Roz's Loft

Now I love my knitting room AND bedroom

2011-10-15T09:04:00.000-04:00

I've wanted to change my bedroom from the master bedroom to the guest bedroom for a long time but knew it was going to be a horrible job. Luckily I had several friends who offered to help me and I took one of them up on the job. TG I did that, it really was a nightmare. First we moved all the furniture out of the master--to the living room. A horrible job because the master bedroom is in the back of the house and this house is shaped like a house trailer, a rectangle with the bedroom all the way back and the living room all the way up front. (well its probably not that far but when an old lady starts shoving furniture with the help of an old man, it seems like a long way). Second we moved the furniture from the guest room to the master. Those 2 jobs took us all day. That night I slept on the futon now residing in the master/new knitting room. I was so tired I didn't bother to let it down to the a bed, I just plopped on it and slept.
Next day we moved things from the living room to guest room, now my bedroom. I measured everything first to make sure it would all fit, luckily it did. It looks great, I love my new bedroom, its a little quieter and darker which is fine, who cares when you're sleeping. I left all my clothes in the closet because that would take a week to switch although it would be handier if I did but who cares? I can go back and get dressed, use the vanity in the back and then get on with my day. Some day I may tackle the closets. Maybe when the painter arrives (yes I've hired a guy to paint but it will be winter before he does that because he's a carpenter by trade, not a painter). I'm not in any hurry because the guest closet has all my knitting, weaving and spinning stuff in it. Needless to say I may never do it. Here's some pictures of the new room, starting at the door and going around to the left:

cover not finished, obviously

After moving all that furniture, I hand knitted a couple birds, hated to mess up the KM room so quick. The Bluebird came from a knitting shop in Federal Way, WA, the white bird was same pattern, different yarn and of course, different color. The blue bird was a kit called "Bluebird of Happiness" Now that I have a white bird too I'm calling them "Birds of Happiness" and plan on making a blackbird next if the LYS has black furry yarn.

Embellish Your Knits with Duplicate Stitch

2011-10-01T09:50:00.000-04:00

Sometimes you don't want to do a big fairisle design and sometimes you might want to add a little something to your fairisle design. Or maybe you have a special picture you want to add to your knit but you don't want to go to the trouble to program it into the machine. Well, in those times, Duplicate Stitch may be your answer. Its easy. Look at the diagrams below and read the directions, easy peasy!

Bring the needle up through the point of the beginning stitch and insert it behind the point of the stitch above it.
Put the needle down through the beginning point and bring it up through the point of the next stitch.
Pull the thread through and insert the needle behind the point of the next stitch on the row above.
To begin the next row insert the needle into the base of the stitch directly above the last stitch made.
It is easier to do this row if the garment is turned 180 degrees. Duplicate this stitch as you did on the previous row.
To complete the first stitch on this row, your needle is inserted behind threads that have already been stitched.
Work from right to left starting at the lower right. (opposite for left handed peole). The graphics are placed on the page in the manner in which you will be stitching. The numbers here coorespond to the numbers next to the graphics.
We've found for best results, use DMC threads. Presoak the darker colors in white vinegar and water, allow to dry.
On a standard (7 sts, 10 in) garment, 6 strands of DMC work great. Before you start, separate the 6 strands and then put them back together, this makes them stitch fuller. Krenik metallic threads work great also. (We haven't tried the new DMC Metallic Floss yet)

HINTS FOR DUPLICATE STITCHING

Use cotton embroidery floss for your next duplicate stitch design, you'll be thrilled with the results.
To make the floss fuller, separate the 6 strands, wet your index finger and thumb and run down the single strands. Then put the 6 strands back together again. This will make them fuller and the wet finger method will keep them from twisting.
Make sure you have room in the designated area of the sweater to actually duplicate stitch your design. In other words, make sure there are enough stitches and rows.
If you want to use a cross stitch pattern on your sweater, remember that cross stitch is square, knitted stitches aren't. To get the graph correct it's best to use knitters graph paper. Any variation in knitting gauge will change the picture but not too much if you stick to a standard gauge machine sweater but be sure to rechart again if you want to work with a bulky sweater.
Before starting make absolutely sure your cotton floss doesn't run. To make sure, soak the floss in white vinegar and cold water and then rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse in cold water.
Make sure you have enough thread to complete the picture. Floss comes in dye lots just like yarn. I once had to start completely over because of this little omission.
Don't stick to just duplicate stitch. You can use French knots, running stitch, beads, buttons and charms to further enhance your sweater. You can even design a motif around charms or buttons.
If you are going to make your own sweater, try making it textured but leave the section where you want the duplicate stitch plain. For instance a purl lattice design surrounding a blank section would look great combined with a flowered embroidery design. If you don't have a machine that will do textures, try using baby cables (1 x 1 twisted cables). Try separating the textured area and embroidery area with garter stitch, using the garter stitch as a border.
Try combining duplicate stitch with machine embroidery stitches. This will look OK as long as the machine embroidery design is fairly open.
Don't wash and dry or steam your finished garment until AFTER you've duplicate stitched the design. Machine washing and drying acrylic yarn sets the stitches and you want the duplicate stitch to "set" with the garment.

Feel free to make copies of this page for your personal use or for use in classes.
The following copyright notice must appear on all copies
Copyright © Rosalind Porter, Piney Mnt., 1997-1999.

The information, patterns and images contained on this page are for personal use and may not be altered, converted nor uploaded to any electronic system or BBS nor included in any compact disk (CD-ROM) or collection of any type

Ideas for my quilt

2011-09-27T06:54:00.000-04:00

Last Saturday I had the extreme pleasure of attending a quilt show here in Traverse City, the best part of it was, it was right up the road from me. I don't usually go to quilt shows because I really don't need a new hobby but everyone knows I've been working sporadically on a crazy quilt using my embroidery machine. So--I have 11 squares finished and am wondering how I'm going to put them together. I thought maybe I'd find a few crazy quilts at the show and I didn't find a lot but found a couple and got other ideas from other quilts that I found. I also shopped till I thought my feet were going to fall off and of course, bought some fabric to add to my stash and the niftyest (is that a word?) flower arrangement made with buttons that I just had to get. Here's a few pictures of what I found and unfortunately I ran out of room on the SD card so couldn't get a lot, doggone it. I thought I had deleted everything on the card but unfortunately....so oh well.... This is a panel I bought that features Laurel Burch (my most favorite artist of all times). Its a Christmas panel and all I have to do is add some quilt batting to the back, quilt around the edges of the pictures and add a backing. I might even embellish some of the designs in the pictures.

Below is the button bouquet. I have lots of buttons my husband made for me that aren't quite finished, I'm seriously thinking of finishing them and making my button bouquet with some of them and of course, adding some of my button collection to them as well. Now its time for me to go visit some vintage shop for some vintage button. Doggone it, I gave away my huge collection when I moved :-(. I bought the florist wire stems from one of the quilt dealers at the show and she says you can get them at any florist shop (you probably knew that, right?) If you look close you can see she sometimes has one button on top of another button, fabulous idea to decorate any room but mine is going into my sewing room.

A crazy quilt below. To the right of it is a close up that hopefully will give you an idea of how she finished the edges. Above is a denim quilt, using squares of old denim jeans. My Daughter-in-law has made a couple like this and I took the picture for her because this person embroidered designs in every square. What a lot of work but what a fantastic quilt for teens (or anyone).

To the right is another crazy quilt, this lady calls it Globe Trotting and has fabrics that are taken from places they've visited throughout their lives. Sort of the same Idea I'm doing, I'm personalizing some of my squares with embroidery designs that are part of my life such as knitting needles, design of a cute white dog, spinning wheel, etc, so I loved that idea and I think the way she finished it is how I'm going to finish mine, with strips of fabric between. Love the globe in the middle, I might have to do something like that.

Laurel Burch Christmas panel I bought, I plan on backing it with quilt batting and sewing around the squares and maybe around some of the designs to emulate a quilt and then add a backing to it.

Below, beautiful goose sitting in a basket, all hand sewn

of course. I want to make one, it reminds me of the cement goose I used to knit clothes for,

Goosie Porter I used to call her. It irritated some people on the knittingmachines group so I had to shut up about her :-(. If I make one like this I think I'll use outdoor canvas for the fabric so she can sit out on my porch in the summer. Of course I COULD knit her a hooded jacket for winter, right?

Above is a bunch of quilted squares with a border around each one. I took a picture of this because I liked the idea of different colored fabrics surrounding each square. Obviously I need all the ideas I can get to finish mine and this is a good one since my squares are all different colors as well.

If you haven't seen my 11 finished Crazy Quilt squares, you can go to http://flickr.com/rozporter to see what I've completed. Of course I have a lot more to go and lots more ideas, I'm thinking I'll hang my quilt behind the head of my bed when its finished because my dog loves to lay on my bed and play on it, I can't allow that after all this sewing, now can I? Here's one of the latest that I made with a white doggie design. My dog, Biscuit almost always lays on his back when he sleeps so I had to use this design for my "Biscuit" square.

Just in case you think I've quit knitting, think again. My knitting room is moving to the master bedroom and master bedroom is moving to smaller spare room but first the master room needs to be painted so I can't knit till I get things re-arranged but I am HKing every evening while I watch TV. After all, I can't quit knitting, its too much of a habit for me.

Fixing Windows Live Email's annoying problem

2011-08-03T15:07:00.000-04:00

I just bought 2 Win 7 computers and both have Windows Live as the default email client. The problem I've had with both computers and this software was, every time I type an apostrophe or quote symbol I got wierd symbols in their place. I found a fix for the new desktop but when I got my laptop, I couldn't find the fix again. Finally today I persisted in my search until I did find the fix. If anyone reading this blog has the same problem, I thought I'd save you the search....here's the fix:

This seems to be a problem for people using Windows Live for their email client with Win 7:

Here's the fix if anyone else has the problem and wants to eliminate it forever.

[4] At HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\Compose\Preferences\PostEditor\Autoreplace, set the data for SmartQuotes to 0 (thanks as usual to Peter.R for the fix).

If you're not used to editing the registry, it's best to be very careful so you don't wreck something. Start by setting a restore point:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Create-a-restore-point

Then:
1. With WLMail closed, type regedit into the start search box and press Enter. Give permission where necessary.
2. In the left hand pane, navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\Compose\Preferences\PostEditor\ Autoreplace
and click on Autoreplace.
3. In the right-hand pane, double-click on each of the four Names where the Type column reads REG_DWORD. In each case, type 0 into the Value data box and click OK. Press F5 and then close the window.
4. Launch WLMail and test.
It worked for me, TG I found this, it was driving me crazy!!!

Making Buttons for your Knits

2011-07-25T16:10:00.000-04:00

Slice up your own dried tree branches. If you take a branch off the tree, let it dry before you make buttons. Here in South Carolina, I find them in my woody backyard. They are as easy to slice as a piece of lunch meat.

You can actually slice up a whole branch in no time and they don't all have to be the same width or length, as you can see, some of mine have little knots on the side which I love.

My DH liked the ones with no bark but I loved the ones with bark so we did both.

After you slice them drill 2 or 4 small holes and lightly sand.

Soak them overnight in a (clean) margarine tub filled with satin polyurethane or shiny polyurethane (makes 2 very different looks). I like to leave the pins in the holes so they won't get filled with polyurethane.

Next sand both sides lightly again.

Once sanded pin them to a box, a pizza delivery box with sides intact is perfect, then go outside and spray the side facing with satin or shiny poly and let them sit outside overnight. I purchased some steel straight pins (you remember, the kind we learned to sew with? Because you'll be spraying the pins as well as the buttons, the pins are pretty much ready to throw away after you're finished with them. Don't worry a box of pins are inexpensive compared to the price of hand made wooden buttons. I left them in the house to dry since I live in a humid climate winter and summer.

Next day turn them and spray them again. Another light sand, another spray , let dry, spray other side, let dry and they're done. So you've sanded them 3 times and sprayed them twice.

After the first test one was done I sewed one to a swatch and machine washed and dried it 5 times that day while I was doing laundry. The test one came out just like new so I knew we had a winner. I've had my wooden buttons on a best loved cardigan ever since we made the first button back in the 80's. The buttons look good as new although the sweater could use a replacement. I always take them off the garment when I toss it so I have never run out of buttons.

When you sew them on, don't necessarily look at the dimension, try it in your buttonhole, it depends on width as well as thickness and the little knots on the sides, whether or not it will go through the hole so your sweater may have 5 different size buttons.

BTW, after you have finished spraying them with the poly, you can get some acrylic paint and a small paint brush and paint flowers or toys or whatever you want on them, spray that after its dry and you have a button that will match any theme and they look very different from the plain ones.
The picture above is just one of my buttons. We tried several different kinds of tree limbs and each one looked different. I think it was ash that gave us a larger lighter color. We also used maple and cedar. Cedar were my favorites.

Try a branch, I'll bet you love them.

New Garden Flag

2011-07-11T09:12:00.003-04:00

Its been a while since I've sewn anything but I decided I needed to make a garden flag for the next Holiday, Labor Day. I checked my files for the Tweets (birds in a tree doing Holiday things) from Embroidery Library.com but there wasn't a Labor Day Tweet. Oh well, I found one called "What I'll Be When I Grow Up" and thought, perfect, it shows workers, a fireman, astronaut, pop singer, cowboy...and I added Biscuit at the bottom, wearing a fireman's hat. Well, when I got it finished I liked it so much I didn't want to wait till Labor Day week to put it out so I put Happy Day at at the top  instead of Happy Labor Day and put it out.
I made this one a little different from the others I've done. I like the sterling chain at the bottom to hold the flag down in the wind so made a little casing at the bottom.   I did a rolled hem on the sides instead of sewing a doubled hem and I like how it looks.   I made the top casing wider so that I didn't have trouble threading it onto the flag holder which is a royal pain.   Then I tried to iron a fusible stabilizer to the back because the flag fabric is fairly thin and really needs more than the medium weight tearaway I have always used. Also I didn't like the idea of a wash-away stabilizer because I didn't want to have to soak it when it was done but next time I hope I remember, the fusible stabilizer doesn't fuse to the flag fabric well. You can't use a lot of heat on these things because hot heat will melt the fabric so I couldn't get it hot enough to fuse. Doggone it. I ended up leaving it half-way fused and hooped the tearaway, sprayed the fusible with sticky stuff to hold it to the hooped tearaway. When I got done I had to cut the fusible out around the design in the back. Pain in the neck but it looks ok so that's all that matters.
The casing that holds the chain is a good idea, it holds down better than the chain I put on the last one (which I just tacked on when the flag was done).   So in all, I like this flag, every one I make teaches me something new.    The additional stabilizer was a good idea, maybe next time I'll use Badgemaster which is a washaway and I'll soak it when finished. Obviously its the easiest way to go.
BTW, the flag looks a little wacky, the wind was blowing just a bit when I took the picture, hence the crooked sides. Really, its straight.

Next project---I'm making another pair of socks once again trying the Interweave sock book called Favorite Socks, I'm learning with this project too, it calls for 5 double pointed needles, 4 in the circle and 1 to knit with.  I'm making Retro Ribbed Socks, one of the first in the book. I had a heck of a time casting on with 4 needles but did manage to get started last night while I watched Housewives of New Jersey. Since its raining and humid out today I may just sit under the ceiling fan and knit all day.  This project requires a little concentration until I memorize the pattern.

EZs Surprise Baby Jacket

2011-06-20T13:03:00.000-04:00

Note: This sweater and blog post was done in Sept 08. I knitted it for a contest my MK guild was sponsoring at the time, we were all supposed to make a BJS. Only a few of us did it but it was a challenge I was pretty proud of. I came across the pictures the other day, not sure why I didn't put them up when I knitted the sweater but anyway, here they are now, June 2011.

Well, I finally sat down and knitted this sweater and it took me as long to figure out what went where as it did to knit it. I decided to just knit per the pattern as written (http://www.junebugsplace.com/) and disregard my tension swatch because I just wasn't sure what went where. I striped it randomly just to see where the strips would go and they sure didn't turn out where I thought they would
I also couldn't figure out where to put cables and honestly, after looking at my finished product, I still don't know where to put cables so that they end up as hearts. OH well! I've now decided that with all the ends left with the stripes, I'm going to make a plain blue sweater and trim it with the other 2 colors somehow (to be determined when done).

Now that I've got this made with all the different stripe patterns I can at least figure out where I did what. The back turns out to be the biggest piece you knit between the shortrows. The shortrows become the sleeve backs at the cuffs and bottom front of the sweater. Its easy to figure out where the center front neck is, you have decreases there and they HAVE to be the front neck. When you look at my pictures, remember, I have packed my pins and so rather than pin it out, I threaded knitting needles through the edges so that I could see what I was doing and hopefully you can too. The green bit, by the way, is the beginning waste yarn. I ewrap cast on over it. (& that's the beginning of my knitting).

Here's the piece as it comes off the machine, the bottom is where I cast on

here's the back. As you can see, its the center section between the short rows.

Front, & yes, my stripes don't match up because I didn't try to make them match, I had no idea what part I was knitting when I made them. But I'm glad I did that because now I know, the right front is the beginning edge I knitted and the left front is the ending part. The short rows are at the front sides and theback sleeves at the cuff sections. Wierd? How in the world did EZ figure this out.??

Memorial Day

2011-05-28T08:49:00.001-04:00

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service. There are many stories as to its actual beginnings, with over two dozen cities and towns laying claim to being the birthplace of Memorial Day. There is also evidence that organized women's groups in the South were decorating graves before the end of the Civil War: a hymn published in 1867, "Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping" by Nella L. Sweet carried the dedication "To The Ladies of the South who are Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead" (Source: Duke University's Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920). While Waterloo N.Y. was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, it's difficult to prove conclusively the origins of the day. It is more likely that it had many separate beginnings; each of those towns and every planned or spontaneous gathering of people to honor the war dead in the 1860's tapped into the general human need to honor our dead, each contributed honorably to the growing movement that culminated in Gen Logan giving his official proclamation in 1868. It is not important who was the very first, what is important is that Memorial Day was established. Memorial Day is not about division. It is about reconciliation; it is about coming together to honor those who gave their all.   (copied from Wikipedia)

When I was growing up I remember my dad always had a big flower garden in the field next door to us. He would pick big bouquets and we'd all go to the cemetery to put flowers on my grandparents graves.   We didn't give a lot of thought to the Military who died because honestly, we didn't have any that I know of that gave their lives while in Service.   My dad was around 18 yrs old when he was a soldier in WWI but I have no idea and don't remember him ever talking about it. All I have is a very old picture of him in his uniform taken someplace in the U.S.

Meanwhile, my husband was a 21 yr veteran of the USAF. He loved the Air Force and believe it or not, in spite of all the moving we did, I loved it too. He passed away in 2007 and was buried in a brand new VA cemetery in Anderson,SC.   Nowadays, naturally, I do think of the Veterans and those who gave their lives for us. My husband didn't but he could easily have since he went in the AF before the official end of the Korean War and served during the Vietnam war. Lucky for our family, during the Vietnam War time, he was sent to Biloxi, Mississippi to teach those who were going to Vietnam and managed to stay in the States during the entire war. Still, he always felt guilty for not going even though I always felt like someone had to train the young troops here in the States and maybe he was one of those who kept them safe while there.

This weekend I hope everyone takes a few moments from the big Department Store Sales, the picnics, the beach, and just say a little prayer for the people who are serving and those who lost their liveswhile serving in the Military and lets not forget the people who are suffering from the terrible weather we've had the past couple weeks.

Howard Porter, taken just before being shipped overseas in 1960

Veterans Cemetery; Anderson, SC where my husband rests

Tornado picture courtesy of Wikipedia

Roz's Nachos Supreme

2011-05-08T08:30:00.001-04:00

You have to try this, its so delicious. I made it to eat while watching the Kentucky Derby. It was perfect, if I do say so myself!

1 lb Ground Beef

1 pkg McCormick 30% less sodium Taco Sauce
Medium sweet yellow onion chopped
Sweet red pepper chopped
Sweet green pepper chopped
Green Poblano pepper chopped (careful, if its red it could be too hot to your taste)
Sliced black olives
Sargento 4 cheese Mexican cheese
1 package multigrain tortilla chips
1 jar Paul Neuman Medium Salsa
Paprika
Chop veggies up small and put aside all together in a bowl

In deep non-stick fry pan brown ground beef until all pink is removed, if it seems way too fatty, rinse it well at this time (trust me you won’t taste the difference and the fat will be going down the drain instead of on your hips). Don’t rinse the pan however, just drain out the fat.
Add veggies and cook until the onions are translucent. Add beef back to pan with veggiers continuing to cook as you stir.
Add Taco Seasoning mix and water as directed by your sauce packet
If it’s real liquid, let the fluid cook down a little but it will be absorbed by the chips, you just don’t want the chips to be soggy.
Taste, if its not spicy enough for you, add more salsa (no water) or chili powder and paprika. Keep tasting until it suits you. Add olives now, just before you pour over the chips.
Sprinkle the tortilla chips around the bottom of a shallow round casserole dish, I break the larger ones in half
Pour the meat mixture over the chips
Sprinkle the cheese over the top of the mixture
Sprinkle the 4 cheese Mexican cheese around the top of the mixture
Cook in microwave until the cheese starts to bubble
Remove from microwave and serve.
Put the salsa on the table for use by diners as they wish
Serve with Samuel Adams Boston Lager (chilled of course)

So Yummy!

New Guest Room and Wall Hanging

2011-04-19T07:45:00.003-04:00

I finished my guest room (which WAS my knitting room) and a wall hanging to hang in it, just in time for a visit from my daughter who lives in Tacoma. Yaaay! Got the wall hanging done just before I went to airport to pick her up. Here's a picture of the hanging

The room turned out nice I thought. I went to the local Comfort Center and bought a futon and the guy threw in a "better" mattress for it than the cheapie that was on it.   I love it.   Naturally, the color meant I needed to sew the wall hanging onto a red background.   Here's the finished room with the hanging and a second picture to show a little more of the room. The lady who lived here before me had a carpenter husband and grandson and apparently they built the nice inset with shelves beside the window. Its perfect for some of my knickknacks, which include a couple of the bunnies that prompted me to knit the bunny that I posted the pattern for in my last post. Lucky enough, one of the bunnies is wearing a red plaid dress so she goes with the room :-)

I can still put my knitting machine back in that room, its legs are on sliders so its easy to slide to different rooms, it is presently in MY bedroom but I don't like it there because I tend to put clothes and "things" on it and even though its covered, that's not a good practice.   Besides, my bedroom isn't as bright as this room and I don't have a lot of company so its a better place all around for my knitting machine.

