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Saturday, July 09, 2005 ( 1:05 PM ) Jessica Patchwork Girl's Rambling Warps has moved!The new location is http://weavingrainbow.com/blog Be sure to update your bookmarks & visit often! I also have another blog for homeschooling/unschooling: http://weavingrainbow.com/HSblogC'mon over! And don't be #Thursday, July 31, 2003 ( 2:25 PM ) Jessica This time last year I discovered blogs & shortly after, I decided I wanted to start my own blog & discovered blogspot. For a short while, my blog was on the tornadowood.com website, but we had a crash in February, I moved my blog back to blogspot "temporarily" and just recently started putting together a new blog on tornadowood. I had hoped it would be ready today, but it's not, so I'll just keep mirroring the posts so that the transition will be fairly smooth. I'm hoping to have some photo galleries of WIPs & FOs & knitalongs linked from the blog... I will have the usual links to the weblog rings (Fiber Arts Bloggers, Knitting & Mommies), Knitting Meetup & my tag-board and a couple of other favorite links. I THOUGHT about posting links to my "favorite" blogs, but have not decided what to do about that since sometimes there could be hurt feelings about it...what I will probably do instead is link exchanges. That will eliminate the risk of hurt feelings & other political nonsense. Also, if i mention something on someone else's blog, I'll post the link... none of this "favorite" stuff for me! A little history: I've been knitting since I was very young, around 6: I pestered my mom to teach me until she finally relented & cast on some yarn onto 2 pencils & I went from there learning to cast on & purl. I was never much of a compulsive knitter, but I had my moments & sometimes I took my knitting to school...somewhere I have a scarf that I made in a beige yarn with combinations of knits & purls to make diamond shapes & other random designs...that was NOT a curly scarf! I eventually learned to do needlepoint: anyone ever notice what copycats kids are? My mom took up needlepoint with a vengence & somewhere I have some of her framed pieces since she did some pieces for a friend who was doing a book on needlepoint. I do not remember the woman's name or the name of the book & my mom is not around to tell me... Susan something, I think. Helpful, huh? Sunday, July 27, 2003 ( 7:10 PM ) Jessica Here's an update of the Shapely Smooch top showing the neck...it's not easy to see, but next time I'll try to photograph it so that you can see the eyelets. They were fun to do!
Here's the back with an instant gratification Cottage Creations gingerbread (took less than a day & I didn't knit all day) that I made last week using discontinued Brunswick Germantown yarn from the stash...it's a bit mis-shapen, don'tcha think?
I still need to knit the sleeves for the Shapely Smooch top & I'm trying to decide how I want to do them. They'll probably be knit separately & sewn in rather than knit onto the top...I've also been swatching other yarns to try to decide what to work on next. I've been swatching my Gedifra Wellness (from Elann) & Luna Silk yarn (from artfibers)... I'm finding that I like the look of the swatch on tighter than recommended gauges..but this is before washing/blocking, so I'm not sure what to do...should I go with the recommended gauge for the yarn or go with the gauge that I like?
No photo updates of the Cabin Fever tank top, but I've been working on it during swimming lessons...it's 100% cotton & it's all I can stand working with in the hot weather... it's about 5" along now.
Evan & Micah have been working on their knitting a fair bit this weekend.
Micah is doing a sweater & it's supposed to be "oversized"...we did a "try on" when we switched from the smaller needle to the fatter one & it is HUGE for an 8 year old size...it's supposed to be about 37 inches or so... he's knitting in the round & changing colors when HE feels like it!
Evan is making a teddy bear tunic from the book "Sweaters for Teddy Bears: book I" by Betty Lampen... he's doing really good considering he's only been knitting a couple of weeks! He's using red heart rainbow yarn & has only been working on this since Thursday or Friday:
We had to do a lot of fiddling with Paint Shop Pro to get the colors to come close to reality...I think the tunic could have come out better, but y'all get the idea!
If this keeps up, we're going to have to set up a family knitting blog! I do have some worries about the boys terrorizing my yarn stash, but right now they're mostly interested in mostly acrylic yarns (machine washable)...
Harrison is learning to knit also... when he wants to knit, he sits on my lap & then we do the rhyme "under the fence, catch the sheep, back we come, off we leap"..he can do some of the knitting process himself, but has not been able to do a whole stitch alone...someday!
