Happy Halloween! Here's my feeble attempt at carving a rabbit and a cat.
Peaches doesn't go trick or treating but apparently some rabbits do enjoy putting on a disguise. This scoundrel is available for adoption through Four Corners Bunnies.
I finished a pair of thick socks for DH using three different color strands of Cormo wool from Elsa Sheep & Wool.
Happy Halloween! Here's my feeble attempt at carving a rabbit and a cat.
Peaches doesn't go trick or treating but apparently some rabbits do enjoy putting on a disguise. This scoundrel is available for adoption through Four Corners Bunnies.
Happy Halloween! Here's my feeble attempt at carving a rabbit and a cat.
Peaches doesn't go trick or treating but apparently some rabbits do enjoy putting on a disguise. This scoundrel is available for adoption through Four Corners Bunnies.
wonderful mail!
When the mail lady drove up the driveway I knew we must have a package. When I saw the box and the beautiful way it was addressed my heart skipped a beat, and when I saw who it was from, I was not surprised that that loveliness had come from Mrs Staggs.
I was completely overwhelmed to find this wonderful thank-you gift inside, that I feel completely undeserving of. This gorgeous mixing bowl is filled with a pumpkin-bread candle (which smells delicious!), cookie cutters (including a thanksgiving turkey), a dish towel with a turkey sugar cookie recipe, some perfectly pear tea, some cookie stencils, a wooden spoon, and wooden acorn, with some autumn leaves and a sprig of acorns nestled among the gifts. And a lovely vintage notecard...
I am going to enjoy everything soooooo much! Thank you Mrs Staggs...the world is a much nicer place because of you. I am thankful for every one of you who visit my blog~you're wonderful ladies!
the weekend
It was a girls' weekend here, as the men of the family were off on a hunting trip. Most of Saturday & Sunday were spent at a Halloween Horse Show that my daughter was riding in. Even though it was cold and rainy, it was a good time and her horse, Sparky cooperated much better than he had at the last few shows ~ three first place ribbons, which included a costumed dressage test in Renaissance garb.
We also went out for pizza and hot cocoa, church, and otherwise stayed close to the woodstove and watched some movies.
Sunday evening I continued work on a bag Stephanie wanted for carting books and art supplies to college. She wanted one like I made here, and picked out the cherry fabric for the lining. After several setbacks~broken needle, glue problems, and other issues~I managed to finish it up this morning.
If you've seen Marie Claire Idees the horse will look familiar. It's the template they have in the back used on a tote bag in the magazine. I tried to glue it on using Fabric Tac, and though it's always worked well for me in the past, it did not work here. In the end some fusible webbing did the trick. I hope she likes it.
The sun is shining today and we're up in the 50's, so I'm headed outside to gather eggs and feed the hens, and whatever else needs to be done. Have a good Monday!
corners, felt cat, & a recipe
I am very thankful to Blogger for allowing me to post pictures today...Thursday and Friday I was not so fortunate, oh well. I really feel like I'm running out of interesting corners lately, so this is it. In the sunroom again, where the light is the best on these dark dreary days we've been having lately, one of my cross-pollinated gourds on an urn...
As you see, I have not put a lot of effort into my fall decorating.
This tiny glass greenhouse holds an African Violet I picked up the other day for $1 ~ what a deal!
On the chimney cupboard, a felt cat I made from instructions that were in the October 2000 issue of Country Living. It can be made with an opening in the top to hold treats...
Mine, I just sewed shut to be used as a decoration...
And, I have to share with you the recipe for these dark chocolate chip pumpkin bars, which are so moist and delicious. I did not note where I found the recipe so sadly I can't give credit to whoever it was.
Dark Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Squares
- 2 1/4 c. flour
- 2 1/4 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
- 4 beaten eggs
- 1/2 c. granulated sugar
- 1/2 c. brown sugar
- 1/2 c. butter
- 2 c. pumpkin filling
- 1 - 2 c. (dark) chocolate chips
Spray a 9 x 13 inch pan with cooking spray, or butter. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Sift together dry ingredients. In another bowl cream butter and sugars. Add eggs, beating well; add pumpking filling and mix. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture and blend. Add 1 cup chocolate chips & mix together. Spread into prepared pan and bake for about 45 minutes.
Sometimes when it comes out of the oven I sprinkle another cup of chocolate chips over the top, let them melt and spread like frosting ~ very yummy and extra chocolatey!
Here are the Halloween-inspired Caledonia socks using four colors (medium orange, black, taupe, and a yellowish green) of worsted weight yarn. I prefer thicker socks as I have perpetually cold feet. (The free pattern for the Caledonia socks is HERE.)