I learned a lot with the wall hanging, mostly about stabilizers, I used some of my fabric stash because I had a lot of the blue cotton that I sewed the squares on. The cotton was fairly thin and I used a medium tearaway on it but should have either used 2 layers of the tearaway or better yet, a fusible. Reason: The pattern shifted on a couple of the squares. Actually, one of the squares came out larger than the others and didn't quite fit...naturally it was a center square so I had to do a lot of fudging. If I had more fabric I would have done that square over but already had to do 2 over again so ran out of fabric. Lesson learned!    But in the end it turned out ok and I like where its living although originally I was going to hang it out on my front porch. NO WAY! It has to live in the guest/knitting room.

Easter Bunnies

2011-04-04T15:09:00.001-04:00

Yes, its time to knit for Easter and what's Easter without a couple bunnies on your shelf?

These bunnies were not my original creation (so to speak) I received a couple made out of fabric by one of my school buddies. Hers had dresses that are like bean bags. I decided they would be fun to knit. The one with the red plaid dress was made by a Compuserve member back when I wrote the original pattern. (does that tell you how long ago this pattern was written?)

Bunny Pattern

Materials: MC--any color for dress

CC--any desired for dress trim

Baby pink for bunny head, hands and feet

Use any yarn that is similar to Trenzi, Trenzado or Solo
Small amount of polyester stuffing
Machine: Any standard gauge.
Tension: Tension 6 on any Brother or Knitking standard machine. This should be knitted tight
Dress: C/O 90 sts with waste yarn and knit a few rows. K 1 row ravel cord.
RC000: With MC knit 36 rows. Weigh well. *Pull every 5th stitch to holding position.
Carriage on hold, with CC work 4 rows. Break CC. Turn carriage off Hold.
With MC K 1 row.*
Repeat from * to * 1 time.
If desired, pick out any small fairisle pattern and place here. (tiny flowers look good).
Knit to row 80. Take off on waste yarn.

Head: Rehang on 60 needles, wrong side facing thus: 1 st, 2 sts, 1 st, 2 sts, across.
Now rehang the cast on edge as above, 1 st, 2 sts, 1 st, etc as above.
RC 000. With pink K 30 rows. Transfer every other stitch to needle on right. Leave empty needles out of work. K 1 row. Cut thread 3 X the width of work. (use this to take off with double eye needle). Gather top of head and sew seam with the mattress stitch. Stuff head tightly and run thread through neck to gather neck closed.

Ears: Make 1: C/O 14 sts with waste and work a few rows. Work 1 row with ravel cord.
With pink K 80 rows. Break thread about 1 1/2 x the width of work and take sts off on double eyed needle. Gather just the end and secure and cut thread. Take open cast on sts off on beginning thread, gather, secure and cut. Tie a knot in the middle of ear fabric and sew the knot to the top of the head. Embroider mouth and eyes.

Arms: Make 1. C/O 14 sts in waste yarn and K 1 row with Ravel Cord as above. RC 000 Knit 90 rows. Take off as you did ears. Tie knot in the middle and secure each end to the side--more to the back than front. About half-way between neck and bottom of skirt so the knot sits in the middle front, not loosely, not tightly, knot is the hands.

Legs: Make 2. C/O 14 sts with waste and ravel cord as above. K 50 rows. Take off as above but sew seam for about 1". Stuff lightly for foot and gather at ankle (at top of 1" seam). Tie knot between ankle and top, closer to top (knees). Gather up open sts at cast-on and secure under dress in front. Sit bunny on the edge of a shelf or chair with her legs hanging down.

Variation #1:

You can put a tuft of orange yarn up through the knot in her hands and she'll look like she is eating a carrot (variation thanks to a Prodigy member).

Variation #2:

When making the ears, arms and legs, rather than casting on with scrap and ravel cord, use the pink yarn and the Weaving cast on. Then when you want to gather the ends, just pull the weaving thread and it is all gathered! (variation thanks to a Compuserve member).

Variation #3

Here's a DAK enhancement by a new Compuserve membere:" I've made 3 bunnies and using Dak I put (what else?) bunnies on the dress. After reading a discussion of using the lace carriage to transfer stitches for reducing , I did the reductions for the bunny with the lace carriage. I just added a few extra lines to the Dak pattern for the needle selection for the lace carriage. (I was knitting from screen-color pattern only, and I turned it off for the plain parts and turned it on for the tuck, the fairisle, and (now) the transfer of stitches). On

Bunny #3, I started the tuck pattern at R 32, hung the hem at R 72 (this was much faster for me than hanging it when you rehang after the decreasing), transferred stitches for the decrease at R 76. Then put the empty needles out of work, and threaded a separate piece of doubled yarn over and under the pairs of needles left in work. With the weaving brushes engaged, k one row. This installs the drawstring to gather the neck. Then scrap off and rehang the live stitches on 60 needles, knit the pink for 30 rows for the head, then transfer every other stitch, knit 1 row, take off and gather. "

Stained Glass Embroidery

2011-03-20T10:30:00.001-04:00

I've been working on and off on this stained glass embroidered wall hanging since the day I first bought them (I think the first day they came out. You can see the whole set at http://www.emblibrary.com/EL/new.aspx?date=030911 . I plan on getting a piece of upholstery fabric for the backing. Emblibrary has excellent directions for making this, I have them all printed out and following them to the "T". I am making some of the colors different than theirs but then that's the fun of machine embroidery.

These are pretty and its fun to put the pieces together and see them match up. I haven't ever done anything like this before. As you can see, so far I have the first row completed. I finished the center piece of the second row last night but my embroidery machine messed up just a little when the bobbin thread decided it didn't want to work and the whole design shifted just a little. I can fix it and will before I start the adjoining pieces. Phooey, I know better, the machine doesn't like it when I leave it even just long enough to put the dog out and get a drink of water. That's what I get, the machine needs me. :-)

New Multidirectional Scarf

2011-03-17T12:45:00.002-04:00

I knitted a multidirectional scarf in November (2009) and loved it but gave it to a friend. So I found some hand dyed yarn in my stash of yarn as I was trying to clean out the closets, etc...and decided to make myself one. I love the scarf. The other one was pictured in another blog note here: http://rozspot.blogspot.com/2009/11/multi-directional-scarf.html

Saving Gas (worth a try)

2011-03-13T10:04:00.001-04:00

I've been filling up when my gas tank is at 3/4 to 1/2 full thinking if prices go up today at least I'll save a couple pennies and won't have to totally fill up. I've also been driving slower, taking off from a full stop much slower and trying to combine trips. But, this was sent to me this morning and son of a gun, I'm going to give it a try as well.
TIPS ON PUMPING GAS

I don't know what you guys are paying for gasoline.... but here in California we are paying up to $3.75 to $4.10 per gallon. My line of work is in petroleum for about 31 years now, so here are some tricks to get more of your money's worth for every gallon:

Here at the Kinder Morgan Pipeline where I work in San Jose , CA we deliver about 4 million gallons in a 24-hour period thru the pipeline.. One day is diesel the next day is jet fuel, and gasoline, regular and premium grades. We have 34-storage tanks here with a total capacity of 16,800,000 gallons.

Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold.Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening....your gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role.

A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.

When you're filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3) stages: low, middle, and high. You should be pumping on low mode, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you're getting less worth for your money.

One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL. The reason for this is the more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated so that every gallon is actually the exact amount.

Another reminder, if there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up; most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.

Its 10 a.m. /Roz is on my way to fill up, my tank is 3/4 full....will I save? Good Grief, I hope so!

Beaded Bags On The LK 150

2011-02-24T05:28:00.000-05:00

The larger bag was made to go inside my hand knitting bag; it will hold accessories like clippers, tape measure, tapestry needle, stitch markers, etc. The cell phone bag was made to fit a Razr 3M phone.

Materials:
1) 1 skein (4 ozs) Down Home Art Yarns Sock yarn, Turquoise Fade. from www.knitivity.com My larger bag final measurement is 5” X 8”. Cell phone bag took final measurement is 4 ½” X 2 ¼”.
2) Fabric for lining (cell phone bag isn’t lined)
3) 7 inch zipper
4) Button for cell phone bag
5) Crochet hook
6) Beads: Beaded Treasures 6/0 Czech Glass Beads from Hobby Lobby, it took 4 vials and I had beads left over. If you just make the larger bag, you will only need 3 vials.
1 package Oral B Superfloss for beading unless you have a bead tool that fits through the beads.

Machine: LK 150 mid gauge machine
Tension: Carriage was set at the lowest possible tension (R) antenna was set at 1.

Gauge: 11.4 rows per inch, 5.7 stitches per inch but gauge isn’t really all that important unless you know exactly how big you want your little bag to be.

Machine Knit Technique: The bags were knitted and woven with the skein of yarn I bought from knitivity.com. I chose to weave it because I thought it needed to be thicker and I didn’t think I’d have enough yarn to double it for a heavy stockinette. Weaving takes very little yarn and I actually ended up with
2 ounces left after I made the 2 bags.

Picture above shows the woven side of the weaving

I did want the stockinette side to be the right side though so although I like the woven side, it will be hidden by a lining.

Stitch Pattern: Knit weave 2 rows, place a bead on every other stitch every 3rd row alternating the stitches where the beads will be placed. By always starting your beading from the carriage side of the work, you can start with stitch 4 each side stitch 2 and your beads will be alternated every 3rd row. Also because you have 44 stitches on the needle bed you can start weaving each side with a yarn over so you won’t get lost trying to figure out if you’re supposed to do a yarn over or a yarn under, its hard to tell when you’re using the same yarn for knitting and weaving.

Wind your yarn into a ball and then put it on an ounce scale. Wind half off into another ball. Knit the first side and switch balls for the second side.

I have a bead tool and the beads I wanted to use didn’t fit on it.
Thanks to zackDS@comcast.net for the following directions:
“I use Oral B Superfloss. Use the smooth stiff part like a needle and thread as many beads as needed for each row. Tie a knot below the fluffy part so the beads won’t fall off although the fluffy part usually holds them on.”
(NOTE: I tied the floss in a bow knot below the fluffy part so that the beads wouldn’t fall off the other end (just in case).

Directions:

With waste yarn cast on 44 stitches and knit a few rows, knit 1 row with ravel cord
Ewrap cast on over the ravel cord with your main yarn.

Knit one row over the cast on row (carriage on L)—we won’t count this row.

Row 1: Carriage on L, begin weaving starting with needle 1, over, needle 2 under--over and under, over and under (1x1 weave). ) you’ll end with a yarn under at the end of each row and start each row with a yarn over. Knit across, carriage ends on the R.
Row 2: Knit weave this row end with carriage on L.
Row 3: Load 20 beads onto your floss and begin on the carriage side (L) start with stitch 4 and put a bead on every other stitch ending with 2 empty stitches remaining on the R.
Weave your yarn across the bed and then knit across the row slowly. Don’t force the carriage.

Row 4 and 5, knitweave
Row 6: bead across starting with the 4th stitch on carriage side.

Continue weaving putting beads on alternate stitches as above on row 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, etc as above to row 51, continue weaving-only to row 55.

Finishing:

When finished, pin the 2 pieces out on a blocking board and steam to set stitches. Crab Stitch the 2 top sides of your purse before installing zipper. Hand baste the zipper into the 2 top pieces. Once it’s basted by hand, take to sewing machine and sew zipper in, be careful not to sew through your crab stitches.

Now measure and cut out your lining fabric in 1 piece, folded at the bottom.
Mattress stitch the 2 sides of your knitted purse together and turn inside out to sew bottom and weave your ends in. Insert the lining and hand stitch the top to the zipper facing, hiding your zipper stitches if you want. Don't you love how my lining happens to match the yarn? Its Laurel Burch fabric, I bought in a quilt kit when visiting in Tacoma, WA. Never will make the quilt I'm having too much fun with the fabric pieces.

Cell Phone Holder
Yarn Used, ½ ounce
Technique, knit weave on LK 150 as above
Cell phone bag isn’t lined because I made it snug so it would stretch a little wider to fit phone.

Cast on 16 stitches with waste yarn and ravel cord (as above)
Knit 1 row plan and start knit weaving and beading as above beading on row 3, 6, 9, 12, etc. Continue to row 108. Stop beading and knit weave 2 more rows. (end RC 110).

Pin your piece out on a blocking mat and steam to set stitches.
Fold piece over your cell phone and determine where you’ll want the bottom to fold. Sew up the sides using that measurement. Crab stitch around the entire top of the bag. Sew button on and crochet a chain buttonhole to fit button. (I found a mother-of-pearl button that looks so great with the beads).

BONUS BAG

Since I had yarn and beads left over after the first 2 bags I decided I’d make an iPod bag that would hang around my neck when I walk. I wanted the iPod along with its case in the bag because I feel like it’s a likely thing to get broken without its case. The iPod in its case measures 6 ¼” around its width and is 5” long. I decided to decorate it with beads rather than knit beads in every 3rd row and it’s infinitely faster that way.

DIRECTIONS

Cast on with waste yarn 16 stitches and knit a few rows. Knit 1 row with ravel cord.
With main yarn knit 1 row and then begin weaving as we did with the other 2 bags. Knit and weave 115 rows. Cut your weaving yarn and latch tool bind off with the main yarn. Crochet a crab stitch around the top.

Double the yarn and knit a 3 stitch ICord (knit 1 way, slip the other way). I’m sorry I didn’t count how many rows of ICord I knitted, I knitted until it was 30 inches long. I attached it to the 2 sides of the bag.

POCKET I decided to make a pocket for the ear buds because they are always in the bottom of my purse or pocket, all mixed up with pens, comb, etc and how handy is it to have them right there in the bag with the iPod.

With waste yarn cast on 12 stitches and knit a few rows. Knit 1 row with ravel cord.
With main yarn and weaving yarn, knit weave 11 rows as above.
ROW 12 start the diamond pattern with beads. Center 2 beads on the first row, 4 beads on the second row, 6 beads on the third row, 4 beads on the fourth row and 2 beads on the 5th row. Feel free to make your own bead pattern or omit it altogether.
ROW 17 continue knit weave to row 29.
Cut weaving yarn and latch tool bind off with main yarn.
Sew pocket to front of bag leaving the top open. If you wish, crochet a crab stitch across the top of the pocket. Steam the bag and you’re ready to walk.

By the way, I still have 1.1 ounce of yarn left over, enough for another little bag.
These bags won first place in a 1 skein contest that Ray at Knitivity.com was sponsoring. Maybe they won because they were the only entry but I like to believe they won because they came out so great and I made so many things with that one skein of yarn. What did I win? Why, another skein of yarn (different color). Maybe I'll post a picture and pattern of what I made with that skein some day...........
ps. apologize for the quality of the pictures, I had to scan them from the original pattern and they never come out as nice as if I'd taken a new picture.

Copyright © 2009, Rosalind Porter

Tatted Panels-Joining Afghan Panels

2011-02-01T10:15:00.002-05:00

Joining Your G Carriage Afghan Panels With Needle Tatting
This article was featured in Machine Knitting News and Views November, 1995.
©Rosalind Porter, 1995-2011

Your basic afghan can be any design, to do one like mine you'd want one with 3 or 4 panels but you could use the edging pattern below and just edge a baby blanket or a neckline. I chose a garter carriage afghan that was divided into 5 panels. I also tatted around the edge of my afghan but that is an optional step. I love the way it looks though and the edging I've come up with is very easy and fast to do.

Abbreviations:
Ch Chain
Rw Reverse Work
R Ring
Cl Close
Ds Double Stitch
"-" Picot
"+" Join

Materials:
Needle Tatting Needle # 2-0 (smaller size Yarn needle)
Yarn: Your G Carriage Afghan Yarn

With right side of afghan facing you start at the top of first panel.
1. Chain 3ds + ( to afghan at 5th row down from top) 3 ds Cl Rw
2. R 3-3-3-3 Cl Rw
3. *Ch 3 + ( to afghan 5 rows from the last join) 3 ds Cl Rw.
4. R 3 + to first picot on last ring, 3-3-3 Rw

Repeat from * down the side of the afghan panel joining your work at the middle of each chain every 5th row ending with a chain. attached to the end to the afghan with a knot.

JOINING SECOND PANEL
To join the next panel, you will be tatting on the second panel and joining to the first panel at the 2nd rings picot as you go. Make absolutely sure you have both panels facing the right direction (top up). Also make sure you have the correct side facing on both panels so that your design is going in the same direction on both panels. With right side of second panel facing you

1. Ch 3 + to new panel 5 rows down from top 3 ds Rw.
2 R 3 - 3 + to second picot on first panel 3 - 3 Cl Rw.
3.* Ch 3 + to 5th row down from last join 3 Rw.
4. R 3 + to last picot on last ring, 3 + to second picot on first panel, 3 - 3 Rw
5. Repeat from * down the side of the afghan panel joining your work at the middle of each chain every 5th row. Make sure you end with the same thing (either a ring or a chain) on each panel.

NOTE: Check to be sure your afghan panels are lining up evenly as you go down. My afghan pattern consisted of a series of squares so I checked at the end of each square to be sure it was lining up. You could pin your panels together before you start and you can always skip to the 6th row down for a couple joins to even things up as you approach your checking point.

Optional Edging:

With right side facing attach to corner by bringing thread through from back.
**Ch 3 - 3 + to 5th stitch down the edge.
Attach to 5th stitch by bringing needle in from back to front, tie slip knot.
Repeat from * * All the way around the afghan skipping the rings at the middle of each panel if desired.

Here's a picture of the afghan, taken today (2/1/11)

You may copy and share this pattern but please keep the copyright intact.

Michigan Machine Knitting Seminars

2011-01-30T08:54:00.000-05:00

Since the topic has been mentioned this past week on the knittingmachines Yahoo Group I thought I'd add the upcoming seminars/workshops coming up in Michigan.; Its time to plan for them now.

BTW, this information came from Sandee Cherry's web site http://sandeeskwikknit.com/seminar.html. Sandee will be teaching at the Monroe seminar in July. If you can attend do, her patterns are quick and easy and spot on for up-to-date-fashions. While I'm at it I added Peru, IN...Charlene Shafer always has a fun seminar, its inexpensive and people leave with a carload of yarn(ask me how I know)

March 25-26, 2011 Monroe, MI USA DAK Hands-on Workshop
for more info call Cathy Reaume (734)243-3016

April 1-2, 2011 Grand Rapids, MI USA Grand Rapids Area Machine Knitters
for more info call Sara Coates 616-887-0675

April 15-16, 2011 Peru, IN USA Spring Fling Knit Knack Shop
for more info call Charlene Shafer 765-985-3164

**July 22-23, 2011 Monroe, MI USA 23rd Monroe Seminar
for more info call Cathy Reaume(734)243-3016

I am planning on attending the Grand Rapids seminar and possibly the Monroe seminar, depending on other obligations. There's nothing like a seminar to learn more about your machines and to have a great time with other like-minded people.

I hope to see all you Michigan and surrounding state machine knitters at one of these seminars, I promise you'll have a fabulous time.

Chicken Pot Pie

2011-01-14T07:59:00.001-05:00

Yes, another pot pie recipe. I think they are so easy and so tasty and its an all-in-one dinner.   If you want a little salad with it, its even healthier and for ease of preparation, you can't beat it.

This recipe came from the Pillsbury.com/calendar2011. Its the January recipe and I knew as soon as I saw it I was going to make it.

INGREDIENTS:
Crust: 1 box Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts softened as directed on pkg. (I did mine in the Microwave for a second or two...don't go too long (ask me how I know)
Filling:
1/3 cup butter or margarine
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 can (14 oz) chicken broth
1/2cup milk
2 1/2 cups shredded turkey (I used chicken, hence the change in title)
2 cups Green Giant Valley Fresh Steamers frozen mixed vegetables, thawed.

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 425 F   Make pie crusts as directed on box for two-crust pie using 9 inch glass plate.
2. In 2-quart saucepan melt butter over medium heat. Add onion, cook 2 min stirring frequently until
   tender. Stir in flour, salt and pepper until well blended. Gradually stir in broth and milk, cooking and
    stirring until bubbly and thickened.
3. Stir in turkey or chicken and mixed vegetables. Remove from heat. Spoon into crust lined pie plate.
     Top with second crust, seal edge and flute. Cut slits in several places in top crust.
4. Bake 30 to 40 min or unti crust is golden brown. During last 15 to 20 min of baking cover edge of crust
    with strips of foil to prevent excessive browning. Here's my pie ready for the oven

Very yummy, as you can see 2 of us did a good job of eating it although I did take out a slice for my friend for his freezer. It will make a nice lunch in a few days.

NOTES:

OK, I didn't have any leftover poultry so I used 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, thawed almost totally and then chopped into about 1 inch pieces. I used Pam in my frying pan and cooked the pieces until all pink was gone. I salted and peppered them as they were cooking and also sprinkled in some McCormick Chicken Seasoning (it has a little bite, makes it sooooo good) and some poultry seasoning. Put it in the fridge until I needed it, there were some nice juices in the bottom of the plastic tub I had them stored in and I added that to the chicken broth in number 2 above. I also sprinkled just a little poultry seasoning on the crust.
Next time I'm thinking I'll use Cream of Chicken Soup for the liquid it has a nice flavor and I can add the liquid from my cooked chicken to make it a little more juicy.

I hope you try it and ENJOY!

The crust comes out really nice and flakey. It really was a delicious dinner and we're eating the leftovers tonight :-) That's making a couple chicken breasts go a long way, don't you think?

Baabaazuzu

2010-12-15T07:55:00.001-05:00

One of my friends here in the condo units recently told me about a company that is located right here in Leelanau, MI. I've seen a company just like this highlighted twice before on Carol Duval's Christmas show on HGTV and I suspect this is the same company.   Carol showed a lady's messy basement, full of old wool sweaters and pieces of wool.   Then she showed the things the woman made with her wool after she felts it.   If this isn't the same company, I'd be surprised.

Anyway, my friend bought a pair of mittens from the company she was telling me about (Baabaazuzu is the company's name)   Funny enough, this past Sunday the local newspaper had an article about this same woman and her company.   Well, my friend's pair of mittens were to die for, I wanted some. Then when I saw the newspaper article I looked Baabaazuzu up on the internet and decided I was getting myself a pair.   I walk the dog every day in very cold temps, my hands freezing in spite of the fact that I have some nice warm gloves, I knew these mittens needed to be mine so yesterday I took off for town. There were 2 shops that are very close to where I live and since I was in town anyway, I found the closest shop.
I knew I wanted the denim color and I thought I wanted a hat as well as mittens in spite of the fact that its so expensive this close to Christmas. Oh well....the hats were not in the color I wanted but there they were, my mittens.....

These items are all a mixture of sweaters and assorted other wool items, all felted by this lady and her employees (yes she now has quite a few employees and her things are sold all over the country).   Nothing matches, my 2 mittens are in the same colorway (denim) but they don't match. The vintage buttons that decorate the mittens also don't match.    Here they are, my wonderful, warm mittens...

