Bug Knits

2010-06-27T22:08:00.000-04:00

It is hot.

Last week, when the temperature in Richmond reached 102, I read that was a new record. That it had broken the record set in 1948: 100 degrees. This afternoon, weather.com said it was 101 degrees.

In order to keep the peace between Kennedy and G, we have moved Kennedy out onto the porch. But on these days, I let her in during the hottest part of the day. She is sitting on my lap right now. As long as I keep them separated, my theory is, she and G will not fight. I hope that the stress will not cause G to pee everywhere. So far she hasn't. Or if she has, I have not detected it.

Kennedy:cute::me:scary

Here is a picture of Sullivan in a hat I crocheted before he was born. It was way too big for his tiny newborn head. In fact, it seems I managed to make a hat that fits him perfectly at exactly the same time as all previous high temperature records in Richmond are being broken.

Sullivan, forced to wear a hat during the hottest week in the last fifty years

A pattern:

The blue yarn is a dk weight bamboo that my moxy passed along to me when she decided not to knit a skirt out of it. (I think this was probably the right decision, although I bet the skirt would have been cool, and I kind of regret that I will not get to see it.)
The contrast colors are various sock yarns.

I used a smallish hook. Maybe a D? E?
Make five granny squares. Sew them together into a cube, minus one side.

Voila! Hat!

I walked home from the library on Wednesday, and I remembered that when I moved from Arizona to Indiana, I looked out the window somewhere in Tennessee and realized that I could see the humidity. It was not especially foggy. It's just that in the desert you can see further on an ordinary day.

Tucson, Arizona

When I first got to Tucson, I would get dizzy looking up at Mount Lemmon. At first, I thought it was just because the mountain was at a particular distance that I found unsettling. Later, I realized that it was probably because of the dryness; it didn't seem right for something so far away to be in such sharp focus.

I finally took a few pictures of dresses on doll house kittens.

If you look through the other pictures on flickr (which I am not recommending), you might notice that the first few were accidentally up-skirt shots of that little kitten in front, and the plaid flannel dress is kind of falling off the kitty on the right. It's all very upsetting.

I just remembered that I once predicted that if I had too much time on my hands, I would make matching clothes for dolls and people.

Oh dear.

Cecily Retells Fairy Tales part 1

2010-06-19T09:11:00.000-04:00

I wanted a real nap, but I agreed to take a pretend one instead.

Cecily said, "Child, it is time for you to go to sleep."

"Will you tell me a bedtime story? Rapunzel or Goldilocks or Little Red Riding Hood."

"Okay, I'll tell you Little Red Riding Hood. Little Red Riding Hood was walking in the woods. He was going to visit all his friends. Then he met a hungry bear. The bear ate him. Then the bear ate his friends. And they lived happily ever after."

"It doesn't sound very happy. They all got eaten by a bear."

"Oh, but they didn't want to go on living."

found poetry (part 1)

2010-06-15T14:46:00.000-04:00

MS Word asked if I would like to help make their software better, by sharing some sentences it had corrected in the month since I've been using Word 2010:

1.
asymmetrical
asymmetrical
asymmetrical
at the table across form me, and she's totally
nondenominational
nondenominational
nondenominational
nondenominational
ficus
ficus
ficus
she does not wear make up at all

On Talking to Strangers

2010-06-15T14:28:00.000-04:00

I have been thinking about these conversations we have every day. The ones with strangers, where you know exactly what you're expected to say, even though no one told you.

Like this one: "Hot enough for you?" "Tell me about it!"
Or this: "Think it's gonna rain?" "You know what they say here in [Maine/Michigan/Indiana/Richmond]: if you don't like the weather..." "Just wait five minutes...!"
It doesn't have to be about the weather though. There's also the woman at the vet's office: "I see you both got the memo about wearing pink shirts today!"
And the standard: "You have a nice day." "You too--don't work too hard."

I think I like these conversations. It's like participating in a nation-wide performance art piece, everyone knows the script. I don't exactly love talking to strangers, so these conversations are good practice for me.

A few weeks ago, I got an email from a friend, with this question: "Have you an idea of how I should do the corners of the border on Cecily's coverlet? Do I have to miter them? How do I do that?!!!" And I thought, "Miter? Isn't that something they do with wood, where the pieces are cut an angle to form a corner? I have no idea."

Have I made it clear that I don't know anything about quilting? That I just boldly and foolishly do it anyway?

LAUNDROMAT

I had to go down to Libbie and Grove to do my laundry. (The drainpipe is not working, the plumber is coming, never mind. I love laundromats, anyway.) Someone had left a lot of change in the machine, which I did not notice until after I had put my ten dollars in, and the quarters were already piling up on top of each other. Three people were sitting in the chairs, talking about the economy. "Did any of you leave some change in here?" They were so pleased with my honesty, commenting over and over. And I said, "Well, I hope someone would do the same for me." But honestly. They were sitting right there. Who would see $4 of quarters in the bin and not ask if someone left it there? I may have done noble things in my life, but not in this case.

On the way from work to the bus yesterday, I walked by no less than four discarded banana peels. I kept wishing I would accidentally slip on one. It would have been so funny. I was thinking, a cartoon gorilla must have come through before me, maniacally tossing empty banana peels.

I heard a girl calling out, "Ma'am! Do you have a phone I can borrow?"

And my first thought was, you're supposed to be suspicious about this sort of thing. She could be a con artist, a criminal. Then I got mad for thinking that. I want to trust people. I think the risk of living in constant fear is greater than the small risk of being mugged or taken advantage of.

She wanted to call Target to find out how much it would cost to repair her bike, but she couldn't figure out the word she wanted and she kept saying, "The lubes the lubes the interlubes the tubes." She seemed to feel guilty about using my phone, and after two transfers and three times waiting on hold, she shut the phone and handed it back.

I suggested that she might be able to get help finding the information online at the public library. In my mind, librarians are these magical, kind-hearted creatures who subsist solely on requests for random information. This idea is partially based on experience.

While I was waiting for my clothes at the laundry, I walked to the ice cream store, then I called Moxy. And she explained mitering over the phone. I listened, but I was not optimistic. I thought, when it comes time to finish the cafe wall quilt, I will find a tutorial online, or I will call her back with questions. Or, most likely, both.

However. The next morning it was my day to hang out with Cecily, and her doll house needed two more quilts, so I decided to make some little quilts. In other words, I decided to rush headlong into mitering. Cecily chose some pieces from a big bag of cathedral window quilt squares, and I sewed, and folded, and ironed, and sewed, and look! Mitered corners:

mitered corner

I sort of get it!

Of course, there are about a million tutorials online. I'll go back to them when I'm ready to do a real (non-doll) quilt. Or maybe I'll go to the quilt shop, and ask for help. Or maybe there is a nice librarian at the public library, just waiting for me to come in and ask for help finding a good book on mitered corners in the quilts section. That's what they do, you know.

Boris the Dragon

2010-06-12T20:40:00.000-04:00

The Dragons of Blueland

One of the first chapter books I ever read was My Father's Dragon, by Ruth Stiles Gannett. It is hard to choose my favorite thing about this book (and the two sequels, Elmer and the Dragon and The Dragons of Blueland). It might be the part where the alligators form a bridge across the river, each eating a pink lollipop grasped in the tail of the next. It might be the mouse who says, "I must smell tum-duddy! I mean, I must tell somebody!" Or the fact that there is a place called Popsicornia, not that far from Tangerina. It might be the maps at the beginning of each book. Yeah, it's probably the maps.

I finally decided to put the legs on the Boris doll I knit for Cecily last fall.

Boris the dragon

When I said I was going to put the legs on, Dave insisted on taking a couple of pictures without the legs, "So that we will remember that for most of a year, her favorite toy was a snake that had eaten a dog."

Boris the snake

a list of things I love about this picture kristin took

2010-06-03T09:51:00.000-04:00

photo of doll quilt by moxy by kristin

1. Mom's quilt for Cecily's doll house is exactly the right size, like magic.
2. Cecily is holding the matching quilt because, bunk beds!
3. yarn bracelet
4. banjo

a story, what I'm reading, and a monkey

2010-06-01T11:19:00.000-04:00

Cecily in ice cream glasses

One time, I took Cecily with me to Target, and I didn't find any of the stuff I wanted: some bowls to eat cereal out of, and some pretty new dish towels. Later I was telling Jessie about it, and I said, "Oh well. Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you."

Cecily asked what that meant.

"It's not really about bears," I said. "It means that sometimes things work out the way you want them to, and sometimes they don't."

A few days later, as she and Jessie pulled into the Target parking lot, Cecily said, "I hope we eat the bear today."

At work, last.fm and pandora are blocked, but just this week I discovered that raaga.com is not blocked. As a result of this, I have had this song in my head for days now.

