Red sunset mitts found

I am trying to get some old projects done while still working on current projects.  I misplaced this project almost 2 years ago.  I have bags I carry around with me with half done projects in them sometimes I set them down in my project room then because they are either inside a bag and I do not see them and sort of forget about them and go on to the next project because I have so many happening at one time.   The other reason is I do a play and forget because after a month of crazy costume making for others my mind just sort of forgets what I was doing for myself because of other projects that are bigger ie.. a play  and have deadlines that my mind is to tired to remember.  But in the case of this item it was actually the fact that I was doing the last touch ups on my book "learn to do yo-yo crochet" that put this on the back burner for what would seem like forever.

finished fingerless mitts

Those gloves that  I found in my project bag from when I was traveling to and from my uncles funeral in February. I have since finished and they where already worn by my youngest daughter before I got a picture of them.  So they have survived a day in the snow with a 10 year old with Velcro clothes.  Can I just say how much I dislike Velcro and what is does when those barbs touch crochet and knitting.  These are actually my gloves but my kids do wear my gloves at times.  She said she has out grown all her gloves so I will have to find some in my stash and give to her to wear.  Just not bamboo and wool ones as they tend to put them in the wash with out thinking.  We have lost a pair of 100% wool gloves already that way that my oldest daughter knitted.

how to join knit edging

I am working a few project that need a lace edging added to a finished piece so this video is how I am teaching myself to do this.

Hilton lace

I am making Hilton lace for what I think will become the lace edging of a pair of lace gloves.  I chose  this lace as we have lots of friends with the last name Hilton and thought it was sort of neat that it has the same name as them.  

March RPLAL free pattern collar fits baby to adult

 Download pattern below in this post.

Sorry this was so long in the posting.  My children who help me do some of this had finals and reports to do at school and that took president but it is here now and please enjoy.   The collar as it prints from your computer will work as a baby to toddler size yoke or you can use it as a child to preteen collar.  If you want it to fit an adult blow it up to the measurements on the sides of the print outs then it will be adult size.

fingerless mitts

This is a pair of gloves I was working on a little over a month ago when I was traveling home from my uncles funeral which I now need to finish. 

beaded cuffs to go with peplum

This pattern comes from Jane Austin Knits 2011.  But I am changing it a lot I have reversed the order of the beads and made them blue and larger.

Help me date and name this quilt block

Please help me I am trying to date this quilt block.  I inherited from my mother-in-law and she inherited it  from her parents but I don't know where it came from before that.  I am trying to figure out the age of it to help me with it.  I am wanting to get it archival framed to help stop any more damage but I want to put a little plaque on it with the name of the block and ruffly it's age so my children in time won't have to guess like me all help is greatly desired and wanted in this quest.  Thank you now for any help you can give me.

Update it looks to be a sort of mariners compass like this one.  But would still like the fabric dated. I am thinking very early in the 1900 to about 1930 maybe as early as 1880's  but I am not sure help is still greatly appreciated

Mom and mother Nature

Is it spring or winter I don't think Mother Nature knows for sure in Utah.  It happens almost every year here.  She just gets so confused as to what season it is so why not have two at once.  I am just not so sure the flowers are appreciating it.  But I love the fact that the first flowers to bloom this year are the last flowers my mother in law was given by us.  She loved pansies my first post of this blog was dedicated to her and pansies.  So she is just reminding all of us that she is still here in spirit no matter what the trials the  beauty of love concurs all and we can be just as clean as fresh new snow.  Such lovely images to be setting next to one another.

frogging...grr

I will be frogging the both front yoke parts of the blue peplum. I did the p2tog through back loop all wrong so I want it to be correct and will be redoing it.  This way both the front right and front left yoke will look the same.  I plan on getting back to the advent  scarf soon this was a distraction so I could think and figure out the lace stitch on day 11 which was causing me great issues.  Little did I know I would be learning something new in this project too and more frogging just a little to get it.  The funny part is the dark blue band around the waist of this sweater actually helped me to understand the part of the scarf on day 11 I was having an issue with.  So this was helpful to me and the scarf.  I have learned  that this yarn may have a tendency to stretch when steam blocked (which is what I was thinking of doing it being acrylic and all).  If it does end up growing in height I have a very lovely tall sister in law who I will give this to.  She has already stated she would be happy to have it if in deed that does happen.

Blue peplum progress

In this photo I was at the half done stage.   I got to this point by midnight on Saturday March 17.  Considering I started it around noon on Friday March 16th not bad progress pretty simple straight forward pattern.  There are a few things I would change if doing it again like one color like the original ( but I was trying to use up scrapes so it is ok).  Use natural fibers such as silk, or cotton, or wool or linen instead as I am not to fond of synthetics at all.  Also I think I would add two stitches to the center part one on each side of the repeat that would be slipped at the beginning of each row this would make for easier casting on for the yoke and peplum bottom.  There is an error in the pattern but I did not notice till after I had done the waistband and attached the top and bottom of the back so it is going to stay.  There are two rows of pattern missing between the leaves doesn't effect the overall item much but the leaves run together which they should not.