Check out the web page, she has hats, headbands, vests, jackets...well...anything you can make out of felted wool, she makes it. I definitely still want a hat in the denim colorway. I know I can't make anything as great as she does but I think I'll go to Goodwill and get some old jackets and see if I can make myself a hat. If my hat fails.....I'm going to go back to the shop and get one. Its VERY cold here in Traverse City and why not have something that's going to be so wonderfully warm I won't mind going out to walk the dog. Hey! Maybe I should make the dog a jacket out of this felted wool too.

Biscuit's Coat

2010-12-01T12:12:00.002-05:00

I have to show off this coat again, I think I posted a picture last spring when I made it but....he never wore it. Biscuit has been wearing it this week because its windy and cold out. Today he wore it while it was snowing, wet flakes (31 degrees out so, almost rain, but definitely snow). Polar Fleece is water-resistant so its a good jacket for wet snowy days. Anyway, the coat is made out of a remnant from JoAnn Fabrics. I bought some Sherpa from JoAnn's on line and planned on lining the coat with the Sherpa but when it came I realized that might be a pain in the neck to sew so instead I lined it with the same polar fleece that's on the top. I ended up quilting it thinking that would look pretty nifty (and it does).    I had a little piece left so made him a pocket and of course, had to embroider on it.   I used the Sherpa to line his belt and really love how that looks as well.

The nifty thing about polar fleece, if you've never used it, its like felt. You can cut it and you don't have to worry about the edges fraying. So I cut a pocket out with my pinking shears and sewed it right into the back, I didn't have to finish the edges or hem it or anything.

I also put a buttonhole on the back because Biscuit was wearing a halter with a clip for the leash that ended up on his back instead of around his neck when I made the jacket. Nowadays he wears a collar and doesn't need that buttonhole, I'm thinking of sewing a tiny piece of that polar fleece across the buttonhole to keep the wind off just in case the wind goes in the buttonhole....(besides, it would look nicer that way).

For a pattern, I took a little coat I had bought him at Pet Smart, it was a cheap little coat, very lightweight. I didn't like the way it didn't fit all the way down to his tail and all the way up his neck. Store bought jackets seem to be too long, too wide or just a little too narrow for Biscuit. Little boy dogs can't have much under their belly but most of the store bought coats just have a little strap around the belly, I felt like he needed more under there there so I made the belt around his belly wider, making sure it didn't go too far down, for obvious reasons. I also made the piece around his neck wider so he has the equivalent of a scarf around his neck.   I put the belt higher than the store-bought ones because he apparently is shorter from front to middle back...or they just put them in the middle. I added a collar because I think it looks super but also, when its windy I can put the collar up and it gives him a little more protection around the neck.

To make sure the thing fit the way I wanted it to, I got out my pattern-making paper...SOIL SEPARATOR which you can buy at Lowes or probably Home Depot for around $20. It's something I think they put down before they lay sewer pipes. The stuff resembles Do-Sew which is sold in fabric stores only theirs is gridded. You can cut it, baste it, try it on...and even trace a pattern with it. So I traced the store-bought jacket and then proceeded to enlarge it to fit. Since I have a lifetime supply of Soil Separator in one roll, I made several pieces until I was happy with the final fit. Then I used my Soil Separator pieces for my pattern.

Here's the result, I think the sweater is fabulous and Biscuit gets compliments every time he wears it at the park. He doesn't look so cute in the picture, unfortunately he hates having his picture taken...but then who doesn't? You can't see them but he has little blue bows in his hair, thanks to Pet Smart's hair cutter. People have complimented him on his beautiful coat, I had to take the bows out darn it, they matched his coat but too many people said boys can't have bows but I did leave them in for Thanksgiving.........

Next one will have Sherpa around the bottom or maybe I'll get up the nerve to actually line it with Sherpa, I think the Sherpa would be nice and warm because it would fold around him and fit next to his body better. I just bought him some doggie-paw polar fleece for the next jacket. :-) Am waiting for my fancy new sewing/embroidery machine before I make the new jacket.

Knit Cotton Washcloths & cast on rag

2010-11-16T16:28:00.002-05:00

These gems are easy to make and you're friends will love you if you make them a dozen for Christmas. Tie a bow around them and give them to everyone.

Machine: Standard Gauge, I used Brother 970

Material: 100% cotton, I've found people like the natural color or white so they can bleach them if necessary. Use 1 strand 8/2 cotton or 2 strands 16/2 (available from weaving shops or Stephanie's Yarn Shop, Bybee TN).

Directions: Begin by making yourself a cast on rag using 100 needles. I used Cotton Crochet thread for mine. Tension--whatever knits easily with the yarn you bought.

Pull forward every other needle and thread up your crochet thread. Knit across, right to left, hang cast on comb on the loops.

Pull forward every other alternate needle and knit back to the right. Now you have all 100 needles in work with a stitch on them. Continue knitting for 50 rows. Pull forward Every other needle and bring up the cast on loops that are on the cast on comb tryto keep the loops in the cast on comb. Hang the loops on every other needle. You should now have a loop on every other needle along with a stitch on every needle. Pull forward all needles and knit across. Knit 30 or 40 more rows and latch tool bind off.

Now you have a cast on rag. Its so handy to use this rather than waste yarn every time you want to start a washcloth. Go to the hardware store and get yourself a round metal bar that is a few inches longer than the cast on rag and weighs about 8 ozs. You can hang it in the hem you created when you hung the loops and that will take the place of a cast on comb for your wash cloth. (If you have a Bond you can of course use one of your weighted metal bars.

WASHCLOTH DIRECTIONS:

These are knitted using the tuck buttons as well as the slip buttons at the beginning and end of the cloth to create a pattern. I don't change the pattern row count as I push in the different buttons.

Machine tension loose, I used 8 on my carriage and a medium antenna tension

Pattern: xoxoxo

oxoxox (x is tuck (or black), o is plain (or white)

Hang cast on rag on the bound off edge directly on needles. Place weighted bar in the hem.

Knit across with ravel cord

Ewrap cast on with your washcloth cotton.

Set up machine for 1x1 tuck stitch shown above

Turn on KC button and knit across. Every other needle should be selected.

Push in both tuck buttons and continue knitting for 17 rows (total 18 rows counting 1st row)

About this time I add claw weights to each edge to make sure the edge stitches knit off properly.

Push in slip buttons and continue knitting for 10 rows

Push in tuck buttons and continue knitting for 162 more rows

Push in slip buttons and continue knitting for 10 rows

Push in tuck buttons and knit for 17 rows, ending on left. (if you ended on right, knit 1 more row in tuck)

Turn off KC button and knit 1 row to the left.

Sew in ends by weaving through a few rows on the edges and tie off.

Washcloths will be loosely knit but shrink when washed.

Wash and dry your washcloths and steam them if you wish fold them and they're ready to give to friends.

Towels are done, sweater's coming along

2010-09-26T09:25:00.001-04:00

I managed to finish 35 of these and made the sign late last night. I have 7 blanks left and may get some more to make for Christmas presents.   People really do like them, they're lint free, prewashed (by me), washed once again after sewing to remove the stabilizer and the iron and my arm got a workout, getting the wrinkles out after the second wash, for some reason they are sooooooo wrinkled its almost impossible to iron them although if you pay more for them, you get pre-ironed.   Oh well....it didn't kill me.    Hopefully the church will sell them all and that's my part for the Bazaar.

I have yard work to do, dead flowers to get rid of and hoses to get in.   It was pretty cold this morning when I walked the dog at 7:30 so I really need to start getting out some warmer clothes. Also have to finish putting the film on the bedroom windows and the door in the sewing room.   Why is it I always am behind in everything I do? I could have been working on these towels for a year, I knew they have a bazaar every Oct. Well, I might go ahead and start soon, I would have liked to make knitted dishcloths to go with them and package them up with raffia ribbon, a towel and washcloth as a set. Might do that next year, I have some really nifty paper ribbon that is red and white polka dots I think I bought it once for this very purpose.

Meanwhile, my sweater is progressing, I've knitted 20 rows (I know that doesn't sound like much but remember I'm going around a humongous circle which is getting smaller by the decreases every 9 rows. In fact after the second decrease row I was amazed at how fast I got back to the beginning. I will have to make a swatch on the knitting machine to chart the sleeves although I have to wait till I get to the section of the circle where I put stitches on hold for sleeves to be inserted, then I can figure out how wide the top of the sleeve has to be.    I suspect the sleeve will be similar to a drop shoulder sleeve, straight across at the top (obviously I will look at the diagram in the pattern which isn't near the computer as I write this).    Anyway, I am convinced I can knit the sleeves on the machine which will make the whole thing go faster.    Our local LYS has shawl pins and I'll get one for this wonderful sweater but no sense rushing......

Working Day and Night

2010-09-23T17:02:00.001-04:00

Well, I am working day and night but I'm enjoying every minute of it. Our church is having a baazar early in Oct and one of their booths is called "Country Kitchen" I had the brilliant idea that I had a bunch of flour sack towels and I would embroider redwork designs on them. Turned out I didn't have as many as I thought I did. Oh well I started in and you see what I got done before I ran out of towels. So I went to a local store and got 21 more towels. I'm now working on the last 21. I'm doing the Days Of The Week designs on them.

When I say I'm working day and night, I mean it, I start early in the morning after walking the dog and cleaning up around the house I begin on the towels, stopping for lunch. Then in the evening when my favorite TV shows come on I begin working on my hand knit project (the circular cardigan).
So if you wonder where I've been---here I am, in my sewing room which is the perfect room for machine embroidery. I can close the door when I'm done and leave things out, ready for the next day. Perfect!

Border's done, now to decrease & decrease & decrease, etc....

2010-09-14T16:01:00.002-04:00

I finished the border after I measured it against the HK'd one which luckily I didn't unravel yet and the MK'd one measured the same as the finished one with only 661 rows. So then I had a dilemma, do I keep on going or do I go ahead and quit now. Well, really that was a no-brainer, who wants to continue on for another couple hundred rows which seem to take forever when the thing was big enough already. So I quit and started picking up stitches with my HK needles. Now I can start another sweater on the machine while I HK this in the evening. At least that's the plan.

I worried about how I was going to figure out how in the world to pick up 363 stitches on 661 rows, the pattern said pick up along the edge, every other row. Well, I finally decided to just start picking up. I counted out and marked every 100 rows and picked up evenly around. When I was through I counted how many stitches I had and saw that I didn't have enough so joined it into a circle and knitted a row, increasing evenly around until I had 363. Surely there's an easier way to do this but that's what I did.

After I had the proper number of stitches which I felt was important because the pattern calls for evenly decreasing so many rows until you come to the center and the decreases are really pretty if they are all lined up from border to center. So in the picture above you see my finished border and the first 9 rows. The makrers show every 10 stitches because I must decrease every so many rows at the markers. This will go much faster than the border did even though its just plain knitting because I'm decreasing so many stitches often. Once this is done I feel I might be able to do the sleeves on the machine although I guess I need to swatch on the machine and maybe chart out the sleeves with Knitware software. That should work, right? I hope so, I really want this done for Christmas.

Border will be done this week......

2010-09-07T09:43:00.000-04:00

Hopefully I'l have this 858 rows done by the middle of this week but today I have a hair appointment so can't work on it although I have just done 25 rows this morning and will knit when I get home time permitting. Here's a small record of my project since I started this border

510 rows

400 rows

600 rows

My Circular Cardigan

2010-08-25T07:46:00.001-04:00

I've been working for over a year on this circular cardigan. I love the design and I love a circular cardigan. I bought one a few years ago when I was visiting my daughter in Tacoma. Loved the sweater, it was so comfy and cozy but it pilled savagely as soon as I washed it. To make it worse, it was a soft acrylic and stretched out of shape, making it narrower and longer. Anyway, I liked it enough to want to make one. Then I found Nigella, a sweater pattern from Berroco. It called for a super yarn spun from rayon and cotton. PROBLEM...the border is over 800 rows but a very easy lace pattern to follow. I got past that and then started the actual circle. As I knitted on this thing on and off I realized the yarn was actually stretching out of shape as I knitted. It was getting longer and longer and when I got down to the end of the circle, I realized, this was NOT going to be a sweater that I would like any better than the one I bought because of the properties of the yarn. This was a sweater that should be carefully folded on a shelf and worn only on special occasions.......not the sweater I had planned on wearing all winter when I needed something to snuggle into. We all know a soft cotton will stretch out of shape as we wear it. Rayon is known to be iffy when washed so the combo is not my favorite for such a sweater. I finally gave up when I was supposed to be down to 17 stitches and still had 50+ on my needles (yes I was HKing this project and made a mistake or two while knitting).

I decided that as much as I loved the sweater I would have to abandon it.BUT I couldn't do it, I HAD to have that sweater so I went to my LYS and bought some wool yarn that I have knitted with before and like a lot. Shepherd's Wool by Stonehedge Fiber Mills. Its a soft Merino and should hold its shape. I also decided to change my needle from size 8 to size 7 after measuring, I think I was knitting it too loose. Then I decided, I just couldn't redo that border. I can't do it again...800+ stitches......until I realized I could probably do it on the machine. So I got out my LK 150 and spent half a day recreating that border pattern.

FROM THE FRONT

I'm now up to row 100 on the LK 150 and the results are great! I must say, this pattern looks good from both sides. Once the million rows are finished, I will turn it on its side and knit on another million stitches and start knitting circular which can't be done on the LK 150 but that's ok. You are working your way down from lots and lots of stitches to around 17 stitches so every time you decrease evenly around you are working with less stitches, quite a bonus I think.

and BACK

I also think this pattern would be great as a peplum on the bottom of a pullover (with quite a few less rows of course).    See the pretty scallop?
I'm working furiously with the machine part of this sweater because I want to get it onto my HK needles. I like to have something to HK in the evenings while I'm watching TV or traveling around.    MK is for day time for me these days.

What will I do with the tons of cotton/rayon yarn I bought? I'm thinking it would be a super yarn to use for something like a bolero. It can easily be machine knitted and its really a nice yarn for a smaller garment.

Northwestern Michigan Fair

2010-08-16T09:17:00.013-04:00

I spent a few hours each day for 3 days at the fair last week. Why? Well, the first day I went the kids were bringing in the 4H animals and I enjoyed looking at their animals as well as talking to the kids. One girl was rocking a sleeping calf's head in her lap and I asked her if she had just bought the calf or was selling it. She was selling it and said her last year's calf was being shown this year as a steer (ready for someone's freezer) She didn't seem sad or grossed out about it so obviously this girl lives on a farm and knows the difference in pets and farm animals. Still, it was nice to see she loved her calf enough to cradle his head in her lap. The kids had a hard time this year because it was sooooo hot last week, they had to spend a lot of time with their animals keeping them hydrated and hosing them down when they got stressed from the awful heat and humidity. I must comment, the barns were spotless every time I went through them, kudo's to the kids for their hard work.
The second day I went I wanted to watch the draft horse show, I love those gigantic animals.
The 3rd time I went though I went to see the needlecraft exhibits and what won prizes. I took pictures but we obviously weren't allowed to touch anything so there were times I questioned the lack of a ribbon but couldn't inspect to see why someone didn't get one, all I could do was marvel over the workmanship of the knits and the beauty of some of the entries.

I got myself a Rules Book and next year I plan on entering some knits, both hand and machine and I was thrilled to see Machine Knit was one of the categories although there were no machine knits entered. You'd better believe I came home, unraveled what I had done so far on that forever-project, Nigella, the circular sweater from Berroco. I did a gauge test on it and confirmed what I already knew, it was too loose and I am starting over with a smaller needle. I wish I could knit it on the knitting machine but its circular and would have to be grafted together later, I just can't graft stitches well enough to attempt it.

Here's some pictures that I took of knits that I would have been proud to enter, had I made them...enjoy!

This was a busy but fun Weekend

2010-08-09T12:45:00.011-04:00

The weekend started for me on Friday evening when my son and Daughter-in-law and I went to the park, downtown Traverse City. We had tickets to Paella In The Park. Paella is a Spanish recipe which apparently is open to interpretation (just Google Paella and you'll find lots of recipes, all using different ingredients, combining rice with meat, beans, vegetables, and/or seafood, with saffron and olive oil. The festivities included 7 chefs from 7 area restaurants all well known for their cooking fare. Each chef was paired with wines from the Wineries of Old Mission Peninsula ( http://www.wineriesofoldmission.com/ ) The chefs each made 3 versions of Paella, fish, meat and vegetarian. We had our choice of 3 of any of the 21 varieties made. We also had our choice of 5 different 2 ounce samplings of wine from any of the wineries. The lines were long but these guys knew what they were doing, the lines moved fast and we were served fairly quickly. The wine was DELICIOUS as was the Paella I chose (I had one with a combo of chicken, duck and artichoke. Next I chose one with sausage and mussels (told them to hold the mussel)which was my favorite because it was hot off the cooker and spicy hot to eat. The wine I chose was a white fruity winecalled Late Harvest Riesling from Chateau Grand Traverse, I'm not really a wine drinker the other 2 I tried were Chardonnay's and I only got 3 drinks from the 5 tickets in my pocket.

Also on the agenda was a concert. Opening the concert was Rootstand, a local group who plays Reggae/Celtic/Bluegrass followed by Blues Traveler, a blues-based rock group. Actually Bluegrass can get boring after the first couple songs (my opinion, naturally)and I felt like Rootstand was more of a country-type band. Anyway, I liked them.

The opening picture shows a balloon in the background, the stage with Blues Traveler and some of the crowd that was seated in front of us. It was definitely dusk when I took the picture. Somehow my son wrangled a seat on the balloon but it remained tethered, it just raised and lowered a few times, never going much over 3 feet off the ground. (I have no idea why)...

Personally I enjoyed Rootstand's music more than Blues Traveler's but then its my age I guess :-) Anyway we went home tired, full and happy. There was a heck of a crowd but plenty of room and food so it was an enjoyable evening.

Saturday was the opening day for the Northwest Michigan Fair. I'm ashamed of myself for not having something to enter but anyway..we went Saturday and watched as the 4H'rs brought their livestock and other goodies to enter. We walked through the horse barns and the livestock barns. I stopped and talked to a young girl who was sitting in a pile of fresh hay with her calf's head in her lap, the calf was taking a nap. She told me she was going to sell the calf and that the calf she raised last year was sold to a 4-H'er who was showing the steer this year. She was also showing a steer that will be sold during the 4H Livestock Market Auction. That brought back lots of memories of my kids doing the same when we lived in the U.P. of Michigan years ago. Sunday we went back and watched a Draft Horse Driving show. We also walked around checking out rabbits, llama and alpaca barns. Fun. I peeked in the 4H and adult exhibition buildings to see what knits had been entered. I swear next year I'm going to enter a knit but need to find a book with the rules, etc. Will ask when I go back to see the results of the judging later this week. Here's some photos of the animals we looked at yesterday.....
And the 4H winner of the draft horse pulling event was a young boy who definitely was at ease with his horse and never had a bit of trouble following the judges wishes, (back up, turn, etc).

New to me Web Site and iPhone Apps

2010-07-20T12:47:00.003-04:00

Here's a comment I got from my latest bed runner note.

"Hi,
I saw on another site where your first Knitting program was 'Mom' by a someone on the west coast.
Well, that was me, and I have a new 'Mom' for the iPhone. I'm not trying to sell you something...just reminiscing when I used to sell in Alles Around the world knitting, and sold 'Mom's Knitting Computer Program' for the Apple II and Radio Shack and IBM.

I'm retired now, and have written a hand knitting program modeled after my original 'Mom' You might see it on www.iTunes.com and search for 'Touch and Go Knitting" or my web site at http://www.TouchAndGoKnitting.com Nice to run into someone from those times. You are one of the only old customers I could find ,Richard Foy 801 547 9328 Layton, ut"

I wanted to past this note on here because I really was a Mom user but quite by accident. I bought my first knitting machine in 1987 as a present to myself for working all those long years...and immediately decided that a computer should work for me charting those patterns. Almost immediately after I bought the machine I moved to South Carolina where I met a woman who was an expert knitter and had money to burn. She bought the Mom program because her husband was one of those old guys who worked with computers back in the early days. She thought he knew all there was to know about computers but actually he was futzing around with the home PC and didn't know beans about it (I suspect he was working with them pre-DOS days and maybe was doing data entry or something. Anyway--he didn't know beans about the software and neither did she. She gave me a copy of Mom and asked me to figure out how to use it and show her. Well, I took to Mom like a duck to water. I loved the program. It made sense to me and surprisingly enough, when DesignaKnit came out I was thrilled to see that the Original Draw part of DAK was very similar to Mom's design entry. You went from point to point. How easy was that. My friend never could figure it out even when I tried to show her so I inherited the program from her and was very happy with it.

I just now went to the App store with my iPhone and sure enough, there it is, "Touch and Go Knitting" Of course I'll get it and play with it, I love iPhone Apps and keeping in touch with what's going on. Good Luck Richard, I'm glad you found me.

Bed Runner

2010-07-18T07:50:00.005-04:00

Here's a photo of a bed runner at a hotel I stayed at last week. The cool thing about bed runners is that you can quickly quilt or knit or weave one and change it with the seasons because they don't take a lot of fabric and really make the bed look great.

Now here's the one I just knitted on my Brother 970 standard gauge machine.

I wove it using the 1x1 pattern just because I wanted to weave but I think tuck stitch or a fairisle would look just as great. In fact I almost wished after I started that I had done it in squares like a quilt so I could embroider in the white squares. Oh well, as I said....you can make them to match your mood if you want, they're small so the next one may be knit squares with a fabric backing on it.

I used Tamm 3 ply for the knitting yarn and Red Heart's TLC Baby, 2 skeins of color New Mint Sparkle, for the weaving yarn. I planned on 70 inches so that it would lay across the bottom of the bed and overlap just a little but had just a little yarn left over after my 700 rows and decided to go ahead and keep on going so ended up with 730 rows using all 200 needles for the width. I bought a ball of Patons Astra for the worm trim and knitted 5 stitches 8 rows all the way around to give some body to the edges. I thought I would put a fringe on it if I needed more length but it turned out just fine.

Some bed runners I've seen are narrower, this could easily be folded in half and placed farther up toward the middle of the bed as shown here: http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/bed-scarf.html

This could be made on the Bond or the mid guage machine just as easily as on the standard gauge machine.

