Swing Needle Pattern

 In an attempt to clear away some clutter in my office/craft room, I came upon this long-abandoned scarf project. The piece of paper inside the bag had a Swing Needle Pattern on it.

I yanked the 6.5mm needles out of it thinking I would unravel the project, rewind the yarn, and repurpose it or donate it. Then realized it was already pretty long and I could probably finish it to about 6 ft in an evening.

I stuck the needles back in and determined where I was in the two row pattern. 

Then carried on. Yarn A is the black sparkly yarn and yarn B is the chunky Nature's Way chunky yarn. Swing knitting is done with double pointed needles or a circular needle. After one row with one yarn, everything slides to the other point and the remaining yarn is picked up and worked.

It was easy to figure out where I was in the pattern as the black yarn (A) had just completed a knit row. So I slid the stitches to the other end of the circular needle and started the K1, P1 row with the marled yarn (B). There are only 20 sts so I'm pretty sure I can finish this scarf during tonight's Zoom call with my Whitby Spinners and Fibre Friends or most certainly afterwards when Skip and I watch TV.

A couple of weeks ago I took advantage of an introductory special for Hello Fresh - a meal kit delivery service. We particularly liked the Ricotta Zucchini Fritters with Garlic Aioli sauce so I made them again last night. Yumm-o! I need to find a way to drain more moisture out of the zucchini but even a bit sloppy they were delicious. Because everything in the kit comes pre-measured, all the ingredients got used. I only needed 100g of ricotta cheese but they come in 400g containers so I've made it twice with slightly more than 100g of the cheese each time and have enough left over to make the recipe again.

Tomorrow, I'm spending a nice day at Jeanette's stitching with the regular gang. We have lots to talk about including booking our hotel rooms for the Hobby House Primitive Needlearts Primer Retreat that I mentioned in the previous post. Also our progress on Winter Rose Manor, other charts we want to stitch, looking forward to our retreat at Isaiah Tubbs Resort in March, and our guild's retreat at the end of April. 

All these things to look forward to help me get through this difficult time we are having because of Skip's health. Is it a good thing to distract myself with my creative pursuits and keep searching for the positives in our lives? I don't know but it seems to be working for me. Whatever will happen is going to happen and I cannot do anything about it. I can only control how I react and what I do about any given situation. This mentality has served me well over the course of my life so far. I'll just keep on keeping on.

Therapeutic Crafting

I finished knitting the grey and black Family Slippers (free pattern from Churchmouse Yarns & Teas) using worsted acrylic yarn from my stash. 

Not sure if I'll make pom poms for them.

The double thickness makes them very durable and warm. I could add a leather heel to the bottom of the sole for even more durability.

They're not much to look at, for sure. But they do remind me of my late mother-in-law who used to knit them for everyone in the family. 

The pattern suggests that they be made shorter than the actual feet they're meant for but I made mine the exact length so they were snug but didn't need to stretch. The double-yarn fabric really isn't that stretchy length-wise. 

I have lots more acrylic yarn in my stash I can use up. Perhaps another Excavation blanket would work well. Here's one I did with sock yarn remnants. I used needles at the high end of the size range to get a nice 'drapey' fabric.

Only two rows are knit before changing colours and it's all garter stitch. 

We're going through a tough time right now with Skip's health.  I'm finding the knitting to be quite soothing. 

I have also been working on Winter Rose Manor - both at stitching yesterday and last night. Filling in the pink house is great to do when socializing or watching TV.  No chance for error or counting needed. I will probably need to use that second skein of 'Bella Rosa' to finish the house - if I can find it...

Because I chose a fabric from my stash rather than the called-for fabric, there isn't a lot of contrast between the house and the fabric, I'll select a slightly darker colour and backstitch down both sides of the  house for more definition.

Tomorrow the gang is stitching at Jeanette's. 4 out of the 5 of us are working on Winter Rose Manor.

I didn't remember hearing from Hobby House Needleworks about the retreat we're attending next October. I just wanted to know I had gotten into my first two choices of classes so I emailed them a couple of days ago. I heard back and I did get my top two choices. I think we all did since we registered so early. I still need to make a reservation at the hotel as that cost wasn't included in the retreat fee. I'm confirmed for the Maggie Bonanami wool appliqué class, and punch needle and cross stitch with the mother-daughter team of Kathy Barrick and Liz Mathews.

Teresa received the model I stitched for her yesterday. She showed a sneak peak of 'Kindred Spirits' on her Instagram.

She will be releasing the pattern at Market the first weekend of March. I really loved the colours. Here's another sneak peak she posted on her Instagram before she sent me the materials.

It'll be fun to see what all the designers are releasing at Market.

Stuff I Want to Knit

I'm attempting to do some decluttering in my office/craft room and I came across some Icelandic yarn - Icelandic Lopi by David Grains. There are 2 balls of each colour plus a few grams of natural white. I'm pretty sure it was from my sister's stash.

The yarn is a Bulky weight and only slightly spun - perfect for felting in the washer. 

