I know an old lady who has so many empty yarn cones

 Oh boy.  I know it has been an awfully long time.  I have lots of reasons both positive and negative, but I'll skip that part. Move right along if you are not interested in gnomes.  What follows is a simplistic description of how  these cuties were made.  You can congratulate me on recycling every piece of them.

I should have been done with gnomes, nisse, by now, but I still think they  are cute, especially for Christmas.  These were given to my daughter for their fireplace mantel as a Christmas decoration.  Mom, dad and child.  Here's what I came up with:

My ingredients--

*an old Norwegian sweater that I made with my very first knitting machine 30 years ago (yikes, I must have been only 9 years old!)---a sweater that I haven't worn for eons

*a sharp scissors

*paper to make cone patterns

*3 empty cardboard yarn cones cut with box cutter to 6", 8" and 10" heights

*glue gun and lots of glue sticks

* pom poms

*fake fur fabric

*nylon and a little stuffing for noses, needle and thread, pink blush

*yarn and ribbon for braids

*snowflake buttons for the boys

How I made them:

After cutting the cones to the various heights (surprisingly easy to cut), I rolled them onto a piece of paper to make 3 patterns.

Then I cut out pieces for the bodies from the sweater, using those paper patterns.  I glued them onto the cones as quickly as possible so that the pieces wouldn't unravel.  Hate that glue gun==== I always burn myself.  But the artist has to suffer, don't you know. I tried to tuck in the raw edge of the seam down the backs, but  they don't look too pretty. These are the backs. Extra fabric was tucked up into the cone and glued down, ouch.

Next I made noses by cutting 3 circles from an old clean nylon. Hand stitched around the circle, cinched it up and stuffed them with a bit of fiberfill. dabbed some pink blush onto them.

From the fake fur I cut out two beards and a brim for the girl's hat. Just eyeballed the shapes and sizes. The beards are basically triangles. When you cut this weird fabric it works best to draw the shape and cut from the back side.  Slide your scissors under the fur to lose as little of it as possible.

From the sleeve bottoms of the sweater I cut triangles for the 2 boys' hats. Nice to have ribbing for the bands of the hats. For the bottom of the girl's hat I just cut a triangle from the body of the sweater, planning to tuck the edge and glue it in place. These triangles were about 8" long tapering from the circumference of the head to the tip.  With right sides together I seamed the hats, stitching by hand.  All 3 hats got a pom pom glued to the ends.

The order of doing things was this:

*glue sweaters onto cones for bodies

*glue on beards

* glue noses in place and add a bit of pink blush

*make 2 braids out of yarn and secure with bows. (daughter is Korean so braids are not blonde)

* pull hats on, having the back lower than the fronts and covering parts of the noses. Glue the boys' hats all around. Glue buttons onto boys' hats and a band of fur onto the girl's hat. Tuck under bottom of girl's hat to cover tops of braids so no raw edge and glue in place. 

I probably could have added something inside the cones to make them heavier, but they seem to stay upright ok. Also didn't add a circle to cover up the bottoms, but could have.

Done!  Have a good chuckle at how ridiculously cute they are and compliment yourself for keeping some stuff out of the landfill.

Classyhund

 

Once again, Ollie is the recipient of my sewing.  Saw the instructions on Youtube for making the bow ties for dogs.  Actually, I saw several examples and picked one that seemed to be easiest.  If you want to make one, check out those videos. Good use of left over scraps of fabric.   I lined the fabric with iron-on stabilizer so it is stiff and stays true to form.   It attaches to his collar so stays on pretty well.

Amazing that he doesn't mind having a dresser.  I would say he's the best dressed dawg in the neighborhood.

Gnome or Tomten Ornaments for Your Tree

If your background is Scandinavian, they are Tomten elves.  If not, you can just call them gnomes.  I made several of these yesterday to put on my tree and to give away.  Must say they were really fast and fun to make (other than burning my fingers a bit...)

Here's how I made them.  

Supplies needed:

2 pieces of felt about 5” x 8” each for hat front and back~your choice of colors

Small amount of fake fur fabric for beard

Small pom poms for nose and top of the hat

Sewing machine, thread to match color of hat

Hot glue gun.

