My five most used tools

I love gadgets that help me craft with precision and get the job done right. Through the years I've accumulated a few that have been used so frequently that they've been worn out and replaced and some that are new favorites. All of them get used over and over for many types of projects. Here are my top five favorites*:

1. The seam ripper and I have had the longest relationship. When I first started sewing I used one of my dad's razor blades to rip out seams! My very first seam ripper was a pretty pink one that lasted most of my adult life but I had a horrible habit of putting it in my mouth and chewing on it while I worked. By the time it finally broke that seam ripper looked pretty disgusting. I now have two seam rippers. One that resides next to my sewing machine and another in my work basket.

2. The ruler I use is a very unique one and it replaced my standard sewing gauge ruler a long time ago. It's the Dritz Super Seam Ruler and what makes it so unique are these special features:

• The ruler's transparency makes it easy to see what's underneath and make accurate placements; no more having to lift the ruler to double check.
• The ruler is 1/2" wide by 1/4" thick. Next to 5/8" these are the measurements I check the most. Nowadays I can mostly measure those amounts by eye (students thought I had magical powers!) but when I need to be quick or completely accurate this makes it easy.

It took a while, but the markings wore off the first ruler and I'm now using my second.

3. "Invisible" thread is my gold. I use this thread when it's crucial to have an exact match or I don't want any stitching to show.

4 & 5. Accurate markings are often crucial to a project and my two favorite marking tools not only make it easy to mark but the markings disappear easily and cleanly. I like the chalk wheel by Clover best because with a brush of the hand it's the easiest to remove but sometimes the chalk marks wear off before I need them and for those projects I use the disappearing ink pen. Those markings fade away over a day or two or can be quickly removed with water.

Runner up:

My blocking mats are foam boards for a children's alphabet puzzle and I got them from a toy store. They work exactly the same as foam rubber mats sold exclusively as blocking mats at knitting supply sites but for about the same price you get three times the number of mats!

*I have no product affiliation with any of these items. They are just things I love to use.

Muslin Heart Tea Bag - Valentines 2016

This Valentines project evolved over a couple of years and it is one of my favorites.

I'm a crafty person with a needle and thread/yarn but I do not have a green thumb. Almost all of my attempts at gardening end with bugs or some disgusting form of rot resulting in the inevitable death of a plant. So when I tried growing spearmint a couple of years ago the results were no surprise. The first year of mint farming ended with an infestation of the biggest and greenest caterpillars I have ever seen and the second year was a battle with mint rust. Undaunted, and with faith in the power of "third year a charm", I managed to keep the mint healthy for an entire summer. I was finally able to harvest and dry a crop of mint leaves.

I did not start growing mint with a valentines project in mind. That came about when I was researching how to make mint tea and remembered this "Muslin Heart Tea Bag" pin on my "Crafty Hearts" Pinterest board. Valentines 2016 was born!

Notes on making muslin tea bags:

Using the FISKARS X-Large Squeeze Heart Punch I made a cardboard template. This was the perfect size for a tea bag.

I traced hearts onto a doubled piece of muslin with a fine point air and water soluble disappearing ink pen (my new favorite toy!) making sure to leave room for a 1/8" seam allowance between tracings. I did not cut the hearts out before stitching.

I machine stitched around the traced lines leaving a small opening. I cut the hearts out and stuffed them with tea leaves but now there was too much bulk and I couldn't machine stitch along the line so I finished stitching the bags closed by hand. If I make these again I would hand sew the entire tea bag for stitch consistency.

Notes on packaging:

The container is a 2oz round steel tin from Papermart.com.

The labels are Avery #22961. Avery has an incredible online site. It used to be so difficult to design and print labels. Now it's easy peasy.

Knit Flower

It's taken me a very long time to make the knitted version of my crochet flower but here it finally is:

Step 1: Starting with a 12" or longer tail, cast on 3 stitches and work 22" of i-cord using a knitting spool or double pointed needles.

Step 2: K1, work a bobble stitch (How to Knit a Bobble Stitch), K1.

Step 3: Bind off, leaving a 12" or longer tail.

Step 4: Keeping the bobble unattached and out of the way, fold the length of i-cord like a fan into five petals, arrange into a flower shape and using the starting tail, stitch together.

Step 5: Position bobble over the center of the flower and using the yarn from the end of the bobble, tack down.

Looks almost identical to the crocheted version. Now you can enjoy it both ways!

Crochet Flower pattern

Baby Crinkle Toy

Every blog post should start with the picture of a beautiful baby! My nephew Miles had a very tough bout of colic for the first couple of months after his birth and there were only a few toys that could diverted his attention from the discomfort. One was a simple fabric square which made a wonderful noise when crinkled and almost always brought him (and us) a few moments of relief. I loved playing with this toy too and became fascinated with making one.

The only difficult part about recreating the crinkle toy was finding the right plastic to use for the inside. The plastic needs to keep its shape after repeated crinkling and at the same time make an interesting sound. I struck gold with the outer wrapping bag used for these Kirkland (Costco brand) seaweed packages.

Here are the project details:
Materials:
2 - 6" x 6" pieces of flannel, polar fleece or other soft fabric.
1 - 6" x 6" piece of plastic whose shape will bounce back after being scrunched and makes an interesting sound.

Assembly:

Place right sides of fabric together with plastic on top and stitch all three pieces together, using a 1/4" seam allowance and leaving a 2" - 3" opening for turning.

Trim the corners and, if necessary, grade the seam allowance (I needed to do this only with the polar fleece.)

Turn right side out and stitch 1/8" from the edge all around square being careful to make sure the the opening gets closed with this stitching.

This is the simplest version and there are lots of variations to try. A few of them are:

Different shapes such as circle, rectangle, star, heart.