Summer Salad for 2

2010-07-13T21:45:00.005-04:00

picture from free clip art web site, http://clipart.m-y-d-s.com

We've been eating out too much lately and decided to cut down so I've been making a meal out of fresh summer veggies and a protein. The bonus is, the salads only take about 30 minutes to put together, including cooking the chicken. Today's salad was one of the best so I thought I'd share it with you (I should have taken a picture it was so pretty but we gobbled it down so fast I barely had time to write the ingredients before I forgot them. This salad picture is from free clip art web site, http://clipart.m-y-d-s.com.
NOTE: everything I put in the salad is part of my vegetable crisper or "salad shelf". We eat just about the same salad often but I vary the protein and the seasonings. Here's tonight's salad, it was exceptional, especially the chicken:

INGREDIENTS

8 ounce skinless chicken breast
McCormick Perfect Pinch Rotisserie Chicken Seasoning (found in the spice section of your grocery store)
Salt and pepper
Olive Oil
Chardonnay Wine yeah I know I used it in the chili too, I have this bottle, might as well use it :-)
No Stick Cooking Spray
Iceberg lettuce--I sometimes add baby spinach as well
Wash the lettuce and set in refrigerator wrapped in a paper towel or return to plastic bag you bought it in at the store, leave it there for at least 30 minutes to help crisp it.
6 Vine ripened cherry tomatoes
1 each sweet yellow and red peppers
1 bell pepper
2 stalks Green Onions
10 Seedless Green Grapes
2 Tbls Green salad olives
1/4 cup Craisins
1/2 cup Parmesan flavored croutons

NOTE Everything is cut into bite size pieces.

Directions:
Cut chicken into small bite size pieces and sprinkle with Rotisserie Chicken Seasoning and salt and pepper (not too much salt, the seasoning has salt as well)
Pour a little bit of Olive Oil in your non stick fry pan, put on high heat
Add spiced chicken pieces and stir. Continue stirring until chicken is pretty much cooked through, then turn down the heat. Be careful you don’t want it to be overdone or the chicken will become tough. If necessary as you stir the chicken add cooking spray to the pan to keep the chicken from sticking. Sprinkle more seasoning on the chicken as you stir and it cooks. Add about 1/4 cup wine to the pan and turn heat off. The chicken will continue to simmer and cool down in the wine and seasoning while the stove cools down.

While the chicken is simmering and cooling in the wine, prepare your veggies.
Wash the veggies in cold water and set aside.
Tear lettuce into small pieces and put in salad bowl (Not too much, you can add more later if you need to.)
Chop your veggies into small pieces and add to salad bowl
Cut grapes in half if they are large
Add a couple tablespoons of green olives to the bowl
Sprinkle in the Craisins
Add your chicken pieces
Toss the salad then cut the croutons in half and sprinkle around on top

I don't put salad dressing on the salad until we are ready to eat. I like one kind, my friend likes another so we each add our dressing individually. Nothing else is needed for this dinner, you have your protein, your fruit, your vegetables and the croutons are your bread (unless you aren't watching your starchy carbs of course).

Flowers and another fabulous recipe

2010-07-10T14:24:00.005-04:00

Today I walked outside and found the first lily blooming. I bought 2 at the Iris Farm this spring. (M-72 5 Miles from Traverse City.) Also its been so hot and humid my hibiscus thinks its in a tropical paradise and its blooming.

Then I went to coffee at our clubhouse where friends meet once a month. The ladies started talking about Beer Biscuits and they sounded so good I came home and tried them. You need a package of biscuit mix,sugar and beer. Use the recipe on the package for regular biscuits but mix 5 tbls of sugar in with the mix and add beer instead of any other liquid called for. Mine took 1 1/2 cups mix, 5 tbls sugar and 1/2 cup beer. They warned not to use lite beer, I used Samuel Adams Boston Lager.

Boy, those biscuit were so good, we sat down to eat leftover chili (from the recipe previously posted) and we ate all 12 biscuits. Do try this recipe, its fabulous. The sugar and beer make the biscuits puffy and really gives them a great texture.

Not everything turns out as expected....

2010-07-08T08:24:00.007-04:00

Tuesday I started my "after the 4th" garden flag. It was going to be a generic-type summer flag, something I could use summer after summer. So Tuesday evening I sat down and started. I thought I'd try something different with the actual flag so I got out my serger manual and learned how to do a rolled hem. Boy, that turned out super, and it was VERY easy to do on my Babylock Evolve. Nothing to it, I had the whole thing hemmed and the casing sewn in. Ready to roll with the embroidery machine!
The first thing one has to do is get the Tweets sewn because they are the biggest part of the design and there's a lot of stitches to them. Also its a bit dense so you have to make sure you have a good stabilizer and hoop it tight. I use a sticky spray behind the flag fabric to help hold the whole thing down flat onto the stabilizer and I baste the area around the design with the help of Embird, my chosen software. So I started. The Tweets take 3 hours to sew out. There's 53,333 stitches in the Gardening Tweets design. No biggie, I sewed until I was tired and then turned off the machine. As long as I didn't move the design area around before I started sewing, I could start again. I marked on my color chart where to start the next day and went to bed. Whoops, I forgot the sticky spray sort of disintegrates over time...my fabric got a bit bubbly as I continued to sew...In spite of it, Wednesday I finished up the tweets.

For the dog in the corner, I added a hat from an Embroidery Library Sunflower Sam design and some daisies from another design I have in my stash. The dog will be running through the daisies under the bird tree, wearing a sun hat. That turned out as expected, it didn't take nearly as long to sew the dog as it did the tweets. Next I sewed 2 butterflies and then the lettering at the top and I was done. The whole design has 84,621 stitches and the machine told me it would take 157 minutes. I really don't know how long it took since yesterday as I was sewing I had to stop and take the dog to the groomers, stop again to pick him up, stop again to eat lunch.....but finally I was finished. I had about 30 minutes before I had to leave for another appointment. I wanted to get the flag out so thought I'd steam it a bit to see if I could straighten out the fabric some.

OH NO....which is not what I actually said....I'll leave that up to your imagination...I turned the iron on and set it at the highest setting so that it would steam. Touched the iron to the fabric and MELTED IT! I was sick!!! My flag was ruined.

I turned the iron off and went to get my hair cut and realized as I was sitting there that I hadn't really ruined any of the embroidery, just the flag fabric. So I came home and cut the design out (hopefully far enough away from the embroidery for a seam). I decided to make a blank flag and sew the embroidered part onto it. Not sure how its going to turn out, maybe the whole thing will be a waste of time but you never know....
Here's the design as its planned out on the computer:

And here's the unfortunate leftovers after melting the fabric:

Later......here's the final flag, not perfect but its outside anyway. Luckily its inside my courtyard and no one can get close to it unless the really want to come in and inspect.

Not too bad, considering.

BEST EVER CHILI WITH BEANS

2010-06-30T10:43:00.002-04:00

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb ground round
2 15.5 oz cans dark red kidney beans
2-1 lb cans plain diced tomatoes
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
1 pkg sliced fresh carrots
4 ozs water
1 green pepper
1 yellow onion
¼ cup Chardonnay
Salt
Pepper
1 package Carroll Shelby’s Chili Kit
1 package Colby and Monterey Jack Cheese
1 pkg sour cream
OPTIONAL: 1 can beer

DIRECTIONS:
With food processor, chop half large onion and half green pepper and ¼ cup carrots into small pieces, set aside
Brown ground round until all pink is gone
Drain ground round and set aside in bowl (I rinse my ground round in a colander you won’t notice the difference but your waist will, its a trick I learned from a friend who cooked for schools). Don’t rinse fry pan but add previously chopped veggies and cook until onions are clear.

Turn burner down to low and switch to a 4 lb sauce pan. Add tahe ground round.
Sprinkle salt and pepper into meat mixture and stir well.
Add diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and water.
Add half Chili spices from package. Stir and taste, if necessary add some more spices until it tastes the way you prefer your chili to taste (I use the whole pkg).
Sprinkle a little Cayenne pepper from package into pan but careful; don’t use much until you do the taste test.
At this point, add ¼ cup Chardonnay or of course you can use water to make it a little more soupy.
Put lid on pan loosely and simmer until you’re ready to eat.

To serve, put cheese and sour cream in middle of table and let people add if desired.

HINT: If chili is too spicy or too thick for your guests pour a little beer (or water) into it, simmer just a bit and it will be just right Leftovers are fabulous over brats, smoked sausages or franks.

I forgot my latest FINISHED HK project

2010-06-29T15:56:00.006-04:00

The Booga Bag! As I was sorting through stuff in the garage and closets for the garage sale, I found some handspun yarn that I had made and thought wasn't all that great. I never like my handspun yarn until I haven't seen it for a while and then when I find it again I love it. What happened during the garage sale search was, I put the yarn into balls and found freebie patterns that I thought might be a suggestion of what people could do with the yarn and packaged each different yarn up with a printed pattern. Well---ended up as I was searching for suggestions I loved everything I came up with and ended up keeping all the packages of yarn with the patterns I printed. YIKES! Yet more project(s)for my ever-growing list!!!!

While I was sitting in the garage during the garage sale I started knitting my pink yarn. I decided to make a Booga Bag and was afraid the yarn was too thin (it probably wasn't). I didn't want to take the time to measure it with the wraps per inch method so just doubled pink and white yarn together and started knitting with size 11 needles. I figured if it came out too big, so what, I'd have a big purse. Well, I did have a big purse when it was done. It was a bit thick as I knitted it and I was really a bit worried that it was too thick to felt but threw it in the washer and ran it through 3 cycles. Son of a gun, I love the purse. Its big enough to be a knitting bag if I want or of course, a bag for everything I own when I go someplace. I found some pink and white fabric in my stash and lined it so that nothing will poke through, just in case I stick something that could possibly poke through the felt...and my Booga Bag was done. I'm thinking I'll dig out my new book, "Felt It!Stitch It!Fabulous!" (30 new uses for old sweaters) and try a couple of the flowers they needle felted or maybe knit some fabric and felt-then cut into flowers per the directions to decorate the purse.

By the way, if you haven't see this book, look it up. The author suggests you go to Goodwill and Consignment shops and buy wool sweaters and comes up with some fabulous ideas for the felted garments. Personally I'm thinking I can knit fabric on the LK 150 with all the handspun yarn and then make what's in the book....(more projects...the ideas just keep on coming).

So there you have it, what I've been doing since Spring.

OK, so I've neglected my blog

2010-06-29T08:06:00.008-04:00

So much going on. I've traveled a bit, am busy exploring the surroundings in the Traverse City area and otherwise have occupied my time since Spring arrived. OK, now its summer and a nice fairly cool one. I've got bird feeders to fill, flowers to plant and take care of, tons of weeds thanks to the bird feeders and other things to keep me busy but I haven't forgotten my fiber addiction.

I'm still hand knitting the circle sweater from Berroco. I'm nearly finished with the body which is a huge circle, getting smaller and smaller as I get to the center. Then I have 2 sleeves to make and I'm done. Yaaay! I've been knitting it since before I sold my house in SC, The sweater is named Nigella and I love it still but wish it was finished. Its made with Berroco's Touche' which is a cotton/rayon blend and should be great for even now on cool mornings and evenings.......why can't I get with it??? Here's a picture of Nigella:

A couple months ago I traveled to Pontiac, MI with a friend to meet his sister and while on the road, we stopped at Frankenmuth, MI to visit Zeilinger Wool Co. I heard about Zeilinger's back in Asheville, NC when they came to the fiber fest every October to pick up fleece to take back to MI to process for people. I ended up bringing home fleece from Zeilinger's (naturally)...2 lbs of Alpaca to spin. Its yummy stuff and spins up soooo nice. Its soft and wonderful..here's a picture of the fleece and my sample spun up..I am planning a soft, warm jacket with the finished project, probably I'll make it on the LK 150 so that it can be made in a week instead of a year... While I was in Frankenmuth I picked up a Spin Off magazine and saw an ad for a wool processor in East Jordan, MI, Stonehedge Fiber Mill. Wait a minute---I had seen that ad before so I looked it up on Google. Son of a gun, East Jordan isn't all that far from Traverse City so one Saturday morning my friend and I took off for East Jordan. Down the lane (a long lane) we found a 100 yr old farm where the owner has spinning machines and processes wool. Her wool, Shepherd's Wool is beautiful stuff. I've bought it from the local yarn shop here in TC last Fall for felted hats and was very impressed at how nicely it felts. Anyway, I went into her little building full of all colors of yarn (why didn't I take pictures of that???) and found mill ends. Yarn that is almost perfectly spun by machine but maybe has a little slub in it or maybe its not quite the right color. (she dyes her yarn as well). She sells Shepherd's Wool to yarn shops all over the country and its featured in magazines. While I was there 2 more women came in to shop...I'm not the only one who travels that long lane. While there I bought a pattern for a colorful helmet hat, featuring her yarn and then bought the mill ends to go with the pattern. That, I gave to my DIL but there's enough ends for both of us to make more than 1 helmet hat (or whatever we want to make). I also got myself a lb of beautiful merino. SOOOO soft and luscious, here's a picture of that wonderful stuff: I also picked up a pattern featuring Shepherd's Wool, called Noni, a laptop bag with power cord pockets. Love the pattern and will probably dye some of my white (unknown origin) fleece and spin/knit the bag.

Also on my agenda is writing the pattern for my beaded bag, made on the LK 150. I have the pattern written but want to "perfect" it by making it one more time and then will get that posted. Shame on me for neglecting all this stuff for so long but what fun I'm having in my new life...........( my excuse and I'm sticking with it).

So you can see I have lots of projects going on and need to spend more time at home working on them....easier said than done.

Spring has arrived in the Northern Lower Peninsula

2010-04-04T08:04:00.005-04:00

Well, last week it looked like spring, today it looks like almost-spring but the daffodils are up and it was actually hot out Friday. Today we are expecting rain but that's OK.
I spent Friday planting bushes along the wall next to my house. There was one lonely rose bush living there and that's it! So I moved the rose bush and planted 6 spreading yews. Also had a patio in the back of my courtyard that was pretty sad. It was brick and the bricks were all askew from the winters over the past few years so I had the bricks taken up and a wooden deck built. Unfortunately either the guy building the deck didn't buy enough wood or was trying to leave a place for water to drain between the deck and the brick wall behind it and left left about 18 inches. I hated how that looked and a friend suggested we take the bricks and lay them in that 18 inches. Mike (my son) came over and laid the bricks for me. NOW I have a nice deck, I won't fall off the back end of it thanks to the bricks and I'm a happy camper. There's more work to be done with the yard but at least it has a start.
The first picture is a view of my courtyard from the front, my house is on the right and is bordered by the brick wall on the back and neighbor's house on the left.

The second picture shows courtyard from the back (view from the patio).

I still have work to do on this side of the yard but not sure what I want to do with it. All it takes is money and time.

Biscuit's New Coat

2010-03-07T08:29:00.006-05:00

I've been putting both a sweater and a coat on Biscuit every morning when we walk because its been down in the teens here in the mornings and he's very low to the ground & doesn't have a lot of hair on his tummy. Last time I went to JoAnn Fabrics I found a really pretty piece of fleece. It looks like tie dye and is a great shade of blue, perfect for a boy. So I brought the fleece home with the idea that I would make Biscuit a warmer coat and eliminate the sweater/coat deal (he hates it when I dress him so at least I will only have to put one thing on now). Well of course its warmed up this week so the coat may sit in the closet all summer but that's ok. When its down around 14 degrees out and maybe he will be warmer and not mind me dressing him.

Every jacket he has is either too big or so small I can't fasten it around his belly so I took the jacket that is a little too large and I used it for a pattern. On lots of the sewing web sites the seasoned seamstresses talk about using "sewer paper". That's "sewer" as in toilets and waste water. I went to Lowes and bought the sewer paper several years ago and for around $20 you get a lifetime supply, especially lifetime if you sew as little as I do. Its very similar to Do Sew that fabric stores sell. You can trace a pattern on it, baste it and use it for your pattern. So I traced the larger jacket onto the sewer paper and then tried it on him before I cut out the fabric. Every step of the way I tried the jacket on him until I thought he would bite me if I tried it one more time. The result is a coat that will keep him warm, especially his belly and fits him with room to grow when I leave his hair longer for warmth in the winter.

I bought some sherpa at JoAnnfabric.com and lined the belt with it and I made the belt a little wider than the store-bought jackets so that more of his belly will be covered. Then I bought an embroidery design of a doggie bone at emblibrary.com and made a pocket just for the embroidery design. I quilted the top layer of fabric with cotton batting under it and then used more of the blue fleece for lining so its 3 layers. Every step of the way I tried it on him.

I love how it turned out so much that I think I'll make him some more jackets, the fabric store has all sorts of cute doggie-coat-fabrics I can use and I do think he could use a nice rain coat as well since spring is traditionally rainy. I'm thinking I'll make the raincoat next while I remember how I made this one. (probably would be a good idea to write down what I did but knowing me, I won't.

One thing I learned while sewing this fleece. I have a presser foot that is called a "zigzag" foot. It has a plastic insert between the 2 feet and eliminated the problem of fleece curling up and getting caught in the needle. It sure did make the sewing easier. Another thing I did was switch from a regular sewing machine needle to a Jeans needle. I was having a lot of trouble with the thread breaking and the Jeans needle eliminated that annoying problem.

I also remembered from my knitting/fleece days that a longer stitch works better with fleece but when I did the quilting I did use the default stitch length. Sewing fleece onto the batting and quilting it with batting was easy, it was the sewing fleece on fleece that was troublesome without the zigzag foot and jeans needle. (now if I remember these things....)

New Food Processor

2010-01-27T12:18:00.003-05:00

I really like watching the Food Channel and all the cooking competitions. Finally the other day I broke down and bought myself a food processor. I went on the internet first and read the review and comparisons and decided on a Kitchenaid which was rated just a little higher than Cuisinart only because it came with a small bowl as well as the large one. OK, I thought, small bowl would be handy since there's only one of me eating here most of the time. Also the Kitchenaid had a thingy to hold the blades. So I got it home and son of a gun, it only had 1 speed. On and Off...that's it! Well, it did have a pulse. I went back on the internet and looked at the Cuisinart again and it has an automatic adjustable speed with the dough blade so took the Kitchenaid back and got an 11 cup Cuisinart. No little bowl but oh well....also no holder for the blades. Well--I bought a plastic bowl with lid to hold the blades. That works.

So I hooked the thing up, took out a couple boneless chicken breasts and proceeded to chop for Biscuit's dinner. SON OF A GUN... that sucker had the meat chopped faster than I could blink. YEOW, watch out for the fingers! I then decided to try to make some Cottage Fried oven baked potatoes. Got the recipe off the internet. It called for grated parmesan cheese so off I went to the store for that (yes I had some in a can but wanted to try grating cheese after all :-). Got some garlic and some butter also called for in the recipe and went home. Whoops, forgot the brush to brush the potatoes with the butter sauce. Oh well...proceeded to clean the potatoes and chop. I couldn't get it to chop the whole potato. Well...it did come with the DVD but who had time to watch a DVD, I wanted to CHOP! Ended up cutting the potatoes into 4ths and then chopping into very skinny little pieces. NO GOOD but cooked them anyway. Unfortunately I didn't believe the person who wrote the recipe who said it took 1/4 TBS butter and I plopped some butter into the pan, added the garlic and salt/pepper and melted the stuff. Poured it over the potatoes. YIKES they came out so greasy I had to throw them away. Got out some more potatoes and proceeded to make them again. These came out ok (yes I used 1/4 TBS butter this time) but they weren't all that good. I had shredded a lot of Parmesan (more than called for, of course) and didn't bother to use it because I already knew the potatoes were too skinny and didn't taste all that good. Oh well.........

Next day I watched the video. There just had to be a way to chop a whole potato. Sure enough, there was. I chopped up a potato and took it over to show my neighbor who also has a food processor and didn't know she could chop a whole potato.

Now I've ordered a book from Amazon, The Food Processor Bible. Can't have this expensive thing sitting on the counter every day doing nothing.

Oh, tonight's menu? Grilled Tilapia with Latkes (require food processor for best results according to the recipe) They also say: "The best latkes are golden and crunchy on the outside, soft and tender on the inside, and perfectly seasoned". Think I'll follow the recipe to a "T" on this........

Will post the results (if they turn out decent).

The Very Best Barbecue I've Ever Made

2010-01-19T08:00:00.005-05:00

OK, maybe you won't think its the best, maybe yours is but yesterday I fixed a meal that would rival any restaurant I've been to.
Menu:
Mashed Potatoes & Gravy
Coleslaw
Green Beans with crispy bacon
Leftover Beef Roast and 1 lb beef stew meat
Dessert: Fresh Fruit mixed with Dole Tropical Fruit

I had 2 leftover bits of roast beef in the freezer. Both were a bit tough.
I decided to buy some stew meat that was on sale and since the last 2 meats I had bought at this local store were tough I decided to get some Meat Tenderizer as well.
I bought "Spice Supreme" brand Seasoned Meat Tenderizer and sprinkled it over both sides of the stew meat. I put the meat in the fridge and left it overnight. The next morning I put the stew meat in the crock pot and set it to cook for 3 hours on low.
I poured some KC Masterpiece original Barbecue sauce over the top of the meat and added some water to the bottom of the pot. I left the house and when I got home the crock pot had switched to "warm". I checked the meat, it was pretty tender but I wasn't quite satisfied with how done it was so turned it back on low for 2 hours. I figured what the heck, I'd go ahead and throw those 2 pieces of roast beef in with it while I was at it. I added a bit more barbecue sauce and left it. When I came back to the crock pot later in the afternoon I couldn't believe it. The roast beef was as tender as the stew meat and yum...it was all delicious. I put the whole thing in a storage container and put in the fridge for later. Later I ate some of the meat but not a lot, I decided to save it for the next day and make the rest of a super meal when I had time. Later I froze it.
Two days later I got out the meat and let it thaw. I put it in a 8X2 pan and poured a bit more barbecue sauce over it and put it in the oven at 300 degrees until hot and then turned down to 200 degrees to stay warm until everything else was finished.
I had bought some Angel Hair Coleslaw veggies (you know the packaged prepared stuff?)
I wanted a certain kind of coleslaw sauce but couldn't find the brand I used in South Carolina (my favorite) so grabbed one and hoped it was good. WOW...Litehouse brand Coleslaw Dressing & Dip. Super stuff. It comes from Sandpoint, Idaho...where my dad grew up. (not why I bought it but....) That stuff is delicious. I mixed it up with the cabbage and put it aside in the fridge to blend the flavor of the mix with the cabbage. Soooooo good!

Green beans were canned but I like to buy that already cooked bacon, put it in the microwave for 2 minutes and you have a couple very crispy thin slices of bacon. Crumble it over the canned green beans, add some salt and pepper and bring to boil, then simmer until the rest of the meal is finished. (My version of Southern Green Beans that hopefully are a little more healthy than the original version that I dearly love but shouldn't eat.

Then I cooked the potatoes and using the juice from the roast beef (saved in the freezer days earlier) and a package of Brown Gravy Mix as well as some corn starch, I made a delicious gravy for those potatoes. Turned out sooooo good.

