Skull Cap

Tonight I finished one hat for a friend's daughter. It used way less yarn than was indicated. So much less that I'm going to make the next size up for The Bug. Now this is a rare moment. I am knitting a pattern twice. Oh I think about it. I think this would be nice for so and so, but I rarely act on it. If I do it's years later. Not this time; this time I cast right on. And it's such a fast knit I'll be done by the end of the week.

Apples!

This past weekend we went apple picking! It's been a hard year for our local farmers. You can hear it everywhere at the Farmer's Market. That the orchards were having problems also was no surprise. Our usual orchard had a bee shortage leading directly to an apple shortage this year. We went to another orchard and they were having a worm issue. Lots of apples but you had to be picky about the ones you brought home. This picture is later in the day after visiting a craft fair. The bug had fun making binoculars and a hat. Mr. Gnome and I had fun getting some holiday gifts out of the way and getting a few specials for ourselves. Oh this fair's mascot: a gnome!
Anyway; so back to the apples. We totally managed to find enough apples.
There has been, is and will be stuffed squash with apples. And other things of course. This one also has sage and vegan sausage and went into the freezer to be enjoyed later. There are two acorn squash in the oven as I type with apples, dried fruit, beans and thyme.
I made 9 pints of apple butter and 6 pints of apple sauce. This is the apple sauce. I'd taken pictures of both, but really they look a lot a like. The apple sauce is plain nothing added and being stored in the freezer. I'll probably make some yummy dessert variety as well. There is also dried apples, and lots of snacking on apples.

Kiddie Crafty-ups and downs

In the latest Living Crafts magazine there was a bit about felting with pre felt. Pre felts are partially felted bits of wool. They are supposedly easier to work with than felting from fleece making them great projects to do with kids. One of the crafts they showed was for making fall place mats. I really liked the idea so I got the pre felts pieces and we got to work. I cut out the white base and some leaves. The bug cut our some shapes and pieces or wool yarn. Then we got to work on the felting.... easy. Right. I had a lot of problems getting it to felt all the way. We worked it and worked it. There aren't any pictures of this process because it was so labor intense and frustrating because it just wasn't really working. It would felt a little bit and enough for the pieces to all stick together, but not as much as it was supposed to and the finished pieces was very thin and flimsy. Totally wouldn't hold up to being a place mat. Days were spent working on these things. Finally I gave up, put each one in it's own pillowcase then threw them in the washing machine.
They felted. A bit more than one would want..... they are little small and since it was in the machine and of course I forgot about them for a good hour, they are a little lumpy.
But they are still use able, just not for a big meal.
Also we recycled some crayons. They look cooler than they color. The bug has to really work them to color with them and being the shape they are it isn't for precise coloring. It was very fun to do and to see how they turned out.

Sews the Word

Last weekend I was bitten by the sewing bug hard.


I made my little Bug a shirt. The pattern is from Sew Liberated. It's a tad short and I have plans to fix that. She really likes it. I got the fabric from the MIL this past summer when I was looking for more fabric for the yellow dress. I had thought it might work but decided against it because of the lack of white. It is perfect for this shirt however; and the Bug's favorite color, most of the time.

Also I made her some pajama pants; well her and her dolly. I traced the shape from a pair of pants she owns; a bit like Soule Mama has talked about on her blog. They fit fine, a bit long but that's for growing. You can barely tell but the fabric has mermaids all over it. It's a light flannel I got on the clearance rack and a local fabric store.
Who knows what all this sewing means. Or really what all this finished sewing means. I've been sewing for a bit; just not usually finishing stuff.

Mystery Mitts

I'm doing the Mystery KAL with the Fingerless Glove Fanatics group on Ravelry this month. This is through clue 2. It's been a fun, little excursion. We've been getting a new clue about every week and a half. One of the nice things about knitting fingerless gloves is that they can go really fast. A nice immediate gratification project. Split into three stages like this each clue is like a total knitting quicky. Very satisfying when you are bogged down with a poorly written sweater patter, having to rip out socks, and a giant gray thing. More on those adventures to come....