I don't like having a song stuck in my head that is sung mostly in a language I don't know. It's a special kind of crazy when the voices in your head speak Hindi and you don't.

I got Dreaming of Amelia in the mail this week. I like all the other Ashbury High books SO MUCH, I'm really afraid of this one not living up to my expectations. I waited three days to read the first page, while I slowly finished The Elegance of the Hedgehog, which was funny and smart but probably would be a little better in French (because I suspect that bright, likable French-speaking people getting hung up about French grammar is just a different thing from smart English-speaking people getting hung up about English grammar. Split infinitives? Who cares?!).

I finally started Dreaming this morning, and I think I'm going to like it. One minor problem: I love Emily's malapropisms in Secret Assignments, etc, because they seem so plausible. In Dreaming (or, in the first few pages, I haven't gotten far), they feel more forced. I'm starting to suspect Emily, like maybe she discovered that misusing big words is a charming character trait and she's doing it on purpose now. "Foreskin" instead of "foresight"? I don't believe it.

There are a lot of different stories going on at once, and written in lots of different voices, through school assignments and blogs and things. And it's all about Gothic novels. Two examples of Gothic novels in the introduction are Frankenstein, one of my favorites, and Wuthering Heights, which I am not proud to admit I have never managed to finish reading, despite many attempts, starting with the time I borrowed a big pink hard-cover copy from Louis T Graves Memorial Library in Kennebunkport in probably about 1987. I have read Jane Eyre at least four times. But not Wuthering Heights. Maybe now I will finally read it, next, after Dreaming of Amelia.

Note: Sandra Bullock's character in The Proposal has read Wuthering Heights many times. "Every Christmas," she reports. She says it's her favorite book. What is this meant to say about her? That she is romantic at heart, and sad?

Not a lot of crafting has been going on. I've been sewing tiny dresses for Cecily's doll house dolls. And I need to think of a way to replace the feathers that keep falling off my new straw hat:

cowgirl

Oh,one more thing. We saw a monkey, at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens:

I love this monkey.

He has a pinwheel and a harmonica.

Once I ate dinner at a Chinese restaurant with a group of Very Important Intellectuals. H, the most important of all of them, told a story about pinwheels, and another dinner guest, who was learning English, did not know this word "pinwheel." Many people tried to explain, with no success. Finally H called his son on his cell phone and asked him to pick up a pinwheel at the grocery store, and bring it back to the restaurant. (For some reason, H's son had left the dinner to run to the grocery store around the corner.) A few minutes later, the son returned, with this.

Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes the bear eats you. That's all I have to say. If you're reading this, I hope you eat the bear today.

do this

2010-05-27T12:27:00.000-04:00

StitchLondon

http://www.stitchldn.com/stitchyourself.html

garden

2010-05-13T09:56:00.001-04:00

We have eaten two radishes and a bit of spinach from the garden now.

Garden on flickr

It looks great, except that Something keeps digging little holes in various places. Most of the carrots got destroyed, but other than that it's just been little holes next to plants.

Carrots

I don't know who it is, although the yard is fenced so rabbits can't get in, and I did chase a strange cat out one morning last week.

Mysterious Holes

I don't like that cat very much. She looks a little like Kennedy, so whenever I see her, I have that uneasy feeling you get when you think you recognize a friend in the grocery store, so you wave, then you realize it's a stranger.

strawberry picking

2010-05-11T21:06:00.000-04:00

On Sunday, we went strawberry picking. Cecily wore a shirt my mom made.

My mom is kind of a genius when it comes to sewing.

I have stared at this shirt a lot, and I still think it's sort of a miracle the way the solid colors fold into patches, creating a gathered skirt from the mixed colors between the solids.

I think the technique is in this book. But I'm pretty sure that if I read it, I still wouldn't be able to make it into a shirt.

Snow Pumpkins

2010-05-09T20:36:00.001-04:00

DSC03777
Originally uploaded by lydia eden

We were telling a story. The river had dried up and throughout the whole kingdom, no one could grow vegetables because there was not enough water.
"What about snow pumpkins?" she said.
"Snow pumpkins?"
"Yeah. Did they grow snow pumpkins?"
"I don't know. I don't think I know what snow pumpkins are."
"Yes you do. We had it one time, with dinner? It's orange?"
"Oh! Winter squash?"
"Yes. Winter squash."

crunchy, crunchy, crunchy

2010-05-07T12:12:00.001-04:00

This is not a new story, but I want to write it down, so I don't forget.

Maisie said I was tiny and I said, "How tiny?" and she showed me with her fingers, very tiny.
And I said, "Can you put me in your pocket?"
And she said "Yes!"
And I said, "Can you put me in your mouth?"
And she thought a minute, then she said "No, because you would be crunchy, crunchy, crunchy."

Sullivan's quilt, in action

2010-05-06T10:19:00.001-04:00

Originally uploaded by reedke22

Kristin took this picture. He seems much bigger now, although it has only been a couple of weeks.

Cafe Wall Illusion Quilt

2010-05-04T22:01:00.004-04:00

The power was out all over the neighborhood for an hour on Sunday. We went for ice cream, and the ice cream store was also out of power, but the very cheerful young ice cream scooper kept sweating and scooping, reminding people he could only take exact change because the register was down.

It's very hot. And I'm quilting. I am about half done with the top of a cafe wall illusion quilt.

This will be my second quilt. Well, sort of. First there was the cathedral window quilt.

It is fun to work on, making the big white squares and little colorful squares turn into circles like magic. Because it is all sewed by hand, I realistically expect it to be large enough to cover the top of a twin bed by the time I turn sixty. So it is the first quilt I started, but it will not be anywhere near the top of the list of quilts I finished.

The first quilt I finished is Sullivan's scrap quilt. It turns out, it is much faster to make a quilt that is a) Sullivan-sized and b) stitched on a machine. Although, my favorite part is where I practiced a lot of embroidery stitches on the top.

About the Cafe Wall Illusion

If you make horizontal rows of blocks of contrasting colors, such as black and white, with narrow rows of "mortar" between them, in a color that falls between the colors of the blocks (in the case of black and white, the mortar is gray), and if you stagger the rows slightly, the horizontal lines will seem to slant into each other.

There is a famous building in Australia that illustrates the effect:

illusionism.org

At Quilting Adventures, Jessie helped me pick out a light greenish-blue fabric and dark greenish-blue, and a soft gray for the mortar. The lady who cut my fabric said, "What are you doing with all these solids?"

Sometimes, when I lack confidence, I talk too much. I think I said something like, "Well, I don't know anything about quilting, but I have this idea, there's this famous optical illusion, and it's all blocks of colors, and I was thinking, if I could sew it, I don't know why it shouldn't work, and my friend Dave teaches a perception unit, and he does optical illusions, and I thought it would be a nice present, so I'm going to try to keep it secret, but we'll see how well that goes."

She nodded. She probably has a lot of practice smiling and nodding at crazy people. "Well, that's the way to start," she said. "Start with an image." Then she recommended a book which I did not buy yet, but I intend to.

gwenmarston.com

The next day, I told Dave all about the quilt.

After cutting out hundreds of squares and strips, and sewing the blocks into rows and sewing the first few rows to each other, I ironed what I had put together, and was forced to admit the sad truth: the gray color was NOT working.

Naturally, my first course of action was to throw all the pieces into a reusable grocery bag, stomp around the house for a while, and eventually dissolve into a puddle of hysterics about something else, about how I don't know which consumes more fossil fuels: eating an apple or eating apple sauce. Because the apple sauce is made in large batches, and they can harvest the apples at the right time, and ship it so efficiently. You can't always trust your intuitions, and this is upsetting.

Dave said, "Is this really about the quilt?"

"No." Well, maybe. A little.

Later the same day, Cecily and I went back to the quilt shop, and I found some fabric in a color called SAGE.

I have some very good news: sage mortar is working.

See how the rows look all bendy, even though they are not bendy?

The quilt top is ten rows tall now. I'm not allowed to photograph it again until it's finished.

More on the cafe wall illusion:

http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/ang_cafewall/index.html

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/nest/imager/contributions/flinn/Illusions/CW/cw.html

http://brainconnection.positscience.com/teasers/?main=illusion/cafe-wall

http://www.psy.ritsumei.ac.jp/~akitaoka/machikae.html

from mom

2010-05-03T16:25:00.000-04:00

Here are the pictures I found that I thought you’d get a kick out of:

I love the one of you knitting with your eyes shut…sort of a picture of things to come?

Love,

mum

Crocheted Dress

2009-09-14T09:41:00.003-04:00

Maisie in crocheted dress
Originally uploaded by lydia eden

I found this cutie-pantz fabric in the remnant bin ages ago, and I've been hanging on to it, thinking it should be something for Maisie.

