Tag Archives: dishcloths

Oct6

The plague has hit!

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The family was taken down this week. Oldest son was spared, maybe because he has his bedroom and bathroom downstairs. But Mr Fixit and the two younger sons and I all succumbed to covid so there has been a lot of sleeping, nose-blowing, coughing, etc happening.

Now that the headache has gone, and the cold-like symptoms mostly gone, the things I’m having the hardest time with are the sore mouth (a dry mouth and braces do not mix – I hate waking up to find my braces sticking to the inside of my mouth) and the loss of smell and taste. Sweet stuff started to taste bitter a couple of days ago, but now I really can’t taste anything. That’s a kick in the teeth!

We have all been doing what we can to rest and recuperate and after a couple of days of doing nothing I did manage to put some meals together, do some laundry, and knit a bit.

This is what Elizabeth Zimmermann would have called a swatch cap. I have a sweater in mind that I want to knit so I checked how many stitches were in the body for the 42″ finished size and it was 160. So I cast on 80 and am knitting a beanie which will turn out exactly half the circumference of the sweater. A useful and accurate way to check gauge! That EZ was a genius!

Please note I did not pay full price for that yarn. It was vastly overpriced until it went on clearance at 70% off.

The cowl I was crocheting in the last blog post has been finished for a while. I used up every scrap and it is the perfect length to double up around the neck. I think I may have to get more of this yarn (Lion Brand Mandala Ombre).

So far, three scrubby dishcloths have been made with the other clearance yarn I picked up recently. These are going to be made in between other projects, or if I need something portable.

I have made notes, and will write up the pattern one of these days.

Today I dug out some T shirts I was saving for T shirt yarn. I cut off the bottom hems and cut from bottom to armpits in a spiral to make long strips. I was pretty slapdash as usual and made the strips wider than intended but I think my crochet hook is big enough to accommodate the thickness.

I intend to make a crocheted basket and possibly braid the hems for handles. Not sure how to use up the rest of the pieces but I’d like to keep most of it out of the landfill.

I will show you the result later.

Happy pumpkin season!

May28

A bit of a dry spell

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The crafty mojo has been in a bit of a slump. I want to sew and crochet and stuff  but haven’t had much ooomph and so there has been minimal activity.

I have this weekend off which means I have the time to make something. This is an item I promised a friend…

It’s a panel of sunshade fabric with two small tension rods for a skylight in her apartment. It gets so hot in the summer that I made this up and hope it works.

I also cut up an old pair of slippers that were from Costco years ago. They were wearing out. I used the pieces as templates for a new pair.

The knit fabric, fleece and grippy fabric were all in stash.

I could have made them a tad smaller but they work!

There was a little bit of knitting this week. I finally used some of the cotton yarn that I dyed with Procion MX dyes.

I ended up with a small towel and two large dishcloths..

I know, it’s bright. This was only my second dyeing attempt. I’ll be interested to see how colourfast it is.

And I completed another task off my To Do list – the seasonal closet clearout. Every spring and fall I pull everything out of my half of the closet and rearrange it, depending on which season we’re going into. Today most of my sweaters went up to the top shelf. There was a reasonable pile of things destined for the thrift store too.

Everything is now hanging neatly back in the closet, ready for summer.

Mr Fixit and I will be going to the gym soon. We just have to wait for the black beans for tonight’s quesadillas to finish cooking.

Have a great week!

Nov10

Sewing day and some FOs

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Well, the clocks have fallen back an hour and I’m finding myself waking earlier, around 6am, and being ready to crash around 9pm.

I don’t mind. It’s nice to see the sunrise. And I feel like I’m accomplishing more.

Today I had some friends over for a sewing day. I set up my living/dining room with an ironing station, a cutting station and a cleared-off dining table for our sewing machines.

My plan was to make these Christmas stockings in the smallest size (one of my friends made the same pattern in a larger size). The source is https://learncreatesew.com/free-patterns/holiday-seasonal/christmas-stocking/

That was fun.

Afterwards I made three of these…

Source is here…https://youtu.be/bfId3UN6_bQ

The fabrics are all from the store where I work. I added Thermolam fusible fleece to the stockings to make them a little more squishy. The hanging storage pods are just canvas and cotton as they will be hung from a pegboard for sewing room storage.

Last week I completed another sewing project from a library book – a tailor’s ham and sleeve roll filled with flaxseed.