Dessert was 1/2 cantelope that wasn't all that ripe (that had me worried so I cut it into small chunks and hoped the rest of the fruit would sweeten it some). 1 small watermelon that WAS ripe. 1 can Dole Pineapple in its own juice and a jar of Dole Tropical Mixed Fruit (I highly recommend this fruit). I mixed all the fruit in a bowl with a little of the tropical fruit juice (not a lot) added some green and red seedless grapes and sprinkled some chopped date pieces over the top. Then I sprinkled 4 packages of Splenda over the whole thing, tossed it all together and put it in a plastic container that seals tight. When I was ready to serve that fruit, I turned it upside down so the juice would moisten the whole bowl full of fruit. Delicious!

What a great meal. I'm writing this, not because I think everyone should try my meal (but feel free)....but because I wanted to remember how I made the whole thing because I'm definitely going to be making this combination again and I don't want to forget how I made it.

If you try it, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Hat finished

2010-01-13T07:13:00.004-05:00

Yesterday I put my helmet hat in the washer with very hot water and felted it slightly to make it fit a little more snug. I knew it wasn't going to felt evenly because I had used 3 different types of wool and I was right. The top (cream color) didn't felt as fast as the other 2 wools, the red felted the most unfortunately because its very lightly spun wool. The green did as predicted, its Brown Sheep wool and a great felter. So---in the end, I didn't make it through even 1 wash cycle before I had to get it out and stretch the red to fit my head. What to do....the cream was still too loose and big. Suddenly I had a brainstorm. I got out my Clover needle felting tool, put the hat on the hat dryer I have (which is a styrofoam ball) and felted it with the tool. Then I put the hat on my head and stretched the still-damp red wool. Now the hat fits like a dream. Its great. If you look at the first pictures (previous post) and these pictures, I hope you can see how smooth the top now is. Yaaaay for the Clover tool, it didn't take long at all to felt that cream down with it.

I also did a crab stitch crochet all the way around the outer edge of the hat with the green yarn and that helped shape the back edge where I actually stretched it some wearing it wet--and wanted it to fit a bit snugger there. And of course I braided 2 ties on the front. I really love this hat, too bad its going up to the 30's today and won't be cold enough to test the hat in windy 20 degree weather (and I'm complaining?)

Next? I'm going to go back and tackle the lined slippers on the LK 150.

Yes, I'm knitting

2010-01-11T19:37:00.004-05:00

I have had a horrible case of bronchitis since Christmas and can't machine knit or do much else because the idea is to rest, drink water........etc...... So I decided to HK. My daughter in law made a cute helmet hat a couple weeks ago and I liked it so much I wanted one. I dug into my stash and found some green Brown Sheep wool, some red wool spun in a Third World Country and some cream colored hand spun yarn my daughter sent me from Tacoma. Perfect! The pattern is a freebie from Knitting On The Net, Ear Flap Hat by Leef Bloomensteil. I don't have ties on it yet and I think the ear flaps are a bit too long so will put it in the washer tomorrow to felt it just a little. Here's pictures of the hat so far......

Multi-Directional Scarf

2009-11-22T06:49:00.005-05:00

So I took this class at the local LYS and when I got home I realized I had made a mistake the second multi direction so I took it all out and studied the pattern. Figured it all out and made some notes on the pattern and went to bed. The next morning I did something with the pattern--I have no idea where I put it but its gone!
At least I had studied it and remembered how to do it--as far as the basic scarf but there was an additional part of the pattern I didn't look at (yet)...that was...how to finish the thing. I need to know how to finish the last section so it looks like the first. I found the pattern on jimmybean.com. First I thought good grief, don't order the pattern again, you'll find it eventually but jimmybean also had some Lorna/s Laces Swirl on sale, The more I knitted on this scarf, the more I loved how it was turning out and the Swirl that was on sale was multi-colored just like the Plymouth Kudo that I was using. Couldn't resist, I ordered the pattern and yarn. So now here I am, almost finished with the scarf and awaiting the pattern and yarn. The pattern is Ann Norling's, Short Row Multi-directional scarf.

This scarf is so great because you can use any yarn, it probably looks best with a variegated yarn with medium to long sections of colors, any weight, any size needle that matches your yarn weight and knit till its as long as you want it to be. I like longer, thinner scarfs that I can fold in half and draw the end through. Love wearing them that way and this one is going to be exactly what I love. Kudo is 55% cotton, 40% rayon and 5% silk. Beautiful stuff and nice to knit with.

Oh, did I mention I also bought the Addi Turbo Click set at the LYS the day I took the class? I have always liked Addi Turbo needles, they have a smooth transition from cable to needle. That is one thing I don't like about some sets I've owned. These also don't screw onto the cable, they click and lock. No coming undone while you're knitting. I do believe I've found 2 of the best needle-systems on the market, the Addi Turbo Clicks and the Knit Picks Harmony Options. They rival bamboo in that you can knit slippery yarn and not have stuff fall off the needle. Well, a girl has to have needles for slippery yarn and for regular yarn, right? So I'm all set, my hand knitting basket is overflowing and so is the yarn basket (uh....cupboard(S) :-)

I think its time to share some yarn with my fellow club members. We have a box in the clubhouse here at the condo and we're rapidly filling it with books, supplies and needles for each other to use. I'm going to go through the yarn stash and add some yarn, there's just no way in this lifetime I can knit all this yarn. Its almost sinful to look at (and I have been known to say I was going to have to go to confession if I buy any more...but surely I'll be forgiven for buying that Lorna's Laces, especially if I share some yarn with my fellow knitters).

Ready for Winter

2009-11-17T20:14:00.005-05:00

2 years ago I made the crossed stitches scarf and hat. It was inspired by a DIY hand knitting show, Knitty Gritty. Someone came on and showed a scarf with the crossed stitches. I knew it could be done on the machine but couldn't figure out how until Colleen Smitherman on the LK 150 group told me she had a pattern using that stitch. She generously shared the technique with the group and I absolutely loved how it looked. I had this nifty Bernat yarn that was on clearance at Walmart and made my scarf. Then I decided I could easily make a hat using the crossed stitches technique on the brim so I made the hat. Next I made a mitten but life got in the way and I never made another mitten. Now, I've moved and lost the yarn. To make it worse, I never put a fringe on the scarf and it really needed a fringe to finish it off. So while I was looking for the yarn I dug through my bags that moved with me and found some specialty ribbon yarn. I don't even remember buying the stuff but it was the same shade of beige as the scarf and had a dark brown in with it. The yarn has the appearance of feathers and fuzzies along with the ribbon. It was perfect for the fringe, don't you think?

So with that finished, what to do for a second mitten. I decided to go get some brown yarn that matched the brown in the fringe and make a new pair. I started last week and made a pair that turned out too small. Then I made a second pair that came out too big (2 different patterns). I decided the first pair was the easiest to make so I figured out my gauge and where I needed to put more stitches and rows to make a pair that fit using the first mitten pattern. Today I sat down and tried out my revised pattern and it worked. The pattern is from Kangamooknits.com but there is a problem with the web site. Its not a free pattern so I hesitate to tell you to go to the web site, apparently it has been struck by a horrible bug of some sort. Here's a picture of my finished set, I love it and I can't wait to go to club tomorrow to show the set off.

Unlike the original mittens, I didn't do the crossed stitches on the cuff, mainly because I wasn't sure these mittens were going to fit and really, it was 29 degrees out this morning when the dog and I walked...I needed mittens TOMORROW!

Now that I look at the picture of the mittens, they look like one is longer than the other but they're exactly the same size so thought I'd better write that or you'll think I've gone totally bonkers and can't count knit rows

I'm seriously thinking about making another pair now with the crossed stitches. I made a blue scarf just like this one and never made a hat to go with it. If I do, I'll definitely make the mittens with the crossed stitches cuffs. Only thing is...I wonder where THAT yarn went???

First though, I have some dishcloths to make on my Brother 970. I haven't used that machine in almost 4 years and its time to see if it even works after being neglected for so long.

Finally I have a knitting room

2009-11-14T08:46:00.005-05:00

So what happened to the sewing room? Well, its a mess or I'd show you...its strictly for sewing, there's too many built in cabinets and things to make room for a knitting machine so I took over the extra bedroom for knitting. The room was soooo dark. It had a dull green paint on the walls, mauve-purple colored shades on the windows and absolutely no lights in the entire room, not even a ceiling light. I had my son put up some white blinds in the room and tossed the hideous purple things. I gave the kids the futon for their basement where they have a huge bedroom for guests. Then I emptied the room and the closets of the stuff I had packed in there waiting for someplace to go.. and had a painter come in and paint the room an off-white semi-gloss. Already it looked better. Then yesterday I went shopping for lights. I got myself a floor lamp that has 3 positional halogen lights on it. I positioned the KH 970 between the 2 windows. I don't like to be facing the windows when I knit because that makes it way too bright for me so I figured between would be better. The Halogen can be moved to sit behind me which is where I like my work light. I can always move it closer or whatever. I had some bookcases and a couple 2-drawer file cabinets so am using the file cabinets for lamp holders and of course the overflow of tools when I'm knitting. I put all the knitting accessories like color changers,etc in the closet. One whole wall of the room is closets so that's handy for storage.
Here's pictures of the work space I hope I can keep it looking as good as it looks now but we all know what happens when we get busy. One nice thing, the sewing room is handy when I need it for my knits and the ironing board is right across the hall from the knitting room. (steamer doesn't seem to have a space yet, I've stashed it in the master bedroom for now).

I should mention, the pictures go from 1. entering the room and looking to the right, 2. straight ahead from the door on the left and 3. on the left, the first closet.

Its not a very big room but looks like it will be fine for knitting. I have all my books arranged in the bookcases. Spinning, Weaving, Machine Knitting and Hand Knitting. I also have books stashed in the closet in order as well, hopefully I'll keep them in order.

Room done! Yaaay. I want to make a couple clocks, one for the sewing room and one for the knitting room (with my embroidery room) but have a couple other projects I have to do first. To begin with, I owe a friend a dozen washcloths and that's first on the list (as soon as I find the 16/2 cotton--I think its still in the garage.

Then I have curtains to iron and get up in the dining room which was also painted in this flurry to ginish and chill out for the winter.

Bought myself a Wii because I am absolutely terrified of driving in the snow after all the years of not driving so I don't want to push it by having to drive to a gym every other day...Wii has 3 or 4 excellent workout "games" and I got myself one of those...plus just moving around with the other games ought to be fun and good for an old lady

1 Hour Felt Hat

2009-11-02T15:42:00.004-05:00

Materials: 1 4-ounce skein US Worsted Weight Wool
Suggested gauge on skein pkg 17st/21 rws = 4 inches
I used Shepherd’s Wool from stonehedgefibermill.com

Machine: LK 150 mid-gauge
Tension: Highest tension on the machine and antenna tension set at the highest
(Loosest)

Directions:
With waste yarn cast on 100 stitches and hang cast on comb and weights (we want this heavy to help make big open stitches). Knit about 5 rows, end with carriage on the left.
Knit 1 row ravel cord.

E-wrap over ravel cord with main yarn (2 stitches on needles).
Knit 56 rows.

Begin Decrease Rows
*Transfer every 3rd stitch to the stitch next to it (right or left doesn’t matter but continue the same direction all the way across). Push empty needles out of work.
Knit around 4 or 5 rows waste yarn. Remove weights and cast on comb and take work off the machine (or use a garter bar but beware, these stitches are very loose and you can lose them easily).*

Rehang the stitches on 67 needles. (check to make sure you have 2 stitches on every other needle.
Replace cast on comb and weights (important to keep the weight on the hat while knitting). Knit 3 rows then repeat decreases *-*
Rehang the stitches on 45 needles.

Repeat from * to *
Rehang stitches on 31 needles.

Repeat from * to *
Rehang stitches on 16 needles

Knit 2 rows then
Transfer EVERY OTHER stitch to the needle next to it.
Rehang stitches and knit 2 rows.

Cut thread long enough to run through the open stitches with tapestry needle or double eye needle and mattress stitch the seam. Weave any ends you may have.

Put the hat in a pillowcase to keep the fuzzies out of your washing machine and tie the top shut or use a lingerie bag if it has small holes. Using just hot water (turn off the cold water tap) Add just a smidgeon of soap and run the washer through the wash cycle. Stop it and check the hat. It probably will need to go through the wash cycle again, reset the washer and when its half way through the second cycle check it. Try it on. If it fits you the way you want it to fit, it’s done. If it could shrink some more, continue with the cycle. Beware, it can felt very quickly at this point and suddenly it will fit your favorite teddy.

Once the hat is the size you want, wring dry and shape it the way you want it to look when finished and place it over a bowl or similar object to help hold its shape while it dries. Set it aside on the bowl to dry. Decorate with beads or chain or ribbon if you wish. Another idea is to needle felt a flower on it or wear it just as it is.

Living Room Painting is Done

2009-10-27T08:04:00.007-04:00

TG, my DIL is ambitious. She came over to paint a little 8 x 8 wall that is between kitchen and living room, right next to the entry way. When I moved here she mentioned that she wants to try one of the "faux" techniques that are so popular now. Suede was the one she liked. Well, of course that piqued my interest so I went to several of the paint stores and looked at the faux stuff. I ended up liking "color wash" so when she emailed me that Sherwin Williams was having a weekend sale, I went to get my paint. I already had the samples that I've been looking at often so I pretty much knew the exact colors I wanted. I ended up with "Biscuit" for the majority of the living room, its sort of an off-white with a creamy base, not beige but very light beige. I should mention that the color when I moved in is pale green. I've never had a green wall and although its ok, its dingy and obviously been green for a very long time.

For The WALL , I wanted a darker reddish/berry color, more toward the berry than the red. So Saturday we started. She was planning on doing the red wall on Saturday so all I got was the berry colorwash stuff. I taped and she painted. That wall took longer to tape than to paint so when she was nearly finished she mentioned she really could do more if there were more to do so off I went to the paint store for the Biscuit paint. (no I didn't buy that color because of the dog--it just happened to be the color I picked). She ended up painting all but the wall that starts in the living room and ends all the way down the hall..so that still has to be done but it looks great.

Sunday she came back over and did the "faux colorwash" treatment...which we totally hated so we decided to just paint that color over the first color and be done with it. Its not quite as berry as I'd like but its done and some day I may give it another coat of a darker berry color but right now, ITS DONE!!!

Here's Biscuit...the off-white-creamy color

And here's the wall, on the left is the first coat, on the right is the finished coat but it looks very red in these 2 photos.

Yesterday my son came over and finished up by hanging my huge mirror that's been sitting on the floor since I moved in. Love the mirror but its so heavy I was afraid it would actually tear the doggone sheetrock down. So far, its fine. I changed the lighting on this to try to show the real color, it just comes out way too red in the pictures and its really a reddish berry color, this shows it better....

All I have left to do is hem the dining room curtains. For some reason the person who lived here before me had the draps but apparently made new ones and took the hems out of the others. The others match the living room drapes and I absolutely love those living room drapes so want them back up in the dining room. So today's job is to embroider a Thanksgiving Tweet flag and then the drapes. NO---Focus Roz! I want to make covers for those red cushions on the wicker chair...its way too red as it is now and I bought upholstery fabric for it so I'll do that today. Guess I'd better get off computer and get busy....

Autumn Tweets make Garden Flag

2009-10-19T18:37:00.006-04:00

I bought myself a little garden flag holder because of a brainstorm I had that I could embroider designs on flag fabric. After I bought the fabric I wasn't so sure it was a good idea because embroidery has to be hooped really tight to keep it from puckering around the stitches and the designs I wanted to use were from Embroidery Library. Some of Embroidery Library's designs are a bit dense which was my concern. Anyway today I decided to tackle the project. I had bought Sport Nylon from Jo-Ann's which was recommended by the Babylock on-line projects. They happened to have a garden flag as a project. They recommended doing a 4-thread overlock around all 4 edges of the flat to keep the fabric from fraying so I did that, even though I haven't used my serger in a very long time. What the heck, its good to use these things if you have them, isn't it?

I must say it turned out pretty cute. I decided to put a cute dog under the birds just because everyone who walks by my house knows I have the little white dog behind my gate. I wish I had offset him a little but it was a matter of being able to hoop the flag farther down after I finished the Tweets, there wasn't room to hoop it tight if I had moved the dog over much farther so next time I think I'll do the embroidering first and then hem the flag,

Next flag will be Thanksgiving. I want to get some little hooks of some kind to attach the flag to the flag holder. Right now in case you can't tell, I'm using red paper clips, a bit ugly but one has to do what one has to do in a pinch. Besides, since the flag has to be inside my courtyard (nothing allowed outside the courtyard after October 30 because of snow plowing right up to the garage doors...so no one can tell from the road how I hooked that sucker up to the holder anyway. I'm really happy with the whole idea of the Tweets being using for the flag. Good Grief, I think I have a Tweet for every season...so glad I thought of it.

So My House Nearly Burned Down--WARNING!

2009-10-14T08:41:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I was rushing around getting ready for a Dr's apt so wasn't paying a lot of attention to my surroundings. As I came out of the dressing room into the bedroom I noticed smoke coming from near my embroidery machine--was it smoke? Was it steam from a cup of coffee? I went to investigate and good grief!!!

I have one of those wonderful lamps from Jo-Ann Fabrics that has a daylight and a large magnifying glass attached to it, perfect when I'm doing something on the machine. It sits next to the machine of course. My sewing room faces South and is very bright when the sun beams in during the day. In fact if I'm sewing I have to draw the blind behind the machine to keep from blinding myself. THAT is what happened. The sun was beaming in and reflecting off that huge magnifying glass and actually had burned 2 little holes in the cover I put over my machine--which I put over it to protect it from the sun.

I like the fact that the sun beams in because it heats the room which might be a bit cold to work in otherwise but wow, I never gave it a thought when I placed that lamp near the machine. Imagine if I had left already, my house might have burned. My expensive embroidery machine could have been toast. I'm horrified with the thought.

Luckily the magnifying glass can be removed so I took it off the stand and put it in a cupboard so that its handy when I want to use it but not burning holes in my stuff when I don't want to use it.

Lesson learned, I hope if anyone reading this has one of those magnifying glass/lamps you learn from what happened to mine and we can all avoid the awful consequences.

Kitchen's Done

2009-10-09T11:08:00.005-04:00

Actually the guys were finished yesterday but I wanted to make my herb clock that I've dreamed up the day I bought the place. There's a couple little pieces of tile with herbs on them in the kitchen and so I thought, since I have this nickel colored clock I should embroider a clock with herbs in it. I searched around and the only design I could find that I liked in this larger than the usual embroidered clock was at Embroidery Library (www.emblibrary.com) Also it was the only clock design that was big enough to fit inside my clock. Unfortunately its bigger than my embroidery hoop so I spent 3 days working on how I was going to split the doggone design up and sew it out. I've only split a couple designs and really hesitate to do it for fear I'll screw it up. There are excellent directions in the Yahoo Group (MKEmbroidery) that our friend Sheila wrote for us, I highly suggest using her directions, they aren't complicated and long winded as some directions are. I also read the directions on Embroidery Library's project pages about hooping clocks and used parts of both directions. Anyway, that's neither here nor there, I finally got the nerve up to do it last night. This morning I took the clock apart, put the newly embroidered face in it and it turned out even better than I hoped. So here's the final kitchen with the new granite counters, new faucet, new sink and of course, the clock.

Counters Are Here!!!

2009-10-06T10:05:00.010-04:00

What a mess, the guy called and told me to empty the cupboards because they didn't want to mess anything up when they came. So--I used plastic totes and my sewing cases and hauled the food and dishes out of the kitchen to the dining room. I even took the drawers out and hauled them over to the corner of the DR. I put the quilt over the table so I wouldn't scratch it with all the stuff. Keep in mind I haven't finished unpacking the stuff for the kitchen because I knew this day was coming. I may never unpack the rest of the stuff.....
THEN the destruction guy came. His job was to remove all the original counters.

Turns out the disposal needs to be replaced so he's bringing me a new one and will install it when he comes back. Meanwhile, Sears installer had screwed up the installation of the dishwasher, it was a little wonkey and this guy fixed that since he had to side mount the washer--it was top mounted before. Yaaay for him for fixing the messy installation. My impression of this whole company has gone up already.

After he got the counters and sink and disposal and junk out of the house, the granite guys came over. They had the granite, already cut and ready to install with them. I hid out in the back room because I heard them saying something about one piece was very big and they needed another person to help them get it into the house. Turns out they don't like carrying these big pieces of granite flat, they prefer to turn them on the side to carry in but because of the little galley kitchen, apparently it was a problem...but I was hiding out trying not to listen. This whole job started at 8:15 a.m. and ended around 4 p.m. Yaaay for them, they got it done. New sink is installed, the granite is in place and now for the back splashes. Yes, I had to get granite back splashes because the original tiles don't go down below the original backsplashes of course...and I really didn't want to get new tiles although in retrospect, I wonder if it would have been cheaper to get new kitchen tiles or even just wallpaper rather than granite back splashes. Oh well, too late to think of that now. So--here's the picture of what was done yesterday.
The messy spot on the right corner is where the kitchen garage thingy goes, I think they are going to put the backsplash on first and then reinstall that. (whoops, I just put the stuff back in the cupboard...guess it needs to come back out...)
Once these guys left the owner of the company came back over and remeasured everything for the backsplashes. Apparently the backsplashes are cut and polished but he makes sure that they will fit now that the counters are on since the new counters are probably a different height than the old ones. This morning they are fine-tuning them and will be bringing them over some time today.
Meanwhile, the owner told me the new faucet hasn't come in yet, it may be here today or tomorrow. Phooey! I really would like a finished sink--with faucets-- since its impossible to cook anything without a sink to toss crumbs in (so I found out last night when I fixed Biscuit's supper---he can't eat a TV dinner, after all.

The counters are beautiful. Here's a close-up...if you look into the depths of the granite you can see fabulous colors. One way you look you see shiny spots of silver and another way you see sapphire. WOW! So pretty!!

Next post will hopefully be the finished deal. I'm really glad I went with this granite company rather than with Lowes or Home Depot. The price was a little more but obviously worth it. I don't think they would have taken all the time to measure and re-measure and make absolutely sure things were right. I KNOW they wouldn't have repositioned my dishwasher so the door wasn't wonkey anymore.

Got the Blasted Drivers License

2009-09-29T14:35:00.003-04:00

Got it! Went prepared with bills showing my address, passport, Social Security Card, SC drivers license, etc, etc....and registered to vote. Honestly, I told the guy I had never been in the Secretary of State office so often since I flunked the driving test when I was 20 (well---it wasn't my fault they asked me questions about rum runners (SC) and of course, I didn't know why you wouldn't have a smoke screen in the car, I thought it got cigarette smoke out of the car..turns out it blasts smoke out behind the car to divert anyone who might be following you There was something about brakes that made the car turn around on a dime which I thought would be handy, turned out it was the same sort of thing the smoke screen was. Who Knew?

Bonus was, I stopped at a cabinet-maker shop and he's making shelves for me for the sewing room cabinets that are the same price as the ones at Lowes and Home Depot that don't fit. Yaaay!

