Brooklyn Cap

Interweave Knits Summer 2006- As I remember, there wasn't anything that interested me in the issue. I rarely knit things for Spring and Summer. Don't know why, but it seems like light weight things just take longer. Maybe it's the smaller needles, maybe the smaller yarn, but it just takes me a lot of time to do anything. Plus there's always so much nice wool to be knit. So I passed it by, the IW magazine I mean.

Earlier in the winter, I was looking again at Coloursknits amazing projects and she had this hat. I have to have that hat!! Interweave Summer?? I don't remember that hat, but it must be so. Now comes the challenge. Where can I get this magazine at this point in the year. It's not sold in Ireland any were and I don't want to have it sent for one pattern. Beg it off the yahoo group. Does anyone have this?? Sara and Ger to the rescue. I still don't like the hat in the picture, but I have seen what it can be with a slight modification of yarn.

Must finish projects on the needles and then, dive into the stash. I chose an ancient Olive green from Rowan Classic Collection. Probably 10 years old. Army green is a mystery and the Fuchsia is Lambs Pride. Because I always think that things look better with a "little something", I opted to put in a wonky circle off center. That took the longest. Total knitting time was 3-4 hours of leisurely knitting. Shrank great with one wash and then added the Colourknits braided band.

I really love this hat! I'll be making another one for myself. This one is headed to Chicago to my lovely niece Jordan who had a birthday last week. Happy 19th!! Hope you like it.

More Felt Jewelry

Well this is it for the Feltmakers Ireland Guild meeting on Wednesday. Been fiddling around with another necklace and a couple of rings.

The little rose ring I made from prefelt. Cut it into strips and folded it in half. Rolled it around itself like you would if you were making Pinwheel cookies or a Roulade. Stitched it as I went and then clipped the fold to create the pedals. I used another piece of prefelt for the bit that goes around the finger. I felted it again to stabilize it. I like the little silk fibres that peak around the edges.

I made this one from the extra felt balls that were used on the necklace. I finished it all before realizing that it has a strong likeness to the Irish flag. Not the sparkles or the roundness, but Irish none the less. It's a fun little ring that my daughter loves.

Necklace number 2. Goes with the ring! It's a set. Not intended, but that's fine. I was trying to do something else besides felt balls, so oblong, oval and elliptical came to mind. Tried a bit of decoration on the balls too. I'm not a beader. Just don't have the skills or knowlegde yet, but Rome wasn't built in a day and so I will press on and see what happens.

The Day After

Last night as the children were heading off to bed, our son says "I can't believe it's already over." Yes, sad as it is for us, the heart decor will soon be taken down, but the memories will live on until the next holiday.

The children were both hard at work making Valentine/Get Well cards for the DH and myself. They were both very nervous by the look of Mama, laying in a heap in the bed, that the Festivities would be cancelled. But the beauty, and I mean beauty of the 24 hour flu is that it's just that. 24 hours. Can't say the energy or appetite is back, but the worst is over.

So here is the breakdown of events:

Sunday - Made cookies and paper for Valentine's day.
Decorated the house for Avery's girly party on Monday.
Kept working on felt jewelry.
Baked chocolate chip/M&M muffins for party.

Monday - Cleaned house, got ready, picked up girls, had party with cookies, cards and muffins.
Began the flu.

Tuesday - Don't know... Vague memory

Wednesday - Hello.. I'm up and out of bed, finishing off all the things I had planned for yesterday. Had party with the kiddies and husband when they got home from swimming. Even managed the gluten free Love Heart Pizza in honor of the day.

Today - We are preparing for house guests that will come this afternoon. Sean-2, Meghan-4 They will be staying with us for 3.5 days while their parents take one final trip before their new sibling arrives in April. We will be busy.

But one parting opinion. I think this is the sweetest card, made by my son, who doesn't consider himself an artist, but certainly is sentimental. Priceless to me.

Hearts a Plenty

Valentine's Day is a day to celebrate. Besides being a day to remember all the loves (peolpe) in my life. We love themes to cook around, craft around and party around and so we do.













Inspired by Cheryl's gingerbread cookies.











Paper Valentine's for Avery's teacher.



Hope everyone has a great day.

