Ipod Cozy

My birthday present needed some protection. A cozy place to spend its days and nights.  I looked online for tutorials, and searched Etsy for ideas, but I was surprised at how few of them even came close to what I wanted.  I finally just trekked out alone, into Trial-n-Error Land. :)

I wanted something I could keep the ipod in while I used it. I toyed with the idea of leaving a round cutout for the control-thingy, and a rectangle open (or covered with plastic) for the screen, but decided that was a lot of variables to mess with on short notice.

Yes, I used (some of) the same fabric as my wallet. :) When secured, the flap leaves open the plug area for the earbuds, and also the little lock-switch thingy.

I wanted a slot in the bottom so I could charge it - without removing it. The front sports a pocket for tucking in earbuds, though usually I just wrap the wires around the whole thing, then secure it with the velcro-flap.

And of course I left the selvage dots. :)

A New Wallet!

I love a new wallet.  Don't you?  Clean, crisp, perfect spots to put certain things.  I do love it when I know just the *right* place for something.  Probably because until and unless there is a *right* place, it just sits out in the way and clutters my life.  I don't know why...

But in any case.. I made myself this new wallet!

How long do you suppose it will remain white?

It's not terribly unlike the last wallet I made; the outside is one piece however, not 'quilted,' I used a magnetic clasp instead of resin snaps, it HAS A ZIPPER POCKET (a major reason for making this), and has an extra row of card-pockets.  The flap with the clasp is also slightly rounded instead of square-cornered.

See my milkmaid milking my cow?  Lovely!

 I was given a few scraps of this upholstery fabric from one of Gigi's friends, and fell in love with it.  Picturesque scenes of yesteryear farming;  women carrying a yoke, milking a cow, gathering sheaves, men stacking a wagon, children with sheep and dogs and chickens.  There wasn't much fabric, and only one piece with the milkmaid, which I determined would be made into something for myself.  I had a little heart-attack when Little Artist presented me with a Christmas present - a portion of this fabric folded and sewn into a 'bag' of sorts..  But thankfully the milkmaid was on a different scrap! :)

Lining and clasp.

 I love the lining fabric.  I'm not so certain it really 'goes' with the rustic outer print, but it's a fun difference I suppose.

The little red clip holds my check register usually.  Easy access to write transactions!

 The lower fabric is a fun print that reminds me of the 50's fabrics.  I made some beautiful makeup cases out of it at Christmas, though I didn't take a photo of them before giving them away!  There are a total of 8 credit-card pockets, which hold my debit card, costco card, driver's license, business cards, appointment reminder cards, etc.  My previous wallet lacked the little seams to the far left and right of these pockets, and as a result things were very loose in them.  I remedied that by tucking a few real-life cards in as I made it, and sewed so they'd fit snugly.  Behind these pockets is a deep, wide pocket that holds a book of checks.

Ooo, I still have a Barnes & Noble gift card!

The top (lower part of the above photo) has a wide pocket for receipts, a zippered pocket in front of that, and a pair of card-style pockets in front of that.  These are deeper than the credit-card pockets, and hide the contents completely.  The zippered pocket is for the money. I can't tell you HOW OFTEN my previous wallet would lose coins to the floor - the wide rear pocket was the best I could do for coins, and it didn't do well at all. :)  I love the zipper.  I also added a little loop of pretty elastic and it holds two pens superbly!  Why two? Well, why not? :] Previously my pen(s) lived in the pocket with the checks.

The cream and brown print is probably not the wisest choice for something as hauled-around and oft-used as a wallet, but I can wash it. Or make a new one someday. :)  I'm so pleased to be able to replace something without going out and spending money on something made in China (ok; I don't know really where the fabric, zipper, or clasp was made.  I might've done this anyway.), and glad to be able to 'customize' it to work for me!  Easier than shopping for just such! :)




I loosely followed this Quilted Wallet Tutorial.  I have no advice for the zipper (not part of that tutorial) except this:  Do NOT do it the way I did.  Not that I could *explain* the way I did it, but...

