Blue Gingham Hanging Dishtowels

   I made some hanging dishtowels with some of the blue gingham that I used to make the kitchen curtains.  I love these.

    I have plenty of the blue gingham fabric to make a cover for my stand mixer.  I'm going to make that as soon as I get the coordinating white solid and navy solid fabric I ordered a couple of weeks ago.  I want to make the cover in the patchwork style like the one I made a couple of months ago  using 2.5" squares.  I will probably make some potholders as well.  Then I have to think of something else to make with all the leftover gingham.

   I've also been knitting some dishcloths.  I'm making a kitchen set for a niece who got married last fall.  I know it's late but I just decided the other day that I wanted to do this.  I will knit her a set of dishcloths, sew up  a couple of potholders and make a couple of hanging dish towels for her.  I wanted to show you the pot I use as a yarn bowl.  My daughter bought this strawberry pot for me about 12 years ago from someone who throws pots in Indiana while she was on vacation.  I have never used this for any plants.  I have been using it as a decoration and as a yarn bowl for years.  It's kind of fragile and I wanted to keep it nice.

Water Bottle Holder/Carriers and Some Knitting

I've haven't been doing a lot of crafting lately.  The Christmas cookie plates have finally cured and I gave Dear Daughter three of the four that I made.  I kept the red snowflake plate for myself.


I dug into my fabric stash and pulled out some bigger pieces to make water bottle holders/carriers.  I already have some water bottle carriers, but I wanted to make some in different colors and bigger sizes to fit a larger bottle.  It was nice to find a good use for this fabric and the insulbrite.  Here are the sizes of the fabric pieces to put this together.

I made these five carriers in the last couple of weeks and I'm loving the bright happy colors just in time for spring and summer.

My waiting room knitting  has been dishcloths.  My daughter and I have enough dishcloths for the foreseeable future, but I need to knit up my cotton yarn, so I continue to make them.  I will store them at my house until they are needed.

My Favorite Project from 2019

Lots of bloggers do a review of their projects for the year.  I didn't make a lot of things this year, but there was a lot of variety in my crafting.  I sewed, quilted, crocheted, and knitted.

My favorite project this year was my knitted ribbed ear warmer.  They are easy and cheap to knit and so useful.  Since the middle of September, I was able to knit 12 different ones in different colors of acrylic yarn.  I gifted 3 of them to dear daughter and kept the others for me.  These easily my favorite project this year for their usefulness and ease.  I'm pretty proud of the way I figured out how to make them double thick without using someone else's pattern.

I'm still knitting these.  I just finished a black one yesterday and I'm starting a beige one tonight.  These are fun, warm winter accessories that I needed and was able to make.

New Yarn For Knitting

  I'm still knitting ear warmers.  I knit up three for dear daughter in the last few weeks (gray, red and teal), but now all the rest will be for me.  I'm doing them in all the colors of acrylic yarn that I have that I like.  I will have a whole wardrobe of ear warmers in different colors.

     I was playing on Amazon one night and found these yarns, so I had to have these to make more ear warmers for me.  I love the idea of the neon colors popping up with the neutral, I just hope it knits up as cute as it looks in the skein.  Of course it's Red Heart, the gray is called Rock Candy and the black is called Licorice.

    I'll let you know how they knit up after I get to them.  I have about three colors in front of them.  I'm knitting up a light blue ear warmer right now.

The Fifth Anniversary

    I started this blog on October 17, 2014 to I can keep track of my crafting projects.  I just recently spent a few hours going back over my old posts to see if I had left anything out.  Nope, it's all there, warts and all.

Here are a few items that I recently completed that I want to show you.

   A proper turquoise ear warmer knit with my original ribbed pattern.

 

  Three new shopping bags made from three yards of home decor fabric.

 

   A couple of crocheted cotton coasters.  The top one was made using Jayda in Stitches YouTube video tutorial.  Link here.

 

    I found some extra fall kitchen towels I bought last year and lots of the black cat fabric in my stash and I made some fall hanging dishtowels and potholders for a friend.

    I made another water bottle carrier.  It's too tall but I don't care.  I was playing with resizing the pattern.

    I also made a lovely find on Amazon.  I found these fun needle threaders.  I love the flowers and the pastel colors.  These came in a pack of 50.  I haven't used any of these yet so I don't know how sturdy they are, but the wire feels like it is secure in the plastic flower.

      No update on the hexagon quilt top.  It's in a state of limbo for a while.  I have been finding all manner of small projects between sewing and knitting to take up my quilting time.  I may not start working on it again until next year.

