Making Lemonade

You know that moment when you realize that not all is going along as swimmingly as you hoped?  That moment when a project does sideways?  That moment you realized that you made a mistake and that you have several choices?

This is what happened to me.  I thought I was finishing the second of a pair of fingerless mittens.  I was really happy and pleased.  I bound off the main part of the mitt, and tried it on before finishing the thumb.

I am surprised you did not hear me moan in agony.  I realized that I had left out the final repeat of the woven pattern!

Oops!  The one on the left is missing a repeat.

Rather than making a rash decision, I put the mitt down and did something else.

I thought about it and knew I could either frog the mitt back, or decide I was making a longer pair and a shorter pair.

I decided to make the two pair as I thought the first one was a bit long for my liking.

So now I have to wind more yarn into a magic ball.  More Russian joins!

Have you had a crafting oops?  How did you deal with it?

Happy New Year!

Here's to 2015 being better than 2014.

I hate making resolutions.  Mostly, because they will be broken before the month is done.  All good intentions are forgotten and old patterns get repeated.

So the usual wish to be happier, healthier, wealthier, and smaller is made.  Just give me one out of the four and I'll call it a good year.

May 2015 treated you kindly.  May you heart be filled with love.  And don't forget to make something, too.

I will knit socks, of course.  I have been on a hat and fingerless mitt kick of late.  On tap is a toddler hat for spring. 

I am also doing a T.I.A.S. (Tat It And See)  Check it out on Jane Eborall's blog

So what are your crafting plans and hopes for the new year?  Make a comment and let me know.

Happy Holidays

The holidays are upon us.  

Have you finished your Thanksgiving leftovers?  The sweet potato casserole is done and the Christmas baking is in full swing.  As I write this, the house baker is in the kitchen baking fruit cake.

I have limited my holiday crafting this year.  Last year, by this time I had knitted  close to a dozen Christmas stockings. 

Abby Scroni makes a
 holiday appearance.

This year, I am just doing socks for the 5 year old nephew.  He asked for them and approved the yarn, too.

He has also asked me for a vest, mittens, hats, scarves, and armor.  Apparently, he thinks I am the aunt who can knit anything!  He's too young to remember my attempts at knitting sweaters.  

I hope that your holidays fill your heart with joy, love, and laughter.

Results of the Kool Aid Experiment

Two posts ago I wrote about dying yarn with Kool Aid (see the post The Kool Aid Experiment).  I thought you might like a look at what I knitted from that yarn.

Pearl and the Kool Tiles!

What do you think of all the pretty colors?  Georgous! 

I used Knit Picks Stroll Tonal in Pearlescent as a backdrop for the Kool tiles.  Then to make it long enough to be usable, I added crochet box shell to both ends in Sensations Truly Beige.

I love how the crocheted blocks echo the blocks of color.

I owe a special thank you to my friend Karla for helping me dye the yarn and for listening when I was in a tizzy over how to complete this.  She suggested using an earthy color on the ends.

Karla is so creative and has a great eye for color.   Be sure to stop by her store on Etsy. Visit Karla's store by clicking here  I know she will appreciate and you might find some wonderful soap or socks to buy for the gift giving season.

I am entering Pearl and the Kool Tiles into the local scarf and fiber show.  I will try to post photos of it hanging on the wall.

Ready for High School Football 2014!

Are you ready for high school football?

Nephew # 1 is a junior and plays on both the offensive and defensive lines.  In honor of that, I have tatted two pairs of earrings in school colors.  I hope they hold up to all the  jumping around I do while cheering the team on.  

I did these earrings before in another colorway.
The pattern is in Tatted Jewelry by Marilee Rockley.
Pattern name is Keyed Up.
I chose to omit the bottom drop.

I need to re-block these!
Perhaps even to do them again.
These are my version of Time & Again Earrings
 from Marilee's Beaded Tatted Finery.

To tell the truth, I am still a little unsure of my finishing, of my hiding of the final ends.  And of my jump rings.  I need something better at closing jump rings that what I already have.

Don't worry, I'm still knitting.

The Kool Aid Experiment

An afternoon of fun with my friend Karla resulted in this:

LOOK at all the colors!!!!!!

Yes, we dyed it ourselves using Kool Aid.  Being crazy for color we experimented with mixing colors to create new colors, dropping several color on the same mini skein, and having a good time.

Tray # 1:  First color is Lemon Lime (that's the flavor).
 Next is a two tone of a blue and lemon lime.
Followed by Peach Mango, Black Cherry, and
another mixed skein.
The mixed skeins on this tray were done by Karla.
A great job!

We started with Knit Picks Bare, a lovely yarn that's 70% superwash merino wool, 30% silk.  I divided it up in to mini skeins of approximately 25 yards each, more or less.  I'm thinking they are a bit longer than 25 yards as I was not precise when measuring.

Tray # 2
Orange, another of Karla's mixed, a denim like periwinkle, Garden (yes, Karla),
Ice Berry Blue and an attempt for something brown which turned out
mahogany like.

It was simple.  Using the unsweetened Kool Aid, we mixed a packet with 8 oz (a cup) of water.  We soaked the yarn for at least an hour, and then the fun began.

Tray # 3
More mixing of colors.
Karla's Mai Tai, my skein own splotchy,
yellow (Lemonade with a few drops of food coloring),
Strawberry, and what we call Squink.

Using glass loaf pans, we placed a mini skein in one and then added the Kool Aid. Some are just one color, others were mixed.  And we tried our hand at variegated yarn and loved it!

All the glorious colors!

Then we covered it with plastic wrap and then nuked it for 2 minutes in the microwave.  We let it cool and check to see if all the color was in the yarn.  If so, we rinsed it and let it dry.

So fun, so easy.
Look is up on Pinterest or your favorite search engine.

I know we will try this again.  Maybe the next time we will keep track of our color mixes.

If you are a color junkie like us, you have to try this at least once in your life.

The yarn dried & re-skeined!
Top row is Tray 1, middle row is Tray 2,
and the bottom row is Tray 3.

Just a quick update

IsDihara, you asked for a look at the progress on my doily so here it is along with some other stuff I've been tatting.  Please keep in mind that I have not block any of these items.

Progress on the doily has stopped.  There is another
 round in the pattern but I like it this way.

I like to tat butterflies.
Can you find the one with the mistake?

I won a bunch of tatting goodies on Yarnplayer's blog.
The earrings are done in her thread Stardate (love the name!).
The beads and earring wires are mine from some previous project.
Also included in the goodies were some flowery squares and circles like the one shown above.
This was an experiment at tatting without a pattern.  Not bad, I think.

You know I love books so I ordered two books on tatting.
One is New Tatting by Tomoko Morimoto and that is
where the square motif can be found.

I am a baby tatter, a novice yet and have miles to go and more things to learn and perfect.  Weaving in the final end is something I must work on.  Maybe that's why I like to tat butterflies - no weaving in of ends!

I have found that tatting takes a different mind set than knitting.  With knitting, I can sit down and knit and feel a calmness, a certain serenity come over me as I do stitch after stitch.  With tatting, I have to center myself before picking up my shuttles.  And I can't marathon tat like I can marathon knit.  I find I must put the tatting aside because I lost my emotional center, or just get tired of flipping the stitch.

So someday I may finish that doily.  I may not as I like as it is now.

That's the great thing about making things.  I get to decide when they are finished.

What do you like about your chosen crafts?