Projects Completed in 2017

In order of completion. Click text for related blog posts.

Mug Rugs

Coaster

Airplane Nine Patch quilt

Cardinal Nine Patch quilt

Farm Girl Vintage quilt

VK Anniversary Dress

Malabrigo Nube Handspun

Tilted Pi Shawl (knit)

"Homecoming" Canada 150 quilt

County Fair Raffle Quilt Block

Vogue Cable Knee Socks

Like Mother Like Daughter dress

Wool-Aid Sweater 3

Kaffe Fassett quilt

Overdyed yarn

Broken Seed Stitch Socks

Jeans Socks

Norwegian Christmas Rose Mittens

Christmas Table Topper

Norwegian Christmas Rose Mittens

When I was ready to take these pictures, we were just
getting our first snowfall. Can you see the snowflake?

Someone I know recently moved from the area. I knew I would have to knit her a farewell gift.

I wanted it to be cashmere - more luxury than she would normally permit herself and yet not fussy. (I know the labels always say to dry clean but cashmere is surprisingly resilient. The dry cleaning chemicals are actually bad for the fibers and will leave them "crunchy" while an easy soak at home will generally do the job.)

I also had in mind that it should be something that took skill - colourwork or intricate lace. I didn't want a "quick" project to be dashed off the needles without a thought. Not having ever seen her wear something around her neck, I settled on mittens. I figure everyone needs something for their hands in cold weather.

I couldn't find exactly what I wanted so I used parts of two patterns and made up the rest.

The flower design on the back of the mitten was taken from the Drop's Design Christmas Rose pattern. I had to adjust it to fit the gauge I got.

The design on the palm of the mitten was taken from Jessica Tromp's Norwegian Mittens. From the same pattern, I used the wrist design.

I added the Latvian braid before and after the wrist section. You'll notice I mirrored the flower design and braid from the left mitt to the right mitt because why wouldn't you.

The stripes along the side of the mitts are kept continuous through the decreases at the top. I worked the final decrease so that the pale blue stripe at the center carries continuously from the one side to the other.

I kept the striped thumb of the first pattern and made the stripe carry across the top in the same way.

Here is the inside of the mitts, for those of you who can't resist looking at the "wrong side".

Probably the biggest change I made from the patterns is the garter rib cuff. I wanted the look of a corrugated rib, which is a rib where the knits are in one colour and the purls are in a second colour. The problem with it is that even though it's technically a "ribbing" stitch, it doesn't have any stretch to it.

So instead, I cast on 15 stitches and worked them in a garter stripe (alternating two rows of each colour), attaching the end to the beginning when it was long enough. Then I picked up stitches along the edge and knit the mittens up from there.

The double layer of cashmere is warm and cosy without being too thick. Now I'm thinking I need a pair for myself. :)

Project Stats
Started: 26 Nov '17
Finished: 3 Dec '17
Patterns: Drop's Design Christmas Rose and Jessica Tromp's Norwegian Mittens
Materials: 35 g darker blue and 61 g light blue, both raveled from sweaters. I used four strands held together.

A Pair of Socks

I have not been churning out huge amounts of knitting, but knitting is still being done around here. Pictures take a little longer...

So by the time I was ready with pictures of one pair of socks, I actually had two done. (And don't look now but I actually finished another pair today in the time since I took these pictures. But those will wait for another day.)

I start with the toes and in both cases here, my favorite short row toe:

I. Toes from the yarn raveled from a yellow Ann Taylor cardi and overdyed with Wilton's icing.

II. Toes in the main colour, a multicolour red I picked up on my trip to the Netherlands.

After the toes, I start the pattern on the top of the sock.

I. Using the same raveled yarn but overdyed one more time, I started a textured pattern intended to let the little blips of colour pop, the Double Fleck Stitch from The Harmony Guide to Knitting Stitches (p 19).

You can see columns of K2 alternated with P2 but with a row of all knits in between horizontally and columns of knits in between vertically.

II. Alternating the multicolour with a solid yellow in a broken seed stitch. This means the seed stitch (K1P1 on one row, P1K1 on the next) is broken up with rows of all knits in between each row of the pattern.

When alternating yarns, this means that one yarn does all the knit rows and the other does all the seed stitch rows. Easy to keep track!

Here is a sample of using the yellow on the knit rows (right) and using the red on the knit rows (left). Very different results and I very much preferred the one on the left.

Up next is the gusset and heel:

I. I increased a stitch on each side every other row. When I decided I had enough and the sock was the right length, I did the first half of a short row heel on the bottom stitches only.

Then I started a heel flap and decreased the gusset stitches at the end of each row.

I don't do a textured heel flap. Some do it for durability, but I haven't found that that's where my socks wear out and I prefer a smooth fabric.

II. Here I once again increased a stitch on each side on every other row. This time I incorporated the gusset stitches into the pattern on the top. (Unlike above where the gusset is in stocking stitch like the bottom.)

I then did a short row heel on the bottom stitches. I continued the pattern of alternating the yarn for each row and becasue of the way I incorporated this into the short rows, the heel ended up being half as many rows.

I then started the heel flap, decreasing the gusset stitches. In this case, the heel flap is done in the pattern to match the top of the sock.

I continued the pattern on both socks up the leg. In both cases, the socks are not very long so I didn't worry about doing any increases to fit the calf. The only thing left then is the cuff:

I. I went with a 1x2 rib so that the knits of the rib would line up with the knit columns in the Double Fleck Stitch.

II. A 1x1 rib while continuing to alternate the two balls of yarn on each round. Although the colour pattern isn't the same as the pattern on the leg, it blends with it pretty well.

Make two and you have a pair!

I. I haven't worn these yet, but look forward to it. Or maybe I'll keep them brand new to submit to the fair next summer.

