Month: May 2009

Partially Grown-Up

Marie Haigh8 Comments

I have been a fan of Ysolda for about two years.

It goes beyond just reading her blog and staying updated on her latest pattern releases. Perhaps if she knew how much I stalked her, she might get a bit weirded out. I have tried to apply the way in which she built her self publishing career to my life with the hopes that I too can break into the design world. It would be more accurate to say that I stole a lot of ideas from her: building a blog and website on WordPress, listing patterns on SandraSingh.com, hosting patterns on Ravelry, and submitting designs to online magazines. All this I learned from Ysolda without ever meeting her.

I was thrilled for her when she published her first book of patterns: Whimsical Little Knits and promptly bought myself a hard copy of it.

The first pattern I chose to knit was Grown-Up Booties.

 

Like all patterns, I researched the booties on Ravelry before casting on. Several people complained about the booties being too big (more specifically, too wide). Rather than adjust the pattern as would be required, I ignored all the advice and followed Ysolda’s pattern to a ‘T’. I lost faith after knitting just one and tossed it into my knitting basket, ignoring it for a week. It looked like the Ravelry people were correct. During last night’s baseball game, I finally bore down and sewed up the booty.

As you can see, there was no reason to fret. The booty fits perfectly.

Now, I just have to knit the matching pair.

Watching a Garden Grow

Marie Haigh7 Comments

Except for the tomatoes and anise, all the plants in my veggie garden were started from seeds or tubers. If I didn’t remember what I planted, I be hard pressed to even tell you what everything was. They all look the same in the sapling stage.

These will be chives when then grow up.

The onions are obvious, thankfully. It’s such a joy to see ‘something’ growing in the veggie garden. In the upper left hand corner, you can see the saplings that will one day be lettuce heads. In the upper right hand corner, if you squint really hard, you might be able to see the carrots growing.  

The main reason I started a veggie garden was for the tomatoes. Nothing tastes better than a vine-ripened tomato warm from the sun.

Despite all my attempts though, Dan still hates uncooked tomatoes. I really don’t understand him. I pine for the fruit from the moment I put them in the ground until August when it’s time to harvest. Periodically, I go outside and just stand over them, drumming my fingers on the cages.

Yesterday it was raining, so I couldn’t play in the garden. Instead I cleaned my red desk off and hung my latest swatches. Here’s hoping it inspires me.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Ready for Twins

Marie Haigh8 Comments

I might be the only person in the family who is ready for the twins to arrive in August.

Part of my readiness is due to the fact that I won’t have to take the twins home. Dan’s uncle and aunt have those honors. I had the easy job of knitting jackets for the wee ones.

Jacket for the Boy Twin

Jacket for the Girl Twin

Stats:

Pattern: Baby Surprise Jacket
Designer: EZ, of course (Elizabeth Zimmerman)
Yarn: Yarn Love’s Marianne Dashwood, ordered from Wool Girl
Sport-weight, 100% superwash Merino wool yarn
color Maiden for the boy and color Warm Tulips for the girl
I used almost the entire 330 yard-skein for each jacket
Materials: Size US 2 circular needles, size US 2 short needles and a mix of 10 buttons from my stash
Size: Newborn

Alterations: I lengthened the jackets by approximately one inch and added both a collar and decorative cuffs.

Cuff directions: Before seaming the jacket together, pick up and knit sts on cuff area. Work 3 garter st ridges (6 rows). Next row/ Decrease row (RS): K1, SSK, K till 3 sts remain, end with K2tog, K1. Repeat Decrease Row every other row 2 more times; knit all sts on WS rows. Bind off on RS in Purl.

Collar directions: After seaming the jacket together, pick up sts around neck, excluding the 5 sts on each side directly above the button holes. Knit 2 rows in garter st. Next row/Increase row: K3, M1, K till 3 sts remain, end with M1, K3. Repeat Increase Row every other ridge (every 4th row) until 11 garter st ridges (22 rows) have been knit. Bind off on WS in Purl.

Close up of the buttons used:

Improved Yarn Storage

Marie Haigh6 Comments

Since I couldn’t play in my garden yesterday, I opted to play in my stash.

Before:

After:

What a relief!
No more lifting two or three plastic crates out of the cedar closet just to find the yarn that I need. All I have to do is pull out the drawer that holds the yarn I need, grab it out, and go. To minimize opening of drawers, they are labeled according to fiber content. Since the drawers fit nicely into my cedar closet, I need never worry about moths. (Though that hasn’t stopped me from planting lavender in our backyard to use as extra protection against those nasty beasts!)

It’s funny; I used to hate these storage drawers when I was keeping my fabric stash in them. Yet, they work perfectly for my yarn stash.

Of course, no yarn storage could be considered “improved” if there wasn’t any new yarn to put into it. In my London epilogue, I mentioned that I visited Socktopus, the Fulham neighborhood’s LYS. You didn’t think I left there empty handed, did you?

Of course not. I came away with 2 skeins that at the time I thought would work very well together. Whether or not, I’ll actually use them together remains to be seen.

This is Spunky Eclectic’s Skinny Sock in color Swimming Lessons.

And this one is Shelridge Farm’s Soft Touch Ultra in color Natural White.

I did have one other new skein of yarn, but it never made it to the stash last night. Instead, I knit a coaster for the side table in our living room using the double knitting technique.

This yarn didn’t come from any store; it came out of my pile for Purple Heart (similar to Goodwill but specifically for our local troops & veterans).

From Polka Dot Pineapple’s blog, I learned how to make t-shirt yarn. It was so much fun!