Two Loops

Blue Kiri

Handspun from merino/silk blend on the Ashford Joy I rented for a spinning class. I knit this up quickly. I gave myself a week and nearly made it, but I ran out of yarn on the bind off about two or three leaves from the end. It took me a while to rip the edging and redesign it to be briefer. It has 12 leaves from the center to the edge, so I managed 10 repeats of the second chart with 400+ yards on Addi US6. Easy and lovely pattern--my only thought was that I might like smaller leaves for the weight of the yarn and make the pattern a 8 row repeat instead of 10.

I went to the post office twice on Saturday to try to send it off, once with toddler and once without. Couldn't find a priority box and stuffed it into an envelope. Usually when I send something priority on a Saturday it reaches my mother Monday. Now it's Tuesday and she's still waiting. I really want her to have it in the hospital. Here's to hoping it's just the holidays slowing things down.

BackTack received

(Very sorry this has taken so long. I've had this post open since Tuesday.)

After emptying the toddler's bucket of candy, we got to have more opening fun. (You can find better pictures on the sender's blog. These are just some live action shots of the opening.)

I think I'll do this in a little bit backwards order, just because I want to start with the things that were the little extras that were a complete surprise to me. First up, some packets of Tazo Refresh.

I'm pretty sure there were 4 originally and you only 3 here because my daughter picked one up and said "open it open it", so I did. I used to drink this all the time, and I'm not sure why I haven't had it lately. It's the best no caffeine tea there is.

Heidi also included some beautiful cards she made.

They're fabric sewn onto card stock, with a brighter green paper inside. I just love the striped fabric along the edge. The lines are a little wavy, and there's some purple and brighter colors in with the blues and greens.

On to the main course:

A lovely felted sweater bag, with its previous collar forming a pocket and a flower that isn't very clearly visible in this shot.

Not one, but two kits for me to try new things. I had mentioned the wool & hoop crewel embroidery kits
as one possibility, but Heidi also picked up a Sublime Stitching pattern set.

My daughter torn into the vintage dress pattern immediately. She saw the little girls on the cover, and there was no denying it was for her. I got the pattern out of her hands pretty quickly though.

A very happy handful of embroidery floss for the Sublime Stitching patterns. They've since been moved to safe place, lacking only their identifying tags.

A scissors holder to match the bag and keep the scissors out of little fingers. Very successful. So far she has no idea there are scissors in there. She hasn't even said open it.

Thanks so much Heidi. Everything's lovely, and I can't wait to try things out. It's been a busy week with cleaning and setting up for a visit from my mother, so I haven't gotten to do more than look so far. But soon...

Trick or Treat

Treat! Treat! Treat! I received my backtack package tonight, but I'm going to have to wait until I've had some sleep and cleared away some of today's excesses.

I've also finished the package I'm sending out, but am still waiting for a chance at some decent pictures before I let go of it.

Crinkle Pouch

Baby's taking her first nap in, um, nine days? So I thought I'd seize the opportunity to write this up before I forget how to do it. Again.

I made some crinkly wrapping paper for my daughter's first x-mas, and I wanted to do something similar for the little present I'm sending my backtack partner's baby, so I worked out this little pouch.

Start with two pieces of fabric about 4 x 10. Take one and fold up about a third, right sides facing. Sew both edges to make a pocket, stopping about 1/4" from the cut edge (as opposed to the folded edge) to leave enough fabric free for joining to the other strip. Do the same to the other piece.

Optional (and forgotten here): add a small strap across the width of the outside of the pouch. Sandwich it in between the right sides of the outer fabric when creating the pocket.

Pin down pocket seam allowance on each piece and sew two pieces together, right sides facing, pockets inside, along the three sides of what will be the flap.

Shown here with just the ends pinned and opened up to show pockets.

Start turning right side out and add the crinkle. (Maybe this should be sewn with one of the strips?)

Sorry about the blurriness.

Fold in edges of pocket, pin together, and sew shut.

Insert gift. It's an elephant tape measure. A little noisy to work, but that might be a plus to a baby. It did have a small parts warning, so it may end up being for mom. It's definitely not nap-safe.

Stuff flap in pocket (or under strap)

There are lots of other closure options, but this one was chosen with a baby in mind. So was the monkey fabric!

First Fingers

I started with some Polwarth dyed in gorgeous colors and some photographic difficulty. The little pile in the picture was originally one long strip. The colors change slowly; it takes about four ounces to get through one repeat. Since I only had a little more than one repeat and wanted to see how different colors combined, I divided it up into its constituent colors as well as I could. The colors blend gradually and sometimes the color you thought had vanished pops up again.

I started spinning up little bits of two colors on my spindle, then plying them and knitting little strips. One of the strips even has beads in it, the product of a little spinning workshop. Eventually I decided to make gloves (or mittens if the fingers seemed too much trouble) and spun up a couple ounces. I used some of what I had already knit as a sideways cuff and picked up stitches to continune on.

