Category: My Knitting Designs

A look at each of my designs from start to finish.

Yarn Crisis and Tag Blanket

Marie Haigh6 Comments

I visit my neighbor at least once a week. I love to chat with her about knitting and the neighborhood gossip; she always has the best stories.

Yesterday, she casually mentioned how awful it would be to run out of the gorgeous handspun wool I was starting to knit the baseball blanket out of. The more I thought about what she said, the more I realized just how right she was; it would be awful. I can’t buy more of it. So, I opted to run the numbers. Ever am I glad I did. Not only would I have run out early, I wouldn’t even have completed half the blanket!

Last night I searched through my entire Ravelry stash and didn’t find a lot of back-up options. I have tons of wool, but very little is soft enough for a baby. If the Decadent Fibers Cookie Dough doesn’t prove to be enough yarn (I’m knitting a swatch now to test it out), then I’ll have to go yarn shopping.

This is the Decadent Fibers (80% merino wool and 20% mohair). The red wool will be for the baseball stitches.

To cheer myself up from the yarn dilemma, I whipped up a tag blanket for baby.

Cost = $0.
The cotton dragon fabric on the front of the blanket was leftover from a quilt I made for my friend’s daughter. The ribbons were a gift from Tamsie during the swap we were both in last year. Dan kindly donated the fabric on the back of the blanket. It used to be one of his favorite shirts because of how soft it is.

Baseball Blanket Yarn

Marie Haigh4 Comments

It’s now 2 different colors and folded in the middle because I got carried away and added an extra – and unnecessary – two inches.

But, it’s looking more round these days if I do say so myself.

Now I can finally cast on for the ‘real’ size: a 39-inch diameter.

I have chosen yarn from my stash.

It’s not just some leftover yarn I had sitting around. Au contraire, I have been saving this yarn for almost 2 years now. My MIL purchased it from a craft/wool festival in Maine. The yarn was hand-dyed and hand-spun. It is soft as goose down. When my MIL couldn’t locate a pattern that would showcase the yarn’s splendor, she gifted it to me and told me to use it for something special. Using it to knit our first child a baseball blanket surely counts, right?

Guessing Game

Marie Haigh5 Comments

Can you guess what this is?

What about now?

It didn’t come out exactly as I has envisioned. I had wanted it to look round. It’s looking distinctly square right now. Plus, the colors are wrong. Imagine it in white with red stitching.

I’ll have to keep fiddling with it.

Free Hi and Poor Jake

Marie Haigh7 Comments

After I got back from the Pottstown Knit Out, I couldn’t resist writing the pattern up for the Hi dishcloth. I got such a kick out of knitting it up for the class. Unlike my Dishcloth in a Dishcloth design which never really came out the way I envisioned, the word ‘Hi’ is easily recognizable.

Should you care to knit yourself a dishcloth that will greet you every morning, the pattern can be downloaded for free by clicking on the link below.

Surprisingly Jake did not assist in the photography which is perhaps why it is missing that extra something. Poor Jake is feeling a little under the weather.

Of course, we still went for our walk this morning after Jake gently reminded me what time it was. Plus, he received his after-walk treat. He’s not THAT sick. He just has a minor ear infection. He came down with it because I was just bragging the other day about how he never gets ear infections in the wintertime. I jinxed him, you see.

However, he was sick enough to wake me up at 4:30 this morning. After a good ear cleaning, a treat, and ample cuddle time, Jake went back to sleep. I had no such luck.

The Joys of being Sick

Marie Haigh7 Comments

Being sick is no fun, but there are a few perks.

1. Sleeping more hours then you are awake.
2. Watching your favorite movies, sometimes twice over because it’s too tiresome to put in a new movie.
3. Lots of hand sewing time!
4. Lots of knitting time!

I think most of my free time came from the fact that I only cooked one meal during the entire week I was sick. Dan handled all the other nights, which is to say that he went out to a local restaurant and paid for our meals. grin.

With all that free (knitting & sewing) time, I finished 4 projects.

A traditional dishcloth without yarnovers (holes)

A Headband

A dishcloth within a dishcloth

Dan’s silk tie, which he’s getting tomorrow (3 Kings Day)

(Please don’t ask me how long it took me to tie this tie. I watched 1 You Tube video and 1 pictorial guide before finally coming up with this version. Thankfully, Maria the dress form wasn’t wearing any pants or you could see that the tie came down way too far on her).

O Christmas Tree

Marie Haigh8 Comments

Guess what we did this weekend?

Here’s a hint.

We bought a real tree in the morning. It was only after we got it home and into the front room that we realized it was a bit too large for the space.
They always look smaller at the tree lot. Why is that?

Then, we spent the entire afternoon decorating the tree and listening to Christmas music.

Do you recognize the tree skirt?
This is the first year we get to use it. It fits the tree perfectly.

It wasn’t just the tree in the front room we decorated, we also decorated the shed tree.

If you’re counting, that is 3 trees decorated with one more to go.

