Bootstrapping

Two things.  OK

1.  I have been sewing a lot of hexagons.  I sat down with a 10 year old friend and did some math.  To get a 56" square quilt (10 year old by 10 year old sized), I'll need a stultifying number of gray hexagons.  And something like a countably infinite number of print hexagons (not-gray).   So, they were starting to get a little unwieldy.  It was getting a little risky to reach into the stack to try to find the one with the needle left in it.

Here's the pattern I'm working toward.  I'm calling it "hydrocarbon" in my head.  It is easier to see in a direct overhead shot.



2.  I bought a lot of 36 zippers on eBay.  They were 99 cents but the shipping was $12.  (it is OK to laugh at me.)  It was unnecessarily fast shipping.   They are mostly nylon sport-type zippers, tending towards the 7 and 9" size range.

I did what any sane person would do.  OK.  I did what any person with 36 zippers and 1/2 a square yard of hexagons and a bunch of unearthed stash and scrap fabric would do.  I started saving zipper pouch tutorials on pinterest and sewed some.  That is where the bootstrapping in the title comes in.  I don't know what it is called otherwise to use your hobby to make tools to use while you do your hobby.

Here's the first.  A Noodlehead Open Wide Zippered Pouch  Made more from the steps than the measurements.  The fabric on the zipper tab is on the inside.  This one holds the finished hexies.

Here's the second.  It is from a box pouch tutorial  Again.  More from the steps than the measurements.  It is clever.  I wanted the edges to be finished on the inside.  I need to think about that.  French seams where possible and maybe binding tape on the edges where it is not.  This one has the thread, scissors, paper templates and unsewed hexagons and the last finished hexie with the needle stuck in it.

Hexagons and Instagram

So.....I recently bought an iPad Mini.  For a software engineer, I'm kind of a Luddite.  But, the last time I went to India for work, my daughter lent me her iPod.  Wi-Fi was pretty available, at least in the hotel, and it was really nice to be able to facetime with home.  And I've been kind of borrowing my husband's iPad a lot.  And with two kids, it's nice to have two devices to hand out on car trips.

So, anyway.  I joined Instagram.  One of the neat things has been seeing what's out there in the world.  I've been seeing someone make paper pieced hexagons.  I don't know what she's making with them, but they're great.  (hopefully this embed works.)

Loving this Heather Ross and C+S mashup tonight! 💖 #themassivehexieproject

A photo posted by Kate Basti (@katebasti) on Jul 18, 2015 at 5:48pm PDT

So, I looked up how to do it.   Template and tutorial are here.    Here's what I've made so far:


And here's what's next in line.


Apparently, this is a process project.  I'm not sure what they're going to be.  I've been craving some not-knitting handwork and this is fun so far.  When it gets tedious, I'll sew them together into something.

I'm going to try not to buy fabric for this, but I've kind of been thinking about these w.r.t. grayscale or low volume fabrics.  Or a riot of colors.  We'll see.

Wrapping things up

I started a project in February 2013.  I finished it in May.  Now I'm blogging the FO in June.

It was going to be Sonnenblume, which has a beautiful lace motif.   I got it to the part where the lace was ready to start and left it there for like 2 years, waiting for a time when I'd be ready to decipher the chart and just do it.



I got to a point this spring where I was between projects so I picked it up and looked at the chart again.  It has patterning on both sides.  The work, where I left off, had more stitches than I can really count.  OK, technically I can count that high, but I almost never do. So, anyways, I wasn't even sure if the thing was at the exactly right number of stitches for the pattern.

So I did what any sane person would do.  I improvised.

First, I kept knitting with the 4 increases for a while.  Until I couldn't stand it anymore.

Then I swatched a couple of simple lace patterns and looked through Ravelry for something pretty and uber-simple.  I found Eyelet Lace Shawlette and Black Death and maybe a few others.

The initial pattern for the increases is this:
Row 1:  K1 YO K to 1 before center.  YO K1 YO K to 1 before end YO K1.

