Category: My Knitting Designs

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

Computer Woes

Marie Haigh6 Comments

I have been battling computer problems for two days now. I’m not certain that I will be able to post this little blurb or not. I was shocked when I could even get onto WordPress. My server freezes or shuts down altogether when visiting Ravelry, Etsy, Blogspot, Bloglines, etc. Hopefully, Dan will set everything right tonight. Though the new light fixture hasn’t been hung in over a year and I imagine another year will pass before it does get hung, computer problems never last longer than a week in our house.

Not much was accomplished this weekend. I did a minimal amount of cleaning before our friends stopped by for a visit on Saturday. On Sunday, I ripped out ever more grass in our yard and laid ever more mulch. I would have thought by now that I would have used all the mulch up. No such luck. Everytime I look out the kitchen window, I can see the remaining pile of mulch, mocking me. Perhaps out of pity or out of a desire to see the pile gone, my neighbor has offered to lay some of the mulch in his yard.

In knitting news, I might have solved the mystery of how I was going to decorate the white ties in my tree skirt. My solution involves i-cords.

Finally, pictures!

Still … there is something missing. It needs some more bling. I’ll keep playing with it.

Remember the 19 skiens of wool hanging to dry in my basement? They finally dried all the way through. I have would them into pretty yarn cakes.

Just two more white ties, 5 more i-cords and a bit of bling to make before I can start on the cabled jacket.

Halfway to Christmas and a Tag

Marie Haigh5 Comments

Knitting Dragonflies tagged me almost two months ago with a traditional 7-weird-facts MEME, but I was paralyzed with writer’s block. I couldn’t come up with any odd and semi-interesting facts about myself.

Mr. Puffy tagged me with a MEME last week. His format requires that I answer a survey. I can handle a survey.

Here are the rules for this MEME:

“The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.”

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?
I was attending Christian Brothers University part-time and working at Wright Medical Technology full-time. I had moved to Memphis, TN because my sister was attending CBU. By this time, 10 years ago, she had moved to Texas with her fiance and left me alone. I suffered through one Thanksgiving by myself before I caved and moved back home to Pennsylvania.

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today?
(1) Take Jake for our daily walk. (2) Take pictures of my halfway completed Christmas tree skirt. (3) Update the blogs I maintain. (4) Water my garden. (5) Complete a few housekeeping chores: laundry, dress bed, mop kitchen floor, etc.

3) Snacks I enjoy:
In general, I don’t eat snacks. Instead, I have a 2nd breakfast. Breakfast normally consists of fresh baked bread, mostly made by me, but sometimes I cheat and purchase breakfast rolls from our local bakery.

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
I am a firm believer that the more money you have, the more of an obligation you have to do right by your family members and your community. Yet, I don’t know that I would do much differently. We would live in the same house. Perhaps, I would have a larger garden and a larger yarn stash. Dan would retire from his job and we would travel more to visit family. I would give money to my sister with the knowledge that it wouldn’t make her happy, but it might ease her burdens. Then, I would follow the footsteps of my grandparents and set up trust funds for each of our nieces and nephews. Additionally, I would donate more money to our veterans and their families.
It goes without saying that we would be debt-free. Bye, bye mortgage.

5) Places I have lived:
Born in Montgomery, Alabama. Lived there for 6 months.
Moved to Colonial Heights, Virginia
Moved to Buffalo, New York
Moved to Akron, New York
Moved to Erie, Pennsylvania – We lived here for 5 years. It was the longest period I lived anywhere during my childhood.
Moved to Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Moved to Sebastian, Florida
Moved to Horsham, Pennsylvania
Moved to Memphis, Tennessee – college years
Moved to Morrisville, Pennsylvania after becoming engaged to Dan
Moved to Secane, Pennsylvania (our 1st apartment)
Moved to Frazer, Pennsylvania (our last apartment)
Moved to Pottstown, Pennsylvania (our 1st and last home)
I am NEVER moving again.

6) Jobs I have had:
My 1st job was working as a cashier clerk at McDonalds.
Next – QA inspector at Wright Medical Technology.
Then, I moved to Pennsylvania and worked as a receptionist at The Development Center.
Within in a year, I was promoted to Exec Assistant. During the downsizing, I became responsible for the entire HR and Finance departments.
I resigned because the stress was affecting my health (migraines, weight loss, etc)
I took a less stressful job as a Senior Admin Assistant at Elsevier.
I resigned from Elsevier 2.5 years ago to focus on becoming a knitwear designer.