I will have photos of the Halloween version of the Caledonia socks for you tomorrow. I was originally thinking of adding some duplicate stitch spiders or dangling jack-o-lanterns but alas my mind has already moved on to the next project(s).
I've decided my next knitting booklet for sale will feature 3-4 patterns for multi-color knitted gloves for men and women. I don't expect to have this done before the holidays and really there is no rush. I want to use several different thumb gussets and perhaps even a faster version of Sanquhar gloves using a thicker yarn than the traditional laceweight. I do love to knit gloves most of all so this will be fun.
I've decided I want to knit Latvian mittens, some Fair Isle mittens, and some Dale of Norway socks. I only have a really good selection of colors in worsted weight though so I figure I'll try to knit a child's pattern using worsted weight yarn to get an adult size.
I also want to do some playing around with color. I want to do a tone-on-tone project, probably in various shades of blue, and I want to do a project in the ugliest colors I can imagine (just to see if I can make it work) and I want to design a bona fide Fair Isle project. For that one I will indeed use Shetland yarn although I find it pretty scratchy.
On the home front, Peaches is apparently responding to the change in seasons and is now eating almost constantly. We are trying to ignore her constant begging but she refuses to be ignored and positions herself in front of us and gives us the bunny evil eye. Ms. Plump-o does this even if we have just fed her 2 minutes ago.
She's not exactly wasting away from lack of food, eh? Meanwhile Jack the cat disapproves of all this rabbit begging.
I've decided my next knitting booklet for sale will feature 3-4 patterns for multi-color knitted gloves for men and women. I don't expect to have this done before the holidays and really there is no rush. I want to use several different thumb gussets and perhaps even a faster version of Sanquhar gloves using a thicker yarn than the traditional laceweight. I do love to knit gloves most of all so this will be fun.
I've decided I want to knit Latvian mittens, some Fair Isle mittens, and some Dale of Norway socks. I only have a really good selection of colors in worsted weight though so I figure I'll try to knit a child's pattern using worsted weight yarn to get an adult size.
I also want to do some playing around with color. I want to do a tone-on-tone project, probably in various shades of blue, and I want to do a project in the ugliest colors I can imagine (just to see if I can make it work) and I want to design a bona fide Fair Isle project. For that one I will indeed use Shetland yarn although I find it pretty scratchy.
On the home front, Peaches is apparently responding to the change in seasons and is now eating almost constantly. We are trying to ignore her constant begging but she refuses to be ignored and positions herself in front of us and gives us the bunny evil eye. Ms. Plump-o does this even if we have just fed her 2 minutes ago.
She's not exactly wasting away from lack of food, eh? Meanwhile Jack the cat disapproves of all this rabbit begging.
Oops. Rob pointed out to me that I only put the Checkerboard Mesa Hat for sale in print for $9.99. I've changed that so now you can also get it via a download for $4.71. The amount for the print patterns is higher because of the higher cost of color printing - the print costs are around $5.30 for a 5 page pattern then Lulu takes over a dollar each pattern for their profit. Fortunately with .PDF files it doesn't matter.
Checkerboard Mesa Hat
Here is the child's version of the Checkerboard Mesa Hat. The pattern includes a checkerboard ribbing and uses 8 colors of worsted weight yarn.
The pattern is available at the Lulu store .
I'm currently working on a version of the Caledonia socks using Halloween colors and need to get to work to have them finished in time.
WIP tea cozy, quilted potholder & a new hat
It was a pretty quiet weekend here, mostly spent inside due to the rain & cold. I didn't get to post my work in progress for Friday, so here is a peek at the tea cozy. It's moving along slowly as I work on it for awhile and then jump to something else...
...like this cabled hat from S'n B Nation. I liked the one I made for my daughter so much, I ended up knitting one for myself using some yarns I had on hand.
Recently I've been liking the idea of combining knitting with fabric and Copper's Wife's post had me thinking of making potholders. Debbie Bliss Home shows a potholder using a knitted square and a piece of fabric; I changed it a bit and used a patchwork top...
Edited: One thing I forgot to mention is that I did use a layer of cotton batting which the patchwork is quilted to. I know there is a heat resistant product you could use also; not sure of the name of it. 
I love using what I have on hand ~ this has some Denyse Schmidt fabric scraps, a piece of a vintage linen napkin, and a square of an old linen calendar. Here you can see the back which I knitted of cream cotton in seed/moss stitch...
I will definitely be making some more of these!
Yesterday we attended the harvest festival offered by our wonderful year-round CSA. (Sorry about the photo quality but I can never manage to take good photos when it is extremely sunny.) This is actually only one of the locations for our CSA - they have greenhouses in several other parts of the city and they get in organic produce from the region to distribute to many locations all over the city.
