Storybook Woods

Cosette Shawl

 

Part of my plan for keeping warm this winter is wool. I made a shawl last year (I need to show you that one) out of wool and I could not believe what a difference it made in keeping me warm. Nothing else holds warm like wool. Because I am cooking all the time, I wanted something to help keep me warm but not get in the way. So I thought  a shawl would be perfect. Chloe loved it so I gave it to her and knitted a new one.

I can not tell you how much I love this shawl. I wish I had a pattern to share with you, but I made up the whole thing. I am not even sure I could recreate it again.  But I learned a lot from it and was thrilled I was able to take what I pictured in my head and actually stitch it out.

I use Malabrigo worsted hand dye wool. I am sooooo in love with their yarn. It is thick, lush, super soft and a good price when you look at the yardage. I encourage knitters who have down the knit and purl stitch, to be brave and just start playing with stitches, increasing, decreasing. This is why I love knitting wash clothes, because they are small and you can try a new stitch and if you mess up it will not matter. But you will learn something and that will make you a better knitter. You know only you know what it was suppose to look like. Nobody else will notice your mistakes. So be brave and go for it !!!

By the way I am already working on another shawl, I will share when I am done ;-) Also a tip, I found hair clips work well as a closer for the shawl !!!!

PS, I named the shawl Cosette, because that is what David wanted to name Chloe. But I was afraid having an Auberne` and a Cosette, would just be a bit too much. So I will have to settle with a scarf instead.

Squirrel Washcloth

Can you tell I am into squirrels lately ;-) I am really loving this squirrel washcloth. If you are new to knitting, washcloths are a great project for two reasons. One, the cotton yarn you use is easy, cheap and can handle being torn-out and re-knitted a couple of times. Two, washcloths are a small project to learn a new stitch. I would not say this is a hard pattern but also not the best for a new knitter. I highly recommend these knitting videos, if you are like me and like to see how to do a stitch xoxoxox

Schoolhouse Wash-Cloth

Welcome to Fall Bliss week,

I am busy cozying up my home. I always crave the color red in the fall. I do not have a lot of it, it seem to strong for my home but in the fall I am pulling it out what I have. Dear Alicecommented on mysmelly sponge post, how one  could write on such a subject and make pretty was beyond her. Well I am attempting to do it again Alice  ;-) I have to thank everyone who commented on my last post. I am putting my sponge in the dishwasher about every 3 days. I also try to nuked it once a day. But I am still playing with what will work best for me. I also decided to use my sponge for only scrubbing and use washclothes instead for general cleaning. But I only had one, so I have been knitting away. I have knitted several and want to knit some more. (But now I am knitting a shawl, so soon I will get back to the washcloths )

Being fall I need some fall inspired washclothes. I had seen this pattern for little house clothand knitted it up but I was not happy with it. So as usually I tweaked the pattern. I used Lions 100 % cotton yarn in poppy red. I see Debbieloves the same color.

                                                     

You must have a look at Dollie Dille's wonkey halloween bags !!!!

Also there is a wonderful list of favorite fall things, including a yummy recipe for cranberry orange muffins over at Aubern'e Ancalimon

Check out the wonderful Acorn Project at Junie Moon

 

Schoolhouse Wash-Cloth

Materials: 1 ball Cotton yarn, Size 5 needles, US.

SSK: (Slip, slip, knit.) Slip the first and second stitches knitwise, one at a time, then insert the tip of left-hand needle into the fronts of these two stitches from the left, and knit them together from this position.

Directions:
Cast on 49 stitchess or a Multiple of 12 stitches +1

Knit 3 rows for border.


Begin pattern: Row 1: Purl. Purl all wrong-side rows.
Row 2: K1, *yo, ssk, k1, k2tog, yo, k1, repeat from *.
Rows 4, 6 & 8: Repeat Row 2.
Row 10: K1, *yo, ssk, k7, k2tog, yo, k1; repeat from *.
Row 12: K2, *yo, ssk, k5, k2tog, yo, k3; rep from *, end last repeat k2.
Row 14: K3, *yo, ssk, k3, k2tog, yo, k5; rep from *, end last repeat k3.
Row 16: K4, *yo, ssk, k1, k2tog, yo, k7; rep from *, end last repeat k4.
Row 18: K5, *yo, sl1 – k2tog – psso, yo, k9; rep from *, end last repeat k5.

Knit stocking knit for 4 rows.

Repeat pattern 2 more times.

Knit 3 rows for border.
Cast off

Knitted Pillows

               

I have not done a huge amount of crafting this summer, summers always seem to be like that. But I did make a pillow. My mother made me this amazing pink pillow for my birthday. I LOVE the pale blush pink and the peal gray together, very Coco Chanel to me. Look how she used a large gray mother-of-pearl button and a smaller pink mother-of-pearl flower button. . Well she bought one skein of the same yarn in this luscious sea green-blue, but fried-out on knitting after my pillow. So she also gave me the skien. I knitted it in the seed stitch and only did one big front panel. Then I took a large piece of bark cloth and wrapped around the front. I sewed it on three sides and added the large gray mother-of-pearl buttons. It was soo easy and I am happy the way the bark cloth pulled all the colors together. I will save these for Christmas, for this year I am having a pink and blue Christmas

PS. You will never guess who is coming to my house tonight, for a lavender tea. I will share all soon xoxox

                                                                              

                  

          

I Learned To Crochet

Over my little break I learned how to crochet and made these bracelets. I love how they turned out. I used a sizeE hook and No 8 finca pearl cotton thread. I crocheted a long piece in a single stitch and at the end I did a chain stitch loop for the button. Do not look to close and see how wide, then skinny, then wide they are. Only I would chose for my very first crochet project to use a small hook and thread. It made it a bit hard to see the stitches ;-p

I will be making more, especially with the variegated thread.

Pirates and flowers

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It have been lazy around here. We have barely been able to hold off getting sick. So we are all laying  low. I made another hot-pad. This one is a large one for big pans. Thank you Debbie for this idea xoxox

Auburne's is still in a pirate/medieval/heraldry mood. She made this pirate pencil case. Chloe has not been crafting. With the sun coming out, she has been running around the yard looking for birds.I hope to get some bulk baking done. I will postabout that soon.

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Hot-pad

I feel in love with the hot-pad Debbie did and had to make some. I too knitted a square in the seed stich. But the big thing is I did a quilt square. I HATE quilting (Kathy, mary see I did a quilt square). I can not cut or sew a strait line. But this was small and not too bad. But I do not know how you quilters do it. I am hoping dear Debbie (Please, please) will post more about how she made these. Like how she sew the two together?  I did it on a sewing machine. I forgot to take in account to make the quilted square big enough to fold over the edges. So next time I will not have raw edges. I used Insul-bright in the middle but an old blanket would work fine. I am going to make some bigger ones octagon shape for pads for the table. Maybe with these small quilt projects I will learn to embrace quilting more (but I doubt it !!)