Workbasket Wednesday - Starting A New Craft * On Pens & Needles

Daughters of Genius:

Last Friday was April’s Quilt Club at Grandma’s Attic Sewing Emporium. We are up to block #8. This month was about Adelaide Anne Procter, a poet. To just say that she was amazing is a serious understatement. Dickens was her contemporary and a fan of her work. There have been so many amazing (both for good and bad) women. I highly recommend signing up for this block of the month club. Grandma’s attic does mail order their blocks of the month series.

The bonus block pattern for this month was “Churn Dash” with a teal fabric.

I made a point to wear my lemon dress because I’d purchased the fabric from Grandma’s Attic. During the show’n’tell part of class, I talked about my dress. I was delightedly surprised at how much interest in “old” or “vintage patterns. There was even a mention of, perhaps, starting a class…

While there, another attendee showed her completed quilts and talked about starting a journal for all UFOs (unfinished objects) and another for all of her FOs (finished objects). The second is to be able to see just how many things that she’d completed. It is very easy to feel discouraged when facing a huge list of UFOs. The first list of UFOs was to keep her on track from finishing things instead of just starting a new project. I can’t recommend these ideas enough. When you are feeling discouraged, you can look back at your list and see just how much you have actually accomplished!

Dolly Dearest:

Let me tell a little tale on myself. A long time ago, when I started knitting this petticoat, I looked at Franklin Habit’s “translation” of the original Weldon’s pattern into modern parlance, and it stated to use 4 DPNs and knit in the round. I didn’t have any with me and just assumed that at the time that the pattern was written that it would have been knit flat. Fast forward to about a week ago, when I had left the translation at home and only had the Weldons book with me. I wanted to double check how many inches I was supposed to knit before casting off. Guess what the original pattern said to do… yep. Use 4 DPNs and knit in the round. :-/ Well at least I made more work for myself in that I will have to seam this together. I decided at this point to go ahead and knit the lace that trims the bottom and THEN seam the whole fandango up all at once.

The pattern calls for the trim to be knit separately, then seamed on afterwards. I already made it so I have to seam up the back and wasn’t feeling the idea of having another seam. I decided to knit the trim directly to the bottom hem of the petticoat. Apparently my reading comprehension leaves a little to be desired. It called for the pattern rows to be knit and the back rows to also be knit. I was running on auto pilot and was purling the return rows. The whole first motif show the knit/purl pattern. It doesn’t look bad, just different from what the pattern called for. All the following motifs were knit/knit pattern. Typically I would pull out the error and re-do it. I figured that it was a petticoat that will not show while being worn and it is for a doll. I left it as is.

Now it’s time for something completely different:

Friend Barb has lent me one of her spinning wheels. She brought it over last Wednesday on knit night. She set it up and gave me a quick lesson on how to use it. This is so I can have time practicing before taking a beginning spinning workshop during Black Sheep Gathering in June. It isn’t as easy as it looks! 😀 I’m definitely an over-spinnner.

Denim scarf:

This scarf is so close to being finished!

There are 10 stitches between each set of stitch markers. Each repeat of the 8 row pattern decreases the scarf by 10 stitches. The pattern calls for the pattern to be repeated until there is only 3 stitches left, at which point they are knit together and the scarf is finished. I’m so close!

Soap bag (pouch) 🙂

I’ve been threatening to make bags/pouches for all those irritating soap slivers that keep falling through the soap grate holder thing. Or the BF tries to stick the old soap to the new bar of soap, but it always falls off. Well you cant leave it on the floor of the shower… it either plugs the drain or can cause someone to slip (most likely me). So finely I purchased some yarn and using the free pattern from ellenbloom.blogspot.com, crocheted one up. As I stared, I told DW that I was going to make him a gift. The look on his face could really only be described as “tolerant”. When finished, I “gave” it to DW, soooo… it is in OUR shower. We both can put soap in it. 😉 I actually purchased a couple of types of yarn. A synthetic, that would make for better exfoliation, and a cotton yarn with blended textures (as shown in the photo).