Blogging again…

I am back to knitting enteric cube toys.  I logged onto my wordpress site to remind myself what size needle I used and how many stitches I used.  Think I should write this down somewhere!

I have been knitting a lot since I retired in 2013.  Sweaters for one of my sons who will actually wear the sweaters I make.  He gets compliments on them and questions about where he bought them.

I also make all of my socks now.  And also for a couple women friends who have trouble finding socks to fit them properly.  My grandsons ask me to make them socks every time they see me knitting.  They call them “Gramma socks”.

I find that if I knit while watching TV, I am less likely to think about eating a snack.  I also hand quilt while watching TV.

Felted Socks?

I made my self a lovely pair of varigated blue and white socks.  It was a little heave weight yarn, a little too bulky for regular shoes, but fine for winter boots.  The socks felt good and I enjoyed wearing them.  I washed them as I washed all my other wool socks–in the washer on warm temperature–with my regular wash.

I was upset to see that they had shrunk!  I guess the wool yarn was not the kind you could wash by machine.  I was mad at myself for not being more careful. 

I had not put them in the dryer–so I pulled and tugged at them to get them as large as possible, although still much smaller than originally.  I WAS able to get them onto my feet.  A little tight, but okay.  I began to wear them as slipper replacements.  They were actually “felted”. 

Now I love these felted socks!  Now I want to buy some more of the same yarn and make myself another pair.  I think I will make them a little larger than these were–so when they shrink they will fit easier.  I don’t think I could have designed these any better if I had set out to make felted socks!

A New Year

I am finally back into action.  Over the holidays, I had a stubborn cold/flu that just would not go away.  So for a month I did little more than rest–other than the days I had to work.  I had no desire to knit or quilt, even though I had all this wonderful time off.  I thought I would work on my nature quilt over the holidays–but just did not have the interest. 

I did have a good visit with my son from New York for a few days.  I gave him the pair of socks that I had made him.  I hesitate to make socks for others, but he had tried on the ones I made for another son and they fit…so I thought maybe I could make him a pair.  He seemed to like them (they DID fit).  He examined them closely to see how they were made–even asked me about the different stitching on the heel.   I hope he enjoys wearing them!

I am finally back to my obsessive self and am knitting again!  Quilting takes longer dedicated time–maybe soon I will be back to that as well.

Happy New Year

Latest Quilt Project

I decided I should post something about my quilt hobby, since I have written mostly about my knitting.  I have been quilting for about 4 years.  Since I like to finish my own quilts–either by hand or by my conventional machine, it takes awhile for me to finish one.  I have made 4 quilts–about twin size.  I have made 3 baby quilts–2 for my first grandson and one for any child to use who visits my home.  I have also made a couple wall hangings and some smaller projects like place mats.

Currently I am working on a “nature” quilt.  I think I will call it “Summer Memories” because most of the material was puchased while on vacation in Michigan or New York.  My adult children and I like to rent a home in a woodsy area near a lake and enjoy the wonders of nature.  It is a nice change from Chicago, NYC, or San Jose, CA where we live.

In this quilt I am mixing both cotton and flannel and I will back it with a nice flannel.  I am using a log cabin pattern.  I really enjoy making log cabin blocks. I use Marti Michell rulers which make the piecing so easy.

As you can see in my picture, I like to do scrappy quilts.  I like to use fabric from my stash.  I like to see how many different block combinations I can make.  In one of my quilts, I only repeated one block.  It became a puzzle for people to find the duplicate ones.

Here is my quilt–still unfinished and still on my design wall.

Here is the finished quilt:

Felted Mittens

I have made a few pairs of mittens.  However, as I walked to work today in the bitter cold of this “colder than normal” Chicago winter, my mittens were not warm enough–even though they are made of wool.  So…I am thinking of making mittens that I can felt so they will be warmer.

Has anyone out there made felted mittens?  I appreciate any helpful hints.

Peg

Entrelac Mittens

After completing the entrelac toy, I browsed for more things to knit using entrelac.  I found some socks and also some mittens.  I did not find an actual pattern, but some knitters gave ideas on how to incorporate entrelac into existing patterns.

I found some beautiful multicolored Noro Kureyon yarn at one of my local shops.  I decided to try mittens.  Using a standard mitten pattern I worked in the entrelac design.  Using the idea from one of the online knitters, I put the thumb in place of one of the squares.