Row 2:  K1 P to 1 before edge K1  (the edges might have been purled.  Not sure.)


I decided to do:

Row 1:  K1 YO *K5 YO* [repeat til 1 before center, fudging as necessary with remainders] YO K1 YO *K5 YO* YO K1
Row 2:  K1 P to 1 before edge K1.

When I got to a good number of repeats and the rows were getting really long, I used a picot bind off.   The bind off was super tedious.  So I took breaks more than I should have - and it turned into a big mess and I broke the yarn when I was trying to figure out what was going on with it.

Basically, the whole project was fraught with mis-steps and issues all along the way.  But, it is pretty and soft and will be a nice thing to have.  

My favorite mug

When I got back from India, I posted the following on Facebook:

Nice to be back home again on a Saturday morning. Up early making cupcakes with Ellie, drinking coffee that my husband made, in a cup my mom threw.

This is the cup.


My mom made it in 2007.  She's been doing pottery since I was little (and I am currently in my early to mid 40s).  There's a lot going for this cup other than the fact my mom made it:  it is nicely made, a pretty color and holds a perfect amount of coffee (although some weekend mornings I need 2 cups.)

It's nice to use something that my mom made - it feels connected to her.  And I like that it' is used in everyday life.  This is not something you take out only when it's Thanksgiving.  This is something I try to use (if it's clean) on any day I don't need to use a travel mug.  It may not have been made specifically to be an heirloom, but might end up as one if I don't break it by accident before then.  Actually, maybe I should ask her to make another one just like it so no one has to fight over this one.

My parents are both make things and it is neat to live in a makers' house.  They made things like coffee cups and curtains, desks and shelves.  In almost every room, you can look and see something they figured out and put together.  I remember noticing it one day when I was in high school or college and thinking it was neat.  I brought it with me - I like that you can look around my house and see things that I made and we are using.  You can look around my house and even see things that my mom and dad made and that my grandfather made (I may be stereotyping, but aircraft mechanics are not stingy with the fasteners.  I will show you sometime.)

One of the examples that makers-as-parents set is that trying stuff is good.  They can also set the example that coming up with a plan before you start is good too.  There's a time and a place for each - it depends on if it is important to end up with a certain thing when you're done.   Oh and other lessons:  there are times when neatness counts, sometimes it doesn't matter if you're doing something wrong as long as you stick to being consistently wrong in the same way.

Then there's the practicing the craft.  All through my childhood there would be one or two nights a week for like an 8 or 12 or 16 week session where she would be at pottery or upholstery or something.  I think she started taking pottery with some of her friends at a high school's community education program - probably on a lark.   She stayed with it.  She's studied at a few different studios.  Due to family situations and scheduling, she was on hiatus for a while.  But, she is back to taking pottery again and she enjoys it.  This is great to see.

Quick Socks

Quick post for quick socks.

My sister gave me two skeins of Borroco Sox for Christmas.  Here is the first skein in sock form (rav project link).  It's my usual vanilla 64 stitch stockinette socks (64bit socks).  They're longer than I usually make, but these were more about the journey than the destination.

p.s.  Did you see how the stripes match up?  Dude.  I didn't even hope to get them to match when I started.

knitting in India

I had to go to India for work again.  This time, I didn't bring any metal needles with me - I learned my security lesson from the last trip.  Also, I wanted the balance of easy/memorizable and interesting and using stash yarn.  I felt ready for the trip when I found "Neato"  by JumperCablesKnitting.

The stash yarn was Plymouth Boku - a wool/silk blend with long color changes (similarish to Noro, but without flashes of hot pink or chartreuse).

Of course, I was going with my usual mode of not using the recommended yarn, needles, gauge, etc.   I ended up seriously winging it (ending in the middle of a repeat when yarn was running short) and making goofy counting mistakes (after several days of jetlag, apparently counting to three is much more difficult).

