Despite my moodiness, I managed to complete a little knitting project this week. The pattern for this knitted and beaded collar, above, is found in 60 QuickLuxury Knits, published in 2014 by the editors of Sixth and Spring Books. I suspect that it is now out of print. I bought mine through an on-line used book store.
There are likely to be similar pattern on Ravelry.com.
As I was knitting, I thought about the late Justice Ginsberg and her iconic fashion (and political) statement collars.
One of many obituaries published last year.This one is known as the Dissent Collar
Mine was made with some fingering weight yarn found in my stash. The charcoal yarn is a blend of silk and wool. The pink is a blend of rayon and wool. The beads are 6/0 glass seed beads in a color called Red Rainbow, from the local hobby store.
I hope I get to wear mine soon. One couldn’t choose a better role model than RBG.
For some time now, I have been noticing that partially used-up sock yarn skeins have begun to accumulate in my stash. With sock yarns most commonly sold at 100 grams (about 437 yards) it’s obvious to me that my feet and the feet of those that I knit for are below average. I can use up only about 75% of a skein in my favorite sock patterns. Thus I have left-overs. Many left-overs.
It’s time to deal with the clutter. I’m searching for patterns that are written for small amounts of multiple skeins in fingering weight. Today’s project fits that bill to a T.
This sweet little cowl requires 3 light and 3 dark in fingering weight yarn – about 100 yards of each color. After pulling all of my leftovers out of the yarn closet, I managed to come up with six that could work.
The bowl contains a combination of Ewetopia Wisco, Cascade Heritage and KnitPicks Hawthorn. The colors don’t quite line up with those chosen by the designer. But I’m ready to give it a go WITHOUT MAKING A SWATCH FIRST. I know- this behavior is aberrant for me. It must be the summer heat getting to my brain.
You see my cast-on. I am three rows into the ten row repeat. I figure that I will know pretty quickly whether I’m going to like this or not. But then again, it probably doesn’t matter if I like it. I will likely give the cowl as a holiday gift to a loved one who lives in a colder climate.
Full steam ahead!
If you like the pattern, it can be found here on designer Lauren Savidge’s blog:
FOLLOW UP: As I worked through this pattern, I realized that it had an error. The picture and the dimensions seem to indicate that the 10 row polka-dot pattern was knit twice in each color combination. The pattern did not say to repeat the pattern before switching colors. Now I used the pattern as it appeared in her blog, so maybe the pattern you can purchase has been corrected.
One of the many fiber projects on my to-do list is the replacement of my kimono.
Many years ago, my mom made matching kimono robes for Bill and me. They were sewn in an Asian cotton print of cranes (his) and cherry blossoms (mine) on a black background. We wore them frequently in hot summers, and packed them to travel all the time. Now both are threadbare. I managed to sew a replacement for Bill’s about six years ago. Mine finally gave out this year.
Last winter my mom let me browse her fabric stash. There I found a light blue textured cotton piece with enough yardage for a kimono. I snagged it and smuggled it home in a box.
Recently I found a kimono pattern offered for free on Connection Threads.
So I chose to get this project started yesterday. To line the kimono I bought this butterfly print at Hobby Lobby. At $3.00 per yard, it was hard to resist.
Ready, set, cut!
I made two modifications to the pattern. The first was a no-brainer, I just shortened the robe to knee length. That quick change saved me two yards of fabric. The second change was the addition of a side seam pocket. This type pocket was part of my first kimono. I just loved it for carrying around a set of eyeglasses and a tissue. It was so handy and yet so invisible. I couldn’t imagine my morning routine without it. (See my earlier post Who Needs Pockets? ‹ Daily Fiber ‹ Reader — WordPress.com )
The only difficulty is that I had no idea how to make a side-seam pocket.
Hah!, you say – This is a job for U-Tube. And you would be right. I found the perfect tutorial. Let me introduce you to Catherine Sews:
Having got that task out of the way, I moved on to sewing the robe fronts to the back.
……..and then the lining fronts to back.
Today I spent a good hour or so zig-zagging all the seam allowances to minimize the problem of fraying. Then I attached the neck band. It is sandwiched in between the outer fabric and the lining, which very neatly gets the lining sewn in to place.
Here is how the kimono looks at the end of today’s efforts.
I like how it looks so far. With any luck I will have the kimono finished by Friday.
I got started on this project because of a problem I encountered during the recent SuperSnow event. It was SO cold for SO long I found myself wearing my hand knitted wool socks night and day. Don’t get me wrong, I love wearing cozy hand-knitted wool socks. But at the end of the cold snap, I examined both pair and noticed that the soles were thinning out. Unless I got busy with repairs, I would be down at least one pair for the duration. So I decided that I needed warm cozy wool footwear that would hold up to walking many miles on our cold hard tile floors. Hence the dorm boots.
It has all the characteristics I needed: Thick soles, fast to knit and used a miniscule amount of yarn. I rummaged through my stash and found some nasty beige acrylic-wool blend in a heavy worsted. The pattern calls for holding yarns double, so I worked from two skeins for the sole. My stash rummage also yielded a sturdy pink wool harvested from a too-itchy scarf and a tweedy, wine-colored Italian wool orphan ball given to me by knitting friend Kathy. I held these two double to work the upper and the cuff.
It was magical how quickly the first boot came together. You could knit the pair in two evenings if you concentrated on your work. I took a more leisurely pace and did this pair over four evenings, including a sit and knit session on Tuesday.
Sadly, I lost track of my rows during the sit and knit. So my booties don’t match.
No matter. They are purposeful items. Good looks come second.
If I were in need of a last minute Christmas gift, this pattern could come to the rescue. Just think, with a bit of focus, I could fancy them up with different colors, stitches and possibly a pompom or two. Wouldn’t that cheer up a loved one, popping out of a Christmas stocking, on a cold and snowy Christmas morning?
It’s Week Four on the Stay at Home Round Robin. The prompt is Flying Geese block.
In the beginning, I was happy and excited. The flying geese block is one that I have never made, so this was going to be my opportunity to try it out. I had what I believed to be a good concept for this round. So what could go wrong?
I decided to make my geese 2 by 4 inches. To make it work, I needed to bring the quilt sides up to 24 inches. I sewed on a narrow border of flowered batik fabric.
This also helps to define the pale blue octagon – a secondary shape.
To get started with the Flying Geese, I viewed this video by Patches and Poodles for making them four-at-a-time.
Her instructions were crystal clear. On Tuesday I made the first group.
These looked just great. I calculated that I would need 12 units per side, for a total of 48. The realization of the quantity and time required gave me pause. I decided to get started the next day.
Today, I started by cutting lots of squares and sewing them into shapes using the technique I had learned on Tuesday. Soon I had quite a collection of geese.
Here they are sewn and pressed
The last step is to trim them to size. That’s when things started to go side-ways.
It seems that all of my lovely geese, over which I had labored for two hours, were 1/4 inch too small!!!!!!!! I had skipped over the instruction about pressing the seams open. Missing this step was enough to throw off the measurement that critical 1/4 inch. Thus began another three or four hours of re-working my flock of geese………………
By dinner time, I had managed to salvage about twenty -four goose blocks. A day has been spent and I am only half way done, with a wad of unworkable blocks left behind.
So I am bowed, but not beaten. I will go back into the fray tomorrow, starting with more fabric and a fresh rotary blade.
Daily Fiber 