Reuven also likes to sit in my lap while I knit, and will hold one needle while I knit...for him, it's mostly for cuddling & watching... Tuesday, July 22, 2003 ( 9:56 PM ) Jessica We've been busy with swimming lessons...the twins are in level 3 & Harrison's in level 1 & Reuven's in the infant & preschool aquatic class... he seems to enjoy the water, for the first half hour or so & then he gets weird...he may not like being in the deeper water, even with a life vest on... he likes trying to jump though! He had no trouble floating, but he's slightly on the chubby side... I've been working on the Knitting Beyond the Hebrides Mystery project (see the instructions for it on www.knittngbeyondthehebrides.org)... only I'm going to have to stop taking it to swimming lessons because I chose Lopi lite yarn & it's horrible to knit with outdoors in the summertime... no problem with it in air conditioning...I've been procrastinating on finising the Shapely Smooch pattern because I'm having trouble understanding the neck section... I swatched the linen last week & came to the conclusion that I need 3 strands and a size 3 US needle to get a fabric I like. I'll have to do a tiny swatch to test wash... I'm going to use it to do the SpinCraft lace cardi with saddle shoulder, but will use a different lace pattern, probably one of the new scarf lace patterns...will let y'all know after I swatch. I probably won't work on this until later in the year since i still want to do another tank before I'm done. No photos today: i'm tired & am a little sunburned! How do you feed toddlers once they move from the "oooh, here's something I'm ALLOWED to put in my mouth!" (baby food) to acting like a cat: some days they'll gobble it up & another day will treat that previously loved food like it was the worst ting in the world... some days we can HONESTLY say that Reuven is full of bologna: he knows how to open the fridge now, so if the duct tape is worn off from the rest of us opening it, he can get in, so he helps himself to the bologna...and cheese... he'll gobble up entire slices of bread or he'll lick the peanut butter off his bread & leave the bread to call in the ants... this evening's antic was sitting ON the table instead of sitting in our chair... # Wednesday, July 16, 2003 ( 2:20 PM ) Jessica I got some new 8 Lea Linen yarn from mypollywogs in today's mail...bleached linen...two 3/4 lb cones & I'm planning to make a SpinCraft lace cardigan with saddle shoulder out of it. I won't start it right away, but I WILL swatch it right away! Here is a photo of it: 
I'm not happy with the picture: it was taken indoors without a flash & it was the only photo of the bunch that looks good & shows the yarn color somewhat accurately. I suppose I should try taking pictures outside, may do that another time.
I'm allllllllmost done with the back of the Shapely Smooch T & when I'm done with it, I'll see if I want to modify anything about the basic shoulder length/shaping before moving onto the sleeves...I'll post a photo update another time.
Meanwhile, here's some Gedifra Wellness & Valencia de Topacio that I bought a couple of weeks ago in anticipation of another project: some of this will be for the SpinCraft tank top:
The shawl this is sitting on was done on a triangle loom & it's available for sale. The yarns, however, are all mine!
I'm keeping today's entry shorter than my usual since Monday's entry didn't get posted for some reason & I want to give y'all a chance to read it before bombarding you with more stuff! Monday, July 14, 2003 ( 1:34 PM ) Jessica I thought I posted this entry on Monday, but it didn't show up on my blog... well here it is again & I guess it's time to start using my new Movable Type blog instead of using this...as soon as all my other doodads (tag-board, etc) are fixed up on the MT blog, I'll post the link.. Did a bit of knitting over the weekend. I have a few more rows to do on the back of my Shapely Smooch T & took a break from knitting a lot on that project & made a Cottage Creations Gingerbread using Yarns Brunswick Germantown worsted in a gingery color... I started it on Friday or Saturday & it was done last night. Harrison fell asleep with it. Last night I started Cottage Creations Bridget or Paddy, I haven't decided which. I'm ready to do the eyes & haven't decided between a bright blue or pale blue yet. The skin color yarn is a wonderful Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride in the discontinued Prairie Peach...when I found out that the color was discontinued, I bought a few skeins of it just in case... I'm glad I did! About 5 years ago, when the twins were 3 years old, I made Paddy using mostly Lamb's Pride yarns & a couple of the yarns were Brown Sheep Naturespun... we're not sure what happened to this doll, it was lost in 2000 & this is the first time that I've decided to make another... I will probably do it differently than the pattern suggests: instead of making an Aran sweater, I may design a fair isle sweater... I thought this would be a good way to do a fair isle for the first time... I haven't decided how to do this other than to knit in the round & I will probably do steeks, but won't do machine steeks since this sweater would be knitted onto the doll... I do have a little hand held sewing machine that looks a little like a stapler, but we never figured out how to use it..I'll only be steeking the sleeves, not sure if I'll modify the neck except for the colors.... I wrote to Cottage Creations about carrying their patterns on the tornadowood website & if anyone is interested in maybe doing a knit along with one of the CC dolls, let me know! I might be able to put together some Jaggerspun 2/8 Maine line kits for this if there is enough interest... I'll post pictures in the next day or two! # Thursday, July 10, 2003 ( 7:37 AM ) Jessica Last night I finished the front of my Shapely Smooch T... at least I THINK I did, I'll have to see if it looks okay & fits okay & may decide to re-do it, I'm