Laura Kate

Back to my Stash: Boring Baby Yarn

Posted on June 3, 2024June 3, 2024 by Laura Kate

It’s cast-on Monday. Having finished my latest knit project, I am ready to continue the stash reduction campaign by starting something new. The acrylic section of the stash is pretty well depleted since I finished up the Abstract Rainbow lap blanket. Left behind is a giant ball of yellow sport-weight yarn, intended for a baby blanket I suppose. I was given it along with a few bits and pieces of pale blue and pale variegated yarns. The pale yellow doesn’t inspire me.

….and there’s so much of it! The skein is about 150 grams.

But wait – I came across a pattern for a baby jacket that requires two strands held double. It is written by Franklin Habit, a designer with impeccable taste and reliable patterns. This baby jacket can be knit quickly. And it’s a free download.

But wait – what if I hold the pale blue yarn with the pale yellow yarn?

Suddenly an interesting texture and color appears. The blue is warmed by the yellow and the yellow cooled by the blue.

I like what I see, so let’s cast on.

I even see a suggestion of green emerging in the fabric.

5-Hour Baby Jacket is sized for a newborn and is knit from the top down in one piece. It is a soothing knit that makes for a peaceful morning, as copious amounts of rain fall from above. The sound of drops on the skylight is mesmerizing. Maybe I will sit here and knit all day long.

knitting

Finished Object or no? A Tale of Two Socks

Posted on June 1, 2024 by Laura Kate

Yesterday I got to the top of my second Mary Delany sock. Today I cast it off. While technically, I am finished knitting the pair, there is a small geographical glitch.

Sock no. two hanging in the garden, clipped to a tomato cage. It looks pretty good.

One foot cozy and warm, one left out in the cold.

Sock no. 1, found under a chair in the living room of daughter’s house in Madison.

(sigh)

The fault is my own. I had pulled out the completed sock to compare to the one in progress while I was visiting our loved ones. Apparently, I failed to stuff it back into my project bag before packing up.

There’s good news on all fronts. It was found and daughter agrees to mail it to me. If the U.S. Post office fails to deliver it, I have enough yarn to knit sock no. 3.

If you have a hankering to make a pair like this, the pattern is by Kate Davies, and can be found on her Ravelry site here.

quilting

Obsessed with Strips

Posted on May 16, 2024May 16, 2024 by Laura Kate

Since completing the Japanese Knot bag (which turned out quite well, IMHO,) I keep thinking about the potential of making art by sewing strips of fabric together. Casting around for some inspiration, I thought about making another abstracted landscape art quilt. Last year’s landscape quilt was inspired by a visit to the Badlands at Roosevelt National Park. My technique of choice for that piece was layered applique. It interests me to try another landscape but this time piece it with blocks made of fabric strips.

In searching suitable references, I returned to this evocative photograph by James Kemp which I had found on Unsplash a few years ago.

I love the contrast of pale foggy high places, with a midground of dark trees and a foreground of warm grasses and red twigs. If I can simplify the big shapes and translate the photo’s colors to fabric scraps, it could work.

Next I did a quick, scribbly value sketch.

I transferred the major lines to a giant Post-It note, which happened to be full-size for this project. I next drew in a grid of 4 x 4 squares. Using 4 inch blocks, I will need to make 35 blocks.

I started cutting my strips and sorting them by color.

Using the image as my guide, I built sets of six strips, arranged them along the grid and cut them down into squares.

The whole project started to spin out of control. Weirdly enough, instead of getting frustrated, I was drawn into working with more effort and thought.

Two days later, things looked something like this.

No, look away Nothing to see here!

Ah, more like this.

Sad little blocks. Believe me, it does look better IRL than in this photo.

I predict that if it keeps raining, and I can’t go outside and play, I’ll continue to cut, strip and sew on this project.

knitting

Finished by Friday

Posted on May 10, 2024 by Laura Kate

In the past week, two events motivated the completion of this Mindless Knitting blanket, which I had cast on in January of this year.

My friend gave me three skeins of neutral-hued acrylic yarn.
I learned of a blanket donation program happening on Mother’s Day.

I chose a mid-tone gray skein and worked up the last stripe. It took one or two evenings to complete. The next evening, I continued with the gray, working a single crochet stitch into the bind off, then worked around the perimeter of the blanket, so that this somewhat improvised design had a more finished-looking edge.

Before I wove in the ends, I decided to give it a wash in my machine. Due to the variety of yarns used, (some were mystery fibers) I was skeptical about the Franken-blanket’s ability to withstand machine washing. And while it did shrink up in a minimal fashion, the washed blanket showed no felting or fuzzing. I dried it flat, then wove in the yarn ends. Here is the finished product, displayed on my guest bed.

I never got a final measurement before delivering the blanket to the church’s collection spot, but I would guess it was at least 44″ long and almost as wide. It will function quite well as a lap blanket for a mom, or even a mom and child.

This project used up most of my worsted weight acrylic. I mindfully returned the two unused yarns to my friend, who accepted the returns with good grace. This project used up a bit of her stash also, but maybe not so much as she had hoped. My stash still has some acrylic baby yarns in sport or fingering weight. I put them together in a project bag, and one day I will find a pattern that will Bust Them Down.

hand embroidery, recycling, sewing

Japanese Knot Bag

Posted on May 7, 2024May 7, 2024 by Laura Kate

Having recently finished a wall quilt, I found myself with various pieces of fabrics left over. Instead of stuffing them into a box and shoving the box under a bed, I decided to cut the fabric into strips for the purpose of sewing them into a project bag.

Back two years ago, I became interested in the Japanese art of stitching, aka sashiko and boro stitching. There was a pattern for a knot bag in this book by the Shibaguyz.

I did a post about it on Jan 5, 2022.

To make the bag, I would need fabrics for the base and lining, along with my strips of fabric. Fortunately, I had both. My daughter gave me some yardage of sturdy cotton flannel and my friend and co-worker Scott Perkins gave me a sample of raw silk.

Here is what I came up with using one quilt block made of a circle in a square. I then sewed strips of fabrics around it to cover all of the base and raw edges.

Fabric selection included bits of three men’s shirts. (The dark red and dark green strips, and the blue chambray behind the first circle.) All three of these fabrics had been worked into the Shell Lake Story quilt. So, I am using scraps of scraps!

My next step was to sew up a lining using the same pattern as the base.

A cellphone pocket in the lining.

Adding the hand stitching took a few weeks. I marked all the stitch lines with a chalk pencil. Using white Sashiko thread I worked a running stitch in straight lines on the strips and circles around the circles.

And here is the front and back of the bag after all the top stitching is in place.

Finally, the seams of bag and lining are sewn up, the bag inserted into the lining with right sides facing and the U-shaped top edges are sewn together. This last step took me two tries, btw, so seam ripping happened.

Turning the bag to the outside, the only remaining steps were to close the strap side seams and top-stitch the opening.

To use the bag, the long handle is threaded through the short handle.

A quick look at the lining before it is turned to the inside. I love the look of the silk, and it is pretty easy to handle. Fraying was the only thing that gave me some trouble. The next time I sew with silk, I will zigzag the seam allowances

Here is the completed knot bag, filled with a knitting project.

Front of bag as it hangs from a coat rack.

Back of bag.

This project was great fun (except for the seam ripping) and I would enjoy making more of these nifty bags. A larger size would be handy for bigger projects. And what a good way to use up scraps.