Sock #1 Reincarnation

A couple of days ago I shared with you my first sock in all its mis-shapen glory. My first thought was to make it into a sap. It seemed pretty easy... just fill it with buckshot and throttle any bad guys that come close enough to hit.




There was just one small problem with that idea.

My huge sock filled with buckshot would have been too heavy to pick up and use.

On to Plan B.



My next idea was to make into a knitting tool bag.



Small problem here as well. I already have a lot of knitting tool holders... some I have made and some I have bought. I really don't need another tool holder as all my tools are in holders.


On to Plan C.


Then inspiration struck. I have a pair of sun glasses that are huge. They fit over my regular glasses and can be easily scratched when tossed into my purse or tote bag. This is what I came up with:



I lined the sock with some leftover fabric, added a channel for a draw string and make a twisted cord from some of the leftover yarn as a closure.


The sock is a little big for the sun glasses. I used it the other day and had an inquiry from another woman in line as to where I had bought it. I guess, in this case, size doesn't matter.


If your first sock will never have a mate, find a re-use for it. Grab some fabric, make a lining and add a closure. Then you can look around and see if anything will fit. A little backwards from my concept but it will probably surprise you at how much stuff will fit in your Sock #1.


BTW - all the scratches on the table top under the sock are from Alex and the Girls using that table to watch out the upstairs window for any exciting happenings outside. If anything exciting does comes by, they scrabble off the table to run and bark out the downstairs window. Those little nails are really sharp, thus the scratches.

Korean Patchwork

Korea has a long history of patchwork, however it appears to still be a much ignored domestic art. Pojabi (Korean wrapping cloths) are made from fabric scraps and used to wrapgifts and other items. When my brother, who has been in South Korea this past year, asked his Korean colleagues about getting one for me they could not understand why someone would want such a humble object.

Not discouraged, my brother then went to a museum in Seoul (maybe this one?) to look for wrapping cloths to purchase and came up with two very American looking patchwork embellished examples of Jogakbo (Korean Patchwork). Both appear to be made of traditional log cabin blocks, but on closer inspection there is a wonderful randomness in the width of the fabrics and the placement of the colors.

This is a small table mat that appears to be made out of heavy weight cottons.

This is a reversible scarf made out of silks.

Both examples are beautifully made and seem typical of Korean Patchwork.

Not exactly wrapping cloths as they are definitely decorative rather than functional but I do love them both and hope to wear the scarf soon to the envy of all my friends.

BTW, Little Brother is on this side of the Pacific for about a month and spent last weekend wth me. It was strange to have someone in my home who has many mannerisims that were my father's... heck he even uses some of the same phrases and tone of voice that used to drive me crazy. We are definitely our parents' children!

Charms

AI a recent Quilt Shop Hop the stores were giving out sewing related, sterling silver charms. The idea was that the shoppers would visit all eleven stores, spend $20.00 in each and come home with 11 charms and a bracelet from the final store visited. I didn't make it to all the stores nor can I wear silver very often so I needed something to do with the charms that I did collect.

I had an inspiration and hope that you agree that my solution was a good one.

Here's what I came up with:

Yup. I now have five new stitch markers.

Who says quilting and knitting don't work together?

So, if you find some random little charm thingies hanging around waiting for some inspiration, buy yourself some jump rings and make them into stitch markers. They will be very useful in keeping track of your stitches and totally unique.

Have a good week!

Sock #1

Every knitter that has attempted socks seems to have a sock Number 1, the First Sock, the one that will never have a mate but, also, the one that makes you think all things are possible.

Sock #1 for me was made from a generic style sock pattern from the yarn store. I used the needles and yarn specified and made a sock that would fit godzilla and would best be recycled into a deadly weapon. It was a small disaster but I came away from the experience believing that I could made a sock that would fit. Here's how it came out laid out next to a more recent attempt:

I must confess that I made the leg of the sock much shorter than the instructions required as I was weary of the ribbing pattern. I have no idea why the heeel looks deformed, why the toe decrease are half on top of the foot and half on one side or why the foot is so huge compared to a more recent sock even though they both have the same number of stitches but its done... which is always better than not done.

When I came across this the other day (it was buried under some truly old UFOs) I almost chucked it out in the garbage, however, I think even the biggest failure can be instructive to have around so I think I will reinvent it, not as WMD (weapon of mass destruction) but as a holder of something... like knitting thingies or marking tools.

I hope your weekend is going well. I have some family in town this weekend and I probaly won't be getting alot done. I just might snag some sewing machine time to figure out this sock pouch idea... or NOT!

