Loot!

One of the things I really enjoy about this season are the ASG neighborhood groups holiday celebrations.

The food is always amazing on both sides of the equation... some is sublimely delicious while some is inedible...or at least for me.

I seem to split my contributions three ways... a quick pick from the supermarket, something from Sweet Sadies or something I actually make from scratch.  This year the quick pick was salad, Sweet Sadies contributed Cajun Rice or potato salad and I made batches of fudge...yum!

Besides the food there are gift exchanges or swaps.

One group decided on an unusual gift swap this year.  Each of us had to made a tote bag from our stash.  The gift was to be wrapped in a brown paper bag.  I made a gray/gold/pink tote lined in grey silky stuff with a zippered pocket inserted into the facing.  No picture but it was pretty basic if a little on the small side.

A dear friend chose it and I hope she gets a lot of use out of it.

I, on the other hand, picked a bag that included a huge tote made from upholstery scraps.  

Pretty neat, isn't it?

There are a couple of large pockets on the inside and it could carry a whole queen size quilt if needed.  Look closely at that flower embellishment...that button is fabulous!

Thanks, Donna!

The other type of gifting that goes on is the gift exchange.

In this one each person either chooses a gift from the pile or steals a gift from someone else.  I put together a pile of wool roving, felted coasters, a felted sweater with a lot of texture and a homemade sachet of moth repellent.  It ended up in the hands of a woman who does a lot work with wool and wool felt so I hope she can use everything.

I scored big time.  I was the eighteenth person to draw out of 19(I think) and by then most of the big loot was frozen... like the pile of red silk bits and beads...oh, how covetted that package!  The only thing that I saw that I was interested in was a book from the Kyoto Costume Institute called Fashion.. A History from the 18th to the 20th century.  It is 735 pages packed with all sorts of information about fashion.  There are several editions available and this is the one I received:


I have already spent many hours reading the easily digestible essays and the little bits of explanation for particular items of clothing.  Two of the things I have learned is that stomachers really have nothing to do with stomachs and that corsets have always been, and will continue to be, instruments of torture.  Can you imagine yourself stuffed into a corset that had 182 whale bones as its support?

Today was my last holiday related get together for this season when I made a brief appearance at a friend's open house.  Someone brought some cakey lemon balls that were infused with a lemon liquer.  I love citrus flavored food but these were way over the top.  I must try to make some of these for myself so I can indulge without worrying about getting pulled over for driving while drunk.  ;-)

Time for me to start getting back to normal eating and gathering some things for Paul.  We will be eating a Sweet Sadie's turkey for Christmas Day and I am so looking forward to that as they do a mean turkey.  Maybe I can persuade him to make some of his fabulous scalloped potatoes?

Hint, Hint :-)    

Feeling Broke at Christmas....

...I am not really broke but this year I'm trying to be a little more frugal than in prior years. 

After all, I have to invest in a new laptop ....the screen on this one keeps falling off and, despite my best efforts, there is a bug in my system that will not let me load any security updates...or I could quit my internet playing cold turkey. NOT! 

And before you ask... yes, I can access the internet on my iPod and on my phone but teeny tiny screens and keyboards are not condusive to semi-regular blog updates.

Back to business.

So I am feeling broke this year but I have several obligations that I feel I need to fill.

First the knitting club kids should get something.  If them, then so should the sewing kids.  If them then a couple of dear friends who keep me from slitting my wrists.  And last but by no means least there are a couple of folk out there who will give me something and I must reciprocate because they are just such good people.

Where am I going with this?

Well, note the first layer of the list above... the knitting club kids.  I really want to give them something for being such good sports the last few months.  The last time I did this I made them knitting bags and gave them needles, scissors, needles and stitch markers.

Since they already have bags (courtesy of an unknowing quilt guild member) I needed to come up with something else AND not spend money.

It turns out that I have a bunch of old woolen sweaters that I will never wear again, if I ever wore them in the past.

Taking a cue from someone who makes great felted accessories I came up with twenty of these little gems:

The process couldn't have been easier:

1. run old, wool sweaters through one hot wash cycle.
2. lay them on a fat surface and let them dry...it may take a day of two.
3. cut up the sweaters discarding the cuffs, waist bands, button plackets and anything else that is not a nice flat piece of felted wool.
4. cut up the flat peieces into rectangles like 5" by 15" or whatever size will work with your felted wool.
5. roughly fold the rectangles into envelopes with about one quarter of the length as the flap and the rest as the body of the envelope.
6. cut a slit in the flap as a button hole.
7. sew up the sides of the body of the envelope on the machine or by hand.
8. run through another hot wash and also through the dryer to felt your wool even more to hide the stitching and to generally beef up your fabric.
9. sew a button on the body of the envelope to match the button hole.
10. steam press to get any kinks out that may developed in the wool.
11. enjoy your creativity!

