Coneflower Ranch

Belated Christmas Present

 

My sister and I have a deal when it comes to Christmas gifts: Even if we don't get each other in the Kris Kringle, we make each other a gift. Sometimes it's fudge sometimes it's jewelry, this year she is getting my version of a Noro Hat.  On Ravelry I posted it as Noro Hat Redux. 

 

It's made from about one and a half skeins of Noro Kureyon color #182 and I knit it on a 16 inch size 7 circular and when it got too hard to work with I switched to double points.

I liked the way the original pattern takes advantage of the color changes in the Noro yarn but I didn't like the crown. So I changed it.

 

It's pretty straightforward for a hat. Saartje de Bruijn, the designer of the original has you cast on with 95 stitches. I upped it to 96 just to make the crown decreases work out easier. You start with 8 rounds of knit, then 4 rounds of purl, then 4 rounds of knit, then 4 rounds of purl. I kept going, alternating 4 rounds of knit and 4 rounds of purl until I had completed six purl sections. I knit one round then on the next round I K10, k2tog around. Then a plain knit round; then K9, k2tog around; then a plain round; then K8, k2tog around, then a plain round... see where this is going? I kept going until there were only 4 stitches on the needles and I pulled the yarn through the stitches snugging them tight and secured it inside the hat weaving it in like mad.

 

I'm way too pleased with how it turned out. I get a little giddy everytime I look at how those colors fade into each other on the crown. That little bit of swirl to the stitches makes me smile. I think I have to make one for me.

My favorite present I got this year also came late. I picked it up at Stewart Airport last Saturday.

Yep, Dennis is home. He's safe, sound and in one piece. Best present ever.

First Class Scarf

I teach knitting at a local shop. It's not a yarn shop; we don't have one of those nearby. It's a lovely little place called Art & Soul Studio. It's part bead shop, part ceramic shop, a real creative do-it-yourself kind of place. The owner, Lori, is a good friend of mine and I sell some of my finished pieces, knit, crochet and beadwork in her shop. She's an amazing watercolor artist. She taught Botanical Illustration at the The New York Botanical Garden and now teaches an adult watercolor class at Art & Soul. I teach knitting and crochet and the occasional bead workshop.

The class I run is three two-hour lessons, one a week for three weeks and ready access to me if they need it. I take them through the basics and when all is said and done they can follow a simple written pattern, cast on, knit, purl, increase, decrease, knit in the round and bind off. At least that's the plan. Of each class I've run, one or less people actually emerge as knitters. It's been interesting.

I had planned to start up another class after Thanksgiving. Looking back that was a nutty idea. I always think I can get more done than I possibly can on a regular day. Throw in all the work to get ready for the holidays and it raises multi-tasking to a new level. I think the shorter days induce some sort of mental time distortion.

All the running around makes me want to knit. I crave the simplicity of it. It's meditative and a pattern that requires attention puts me very much in the moment. I get cranky when I can't do this every day. To make the most of this obsession tendency of mine I make at least two or three gifts each year. This way I justify extensive knitting time: these are gifts for others and I am being frugal with the holiday budget. I get to knit and friends and family get thoughtful well made gifts and I'm not cranky. That's win/win in my book.

I was all set to do this holiday multi-tasking thing one better and make one of the gifts be the knit scarf pattern I designed to teach to my beginner class. I'd make the scarf along with the class and gift it to my son's girlfriend. Sometimes I'm so clever I amaze myself. She's a lovely girl and they've been dating since June. Granted they are juniors in High School so I asked him how things were going. If I'm going to knit something for someone it helps if they will be around for Christmas to get the gift. He assured me they were doing fine.

I should've known better. I was sitting and knitting on this scarf when my oldest daughter asked what I was making. I told her it was a gift for the Girlfriend. She looked at me and said "You know they broke up, right?" Yes, my fearless son was too chicken to tell me that he dumped his girlfriend. When I asked him why he didn't say anything he said he felt bad because I was knitting her a scarf. I waited a moment to see if he saw the flaw in that logic. No such luck. I wondered out loud when he was going to let me know that I was wasting valuable Holiday knitting time on a no longer needed gift. When it was done? When I wrapped it? Did he hope I just wouldn't notice?