Sew folded bits of ribbons in the seam to add visual interest and something additional to play with.

Make small simple stuffed animals and incorporate the plastic all over or in strategic spots to be discovered.

Not only do I love this toy but the now happy (non-colic) baby Miles does too!!

A Knitting-Book of Counterpanes

The Knitting Collections held by the University of Southampton Library has a treasure trove of digitized 19th century knitting manuals. Among the selections that have been put online is A Knitting-Book of Counterpanes**.

image courtesy
University of Southhampton Library Digitization Unit

Finding this was the perfect opportunity to use a vintage pattern and reproduce a knitted piece for a counterpane like the ones I wrote about in Anne of Green Gables - Cotton Warp Quilts.

I purchased a tube of white Maysville 8/4 cotton warp. It is the kind of cotton warp yarn that would have been available when A Knitting-Book of Counterpanes was published as well as the Anne of Green Gables stories.

The book has patterns for square, triangle and stripe pieces and some of the square patterns were knit on the bias (knitting on the bias involves starting with one stitch and evenly increasing each row until the desired square size is reached and then evenly decreasing back down to one stitch). I chose a bias knit square called The Cable Square Pattern (page 8) and got started.

I began knitting with size 3 needles but that gauge was too loose. I restarted two more times before being happy with the result from size 1 needles. The terms used were different from current terminology but explained well enough that I was able to match them up. For example, plain=knit, pearl=purl, M=knit in the front and back and T=knit two together. The pattern was remarkably easy to follow. When finished the piece looked more like a parallelogram than a square! However, it did block into a very nice 6"x6" square.

There are a couple of considerations when knitting a square on the bias:

Knitting on the bias does not initially produce a square. The piece has to be blocked into a square shape. Did 19th century women block individual pieces before stitching them together into a counterpane? It wasn't difficult or time consuming to block one square but it takes dozens of squares to make a blanket and that seems like a bit too much work.

Symmetry of design. Increase and decrease stitches do not look the same and when the shape or design is mirrored by using them the look is different and slightly off. On this square you can see it in the middle with the chevron design and along the edges.

Ravelry Project Page - The Cable Square Pattern
Final Thoughts: I initially thought I would like to make a vintage counterpane but it would take a lot of time and work so now I don't think so! However, I did very much enjoy working this piece and might work more samples from the book just for fun.

**As of 10/3/2015 this book is no longer included in their collection. At some point, the University of Southampton revamped how their digital collection is displayed. Hopefully, they will have it back soon.

A Wedding Present Afghan

My niece got married this summer and a wedding is an afghan giving event! As soon as I heard the news I scoured through all of my saved blanket patterns and found one that I've been wanting to make for a long time --Floral Cables by Diane Poellot from the book Top Technique & Special Stitch Afghans.

The pattern was written for worsted weight yarn but when I was shopping for the yarn the two that spoke to me were Lion Brand Heartland (an aran weight yarn) and Lion Brand Tweed Stripes (a bulky weight yarn). Could I make these two completely different yarns work for this pattern? The only way to tell was to buy the yarn and give it a try!

After working a few samples I felt confident that they were going to be compatible but the pattern would need a few adjustments. In some areas it took a couple of tries to make things right (and a fair amount of ripping back) but ultimately I was able to tweak the pattern and make the two weights of yarn work.

The result is spectacular and I may very well be making this afghan again for me! I love how using the heavier weight yarn not only provides the contrasting color but also "pops" the details of the cables and flowers.

Here are the most important changes I made:

1. The pattern called for an I hook but after experimentation I settled on a K hook for both weights. The K hook is the recommended size for the Tweed Stripe yarn but I did make an effort to crochet tightly when working with it. The Heartland yarn is listed on Ravelry as an Aran weight yarn but it feels like a lightweight worsted (I found it similar to Caron Simply Soft) however, it worked well with the Tweed Stripes using the K hook.

2. I struggled with the given instructions for the star stitch so I switched to this DROPS version (including using a half double crochet (hdc) instead of a single crochet). It took a few attempts to make sure that the "stars" aligned because if a hdc was forgotten or the star stitch was incorrectly executed they didn't line up in the next row.

3. There were a couple of places where I added additional rows to balance the yarn weight differences:

I repeated row 4 of the center panel two more times.

I added a row of single crochets between rows 6 and 7 of the cable panel to balance the edges.

4. The pattern for the cables needed to be rewritten to accommodate the bulky weight of the Tweed Stripes and got changed to:

Ch 2, skip next 2 sts, sc in next st. TURN, work 3 sc in ch-2 space just made, TURN, holding cable to the front, sc in each of 2 skipped sc on last row.

Ravelry Project Page - Floral Cables Afghan
5. I worked three rows of single crochet for the border but turned each row (rather than the usual way of working in a round) to achieve the same look as the background behind the flowers.

2 Skeins of Unforgettable & How Long to Make a Cowl

Unforgettable by Red Heart is an acrylic roving yarn and it's very soft. The colors, the Tidal colorway in particiular, are so gorgeous that I bought two skeins to play with and make things.

The color runs in Unforgettable worked exceptionally well for this entrelec sample.

But I like it even better in this crocheted cowl.

Ravelry Project Page - Cowl

A while ago I researched and blogged about How Long to Make a Scarf and I needed to do it again for a cowl.

How Long to Make a Cowl:

A short cowl has a circumference (the distance around) of about 22".

A long cowl measures around 44" in circumference.

An extra long cowl has a 60" or longer circumference.

The width of a cowl can vary from 7.5" to 12". The the cowl's length, the drape of the fabric and personal preference influences this measurement.

It didn't take much yardage to also make this jumpsuit for a Baby Whimsey Doll from Playful Little Knits - costumes and clothes for simple sewn doll by Rachel Manring.

And I STILL have yarn left over!