The dishcloth project is finished now. I ended up making 20 solid-coloured cloths from the cotton stash plus a scrappy one. I’m saving the nice ones for gifts.

The socks haven’t progressed at all, but I did start a new crochet project. I’m making a Purrmaid!

It looks pretty odd at the moment but I promise you it’s a cute pattern for a cat/mermaid designed by Robin of the YouTube channel Hooked by Robin. (I like her, she’s British and has turquoise hair! We must be related!!)

I did get literally stuck into the slipstitches that shape the curve of the tail to the extent that my yanking and twisting pulled the metal hook head sideways inside its handle. It actually came right out and needed to be glued back in. I hope it stays in while I finish this project.

I definitely need an easy relaxed bulky project next after all this cotton crochet which can be quite tiring on the hands.

There’s still a couple of potentially productive hours left in the day. Maybe I could whip out three more of those storage pods.

Oct11

Happy Thanksgiving

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Happy Thanksgiving

It’s Canadian Thanksgiving today and I am feeling thankful for many things.

Walking in the sunshine

Sewing with colourful fabrics

Eating good food

Family, friends, and you, dear readers.

It’s been a beautiful day, warm sun, cool air, leaves turning, squirrels gathering.

Dinner was fairly simple, just stuffed portobellos and roasted vegetables. The potatoes came from our garden and the purple cauliflower, carrots and Brussels sprouts came from the farmers market. We had apple crumble made with local Mac apples.

I’ve been sewing small drawstring bags with cottons from the stash. I need 24 small ones for my self-created yarn Advent calendar plus a larger one for the new knitting needle set which I’ll open on December 25th.

I had a production line going this afternoon but had to stop to cook dinner. Now that’s out of the way, I can get back to it.

My knitting and crochet WIPs haven’t changed much.

And I’m really enjoying this new tea from my favourite tea shop, with frothy soy milk and maple syrup.

I hope you all have a great week.

Sep28

Fun mail, and WIPdates

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I had a birthday recently and one of my gifts was a Knit Picks gift certificate from a group of friends. It was so generous that I was able to order a new set of Caspian interchangeables and a pack of yarn. I’ve been wanting to make myself a yarny Advent calendar for ages now so a pack of 24 Knit Picks Brava minis (100% acrylic worsted weight, 25 grams each) is perfect

The box arrived yesterday. It’s the rainbow colourway so there are lots of fun colours in there. And the blue-green of the needles is oh-so-pretty. My favourite colour!

I had a quick feel of the yarn (feels nice and soft) and the needles (to check for smoothness) and now I am going to figure out a way to pack it all up nicely for Christmas. How’s that! A birthday and Christmas present all in one!

My sock WIP for the Strictly Sockalong is proceeding slowly, as I have a complex sewing project on the go as well as having had extra work shifts lately.

I’ve reached the toe (the bit of green near the needles) and then I have to go back and insert a heel (where that yellow line is).

The dishcloth project is at the point where four are done. This is an ongoing thing as I still have a lot more cotton to burn through.

The complicated sewing project is a plaid flannel shirt. I haven’t made a shirt like this since high school so I am taking my time and only working on it when I’m not tired. So far, the body and sleeves are done. Yet to go: collar, button bands, buttonholes, hem. Photos will follow when it’s finished.

For now, I’m enjoying the fall weather. It’s a little cooler, the leaves have started to drop, and the squirrel actitivity around my walnut trees has ramped up to max stashing level. Have a great day!

Sep17

Good morning!

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This is the second morning in a row that I have had coffee instead of tea. This could be a slippery slope! Proper coffee that I ground up, maple syrup and frothy oat milk.

I’ve had a couple of restless nights and I’m hoping the coffee will kickstart my brain. It tastes good too and feels very comforting now that the mornings are colder.

So, about yesterday’s photos. If you’re interested. I posted those just before I dashed out to work yesterday but I have more time now.

1. Knit Picks Dishie dishcloths or washcloths. A pick-it-up-when-I-feel-like-it project.

2. Gnomes! I made these no-sew, lots-of-hot-glue gnomes before work yesterday and took them to the store to put on display, just for fun. Obviously I bought the felt, faux fur and cotton fabric there. The insides are dollar store socks filled with wheat berries and polyfill. If you look carefully at the photo, you’ll see my Spring garden gnomes in the background.

