Swing Coat Done

Yippee! The swing coat is done.

Serenity Shared

Last week I opened my home to some fiber friends. We shared laughter and fiber, patterns and food. I gave them a tour of my home and barn. We visited the ducks. Best of all we just spent time together on a beautiful sunny fall day. Maple brought me fiber to spin. This has not happened yet but it will. Cary brought fiber and some mill spun yarn that wasn't as planned. She had requested it be spun into 3-ply sock weight but the machinery was sick that day and before it was noticed her 30 pounds of fiber had become mostly worsted weight with a few odd spins thrown in for variety. This beautiful yarn immediately spoke to me. I had a new technique I wanted to try called a Baltic Braid. Could I incorporate the braid and a simple cable into a hat? Would I like it? More importantly, would a picky teenager like it?



Success is mine!

Note to friends...the pattern is written. The plan is to share it and the Baltic Braid during the January fiber group meeting.

Lots of Swing

Been a busy week of running kids. Working on a couple of new patterns for the AG dolls but not yet ready to showcase them. Instead we will show you the progress on the Wistful Swing Coat from Mission Falls.



This is the back, right front and about 1/4 of the left front. I am still enjoying this pattern. Just enough variety to keep you interested and 'swinging' along. (Sorry, :0) I couldn't resist that one.)

Baskets of fun

Weekend weather was beautiful, sunny fall skies. Weekend activities were a joy...moebius cast on class resulted in a wee basket. Sunday we eeked out a little time to spin with friends Maple, Cary and blogless Mary. A lovely weekend all around.

Ballaghaderreen Finished

I finished my Maggiknits Ballaghaderreen Cardi last night. This morning I quick knotted some buttons on so I could wear it to church. The rest of the day has been crazy busy with soccer and cooking and baking so it took me until after dark to take a poor picture for posting here. Hopefully I will find time this week to take a better picture for Ravelry.

Quack House

We are now the proud owners of 3 ducks. Kids haven't decided on names yet but I am sure it will be a heavily discussed item at the dinner table for the next few days. Last weekend was spent building their new home.

And because D can never be ordinary (not that I am complaining) this is what we came up with.


This is just their temporary home while we fix up this chicken coop which just joined us from its original residence which was down the road about a 1/4 of a mile.


The neighbor decided to let us have it since he would probably never get around to fixing it up. Here it is from the side view where D cut out the wall to jack it up.

It is still on the wagon while we decide exactly where to position it. Then we need to build a new foundation and set it down on it. That will probably be as far as we get this fall but I am sure D will have a new roof and repaired windows in it by the time the tulips bloom in the spring.

Doll Kiddo Hat

I have a new pattern available for free on Ravelry. It is a crochet hat for the American Girl doll. As soon as I have time to figure out the link process I will add a link to it from here.

The race continues

School started last week. I now spend several evenings a week running to a parents meeting to organize some activity for one of the kids or busing one of them to the already organized activity. The activity list contains 2 soccer teams, 1 basketball team, religious formation classes for 2 and the normal things like homework and housework. The housework takes last place as always but I can report that the protective coating (ie dust) on the flat surfaces of my home is in good if not great condition.

In other races, I had been working diligently on the wistful swing jacket. As you can see here I have the back done and was working speedily through one of the fronts.



Then I got sidetracked by my Maggi Jackson class and the Ballaghaderreen Cardighan that I purchased the yarn and pattern for.



This is one sleeve done and the other started. I really want to have this done for the fall weather but I also want my swing jacket. What is a knitter to do? I'd quit my job but then I couldn't afford to buy yarn.

My hurry up and wait time is coming back too so my travel knitting is also getting more attention than it has seen in awhile. The railroad sock is on the homebound track. I have about 50 rows to go on the foot. Soccer again this afternoon so this should be a lot closer by this evening.



If I was a betting girl, the railroad sock will beat the cardigan with the swing jacket coming in a respectful 3rd. Unless another sock gets in the way.

Rub a Dub Dub…a new home for the tub

Meet my claw foot tub. He is one of the treasures which came with the house when we bought it 19 years ago.

The last couple of decades have been a little dry for tubby. Relegated to the dog kennel to collect leaves and twigs and wait for the day when his services would again be needed.


That day has finally arrived.



We spent last weekend scrubbing and rubbing, priming and painting. Spiffing him up for his new job.


Tubby has a new lease on life and doesn’t he look happy? He is now the focal point in the center of the expanded garden. Next spring he will be bursting with flowers, standing proud and showing the world what a grand old guy he is.

