Pinnet Tunic Top

Life is always hectic, and this time of year it feels more so.  Spring is coming, so there's a garden to plan, but also end-of-the-year school events, doctor's appointments, a busy season in my main Etsy shop selling reusable products and then... Girl Scout cookie season.

Due to some miscommunication, I, as troop leader, ended up with the rest of the troop's cookies in my house a week before sales ended.  We had way too many cookies and I had no idea until that moment.  Our troop did great in getting rid of them, and we had a lot of help from another troop, but things were dicey for a while.  I didn't sleep for three nights in a row after I saw those cookies!

This happened just as I posted looking for testers for my newest pattern - a lightweight girl's tunic perfect for summer days, with pretty little picots along the sleeves and hem and a button placket on the back.

It's over now, and things have calmed down. I've caught up with orders in my Etsy shop and I'm glad to say that I can now concentrate on my favorite things - my kids and my knitting -again!

Here's the tunic, modeled a size too big on my 4 year old daughter:

It turned out really cute and I'm pleased with it, if not the fit on my daughter!  (But I knit a size 6 and she wears a 5T)

It's a fairly simple pattern, but not a beginner pattern, due to a button placket on the back and picot bind offs.  I knit this one in a superwash sock yarn in a fingering weight, but plan to make my final version in a cotton or linen blend - perfect for a warm summer day!  Look for it in my Ravelry shop in late April 2017!

Scrappy!

I wish I had taken a picture of it!  I had a bin FULL of scrap sock yarn.  Some of it was from my own sock-knitting.  Some I received in trade for other items.  I also had quite a bit from the Phat Fiber boxes I was a part of years ago.

Why throw good yarn away?

All of that scrap yarn, and 3 1/2 years of knitting off and on and I'm done!

 

This is Frankie Brown's Ten Stitch Blanket.  I love this pattern and it's simplicity.  Once you have the corners down, it's a perfect project for knitting during a suspenseful TV show.  Best of all, it's a free pattern!

 I modified the ten stitch cast on to fifteen stitches, and I added a 4 stitch applied i-cord to the edge to make it look more finished.

Even though it's very nearly July, I'm suddenly obsessed with blankets.  I'm currently working on a test knit blanket for a well-known pattern maker and I'm spinning all my superwash wool top to make a Domino Star Blanket (yes, crazy, I know!)

New State, New Plans

Well, months pass and things change.  My husband's job was not renewed in Nashville, and his boss wanted him in the Twin Cities, Minnesota.  A great thing for me, because I grew up south of the Cities, and wanted to move back anyway.

We have spent the last three months living with my parents while we sold our house in Tennessee.  It has been pleasant - I have to say, I have great, understanding parents! (Who else would house a family with four children under 10 for three months and not go crazy?)

We close on our house in the suburbs next week.  It's going to be a big change!  From over two acres of land to 3/4 of a acre (a huge lot here!)  There are a lot of projects in this house but there's also a lovely sun room and a space for my husband and his musical equipment farther from the bedrooms. A nice thing, for sure!  The people who own the house now have put a lot of work into making the house energy efficient and landscaping in an ecological friendly way.

Here it seems the biggest challenge is to not slip back into using convenience items - my dad's coffeepot broke and he bought a K-Cup dispenser.  Paper towels, quick meals, etc.  The house isn't set up for a more reusable lifestyle.

(As an aside:  We all are at different levels of sustainability.  We have our powerhouses of ecological friendliness, and we have people who are still working on simply putting things in the recycling bin.  It's not for us to judge where someone is at - not only is it something very personal, but it is fluid; each person changes from day to day, based on circumstances.)

I've been knitting and spinning like crazy, too.  Hey, it's Minnesota, and winter's coming!

Getting back to normal

It's been a busy month, September.  And here we are, 10 days into October and I'm realizing Christmas is only a couple months away.  My father-in-law passed about a week after my last post, and the emergency trip to the East Coast threw things off for a while.  Just as we were getting back into the swing of things, the first school term ended for the kids, so we're on a two-week fall break now.  I find any spare moments I have are spent trying to keep up with orders from my Etsy business.

I recently finished a book called "Serve God, Save the Planet" by Matthew Sleeth, M.D. If you are a Christian or hold similar beliefs, it's worth a read.  His premise is that we are called not only to look out for God's creation (i.e. the natural world) but for the people on it.  Ultimately, his book might be summed up with the phrase, "Live simply, so others can simply live."  Some of what he does is beyond me right now, but I think small steps are important!

