Welcoming the New Year with a Vintage Pin Cushion

One favorite present I received during the Holidays was this very colorful and fun (and practical) vintage pin cushion (thanks Ardie!)---isn't it cool? it came with the pins in it..

And her (soon to be 9 year old) son gave me this vintage stuffed squirrel (thanks Hayden!)--it has quite a bit of character for a stuffed toy....

and my son-in-law gave me this lovely soap he made....I really love the presentation with the fragrant cinnamon stick attached....(thanks Dustin!)



of course--- I currently have a few projects on the needles....seems it is about time to finish up some of them....this is the first of a pair of "half mittens"

this lace and cabled hat is knit with hemp/cotton yarn

and here are some itty bitty baby bootees---I am using fine lace weight wool to make these tiny sized for a newborn

I do manage to finish some projects---
In fact, I created these warm, fuzzy, soft slippers for a Holiday present for my daughter---I liked them so much I plan to make a pair for myself!


and a couple of hats.....



Quote for the Day: "If I knit fast enough--does it count as aerobic exercise?"---author unknown

Cashmere and Lace Repurposed (Creative Every Day!)

I love cashmere, but right now I can't afford the yarn---at least not enough to knit myself a whole sweater. I'm always looking at lovely new cashmere sweaters--but again-the cost! And I am larger sized woman, so the choices are limited. Then one day in a thrift shop (while shopping for wool sweaters to felt for various projects) I spied this very large black men's turtleneck sweater. Hmmmm...it sure was soft! so I checked the fiber content---it was pure cashmere! I bought it in a flash.

I should have taken a shot of this sweater when I started--when it was a very large man's turtleneck...anyhow, I have refashioned (repurposed, recycled?) this warm, soft, cozy, fuzzy all cashmere sweater. Now I find myself wearing it almost everyday around the house, because it is so soft and warm.

First I threw it in the washing machine and then dryer with a load of wool sweaters--hoping to shrink the sweater some---but I discovered that cashmere doesn't shrink much, and it sure does not felt at all. So next I took out the scissors and cut out the turtleneck and then I turned the edge under and hemmed around the neck--by hand. The sleeves were much too long, so I cut them off and also hemmed them by hand.
Then I used some washable wool sock yarn to crochet the edging around the neck and sleeve cuffs. I just used a steel crochet hook and poked it right through the hemmed cashmere edge to make a row of single crochet, then crocheted some shells into this row of single crochet, and finished with picot row.



The neck and sleeves edging took me 2 evenings to finish--and now I have my own warm cashmere sweater, created for about $10.00. And I can just throw it in the washer and dryer to clean it, since the fibers don't shrink. Plus, every time I wear this sweater somewhere I get compliments on it.....

Stitch Sampler Revisited

My brother lives in our family home in Alaska--my grandfather built the house, and after my grandparents died and my Mom was a widow she lived there. Recently my brother sent me this stitch sampler he found--something I made in the late 1970's (! ) and gave to my Mother. It was the time I think of as my "lace period" because I had this great book LACE by Virginia Bath (now long out of print), and I spent one whole long cold, dark Alaskan winter exploring the techniques of needle lace.

The most interesting aspect of this sampler to me--was to see the palette I choose back then--I am still attracted to these colors today and use them frequently in my creations. What a strange blast for the past. And, yes, it is sooo seventies ;-)



Here is the book--if you ever see a used copy for sale--buy it! I taught myself needle lace using this book and created some large pieces of needle lace---all long gone out of my life, but I still use the techniques I learned.

TODAYS QUOTE:
"At the birth of a child, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity." -- Eleanor Roosevelt

New on the Needles

What!? yet another project??? Yup! I succumbed to darn old "startitis" and made a quick trip to the yarn shop--and found this lovely alpaca--this soft yarn just called out to me "lacy ripple scarf" so I'm knitting away.

And then I remembered this lacy scarf I knit for myself last year--my experiment with knitting with beads. This is knit of a grey-lavender lace weight mohair, with beads at each end.



TODAY'S QUOTE:
"There is no right way to knit; there is no wrong way to knit. So if anybody kindly tells you that what you are doing is "wrong," don't take umbrage; they mean well. Smile submissively, and listen, keeping your disagreement on an entirely mental level. They may be right, in this particular case, and even if not, they may drop off pieces of information which will come in very handy if you file them away carefully in your brain for future reference. " ~Elizabeth Zimmerman