Ma Cherie, Turtle and Bags from Bags

Sometimes I get so caught up in creating items, I don't slow down long enough to edit the pictures and put them on the blog. I wonder if anyone else is like that?

 

I get so excited that a project is done, that I cannot wait to start another one. Of course, there is a long line of ideas and yarn calling out my name, "Joanne, Joanne, Joanne, pick us up and knit, or crochet, we aren't picky, just make something else."   

 

Below we have several projects that are in that category. They have been finished for a while, as a matter of fact they are on etsy. But, I have never posted them on my blog.

 

Here are two Ma Cherie shawls. You know, these will work well as a scarf and work in air conditioning too. If a knitter doesn't have bulky yarn, several yarns can be put together and then held as one strand to make this pattern.  That is what I did with this black one. I had a finer black yarn and added some silver and light blue skinny yarns. Held these several strands together as one strand and made the shawl.

 

 

 

In the town near my home, Denton, there is a business called Scrap.  People will donate their unused craft supplies and Scrap sells them.  I do go in there, from time to time, and sometimes will find some fantastic yarns. Below is one of those yarns.  A super bulky art yarn that also works well with the Ma Cherie pattern. This yarn gives the shawl a boho look.

 

The turtle is a test knit that I did for a designer on Ravelry, here is a link to the pattern.  I loved making this little turtle.  It is actually an ice pack. Inside I put a cotton fabric bag, full of popcorn kernels.  Store the turtle in the freezer and when your little ones bump themselves, you are ready with a fun ice pack. You know, maybe I should make one for me? I still bump myself, do you?

 

The turtle can also be a tiny heating pad. I used cotton yarns for the entire turtle, stuffed the head with cotton yarn bits and used cotton fabric for the bag, that holds the popcorn, inside the body. Using all cotton and popcorn, allows us to put it in the microwave to heat. 

 

This little turtle went to live at my daughter's home to help my grandson, and now granddaughter, out when they bump themselves. 

 

 

The next project started with my 30 inch tri-loom.  Every once in a while, I will weave on it.  I made this triangle and then crocheted an edging around the triangle to make a shawl.  The yarn is from Brown Sheep and is their Cotton Fleece. This item just sold in my etsy shop.

 

Last, but definitely not least, I have a really good friend who is having a blast making bags from bags!  She is taking plastic grocery bags, cutting them in loops, connecting the loops and making yarn. Then she crochets bags. I think she has done close to 30! She stopped counting at 24. :)

 

Most of the bags have been gifted away, but she did keep a few for her own shopping and crafting use.  A few weeks ago she showed up with these. More bag yarn is in the larger one and her lunch was in the tiny one.  I love these bags and they are so much fun to make and see. 

Alligator Surprise!

Well, I have mentioned the rain before and thankfully it has slowed down some, but we are still getting an occasional rain storm.  Some of the roads near and around the lakes are still flooded in several places. In our little town, we have one major road flooded in two places and another road still flooded in one place. This makes for driving and getting out of the community pretty tricky. We now have only one road in and out.

Here is one of the flooded roads. That lime green stuff you see, is the water.  It is full of algae and really awful looking. I stayed in the car to take the picture, didn't want to meet a snake or alligator, not to mention the mosquitoes. Nope not that brave, thank you. 

 

Umm, here is why I mentioned alligators.  Normally, we don't think of north central Texas having alligators.  Well, apparently, people have been buying the babies and having them as pets. Crazy and nuts, if you ask me. Anyway, they don't want to kill them when they get too big to have as a pet, so what do they do??? They dump them in the local lake! Good grief. This is the second sighting of an alligator. The first sighting was near the place of the green water and it was only a 6 foot alligator. Haha! And since I didn't want to tempt fate AND I didn't need a new pair of boots or a bag, I stayed in the car.

 

 

KNITTING! I finished my Seabrook vest. The pattern is from Berroco and is free. I used a cotton yarn from Cascade, named Luna, for my vest. I didn't meet gauge with this yarn. But, I solved that by just casting on fewer stitches. This vest is knit sideways and is a giant rectangle.  If I had cast on the amount of stitches called for, I would've had a floor length vest.  Being only 5' 1", I am not exaggerating(much) on that comment.

So, the vest is supposed to be ALL seed stitch.  I gave up on the seed stitch after only 4 inches. You know, there can be too much of a good thing. I decided to knit every row, for the rest of the vest and finished with a seed stitch border on the opposite end.

 

Another project, that I just made is this scarf. I had to run and find the pattern just so that I could give you the correct name. Um.  Here it is. Linen Summer Wrap. This scarf is addictive. It is one of those projects that you can memorize the pattern and just knit. You knit it sideways and increase to a certain stitch count, then start to decrease. Every so often you throw in a row of extra yarn overs for each stitch and the next row you drop those yarn overs, so that you have a lacey look.  It looks great when done and is a wonderful accessory to your outfit! I have just started my 4th one. No gauge worries either! You just want it to be a drapey fabric. It takes about 160 yards of yarn.