Los Poblanos is located on some prime and historic Los Ranchos de Albuquerque real estate near the Rio Grande river. The area includes a lavender farm, an inn, and a cultural center along with the land for our CSA. The inn and cultural center were designed by renowned New Mexico architect John Gaw Meem.
Here is a statue of San Ysidro, the patron saint of farming, in front of a lily-covered pond.
DH met some new friends.
After the harvest festival, DH took me to what he calls my "happy place."
Los Poblanos is located on some prime and historic Los Ranchos de Albuquerque real estate near the Rio Grande river. The area includes a lavender farm, an inn, and a cultural center along with the land for our CSA. The inn and cultural center were designed by renowned New Mexico architect John Gaw Meem.
Here is a statue of San Ysidro, the patron saint of farming, in front of a lily-covered pond.
DH met some new friends.
After the harvest festival, DH took me to what he calls my "happy place."
German twisted cast on. German twisted cast on. German twisted cast on. That is the name I keep forgetting. This magical cast on alleviates the curling in two-color ribbing and is also used for looseness on socks for wider legs. The talented Sarah sent me these two great links that show how to do it and I think it is in one of Nancy Bush's books as well.
http://www.knottygirls.com/jenlablog/freepatterns/twisted%20german%20cast%20on%20tutorial.pdf
http://hipknitism.com/library/techniques/twisted_german.shtml
I've been collecting some of my technical knitting posts from the blog archives. (I deleted many relating to the Master Knitter program in a fit of pique after my Level III debacle but there are still a few left.) I plan to put them in the sidebar along with links to my free patterns but I'm waiting until after Blogger institutes some major changes at the end of the month.
Norwegian Knitting Resources Part I
Norwegian Knitting Resources Part II
Spinning/Knitting with Cat Fur
Steeking
Koolaid Microwave Dyeing
Two-Color Knitting
Twined Knitting/Tvaandstickning Part I
Twined Knitting/Tvaandstickning Part II
Weaving in Ends
Color Jogs
Tension Problems
Duplicate Stitch
Darning Socks
New Mexico Fiber Resources
Online Color Knitting Links
Cabling without a Cable Needle
Fair Isle vs. Stranded Color Knitting Part I
Fair Isle vs. Stranded Color Knitting Part II
Reverse Duplicate Stitch
Purling with Two Colors
MY FREE KNITTING PATTERNS
Garter Lace Scarf
Super Stars
ROY G. BiV Socks
Knitted Curlicues
Rabbit Finger Puppets
Caledonia Socks
http://www.knottygirls.com/jenlablog/freepatterns/twisted%20german%20cast%20on%20tutorial.pdf
http://hipknitism.com/library/techniques/twisted_german.shtml
I've been collecting some of my technical knitting posts from the blog archives. (I deleted many relating to the Master Knitter program in a fit of pique after my Level III debacle but there are still a few left.) I plan to put them in the sidebar along with links to my free patterns but I'm waiting until after Blogger institutes some major changes at the end of the month.
Norwegian Knitting Resources Part I
Norwegian Knitting Resources Part II
Spinning/Knitting with Cat Fur
Steeking
Koolaid Microwave Dyeing
Two-Color Knitting
Twined Knitting/Tvaandstickning Part I
Twined Knitting/Tvaandstickning Part II
Weaving in Ends
Color Jogs
Tension Problems
Duplicate Stitch
Darning Socks
New Mexico Fiber Resources
Online Color Knitting Links
Cabling without a Cable Needle
Fair Isle vs. Stranded Color Knitting Part I
Fair Isle vs. Stranded Color Knitting Part II
Reverse Duplicate Stitch
Purling with Two Colors
MY FREE KNITTING PATTERNS
Garter Lace Scarf
Super Stars
ROY G. BiV Socks
Knitted Curlicues
Rabbit Finger Puppets
Caledonia Socks
corners of my home~garland, marie clare idees, barkcloth
This week has absolutely flown by. The storm that hit our area last weekend closed schools, work, and left many without power, some still without power as of today. Luckily we did not lose power or suffer any damage at our house, and I have enjoyed having my son and husband home Monday and my daughter home all week.
I got the Halloween banner, that I made Friday, hung up in the foyer. Dianntha had a question about the letters that I wanted to answer. I found the alphabet at Martha Stewart.com, the same one which I used to make an Easter Garland here. For my Halloween garland I printed the letters out on newspaper to get the black and white background. Just be careful if you try it...one of the pieces of newpaper did jam in the printer and I was lucky to have a husband who works with computers!