Mom's been talking about sun dresses with crocheted yokes and cloth skirts. I finally decided to try one, even though 1) I didn't have anything like a pattern and 2) basically everything I know about crocheting it made up out of my head with no instruction. My mom gave me a granny square lesson once, but I know nothing about reading/writing crochet instructions. But I thought, if I put some stitches together, and if the number of stitches divides by six, surely I can pretend they are hexagons and sew them together. And I think it worked amazingly well, considering.

Maisie
Originally uploaded by lydia eden

2009-09-14T09:24:00.000-04:00

One great thing about living with a three-year-old is this: everything looks cute on her. This sweater, which began life as a theory about an argyle vest, is lumpy and awkward, and the line where I picked up stitches to knit the body sort of reminds me of a surgery scar. But put it on Maisie, and Voila! Cute as buttons!

[Note: the movie in the background is Follow the Fleet, which she watches just about every day. When she gets to this scene, where Fred Astaire is wearing dress whites and singing "I'd Rather Lead the Band" she runs to the TV, points to him, and says, "That's the one I like! Fred Astaire!"]

The left arm was originally the front of the planned sweater vest, and you can see the argyle-ish diamonds there. I quite like how the stripes on the right arm turned out -- they were loosely inspired by one of several pretty awesome homemade Weasley sweaters in the newest Harry Potter movie. I think Ron is wearing it during a scene in the tavern (at Hog's Head? They might be spying on Ginny?)

Pattern Notes...

Yarn: worsted weight, washable wool, in spring green, teal, and a shade of pinkish red that might have been called persimmon. (I bought these at In a Yarn Basket, and as usual I do not remember much about them. I could probably call and ask, because they very helpfully keep track of yarn purchased there...)

Needles: US 11 16" circular, tapestry needle for finishing

Sleeves/top: CO 52 stitches in green. Work k1, p1 ribbing for one inch (this will be the cuff), then work the first five and last five stitches in garter stitch and the middle in stockinette. (The diamonds are worked in intarsia and begin about 1.5 inches up. I have not unpacked my notes, so I don't have the pattern for this part, but if/when I knit this again, I will probably want to do something different anyway.) When it is 11 inches long (note: these are very short sleeves, and very wide), begin garter stitch and knit about twelve rows. On the right side, knit 15, loosely bind off 22, knit 15. Knit 11 rows on these 15 stitches, ending on a wrong side row. Break yarn and attach to stitches left on needle. Knit until the two sections (front and back) match, then cast on 22 across the gap and continue in garter stitch until the sides match -- about 12 rows.

The right sleeve is worked in garter stitch for the first and last 15 stitches of each row, and stocking in the middle (wrong side: knit 15, purl 22, knit 15; right side: knit). After about five inches of this, the stripes start. The striped part of the right sleeve is made by changing colors on the WS every other row, so the color transitions look smooth on top of the arm, and all mixed up on the lower half. Something like this:

(ws) change to red, k15, p22, k15
(rs), knit
change to teal, k15, p22, k15
knit
change to green, k15, p22, k15
knit

There are five sets of these stripes, then another red, then the cuff is worked in k1, p1 ribbing in teal. Bind off.

Beginning at the cuff, sew the arms up to the armpits with mattress stitch. Pick up 98 stitches evenly. Working in the round, knit 10 rows, then change to red, and purl 18 rows. End with 8 rows of k1, p1 ribbing, then bind off.

Post Hiatus

2009-08-22T14:40:00.013-04:00

Things that have happened since I last posted:

A Fair of the Arts (May, June, July):

oral surgery to remove all four wisdom teeth, look at my enormous swollen face:

quit my boring dumb awful job (Yes! And...what now?)
moved across four states (Indiana - Kentucky - West Virginia - Virginia)
Celebrated Kristin's successful dissertation defense with a graveyard cake. Unfortunately the pictures are very blurry, but the stones marked graves of lots of things that died during (but not necessarily as a direct result of) her graduate career...
cooked a lot of stuff (spanikopita, pizza, pizza, pizza, minestrone, cheater's samosas, peach & strawberry clafouti, bubble & squeak/potato pancakes (bubble & squatkes?)):
almost no crafting, but this week I've started again:
1. rag rug with Maisie.
2. bath scrubby thing (needs a better name than "bath scrubby thing").

We finished a second rug this morning, but I haven't taken any pictures yet.

tiny hat pattern part I

2009-04-22T09:04:00.003-04:00

These are some of the baby hats I've been making, unfinished and unblocked, but I think you can see how cute they are.

And here's a rudimentary version of a pattern for the green one, which is probably a child's size small:
On US5 circular needle, co 11 stitches.
Work in tweed stitch (WS: p2, *slip one with yarn in back, p1* to last stitch, p1; RS: k1, *slip one with yarn in front, k1* to end) for 22 inches.
Bind off.
Pick up 80 stitches along the long edge, leaving about one inch at the end, and join in a circle. Knit one round.
Work this pattern for three inches:
Rounds 1 & 2: k2, p2;
Rounds 3 & 4: p2, k2.
After about 3 inches, place markers every twenty stitches, and decrease. Every other round: kt2tog, maintain pattern to next marker, repeat.
Continue this decrease until 16 stitches remain. Finish.
Sew a large button on the overlap.

Too Much Spinning!

2009-02-05T16:50:00.001-05:00

It is lumpy and inconsistent and weird and I completely love it.

Maisie's Skirt

2009-01-22T10:52:00.001-05:00

DSC03372
Originally uploaded by lydia eden

I made myself a wrap skirt from this beautiful fabric about three years ago. I never wore it, and last summer, I pulled it out of the closet and realized what it need was about 15 inches off the length. Since shortening it, I have worn it often and I love it. When Maisie was visiting last week, I made her a matching skirt from the scraps. I stopped myself before making a third one for "dolly," but it's pretty clear to me that I should never be a stay-at-home mom, because I would indulge in this sort of creepy behavior all the time.

The Pillow of the Living Dead

2009-01-08T10:33:00.014-05:00

This project was loosely inspired by Debbie Stoller's "Poster Boy" in Stitch 'n Bitch NATION.

Intarsia might have been a more natural approach to this sort of thing, but instead I ran the off-color yarn behind the working yarn, catching it every few stitches. This gives the sort of flecked appearance to the large patches of each color, where the off color shows through a little.

I used two different dk weight cotton yarns. One is a mercerized in a sort of lime-ish green, and the other is a slubby black. Unfortunately, I cannot find the labels for either, but I'm pretty sure I ordered both from WEBS. The needle was a 24" size 6 circular needle.

I cast on a lot of stitches (160? 164? The width of the chart plus eight, times two, whatever that is) with black and worked two rows in stocking stitch. Attached green yarn and knit 4 stitches in black before beginning chart. Followed chart, then knit 8 in black, repeated first row of chart, ended with 4 stitches in black. Continued in this way, with eight black stitches at each side. After finishing the chart, I knit one row in black, worked one inch in k1 p1 ribbing, then cast off.

Finishing:

I used fringe to close the bottom.

At the top edge, I crocheted some button holes and attached odd large buttons.

Oh right, here's the chart, which I colored by hand, for whatever reason.

p.s. here's picture the image comes from:

an illustrated guide to turning two shirts into one reversible market bag

2009-01-06T09:12:00.031-05:00

I have been making these bags, a little obsessively.

1. Begin by choosing two shirts that complement each other. (For me, incapable as I am of committing to any decision, this is the hardest part.)

2. Iron them!

3. Using a buttonhole as the center, cut a rectangle about 18 inches wide and deep enough to include the pocket of the shirt. The exact dimensions of this piece can be altered - as long as the other pieces match. (click image for helpful notes!)

4. Lay the cut piece on the other side of the shirt front, lining up the buttons with the button holes, then cut around, so they are the same size. Let's call these piece A (with button holes) and piece B (with buttons). Eventually, they will form the top of the bag.

5. From the back of the second shirt, cut a rectangle (piece C) the same width as piece A and piece B (18 inches, or as wide as you made them) and long enough that piece A + piece C + piece B = approximately 32 inches. For instance, if your piece A and piece B are 18 by 8 inches, your piece C should 18 by 16
(8 + 16 + 8 = 32)

7. Repeat steps 3 through 5, beginning with the second shirt.

7a. Optional pocket - to convert the existing pocket, sew along the open edge, reverse-stitching 1/2 inch at each end. Use a seam ripper to open the upper seam.

8. With right sides facing, sew the long edge of piece A to the corresponding edge of piece C, then the long edge of piece B to the opposite edge of piece C. Sew up the edges. Do the same with D, E, and F.

You now have two pouches of the same size - about 17 by 16 inches. Lay them side by side, inside out.

9. To form a flat bottom, flatten the corners and sew across the corner of both bags, as in the picture. Snip off the corners.