These can be used to hold other gifts like journals, candy and gift certificates or can be used to store credit cards, sewing supplies, knitting supplies, make-up, love letters and other assorted paraphenalia that gathers in our brief cases and purses.

That's my christmas gift making for this year.  I think I will give each of the kids one with some seasonal candy in them while the adults may just have to make do with a new little pockets for their own stuff.

If you are stuck on a gift with a little handmade flair try these out. 

BONUS:  I got to use some up some of my stash of old sweaters and some buttons that were looking for a good home. 

Have a great weekend!

Sick Day Crocheting

As noted before, I have discovered that I cannot do complex tasks when I am ill.  It just doesn't work.  I have discovered that simple knitting is possible... especially when the product is to be felted in the washing machine.

I have also discovered that I can do simple crochet if it is also going to be machine felted.  During a swap of excess materials with the Kingwood Yarn it, Darn it group I came home with all the rejects.

Most of it went to a local group that makes items for the local charity hospital however  I kept back almost two whole balls of Bernet felting wool.  It just didn't seem smart to make some lovely thing that could not be washed without changing its size.

As my cold deepened I decided to use this yarn in a project as my felted knitting projet worked out pretty well.

On the band for the yarn there was a pattern for a felted clutch and it is available on their website as well.  It called for three balls of yarn but thought I could get a result with all that I had.

Here's how it turned out:

I added a magnetic snap and a button to cover it up.  I like the slightly geometric texture, caused by the crochet stitches.

I have even tried it out and, although it doesn't hold a lot, I think it will be a great bit to have around for a quick run to the library or lunch with friends.  In the end it may go to the Kingwood Area Quilt Guild fish pond/garage sale next year if I don't use it more than once or twice between now and then.

I hope your week is going well.  Hurricane Alex will be causing trouble here as Houston is on the 'dirty' side of the storm.  Torrential rans, flooding and high winds are all expected between now and the end of the week if the storm doesn't shift more to the south.  On the other hand, Alex, the dog, will love the opportunity to dig into a wet garden and the Girls are looking forward to extra loving as I dry them off with big fluffy towels.

That's what I love about dogs, they always see the positive side of any situation.

Me...I'm adding some easily prepared food to the larder and cleaning out the ice chest.

Sick Day Knitting

I have discovered over the past week of being Typhoid Alice, that there is one thing I can do with my hands and not screw up too badly.

From the previous post you know that knitting socks is not one of them BUT knitting up projects for washing machine felting seems to be something I can do.

Knitting with 100% wool, with somewhat larger needles than normal, in simple patterns, are ideal when you are not sure if you can even see straight because the felting process corrects/hides so many mistakes.

I had a kit from Pick Up Sticks purchased at Sew Crafty a while ago and the other day I knitted it up, felted it, added a zipper and here is my new miscellaneous card case:

Not exactly as the pattern intended but it will hold a zillion cards I seem to be collecting but don't need everyday... like my Threads magazine Fabric Shopper's Companion, Drug Benefit Card, Health Benefit Card, loyalty credit cards, blood donor card, loyalty card for quilt store and on and on and on.

Even if your knitting is truly off kilter and off gaurge/tension and if you are working with pure wool it will probaly felt up into another project like this little card case.  My case turned out to be about 3 1/2" by 5 1/2"... a lot smaller that the pattern's 5" by 7" size but it works.

I hope your weekend went well and that the coming week is new beginning... or at least a new month!

Have a good one.

Fiber Challenge

Up for a Challenge? This looks like it could be a real challenge for the knitters, weavers, felters and other fiber junkies out there. The prizes look wonderful and whatever you come up with would be a wonderful gift for yourself or that certain someone special this holiday season.

I am intrigued...or simply sleep deprived.

Martha Stewart Felted Sweater Basket

I think I mentoned before that when I was in Canada seeing to Dad I picked up a bunch of 100% wool sweaters to experiment with felting (or fulling for the purists out there). They were very inexpensive but very bulky. The first one I played with ended up being dyed with Kool Aid and turned into a table top container for bits and pieces. (see Spetember 18) The next one I tackled was a white Aran style sweater.

