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.

Yea for Baby Ballet Charity Sweaters

It's always rewarding to see that one's patterns are being used.  One of my readers, Andrea, wrote to me a few days ago and said: 
A great charity sweater. These were knit on a Brother 350 mid gauge for the Salvation
 Army in Venice FL. Two in Paton's Pearl and the other in Hayfield Brushed DK. I have also knit many of your Child's Earflap hats and charity baby blankets. Thank you for the inspiration and the great patterns. Andrea
I especially like the purple one. Might be the heart buttons that attract me to it.

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.

Stocking Stuffer

Our  machine knitting guild has an annual holiday newsletter that has lots of ideas for gift giving or just for fun.  This is my contribution this year.  Easy and quick.  You could probably get a lot more creative with the idea, but it's a starting point anyway.  Great for using up bits of yarn that you don't know what else to do with.

Stocking Stuffer Idea:  Scented Sashays for Closets

Ingredients:

Package(s) of scented  filler  (I got mine at Michaels)

Lace trims that are already ruffled and ribbons, other decorative items;  Any yarn, a few ounces; Sewing machine

Any knitting machine

Recipe:

Guestimate your gauge so that you arrive at about 4” x 4” for the square and large enough for any shapes you might use.  Knit two sides separately with a closed cast on and a permanent bind off. For the heart, cut a template out of cardboard. Trace the heart onto one of the knit pieces.  (Ok to use any writing implement if you sew inside of the lines.)  Pin lace extending toward the center around the perimeter of the square/outline of the heart.  (See diagram below) Sew with sewing machine close to the edge.  Put the other side on top leaving a space to turn right side out.  Knit a little I cord for a hanger or use ribbon, again tucked to the interior. Machine sew the front to the back remembering to leave a space to turn right side out.  For the heart, sew just inside your tracing so the ink doesn’t show.  It is easier to cut off the excess knit fabric after you’ve sewn your shape.  Turn right side out.  Stuff with the scented filler.  Sew the opening shut by hand.

Other ideas:  use a fairisle pattern, tuck stitches, lace, words or names. Use different shapes.

2013 Charity Goal Reached

Finished my charity knitting for 2013.  I did 67 items plus one for good luck.  Actually, I did more than that because I lost count at one point.  But, I'll save the extras for next year.  This was a guild challenge----knit the same number of items as you are years old.  I didn't take a picture---forgot.

I checked the number of yards in my cones, added up the number of cones used (16 approx.) and found I had knitted almost 23 miles of yarn.  This doesn't count the mistakes, the waste yarn, the little pieces tossed for one reason or another.   That's a lot of miles, isn't it???  The baby items go to the Minnesota Visiting Nurses and the hats, scarves and mitts go to the Salvation Army.  Someone in the guild mentioned that the SA is giving 70,000 local needy children warm winter duds this year.  Wow! I didn't realize there were so many in need here.  The guild knit an awfully lot of hats, mitts, gloves, and scarves.  Don't know the total yet, but we maybe made a small dent in what is needed.  Lots of other guilds do the same. Hope our gal in charge of collecting the items does take a picture.

Have to admit, doing that many items put me off knitting for a few months.  Am just now getting my mojo back for machine knitting.  Good timing.  Winter is surely not that far off!

Tame those curling edges!

I got this idea from my friend, Sandy, who is a fantastic knitter and is very creative as well as practical.  You can see her web page at http://slisen.blogspot.com/

I'm on my second to the last charity item for the year and decided to knit one of Charlene Schafer's tuck baby blankets.  All turned out well except the edges curled more than I liked.  Enter Sandy's fix.  She folds and bastes the edges together with a contrasting color yarn.  Then she puts the blanket in the washing machine for a fairly gentle cycle and also in the dryer for a bit (not drying the blanket all the way.)  She lets the blanket air dry the rest of the way with the basting still in place.  Voila', the edges behave.  She says if you have some really stubborn edges, she refolds the opposite direction, bastes and repeats the wash/dry process.

Here are my before and after pics.  I guess I should have taken a pic of the curling edges, not just the edges basted.

 When dry:

  Worked like a charm.  Next time you have that problem with the curling edges, try Sandy's trick. It only takes about 10 minutes more to do the basting.

PS She said she usually does a running stitch as close to the edge as possible (rather than the kind of basting I did), but it appears that it doesn't matter when all is said and done.