Silly hats

I have yarn in my stash that needs to get used up (call it spring cleaning). I started knitting hats to get rid of the extra bits of yarn. I'm not in love with them but they're soft and they'll do.

William models his new silly hat. This Marley pattern is from Susan Anderson's Itty-Bitty Hats book. I'm not crazy about the colors, but so be it, it's a stash hat. The important thing is that it fits him well and is soft and warm.

Here's the side view with the silly topper, which I kind of like. There's only so much time in childhood to get away with things like this.

Here's the second stash busting hat, which actually fits me too. I used up three small balls of yarn with this one including sock yarn, which makes the variegated pattern.

I didn't follow a pattern, I just started knitting, then seaming, then added the ear flaps and made the I-cord and tassels. My exact pattern is on ravelry, although there are better examples of thorpes and jester hats to follow.

I'm trying to be a better knitter - that is not in skill but in habit. I'm trying to diminish my stash to one basket worth of yarn (currently I have four) because I can't use four baskets worth all at once anyway and I'd rather have an excuse to visit my local yarn shop with an organized mind and yarn supply. Happy spring cleaning to you too!

Reusable produce bags

We try to use our reusable grocery bags when we buy groceries (admittedly, sometimes I forget and leave them in the trunk) but I end up using so many plastic bags in the produce department, it seems that I'm hardly making a dent in the amount of plastic we use. I finally took an old curtain made of 100% polyester and turned it into a set of six produce bags that I can reuse.

The material is translucent so the attendant at checkout can still read labels or count items through the fabric, but it's strong and washable so I can use them over and over. It took me less than an hour to make six and I used ribbon that I had on hand for the closure.

Room enough for at least a dozen pears, or potatoes, apples, etc. but small enough to be brought along without taking up room. Although I made my own in various sizes (longer ones for carrots, wider ones for apples) there are some tutorials I found on the web. Here's one that uses mesh. And some that are made from sheer curtain fabric like mine. You can also purchase them such as this nice set made by LoveForEarth on Etsy.

Owl lover's hat

My daughter is currently enamored with Kathryn Lasky's Ga'Hoole series, the one about the owls with the new movie out. So I couldn't resist making her an owl hat with my leftover Malabrigo merino yarn. Since blue is her favorite color, it worked out well.

The moment I completed weaving in the loose threads, she donned her hat while reading book eight in the series. I think it's really cute on her.

The free pattern for this hat is available by knitculture here. There's also an adult version. I highly recommend the pattern - it was well written and a fast knit that lent itself well to the Malabrigo yarn. Not to mention, it's just perfect for a kid enamored by the Ga'Hoole series.

Savannah picked out the buttons we sewed on for eyes. I'm still debating whether or not to sew a tiny orange beak and feet on one of the owls....

Weave mittens for me

This mitten pattern has been in my queue for quite some time. I'm so glad I finally knit a pair. The pattern is available for free on ravelry and is quite simple with a nice thumb gusset.

I did make quite a few modifications. I knit 16 rows of double ribbing for the cuff and after the cuff, knit 2 rows of st-st before dividing for the thumb (I should have knit 4-5 rows before following the pattern again). Instead of running the thread through the remaining live stitches to bind off at the end, I decided to use Kitchener stitch because I like the rounded, finished look better than the pucker of stitches pulled tightly together.

I also picked up 3 extra stitches (instead of 1, for a total of 14 for size small) for the thumb because my experience is that if you don’t pick up enough stitches, you’ll have holes where the thumb meets the hand and wet hands every time it snows.

I also experimented on the second mitten with increasing the thumb stitches by knitting into the stitch below, rather than making one. This avoided the little holes that are characteristic of m1. I will definitely use this method of increasing in the future when knitting the thumb increases for mittens.

The yarn is Malabrigo merino worsted and I'm in love with it. It is a lightly variegated indigo with hints of purple in it and is so soft and warm and strong and knits up well on size 6 or 7 needles. Since the pattern only used a portion of my skein, I'm looking forward to knitting something special with the remaining yarn.

A spring sweater

There's a pattern I've been drooling over for a long time on ravelry, a spring sweater called the Liesl by Ysola Teague. I finally started it this month with leftover yarn from my stash for Savannah.

It was such a quick knit, I can't believe how long I put it off thinking it would be more difficult or time consuming. I'm very happy with the yarn as well, which is Moda Dea bamboo wool, a discontinued yarn with excellent drape, stitch definition, and color. Even though it's impossible to see from these pictures, the blue velvet yarn actually has two thin strands of purple woven through it, giving it a beautiful sheen close up.

I've ordered a special clasp button for the top of the sweater. I like the idea of something you can just throw over your shoulders when a spring breeze picks up or to dress up a summer outfit.

Apparently, so does my little model, who is eager to wear this at the beach. I have banned her from climbing trees with this sweater on though, because of the lacework, which shows best in the photo below.

Next on my list, is a Liesl for me in much nicer yarn of course, but in a color not quite as pretty as my daughter's.

Heart Potholders

For Valentine's Day this year we had a "crafternoon", where we got together with some friends and made Valentine's. For the moms, who never get enough appreciation for the hard work they do, I made a batch of heart potholders in pinks and reds. Here is the one I made for my kitchen, in my signature blue colors.

I have found that if I use double or triple batting quilted together, my potholders last for a long time and don't result in burnt hands. When we get sick of them, our kids can use them in their play kitchens.

This is a great project to use up leftover fabric scraps as each potholder requires less than a fat quarter of fabric to make. I made a heart template that I liked out of newspaper, and cut it out of my fabric on the fold (the same way you'd cut a heart from folded paper). I liked this heart shape for its wide design. (I didn't want a pointy heart for a potholder.)

