Garden Views

I'm almost finished with the last washcloth in my rainbow series and have been thinking about working on some smaller appliqued/embroidered pieces next.  The garden gives me much inspiration ... I spend some time most morning puttering around and always notice something new, some new way of looking at what I see every day.  The beets we planted last fall are fat and ready for harvest, some of the Italian pepper plants made it through our mild winter and have picked up where they left off.  I've been experimenting with letting some of the vegetables go to seed for collecting ...  who would've known carrots end up with lacy blooms and radishes with such delicate lavender flowers?

Happy Creating!  Deborah

Knit Washcloth - Cat

I'm back at the knit washcloths and this one was little c's idea.  She love, love, loves cats!  I made two of these - one for the rainbow washcloths project and one for her.

 

Materials:
*Knitpicks Cotlin in Swan and Cerise
* size 4 (3.5mm) knitting needles *size E crochet hook

1.  With Swan, cast on 40 stitches.

2.  Work rows 1 - 7 in garter stitch (just knit stitch).

3.  Begin stockinette stitch.  For rows 8, 10, and 12, knit 4 stitches, purl for 32 stitches, and knit the last 4 stitches.  Work rows 9 and 11 in garter stitch.

4.  Beginning with row 13, you can work from the chart.  The chart shows the uneven rows through row 51.  For the even rows, work 4 knit stitches, purl for 32 stitches, and knit the last 4 stitches.

Rows 13 - knit all the way across
Row 15 - knit 16, purl 9, knit 15

Row 17 - knit 15, purl 11, knit 14
Row 19 - knit 14, purl 12, knit 14

Row 21 – knit 13, purl 13, knit 14

Rows 23 and 25 – knit 12, purl 2, knit 1, purl 11, knit 14

Row 27 and 29 – knit 11, purl 2, knit 2, purl 11, knit 14

Row 31 - knit 11, purl 2, knit 3, purl 9, knit 15

Row 33 - knit 11, purl 2, knit 4, purl 7, knit 16
Row 35 – knit 11, purl 2, knit 5, purl 5, knit 17

Row 37 – knit 12, purl 2, knit 3, purl 7, knit 16

Row 39 – knit 13, purl 2, knit 1, purl 9, knit 15

Row 41 – knit 14, purl 1, knit 1, purl 9, knit 15
Rows 43 and 45 - knit 17, purl 7, knit 16

Row 47 - knit 17, purl 2, knit 3, purl 2, knit 16

Row 49 - knit 17, purl 1, knit 5, purl 1, knit 16

Row 51 - knit straight across

5.  Rows 52, 54, 56 - knit 4 stitches, purl 32 stitches, knit 4 stitches.
Rows 53, 55 and rows 57 - 63, work in garter stitch.

6.  Cast off.

7.  Join pink yarn and single crochet evenly around the washcloth, putting 3 single crochets in each corner.  Join to first single crochet with a slip stitch.  Chain 1 and add a second row of single crochet, again putting 3 stitches in each corner.  Finish off.

Our resident cat is Raven - when little c visits, she's usually on a mission catch a glimpse of her and try for a pat or two.  Little pieces of bacon often help! 

Happy Creating!  Deborah

Friday Inspiration - Refashioning Sweaters

One more batch of refashioning and then I'm moving on!  I have a whole pile of wool sweaters that have been washed and felted and are just waiting to become something new.  Here are some interesting uses for old sweaters I've come across in my searching:

I love this fish from Betz White!  I can envision a whole school of them!  See her work here.

Prudent Baby has a tutorial on baby pants made from old sweaters here.  These are darling!  I have some sweaters sitting here that would make very unique baby pants ....

There are quite a few sweater quilts around but this lap quilt from Fiberlicious has one of the best designs I've seen.  This would work great with textured sweaters.  See how she did it here.

And there's always Kitty Wales' sweater dogs!  She deconstructs recycled sweaters and attaches them to a frame.  

Happy Creating!  Deborah

Refashioning - Dyeing

One of the simplest ways to refashion fabric items is to dye them - one of my favorite things to do!  These pieces all began as plain white finds from Goodwill.  I forgot to take before pictures - just imagine them white!  I used fiber reactive Procion Dyes (I order them from Dharma Trading Company) and these instructions.

I used Kingfisher Blue for this shirt.  It dyes a nice chambray color - and this shirt has little white dots that didn't pick up the dye as well, so it has some nice contrast.

This is a thicker cotton knit fabric cardigan that I dyed with Plum and then changed the buttons out to my favorite pearl ones.  Oddly enough I end up wearing cardigans more in the summer in Phoenix than the winter!  Most places around here are air conditioned to arctic frigid.

This gorgeous tablecloth was on a $1 close out - granted, it did look pretty plain in white.  I dyed it with a mixture of 3 parts Peach and 1 part Terracotta and did not leave it in the dye for the full amount of time - I just kept an eye on it until it got a little darker than what I wanted.  It has a beautiful handmade look - it's machine made, though!