This is the pattern I'm knitting, Fibre Trends' Felted Clogs AC33e by Bev Galeskas. I'm doing the bottom version. I might even do some needle felting on them after they've been felted in the machine.

I've knit it at least twice before and now know to line the bottom of the heel with leather to avoid wearing holes through the sole.

The directions are pretty clear to interpret. The result makes for a hilariously large piece of knitting which felts down nicely after a couple of washings in hot water. Ideally the felting should eliminate most of the stitch definition so the grey ones didn't quite get small enough for me. They're even a bit big on Skip but he likes how warm they are.

I started the first green clog last night and finished it today. Bulky knitting goes quickly. I am really looking forward to the felting process.

Thursday night I had the urge to knit another Bunty Bunny. 

Reading my Ravelry notes on the previous one I knit, I knit all of her in one colour using sport weight yarn and 3mm needles. I didn't like the little pink dress from the same pattern and chose instead to use patterns from Little Cotton Rabbits.

I found some sport weight yarn (not a large quantity) in my stash and started in. The pattern calls for the legs to be knit flat then joined to the body which is also knit flat then all pieces seamed.  

What the heck! The body yarn was different - a plain version of the flecked yarn I used for the legs. I didn't even notice it until I'd finished it. I must have spliced the yarn in a previous iteration. 

I then thought, "OK, I'll re-knit the legs plain while unravelling the body then if there isn't enough plain yarn to do all the body parts, I'll use the flecked yarn for the torso which will always be under clothing." The flecks (which I didn't really care fore) won't be visible that way.

So I started the legs in the plain yarn from the diminishing ball. Then stopped. Looking at the bunny I have already knit, who I call 'Daisy', I noted I had knit all those pieces in the round, thus avoiding seaming. I knit the head as indicated (flat) as the seam is up the back of the head and not really noticeable. Generally I don't mind seaming knitting items but seaming pieces this small is very tedious and I much prefer the look of the unseamed 'tubes' for the arms and legs.  I still haven't decided if I'll knit the body flat and seam it or just do it in the round after all.

I wanted to make sure I had enough of the plain yarn to knit the arms and legs so completed one arm in the round (except for the stuffing). There is enough to do the second arm. Then I did one plain leg in the round - much better.

I'm going to knit the second leg and arm using the rest of the plain yarn, then graft them to the plain body that I've already knit. If I run out of plain yarn, I'll just do the body with the flecked yarn.

I also have a real hankering to do another linen stitch scarf using either my handspun or some of my stashed sock yarn. This is another pattern I've knit before at least 3 times. Using three colourways of Koigu yarn with the common colour of green:

and again with blue as the common colour.

The handspun one was somewhat random. 

I have the urge to knit another one so will dive into my handspun stash and see what I come up with. The pattern is very repetitive and takes forever as it's knit longways but it makes for a really lovely fabric - perfect for scarves.

I have a couple of social stitching days next week which should be fun. I'll get more stitching done on the Winter Rose Manor which I don't think I've touched for a couple of days.

I've just scratched the surface of my decluttering task but it's a good start.

A Few Changes

I started Winter Rose Manor on January 1st. I got this far by the 3rd. I usually start my pieces in the centre and work out.

I've been doing a lot of stitching on this since I finished the other model I was stitching. Yesterday when I was stitching the gate, I noticed that a couple of hinges were missing on the right side. That side of the gate is on the far left of the next page of the pattern so could have been inadvertently missed.

I added stitches where the red 'x's are to make it match the left side of the gate. This morning, Barb questioned how the gate would open and maybe the absence of those stitches were where the gate opens. My thinking was to match both sides. But if one is uncomfortable doing that, they could eliminate the stitch at the bottom of that same column and just stitch in the middle (where the lower red 'x' is) for the latch.

I also wasn't happy with the lack of contrast between the wings and bodies of both cardinals. If I were to stitch this again, I would stitch the male cardinal's wing with Cayenne instead of Mulberry, As I had already done the wing in Mulberry, I simply re-stitched one cross on top of the Mulberry stitches with Cayenne thread. The two threads for the female cardinal are Sage and Putty. The dye lots that I had were so close I couldn't see any contrast so I decided to do her body with Palomino instead. 

I'm happy with my changes, including the decision to substitute Khaki Mocha for Roasted Marshmallow (white flower pot) and Bella Rosa for Conch (house colour).

As much as I enjoy stitching models, I am very happy to be back stitching my own projects. I haven't started any other new ones but have some percolating in my mind.

The past 5 days we've entertained more people at home than the last 3 years of COVID. Last Wednesday was a stitching day with Barb, Poppy and Jeanette. Then on Saturday we had a stitching afternoon at Barb's while her husband was out of town. Yesterday Skip's brother and wife and nephew and wife came for a visit, and today I hosted the Monday morning stitchers. 

