Knit we go in quarantine

Well, except that I am an essential worker.  But, I will remember this as the item I knit during this time.  I have a pink version of this one that I knit a few months ago, and I have worn it as a skirt (belly warmer) and a shawl, and used it simply to cover my legs while I sit and read or type.

It is a size 7 circular needle, and this particular one comfortably fits about 130 to 150 stitches before they want to pop off.  So, that is the size these blankets are.  It works out with the Red Heart acrylic yarn to be about 3 feet wide, and then I knit them about 4 foot long.

They are really handy little things to have around.
Weaving in all the ends of the stripes can be a bit hectic, but they look too plain otherwise, and I use up lots of little balls of scrap yarn in the process.

The nubbly areas are seed-stitch alternated for three to five rows and then back to garter stitch.  The stripe rows are two passes of each color.

Really simple but effective and useful knitting.

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I saw a LOT of knitting posts lately, and yarn stashes, and deliveries etc etc... and I'm not doing anything fancy or ordering a lot of special yarn.. but I am glad to have something to work on.

I washed up and finished out the two Simply Soft scarves I had been making - one in magenta garter stitch and one in grey brick stitch.  They are about 10 to 12 inches wide and 5 and 6 foot long. respectively.  They are lovely and useful, as well.  I wore one of them around my neck up to the mailbox when it was cold the other morning, and the other one I had worn when I was wearing the pink shawl as a skirt and kept warm on top and bottom. 

That is a good yarn to hold up, although 3.68 per skein now at the store and what I have is mostly because Mark and Esme have given me them over the years as presents - silky and colorful yarns, they are definitely the type to draw the eye in.  I threw both of the scarves through the wash and they came out very nice - except I also threw in a wool scarf I had forgotten what it was made of and it came out really soft but kind of small - only 6 inches now by about 4 feet - but it is still a good neckwarmer type for tucking into a jacket collar.  I've worn a few of my knit hats, too lately - same reasons.. and making more of those for the 'pile' would be useful, too.

I also finished two net market bags, one book size and the other towel size for the beach.  The towel one is made of the same green yarn as this.

And of course wash cloths, I had stacks of them a few weeks ago - and they are all finished up and put into circulation.

Happy Valentine's Day wiith Octopus Vomit

Finished the Octopus Vomit blanket, which kind of doubles as a shawl.. depending on if you're reading on the bed and want to cover your knees or your shoulders.  It is warm.  The colors worked together as best as possible .. but the grey yarn (flea market find, two HUGE balls of it).. was really atrocious by itself.  So I went with the all out bright red (inspired by Esme's octopus toy, seen here) and threw in some other stash white and yellow bits to give it a logical pattern.

Happy Valentine's Day.  I gave Esme a little beanie baby red raccoon.. which she liked.  I have to go for my eye appointment soon - really need new glasses.  And I was going to make some carrot coconut ginger soup later today.  It's my only day off this week and I seem to have filled it UP... little goals sketched out on paper that I'd like to work on today.

And just a bit of a complaint / rant... about Pinterest.  I like Pinterest.  I love scanning through the pictures of things that are similar to each other in topics I am interested in.  And, I don't mind ads scattered in there if they have to.  BUT.. I hate moving ads.. and a lot of them want to move.  And I'm not on Pinterest to watch videos - I'm there for static pictures, so it is HIGHLY distracting.  It makes me want to scroll past anything that LOOKS like it might move - and definitely NOT pay attention to what is in the ad.  Just wanted to get that off my chest.  Pinterest advertisers - stop putting moving ads in our photo streams.  They are distracting in an AVOID LOOKING at that square way... which I believe, is the opposite of the advertisers intention.


