From fiber to fabric

2009-11-09T20:28:00.000-08:00

Life has a way of getting away from us. Since my last post, I attended The Sock Summit, entered various items in the Oregon State Fair, went back to substitute teaching and found an Easy Weaver at Goodwill. I have already woven two scarves. My latest addiction:-)

2009-07-07T15:52:00.000-07:00

Since it has been over a year, I decided to post something. My mother,who had alzeihmers, finally went home on June 16th this year. She taught me to hand knit when I was eight and taught my sisters and I to sew. I dedicate this post to my mom, Doratha Caroline Lindberg Hooton who was an encourager and inspired me to reach for my dreams.
I miss you mom......

2008-07-04T13:00:00.000-07:00

It has been months since I last posted,so I figured I'd better update my blog. I have been spinning the lovely wool sent to me by my swap partner. I am knitting a sock with a skein of Opal yarn. It didn't look so great before knitting, but looks pretty good knit up.
I will post pictures later.
Happy Independence Day All

2008-01-28T09:24:00.000-08:00

This is a scarf woven on my midsized rigid heddle loom. The yarn is a cotton, acrylic and polyester by Patons. It was very challenging to weave as the strands caught on each other. I finally figured out that I needed to bring the heddle forward each row before raising the shed and the yarn would then stay separate. It went much faster after that little discovery. I notice that the most helpful and quickest way to do anything usually comes when you are almost finished. It is a good hint for the next scarf I am weaving.

2008-01-28T09:17:00.000-08:00

I finally made a square loom to do continuos warp weaving. It weaves like a triloom. The squares are biased when finished. I am making squares to sew together for a lap robe. The yarn for this project is Lion brand's handspun. I have a variety of colors, so when finished it will have a patchwork design.

2008-01-28T09:12:00.000-08:00

This is what greeted us this morning. The first measurable snow of the season. It will be gone by this afternoon. Living in the Willamette valley floor, we rarely get snow.

2007-12-27T20:26:00.000-08:00

I have been taking part in a wonderful swap. We have been praying for each other and collecting goodies to share. These are from my secret sister Carissa who dyed and carded the wool herself. I will spin the fiber and post the yarn later.

Have a very Happy New Year.

2007-12-06T11:27:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since my last post. We had a birthday celebration for our second son, Thanksgiving and lots of time to crochet and knit. I have been crocheting coasters and a toque for myself. I have been knitting more hats for donations. Came home with some cotlin yarn from a gift swap at my spin group. Lots of parties and fun the next couple of weeks. I will post pictures later.

2007-10-13T22:06:00.000-07:00

My latest project is making Kumihimo or Japanese braid. I made my own "loom" out of a childs foam puzzle. The yarn is wound onto intarsia bobbins. It is very relaxing and addicting. The first picture shows the complete set up with the braid I've done so far. The next two are closeups. I am using acrylic with nylon garment yarn and a metallic wound cotton.

2007-10-13T21:59:00.000-07:00

It has been almost two months since I last posted. I figured it was time to show what I have been doing lately. I belong to the knitting surprise group and I made these two hats out of Opal yarn, rather than the socks the rest of the group made. It is not my favorite color combination, but the hats turned out great. The largest went as a baby shower gift for my soon to be born great nephew.

2007-08-15T21:32:00.000-07:00

It is fair time again. I entered 10 items in the Polk county Fair and came home with 5 firsts, 2 seconds and 2 thirds. I love the comments the judges write. They help me do better next time. Today I took 11 items to the state fair. One of them was the pair of socks I was knitting for myself. Instead,they will fit my mom's feet better. They match because I rewound the balls of yarn so the color repeats are the same. I'm still amazed they came out so very close.The baby sweater and hat both won Blue ribbons at the county fair.

2007-08-03T17:00:00.000-07:00

Here are a few of the projects I have been working on. The weaving is being done on a weavemaster which uses a knitting machine in place of the harnesses and heddles. The punchcard moves the needles which form the shed. There is separate piece that makes this loom useable on its own. The shawl was knit on a Brother 950 using a garter carriage for the pattern. The Suntop was also knit on the Brother 950 using lots of hand manipulation.