Double Yarn, Bigger Needles - A Knitting Experiment

   Okay, so I had to try this out.

    Last week I wondered what the ear warmer would be like with double worsted weight yarn using bigger needles.  I took some lovely turquoise acrylic yarn (I'm pretty sure it's Red Heart Super Saver), wound up two balls of it.  I used size 11 - 16 inch circular needles and I cast on 60 stitches.  This is what I ended up with.

 

      I did not double this up like I did with the other ear warmers I made because the yarn was already doubled, but it's not exactly what I thought it would be or what I want.  Now I wonder if I should do this with my size 8 needles or I may need a size 9.  The size 11 needles made the fabric too loose.  I'm not loving it, but this would be helpful under a hat.

     And I have just the hat.

More Knitted Headband/Ear Warmers

   I knitted two more headband/ear warmers.  These are so easy to make and it makes great T.V. knitting for me.  I even took this project out and about shopping with daughter because we had to get her flu shot and I wanted something to do while we waited.  I even knitted while we roamed around the store.  I got a bunch of rows done that day.  I have two more colors of yarn picked out for this project to make a couple of more.  I'm currently knitting this on a size 8 - 16" circular needle.  I wonder what it would be like to knit it on bigger needles with the yarn doubled?  I may have to try that idea.

Knitted Ear Warmer/Headband

       I made a simple ear warmer/headband using my favorite hat pattern.  I modified it a little, I used less stitches.  I started with 90 stitches instead of 100.  Knitted the 3 x 2 rib for about 5", then I bound off and whip stitched the two ends together to double up the knitted fabric and got this.   I'm going to make more in other colors.  This would be perfect to wear under a hat on a really cold day or by itself.

Flower Garland and Wedding Gift

     I'm going to use up all the spool pin doilies I haven't given away and make a garland to hang in my living room for spring.  I ordered a dark green cotton thread and I'm going to crochet a chain adding flowers as I go.  I have approximately 129 spool pin doilies made and I'm going to keep crocheting a chain until I run out of green thread.

   While I'm doing this, I'm knitting yellow dishcloths and making some pretty potholders for a special niece who is getting married in the summer.  I ordered two yards of this lovely fabric to make the potholders.  My DD and I had already purchased gifts from her registry, but I decided that she needed some homemade things in her kitchen.  She is not expecting this so this will be a nice surprise for her.

    Here's the fabric for the special potholders.

    I'm still working on my hexagon quilt top, or should I say, not working on it.  It seems I'm finding all manner of different projects to do that take me away from that monster.  I'll get back to it as soon as I finish my potholder dishcloth projects.

More Quilted Potholders

I made another gift set for another friend who needs a smile.  Another friend who loves handmade gifts and is always in awe over what I make.  Potholders and knitted dishcloths.  So easy to make and a great way to use up fat quarters.

Black Knit Stocking Cap

   I finished my black knit stocking cap.  I used size 7 knitting needles and Vanna's Choice acrylic yarn to make this.  I made this the same way I made my Christmas Stocking Cap.   The first post about it is here.  The only difference is the black hat is not as long as the red one.   I even put a pom pom on the end of this one.

Secret Sewing Is Done, On To Selfish Sewing And Making

     I can't believe it's August already.  This year is flying by.  I've only made one trip to the beach this summer so my summer season has not been filled with fun and excitement, just working and doing regular household and life maintenance.   I am trying to schedule more beach day trips before the end of September.

    I'm so glad that I I finished five secret sewing projects last week for dear daughter's birthday in November.  It's hard for me to do secret sewing because I can't share it on social media until after it is gifted.

     My selfish sewing projects start with this adorable snow family fabric.  I found this at JoAnn's a couple of years ago and I made some hanging dishtowels with it to give away to my Christmas day hostess.  I have been wanting more of this fabric ever since.

    I found the snow family fabric again last weekend and had to buy it.   I made this quilted pillow with a whole cloth piece of the cute snow family fabric so I could see all the little family members.  I especially love the kitty and doggy in this print.  I cut the fabric a little bigger than my sixteen inch pillow form to allow for the quilting and I cross hatch quilted the top piece with a scrap of 80/20 Heirloom batting and a white muslin backing.  Then I joined this quilted top to an envelope backing.  It was really simple and I love it.

   The front of the pillow.

   The back of the pillow.

   Close up of snow kitty with a redbird on its head.

    I found another YouTube pieced pillow cover tutorial that I just love.  I have purchased red and green Christmas fabric to make one for me.  Here is a link to the tutorial:   quilted pillow cover tutorial.  This tutorial is really well done and I used the dimensions to make the whole cloth pillow cover that I made above.