Other Sewing

I spent a few pre-Christmas days chained to the sewing machine, with the door locked and myriad threats against intruders. :)

Here are a couple gifts I made:

Quilted Potholders

I made the above potholders for my mother-in-law. They are quite large (9 1/2" square, I think) and have two quilted layers, one with a cutout, so to be used as a mitt. The outer layer is cotton, the linings are muslin, and in between there are a couple layers of ugly canvas (shhh.. don't tell Mom) and a piece of old, weird blanket (ditto on the shhh). The binding is terrible. Please don't look closely, but for the love of Pete, do tell me if there is a Binding Alternative out there somewhere.

Christmas Slippers

I made Baby a couple pairs (wish I knew where they were) of baby slippers, and went ahead and monkeyed with the pattern to make her sisters each a pair (yes, there is a match to each of those in the photo).  I traced each girl's foot for sizing, and went from there.  However, Big Sister has already worn entirely through her polyester sherpa sole, so the idea obviously works best for the "under 25-lb" crowd. Something non-slip might also be in order; thankfully everyone around here seems to have sturdy bones...  I considered brushing a little rubber cement on the undersides, but we don't have any.  Can you buy non-stick fabric like you find on pajama feet?  That would be handy.

The girls were thrilled with their slippers.  I'm so glad they still think Mama making everything homemade is cool.  :)

A Little Late

I didn't make quilts for my first two girls.  There was a baby shower Big Sister, back when she was Only, and gifts were abundant.  My mom made one for Little Artist.  I've posted about Organique's, but Baby (who is hardly a Baby and really needs a bloggy-name!) didn't get one from Mama for a while.  

If my sewing room was clean, I might've found a flat spot to take a picture.

I decided a quilt would be her Christmas gift, and I'd make it larger than some of our other baby quilts.  I found some fabric on clearance (but of course) and "designed" (yes, consider that term very loosely used) her quilt.

Love my dots. :)

The top fabrics match, and are blue/cream/brown, with darling butterflies and coordinating spots.  You don't know how rare it is that I end up with coordinating fabrics.  This was very exciting to me. :)  If you look at the picture above, you can see that I don't trim the selvedge from the fabric. I'm cheap that way. Worse, I actually work to incorporate the darling little dots that show the colors used in the design.  Ah, it's getting out of control, really.  Quilts, baby's birthday dress, aprons...  I just can't bear to abandon them!

More dots.  Ill-matched backing.

The back is a nice quilter's cotton I picked up out of town (this stuff never makes it to the clearance racks locally).  It really doesn't match the top (it's pinkish instead of creamy), but the vintage look and feel of the roses makes up for it.  Maybe.  In any case, I used what I had, and it will work! :)  I also don't know the proper crib-size quilt apparently (the batting fit, but it was wider than the fabric.  Oh well, an opportunity to add in some dots...), as this is the second baby quilt on which I've had to widen the back. 

I used 80/20 cotton/poly batting, and I the weight and loft is just right for machine quilting.  I literally used every bit of the fabrics (I think I had 2 yards for the back, and 2 total for the front), and even "pieced" several pieces.  One corner square in fact is an entirely different fabric, mostly brown (less warm) with some muted blue flowers printed thereon.  I have decided that imperfections are character, and I embrace them now instead of letting them cause angst in my head, or stress in my pocketbook.  I'm not in love with the pre-packaged binding 'look' and 'feel,' but I AM in love with the pre-packaged binding 'time' and 'effort of application,' so there we are. :)  The center rectangle is quilted with 2"ish squares not-at-all-on-center, and you can see the meander quilting outside of that. As with Organique's quilt, Baby has her cursive name hidden among the machine stitches. 

 If there is opportunity for future Baby quilts, I will remember that it's best to get it done within a reasonable amount of time after their birth.  Reasonable being defined as "before said baby can walk up and push all the fancy stitching buttons on the machine, or turn it off entirely, while you're carefully trying to stitch decently."