not sure. I started working on the back above the armholes (remember I worked in the round up to the armholes & the section below the armholes is ALL done) and am STILL trying to decide which back neck to use: Smooch or Shapely? I'll probably use the Smooch back neck since it'd probably match the front better... and will use the armhole edging from Shapely... Kids knitting: Evan & Micah are both working on knitting squares: they want to make bean bags out of their squares, an idea they got from Melanie Falick's Kids Knitting book. I think Evan finally got the hang of how to do the knit (garter) stitch but he has a funny way of doing his stitches & occasionally gets a purl row... I try to tell him to insert the needle point UP into the stitch, but I'm not sure how he's achieving this purl stitch, I didn't TEACH him purl yet & told both of the boys that I want to see perfect garter stitches before I'll teach them purl... I think Evan is still getting the feeling for the needles, he "got" how to knit a couple of weeks ago: I showed him, sat him in my lap, knit a row or two while he watched, then took his hands & held his hands through the stitches, etc...and he'd spend a few minutes, put the knitting down, come back & try again until he figured it out & now he doesn't have to sit next to me or in my lap... he knits very tight, probably because he's holding the needles very tightly... I've tried to tell him to relax... the needles won't run away, etc... Monday, July 07, 2003 ( 10:42 PM ) Jessica In case anyone tried to access my blog in the afternoon/evening on Monday & thought it looked strange, that's because Gary exported the blog to Movable Type on tornadowood, and forgot to change this back... I'll be mirroring blog entries (except for site specific entries, like this one) on both sites, and then when the templates & everything else is in place on the new site, I'll start using the new blog space more often & stop using this one... hopefully we won't experience another crash on tornadowood like we did last time... Got a couple more repeats done on the other half of the front this evening & that should be done tomorrow & then I'll start on the back...and sleeves... # ( 5:30 PM ) Jessica I got a bit of progress done on the Smooch T (which is evolving into something different than a Smooch tank)...I'm loving this: last night I was working on one side of the front v-neck & couldn't convince myself that sleeping JUST might be a good idea, I wanted to see how the front would turn out... I got a fair bit done & just need to finish the other side of the front & start the back & make sleeves & voila! I think I'm going to call this the Shapely Smooch T since I'm using some of the instructions from the Whitelies Designs Shapely t & tank pattern for this project... here's what's happening: I adjusted the number of stitches to go with my gauge of 4.5 stitches to the inch. I did the picot edging & the V-lace edging from the smooch pattern I did the body shaping from the Smooch pattern I put in some short rows for the bust I used the armhole shaping from the Shapely tank pattern and the V-neck shaping from the Smooch pattern I will use short rows for the shoulders & do a 3 needle bind off I haven't decided whether to use the back neck shaping from the Shapely tank pattern or the Smooch pattern, I'll probably use the Smooch shaping for the back. I will follow the sleeve pattern from the Shapely T pattern but will do the bottom of the sleeves differently. I don't know if I'll do the sleeves in the round or not. I did a try on this morning & it's snug but looks like it'll be a good fit. Someone commented that I'm working fast... but I must be one of the slowest competent knitters on the planet! I wouldn't call myself experienced since there's a lot of things I haven't tried yet, but I'm not afraid to try new techniques. as far as speed goes, I knit at a lesiurely meditative pace... if I try to knit fast it hurts, so I don't... remember the Hare & the Tortoise: slow & steady wins the race... however, fast & steady will beat me any day! Sunday, July 06, 2003 ( 2:08 PM ) Jessica PHOTOS! I think my problem with taking photos may be because I'm not as tall as Gary, so I tried standing up on my Bollinger Stepper to make me about 4 or 5 inches taller & that may be all that I need to get a better focus... anyway, here is a photo of my Cabin Fever tank top: 
It has a big of glare from the flash, but this will give you an idea what I'm working on. I'm especially pleased with how the cast on came out: I emailed the pattern designer, Deb, and she said that she used the long tail cast on combined with the ribbing cast on that is shown in Elizabeth Zimmermann's book "Knitting Around"... I did the regular long tail for the knit part of the ribbing & the purl long tail for the purl part of the ribbing & I'm happy with it, especially since I spent a bit of time trying to do some of the other cast ons, including the cable cast on & knit on cast on & tubular cast on and was NOT happy with any of them...
This project is something I can work on during TV time & I'll get back to spending more time with it once the Smooch top is done. I've decided how I'm going to do the sleeves: for the armhole decreases, I'll follow the instructions for the White Lies Designs T, which is shown in the instructions for the Shapely T and Shapely Tank, both free patterns...For the v-neck, I'll follow the instructions for Smooch & I'll do the picot edging at the bottom of the sleeves to match the tank...
Here is an updated photo of Smooch showing the whole thing so far. Notice the way the sides draw in for the shaping:
Here is a close up of the shaping section:
And finally, if you'd like to see a photo of the silk bookmarks I'm weaving on my Mesquite Little Stick inkle loom, it can be seen on the I Can Spin website on the Inkle Weaving Pages.
And last, I leave you with a photo of Littleface looking comfy (????):
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