lovely woman, Kim Christiansen, who experiments with natural dyes and yarn. I was mesmerized by her booth, perhaps because it was 50 degrees and I wished I'd brought my handwarmers. 

She explained that the color of a dye is a result of the dye substance, a mordant and the yarn itself. The mordant sets the dye on the fabric and different mordants can produce different colored results.

Pink yarn: Dyed with cochineal, a bug native to Latin America.  Cochineal was used by the Aztec and Maya populations, later coveted by the Europeans. Cochineal are now cultivated on cactus plants and you can mail-order them from Oaxaca, Mexico. The mordant for this yarn was Rhubarb leaves! I don't understand what it is about the chemical properties of these two substances together that works, but Kim does.

Yellow yarn: Dyed with rhubarb leaves and stems.

Brownish yarn: Dyed with ivy berries and "unknown berries."

Green yarn: This one is my favorite. Kim was leading a group of middle school students in a chemistry of dyeing class to gather experimental dyes. One kid wanted to try buckthorn berries. This invasive shrub attacks yards and public lands in Minnesota. Its berries are a deep blue and are guaranteed to stain your sidewalk. but, when used as dye on merino wool, buckthorn berries leave a beautiful green. Another wool skein dyed with buckthorn was a lighter green due to the specific reaction between that wool and the berry.

Cable Hat

This pattern started as something more complicated: alternating ribs and cables (I actually needed help with the math to figure out the sizing). After seeing the thickness of my ribs, I went with all cable ribs.  I doubled-stranded Frog Tree Alpaca yarn, which everyone at the yarn store insisted I'd "just love." Turns out, it's the tiniest bit itchy - perhaps because, after all that math, it's one rib too tight. But I still like it. I can't figure out why my casting on seems to scallop at the end, but it makes for a nice effect with this hat.

Photo courtesy Benjamin Pofahl, who would like to share that he's just about had it with his lipomas.

Baby booties

These are called 1-hour baby booties. The pattern can be found in Stitch and Bitch Nation. They really only take about an hour. But the straps take about another hour each. Maybe I labored too long attaching them. Tonight I hosted my own Stitch & Bitch, which was responsible for my finally finishing the straps and buttons.

I'm pretty sure there's a reason babies don't wear booties. I'm pretty sure the booties will fall off as soon as the baby moves its legs. My stitch & bitch comrades assured me that it's enough for the booties to look nice in the gift box and displayed in the baby's room.

Spiral Rib Hat

Let me document the fact that I was sitting in my car on Christmas Eve day, having just run to The Yarnery for one more skein of yarn, the car was running to keep me warm, and I was knitting. I mean, I was due to arrive at our Christmas celebration and the wrapping for the gift I was finishing was sitting in the seat next to me. Next year I must remember: there are only so many items that can be knit in the few weeks before Christmas.

But this was one of them. And the recipient seems to like it quite a lot.

It's an M.L. Egan design. But M.L. doesn't seem to have a Web site.

Cabled Handwarmers

This pattern was created by Cheryl Niamath. Thanks, Sharon, for walking me through the cable how-to during our crafting weekend!

Whale Tee

The felted swatches continue...

(He's kind of swimming off to one side, no?)

This one I had to hand-sew because I wasn't getting the tension right on the sewing machine (novice, here). But sewing by hand offered some nice precision.

Cute Enough to Eat: The Baguette

I might have to carry this bag every day for the next 5 years in order to justify the time I took knitting it and sewing the liner. Felted carpet baguette pattern from Noni.


Collaborative crafting: The button was Elana's idea. Good thing she reminded me to add the button loop before sewing the liner. And the liner, it must be said, was all my mom's doing.

Sweet Dreams!

Upon giving Angelina Ballerina and her bed to a granddaughter, it became apparent that bed linens were a necessity. The bed came with a mattress, so I just needed to make a fitted sheet, flat sheet, pillows and pillowcases. I also knitted a blanket with textured yarn in a straight garter stitch. It's such fun making little items and clothes for dolls. Could it be because they are not fussy about how something looks or fits?

-Carole (a.k.a. The Duke)

Handwarmers

Knitting these handwarmers is like knitting a big tube. Thanks to Sharon's help, I've now moved on to cable-knit handwarmers with a partial thumb.

I would recommend making these with a hearty yarn that doesn't show a lot of wear and tear. After one winter mine look a little ratty.

Pattern in Last-Minute Knitted Gifts.

All Knitting All the Time

The first time I wore this skirt to work, I realized my biggest challenge would be to find a non-knit top to wear with it. The skirt is a bit knit-overload, but I love the puffy felted flower complete with little roots hanging off the hem. The skirt (basically like knitting a really big hat) and flower patterns are in Stitch 'N Bitch Nation. For the drawstring waist I folded the top over and sewed it, then knit a drawstring of the same yarn. This puffy flower marked the beginning of my felted swatch obsession.

Drawstring:
On a single dpn, CO 3 sts.
Slide sts to opposite end of needle; bring working yarn behind the needle and, w/ a 2nd dpn, K3.
Do not turn work; keep same side facing you at all times and pull the working yarn firmly around behind the sts on the needle to form a knitted tube.
Work in this manner until cord measures desired length.

Felted Clogs

This was my first knitting project that I couldn't execute while watching a movie. They were worth it. The pattern is Fiber Trends' "Felt Clogs."

Felted Swatch Nation

Debbie Stoller's Stitch 'N Bitch Nation has rad sweater pattern that includes cutting felted swatches to make a flower and sewing them onto a sweater. I first tried this on a knitted skirt and now I want to sew felted swatches onto EVERYTHING. I am a sewing novice and this was my first time using the zigzag stitch on the sewing machine. If I were to do such a detailed shape again I would probably sew it by hand. The key is to use "stitch n tear" (tear-away stabilizer) behind the fabric onto which you're sewing the swatch. I embroidered the froggie features. Little dude is a bit uneven, but I like to think he looks rumpled and cute. Watch for an even cuter (hopefully) felted whale Tshirt!