We finally broke down and subscribed to our local garbage hauling service's recycling.  We had good intentions to buy our own bins and haul it to the recycling station, but after almost 5 years, we never had done it.  Already in four days, we've only emptied the kitchen trash twice, instead of nightly.  I'm still looking for ways to reduce our trash, but it's a good start.  (We also compost all food, and I'm starting to compost certain paper and cloth products.)

I've also started putting up all our dry goods in canning jars rather than leaving them in bags and boxes.  An Epic Ant Invasion that only ended when the ants went underground to hibernate, despite my best attempts to eradicate the nest, meant a constant struggle to keep them out of the food.  Hopefully the jars will slow them down!

The labels are from Bright Swan Creations in Ontario, and are super simple.  I used a chalk paint pen and it wipes off with water.  You just let the "paint" dry for a few minutes and you no longer have to worry about smudging. (Though if you look closely, my "ancho" chiles look like "ancha" thanks to a husband impatient to clear the countertop!)  The labels are basically strong vinyl stickers, so they peel and stick perfectly.

Finally, I wanted to share this article, which goes back to the "Live Simply so others can Simply Live" principle: Life in a Degrowth Economy.  Even our governments around the world are starting to see we need to change our consumption, which is good news as long as it helps the individuals in those countries become more aware and desire to change!

Basic Heavy Duty Potholder Crochet Pattern

So I thought I was pretty smart when I came up with this pattern several years ago.  Then I discovered that many other people are as smart as I am and were smart before I was! :D  So the idea is not unique, but I've still written it up so anyone who wants to can make their own heavy duty potholder.

Basically, it's a densely crocheted cotton potholder, doubled up and seamed around the edges using crochet stitches.  It's useful and pretty, and heavy duty utilitarianism at its best.  These things can practically be used in blacksmithing!  (Okay, well, maybe not, but they are very protective. :D )  I take these potholders from the kitchen straight to the dining room table where they are also trivets for the serving dishes.  So it's handy to have a few hanging around.

It's really simple to make these; even if you just have a basic knowledge about crochet, you can do this. Admittedly, I'm a fast crocheter, but I can make one of these in an evening while watching TV.  You can adjust the size by adjusting the number of stitches you chain at the beginning.  I like to have a really big one around for larger pots and pans - especially when it's on our antique wooden table and it's hot!

You can also find this pattern as a free PDF download on my Ravelry design page.  If you would like to use this for a class, I just ask that you drop me a line and I'd be glad to provide you with the PDF version of my pattern.

I'd love if you would drop me a note at my Mulberry Fibers Ravelry group or make a Ravelry project page for your potholder!  I love to see what people create.  If you aren't a part of Ravelry, it's a great resource for all things knitting and crochet, with hundreds of thousands of patterns, forums where you can ask questions and chat, and a fun (if a bit neurotic) way to catalog all your yarnie projects and stash.

Materials:

Approximately 150 yards of worsted weight cotton yarn.

Finished Size:Finished size using gauge below will be approximately 8 ½” by 8 ½”.

Gauge:

Gauge is unimportant for this pattern, however, as written, you should have an approximate gauge of 3 ½ st per inch to get the sizing above.

Hook:

Suggested hook size:  US I/5.5mm

Instructions:

Chain 29

Row 1 (set up row):  In the second chain from your hook, single crochet (sc) 1 time.  Single crochet (sc) in every chain across.  Make one chain (ch) and turn your work.

Row 2: Single crochet (sc) 1 time in every single crochet from the previous row. Make one chain (ch) and turn your work.

Repeat row 2 approximately 68 more times, until, when folded in half widthwise, your work measures the same on each side (a square).

When your work, doubled, is a square, cut your working yarn and pull it through the last chain.

Finishing:

You are now going to seam your work together with crochet stitches to form the thick potholder with an insulating air pocket.

Fold your work in half again, this time using pins or clips to hold it in place.  Line up the rows to keep it even.  Attach your working yarn at the fold, and single crochet (sc) evenly across one side. 

When you reach the corner, single crochet (sc) three (3) times in the same space. 

Single crochet (sc) across top. 

At the corner, again, single crochet (sc) three (3) times in the same corner space. 

Finally, single crochet (sc) across third side.

Now all four sides of your potholder are closed.

Create the loop: without cutting your yarn, chain several times, tightly.  Once the chain is long enough for you (a minimum of 2”), slip stitch (sl st) into the fold of your potholder, next to the last single crochet (sc).

Cut yarn and pull through.

To weave in any ends, simply use your crochet hook to pull them to the inside of the potholder.

Other options:

-Crochet two squares instead of a long rectangle and use the finishing technique on all four sides instead of three.

