Biscuit's Coat

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

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 right.

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

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

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....

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......

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

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.