Socks 10, 11, 12 & 13

Are these not the cutest! The hairy legs on the right belong to Paul and he is wearing a pair of simple socks made out of wonderful to knit Lana Grossa sock weight yarn in the Sunset color. I wanted a pair of red socks and these fit the bill ... sort of! They are really more pink than anything. I experimented with a heel flap that is not just plain knitting but includes an extra yarn to make a stronger heel that will take longer to wear out. I also used a different toe pattern that makes a more squared off toe that is Kitchener stitched together. They are pretty comfortable with that extra cushioning in the heel and with a squared off toe. I can't wait to wear them with jeans this fall. These are 10 and 11 in the great sock adventure.

The pale legs on the left are mine and I am wearing another simple pair of socks made out of Fortissima Socka yarn in a color called Stars and Stripes. I hate this yarn as it is pretty frizzy, but I was sucked in by the sample socks and the patriotic colors. The matching of the stripes between the two socks went well until I got into the foot. It should not make a difference when I wear them as the wacky stripes should be hidden. I used the squared off toe as in the previous socks and tried another method of stregthening the heel flap. The method I used is a stitch pattern where you slip every other stitch every knit row with the purl rows done normally. I don't know if its because I hated working with this yarn or that the pattern seemed pretty lame but I so liked the doubled yarn stregthening in the previous socks that I may keep with that method. These are socks 12 & 13 in the great sock adventure.

Both pairs of socks washed and dryed beautifully even when mistakenly combined with some gross towels that were saturated with Alex's laest intestinal distress. That meant they were washed in hot water and dryed on the higest temperature availble. They still came out great which says I probably should not worry about maintenance.

The left over yarns are being used up in making little tiny hats for pre-mature babies. There are so cute! They are even too small for the dogs. I will try to take a picture of them when I get a critical mass to donate.

Have a great week!

Cool Ties - Update

After the Interfaith Quilting Bee on Saturday morning, several of us gathered at the Emlgorve Community Room to make Cool Ties for those lacking A/C in Houston. I had completed about 40 of them before the event and the group completed another 90. That makes about 130 of them I can give to the woman who is organizing this project for the city of Houston.

Pretty Impressive pile isn't it?

We used up about 17 yards of fabric in a variety of prints from a cute white and light blue to a more somber brown and cream print. We could use nice prints because these are not made for the troops overseas who require dull, unobstrusive fabrics.

A few of those helping out today made a few for their family's use and I expect to see some on lawn mowing husbands or motorcycle riding babes in the near future.

The goal is for 2,500 cool ties to be made and distirbuted... a huge number that seems to dwarf our efforts today. I hope others will be inspired by our efforts and complete the rest of the number needed in the next week or so.

You can make some for the needy in your area or for your own family and friends. The instructions are here. To finish them off, all you need to do is find the water absorbing crystals, determine how much to use (I use 2 teaspoons of the 'Soil Soak' brand availabe at my local Lowes hardware store) then sew up the opening. To use you need to soak the whole thing in cool water, store in a zip lock bag in the refridgerator, tie one on when doing outdoor work and enjoy!

I want to make special mention of the women who turned out today. Lish, Janetta, Fonda, Marjory, Joyce and Betty, many of whom had spent the morning at the Interfaith Quilting Bee, continued their sewing day with this project. I hope they realise how much their generosity of both time and talent will make a difference in the lives of fellow Houstonians. You all humble me with your dedication to projects for which recognition is almost non-existent but the impact is huge. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Interfaith Quilting Bee

This was the 18th year of the Interfaith Quilting Bee, the 9th hosted by the local Mormon Stake. Of the 366 quilts donated donated, many of which were finished during the Bee itself, about 64 of them were made by members of the Kingwood Area Quilt Guild. The Guild also donated a roll of batting. There was a lot of donated fabric and blocks for the various groups represented to take and use for next year's quilts.

There were about 100 people gathered to complete quilts and the groups getting the quilts spanned the globe.

I was a little frazzled and did not get anything completed. I had three quilts from the Once Upon a Time Bee that needed binding and I got only one almost completed because my travel sewing machine was unhappy. When I tried to figure out what was wrong I realized that the thing was clogged with all sorts of lint from other projects. I need to spend some time getting it back into shape before I use it for quilting again.

A light lunch was serveds which included some delicious cake.

Once again I was impressed by the dedication and committment of the groups represented to support this project. Almost 400 quilts is pretty impressive for a one time donation to the local charities needing them. Next year there are plans to change the focus of the event from just quilts to include other activites. I'm not sure how or what will happen, I just hope that the day will not change its tone so much that participation will be reduced.

