Tag Archives: pompom

More FOs … not all knits!

Posted on by
2
Thursday, August 10, 2023

We started our day today with coffee on the porch but it was too warm for a bathrobe. We must be heading into a few days of summer heat again. It’s all good. We have thoroughly enjoyed the cooler mornings over the past few weeks.

I’ve finished a few more little things and wanted to share them with you. I’ve been taking classes from Creative Bug – they had a special deal going with 60 days free to try it out – and I’ve taken a couple of Cal Patch’s classes and a couple of Heidi Parkes’ classes and they’re all sewing classes. While I was watching Heidi’s class on making a needle case, I was inspired to actually sew it myself right then. I went to my fabric stash and found two favorite fabrics – a lobster print and a hummingbird print – both from the days when I was making fabric masks for the family. I made a lot of masks. I appliquéd the little hummingbird patch onto the lobster fabric and then bought a piece of felt to sandwich-ish in the fabric to make the little needle case. I’ve learned a lot about needles, stitching, hand-work and sewing from these classes and while my FOs aren’t big, they’re mighty. They mark a stepping off point for me and a new potential passion, too.

Outside
Inside
Finished!

My second FO is also a sewing project. I have had this little panel since attending the quilt show in Augusta, ME probably 10 years ago. I bought a few similar panels and remember making one as a gift somewhere along the line, but this one has been sitting in my cupboard for almost (or maybe more than) a decade. It was time!

This is a fabric (much edited) version of the little golden book, The Tawny Scrawny Lion. I wasn’t familiar with the book but I love the idea of little books without words. The reader can make up the story to go along with the illustrations (or the reader can Google the book and tell the same story.) Regardless, this little book will be winging its way to New York City to a very special little girl who is so deeply loved by her Yaya! I know that she’ll love this little book and she won’t rip the pages.

Pom Pom Socklets by Purl Soho

Last but certainly not least, a pair of “peds” as we knew them back in the day … but these aren’t the sedate peds of my past. I decided to knit up some fun, bright, color-blocked shorties and this is the first pair for my daughter, Kate. I decided to make them all crazy and different. The only thing missing from these finished socks are the pompoms that will be attached at the back of the heel. Just like my mom did in my childhood days … and I did, too. I’ve got several more pairs to knit. My thought is to make a pair for all of the “girls” at our family beach gathering in September. Think I can do it? Three more pairs before September 5? Time will tell. This is a free Purl Soho pattern that I used to make the U of F socklets for my favorite graduating (graduated) senior that I cared for when I was a school nurse. The kids used to ask me to knit them socks when they came into my clinic and my answer was always, “no!” (and emphatic no to be sure!) But this kiddo was different and I’ve stayed in touch with her family and when she graduated, I knew just what to send her for a gift (and a gift certificate to the U of F campus store.)

My sweetie and I took a brief road trip to the coast yesterday because I needed to get some sewing supplies. I thought my time at Fiddleheads would be brief but I was looking at the fabric store with new eyes – the eyes of a garment sewer. It was exciting and intimidating. There is so much to learn about garment-worthy fabrics. I’ve learned that quilting cottons are not always a good garment fabric because they don’t have the same drape. But I managed to do some damage and bought a bit of a cotton lawn and a pattern to make some harem pants for my Sylvie. And I also bought some hand-sewing needles and wool felt to make more needle cases. They’re fun and quick. I found a basket of bolt end cuts of fabric and they had two pieces of linen that I had to take home with me, too. One is a 3-yard cut of a khaki colored linen that is enough for a dress, I think. The other was only a bit over a yard of fabric but it’ll make half a shirt or a pieced shirt … time will tell. I feel so fancy talking sewing!

Gone knitting.

A Special Gift for a Special Kid

Posted on by
1
July 1, 2023 First Day Lily

Today our first Day Lily popped. We wait and watch for them all spring. Some days it feels like you can actually see them growing because they grow so fast. But they stay green for what seems like forever. One day one pops open and from that point it’s anyone’s guess.

Today I wrote two newsletter for work. One for tomorrow and one for the week that I’ll be at camp for my sewing retreat. Next week I’ll write another two. I’m learning how to plan ahead and write newsletters that will be scheduled for days that I will have something better to do.

I spent the afternoon knitting in my studio and I am so happy to have finished a special gift for a very special person. When I last saw this kiddo she looked like this:

Laine on the right at Woodlands Elementary eight years ago

When we still lived in Florida, I was the clinic assistant at an elementary school in Longwood, It was my neighborhood school so i could walk or ride my bike to school. I supervised the “health” of about 500 kiddos in pre-K through 5th Grade. These two kiddos were some of my favorites. I saw Laine twice a day and sometimes more. Needless to say, over the course of a couple of years, she and her family became very special to me. We all worked together to keep Laine healthy.