Doings

My goodness, 'tis the season, is it not?  I have been busy with things I can't write about, because as soon as I do, some lurking relative will come back and read about something they shouldn't! :)  Time has been spent in the kitchen and the sewing room, with a little knitting thrown in here and there.   I can tell you:

I just tonight finished putting the binding (poorly) on a quilt for Baby.  And I will tell you that I should have done it when she was born, as I promised her, because she was not able to come up and push all the buttons to change the stitches mid-seam, or turn the whole thing off in the middle of a decorative stitch, or cause other mayhem and chaos to the project.  At least it's hers, and I can blame it all on her.  Even my mistakes, perhaps. :)

I used some velvet-y, deep red 'crushed panné' fabric to make a twirly, long-sleeved dress for Organique.  I think she'll love it.

I don't have any good ideas for a sewn project for Little Artist.  This is bothering me.

I plan to make Big Sister an apron, but haven't yet.  I also plan to make slippers for each girl, and have traced their feet.  I'm not sure if it will work; the closest way I know to do such a thing is from the little baby slipper tutorials I've seen online.  I'm hoping I can adjust those to work...?

Big Sister has a Christmas wishlist as long as my arm (things like a swan princess movie, a bb gun, and roller skates), but the only thing from it I've 'granted' so far is a mixing bowl.  Little Artist wants a Polly Pocket thing like her sister's (Big Sister received a toy that came with four little dogs, leashes, bowls, and sixteen (!) little doggie shoes. And has managed to keep track of most of it.).  I'm disinclined to buy junk from China, but there are not many other options.  We got a family-style game, and some stocking stuffers.  I'm hoping for time next week to make homemade peanut butter cups and mint patties. :)  I've been making marshmallows this week, some Little Artist can eat, and currently have a marshmallow downstairs waiting to be used in a recipe.  The marshmallow is about 2.25 lbs!  And sits in the bottom of my soup pot. :)

I am thrilled to make a trip to Gi-gi's soon, where I will be able to see my brother and his wife and daughter.  We haven't seen them since last year, I think, and that's terrible!  At least to me!  :)  Also, a lifelong friend and her husband are visiting her parents in the area this month, and she hasn't been back for 2 years.  She has lived on 3 continents and four countries (not counting this one) and it's fascinating to compare how divergent our lives have become.  Yet how wonderful and easy to come back together and share such history.  If her brother can be in attendance, it will truly be like old times (but with older versions of ourselves!).

I will post again soon, with pictures of the snow that kept me homebound for 9 days!

Another Treasure

This is another garage sale treasure I picked up a few weeks ago.  This is not the "before" picture.

Be glad for that.  Be very glad.

The good, the bad, the ugly:

The good:

• Aside from the bottom shelf, which I think is particle board, and the back, which is quarter-inch plywood, I believe it's made of "real wood."
• It's sturdy, and sits flat.
• It measures about 39" wide (3 feet inside the shelves) and 4' tall, with nice tall shelves.  This is huge, considering the limitations of my other bookshelf.

The bad:

• The top piece is slightly warped, so the right side has a gap between the top piece and the side piece upon which it should rest.
• At the top and bottom of the side pieces, someone put what looks like trim.  I don't know if this was to add strength, but it's a little weird.
• Between priming and painting, when it was on my porch with it's back to the sliding glass door, a gnarly gust of wind snuck in and pushed the unsuspecting shelf forwards, bashing it's upper lip against the burners of our propane burners.  You can see one of the dents in the middle of the top piece in the photo above.

The ugly:

• It's not really showing now, thank goodness!  This shelf was bright.
• The top and outer sides were bright yellow.
• The interior of the top shelf, sides, ceiling, everything (including the front edge of the shelf and side pieces), was blood red.
• The interior of the second shelf, sides, ceiling, everything, was bold blue.
• The interior of the third shelf, sides, ceiling, everything, was the bright yellow.
• The interior of the bottom shelf, sides, ceiling, everything, was a dark, grassy green.
• Semi-gloss or a higher sheen.
• I sanded a little bit, but I hope hope hope nothing chips off to show it's former non-glory.

This is the back, which was not painted, obviously.  I left it the same.  I used two coats of primer, 2 or 3 coats of paint (leftover from my kitchen cabinets), forgetting (again) that the paint is flat, and then a coat or two of clear top-coat stuff to add a bit of sheen and resilience.

It's now happily at home in our schoolroom/family room.  Oh, and it was five bucks.  The top-coat was another $7, but there's lots leftover (I couldn't find my former can of the same).