I guess we will just have to see.

I hope your weekend is going well. Kingwood had a huge thunderstorm late in the day and we really needed the rain. More is predicted for the next few days and the only down side is that the grass in the backyard has decided to start growing again. I guess I wil need to get out the lawn mower tomorrow to take care of that little task. At keats lawn mowing a typical Sunday task in my neighborhood.

Calling All Houston Area Charity Sewers

I mentioned previously that a local woman has initiated a project to provide the needy in Houston with Cool Ties this summer. I've already made about 40 of these, without the filling, and this pattern is a very quick sew. The pattern is here and if you would like to make these on your own, the tests I have done show that two teaspoons of the water absorbing crystals available from Lowes make a nicely filled tie. After you soak the Cool Tie, put it in a zip lock bag and put it in fridge. It will always be ready for your use when you next mow the grass or weed the garden.

Now to business....

The Elmgrove Comminty Room in Kingwood is available this Saturday, July 18, from 1:00 - 4:00 PM for sewing these ties. You don't even need to bring fabric, just a sewing machine or a serger with your usual supplies. Snacks are always welcome.

The Elmgrove Community room is in Kingwood. If you are traveling here, go North on Highway 59 and exit at North Park Dr. just after the exit for Kingwood Drive. Going right/east on North Park, continue to the lights at Bookdale. Turn left/north onto Brookdale and take the first left onto Sycamore Springs. At the first stop sign take another left onto Clear Ridge and enter the first parking lot on your right at the community pool or park on the street. The Community Room is on the right.

This is a city wide project. You don't need to be a member of any sewing/crafting group. Just come out and meet like-minded people for a few hours of sewing goodness.

Hope to see you there!

If you have any questions or need a number to call when you get lost, please e-mail me at anjoae at msn dot com and I'll try to get back to you as soon as possible.

Hot Blossom Tote

The July Tote project from Stitchin' Heaven uses Hot Blossom fabrics by Josephne Kimberling for Robert Kaufman to make a huge , curvy bucket style tote bag. The pattern is free from several sites and includes a pattern for a cute little coin purse.

The pattern is pretty straight forward but that didn't stop me from changing it to meet my individual needs. Here's what I came up with:

The curvy shape is simple delicious. I added ties on the sides to accentuate the curviness and to make the top opening smaller. Without the ties the opening is a 6" x 11" , with the ties tied tightly the opening about 2" x 11". Untied this bag could hold a whole shopping trip of purchases, at least two shoe boxes of goodies, tied it still holds quite a lot, just with a smaller opening. Other adjustments included using fusible fleece on the front and back instead of interfacing, quilting the front and back panels and the addition of Timtex in the bottom and half way up the sides for a firmer bottom. I did add a hanging cell phone pocket and no other pockets are included.

I made the coin purse before I made the bigger bag. That was a good choice on my part as it gave me some time to experiment with the tiny ruffles. The coin case is supposed to be closed with a magnetic catch which seemed odd to me so I use a little zipper as a closure. Its cute but I think I should make another if I ever gave this away.

The magazine included this month was the magazine with its annual top ten quiilt shops. I always enjoy that issue as it is fun to see shops that you can't physically visit. Also, each shop designs a quilt that generally is easy and a neat varation on an old favorite.

I am still enjoying this monthly program and can't wait to see what they come up with each month. I was shopping the other day at Dillard's while carrying the Simply 'Bow'dacious bag from this program. The buyer came up to me and wanted to know where I got the bag and if I had others to sell to her. I am not a production sewer so this opportunity will probably pass but I certainly left with a bounce in my step. When I got home I did look at my stash in a different way.

I hope your week is going well. I am still praying for rain and with any luck tomorrow thunderstorms will bring a few needed inches of rain. Wish I knew a rain dance.

Signs of a Stroke

Okay, I'm not a medical professional but a buddy of mine sent me an e-mail with three tests anyone can perform to determine if someone has had a stroke. All you need to do is remember the first three letters of the word stroke.

Here they are:

S - Ask the person to smile and/or say a simple declaratve sentence like 'It's sunny outside today.'
T - Ask the person to stick out their tongue
R - Ask the person to raise both arms

If the suspected stroke victim is unable to do one or more of these tasks in a normal way... like their tongue twists to one side, or one arm won't move or their smile is off... it could be that they have had a stroke and you need to get them to the hospital ASAP. There can be other reasons for these symptoms but it's best to let the professionals figure it out.

Just thought you'd like to know.

And thanks to Barbara for the information.