Well....It's Not Knitting....

I am busy with my store but did get a couple of things finished. I have all my fabric for my toddler quilts. Should have them finished by Christmas. Also, managed to fill up my box for the Friendship House & took it up there. They're always grateful for the children's sweaters I make them.

 

I have been doing a little bit of sewing. I made this for my g'daughter. They live in California so it's usually warm there.

 

This little sundress buttons at the shoulder . It can be used by her  as a sundress, then when she is older they are cute for a top. In cooler weather I always put leggings & a long sleeved tee under it.  I made more than a few of these for my daughter when she was an infant & toddler. I debated on whether or not the put an embroidery design on it but decided I like the look as is. I am going to add this sundress to my store as a set, with the dress, hat & panties soaker & see how it does.

 

 

Here is the hat that I made to go with it. She doesn't need it but it is sooo cute that I went ahead & bought the pattern & made it up. It's a prairie hat. She is 2 now & may not be into hats, but I made my DIL promise to take a picture for my blog. 

 

I am busy making small appliance covers for Christmas presents, which I am quilting. I hope no one drops dead when they get a toaster cover from me that is sewn rather than knitted. I have sorted all my sewing paraphernalia & straightened out my sewing basket, & am ready to do some serious sewing with the toddler quilts.   

 

On another note, I am busy working on another littler tutorial depicting another method of increasing using short row & ravel cord. I have it pretty much worked out but need to take pictures etc.

 

 

 

Cooler Weather is on the Way

Cooler weather is just over the horizon. Time to get busy on my longies & footies for this winter. Things have slowed down with the shorties & pullons. I'm hoping that I will do as well this winter season as I did this summer.

 

Here are a pair of my footies. I am busy making samples to photograph.

 

 

These sell pretty well over the fall & winter. Just a pair of longies with a sock on the end. :)

 

When my kids were born I made a quilt for each of them. My oldest son asked me if I would make a quilt for his two little ones & I decided that would be a good project & fun for me & them. My quilts are not the fanciest, but they are warm & cute. Just plain little squares about 36" x 42". (Although I like to do it, sewing is not my favorite thing.) I decided that I would make them each a quilt along with a matching pillowcase & pajama's.  (Just a note, my oldest son had his quilt until he was 12. He even took it to camp with him.)

 

 

 

I have ordered all the fabric etc. I don't have any special quilting equipment other than a walking foot for my machine. If I had the room I can think of a bunch of things that I would like to buy, but just no where to put them. My craft & knitting room is busting out as it is.

 

I haven't had the time to work on my scrappies this summer. I did get a few made but not as much as I would wish. I am going to try to squeeze some more in here & there. My scrappies box is only about 1/3 full. I like to take a full box over there. The need is sooo great. This is a small town but we get lots of women from the bigger cities coming to stay at the shelter, hiding out from their abusive spouses.

 

 

 

 

Short Row Increases Over Multiple Stitches with Cast On Rag & Ravel Cord

What I would like to do today is talk about increases while short rowing over multiple stitches, using cast on rags & ravel cord. We will be making a panty soaker that is knit in one piece, from the waistband at the back, down through the crotch,  to the waistband at the front. The ribbed leg bands will be like a grafted neck band as it will be knitted directly onto the cover after it is finished. After knitting the ribbed leg bands all that is left to do is sew it up.

For now, we are going to concentrate on the curved area that is short rowed over the thigh. This is what we are making in a Newborn size.

 

 

Okay, I have the back finished to the end of the crotch & am going to start to work on the front crotch that will cover the thigh in the front & knit up to the waist band. First I am going to knit the part of the crotch that is in the beginning center of the front. That is 16 rows on 11 stitches. Our total number of stitches are 59 stitches across the body of the cover so we have to increase 48 total stitches, 24 stitches each side over 6 rows. 12 rows total.(I like to use an odd number of stitches so that the ribbing at the waist looks nice.)We want a curved edge so that we don't want to increase 1 stitch at a time. We will increase multiple stitches across these rows, using our cast on rags & ravel cord. 

 

After we have knit the 16 rows for the beginning of the crotch in the front we are going to increase 4 stitches on the right hand side. To do this, we hang our cast on rag on the 4 stitches next to the end of the 11 stitches that we have for the crotch. Carriage is on the right. When doing multiple increases always increase on the side that the carriage is on. Hang your cast on rag on the 4 stitches that you are going to increase.

 

 

Then, take your ravel cord & knit by hand through these 4 stitches.

 



 Hang a claw weight on the cast on rag. We want these 4 stitches to be closed so that they won't unravel when we take off the cast on rag, so we will e-wrap the 4 stitches with our main yarn. Always e-wrap in the direction that the carriage is going. Since we are working on the right side for now, we will e-wrap going to the left, counter clock wise. It helps it pull the needles that are being e-wrapped to hold position. Have the carriage set to knit all needles.

 

 Then knit across the machine.Check your stitches to make sure it knitted up correctly. When we get to the left side we need to e-wrap the same number of stitches, 4 on that side. First the cast on rag is hung on the 4 stitches, then knitted though with ravel cord by hand.

