daily sketch

A quick little pencil sketch.  

I probably won't have a chance to post anything in the next few days.  My husband & I will be celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary.

another knitting Sunday

Today I started some gloves out the green yarn I unraveled on Friday.  This is a test knit, I didn't spin or straighten the yarn first.  It appears to be working up like a heavy sport or light DK weight yarn.  I am knitting at a fairly tight gauge - about 7 stitches to the inch.  So far I really like how the gloves are turning out.


I also blocked a sweater vest that I finished up yesterday.  I wasn't planning on knitting a sweater but I found the perfect pattern for some, um, "well seasoned" yarn that I had.  It is the Shalom Cardigan by Meghan McFarlane, located on her website involvingthesenses.blogspot.com.

banana bread

I had some over-ripe bananas that needed using up so I made banana bread for my project today.

whole wheat banana bread

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cups  wheat gluten
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup agave
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 ripe bananas)
1 tsp vinegar
1/4 cup chopped nuts
1/4 tsp cardamom
cooking spray


1. Preheat oven to 325°.
2. Combine all dry ingredients in a medium bowl and blend well.  In a separate medium bowl blend all wet ingredients.  In a large bowl add dry ingredients alternately with liquids, beginning and ending with a dry (this helps to make the bread less “heavy”).  
3. Spray mini 12-loaf pan with cooking spray and spoon batter into pans with an ice cream scoop.  
4. Bake 15 minutes or until golden brown and pick inserted in center of loaves comes out clean. Do not over bake! Alternately use one 9” x 5” loaf pan and bake 50-60 min.

sweater unraveling

Today I unraveled another sweater.  This is a wool blend that I think should work well for socks.  In its current freshly unraveled state it is 2 plies very loosely spun together.   I will need to add twist before using it for socks - it will not be very durable as is.

a 50 % wool, 20% viscose, 15% nylon, 10% angora, %5 cashmere  Jeanne Pierre sweater ready to be unraveled 

the sweater disassembled 

mid-unravel

completely unraveled - 467 grams of "new" yarn

4-ply cashmere

Tonight I 4-plied some thread weight cashmere that I had unraveled from a moth eaten sweater.  The resulting yarn is about a sport weight.

dryer balls

Tonight I made some felted dryer balls.  Adding these (about 6 per load) to the dryer when drying a load of clothes is supposed to replace dryer sheets and decrease drying time.   There are many ways to make these,  below are the steps I followed to make mine.  I used a skein of feltable wool yarn with miscellaneous wool scraps that I saved from knitting projects, spinning and unraveling thrift store sweaters.  To felt the balls I just wash and dry them a few times with the rest of my laundry.  When they seem felted enough I simply stop washing them and only add them to the dryer.

my wool scrap pile 

wool yarn being wrapped around a wad of wool scraps

with more wrapping

yarn wrapped until scraps are no longer visible and then end secured by running it through the ball numerous times

balls ready to be felted

a previously made dryer ball ready to be put to work

ATC (artist trading cards)

A couple of Artist Trading Cards, on watercolor paper with watercolors, ink and joss paper .

pocket concertina book

For my project today I made a conertina (accordion) style folded book with pockets.  

I sized it to hold ATC  (Artist Trading Cards).   Now I suppose I should make some trading cards to go in it, and maybe some to trade as well.   That would be a good project for tomorrow.

sock knitting

Started pair number 15 today, a simple pair of ribbed footies.

watercolor sketch

beech tree

tote bag insert

Today I made a tote bag insert following instructions that a saved from an old Martha Stewart magazine.  I tried to find the instructions online but couldn't find them.  I found a similar looking tote bag insert made from an apron on her website.  The one I made required cutting and sewing the fabric pieces to make the pockets but was still pretty simple to make.

sock knitting

I made a push today to try to finish up my circle socks.  I didn't quite get there but tomorrow I'll be able to finish them up no problem.   Not sure if I mentioned it in the blog but I set a goal to knit 30 pairs this year. These will make pair number 14.  I am a little behind schedule, but still optimistic that I'll reach my goal.  And at the end of the year I will still have way too much yarn and will need to set a similar goal for next year.  sigh.  I have set myself a strict yarn diet which I am pretty much sticking to.   Hopefully I will be pretty much caught up by the end of next year.  Or at least back to a yarn level that isn't too overwhelming.

