Kitchen Towel

This is something I am really enjoying. It is knit from a cone of Peaches and Cream and is one of those towels you can button onto a drawer pull in your kitchen. The pattern is Reverse Diamond Towel. In my case my drawer pulls are all knobs, so I used to hang my towels on the oven handle, across the kitchen from my sink. Drip, drip, drip...........

After I made this towel, I had the inspiration to hang the loop over the knob on the upper cabinet beside my sink. Of course it is not a perfect idea, the buttonhole was too small for my knob and the looped part of the towel is really too wide, but it works good enough. I just button the towel and hang it on the cabinet knob with the button facing to the side. Can't see the pretty button, though. (This one is vintage).

Next time I will only make the tab part about half as long and will make a bigger buttonhole so it will button onto the knob and hang properly to show off all it's knitterly glory!

Two Designs for the Price of One

This is the same washcloth. I cannot remember the pattern at the moment but when I find it I will post the link. The point I am making is that the back is just as pretty as the front and entirely a different look to it. This is not the case with lots of our dishcloth patterns. I also gave this to my daughter (her kitchen is painted a dark rust color) so I don't have it to examine closely and try to recall the pattern.
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Flower Power

This is a fun dishcloth I gave to my daughter. The pattern is here. It was a bit tricky to knit, but I think it is cute. My daughter suggested changing colors for the center. It is a big larger than I like my dishcloths and am thinking of trying to decrease the stitches mathematically.

This pattern does need dpns toward the end. Not having any, I successfully managed to do the two circular method. For the first time, I might add.

EZ Moebius

One of the local yarn shops has a 50% off sale this week....I stopped in and spotted a couple of skeins of a nice wide variegated ribbon yarn in green and purple. A model of a Moebius shawl was hanging on the wall and I decided I wanted one. They stay on your shoulders much better than a shawl. To make the shawl more substantial, I also bought some coordinating shiny narrow green ribbon.

Back at home, I immediately jumped in and began casting on. Oh my. Now I know why my knitty friend, Linda, makes her moebius shawls in one long piece and twists it 18o degrees and sews a seam to join. As I saw my needle twist upon itself, and realized that I would have to knit the whole thing like a pretzel, I bailed.

If any of you want to make one of these easy versions of the moebius, note that you are knitting lengthwise, not widthwise, unlike most rectangular shawl patterns. For a size 17 needle it called for 75 stitches, but I have narrow shoulders, so I have backed down to 65. I will knit for 14", cast off, twist, and sew the ends together. If you were to knit side to side, the garter rows would be perpendicular and the shawl would not drape as well.

If anybody has knit the moebius the conventional way, good for you! I might try again sometime if I ever buy really long circular needles in #17. But for now, nobody is going to know that seam is there but me!

August mid-month KAL

This is my version of the pattern for August. I used some nice green Peaches and Cream yarn and combined it with some leftover variagated pastel yarn that I had used to make one of my little purses. The colors are not showing up properly in the photo....the colors are much more pastel. If you go to my food blog, it is also pictured there, underneath a dessert parfait glass.

One, Two, Three............

The cardigan front bottom is not going to defeat me! After all, I had no problem knitting the entire back bottom design. I was almost to the last row when I realized I had added a stitch somewhere. Since this is a fretwork type design, I did not want the openings to be out of line, so I frogged it. Again.

So now I am counting after every row. I never count and this is really annoying. But I figure it is quicker to do a quick count after each row than frog it again.

Cardigan Front

I started the cardigan fronts. And I started the cardigan left front, and I started the cardigan left front, and I started...............

Get the idea? First off I wanted to knit both fronts at the same time, but there is a small item in the pattern that threw me off and by the fourth row I was in trouble. So I tried again, but this time decided that if the counting was that much trouble, I had better stick to one side, since it was easier to frog it. Well, I tried again, and again, and again. The item that was so difficult for me is that, along the front edge, there is an extra stitch done in stockinette for a selvage edge to later pick up and knit the front band to. Sounds simple, right? Wrong! I have to remember not to count that stitch as part of the pattern. And I have to remember to keep it stockinette and not garter. I finally hit on the trick to put a little safety pin on the front edge, so at least I would know where this extra stitch was. This is just for the fancy border, and I only have about three rows left, then I am home free on stockinette. But that extra stitch just got me, especially since I was watching tv and tended to just start knitting a row without considering that extra stitch!