-Make your potholder larger or smaller by adding or subtracting from your beginning chain.  (33 stitches chained makes a very large, nice potholder for commercial cooking!)

- Use up your scrap cotton – ends can be crocheted over using a new color, and then tucked inside the potholder.

The Ugly to the Beautiful - DIY creation

I read a blog today about a bathroom renovation, done by the blogger's husband.  It reminded me a lot of the work we have done in our own house.

We bought our two-story, 1905 house in 2009, with one floor livable and failing systems.  The bank wouldn't even let us buy it until we replaced all the windows and floors on the first floor!  Probably not our smartest move, but it all worked out and we got the house.  The upstairs was completely unlivable - unheated with no insulation and wallpaper crumbling off the walls dating back to the beginning of the 20th century.  You can see that part of the upstairs was finished...barely...

Since then, we've replaced (or added for the first time) two heat and air conditioning units - one for each floor.  We've renovated the upstairs into three bedrooms and a hallway, completely carpeted and drywalled, with new windows and insulation.  We have one last room up there that is mostly unrenovated, with hardwood floors and plumbing installed up to the second floor for a bathroom.

Downstairs we've painted, renovated two bathrooms (one had a floor that was an inch lower than the rest of the house - that was fun!), capped or taken down two useless chimneys, rewired, and cut back years of plant growth and overgrown 100-year old tree limbs outside.  We've also dug up an old sidewalk and two more steps off our front porch because of something someone down at the Dollar General said about her childhood.

I'm sure there's more, but you get the idea. :)  I think it would be fun to do some before and after pictures. I was looking through my original photo folder and it's amazing the difference.

I was reminded today of the pride and joy we feel, taking something ugly and ruined or worthless and making it beautiful.  This could be something as big as a house, or as small as a braided rag rug made with an old, holey sheet.   We are meant to create, and I think that making something from something ugly is even more profound than making something from almost nothing.

Clothesline

When we lived in Ohio, we had a great clothesline.  It sat between two big trees. The two lines - one at my waist and one at eye-level - were the perfect amount of space for our growing family.  The sun hit the line just right, so it was perfect for sunning out stains in the afternoon.

When we moved into our fixer-upper in Nashville, and through the past 4 or 5 years, a lot fell by the wayside as we coped with the repairs to the house and two new (and unexpected) pregnancies.  We had a brand new, energy efficient dryer, and no good place to put a clothesline.  I was overwhelmed and completely stressed out for the first two years.  And the clothesline never was set up.

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This spring we took another look at our electricity bill.  Too much.  Too much for running no heat or airconditioning; just the kitchen appliances, the washer/dryer, and the electronics like my computer and the TV.  What was causing such a high bill?

We turned off the electricity to the entire house - every single breaker was flipped off.  No phantom energy was going to affect our experiment if we could help it!

Then, one by one, husband turned a breaker on and ran each appliance separately.  I watched the wattage meter outside.

Surprisingly, the one thing that really got the meter going almost as fast as the air conditioner was the dryer!  My brand new, energy efficient dryer!  And with four young children, two loads a day was pretty standard.

Did you know that even dryers with good ratings are costing you a lot of money?  Have you heard that they wear out clothes faster?  (You know those mystery holes you sometimes get in clothing?  Clothes get caught on buttons, zippers, and even loose parts of your dryer as they tumble. And the lint you see is bits of your clothing being worn away with heat and agitation.)

I bet you can guess what happened next...

Yep.  A line went up pretty quickly!

I don't think it's self-evident in the picture, but we have a four car carport attached to the back of the house.  The best place to put the line, without having to haul wet laundry hundreds of feet across the property, was along the back side of the carport.  We were able to put up about 80-100 feet of line, doubling it as you see it.

It actually works quite nicely.  It's hard to hang or take down the clothes when the cars are parked under the carport (the other two sides hold our machinery, tools, and kids outdoor toys and bikes.)  But the line gets a good breeze, and is protected from rain, hail, and bird poop.  Yes, the bird poop is always fun.

Additionally, if I get the clothing up in the morning, the sun comes over the hill midmorning and hits the clothes just right.  So I'm able to use the sun to bleach out stains (this is remarkably effective!)

It's more work.  But it's refreshing - peaceful, even - to go outside and hang those clothes out.  To connect with women before me, completing the same tasks as they did.  One recent fact I read was that only 10% of households in 1955 had a dryer.  My grandmother (born in the 1940s) was probably the first generation to enjoy a dryer, and then only when her children were mostly grown.  In most other countries, clothes dryers are still rare!

To be honest, I also feel like I'm kind of "flipping the bird" at the power company, too! :D