The mittens turned out very well.  I wore them a few times in the early cold days in November.  On the saturday after Thanksgiving I went shopping at a local mall.  It was cold so I wore my mittens from the car to the store.  I stuffed the mittens into my hat and carried them in my hand.  I thought if I put the mittens in my pocket they might fall out.  (They are a little bulkier than my other mittens.)  However, my thought process was flawed.  One mitten fell out of my hat when I did not notice.  So…sad to say I LOST one mitten.  I know I can make another one–but I have not been able to quite face the fact that I need to do that.  I hoped someone would find it and turn it into the lost and found–but no luck so far.

Here is a picture of the remaining mitten.

Entrelac Addiction

I have now finished my second Entrelac Sponge toy and 7 small cubes to go with it. I decided to make my grandson a blue one and keep the red one for myself. It was easier to make this the second time around, although I had to keep the diagram close by and also pin numbers on the squares to keep track of where every thing was. I am going to stop making these for now and move onto an entrelac bag. This is in preparation for making entrelac gloves.(without a pattern!)

Here are pictures of the blue one:

Blue Entrelac Sponge

7 Cubes that go in the Entrelac Sponge

Entrelac Toy continued …

I realized that I should give some information about the materials used in creating the Entrelac toys in my previous post in case someone wants to make one.  It is very helpful to know what yarns, needle size and stiches to use.  I arrived at my choices after looking at a few different blogs–the designer’s and then one or two who had made the toys.

I used

size 6 circular needle (length 16 “)

Cascade 220 yarn for the Sponge.  This really is a nice yarn to work with.  As the designer says, wool works best because it more elastic than other yarns.

I liked Cascade 220  yarn the best for the small cubes.  However due to color selection I also used Plymouth Encore yarn for small cubes and some other  worsted weight yarn.  These worked very well, but I decreased the number of rows by one so the cubes would end up the same size as the Cascade 220.

For the Sponge I used 7 stiches by 14/15 rows depending on what was needed as I followed the diagram.   I used the same for the small cubes of Cascade 220, and 6 stitches by 12/13 rows for the heavier worsted.

The Sponge ended up to be a 5” cube, the small ones are about 1 3/4 “.  I knit sort of tight.

Hope this helps those hearty soles who jump into making these great toys.  My coworkers love them–hinting that they would love to have one themselves.  At this point I think only my grandchildren will get them.  It is a complicated project–but also addictive–especially when you see it come to life.  Then when you play with the finished toy, you realize it is worth all the time you put into it.  I guess this is true of all handmade items.   Right?!

Knitting Entrelac Toys…

As I browsed through other people’s blogs on knitting, I came across the “Entrelac Sponge” which you can see at:

http://fuzzyjay.blogspot.com/2008/11/entrelac-menger-sponge-cube.html

I became fascinated with this challenge.  I was (and still am) extremely impressed with FuzzyJay’s design and obvious patience and great mathematical mind.  I bought his pattern for the Entrelac Cube which helped me follow the design for the sponge. (There is a diagram but no actual pattern for the sponge.)   I also followed his suggestion to make the diagram into a cube as a guide when actually knitting the sponge.

Here are some pictures of my attempt.

Entrelac Sponge and 3 Cubes

Entrelac Sponge with 2 Cubes

Entrelac Sponge

Knitting … now onto oven mitts!

By late spring of 2010, I had made several pairs of socks, some mittens, a winter hat, 2 animals for my grandson.  Then one day a co-worker talked me into walking (further than I wanted to walk) to another yarn store in our town.  I found some sock yarn that was different than what I had in my stash.  As I was at the counter paying for it, I noticed a display that looked like a mitten.  It turned out to be an oven mitt–felted from a bulky wool.  I fell in love with it.  Needless to say I returned to the store and purchased yarn,

Blue Oven Mitts for a cousin

needles and pattern–and then more yarn several times over the next few months.  I had found a great item to knit as gifts for everyone.  My family and friends usually do not exchange gifts for holidays or birthdays.  I do like to give consumable gifts if I find something I think my friends would like.  This is a perfect gift–practical and

Orange Oven Mitts for my son in NYC

decorative.  So I made them for all 4 of my children and then started ones for my friends.  These will keep me busy for awhile.  They are fun because they work up fast and you can be very creative with the coloring.  I have enjoyed giving these as gifts–for no occasion at all.