Crazy Socks

Yup, pretty crazy. I had seen someone do this with two balls of Noro on Ravelry a while back and thought it would be fun.
The usual toe up, short row heel, a bit of increasing at the calf, three round stripes. The ribbing goes over my knees but in these pictures I folded it down to make a cuff (Mr. Gnome said it looked better this way). I was initially thinking of doing a corrugated rib, knit one color, purl the other, but when I got to that part on the first sock we were still in the car on our way home from Chicago. I can't do that kind of knitting without looking at it and I can't look at my knitting in the car. Also at that point on that sock; which is the one that start out green, the two balls were very similar and I figured it wouldn't look as striking anyway. They stay up really well. I'm not sure I'll ever wear them with a skirt or in any other way that you can see my entire crazy legs. A little too loud for my current personality, but you never know. I do know I like wearing knee highs under pants in the winter; so cozy!

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by SouleMama.

Finally getting started

You know about Startitis (the beginning of lots of projects all at once) but sometimes I have the opposite; a reluctance to start a new project. The yarn and pattern are so nice and free of mistakes before you cast on.
And when the cast on is over 500 stitches for a kid's sweater, And they want you to crochet cast on....it can get a bit daunting. Now I crochet cast on provisionally every time I do a toe up sock. I like it, it looks nice, it comes out easily, and when it's less than 10 stitches it's really easy and fast. Now when it's 522 stitches it's tedious and annoying. I'm convinced crochet hooks exist only to split apart yarn and drive a person mad.
But it does make a nice cast on and will look lovely around the ruffle.

A Room of Our Own

I'm very very lucky to have a craft/office room. I love it! This past week I painted one of the walls yellow. I've wanted to do this for years! We found the ooops paint almost two years ago and had been keeping an eye out for yellow ooops paint for a while before that. Why yellow? I don't know. It's a basement room and I really wanted a warm bright color. This room has evolved a lot over the past three years that we've been in this house. This is a glimpse of it's latest look. The cups on the wall above the table were found at Ikea. I love having all of the bugs little crafty bits were she can get to them. She likes this freedom too.
Now that the paint is all dried I can get back to sewing. Really I've been sewing!

Fixed

When I made my Little Red Hoodie it was too short. I thought it would be ok but it wasn't. I wasn't wearing it. So I ripped the body pieces back to the arm hold shaping added a bunch of inched then ripped the sleeves to before the cap shaping and knit a few more inches for those as well.I also fixed the hood and made an i-cord. Better. Now I'll wear it; and isn't that the point?

Looking Back at Stitches Midwest.

This was in the Lobby at the hotel right after I finished Mythos; still needed to weave in the ends.

Why yes...

there is knitting on my plate.

This is the Mini-Argyle Beret it will be a display at Knitty Couture with a class (totally not taught by me, for your better learning) available! It's blocking on the plate to give it that Beret like shape. I love that The Bug said, "Why is it on the plate? Oh it's wet you're blocking it".

Mindless

Mr. Gnome and I have been watching the first season of Lost borrowed from the Library. This means watching an entire season in a week. Also a show that I've found takes some paying attention to; something I really like in a show. However this does affect the knitting. I was fixing a sweater and had gotten to the sewing it back up stage: sewing requires just looking at the knitting. Then I was going to cast on for a sweater for The Bug; the pattern has you crochet cast on 522 sts, lots of just looking at the yarn. Not wanting to do all of this at the same time I've been knitting squares.
These squares of which there are 95 are for a blanket. I've been making them on and off for about two years now. They are from the left over fingering, sport and DK yarns from various projects. They are all 4"x4"; roughly. I can make over two in an evening while watching Lost. Someday maybe I'll tell you about the book that goes along with this blanket, and then maybe even the wipe off board list. We'll see how much you can handle.

Crafty Goodness

More fun to contribute to the battle between what I need to do and what I want to do.

Squash Education 101

This wonderful bit of leftovers is Caramelized Squash and Onion Pizza. Just listing it can cause great amounts of debate of Facebook. I have known for a long time that many people are anti squash. I never understood until that fateful Thanksgiving almost six years ago. You know the one in which you don't need teeth. I have always and this instance convinced me that people just need to have squash prepared properly. None of that mashing up with sugar, or just plopping it on the side of the plate with nothing on or in it. Squash loves herbs, it loves roasting, it should be star center stage, or plate, in the dinner. Thus I give you the beginning of this fall's squash education. Ah and you are in luck! Vegetarian Times has this recipe on their website! Go out and squash!