First Snowflakes

by Kelly

Searching for snowflakes, I found some unusual patterns:

via LionBrand

The best thing about Lion Brand patterns is that the Errata is written in red, so you can see what you're getting into. And this comes with matching mittens - very cute. This is a knitting pattern, but never fear, the next one is crochet.

via So Far, So Good

I love this beautiful snowflake, even if it is a doily. And the best part is, she recreated this from a cast off doily she found in a thrift store. Free pattern available at her site, and while you're there, check out her Walled Garden Square, dug out of an old folder. I'm glad I'm not the only one with a library of paper patterns with no provenance.

Meanwhile, I took a quick break from gloves to make a few hats, including the candy dot one that I finally finished.

Oh well, break's over. Back to gloves!

Hats and Speecifying

by Kelly

I'm taking a break from gloves to work on hats.

From a free pattern found at Collette's place. That cord to the right of the hat is the drawstring cord that is supposed to be threaded into the bottom ribbed part...I think. She suggested a finger knitted cord, but I just made a two strand I-cord.

This hat is terribly cute, but for some reason it reminds me of the hats worn by Ewoks. Hmmm....maybe I'll have to work on something like that...

Meanwhile, since this is the day before Election Day, I thought I would share a book that I came across this summer:

It's title is "The Compleat American Housewife : 1776". It's purportedly a collection of recipes and thoughts from an early American housekeeper. I haven't researched to see if this is true or just a clever marketing gimmick, but the recipes certainly have the sound of very old cookbooks. For example, there are directions for cooking Flip and Flummery, and a very tragic recipe for Parsnip Wine. Much as I love books and the preservation of information for the next generation, I really think that some things are best left to fade into obscurity.

And here is a quick tip on the best way to bake bread:

"Many housewives having no brick oven will do all their baking on the hearth...Sweep a clean spot on the hearth and place a piece of dough directly on the hot bricks. Cover it with an upside down pot of iron or earthenware, and then cover the pot with embers and pile hot coals around it. Experience will dictate the baking time needed."

All of this aside, the thing that most interests me about this book is the thread of politics that weaves its way through the pages. There are accounts of making do without coffee, tea and sugar during the Revolution, quotes from presidents and their wives on dining and entertaining in the European way, and a plea  from Abagail Adams to her husband to not forget the rights of women when drafting the Constitution.

The best part, though, was a section about when to serve the pudding: "The place of pudding on the menu even enters into political life. The Federalists eat their pudding first, but the Democrats begin their dinners with meat."

Oh, yes, the Federalists. Committed to a fiscally sound and nationalistic government, and their only president was John Adams. Sigh.

Show and Tell

by Kelly

Work continues on learning how to knit gloves. It's a pretty uphill struggle, as far as I'm concerned. Oh, I completed my first glove, all right...

but I'm not happy with it. The gauge seems too loose to keep hands warm in a Midwest winter, and the fingers are waaayy up on top of the palm, so it doesn't seem proportional. I searched for other free glove patterns, so I could do a comparison glove, but most of them are knit in sock yarn. I do have two skeins of sock yarn that I acquired somewhere along the way, but I don't think I could match the gauge required. I mean, I have to drop four needle sizes to knit most patterns with worsted, so I would be knitting with size 000 needles or something.

Speaking of gauge, I knit that tiny purple hat as a quick test to see if my gauge calculations are at all accurate. The hat came out spot on, so I guess whoever came up with the glove pattern thinks of gloves only as fashion accessories, rather than functional winter wear.

If I can find another free glove pattern, I'll try that with worsted weight yarn - otherwise I'll knit the Patons glove with two strands of yarn, and see if that helps.

I would try thrumming, if I happened to have any wool roving lying around. And I don't think that even Donna's almost mystical yarn stash, which multiplies on its own when no one is watching, has any wool roving in it. Oh well.

Cool Weather

by Kelly

After all the searing heat of summer, it's a little shocking how cool it is here now. So cool, in fact, that a picturesque picnic is out of the question.

But now that the leaves are off the trees, it is easier to see the sunrise:

 

Oh, and if you're curious to know about the hat from the Friday post, well, it went so well (except being a bit too big, since I made a mistake in my gauge calculations) that I made another one.

And by the way, if you're ever short of a model for your hats, and have no round fruits or vegetables or willing pets to put them on, try stuffing them with plastic grocery bags.

The pattern is, of course, a free one, which I found at AllFreeKnitting.

I'm now casting on for a pair of matching gloves for the smaller hat. Yes, gloves, not mittens. I've calculated gauge and altered all the numbers, and I've read the pattern over to make sure I understand what has to happen. It seems simple enough...

Pinks

by Kelly

One set complete! One pair of mittens and one headband/earwarmer, sized for kids 6-12.  The mittens are from the book Patons Next Step Seven.

The headband is from DROPS design and is also available as a free pattern, either on Raverly or here. I adapted it slightly to fit a smaller head by dropping the last increase. And while I was looking for a page to link to, I found this page of other DROPS designs for headbands, so I can make more in different styles. I think these would be a great alternative to winter hats, especially for girls with long hair or ornate hair styles.

I love the fact that I can learn new things and at the same time help others stay warm this winter. I feel much better about knitting lots of colourful mittens if I'm not just tossing them in a bin to store in my closet. And speaking of learning new things, I'm working on an interesting hat project:

The idea here is that you knit it flat and then fold it into a hat shape and seam it up. I have my doubts, but the end result is so cute that I have to give it a try. Stay tuned for the results.

Now if only I could find a way to knit with all these beautiful autumn leaves that are lying all over the place. That would be recycling that I could get excited about.

Mittens on Three Needles

by Kelly

Come for a walk through the autumn landscape with me:

Meanwhile, I'm knitting mittens in the round this time. Yay, no seaming! Of course, this type of knitting does come with other challenges. For example, the thumb is knitted last. Which makes me wonder about gloves. If you have to knit each finger individually, no wonder fingerless gloves are so popular.

But I will persevere. I definitely aim to achieve gloves this year, because I remember refusing to wear mittens after a certain age and I want to knit something that older kids will be happy to wear.

After all, cold weather is coming, and everyone deserves warm hands. 

Crafty Gadget Mystery and Work In Progress

by Kelly

I bought a box of crafting stuff at a 'hoarders sale' and have a mystery on my hands. What do you think these gadgets are?

They are obviously used to wind something up, but what? Are they for thread, floss, crochet cotton, yarn or ribbon? Do they wind into a ball, a bobbin, a spool? The lady who previously owned these sewed and crocheted, but apparently didn't knit or embroider.

They're also stamped "Beachwood Ltd, Made in China", if that helps. Any ideas?

Meanwhile, also in the box was an unfinished project that I helped out a little:

The pattern (which is to be found in the March/April issue of Needlecraft For Today) showed a little embroidery on the 'bodice'...

so I dug out my embroidery box and got to work, using some of the crochet cotton that was with the project:

By the way, I should mention that this issue of Needlework For Today is from 1986, so the name of the magazine is more ironic than factual. The pattern was created by Jean Carpenter and is called a 'Ring-around-the-Posies Dress'.

Unfortunately, the dress is still not finished - there is quite a bit more crochet work still to be done, and I really have many other projects that I'm much more interested in starting...or completing, since to tell the truth I now have my own small stack of WIP. Still, it's a little sad to think that it will be another 26 years before someone else works on it. I'm thinking of putting it in the shop under the title 'Adopt a project'.

Have any of you adopted a project that someone else never finished? If so, how did it go?