Baby Surprise Jacket

Everyone who knits eventually gets around to an Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern! Here's my first "pure" EZ project -- I say that because Jacqueline Fee's The Sweater Workshop borrowed extensively from Elizabeth Zimmerman (and is acknowledged as such) so Laura's Harry Potter Sweater is a pseudo first EZ project.

Blog entries, forum discussion boards and a Yahoo group dedicated specifically to this pattern had me so intimidated me that I broke down and bought the video. I probably didn't need to, a little time and dedication to figuring things out would have sufficed, but I did enjoy the video and picked up a few techniques as well.

I stash busted with this project and used Wool-Ease Oxford Grey (1 skein) and Buttercup (less than 1 skein.) It didn't occur to me until too late that I should have thrown in some Cranberry and I could have had a baby Harry Potter Sweater, maybe the next one!

There is one modification that I need to figure out. After the center 90 stitches have been worked for 10 ridges, there are 10 stitches that are picked up on each side and this is done in two rows (1/2 from the right side and 1/2 from the wrong side of the knitting.) The picked up stitches wind up on the front two sides of the sweater and there is a visible difference in their appearance that I don't like. I think a consistent look can be achieved with the simple solution of cutting the yarn and restarting the row from the beginning, so that all the the stitches get picked up on the same row, but I need to check that out.

I did applied icord for the final row and continued around the neck by picking up stitches and applying icord there as well.

The sleeves for this pattern are 3/4 and I like long sleeves (if I'm cold then the baby's cold, right??) so I added a k2,p2 cuff for 1 ½".

The finished measurements are 14" length, 21" chest, and 7" sleeves.

A cute pattern that will be fun to try in different weights of yarns. The design possibilities are endless!

My Ravelry project page for Baby Surprise Jacket.

It's In The Bag

In order to avoid acquiring new (and even more) bags while errand shopping, I had started to throw a few grocery bags into my purse for reuse. In an effort to keep the bags neat and tidy the idea to crochet a bag to store the bags popped into my head and here's the result:


I submitted the pattern to the Crochet Pattern-a-Day Calendar 2009 and they accepted it! "It's In The Bag" is the pattern of the day for April 24, 2009. This is my first design to be published in print and I'm hoping it's a catalyst for getting even more ideas out of my head!

There are actually two patterns designs, but I submitted only one. After the 2010 calendar has been released then I will offer both patterns for free on my site.

Mini Teddy Bear

I have a whole pile of "wannado's". It's a collection of patterns that have caught my eye as something I might like to make someday. Occasionally, I go into the collection and weed out the patterns that no longer say to me, "make me", "make me" and periodically I actually get around to making something!

When I wanted another project for the Ravelympics (an event held during the Beijing Olympics over at the knitting and crocheting social network of Ravelry) I dug into the "wannado's" pile and pulled out this Mini Thread Bear. The bear is know as Monique and was designed by Edith Molina. The free pattern can be found here.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my mini teddy bear! She's as cute in real life as she was on the pattern page. I needed help from my daughter with placing the facial features (my usual face phobia) and there is one pattern correction I made, but other than that --- LOVE, LOVE, LOVE.

Pattern correction: The bottom of the legs were off until I made the following adjustment to the beginning of the leg -- Ch 6, sc in 2nd ch from hook, sc in next 3 st, 2 sc in next st, TURN AND CONTINUE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CHAIN, 2 sc in next st, sc in next 3 st. ..... continue with pattern ....... The items in red are my additions/corrections. Once I made this change I had no problem with how the foot came out and all other instructions worked perfect.

I used Aunt Lydia's Classic Crochet Thread (size 10) in Wood Violet and DMC Cébélia Cotton size 30 for the muzzle. I didn't have a size 11 hook for working the muzzle so I used an 10 with no problem.

I did not follow the directions for jointing the bear. Instead, I placed the legs, arms and head where I wanted and stitched them down. She's securely sewn together.

I'll be making more!

My Ravelry project page for Mini Teddy Bear.

Victory Junction Afghan #3

Over at the knitting and crocheting social network Ravelry I needed to find a couple of projects for the "Ravelympics". The idea of the Ravelympics was to challenge yourself with projects during the Beijing Olympics. I picked two projects - The first one was to work another afghan for the Victory Junction Gang and to use the square "Fox's Heart of a Child" which I had previously pattern tested.
Project Notes:

I used Red Heart Super Saver colors Cherry Red, Paddy Green, Bright Yellow, Royal and Aran.

Adjusted/rewrote rounds 4 & 5 of the original pattern to get symmetry.

Made 5 squares each of the red, green, blue and yellow for a total of 20 squares.

Using the last three rounds of the square pattern I designed a border using red, blue and yellow.