    I still have to make the tote bags from my Hawaii souvenir fabric and that fabric is sitting on my ironing board waiting patiently.

    There is one more Christmas decoration that I want to make.  I have a crochet angel dishcloth pattern that I want to experiment with by making the pattern with worsted white cotton yarn combined with silver crochet size 10 thread.  I want to make a couple for me and a couple for dear daughter for Christmas decorations.  I'll have to see how the first one turns out before I commit to making four.  LOL.

    I have knit 24 dishcloths since the beginning of the year.  I am finished with knitting dishcloths for awhile.  I have plenty to give to dear daughter and keep for me.  I still have to get back to my hexagon quilt top and my crochet blankets that I started.

Long Over Due

          I have been afraid to do this and have put it off for the last 6 months. I finally broke down and made a list of all the projects I have materials for. I have 16 projects that I can work on today that I have everything I need to make it.  My project list is a nice mix of sewing, crocheting and knitting projects. Some of these projects are started and some of them are just dreams. Dreams that I have material to make come true.

          Here are the first five things on my list.

         1.    Hexagon Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilt. (already started)

         2.    Make tote bags with Hawaii fabric and canvas. (not started)

         3.    Make hanging dish towels with Bake Sale fabric and colorful towels. (not started)

         4.    Secret birthday sewing. (not started)

        5.    Knit hat. (already started)

          I put the hand sewing project at the top of the list. It's been neglected long enough. It's time I dedicate a few hours each week to work on this one.  If I see some progress on it I'll be more inclined to work on it more often.  I'm posting a picture of everything done to this point. I really like this quilt and I want to finish it.

          One project I did not put on my list is one that I do when I have a few minutes watching YouTube videos in the morning before work.  I've been crocheting some colorful thread spool doilies to share with other folks who quilt and sew.  I've been making them up with some beautiful embroidery thread I ordered last month from 123Stitch.com.  When you buy a skein of embroidery thread and it only costs $.52, you don't mind ordering two or three of each color you want.   The color selection on that website is amazing.  I love sharing these bits of color to dress up sewing machines.

            Some of the projects on the list are quick projects that will take a couple of hours from cutting to snipping the last thread.  I like those.  Others will be long term projects.

            List making is good for me.  I use them to stay focused on what I have to work on.  This list is also a great reminder that I don't have to buy any more crafting supplies for a long while.  I won't even need so much as a new card of buttons.  I have a lovely stash of fabric, stabilizers, buttons, zippers, thread, yarn, knitting needles, crochet hooks and patterns to make everything I have on my list.   I've been buying fabric, yarn, hooks, and knitting needles like a demon for the past 7 months and I should have everything I need.  The only things I do not have are batting and backing fabric for the two quilt tops on my list, but I won't have the tops finished until next year so there's no rush to get those.

             Now all I need is about 6 months off from work to craft full time.

White Lacey Scarf - Finished.

   I finished my white lacey scarf.  I love this scarf.  It's about 6 feet long.

 I'm starting a new one right now with the same size 11 knitting needles and a skein of KnitPicks Brava Worsted yarn in Denim colorway. 

Knitting Project and Confession

    I've been enjoying my knitting lately and thinking about sock knitting.  My One Row Lace Scarf is coming along nicely.  It's 5 feet long now and I want it to measure 6 feet.  This scarf is being knit with KnitPicks Brava Worsted in Silver colorway on size 10 circular needles.  I knit one ball of this yarn and got a little over four feet of scarf with one ball which is great to know.  A one skein scarf would make a nice handmade gift. 

   

  Here is the knitting confession portion.  I started to knit a sock last year, I think it was February.  And this is how far I got before I put it up and promptly forgot about it until a few weeks ago.  This is KnitPicks Stroll Fingering yarn in the Make Believe Hand Painted colorway on KnitPicks US size 1 (2.5mm) nickel plated circular needles with a 40" cord.

 

    I've been trying to figure out why I didn't continue with knitting this sock.  I have decided that this yarn is too dark and I can't see my stitches.  Whenever I knit a round I can't see if I'm knitting the ribbing right and I feel like my stitches are all messed up.  I will be taking this cuff off these needles and try again, but with a lighter color yarn.  I just ordered some bright yellow sock yarn and I'm hoping that will help with getting me through knitting a pair of socks.  I also bought two books to help me with my sock knitting. 

     I already have "Toe-Up 2-at-a-Time Socks" by Melissa Morgan-Oakes and I love this book.  I made a sample pair of socks two at a time with this book and they turned out pretty good, but I want to explore all the different ways to make socks.      