MeMe tagged

Cary at Serenity Farms MeMe tagged me a couple of weeks ago in a desperate attempt on her part to get me to update my blog. I guess is worked because I am finally getting around to following the rules of this adventure (at least most of them).

The meme is Six Quirky Things About Yourself and here are the rules:

1) Link to the person who tagged me (Cary)
2) Mention the rules
3) Tell six quirky yet boring things about yourself
4) Tag 6 other bloggers by linking to them
5) Go to each person's blog to let them know they have been tagged!

So here are my Six Quirky Things:

1. Whenever I eat chips (potato chips, Doritos, etc.) I try to eat all the little broken pieces first, saving the large whole chips for the last.
2. And, once I am down to just the whole chips, I tend to snap off pieces and eat them instead of biting into the whole chip.
3. All the t-shirts in my drawer are folded with the front picture out and visible. This makes it easier for me to grab the desired white t-shirt. Since my kids do most of the laundry folding this means I usually re-fold most of my t-shirts because they rarely even turn it right side out much less fold it picture out.
4. All of my white socks live in a Christopher and Banks bag at the bottom of my closet. My colored socks are in a dresser drawer (which is too small to also hold the white socks) arranged somewhat by color.
5. I hate crawling into an unmade bed but I am willing to navigate through and around all kinds of stuff to get to the bed.
6. The toilet paper roll is always put on the dispenser with the paper coming over the top and falling towards the front of the roll (farthest point from the wall). I believe this is done by me because the plaster wall in my bathroom has a rough texture and if the roll is placed the other way I will invariably scrape a knuckle on the wall attempting to find the end of the roll. In my next home the walls of the bathroom will be smooth so that this problem is eliminated.

Wow, that wasn’t easy. Probably because I find all these things to be completely rational, this just proves how crazy we all are.

Now to the part of the rules I will be rebelling against. As a bad blogger I rarely update this blog and the only blogs I visit consistently are Serenity Farms (who tagged me), Maple who has way too much happening right now to be tagged and a couple of blogs visited by millions (Yarnharlot and PioneerWoman) neither of which will I be tagging. So…if you happen to visit this post and want to be tagged so you can play along feel free to leave me a comment and I will update this post to tag you.

Enjoy the rest of your day and come back and see me again if I haven’t scared you off with my quirky self.
…Pam

Treating Myself

Just got back from Lansing, signed up for a weekend of classes at Threadbear being given in August by Maggie Jackson. She is from Ireland, a country I really want to visit someday, and she designs using unusual textures, materials and stitches. I am excited to expand my knitting knowledge and try something new.

This is a treat for myself after surviving the last week and what will probably be the challenges of the next 3 weeks. Husband had neck surgery last Monday for a compressed disk and all went really well. One night in the hospital and I brought him back home. First couple of days were pretty quiet because the 'good' drugs kept him sleeping quite a bit but we are now well on the road to recovery and boredom is setting in quick. He has never been one to set still so a month of no driving and limited lifting/movement will be interesting. I will certainly deserve that class by the time it gets here.

I finished daughter #2's bolero and happily put that pattern and leftover yarn away. Making 3 sweaters from the same pattern is enough for me.

During my wait time in the hospital, I worked on the second sock for the railroad sock pattern started in January. Purposely took this sock with me because I knew the odds of me finishing the second sock on this one was pretty slim because the first took me such a long time to do. Combination of skinny yarn and small needles was not good even though I loved the look of the final sock. Strategy worked as sock number 2 is at heel and going well.


Nursing time at home has been spent working on the Wistful Swing Jacket pattern from Mission Falls. Fell in love with this coat when I tried it on a couple of years ago in a local yarn store. At full price the yarn itself would have cost me about $175 so I couldn't justify it at the time. I got lucky and found the yarn on clearance so for $27 plus cost of pattern and time I will hopefully have a long coat sweater I love.


It will be interesting to see if the coat or sock is finished first.

A Short Visit

I finished my rambling rows jacket this week. Pattern from Cottage Creations, cream yarn was recycled from a sweater I made my husband 25 years ago when he was my boyfriend. It was in the donation box and I had always loved the feel of the yarn...so I disassembled, washed and finally chose this pattern to remake it. I ran short of yarn when I got near the end of the sleeves so finishing digressed from the original pattern which calls for cuffs and a button band. My version has kimono type sleeves with I-cord edging around cuffs, collar and front. Chose Plymouth Encore Colorspun in colorway 7512 with the help of Mary.

While taking my photos to share I had a short visit from a friendly butterfly. I think he saw the camera and decided to get in on the action since he posed for several shots before continuing on with his daily flight.

I'm still here...

