Yarn Jumps off Shelf

Before shopping at the Great Mall of the Great Plains (large indoor outlet mall in Olathe, KS) yesterday, I visited the Knit Wit yarn shop about 1.5 miles from the mall. I walked in the door to be greated by shelves and shelves of sock yarn. Six feet from the front door this red Regia sockwool jumped into my hands. I love red! I browsed through the rest of the shop and juggled the Regia while I searched through the circular needles.

I recently started these knee socks from the Sockotta I bought a couple of years ago. I knit the ribbing on size 0 double pointed needles and switched to size 1 circular needles and the Magic Loop method for the body of the socks. The pattern stitch on the leg is k2, p2 for 4 rows, then p2, k2 for 4 rows. I did some k3, p3 on the back of the leg to reduce the number of disappearing pattern repeats when I do the decreases.

I bought the Magic Loop instruction booklet and size 1 Addi Turbo circular needles at Knitcraft in Independence, MO last week. The 32-inch long needles were the longest they had. I knitted with them for a couple of hours and was doing fine, but decided that a longer cable would make the process more enjoyable. I found 40-inch long size 1 Addi Turbo circular needles at Knit Wit yesterday. I switched to them last night and enjoyed knitting with the longer cable.

Busy Charity Quilting Weekend

This past weekend I had charity quilting groups meeting on both Saturday and Sunday. This happens anytime the first day of the month is on Sunday or when Project Linus schedules a city-wide event on the 3rd Saturday.

National Make a Blanket Day

Project Linus of Greater Kansas City observed National Make a Blanket Day on Saturday. We met at a local children's hospital.

The project quilt for the day was made with 4" by 6½" rectangles. Four columns of 7 rectangles and 3 columns of 6 rectangles with partial rectangles on each end. The sample quilt in the photo belongs to the chapter coordinator's grandson. There are 10 bags of 10 blankets ready to deliver in the foreground.

I wasn't thrilled with trying to sew all those rectangles together in a crowded work environment with no space to create an arrangement. I jumped on the request to cut binding for some prequilted Snoopy panels and spent the day binding panels. Even doing it all by machine, I was only able to bind 3 quilts in 5.5 hours. I also mended rips in 2 of the panels.

Saturday was also the viewer choice voting to select the winner of the crayon quilt challenge. The crayon blocks were colored by local youth groups. Several people set the crayon squares together with sashing or alternated with solid squares of fabric, but some blanketeers were more creative. The winning quilt (above) was made by my friend Jodie.

My challenge quilt? Well, I brought the crayon squares home last October and they are AWOL. I searched extensively for them at least twice, plus shorter searches, and they are doing a very good job of hiding.

Third Sunday Project Linus Group

Sunday was our regular Project Linus group that meets at JoAnns. A couple of people had rectangles left from Saturday and did another quilt top from the rectangles. The twins brought 9" strips of fabric and instructions for an Amish bars quilt (6 strips per quilt, you cut the 9" strips into 2 narrower strips). The fabric selection was not Amish. I brought some blocks I'd found while searching for my challenge blocks and sewed them into a top. Then I picked some wild strips and made the bars quilt top below. The orange strips are pumpkins and the yellow-green ovals are skulls.

Christy had brought her own project. She sewed some small blocks and combined them into larger blocks. Late in the afternoon, this was coming out the back of her machine.

Thankfully, I have no charity quilting groups for a couple weeks and the sewing machine can stay home for a while.

Green Knee Socks Finished

I finished my green knee socks last Wednesday. I wore them on Saturday. The legs slid down and bagged around my ankles when I walked. The foot section fits well, but I'm guessing that I needed more stitches in the leg. The knit fabric is very stretchy and pulls up to cover most of my calf, but it slowly slides down my leg. These socks are noticeably warmer than my store-bought socks even with the lacy pattern stitch.

For the curious: the pattern stitch is a modified version of the openwork rib stitch pattern in "Sensational Knitted Socks" by Charlene Schurch. My pattern stitch was:

• 3 rows: knit 2, purl 2
• 1 row: knit 2 together, yarn over, purl 2

The openwork rib stitch pattern uses "yarn over, slip, slip, knit 2 slipped stitches together" instead of "knit 2 together, yarn over". For me, k2 tog is much faster than ssk, so I substituted. My pattern stitch slants right instead of left.

Earlier posts:

• Sock and a Half
• Sock Report
• I'm Knitting Socks

Blanket Bounty

Quilts from Cornerstone, my second Saturday charity quilting group, met last Saturday and I came home with a car full of blankets for Project Linus. First, there are these 16 quilts and one afghan made by QfC members.

Additionally, there are these 3 bags of fleece blankets that Tracy brought from another group that had made them and never got them donated. Tracy told them she could get them donated and brought them to us for Project Linus. There are 10 blankets in each bag. 30 total. Yippee!

Today, I discovered that these are 2-layer fleece blankets. Our local Project Linus chapter wants single layer fleece blankets as two layers of fleece are too heavy / warm for hospitalized children.

I've started untieing knots to separate the layers into 2 blankets. I have 2 finished single-layer blankets and have untied the second 2-layer blanket. I estimate about 43 hours more work to finish transforming the 30 two-layer blankets into 60 single-layer fleece blankets.

2006 Christmas Gifts Created - Part 1

I promised to share pictures of the gifts I made for Christmas. Here's the first installment.

Four potholders and a kitchen towel crocheted in worsted weight cotton yarn. The potholders are designs I learned on an email list several years ago, are worked in single crochet and are extra thick. The kitchen towel pattern is at http://www.crochetnmore.com/notiehangingdishtowel.htm. This gift went to my best friend's mom.

I knit this hat and scarf from a skein of Lion Brand Homespun yarn. I designed as I knit and didn't write anything down since it was so simple. The scarf is garter stitch (knit every row). The hat is stockinette stitch with a knit 2, purl 2 rib cuff. This gift went to my best friend's dad.

These men's slippers are crocheted from a green skein of Red Heart Super Saver. The pattern is Men's Padded Sole Slippers at http://www.crochetandknitting.com/slpprs7.htm. I modified the pattern slightly so the back doesn't come quite as high up the heel. I stuffed them with bubble wrap for the picture. This gift went to my best friend's husband.

Purple bunny slippers! The pattern is "Fluffy Bunny Slippers" from Stitch 'n Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker. They are made in magenta Red Heart Symphony and purple Lion Brand Wool-Ease Worsted Weight yarn. I added an extra row around the sides and back, so they cover more of the heel and stay on better. This gift went to my best friend.

My niece wanted to know if I could make slippers that look like a Westie (West Highland Terrier) dog after seeing the pink bunny slippers I made for my stepsister. I used tundra Red Heart Symphony and fisherman Lion Brand Wool-Ease Worsted Weight yarn and created these slippers. The ears are wider and shorter than the bunny ears. I cut the noses from boiled (felted) wool and appliqued them on. I crocheted a longer starting chain and extra rounds/rows to fit my niece's size 9/10 foot. She loved the slippers and wore them almost immediately.

Sock and a Half

I had a bit of a slowdown on the second green knee sock this week. I just wasn't motivated to work on it much. But as I approached the heel, motivation increased and I finished the gusset today. In the photo above, I model the finished sock and show the current state of the second sock. Below is a closeup of the foot of the first sock.