Tag: stashbuster

Posted in knitting

Cast-on Monday: I-Cord Fun

Posted on by Laura Kate

Last week I was recruited to teach a class at my local art association. I said yes, but I was at a loss on what to present. The introductory knitting classes which I taught last year were very lightly attended. I had to do some recruiting just to get a minimum number of students.

Thinking about possible roadblocks to knitting, I came face to face with certain inalienable facts about the craft:

  1. The learning curve is steep.
  2. Projects take a long time to finish.

What if I narrowed the number of skills required to a minimum, and what if I used these few techniques to make quick-to-complete projects? ……………..

The answer is I-Cord! This little add-on is used for strings for tying knitted hats and other decorative frou-frou. All it takes is a few yards, a cast-on, and repeated knit stitches over a very short row.

So today I am researching and stitching up all kinds of I-cord accessories. These projects will include jewelry so I will need a selection of beads.

The two strings in the left of the photo were purchased today. All the others I had acquired in the past 3 or 4 four years.

I also perused my stash for left-over fingering weight yarn. (No shortage here.)

To kick things off I worked up this 18-necklace using tonally dyed merino wool and some porcelain beads.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/simple-beaded-i-cord

My version is made with just one strand because I had only 24 beads. I love how each bead dangles below the cord. I am wearing it over a shirt, but this necklace would also be soft against bare skin.

A bracelet is next.

http://lovingtopurl.blogspot.com/2017/02/3-colors-knitted-i-cord-bracelet.html

I sewed one end of the three strands together, braided them and then sewed the other end. The crimping finial is designed for holding ribbons so that they don’t fray.

For my third item, I switched to worsted weight yarn and move up to a size 5 needle. I was so happy to use up the left-overs of this lovely variegated Malibrigo merino.

This necklace doesn’t use a pattern. It will be made to my own specifications.

And here are my three I cord samples as of dinner time.

This should be enough material to work up a class proposal. I will also try making a headband and a multi-strand necklace.

Posted in quilting

SAHRR Round 2: Fire

Posted on by Laura Kate
Photo by EKATERINA BOLOVTSOVA on Pexels.com

No, I’m not burning my quilt. Instead, I have applied this round’s prompt of Diamonds to my Fire block. My logic for this choice is that tongues of flames, such as you see in the image above, can be stylized as acute triangles, with the narrowest point at the top. If one has a more romantic leaning, one might say that diamonds are created by the forces of pressure and HEAT in the bowels of the earth.

The piece of fabric I chose to represent Fire is a beautiful brocade woven on white with a clear orangey-pink thread. The shape can be described as a series of diamonds inside overlapping circles.

I chose these fabrics for the diamond-inspired border:

The yellow and orange print is one of my hand-painted fabrics. I created the circles by stamping red paint using the back end of a Nerf bullet.

Fortunately, I learned how to make triangle shapes out of strip sets from a Craftsy class presented by Joanna Figueroa.

https://www.craftsy.com/class/smarter-strip-quilting/

After sewing a light and a dark strip together, I cut the sets on a 45 degree angle to get diamonds. Then I sewed them into strips and attached the strips to the right and left sides of my brocade fabric.

For the bottom border, I used a strip of the soft coral ombre fabric.

Here is my block so far.

It’s not perfectly square, and I have yet to decide on what fabric to use at the top of the block. I’ll have to let the options stew about in my brain for a while. Once completed, I intend the block to measure about 17″ square.

If you’re interested in seeing more Round Robin projects made by some awesome quilters, check out Emily’s blog and the Linky party invitation embedded in her post.

http://thedarlingdogwood.blogspot.com/

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

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 knitting

Finished Object Friday: Sea and Sand Reveal

Posted on by Laura Kate

I had great plans on revealing this new shawl with a few last comments on its constructions. But my plans changed last Friday when we got on a plane.

My husband and two good friends and I are in Belize for a week of sun and fun. I took the shawl along and Bill did a photo shoot with me and the shawl on an actual Caribbean beach.

So in this post, I’ll just give some narration to accompany these lovely photos.

As you see here I added a lace border in a very pale yarn. This is Knit Picks Gloss in colorway Clarity, fingering weight. The lace pattern is from my stitch dictionary, called Spiral and Eyelet Panel. The only adaption I made was to insert a six-stitch panel of spiral eyelets between each 24 stitch panel. It worked pretty well with my ultimate stitch count of 320. The bind-off I used is the same as in the Water shawl pattern I knit earlier this year. You can read about that here:

https://wordpress.com/post/dailyfiberfun.wordpress.com/3400

I’m happy with the curviness created by the 24 stitch center panel. An element of waviness came along with the lace border. It reminds me of the foamy waves as they roll onto the sandy shore.

Now that I am actually standing on the beach, I find the colors on the shawl are a fine representation of those found in the warm waters of the lagoon inside Belize reef.

Sand and Sea Shawl final dimensions: 23″ high by 59″ wide. It took eleven different colors of fingering weight yarn (roughly 50 yards each color) plus slightly more than half the ball of Gloss for the border. If all goes well, I plan to publish the pattern, once I get home and have time to write it up.