Then I layered two or three layers of warm and natural cotton batting behind it, pinned the layers and quilted them together. After quilting, I trimmed the batting neatly to match the edges of my fabric heart, then pinned the backing to it and sewed on my trim. Voilà! A little love and country charm for my kitchen.

What's old is new

Two years ago, someone sent Savannah this cute dress that has been well loved.

She's outgrown it but instead of passing it on, we decided to recreate the dress as a skirt so she can enjoy it even longer. I've been meaning to spend more time creating clothes for the kids from things that I have outgrown, stained, or worn through, so why not recreate from her own wardrobe?

By cutting off the straps and the top seam, and adding a 3/4" non-roll elastic waist band, voila, the dress is now a skirt. Something new from something old and all we had to do was sew in a few straight lines. With all the snow we have on the ground right now, it probably seems silly to be sewing a cotton skirt like this but soon we'll take our winter escape vacation to Florida where she can prance around the sandy beaches with her new skirt.

I can hardly wait!

Mending

To mend (verb used with object): to make (something broken, worn, torn, or otherwise damaged) whole, sound, or usable by repairing

Even though I'm often sewing new things out of new fabric, which can be fun and exciting, I think it's important to spend time mending the things we already own. It may not feel glamorous to have a pile of clothing in want of a button or needing a seam restitched or a pocket hole repaired, but it saves so much. It saves the item of clothing from the trash heap, it saves money, not having to replace something that has use left, and it saves us the time we spend shopping for the right thing to replace what we lose. I also find it humbling to repair the old instead of running out to grab the next new thing off the shelf without much thought to the life cycle of these items and how their life cycles affect future generations.

Today I mended clothing, most of them needing small repairs, one by hand, four on my machine. It took little time really. One was my husband's favorite pair of sweatpants from college (they've seen repairs in prior years!). Another was a good work shirt that cost a surprising amount of money. Then there were the leather gloves, sweater, buttons and a patch for my daughter's clothes. Each one a simple fix that I was glad to do, even though I'd put it off for a few weeks.

I hope you use your sewing talents for mending too when the occasion presents. What a worthy use of time to take something broken and make it whole and usable again.

Dresses (and shorts) for Africa

In my last post, I invited you to join me in sewing for this great charity, Little Dresses for Africa. When I read through the charity's website, I found they need shorts for boys just as much as dresses for girls. At my local library, where a sewing group is collecting the dresses to be shipped at the end of this month, I counted 21 dresses, but no shorts. So I had to get to work making a bit of both, shorts with fabrics that I had a small amount of, and dresses when I had a larger quantity needing a purpose.

Here are some of the works I'll be contributing this year.

I went through my fabric stash, which needs some TLC, and pulled out all the fabrics I hadn't used in over a year and didn't think I would find a good use for. This was about a dozen fabrics! I quickly cut out shorts in various sizes, using a template I made up. I surged the crotch and the inner seams between the legs, where the fabric is the most likely to come undone from use and play, then used straight seams on the rest.

Here's a size medium (ages 5-7) being modeled by my daughter. I like them so much on her I think I'll use some more of my fabrics in February to make her some quick cotton shorts for the summer or a much needed trip to Florida (it was -10F this morning!). The shorts have either 3/4" or 1/2" non-roll elastic in the waist bands. Even though they say they're non-roll, my experience is that will roll, a constant annoyance  for the wearer (or her mother!). I sew over the elastic in the front and the back of the shorts where there is a natural seam, stitching in the ditch, as the technique is called to prevent this.

This was my first "pillowcase dress" and I used all the fabric I had left in this print to make it. It's a size small (age 2-4). I made a pocket on the front from the extra fabric from the arm shaping. In case you haven't seen Garnett Hill's catalog this year, these are "in" at $78 each. Yikes!

Here's the same dress on my little model who would have preferred to spend the time writing on my walls with marker!

At home, these sew up quickly in half an hour - including using my serger for some of the seams, so no way could I pay $78 for one, even lining it wouldn't take that much more time.

My design wall filled up.

I love this pair! I could never think of how to use this fabric in one of my quilts, but I think this is perfect.

Some have pockets.

Katie jump rope fabric - loved it but had too much of it on hand.

Fourth of July shorts in size small and mellow yellow in medium.

More Katie Jump fabric to use up. Hope someone appreciates the bright colors!

Kaffe Fasset fabric.

This dress in size medium is one of my favorites. I used non-roll elastic to make the ruffle at the neckline and double-fold bias tape for the top of the pleated pocket and straps. This one is really cute!

The last dress! All in all three dresses, and seven pairs of shorts, a lighter fabric stash for me and now I really know how to sew shorts. I wish I could see them on their recipients but I'll just have to imagine these bright prints given life by the beautiful brown bodies who will receive them. I hope the children enjoy them.

Little Dresses for Africa

So last year I made some lofty quilting resolutions. Lofty because I had no idea how much time and energy one little toddler boy could consume. I hardly had the chance to work on any of them but now I know! If I can complete all of my work this month, there's a charity that I really want to sew for. The dresses can be made at any time but my local sewing group is collecting them by the end of the month to deliver in person and a little deadline to heat the underside of your pants never hurt.

Here's one of the cute dresses from the Little Dresses for Africa website of a girl who received a re-purposed pillow case dress and the girl who made it for her.

So, I'm spreading the word for anyone else who may have extra fabric lying around that needs a new home - say on a little girl or boy in Africa, who would be much obliged to have something new and clean and colorful to wear. There is a pattern supplied for your convenience but any dress pattern is welcomed (or shorts for boys!) because this project is really about love, not sewing perfection. I hope to minimize some of my fabric stash with a few of these, and if I don't meet the end of January deadline, I can always make them year round to donate. I hope you make one too!