A fairly productive week...

Last week went fast!  Busy with productive things and socializing, but still plenty of time to craft. That's a pretty perfect week in my estimation.

The strawberry plants finally got uncovered, and the garlic I planted amongst the strawberries last fall appears to be thriving.  

I'm thinking some garlic cloves must have not sprouted, though, as I only have about 50 plants (between the strawberry bed and another small spot in which I planted about half as many as above).  For some reason, I thought I planted around 90 cloves.  Or maybe I'm dreaming that.  To be completely honest, I don't get great sleep, and I've been having a lot a weird dreams lately...

I've dreamt weirder things than planting 90 cloves of garlic, that's for sure!

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And look at what bloomed this weekend!

The amaryllis my neighbor gave me last Easter, I brought out of the garage into the sunroom in February to bring it out of dormancy.  It was so top-heavy, I scrambled to find something to hold it up before it toppled right over.

We crafty folks are resourceful.  

To the non yarn-crafty reading this, that is a 

knitting needle serving as a stake.

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A friend and I got together for a couple of hours one afternoon and mod-podged spring/Easter eggs - using flower designs cut from pretty tissue paper. 

It was messy, and I'm not sure I ever want to do it again, but  the finished eggs are kind of cute:

The eggs were inexpensive ones from Hobby Lobby, and are probably even more deeply discounted this week - in case anyone reading is inspired to do this. The eggs I bought are made of a ping-pong-ball material, packaged in a half-an-egg crate.  

If my friend wants to get together one more time to finish the job, I'll decorate the last three of my dozen...  Otherwise, those will be donated to a thrift shop and I'll be happy to call this done.  I've concluded I'm better at mod-podging flatter objects.

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At some point, these Tunisian-stitched hotpads were finished.  Made with a sturdy cotton yarn, they are a decent thickness for hotpads:

The one below (crocheted with a softer cotton yarn) is a little flimsier, so it will likely become a washcloth:

I like these a lot.  And they are not the least bit hard to make, but my arthritic thumbs grew pretty weary holding the long Tunisian hook in one hand, and the cloth in the other.  I think I'm done doing Tunisian crochet with cotton yarn.  

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And lastly, having recently enjoyed making some dishcloths using the moss stitch (aka linen stitch), I gave making moss stitch granny square cloths a go, and I am a little bit in love.  These fast projects made with colorful yarns are fun to make, and hopefully will be fun to use:

The orange one on the left was made with a sturdy kitchen cotton (like Sugar n' Cream or Peaches & Cream). The others are made using Hobby Lobby's I Love This Cotton Yarn in various prints.  This soft cotton yarn makes super drapey cloths, and the cotton "prints" work well in this stitch pattern.  

Though, the perfectionist in me did finagle a bit to get the colors to go 'round and 'round in a pleasing way, instead of congregating on one side, as they tend to do if you change directions each round.  Changing directions with each round keeps the squares from skewing.  To overcome the colors' tendency to pool when doing this, I did a lot of snipping and magic-knotting. In fact, I'm something of a pro at this now.  I've never before trusted the magic knot, but I figured dishcloths that will get abused and washed many times will be a great test of its reliability.

The video tutorial below was, by far, the best one I found for making these:

I hope those of you who observe and celebrate have had a meaningful Lent and Easter!

In the pink...

Recently, I pulled out a bunch of pinkish fabric scraps to make some patchwork, and I was both tickled at what I came up with...

... and confused by how I managed to turn what was supposed to be one-inch squares into rectangles.  I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that it took me quite a while to figure out what I had done.  But the important thing is that I did eventually figure it out, and (while I'll spare you the tedious explanation) in the end, I learned from the experience.  And was still able to create some cute stuffed hearts in spite of my absent-minded cutting and piecing:

And no one but me will ever notice that the corners don't match up, and I completely missed sewing one quilting line, right?  

Having seen some fun creations that use improv piecing, I think I need to give that a go. Precise measuring isn't required, but a good eye and understanding of how to piece this way is.  We'll see if I pursue that.  At the moment, I'm still in the enjoying-watching-others-do-it stage...

Then I turned my hand to making some Tunisian stitched potholders.  I got one done, but am still tackling the second one:

I made some years ago, but I had forgotten about the curling.  I had to steam it to get it to lay as nicely as it does above.  And I don't remember that this was hard on my thumbs years ago, but it is now.  Maybe I need to try tunisian crochet with something less stiff than cotton...