Bashed in face, warped top board...  I don't mind a bit.  Twelve linear feet for books, for five bucks???  I love it.

Fun Treasure

I've taken a few opportunities lately to head out early on a Saturday morning in search of particular treasures.  Of course, as is the nature of garage sales, I found several unexpected ones as well.

This little footstool I bought for $2.  A rural home set among trees, and a choked up granny selling stuff to move with her daughter, since her husband had passed away.  A gem, she.  The woman I believe was her daughter dandled a little girl on her knee, born last Thanksgiving after ten long years of trying for and losing pregnancies.  It was all I could do to peruse the yard without tears fully spilling down as I rejoiced with the woman.  What a blessing!

Anyways, the footstool:  Old, dirty, not to pretty...

But it was well-made, and only needed a little tightening of screws and nuts and bolts (some or all) on the underside.

I unscrews the pad from the frame, and sanded (and sanded and sanded) the frame.  I* cut a new piece of plywood to replace the warped one, found some new (thicker) foam and some fabric, and after repainting the frame, put it all back together...

Lovely, is it not?  Much 'cushier,' too. :)  And you may recognize the fabric, for I've used it before... (and since, actually).  Yesterday's post on the closet bunks had a view of the quilt too.

*by "I," I mean "Hubby."  ahem.

Christmas Jammies

I may have mentioned finishing up Christmas Jammies for the girls on Christmas Eve.  Or not, considering how busy I was that week.  I'd bought this cute cupcake-print thermal (like long johns) fabric on super-clearance a year ago or nearly.  Good intentions and all that.  I finally decided I should use it up, and make some nightgowns for the girls, for them to open on Christmas Eve.  I didn't use a pattern, but made raglan-type sleeves (I think that's what they're called.  The top of the sleeves reach to the collar, and the seams go from there to the armpits, diagonally.).  I had to go buy a ribbed knit to do the collar, which was a first for me, but they came out!

Truly, three little gowns in three sizes... it just makes me sigh.  A good sigh, like a warm fire, a braided rug, and a mug of hot cocoa while a blizzard rages without might make me sigh.

I used the serger for everything but top-stitching the collar, and that was definitely the way to go with such a stretchy knit.  Because my cotton interlock (?) collar fabric wasn't exactly the size of each collar, I just overlapped it once I got all the way around (you can somewhat see that on the left side of the middle gown).  I lettuce-edged the cuffs and hems (and didn't have to use any more of the rib knit), and in pink woolly nylon, it came out well.

So cozy and girlie, huh?  Now, to figure out what to do with the boyish farm animal print... "just in case," you know (hey, remember I was pregnant a year ago)...

Plucker Pics!

To read more about this adventure, see this earlier post.

Saturday morning started out, well, typically... See what we have in the near-center of this picture? Yep, one kicked the bucket at the last minute.


Then I inspected the plucker. See the fancy way Hubby figured (well, *I* helped) to keep tension on the belt?

This is the center-lower portion of the plucker. This is what happens when the delivery man for the tool shop didn't show when he was supposed to. Instead of the 2x6s being aligned above one another and the bearings set over centered holes, Hubby offset them and used angle iron to make use of the bearings we *could* get. They were cheaper anyway.


Hubby was on-call, so we didn't want to get too deep into the project until evening, so he spent the day being all manly by installing a switch (a waterproof one at that) and playing with wires and his nifty electrician tools.

See? Manly:

The virgin plucker (this before the addition of extra fingers):

We set to work the automated-chicken-catchers. This one works well (please don't ask why the top of an alphabet table is sitting in my garden):



This one doesn't work so well yet, but it's cute, so we keep it around anyway:


They found creative ways to keep the chickens in place if Daddy wasn't ready to "hang up another one" yet. Organique enjoyed the closer look:

The not-so-virgin plucker, after the addition of the extra fingers:

Did it work? Did it? Huh? Huh?




Well, check it out:



Some people might not find this beautiful... They're probably the same ones who buy shoes more often than once a year and don't ask their husbands for pluckers as anniversary gifts:

These are the last 18 birds, representing approximately 97 pounds. Hubby brought it in the house in one load, without breaking my laundry basket.