 

 

Since we want the stitches to be closed, pull them to hold position & e-wrap the 4 stitches over the ravel cord clockwise & hang a weight. 

 

Carriage on the left. Knit across. Carriage on the right. Again we increase 4 of stitches, first hang cast on rag, then ravel cord, knit through by hand, pull needles to hold & e-wrap counterclockwise & knit to the left. Same thing on the left side. Hang cast on rag on 4 stitches, knit through with ravel cord by hand, pull to hold & e-wrap clockwise & knit to the right. Continue in this fashion for the remaining rows, depending on your pattern. You can sometimes increase stitches without the ravel cord & cast on rag but you will not get an edge that is as nice as it is if you use the cast on rag & ravel cord method. You need to have some weight on the stitches for them to look nice. It makes all the difference.

 

 

 

 

Now that we have our short row increases finished we will knit to the waistband, do our ribbing, & cast off with the loop through loop bind off. After that we will have the diaper cover off the machine & will remove our cast on rags by pulling out the ravel cord, & have a nice finished edge.

 

 Determine the number of stitches that we will use for our leg ribbing & hang the finished edge on the machine without stretching too much, purl side facing you. Because of our e-wrap cast on we have a nice edge to hang on the machine. Knit the ribbing the same way you would for a grafted neckband.

 

And here is our finished diaper cover!! This cover will fit a Newborn to about 6 months. I sell these for $18.00 a pair.

 

 

 

 

Sweater for Afghanastan

Here is my finished A4A sweater. It should fit a young girl from about 10-12 years old. I am really glad that I decided to add some color to the front.

 

 

 

You can't add much to the sweaters because their religion dictates what they can wear & what they can't. I have a lot of wool scraps that I am saving for a striped scrappy for A4A. I didn't have quite enough for one this time, but by next year I should have plenty. I also like to use some greens because that is the color of Islam. Now if I can get a couple of pairs of mittens finished up I will be satisfied with my contribution.

 

 

I am still working on my short row tutorial. I should have it done before long. :-) 

 

 

 



Not Much to Say

Not much going on with me right now, other than filling orders. I do have some plans though. I am going to do a tutorial on 'Short Row Increases' with multiple stitches.  I have to work out the math for it, first. I am not much of a math whiz but this is just simple arithmetic so it shouldn't be too much trouble. I will show the process while I do it.

 

A4A has set July 31 for the due date so if anyone is knitting for them keep that in mind. I have knitted 3 pair of socks along with the sweater that I am making. All I need to do with it is knit the other sleeve & sew it up. I am hoping to get some mittens made too.

 

Why does it always seem like I am going 90 miles an hour?? I have so many things going on that I wonder if I am really enjoying myself as much as I could be. It seems to be that I have forgotten how to have fun. Everything I do is a different version of some type of work. I love my store & when it slows down I am worried that it won't pick up again. Then, when I am getting tons of orders I work myself to the bone just to keep up with it, & worry that I will get behind. Right now I am spending about 4 hours a day on the machine for my covers., plus another couple of hours making up. I don't have time to volunteer anymore & miss it. My DH suggested PMS, but I guess the look on my face stopped that conversation from continuing. LOL  

 

 

Charity Sweater for A4A

I have been working on my child's sweater for A4A. I decided that the Caramel was too boring for a little girl & thought that adding some color would be a good idea. I am using the Burnt Orange for the front, then the back & sleeves are to be Caramel. I can knit one of these up pretty quick, but had a couple of orders come in so had to finish those up before I can get to the sweater.

 

 

I know that the sweater looks really long in the picture, but I make all my charity sweaters hip length to keep tummy's warm. The neckband is short rowed & grafted onto the body of the sweater. As busy as I have been with my store this may be the only charity sweater that I get finished for the program. I do want to get some mittens knitted & felted before I ship this off.

 

Now....for the aggravating part. I sewed one shoulder together on the machine, then did the neckband. After that, I sewed the other shoulder. When I took the sweater off the machine I realized that I had dropped a stitch on the shoulder. I did repair it but that is the kind of thing that sends me up the walls. I walk around the house muttering to myself for days after I do something like that. Probably no one but me will ever know, but things like that can ruin my whole day.

 

 

 



Summer is Here(almost)

The sun is out & the weather is turning warmer. I'm looking forward to summer. Here in the Pacific Northwest it doesn't usually get up in the 80's or above. The last couple of summers it has been much warmer than normal. It looks like this one is going to be hotter too.

 

 

I have picked this color for my Afghans for Afghans sweater. This campaign they are asking for 100% wool sweaters, hats, mittens, or vests for girls ages 7-16. They prefer that you don't use a light colored yarn as they get dirty so fast. In a country with no hot water or washing machines dark colors are much better. I am making a size 10 drop shoulder with grafted sleeves & neckband.

 

My store has been very busy this year, with covers. Still not quite what it was before the recession, but getting there. My tee shirts are still not selling though. I didn't sell my heat press as I am hoping that sales would improve eventually. I have 300 infant & toddler tee shirts that I bought while they were selling out & then sales flat lined almost over night. Fortunately I have small grandkids that can wear some of them.