After a short break from the rainbow washcloths I'm back working on them!  Next week I'll have the second to last one.

Happy Creating!  Deborah

Refashioning - Skirt to Shirt

I spent the weekend working through my pile of clothes I've collected for refashioning/dyeing - my idea of fun!  A really good source of unique fabric is large sized skirts.  This was a size 28 skirt in a gorgeous, soft cotton from India.

I cut it open at the back seam (the only seam, so it gave me a lot of fabric to work with) and then used Butterick 5948 to cut out the pieces for a loose, drapey shirt.

It's so comfortable, it's already one of my new favorite shirts!

Happy Creating!  Deborah

Friday Inspiration - Refashioning Ideas

I'm planning on spending the weekend working on refashioning some of the pile of clothes I've built up over the last few months!  Most of my pieces to rework come from Goodwill - one of my favorite things to do is spend a morning scouring a few of the stores for promising clothing.  If you've been wanting to give it a try, here are a few tutorials to get you started!

I'm always on the lookout for ideas to use with my piles of old denim - I love these cute slippers!  For me, it'd be minus the pink bows, but I'm just pretty much not a bow-type person.  Nancy Minsky's tutorial is on The Guardian website here.

Any thing that adds lace gets my attention!  This refashion starts with a men's t-shirt and recuts it for a better fit.  Melanie's tutorial is here.

And how darling is this!!  Refashioning it from an adult sweater means you can use the original hemline as the dress hemline for a clean looking finish.  Find the tutorial on Make It & Love It.  If you don't have a baby dress to use as a pattern, there are lots of patterns available for knits that would work just as well.

I've seen quite a few skirts made from mens' dress shirts and, meh - haven't been too excited about them.  This one looks nice, though!  And it'd look great made from one of the wild Hawaiian shirts Goodwills here seem to have quite a few of.  Amber of Ruffles and Roses has the tutorial here.

Happy Creating!  Deborah

Old Moon, New Fabric

In case you missed the lunar eclipse Monday night/Tuesday morning, here's a montage of photos I took over about an hour and a half.  It was gorgeous!  

 
Luckily I'm currently on Pacific time so I didn't have to stay up all night, but it was late enough I was groggy all day.  So today I'm working on what I'd planned to yesterday!  I found this gorgeous Elizabeth's Studio print at my favorite quilting store .... I'm definitely making placemats from some of it.  If your fabric store doesn't carry it, Amazon has a few yards in blue and multi here.

And I couldn't resist getting these two packs of 5x5 batik prints.  These I have no idea yet what I'll do with them!  I've tried to put a moratorium on that type of purchase, but these were too good to resist ... so today's job is to do some designing.

Happy Creating!  Deborah

Knit Washcloth - Owl

It's a beautiful morning!  The doves are sunning themselves, the bees are busy, and I have another knitted washcloth finished.  

We actually have owls around here - a couple of months ago there was a great horned owl up in a palm tree in my parents' backyard!  Gorgeous, but unfortunately it was a dark night and I was without my good camera.  So owl, this one's for you!  Previous washcloths are a duck (turquoise), sun (yellow), moon (blue), heart (red), fish (orange) and bunny (green).

Materials:
*Knitpicks Cotlin in Swan and Lilac
* size 4 (3.5mm) knitting needles *size E crochet hook

1.  With Swan, cast on 40 stitches.

2.  Work rows 1 - 7 in garter stitch (just knit stitch).

3.  Begin stockinette stitch.  For rows 8, 10, and 12, knit 4 stitches, purl for 32 stitches, and knit the last 4 stitches.  Work rows 9 and 11 in garter stitch.

4.  Beginning with row 13, you can work from the chart.  The chart shows the uneven rows through row 51.  For the even rows, work 4 knit stitches, purl for 32 stitches, and knit the last 4 stitches.

Row13 - knit 16, purl 1, knit 1, purl 1, knit 3, purl 1, knit 1, purl 1, knit 15

Row 15 - knit 16, purl 3, knit 3, purl 3, knit 15
Row 17 - knit 14, purl 6, knit 1, purl 6, knit 13
Row 19 - knit 14, purl 13, knit 13

Rows 21, 23 and 25 – knit 12, purl 17, knit 11

Row 27 – knit 12, purl 8, knit 1, purl 8, knit 11

Row 29 - knit 12, purl 7, knit 3, purl 7, knit 11
Row 31 - knit 12, purl 6, knit 6, purl 6, knit 11
Row 33 - knit 12, purl 17, knit 11
Row 35 – knit 12, purl 4, knit 3, purl 3, knit 3, purl 4, knit 11

Row 37 – knit 13, purl 2, knit 5, purl 1, knit 5, purl 2, knit 12

Row 39 – knit 13, purl 2, knit 2, purl 1, knit 2, purl 1, knit 2, purl 1, knit 2, purl 2, knit 12

Row 41 – knit 13, purl 2, knit 5, purl 1, knit 5, purl 2, knit 12

Row 43 - knit 14, purl 2, knit 3, purl 3, knit 3, purl 2, knit 13

Row 45 – knit 14, purl 13, knit 13

Row 47 - knit 15, purl 11, knit 14

Row 49 - knit 15, purl 3, knit 5, purl 3, knit 14

Row 51 - knit 16, purl 1, knit 7, purl 1, knit 15

5.  Rows 52, 54, 56 - knit 4 stitches, purl 32 stitches, knit 4 stitches.
Rows 53, 55 and rows 57 - 63, work in garter stitch.