Here's the completed glove. I guess the fingers weren't too much trouble, though the do have these strange tentacles. The ends aren't woven in yet because I didn't wash the yarn after I spun it. I think I'll wash the glove before I chop the ends and lose the ability to lengthen the fingers.

All Fishit

Or all finished if you're not used to talking to a toddler (all fishnit or finshit might be closer, but it's pretty hard to catch).

These were knit from Lorna's Laces, colorway vera. I started with the one on the left (Feather & Fan from Socks Socks Socks) and wasn't sure how I liked the striping in the lace, so I started the other toe-up. I kept knitting both, waiting to see which one was working better and never got to the point of wanting to rip either one, so now I have a finished pair of socks. I'll get to see which wears better.

All the knit socks I could assemble, past, present, and future--plus a few booties thrown in.

At the bottom are two pairs of booties to be gifted soon, very soon, and a single sock knit for my own baby about a year ago. Next up are pink socks knit this spring, and the first sockpal attempt, still not ripped. Above (green with a little red), the only one I could find of a pair that developed holes in a short span of time--too tight maybe? Sitting top of that is an EZ baby bootie destined to remain a singleton. The blue/purple/green is for my mother and I think we'll have a fitting before I knit the other one; I think she's being pretty slow about flying out for it. One the right, two skeins for a future pair of some resemblance, and a single skein which might need to find a mate.

One of the pair for my sockpal. The other one was remarkably similar.

A "pair" of socks I knit for my mother. She picked the yarn from her stash; she had more than one ball of each color. The lace cuffs aren't the same pattern either.

Handspun Lace

Spindle spun merino tencel in a color that's sometimes blue, sometimes grey. I knit this cowl from two tiny skeins, about 200 yards total. The pattern is HeartStrings flared lace smoke ring, followed until I ran out of yarn. Still spinning very thick and thin. Also, I think, tending to spin thinner as more yarn goes on the spindle. I wanted to use the last spun yarn at the top, but in washing and winding I think I lost track and started the second skein from the end rather than the beginning. The cowl ended up with an hourglass shape and some very thin yarn in the middle.

tie one on

Notes on a disaster or how do they do this sh*t?

I think I started thinking about this project from my diaper making experience. Layers of thick cloth are absorbent, but get stiff. The combination of many layers of thin cloth sewn together without preshrinking yields the absorbent perpetual fluffiness of prefolds--thick but not stiff. Washing shrinks the layers, but the parallel stitching forces them to quilt. I think this quilting also makes them a little slow to soak through--since there's usually some air between the layers, liquid spreads out over each layer before passing through to the next. This is what was really appealing since I'm always leaning against the edge of the sink, but I also like how quickly flour sack towels dry and didn't want to sacrifice that entirely. I found a set of three towels at the hardware store and played around with them to see how I wanted to use them. Folded into an almost-triangle the two small points can become ties (handily getting over the lack of twill tape or having to do more sewing). Either the towel's not quite square, or the fabric biases slightly leaving two points in the front.

I had seen some squiggle-y quilting that struck me as looking fun and easy and, best of all, not requiring any planning. Somehow I always manage to block out the part where someone says something's difficult. It was a pretty unpleasant mess, and, while I'd like to get better at it, in the interest of coming up with something presentable, I might try something a little more geometric.

Here's a close-up after one hot wash and dry.

It will probably quilt more with washing, but I think I'd try again it with three layers, maybe one a color or print.

Finished!

This is my contribution to the drove of flower basket shawls from the past year or so. I held off making a shawl for a while simply because I couldn't get "I don't wear shawls" out of my head, but the idea of ironing it flat and making shine like metal got me hooked.

I bought some undyed tussah silk and dyed it with Kool-Aid. I ran short at the end (one row and bind-off), so I dyed a little more, without trying for an exact match. Considering its size after blocking, I think I could have been satisfied with it one repeat shorter. I've never been more in love with anything I've made, but I do think I liked the way it sat on my shoulders better before it was blocked. It now spends most of its time on the back of a chair.

My first adventure with blocking pins and a hot iron. I think the color in this second photo is more accurate as well.

Sockpal2za

After two socks, three toes, four stitch patterns, and five bind-offs, I have one complete sockpal-two-za sock.

I did the sock toe-up and the bind-off is my own "unvention". I have PGR's Simple Socks, and she provides a "graft off" for 2 x 2 ribbing. I only had one purl between my two knits, so I just decided to see what would happen if I ignored the instructions for the second purl stitch. Turns out you get a pretty picot edge with minimal flare.

Update: I finished the first sock last weekend. Now the second sock just needs its ends woven in and done! (except for wash, block, pack, ship)