Clara Dressy Kit

My kit for the Clara dressy arrived!  It includes the pattern and 2 skeins of Isager 2 yarn, a 50/50 blend of alpaca and wool with about 250 meters of yarn.  I chose the dusty lavender color and have no intention of using this lovely yarn for the dressy. 

I do however intend to use Elann.com's Callista because it is mommy friendly.  AKA Machine Washable.  This is huge for moms everywhere.  I remember once when Karolyn was a baby, about 6 months old, I made her a sweater out of non-machine washable alpaca.  I went about my daily routine of working 8 hours, coming home, preparing and cleaning up dinner, washing and changing the baby and starting the daily load of laundry.  The next day when removing the laundry from the drier, I discovered that I had machine washed and dried the hand knit baby alpaca sweater.  I thought that baby clothes were tiny to begin with until I saw my shrunken hand knit baby alpaca sweater.  I about cried.  It was at that moment that I vowed to make all baby items out of wonderful machine washable yarn.  I'm not about to go back on my vow, machine washable Callista it is!

Christmas Knitting

It has occurred that we are currently in what I refer to as Prime Christmas Knitting Season.  As with all knitters, I too have people from all over placing orders of what it is that they want me to knit for them.  And every year someone gets disappointed as I just can't knit for everyone.  This year I have decided to limit the knitting for the kids only.  I have my 2 angels (Karolyn and Sydney), my sisters 3 angels (Alana, Bryce, and Jacqueline) and my brother's angel (Trenton) which comes to a grand total of 6 kids to knit for. 

I've decided to knit baby Jacqueline the Clara Dress by Karin Vestergaard Mathiesen.

Isn't this dressy just adorable? The pattern is only available in a kit and the yarn that comes with it is an alpaca/ wool blend.  I'm gonna swap out the yarn for a machine washable cotton blend that will not be destroyed when her mom does the laundry.  The kit is en-route as we speak!

For the boys, Trenton and Bryce, I've decided The Pembroke Vest is in order. 

It comes in several sizes and I'm gonna make 2 of size 4T out of some Debbie Bliss's Cashmerino Aran yarn I have left over from a previous sweater I made for myself.  This stuff is quite dreamy indeed.  I'm only hoping that the mom's don't destroy the adorable vest during the washing process. 

For the girls, I've decided to design them a cardi.  I'm still not sure if I want to add a hood or not but there is still time for that decision.  What I have in mind is a very simple yolk style fair isle cardigan.  It would be knit in the round and steeked,  I love steeking!  My cardi would feature a ribbed cabled band along the front edge with a sparkly zipper.  Us girls just love our bling!

This is the current plan and may or may not change as time progresses.  I am determined to have hand knits for all of the kids for Christmas!! Wish me luck!



Swifty

I find it incredibly ironic that we live in an age that prides itself on being "green" and "environmentally friendly" yet we toss away a significant amout of trash that eventually fills our landfills.  We toss out diapers, and paper towels, and kleenex, and chlorox wipes, and baby wipes, and swiffer pads.  All of these items were not disposible 50 years ago.  Back then people washed and reused these items.  Now in the "green" age, we toss it.  Ironic isn't it?  I've decided to take a stand and stop being wasteful and I'm starting with the swiffer!

I made a "swifty" with the nameless cotton I used to make my star dishcloths.  So now my dishcloths match my swifty, how cute is that?  First I wet Swifty, added some floor cleaner and attached it to the swiffer.  I cleaned my entire kitchen floor in the same amout of time it takes to use a regular store bought disposible swiffer pad however with the Swifty, my floor was cleaner!  It got off all of the stuck on grime that is usually left behind.  I'm quite impressed with my environmentally friendly swifty. 

The pattern can be found in the second Mason-Dixon book Knitting Outside the Lines. 

Bleeding Hearts Stole

I've been working on the Bleeding Hearts Stole.  Actually I've not been working on it and then picked it up again from hibernation.  I'm making it out of mohair which poses its own set of problems.  First and formost is that due to the fuzzy nature of the fiber, its a nightmare to rip out.  Secondly, if you happen to lose some stitches its a nightmare to reclaim them. 

Such was the case recently.  Here I am knitting happily along, minding my own business, when I hear a noise.  No it wasn't the kids trying to kill each other or the sound of cars driving by or the birds chirping or any other such pleasant sound.  It was the distinct sound of a screw working on unscrewing itself.  Now you may be asking, how in God's name does she know what sound a screw makes when it is coming undone?  I know because its happened before particularily when I've had hundreds of stitches on the needles and these hundreds of stitches needed to be picked up again.  And due to the fact that I'm working on a lace project with mohair, I would like to avoid this exact situation. 