Scotch tape or painter’s tape

Ribbon to make a hanger

1.      Print and cut out the hat shape. (pattern below) If your printer shows the shape to be about half the width of the paper in landscape view, it’s about the right size. Either increase or decrease the pattern as needed.  Mine is 7” high by 4 “ wide.

2.     Lay the paper shape on your felt and draw around it. Do this on each piece of felt but cut out the back piece and leave the front piece  for now. (Makes it easier to sew the two pieces together.  Your pen markings won't show.)

3.     Embroider a snowflake or other design by hand or machine onto the front hat piece.  I did the snowflake by machine, but a name or the year would be cute either by machine or by hand.

4.     Onto the front hat, tape a 8” ribbon loop down out of the way of the seam but the ends included in the seam. Lay the cut out back hat piece onto the front hat piece. Pin around so it matches perfectly.   Sew around with a straight stitch using about a 1/8” seam leaving the bottom open.

5.     Cut out the front piece to match the back, trim and clip corners. Turn right side out. I didn’t, but you can stuff lightly with polyfil. Remove tape.

6.     Cut a piece of fur the width of the hat and as long as you want it. Glue onto the hat front (across, bottom and sides.) The dotted line can serve as a guide for placement.  Fold in the felt hat bottom and either glue or sew shut by hand.

7.     Glue nose pom pom and tip of hat pom pom.   DONE!

PS I got my miniature pom poms at a fabric store in the craft department.  You may want more of a flesh colored nose, but these colors were what I had on hand.  For the white one, I rolled up a piece of fur and glued it into a ball shape for the tip of the hat. As I mentioned, I burned my fingers a bit…   we do suffer for our art…sigh. So be careful if you are using the glue gun.

Here's my white one.  It was so cold where he lives that his nose turned blue!!!

I tried to do the whole thing with my embroidery machine, in the hoop as they say.  All went well until I tried to attach the beard.  The foot just wouldn't go across the thick fur and got caught.  Hence this method by hand with the glue gun was born.  Still fast.

Hope you enjoy!

Using DAK to Create a Quilt

I have been looking at the quilts that have offset crosses or pluses and want to make a baby quilt using this pattern.  I'm a little challenged where patterns using geometrics are concerned so thought I'd use DAK to help me out.

I knew I wanted a quilt that was about 36" x 48".  DAK presents each stitch as a rectangle so I pretended they were square.  I don't know if you can change that.  So I needed squares that measure
3 1/2" inches to allow for the 1/4" seams and that determined how many "stitches" I would fill in.
12 squares wide and 15 squares long were what was needed counting the borders.  I left all the default colors in the palette in place so I'd have enough to choose from to make the pluses stand out.  Depending on the pattern being designed, a person could choose just those colors to match the fabric that would be used.

This might sound elementary to you or maybe even stupid (!) but it helped me see where the squares need to be placed to get the off- set pluses.  Here's what I got:

DAK wouldn't let me print out the design as is because it was too many colors for fairisle. But by going Options, knitting method, intarsia and saving it that way, DAK would print.  However, I needed to use the single tool to enlarge the pattern to 200% to make it useful.  This is printable this way.   One nice thing is that DAK numbers the columns.  Another help in placing your plus blocks. After the design is printed, you could number the blocks to match the fabric being used.

The picture shown here was a screen shot of the design in DAK and copied to the Paint program.  Any image processing program could be used.  You can also copy the design to the clipboard right from DAK and paste it.  The nice thing about Paint is that it is simple to use, most all pc's have the program and you can resize the picture as large as you need it.

From this point, a person would figure out the 9 patch blocks and draw them in.  It seems to me that there's no easy way to do this... but then again, maybe it's my little "problem" rearing its head again.  You could do your 9 patches this way:

or include the border patches this way?

just pluses or horizontal strips???

I guess I should go hunting on YouTube and find out the best way to do this.  At least now I know what the crosses are supposed to look like.  Some quilt patterns are just not going to work, though. 

