The drawstring dice bag was such a hit that the guys requested a matching bag for pencils and pens. I simplified the method given in the tutorial to omit the circular bottom and again made button holes on opposing sides and cross-threaded the ties. You know you’ve done a good job when they come back and ask for more.
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Tagged crafts, Dan's Doin's
This week I’d like to take a look at what you’ve made with Willa. Willa is a 60% Merino, 40% Super Fine Kid Mohair blend in a bulky weight. It is smooth, delectably soft, and has a gorgeous sheen. It comes in a center pull ball of 153 yards.
As per last week, all names are Ravelry names and all photos link back to the project page.
First up is annanlove19′s Pinch Hat (3 Versions) knit in Aberdeen.
This is a cute, fast knit and isn’t intended for bulky yarn, but annanlove19 adjusted her needle size to make it work.
This scarf knit in a diagonal rib pattern by Ciarrai for her aunt in colorway Concord.
I love how the stitch pattern shows off the yarn’s depth. Ciarrai writes a blog, located here.
Fehl made this lovely Keyhole Scarf (designed by Tanis Gray specifically for JMF’s Fall/Winter 2011 pattern Willa pattern line).
The lovely color, Aquarium, would add a perfect pop of color to my winter wardrobe!
webbcutey bought the yarn for herself as a birthday present. I don’t know about you, but this is the kind of birthday present I like!
Scarf-Cowl “Double Jeu” knit in Pomegranate looks very cozy.
maragoild51 named her project “Lettuce Wrap,” which cracks me up! I am betting that this a warm and cozy shawl!
The pattern is called Murcia. I love the mostly solid pattern (keeps my shoulders warm) and the touch of lace at the bottom (so feminine and would keep my interest at the rows got longer).
What could be more cheerful than an orange elephant? A pink elephant! This is actually knit in Pomegranate and is more pink than the color shows. MellowDi certainly knows how to make a snuggly stuffie!
He could sit on my desk any day!
As winter comes on and it gets colder and sniffles abound, there is nothing better than a dose of Vitamin C. And this hat (He Said, She Said) delivers a wollop of Vitamin C (the color, of course)!
sparker did a great job, right? I love the subtle spirals!
I love a simple looking sweater with one eye-catching detail. Jewels is that kind of sweater. varigatedknits knitted it up in Merry.
I think I would be merry myself if I had that sweater!
What are your favorite Willa knits? Be sure to share them in the comments below!
You can find Willa and the rest of the Juniper Moon Farm Yarns in a LYS near you by clicking here then clicking “find a store,” inputting your zip code and selecting Juniper Moon Farm as the yarn brand.
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Tagged Knitting, willa, yarn, Yarned by You
Food is such a revealing window into culture, history, commerce, and geography. Cookbooks freeze all of those facets in a specific place and time. Part proscriptive text, part aspirational literature, and sometimes part diary, for me cookbooks stand with film, television, advertising, and fashion as important, multi-layered, cultural documents.
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I took my quilt to the shop where they helped me choose a binding fabric. In the outer border I quilted long squiggles that look a bit like seagrass to me. A run through the washer and dryer improved things a good bit and I was relieved there wasn’t any color bleed from the hand-dyed fabrics. It’s off in the mail now where I hope it will arrive before birthday celebrations ensue.
Nevermind all that I said about spending time sewing this month. I’m knitting something so cartoonishly knitterly that I feel like a look-at-how-kooky-this-girl-is sitcom actress:
CAROLINE sits down at the café table across from NIC, pulls a fuzzy pink half-knit mitten from her bag, and begins working.
CAROLINE: So, how was the show last night?
I mean, this actually is what I did on Saturday afternoon.
Anyway, I’ve stumbled into a newfound but very real love for angora. I haven’t ever worked with it, since it always seemed to be too much for me. It’s not my taste. But I think the qualities I used to find so jarring– it is undeniably fuzzy– are now maybe what draw me to it. Angora cannot be ignored. It does not apologize for itself.
I will leave you with this shocking thought: I’m thinking a good bit about a day-of-the-week set of angora-lined pulse warmers. Lord have mercy.
So far what we’ve seen of October puts us in the mood for flannels and woolens and comfort foods. Perhaps hot cups of tea with our afternoon knitting by the fire.
It’s chilly and damp and foggy, and I had to put my boots on just to go out and get the mail.
The mums are showing off their autumn shades.
So are the trees.
Furble likes to follow me to the mailbox and back – today she only came out from her warm and dry spot in the garage because there was a break from the rain.
Inside I finished the October – inspired pillows for the couch. It was a good place to curl up and watch a scary movie after school.
It’s time to start preparing for the cozy months.
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Tagged Pets, Seasons, Sewing, Uncategorized
No blog post today because I am at war with pantry moths. (Apparently this is some kind of epidemic- pantry moths are infesting the flour and other staples of people from here to Texas. Anecdotal evidence from members of my family suggest that they are sneaking in to homes in dog food and/or pine nuts, depending on which camp you chose to believe.)
Either way, getting rid of them is a total pain in the ass that I did not need today. Hope your day is more productive and less filled with throwing away perfectly good- albeit mothy- food.
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Tagged everything else
Since I try to limit my design yarn to that which I’m going to use — and since I’ve only planned about a year out for projects & books — my design yarn stash is, I believe, under control.
I’m not so sure about the personal stash.
Let’s just get the Shetland out of the way, shall we? It’s personal yarn that I count as overlapping with designing yarn, and it’s kept in a cedar chest in the dining room. It tucks under the window, next to the front door, and is occasionally used as extra seating.
I have two vintage cedar chests. One was left to me by my grandma, the other I found on (yes, you guessed it) Craigslist. Both have contained yarn at some point in time. In fact, I got the second just to contain yarn. Now my grandma’s chest stores linens (and a little bit of yarn) and the larger the Shetland.
Cedar chests are great for yarn storage IF you know what’s in there and IF you enjoy emptying it all out once in awhile to doublecheck you really do know what’s in there. (I do.) You have to do a bit of digging otherwise, to find things.
I do try to have the Shetland arranged by color…but that doesn’t really work so well. If I had (or made) dividers, I’d be able to manage it a bit better.
On the topic of Shetland…I have a variety of colors from J&S, Jamieson’s, Elemental Affects, and a little bit of Alice Starmore Campion. The latter is for sale on my Ravelry stash page — I can’t justify keeping Shetland yarn I can’t use for designs, and, since it’s discontinued and not all the subs for the other companies’ colorways are exact, I don’t want to use it.
Sock yarn and miscellaneous yarn is kept in the English Arts & Crafts bookcase (Craigslist) (see above pic).
Sweater yarn is either in the bookcase as well, in the barrister’s bookcase in the living room, in our bedroom closet, and in grandma’s cedar chest. It’s not that there’s a lot of it — probably six sweaters’ worth*? — just that it’s ended up in several places. It used to all by in the second cedar chest, but the linens ended up there. I’m working on destashing some fleeces & roving (if you’re local, and are looking to build up your fiber stash, leave me a comment!) so it will end up in the bins that used to hold those items.
Even were I to give up designing, I think I have enough yarn to keep me busy for many, many, MANY years.
Do you have a large yarn stash? Is it a SABLE? (stash acquisition beyond life expectancy)?
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*Okay, here goes. After making this list, I was so delusional with the 6 sweaters’ worth guesstimate. Granted, some of these are more vest quantities than sweater, but to me, that counts.
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Tagged Knitting & Spinning