Button, Button, Who's Got the Button?

I do. Lots of buttons. I inherited a gallon mason jar filled with my grandmother's buttons. Then I inherited boxes of my mother's buttons, many still on the card. And I accumulated buttons during the years that I made clothing. A couple of years ago I bought some grab bags of buttons on the internet.

All these buttons have always stared very accusingly at me, saying, "create something with me". Today I was straightening my craft closet and putting things on the SHELVES I now have in there, and decided to Google 'crafting with buttons'....anything to get out of cleaning and organizing, you know.

Well, I found this inspiring site and started trying to duplicate the necklace with a bag of wooden buttons. Could not manage her directions, but came up with something I could do. This is crochet, using a very tiny crochet hook, inherited from my mother. I am very pleased with the outcome.

Now for Something Modern

This is a modern take on the doilies I showed you in previous posts. This is mercerized cotton that I bought on a whim for dishcloths. I knitted this 'diamond edge' design from a free pattern website that I love.

I discovered I could not bear to get this beautiful thing wet! I found this small Mexican pottery vase in another room, took the silk flowers out of another small vase, and voila! This vignette normally sits in the center of my kitchen table, so I get to enjoy it all the time.

I gave my neighbor one just like it, knitted in some caramel cotton yarn a knitty friend gave me (thank you, Sandra D). She has it on her kitchen table, too, with a vase of flowers.

Mixing Past and Present

I was also lucky to have a mother who did handwork. She knew how to knit and I have a afghan of hers, but she preferred crochet. And, amazingly, she preferred to crochet with crochet cotton and make amazing concoctions like this. I have always displayed this doily, but recently hit on this display to showcase a lovely piece of North Carolina pottery that I purchased at a pottery fair last year. The display is on a marble topped coffee table that I also inherited. I love the contrasting textures.

Honoring the Past

This is the display on the mahogany dining table I inherited from my mother. It is a drop leaf, pedestal table and is accompanied by two corner cabinets. My dining room does not display the cabinets properly and I really dislike mahogany. But all my growing years, my Mom was so proud of this dining room set, that I honor her by keeping it. (Her mahogany bedroom set went to a close friend of mine who loved antiques...I wanted it to be loved)

The candlesticks and the crystal bowl both belonged to my mom as well. According to legend, the bowl sat on her childhood dinner table holding a honeycomb to dip their bread in every night for dessert. I have potpopurri in it.

Now, the reason I have put this photo in my blog.....the doily was crocheted by my aunt for my wedding gift. There were many female cousins in the family and I was the only one who received one of these. My aunt told my mother that I was the only cousin who did handwork and therefore was the only cousin who would appreciate all the hours that went into it! And I continue to love and appreciate it. (see, ladies, crafty people have always had the issue of whether or not to give our lovingly produced items to non-appreciative recipients!)

Sidetracked

I have taken several pictures to post but have been obsessed with trying to add some cute buttons to my sidebar, instead of concentrating on doing some nice, interesting blog entries. I visited a lot of knitter's blogs and everybody has all these wonderful graphic buttons that lead to such wonderful knitty places and I wanted to know how to have some on my blog! Another very nice blogger has been helping me, she even let me, finally, copy the HTML off of her own blog so I could have some buttons. Thank you, Patty! NOW I can get busy actually blogging........

The Sweater is Growing

I have finished the back of the cardigan sweater. Next up is the fronts; I will be knitting them at the same time. I also am thinking of knitting the sleeves in the round and setting them into the sweater after the shoulder and side seams are done. This will be a little tedious, but I like a challenge and anything to keep from making sleeve seams!

Bag Tree

For about two years all I knitted was little bags, adapting the pattern from Frugalhaus. I bought amazing balls of "frou-frou" yarn from yarn shops and turned them into little 'jewels'. I kept them, gave them away, sold them. And finally got so sick of them I could have screamed. I did not go near a purse for months, until I knitted the "cool summer purse" pictured in an earlier post. But I miss my little bags and the thrill of just buying one ball of an amazing yarn and watch it turn into a work of art in about five hours.

