Questioned by Police for Knitting... Re-Blog

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gregory-patrick/knitting-ninja_b_4143644.html

Cute article. I usually get questions when I am knitting in public, I can imagine this guy gets a lot of strange looks too. Enjoy

Fragile Knitting

My niece found this article and sent it to me. Gorgeous and well worth a re-post!

Knitted Glass by Carol Milne.

Project 2016 - Revival - Painting Again

I am painting again!! This time it is my beautiful DD's room. She was 12 years old when we moved into the house that we live in now. There were two rooms for her and her brother, one green and blue and one pink. She got the pink. When I say pink -- I don't mean a pale, off white, iced pink...I mean a bright, almost hot pink.

I am not sure that the picture captures the intensity of the pink, but it was somewhat overwhelming and headache inducing for me!

DD left behind her bedding, so I took one of the pillow shams from her animal print comforter set to Lowe's and picked two colors out of it for the walls.
The colors are 2007-10C Coconut Milk and 2007-7C New Haven Clay in an eggshell finish. However, you will not see either of those colors in the picture on the left. That is because, I was not sure that I could cover that pink. So I selected Valspar's High-Hiding Primer as the first coat. It worked great and the pink is completely covered in one coat of this primer. Next week, I will begin painting the colors I selected.

I am really looking forward to having an adult bedroom for my DD and her new husband to stay in when they come for Thanksgiving.

Happy painting!!

Throwback Thursday - Butterfly Kisses

This is a baby quilt that I did in 2010 for a colleague's baby girl. A simple 16 patch with circles at all the intersections. The circles were attached with Pellon Wonder-Under Paper-Backed Fusible Web - (one of my favorite quilting techniques) and then machine blanket stitched.

Once I got past how to make the circles -- I used a compass and butcher paper, the quilt came together really quickly. The materials were pretty and spring like and it still makes me happy to look at it.

Giving a quilt to someone's baby is a real joy -- evidence is here!

Happy quilting!!!

Throwback Thursday - Well Used/Loved Quilt

This is actually one of my very favorite quilts! It is the quilt that has been on my bed for eight years. It is 110" by  120" and fits as a topper on my king size bed. For this beautiful Log Cabin, I followed the pattern almost down to the letter....the only difference was I added an additional fabric from the same Moda palatte that was not in the original pattern.

I had Gina Elias from Princeton Illinois (?) quilt this beauty and I was very happy with the feathering and checkerboard design that she did freestyle on her long arm.

Happy quilting!!

The Better To See You With...

I am working on a new project -- something for me this time. After the Chicago winter last year; the 40 below temperatures we had; and predictions that this winter will be even worse, I am making myself a hooded scarf. There were a handful of patterns for them in Ravelry and I decided on Little Red Riding Hood--a free pattern by Lion Brand Yarn.

This pattern has an interesting stitch called Granite Relief Stitch. I swear that I have seen it before under another name, but could not find it. (If you know what it is please comment below and stop my wondering!) The pattern is highly textured but not one that you could knit brainlessly while watching television. While I have not yet made any errors which required serious 'tinking', I have had to count my stitches on a regular basis.

The texture of the pattern and the complexity of it both come from the fact that one row of the four row repeat decreases by nearly half of all the stitches with a k2tog -- then on the next row increases back up with kfb. The k2tog has already started my index finger aching as I tend to grab the yarn with the fingernail while I slip the needle under both stitches.

The yarn that I am using is Knit Picks Full Circle in Cardinal colorway. It is a worsted weight 100% yarn which is from recycled fibers. It is a nice red which leans towards purple as opposed to orange. The yarn is pretty "sticky". I have had to tink back a few stitches and it isn't a clean trip back. This would make a great felting yarn. I just hope I don't have real problems keeping straight on the pattern or this scarf will be a mess.

Happy Knitting!

Throwback Thursday -- Tobacco Road

This was a HUGE bed quilt that I made for one of our sons. It is about a queen sized quilts and is done in 3 different versions of black and brown -- Tobacco colors.

The colors were definitely manly which is what I was going for.

This quilt was completed in 2008 and the pictures were taken with an old camera, so it was hard to get good definition.

The piecing was a real bear and seemed to take forever. My DD spent a lot of time with the rotary cutter helping me get it done.

Happy memories!