10. To make the strap, cut a strip about seven inches wide and about 40 inches long. Shorter, obviously, if you want a shorter strap. This 7 x 40 rectangle can be hobbled together from odd pieces, and you can sew it however you want - odd angles and varied fabrics are good. Fold edges to center then fold in half, pressing and pinning to set the shape. Sew the length of the strap, near the edge, then back about a quarter inch further in.

Insert an end of the strap between the inner and outer pouch, at the seam, and pin in place. Do the same with the other end of the strap - from experience, I say, make sure it's not twisted.

11. Sew the pouches together just below the buttons, turning and sewing up to the edge, then reverse stitching back every few inches, being careful to choose places between the buttons/button holes on both sides of the work. (Click the picture to see possibly helpful notes.)

Reinforce the straps by sewing twice around a box where the strap is attached.

Finished!

Dorothy Parker Poem

2009-01-03T18:08:00.003-05:00

It's finished! Sort of. I haven't completely decided yet about the underground part.

I think these flowers are pretty:

Guess What

2009-01-01T20:17:00.002-05:00

2008 almost gone

2008-12-30T19:13:00.003-05:00

Pasta
Originally uploaded by lydia eden

I think it is pretty amazing that I have been posting here for almost a year now. My plan, initially, was to use this space to practice discipline and write down some knitting patterns. But of course these things change, and now I think of Bug Knits as a document (largely in pictures) of my growth and education and experimentation as an art-s&crafts-ist. So it's not just about knitting (and it's definitely not just patterns). This year, I've done so much weaving and sewing, and I even learned to spin a little. I've also cooked a lot of fun things, but I haven't written about that here.

So here is a recipe, sort of:

My Favorite Most Spicy Whole Wheat Spaghetti.

Cook about 4 oz whole wheat spaghetti according to the package directions. Meanwhile, heat a little olive oil in a saucepan. Chop up two cloves of garlic (at least) and saute it in the olive oil for a minute. Dump in half a jar of whatever pasta sauce is cheapest - today it was Barilla Garlic and Basil - and add the following:
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
a dash cinnamon
Depending on the jar of pasta sauce, you might add some salt. Let the sauce simmer for a while, while the pasta cooks.

Immediately package half to take to work tomorrow. Eat the other half right away, preferably in a large bowl.

Happy New Year!

Bird Embroidery

2008-12-28T00:40:00.003-05:00

Learning to Embroider, Trial and Error

2008-12-24T10:59:00.002-05:00

I'm afraid everything I do turns out to be kitsch. Still, I'm excited about this little needlework project.

Hat For Me

2008-12-23T08:59:00.006-05:00

Writing patterns down is hard.

Because the stripes are so little, it is not necessary to break and join the different yarns at the color changes. Just leave both yarns attached, and bring the new color up behind the old color, so it wraps once around. On the inside of the hat, there is a neat little rope climbing up where the colors change.

Using size 5 16" circular needle and "spice" yarn, co 88 sts, and join. (No twisting.)

Rows 1 - 4: k2, p2.

Begin pattern, six-row repeat:
1 and 2: With spice, [p2, k2] around.
3: Change to brown, k around.
4 and 5: With brown, [k2, p2] around.
6: Change to spice, k around.

Repeat these six rows for five inches, ending with row 5.

Begin decrease, like so:
With spice, [knit 6, k2tog] around (77 stitches)
Work next five rows maintaining pattern:
With spice, [p2, k2, p2, k1] around for two rows.
Change to brown and k one row.
With brown, [k2, p2, k2,p1] around for two rows.

With spice, [knit 5 k2 tog] around (66 stitches).
With spice, [p2, k2, p1, k1] around for two rows.
Change to brown and k one row.
With brown, [k2, p2, k1,p1] around for two rows.

With spice, [k4, k2tog] around (55 stitches).
With spice, [p2, k1, p1, k1] around for two rows.
Change to brown and k one row.
With brown, [k2, p1, k1, p1] around for two rows.

Here we change to more rapid decrease and seed stitch:
With spice, [k3, k2tog] around (44 stitches).
With spice, [p1, k1] around.
With spice, [k1, p1] around.

(It is probably about time to switch to dpns.)

Change to brown, and [k2, k2tog] around (33 stitches).
With brown, [p1, k1] around.
With brown, [k1, p1] around.

Change to spice, and [k1, k2tog] around (22 stitches).
With spice, [p1, k1] around.
With spice, [k1, p1] around.

Change to brown, k2tog around (11 stiches).
With brown, [p1, k1] around.

Break yarn, leaving a six-inch tail. Thread yarn onto tapestry needle, and draw through 11 remaining stitches. Pull tight. Weave in ends on ws.

knitting at the movies, knitting in the movies

2008-12-22T15:57:00.005-05:00

I wrote this on The Other Blog last week, and I wanted to post it both places, just for the sake of completeness or whatever:

http://notthatcritical.blogspot.com/2008/12/awards-season-handmade-edition.html

I watched (okay, re-watched) a dull, predictable, unfunny, implausible movie called The Holiday this weekend. It half stars sometimes-most-beautiful-woman-in-the-world Kate Winslet, but apart from that the only good thing I have to say about it is, look at this neat scarf. It's an amazing lace-weight sampler I could never have designed or anticipated, but I love it deeply.

This got me thinking: what are the all-time best knitting/crafting movies? I mean, not movies with great knitting them, but great movies with knitting in them. Here's a start:

1. Antonia's Line (a.k.a. Antonia) is a beautiful film. It is that rare movie that is heartwarming and uplifting without quite being sappy.
2. I love the way knitting seems treacherous and scary in Les Diaboliques.
3. In Holiday, Katharine Hepburn knits a lot.

an actor who can knit, or a knitter who can act...

2008-12-05T18:12:00.003-05:00

NyTimes film critic A. O. Scott interviewed Roger Moore on TimesTalks recently. I should say, A. O. Scott stayed mostly out of the way while Roger Moore talked charmingly for about an hour and a half. Early in the interview, Moore talks briefly about his early career as a knitwear model.

http://podcasts.nytimes.com/podcasts/2008/11/28/28timestalks-moore.mp3

Go listen to it!

I'm completely unqualified to talk about Bond movies, but I do love some vintage knitting patterns, and I just spent...well, more time than I want to admit to...finding this and this. This, I am fairly (but not completely) sure, is not him.

Notes on the Winter Market

2008-12-04T20:05:00.004-05:00

adorable bear with tiny garter stitch scarf and hand-dyed green lacy scarf by kristin, tiny orange and eggplant bag by me

Well, we survived the Holiday Market. I feel like I've spent a ton of time and work getting ready for it, and yet in some ways I was completely unprepared. Even so, it was fun (the totally exhausting kind of fun that demands to be followed by many hours on the couch drinking tea and watching Buffy*) to spend the day talking to all sorts of different people with all sorts of interesting questions and comments. I really love the people who are just learning to knit. And I really love the kids who were fascinated by Kristin's spinning, especially the mom who asked about the fiber content of the silk wool blend, then explained, "That comes from a sheep and a caterpillar!" It made me want to draw a picture.

Things I really meant to do but didn't: design and print up some pretty tags, with fiber content information. Make time to visit other booths (and buy a sock zombie...). Next time.
Things I never really planned to do but should have: Print business cards (all day, I scribbled my e-mail address on the back of Kristin's cards). Make more wristers (they seem to be the only thing people consistently wanted to buy). Make some things out of non-wool fibers--a lot of people are sensitive to wool, and might have been interested in garments made of something they could wear comfortably. Also, stuff for babies might have been good (although I didn't sell any of my cutie baby hats: I blame Maisie, for not being there to model them). Finally, we should participate in the Friday evening "sneak preview."
Things we did right: Kristin brought her spinning wheel and demoed for part of the day, which was very popular. And it's a good source of conversation for a person like me who finds small talk challenging and exhausting.

(*speaking of Buffy, I totally want to make the horrible sweater Willow wears in "Doppelgangland" -- not the furry pink one with the daisies, but the even more hideous one with the granny square on the chest, which she wears in the earlier scenes. Okay, you can see it in the beginning of this messy video.)

Best Birthday Present

2008-10-23T23:50:00.003-04:00

Kristin gave me my first spinning lesson yesterday!

This is what I made:

Market Bag

2008-10-12T09:12:00.003-04:00

I have owned this odd but adorable homemade brown corduroy sleeveless top for about ten years. In that time, I have probably worn it six or eight times, because I love the material so much. But it has never really fit me properly -- and at what time of year exactly do you wear a corduroy tank? I imagine the previous owner wearing it over a turtleneck, in 1978. Yesterday, I finally decided to do something with it, to make it more useful for me.

I opened the lower hem and sewed the bottom of the shirt shut. I created a flat bottom by sewing across the corners about two inches from the points, and trimming the points off. I cut the neck line, front and back, about a foot down from the top of the shoulders, and hemmed the raw edge. I also opened the tops of the shoulders and resewed them at more of a right angle.