And... these are the turkeys that day, a photo which I accidentally uploaded. They're already much bigger.


So - are you impressed? Excited? Thrilled? Probably not, and I can mostly understand that. But I'm tellin' ya; a plucker is an amazing thing.

I might give it a name.

Baby Clothes

I've decided there's nothing more darling than my little Organique in this outfit. It's old-school in appearance, and in these vintage-looking fabrics, it makes everything right with the world.

For the corduroy jumper, I used this pattern, but changed it up considerably. The pattern piece is from the dress with the criss-cross back, but I only used the front piece. I used it for both the front and back (because, let's face it, if I can turn it around and get another day's use out of it before washing, I'll do it!). Instead of facings, I lined it with a cute cotton print... so not only is it front-back reversible, it's inside-outside reversible. Hello four day jumper! Please beware: When doing linings like this without instructions, it is impossible (impossible, I tell ya!) to sew it correctly the first time (I've made three of these now, and each time I check and double-check and end up with the hem all screwy. Instead of the inside resting nicely inside, it's as though two hems met in the middle and made a tube. *sigh*) The inside is a tan print with little navy blue stars all over. It goes nicely with the other peasant blouse I made, which is the same print as the blouse here, but in blue.


For the blouse, I used this pattern. I omitted the cuff ruffles (I cut the fabric at the elastic line).

Can someone buy my mama a decent camera, please?

I made the bloomers by drafting a pattern *loosely* based on these instructions. I say 'loosely' because there are a few set measurements in there, and it's intended for an adult, so I pared them down considerably. The fabric is a cotton with a mattress-ticking print. I love 'em.

Around here, we do a lot of layers in wintertime, so this works out great. The corduroy is a nice heavy fabric, but soft, and goes a long way toward warmth and comfort.

I also made similar blouses for my older girls. It's an easy pattern and the elastic isn't hard to work with.

Sew, We Can Swim Now

Before we went camping, I got all inspired to sew some decent swimming suits for my dear girls. I tend to get all crazy for sewing right before we can expect overnight company, and my brother and his wife and his friend were slated to stop here one night before heading up into the hills. This is a problem because the guest room IS the sewing room.

Anyways, I found some actual legitimate swimwear fabric (four-way stretch lycra, actually), but no patterns. Not that that could stop me. Hah. I used a cap sleeve tshirt that currently fits each girl, and just traced that on the fabric. I had to hurry because of the overnight guest thing. I sewed the shirts, put 1/4 inch swimwear elastic in the collar (from my diaper making stash), and used the serger to make lettuce edging on the sleeves and hem.

For the lowers, I traced a pair of stretchy pants (that were also current size), and cut them out of black lycra. I serged these together with the seams outwards, to guard against any chafing. I had to think awhile on the skirty part. I had promised them a suit with a skirt, but I wanted it to be nice and modest. I measured them each appropriately, then cut the skirt in a half-circle (one piece), so it had some twirl-room.


I attached the waist elastic (3/4" cotton braided) to the 'shorts' and skirt in one move, then turned it inside and stitched it down.

I lettuce-edged the skirt hem, and left the leg cuffs raw. These nice knits don't ravel, you know. :) It ended up a bit longer than I had planned, but I think it works wonderfully anyway. What do you think?

Also, in the photos, they mixed up their shirts... Big Sister is wearing Little Artist's, and vice versa.

Sourdough

I did it! I made sourdough starter. Inasmuch as you make it, of course. It kindof makes itself, which is handy.



Sourdough is 'wild' yeast, caught and kept in a flour-batter mix. Used in place of yeast to leaven things. Pancakes can be tastey too.



I followed some directions which said to put 1 c. of whole wheat flour and 1 c. of water (filtered) into a glass container, cover with a dishtowel, and set in a dark corner. The instructions also called for the addition of 1 c. flour and 1 c. water each day for a week before it would be useable.



After five days I wasn't impressed. A neighbor showed me her starter, and how she made it, so I changed things up a bit.



I ignored it for 2 or 3 days.



Lo and behold! the nice bubbles and beer-ish smell were finally there! After that third day, I 'fed' it again (the flour and water) and also added a teeny bit of honey. Yeast loves sweets, after all.