Martha Stewart has instructions on her site for turning a similar sweater into a knitting basket...If you would like to see her instructions log into her site and search on knitting basket.
I did several things differently than Martha. I kept the sides tall rather than folding them into the basket. Since I kept the sides tall I needed something to stiffen the sides so I added some Timtex. I went for a round base rather than the oval she recommends because I could not draw a nice even oval. Since I used Timtex to stiffen the sides I lined the whole thing in grey Ultrasuede. Here is how it came out:

I intend to store balls of knitting yarn in it as I seem to have been acquiring a lot of yarn recently. Even if I never use the yarn stored in my new basket, Alex does not go after my yarn so I can leave the new basket out to be admired.

Update to the four seasons quilt swap - here are a couple of pictures of the quilt I received from Fiona in England. Her site is http://www.scraps-in-progress.blogspot.com/. What I particularly liked about her effort is that she did things she had never done before like satin stitched stems, yo-yo flowers and a pieced back. Thanks Fiona!

Everthing Really is Bigger in Texas!

When I first moved to Texas, about ten years ago, I was horrified at the size of the bugs I found in my yard... and sometimes in my house. Even the ants seemed twice the size as those found up north. Today I'd like to share with you three new things that seem bigger than anywhere else.

SPIDER WEBS

The picture below is of a spider web that stretches about 15 feet from a neighbor's tree to a bush in my yard. When I mow these days I first remove the spider webs with a yard broom or risk ending up with a bunch of yuck in my hair.

SNAKES

The snake below is from IKEA and I thought the dogs would enjoy it. I almost shrieked in surprise this morning when I opened the back door to find it staring at me from the back patio. I think they must like it as they seemed to be pulling it around the yard all day today.

YARN TANGLES

My current knitting project is a felting kit I won at the Yarn Harlot presentation. I thought it would be enjoyable to try out intarsia. Intarsia is a method of knitting with multiple yarns. The yarns are not carried from one area to another along the back of the work like in your old ski sweater but the yarn is wound on bobbins and each color change has its own bobbin. Not difficult to figure out... right? WRONG! It takes me an additional 5 - 10 minutes every row to untangle the mess my bobbins made. Maybe I will need to buy official yarn bobbins, rather than a cut up cardboard envelop, before I try this again.

Felting Fun

I mentioned previously that while I was in Canada I picked up a bunch of used wool sweaters. I felted them up and got mixed results. The chunkier sweaters did not really want to felt much. After two hot washes they shrunk less than 10%. There was one handmade sweater and it felted diferently for each section done in a different color. It seemed to me that the brand of yarn changed from section to section thus the variances in shrinkability. A couple of the sweaters felted beautifully and one I decided to play with and dye to give it a deeper, richer hue.

Not only did I want to change the color of the sweater but I have been working on a scarf for the Red Scarf Project (http://nownormaknits2.typepad.com/red_scarf_project_2007/) and since I didn't have any red yarn available when I started I decided to knit the scarf first then dye it red. This dying experiment of the sweater was a test for dying the scarf when it is complete.

One final complication was that I wanted to experiment with dying with Kool Aid, a process I had heard about at an ASG heighborhood group. With Strawberry Kool Aid in hand, instructions that I got through Google and a felted grey sweater that I had cut up into four pieces I filled a cheap four gallon stainless steel pot with water and vinegar and proceeded to cook the sweater as directed.

From this

I got this.

The dying came out a little unevenly - a lesson learned about stirring more frequently. From the results I attempted to make a box, an idea had seen on Martha Stewart's web site. Martha's box was round and made out of a beautiful white Aran knit sweater. Mine is sort of square and I inter-lined it with some Timtex so that it would stand up better. I lined it with fabric from a top I made a couple of years ago for a contest. The top turned out not to fit at all so I have no tears about cutting it up for this experiment. Here's how it all turned out:

I don't know what I will use it for but as it is about nine inches tall and the bottom is approximately seven inches square it is a usable size. The wonky flower was created to use up some of the scraps so I wouldn't have to think of something else to do with them.

On a final note, while I was trying to photograph this project, Alex and the girls arranged themselves at my feet protecting me from the vicious leaves blowing through the yard. Good Dogs!

