Better to make it into a hotpad than eat it!

Stash put to a useful purpose! I have a lot of cotton yarn. Like cones and cones of it. So I made some hotpads with it--like the Christmas ones I did a few months ago. To make sure they would really protect hands from burning, I cut a same sized square of "Insulbrite" and tacked it down in the center before seaming. They turn out fairly thick and substantial. The many long floats actually help with insulation and you don't really have to do anything with them since they're hidden on the inside. After seaming I give them a shot of steam---cotton can take a lot of heat---and this way the floats are set.

I've made several now and the size that seems to work best is 71 stitches x 170 rows on the standard gauge machine. Couldn't tell you the number for the yarn weight but it's a couple of strands of thinnish yarn for each color. I start and end with waste yarn. Remove from machine. Rehang with right side facing me and push to the back of the bed. I bring up the other end and hang in the hooks of the needles. With a straight edge, I push the front stitches through the back and then bind off with the latch tool around the gate pegs. Like in sewing, this puts right sides together and the bottom seam is hidden on the inside. I did a couple of them doing a kitchener stitch closing on the ends, but it took too long. The side seams are mattress stitched after the lining is tacked down.

The internet has some clever kitchen sayings if you care to make some. Just Google "funny sayings" or something like that and you'll get a ton. DAK makes it easy to design and download them. To make them quick to knit, use all capital letters so you don't have to wrap the sides of the words. This one isn't that funny, but belies the Norwegian-American heritage. I have read that this tradition of eating lutefisk and lefse at Christmas came over to this country with the poor (monetarily poor) immigrants and that most people in Norway wouldn't touch lutefisk. In our family, it became a traditional Christmas Eve dinner and you had to have just one bite to make it through the coming year. The lefse is awesome, though. Strangely enough, or maybe to prevent starvation, we also had Swedish meatballs for the Christmas Eve dinner! That lutefisk is awful stuff---like fish jelly---but the butter made up for it a little.

PS For those NOT in the know..."lefse" rhymes with "betcha", both being two syllable words doncha know.

Helix-- Seaweed --Ruffled Scarf

Look what came in my email inbox TODAY from Knitting Daily (Interweave Knits). You can get the free hand knitting pattern by signing in to their website. The pattern has several beautiful examples of their Helix Scarf made from homespun yarn. Most of them are garter stitch, so no worries about the edges curling. They do use short-rows on both sides to make the ruffling effect. I do like the fact that a person wouldn't have to felt the scarf to get it to behave. The over-all effect of the scarf surelooks a lot like mine, though. (I'm not implying anyone copied anyone by any means. Just pointing out the similarities.) I think it looks a lot like sea weed.

But I guess my point is that I still prefer 1 1/2 hours to the days it would take to knit this thing. There are too many things in the world to try to be stuck on one project for that long. Kudos once again to machine knitting!

Ten Feet of Fabric Machine Knit

How long would it take me to knit ten feet x 45 stitches by hand on size 10 needles? A month at least, I'd guess. By machine: 1 1/2 hours! YES! And that was with some yarn issues that kept getting caught in the mast. (Old stuff, probably a little moth issues on the outside of the cone, but can't be sure. Or it just was defective.) Anyway, back in the knitting mood once again.

I wanted to knit a felted wool ruffly scarf but not spend too much time short-rowing or doing any other kind of patterning. So, using my SR midgauge machine, in the mood for flying by the seat of my pants, I cast on with a closed edge over 45 needles, knit with the first color 330 rows (an arbitrary number, the length of which seemed about right) plain stockinette. Then I switched to the second color and knit another 330 rows and bound off. This entire piece was ten feet long! After the fact, the gauge calculation turned out to be at T 10+ 4.5 stitches to an inch producing about 10" in width and 5.5 rows per inch producing the 10 feet. The 10 feet are needed because the felting and the ruffling takes up about 4 feet of the length.

Then I felted it in the washing machine for about 10 minutes. Removed it even though it was still damp. I used a large-eyed needle and a long piece of the first color yarn doubled. Back-stitched up the center, doing a knot every few inches, gently ruffling and pleating it as I went. Knotted it at the end of the first color, the middle of the scarf. Then I did the same with the second color and put it back in the washing machine to finish felting. The hand stitching pretty much melted into the scarf.

The gently rolling ruffles stayed in place and I just had to snip off some yarn ends. Didn't like the ends of the scarf very much so when it was dry I cut off both ends with an ordinary scissors, just a free-hand curve. The sides looked really curled in before felting, but afterward had a nice edge---as though I planned it that way!


The only thing I don't like about the scarf is that it's really heavy. I used Schuss Plus, 100% wool, which is a light worsted weight. I think a finer wool yarn would make a nicer, dressier scarf, but it turned out ok considering the flying-by-the-seat-o-my pants method used. Certainly used up some yarn!!! And we still need the warmth around here.

I used the little Canon PowerShot my daughter gave me. Finally figured out how to turn off the flash. (I think Tracy told me how to do that a long time ago but I forgot.) But when you turn off the flash, the aperture gets bigger and the shutter stays open longer, you really need a tripod. So that's my story with the blurry pictures.

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.

New Old Rayon Yarn

Friend Sandy gave me some rayon yarn about a year ago (maybe longer?). I didn't know what to do with it, then remembered some other friends had made some attractive, slinky scarves with rayon. So I tried a couple of tuck stitches out of the Stitchworld book to see what they would look like. They all looked the same because of the variegated nature of the yarn! The color changes hide the stitches.




So, I just went with one of the patterns, cast on 45 stitches, knit at T 10 for 550 rows. Some of the needles are out of work, creating a lacey effect. Finished size is 7" wide x 7' long. What you can't see is the silky sheen of the yarn. I had to steam it pretty aggressively to uncurl it, but it did cooperate in the end. Very drapey, nice feel to it. I really like it---might have to get some more in different colors.

In case you were wondering, I like to fool around in Photoshop. Not that good at it, but it doesn't take much to entertain me while the blizzard rages outside.