Crochet washcloth with a border

I made a new crochet washcloth. It is just single crochet square (8.5"x8.5" if I remember correctly) but with a border. My friend Nancy gave me the book 'Around the Corner Crochet Borders'. These are borders are great for blankets, but Nancy gave me the idea of using them for washcloths. She was absolutely correct.

I didn't have a lot of the contrast color, so I made a small border. It still jazz' it up a lot. Love it! The light in the photo is uneven because it was already getting dark so I used a lamp and my camera is getting worn out - the flash doesn't work anymore. I almost got a new camera at the beginning of the year, but never did. Hmmm....

I used sugar'n'cream light blue denim for the square and bright green for the border. Both were leftover yarn.

The possibilities are endless with this pattern. I itch to use up my kitchen cotton like this, especially the leftover yarn.

p.s. There is a distinct possibility that I am procrastinating finishing a sweater that I'm making that's almost done.

We Interrupt this Program to ...

... bring you a picture of my Plötulopi stash.

Of which the ones here below are meant for my newest project.

I'll tell you all about it later.

Another Victim of the Washing Machine

The washing machine claimed yet another victim. This time a Citron shawl made out of Malabrigo (Mmmmm.... Malabrigo) lace weight yarn.

I made it two and a half a year ago while traveling to a conference and to hang out with a friend (who happened to be visiting New England at the same time as me). Here is the link to the project on Ravelry.

Well, now the shaw fits my cat nicely.

It actually felted very well. It shrank up to next to nothing in size and there is no stitch definition. The fabric is very thick (and still very smooth).

I don't know how this happened. The shawl was hidden inside my husband's blue Snuggie (warning - never get a Snuggie!), but how it got there in the first place is beyond me.

You can trust kids to find humor in everything. My 9 year old thought it was only appropriate to give the shawl a good burial. So she made a casket for her (the shawl), a tombstone, and a rose to go on top. (Seen in the photo below) The tombstone reads "Bless this shawl for it had a fear of the washing machine". Ha ha ha. It's not possible to be sad about the early demise of the shawl with humorous kids like that around. The next day her 7 year old sister added R.I.P. to the tombstone.

p.s. It's my husband that loads the washer and the dryer, not me. I'm completely innocent of this heinous crime.

p.ss. There is an Icelandic translation of this pattern

Quicky Scrubbie

Right now I'm the zone in between projects where I'm not really ready to start another big project, but want to do some crafting regardless. I've been reading a lot since Christmas when we (the family) got a 7 inch tablet. I've read 2 ebooks, and have started on the third one, plus a hard cover book. The good thing about the ebooks is that you can knit and read at the same time providing that your project is fairly simple (like my sweater, which was mostly stockinette). Also, I've not been exclusively knitting in the evenings like I used to. I even found out that there are social networking sites for readers that work similarly to Ravelry. I joined Goodreads.com.

So last night I was reading, but I felt that there was something missing. So I made this little project that you see in the beginning of the post in about 30 minutes. It's a scrubbie for the kitchen (or bath). What you do is to take an onion bag (or any other netted produce bag) and fold it. Then you stitch around it (I used the blanket stitch and I should have checked those directions first, but I just did something resembling the blanket stitch) to secure it and to provide you with the basis for the crochet part. Then I crochet with single crochet around it (US notation) with 2 chains at the corners for two rounds (joining the last stitch of the round with a slip stitch to the first). Presto! A scrubbie.

I think I'll be making more of these.

Sweater for ME!

After Christmas I was very motivated to knit something for me. Actually, it's been a long time coming. I've been wanting to make a sweater for me since last spring. The sweater I originally had in mind would require considerable amount of designing on my part and I find that I'm not very particular to design work. I want to have everything figured out for me and just follow a pattern (although I'm not adverse to deviate from the pattern if it makes sense or if I prefer a different method than the designer suggests).

Before Christmas I knit a scarf for my one daughter and mittens for my other (plus countless of candle holders, but that's fodder for another blog post). After Christmas I was so ready to make something for myself. What I picked was the sweater Hraði from the Einband book. Einband is lace weight Icelandic wool, and hraði means speed. The reason the pattern is called hraði is because you knit with 6 mm needles (about US 10), so this should be a fast knit. Well, I started the sweater the day after Christmas and only finished it this week so you'll be the judge of the speed.

I got the yarn for this sweater a looooonnnnnggggg time ago, or about 4 years ago,when we were in Iceland.

Wednesday I finished the casting off and finishing (weaving in ends, close the armhole) and yesterday (Thursday) I washed it and blocked. This morning (Friday) I put it on to go to work. I had be be at work early today because I had a training course, but I asked my husband to take a quick picture.

I wore it all day and loved it. I have to wear a tank top underneath because the fabric is see-through, but that's ok. The sweater is very light and airy and not too scratchy. It kept me very comfortably warm.

I have couple of issues with the sweater. For the first, they ask you to cast on with the yarn held double. I'm fairly sure it is because of wear and tear, but I think it makes the fabric curl up even more. There is no ribbing but the fabric is not supposed to curl up on the edges, but it does. This doesn't happen with the neck opening, where I forgot to bind of with the thread held double (even if I got the other end of the skein all ready to do so).

The other issue is that the sweater got really wide at the bottom. I think it is due to the eyelet holes in it. But I'm not sure. Maybe I can block it into shape? (pun intended). You can't see this in the photos but I think both these problems got worse as the day went on and I wore it longer.

If you have any suggestions for me for these two issues please let me know and leave a comment.

I have to say though that overall I'm very happy with the project and love the sweater itself, the colors and the fit.

Athens County Knitters Exhibition

My knitting group (Athens County Knitters) meets at the library and on Saturday we set up an exhibition there (mine is the gray and brown shawl - Rockafeller by Stephen West).

This is the first exhibition case:

And this is the other (including my shawl):

Great job everyone!

New-cycling*

I wanted my kids to have a good reusable drink container to take to school. I saw a recommendation for the 'Funtainer' from Thermos and since I didn't find anything else even remotely as usable (it is both stainless steel, seals and is easy for kids to use) I decided on getting one for each of my two girls. Unfortunately The store (Walmart is the only store around here) only had three varieties: Dora the Explorer, Thomas the Tank Engine and Tinkerbell. First of, I'm not a huge fan of children's products that have cartoon or movie characters on them, and second, my children are a bit old for the ones that were available.

I figured the younger one would still be able to use the Tinkerbell one, but there is no way the older one would have used the Dora or the Thomas ones. Fortunately, I recently saw a blog post where the person was using novelty Duct tape to upcycle boots. I thought to myself that I could do the same with the thermos'. So I picked out the Thomas the Tank engine thermos (since it had a blue top and bottom - my older daughter favorite color) and headed to the home repair part of the store. You gotta love Walmart - they have everything there!

Low and behold, they did have colorful duct tape. Actually it was Duck Tape. So I took Kamilla's thermos and covered it in tape.

When her sister Ása saw what I did with Kamilla's thermos, she wanted it done to hers to. Kamilla wanted hers from side to side. I thought it would be easier to match the pattern on the tape going up and down, which I did on Ása's, but I was wrong. It was harder, mainly because I didn´t have a handy craft knive to cut the tape. I only had my knitting scissors. While they are sharp, they were not optimal for cutting the duct tape on a round surface! It all worked out in the end and the kids are super happy!

Here they are, side by side:

Who knew duct tape could be so fun to use. Kamilla grabbed some and made her flip flops more colorful. I think they look a lot better now!

*New-cycling is a play on words drawing from the expression 'upcycling' when you take a used item and make it into something new. I on the other hand took something new and commercial and made it into something that's unique.