More Felting Fun

Today I thought I would catch up on some things that have been hanging around waiting for me to toss or finish. First of all, from a couple of weeks ago, I crocheted a flower with a real neat bead that I felted then added to the handbag. To the left is one side of the handbag that I originally posted and on the right is a picture of the flower that was added to the other side of the handbag. I think it turned out pretty well in the end and I can't wait to try it out during a shopping trip.

I then tried to line a couple of experiments in felting that I had completed last week. First the orange and black little purse. I tried to line it so that the lining would cover the rough edges at the opening as I had trimmed it down a little. This lining experiment worked well. The actual yarn was a ball of a Lion Brand yarn that looked like wool roving. The final size was about 4" x 6" with a rounded bottom. I added velcro as a fastener which also helped to hold the lining in place. I love the way the yarn was mostly black and gray but the orange is what stands out. The second experiment had to do with me adding piping to a similar purse and leaving the raw edge exposed. This effort really failed which is too bad as I like the way the pink yarn felted. The problem was that the purse had such a small opening that it did not even fit on the arm of my sewing machine which meant a lot of slippage when attaching the lining. I probably should have attached the piping and lining by hand but I was too lazy.

Lessons Learned

After the horrible result of the green felted bag that had such potential, let me list some of the things I've learned:

• knitting for a felted bag is done on needles about 2 sizes larger than normal, more than that can leave holes in your final product
• before machine felting in hot water, you should probably run the item you want to machine felt through a cold delicate cycle first so that any unevenness or holes will be revealed and can be fixed before felting.
• use waxed dental floss to close the top of your purse, as a for instance, before felting so that the top edges will match up perfectly after felting.... it is easily removed after felting
• beaded yarn should not be used during knitting as some will inevitably end up on the inside no matter how carefully you position them before felting ... hand apply beads after felting.
• never dry a machine felted article in the dryer, always block with something that will mimic the final shape desired.
• make sure all the yarns ends are securely woven into the knitting or they will felt into the opposite side of the bag.
• machine felted knitting can be treated like ordinary felt - that is it can be cut into pieces that don't fray and used in other projects.
• linings should be applied to all machine felted handbags to help the bag keep its shape.

Too soon old, too late smart.

Promises

As I mentioned earlier today I have completed two projects lately. The sweater looks pretty specIacular, even if I do say so myself. Here are front and back views on my dress form. The sleeves are piled on top of the form as they are still damp and I don't want them to stretch out too much more than they are already. The concept came from a site called elann.com that I found one day when browsing for cotton based crochet and knitting yarn. The yarn I used is called Lara in the claret colorway. It is just a huge circular pinwheel shawl, with sleeves, that will wear like a large shrug. Experienced knitters will laugh but after I was about 20 rounds into this project when it started to un-ravel from the center pinwheel. It took me eight tries to repair that damage so it wouldn't show too much. Check out elann.com for some unusual yarns at pretty good prices.... and yes all the prices are in US dollars and mailed in the US so customs do not seem to be a problem. I did use 2 extra balls of yarn than called for in the pattern as I do knit a little loosely and used the called for kneedle and crochet hook sizes as I already owned them.

The felted purse that I talked about did not come out as successfully. It is a good size for carrying around a bunch of stuff but the felting came out very lumpy. I used a yarn that was 85% wool and 15% nylon but I used needles that were way bigger than the suggested size. I also added another yarn that is hand spun in a South African aid project. The extra yarn was used for about 6 rows in the lower protion of the bag. It had a metallic thread, beads and a bucle textured angora base yarn. I thnk my next idea will be to dampen the bag again, put something flat in the bottom and then add a bag of rice or beans as a form to block the bag again. I'll also need to get a button for the closure. I do love the colors though and it seems neutral enough for all seasons.

Final score - one project completed, one still on the to be completed list. I'll take those results any day.

Saturday Sharing

Today was the monthly meeting of the Downtown neighborhood group of the Houston ASG chapter. We made hats based on a buckram halo hat form. I managed to complete the basic halo and am now working out the beading and netting part of the hat. When I have it completed I will definitely post it here. Even though I may not wear hats all that frequently (due to my fat head), this project was fun and we all became little girls playing dress-up as we put them together.

I shared some of my adventures in felting. From the Hancock fabric store that is closing near my home, I purchased two balls of Lion Brand Fettuccini yarn. It was like strips of felted wool made into a heavy ribbon. I crocheted it up into a wonky clutch purse and then felted it twice in the washing machine. This is how it came out:

One of the group suggested running yarn or cord through the holes in the felt left after the felting process. Definitily something to try.