Tale of a Giant Hat

DH's San Francisco Giants hat was a really fun and easy knit. I could have gotten it done much faster but for time. Time busy doing other things (when I would rather be knitting) and time spent unknitting almost 1/2 of the design grid. Somehow, I accidentally created an increase and had an extra stitch that I did not notice for quite sometime. This is a good enough reason to count your stitches every couple of rows as counting takes less time than unknitting!

As an aside, my husband was upset with my last post. He said ,"Giants are an NL club so there is no DH in San Francisco." I guess in his mind DH can only mean Designated Hitter...oh darling husband of mine.

I will try to post the grid to my patterns page in a day or two if you have your own SF Giants DH!

Happy knitting!

Throwback Thursday -- Remember the Inheritance?

Remember this? I am slowly connecting all the squares to finish someone else's project. I figure I will do a large sofa pillow, but it is hard to do. After all the white of the wedding dress, it is even hard to do off-white!

 

I am working on two nine patch sides. I figure when I get done connecting all of them - which could be done in an afternoon if I could concentrate - I will connect them with a brown or some other color. As long as it isn't too close to white.

Happy Crocheting! 

DH Left His Heart In San Francisco

Ever since the DH was a little boy, his favorite baseball team has always been the Giants and that was his father's favorite team. We have a subscription to MLB TV and get to watch every one of their games, so I figure it is time that the DH wears his devotion -- not on his sleeve -- but on his head. I am going to use the same pattern that I used for a hat for my son. This pattern is really easy to modify the fair isle band which I have done with an eleven stitch pattern of the SF logo. The pattern is 110 stitches wide so there will be 10 instances of the pattern.

According to the actual pattern, there is supposed to be a silk blend yarn as a liner around the ears in part to hide the mess that occurs as a result of the two color work. But I am just going to start out with the burnt orange color. The yarn that I am using, Cascade Yarns Cash Vero DK is a Merino, Microfiber, Cashmere blend which will be plenty soft against the DH's ears.

The lime green that you see in the picture, isn't one of the official colors of the San Francisco Giants. But don't worry, Dear Husband, it is only the yarn used for the provisional cast on and will be removed soon. I have used a crocheted chain for my cast on. If you are unfamiliar with this technique, there are several tutorials out on the internet -- I like this one from The Purl Bee!

Happy Knitting! (Boy, it has been awhile - it feels good to say that again!)

Throwback Thursday -- Unfinished Star

Here's an oldie but a goodie. This is an unfinished project on which I was last working in the summer of 2006. My original plan had been to make this into a large wall hanging. It is in a bin with all the fabrics that I was using. The paper pieced pattern has a flying geese border which I have not yet begun. I am trying to decide if I want to finish this one now; and if I do, should I just put a simple border on it with left over olive green or go ahead and do the paper pieced flying geese. If I go simple - it will be done fast. . .otherwise, check back in 2022.

What to do, what to do?

Happy thinking!

Julia Child - The Way to Cook - Recipe 3 - Fish Soup

I have been trying to incorporate more fish in our diet and since we've been trying to loose weight, I really can't justify eating it fried or breaded all of the time. So, when I found The recipe for Soupe de Poisson in Julia's book The Way to Cook, I thought that it was something that I could try. For this recipe, I did quite a bit of modifications for both lack of ingredients and for lack of time. I found an on line version of Julia's recipe here and below, I have written out my version of what I did:

Soupe de Poisson - Quick Style

2 T olive oil
1 c sliced onion
2 T pre-chopped jarred garlic
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 8 oz. bottle clam juice
4 c water
1/2 t thyme
1/2 t fennel seeds
1/2 t turmeric
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
2 lbs frozen pollock fillets (no need to thaw)

I put all of the ingredients except for the fish in a four quart capacity pressure cooker. After it got up to heat and began rocking, I let it rock for about 20 minutes. I then quick cooled it in the sink under cold water to release the pressure and added the 2 lbs of still frozen pollock fillets, placed the lid back on the pot and brought it back up to rocking again and let it rock for 2 minutes.

I served this over freshly made brown rice. Yum. And yes, I received the official "Are-there-any-seconds?-DH-seal-of-approval!

Happy eating!