Dishcloths and Maybe a Tie

Marie Haigh5 Comments

I’m on a mission to knit dishcloths in as many ways as I can think of for the class I’m teaching in January: Dishcloths – How to Design and Knit Them.

Here are 2.

Stats:
Sugar ‘n Cream by Lily
Color: Jewels (I just love this color).
Designs: See below
Time frame: Just a few hours
 
The top one is a simple garter stitch square.
Cast on 32 stitches.
Knit for 64 rows or 32 ridges.
Bind off.
Couldn’t be easier. In fact it was so easy, I was bored to death. By the end, I was bribing myself with chocolate just to knit another 2 rows. Oh, the things I’ll do for chocolate.

The bottom one is the infamous Grandmother’s Favorite. (Non-Ravelry link). It was such fun to knit. The yarn overs and the short rows egged me on. I started it in the evening and finished it the next morning.

I have enough of the Jewel colorway to knit one more dishcloth in it. I plan to knit a variation of Grandmother’s favorite, since I found it so enjoyable.

When not knitting dishcloths, I am working on a new design idea, finishing up Dan’s 2nd knee warmer and learning how to sew a tie.

The fabric was brought back from one of my SIL’s travels. I forget exactly which country she brought it back from: Peru or Ecuador. Let’s just say it came from South America. It is hand-dyed silk. I’ve kept it hidden in my fabric stash for a few years now, not sure exactly what to do with it. Then, a week ago, a light bulb went off in my head. It would make a lovely silk tie for Dan just in time for Christmas.

Dan isn’t one to wear a lot of ties. His job doesn’t require it. Still he has a collection of at least 20 ties. You wouldn’t know it though. He wears the same 2 ties over and over again whenever we attend a function together. I’m sick of looking at them. If only to keep me sane, it’s time for a new tie.

Publication Announcements

Marie Haigh7 Comments

As long as I remember, my Grandmother has been researching the Bible. Around the time that I went off to attend college, she started to write a book on her findings. Years of hard work went into this book. 15 years later, the book is finally complete.

Historical Phases of Prophetic Teaching
By Mrs. Evelyn T. Watson (my Grandmother!)

I’m so happy for her! It’s a dream realized at long last.

 

My announcement pales in comparison. I’ve only been working on this pattern for a few months – not years. Still I am a teensy bit excited about the publication of my most recent design: Something Blue Stole. It features the Gradiance color scheme by The Unique Sheep.

The pictures, which were hidden from view during the designing and knitting phases, can finally be shown off.

Unique Sheep

Meet Maria and her Diamond Dish Scarf

Marie Haigh9 Comments

It came yesterday!

It’s an adjustable dress form! I’ve wanted a dress form for years, but (1) could never find one that had my exact measurements and (2) could never find one that was reasonably priced. The beauty of this dress form is that you can adjust the bust, waist and hips to your exact measurements. I found it on Amazon of all places with free shipping.

I named her Maria. I didn’t like the idea of having two Marie’s in the house. That would have been weird.

Maria is sporting a skirt that I made for myself a few years ago as well as a sweater made for me by my MIL. The sweater was crocheted and given to me as a Christmas present. It’s so warm and fits me perfectly as Maria so kindly proved.

Note to my MIL: I removed the buttons because – to be frank – they wouldn’t all button this year. Dan isn’t the only one gaining weight from my cooking. Yet, I really love the sweater like this. Thank you!

In knitting news, I finished the scarf I had been working on.

Of course, I had Maria model it for me. She doesn’t fidget quite as much as I do when standing in front of a camera.

Since it was such a simple design, I am offering it as a free download.

Review of Blue Sky Alpaca’s Dyed Cotton Yarn

Marie Haigh4 Comments

In January when I had purchased this yarn from Loop, LYS in Philadelphia, I had confessed my hatred of cotton. To reiterate, I stated the following:

1. If my hands get the least bit warm, cotton sticks to them like feather to tar.
2. Cotton lacks the stickiness of wool. Wool wants to lay down with its fellow kind. Cotton has no such feelings. Thus, as the Yarn Harlot would say, “it’s not as forgiving as lovely wool”. It separates with the flick of a needle and is slippery to boot.
3. It’s not as warm. In Pennsylvania, the cold months outnumber the warm months. It’s important to have something warm nearby at all times.
4. It’s not as easy, fun or enjoyable to knit as lovely wool. It takes a steadier hand and more patience.

After using up the first skein of this yarn in the scarf I am knitting, I am singing a different tune.

Though I can’t deny any of the above statements, I must admit that I have enjoyed knitting Blue Sky Cotton.

Not once has the yarn separated on me. Not once has the yarn stuck to my fingers. Of course, the latter could be due to the fact that it’s Fall and temperatures have already dropped enough that Jake has no trouble going twice the distance we normally walked in the summer.

However, the best part about the yarn is its softness. It’s not as soft as alpaca or merino, but that is hardly a fair comparison. I wouldn’t rate it any lower than one rung down though.

Speaking of the scarf I am knitting, it’s 75% done. It has been such a quick and easy project.