Yarn for this scarf is Linen Concerto, from Plymouth yarns.

Upcycled Quilt Tote, Grandchildren, Unbalanced Yarn(Nightmare Socks)

I was going through my finished project pictures and realized that I hadn't posted this little tote.  To make this tote, I used an old quilt and doilies, which were purchased at a flea market.  The bag is big enough for a small project, like a pair of socks. I made this in December, 2014 and it was part of my gift for the yarn spinners group that I attend.

 

 

We just arrived home from a trip to help care for our grandson while his little sister was born.  I had a great time playing with him and holding our new precious granddaughter.

 

Here's our 3 1/2 year old Ninja Turtle.

 

 

AND our precious 3 day old granddaughter. 

 

 One of the projects that I took along with me, to work on while flying, was a pair of red socks.  I have wanted a pair of red socks for years! I purchased the yarn from an indie dyer at DFW Fiberfest, about 2 years ago.  I am so disappointed with this yarn.  The color is great, but the quality of the spin job of this yarn is awful.  I don't know who her supplier is, but really this is awful, a real Nightmare. The yarn is not balanced.  I am not sure if I can fix it, by running through my spinning wheel, but I will probably try.  However, if you spend $20+ on sock yarn, it should be perfect or near perfect. I loved this red color.........

I cast on both socks, from the toe up, using the two at a time magic loop technique.  However, as I was knitting along, the yarn started twisting back on itself and knotting up.  Since I was pulling the yarn from the outside of the ball, I decided to rip them out and start again.  The second time I started by pulling from the center of the ball.  I soon realized this project was doomed.  BUT, still trying to salvage them, I thought what if I take off one sock and just knit one at a time? This way, I could stop every once in a while and hold the sock out and untwist it, to balance the yarn. Well, that worked for a bit, but I was having to do this about every 20 stitches.  I finally gave up and put the project in time out, where is still sits. ;)

Below is one sock toe and the ball of yarn.  All that curl and twist in the yarn is the unbalanced yarn starting to knot up on itself. Nightmare.....

 

This next picture is a close up of that toe.  If you look carefully, you will see, on the right hand side of the photo, the increases for the toe shaping.  Look at the left side? Where are the increases? We cannot see them, they are twisting around the toe. Nightmare...  There is a set of increases on that side that should be seen on the front, but cannot be seen because of the twisting.  This is what will happen with unbalanced yarn. It looks like you have knitted something on the diagonal because the fabric you are making is actually taking on the life of the uncontrolled twisty yarn.

Yes, I could keep going and block the socks.  But, truly, that shouldn't be needed.  Also, I am afraid that they will feel like they are twisting around my foot and be uncomfortable. 

So, I will meet the challenge and try to fix this yarn and make it balanced.  I like the red. :) For now, time out socks....  Haha!

Ashford Kiwi Spinning and Ma Cherie

Last summer Ashford announced an additional flyer and bobbin set up for the Kiwi Spinning Wheel. I was really excited with this flyer and bobbin, called the Super Flyer. It was designed with art yarn or just plain thick yarn in mind. It turns this wonderful scotch tension wheel into a bobbin led wheel.

 

My experience in spinning art yarns on my Ashford single drive/scotch tension wheels has been disappointing, only because I couldn't get enough take up  onto the bobbin. That causes a loosely wound bobbin, meaning that I was lucky to get 35 or even 50 yards onto one bobbin.

 

This flyer and bobbin solves that issue!

 

The bobbin holds 500 grams(17.636 oz) of fiber, the orifice is 1 1/8 inches in diameter, allowing beads or even feathers through it, and the there are free flowing sliding yarn guides allowing fat yarn or bulky items to spin onto the bobbin.

 

Ashford designed this flyer to set right onto your existing Kiwi. It attaches easily and will pull off easily when you want to use your scotch tension/single drive again. I am in love. :)

 

The yarn I have on the bobbin is a bulky weight yarn, with beads spun into it.

 

If you have an interest in purchasing this, I do sell Ashford wheels and parts, you can contact me through etsy or my Ravelry page.

 

Doing some stash knitting. I had this great super bulky art yarn that kept calling my name and saying "Knit me into something." I decided to knit this yarn using my Ma Cherie pattern. I love the lumps and bumps and how it has the boho chic appearance to it.

Lake, SpinOff and Baby

Here's my show and tell, finished project. We are awaiting the arrival of our 4th grandchild and we are really excited! Because they live in northern Florida there isn't a lot of need for warm wool sweaters, with a June delivery date.  Don't get me wrong, there is a need for sweaters, and I have made some. I will show them another day. (When the sun comes out and I can get decent pictures again)

 

This outfit is a crocheted sundress and a knitted shrug. The pattern for the sundress is from Deborah Norville using her Serenity yarn. I found the pattern as a tear-off free pattern, one time while at at JoAnn's Fabrics. When I was done with crocheting the sundress, I decided that baby needed a shrug to go with it. So, I wrote the pattern for the shrug and knit it.  The sheep is for me. It was a gift to me, since I like sheep and I like putting it in pictures.

