Better Late than Never?
Professor Wolfgang Michael was an expert on Reformation-era German theater. He taught at The University of Texas at Austin, where he also directed German language plays. I acted in several of his plays in the early 1980s. It was fun!
Dr. Michael wore Birkenstock sandals. No surprise there. He was a Bohemian academic. If he hadn’t worn them, we might have been concerned.
My friend Sheryl from Dallas is a professional in the world of finance and a great knitter. During a visit to Dallas in the early 1990s, I was truly surprised to see Sheryl wearing Birkenstock sandals. She said something like, “If I’m going to knit socks, I want to show them off!”
That sounded like a perfectly good reason to me.
Since this is to be my year for knitting socks, I asked for some Birkenstocks last Christmas. I like them a lot. Here are my Christmas sandals and my newly-finished socks. The yarn is Patons Stretch Socks (41% cotton, 39% wool, 13% nylon, 7% elastic) in colorway “,Sugar.”
More socks are on the needles.
Sugar Sock the First
Thanks to Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, when I finally had time to knit some socks, I didn’t need a pattern! At least 20 years ago, she taught a sock workshop in Central Texas, where we learned to knit socks from the toe up, trying them on as we went.
Once you have enough stitches to fit around your feet, you work even to your anklebone. Knit one-half round with a waste yarn, where you’ll come back later to add the heel. Knit a few rows plain, then make the ribbing as long as you want.
When my k2p2 rib was long enough, I made a stretchy, scalloped bind-off like this: k2tog, (yo, bind off one st) 5 times to form a little chain scallop, p2tog, bind off one stitch, (yo, bind off one st) 5 times, k2tog. Rep from * around, end with (yo, bind off one st) 5 times, cut yarn, stretch the last st until the yarn end comes out. Stitch the last st to the first st of rnd. Weave in end.
Sugar Sock the Second is about 1/3 finished. Hurray! I love hand-knit socks!
You Can Pre-Order Crochet Garden!
Just on a whim, I checked at Amazon to see if my new book is for sale yet. It is!
Crochet Garden will be released in May 2012, but you can reserve your copy by pre-ordering it at Barnes & Noble or Amazon.
This is the first time I’ve seen the cover, though the cover may change between now and next spring. This cover shows several designs from the book:
- “Sulfur Butterfly”
- “Samarkand Sunflower” in the O of ‘Crochet’
- “Grandmother’s Windmill Flower”
- “Trillium and Fronds” (the fronds are the stems of the flowers)
- “Russian Picot Daisy” featuring a little-known vintage crochet stitch
- buds from “Pinks of Any Color”
- another Trillium
- “Candy Cornflower”
- “Pasque Flower”
- and half of a “Mini-, Midi-, Maxi-mum”
I am looking forward to May!
Crafty Nautical Flags
Nautical flags are happy and colorful, and I just love them. But not only that, they actually spell stuff! I mean that each flag represents a letter of the alphabet.
In Polymer Clay for Everyone (my first book—oh yes, I love polymer clay, too), nautical flags decorate the top of a marine trinket box. And guess what!? They spell T-R-I-N-K-E-T-S.
Next time you’re near a Long John Silver’s restaurant, look for nautical flags that spell—can you imagine this?—E-A-T H-E-R-E. “Eat” is on the tall sign, and “here” is split in half on the long sign across the front of the building.
When Eva and I were at Disney World with her schoolmates, we saw this float in a parade. It spells D-U-C-K. (The K is in shadow at the bottom edge.) Whose float could that have been?
Someday I want to knit nautical flags into an afghan. Shouldn’t be too difficult. Garter stitch, I think. Then it will be up to you to unravel the hidden meaning.
Sunflower Earring Organizer
What could I make with the little sunflower I crocheted for the October Crochet Along? Another earring organizer! (See an earring organizer made with crocheted pansies here.)
My daughter likes green, which is convenient, because her school colors are green and yellow (okay, gold, but it usually takes the form of yellow).
I simply appliqued the sunflower on the corner of a sheet of kelly green plastic canvas.
Here are details:
Materials:
- 1 sheet of plastic canvas
- 1 spool of Wrights cording to coordinate with plastic canvas
- Embroidery floss
- The Sunflower from Crochet Bouquet (pages 71-72), made with Aunt Lydia’s No. 10 crochet cotton
- Fray-stopping adhesive
Instructions:
Start at the lower edge of the plastic canvas, about 3 inches from the right-hand corner. Leave a few inches of the cording hanging at the end, then use embroidery floss to whip stitch the cording around the outside edge of the plastic canvas. Tie on more embroidery floss as needed, leaving long ends.
Once you have sewn the cording all the way around, tie the beginning and ending ends of the cording in a square knot. Tack it at the back with embroidery floss. Tie off the embroidery floss, leaving long ends.
About 3 to 4 inches from the knot, make a coat of fray-checking adhesive about 1/2 inch long around on both ends of the cording. Let dry. Cut the cording through the 1/2-inch dried coat of adhesive. This will protect all the cut ends. If desired knot each end. You can see the adhesive at the ends of the cording in the picture. It slightly darkens the cording.
Weave the embroidery floss through stitches at the back of the piece. Dab a little fray-checking adhesive at each end. Let dry and then trim away excess embroidery floss.