Blue peplum

I started this yesterday.  The pattern is in the new vogue called #20 cross bodice top by Joan McGowan-Michael.  So far it is a fairly easy pattern make the back starting at the  band then do the back yoke followed by the peplum then repeat for the front.  The weird thing to me is there is going to be a zipper under one of the arms.  Not sure if I like that should have read that part before starting the pattern I don't know if it will hang funny because of the zipper.  But as you can tell it was a pretty easy knit. The reason for starting this is all my projects are multi-week or multi-month or multi-year projects at the moment and I wanted something I could get done fast and get a little satisfaction from that.  I am using yarn that was given to me at the passing of my mother in law just like the other sweater that I was making (which I have yet to post finished I just realized).  It is also made out of that same type of yarn too.  I think when my Mother in law had this she used it to make a blanket for my husbands second to youngest sister at her wedding  so sentimental to me as is all the items we have from her such a great lady still greatly missed.

Romanian Point Lace Collar preview

This is going to be the March RPLAL pattern.  I have it almost ready to post the pattern (well my daughter does) so watch for it in the next few days.

Day 10 advent scarf

Pretty simple day the second half of the stitches are easier than the first half as the first half has ssk (but I could have used k2tbl but I think ssk looks better) and the second half uses k2t which is much faster.  

Day 9 advent scarf similar to day 7

So I just finished day 9 and it is so close in appearance to day 7.  They are different but I wonder why the author of the pattern had them so close together.  This places me at almost 40% the way done with this.

small cream edging

I had a teeny tiny scrap of a ball of size 10 thread.  So I figured I could make more Romanian cord or I could knit a small sample of lace from a 1 inch round ball of thread I got 43 inches of lace. 

day 8 Advent scarf

Another one that only took about 3 hours to do.  I know three hours sounds like a long time but a few of them took me like 30  hours to do with all the frogging and redueing.  This one had no frogging.  I think this would be anther candidate for stocking pattern. 

Day 7: advent scarf

Day 7 was pretty simple too.  I am starting to wonder if the patterns are still hard or if I am just understanding them more and more. 

Kumihimo: Japanese braiding

My middle daughter has been teaching herself Kumihimo, Japanese braiding.  She is just a beginner and can make an 8 stranded flat braid and a 7 stranded round braid.  We have gotten her a few books so she can teach herself some more.  I love the fact that my children are like me if they do not know a skill they want to learn then they are willing to teach themselves.
 

Day 6 going forward

I like day six it is only a 6 stitch repeat which makes it real simple to remember.  Not hard at all.

day 5 revisited

OK by now you have probably figured out that massive mistakes as much as I want to let them stay I want to rip them out all the more.  Also the nupps on this one just didn't impress me.  I like them to stand out like they do in the lily of the valley one.  But without a yo next to them they sort of just get lost in the background.  So when I frogged all that work I replaced the nupps with beads for aesthetic reasons only and I fixed the mistakes in the yoyo between the diamond shapes and found the added stitch that made everything wonky near the end hope this looks better to you as it does to me.

Day 5 : confussion on the advent scarf

I have worked day five and I can honestly say I have not a clue what it is supposed to look like I think I made a mistake in the middle and one of the third to last row.  So here it is done but I don't know what it was supposed to look like.  That is the bad thing about doing a stitch you have never seen finished your guess is as good as mine.  The one thing I did learn is that nupps had nothing to do with all the mistakes on day two as the mistakes in this one had nothing to do with rows that had nups or even the row after them.  I am going to frog and re-due I don't like the way it looks.  Also I am going to replace the nupps with blue beads as I think it would look better the nupps do not pop in this like they do in Lilly of the valley probably  because here they are not surrounded by yos.

Day 4 lace knitting scarf

This day was real simple I didn't do any frogging at all.  Pretty much a no brainier so I will just post the  two pictures and leave it at that.  You may also note that day five is started but not very far into it 5th row out of 24?

knitted collar for Levi and Lace jacket

I went back and started working on that collar if you look at the previous posts you will see that the collar was fraying like crazy and had a hole in one side of it.   The hole did not go all the way through the collar.  So I just decided to sort of patch the hole by adding a knitted collar over it.

day 3 advent calender scarf

Day 3
  I had to rip out 2 repeats twice so up to that point I keep getting off on row 7 and 1 for some reason.  Then I figured it out because the yos are next to my stitch markers sometimes they, the markers, would shift positions  from one side of the marker to the other.

day 2 revisited lilly of the valley

 
Ok I could not leave it that way even though I thought I could I did the second repeat so much better than the first I frogged them both and redid the whole section over.  There are still a few mistakes I can see but I have the concept now and feel good about going to the next days part.  If they are all like this I will learn tons sort of excited about that.