7) Bloggers I am tagging who you will enjoy getting to know better:
A Piper Knits: She knits and she plays the bag pipes – not necessarily at the same time. A pity she doesn’t live next door. Though I imagine she would become weary of me requesting her to play March of Cambreadth over and over again.
Katia: She is a fellow Pennsylvanian. She knits, spins, and gardens. But mostly, I just love to read the funny stories about her two daughters.
Karen: Like me, she designs everything she knits. Recently, she has self-published a bag design for the first time. Hopefully, this is just the beginning of things to come. 
The Long Ladies: This blog is a family affair.  What a talented family they are! They design all of their own sewing patterns from aprons to bags to rugs. It is fun to watch what their creative minds come up with next.
Jane of Glorious Hats: I have been a constant reader of Jane’s blog for over 2 years now. Her hats are works of art. Most recently, she designed a hat for Meri Greenleaf to wear at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire.

A Frame, Another Tie and Baseball

Marie Haigh6 Comments

I couldn’t think of a snappy sounding title. So, I just rattled off all of the things I want to tell you about.

First, I received a package today from Kodak. Inside were the two pictures of my garden I had printed out. Typically, I don’t print out any of the pictures I take with my digital camera. I upload them to our computer and then I forget about them. If it wasn’t for friends and family, I wouldn’t have any pictures in my photo album or on our photo wall.

Our home still has lots of empty space on the walls. Sometimes I wonder if people actually live here or if this is just a fortified tent for sleeping. 

In a desire to make this house feel more like a home, I printed out two of my favorite garden pictures. Of course, I realized after they arrived that I didn’t have frames to put them in. I had to steal one that had been holding a hand-painted flower. I couldn’t find a frame in my house suitable for the other picture. I hope to find something over the weekend.

In knitting news, I finished the 5th tie in my Christmas Tree Skirt this morning.

True, it is in desperate need of a good blocking, but I am pleased with how it is coming along. I still need to find a more flashy star for the top of the white trees. I should have leftover Christmas yarn, so I could knit 6 small stars out of it. That is unless I use the Christmas yarn to crochet around the edges. It might be wise to wait until the entire skirt is assembled before I make any embellishment decisions. I would prefer to not run out of yarn again. I had to place an order this morning from Knit Picks for more white wool. I should mention that had I stuck to my original design, I would have had enough yarn, but of course, I didn’t do that. I had to add points at the bottom of each tie.

Onto my baseball topic, I received my tickets for Phillies’ Stitch ‘n Pitch night!

Dan will be attending with me. Although I have asked him many times if he would like to learn how to knit, Dan only knows that the craft involves a lot of yarn and an equally large selection of needles. No, he will not be knitting. Instead, he will make himself useful by scoring the game and periodically retrieving any wayward balls of yarn.

Last year, I attempted to knit a scarf and watch the game at the same time. It was unbearably hot though. The yarn kept sticking to me, the needles and my clothes. What started out as a nice, loose gauge ended up into a tight, sticky mess. I plan to bring a project with me, but I may only end up using it for show-and-tell rather than something to knit on.

A Block Party

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I am hosting a Knitter’s block party in my basement today. It’s a BYOUFO (Bring Your Own UnFinished Objects).

Such parties are necessary when a Knitter has failed to block the items as they are completed, preferring to pile them in a drawer, unseen. When the drawer will no longer close or when knitting is interrupted because the bits need to be seamed together first, then a Knitter must grudgingly participate in a block party.

I have only accumulated three such pieces and can still close the drawer, but I don’t want to waste time knitting a second Happy Marriage lace block until I ensure the 1st came out to spec. Here is a pic of the Happy Marriage unblocked.

I will upload revised pictures on Monday after it has been blocked. But, can you see the design? If you recall, a Chinese symbol was my inspiration.

In related fiber news, I am approximately halfway through spinning my first 4oz of Corriedale roving. There have not been a lot of baseball games to spin in front of, since my team (Go Phillies!) is on the west coast right now. Games typically have been starting at 10 pm. I’m a loyal fan, but I also treasure my sleep. Hopefully, they will be home soon and I can get back to my spinning schedule.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

A Vegetable Garden planted

Marie Haigh6 Comments

There is something besides just dirt in my raised bed!

The following seeds or seedlings were planted on Saturday:

9 Roma tomato seedlings
2 Big Boy tomato seedling
3 store-bought Strawberry seedlings
3 wild strawberry seedlings from the patch growing in my backyard (I’m not sure how this patch came to be, but it is starting to take over a large swath of land behind my Sweet Gum tree. I may have to do something about it in the next year or so).
Several bulbs from 1 onion set
1 seed packet of Anise
1 seed packet of Mint (Ostracized in the small container to the right of the raised bed because mint has a nasty reputation)

Though I wanted to plant pumpkin squash (Neck pumpkins), Dan was adamant that I not plant pumpkins of any sort in the bed. He said it would ruin my garden, since they are a hearty and invasive plant. Determined to have enough strawberries to make jam, I opted to forgo fresh pumpkin. I won’t have any other plant undermining my jam efforts.