Everyone Needs A Simple Knitted Lacy Scarf

    I definitely need one.

     I have made myself a few crocheted scarfs over the last few years, but I really like this scarf and the pattern is so easy.  I found this free pattern on Ravelry several years ago and I've made two of these for gifts.  The pattern is called the One Row Lace Scarf by Turvid.  It's very pretty and very easy to knit, which is good for me because I'm not the most accomplished knitter.  You don't have to be a Ravelry member to get the pattern.  Here is the link to the blog with the pattern.   Link here.

    This would make an awesome travel knitting project because it's a simple pattern to memorize and it makes such a pretty fabric.  It's almost as small to carry as a sock.

   I'm making my scarf with size ten Sunstruck (by Knit Picks) circular needles (larger size needles are suggested to show off the lacy stitches and I think the 10 is perfect) with a 24 inch cord.  I tried a 16 inch cord would but it was too short for me.  I would rather have too much cord than not enough.   This is a back and forth project so you can certainly knit this on straight needles but I like the circulars for keeping my project secure. 

    I'm using Knit Picks Brava worsted in the silver colorway.  This yarn is acrylic, which I like.  It's soft and indestructible.  I like that I don't have to worry about bugs eating it and it's washable.  The pattern writer used alpaca yarn to make hers, so feel free to use a natural fiber.  There was also the perfect amount of yardage in a skein of this yarn.  The pattern calls for 175 yards of yarn and this yarn comes with 218 yards.  I'm using two skeins on this scarf because I want this one to be extra long, but one skein of this yarn would be enough for a scarf according to the pattern.

  Here's a picture of my pretty progress so far.

      I bought a lot of Knit Picks Brava in different colors (there are lots of beautiful colors) earlier this year and I think all of it would be great in this pattern.  I picked the grey because, well, it's grey.  I like grey.  I will probably make more of these in some of the other colors, like currant (burgundy) Dublin (dark green), solstice heather (bright navy blue), and white.     

    Knit Picks also has a worsted weight yarn called Mighty Stitch which is a 80% acrylic and 20% super wash wool.  I bought a few skeins of this as well in January to try it out.  I like a good acrylic/natural fiber blend.   The Mighty Stitch comes lots of colors and is a 208 yard skein.

   This blog post turned into a complete Knit Picks commercial.  Sorry about that.  I just like Knit Picks.  I buy a lot of their products and I use them.  

I've Been Knitting Dishcloths

   That's all I've been doing.  It's been very relaxing.  I have four dishcloths to show for my efforts. 

    While I was knitting these green dishcloths, I decided that I needed some pretty blue yarn to make more.  I ordered four balls of Knitpicks Dishie in the Navy colorway (now that I know blue is my daughter's favorite color which is amazing that I didn't know that before).  So I have to knit up about one and a half balls of the green, jalapeno, colorway then I can start working with the blue yarn. I'm getting about three dishcloths from each ball. 

    I ordered more two cotton yarn cones from Amazon in a beautiful variegated yellow and blue colorway, but it got lost in shipping and I never received it.  Then I had to fight with the Amazon website to find the right place to report my lost package and request a refund.  It is not easy to find the right screen in Amazon to report a lost package and I couldn't even send a complaint about how hard this is to do because there isn't any place to lodge a complaint.  I haven't ordered anything from Amazon since.  I don't think my postman cares very much, so I'm laying off the mail orders for a while.  I'll buy cotton yarn in a local store if I want more.

    Yesterday I was looking at quilting blogs and I found some beautiful applique and embroidery that I wanted to share with you.  Through The Needles Eye.  She made a beautiful robin with a forsythia branch that is just stunning.  Here is the link to her post.   Click Here.  I have beautiful memories of forsythia from my childhood.  We had a large forsythia bush in our backyard and every spring while I was in elementary school, my mother would clip some sprigs off, wrap them in aluminum foil, and make me take them to my teacher.  She would do the same thing with the roses from the single rose bush that bloomed in our yard. 

    I haven't done any sewing on my quilt top.  I did make up about 30 pink and 30 orange hexies to make more flowers, but that was as far as I got.  I have also made headbands from t shirts.  I don't have a picture, but I do have a link to a short YouTube video on how to make a headband from t-shirts.  I bought new t-shirts to make these and they are super cute.  I got two headbands from each t-shirt.   I hand sewed them instead of using my glue gun like the person did in the video.  I don't like glued wearable items.  Here is the link to the video:  Click Here.   Have Fun.