Here is the resulting enormous market bag. I carried it to the farmer's market yesterday and it was perfect!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lydia_nichols/2931257439/in/set-72157607931974884/

Mrs Pennybottom

2008-10-03T19:38:00.003-04:00

Mrs. Pennybottom

Materials:
Lionbrand Vanna's Choice, not sure of the color - fern? olive?
US 8 16" circular needle
US 8 dpns
A small amount of embroidery floss for the eyes and whiskers.
Polyfil or whatever you stuff stuffed things with.
Something to make her bottomheavy - I sort of accidentally used pennies.

Co 18 sts
work in garter sts about 30 rows.
pick up stitches around the edges (side, bottom, side) so that you have 68 sts on the needle, and the garter square you've just made is lying flat in the circle formed by the needle. Knit one round.
2nd round: [Knit 20, purl 1, PM, knit 14, purl 1, PM] twice.
Continue like this, knitting knit stitches and purling purl stitches, for about two inches.

Decrease sides:
decrease round - [Knit 20, purl 1, k2tog, knit to 2 stitches before the marker, ssk, purl 1] twice.
non-decrease round - knit the knit stitches and purl the purl stitches

Work one decrease round, then two non-decrease rounds. Repeat until only two stitches remain between your purl stitches on each side. (Six repeats.)

Decrease front and back:
decrease round -k2tog, k to 2 stitches before the purl stitches, ssk,
non-decrease round - knit the knit stitches and purl the purl stitches.

Alternate these two rounds until 24 stitches remain. At some point, you will want to switch from the circular to the dpns.

At 24 stitches, stuff the thing, starting with a layer of stuffy stuff, then whatever is heavy to make her heavy-bottomed, then more stuffing, up to the top.

Put 12 stitches on each of two double pointed needles, then do a three needle cast off.

Tail:
With green, cast on 12 stitches, work four rows in stocking stitch, change colors, work four rows in turquoise. Repeat for ten stripes total. Change to green and work decrease:
1 k1, k2tog, k6, k2tog, k1.
2 p1, p2tog, p4, p2tog, p1
3 k1, k2tog, k2, k2tog, k1
Draw yarn through remaining stitches, and cut, leaving a long tail. Using the tail, seam the tail into a tube, stuffing as you go. At the top, attach the tail to the cat.

Unfinished Cathedral

2008-09-25T22:25:00.003-04:00

Double Indem-knitty

2008-09-25T22:10:00.008-04:00

(I stayed home from work today, feeling sorry for myself and watching Double Indemnity over and over. It's good every single time.)

I suppose you have to think of everything in your business.

Well, your husband would understand. I'm sure I could sell him on the idea of some accident protection. Why don't I talk to him about it?

You could try, but he's pretty tough going.

Well, they're all tough at first.

He has a lot on his mind. He doesn't seem to want to listen anything except maybe a baseball game on the radio. Sometimes we sit here all evening and never say a word to each other.

Sounds pretty dull.

So I just sit and knit.

That what you married him for?

Maybe I like the way his thumbs hold up the wool.

Anytime his thumbs get tired...only with me around you wouldn't have to knit.

Wouldn't I?

Bet your life you wouldn't.

I like a good LotR costume as much as the next really dorky person

2008-08-28T17:03:00.006-04:00

I made Natty a scarf, probably three years ago or more, with the white tree and seven stars which represent Gondor in The Lord of the Rings. It has developed a small hole, so when I was in Michigan recently, I offered to fix that. I was working on some of my trusy basic wristers, of which I have made oh-so-many lately, and Natty mentioned that he still wears a pair of bright red ones I made him a few years ago (although not to school: apparently fingerless mitts are a sign of gang membership(?), and therefore prohibited at my alma mater). Pretty quickly we decided he needed a new pair of them, in colors more matching his Gondor scarf.

Vambraces are armor that covers the forearms, like gauntlets, but I think they are worn over gauntlets. After Boromir’s death, Aragorn straps on his vambraces, as a sort of tribute. Or something. You can see them on Boromir, and then later, on Aragorn. You can sort of see the white tree and seven stars of Gondor on them.

In search of black yarn, for the mending as well as the vambracing, we went to Hobby Lobby, where the only black wool blend to be found was this Lion Brand Wool Spun, which is bulky weight and would never work. I am pretty sure the scarf was made from another Lion brand thing, called something like “Wool Ease,” which was worsted weight and a wool acrylic blend, and therefore washable. Washability is important, especially in a garment for a teenager, especially one that would be flown, banner-like, from, say, a multi-story medieval style tree house.

We gave up on Hobby Lobby and decided to go downtown and visit the LYS (there was never a LYS when I lived there, but that was fifteen years ago) in hopes of finding something better. Unfortunately, Warm & Wild Yarns seems to have already shut its doors, which is more depressing now that I’ve spent a few minutes on her blog, which ends mysteriously in April of this year.

We persevered, heading for another yarn shop, this one about ten minutes away, in Tecumseh. The Yarn Basket is tiny and adorable. ("The Yarn Basket" is kind of a lame store name, but in fairness it is not as lame as Bloomington’s In A Yarn Basket which is a cool store, despite its awkward name.) The Yarn Basket had a sample of this weird yarn knitted up and some more on needles at the counter. I guess I’ve seen it before, in ball form, but not a knitted sample. It’s a tiny strip of stockinette, and to work with it, you pick up the edge stitches and knit them. Pretty fascinating. Oh! What if you knitted a piece of stockinette from this, then picked up the edge stitches from that to knit a piece, then… well, fascinating and postmodern and fun though it is, it would in fact it be a horrible mess very quickly. Not to put too fine a point on it, the sample piece was kind of a horrible mess already.

Ultimately, they had the perfect yarn. I don't have it in front of me, but I think it is Plymouth Encore, and the colors matched almost perfectly, so I made the Manly Long Vambraces (see very elaborate pattern below) that match the Gondor scarf, and I fixed the hole in the scarf. And Natty took some very cool pictures for me.

Manly Long Vambraces

Follow the pattern for my favorite wristers ever, but co 44 stitches to begin with.

Evil Wristers of Evil

2008-08-20T15:14:00.004-04:00

DSC02859
Originally uploaded by lydia eden

When Kristin posted a Dr. Horrible Wristers KAL on ravelry, I decided to take up the gauntlet (ha!).

I tried to photograph them looking mad-scientisty.

I have never been satisfied with knitting stripes in the round, because of the joggy place where the colors change, so I knit these flat, then seamed them. The edges are worked in intarsia, so the dark green runs up both edges.

Materials:
Plymouth alpaca, dark green (MC)
Plymouth baby alpaca, light green (CC)
US No 5 needle
US No 5 dpns

With MC co 58 sts

work in moss stitch (also called seed stitch, it's k1, p1 across, then p1, k1 back, so that the resulting fabric comprises knit stitches on top of purl stitches in a tiny checkerboard) for four rows.

Row 5 (right side) Continue the seed stitch pattern as set for five stitches, then knit to last five stitches, continue seed stitch pattern as set.
Row 6 (wrong side) Continue seed stitch pattern as set for five stitches, then purl to last five stitches, continue seed stitch pattern as set.
Row 7: Continue seed stitch pattern as set for five stitches, join CC and knit to last 5. Join a separate piece of MC (from a second ball, or from the other end of the ball, or cut a length of about four yards before starting). Work last five with MC in seed stitch.
Row 8: same as row 6, but be careful: when you switch colors, wrap the color you are changing from over the color you are changing to before working the next stitch. There are lots of discussions of the intarsia method on the internet (here's one from knitty: http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall07/PATTintarsiafun.html).

Repeat rows 5 - 8 seven more times.

Next row, MC, pre-thumb row:
Continue the seed stitch pattern as set for five stitches, then knit to last five stitches, continue seed stitch pattern as set.
Thumb row:
Continue seed stitch pattern as set for five stitches, purl 11 stitches, p 6 stitches onto scrap yarn, then slip these six back onto first needle, purl these 6, then purl 11, then work the last five in continuing seed stitch.

DSC02863Originally uploaded by lydia eden

Continue in pattern for six more stripes, then work four rows in seed stitch, following the pattern as set by the side stripes. Bind off.

Thumb - carefully remove the scrap yarn, picking up the live stitches as they come off the yarn. Pick up stitches around the thumb to fill in gaps, then in the first round knit stitches together to get to 13 stitches. Knit 7, turn, slip one, purl6, turn slip one, knit around. Knit three more rounds, then work three rounds in seed stitch. Bind off.

bake the hall

2008-08-17T23:19:00.003-04:00

Dave made a site for cake documentation:

www.psych.uiuc.edu/~dlandy/Cakes

notes to myself, on doubleweave

2008-08-17T08:32:00.007-04:00

As I write, my very first doubleweave project (rayon chenille in dark blue and variegated orange) is in the washer.

