Posted in knitting

Christmas Knitting Reveal – Stash Yarn

Posted on by Laura Kate

This Christmas I gifted my daughter’s family with adult booties, aka Dorm Boots.

https://auntekristy.blogspot.com/2016/09/better-dorm-boots-lace-edition-free.html

I was determined to complete all three pair in yarn sourced from my stash. Fortunately, the pattern does not require much yardage. The trickiest part is getting the right sizes for people with vastly different foot lengths.

The fun part was choosing yarns that mirrored my loved ones’ tastes.

First the soles. In the waning days of Bluprint.com, they were trying to unload all of their product, including yarn. I bought two skeins of a blended yarn – part wool, part acrylic. It turned out to be a disgusting color and very rough. So it lanquished for a year in my stash closet.

Eventually I tried it out as the sole section of a pair of dorm boots I made for myself, where it revealed itself as made to be crushed under foot.

With a proto-type complete, I moved on to the Christmas knitting. First up was a pair for 13-year-old grandson, H.

This yarn selection was dead easy. In my stash was a half-complete shawl knit from bluish color-changing acrylic blend that I had purchased in Milwaukee. It was incomplete because I had run out of yarn. With no more available, it was evident that unraveling the shawl was necessary. It yielded more than enough for the boots. And blue is H’s favorite color. He also likes multi-hued garments. Win-win.

Next came my son-in-law. A tall, slender guy, he wears pretty big shoes. The challenge here was getting enough length.

I chose to marry together two cotton/acrylic yarns. Both of these had been purchased to make things for their new baby, who arrived in 2018. I had used the white to make a stuffed toy in the form of a snowy owl. The grey had been knitted into a bunting. Lo and behold, the boots fit and SIL was delighted.

Finally came my daughter’s pair. I was running out of obvious choices in the stash. Would I break down and buy yarn? Nay, make it be not so! Adjusting the pattern by adding more stitches to the upper section, I was able to use some dk weight yarn leftover from a top-down sweater knitted for myself.

She is fond of warm brown shades. In tribute to her bohemian nature, I added some beaded ties at the ankles. She loved them!

Thus all is well that ends well.

Warm feet in Wisconsin and a happy heart in Oklahoma.

Posted in knitting

Merry Christmas (and Happy New Year) — Diary of a Yarnophile

Posted on by Laura Kate

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year! This year has been a fiber adventure for myself to say the least. I spun 20+ new breeds of wool this year, bought over 300 pounds of raw fleece from various farms all over the United States, & knitted, spun, and wove more […]

Merry Christmas (and Happy New Year) — Diary of a Yarnophile

This image was too cute. I had to re-blog it! Thanks for sharing, Emily!

Laura

Posted in Uncategorized

Solstice Gifts from the Garden

Posted on by Laura Kate

I can’t let December pass by without writing about the garden produce I harvested this month. I like to think of these as gifts from Mother Nature to me.

The first image you see is a bunch of French Breakfast radishes from seeds sown in October. They were ready to eat in early December. I’ve been pulling a handful every week this month. Shredded and sliced they give a fresh crunch to salads. I even made a carrot and radish coleslaw dressed with a light vinaigrette.

There are a few interesting things to note about winter grown radishes. As you can imagine, they grow more slowly than they did in the spring. But they also remain ready to eat in the ground for weeks and don’t get woody. The hot peppery taste is much reduced.

I plant spinach nearly every October, typically at the same time that I plant garlic. Usually it germinates, makes a few leaves and then goes dormant until spring, at which time it explodes with growth. This year, it continues to make new leaves. I cut enough spinach for two salads in the last two weeks. The texture is velvety and the flavor is mild.

This Italian parsley was planted from transplants in early summer. Parsley is a bi-ennial. I usually get lots of leaves the year it germinates. Going into the next year, it produces leaves until the heat sets in, when it blooms, sets seed and dies.

This year I was unable to harvest any of parsleys during summer and fall because of the black swallowtail butterflies. They kept laying their eggs on it. The crop of caterpillers ate everything except a couple of stems. But lo and behold, come late fall the plants all produced nice umbrellas of leaves. I’ve been taking cuttings for the past two months pretty regularly. I’m wondering how these plants will behave next year.

This week the temperatures have dropped back into the twenties at night. So, the curtain may now be descending on the final produce production of 2021.

Posted in knitting

Some Christmas Knitting Revealed

Posted on by Laura Kate

I’ve been busy knitting up some Christmas gifts for my family and friends. Since some of the intended recipients follow this blog, I’ve kept my progress reports to myself.

Now I can begin to reveal these projects, starting with a necklace I made for good friend and knitting buddy Kathy.

Earlier this year, I made a Ruth Bader Ginsberg-style collar necklace using a very soft Shibui yarn. The pattern came from this book.

This book is no longer in print. I was fortunate to find it at an on-line used bookstore. The pattern I used is called Beads and Baubles Necklace.

This photograph is in the book and shows the “bobbles” in the light gray section, spaced out evenly between the beads. Since I truly dislike knitting bobbles, I simply worked a yarn-over every time the pattern called for a bobble.

My collar looks like this:

Since Kathy is allergic to wool, I chose two colors of synthetic yarn for her gift.

It’s hard to tell from the photograph, but the teal color yarn has tiny reflective bits that glitter in the light – sort of silvery.

The necklace came together quickly, with very little effort. Attaching the jewelry findings took a while and gave me some frustrating moments.

No doubt I was lacking in correct tools and techniques. (sigh.)

More Christmas knits will be revealed later in the week.

Posted in painting

Belize Memory WIP

Posted on by Laura Kate

Since Sunday, I have painted several sample palettes for the imaginary Belize waterscape. I have also completed my first watercolor sketch. Its subject is the mountains and sky, including a little of the shoreline.

This type of work helps me learn how the different paints I have chosen behave in the mixing and glazing process. I also have narrowed my choices of colors.

And I’ve come to the conclusion that hot press paper will give a better result with this technique, so I’m off to the art supply store in search of same.