The afghan is bright and cheery and somebody at Victory Junction is going to love it. The results, for me, are satisfactory -- BUT -- I am not completely happy. The final round of each square looks fine on their own but when it was time to join the squares the corners became thin looking and pulled in and I do not like it. The pattern calls for a ch-2 in the corners for the final round that must, at the very least, be changed to a ch-3. If I use this square again I would think about something different for the corner and test the join.

My Ravelry project page for Victory Junction Afghan #3.

Why this stuff needs to be written down!

I love this bear. I made it a long time ago with some yarn that I picked up on clearance for $1 a skien. I still have a lot of the yarn left and I'd like to make more bears but I can't find the pattern! I could have sworn it was from Toy Knits by Debbie Bliss because I definitely remember making a pig for Sarah and a rabbit for Laura using this book. However, there isn't a matching pattern for this bear in that book and I have no memory of another knitted teddy bear pattern. I've searched my collection with no results and now I'll just have to be patient and wait for it to turn up. This illustrates the importance of writing this stuff down for future reference. Memory is like a hard drive .... back it up.

Anyway, while searching for the teddy bear pattern. I remembered a few toys I had knit or crocheted through the years and figured I had better heed my own advice to "back it up"!

"Girl Rabbit" from Toy Knits by Debbie Bliss	"Piglet" from Toy Knits by Debbie Bliss
"Little Pink Piggy" from In Love with Crochet published by Leisure Arts

The crocheted pig was done with Red Heart Super Saver yarn and I'm not positive about the knit rabbit and pig but it looks like Wool-ease.

The Empty Nest

Laura wants to learn how to design and build houses. This is something she's always loved to do. When she was very young (and before she was allowed to use scissors) she built houses and villages by tearing and taping paper. Soon after that she was painting and decorating bird houses. Some of them were meant to be bird houses and a couple were purely craft projects but I liked them all and there was a perfect spot to hang them right outside the kitchen window. I put the houses up in the spring of 2002 and they were pretty to look at but not a lot of bird action took place. Bees, but no birds. The two small craft houses fell apart during the next couple of years but the big ones held together ... however, still no birds.

It had, almost exactly, been six years since I hung up the bird houses when, lo and behold, we started seeing sparrows around the "472" house!

It started with this sparow hanging around the outside of the house. In addition to the bird activity, the feather sticking out of the back of the house was a clue that a nest might have been built.

All speculation ended when we saw birds being fed. At first we only saw one, but it became clear very quickly that there were two.


Here they are taking their first look at the world.


All grown up and getting ready to fly away.

But, FIRST there must be a party!!

All of this happened outside my window during the month of June and the timing and symbolism is not lost on me. Sarah graduated from college on May 25th and has moved to Seattle to live and work. Laura graduated from high school on June 4th and leaves for college on August 22nd (to study architecture!) For the first time in over 25 years there will be no children at home in September. I will have an "empty nest". I watched a cycle of life played outside my window this spring while another takes place in my life. Fly high and strong birdies. Live free, strong and happy, my daughters.

Grandama's Tablecloth - The Finishing Details

Thank you to everyone who emailed me or left a message at the original blog entry. They were all a great contribution in helping me determine how to finish the tablecloth.

The final decision was that some sort of border was needed to stabilize the edges. The original border was not a good design and through the years had not held up well, so I decided not to recreate it. The slight visual differences between the old and new thread meant the edging needed to be small and simple -- so I started with a round of single crochets. I liked the look of this but the row "curled in" on itself and didn't look right. A second row of single crochets looked awful and I experimented with a number of single crochet, chains and picot patterns for the second row and hated them all.

The winning effect was to turn the tablecloth after the first round and slip stitch around for the second row. This produced a thin, stable and non-curling border which was exactly what I had in mind. I LOVED IT!! I worked the first row of single crochets with a size 10 hook, and this matched the gauge of the tablecloth, but the slip stitches made using that size hook were tight and pulled the edging inward so I bumped up to a size 5 hook to get them loose enough.

Before & After
Without Border	With Border

Unfortunately, I don't have a good way to properly block the tablecloth. So far I've managed using a stair railing and a touch-up with an iron. My Aunt remembered a very interesting device called a curtain stretcher. Lace curtains had to be washed, starched and stretched and the curtain stretcher was a wooden frame with sharp pins around the edges which held the curtains while they dried. Mom said Grandma had one and she'd take the tablecloth over there and use it for the tablecloth. They're actually available for about $10 on eBay and Craigslist. They're big and bulky and from what I've been reading, not friendly to the fingers! So considering the number of times I'd actually use it .... I'll make do.

I've picked out the pattern for the motif and written it out. It's available over on the free vintage patterns page of this blog.