While giving my thumbs a rest, I crocheted a moss-stitched dishcloth.

A bit mishappen, but maybe that's user error.  I do like this change from knitting dishcloths, and this stitch produces a drapey cloth, much like knitting does.  

It's nice to have another pattern at the ready for when I need (or want) a mindless little project to work on. I followed this tutorial: 

Though, I think I might prefer this one:

I think I'm going to try making some other moss-stitch cloths - maybe one that looks granny square-ish next.

This was a long time coming...

Fixing the damaged partridge in a pear tree ornament, I was highly motivated to get the three other ornaments in the 40-something year-old crewel kit sewn up.  I had finished embroidering the last one in January, but as of last week I still hadn't sewn them all up and gotten the job completed.

Some may recall the video I posted a month ago, called The 10-year Window.  This project felt like that. When I finished these ornaments I felt both elated and, at the same time, sad that I had tucked these away for decades partially completed - instead of finishing them years ago and enjoying them every Christmas since.

I have no idea if our sons will someday want any of the handmade Christmas ornaments we've used over the years, but I hope they choose to keep some that they remember from their childhoods. Whether they've given it any notice, they've had many opportunities to see the partridge ornament, but the three last ornaments will hold zero memory for them. 

That said...what can't be undone shouldn't be lingered on for too long I'm learning.  But I'm tellin' ya'...  if you haven't yet watched The 10-Year Window video, I highly recommend you do so.

And if you do, please come back and leave me a comment!

A fine fix ...

Many years ago, (sometime in the '80's) I stitched up this cute little "bag" (which was from a Creative Circle kit), and it has served as a tree ornament ever since:

I love the colors and the folk art design. 

Well... at some point over the years a stain appeared on the back.  I was disheartened about it, but no one could see it when it was hanging on the tree, so I hung it and didn't think about it.  And then after Christmas, I packed it away with the other decorations and I didn't think about it some more.

The stain was caused by potpourri I had originally added to the fiber fill when I stuffed this.   Who knew potpourri could stain fabric?  I didn't.  Not back then.

Anyway, this past Christmas, for some reason, I decided I was not going to pack it away, but I was going to finally fix it.  I thought the easiest solution would be to cut off the back, and add new fabric.  The fabric in the picture above was what I was planning to use.

As I started to rip one seam open, I discovered that I had double stitched the seams, making it challenging to unpick without shredding this somewhat loosely woven fabric.  I finally got the seam opened, but when I went to start unpicking the other seam, I saw there was a messy mangle of threads where my sewing machine had hiccupped or barfed or I don't know what you call it, but sewists know what I'm talking about when this happens sometimes at the beginning of one's stitching.  Maybe one of you will tell me what this is called.

I was never going to get that undone, so I stared at this pitiful, stained, but adorable little crewel stitch that younger me had made and I contemplated what my options might be.  At first all I could come up with was to just cover the stain with a bit of patchwork. That didn't really sit well with me as I didn't think it would match the vibe of the front of the pillow.  

And then it dawned on me...  I had some wool left over, and I could, perhaps, embroider (on top of the stain) something on the back that would go with the front.

Since pears seemed the obvious choice, and because of their simple shape, and  I had what looked like just enough yellow yarn left, I decided to go for it.

Drawing simple pear and leaf shapes and using a very small hoop on this half-opened little sack, I set to work.

I'm torn over whether I should have done this in satin stitch rather than short and long stitches, but at the time, it seemed too large a shape to do in satin stitch.  And now that I think about it, there might not have been enough yarn to do it satin stitch.  Regardless of what might have worked best, I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.  

With fresh stuffing, and a new red tie, I'm happy to have fixed it in this way.  Truth be told, there is more staining, but the worst is on the inside.  The pictures don't show it, but on the outside any bits of discoloration just appears to me as looking like age has had it's way.  It doesn't bother me.  I feel satisfied that I bought this little ornament some more time before someone decides it's seen too many better days.

Next on the docket is to sew up the rest of the set:  

I did actually finish the crewel work on the above in January, but I got sidetracked by life and I didn't get back to them until... ahem...yesterday.  I wanted so badly to finish them so I could show them today, but when I tried to press them it became apparent it would take more than my steam iron to get those 40-some year-old creases out.  It required wetting them all down and then the iron could do its magic.  But wetting them down meant they needed to dry before being sewn up and finished.  And I wanted to get this post published while it was still Sunday.