Doubleweave is like Magic

The doubleweave method allows you to essentially weave two pieces of cloth at once, interweaving with each other periodically.

For this scarf, which is Suzanne Halvorson's design, I wound 24 warp strings of blue chenille, then attached the variegated at the bottom of the warping board, wound the blue and variegated 36 times together (for 72 warp strings, half blue and half variegated), then 24 more of the blue. There are 24 + 72 + 24 = 120 total warp strings.

(When winding on, it's important to keep in mind that the warp should be twice as thick in the center, where both colors are. Measure the width and pay attention as you wind on so it doesn't spread out too much. At 12 epi, this scarf should be about 7 inches wide.)

The threading goes like this:
For the first 24 warp strings, repeat [1, 2] 12 times
For the next section, where the blue and variegated are together,
repeat
[1 - blue, 3 - variegated, 2 - blue, 4 - variegated]
to last 24 strings, where only blue remains.
Repeat [1,2] 12 times

Weaving:
Begin with a section of plain weave, by treadling 1-3, then 2-4

Double weaving. The most exciting moment in the whole process for me was the first time I treadled 3 and 4 and the orange threads rose up from inside the warp, leaving all the blue flat below.

Narrow fabric on top:
With blue weft,
1-3-4
2-3-4

With orange weft,
3
4

Repeat these four rows until the narrow-fabric-on-top section is about an inch long. Find the edge of the narrow band (the first few times, I actually counted the 24 blue warp strings to find this place), and drop the shuttle down through the fabric, between the warp strings. This feels very strange and scary, but it will be okay.

Narrow fabric beneath:
With blue weft:
1
2
With orange weft:
1-2-3
1-2-4

Repeat these four rows to desired length for second block.

Rather than try to bring the shuttle back up through the work, it is easier to break off the string and finish each narrow-fabric-beneath section as if you were changing colors. Then reattach on top, as if you were beginning a new color.

Disaster!!! In the finishing process the blue bled so badly the scarf no longer looks like Cafe Terrace At Night. It is still a gorgeous blue, but the orange has become muddy and indistinct. The inside of the drier is also a strange shade of grayish blue, but I am optimistic about fixing that. The scarf on the other hand will never be the same. In retrospect, I wish I had photographed it in process.

can't stop weaving

2008-08-06T12:27:00.018-04:00

After this was finished, there was a bit of leftover slate blue hemp, which I used in the warp of this scarf or table runner. The rest of the warp is some inexpensive oatmealy cotton. The pattern is an "undulating twill" from The Handweaver's Pattern Directory by Anne Dixon (page 199).

The weft is a brown cotton.

After that, I had enough warp left to experiment with this fine uneven white cotton thread for weft. The resulting fabric is nice, looks very delicate.

Here is the same pattern, in different colors, and finer yarns. The warp is a greenish cotton I ordered from Webs and the blue and buttery weft are the same stuff. The purplish part (which I spent a recent weekend untangling) is a different treadling.

Finally, here's me concentrating hard on taking a picture of me concentrating, in my first bamboo scarf:

dark knight scarf

2008-07-29T17:18:00.007-04:00

This scarf began with a cup of coffee and a messy pile of yarn at a kitchen table. Ordinarily I love untangling enormous yarn messes. It’s just the sort of picky, small-scale task that I can get caught up in and not notice the passage of long stretches of time. For instance, I spent most of 4th of July weekend organizing about four ounces of this very dark raspberry colored lightweight rayon I wanted to use for a few inches of this. I had wound it some years ago, intending to warp the table loom, in the days before I inherited the Harrisville. Turning this monster into five neat bobbins not only ate up a whole lonely weekend, it also gave me a sense of satisfaction in the end, a sense of having brought order to just that one tiny corner of the world. (Maybe that's why I knit in the first place?)

For whatever reason, this particular day, the day at the kitchen table, I was in a hurry or I was feeling more practical or efficient than usual or I had bought a new pair of scissors I wanted to try out. I don’t remember. For whatever reason, I proceeded like this: untangle a few yards, cut, tie, untangle, cut, until the pile had turned into a pretty little ball.

Like a lot of people, we went to see Dark Knight on the Monday after it came out. I grabbed this yarn on my way out the door, with no particular plan in mind. I wanted to work on something I could do in the dark, but not garter stitch. Lacy, but mathless. Something along the lines of this with the staggered long yarn-over rows, but more chaotic.

Let’s call this a pattern, since pattern-writing practice is ostensibly my goal here.

materials:
fingering weight yarn in three shades of red and purple
US 6 (I think) needle

CO 24

row 1 and all odd rows: k
row 2, k1, *yo, k1* to end
row 4 k2tog across

repeat for about one foot

The next part is more improvisational
Still knit every odd row.
On the even rows, yo then k2tog a few times - three to six times, say - across the row. Knit the in-between stitches.

That's all. I will post another picture when it's a little longer.

The colors remind me of the Cheshire cat in Alice.

There is something else I can't figure out how to say, something about how it's appropriate that I knit this in the batman movie, because I think the Cheshire cat is a sort of literary ancestor of the Joker, because he is at once friendly and terrifying.

The Cheshire Cat begins to fade away, his smile the last to go

p.s. speaking of knitting the dark, and speaking of saying things badly, here is a boring little poem by Bill Palmer.

Erykah Badu

2008-07-22T09:08:00.006-04:00

Starting with the basic doll pattern from Carol Meldrum's Knitted Icons book, I made this Erykah Badu doll for Anna V for her birthday.

Her hair took longer than all the knitting and the clothes sewing and embroidery together. I cut lengths of about 14 inches, then attached them at their middles to her head with a tapestry needle and a simple knot. Then I spent a lot of hours unraveling each strand.

This is the picture I used for inspiration, outfit-wise:

Hair-wise, it's more the messy chaotic asymmetry of, say, this. She's so pretty.

lots more weaving, very few pictures

2008-07-22T08:35:00.004-04:00

Weaving has consumed all my time lately. After the two bamboo scarves (of which I have one terrible picture), Kristin helped me choose some hemp and cotton in shades of grayish blue, and I did this one:

(It's awesome how you can see my trash can in this picture...)

There are two or three more pieces in varying stages of completion that I haven't had a chance to photograph.

Now I'm taking a doubleweave scarf workshop, which is amazing. It's like magic.

new yarn store in bloomington

2008-06-13T08:36:00.007-04:00

There is a new yarn shop in town!

In A Yarn Basket is way south of town, so I can't walk there. It has a dippy name, and the website features many unexplained puffins.

However, look at all the pretty yarn!

Look at all the Addi Turbos!

Also, they were very nice to me and Erica, and laughed at our ridiculousness, and answered our questions, and we left with a pattern and yarns for Erica to make a baby blanket, and some impulse yarns for me to...well, just to have, really. I have a vague idea about making a cably cardigan for Maisie.

With each purchase, you get a fancy little cloth bag with many pockets for free. According to the side of the bag, a second store is opening sometime this year.

woven

2008-06-05T09:34:00.006-04:00

I went home this weekend. In Cindy's study, there is a table runner I made some years ago.

bamboo weaving

2008-05-23T08:51:00.008-04:00

I made a bamboo scarf. The pattern is a variation on a "German Bird's Eye."

It might be my favorite thing I've ever made.

weaving with baby

2008-05-20T10:43:00.006-04:00

Maisie turned two last Friday, and she and her dad stayed with me this weekend.

This four-harness Harrisville loom belonged to Maisie's great-grandmother (Dave's dad's mom, who was an accomplished weaver and owned several looms). When she died, Maisie's other great-grandmother (Dave's mom's mom) inherited the loom. I believe that she used it for some years, before giving it to her daughter, who passed it along to me.

I thought Maisie might like sitting on my lap while I worked a few rows, but I did not anticipate how much she would like it. Of course I had to work the treadles, but other than that, she had her hands in every aspect of the work. She sat with me for about twenty rows. I guess I don't really know how much most two-year-olds like weaving, but she seemed to have a real natural instinct for it.

More photos in the "Maisie Weaves" photoset.

toddler hat, in progress pics

2008-05-19T12:14:00.002-04:00

Here's another little ridged hat, still on the needles:

handmade pledge

2008-05-19T11:08:00.003-04:00

So I got my stimulus check. As promised, I spent a portion of it on something from Etsy.

I really love this painting. And all the packaging and everything was just exactly right.

lumpy bumpy toddler hat

2008-05-14T10:13:00.004-04:00

materials:
US8 16" circular needle
US8 dpns
yarn needle for finishing
worsted weight yarn in two colors, one light and one dark. The light color looks better as the background. In the pictures, let's say that the turquoise is lighter than the coral. Let's also say that the blue and green hat is not as pretty as its companion hat, in green and blue, not pictured. The green and blue hat was meant to be a shower gift for someone, but then I put it on Maisie, just to check, and then it had to go home with her.