The amount of tomato plants may seem large, but I have yet to plant enough to make one large batch of homemade tomato sauce or tomato soup without supplementing the recipe with store-bought canned tomatoes. Three years ago, I had dreams of canning my own tomatoes. I assumed that tomatoes were a very prolific plant, similar to a zucchini plant. Alas, it’s not so. Part of the problem, perhaps, lays on my head. I love tomatoes. I am a firm believer that tomatoes make everything taste better. Of course, some of the tomatoes don’t even make it into the house. What sort of a cook would I be if I didn’t sample the ingredients? Rather than try to eat fewer tomatoes, I decided that my only option was to plant more tomatoes. Here’s hoping 11 tomato plants is enough to quench my appetite.

Every morning before I venture into the garden, I have been knitting a few rows on my Happy Marriage lace design.

It is slowly starting to take shape.

Gardening and Knitting Progress

Marie Haigh3 Comments

It is resting right now.

I finished shoveling the topsoil into the beds on Monday. My gardening book, The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible by Edward C. Smith, recommends that the bed be allowed to rest for a week before you start jamming seeds and seedlings into it. I’m too impatient to allot it a whole week. Five days is going to have to suffice. Weather permitting, my tomatoes are going in this weekend. I’ve also added one more plant to my list of veggies/herbs to grow this season: mint. I mix dried mint leaves into several of my daily teas; it is divine in a cup of Irish Breakfast. To be able to grow my own mint leaves and then dry them in the basement would save me a lot of money.

Onto knitting news, my 4th tie in the Christmas Tree skirt is complete. Well, complete is a bit of a stretch. I have finished knitting it – would be more accurate. Ends still need to be woven in. Then, it has to be washed and blocked. Finally, it has to be seamed to the 3rd tie.

Five more ties to go. I’m looking forward to a Christmas in September. You can bet your bottom dollar that my tree is going up the moment I finish knitting the tree skirt. I won’t be adverse to small fireworks being set off afterwards. Of course, fireworks would require a discussion with Dan about what is the proper level of enthusiasm when your wife finishes knitting a large project. I suppose he would want to discuss with me the proper level of enthusiasm one is supposed to have when GTA4 (Grand Theft Auto for you non-gamers) is released. I am ashamed to say that I did not take two days off of work to play the game nor did I stay up till 6 am the morning after it was released. Guess who did?

Bees and Yarn

Marie Haigh4 Comments

Yesterday was Earth Day. So, of course, I had to plant something … anything. I chose to plant my new Columbine flower seeds. My original plan was to plant them underneath Henry’s tree (an Eastern Red bud tree given to the woman who used to live here by her son Henry).

 

While uprooting the few weeds, I noticed that there were several holes in the ground. My first thought was that a mole had taken refuge underneath the tree.

Miffed with his/her real estate choices, I started to fill a hole in next to the hosta plant, since the tunnel was causing it to lean over. That is when I realized it wasn’t a mole’s tunnel. Instead of frantic digging, I heard buzzing. Then, I saw a bee enter one of the other tunnels. I admit, I started to get a bit nervous. Normally, if you tamper with a bee’s hive, it gets a bit irritable. Yet, these bees did not.

It seems poignant that on Earth Day I learned something new about Mother Nature. Ground bees or mining bees are solitary. They are harmless to humans and extremely beneficial to the environment (my garden). So, I plan to do absolutely nothing about them. Even Dan, who is deathly allergic to bees, asked me if I knew how to invite them back next year. Alas, I don’t.

Rather than spend the day eradicating bees from my yard, I finished a new lace design instead.

The design is based upon the picture. I translated the Chinese symbol, which means ‘happy marriage’ to the best of my knowledge, into yarnovers and decreases.

My only problem is that I can’t decide what yarn to use to try out my new design. I have pulled out almost everything from my stash. I narrowed it down to the two skeins you see sitting on the red table. The vibrant red is sheep’s wool by Briggs n Little. This truly reflects the color used in the picture. My devil’s advocate would note that the feel of the red yarn is a bit course. The other skein was given to me by my wonderful MIL. She purchased the yarn at a fair in Maine. It is hand dyed and hand spun. It’s softer than Jake’s lovely fur. So, naturally, I am leaning toward using the sumptuous yarn. I hesitate because my MIL instructed me to use the yarn to make something wonderful. A lace pattern that I will probably never use, except as a centerpiece for our dining room, doesn’t constitute as “something wonderful”.

Fine, you talked me out of it. I’ll cast on with the true-red.

PS. Doesn’t everybody keep a Tigger on their work desk?