My husband and I spent a nice afternoon at the bookstore this week and I picked up this magazine for the first time. I loved what I saw and had to have it....it's full of great craft projects that I can't wait to try. I have added a subscription to my Christmas wish list!
We also spent some time at a local antique co-op and I came away with this beautiful barkcloth panel. It's in great shape and there's over 2 yards of fabric which I'll probably use for some bags, although a part of me hates the thought of cutting into it.
Corrugated or Two-Color Ribbing
I love two-color ribbing (also called corrugated ribbing) and I think it can really enhance a knitting project. The knitted stitches are one color and the purled stitches are another color. Because of all the floats it is slightly less elastic than regular ribbing.
If you are a two-handed color knitter, doing this type of ribbing really isn't much slower. I am right-handed and I hold the yarn that is to be purled in my right hand and purl those stitches American/English style and the yarn that is to be knitted in my left hand and knit continental.
I'm not sure why so many knitting patterns change colors in two-color ribbing in the purl stitches. That requires that you knit across the first row every time you change a color (to avoid bi-color purl bumps) and it can really affect the elasticity of the ribbing. I always change colors in the knit stitches instead.
One oddity about two-color ribbing is that if you cast on in one color using the long-tail cast on and then immediately start the ribbing the color you didn't cast on with will tend to peak out under the cast on edge. I don't think the problem even has to do with your tension on the first row - the problem seems to be that two-color ribbing makes the bottom edge curl up slightly. It isn't a huge problem but it annoys me. I pulled on the pink yarn a bit to further demonstrate this problem at the bottom of the knitting in this checkerboard two-color ribbing.
I've heard there may be a special cast on you can use to avoid this but I'm not aware what it is. I've even had this happen even when I cast on with two colors. Let me know if you know of a cast on that eliminates this. One easy way to avoid it is to rib the first row in the cast on color and start the two color ribbing on the second row.
I am not always fond of how this looks though so I use another solution.
If it is really bugging me I go back after I'm done knitting the item with the cast on yarn threaded in a tapestry needle and LOOSELY tack up the bottom float. Here you'll see the diagonal white yarns on the bottom of the Checkerboard Mesa hat from yesterday's post that have been tacked up.
Here is another photo that shows what the interior of corrugated ribbing looks like.
If you are a two-handed color knitter, doing this type of ribbing really isn't much slower. I am right-handed and I hold the yarn that is to be purled in my right hand and purl those stitches American/English style and the yarn that is to be knitted in my left hand and knit continental.
I'm not sure why so many knitting patterns change colors in two-color ribbing in the purl stitches. That requires that you knit across the first row every time you change a color (to avoid bi-color purl bumps) and it can really affect the elasticity of the ribbing. I always change colors in the knit stitches instead.
One oddity about two-color ribbing is that if you cast on in one color using the long-tail cast on and then immediately start the ribbing the color you didn't cast on with will tend to peak out under the cast on edge. I don't think the problem even has to do with your tension on the first row - the problem seems to be that two-color ribbing makes the bottom edge curl up slightly. It isn't a huge problem but it annoys me. I pulled on the pink yarn a bit to further demonstrate this problem at the bottom of the knitting in this checkerboard two-color ribbing.
I've heard there may be a special cast on you can use to avoid this but I'm not aware what it is. I've even had this happen even when I cast on with two colors. Let me know if you know of a cast on that eliminates this. One easy way to avoid it is to rib the first row in the cast on color and start the two color ribbing on the second row.
I am not always fond of how this looks though so I use another solution.
If it is really bugging me I go back after I'm done knitting the item with the cast on yarn threaded in a tapestry needle and LOOSELY tack up the bottom float. Here you'll see the diagonal white yarns on the bottom of the Checkerboard Mesa hat from yesterday's post that have been tacked up.
Here is another photo that shows what the interior of corrugated ribbing looks like.
Here it is - DH the Utah backpacking fanatic has named it the Checkerboard Mesa Hat. I haven't actually attached the curlicues because I want to get some shots of the top decreases. In a fit of productivity never before seen around here the pattern is already typed up. I just want to knit a child's version to include with the pattern - I'm doing it in purples, pinks, and blues. I am also working on a
I've been spending a lot of time food shopping. I got the idea to try to do a Thanksgiving vegetarian feast with only local foods from the 100 Mile Diet web site. They say that most of the food you eat travels an average of 1500 miles. We can get most fruits, veggies, fresh eggs, and weekly organic bread with locally grown wheat from our wonderful year-round CSA but the other stuff is proving more difficult. Apparently NM is 6th in the country in milk production and 7th in cheese but Whole Foods with all their "local foods" signs had neither in a local version. I'm doing tamales with a red chile sauce and a pumpkin flan for dessert.
