[knitting] Kitchen Towels

Using some Lion Brand Re-up cotton yarn to make kitchen towels:

The pattern is free on Ravelry and simply called "Kitchen Cloth in Mosaic Design". I think this is the first time I've mosaic knit before and I like it. You're only working one color at a time and slipping the stitches of the color you're not working on. There is also no purling.

It's a little loose- I think I used US 7 needles with this Re-up yarn but I plan on machine washing/drying these towels, which should shrink things a bit. This yarn is lighter than Lily Sugar 'n Cream.

I finished the pink one and started a yellow one:

This yarn is only $2 per ball at Michaels. It takes about two balls each of the natural and colored yarns (with some leftover), so it's $8 in supplies per towel. 

These were my Outlander knitting projects during my vacation. Seasons 1 and 2 appeared on Netflix and during the rainy days, it was knitting and watching Outlander. I'm almost done with Season 1.

Both towels are actually done- I just have to sew in ends. There are instructions for a crocheted lace trim, which I like, but I was having some trouble with the chart and I was worried about the trim making the bottom of the towel flare out. I think I'll give these towels a wash/dry and then add the trim.

[crochet] Lots of Little Doilies

I was on a small-doily-spree for a couple weeks. I pulled out my copy of 99 Little Doilies by Patricia Kristoffersen and made several; they're small enough to do from start to finish in one evening.

I used crochet thread for most of these- Aunt Lydia Fashion 3, which is a little heavier than normal crochet 10 thread. It just means my doilies ended up a little bigger, which I wanted.

Pattern #28:

Pattern #2:

Pattern #10:

Pattern #16:

Pattern #24:

And this one is a random cotton from my stash- not crochet thread...

Pattern #30:

I'm planning to give a few away as a gift. I am tempted to tackle a larger, more intricate pattern to enter into the fair this fall.

[crochet] Spirit Mandalas

I wanted a quick project for leftover bits of yarn. I came across this Spirit Mandala pattern on Ravelry and thought it was a good match because (a) I have scraps of sock yarns, and (b) I have metal rings. The first one I made:

Ooooo, so easy and quick. Kind of a lot of ends to sew in (which you should take care of before you permanently attach it to a ring with the last round of crocheting) but worth it.

I did another with some longer bits of gradient sock yarns:

Fewer ends to sew in because I let the colors transition over more rounds... but still nice.

The last one:

This is my favorite.

These are small(ish), probably only 7 or 8 inches in diameter. While technically they are "stash busting" projects in that I used yarn from the stash, it ended up being VERY small amounts of yarn. No real dent to the stash but... I have three new pretty wall decorations.

[crochet] Finished unfinished doily

I started a new doily last summer but never got around to finishing it. I rain out of the main color that I was using and planned on switching to a different color- but didn't like how that looked, so I just stopped before a new motif started and blocked it. 

Probably only 9 inches in diameter; not very large but big enough to look nice under a vase or something. Gifted to my mom for Christmas.

I've got to add some doilies to my to-do list for me. I have a book of 99 Small Doilies that I love to work in a heavier size 3 thread (rather than the thinner size 10).

[crochet] Pineapple Song

The doily is done.

I love it- so pretty and intricate-looking. Was easy to work on but I did have to flip back and forth between the written instructions and the pictures a lot to make sure everything was coming along correctly. The only thing I don't like about crochet is that once you come upon a mistake that you made in a previous round, you have to undo the whole round to go back to it. With knitting it's so easy to drop stitches down to the error and pick them back up. I only had to undo one row on this project but it was right near the end and more than an hour's worth of work.

I might have doily fever now- I want to make more.

[crochet] Pineapple Song Progress

Only 8 rounds away from finishing:

Too bad notes I've read on Ravelry say that the last rounds take 2+ hours to complete, each. At this point, each round is taking about 45 minutes to complete.

So far I've only made three mistakes that I've noticed. I fudged it the best I could and just kept on going. I only notice the error when I come to it on the following round and there's no way I'm ripping out an entire round to go back and fix something minor (something that I think only I will be able to notice). That's the thing about crochet- since you're only working with one live stitch at a time, you can't easily undo your work, fix and pick the stitches back up as with knitting.