Got Out The Sewing Machine Today

2009-09-29T12:39:00.003-04:00

Yes, I finally was forced to find the power plug and the foot pedal for the sewing/embroidery machine. Poor Biscuit has had to wear a coat the last 2 days when we went out. He really for the first time ever..didn't mind wearing it. I got him a cute down filled one from PetSmart and luckily the rain ran off it because we had to go out in the pouring down rain. I can stay under the umbrella but Biscuit doesn't realize that if he stays close to me he can stay dry. So out we went. Immediately I realized that his harness isn't going to work with the coat. The doggone coat needs a buttonhole in the middle of the back for his harness clip so we had to use the collar. It kind of doesn't matter, he is OK with the collar and doesn't pull when he walks so I wasn't worried about hurting his trachea (small dogs have that problem). But the lead kept getting caught under him and around him and under the coat...so he needs a buttonhole. I got the darn machine out and had to figure out how to get the buttonhole foot on, test one out, etc...and finally after fiddling with it for way too long got the job done.

Its supposed to clear up late this afternoon and hopefully the sun will be out tomorrow. Its cold here and I had to turn on the heat when we got home. Poor doggie's little feet were cold so I dried them with a towel. He's hunkered up on my bed now, sleeping on the down comforter.

I've decided to try Secretary of State once again today. Don't want the woman to forget me. Maybe she'll feel sorry for me or decide I'm a determined alien from SC and give me my drivers license. This is the most ridiculous thing I do believe I've ever done. I told her yesterday, Michigan was perfectly happy to give me a license 30 years ago...I'm the same person--just older. That didn't fly, of course. this time I'm taking my passport, a bill from Charter, a bank statement showing I opened an account in town (surely if the bank can trust me, Sec of State can) and of course, my Social Security Card. She told me NOT to bring my birth certificate because it shows my name spelled different.

Bright spot on the horizon, cabinet tops will be here sometime this week, they're being cut and polished right now!!!

Better Picture of the granite

2009-09-21T17:31:00.003-04:00

Here's a much better picture of the volga blue granite along with the description:
Type: Granite
Surface: Polished
Color: Blue
Secondary Color: Black, Green, Large Blue Crystals
Origin: Ukraine
Description: When the light catches the large blue crystals (up to 1" in diameter), there is a brilliant blue reflection. Similar to Emerald Pearl.
silk fusion:

AND the Silk Fusion, this is what I found on the internet about the technique:
This unique method bonds silk fibres into a lustrous kind of "felt" which can be gossamer and transparent or thick and opaque as leather. Because the fibres are unspun, silk's rich lustre and texture are captured.

Update on Kitchen and ....

2009-09-21T14:57:00.010-04:00

Boring everyone to death, I know. But I can't help it, I have to show off my beautiful house
Here's the latest pictures of the kitchen. All the appliances are in and if I do say so myself, Mike and I did an excellent job of picking appliances although Mike did make the comment he didn't know why I bought an electric range when I never cook

I love how the dishwasher just melts into the cabinets. I just have to learn to keep my fingers off the stainless.

Friday the countertop guy came and measured the counters. Here's a picture of the granite slab I bought, I found this on the internet, the color is Volga Blue. When you look at it from different angles you see bright blue highlights that look like they go deep into the granite. I love it. If you come to visit me and see me standing in my kitchen turning my head like an idiot, you'll know I'm looking deep into my countertops.....!

And I now have a bay window that a dog or cat can't jump on and sleep in. So that means I can actually make use of the deep windowsill. Yaaay! As I was unpacking I found the silk fusion my daughter Miki made me. She fused dogwood flowers into the silk and boy oh boy, sitting in the windowsill is where it was meant to be don't you think?

Finally (I know, you're sick of it, I'll be finished soon). I had this horrible shoe shelf/cupboard in the closet. The hanger rod was attached to it and it would have been handy if I had a hundred pair of shoes but the downfall of the thing is, only shoes can go on it and every time I touched a pair of shoes on it, the whole mess of shoes fell on the floor. It had to go QUICK! So I went to Target and found a closet cupboard that I thought would work. None of them were the right height but 2, one stacked on the other, would work. Unfortunately they were too heavy for me to put into the cart so I asked Mike to go with me the next day to get them and son of a gun, someone bought one while I had my back turned. Luckily Amanda went with us and she figured out that if I bought the one I wanted and then bought a shorter one, turned the shorter one on its side, I'd have the proper height! duh! It worked. We got the 2 and Mike came over and installed for me. It comes with backs for every other cubby and Mike thought I'd probably drop something behind the thing and then wouldn't be able to get whatever it was out and of course, he is right. So luckily Amanda had thrown a couple blue pull out fabric boxes in the basket. They work great. I'm going back for 2 more to fill the other 2 open cubbys, the cubbys with shoes in them are safe, there's no way a shoe will fall behind the thing since it pretty much sits flush with the back of the closet. It's wonderful. My neighbor looked at it and immediately said she needs one for her closet....no I didn't offer Mike, I'm not finished with him yet.

So that's the latest updates. Hope I didn't bore you too much. Next will be the counter tops and then I'm pretty much finished spending.

Guest Bathroom is ready

2009-09-12T19:53:00.006-04:00

Today my neighbor and I went to my favorite store, she admitted she had never been there before. Pier One!!! Love that store. I was looking for a bathmat to match my fishy shower curtain and towels. Well, I found the perfect mat, it had sea shells on it. Then the manager knew he had a sucker in tow and showed me a package of real sea shells. To make it even more perfect, I had bought a set of seashell cup, soap holder and waste basket just the other day at Lowes and have a candy dish I bought for someone one year for Christmas and never sent to her and although I can't find my phone, I have found that silly dish so sea shells went into the dish when I got home. The fish bowl with soap in it is a bowl we bought one time with a beta fish in it. The fish died but I really wanted the bowl which is why we bought him (although I did feel bad when he died). I collected a bunch of hand made soap at one time thinking I was going to knit soap on a rope thingys to sell at the Mill in SC but never did because I loved the soap in the fish bowl.

I also wanted to get a cushion for my wicker chair that used to be on my screened in porch but now is in my living room and I thought a nice reddish color would be good to sort of offset all the brown. I didn't realize I had so much brown furniture until I got here. Anyway, Pier One had a sale on cushions. I got a brown set for the chair thats in the bedroom and red for the living room chair. Also got a pillow that has reds and browns in it. So I'm all set, 1 bathroom and 1 living room finished!

Still haven't found the phone although I did find the fish shower curtain that I embroidered quite a few years ago. Still love it and even though the shower has glass doors, who says I can't have a shower curtain on it as well? What do you think?

New House Shaping Up

2009-09-11T17:04:00.015-04:00

Today I took it easy after working hard to find all my stuff. Still can't find phone and comforter for bed but maybe tomorrow. I tried to just open boxes today and look in them for the missing stuff but no luck.

I got a new electric range today. One more appliance is coming and then the new countertops. Here's what I have so far, a fridge, range and microwave. Dishwasher comes next week. Here's my kitchen so far:
And my living room and dining room is coming together. I need curtains on the 2 corner windows in the living room and want to change the curtains in the dining room but they're OK for now, I'm not sure what I want to do with that bay window. Initially I thought I wanted drapes but now I'm thinking maybe not.

Forgot to put up a picture of my garage, this is after I've unpacked what seems like a ton of boxes, keep in mind this is a 2 car garage.

Traverse City and Area

2009-09-01T07:40:00.007-04:00

Today I have to go register the dog at the County Treasurer's. Hopefully my GPS will find the place. Then I'm off to search for curtain rods and curtains for my new house.

Tomorrow the fridge and microwave arrive. My son says I should be able to move once they're there since I never cook with a stove anyway NOT moving yet Mike, I want my bed and some furniture to sit on first.

Yesterday we went to Cedar, MI which is really right up the road about 20 miles. Inish Knits Yarn - Needles - Spinning Wheels - Patterns and Books - Open Knitting and Spinning Nights - 9031 S. Kasson - Cedar, Michigan 49621

I really was interested in the quilt shop too because my friend Sammie just showed me a crazy quilt that is done in the hoop on the embroidery machine. Doggone her, I don't need another hobby I'm thinking I could make a wall hanging instead
of a full quilt but who knows what this will lead to. (not going there).
Who can resist that hummingbird?

Meanwhile, I'm dreaming of the day my sewing machine comes and I can make my first project, a herb clock for the kitchen.

Almost Moved In

2009-08-31T08:55:00.008-04:00

Darn, I wish I would have taken a picture of the tile on the kitchen backsplash. It is a beige color but what I love it the occasional tile with a picture of a herb and its name on it. Perfect! I have an embroidery design pack with herbs and their names. As soon as the movers bring my embroidery machine I'm going to embroider a clock to put over the sink (no windows in the kitchen). Then I'm going to embroider myself some flower sack towels with herbs on them.

This weekend we went shopping at Home Depot. Got a nice new brushed nickel light fixture for the dining room (just off the kitchen) and a new ceiling fan that will go between dining room and living room. Got them up yesterday. They don't look all that spectacular yet but when the new stainless appliances I bought come they will be great since the kitchen and dining room are so close together. New fan and light are on the right.

There's really nothing wrong with the old fan, its nice but the new fan is the brushed nickel and we thought it would go better with the dining room light fixture.
The fan is replacing a dark fan in the sewing room since the sewing room is all white, I thought it would look super there, besides it has a remote that must have cost a few pennies, the old fan in sewing room doesn't. I'll put the old fan in the garage along with the tiffany lamp that left the dining room. Maybe some day Tiffany lamps will come back in style - or I think I remember the church I just joined is asking for items for a garage sale they are having, if they want big items I'll donate them.

Wednesday my new refrigerator is coming along with the microwave. The range and dishwasher won't be here until around the 16th darn it. Never cook anyway so range isn't any big deal but dishwasher would be nice to have. Once they all get in place I'll have new countertops put in but don't want to order them until the appliances are in place so that everything will fit nice and snug together. I've got a price on a countertop, granite with bits of blue and green and white in its depths, depending on which way you stand and how the light hits it. Would like to replace the 2 sinks and countertops in the 2 bathrooms too but that might have to wait until later.

Meanwhile, I ordered new carpeting for the 2 bedrooms. The lady had put in new carpet in the house except for the bedrooms. The store where I ordered it was super. I went in around 4:l5 in the afternoon and picked up 3 samples, ran them back to the house to check against the new carpeting that's in place in the rest of the house. Ran back to the store (all within about 15 minutes time) and the girl called the supplier to make sure they had enough based on measurements we had made earlier.
They did have enough of it so the girl ran to the back of the store and asked her boss if he could run measure the rooms with me quickly. We jumped in the car and drove back to the house, he measured. While I was on my way home the guy called, gave me a final price and told me they'd be there Thurs afternoon or Friday to install the carpet. How's that for service. All done within an hour. Now, that's my kind of store.

Meanwhile, cable company isn't doing so hot. They will install phone between 3 and 5 on Thursday and the TV cable between 5 and 7. ? They can't do it all at once? Apparently not. To beat all annoyances, they've called me at least 5 times on my cell phone when I'm in a store trying to buy something else...just to confirm I did order the doggone cable. I finally asked the girl if they were going to call me again, please don't, take my word for it, I DID ORDER IT.

So that's my saga for today. I'm going over to measure windows, there's 2 in the spare bedroom that have some sad pink blinds. I'm going to replace the pink (pepto-bismo) blinds with something thats a better color. Saw some interesting ones at Home Depot yesterday but think I'll go to Lowes and maybe Penny's today for another perspective. Can't let Home Depot have all my money.

I'll close with some cute pictures of Biscuit. My son Mike got him running around the yard the other night and managed to capture some cute pictures. When Biscuit starts running, he goes in circles and honestly, you'd think there's a G-Force the way his hair and ears fly..see what you think.

The Courtyard

2009-08-17T09:52:00.008-04:00

Yesterday we drove by the condo to show my grandaughters the potential new home for g'ma. They took pictures of the little courtyard for me. Each house has its own fenced in courtyard that you can decorate any way you wish.

This is where you come in from the street to get to the front door.

This is the front corner, which I'll see from the living room and front porch. There's a brick wall in the front of it which has an iron gate.

So yes there's some work to be done. I want to get some flagstone pavers to make a small patio for myself. Also some edgers and more pavers to make a walk from front to back so I don't have to walk to the back through damp grass. Other than that, I'll probably wait till spring to do too much since we all know what happens here in the winter....SNOW!

I do like the idea that I won't have to shovel and mow and do all the work outside that I've had to do the last couple years but there'll be a little bit to do of course, enough to keep myself busy but not so much I won't have time to knit and weave and all the things I prefer to do.

Maybe I found my new nest

2009-08-15T13:55:00.010-04:00

We've been house shopping in Traverse City (MI) for a couple days now. DIL and I loved one of the condos I looked at, it is a stand-alone house in a group of alike-houses but most of them are attached to each other. This one has (gulp) a sewing room so of course it called to me. Today I took my son Mike over to look at it with the realtor. We also looked at 3 others that had the same sq footage and this one really did shine out above the others. One had 3 bedrooms which would be nice for company but that took away from the living room space. One had a huge mirror in the dining room (actually the whole wall was a mirror. Apparently lots of them have this huge mirror which I thought was hideous but probably made the place look bigger unless, like the one we looked at, actually was so cluttered with huge dark furniture nothing was going to make it look bigger. ANYWAY! each little house has its own small courtyard which people decorate to their own taste. Some were cluttered with plants and some were mostly stones and walking paths. The one I liked was grass and a border of flowers, a birdhouse and weather vane and that's it. At the end of it was a small brick sitting area. The front porch had room for a chair if one wanted one there.
I went ahead and made an offer on the place, we haven't heard back but the realtor thoughT we'd hear back fairly soon, then if we all agree on price I'll have 2 weeks to get inspections and all that stuff done. I want to get new kitchen appliances and perhaps paint the kitchen cabinets. We liked the 2 we saw where the cabinets were painted white, it really brightened up the place. I also want new appliances although the washer and dryer are new, if they weren't I'd get apartment size ones so I could use the space beside them as clothes hanging-drying space but...these are too new to replace. The existing fridge will go in the double garage as exta freezer space (or beer, as the realtor told me). Carpeting throughout looks new, its a light colored berber and although I wanted wood floors, I can live with carpet, especially since I may freeze the first year here after living in SC.

Here's the pictures:
Front Door, actually isn't colored, it just looks that way..

Living Room

Kitchen

Sewing Room

1392 sq feet, 2 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 car garage. Appliances include refrig, oven/range, disposal, dishwasher, microwave, washer/dryer, 4 skylights that actualy give off so much light we kept wanting to turn them off before we left. Cathedral ceilings, cable TV available. Huge pantry in the garage, handicap equipped, natural Gas heat. The kitchen floor is nice tile that I'll keep. The place has all ages living in it so it's not a 55+ but after driving through some of the 55+'s this is good. There is a building in the center of the place that has a heated pool and huge community room where they have parties and that sort of thing OR you can rent it for your own personal group meetings (knitting?)

My plan is, if I buy the house, to make the master bedroom a sitting room with a TV and couch that can be made into a bed or something similar to that. The master bedroom has french doors that lead into the sewing room so you know what's going to happen to the master bedroom--it will be my weaving/knitting room as well as sitting room. The place is 2 miles from my son's home, not too far but far enough. If I need help, my grandaughter can drive and of course, so can DIL and DS. I've met a couple of the people who live in the place and they are around my age. Doggies are allowed and actually, the gate to my courtyard already has a extra wire under it to keep the dog from escaping if he should desire to crawl under the gate. He has plenty of room to run out and play and people were out walking their dogs so all is well. The association takes care of the outer yard and the exterior of the house, I take care of the inside. There is a 1 year maintenance agreement on the house.

There's a ferry that can get me to Wisconsin to visit Natalie in 1 1/2 hours. Yaaay, car goes on it of course. Dogs have to stay in their crate or in the car (I dislike that idea but crate is ok, and I have one, he won't like it for 1 1/2 hours he'll live through it).

DIL took me to a yarn shop and introduced me as her MIL "who is a master knitter" YIKES! The woman asked for help with a sock she was knitting and luckily I could help. They also had an EZ Baby Surprise Jacket on display and I immediately picked it up and said...WOW, you have a Surprise Jacket made up...so at least the owner knows I can knit I did buy a ball of yarn to make the Drops Domino Socks, hopefully I can make the socks and bring them back to show off. I am also hoping I can figure out how to make them by machine but we'll see about that. I'm anxious to get my machines out and keep them out once again.

I see no reason that I would be unhappy here. The town is small enough to learn my way around reasonably fast. I have my GPS to keep me from getting lost. There's more going on than I want to do but isn't that a good thing? Who knows, after sitting around for 4 or so years because I couldn't go anywhere, I just may venture out more now that I can.

SO MUCH TO DO--SO LITTLE TIME!

Moving to ??

2009-08-03T07:59:00.000-04:00

Yes, its been a long time since I've posted anything but the reason is...finally I'm moving. I was sort of thinking I'd go ahead and move this Fall anyway. I wanted to find a place, settle in and get busy living again. Suddenly--along came a couple looking for a house with trees, water (pond) and all the other things my house has. YAAAY! It went fast. I remember the last time I walked down the road with Biscuit, I stopped and talked to a neighbor and told her "no, no one has bought my house yet" and now, here it is a couple weeks later and I'm moving!

So how can I move when I don't know where I'm going? Easy! Things are going in storage in Greenville (SC) until I find the perfect place. I'm looking at duplexes, so that I'll have a yard for me and the dog, close to town...I'm really tired of driving 30 minutes to get a gallon of milk. Close to parks and events and all the stuff one has close to them when they live in a city! I would like a kitchen with lots of cabinets, fairly new if not new...new stainless appliances, wood or laminate floors (hate carpeting, its just too much work to keep clean). 2-car garage so I have room to store stuff. 2 bedrooms so I'll have a working room as well as a bedroom. Most 2 bedrooms these days have 1 1/2 bath which would be nice. Decent size living room. A dining room isn't important if the kitchen has room but small DR would be ok. Ability to put my own touches in it would be good too, sometimes a new light feature or paint or something like that would make all the difference in your house vs their house.

So I'm not asking for a lot I think. I've lived in a lot of places in my married life, some good, some pretty crappy. This one hopefully will be the last place I live in so I want it to be right. Luckily I don't have a husband who always looks for "cheap" if you know what I mean. He was happy in a "cheap" motel, "make-do" house, etc. Not that this house is a "make-do" but this is his dream house, I didn't have a lot to do with the details and had to fight for what I got, the rest wasn't worth a divorce so I kept my mouth shut. Building a house together, I've heard can definitely lead to a divorce I know why. This time I get to do what I want. Yaaay!

Best-Best of it all, I'll have cable computer internet...WOW! You don't know what a treat that will be.

Pictures above show the work I did last week. I can't say I did it all alone though. Saturday a friend called me early in the morning and asked me how I was doing and did I need help. I BEGGED her to hurry over and over she came. She even brought lunch. We worked all day, finishing up the kitchen, dining room, and starting upstairs but by around 3:00 I was totally pooped, although she would have continued. We stopped and agreed to continue Sunday. So Sunday she came back and another friend came over with her husband, daughter and daughter's significant other. The guys went upstairs and hauled down all the heavy boxes for me. I gave the daughter my dining room table and a glider rocker I had that I was going to take to the dump simply because I didn't think it would survive a move and the table is a bit too big for what I have in mind. I had 2 of the gliders at one time and when one fell apart, beyond repair I took the cushions and put them on the porch chair outside. I loved that chair with the cushions and wanted the other chair's cushions for my new front porch (add front porch/and/or deck to my "want" list above). Their hard work made the rest of the day an easy one. We sort of finished up the loft and quit for the day. I had bought us a veggie Kashi pizza for dinner, we ate dinner among the boxes and yesterday was finished.

This week I'm going to clean up the house, vacuum and all the stuff one has to do when the furniture leaves. If it dries up outside I'll mow the lawn, if not I won't but it really needs to be done. Am going to go around and label the light switches for the new folks if I get time and leave them some notes about the yard. Other than that, I'm finished.

Friday the movers come, Saturday my son and grandaughter are flying in to help me finish up, Sunday we should be able to relax a bit and Monday we close on the house. After the closing, we hit the road. If we can get on the road fairly early we can make it to at least Kentucky before we have to crash. We'll go to Traverse City and then later I'll go over to Wisconsin. So that's it for now. I'll post again when I get time. Final picture shows a tired dog this morning, among the boxes. Lucky for him I left him some room on the bay window ledge which is his favorite spot anyway.

2nd Weaving Project

2009-07-03T10:42:00.009-04:00

I decided to hurry up and warp the loom before I forgot everything I learned at R&M Yarns. Well, got out the warping board and put it together, got out my beginner book and figured out how much yardage I needed and how many ends. Got that all worked out but it ended up too short so I didn't add enough for waste (or whatever weavers call it). I honestly think I would have had enough if I hadn't tied on the back beam a bit too much yarn. I know, I know...the teacher told us to use as little as possible to tie on. Oh well, it went fairly fast really and I only made one mistake, twisting some yarn as I was putting it through the heddles. I was impressed with myself. Maybe I did retain more than I thought. Before the lesson, I totally messed up the yarns before I ever got it warped. I even managed to do the "Reed Substitution" because my yarn was 20 WPI and my reed is 12 dents per inch. So the book says to sley 0-1-1-1. Doggone, that worked although I wasn't so sure after I looked at it on the loom.

The weaving went fast really. In two days I had finished another table runner. There was one mistake I couldn't have known unless someone had mentioned it to me before hand, the yarn is a linen blend, really pretty stuff but it tends to fuzz a bit. I thought I'd be cute and do a twill pattern about an inch up from the header. It doesn't look like a twill, it looks more like a mistake. Then around the middle I decided to get cute again and that looks even more like a mistake. Oh well--live and learn.

Next, when I took the piece off the loom, I got out the beginners book again and learned how to do a hemstitch. I wasn't thinking straight, I was so excited to get this off the loom. Deborah Chandler says to read through the first part first and then do. Well, I read a little and jumped in (typical for me). If I had read farther, she says Linen doesn't make a very nice fringe. My thought was to take it off the loom and use the linen blend for my fringe rather than the plain old cotton. Well....I cut the cotton too close to the end of the work and if you're a weaver, you know what a mistake that was.

In the end, it didn't really matter, this was just the first practice piece without the teacher standing over me banging my hands with a ruler (wait---that was in school when I took typing). I luckily realized what I had done wrong before I cut the second end. I went ahead and made my fringe with the cotton and it looks great on the second side but the first side is a bit rough. Lesson learned!!!

Next I decided to see how machine embroidery and weaving do together. So I embroidered a design in the middle and on the 2 ends. Doggone--that looks great if I do say so myself.

Here's the pictures of what I've done.

