Toggle button scarf

We live in the part of the country that has been snowbound for a week now. During the Winter Olympics, I joined Raveolympics 2010 to try to complete the Kai Sweater for William from Louisa Harding's Natural Knits book.

The book was a gift from a neighbor while I was pregnant and I'm excited to finally have the chance to knit something from it. I decided to make the Kai sweater in a summer weight, but with all the snow, I've put William's lightweight sweater aside for the moment to complete a quick scarf he can wear today when I take him for a sled ride.

This was a stash-busting scarf, using up some more Caron Bliss yarn and some Moda Dea washable wool in chocolate brown. The combination of the two together is really nice - luxurious softness and warmth and strength.

Here it is as modeled by bear while William naps. Can't wait to see it on the little guy!

I held the two yarns together and cast on 12 stitches. Then I knit it all in garter stitch. To place the button hole, I bound off two stitches in the middle of the scarf. On the next row I knit one in front and in back of the two stitches in the middle of the scarf to bring the stitches count back up to 12 (from 10 for the button hole). Very simple! I wish I'd made myself one.

Flamingo scarf

My daughter really needed a new scarf and after returning from the white sands of Florida to the white snows of upstate New York, it seemed especially important. Inspired by a small group of flamingos I saw flying off the coast of St. Pete's Beach in various shades of pink, this is her flamingo scarf.

It is knit with two strands held together, both from leftover skeins that needed to be used up. One yarn is 100% cotton from Lily Yarns, the Sugar 'n Cream in strawberry. This is a variegated yarn that reminds me of the color variations in flamingos. The other yarn is Caron's Bliss in Cotton Candy, a supersoft blend that's hard to stop rubbing on your cheek (it's that soft!). I knit the scarf loosely in simple garter stitch, and with the two yarns held together, it made a great texture that I hadn't expected to like so much. When I asked Savannah if she liked it, she asked me if I would make her a blanket with the same yarn combination. And then she asked to sleep with it, which she did.

Unfortunately, this scarf was a stash-buster so I don't have any more yarn left! Although I'm not sure what I'd think of a bright pink blankie lying around the house. I'm already looking forward to the next project where I knit two yarns together and end up with a completely new outcome. The surprise is what makes it fun and unique.

First quilt

How old do you think you have to be to learn how to quilt? My five-year-old daughter recently took a two morning class offered by a local quilter and learned to make her first quilt from a drawing she brought to class. What do you imagine a sweet girl of five would want to quilt - a flower, a heart, a pony, something for her dolls perhaps? Not my daughter.

She only wanted to quilt the Jolly Roger, a pirate's pride and joy to hoist the colors right before attacking another ship ripe for plunder...argh! She cut out the fabric pieces herself and had some help sewing them in place although she was seated in front of the sewing machine for that part. She didn't handle the iron thank goodness but everything she did herself or had some help doing herself. I'm impressed! I'm not sure if my first quilt at 20 something came out that well.

At least for all her pirate plundering ambitions she can still say "Thank you" sweetly by helping me make the quilted card she designed. This card is to thank the patient lady who taught her how to make her first quilt.  There is always room for another quilter in the house.

New and blue redux

Once was not enough. After ALL of my laundry was clean, I found two more white dishtowels that seemed naked after embellishing their sisters. So I used up some of my last blue scraps of china blue fabric getting these fit for my kitchen.

Up close this one is my favorite spots because by chance the scrap square matched the fabric below it exactly - the circle is complete. From far away, I still prefer the plain single fabric towel best.

Next perhaps I'll patch together a pair of oven mitts.

North country socks

I used to be one of those knitters who thought nothing could be so tedious as knitting socks, until I tried it and got hooked. After searching all winter for the perfect pair of socks for a baby - warm, soft, durable, and with a cuff long enough that we can pull it up his calf to keep that space between the ankle and pants warm or pull over his pants - and never finding it, I finally dusted off my knitting needles.

Honestly, I don't know what I was waiting for! I wish I had made this pair in December but I'm thankful to have them now for the new blast of cold weather. This is a very easy pattern that I've made over and over again and it's free online. The only part of the pattern I would change is that it originally calls for 100% cotton yarn. While I love cotton, I've had bad luck with it stretching out in socks quickly and not retaining its shape. For this pair of socks I used two yarns held together - a superfine washable wool yarn from Patons and a medium organic bamboo/wool blend from Moda. The sock yarn is self-striping, hence the funky pattern.

And, I think it looks pretty cute on the little guy, who can't pull this sock off by himself, yet.

Here's that new pair of socks on baby while he falls asleep on Mommy's lap, ah, this is the life!