3. The Festival Cardigan, complete with buttons. I’m keeping it on my couch because the temps have dropped to mid-teens outside. I love to snuggle in warm layers on a cool dark fall evening. I think this season has to be my favourite.

4. And finally, the Relaxation socks. This is a pattern I found on Ravelry. It’s written for bulky yarn but I’m using Bernat Pop in the Full Spectrum colourway and it’s working fine. This is my Strictly Sockalong 2021 project, which is a MAL run by Ali of Little Drops of Wonderful podcast. I haven’t made socks in a long time, and I don’t watch Strictly Come Dancing or even Dance with the Stars, but I do like a good makealong!

There you go, all caught up. I hope you have a wonderful day. Now I’m going to have a quick look at Ravelry and then I need to get ready for work.

Sep4

WIP: Festival Cardigan

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That huge pile of yarn in my last post has shrunk considerably. The cardigan has a back and two fronts, joined at the shoulders, and even neck and front ribbing.

The finished back
Front view pre-ribbing
With ribbing

I thought I’d only need to make the sleeves three squares wide by two tall but when I held the partial sleeve on my arm I saw I’d have to add another square. This’ll make the sleeves a bit too long, I think, but better that than too short.

First sleeve

As I progress, my colour choices get more limited. Some of the squares don’t seem to fit with the rest quite right but I think once it’s done it’ll be so colourful overall that it’ll look OK.

Mr Fixit and I took a little road trip today. By “little” I mean it was just for the day but it was still about 300km, according to him!

We headed south and stopped at a couple of towns to check out their farmers markets. We took the back roads for some of the way. We stopped at our usual fruit stand and bought peaches, plums, tomatoes, beans, apples, peppers and eggplants.

I had, probably for the first time ever, left home without packing any snacks. So as soon as we bought the fruit we ate a few pieces in the parking lot. Then we started back north and finally found somewhere for a late lunch. It was a vegan place, new to us, and we had smoothies.

I haven’t quite decided how I’m going to manage the large amount of fruit, because I don’t like canning, but usually I freeze the tomatoes in quarters to toss into spaghetti sauce.

Obviously my cardigan is not a portable project, with 15 balls of yarn currently attached, so I stuffed a bag with Knit Picks Dishie and some hooks for my road trip project.

1.5 dishcloths made

I have a bonus 4-day stretch of days off so I hope to be finishing the cardigan very soon. I’ll see you then!

Nov24

Warm fuzzy weekend

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A whole weekend off – what fun! Saturday evening we had a potluck at a friend’s house with a group of lovely people. SO much food, we were nearly bursting! And of course we played our traditional Mexican Train Dominoes. Awesome!

My contribution to the food was apple pie and cashew-based vanilla ice cream (the big pie in foreground was the one I took with me, the smaller one and the jam tart made from the leftover pastry were left at home for the boys to eat). I rarely make pastry these days because of the fat content but OMG it came out so well – I used Melt Buttery Sticks for the first time.

This morning there was a vegan market downtown so we splurged on vegan baked treats, which we shared with the boys because they were far too rich for just two people to eat. We also bought some cool hand-made soaps again, and I also finally bought myself a vegan T shirt. Guess I need to get a photo of that sometime.

Afterwards it was tea at our favourite tea shop and a bit of crochet. I have made three of these gnomes (Gnomes of the Gnorth) now. Two of them were made following the pattern pretty closely, one wasn’t, and I shouldn’t have gone ‘off piste’ because I don’t like my version as much (the one with the white beard).

The pattern is on a blog, Mr Micawber’s Recipe for Happiness, and the designer is Sue Perez whose Ravelry name is MrsMicawber.

I have two new dishcloths made from a random ball of dishcloth cotton that I acquired recently. It never went into stash – I just used it up quickly, making up different stitch patterns as I went.

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And there has been sewing. Between tea in town and going to the gym, I spent a couple of hours making this bag.

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It was made with scraps left over from the snowman quilt/bag I made recently, with a lining from some other stash cotton. I think I need to buy a new walking foot – the one I have keeps slipping, the screw holding it on the machine is loosening so it moves as I sew (and I break needles as a result) and the whole thing is either too loose or too tight.

I am pretty happy with the bag, except for a little uneven quilting across the front. This is the same video tutorial as the other bag, and I pieced a patchwork section just like the original in the video. It’s a good way to use up small pieces.

After the gym I went out for a meal with friends, so all in all it was a very calorific weekend and I should probably not eat anything for the next five days! Yeah, right!!