Especially those with half square triangles.  But lots will work.  Maybe it can help you too. 

What a difference a day makes!

Got the snow.  Luca is overjoyed!

The hat and mittens worked well.

April Fools

Methinks Mother Nature is playing jokes on us.  Supposed to be spring, right?  Tell that to the skies over Minnesota  A look out my front door:

It's times like this that I am so glad to have a hobby (machine knitting) where I can stay in, stay warm and stay occupied. 

Hope it's warmer where you live.  In contrast, here's my little guy at the ocean:

Love the little wet butt.

Take off your pants and knit, er sew, some swants

So goes the "ad".  Check this out:   http://westknits.com/index.php/2013/11/swants-tutorial/

Some people are so clever!  I love the look of the fairisle legs, but methinks the crotch shaping could use some help.

Melissa and Doug

You may not have heard of this brand, but it's a company that makes adorable and durable kids' toys.  Wanted to show what I've cooked up :-) for my 2 yr old grandson for Christmas.  This is the kitchen;

It even has an oven, a little timer and a sink.  All pretend, of course.  I also got some pots and pans, utinsels and wooden food to go with it.  Then I made these:

I sewed a  2 year old sized chef's apron out of one of my husband's old shirts... guessed at the shape and size.  Then I knitted a cotton hot pad and little dish cloth.  My daughter said he's crazy about cooking at his pre-school, so I thought this bunch of stuff would be good.  Amazon ships the kitchen for free and I'll put the rest in my suitcase when I fly there for Christmas.  Just wanted to show off.  I think these things are sooooooooooooo cute.  And I hope he loves it all.

Dryer Spheroids...er balls

First, let me say that this is certainly not my original idea.  Lots of my friends make, use and love them.  What are they, you ask?  They are balls made out of wool, felted and used in the clothes dryer.  They beat up your clothes a bit so you don't have to use chemical fabric softeners.  And, for people who don't do well with the perfume in fabric softeners, they are a great substitute.  Claims have been made that they reduce the drying time, thereby saving energy and money. They also take care of static.  They probably last for years.  Any color wool will do.

One of the machine knitting guilds in Minnesota makes them and sells two at a time in a nice mesh bag to earn money to buy yarn for charity projects.  Nifty idea.

How to make:  you will find slightly different versions on the internet.  Here's how I did mine.  I used 100%  wool throughout.  First I wound a ball by hand, about 3-4 inches in diameter.  They shrink quite a bit when felted.  I  tacked down the yarn around the ball so that it wouldn't come unraveled in the wash.  The bottom ball shows how I hand sewed/tacked down the yarn.  (Not a very good picture, but you get the idea.)   I then wrapped the ball with wool roving, poking it into the ball with a needle felting needle in a few places.  Lots of people put the ball in an old nylon stocking and tie the ends for felting.  I tried that, and the roving grabbed onto the nylon as tight as can be. The roving and the nylon became one! It took a week, a little at a time pulling, coaxing, ripping the nylon off, inch by inch.  Lots of the roving came along with the nylon.  No fun!

So for the next ones, I was trying to come up with a solution to this issue.  I had purchased a bag of apples and they came in a nylon-ish, slippery, holey, woven bag.  Voila!  I used that, one dryer ball to the bag with lots of room around it and tied the ends before throwing into the washing machine for felting.  Worked like a charm.  No sticking.  So, that little hint will save you hours of frustration.  

You might want to felt your balls a few times so that they are sort of heavy, tight and dense.  (In case you were wondering, I don't think acrylic centers would work at all, nor would super wash wool.)  The ball pictured at the top will go through a few more washings before I use it regularly in the dryer.  Use them, 2 or more at a time,  with each load and see if they don't work well for you.  Maybe do your laundry when you don't need peace and quiet in the house because there will be some banging around in the dryer.

Why did I call them "spheroids"?  I can hardly believe this, but Blogger wouldn't upload the picture of the  "dryer balls" but would upload the  same picture re-named "dryer spheroids".   Hmmmm.......

OOPS!