Green with Envy and Poison Ivy

Marie Haigh9 Comments

I finished my Green with Envy scarf. This scarf was fun and quick to knit! It was simple enough that I could watch my Phillies play baseball without having to look down too often. Yet, the yarns were fun to knit together. They played well off one another. I should admit that two weeks ago, I had no plans to knit a scarf. While digging through my yarn stash, I came across three yarns that begged to be knit together. Since I was in need of a simple baseball project, I cast on. This scarf is what came to be.

 

The specs: No design
Stitch pattern: Quadruple Moss Stitch (basically an elongated Double Moss Stitch)
Yarns used:

From Left to Right: First, 100% rayon in purples, blues and greens. Tag lost on this yarn, but assume it is from A Touch of Twist where I have purchased all of my rayon yarn. Second, Sinflex by London yarns in green. Third, Clip (100% cotton) by Klaus Koch in Lime Green.
Needles used: 10.5 USA

I honestly have no aspirations for this scarf. I will probably just throw it into my Christmas cabinet and stow it there until the holidays. The most likely recipient is my cousin, since green is her favorite color. Plus, she looks fantastic in green (I suppose the two have something to do with one another). I gravitate towards blue for the very same reasons.

To explain my title of this post, the season for poison ivy has begun. Ask me how I know.

Well, since you asked, I was grooming Jake last night and not but five minutes later, my left elbow was itching like crazy and had broken out in the tell-tale bumps associated with poison ivy. I should be grateful for the fact that I only break out on my left elbow. And I am. Around mid-June, the gratitude starts to falter and the bitterness creeps in. I know I won’t get relief until late-September when the leaves have fallen off the plants and they have slipped into dormancy.

I have tried everything to avoid it. I can spot the plant several yards out and detour around it. I have tried using a lotion that is supposed to reduce or eliminate an outbreak before I even come in contact with the plant. I use Caladryl lotion to keep me from scratching and in turn reduce the spreading. Yet, the problem isn’t me coming in contact with the plant. The problem is my darling Jake. He gets the plant oils on him and during normal petting or grooming, he lovingly transfers the oils to me. Short of training Jake to avoid poison ivy (and I wouldn’t even know how to go about that), I don’t know what to do.

Well, I will leave you on a happier note. Another picture of my green scarf:

Evie’s Tag Blanket

Marie Haigh1 Comment

I have named the tag blanket pattern after my friend’s daughter Evie. It was her fascination with taggies (she has two tag blankets and one tag toy) that inspired me to alter my XandO cloth into a tag blanket.

After working for a whole week on the pattern, it is finally complete. The pattern contains two full pages of charts. The written directions take up another 8 pages.

Please don’t let the length of the pattern scare you. The pattern itself is not difficult. It was my desire to present the pattern in the most user-friendly manner that caused it to grow out of proportions.

The pattern can be instantly downloaded through The Knitting Vault.

If you are on Ravelry, this link will escort you to my pattern store where you can read the full description and/or purchase the pattern. Upon purchase and payment, the pattern will automatically be added to your Ravelry library.

A word of caution: It is assumed that double knitting takes twice as long as plain knitting. I would assert that it takes three times as long. Double knitting requires a great deal of manipulation with the two strands of yarn being used. Typically, before and after each stitch, one of the strands of yarn must be maneuvered into place. Thus, this project should not be started the night before the day it is needed. Of course, if you do manage to complete it in one day, I’d love to know about it!

Tag Vote

Marie Haigh8 Comments
My XandO design started out in life as a not-a-blanket. It then morphed into a dishcloth, but was found to be too heavy. Then, it tried to be a washcloth, but it was too big. Now, it is auditioning for a tag blanket title.

I asked Dan what he thought of its new purpose, but he didn’t quite understand why one would put tags on the outside of a blanket. It didn’t make any sense. Tags are supposed to be sewn on the inside of clothing. So, clearly, he isn’t any help.

So, I need your help.

With tags?

Or without tags?

The idea for turning my XandO into a knitted tag blanket came from my friend’s daughter. We attended her christening on Sunday.

For her gift, I had purchased a tag blanket from BabyLoveBlankies, since I didn’t have time to make her anything. She started playing with the tags on it right away. Her mother told me that she has a taggie toy that she plays with when she’s laying down in her crib. And here I had just bought it because I liked the fabrics.

The christening card in the pic above is made from my button stash. I just used Zots dots to glue them in place.

To perhaps encourage my card fetish, my MIL sent me down a present with Dan’s early b-day present. (Thanks, Mom!)

It’s full of great ideas! I can’t wait to try the weaving and frame techniques. Since I have enough birthday cards made for everyone’s birthday this year and a few even for next year, I think I’ll start on mini holiday cards, like Halloween and Thanksgiving.