Calorimetry

My friend Sara knit this great hat from Knitty. The Calorimetry. Well, not really a hat, more of a band. She said that she would prefer it a bit narrower. I was also reading someone else's blog that made the same suggestion. I knit mine out of Kilcarra yarn. I love the green. I used the yarn from a pair of fingerless gloves that never came to pass, but didn't want to waste the yarn.

I modified the number of repeats. I only did 5 short row turns, then continued on as specified. It seems to fit me better that way.

Natural Coloured Cotton

Years ago, when I lived in Los Angeles, I worked for a Cotton Incorporated. We worked for the American Cotton farmers promoting all the products of Cotton. Some time in the last 80's we met a woman who had started a small farm growing naturally coloured cotton. Right out of the fields, lovely greens, brown, pinks and beige. Organic and no dyeing needed. You would think she would have been embraced with open arms. Oh no, on the contrary. Boycotting farmers trying to run her out of business (her opinion). Only white cotton should be grown in California! How things would change.

The beauty of this cottong is that it gets softer and richer in colour with washing. No pesky fading. So somehow, I ended up with a lot of this yarn. Over the years I've given a lot away and used some for children's crafts. I know, "How could you?" Don't know, I just did. Anyway, I was rooting through my stash and came across it again.

I really would like to make up something from the Knitted Toys book I bought a while back, but in the mean time I knit a hat out of the green and the tri-coloured plied for the stripe. Looks good. Made up the pattern based on a jumble of patterns, but it works for me.

Felt Jewelry

This month is Jewelry and Felt month for Feltmakers Ireland. Every month we have a drop in at the library for people who are interested in making felt. Young and old, new or with great experience can come an impart wisdom. Or just show really cool stuff. Our beloved founder, Elizabeth is doing a segment on jewelry.
This week she is in Tucson Arizona at the worlds largest bead and jewelry show. Not for the Guild, that would be grand! But for her own interest, that happens to be what we're doing this month. Lucky Us!
So I thought I would do up a few bits for the event. We encourage everyone to come and felt or bring items that relate to the topic. So this is what I've been piddling with for the past few weeks.
I made the traditional felt balls, dye some silk, got out the beads, wire, nylon and needles and set to work.




My friend Colleen's brother owns this great new bead shop in Bray. Not to far from us. He has great things. Unusual things. So I used the first medallion as an inspiration of colour. Greens and blues. Love those!
While in Portugal, I bought a necklace that had a felt flower on it. It was needle felted. I used small cookie cutters to form the circular shapes then pulled in the sides with embroidery floss. Little bead in the centre and your done.

Getting the needle through was the hardest part. Pliers, the whole deal. Anyway, I'm pleased with the result. They're really quite small. 2" on the large one and 1" on the small. I used some of the silk that I dyed for a bit of colour over the whitish fleece.
This is the completed project. I'm working on an orange one today and maybe a ring or two.


More later.

Knitting Lace

I love lace, although I don't wear it much or decorate with it. I love the Shawls, wraps, socks and everything else people are knitting with lace. I don't knit lace. Mostly because knitting becomes work instead of pleasure for me. I have to focus to much on every row and nothing else can distract me. I am easily lost from one row to the next with YO and K2T and SSK. Heaven help me if someone asks a question. I'll have to FROG and begin again.
So you may ask, "Why do you have this book on your blog?" Because I now own this book. It came to me for my birthday from my husband in a round about way. (Returned a few gifts) Again, why did I buy this book? Mostly it the colour of this wrap that did me in! I bought it without even having the book in hand!
Since the book arrived, I've sourced a Lace Knitting Class at This Is Knit in Blackrock. Two stops on the Dart (Train) and I was there.
Today was the first day of two lessons. I learned a great new cast on for lace. Lisa had 2 lovely women there teaching and showing everyone how to knit basics and assisted those who were a bit more advanced.

Also got 3 new patterns that came with the class. Three different levels. They can be knit as scarves or wraps. I chose the hardest one because of the pattern it produced.
This is the edging of the scarf. Not sure if I will finish it, but it was good practice. Next week will be chart reading so that is a big interest to me. I have seen several wraps that are done from a graph and I'm not sure how to approach them. Now I will.