Beginning with the lighter color, cast on 56 stitches, join, BCNT!

Purl 4 rows, then do this four times:
[knit 4 rows, change to darker color, knit 1 row, purl 3 rows, change to lighter color]
Using the lighter color, knit one row, then decrease like this:
[knit 5, k2tog] eight times. This will complete the round, and you will have (56 - 8 = ) 48 stitches.
Knit one round, then [knit 4 k2tog] eight times, for a total of (48 - 8 = ) 40 stitches. Change back to the darker color, knit one round, then purl three rounds. Change to light color and knit one round, then [k3, k2tog] eight times for 32 stitches. If it is getting tight at this point, you might want to think about switching to your double pointed needles about now. Knit a round, then [k2, k2 tog] around - 24 stitches. [k1, k2tog] around for 16 stitches. K2tog around, for 8 stitches, then cut the yarn about a foot or so down, thread onto yarn needle, pull through remaining eight stitches, and weave in the end.

The end.

coffee sweaters

2008-04-25T10:37:00.002-04:00

What I've been doing this week:

hideous flashy picture:

Economic Stimulus

2008-04-22T08:14:00.000-04:00

I've pledged to spend at least 10% of my stimulus check on handmade crafts (a real sacrifice, I know).

Read more about the pledge - and grab your own button - on Kristin's blog.

the book club scarf

2008-04-17T14:15:00.003-04:00

materials:
the softest, most delightful baby green baby alpaca yarn in the whole world
a circular needle that I think is US6-ish.

I cast on five stitches.
For the first section of the scarf, the principle is this. Knit 1, yarn over, knit 1, then follow the knit two/purl two of the previous row, to the end.
Starting with five stitches, knit 1, yarn over, knit 1, then knit 2, purl 1. Now there are six stitches. Second row: Turn the work, and knit 1, yarn over, knit 1, knit, purl, purl, knit. Seven stitches.
Three: Knit 1, yarn over, knit 1, purl, purl, knit, knit, purl - Eight stitches
Four: Knit 1, yarn over, knit 1, purl, knit, knit, purl, purl, knit - Nine stitches
Five: Knit 1, yarn over, knit 1, knit, purl, purl, knit, knit, purl, purl - Ten stitches
At this point, the knit two/purl two ribbing is starting to be visible, which makes it easier. I just follow the pattern, adding one stitch every row, and a triangle is formed.

When the work reaches the width I want, I switch from increasing every row to increasing on odd rows and decreasing on even.

Deciding on the width...

The tapered end of the scarf is not at a right angle to the sides, so when the scarf is on the needles, it takes a tiny bit of imagination to see how wide it is at any given time. How about a silly drawing?

The red line represents the path of the needles. The green, horizontal line represents the width of the finished scarf. Because the red line is a little longer than the green line, there are more stitches on the needle than my intuition says I want.

A tiny bit of math:

The red line is the hypotenuse of a right triangle, and the green line is one of the legs.
Let's say I knitted a swatch of knit two/purl two ribbing and found that a three inch by three inch square was 12 stitches and 18 rows.

I'll work this out and post later. If I remember.

Finally, the good news: scarves do not need to be precisely measured!

Here is a very dim photo of the scarf in progress:

twills & tweeds

2008-04-16T15:48:00.001-04:00

I am taking a weaving class again.

I learned to weave in 2003, but at that time I only had a small table loom to practice with. I made a little bag, as well as a few lumpy experimental pieces. But I am interested in treadling and twills and tweeds, which are difficult to do on a little loom with no tying-up.

Then I inherited a beautiful Harrisville floor loom, a lot like this one, and I'm taking the class again.

Last Thursday, I met my three classmates, then wandered around the store inspecting various yarns. As soon as I touched this cone of very light weight, very dark brown bamboo, I did not want to stop touching it. It's so soft and so drapy!

I wound my warp last week, and tonight I'll be dressing the loom. Pictures then, I hope.

spring quilting

2008-04-10T14:33:00.001-04:00

Last Sunday, I went to Joann's for just two things: a piece of black felt, and few pins that would look something like this to use in a knitting project with a sort of medical theme. Two hours later, I left with those two things, and also a new pair of scissors, a book about quilts, five "fat quarters" and five yards of "quilters' solids." Every one of these things was 40% off. So now I've started on my Very First Quilt.

The pattern is called Cathedral Windows. I don't think I'm doing it correctly, but it makes me very happy anyway.

more spring finger puppets: sheep

2008-03-27T11:16:00.000-04:00

I just took some terrible pictures with my phone, and I'm putting them here as a placeholder, but they will be replaced with real pictures soon.

materials:
a small amount of worsted weight yarn
US5 dpns
a small amount of embroidery floss for face
a small amount of stuffing material

special instructions: MAKE BOBBLE (MB)

[k1,p1,k1,p1] all into next st, slip three sts over last st*

note: MB is worked on the wrong side. This whole sheep is pretty much built inside out.

co 18 sts, divide evenly, and join, leaving a longish tail (maybe 18 inches)

p one round
next round: *p2, inc in next st, * around (24 sts)

for the poofy part of the body, repeat these four rows three times:
1:p
2:[k1, MB] around
3:p
4:[MB, k1] around

You will have six rounds of bobbles on the inside of a small tube

dec: [p2, p2tog] around (18 sts)

work two inches in [k1, p1] ribbing

dec: k2tog around (9sts)

head

inc:
*k one round
[k1, m1, k to last st, m1, k1] 3x*

rep * to * three total times (27 sts)

dec:
k three rounds
*[k1, k2tog, k to last three sts, k2tog, k1]3x
k one round*
rep * to * three times (9 sts)

break yarn and draw through remaining sts, pull tight.

stuffing the body

at this point, your sheep is partly inside-out, with the pretty bobble stuff on the inside. turn the fat body section right-side-out, pushing the ribbed section down into it until the neck is just above the cast-on edge. Remember that long tail you left when you cast-on? Now you can use it to sew the cast-on edge to the body, just below the neck. Before you finish sewing it up, poke some stuffing in between the layers.

legs:

Take a good look at your sheep. It is more or less symmetrical, and it's time to decide which way is up. Look at the face and see if it looks friendlier in any particular orientation.

(make 2)
work 3 st i-cord for three inches
lay these two short lengths of i-cord side-by-side, fold in half, then sew at the mid-point to the bottom of the sheep body.

ears:
(they are easy to make, but tough to describe)
pick up three stitches along the side of the head. You will work the ears facing the top of the ear.
(Note: Ears are pretty far down on the head of a sheep - check out these guys.)
right ear:
row 1: k 3
row 2: p 3
row 3: k 1, ktfb, k2
row 4: p 4
row 5: ssk, k2
break yarn and draw through remaining sts, pull tight.

left ear:
1. k 3
2. p 3
3. k2, ktfb, k1
4. p 4
5. k 2, k2tog
break yarn and draw through remaining sts, pull tight.

I'm not at all sure I said that correctly.

The only remaining bit is to embroider on a little face.

first ever attempt to write a crochet pattern

2008-03-18T15:48:00.001-04:00

I should probably note, right here at the top, that I'm not really a crocheter at all. I can granny square and I can make this hat, which I have now made about six times:

I will try to explain how I made it, mostly using natural language, because the technical language of crocheting is almost completely foreign to me.

Chain six. Join. Double crochet into this loop twelve times. Join. Chain three (this will be the first DC of the second round). The next stitch is something my mom calls a "post." It's a way of increasing, by going around the DC in the previous row, instead of going into the top of it. Then you go into the top of the next one. (I've done some unfruitful googling and I'm not exactly clear yet on the actual definitions of these stitches.) Work all the way around this way (Post, then DC) and you should end with 24 stitches in the round. Join.

Round three - chain three (for first DC), Post, then double crochet twice. Repeat around: post, DC, DC. After this round, there will be 36 stitches. Join.

Continue this pattern, increasing by twelve total four more times.

You will notice this cool spirally effect, where the post stitches create texture. One day, I will post a picture to illustrate.

You are now at the widest part of the hat. It should look like a flat disk. Work two rounds of DC with no increases.

(The decrease is the part I really know nothing about, so I completely made this up, and I am quite sure there is a better way. Perhaps I'll accost the next g'ma I see on the street and ask if she can help.)

The decrease is worked like the post - instead of going into the top of the DC below, go in between two DCs, and pass the hook behind two DCs, then work a DC as usual. (Yarn over, pass hook behind two DCs, yo, pull through the two DCs, yo, pull through two loops, yo, pull through last two loops).

First decrease round goes like this:
Chain three, *decrease, DC 4* until you get back to the beginning.
Do this row again until the hat is the size you want it to be. The tiny hats on tiny Maisie in the pictures above ended after three decreases, so there were about 48 DCs in the round. The nice thing about crocheting (in contrast with knitting) is that it's very easy to try things on without fear of dropping stitches or poking a tiny person in the eyes with needles.