I'm still here...just been busy weeding and raking and knitting and doing the Mom thing. A quick catch up on the last 8 weeks.

Garden is in. Lovely Michigan weather means we have had to cover plants for frost warnings 3 times now. The last one took out about a dozen tomato and pepper plants so we just picked up some more. Gotta have enough plants for the salsa and spaghetti sauce.

Finished daughter number 1's Holy Moly just in time to wear it for Short Ones First Communion. Here we are in our fancy clothes.

Daughter number 2 has now requested a Holy Moly of her own since the little sweater we found at Sears is a little big. I have the back done up to the armholes compliments of hang out time on Mother's day.

Items I've managed to finish -
Sweater for Alpaca with a Twist (sorry forgot to take a picture before shipping it off).
Last February's sock, pattern is Hellen's Socks, yarn is from Live On.


Track meets have been good for knitting time. Got a dishcloth done for the kitchen supply cabinet and finished sock one 'Little Sky Sock' in Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters. Need to make the pair to this guy to figure out a couple of things I did wrong on the first sock.

Knitting goals for the summer are to work my way through the remaining socks in Cat's book, try a mobieus scarf, finish a few UFOs and hopefully add a couple of designs to the Etsy store. I better go get busy.

Holy Moly

I finished my Holy Moly Bolero. Now working on the same pattern in a smaller size for daughter number 1. Used yarn that has been in the stash for at least 20 years. Pattern came from December 07 issue of Knit N Style. Made my sleeves 3/4 length instead of long. Daughter is talking about short sleeves for hers.


In case any of my knitting buddies visit...I did not attend the knitting circle tonight because I am fighting a cold. Thought we would all appreciate me sharing my knitting via my blog and keeping my germs to myself. Hope to see you all next week.

Yarn Swift

Yarn swift is done. This was one adventure I don't think he wants to repeat. He just finished a mini niddy noddy that turned out really nice. I want to put a finish on it and add a cool pin to hold the one end before I share pictures.

Niddy Noddy

My husband was busy in the wood shop again last weekend. This time I have a niddy noddy to show for his creativity. It is always amazing to me how I can hand him a picture of an item and he will come back a few hours later with a 3D version of my request. He is also working on a yarn swift following a pattern I purchased. He got it about 1/2 done before he left for his last snowmobile trip of the season.

My snow widow weekend was spent reorganizing one of the few closets in my farmhouse. I moved some items not needed to the basement to make room for a clothes bar. Tonight I skipped knit night in order to play with power tools. My clothes bar is hung and now I have wiggle room in my regular closet since the rarely worn dresses and coats now have a new home.

A Nostipinne

The 45 degree weather and rain took the view of the barn from a winter wonderland to this...



The cats spend the day close to the house and watching what we humans are up to.



And my husband spent some time in his woodshop working a nostipinne on his lathe.


Still on his list to create...a wpi gauge and a niddy noddy.

Fuzzy Slippers for American Girl dolls

I finally modified my doll slipper pattern to include a knit sole for all those non crocheters out there. Enjoy the pattern in which ever form you decide to create it. If you have any questions please post them as a comment to this entry so that others can benefit from the answers. Feel free to print this pattern off for your personal use but do not republish or post this elsewhere.

Thanks
...Pamala

Gauge: 9 rows and 11 stitches = 2 inches / 5 cm

Needle size: US 7 / 4.5 mm double point or size to obtain gauge

Crochet hook size H (if following crochet foot pad option)

Materials: a small amount ( 8 yard / 7.3 meter) of a plush yarn such as Plymouth Heaven, Schachenmayr Hip Hop or Red Heart Baby Cloud

a small amount ( 15 yard / 13.7 meter) of a worsted weight yarn

Abbreviations: sc – single crochet

Pattern

Knit Slipper foot pad

With 2 of the size 7 needles and worsted yarn cast on 5 stitches.

Row 1: Knit across increasing 1 stitch in 2^nd and 4^th stitch. (7 stitches)
Row 2: Knit across.
Row 3: Knit across increasing 1 stitch in 2^nd and 6^th stitch. (9 stitches)
Row 4 – 20: Knit across
Row 21: Knit across decreasing 1 stitch at each end. (7 stitches)
Row 22: Knit across.
Row 23: Knit across decreasing 1 stitch at each end. (5 stitches)
Cast off.

Continue with slipper body instructions.

OR

Crocheted Slipper foot pad

With crochet hook and worsted yarn chain 8 stitches.