Applique sunflower to the plastic canvas, placing it in the corner above the cording knot. Stitch each petal just inside the tip, so the tips will bend a little for a natural look.
Nana Sadie Rose and Her Fabulous Project Bags
We’ve all made friends online. Every now and then, on a very happy day, we get to meet them in person!
Years ago, I joined a Yahoo group of knitters. Among them was Nana Sadie Rose. At the time she was knitting lace things and learning the wonders of the lace life-line. She also designed and sewed the most lovely and useful tote bags and project bags.
Naturally, because Nana Sadie Rose herself knits, her bags are especially good for knitters and crocheters. She makes them in various sizes for different kinds of projects and she makes sure they have plenty of pockets for tools and needles and such.
I have wanted one of those bags for a long, long time. Finally, at the Knit & Crochet Show in September, my wish came true! Nana Sadie Rose was there in person selling all kinds of bags. One of them had a button custom-made by…me!
The best part of it all was that I met Nana Sadie Rose, in person, finally. She is as lovely as her name.
On her website, http://www.nanasadierose.com/, she lists the shows where she has a booth. You can also order online from her stock OR she will make a special bag with fabrics that you choose from her online fabric partners. Oh, my gosh. You’ll be sighing over all the beautiful fabric choices for hours.
My owl bag (Posy style) was the cutest in the whole booth (except for the skeleton bag, perhaps). Currently, it has socks-in-progress inside.
Brown Seveness Cardigan is Done!
After two years and two months in the making, my brown seveness cardigan is finished! (Actually I thought it was longer than that. Thank goodness we have blog archives to aid our memory.)
Here’s the best part: our weather was cold enough yesterday to wear it!
I had eight of Gail Hughes’s lovely buttons, but only seven buttonholes. I felt sad for the eighth button. It would be lonely in a drawer, away from its siblings. So I sewed it to the button band, too. All better!
Last Minute Sunflower CAL for October 2011
After record-breaking heat and draught this summer, our part of Texas welcomed about 5 inches of rain last month. The flowers wasted no time putting on an autumn show of color: yellow cow-pen daisies, magenta four-o’clocks, red and blue sage, and multicolor lantana.
Then, two nights ago, we came perilously close to freezing temperatures. Bloom while you can, dear flowers!
We crocheters should flower, too, whether in the last few moments before the winter here in the Northern Hemisphere, or because it is spring in the Southern Hemisphere. So for our last-minute October CAL, let’s make the Sunflower from pages 71-72 of Crochet Bouquet. Its center is Loopy, on pages 57-58.
This flower looks lush and complicated, but it isn’t! Well, it is lush, but it is not complicated. You make it in two easy pieces and sew them together.
The yellow flower begins with a double-crochet circle. Around the outside you crochet one simple petal over and over. It takes a while to crochet, but the crochet is easy.
When you’re done, the petals will probably curl. We don’t want that.
To uncurl them, hold each petal at its base, then pull the point out. Don’t be shy! They won’t break. Then grasp each petal on both sides at its widest point. Pull again.
My Sunflower is crocheted with Aunt Lydia’s No. 10 cotton thread. Here it is, above, with some of the petals pulled out by hand. Still, it needed more. I made it wet, squeezed it out, uncurled and pulled out all the petals by hand, and laid it out to dry (right).
You may want to steam block your sunflower, depending on the yarn you used. If the petals are curling stubbornly, pin them out, like Judith did here.
Center Loopy on top of the Sunflower and sew them together.
Gail Hughes Art Buttons at Quilt Festival
Gail Hughes will be selling her gorgeous buttons at the Quilt Festival, November 2 (preview night) through November 6, in Houston, Texas. She designs and manufactures them herself in the United States. Hurray!
In case you’ve missed my previous posts about Gail’s buttons, let me gush about them some more. They’re colorful. They’re all shapes and sizes. Some have glitter or other sparkles. Some are shiny, while some glow from within a matte finish that reminds me of delicious candy. I have some of her flower buttons that would be perfect for the clothing of a Dr. Seuss character. But she also has some crisply sculptural buttons that will send your mind back to the Art Deco era and Bakelite.
I buy Gail’s buttons because of a primitive human need to own beautiful objects. Sometimes there’s a cardigan awaiting closures. Other times I design a project around the buttons.
Experience the thrill of buttons at Quilt Festival next month!
More Buttons at the Knit & Crochet Show
Early Friday morning I made my way to the button classroom to finish baking buttons we made the day before. As the start of class came closer, familiar faces and new faces greeted me for Polymer Clay Button Boutique 2.
At nine o’clock, Jane, Susan, Mary, Diane, Mira, Rae, Ingrid, Charles, Joyce, Willett, June, Barb, Mary, Judy, and Camilla got busy mixing colors for faux turquoise buttons. We grated clay, and applied paint. We worked hard all day. The piles of buttons grew and grew. There was lots of talking and laughing.
By the end of the day, we finished the turquoise buttons, made twisty mica-shift buttons, flower millefiori buttons, and mosaic buttons. I had to take them back to my room to finish baking. Find lots more photos from our button classes here.
One of the great things about teaching is that I learn from the people in my classes. They try things I’ve never thought of, like this new way to do millefiori flower buttons by Judy and Charles.