The pattern was fun, forgiving, and made something nice.  I gave it  to a co-worker in India and am making another one out of two more skeins of the yarn (but in gray).  

Christmas sock yarn

For Christmas this year, my sister got me two skeins of sock yarn (Berrocco Sox).  They're both really pretty.  I got the first sock of the first skein done.

Lots of short attention span issues with the knitting lately.

 Soon: I finished a sweater for El and started a new project for my India trip.

Finished knitting (from Stash!)

I've been swamped with regular stuff - Girl Scouts, soccer, work, etc.  Here are a few of the things that I finished recently.


1.  Haven't woven in the ends for this yet.  It is Favorite Scarf Ever.It's all with stash.  

I started it with Socks That Rock in Thistle.

My original plan was to make large stripes and use up a bunch of sock yarns.  But I decided to do two row stripes a la the knitting trend from a few years ago, where people were using two contrasting shades of Sock that Rock and working up this magic scarf in a feather and fan pattern.

So, I switched to my leftover Zaurball and a leftover purple Crock O Dyeand let he magic ensue.   It bothered me that the one end was the thistle, so I when I couldn't take it anymore, I used up the rest of the thistle and finished both the scarf and the ball of yarn.

2.  It got pretty cold here in February.  I may have been in a situation where it made sense to give my warm, knit from handspun mittens away.  I have to say that I really had to think twice about it - they're so soft and warm and they go with my hat.  But then I remembered a skein of Noro that I had been saving specifically for mittens for myself.  This is what I did with them - kind of basic long fingerless mitts.  They may be slightly asymetrical in real life too - I was having trouble counting the rows with this yarn.

Fire Starters

I got to make some stuff with my mom over the break -- we made fire starters for an upcoming older girl camp out.

Here's the result:

Here's what one looks like before testing it.

It is:

• Take a toilet paper tube, cut in half, then cut fringes into it.   Press the fringes back to make it look like a flower.
• Crumple up a 1/4 sheet of newspaper (we stayed away from the glossier circulars and stuck with newsprint-y ads.)
• Melt a block of parrafin wax in a double boiler (that is OK to not use again!).  We used a stainless steel bowl over a regular pot.  
• The foil trays were lined with newspaper and the tubes with newspaper were arranged loosely on the paper.  
• Once the parrafin was starting to melt, I used a plastic serving spoon that I don't feel strongly about to ladle the melted wax into/onto the newspaper, getting it pretty thoroughly, but leaving the fringes cardboard. 
• I set the trays outside to cool/dry and then cut apart the starters that were stuck to the newspaper - the wax runs through somewhat.  
• Once you're done with the project, either let the leftover wax cool where it is, if the pan is now dedicated to parafin OR move the leftover wax someplace like a foil pie pan so you can reheat it from there.  

Here's the collection.  The large one is the bottom of a half-and-half carton.  Mom says they used to use the orange juice cartons from our elementary school to make these.



When I tested it, I got a pretty hot and tall flame and it burned for 12 minutes.

Ingredients:
foil pan or cardboard/newspaper lined old cookie sheet
old newspapers
TP tubes, small milk cartons, small paper cups, etc.
double boiler that is OK to not use for cooking anymore
ladle that is OK to not use for cooking anymore
parrafin wax
someplace to put leftover parrafin wax.  We used a foil pie pan.

Handmade Gifts

Now that everyone is back into the swing of real life....let me show you the Christmas presents I made.  Actually, I was really just the editor/art directory.  The real credit goes to my daughters.  At least one of them is still at a point where she's bringing home a lot of art work from school, some of it seasonal.

I've been scanning them into a PDF at the best resolution I could find.  Then around Thanksgiving, I opened them in GIMP (other photo software that can go between PDF and bitmap formats would work) and saved them out as JPG files.

From there, I uploaded them to one of the many photo printing/photo gift sites and made them into a calendar, using one of their templates.