I used it to make some bread, again following a recipe, but am going to have to change it. It rose wonderfully (but FAR slower than with yeast), but the rising time was too much. By the time I checked it, it had risen (the second time) and fallen. I baked it anyway, but again, bake time was too much, and I have some DARN CRISPY sourdough bread. The flavor is good though! To me, anyway. The girls aren't too thrilled about it.


Now, to make some big sourdough bread-bowls for soup or chili! mmMMMmm!

Also, my pet SCOBY is just starting... after a week.

You Can Count On It!

My kitchen is "new!" Of course, only a little bit of it is actually new, but the aesthetic difference is incredible. Remember the broken island countertop? And the cracked sink and main counter? They are fixed, finally! We had some dear old friends (ok, I don't mean that they're exceptionally aged, but that they've been friends with us forever. By forever I mean 'friends with my mother long before I was born.') come help us. He was a cabinet-maker type back in the day before such work wore him out. And he's good, I tell ya. We had a few changes-in-plan, but they came out great. Wanna see?

Here is a 'before' shot; the island top has been removed.

No cracks in this section, but notice the gap between stove and counter.

Ok, here it is...!


You have no idea how much better these are. No cracks, no stains, no warping. That nice straight line of tile for the backsplash? Yeah, not really. Thanks to a diamond-bit angle grinder, they're straight now. We extended the island countertop to have a little snack bar area, and rounded the overhanging corners. The same with the peninsula (foreground above), though it already had an overhang along one side.

Look how it fits now!

Truly, this stove area was a challenge. The wall behind the stove is NOT at a 45-degree angle (see how the stove is not centered along it?), and the former counters did not fit it well. The counter edge to the left of the stove extended out, showing a good inch or two of the side facing the stove, while the right-hand counter edge tucked itself back behind the front corner of the stove. Now? It's perfect! The stove actually doesn't sit parallel to the rear wall now, but the amazing fit along the counter edges more than makes up for it.

Now, these pictures don't show the piles of stuff we shoved into other rooms, and I'm sorely tempted to leave it that way. :) Actually, I've replaced the mixer and moved the coffee-paraphernalia and put back the bread box, but for the most part I just want to see and enjoy every square inch of Wilsonart Laminate Crystalline Braun. Yet another undeserved blessing from above. I'm so grateful.

To Dye For

This was really fun. If you've never done it, but wanted to, I encourage you to try. It's really quite easy. You need wool - or some other animal-protein-fiber, vinegar, water, food-coloring, and a way to heat it all. Oh, and the internet, of course. I used articles here and here, but any google search would give you plenty to work with. Basically, I first wrapped my skein of white Paton's Classic Wool around three stools, and tied it with a piece of yarn in 3 places. I wanted to see if I could make some purple, which I read is tricky, so I first used red on one part. I soaked it in my dye-acid (e.g. vinegar) mixture, then 'steamed' it on my stove. You can get wool hot, apparently; what you don't want to do is get it hot suddenly, nor cool it suddenly, or scramble it up while it's wet. The heat "sets" the dye, apparently. After letting it cool, I rinsed it gently then spooned different dye mixes onto the yarn, mixing and overlapping where I wanted. I didn't really have a plan, and didn't really like how it was looking. I should also mention that this was an amazing project for the girls to practice some color-mixing while learning about primary and secondary colors. This picture is before I went over it again, with some leftover colors. After steaming it again, cooling, and rinsing, I spun it out in my washing machine (JUST spin cycle - no rinsing or water) and hung it to drip-dry over my kitchen sink for a day. The colors lighten up a bit as it dries, and I was left with a delightful spring-time colorway! Then I sat down and started making a diaper cover, of course!

All Knit Up

I've mentioned my "new hobby" a time or two. I must say that it has slowed down some of my sewing projects. But I can't crawl in bed at night and spend a few minutes sewing. Nor can I sew in front of the pellet stove. I also can't accomplish much sewing while waiting for the toaster to pop or the oatmeal water to boil. Knitting, once so strange, complicated, time-consuming, and foreign, has become a fascinating and satisfying expression of creativity and detail. Now, I'm still COMPLETELY novice at this stuff. I can knit, purl, cast on, bind off, and with my printed-instructions I can do short rows, pick up stitches (is it cheating if you use a crochet hook?) and maybe increase and decrease. And I *think* I can "yarn over." It seems to be working, anyway.