Skip and I have been really enjoying having fires in the fireplace most evenings, especially when the temperatures have started to drop below zero. After dinner we get a fire going, watch news and a couple of YouTube vidoes, Jeopardy, then more YouTube videos, something we've PVRd, Netflix, or Amazon Prime. I stitch during most of that so I get a good 3+ hours of stitching in every evening.

Last week I took advantage of an introductory deal for Hello Fresh - a meal kit delivery service. I picked three meals with 2 servings each. They were delivered exactly on time and packed very well with the meats on the bottom with an ice pack (bag of frozen water), and the rest of the ingredients all measured out. The recipe cards had great photos and the recipes were very easy to follow. 

Two of the three we enjoyed:

The meals did not disappoint. I now have three new recipes I can add to my limited rotation. The regular prices are much more than I would want to pay but there is no shopping to do, no waste (except for the packaging), quick preparation, and easy cleanup. The quality of the enclosed ingredients was excellent. A person living alone could order the 2-serving kits and have a complete meal a day or two later instead of having to purchase more than can be reasonably consumed. I highly recommend trying Hello Fresh or some other meal kit delivery service trial.

Stitching Days

This has been a big week or so of stitching for me. I stitched at Jeanette's a week ago Wednesday, last Monday with my weekly stitching group, and again on Wednesday here at my place. 

I was able to finish the Pansy Patch Quilts and Stitchery model of the Houses on Pumpkin Lane and hand it off to be framed and ready for Lori to take to Market the first weekend of March.

I am in the home stretch of the model I'm doing for Teresa Kogut who also wishes to release the pattern at Market.

Yesterday our guild had a stitch day at our meeting place. These folks were the first to arrive.

Others came and went throughout the day. 

 

Our meeting place has great lighting although most of us brought our own lamps. There is also a little kitchen where we can brew coffee or tea, store our lunches in the fridge, and wash up after we're done with snacks and drinks.

There was discussion and brainstorming about how we might want to do our own French purses - basically a flat piece of stitching reinforced with sturdy cardboard. The corners can be bent up to create a little tray.

Here's Sylvia's in flat format. The ribbons tie to make the angled corners and create the 'tray'. Here key suggestions was to select the ribbon before you select the floss for the project. It is much easier to find a floss to match the ribbon colour rather than the other way around.

Siobhain used her initials for the center and blackwork for the borders - the sides of the French purse. She also created several coordinating accessories, or smalls.

Barbara's was an original Schwalm piece with a needle book and pincushion.

I'm not sure what mine will be like but I may use an existing pattern for the base rather than trying to 're-invent the wheel' and create something from scratch. But until I finish my model for Teresa and get some of my own stitching done, this project will be on the back burner. I may not even get it completed with the rest of the guild.

Zipper Bags with Exterior Zipper Pocket

I made a couple of zipper bags with exterior zipper pockets before Christmas. They turned out quite well. This one measured 12" x 8".

When selecting directional fabric for the pocket, one needs to make sure it is oriented properly so the image shows right side up.

I also had a bunch of butterfly charms in my stash that worked great for a zipper pull.

I rounded the top of this bag off to make it deeper and suitable for a knitting project bag. Notions can go in the front pocket and a sizeable ball of yarn and needles fit inside the bag.

All of the items - zippers, fabric, threads, charms, beads, lobster claw fasteners, etc. came from my stash.

In 2023, I hope to do projects mainly from my stash. I'll never whittle it down completely but this year, I hope to at least make a dent in it.

My 'Academy of Sewing'

Last month I sewed a couple of zipper bags with exterior zipper pockets. I used this Crafty Gemini video as the basis for crafting the outer zipper pocket.

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon with Jen1 and Poppy at Jen's house and we made zipper bags with external zipper pockets. After a few false starts and a quick trip home for me (Poppy left her machine's power cable at home and I left my machine's bobbin case at home), we got underway.

I used the dimensions used in the video. The bags turned out well but as Jen1 would say they were very 'wee'. The basics of how we did the zipper pocket could be incorporated into any size bag either on the exterior or the interior.

Here they were, beavering away on their projects.

Jen1:

and Poppy:

They felt the instructions I had written out from the video were pretty clear but I did change a couple of things for even more clarity and to indicate options for different size bags.

They were pretty pleased with the results. I made Jen1 pose in front of her beautifully stitched flower sampler.

Poppy is now eager to try other sewing projects.

I'm having the regulars over for a stitching day tomorrow. We can discuss what sewing projects they want to do next.

I FINISHED THE MODEL I'VE BEEN STITCHING FOR PANSY PATCH QUILTS AND STITCHER FOR THE LAST 6 MONTHS! (except for 4 stitches Lori noticed I had left out). I will add them tomorrow and she can pick it up on the weekend for framing in lots of time for Market the first weekend of March.

With that finished, I can finish the model I'm stitching for Teresa Kogut, work on the stitchalong, and start a few other projects. I am very eager to do more English Paper Piecing now that I have so many beautiful fabrics for the various patterns I want to try. I started making a list as I remember different projects I want to do.

Tomorrow should be lots of fun.