So I have decided on two things: when I am done with the rest of the holiday knitting I'll finish this scarf and give it to my sister; I will not knit another thing for any of my children's romantic interests until they are at least engaged. 

The scarf is easy by the way.

Cast on 31 stitches, work 10 rows of seed stitch (K1, P1)

Work 7 rows thusly: 8 seed stitches (take your cue from the row below) 15 stitches of stockinette, 8 seed stitches

Next 7 rows: 8 seed stitches, 4 stockinette, 7 reverse stockinette, 4 stockinette, 8 seed.

Next 7 rows: 8 seed stitches, 15 stockinette, 8 seed.

Then work the next twenty one rows the same but do reverse stockinette where the stockinette is and stockinette where the reverse stockinette is. All the while continuing the seed stitch border. It makes a lovely square in a square design and it really is a simple pattern. I usually do about ten repeats of the twenty one design rows and then finish off with ten rows of seed stitch. For the class I have this written up row by row.  I have my students use size eight needles and one ball of  Patons Classic Wool. It's 100% Merino and comes in a dozen or so colors. The scarf in the above picture is made with size eight needles and Lion Brand Microspun in Royal Blue. Any problems with my half-baked instructions; let me know.

Cheater Booga

While we were searching high and low for a second-hand three-piece suit for my son to wear in the school play I came across a thick wool sweater. I'm sure I photographed it because I intended to felt it and cut it up. Of course I can't find the before photo. Here's the after:

I used wool yarn and sewed it before I felted it. With the sweater inside out I lined up the front and back of the sweater and sewed across just above the waistband. Then I sewed straight up the front of the sweater from the waistband to about halfway up the armhole about two inches from the side seam so it is perpendicular to the sewn line at the waist. I repeated that on the other side of the front. As shown in this breathtaking artist's rendering right here:

I then cut out the whole thing about half to three quarters of an inch away from the sewn line (shown in red) and cut straight across the top. What I had left was a big rectangle with three sewn sides and an open top.

To make the bottom I matched up the side seams and tucked the bottom seam up between them so the side view looked something like this:

I determined how deep I wanted the bag bottom to be (keeping in mind that the fabric was going to shrink by at least a third when I felted it) and sewed across both points of the sides where it was that length. Like so:

I cut away the excess fabric on the point there and then turned the bag right side out, put it in a lingerie bag and tossed it in the washing machine on the lowest water level, with the hottest water temperature and a little bit of laundry detergent then promptly forgot about it. "How is that possible?" You may ask. Well, I have five children and they are really distracting sometimes. Seriously, they don't care that I was in the middle of something else. All they know is that it wasn't about them so, in their minds, it doesn't count; it's not important. 

About half an hour later I retrieved my shrunken bag from the depths of the washing machine and it had shrunk quite a bit. I shaped it into a basic squared bottom bag shape, with the sides pinched in to gather it a bit at the top and left it to dry.

What you may not know about me is that I have the patience of a sugared-up, five-year old when it comes to things like this. So after waiting what felt like an eternity but was probably only an hour, I put it in the dryer. It came out just fine. Kind of fuzzy, which I like, but otherwise fine.

I then skewered it through the front, the pinched in side and the back to make a total of four holes on each side. Through this I threaded a felted six stitch i-cord which I knotted to itself in one of the side pleats.

It's not the best photo but I couldn't get the bag to stay still. Okay maybe it was me the couldn't stay still, I'm not sure. This is the top down view of the bag and you can see how I threaded it and sort of make out the knot there on the left. It's a square knot and I pulled it really tight then cut off the ends leaving just a little bit sticking out of the knot.

I did this yesterday so I haven't used it yet. I'll keep you posted.