2007-04-07T16:31:00.000-07:00

It has been quite a while since I posted anything. I wanted to share the pictures of the goodies my Life Overflowing sister, Theresa, sent me. The tea towel came from Australia. She knit the dishcloths which will be used as centerpieces. They are much too lovely to use on dishes.

2007-02-23T18:14:00.000-08:00

I have been learning to spin on my Ashford traditional as well as my antique wheel made in California in the late 1800's. The wheel is a double flax wheel which spins a very fine yarn.
The yarn is wool, angora and other fibers spun on the Ashford. The white merine was spun on the antique wheel with both yarns plied on a drop spindle. It has a wee bit of sparkle and is very soft.Now I have to figure out what to knit.

2007-01-26T13:10:00.000-08:00

This yarn and card are from Theresa my life overflowing swap sister. The card has a bag of green tea in it. What a wonderful idea to have a cup of tea with a teabag in it.The yarn is from Fearless Fibers in Hillsboro, Oregon The website shows some wonderful yarns. Follow the link for Fearless Fibers to a wonderful experience.

2007-01-15T19:54:00.000-08:00

Little Tiny Topper (a no cuff beanie hat)
Newborn size: approximately 14” around
Written by Sue Ellis

Materials: DK weight Bernat “Softee” yarn 5 ounces/140 grams
in color of choice [or any other yarn and needles to match gauge].

Size 4 and Size 6 double pointed needles (DPN’s),
tape measure, yarn needle, scissors

Gauge: 7 stitches per inch with larger needle in Stockinette Stitch
7 rows per inch

Cast on for Ribbing: With Size 4 DPN’s cast on 84 sts. leaving an 8” tail. Join to form circular work. Work in the round: knit 2, purl 2 ribbing for 1 ½”.

Change to larger Size 6 DPN’s and work in *stockinette stitch until the piece measures 5” to 5 ½” from the cast on edge.

Decreasing for top shaping:

Round 1: Knit 2 together, knit 2 around.
Round 2: Knit around.
Round 3: K 2 tog, k 1 around.
Round 4: K around.
Round 5: K 2 tog, k 2 around.
Round 6: K around.
Round 7: K 2 tog, k 1 around. [At this point there may be odd numbers
of stitches. Use the “fudge factor.”** ]
Round 8: K around.
Round 9: K 2 tog all the way around. 8-13 stitches left on needles.**

Securing:
Cut working yarn from skein leaving about an 8” length. Thread yarn needle and slip remaining 8-13 stitches from needles. Pull yarn very tightly and sew yarn down through the center hole that is created. Turn topper wrong side out. Tug yarn snuggly and secure the yarn by making a one loop knot and tighten. Begin to weave the yarn into purl loops for 6-8 stitches. Trim off yarn.

Rethread needle with beginning thread tail at cast on edge. Weave the yarn into 8 purl or knit loops so that it is invisible from the front side. Check after every few stitches that no securing yarn is showing on the front. Trim thread. Turn work.
Find a baby and give away your topper. Enjoy!

*stockinette stitch worked in the round = “knit every round”, again and again. No purling necessary!
**fudge factor = approximately correct mathematically. J
I will add a picture later

2007-01-15T09:02:00.000-08:00

As time goes on I will add more pages to my blog. To view the page larger, click on the picture of this Superba pattern page and it will show larger. Then right click to save. I am having fun learning to use My Superba S48

2007-01-15T08:58:00.000-08:00

2007-01-07T12:07:00.000-08:00

The top and bottom pictures are modular knit items. The the top shows the coaster that I finally knit correctly. Next to it is a sock?, or something I made doing the modular knit tutorial. I do get some interesting things when I miss a part of the pattern. On the bottom is the headband I made using the instructions out of the book written by Iris Schreier called " Modular Knits ".

The middle preemie hat was knit on my Brother 950 knitting machine. I have made about 8 of them so far. It takes me about 30 minutes from start to finish. Several machine knitting guilds I belong to, donate these hats to hospital neonatal units.