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Got my glasses appointment done, ordered the most impact-resistant frames and lens that would work for me.  They feel a lot like my current glasses - but with a titanium frame and a polycarbonate lens they ended up costing three times as much as the last pair...   Why do I need impact-resistant?  I downstock large boxes on lifts at the store and sometimes those boxes are not well-centered and come tipping towards me.  I've bent my glasses numerous times on smaller boxes like faucets and bath fans - but also one major time bracing for impact against a vanity cabinet.  The side of my frames got really bent up that day.  And then it didn't help that one time I sat on the glasses on the bed either - but that was after I had them rebent into shape the first time.  So it was nice to have 'bendy' glasses that could survive that.. but I was looking for a frame that maybe wouldn't be hurt by such things in the first place.

Picked up the canisters we ordered so we can make a 'dry goods center' for Esme to get pasta noodles without having to climb onto the cabinets, and to store a few things I've been using lately, like lentils and bulgur wheat.  They are washed and drying out on the countertop - probably should dry them overnight at least...or at least up until we go to bed tonight.  And I have the ingredients for the carrot soup and some yarn to try to make something I saw in the Welsh home decorating show.  We've run around town, did co-op, and grocery and more... glad to be home and done for the day :)

Soup.. maybe cornbread, and make a dishtowel maybe that I've had the fabric laying out for a week and haven't cut or sewn it yet... finish drying and folding the laundry and then organize so that the canisters are easy to use.  It's been a very full Thursday.

bits as July dwindles

I am coming to an end on Esme's pink blanket for her bed.  It is about the size of the blue and brown one I made more than a year ago for myself.  I just have to tie up the ends.

We came back in from visiting with another family and trying to give away kittens.. but it was too hot, and we brought all of our kittens home.  Both of the girls start their schools after next week.  I went out in the garden and pulled a few things in, started some soup going on the stove that includes Whipporwill cowpeas.  They are going gonzo out there...

Esme has made her own bed every morning since we put this blanket on it.  She says she is 'making it pretty and perfect' by 'mixing it up, pull here and here'...(making it up, pulling the corners) Very worth the effort.

Whipporwill peas on top and out of shell - 'lady' cowpeas that seem a bit like purple hulled peas, second from bottom, rattlesnake bean on bottom.

Lemon cucumbers, and a regular cucumber.  We sent a few to Grandma and I chopped the rest up into a ranch dressing sauce for lunch.

Pretty zinnias this year again... yellow and pink.

We are still watching Downton Abbey, borrowed from Grandma.  It is the second season beginning tonight.  I can hardly believe it is almost August and as Esme keeps reminding me - she will be six this year, in November.  What will things be like in a year or more, when I look back at this.... ?

//note: // The pajamas seem to be a regular thing now.. she thinks she has to do that before she brushes her teeth, so formal!  I finished tying up her blanket and put it on her bed.  We played with redstone circuitry in Minecraft - she had tried to reproduce something that she saw on Daddy's computer (a picture he was looking at in a comment thread) and had the basic idea, shape and materials pretty well worked out from just one look... but of course she didn't have any of the circuitry done, so it didn't work.  I couldn't even get it to work... after some work and staring at the pictures provided.  However, we did do this one (shown below), and it did work, finally, after I adjusted and fiddled with some things.  I bet next year she'll be showing me those as her afterschool homework ;)

copied from a youtube presentation.. to show little girl Mama could follow a picture :)

Rabbits and blankets

 

Purple rabbit,a prototype for the pattern I am working on. It is a mishmash of my Velveteen rabbit pattern from a few years back and the kangaroo pattern I've had up in my shop for a while.  I think I need to do something different in the bottom legs ... will be working on that for the next one or two I make.

About 6.5 inches tall

Mark said to give it the 'Esme test.'  I showed it to her and she jumped up and down saying she wanted to hold that rabbit, can she have that rabbit.  After that, she insisted it sleep in her bed last night and it was an argument not to have him go to school today, as well. She said the long ears were just right, and that he is smiling.  So, it passed the Esme test.. but still needs that little bit of extra work to make it easier to sew and more stable to sit.

