Category Archives: Knitting

Maternal Bragging

Just popping in to show you what Julia made. About a month ago we were shopping in our little town. It is a gold rush town with a fun, touristy downtown area we like walking around in. At one shop Julia spied a pretty Santa hat, knit in red with a wide white border. She was holding it and looked at me saying, “I think I can make this”. Now you need to understand she hasn’t knit anything before this. Last year I did teach her to cast on and she knit about four rows (literally) and set it down. That was the extent of her knitting experience.

I told her to go for it. After she took a picture of the hat for a reference, we drove over to my favorite place in Grass Valley, Ben Franklin’s. She found yarn she liked in red and white and we went home.

Relying on YouTube, she started in. She figured out how to cast on, knit, and purl. She practiced a bit and then started on the white section. (I kind of know how to knit but my skills are very limited. I have been of no help to her.)

Soon she was ready to add the red so she figured out how to do that and then looked around for a stitch she thought would look good. The red section took quite a while. She had to decide how often to reduce the number of stitches (well, she also had to learn how to do that!) to get the hat to taper. Soon enough she decided it was the right amount of long and pointy. (Note my technical knitting terminology.)

Heading back over to YouTube, she figured out how to make the pom-pom for the end. I love how big and fluffy it is.

Of course when she looks at it, like all makers do, she can see things she needs to work on or would do differently if she made it again. But I am really proud of her. She thought she could figure it out and she sure did. One thing being stuck at home has done is provide plenty of time for this sort of project. She is now looking on line for ideas of what to knit next!

Ok – that’s enough bragging for today! Remember, Wednesday is Guess Who day. Come back and try your luck at figuring out which blogger is which by looking at their childhood photos. You don’t want to miss it. The pictures are so darn cute!! See you in a couple of days!

Scrappy Rag Rug

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Last month I started knitting a rag rug from my bin of scrappy strips. What a fun project. Using a  tutorial from Crazy Mom Quilts, I cast on about 35 stitches (I can’t remember for sure) and used size 19 needles that were 13 inches long.

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This worked well though once the rug got going, I wished I had longer needles. I was really scrunching the project when I got to the end of a row. It was a bit awkward, partly due to using such fat knitting needles and maybe even more, the fact that I rarely knit anything. I really enjoyed crafting in a way other than sewing.

This is a tiny rug, finishing at 13″ x 22″. It will be used in the bathroom in our Downieville house. This bathroom is very tiny (maybe six feet by seven feet?) so this will look really cute in front of the sink.

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I pulled the knots (where I joined one strip to the next) to the back of the rug. I am not sure if I should trim the strands to  be closer to the knot or if it even matters. The rug feels really nice, sort of spongy, when I stand on it. When I first started, I was using strips that were anywhere from WOF (width of fabric) to about 15 inches long. The shorter strands started to annoy me as it made for more knots to deal with. Eventually, I restricted myself to longer strips that were WOF. I actually used every long strip I had in the bin which is nice. It is amazing to look at the reduction of strips in the bin. So many strips went into this project, making it a great scrap buster. Lots of the strips I had saved were 2 1/2 inches wide and I cut them in half so I was knitting with 1 1/4″ wide strips. As I knitted, I would fold the strip in half, wrong sides together, so I would end up with the “good side” of the fabric showing, rather than the inside. I didn’t work too hard at this for the solids (since it didn’t really matter which side showed) but if it was a print I would try to keep the good side showing.

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I stopped knitting when I ran out of strips. I thought about cutting some from yardage so I could continue but that seemed silly (creating scraps from yardage??) Honestly, I am kind of sad to be finished with this because it was a nice evening project. I will let the strips build up again, and you know they will,  because then I can make another one. 🙂

I am not sure I will write another post this week, so I want to wish all of the readers in the US a wonderful Thanksgiving.  And to the readers outside of the US, I wish you a week of peace and joy as well.  Happy Thanksgiving.

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Finally, remember that this week there is a wonderful event going on over at Mari’s site, The Academic Quilter.  I hope you will check it out – Mari is doing a HUGE destash and donating all proceeds to one of three charities. I did some shopping this morning. She is a generous soul and I love the way she structured this to benefit both the buyer and the non-profit.

 

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Finally – Craftsy has gone all out for Black Friday this year. Beginning on Thursday, 11/24/16 classes are $17.99 each. Fabric and notions are all on sale as well. I am quite curious about the Boundless line of solids. I took a look and the prices are amazing. Solids, in a rainbow of thirty different colors, are available in pre-cuts such as layer cakes and jelly rolls, as well as yardage.

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