 

 

I mentioned about the sun and needing it for some pictures. We are having TONS of rain in Texas. I think I heard it said that it was the rainiest May on record. I have also heard people pondering whether our state had moved to Seattle Washington, or Louisiana, over night and we didn't know it. :)

The ground is squishy and just saturated. It is safe to say the drought is over, cause our lakes and rivers are at their limits. There is a large lake near me, which is over its banks in some areas.

BUT, behind our home, is a pond.  It is full. It doesn't get higher than this, because it will flow over its dam at the far end.  I wanted to show the picture of it. The neighbors dock, across the pond, is sitting in the water.

 

SPINNING!!! This issue of SpinOff magazine, is all about using up your stash! What a great idea.

I do have quite a stash of fiber. So I went through it and found enough that would coordinate together that equals just over 2 lbs. That is enough for a sweater. My granddaughter came to visit and wanted to photo bomb my picture. LOL!

 

We spent part of the visit splitting up Gramma's wool. We started with the blue on the top, and actually weighed it out into 3/4oz portions. We ended up with about 35 of those. Then we equally split the rest of the colors into 35 pieces. We didn't weigh these. We just folded rovings in half and split, folded, split, folded. When we were done we had piles of wool all over my studio floor, we were dancing in the tulips, so to speak. :)  We took each pile of coordinated fiber and rolled it into a ball for safe keeping, until I can card it on my Ashford drum carder.

 

The neat little balls on the left are before it is carded and the one on the right is a ball after all the fibers have been carded together. I will be carding off and on for a while. But, meanwhile, let the spinning begin.

Knitting Patterns are a Tool and A Granny Shrug

I am here today to set you free and help you realize that a pattern is a tool, your tool, do what you need to do, to make it easier for you to understand and use. :)

 

I wanted to share how I made the directions for knitting my Astor Jacket work for me. You see, when I was knitting on my Astor Jacket, I found part of the directions difficult to use and a bit confusing. One issue that I encountered was that I needed two different pages at the same time! 

 

This meant I was constantly flipping back and forth, and back and forth, between the two pages. I had a paper clip on the pages, because one page was the first page and the other needed was the third page. Even then it was still aggravating.

 

What I did to remedy that problem was that I took the two pages, ripped them up and cried!  Hahaha! Nooooo, I didn't really.  ;)

 

What we have to remember is that the pattern is a tool, our tool, your tool, my tool.  Make it work for you. For this pattern, I was able to fold each page in half lengthwise, lay them on my copier/printer, so that the areas I needed could be on one page. For another pattern, I may have to fold the directions differently to do this, but for Astor that was my solution.  You see before you the one page.

 

 

The next issue that I had with the directions had to do with the cable pattern on the center fronts.

On the right hand side of the paper below, you see the cable pattern itself. Then on the left side of the page you see the two rows, that you repeat over and over, for the remaining stitches on the front. This actually was part of what I was having to flip back and forth for.

 

I decided to color code my rows. When I worked the orange row, on the left, I knew to go to the orange row for the cable pattern and then again for the yellow highlighted rows.

 

I also, write on my patterns, any hints to make knitting easier. That is all the scribble that you see. This pattern is written saying, "make left front same as right front, reversing all shaping." So, many of the scribbles, are helps for that. I marked which cable row, I added the pocket, which cable row that I started the armhole, that sort of thing. Basically, any thing that I thought would make life easier.

After all knitting is to be fun, right?  And relaxing, right??? 

 

While I was working on knitting my Astor, I would put it down for an easier project. That was my Granny Shrug.  This is a free pattern that can be found here.

 

I decided to use stash yarn and I had several balls of Lion Brand Thick and Quick hanging around. Because my yarn was thicker than the pattern designer's, my shrug is much bigger, which I figured it would be, and that is what I had wanted. 

 

 

The idea of using up my stash didn't really work, though.  I ran out of yarn and had to go purchase more to finish the shrug! So, now I have the same amount left in my stash........

Finished Project, FINALLY

Here I am in my finished sweater! I love this sweater, with the big pockets and the cable design on the front. The pattern is Astor, from the Berroco Yarn website, and it is a free pattern. The pattern called for 3/4 length sleeves and I wanted them a bit longer, but what I didn't think about is that my arms are obviously shorter than the model the sweater was on. So, the 3/4 length sleeves would probably have been perfect on me. If you look close, you will see my sleeves rolled up. I am thinking that I may shorten them.

 

 

This is my newest pattern, A Zig and A Zag Scarf.  It is currently being tested on Ravelry and I hope to have it listed next week.

 

My testers say that they like the pattern and at least one will be making it again! That is always a good sign. :)