I carefully inspect my needle joints and I find the culpret with about 20 stitches its about to take down with it.  Dirty bastard. 

Do you see all those stitches bunched up on the needle? That is exactly where my needle is coming loose from the cord.  My task is extract the stitches from the loosened section, tighten it back up again, give it a good talking to and get back to enjoying my evening.  If all goes well, it will happen just like that.  This may sound simple enough but I forgot to mention I have to do all this while the kids are entertaining themselves by climbing all over me.  Do they not know that I'm working with mohair? 

There there, everything is going to be just fine.  I've got a nice glass of wine and the kids havn't spilled it yet.  Life is good.  I started on the task at hand and about a half an hour later the procedure was complete.  No more stitches bunched up where they did not belong and the needles were properly joined.  I did give the needles a good stern lecture which included words like: respect, responsibility and mohair. 

It was getting late and I decided to call it a night.  The kids didn't kill each other, the dog didn't run away, and my stitches are right where they are supposed to be.  I'd say all is well with the world!

Manhole Covers

"Honey, I got them!"

"Got what?" I ask.

"You know, the manhole covers! Both of them!"

Oh dear God, he actually did it. "That's wonderful dear."  He's been talking about recovering them for weeks now but I didn't actually think he would do it.

"I know exactly where I'm gonna put them!"

Dare I ask? "Where?" I ask, not quite certain I should have.  All sorts of god awful places of display run through my head for these rusted out hunks of junk to come to mind. 

"In the front yard! I'm gonna paint them gold and make gold coins out of them and proudly display them in the front yard!"

"Of course dear, because every self respecting Michigander needs 90 year old gold painted manhole covers on display in the front yard."  Just what I've always dreamed of, manhole covers in the front yard.  Shoot me now.

A little while later my husband comes home with the said manhole covers.  He explains to me that these manhole covers have been recovered from a 90 year old shipwreck located in the St. Clair River.  To think, these covers have not seen the light of day in 90 years and they are going to reside in my front yard as gold coins.  Is that considered an insult to the manhole covers?  I certainly hope not. 

He then tells me that he changed his mind and decided to turn them into a gold sun dial that will be located in the back yard, which, as he explains sounds much cooler than gold coins.  All I heard is that they will be located in the back yard and after that I just didn't care!  

Star Dishcloth

The car was all loaded up, everyone was buckled in and waiting on me.  I needed something and FAST.  So I grabbed the needle case, a plastic bag containing 3 leftover balls of nameless cotton and made mad dash for the car before I was left behind.  I had no idea what I was going to knit but it would be a bonus if it was simple enough to memorize, small enough to be finished in about an hr and one that can make use of the nameless cotton. 

What does one do with 3 nameless balls of cotton with no idea as to how much yardage is present? Then it hit me, a dishcloth!  How much yardage does one really need for a dishcloth?  If I find myself falling short on yarn, I can always cast off.  Its a dishcloth afterall and doesn't need to be any specific length or size for that matter.  A dishcloth is definately what these 3 nameless balls of cotton are destined to become.  But what type of dishcloth?  After all,  I didn't even know I was going to be making a dishcloth before I made the mad dash for the car.  Thank God for smart phones and Ravelry!  I reasearched dishcloth patterns and of course a million patterns popped up.  However there was one in particular that I was drawn to, a star shaped dishcloth.   The pattern met all of my criteria and I'm totally hooked onto the dishcloth craze!  The best part is actually getting to use them.


Star Dishcloth Pattern

Cast on 15 stitches.
This cloth is made up of 6 wedges, all exactly the same. Then the edge is sewn together, the threads are sewn in and the cloth is complete. :)

Every wedge:
Row 1 and all odd rows: K across to last 3 stitches, P3.
Row 2: K3, YO, K to last st, turn.
Row 4: K3, YO, K to last 2 sts, turn.
Row 6: K3, YO, K to last 3 sts, turn.
Row 8: K3, YO, K to last 4 sts, turn.
Row 10: K3, YO, K to last 5 sts, turn.
Row 12: K3, YO, K to last 6 sts, turn.
Row 14: K3, YO, K to last 7 sts, turn.
Row 16: K3, YO, K to last 8 sts, turn.
Row 18: K3, YO, K to last 9 sts, turn.
Row 20: K3, YO, K to last 10 sts, turn.
Row 22: K3, YO, K to last 11 sts, turn.
Row 24: K3, YO, K to last 12 sts, turn.
Row 26: Cast off 12 sts, K to end of row.
Now, look at how EASY that wedge is! You won’t even have to print the pattern out!!! :)

The pattern can also be found here.