The yarn is a blend so I'm hoping they won't be overly warm. They feel very soft and cushy. They were knit with a double strand and are slightly thicker.

Project Stats
Started: 4 Sep '17
Finished: 28 Oct '17
Pattern: My own, with the Double Fleck Stitch from The Harmony Guide to Knitting Stitches (p 19).
Materials: 66 grams of 51% wool/20% rayon/10% rabbit hair/4% Cashmere from an Ann Taylor cardi.

II. I wore these for the first time last week. The highest recommendation I can give is that I didn't think about them again until the end of the day...that is, they weren't too tight, too loose, too long, too short, too droopy, too warm or too sweaty. And the colour combination in this pattern makes me happy when I see it.

I hadn't anticipated this, but I like how alternating the yarns has made the colours in the multicolour yarn spread out into wider stripes.

Project Stats
Started: 24 Jul '17
Finished: 1 Oct '17
Pattern: Broken Seed Stitch Socks by Hanna Leväniemi - although I'm sure I just took the stitch pattern and did my own toe, gusset, heel and cuff :)
Materials: 37 g HPKY (Hand Painted Knitting Yarns) Sock Donegal (color: fire; 65% Merino, 25% Nylon, 10% Rayon) and 32 g Zitron Trekking Sport (colour: 1490; 75% Wool, 25% Nylon)

Gift Card Holder

My church organizes an "Angel Tree" each year where tags are hung describing items needed by local families that could use some help. You pick a tag (or two), buy the item, wrap it, and return it with the tag.

I usually grab the gift cards because they're easy and it seems other people don't like to buy them. I assume they don't think they're any fun. They might not be much "fun" to receive either - there's not a lot of excitement you can get out of what gift card design was chosen.

I've been obsessively watching a new podcast - the Stitch TV Show - and one of the hosts mentioned making little quilted gift card holders. Maybe that would be fun - for me to make and the recipient to open.

So I googled tutorials or patterns and used this one on So Sew Easy. But instead of using one plain piece of fabric, I used some of the "slab blocks" I had put together previously. They were mostly square and I needed a long rectangle, so I just cut them up and pieced them together again to get the right shape:

Then, following the tutorial, you do a little folding, sew around the outside, turn it inside right and you have a little gift card holder:

Front - with pocket.

Back

The many seams made it harder to turn inside right so the corners are not too square, and I think I should have made it about an inch longer so the flap would be longer. But it's a fun little piece anyway.

Tie it with a ribbon and it's all set to make someone merry.

_____________________
Linking up with Oh Scrap! from Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework.

#Christmasiscoming

I don't know if you've noticed, but the Christmas music and commercials offering all of the things you should buy are already out. One even had the nerve to start with carolers singing Jingle Bells and the protagonist saying "Noo...it's only November" and then being convinced it is indeed time to start buying buying buying. I did not fall for that one.

But it is true that people who hand make gifts or like to make their own decorations do have to think about these things early. I don't mind if the fabric store has Christmas fabric in July. There's a good reason for that. And for whatever reason, my mind turned to Christmas about a month ago when I came across this image:

I only ever found this image. I couldn't find the source, who made it, whether it was a pattern or an item for sale. But for whatever reason, when I saw the picture, I really wanted to make this star pattern into a Christmas table topper. (Who can predict when inspiration and motivation will strike at the same time? If you could bottle that, "5 hour energy boost" would go out of business and you would be a millionaire.)

It's not surprising I was attracted to a star made from a sixteen-patch and half square triangles. It seems to be what everything I'm doing right now is made of. And it's scrappy. Need I say more?

One problem was that I had absolutely no Christmas fabric scraps. I don't mind using some non-seasonal fabrics if the colours are right, but none? That doesn't seem right. So I called my sister and asked her to bring what she had and was willing to give me. She saved my butt.

We had fun looking through all the fabrics. I had no problem adding some more reds, and then we went shopping where I picked up a few more fat quarters that I thought would work. (Ok, like 10.) We did a general sort of layout where I decided I could group the flowers/stars by colour instead of doing it completely scrappy.

I also decided that there was no need to do HST for the flying geese border. I cut 2.5x4.5 rectangles instead and sewed them together like you would sew a flying geese unit. It saved a lot of seams and made for a smoother look.

I decided I couldn't do this quilt table topper unless I laid it all out and planned where everything would go. With the restriction of the colour placement I wanted and with a piece this small, you can't sew pieces together and arrange them afterward.

In the picture above you can see the three stages of the stars. The blue is laid out but nothing is sewn. I kind of simulated the triangles that would be sewn. The red has the HSTs sewn but none of the squares are sewn together. And the green has all of the star sewn together. (Isn't it amazing how much difference in the size sewing the seams makes, even with only a 1/4" seam?)

In the border above, the rectangles are folded in half so I could see the colour progression. They look like squares but they're not. :)

Once I had the center together, I couldn't stop and put the border together as well.

It's not sewn to the center yet in this picture. I had to put that off for another day.

Here's a close up of each star:

One of the fabrics my sister brought had very fancy gold trimmed poinsettias. I didn't think they would fit in the design (and hated to cut them up), and then I had the brilliant idea to use them for the center of the stars. I love the effect.

You can see the background is made of a lot of scrappy neutrals. This is something I am learning and having fun experimenting with. I did try to group neutrals with green or red or blue in the area around the corresponding star.

After I had the border sewn on, I layered it with a piece of red damask and pin basted it. I decided not to use any kind of batting. I wanted a very flat table topper.

I've started to quilt it and so far I am pleased with how it's going. There is a ways to go, but I am confident I can get it done by Christmas season.

Linking up with Oh Scrap! on Quilting is more fun than Housework.