Finishing Seams

I'm finishing seams on an underdress. The dress is lightweight yellow wool gabardine. The thread is dark red crochet cotton. And tonight I tried a new technique...I put the part I'm working on in a hoop. While it requires pins to get everything lined up properly it is much easier on my hands.

Angels we have...

Here are two crocheted angels drying on my kitchen counter. The little one is Small Angel Ornament #1 and the larger one is Tree Top Angel #4 from Leisure Arts Crocheted Snowflakes & Angels designed by Wilma Stash with a copyright date of 1983.

They were worked with a size 3 steel crochet hook in Baroque crochet cotton in Ecru.

Their heads are stuffed with merino top because that's what was at hand.

After I assembled them and sewed in the ends, I dipped their bodies, wings, and halos in warm water, then in starch. I spread a thin layer of starch over their heads so that there won't be color or sheen differences when they dry. I removed the excess starch with my fingers and paper towels before forming them into their angel shapes.

They are supported by cones made of leftover plastic Metro shelf liner stapled and taped together and held in place with bobby pins. I tried to support the larger angel's wings, but couldn't find anything that worked, so in the morning I'll probably have to re-flatten the picots.

I did not have any commercial laundry starch around the house, so I mixed pure corn starch and water together in a saucepan and boiled it until it got gloopy. Then I thinned it to a consistency I could work with. I could've "starched" them with sugar water, but I don't have as much sugar in the house as I have corn starch.

Hopefully they will both dry and harden before the people I made them for skip town for the holidays.

Fingerless Gloves

I made a pair of these for myself and didn't write down the pattern, now I'm going to try to make a set for a friend and write it up as I go.

Materials:
size 1 double-pointed needles
baby ull

Cast-on 72 stitches
K2 P2 for 20 rows

K1, knit into stitch 2 rows below needle, knit into stitch 1 row below next stitch, k1, p2, k2, p2 across
k4, p2, k2, p2 across
k4, p2, k2, p2 across
k2, knit into stitch 2 rows below needle, knit into stitch 1 row below next stitch, k2, p2 across
k2, p2 across
k2, p2 across
k2, p2, knit into stitch 2 rows below needle, knit into stitch 1 row below next stitch, p2, k2, p2 across
k2, p4, k2, p2 across
k2, p4, k2, p2 across

and so forth until there are enough stitches between the initial 2 stitches to go around the thumb.

will need to measure the gauge later.

Cotton bags

Recently I knit two small bags in cotton yarn from my stash on size 000 needles. One is small and sized to hold my iPod shuffle and its headphones. The other is larger designed to fit the iPhone, but ended up bigger than that and can probably hold a whole lot more.


The small one is 60 stitches around. The color pattern is pulled a bit too tight, but the fabric it made is lovely.

The larger one is 80 stitches around and I wrote out the pattern. The tension is better, but it has some really long floats (I chose not to anchor them) that show some indication that it may be too loose.

Some of the tensions issues on both bags can probably be improved by blocking them which I may or may not do.

The cords on both bags are 4-strand braids. Bring left strand under 2 strands to the right and back over 1 strand to the left, bring right strand under 2 strands to the left and back over 1 strand to the right. The structure is similar to Viking whipcord but I didn't have the set up for that where I was braiding.

Moorish Stockings for Summer Part III

I finished the Moorish stockings the other evening. Tonight I took pictures. They aren't quite as long as I'd like them to be, but I didn't have more yarn and I can't get more in that color. They will, however, be good enough for taming my Moorish pants in the summer months.

The pattern:

Cast-on 80 stitches. Knit until desired length or you run out of yarn, bind-off loosely.

Easy-peasy and boring.

Moorish Stockings for Summer Part II

I took this photo a while ago. I'm pretty sure the knitted bit on the left was the wrong size and shape and got frogged to be knitted into the right size and shape.

The yarn is Camila from Elann.com. 50% cotton, 50% linen. 113m/50g. Color 8007. I can't tell you what they call this color because it's not currently available. Despite what it looks like in the picture, the yarn is a slightly purple-ish grey.

The needles are Addi Aluminum double points in 3.25mm size, which is approximately a US size 3, but not close enough to size 3 be mixed with size 3 needles from other manufacturers.

The pattern so far: Cast-on 80 sts. Knit in stockinette until almost out of the 2nd skein. Bind off loosely.

They're going to be a bit shorter than I'd really like, but I'm sure I can live with it, as they'll also be a lot cooler for having less fabric scrunching around my lower leg.

Flat Cap the First

These are the promised pictures of the wool for the flat cap project. Sorry about the focus on the singles. I took 3 photos of that stage, and none of them look good. The yarn is slightly darker than it looks in the photos with the black background, and not quite as dark as the photo with the white background.

Jacob Top


Single on Spindle


2-ply yarn

Yarn on White Background