A Little Yarn On The Side

Jeeves is ill.  This is as far as I could get on a set of towels last night.  He keeps resetting himself while embroidering, and at first I thought it was just something I have done, but then it happened every time I changed thread, but I was hoping I could at least get the towel done, but once I reached the strawberry stem, he started resetting himself WHILE embroidering.  NOT a good sign.  The good news is, the sewing side works fine.  The BAD news is, the sewing part and embroidery part are in the same machine, and both are going to have to go in for repairs. ARGGGGGHHHHHH!!! So, I have 49 projects for the year.  One more, and I'm on track for June.  Fine--maybe I can finish the scarf by the end of the month.  What if Jeeves has to be gone for a couple weeks?????????  I need eight finished objects for July as well!!!!!!!  Or he could be back in a week and all this worrying will be for nothing--but you know that isn't going to s...

Remember how I said I was going to work on the mitten garland this month? Obviously, that is not working out for me.  I have become OBSESSED with this scarf!  I wasn't sure if I would like the pattern in merino as well as I did the alpaca, so I steamed it a bit to see how it would look when finished--AND I LOVE IT!  I am a knitter obsessed! And meet projects 48 and 49: which is a shirt & cropped pants, not a shirt with bloomers, no matter what they look like in the picture.  I am rather proud of finishing up this fabric, as it was one of the first pieces of material I bought when I decided to take up sewing 5-6 years ago.  It MAY have been the oldest fabric in my stash--which gives me hope for the rest of the stash.  Theo was, of course, on hand to help, but I think a project with THREE drawstrings AND buttonholes was perhaps a bit much for him.......

IF Finishing Friday hadn't been the first nice, sunny day we've had in quite some time.... IF the sleeve I cut out for the shirt had actually been of the same pattern as the REST of the shirt..... IF Theo had been just a little less "helpful...." IF I had chosen to work on knitting that was farther along, rather than the new Ostrich Plume scarf that I'm currently obsessing over...... IF I hadn't left my camera plugged into the computer and run the battery down.... This would be a MUCH more interesting blog post.........

This scarf is actually very simple, but I'm trying to make the directions as thorough as possible.  It has a moss-stitch border of 6 rows on top and bottom and 4 stitches on each side, and uses the stitch pattern KNOWN as Ostrich Plume (hence the name).  There's a 3-stitch decrease using a slip 2, k1, pass slipped stitches over, which creates a nicer look than the traditional slip 1, k2tog, pass slipped stitch over technique, but feel free to use the more traditional decrease if you choose.  I used a shorter bottom and top edging to allow the wavy stitch pattern to pull the border into the wave effect, but you could certainly add a few extra rows of moss-stitch to the top and bottom if you would like. I have written this to slip the first stitch of all but the very first row as I think it makes a nicer edge, but you may choose to simply knit them.  As a matter of personal preference, I never slip the first stitch of the first row--it doesn't work with some cast-o...

After ALL the sewing and gardening and embroidery, I'm back with my first love: We just needed a little time apart, I guess.  And freakishly cool weather in the summer doesn't exactly hurt wool's appeal, to be quite honest. This is another Ostrich Plume scarf, and after several requests, I will be adding the pattern to the blog later.  It quite honestly takes longer to write a stitch pattern than it does to knit, but I will hope to have it on the blog before the scarf is done.  And considering I just started this last night, I definitely think it could be this month!

....the tough make towels! I've decided to count 2 towels as one finished project, which feels about right.  I've already given away the last set of coffee towels I made, so I decided 2 or 3 more sets would not be a bad idea.  Especially since most of the other ones I've made mention wine, and it turns out I have a few friends who do not drink.  They don't knit either......coincidence??????????  I think not.  Some friends of our are about to celebrate their 55th wedding anniversary, and Andy and I have decided to combine out hobbies to make: Okay---so far we're on the "Toni's hobby" party, but when I'm done, Andy will make a walnut frame for it.  I'm thinking of doing a little fabric matting to set it off, so I have one more step to go before turning it over to Andy. And I did get motivated to cut out some more summer clothes for me but not motivated enough to start sewing them.  I blame the weather.  We had 25 days of rain in May, and ...

After the maniacal level of crafting that has been going on here lately, it may not be surprising to learn that yesterday I woke up to Finishing Friday with a huge case of....craft burnout.  That's right--the maniac who doesn't find it at ALL unreasonable to make a sweater in 2 weeks or finish 100 projects in one year might have some limits to her crafting drive after all.  I even gave myself permission to cast on something new and STILL couldn't get motivated..... I may need to see a therapist...........