Julia Child - The Way to Cook Recipe 2 Beets

I promise that I am not going to go all Julie & Julia on you and make every recipe in this book and make you read about it. I am certainly not "cook" enough to do that job. However, it is fun to try out new recipes now and then -- especially with vegetables. My usual ways of preparing them is either steam them or slice them and eat them raw. Occasionally, I go out on a limb and will bake a winter squash in the oven with butter on it. (Sorry, I don't mean to go all wild and crazy on you.)

Only a couple of pages away from the Hominy dish was a recipe for Grated Sauteed-Steamed Beets. I love beets! They are one of my favorite things. My mother used to pickle them herself when I was a kid and I ate the by the jar. The recipe is easy - only four ingredients and takes but a few minutes to cook. But unless you have a Mouli Julienne or a food processor it is a bit of work to grate up the beets. I did not have any red wine vinegar as was called for in the recipe, so I substituted cider vinegar. I used 3 Tbls butter and I was pretty heavy handed with fresh ground pepper, but I liked the spiciness of the finished product.

I served it along side a Spencer Cut Rib Eye Steak. The DH gave it his "Yeah-I'd-eat-it-again" seal of approval. I found an on-line version of the recipe here at healthy-beets.com. So, let me know if you try it.

I need to get a better plate for pictures if I'm going to keep blogging about food.

Happy Eating!

Throwback Thursday - Triplet, A study in pears.

This is an art quilt that I did a number of years ago in June of 2006. It is called "Triplet, A study in pears" obviously my attempt at a pun. The 27 X 12.5 panel features three pears which are all done with different techniques.

The pear on the left is done with melting crayon into fabric.

The center panel is hand appliqued with an embroidered leaf.

The right panel is a pear in fabric paint and a leaf painted on a piece of green fabric fused to the background.












I quilted this myself on my home machine, a Bernina Activa 220. The little workhorse on which I sewed DD's wedding dress. I had fun adding a couple of words - "Ripe" and "Pears".



I even had a lot of fun making the label -- which was almost as big as the quilt itself.

Happy quilting!

Julia Child - The Way to Cook

My DH is a book freak. If there is a book store in the area, he wants to stop in to look around. So this past weekend we were going past Half Price Books and the DH had to stop. This time however, I was the one to find a book to bring home: Julia Child's The Way to Cook. This, her seventh book, is a collection of over 800 recipes. I just had to have it.

So when I couldn't sleep last night, I picked up this huge door stop of a cook book and started to read recipes. I found one that was not only simple but the ingredients were cheap! So guess what we had for dinner?! Hominy Sautéed with Butter and Herbs on page 340. I only had dried herbs on hand so I guess in Julia Child's world, I must have cheated, but it was pretty good anyway!

I did find an online copy of the recipe here if you want to try it. If it is worth anything, my husband's comment was that he would eat it again -- and then he took seconds. I guess I will cook it again!

Now to find something else just a little different from what we usually eat. I think I saw a recipe for brussel sprouts in that book last night...

Happy cookbook reading!

The Wedding Dress - Requested Close Ups

Rhinestone Embellishments

Yes, you thought after my last post on The Wedding Dress would be the last one, right? Sorry! I was requested by a couple of people to show close up pictures of the "bling" that was on the dress. The picture above is of the large design that was on the side of DD's dress and also of the trim that went around the bodice and the bottom of the dress.

Placement of applique 

You can see that I placed the large design so that about two thirds of the design was on the front half of the dress and one third to the back. The braid was only on the top edge of the bodice and the bottom of the bridal skirt. We did not put the braid at the bottom edge of the bodice because it looked way too busy.

While the braid came from China, the head piece was purchased from the same vendor in Turkey who made the large applique. The veil was not attached to the head piece but attached to a separate comb. That way the veil could be removed for the reception as was the long skirt.

Headpiece

Happy embellishing!

An Unfinished Inheritance

Now, that the wedding dress is finished and the wedding is over, I am finally getting with long put off projects. This morning, I started cleaning out my basement and going through the overflowing bins of yarn and fabric. There are many unfinished projects in various stages ranging through knitting, crocheting, cross stitch, sewing and quilting. There is one quilt that I started over 30 years ago. It is embarrassing to see the "quitter" that I can be!

But, there are a few that I have been given - projects whose creator died and whose inheritor thought of me. I wish I could ask the creator what it was they were making, who they were making it for, etc. Take the project photographed up top. There were only a few granny squares and half of a skein of yarn in a bag. No instructions or notes. So, I dragged it upstairs to count the number of squares and see if anything could be made of them. Upon closer inspection, I found that there were actually squares which were obviously made by two different crocheters with two different yarns. There are 20 squares that were crocheted by one person and 14 crocheted by another. You can see the color difference in the picture at the top of the page. One yarn is slightly yellower and the other has a pink cast to it.