Yoppie asked in the comments about a few of the socks in the Photobucket gallery of most of my knitting for the last 5 years. The Turkish socks are from Anna Zilboorg's book Fancy Feet. The Bazaar socks are from a free Interweave knits pattern by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts. I didn't actually use her pattern for mine - just her color charts.
works in progress...
The knitted tea cosy has been put on hold as college daughter would like some fingerless gloves and hats. So far I have one glove finished; this is the pattern from Knitty and the yarn is KnitPicks Andean Silk in cranberry. This is a huge accomplishment for me as I have previously wanted nothing to do with double point needles. I am terribly clumsy and the first time I tried using them was a disaster. However, I was determined to make these gloves and after a shaky start, I didn't do too bad. Tonight I'll get the second one started and hopefully finish them up by Monday...
One hat for her is finished. This is the Basic Cable from S'n B Nation; the yarn is Knit Picks Shine Worsted which is a silky, soft cotton/Modal blend that my daughter loves. I didn't have the circular needles needed for this pattern, so I just used straight needles instead. Thus I had to have a seam but because of the cable and ribbing pattern it is not even noticeable. I think I'm going to make one of these for myself ...
Another work in progress today is a Halloween garland for the foyer. I was inspired by the beautiful Halloween decorations in the Victorian Trading catalog. I found the vintage images here thanks to Clarice who mentioned the site once on her blog...
Today was just full of crafting, sewing, and baking ~ a perfect way to spend a cold, rainy day. I worked on these fabric flowers [from a wonderful Wise Craft tutorial] which are going out with a bag commissioned by a special fellow blogger...
I found this book at the library this week ~ Something Warm from the Oven by Eileen Goudge. The recipes sound wonderful, so I looked up apples in the index and found a recipe for these apple spice cupcakes with caramel frosting. Just the thing for dessert tonight...
I am currently doing a load of laundry. Please keep your fingers crossed for me.
I've started a fun hat. I saw a magazine photo where a couch was covered in an interesting print. It was one stripe of black and white print and one stripe of black and bright colors. That will be my project this weekend during the baseball playoffs.
Besides trying to destroy the world through my washing machine and dryer, I also goofed up on my latest man's hiking sock pattern. I accidentally only put it up for sale via print at Lulu so now it is also for sale as a download so you can save some money. Sorry about that! I'm also going to reformat it and put it up for sale on the Knitting Vault to see how well it sells there.
Finally, DH asked for more photos of Peaches and Jack. He works with severely abused kids in treatment foster care and they just love seeing what Peaches and Jack are up to. I got out Paint Shop Pro and used the copyright free images at Backgroundsarchive.com. I don't quite have the hang of this yet but at least my pets are getting to see the world.
I've started a fun hat. I saw a magazine photo where a couch was covered in an interesting print. It was one stripe of black and white print and one stripe of black and bright colors. That will be my project this weekend during the baseball playoffs.
Besides trying to destroy the world through my washing machine and dryer, I also goofed up on my latest man's hiking sock pattern. I accidentally only put it up for sale via print at Lulu so now it is also for sale as a download so you can save some money. Sorry about that! I'm also going to reformat it and put it up for sale on the Knitting Vault to see how well it sells there.
Finally, DH asked for more photos of Peaches and Jack. He works with severely abused kids in treatment foster care and they just love seeing what Peaches and Jack are up to. I got out Paint Shop Pro and used the copyright free images at Backgroundsarchive.com. I don't quite have the hang of this yet but at least my pets are getting to see the world.
corners of my home...
For 'corners of my home' today I tried to find some evidence of fall decorating. I must admit I am sadly lacking in that department, especially after seeing the beautiful fall decorating pictured on so many of your blogs. So this morning I ran outside and picked the dahlia you see on my mantlepiece...
...and added it to the tiny white pumpkins I picked up last week at the grocery store. Usually I grow some of these in my garden...this year we only had orange pumpkins though. I am embarrassed to see that my silver candle holders are in desperate need of polishing.
I also added a some dried hydrangea blossoms...
The mantle clock was a wedding gift from an antique dealer friend, and it still runs when I remember to wind it. I love to hear the sound of it slowly chiming each hour...
The ferns have been brought inside for the winter, just in the nick of time. Today the first snowflakes were spotted in our area, and so before dinner I am going to get a nice fire going in the woodstove.
I decided to leave this fern in its cement urn and placed it on this table in the corner. Hopefully the gorilla glue I used to repair a wobbly leg will hold up to the weight...
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