When the hat is the size you want it to be, turn it, and single crochet back 26 sts. This is the base of the little brim. Turn, and beginning with the second stitch in (this is another place where a photograph would be helpful), single crochet back 24 SCs. Turn and repeat, working 22, then 20, then 18 single crochets. Your hat is almost finished. Work one round of SCs all the way from the corner of the brim (where you ended the 18 SCs). Weave in the end, and put the hat on a baby.

finger puppets, easter-ish

2008-03-18T11:06:00.000-04:00

I am slightly embarrassed to be scribbling another pattern I haven't yet photographed. (But take solace in the fact that not more than three people are possibly looking at this...)

I was sure this pattern was inspired by something I saw on mochimochi but I can't find it anywhere now.

Every year, I eat exactly one Cadbury Creme Egg, and I then have no desire to eat another until next Easter season arrives. This year, I found these mini eggs (Customers who bought them also bought Brylcreem and Vaseline lip balm???). They are just the right size to fit inside a ribbed finger puppet to add a little plumpness as well as stability.

Materials: tiny scraps of colorful yarns in (approximately) worsted weight.
US5 dpns
tiny buttons (for eyes)
embroidery floss (for faces)

Note: I don't usually work with Red Heart acrylic, but the colors of Soft Yarn are completely irresistible.

Frog:

co 18 sts, divide evenly on three needles
work three inches in k2, p1 ribbing.
dec: *k1, k2tog* around (12 sts)

head

inc:
for each needle, k1, m1, k to end (15 sts)
k one round
for each needle, k1, m1, k to end (18 sts)
k one round
for each needle, k1, m1, k to end (21 sts)
k three rounds
dec:
*for each needle k1, k2tog, k to end
k one round*
repeat from * to * until 9 sts remain
cut yarn, pull through remaining stitches, and weave in end.

sew on eyes, and eyelids. embroider on a mouth.

FROG!

monkey head for mombi

2008-03-11T10:45:00.000-04:00

the ears are just slightly modified rectangles, something like this:
(make two)
co 10 sts
k one row
p one row
left leaning decrease, k 6, right leaning decrease
bo

sew to the sides of the head, right side facing forward.

the face:
co 6
k 1 row
(all odd rows:) purl
k2, m1, k4, m1, k2
purl
k2, m1, k6, m1, k2
purl
knit
purl
k2, left leaning dec, k4, right leaning dec, k2
purl
bo

Use mattress stitch to sew this piece to the face, starting at the top.
(For information on mattress stitch, try this awesome site, or this also awesome site.)
As you work, make sure the bottom of the face piece stays where you want it - there will be some bunching along the sides. Just before you finish attaching the face piece to the face, poke some stuffing in there.

sew on eyes.

note: I think this little guy would make a great cow, if his ears were smaller, and some nose holes were embroidered on the face.

a totally unfinished pattern for a truly random scarf

2008-02-29T09:31:00.000-05:00

For a long time, I wanted to make a mathy scarf for my mathiest friend. I experimented with invented binary codes and other things, but I wanted it to look pretty, and none of them really looked pretty.

Last year, I made this truly random scarf, using coin-flipping and die-rolling and even [a slightly cheaty version of] the Fibonacci sequence.

materials:

This scarf is 60 stitches wide, so you want to use a fine yarn. What I used for the one Maisie is wearing in the picture is some beautiful alpaca I can't remember the name/brand of. I believe the label called it worsted weight, but I would have guessed it was more like a DK. I knitted dave's scarf on a US4 circular needle. You will also need one or two 6-sided dice and 1 coin, for flipping.

The scarf is worked in basketweave, the size of the blocks being determined by the roll of a die.

Section 1:
Flip a coin to determine the color of the first section.
Roll a die to determine the block size.
Roll a die to determine the number of repeats of blocks.

Blocks:
1 -
(this is sometimes called "moss stitch" and sometimes called "seed stitch")
row 1 and all odd rows: k1, p1
row 2 and all even rows: p1,k1

2 -
row 1 and 2: k2,p2 (first row of 2x2 blocks)
row 3 and 4: p2, k2 (second row of 2x2 blocks)

3 -
rows 1 - 3: *k3, p3* across (first row of 3x3 blocks)
rows 4 - 6: *p3, k3* across (second row of 3x3 blocks)
repeat these

4 -
rows 1 and 3: *k4, p4* across
rows 2 and 4: *p4, k3* across

5 -

6 -

coffee sweaters

2008-02-22T16:34:00.001-05:00

materials:
4 US6 dpns
feltable wool
a paper coffee cup
(Lots of yarns are sold as "ideal for felted projects," but you can also use any wool that is not "superwash." Check the care instructions and if it says it must be handwashed, it will probably felt.)

the green one:

a tiny bit of magenta, a slightly less tiny bit of lime green
starting with magenta, co 30 sts, divide onto three needles and join (bcnt)
p 3 rounds
work 6 rounds in seed stitch (k1 p1 odd rows, p1 k1 even rows)
k 3 rounds
leafy rounds:

*k4, ktfb* six times (36 sts)

k 2 rounds

*k5, ktfb* six times (42 sts)

k 1 round

ruffled top (blue & orange in photo)

co 30 sts, divide onto three needles and join (bcnt)
k 18 rounds
*ktfb all the way around, k one round* twice
bo and finish.

felt them

put them in a pillowcase and throw them in with your laundry on hot. while it is still wet, tug it over a paper coffee cup to shape and let it dry.

another mombi

2008-02-14T09:24:00.000-05:00

Here is another Mombi head.

This one is knit in one piece. No seams: hooray!
materials:
US4 dpns
a trivial amount of Red Heart soft yarn, seafoam

CO 18 sts
divide onto three needles
knit 1 round
work two inches in k1p1 ribbing
work 11 rows in ss
[work left-slanting decrease, k4, work right-slanting decrease] 3x (12 sts)
k one round
[work left slanting decrease, k2, work right slanting decrease] 3x (6 sts)
cut yarn about six inches from the end, use a needle to pull yarn through all six stitches and finish.

this is how I made the pompom-style shaggy hair:
wrap the yarn around three fingers about twenty times. take your ring finger out, keeping the loops of yarn around middle and forefinger. thread a piece of yarn between your fingers, below the yarn loops, then tie this tight around the middle, so you have a little bundle of looped yarn. Cut the loops and trim to form a ball.

critter pics

2008-02-11T09:36:00.001-05:00

(a few pictures of the critter with the interchangeable heads)

2008-02-04T17:18:00.001-05:00

My favorite wristers.

I love this little fingerless mitts. They only take a couple of hours to make. The two by two ribbing makes them fit almost any adult hands, and the thumb gore is pretty.

Materials:
set of 4 US6 dpns
Encore by Plymouth, 1 skein

co 36 sts, divide evenly onto three dpns and join (being careful not to twist). Work 16 rounds k2 p2 ribbing.

Thumb increase:
row 17: k2, p2, m1, k2, m1, p2 [k2, p2] around (38 sts)
rows 18-20: k2, p2, k4, p2 [k2, p2] around
row 21: k2, p2, k1, m1, p2, m1, k1, p2 [k2m p2] around (40 sts)
rows 22-24: [k2, p2] around
row 25: k2, p2, k2, m1, p2, m1, [k2, p2] around (42 sts)
rows 26-28: k2, p2, k2, p4, [k2, p2] around
row 29: k2, p2, k2, p1, m1, k2, m1, p2 [k2, p2] around (44 sts)
rows 30-32: [k2, p2] around
row 33: k2, p2, bo next 12 sts, continue in rib pattern
row 34: k2, p2, cast on 8 sts over thumb hole, for a total of 36 sts

Hand:
work in k2, p2 ribbing for three inches

the end:
k one round
bo

finishing:
weave in ends

dolly

2008-02-01T09:10:00.000-05:00

I got this book for Christmas.

So I made some famous people dolls.

Rosa Parks

Wilkie Collins

any critter body

2008-01-31T14:52:00.000-05:00

This little dude has buttons on his chest so he change out heads at will.

materials:
worsted weight wool. I think I might possibly have used this Lion brand wool.
US6 dpns

body (make two)

co 8 sts
row 1: k
row 2 (and all even rows): p
row 3, 5, 7: k2, m1, k to last 2 st, m1, k2
work four rows in ss
row 13, 15, 17: k2, work left-leaning dec, k to last 4 sts, work right-leaning dec, k2
purl back
bind off

starting at the neck, sew body pieces together, leaving neck open to fill it up with stuffing.

pick up four stitches from around here:

Work 6 inches in i-cord for each arm, 7 inches for each leg.

Stuff the body and sew up the neck.

Sew the buttons on, like this:

Next time: making some interchangeable heads.