But that isn't the biggest difference.  One crocheter was very good and one. . . not so much. The granny square on the right is very, well,  square. However, the square on the left is not square at all. So what was the difference that made the left one lopsided and rounded? Stitch count.

The square on the right, like all of its sister squares, has even stitch counts on each of the four sides and the corners are consistent in the number of increases. Each side has three stitches in the first round, 7 stitches in the second round, 11 stitches in the 3rd round and 15 in the forth and final round.

The square on the left also has three stitches in the first round, but in the second round there is seven stitches on one side and six in each of the other 3 sides. The third round has 11 over the seven, then 10 stitches over the next side and 9 overt the last two sides. On the final round, there are 14, then 11, 12, and 13 stitches. This is one uneven square! It just goes to show how important counting your stitches can be.

There are enough good squares to make a nine patch pillow, so that is what I think that I will do.

Happy crocheting - er - counting stitches.

Why Have I Become So Lazy That I Can't Write a Post That I Took Pictures for 3 Weeks Ago? A Modest Answer.

A couple of weeks ago, waaaaaaay before the wedding, my sister and I went shopping together for a dress for her to wear to my DD's wedding. She found "the perfect dress" almost. My sister doesn't want to wear a plunging neckline, and this dress had one, but we decided to fix that with a modesty panel. Also known as a chemisette, dickey, or mock camisole, it is easy to make and utilitarian. A modesty panel fills in the space that a plunging neckline does not hide.

You can buy modesty panels. I have a couple that I purchased. They look like the top edge of a camisole worn underneath a dress or top with a low neckline. But like many other things, I have never made one. But why not try one since I just made my first couture wedding dress with some success. So here is my DIY Modesty Panel.

We went to our local big box fabric store and picked up a black lace and a tan/beige/taupe colored fabric for the base. These were both colors in her dress. We looked for a lace fabric that had a nice finished edge. Not all lace has finished edges, so if you want to do something like this, look at the salvages to see if you like the edge.

The first thing that I did was fold over the edge of the taupe fabric to get a smooth straight edge. The wrinkled seam was taken care of by a warm iron. Next, I lined up the black lace so that it was even with the fold in the taupe fabric.

My sister was not interested in modeling for the next step (there is that modesty thing again), so we measured her bra from strap to strap while she had it on. But, so that you know what it is that I mean, here is a photo of that step while the bra is on a hanger. But remember to wear the bra when you are measuring it. The width will be different than a measurement on just a hanger!

Using the measurement of strap to strap, cut a piece of fabric that resembles the shape in the picture to the right. The top of the fabric should be the width of the strap to strap measurement and the length should be at least a couple of inches longer than the plunge in the "V" of the neckline.

I pinned both pieces of fabric together and used a grid ruler and rotary cutter to cut out the pieces.

Using thread that matched the lace, I tacked down the top edge of the lace to
the backing fabric. This made sure that they now acted as one piece of fabric. As you can see on the right, all I did was catch a few places -- most of the thread is on the backside.

I then pulled out my serger and went around all of the other edges to keep the two fabrics from separating.


While I had my serger out, I made two small strips about 3 inches long. One end was attached to the top of the modesty panel with a couple of stitches.  And the final step was to attach snaps so that it will be able to hang onto each bra strap.

I think it turned out well and my sister loved it. It was the perfect touch for the dress and worked well to achieve her desire for modesty.

Happy Sewing!

The Wedding Dress - Worth Every Stitch

Unfortunately, iPhones do not take really good wedding photos and the photographer's photo's are not available yet, but I have waited long enough to share the pictures of "the dress".

from the fitting

It was a lot of fun to see "the dress" in action! It had just the right amount of bling! I really have nothing else to say. But here are several pictures taken at the wedding and also of the fitting a couple of months earlier. In the picture below of the fitting, I had not yet made the last and shortest of the three layers of the organza over-skirts. She wore only the two shortest layers of the over-skirts for the reception.

The short skirt worked out really well for the reception. She looked so cute and it was so much easier for her to enjoy the dancing.

from the fitting