Growing........

The green cardigan is growing. I just bound off for the armholes. This is the back. Of course the fronts and the sleeves have not been started. I am making a shorter version of the cardigan, based on my favorite summer sweater. I am 5' tall and the new "cropped" sweaters are actually the perfect length for me.

Keep on knitting...........

New Beginnings

Building on the success of the first sweater I have knitted in about 16 years, I decided to try again. Fell in love with the Garter Ridge Cardi in Creative Knitting Mag, May 2006, designed by Scarlet Taylor for Coats & Clark. Even liked the color on the model. So I ordered Kiwi TLC Cotton Plus online. It arrived yesterday and the back border is done. I never liked the sweaters I used to knit and vowed I would never knit another one, then was gifted a bag of beautiful blue yarn earlier this year that wanted to become a short sleeved cardigan. It did. Now I am going to try another one, long sleeved this time, with buttons........

A Family Thing

When my daughter found out about my blog, she wanted in on the action. She is an avid reader and so is going to be talking about and recommending books. She is also a writer, so if she says the book is good, you can pretty much count on it. She also reads really fast, so there should be a lot of action on her blog. Check out The Girl Who Reads Too Much

Listening to Books

I love reading and knitting and the two are not mutually exclusive. Recorded books give you the best of both worlds. My library has hundreds of them available and I am also a member of Booksfree.com, which provides me with books the library does not have. Some of you other knitters might be listening to your books, too, so whenever I listen to a really good one, I will tell you about it.

Right now I am listening to The Hot Flash Club Strikes Again. It is a sequel to The Hot Flash Club. Written by Nancy Thayer and read by Carrington MacDuffie. The reader does the various "voices" very well. Each chapter follows a particular character's plotline and occasionally a chapter brings all the characters together for a chat. A little mystery is sprinkled in. The reader gets very drawn into the lives of the women. The four women of the first book are also very much in evidence in this sequel. You do have to concentrate at the beginning of each chapter to note which character is talking. A very cozy listen for you knitters. This book is on 8 cassette tapes and I checked it out of my library.

Cool Summer Purse

 

Cool Summer Purse

 
 
  

Cool Summer Purse

It is HOT in Charlotte. I find I can't knit with my warm winter yarns, so am having fun with cottons. Went on a Yarn Shop Hop with knitty friends last month and we spotted a cool summer purse. This is my take on it, using various cotton yarns. Four of the colors are two strands of DK weight German yarn held together. Found some on sale and wound two once ounce balls from the two ounce skein. The colors were so gorgeous. Note the interesting drawstring opening.....three single crochets and then three chains and skip a couple of stitches. Makes a pretty finish.

For the drawstrings, I like to make two and thread them opposite ways so I can pull each end and get a neat closure. Twice the work, but I like the results. You can make an I-cord drawstring, but I like crochet ones just as well and they take about half the time. I simply crochet a chain the desired length and then do a slip stitch back. Thread the finished cord and tie it in a nice overhand knot.

For those of you who know me, you will be surprised that this is a NORMAL sized purse. I knitted little "pouch" bags for a couple of years, making untold numbers with fancy yarns. I could knit one with a single ball of expensive yarn in about five hours and have a little 'gem' when I was done. I gave them away, kept them, and sold them. This purse is the same idea, only it will hold more than a small wallet, cell phone, and keys!

Again, the photos will appear above in a separate post as I seem to have to upload from Picasa instead of within the blog. So I will describe the three views of the purse. I like the security of a drawstring top, so one view is of the purse closed. My friend Judy thinks the top treatment is lovely, so took a photo of the purse half opened. Then, for those of you who will want to try this treatment on your own purses, I took a closeup of the crochet drawstring top.

  

My name is Nan. I love to knit, love to share ideas, and am enjoying reading the blogs of other knitters, so decided to finally join them! This is my first post. I just joined the Dishclothfun KAL and posted to their blog, along with the photo of the dishcloth I knitted. So will post it here, too. It is the Ballband Dishcloth that is on the Peaches and Cream yarn and also in the Mason Dixon Knitting Book.