Sewing, Knitting, Sewing, Knitting, Sewing, And On And On

   I don't have a lot to show for my last couple of weeks.  I've been sewing up drawstring bags for DD for her use in her travels.  She has a big trip planned next month.

    I finally broke out the fabric for my hexagon Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt to cut up some hexies to make some more flowers.  I haven't finished the third row yet, but I think if I get some more hexies made it will spur me to get that third row sewn on.

   I have also been knitting on my Christmas stocking cap.  I'm on the decrease rows right now and I have about 45 rows left to knit.  It should be done next week and I'll be sure to share pictures here.  The red section is now at about 40 inches.  I don't know if it will finish at 48" but I'm really happy with this project. The ribbing was the perfect solution to my too big hat problem.  I think I would love to have a stocking cap in every color.

   

I Changed My Mind

    I have a love/hate relationship with sergers.  I bought a Juki serger about three years ago that worked well for about a year and then the tension went wonky and I couldn't fix it.  I took that machine to Goodwill about a year ago and I thought I would be through with sergers forever.

     I really love what you can do with sergers, rolled hems, seam finishing, etc., so every once in a while I try to work out a way to own one without spending a boatload of money.  I wish I could afford a machine with air threading and all the fancy stitches, but that's not happening now.  So I spent the last weekend trying to find a machine I could afford and I settled on the Singer14T968DC, Professional 5, five thread serger that comes with 7 presser feet. I bought it from Allbrands.com.  I have made four purchases from Allbrands.com and I have been happy with all four purchases.

    I received the machine on Thursday (it was ordered on the previous Saturday) and took it out of the box.  I also downloaded the owner's manual/workbook from the Singer website and that is on my computer now.

    Here she is: 

   In the bottom picture the machine is threaded for 3 thread overlock stitching.  You can do a variety of stitching  styles with this machine.  It took me a little while to thread the machine last night, but threading this machine was a little more involved than it was on the Juki.  This machine has a few more levers and and knobs to adjust when you are threading for a certain type of stitching.  It's all laid out in the workbook, which is really handy. The 3 thread overlock stitching is actually working and I'm getting ready to make some headbands with some lovely knit jersey I bought.   I'll be sharing those when I finish them.

    I started another knitting project.  I watch several knitting podcasts on Youtube and several knitters are making trying to knit one or two dishcloths each week this year so they can use them for Christmas gift giving.  I love this idea, but I'm not going to make so many.  I'm just going to make as many dishcloths as I can from the four balls of KnitPicks Dishie yarn that I have in the Jalapeno colorway.  I bought this yarn last year to crochet dishcloths, I really like the knitted dishcloths but they take so much longer than crochet, but if I give myself a year, I should be able to get this yarn knitted up.  I'm using a size 8, 24" Bamboo ChiaoGoo circular needles to make Grandmother's Favorite Dishcloth.  I found this super easy dishcloth pattern on Ravelry years ago, but if you're not a member of Ravelry, you can find the pattern here. 

    Here's my first dishcloth in the works:

 

A Little Sewing And A Lot Of Knitting

     
       I made some zipper pouches for dear daughter for her to use as travel organization.  She has a couple of trips planned in the next few months and I wanted to thank her for helping me out with something recently.  So I made three pretty quilted zipper pouches for her.   She has quite of few of these in her collection, she loves them.  This is a quick and easy project. 

        I use the Crafty Gemini zipper pouch video tutorial on Youtube for the directions. Here is the link.  The only thing I need the tutorial for is how to put the zipper in and where to add the wrist strap if I'm putting one on my bag. 

       I did not put a wrist strap on these bags.  I make my pouches whatever size I can made from the fabric I have, I just have to make sure I have the zipper that is long enough for what I want to make.  I used 12" zippers for these.  When I add a wrist strap, I make mine wider. 

      You can't really see it in the pictures but these are a very soft aqua color with tiny white polka dots.  This is one of my favorite fabrics.  I was proud of myself for giving it up to make something for someone else.  Zipper pouches are a great way to use up small pieces of fabric.

    I'd like to try to make some boxy pouches.  I found a few video tutorials for those.  They are pretty simple, you just have to box the corners which I have done on other projects before.

        I also did a lot of knitting on my ribbed stocking cap.  The red section is now 15" long.  I'm not sure I have enough yarn to get to the 48" of red that I want, but I'm going to give it a shot.  It doesn't look like much, but the white cuff fits perfectly and that's exactly what I needed.

    No progress on my hexie quilt top.  I pulled out the box with the pieces in it and I'm planning on getting started on it again this weekend.