Kilo Appliqued Camisole

Part three of Savannah's Kilo outfit from Alexander Henry's 2005 fabric line- the camisole top with flower applique. See also, part 1 the Kilo skirt, and part 2 the Kilo handbag.

Even though I sometimes skip the step, I did use fusible interface behind the flower this time. It really helps and note to self: I shouldn't ever skip it! When I sew an applique on fabric I use my zigzag stitch and I lower the distance between stitiches to 1 so the zigzags are really close together. I sew around it twice for good measure.

What can I say, someone wasn't in a modeling mood this afternoon.

I still think it's cute. The tank top can be worn with shorts, sweats, skirts and as pajamas too. I like it best with her red sweatpants though.

I'm still amazed at how far a yard of fabric can go when you're five and a half, and I even have a little sliver of it left, possibly enough to make a zippered pouch for her purse or a wristlet to keep her ice cream money safe. Hmmm....

One Way to Reuse a Cork

A cork can come in handy for a variety of projects around the house but here's one suggestion.

I'm really attached to a pair of trivets or hot plates that I have because they are in my signature kitchen colors, china blue or willow blue and white. However, over time the original felt pads have worn off and now when I use the trivets, I risk ruining my table with the heat that is transferred right through the bottom. (I have been using oven mitts beneath my hot plates for months now to prevent any damage to my dining room table surface - but this is time consuming, hard to explain, and could look better.)

I sliced a regular cork into about 10 2/10 of an inch slices as equal in size as I possibly could with my very sharp Henckels knife. Then I carefully super-glued these new "pads" onto the bottoms of my favorite trivets and voila! my trivets are as good as (okay better than) new.

Touch your table the next time you serve something hot and see if your hot plates could use a little cork makeover as well. (If so, you get to get one more good excuse to open a bottle of wine.)

Upcycled Airplane Duvet

I purchased this airplane fabric a while ago with the intention of making a duvet cover for William. He inherited his sister's petal pink crib-size down comforter, which is lovely and warm, but you know, pink.

I found the fabric on etsy from Whimsie Dots, a shop that specializes in fabrics from vintage sources and upcycled fabrics. This fabric is reclaimed from a flatsheet and was very easy to work with.

I liked the airplanes because the first time William saw an airplane it happened to be landing at the Albany airport. It flew right over us and he was mesmerized....

I decided to use three ties on the bottom to close it rather than velcro, buttons or snaps. I made the ties from two inch strips of fabric that I sewed close and then turned right side out with a safety pin. On the bottom edge, I also sewed in about 5 inches on each side to give the comforter a lip to sit on in the corners. This plus the tied bows appear to be working very well. When I went to school in Paris some of the children I took care of had duvet covers with a similar system.This also takes care of one of my crafty New's Year resolutions, only twelve to go.

 I hope the little guy likes it. It will be his for a while...

New and blue

I purchased a set of three white cotton kitchen towels from Williams Sonoma (I love the weave and texture of their cotton towels) a while back with the intention of embellishing them with my signature kitchen colors - china blue or willow blue and white. I finally completed this simple little project and am already enjoying the result.

Eventually my appliances will be replaced with stainless steel energy-efficient ones and I think my white and blue will look even better with the stainless steel. My husband is in charge of that endeavor but I am really looking forward to having an induction stove eventually.

A New Year For...

Quilting is such a wonderful hobby because there is no limit as to what you can do. Every year you could make new quilt patterns and never run out of new styles and patterns and color combinations. Even though I tend to wear preppy drab colors (my faves are navy anything, all shades of brown, black, ivory, etc and I usually buy three of everything I like, so not much diversity there) I have an inner color-loving child who is slowly emerging and painting the world brighter. Quilting gives me one outlet for color and creativity.

Here's a New Year's Resolution of sorts for my crafty to do list.

This year I want to make:

• a quilt with a house block in it
• a summer picnic quilt to bring to the park
  
• a Christmas quilt
• a quilt for the library to auction
  
• a charity quilt (most likely for Hospice)
  
• a boy quilt
  
• more skirts for my daughter with a few matching shirts with appliques
• a matching pair of pants and shirt for the baby
  
• a comforter cover for my son (he has his sister's crib-sized down comforter in petal pink)
• an art quilt to hang up
• a pair of pillows for my daughter's bed
• a scrappy quilt that uses up lots of little bits
• something that uses my dust-collecting serger
  

And I want to do all of this without purchasing new fabric (whites and muslin excepted) because I have enough in my stash to be able to make all of these and more. Waste not, want not, the wisdom goes.

I also want to teach my daughter how to make her own quilt, she's almost 6 and that's old enough, right???

Happy New Year! Let's look forward to a creative New Year together.