We sent these to people who did not already have a supply of youthful art coming directly in to the house (e.g. grandparents, great aunts/uncles, etc.)  along with a gift to their local food bank.

The girls enjoyed looking through the finished product and I had them review the work before I sent it to print - after all, the work is their intellectual property, and at ages 7 and 12, they are old enough to have an opinion about what work they're proud of and what they want to see in the world representing them.  We had to switch out October - the artist wasn't happy with it.  We found another suitable October piece that was by the same person and had been shown in an area art show and was hanging on my bedroom door.

I've set aside some December papers to scan and start the project over again for next year.

A quick hat - sometimes I just want to see if it works

I made another hat from my friend Cambria Washington's Missionary Hat pattern.  Again, I probably didn't follow it to the letter.  It's on 80 stitches and has 4x4 rib at the start.

I had the turquoise and yellow-green kicking around near each other and every time I saw them together I liked how they looked - and thought they'd make great stripes.  I think, actually, their values are too close for the transition bands and they would actually work better as stripes.  Then I needed a third color and got some opinions.  The architects in the room all picked orange.  I went ahead and tried it because undo would not be too difficult.  I like how it turned out.

Do you ever notice how your environment influences your color choices?  The blue and green match my daughter's sneakers almost exactly.  The three colors together are very citrusy, and hence, you see them here together a lot.



Here are the details:
Yarn:  Ella Rae Superwash (blue) and Cascade 220 Superwash (quatro and regular)
Needles:  Size 7.
Pattern:  The Missionary Hat
Mods:  CO 80, knit 4x4 ribbing
For:  charity stash

Holiday Sewing - Onstage Tutu Skirt

I didn't do much holiday sewing this year.  In fact, this is the only holiday sewing I did.

We have a 5 year old friend who is always in princess dresses.  I think most people my age have a kid who lives in costume in their lives.

The other side of the story is that I follow Liesel Gibson on Pinterest.  I started to see "styling ideas" for this skirt.  The free pattern is here - the Onstage Tutu.  The pattern is clever and simple (as simple as it needs to be and no more), just like all of her patterns.

A match made in heaven, right?  Princess Dress Girl + Onstage Tutu Pattern.

The skirt itself is kind of a voile or really thin/fine cotton.  I was afraid only one layer would be too sheer and not really have enough body, so I doubled it, by basically making a really long hem.  I think that if there is a place where it might fray and fall apart it is at the waistband-hem.




The other issue I ran into that made it kind of tricky was that the - wait two issues - one is that the sheer fabric was about the same width (or narrower) than the skirt layer, so the gathering was not really a thing.  The second issue was that it was not tulle or lace.  It was more of a chiffon that needed a hem to keep from fraying.  I think I cut it with pinking shears and just turned it up once, but I don't really remember for sure.

Those 70s socks

These are my current "to-go" socks.  They are my usual "64 bit" socks - I may have needed a break from reading patterns.  The first one knit up pretty fast.  I'm procrastinating casting on the second.  I'm hoping for identical twins, not fraternal.  I've had some good luck in the last few pairs of striped socks.  Hopefully this holds out.  The yarn is Paton's Kroy on 2.5 or 2.25mm needles.  

Red Mittens

It might be because I'm still spending time in the picture book section of the library, but red mittens always kind of remind me of Jan Brett.  And red hats remind me of Snow Day.  These are the same pattern as the finger-less mitts for El.  Only I might have done a better job of following the directions.  They are approximately big kid sized in some red Cascade 220 Superwash that I had in the old stash.  They were really fun to knit and I like how they came out.  They could use a bath to smooth everything out, but....I like them.  They are not destined to anyone in particular - so when a good charity opportunity comes up, they will be in the mail.

Pattern:  Maize
Yarn:  Cascade 220 Superwash
Size Made:  CO 32 sts.

Super Squishy Hat

I made this really pretty hat for a friend from high school.   I wanted to use the yarn and this was the best use for it I could imagine.