2006-12-25T12:52:00.000-08:00

We are fortunate to celebrate Jesus' birthday with our children and my father. Here is our Christmas tree with a bit of picture doctoring to hide the overflowing bookcase:-)

2006-12-25T12:11:00.000-08:00

Here are the goodies I recieved from my sock swap sister, Nancy. The yarn is beautiful and look at the lovely stitch holders. Thank you Nancy.

2006-12-15T19:41:00.000-08:00

Here is the picture of the sock I knit using the pattern I wrote.

2006-12-03T21:01:00.000-08:00

This pattern was what I wrote while knitting my swap sock. I gleaned info from several sources online and in various books, then came up with my own variations which became the following basic sock pattern.
Sock pattern using two circular needles

CO 60 sts onto 1 size 3 circular needle, slip half the stitches onto a second circular needle. To join the ends slip the first stitch on each needle onto the end of the other needle. Each half round is knit with the same needle. Slide the stitches of the needle without the yarn hanging down to one end. Knit those stitches with the other end of the same needle. Be sure the knit side faces you when knitting the rounds or the purl side will show on the outside. You will always slide the stitches to the end where the yarn is fed from the ball opposite the side just knit. The first 2 stitches of each side will need to be pulled up tight to avoid ladder forming between the two circular needles.

1st round Knit across both needles.
2nd round K 1 P 1 across both needles.
Continue until ribbing measures 1 ½”

Knit in the round until total from cast on down measures 8”

Heel Flap- done on only one needle, the other “rests”

· Row 1 slip 1 as if the knit, knit across, turn
· Row 2 slip as if the purl, purl across, turn *
Repeat from * to * until row 17, then Knit across.

Heel turn

On the knit rows knit together the stitch before and the stitch after the gap made by the purl row. On the purl row, slip the stitch before the gap and purl the stitch after the gap then slip the slipped stitch over the stitch just purled. ( SSP )

Row 1 K 17sts, K 2 tog, K !, Turn
Row 2 Slip 1, P5, SSP, P1, turn
Rw 3 SL 1, K 6, K 2 tog, K 1, turn
RW 4 SL !, P 7, SSP, P1, turn

Rows 5 to 12 repeat above increasing stitches to be Knit or purled each row.
Row 13 K 18 sts.
Gusset decreases

Place marker on needle, Knit through slipped stitches ( 15 sts ) ( be sure you pick up both sides of the slipped stitch.) Knit 15 sts on resting needle onto working needle.
Knit remaining 15 stitches on previously resting needle and pick up and knit through slipped stitches, place marker, knit across to other needle knitting 15 needles off that needle. You should have 45 sts on each needle.
· * Knit to Marker, slip marker to needle, SSK, knit to end of needle. Switch to other needle, knit to 2 stitches before marker, K 2 tog, continue knitting that round. Next round knit only, No decreases on second round. NOTE: decreases every other round only. *
Repeat from * to * until 30 sts remain on each needle.

At this point knit off 15 stitches from one needle to another on both needles, so the needles are parallel to the sole of the foot.

Knit until foot measures 8” from heel. Begin decreases.

* Rnd 1 K1 K 2 tog, knit across until 3 sts from end , SSK, K1. Repeat on second needle.
Rnd 2 Knit only* Decreases are every other row only.!
Repeat from * to * until 12 sts remain on each needle. Finish with the knit round.

Kitchener stitch off toe. Switch end stitches from one needle to the other to avoid points on toe end.

I prefer to knit 4 to 5 rows of waste yarn and do the kitchener
Stitch from the purl side.

For the best tutorial for knitting on two circular needles is:

http://www.az.com/~andrade/knit/socks.html

Feet to prayers sock as developed from various sources and tips learned from knitting my first circular sock.
Pattern and tips written by Judith Bartel

2006-12-03T20:56:00.000-08:00

This is what happens when I lose track of which row I am on. It is supposed to be a 5 sided coaster. To see what it is supposed to look like follow this link to DIY Network online.

http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/na_knitting/article/0,2025,DIY_14141_4989552,00.html

2006-12-03T20:50:00.000-08:00

Here is the heel of the sock I knit for the sock swap. I will post more pictures later.