Will be able to finish the doily this weekend and hopefully block it.

[knitting] Super bulky pillow covers

An embarrassingly long time ago (2008), I started an afghan using super bulky yarn. I got as far as one square:

Yarn: Encore Mega

Needles: US 15

Pattern: A square from The Great American Afghan booklet.

I made the square, marveled at how big it was... and shoved it into a tub with balls and balls of the yarn and stopped thinking about it. I took it out over Christmas break and decided to finally do something about it. I didn't have enough of the yarn for an entire blanket but the square was a perfect fit for one of my two 26 in x 26 in Euro-sized pillows. I made another square in the same pattern and finished them as pillow covers:

I made half-sized panels for the back and added buttons to make a closure- so that the cover can be removed and washed. Because cat barf. It will inevitably happen.

I didn't make any kind of button holes- the yarn is so bulky that I just used the stitches as button holes.

These two pillows took 16 balls of yarn. SIXTEEN. But, there is only 64 yards per ball and it takes approximately 30 minutes to knit an entire ball, so it's not too bad. Other than the billion (maybe I'm exaggerating) ends to weave in.

Nothing like knitting through 3.5 pounds of yarn to whittle away at the yarn stash!

[crochet] Cotton Coasters

I've made lots of tile coasters to use around the house. But for my iced summer drinks that produce a lot of condensation that pools around the bottom of the glass, the tile coasters don't fare so well. It's too much moisture. I've been digging into my cotton leftovers to make small tunisian crochet coasters:

So cute. Bright and colorful, they work up very quickly. The cotton is perfect for absorbing the condensation. Good little stash-busing project :)

[crochet] Small Doily

I finished a small doily during the coherent moments of my flu last week.

It's only about 7" in diameter. The pattern is Doily #14 from 99 Little Doilies by Patricia Kristoffersen. This is only the 2nd doily I've made from the book (the other being quite... hairy) and so far the patterns have been great. They're all written and I'm a chart-loving person, but they're only 12 or so rounds to work, so they're over fast. 

[crochet] Stir Me Up!

My potholders are done!

Pattern: Stir Me Up Potholders (rav link)

Yarn: Elann Sonata cotton. Many colors.

Hook: E (3.5 mm)

Due to postage rates rising, I only had to make three potholders instead of five. 

These are swirly on the front and back. I crocheted over plastic rings to make the loop for hanging. Well written pattern- would definitely make these again.

[crochet] Stir Me Up Potholder #2

Continuing on with these potholders for the swap:

This year, we only need to send in three instead of five!! Yeah, I'm so much closer to being done!

[crochet] Filet Crochet Curtain

Finally finished and blocked the filet crochet curtain and hung it in the bathroom:

Pattern: Bernat Blocks Curtain (The pattern is free but you need to register with the site to view/download it.)

Yarn: Coats & Clark Royale Classic Crochet Thread, Size 10, Ecru colorway

Hook: 1.75 mm

Notes: As you can see, it's not quite wide enough. I'm not really bothered but someone on Ravelry made a nice suggestion that I might try: get some sheer fabric from Joann's and drap a narrow piece over the bar at either end. The should fill in the gaps.

I opted not to crochet loops across the top. Instead, I simply got ring clips (about $7 for a package 6) and a tension rod.

I really do like how this turned out.

And it's a vast improvement from what was there- a pillowcase clipped to the window locks with clothespins. For a year.

[crochet] Pretty Petals Potholders

Taking a crochet-break from the filet crochet curtain of doom, I made some Pretty Petals Potholders:

Pattern: Pretty Petals Potholder

Yarn: Plymouth Earth Oceanside Organic, 3 colors- off white, sage, taupe. Not sure if this yarn is discontinued or not- I bought it at White River Yarns a few years ago. I used 2 balls of each color.

Hook: E (3.5 mm)

This is an addictive pattern that really gobbles up yarn- great for stash busting.