6.  Cast off.

7.  Join purple yarn and single crochet evenly around the washcloth, putting 3 single crochets in each corner.  Join to first single crochet with a slip stitch.  Chain 1 and add a second row of single crochet, again putting 3 stitches in each corner.  Finish off.

Happy Creating!  Deborah

Friday Inspiration - Margaret Beal's Fused Fabrics

I'm always on the look out for new fabric working techniques and did I ever find a good one!  English fiber artist Margaret Beal works with synthetic fabrics and soldering irons to create richly layered and textured pieces.  Her technique uses the soldering iron to both fuse, cut, and mark the fabric - and she often adds embellishments such as embroidery.  

These pieces are but two examples from many fascinating pieces!  I highly recommend going through the gallery on her website here.








And if you think you might like to try your hand at this, here's a video of Margaret showing the basics of how she does it.



I just think I may need to find me a fine tip soldering iron!

Happy Creating!  Deborah

Small Zigzag Crocheted Blanket Edging

I've been working on several crochet edged receiving blankets this week (see this past post for how-to's).  Usually I put on a simple scalloped edging or the zigzag edging from the above post, but for this one I decided to come up with something a little different.  This edging is still zigzag so works well for baby boys or girls, but it's a little smaller of a pattern for something a bit new.

Once you have your row of single crochet, follow this pattern:  single crochet-chain 3-slip stitch in same stitch, single crochet in the following stitch, single crochet-chain3-slip stitch in same stitch, ... all the way around.  I round my corners so usually don't make the traditional three stitches in the corner stitches.  However ... if I see my corners are a little puckery, I add in an extra stitch.

In case you're wondering, the fabric is from JoAnn's - cute little sushi bites!

Happy Creating!  Deborah

Knit Washcloth - Duck

I'm back and have my Master's defense behind me - the end is in sight!  And I have the next washcloth - this one is a duck with turquoise trim.  Previous washcloths are a sun (yellow), moon (blue), heart (red), fish (orange) and bunny (green).

 Materials:
*Knitpicks Cotlin in Swan and Surf
* size 4 (3.5mm) knitting needles 

*size E crochet hook

1.  With Swan, cast on 40 stitches.

2.  Work rows 1 - 7 in garter stitch (just knit stitch).

3.  Begin stockinette stitch.  For rows 8, 10, and 12, knit 4 stitches, purl for 32 stitches, and knit the last 4 stitches.  Work rows 9 and 11 in garter stitch.

4.  Beginning with row 13, you can work from the chart.  The chart shows the uneven rows through row 51.  For the even rows, work 4 knit stitches, purl for 32 stitches, and knit the last 4 stitches.

Rows 13 and 15 - knit all the way across
Row 17 - knit 16, purl 7, knit 17
Row 19 - knit 14, purl 11, knit 15

Row 21 – knit 13, purl 13, knit 14

Rows 23 and 25 – knit 12, purl 15, knit 13

Row 27 – knit 11, purl 5, knit 5, purl 7, knit 12

Row 29 - knit 11, purl 4, knit 1, purl 5, knit 1, purl 6, knit 12
Row 31 - knit 11, purl 3, knit 1, purl 7, knit 1, purl 5, knit 12
Row 33 - knit 11, purl 16, knit 13
Row 35 – knit 11, purl 15, knit 14

Row 37 – knit 11, purl 2, knit 2, purl 12, knit 13

Row 39 – knit 11, purl 1, knit 7, purl 9, knit 12

Row 41 – knit 19, purl 10, knit 11
Row 43 - knit 19, purl 4, knit 1, purl 2, knit 14
Row 45 – knit 20, purl 5, knit 15

Row 47 - knit 21, purl 3, knit 16

Rows 49 and 51 - knit all the way across

5.  Rows 52, 54, 56 - knit 4 stitches, purl 32 stitches, knit 4 stitches.
Rows 53, 55 and rows 57 - 63, work in garter stitch.

6.  Cast off.

7.  Join teal yarn and single crochet evenly around the washcloth, putting 3 single crochets in each corner.  Join to first single crochet with a slip stitch.  Chain 1 and add a second row of single crochet, again putting 3 stitches in each corner.  Finish off.

Happy Creating!  Deborah