It is the Grassroots pattern by Melissa Schaschwary.  I've been knitting these patterns that are much more purly than my usual and it hasn't been so bad.  The lace leaf pattern was kind of fun.  The hat is super squishy and soft and luckily still usable for my friend.

However, if you were making this for a regular winter hat for someone, I would say use a different yarn.  Like a squishy, thick sock yarn would be fab.

Here are the details:
Pattern:  Grassroots by Melissa Schaschwary
Yarn:  MadlineTosh Pashmina
Size:  Made the smallest size and it was still pretty slouchy on my 12 year old.  However, I have gauge issues (in that I usually totally wing the gauge.)
I will totally knit this pattern again in another yarn.  :)

New Socks!

So, in the recent cold snap I was pretty excited to wear my collection of wool knit socks again.  I washed them and then had to squish them a lot to be able to close the drawer.  First world knitter problems, I know.  So, the socks I've been making have been getting longer and longer.  Other than not liking drafty ankles, I'm not sure why that is.

The yarn is Cascade Heritage Yarns Quatro.  Aside from the yarn being kind of high maintenance from a splitting perspective, the socks feel super soft when knit up.
The pattern is Sunday Swing Socks by Kristel Nyberg.

I am ready for another cold snap.

I finished my sweater!  Well, OK, it still needs 2 buttons, but it's so close to being done!

The book report:
The pattern is Yoked Cardigan by Hannah Fettig.
The yarn is Cascade 220 (not superwash).  The sleeves are a different dye lot than the body, but don't tell.

It is short sleeve and comes not much past my natural waist.  I live in Florida.  I was thinking this could be a good layer over a long sleeve t-shirt when it is cold out, and be a reasonable temperature in the office too.



I was inspired to finish it up when we had a cold snap in November.  Now we are back to short sleeve weather.  Go figure.  

The start of another mitten tear

The last time I made mittens for El, I ended up making three more pairs of the same pattern.  She outgrew her mittens, I made her these:

They are the Maize pattern from TinCanKnits' simple collection.  They are simple, with clear instructions.  Sometimes I have trouble reading and following directions - so any issues are with me and not the pattern.  I knit the child size in Cascade Pacific (size 6 needle, maybe?  not precise is the rule here.)  I will knit more of these and hang on to them for a great donation opportunity.  

enhancements with the potential for feature creep

El has been wearing a series of hand me down dresses that she loves.  They are cotton (t-shirt material), long enough to wear shorts under them, somewhat twirly and not overly pink.  We are thankful to our neighbors for their delightful hand-me-downs.  Recently I did some online shopping to supplement her set of pretty dresses and found a one that fit all of the criteria (plus it was pretty cheap).  It was good, except it was plain.  So, I hit the big box fabric and craft store for some appliques and found some ribbon in the stash.  Today I unearthed the sewing machine and this happened:

first the ribbon -

Then the applique flowers -  (the whole package, natch.)


Here's the whole bodice.  The original plan had dragonfly appliques too.  That's where the potential feature creep comes in.  I felt like we needed to edit.


And here's the whole thing all together.  Yay - she still likes it.  That is the moment of triumph.

New Socks!

After I finished my most recent pair of socks, which I photographed in January, I just haven't felt like making socks.  I've been wearing sneakers to work, not shoes that accommodate knit socks.  I just didn't feel compelled to make socks or even wear the socks I had already made.

All of a sudden the weather turned and October kicked in and I felt like making socks.  It was like magic.  So, I wound up some Cascade Heritage Quatro and started the Sunday Swing Socks that I've been looking at for so long.

They are working up pretty fast - I even went for the three repeats on the leg.  I did one repeat of the pattern across from the gusset and now, the home stretch of stockinette.

As I've been knitting it, I have been not that impressed with how the eyelets look as you knit them, but when you try the socks on, it looks like the picture.  So, these are socks that take faith.