Puttering

It feels like I've just been puttering, doing small projects.

For starters, some years ago, I wove this yardage for curtains. I don't remember why I took them down, but our old front door curtains needed to be replaced and they did the trick!

I finished the last baby blanket on Sophie.

And I've been playing with more of the crocheted creatures from Edward's Animals. Here's a Lakeland Terrier,

 

a Cocker Spaniel,

and a gray cat.

 

My grandbaby needed a hat for Groundhog Day.

And he definitely needed a Dude sweater!

This may not look like puttering to you, but for whatever reason, this time around, each step to dress Julia has felt like a separate project. This Tencel basketweave will be yardage.

 

This is the first time I've ever knitted up a swatch and actually washed it. My usual is to knit it up, measure to make sure I'm getting the right number of stitches per inch and rip it back out.

I just finished spinning this fiber with Gingie and plying it with Suzie.

And next up is this cotton.

This "wool" was spun up, but not plied, because I didn't know what I wanted to do with it. Typical. Anyway, when I realized I needed a hat, I went ahead and took the singles and Navajo plied it (finger crocheting the spun fiber while spinning it some more). 

Knitting it up took no time, so, here we are!

 

Loose Ends

I've been cleaning up loose ends.

I made a Chanukah hat with pom poms (as requested) for my grandbaby.

While his Mama read a page in her book, he decided to check out his new hat.

I took care of that "loose end" by making tassels. They should be harder to pull apart.

Footnote. I finally got the numbers right for a basic sock pattern that fits.

I wove this color and weave (the weaving is simple "over/under", the design appears in the cloth, because of the color order or the threads), chenille scarf with Julia. It's been sitting unfinished for a while. After a few washings, chenille fringe tends to lose its fluff and look like a rat's tail. So, I decided to go ahead and just hem it.

One of my spare time, knitting projects has been this shawl.

With the left-over yarn, I'm weaving a scarf on Julia.

I didn't realize how long ago I dressed Sophie for these blankets on her drawloom. It was back in December of 2017! Here they are, finally off, December 2018!

When I take cloth off my looms, I almost always use my serger to protect the raw edges before putting the cloth in the washing machine. This is the first time I've ever had that stitching fail to hold. 

But I was able to get them all hemmed and laid out to photograph:

At which point, my daughter's cat promptly walked across them all and sat on...

You guessed it!

I found a lot of the designs I used on Pinterest. I'd post them with links, but unfortunately many of them don't have active links for me to cite where they originated.

the cats

an optical illusion

  transportation

the bees (Craftsy.com)

stars

 and the roses.

The others are just standard designs I've seen or drawn.

zig zag

plaid ish

and shapes.

This one's already found a new home.

More loose ends:

After cutting the blankets off of Sophie and taking down the drawloom pattern heddles (that gave me about 12 inches more of usable warp), I had something like 36-42 inches (I should have measured) of yarn per end left on the loom. I didn't want to just toss it, so by using a weaver's knot, I'm hoping that I'll have extended each warp end enough to squeeze out one more baby blanket.

Let's see how far I get with it.

Getting Lots Done!

Does it ever feel like you're so busy that you can't get anything done? Between work, home, garden and life, that's the way it feels to me. Then, I sit down to compile my pictures to blog. That's when I realize I'm getting lots done!

These napkins were made as practice samples for using my Julia loom and playing with pattern and color.

A certain young lady has been asking, "Mama Karen, when are you going to make me some socks?" for more years than I care to mention. Knitted toe up, from either end of the ball of yarn, makes the colors seem different.

Here's another pair of warm tootsies.

My daughter's been fascinated by dinosaurs since she was little. Now, she has some Dragon Scale Mitts to keep her warm while playing "let's pretend".

On a short visit to Phoenix, we went to see an exhibit at the Zelma Basha Salmeri Gallery in Chandler. The Museum displays Contemporary Western American and American Indian art.

 

I like the way the baskets are displayed...and wish someone would teach me how to weave like this!

So instead, thanks to the video I mentioned back in November, I decided to give weaving my handspun another try. I used it to warp Julia for this scarf. The weft is tencel. I'm happy with the way it turned out.

This shawl, knit with my handspun, Redfish silk and camel, just needs to be blocked before I call it done. The pattern's from Sock-Yarn Shawls by Lucas.

I'm pleased with the way these summer and winter, paper doll blankets came out. The pattern's one I've done before from Handwoven Magazine. At least one of them will be going to another someone who calls me Mama Karen.

I don't know about walking and chewing gum, but I took a walk while I was talking on the phone and knitting. Doesn't everyone?

 

The kitty, hood pattern I followed has ties that are a cat's paw and a tail.

Thanks, Mama Karen.

Thanks, Mama!

 No, Thank You, Ladies!