Fast forward eight years and I got a graduation announcement from Laine’s mom. She’s grown up over the years and is now a beautiful young woman. We’ve exchanged Christmas cards every year so I’ve seen Laine grow up but I was shocked to see that she was graduating from high school. I put the announcement on the fridge and knew that I wanted to send her something to commemorate her graduation but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to send. So I gave myself a bit of time.

One day I knew what I wanted to send her. I texted her mom and we had a sweet exchange as we used to have eight years before. I had to giggle when I heard that my text came up as the clinic at Woodlands all these years later. To give you a bit of background, it’s important for you to know that I did a lot of sock knitting when I lived in Florida and when the clinic was quiet, I used to knit. I can’t tell you how many kids asked me if I’d knit something for them. My answer was always emphatically, “no!”

To date, I have knitted for two kids: a hat for Caden and a pair of slippers for Laine. But I knew that a good gift for Laine would be a pair of socks. Socks were something the kids always wanted me to knit for them. I was unwilling to start a precedent needless to say.

But for Laine’s graduation … this I could do. She will be attending University of Florida next fall and I knew that the school colors (orange and blue) would be in her socks. And I also knew that I couldn’t see her getting a lot of use out of socks that were too warm so I decided that a pair of low socks would be a good idea. And then I found the pattern on Purl Soho’s website: Pom Pom Socklets. I had bought several colors of Zitron Trekking Sport sock yarn on clearance at the yarn shop and two of the colors were blue and orange. I had a plan.

The first sock was knitted with an orange cuff on a blue sock. Since the socks are so short, I got this baby finished in just a couple of days. Then I had to decide about the second sock. Did I want to make a pair of identical socks or did I want to have fun? I voted (vote of one) for fun and cast on a blue cuff. I would knit the body of the second sock in reverse of the first.

I think these socks are so much fun! I can see them peeking out of sneakers at a football game or another sports game. Ha! Ha! The last bit of this pattern is that they have a pompom at the back like the peds I grew up with. I got out my pompom maker and made an orange and a blue pompom. Trimmed them up, attached them to the socks and …

I’m loving them! They’re fun and youthful and I hope that Laine gets as much joy out of them as I do. She’s a very special young woman and I am absolutely certain that she will make a difference in our world one day soon.

Pattern: Purl Soho Pom Pom Socklet; Free pattern on the Purl Soho webiste (find the link on Ravelry.) Yarn: Zitron Trekking Sport which is actually a fingering weight yarn. I own a bright green, charcoal gray, orange, blue and a raspberry colorway. Great colors. How appropriate that I had an appropriate blue and a close orange colorway! I love these socks! I’ll be knitting more of them for sure. Needles: US 1 1/2 DPns. Size made: US shoe size 7 or 9 1/4 inch long foot. I made the third size (cast on 64 stitches.)

Gone knitting.

Burning a hole in my … stash?

Posted on by
Reply

Like other knitters, I have a fairly extensive stash. No, not mustache, a yarn stash – that little bit of collected yarns from here and there that you have to buy because it’s so soft or pretty or pretty soft.

I bought this yarn last summer in Maine. I think what made it so appealing was the price … and maybe the color. Yes, I paid $2.49 a ball for it at Marden’s! It’s Main Street by Reynolds (color 6760, lot 8078, 53% wool, 47% acrylic, 50 grams/approx. 98 yards) – 16 sts and 22 rows = 4 inches in Stockinette stitch on US #8 needles.

IMG_1040

 

Yesterday, I was going through one of my stash bins and found this yarn (I have only two balls) and I was thinking about what I could make with it. It’s wool and acrylic. Soft. And it occurred to me that it would make a great hat. I’m envisioning a rolled brim cap that could be rolled down so that it would be slouchy. And then I was reminded of the Steven West post about pompoms that I saw on Facebook (I love making pompoms) and so I think it needs to have a pom pom at the top. Maybe even a crazy multi-colored pompom. That decision has not yet been made!

I measured my own (oversized) head and cast on 80 stitches that, with a ribbed hat, should accommodate larger and smaller heads. And I decided to make it a (sort of) twisted 1×1 rib (knit 1, purl 1) by knitting into the back of the knitted stitches. I love it when there is that little bit of twist in the knitted stitches. It’s just a little bit different and very pretty.

IMG_1037

See? Aren’t those lines of twisted knit stitches so pretty?! I can get so excited about the simplest little things! I think this is going to be one fun hat! Wait until you see the way the colors subtly shift from purple to nearly red! You can already see a couple of very subtle variations on purple. I’ll keep this pattern going for 9 inches or so. More pictures will be forthcoming at the hat “grows”!

Gone knitting!