Spelling error..........  I didn't think it looked right.  SO, I'm going to sashay into my knitting room and knit scented sachets.

I have to say no to all my favorite things 'cause I'm almost 2

Cutest grandson, my humble opinion.  I think he was just tired....

Guess who is walking!!!

He and his fam are coming for Christmas in 9 days!!!  So much to do and I can barely remember how to child-proof a house for a 14 month old. He's in constant motion---we'll just have to shadow him every minute and sleep when he does.  At least this old lady will have to nap.

Speaking of trouble, if you were wondering where the wild thing is,  tis here.  (Funny gift hat from someone. Maybe he'll need it in this Minnesota weather.)  But isn't he a good candidate for cutest baby of the year?

Actually, I have been knitting a little.  I'll take some photos and put up pretty soon.

Merry Christmas preparations to you!

Dueling Raspberries

How cute is this???  Of course everything my grandson does is so clever!

http://player.vimeo.com/video/42525382

Clever Laundry Instructions

From http://stream.pleated-jeans.com/post/4004715964/guide-to-laundry-symbols

Still no knitting content, but worth a chuckle. If you can't read some of the small print, click on the image and the focus should become a little more clear.

The wonders of technology...maybe

Have never embedded a video before....so this is an experiment!

Kari and Luca from Luca on Vimeo.

Did you know?

I thought I'd put in a short post about navigating my blog. Someone wrote to me and asked how to find the free patterns on my blog. There are a few ways. One, you could read all the entries (long, but terribly exciting). Click on Older Posts at the bottom of your scren to get back in time. Two, you could scroll down on the right side of the blog and look at the pictures. When you click on one, you're taken to the post that contains the pattern. Three, you can click on the free patterns topic and all of them are put together in a long string. Four, you can do a search in the search box and whatever you are searching for comes up.

I guess that's enough ways, no?

On the baby front, I'm knitting a sleep sac with sleeves. The popular ones these days are just bags ---some fancier than others--made to "swaddle" the baby. I was thinking that all would stay in place better if the sac had arms. I think the old fashioned name for such a thing is "bunting". It's 100% cotton, so I need to wash and preshrink it. Right now it looks like it would fit a 6 month old. I 'spect it will shrink down to newborn size. Lovely soft Conshohocken yarn. Wish they were still in business. Sigh...

Beach Plastic

Normally I restrict (pretty much) my blog to knitting. Specifically machine knitting. But I came across this video and was amazed, sickened, disheartened, fascinated and uplifted by this couple. So I had to share it.

One Plastic Beach from Tess Thackara on Vimeo.

That was then...this is now

I'm back! I was in sunny, warm Florida for a respite. Here's the spot.










And...this is what I came home to. I thought (foolishly) that some of the snow would have melted. Ha. A friend predicted it would be around until next winter. Ouch.Both of these pictures were taken from inside the house, through the screens even because you can't walk around the house. The snow is 3-4 feet deep.

Both places are picturesque in white----whitest beach you ever saw and white snow. Same planet. Hard to believe.

Apologies are in order

I neglected to say that I won't have access to my own computer for a week. Hence orders that have come in during the last 3 days can't be filled until Sunday. I will send them out promptly, I promise.

Tiny shopping trip

A friend called mid afternoon and wondered if I wanted to go to the huge JoAnn Fabrics in a suburb about 1/2 hour away. Not having much else to do, I said sure! It's a big store filled with stuff (to be polite). I always find things I didn't know I needed---especially with coupon in hand. Found these cute little buttons for kids' clothing. The butterflies were $.33 a piece there are actually 7 in the pkg) and the snow family .22 (10 in this one), Plus tax, minus 20%.


I also found another skein of the Deborah Norville yarn that I made my last cowl out of, a thread cutter pendant that I hope to be able to wear on the airplane and a yard of Insulbrite for hotpads.

The pendant was on clearance, so if I get it taken away, it won't be a huge loss. Really, you'd have to work very hard to cut anything with it other than thread..but we shall see.

Funny how these little purchases can make a body happy. Of course dinner afterward with a little complimentary wine sample helped round out the afternoon.