Esme's knit blanket is much wider than the one I had made previously - and I thought I was making them the same number of stitches wide. It might be that the other one shrunk in the wash? We'll see. I'm aiming to make it about the same length, so it is about halfway there.  Most of this is scarp yarn from other projects but a few of the skeins were bought for the project. I'm running out of scraps again - will have to find another random print color maybe to throw on after that green became so strong.

I noted to Mark that all of these pictures look very childish in this post... but they should, as they are projects for a child There is a division in my work between things that are very 'fun' and childish, and things that are straight cut and elegant. I never know which way something is going to turn out - it just goes the way it wants to.

I walked out in the garden today to check on what our fall/winter plowing might or might not have done.  There are little green sprouts in several of the areas, so the frost has not entirely (yet) killed off anything that is trying to grow.  There were Swiss Chard, broccoli, kale and rutabaga planted.  I will have to watch out for dryness... but the weather is looking right for that this week.

Queen quilt, happy puppy and hooks

Warm puppies are happy

Mama has been warm, too. The quilt was finished being bound last night, which means no more pins in it, and I can quilt it as I see fit. It is VERY toasty - thick tapestry on one side will do that! It is about an inch thick, little less in some places. It is a 'rustic' quilt, with hand stitching on the binding all the way around and simple strip patchwork to bound pieces together haphazardly into a large sheet. Yes, part of the backing (which is 'up' at the moment, and may stay up) is a sheet that was a 'full' and would not fit our bed.


'tapestry' side

The tapestry and upholstery fabrics came in a trade on Ebay years ago for some of our hardware equipment. The man's wife owned an upholstery shop and wanted to get our hardware cheaper. Mark worked out the trade and I tried to use the fabrics as well as we could - some of it had monkeys and elephants on it.


A 'rusticly' bound corner
It is handquilting thread and all of the edges are bound inside, so it should wash


The sheet side
The blue and pink rabbit fabrics were scraps from Esme's baby blankets... seemed fitting to save them here


Esme 'painting ponds' on her paper
She loves the watercolors...


A new set of coat hooks

And I had a semi-catastrophe yesterday trying to hang up jackets and get toys for Esme on our storage shelf (6 foot plastic thing). Something up on the top fell down on top of my head and I decided that was IT. Our coats and hats and gloves have been sitting on a shelf there to keep the cats off of them - and the shoes have been in a box by the door, which the cats sleep in anyway.... We will try this setup and see how it goes. The hats and gloves are in the totebag, the scarves are hanging with the coats and Esme has her own hook down low with her things on it. The shoes are temporarily on some weighted crates and I hope maybe to build something better for them in the future.

As I bustled around doing these hooks and cleaning up things Esme proclaimed to Daddy 'Mom, she is BETTER. We are all busies!' Haha. Even as I am coughing up green still at times... it is obvious something may have turned over. I am doing things. Things are getting done. I hope that is all proof a road to this sick being gone.

happy alphabet blanket

Happy smile over 'mine blanket' and being able to sit on it on the floor

A-Z animal panel

I cut out all the patchwork I was going to do and just joined it to some primary flannel I had sitting on the shelf. I 'quilted' it with a border all around the edge and following the lines of the squares inside the panel. It is very pretty - and she really likes it. I don't think it will see much bed use though, unless I can convince her. She doesn't think the bed is 'fun' - and she does think the blanket is fun, for sitting on the floor! I put it in the wash and hope to dry it before I put her to bed tonight. I was thinking about saving it for her birthday but Mark suggested I wrap her up in it immediately after it was done. It was a hard decision!

Blanket bug

Esme has never wanted to use a blanket. However, the other day she saw another little girl using a blanket at the babysitter's house. Now she's willing to try sitting and even sleeping under one. It's like she finally realized what it was for!

The blanket came from Leilani at work. It has a dreamcatcher on it and the words 'Follow your Dreams.'



And look what I got! This pattern looked very pretty.
The shirt length 'dress' uses 1 yard even of fabric for size 3.