Dozens of Doilies

Before I went to visit her a few weeks ago, my mom asked me if I could make her some small ecru doilies. So I packed up my hooks and books and a skein of ecru crochet cotton. She showed me the white one that was just like she wanted, and it was done with thinner cotton than I had packed, but we easily found which pattern I'd used for the original.

So we went shopping for the right thread, and I made her a few more like the one she had, but in ecru. Then I started making others about the same size from the same book. Then I got home and started making even more.

This how now become a Project (TM) and I plan to make every doily in the book for her for Christmas. I probably will finish by actual Christmas, but we exchange gifts in January, which gives me plenty of breathing room.

Squiggles

Here's a quick pic of my latest project Stacked Wedges from Knitting New Scarves: 27 Distinctly Modern Designs by Lynne Barr



I'm almost done with this skein of soysilk blend, but I think I should scour the apartment before I bind off since the scarf could stand to be longer, and I really, really, really don't want to knit with this stuff again.

Still here, still crafting

I have been a bit busier than usual with work lately, but I did finish a pouch and a few scarves recently.

Been exploring the patterns in Knitting New Scarves: 27 Distinctly Modern Designs by Lynne Barr.

In part I'm doing this because I love the 3D patterns in the book and in part to do some stash busting. In particular, I bought yarn to make a sweater and didn't like it's drape in a sweater. It's working for some, but not all, of the scarves in the collection.

Pouch

Here's what it looks like so far:

Portable Project

Since the pouch is colorwork with 3 colors/row in some places, I needed something else as a portable project. So I frogged one of the mulit-colored kilt hose and started Hat Heel. I was going to do a swatch, then realized I may as well just start the sock and make the heel part...it'll get me a swatch in the round, and if the gauge is right, I'm set and if it isn't, I haven't knitted all that much anyway.

Wish I had a ball band for this Tofutsies so I could show the color without dragging out my camera, which isn't going to happen tonight.

Pouch Notes

A few weeks ago I decided I'd make a pouch for the county fair. I wanted a pouch a little bit bigger than the felted pouch I normally carry, and I wanted a pretty design on it.

I wanted a sturdy knit, so I grabbed the Jaggerspun Maine Line merino from my cushion project (inspired by Las Huelgas grave finds and I hadn't put quite enough thought into the pattern, so I was disappointed in it) to knit the pouch.

A 5x0 needle gave me a firm, but not stiff fabric, which is just what I wanted.

The bottom is double-thickness with the outside black and inside red. I started with a 4x4 stitch square and increased in the second and second-to-last stitches on the needle until I had 256 stitches.

And then I started looking for pretty patterns. I was thinking of something from Folk Knitting in Estonia by Nancy Bush, and only 2 patterns I like fit in 256 stitch repeat. A lot of the patterns are 10 or 14 stitches instead, and I didn't feel like trying to figure out how to fit those onto my base and I definitely didn't want to go mucking with the bases now that I had them attached to each other.

After joining the two bottoms, I knit a black and red 2-color yarn-over braid, then a few rows of black, then I started the sheep's eye (Lambasilmakiri on the card was the best picture I could find) pattern with a black background, red circles, and yellow grid.

It is beautiful, but still so short it's rolling up all over the place. I am briefly considering switching the red and yellow in the pattern to make it more vibrant, but this way it's less likely to show dirt. I can always make another in different colors some day or maybe pick one of the other patterns from the book if I end up liking this pouch.

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.