petal box

A small petal box made using a template from the Magenta Style Paper Magic book.  If I were to make this for a gift I would add the flower decoration like they did in the book.  It is a cute box but it definitely has an unfinished look to it .

watercolor sketch

A quick little value sketch of a possible painting subject.

paper jester tutorial

Supplies needed: jester template, cardstock, scissors (or craft knife), strong thread, a plastic ring (about 1/2" diameter), 5 brad type fasteners, and a permanent marker

To make:  download and print out the jester template pieces

jester template

trace jester pieces onto cardstock and cut out

draw details on with a permanent marker

punch holes at joins and thread brad through each hole

run a thread between both arm holes (do not run thread through the holes in the body) and tie on each end,

repeat for leg holes

cut a long piece of thread and loop through a plastic ring, tie one end of thread to center of thread joining the arms and one end to the thread joining the legs

the finished jester

pull on thread to raise the arms & legs

sock knitting

circle socks

Did some sock knitting today.  The lace & cable socks just need to bound off and the circle socks just need a little more length on the cuffs.  I love how the lace & cable socks fit.  The circle socks are worked with more negative ease (10%) then I usually go with.  Hopefully they won't be uncomfortable to wear, the only time I've run into problems with socks being uncomfortable is when I knit them with too much negative ease.  I know 20% is too much, not sure if 10% will be too much.

lace & cable socks

daily sketch

knit face scrubbies

Recently I switched to using cotton squares to clean my face at night and the wastefulness of the disposable ones has prompted me to make some that I can wash and reuse.  Using some linen yarn (worsted weight) I bought at a thrift store a few years ago I knit up a few little face scrubbies. 

To make these I cast  on 17 stitches on size 6 needles and knit until the piece looked square.   They ended up being approximately 3 1/4" square.   Each is knit up in a single simple pattern - seed stitch, garter stitch etc.   I was just trying to knit so the resulting square would lay flat.  

plying Banana cream pie

I finally finished spinning the "Banana Cream Pie" Romney fiber that I bought a few months ago.  It was spun on a 30 gram Turkish spindle and 3-plied on a 1 3/8 ounce top-whorl spindle,using the Navajo plying technique.  Now I suppose I should start thinking about what to do with the yarn I have been spinning.  It is still too thick and uneven for socks and not really soft enough for a hat so that eliminates my 2 favorite knitting projects.  Maybe a little felted bag would work, something like the little entrelac bag from Interweave Knits.

tarn (t-shirt yarn)

Making "tarn" (yarn made from t-shirts) has been appealing to my thrifty/recycling nature for awhile now.  Tonight I finally got around to trying it.  For my tarn I used an old t-shirt that I had set aside to make into rags.  I cut the shirt into one long 3/4" wide spiraling strip.  The resulting tarn ending up being about a super bulky weight. 

 I tried both knitting and crocheting a sample with the tarn.  I personally didn't care to knit with it.  Crocheting was much more pleasant.  It worked up very thick.  I thought it might make a cute chunky bracelet but I didn't care for the one I made.  Rugs are about the only thing I can realistically see making from it.

landscape number 2

 Landscape number 2 - only 198 more to go.    This watercolor painting was inspired by a recent trip to Gaylord, Michigan.  It isn't quite finished yet.  I'm not sure what it needs so I will just put it aside for now.

acrylic painting no. 1 - finished

Finished up the acrylic painting I started a few days ago.  At least I think it is finished.  I am going to leave it sit for a few weeks before I decide if it needs more work.  It is not quite what I has envisioned, but I need to be able to look at it without that in mind to really decide if I like how it turned out.

Sock knitting

Another sock knitting Sunday.  I have almost finished the lace & cable socks, just about 1 or 2 more inches to go on the cuffs.  I have also started a new pair - toe-up circle socks.

Acrylic painting no 1 continued

Continued working on the acrylic painting that I started yesterday.  I decided to stick with the collaged bird theme.  It still has a ways to go.

 I probably won't have a chance to post anything tomorrow.  I have a wedding to go to.  My niece is getting married :)