So...  no promises, mind you, but I see no reason why these can't be finished this week!

Autumn Leaves Blanket details...

A few readers commented on my last post that they either had found the book that houses the pattern I used to make the Cinnamon Latte Blanket, or they were going to look for it.  I'm delighted, and I hope you enjoy this pattern as much as I have.  That said, I'm thinking it may be helpful for me to write an addendum to my last post.

I've written some of these additional thoughts in comments over the space of a couple of posts, but I'm thinking it is a good idea to put all the information in one spot.  So here we go!

This was what I wrote in my last post about the pattern and yarn I used for The Cinnamon Latte blanket:

Pattern is called Autumn Leaves and is found in the book, Weekend Afghans (ISBN 0806964863). I started with a chain of just over 200, and undid the unneeded chains once I had it wide enough.  [I've snipped the yarn info -use whatever worsted weight yarn you like]

What I want to add is everything below:

The pattern calls for worsted weight yarn and a size K hook.  While that may work great, I have always made this blanket using worsted weight yarn and a size J hook.  The designer meant for this to be a very drapey blanket, but I have found it plenty drapey using a size J hook.  Your mileage may vary. Experiment and see what you like.

The slanted triple crochet stitches require a very smooth hook.  When I started my latest blanket of this pattern, the hook I started with would occasionally snag on the yarn, but once I switch hooks it was a pleasure to crochet.  

Because I use a smaller hook, but also because this is a "throw" size, and I generally like my blankets larger, I starte with a chain a lot longer than the pattern recommends.  I always begin with a chain of around 200 (though, this time I may have chained more), and I work Row 1 as long as I want it to be (undoing the extra chains later).  Doing this, makes the ending instructions on Row 1 a little tricky for me, but I seem to always figure it out.

Also... Row 3 of this pattern is confusing, and I've concluded it is a typo.  Right after Row 2, the pattern says to "Repeat Row 3 until work measures" [really, whatever length you want the blanket to be].  But there is no Row 3.  I'm sure it means "Repeat row 2".

And in case this isn't clear to someone else (because I'm just now realizing I've done the last step intuitively - I'm sure out of confusion over the way the instruction is written - here's what those last two sentences mean:

For a scalloped finish on the beginning edge, hold the beginning edge of the blanket so that the skipped chains are to the left of each triple crochet "shell" (beginning yarn tail will be on the right, I believe).  Join a new length of yarn with a standing triple crochet, then crochet Row 1 across. I, then, tend to use the ends of my yarns to make the corners a bit rounded on this end as I sew them in.  I just make this part up.  Again, your mileage may vary.

If you give this pattern a go, and think anything I've written here is confusing, please let me know.  I've finally written this all down here as much for my benefit as for anyone following along since I seem to have to figure these things out every time I've made this blanket.  Easy enough to do, I guess, since I've made this four times now.  

Just for fun, I went looking for pictures of each of the blankets I've made with this pattern.

A terrible picture, but my first Autumn Leaves was made using Premier Anti-Pilling Everyday Yarn in Aubergine.  Date finished: March, 2015.  This blanket hasn't gotten much use, so it's still in pretty good condition. 

In May of 2015, I made it again for a friend (an almost second-mother) whose husband had recently passed.  Yarn was Premier Anti-Pilling Everyday Yarn in Orchid.

A year later, in May of 2016, I made one for our living room. This time using Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn in the color Sea Blue.  Now, ten years later, using this blanket as my reference, its shabbiness has become painfully obvious to me.  I'm toying with replacing this one with a fifth blanket - in another color, perhaps.

And Cinnamon Latte, made in several different worsted weight yarns, in five colors.

On another note...  on the chance that anyone remembers a blanket I made (twice) in shades of pink and pink-red that I named Sweetheart Blanket...  That pattern is actually called Corn on the Cob and is from the same book that has the Autumn Leaves blanket.

And for that matter, years ago, I made the Kitty-Cat Afghan, and that pattern (by a different name and designer, and in a larger size) is in this book, as well.

I hope this post is useful for someone.  I think it will be helpful for me to refer back to.  And it was kind of fun to take a trip down memory lane...