My mods: I crocheted a little spiral to sew into the front. I wanted to cover up the big hole. I went around in a circle, increasing evenly, crocheting into the backs of the loops, to leave a spiral texture. Then I just crocheted the small circle into the center.

I made backs, to make the potholders extra thick:

I crocheted over some bone rights to make hangers:

These are great. Nice and thick:

The colors match my kitchen backsplash perfectly. I need to find a good place in the kitchen to hang these up and display them.

Now... back to the curtain...

[crochet] Curtain Progress

Progress is being made on the filet crochet curtain panel:

Unfortunately, I held it up against the window that I want to cover and it's not quite wide enough to work as a single panel. So I think I will have to make two. Which is kind of demoralizing but I decided to only work to halfway up the height of the window. So two panels at half the height is like the same amount of work as one panel going all the way up. That's what I'm telling myself, anyway.

Edited 15 minutes later to add:


Nope. I'm going to block the ever-loving **** out of this to make it wide enough. I feel like I've already put 30 hours of work into this and I can't abide the thought of needing to make another back-to-back.

[knitting] Kindle Cover

I knit a little sleeping bag for my Kindle:

This is yarn that I spun in 2010!

This is why I want to knit 50% of all my projects with handspun this year. I have two gigantic bags at home with handspun yarn.

There was no pattern for this, just started with a few rows of garter stitch. Then for the main body I knit with 2 purl stitches at each edge. Then a ribbed top. I first used this with the knit side showing and purl seams along the edge. When I turned it inside out the weave in the yarn ends, I slipped in the Kindle and it fits MUCH better inside-out:

The purl seams on the inside hug the edges of the Kindle, so the cover doesn't twist around at all.

The blues remind me of the ocean (the colorway is called Squall) and I was thinking about maybe sewing on some felt sea pieces- maybe some seaweed or fish or coral or something. Someday. But for now it's serving it's purpose.

[crochet] Curtain

I started a filet crochet curtain: 

This is just one, wide panel that I will hang from a tension rod in the laundry room window. This is the first time I've crocheted in a filet crochet style and I like it. Mindless and easy. Except for when you're not paying attention to what you're doing and you realize that you'd made a pretty obvious mistake and you need to rip back two rows, which is approximately 1 hour of work. 

[knitting] Honeycomb Pillow is so sweet.

It's done!

Pattern: Honeycomb Pillow

Yarn: Plymouth Galway Highland Heather, used less than 1 ball (100g / 210yrds) of 4 colors.

Needles: US 8 (5.0 mm)

Based on the little test pillow that I made and the worsted-weight yarn that I used, I cast on 94 stitches for a 16" x 17" pillow. After blocking, the pieces were a little bit too big, but not big enough to make the cover look saggy/floppy. The main problem is that pillow is so freaking flat:

I bought eco-friendly pillow forms from Jo-Ann's that have bamboo fiber filling. The filling has really compacted. Flat. Flat. Flat flat flat flat flatflatflat...

Seaming up the sides wasn't too painful and they they turned out quite invisible.

This was a super stash-busting project. I have more pillows to cover will probably try another pattern from the same trio of designs.

[knitting] Honeycomb Pillow Cover: Blocked

Blocked both sides of the pillow cover:

Had to keep the door to this room shut so Penny wouldn't pull out each and every pin.

I started sewing these together last night.

[knitting] Kitty Pillow

Here's the little test pillow that I knit, sewn together and stuffed with bamboo fiberfill:

It's a little lumpy, but I put it into Murderface's wicker bed and he sleeps with head on it. Awwww. I don't have a picture of that, but I do have this:

Penny, keeping an ever-watchful eye on Santana (behind us).

[knitting] Honeycomb Pillow Cover

I chose basic worsted wool from my stash to knit a honeycomb pillow cover:

It's all puckered up at the moment, but blocking will fix that. I'm pretty happy with the colors that I chose and think that they work nicely together.

One side:

I'll need to sew in all those ends before I wash/block. I'm nearly done with the 2nd half and hope to have a pretty new pillow all done by the end of the weekend.