Round 1:
2 sc in second chain from hook, 1 sc in each of the next 5 chains, 4 sc in last stitch, following around bottom side of original chain, work 1 sc in next 5 chains, 2 sc in last hook (this should be the same chain in which round started). Do not join with beginning of round. (18 sc)

Round 2 and 3:
In back loop only and without joining, sc around foot pad increasing 4 stitches on each round by doing 2 sc in each of the corners of the round. (26 sc)

Join final sc to beginning of 3^rd round with a chain stitch. Tie off end.

Continue with slipper body instructions.

Slipper body

Row 1:
Using double points and plush yarn pick up and knit 26 stitches around foot pad starting at join or cast off point and arranging stitches so that 9 stitches from first side and 2 from footpad back are on 1^st needle, remaining 2 stitches from back and 9 stitches from second side are on next needle and 4 stitches for front toe are on 3^rd needle.

Row 2 (increase row):
Knit across increasing 1 stitch at each corner, 30 stitches. (Increases should occur in stitches 1, 9, 14 and 22.)

Row 3 (increase row):
Knit across increasing 1 stitch at beginning of needle 1 and at end of needle 2, 32 stitches. Stitches should be arranged 14 on needle 1, 14 on needle 2 and 4 stitches for front toe on needle 3 which are the last stitches worked on row 3.

Toe short rows:

Working in stockinette stitch starting with purl row and only the stitches on needle 3 (toe stitches) bring in 1 stitch from the side needle and work it together with the 1^st stitch of the toe row as follows:

Row 1: slide 1 stitch from needle 1 to needle 3, on needle 3, purl 2 together, purl remaining 3 stitches. Turn work.

Row 2: slide 1 stitch from needle 2 to needle 3, on needle 3, knit 2 together, knit remaining 3 stitches. Turn work.

Continue in this manner for 10 toe rows. 22 stitches remain.

Row 4:
Knit across 22 stitches even.

Slipper cuff
Change to worsted weight yarn, work in knit 1, purl 1 rib for 4 rows. Cast off cuff.

Finishing
Weave all loose ends into cuff, foot pad or body as appropriate to hide.

Thursday

This week started out with a couple of inches of snow which quickly melted in the 40+ degree weather of early in the week and then reality hit in the form of high winds and sub-zero wind chills and by the end of the weekend we should be back to at least a couple inches of snow or lots more depending on which meteorologist you listen to. Michigan weather is never boring.

Running hither and yon this week was limited so I was able to attend sock night at Sip N Knit. Good thing…I had them lining up for help on double knitting and sewing up the bunny pattern from Heart Strings Fiber Arts. It is always good to be welcomed with enthusiasm and then be able to share my skills with others. I went home with a warm and fuzzy feeling. I get this feeling a lot with the women in Ithaca. Recharges my batteries for another week of going to work, helping with homework and all the other chores of life.

Off the needles
This week 2 items have come off the needles:

Sock number 1 for January’s Sock of the Month which is the Railroad Rib Socks pattern from Fiber Trends is done. I like the pattern but the yarn chosen from the stash ‘Red Heart Luster Sheen’ and size 1 needles make this a long knit although I love the resulting fit. Up until now I have not been happy with the fit of my hand knit socks, they are always rather sloppy on my feet. Could be a sign I should do a better job of checking gauge and such but where is the fun and adventure in that? Sock 2 will happen but not immediately. Need to rebuild the reserves for this one.


I also took out the lace waist of the AG shorts, decreased stitches and used smaller needles and I am much happier with the result. The fit is much nicer on the doll. I can now finish this area of instructions on the pattern. Should be up for offer it in my Etsy shop soon.

On the needles

February’s sock has been started. The pattern is Hellen’s Socks from Fiber Trends and I am using some yarn from the stash that I picked up at Lavender and Peonies, a yarn shop in DeWitt, approximately 2 years ago. Golly, time flies when we are busy.

Started the Cobblestone Pullover from Interweave for hubby by doing the swatch on size 7 needles which turned out to be too small so we re-swatched on 8’s which are closer. The number of stitches per 4 inches is within ½ a stitch so that is good but I am several rows shy of the rows per 4 inches so I may have to adjust shaping at the neck to accommodate this difference. Needles have been purchased though so onward we shall trudge.

Goofy Girls

My final Christmas project was a knitting bag for my younger daughter. Here it is as modeled by both of my goofy girls.



One of my bags was being used to carry her knitting around and I had some wool that she kept wanting to help herself to so I put that together with an old bag turned liner and crocheted her a bag. I got to test felt a swatch and determine how big to make the bag based on my test. I was pleasantly surprised when it actually worked out close to my calculations. Also got to install a zipper into my work for the second time. I think I am getting the hang of it.