I love how the embroidery turned out and since its my goal to combine all the fun things I do, machine embroidery and/or machine knitting along with weaving, I can see that its going to work just fine. Naturally I don't mean I want to do all 3 on everything, but its definitely do-able.

Weaving-new to me

2009-06-24T06:58:00.013-04:00

On June 9th I went to Chattanooga, TN for a weaving lesson on the Schacht Wolf Pup. It was sponsored by R&M Yarns (www.rmyarns.com). I bought a Schacht Baby Wolf (next step up from the Pup) from a lady in Greer, SC, advertised on Craigs List. It was a 2-half day lesson, teaching beginners, how to figure your warp length, how to warp the loom and how to weave. Stuff I sure didn't know although I have woven on a rigid heddle loom it is the same in some ways and not the same in some ways. Here's a picture of the loom I was working on during the class after I had it warped and started weaving: And here's the finished table runner I made in class:
I was thrilled with the class, we really learned a lot and I was anxious to get my loom up and running. So when I came home, with a huge cone of cotton yarn I was all set to start. I knew I had some linen blend yarn at home so I was all set to make myself a linen table runner. I got out my notes, my book (Learn To Weave by Deborah Chandler) and gathered my tools. I suspect I made a huge mistake in the size, but that's ok, I'm learning. I also screwed up the warp but managed to fix that. I have a lot to learn but I learn best by my mistakes.

Here's the result of what I learned (so far)
My loom Room:
Almost done:

OK, you're saying, gee her work doesn't look all that even, is something wrong with the warp? Well, I hope not. What happened is, I don't have a 10 dent reed and so according to the book, you can make do with a 12 dent reed if you skip every 4th heddle. The author says it will even out in the wash. It makes sense to me but I don't really know how much it will even out and it doesn't matter, I've learned a lot in this first project. I've ordered a 10 dent reed, I ordered a pin to hold the beater bar steady, I found all my weaving tools and put them together in a box so I can find them next time and I'M WEAVING!!!!

I suspect this first project is going to be too short but I don't really know how much too short and that doesn't matter either, I'll use it anyway. I wish now I had warped the loom with the linen yarn but that's OK too because I have tons of this linen blend so I can make another one. This is turning out to be a pretty nice fabric and I'm thinking I'm going to do what I love to do the most---combine my hobbies. I think I'm going to embroider something in the middle of it and use it as a dresser scarf. Next I'm going to rewarp the loom--doing what my teacher taught me, tie off the warp that's already on so I can easily rewarp using what's already been done...yaaay for her for showing me that and yaaay for me for taking the work off early the second day of class because a storm was coming and I had a long drive home.

I've notified R&M Yarns that I'm definitely interested in their intermediate class and I already know I want to make towels. I always wondered why weavers loved towels so much but now I suspect I know. Its fun doing different patterns. Same as knitting :-) There's so many comparisons between weaving on a loom and knitting on a machine, its very, very similar and just as much fun I'm learning.

So--that's what I've been busy doing since my last post on this blog. I'm having a blast. I love learning new things.

Walking Early This AM

2009-06-08T11:28:00.013-04:00

This is a Guardian Gear Roadster stroller (just in case you are wondering) Its so easy to roll down the road I can steer it one-handed which I do when Biscuit decides to walk on his leash. OK, laugh if you want but Biscuit has decided he doesn't want to walk. He jumps around all excited when I tell him we're going and makes me carry him to the road, he refuses to even walk when we go out the door, and then when we get out to the road he refuses to move. I've wondered, did the pavement burn his feet? Does he have a foot problem? He sits there like a lump! I want to walk for my own health and he should walk for his health too but what can you do? So, I stick him in his stroller and we go down the road (actually faster than if he walked so that's ok). Look at the 2nd picture of him looking out the side, that's how we go down the road, he looks at the landscape, back and forth, as we plod along. Funniest thing, when we get to the place where I decide to turn around, he stands up as if to say, OK, I'm ready to walk, and I let him out. From that point to home, he runs all the way home. Now---its uphill. I'm not a young chick, I can't run up hills. So I have to halt him occasionally to get my breath. Isn't it the funniest thing. I pray for him to stop and relieve himself so I can rest a minute. (whew). I've been known to ask him, "Don't you have to go potty"?

Anyway, today we went for a 2 mile walk and I rode him down as usual in his stroller then he walked home. During one of our "stops" I noticed a rhododendron was starting to bloom so I picked one of the smaller blooms. According to a web site where I looked this up, they only grow in the wild in 2 counties in South Carolina, Pickens and Oconee. They're all over our road, this was the first busy I've noticed actually blooming though.
Then when I got home I decided to take a picture of the Hydrangea in my yard. This is only the second year this bush has bloomed since I "trimmed" it a few years ago. I figured it was never going to bloom again and told the landscaper to take it out when he cut down trees and leveled the ground but he told me no, leave it, it will bloom again some day. Well--as if it heard him, it did bloom that next summer, more beautiful than ever. That was last year and now its just started blooming again this year.
Later when both flowers are in full bloom I'll take another picture of the bushes. I just love summer in the mountains, every week something new blooms. AND the hummingbirds are having a blast. I should go out and picture of them, they are fighting over one of my feeders and I have 3 in the yard. When they start running each other off the one that flees, hides in the hydrangea bush right next to their feeder. When I went out and poured some new liquid in, one little guy almost sat on my hand he was so close, watching what I was doing to his feeder. WOW! Close up and personal that was!

Knit A Nylon Twine Bags

2009-06-06T20:30:00.008-04:00

A few years ago someone came up with a brilliant idea. She bought some nylon twine at a local hardware store and knitted it on her bulky machine. She started something. Lots of us thought it was so clever we ran out and bought twine and got creative making our bags. People decorated their bags, made different shapes, whatever, they were fun. Its great, its washable, its strong, in fact I have a full package of #15 twine sitting here waiting for me to make another one. According to the package, tensil strength is 117 lbs. (Tensile strength measures the force required to pull something such as rope, wire, or a structural beam to the point where it breaks --Britannica online encyclopedia--)
Imagine what you can throw in one of these bags with that sort of strength.

Nylon Twine is sold in hardware stores for mason lines, chalk lines, gardening, boating, etc. You can buy 1 lb 2.5 ozs of # 15 twine (1400 feet) for $8.25 (at least that’s what I paid for mine a couple years ago). Some hardware stores like Home Depot have smaller tubes of it in neon colors. You can buy a thinner twine #9 (2200 feet) for $16.41 on-line from fnt industries http://fnt-victory.net/fnt-victory.net/rosary.html, they sell it for Rosary's but its the same nylon twine we used for our bags except they have #9 twine which is thinner than the # 15 I used but I notice they have a waiting period to ship. There are other places on line if you want to Google for it.

If you buy white twine you can dye it with Rit dye or koolaid. For directions to dye your twine go to
http://www.fnt-victory.net/RosaryTwineDyingProcess.html
Scroll down for Kool Aid Dye or Microwave Dyeing. I prefer to dye the bag after its knitted. Make sure it rinses clear before you use it.

Be sure you line your bag if you want to put anything like a pen or keys in it, you don't want to lose something important that might fall out between the stitches.
Now, get creative and make yourself a bag. I gave mine away to my grandaughers but am seriously thinking of making myself a new one. Natalie made one for the beach using neon colors. It was huge and must have held towels and suits for the family.

I came across the notes I wrote when I made my bags so decided to share them here. These directions are for the 2 pictured above.

I used my LK 150 (6.5mm hobby machine) and #18 twine for my bags. (higher numbers would be thicker twine, #9 twine at fnt above would be thinner). The bags need to be lined if you want to put things like keys or pens in them or they’ll fall out through the stitches.

Yellow Flower Bag with # 18 Nylon Twine knitted with every other needle. The bag is 20” long and 8 ½” wide.

Cast on 60 stitches
knit 16 rows and hang your hem
Knit 3 rows white eyelash yarn
Knit 70 rows twine
Knit 3 rows white eyelash yarn
knitted 16 rows and hang the beginning of the 16 rows for a hem.
Decide how long your want the handles to be and twist 2 strands together. Sew the sides of the bag together, leaving an opening at the top of each side for the twisted handles, pull them through and tie each one in a knot to hold the twist.

Cherry Bag 17 ½” long and 9” wide
Using every needle
Cast on 39 stitches and knit 132 rows
Fold the top over for a flap (closure isn't necessary unless you want to use one for decorative effect.
Knit an I-Cord or twist the tie and sew it to each side
Dye the bag with Cherry Kool Aid.

If you have an embroidery machine, you can embroider on organza and sew to the front of the bag. Another option would be a free standing lace design sewn to the front.

Get creative, these are fun to make and go fast.

Still Packing and Sorting

2009-06-04T16:30:00.011-04:00

Why is it taking me so long to sort out my stuff and pack it? Well, I know I have to get rid of some of it and I hate to do that. PLUS its such a chore to sort the stuff out and pack it. BUT I finally made myself do one of the hated chores. I sorted out my machine tools. What happened was, I gave away some of my husbands tools and kept a fairly new tool box for myself. I decided to put my knitting tools in that tool box. So, I poured out all my machine tools onto a table and sorted them by machine, the Bond, the LK 150 and the Brother 970. Each machine has its own set of "stuff". I have been saving little plastic zipper cases that things come in, you know, the kind that maybe slippers or curtains or whatever come in. So I labeled the bags and put each machine's tools in a separate bag. Some things, though are for all the machines, weights, for example can be used on any machine. Clips, definitely for any machine. Ravel Cord once again, any machine. I also put all my scissors in one bag (I didn't know I had so many pair of scissors, where did they all come from? Did I buy a pair every time I needed one?

So, here's the result all nice and neat and the tool chest. If I can now just take out the bag for the machine I'm working on and then put the tools away when I'm finished, I will never again have to do this horrible chore. I highly recommend the tool box idea, the bonus is you get a tray in the top that has a handle, easily carries to the machine you are working with at the time.

I also when through every drawer, cabinet, the garage, etc and got out the tools I knew I'd want to take with me if I ever move and put them all together in a tub I forgot I had, sitting out on the back porch. Its perfect, it even holds the plastic case the drill came in and the plastic case the Dremmel came in. Room for more in this box but believe me, I don't see me buying more tools.

Next, I'm going through the tubs of fleece I bought for spinning. I haven't touched the spinning wheels in 2 years. I still want them but I sure don't need 8 or 10 big tubs of fleece. Probably 2 would be reasonable (although I can't see me getting rid of all but 2).

As I sit here and contemplate going back up to the loft to sort stuff, I think I know why its taken me so long to do it all. When I'm finished, it will sort of mark the end of me living in South Carolina and sort of saying goodby to my husband who I was married to for 48 years, and his family who I've grown to think of as my family. I know I don't have to say goodby to them but leaving this home is closing a chapter in my life. I know its necessary but it sure is hard.

Still, I'm looking forward to the next chapter and can't wait to start it. Mixed feelings? You bet!
Now, before you think I'm sad and, perhaps crazy, I'll close with a picture of my pretty azaleas and the hibiscus that has bloomed only twice so far this summer, today was the second time.
Hibiscus won't winter over at my house so every year I go buy myself a new one. I could take it in and it will survive the winter but I did that one year and decided it was a mess, its easier to buy a new one.
I don't know what kind of azalea this one is, its the last to bloom every year and its a short little bush that stays right down on the ground. Every year I find a branch under the mulch that has grown roots so I move it to a new place and now I have about 5 of these little bushes growing around the edges of my flower gardens.
And finally, the petunia's that are growing on the deck rail. Yes, that's my sweet little dog sitting there watching the world go by while I take pictures. He's sitting there watching the hummingbirds that are flitting around between the feeders.

M.J. "Dolly" Cooper Veterans Cemetery Anderson, SC

2009-05-25T08:02:00.008-04:00

Howard was so proud that there would be a VA cemetery close to his home. A month before he died he went to the VA office to see if this cemetery was finished or when it would be finished. He was so proud that he was eligible to be buried there and he wanted to make sure the VA office was aware of that. We kept saying that we would go look at it but he was never well enough after that to make the 40 mile trip.

Howard received the Air Force Commendation Medal for his work after Hurricane Camille in Biloxi, MS. This medal was authorized by the secretary of the Air Force on March 28, 1958, for award to members of the armed forces of the United States who, while serving in any capacity with the Air Force after March 24, 1958, shall have distinguished themselves by meritorious achievement and service. The degree of merit must be distinctive, though it need not be unique.

Follow-up to Mouse Visitor

2009-05-23T17:12:00.004-04:00

There has been a huge discussion on the Yahoo knittingmachine group about keeping mice out of cars, buildings and so on. The majority of people seem to think the cure is peppermint essential oil. Putting it on cotton balls or whatever around the inside perimeter of the building or even in the car is supposed to repel mice. If you google the subject, it seems to be a universal cure so today I stopped by Michaels thinking their cake/baking section should have it. Well, they had Wilton Candy Flavorings, 1/4 oz bottles of Peppermint, cherry, cinnamon and creme de menthe. OK, I bought the little box even though it says on the bottom: Ingredients: Peppermint-Soybean Oil, Oil of Peppermint. I hope it works but since its not pure peppermint oil it might not. Someone else suggested putting the oil on a Always Sure-Pad with sticky back so I did that. I was going to stick it to the top of the inside hood of the car but then thought about the next time I get the oil changed, I'd have to have a camera to get a picture of the poor guy's face when he opens the hood. So I thought better of it and put it inside the car on the passenger side, sort of under the dash If it works, that's great! It sure does make the car smell nice and honestly, its not overwhelming which I feared. I also have a bar of rat poison on the floor of the passenger side of the car and one under the hood just to be safe. I put one on the ledge inside the garage as well and it was chewed on but the ones inside the car were never touched so my visitor has obviously left the car or I scared him so bad the day I took the leaf blower to it that he is still hiding in the upholstery.

Biscuit always stays in his seat in the back seat of the car so I don't have to worry that he'll get into it. If he ever gets in the front seat I'll stop the car and throw the stuff out.

so--hopefully that's the end of the mouse story for me! If I ever come across pure Essence of Peppermint Oil, I'll buy it but for now, the Candy Flavorings will have to work.

Mouse in the Car

2009-05-20T12:58:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I went to town to get my hair fixed. When I got back in the car I noticed a little mouse running under the passenger seat. YIKES! I quickly jumped out of the car and opened all the doors, beat on the seat and hoped the stupid thing jumped out.

Couldn't see him anywhere, even under the seats so got back in and started home. OHHHH, there he was again, peeking up at me from the floor. So I stopped at Jiffy Lube and had the oil changed and told the guy there was a mouse in the car. He vacuumed the car and said he didn't see the mouse but did see remnants of his droppings...ugh! So I get back in the car and just about the time I turn off main street, here he is again, on my side of the front, by my feet.

OH GOD! Please don't let him go up my pant legs I pray!!! Please don't let me wreck the car!!! I stopped at a church parking lot and opened all the doors. Took my umbrella out of the back and beat it around under the seats. No sign of the mouse so I figured, ok, this time he must have jumped out one of the doors. So I get back in and continue home.

Sure enough, you guessed it! He was still there. I almost ran off the road but would have gone off a cliff so I forced myself to keep on driving and steering straight. I kept telling myself, its not worth killing yourself, the mouse won't hurt you, UGH! The stupid think climbed up the passenger seat and peeked at me. I yelled DAMN! (sorry, it just came out of my mouth...) He ran and hid so the last 3 miles home I yelled over and over again DANG, DANG, DANG (or something very similar) and beat my foot against the seat in case he was under my seat. I got home, opened all the doors and got the leaf blower. Blew that car from one end to the other, under the seats, under the rugs, everywhere I could find a place to blow.

Then I remembered, I had just heard on TV that little children and dogs can be killed very quickly if left in a closed up car in the sun, even if its not that hot out. So I closed up the car and told the mouse, if you're still there, you can fry in here. The car sat there in the sun the rest of the afternoon. Finally around 5 pm I went out and put poison on the floor in the front and under the hood. This morning I had to go to the dentist and my skin crawled all the way there. No mouse sightings and nothing had touched the poison. BUT I reached for a kleenex in the passenger seat and the stuff was all shredded in the box. It gave me the creeps and I thought--he's in that box making a nest so I opened the window and quickly threw out the box, just in case. Littering--I know!

Went all the way home from town again and no sign of the mouse, I do believe I blew him out with the leaf blower Poison is staying in the floor of the car and when I put the car in the garage, for a while I'll put that poison back under the hood of the car. I hope I never see that mouse again.

Mountain Laurel

2009-05-14T07:45:00.009-04:00

Now that the azaleas have pretty much dropped their gorgeous flowers, its mountain laurel time. Yesterday I walked down our road and took pictures of the laurel bushes. As I was taking the pictures I remembered my husband telling me that mountain laurel is poison to goats unless the goats were born and raised with it. This is how it grows by my house, suddenly as you walk along the road, there is a laurel bush tucked in among the other foliage.

Just look at those beautiful buds and the resulting flowers, they are just perfect, always! Look at the little pink dots circling the center. I JUST LOVE LAUREL!

As I was taking the pictures I wondered if the poison tale was true so looked it up on Wikipedia when I got home. WOW, its also poison to people. Am I the only one who didn't know this? I decided to quote the whole thing here:

Mountain Laurel Shrubs and Bay Laurel Trees Apollo, Daphne and The Rich History of Bay Laurel Trees
is an evergreen shrub growing to 3-9 m tall. The leaves are 3-12 cm long and 1-4 cm wide. Its flowers are star-shaped, ranging from red to pink to white, and occurring in clusters. It blooms between May and June. All parts of the plant are poisonous. Roots are fibrous, matted.[1]
The plant is naturally found on rocky slopes and mountainous forest areas. The plant often grows in large thickets, covering large areas of forest floor. In North America it becomes a tree on the mountains of the Carolinas but is a shrub further north.[1]
Etymology
It is also known as Ivybush, Calico Bush, Spoonwood (because native Americans used to make their spoons out of it), Sheep Laurel, Lambkill and Clamoun.
The plant was first recorded in America in 1624, but it was named after Pehr Kalm, who sent samples to Linnaeus in the 18th century.
Cultivation and uses
The plant was originally brought to Europe as an ornamental plant during the 18th century. It is still widely grown for its attractive flowers. Numerous cultivars have been selected with varying flower color. Does not flourish in a limestone country.
This is one of the most satisfactory shrubs for lawn or garden. When in full bloom it is of surpassing beauty, and its bright evergreen leaves make it conspicuous at any time.
A little known American use of the plant was in the making of arbors for early wooden-works clocks. Mountain-laurel is a foodplant of last resort for gypsy moth caterpillars, utilized only during outbreaks when moth densities are extremely high.
Toxicity
Mountain laurel is poisonous to several different animals, including horses, goats, cattle, sheep, and deer, due to andromedotoxin and arbutin. The green parts of the plant, the flowers, twigs, and pollen are all toxic, and symptoms of toxicity begin to appear about 6 hours following ingestion. Poisoning produces anorexia, repeated swallowing, profuse salivation, depression, uncoordination, vomiting, frequent defecation, watering of the eyes, irregular or difficulty breathing, weakness, cardiac distress, convulsions, coma, and eventually death. Autopsy will show gastrointestinal irritation and hemorrhage.
This evergreen, round-topped shrub is used in gardens as an ornamental plant. The large terminal clusters of flowers are borne on sticky, hairy stems and range in colour from rose to white.

Children have been poisoned by chewing on the leaves, sucking the juice from the blossoms, or by making a tea. The foliage is especially toxic.

Honey, when made by bees in the area where mountain laurel is grown, has been found to be poisonous. This dangerously poisonous plant generally produces symptoms in about six hours. They consist of nausea, intense abdominal pains, vomiting, repeated swallowing, and watering of the eyes, nose, and mouth. In more severe cases breathing becomes difficult; the heartbeat is slower. There is depression, prostration, convulsions, paralysis of the arms and legs, coma, and possible death within twelve to fourteen hours.

So there you have it, everything you ever wanted to know about mountain laurel!!!

Spring-time was always a bitter sweet thing for my husband, if he was going to be sick, it would be in the spring. He had 5 heart attacks over 15 years, always in the spring. Laurel was so special us, I always brought him a bouquet when he was in the hospital just to remind him he needed to hurry up and get well and get home to his mountain.
Just because it was so pretty and green, I wanted to share with you a picture of our road, there's no doubt, why my puppy and I walk down the road every day we can, is there?

The sun was out, the sky was clear. Here's another shot from our road and there's no doubt why they call them the Blue Ridge mountains.

Spring Yard

2009-04-24T10:58:00.007-04:00

I couldn't help but sit on my front porch this morning and just admire the flowers, the spring air and the birds singing. My yard is soooo beautiful right now, the new grass is coming up and the azaleas are in mid-bloom. I have some new ones blooming every week. Here's a Spring Collage I made this morning. I should have done a video so you could hear the birds singing. All these pictures were taken from the porch, except of course, the picture of the porch..so you're seeing what I saw as I drank my coffee out on the front. You can click on the picture to get a better view of each segment of the yard. It starts on the east side and goes across the front to the northwest.
birds singing.

FINALLY internet satellite is fixed

2009-04-23T20:00:00.007-04:00

I can't believe the little light on the modem hasn't gone out all afternoon. Horray! Its working.
Since I haven't been able to get on the internet I got busy and did some sorting and cleaning. I ordered myself a new table from allbrands.com, its a craft/work table,36 inches high. Only problem is, it requires some assembly. The good news is though, its heavy and I can carry it upstairs piece by piece.

I found a new-to-me pet boarding resort. Its not that far up the road from me and Biscuit and I are going to visit Sunday afternoon. If he seems to like it, I'll leave him there while I go to Greenville (SC) later in the week for a class at The Beaded Frog. We're going to make a pendant that opens into a little book for verses or pictures, here's a description: Wearable Metal Book Pendant Workshop
Create small metal book pendants, less than 3x3 using copper, polymer, beads and jump rings. The pendants will contain blank pages for pictures of your choice, notes or quotes. You'll learn casting, flame coloring, and how to construct this keepsake piece. Copper, paper, tools jump rings, cord, polymer, glue and objects to cast will be provided. Extra chain and beads may be purchased to embellish your necklace.

My azaleas are blooming and so beautiful, I just love to sit out on my porch and watch them. The bees are nuts over them too. This weekend was the annual Azalea Festival in Pickens. I bypassed it and went to the Mill. There was about a medium size crowd there and lots of people sitting around on the grass just enjoying the day. I love the Mill when its reasonably warm, not too hot and the visitors are all enjoying themselves. I took my camera to get some pictures but forgot the SD card so darn it! I bought myself a new camera just so I could haul it around in my pocket for this sort of thing. Next time I'll try again. I don't think I'll forget that card again.