What do I manage to accomplish with all these skills? Wool britches, of course. They're the old-school version of diaper covers (ok, maybe new-school too; I told you I don't know much). Wool and lanolin make for a unique combination for cloth diapering. Apparently it can 'hold' moisture without wicking it through other fabrics, the lanolin reacts with the urine to neutralize it (no smell), and they only need washed occasionally (unless they get poopy). I have learned a lot about wool soakers in general, and knitting them at Yahoo's Wool Soaker Group. So far I've made two wool "soakers" (the no-legs kind) and two "longies" (long-legged, like pants). I'm working on another soaker, and ran out of yarn for another I'm working on. I'm too cheap (so far) to pay for a pattern when there are some great ones online for free. The first I made (the dark brown soaker) is the Curly Purly soaker. I then made a cute pair of Aubrey Doodlepants in the same brown with a white waistband and rolled cuffs (no picture yet!). I made another set, trying my hand at widening the crotch gusset and making the legs a bit 'flared' with this great Lion Brand yarn in Autumn Sunset. The colors made for some 'fun' with the knitting, and turned out some great stripes and lines. I then tried the Punk Knitter's Soaker (the orange-ish one with blue) because I liked the whole hole thing for the drawstring. FYI: that cute drawstring (i-cord) takes a lot longer than you'd think to knit... This pattern also gave me a chance to learn to decrease. The in-progress soaker is another of these. The one I ran out of wool on is this modified 1932 Soaker. I'm thinking it will be great, because all that ribbing makes for plenty of wool/lanolin in the crotch area. However, all that ribbing also makes for slow going for me, and I don't know if I'll do another one.

Things I don't know yet: I've heard that wool loses it's magic under the wrong conditions. Namely, compression. It will wick a bit if something is pressing hard against it, therefore you don't want to snap a onesie over a soaker, nor strap your babe in a carseat for long. I don't know what other wardrobe complications it might present. It's too chilly for bare legs; can I put regular pants over a soaker? Should I learn to knit leg-warmers?

Here are some resources I've found really helpful: This is a page full of links to tons of patterns, free and otherwise, knit or crochet, soaker or longies. Knitting Help has videos for so many things. It's so great to come across an instruction I don't understand and be able to actually see it done by someone. They have everything from the basic knit, purl, cast-on, to other, more complicated things that I don't even understand yet. They also have a few free patterns. Same Knit, Different Day has a great short-row tutorial for doing short-rows in the round (short rows are handy for making a bit more room in the buns to cover the cloth diaper). Techknitting has some more advanced information, but everything seems to have great illustrations and clear, concise instructions. I especially like her method of joining circular knitting. It has helped the edge of my soaker-in-progress look much nicer. There is obviously a million techniques I don't know, and that's fine. For once I don't have that need to conquer everything about a subject.



What works for me: I have broken out a binder and some sheet covers... My old lady knitting bag was getting a bit messy with all these print-outs of patterns and techniques. I copy and paste the pictures and instructions from a website into MS Word, resize the pictures, widen the margins on the page, take out extraneous info, and get the whole thing into a page or two, usually. With some birthday money I purchased a set of Denise Interchangeable Knitting Needles. I really really love them. I can knit flat (imagine your grannies straight skewer-style needles, where she knit back and forth and made a flat piece), knit round (imagine the handful of smaller needles that hold the work like a triangle and ultimately make a tube - like a sock or soaker), knit small-circumference round things and large, use different sized needles on either side of the cord (makes me go a bit faster), and hold unfinished work on a cord without losing my needles to the project. If I were to ever travel on an airline again, I could take them handily in their case, and make it through security without them being confiscated or detained. Now, they're not the only interchangeable needles out there, but they're a bit cheaper than some others, I could find them locally to 'try out', and they're the ones I got.I'll post later about another yarn-project... First though, maybe some baby socks?