Today I swatched my contest entry for knitterman.com contest. The contest is to make something out of 1 hank of sock yarn, not a sock but something that shows the versatility of the yarn. It has to be original. I have a good idea of what I want to make, hope it works out. I will say, I'm using beads but at this point, that's all I can say. If it works out as it is in my mind, I'll love it. I'm making it on my LK 150 knitting machine.

I've managed to knit 200 rows of the border on my circular cardigan. Its coming along. I try to knit some on it every evening because I need almost 900 rows before I even start the circle.

2009-04-17T05:55:00.006-04:00

Horray, this morning I can upload photos. This is the bottom band of Nigella, the circle sweater. After around 900 rows I'll bind off and then pick up stitches with a 36" circular needle and start the stockinette and decreases. I DO think this could be done on the machine and maybe I will make one on the machine next time but I'm enjoying knitting it by hand at the moment.

So you don't have to scroll down to look at it, here's Nigella. Its a Berroco pattern in book # 259 in case you'd like to get the pattern.

2 years ago my daughter and I found circle sweaters in Fred Meyer in Tacoma WA. Honestly that was the most comfortable sweater I've ever owned but it ws made out of crummy yarn that pilled almost from the minute we put them on. I said then that I would like to make one some day and wanted to figure out how that one was made but never took the time. When I saw Nigella I knew this was even better. The yarn is 50% cotton/50% Model Rayon (whatever Model means, I don't know).

This would make a great Christmas present but I'll have to do it on the machine if I want to make more than this one because it would take way too long by hand to make several, given there's 900 rows of lace before you start the rest of the sweater. Not sure the actual stockinette would go very fast by machine because it looks like you decrease across the rows often, that is do-able on the machine but takes time. Of course, thinking about it, the actual knitting wouldn't take all that much time.

While I was pampering myself, I bought a pair of Knit Picks Options Harmony Wood Circular needles. I like Bamboo needles for slippery yarn and this is slippery yarn so who can resist the Harmony Wood needles??? And while I was ordering I ordered their new blocking mats, only $19.99 and they're fabulous, they come as 9 9" square puzzle pieces, you use as many squares as you need for your project. How handy is that? you can take them apart and store them in their box when you aren't using them. I love it!!! I didn't get the case for the needles and all that stuff but 1 pair of circular Options needles comes with the stitch holder and the little screw to put the needles and cable together. I have a set of Boye circulars and broke the size 8 as well as the cable which really broke my heart. BUT you can replace 1 needle and cable if you want, however I have heard such good things about Knit Picks needles, I decided to go that way. This new one can be stored in my Boye case. Now all I need is a sewing/craft table to use as my blocking table, cutting table, hooping table, etc. I was going to go get one at Hancock Fabrics yesterday but got waylaid at Walmart where I bought a new camera for trips, its small enough to plop in my travel bag, my old one wasn't that small.

Enough money spent this month though and we're only half through the month.

Enjoy! While I have the luxury of my Internet Satellite's speed I'm going to put up some pictures of my yard but will start another post for that.

Satellites, Bears and Knitting

2009-04-16T11:43:00.008-04:00

My Internet has been down since April 6 when the Internet satellite I use suddenly quit working. First someone from Florida called to make an apt to fix it. The next day someone from VA called to make apt and then someone from Iowa. WHAT? I live in SC, did anyone tell them that? or do they have an atlas or globe? Finally after calling day after day and threatening to go with another satellite company, the guy came. It took until Tuesday the 14th to get someone out here. He moved the dish closer to the house, said he didn't know how it ever worked as far away as it was originally installed. Well, it was put in January 2006 and its worked pretty good although not as fast as cable or DSL but 4 times faster than dial up so we were happy. As soon as the guy left, the thing went back to its shenanigans, on again, off again. Over and over, so that it was impossible to get on and stay on. Yesterday it finally locked on for longer periods and today its still on for longer periods although I don't dare say too much for fear it will hear me and quit again. XX fingers crossed.

Meanwhile, since I couldn't get on the Internet I started hand knitting my wonderful circle cardigan, Nigella. The pattern is written so that you start with a long straight piece of lace, almost 900 rows of it. Funny, I'm not a very patient person but when it comes to knitting, I can knit and tear out and start over as long as it takes to figure something out. After a couple of mis-starts I decided to study what I was doing each row so that if I made a mistake I could quickly fix it. That worked until I was up to 96 rows when I saw an error down the line and ripped back out once again but now I'm back up to row 46 and seem to be doing OK with it, its just a matter of concentration now (hard as patience for me but....) I tried to upload a picture of what I have done so far but the satellite, although its working won't let me upload anything. Bah Humbug! The pictures in the book and on the internet sure don't look like lace but lace it is. The yarn is 50% cotton and 50% rayon. the straight piece will be turned sideways and I'll be picking up stitches over those 900 or so rows, to start the circle. Its intriging to knit this thing, I am so anxious to finish it but not anxious enough to put it on the knitting machine although it would make those 900 rows go sooooo much faster. Maybe after I finish it I'll give it a try on the machine, the lace might be the part that can't be duplicated but where there's a will, there's a way, right?

Meanwhile, the other night, I was exhausted and went to bed before one of my favorite TV shows comes on (forget what it was, but I have DVR and recorded it). About 30 minutes after I hit the hay---the dog started to bark furiously. Good Grief, what now? I laid there and waited to see if he'd shut up but he wasn't shutting up, he was running around the living room like a maniac. Suddenly the motion light on my garage door went on and so of course, I was terrified, thinking there was a burglar. We've neve rhad anyone bother us before because we live on a very dark road in the mountains, what idiot would come up here and bother anyone? I peeked out of the curtains and there, in front of the garage, about 10 feet from my window, was a bear. A large bear. Now--DNR assures me that one doesn't need to be afraid of a bear here in SC. Just leave him alone, the dog barking will make him leave because bears don't want to be messing with people or dogs. Great! I watched and wished I had my camera close by but anyway, he left, going between garage and woods and heading for the "bear camp" next door which gave me a chuckle. I hope he left tracks, those bear hunters will croak when they see a bear actually came all the way to their cabin. Dog kept barking though until I knew it was safe enough to show him there wasn't anything in the yard. I opened the front door and held him up so that he could see through the screen that all was quiet and no one was there. Poor little dog slept the rest of the night in the bay window, watching I guess, just in case that guy came back.

Last night the same thing happened again only I don't know what it was he was barking at. The neighbor's 2 dogs were barking furiously all evening and well into the night and then mine started in again. This morning I went out to look and found tracks that resemble dog tracks in the mulch around my flowers. Doggone it, I don't want anything tramping through my flowers, I've put way too much work into them. I suspect it was a coyote which I've heard are coming closer and closer to our houses here in Pickens and can cause a bigger problem than a bear because coyote's can kill pets. I know I don't want to come in contact with one and I sure don't want Biscuit to meet one face to face because Biscuit thinks he's a lion.

Well, as soon as I can successfully upload some pictures, I will. I'm anxious to show off my azaleas, my new rocks and edging, all the work the landscaper did for me to pretty up the yard and of course, my knitting. Patience, my dear, patience--as my mother used to say to me, or was it the nuns in school?????

New Hand Knitting Goodies

2009-04-05T10:20:00.007-04:00

I had the nicest time yesterday. I went to Hagood Mill in Pickens where the spinners and knitters meet on the 1st Saturday of the month. The weather was perfect, if you had a sweater on because it was 75 degrees but breezy and the cabin porch was mostly shady. I took Biscuit with me and he thoroughly enjoyed laying in the sun on the porch, getting up occasionally to greet tourists who came to talk to us and look at the cabin. There were only 3 of us there yesterday, Nancy, Dee and I. It was fun though, we admired each other's projects (Dee was spinning some unknown origin wool and Nancy was knitting a feather and fan project to wear on Easter Sunday. I was knitting on the second half of my beaded scarf, trying to get it finished before Nigella comes (see Nigella below). So it was an enjoyable day. When I got home and checked the mail box, I had a wonderful surprise.

A few months ago I had ordered the coolest new gadget for knitters, its called The Knit Kit, from theknitkit.com .

I also just ordered yarn from Jimmy Beans Wool Co for a circle cardigan that is in one of Berroco's book # 259, the cardigan is called Nigella. I have wanted to make a circle cardigan for a long time and actually downloaded a freebee from elann.com but people on Ravelry were having problems with the sleeves on that one so I was hesitant to try it. Meanwhile I got a newsletter from Berroco, talking about odd shaped knitting projects and Nigella caught my eye. It is knit with a Berroco yarn called Touche and I bought the color, Lemon Meringue. Sounds yummy? Look at the pictures of Nigella and the close-up of the patterning which I just absolutely love:

I can't wait to get the yarn and I can't wait to wear the sweater. The yarn is 50% cotton, 50% rayon. Perfect for my Hawaiian trip because I read that you need sweaters in Hawaii for restaurants and shops because of the air conditioning, you go in from the heat and freeze. Its the same here in SC actually, some restaurants are so cold I have to remember to take my sweater when I go to them. So--hopefully I'll have this done in time for the trip. Meanwhile though, I just ordered a skein of yarn from Ray at Knitivity. Ray has a contest going, its a One Skein Contest...you must use his sock yarn and make something unique. I already know what I'm going to make, just not quite sure if I'm going to machine knit it or hand knit it but knit it I will--before I start Nigella.

So much to do.......so little time!

Dogwoods

2009-03-26T12:09:00.009-04:00

I haven't been to town this week, perhaps the dogwoods are already blooming there but here in the foothills, my dogwoods are just now starting to show the beginning of blossoms. Here's a photo I took this morning, the tree is right beside the screen of our back porch, I love it being so close.
When we moved to SC back in 1961 my husband (who was the master of stories and fables, not always true) told me the story about the dogwood and the cross and told me that the dogwood always blooms at Easter time. I remembered that this year as I've watched my tree get ready to bloom. Then I decided to Google Dogwood and see if he was just telling me that or if it really was a legend. I found out it really was a true legend and there's more to it, I'll bet anything he knew the rest of it too. Here's what I found:

The word ~dogwood~ comes from a custom in England to wash dogs with a concoction made from dogwood bark to cure mange.

According to legend the dogwood was the size of the oak and other forest trees. Being firm and strong, it was chosen as the timber for the cross, during the Crucifixion of Christ. According to stories, the tree was distressed for being used for a cruel purpose, and Jesus being nailed to it sensed this and told the tree, "Because of your regret and pity for my suffering, never again shall the dogwood tree grow large enough to be used as a cross. Henceforth it shall be slender and bent and twisted and its blossoms shall be in the form of a cross, two long and two short petals. In the center of the outer edge of each petal there will be nail prints, brown with rust and stained with red, and in the middle of the flower will be a crown of thorns, and all who see it will remember ..."

The wood of dogwood was widely used in the textile industry and to make shuttlecocks, spools, dowels, baseball bats and shingles. Dogwood is so hard that it can even be used as a wedge to split other wood. The bark was used to make tea as a remedy for fever. According to Loudon, 1838, Arboretum Euonymus, a decoction of its leaves was used to wash dogs to free them from vermin. It was used to intoxicate fishes in Jamaica and as a tobacco additive by American Indians.

British Columbia adopted the Pacific dogwood Cornus nuttallii as its official provincial flower in 1956. During World War II, the sale of dogwood lapel pins earned money to purchase wool and other comforts for British Columbian soldiers. Dogwood blossoms are depicted on British Columbia’s coat of arms and on a flag flown by franco-Columbians, or French-speaking residents.

Dogwood ~Flowers or Trees~ are the official state flowers/trees of Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Virginia & British Columbia.

On April 23, 1995 President and Mrs. Clinton planted a flowering dogwood on the grounds of the White House to memorialize the loss of life in the Oklahoma City Bombing.

My Logo

2009-03-25T12:34:00.005-04:00

OK, I know you're dying to know how I got this logo. I've had it since 1987. How it came about was, in December 1986 we came to SC from Michigan to have a look at our property one more time before we built a house. We got a map that showed the mountains and their names and discovered that the mountain in front of our property was called Piney Mountain. So my son decided we should call our house Piney Mountain Cottage since it sits at the bottom of Piney Mountain. That was it, the Perfect name.

About that same time I decided to go ahead and start up a business. I wasn't sure what I was going to sell, probably knits since like most machine knitters who buy their first knitting machine thinks they're going to start selling knits (little do they know what that entails...)

So I went back to our home in Michigan, wrote to South Carolina and applied for my business license. That following summer we moved. We planned on living in a camper in the driveway while the house was being built. I wasn't about to live here in that camper until there was electricity so I went to Spokane where my Mom lived and hung out with her for the summer.

Mother's next door neighbor has a daughter close to the same age as me. The daughter is an artist, home from art school. I decided to ask her to draw a logo for me. I knew I wanted it to be a little old lady, knitting of course, and a cottage with the mountains in the background. Well----the logo you see is sort of what she came up with. I loved it but the only problem with it was the mountains. She and I grew up near the Rocky Mountains, the mountains around here are rounder and softer, older my husband told me. So I rounded out the mountains and there you have it, my Piney Mountain Cottage logo. I love it as much now as I did when she first came up with it.

Knitweave Scarfvest

2009-03-21T08:19:00.021-04:00

This is a lightweight vest (or scarf) and drapes slightly around the neck. Look at the picture, you can see light through the fabric, I would never knit this sock yarn alone at this high tension but I believe knitting it loosely with no weights helped with the edges rolling problem.

Machine: Silver Reed LK 150

Knitting Yarn: 3-50g balls of Red Heart Heart & Sole with Aloe (I purchased this at Hobby Lobby This is a superwash wool sock yarn).

Weaving Yarn: 1-50g ball Queensland Collection, Kathmandu Aran Tweed double knit weight wool, 85% Merino Wool, 10% Silk, 5% Cashmere.
(any wool yarn will work for this but since it only takes 1 ball, make it special. I highly recommend a wool blend for this project because it steams flat easier than acrylic.

4 buttons

Final Measurement: 6 inches wide x 40 inches long on the straight sides plus the 2 pointed ends

Gauge:Woven Swatch - 6 sts and 8 rows per inch with 1 strand of Red Heart and 1 strand of the weaving yarn.

Machine:This was knitted on the LK 150 but I used the LK 140 carriage which knits looser than the LK 150 carriage. I used a loose tension (4), probably if I had use the LK 150 carriage I would have to use a tension 5 to match the gauge I got with this carriage. I purposely knitted it loose and used no weights to help eliminate curly edges. You can see light through the fabric when you hold it up but that’s ok, its soft and lightweight and wonderful to wear.

How to Weave on the LK 150:I used a 1x1 weave, over one, under the next, alternating every row. To weave just place the weaving yarn in front of you in a bowl or something that will keep it from rolling all over the floor, don't use the antenna. Leave the knit (background) yarn in the antenna as normal. As you weave, pull forward every other needle as you get to it. Needle 1, put the weaving yarn over the needle, back against the bed, needle 2 put the weaving yarn under, alternating over every other needle. Then knit the row with your Red Heart yarn. Next row alternate the over and under needles so those that you put over last row, put under this row, be sure to pull out the needles as you get to them. If you have a weaving carriage, follow the directions that came with it.

Knitting Directions:
E-Wrap cast on 2 stitches with your Red Heart Yarn. Hold the stitches with your hand under the bed rather than using weights or use a lightweight plastic clothespin to hold it down but don’t use anything heavy. Remove the clothes pin ASAP. K across.

Begin Knitweaving:
Row 1. Weave under 1 stitch and over the second stitch. Knit across with the Red Heart yarn in the carriage.

Begin increasing every row on carriage side.
Row 2.Increase on carriage side, continue weaving, your first row was over/under and you’ve added a stitch, this row will be under/over/under. Continue this sequence increasing 1 stitch carriage side each row until you have 12 stitches each side, or until your piece is 6 inches wide.

Continue knit weaving until your scarf is 34 inches long (row 272)or, with a tape measure, drape 40 inches around your neck as a scarf, go to your mirror and make a note where you want the first buttonhole. You’ll want the 4th buttonhole to end about 2 rows before the end of your 40 inches. Place 2 more buttonholes evenly between the first and last. or just follow my directions below:

Mark for buttonholes:
At Row 272 mark the left side edge with contrast yarn for your first buttonhole.
Continue knitweaving, mark your second buttonhole at row 288.
Mark row 304 and finally at row 318.
Knit 2 more rows, you will be at row 320 or 40 inches.

Begin decreasing every row carriage side until you have 2 stitches left, weaving every row as you did on the other side. Bind off those 2 stitches.

Knitting Machine Crochet-Like Trim:
Use 2 strands of Red Heart’s Heart and Sole

Knit-crochet your edges using the Crab Stitch technique on your machine from Charlene Tate's web page, http://charmknits.com/crochet-like-trims.htm WARNING: Work a few rows and check to make sure your work isn’t puckering from putting the stitches too close together. If they are, take out that bit and do it again, skipping a stitch to keep the work flat. Charlene suggests you skip every 6th stitch.

Start with the base stitch: Begin with the right side of the garment facing you, working from R to L, pick up the first full fabric st and hang on a ndl. K 2 rws. Pick up bump under st and hang on ndl to the R of the ndl. K 2 rws. Two ndls are now in work and a base st is finished.

Continue with the Crab Stitch Technique: With a single prong tool, pick up next fabric st and hang on new ndl to the L of the L ndl. Transfer R st to new L ndl and put empty ndl out of work (A) position. (Original L ndl becomes R ndl.) K 2 rws. Repeat until last fabric st remains. On the Curves, do the stitch twice to help keep the shape correct. To end, hang last fabric st on L ndl and transfer st on R ndl to L ndl. K 1 rw.

When finished with the first row, go around 1 more time. This time pick up the bars between the bump from the first crochet row. When you get to the buttonhole markers make your buttonholes by knitting 4 stitches in the same space before continuing with the crab stitch (sort of like making a chain if you were crocheting. Before you continue, make sure your button will fit through but not too loose, you don’t want it to come unbuttoned when you are wearing it. If you prefer, just crochet a chain after you get the work off the needles.

To finish your scarfvest, if you’ve used wool you can actually steam with your steam iron and press down hard shaping it as you steam. I folded mine in half to keep the shape the same on both side. Weave in all ends and sew your buttons on. you’re ready to wear.

Double click on the diagram to see the measurements

If you’d like to make this scarfvest on any other machine, make a tension swatch. Get out your calculator and start with 2 needles, ewrap cast on, increase every stitch every row on carriage side until you have a 6 inch width. Continue knitweaving every row until your piece is 40 inches long. Decrease down to 2 stitches. Repeat the Crochet-Like Trim as above. Sorry but I have no idea how many balls of the yarn it will take. If you buy extra you can always make a pair of socks with the Red Heart yarn. Remember, no weights and knit it loose enough that it holds it shape but is a bit drapey.

Scarfvest is finished

2009-03-18T22:57:00.005-04:00

Here it is finally, the scarfvest I've been working on forever (it seems like it anyway). Its knitweave, the knitting yarn is Red Heart's Heart and Sole, a sock yarn, superwash wool, spun with aloe. I really like the yarn and will definitely use it again. The weaving yarn is a double knit wool that I bought in a yarn shop in Wisconsin while visiting over Christmas.

You can probably tell from the pictures I knitted it pretty loose because I had a theory that one of the reasons our machine knit edges curl so much is because the machine has it stretched tight horizontally and we have it stretched tight vertically with weights. So--I used no weights and knitted it looser than I usually do. The edges still rolled a little but nothing like they usually do.

I solved the slight roll by doing machine knit crochet edges. I knew that Charlene Tate has several how-to-crochet by machine on her web site at www.charmknits.com/ I did the Crab Stitch which is a backward single crochet all the way around. When I was finished I decided to do 1 more row. Normally you wouldn't do 2 rows of crab stitch but I like the way this looks, probably a bit different than if I had crocheted it by hand but I'll never crochet by hand again unless I have to do a stitch that isn't on Charlene's web page. To make the buttonholes I did sort of a chain stitch (on the machine) as I got to the place where I had left a buttonhole marker, I just knitted 4 rows on 1 stitch, then joined it by continuing on with the crab stitch, hard to explain but it worked.

Tomorrow I'll get my notes out and see if I can write up how I made this thing, right now I can't remember exactly how many stitches I used and exactly how I did the tuxedo ends but I wrote it all down.

Spring Flowers are Coming Up

2009-03-11T06:54:00.005-04:00

Definitely its spring here in SC. I have been outside working in the little flower gardens in the front, removing the leaves that I left in them to keep the bulbs and roots warm over the winter. Now its time to spruce them up. The forsythia bushes have just started to bloom here in my part of the foothills and the azalea bushes have started to show some buds. I've carefully sprayed them all winter with Liquid Fence to keep the deer from eating them. I'm on my way to town and I'm going to get a picture of the pretty Bradford Pear trees that line the driveway of a local church.

Meanwhile my knitting is going nowhere.

I've been working on a scarfvest for over a month. I finally almost have it finished but am trying out different edge treatments for it. I've settled on a half double crochet done on the knitting machine (tried it by hand but my crocheting leaves a lot to be desired). Once I decided to do that I couldn't make up my mind about which yarn to use, the warp yarn or the weaving yarn. That issue is finally settled, I'm going to use the warp yarn which is lots thinner than the weaving yarn. Now I'm waiting until Thurday when its going to be cooler and raining. With 3 cool days ahead I should finish that blasted scarfvest and then its time to do some spring cleaning in the loft.

My son and family are coming down from Michigan the end of the month and my grandaughter loves to sort and organize so she's going to help me with this job that has just been way too hard for me to do alone. Why is it, the older we get, the harder it is to part with little pieces of fiber? I find something, an old magazine, a knitted swatch, a half finished sweater and off I go on another project that I tell myself I'll finish before I finish the sorting and tossing. Oh well, it keeps me going I guess--some day I may actually get the sorting and tossing done but until then I do love looking through the stuff.

Australia's Damaging Fires

2009-03-06T11:13:00.007-05:00

Here's the world's most unique and deeply inspiring experiences for art and garden lovers of all ages created by Bruno Torfs. Recently the raging fires in Victoria completely destroyed his unique forest creation taking over 300 paintings and sculptures.

As you take a walk through the forest pictures, please take a moment to reflect on the beauty gone and the many people who have lost their homes, their loved ones, their livelihoods, the severely injured, the animal life and the dedicated fire fighters, police, civilians, and those involved in caring for the traumatized and injured. For more about this amazing man,more pictures of his art and his forest, go to www.brunosart.com

Mallards at Play

2009-02-25T15:56:00.009-05:00

Early this afternoon I came home from town and took the dog back to the pond where he loves to get a drink, survey the world and play. Wow! I turned the corner to the pond and there were 2 mallards swimming along enjoying themselves as if they owned the place. I silently told the dog not to bark (he's never seen a duck before) luckily he didn't bark, he just watched them and then wandered away unimpressed, thank goodness. I turned and quietly walked back to the house for my camera and got some shots of them enjoying their swim.