Earthwhisper Fiber Arts

Pattern: Child’s Party Tank Top by Dawn Leeseman
Yarn: Trendsetter Yarns Taos
Needles: Size 8

edited to say: I had interpreted the pattern to have some errors, one of those is when you crochet the borders the numbers do not match up. I figured the crocheted border would have the same stitch count as the knit border.

However, Andrea suggested (and the designer agreed) that in this pattern you must crochet 3 stitches and then slip the 4th stitch, and this is to adjust in the gauge difference of knitting and crochet.

The crochet section well…you can tell it was written by a knitter.

Also, I am not particularly fond of how the shoulder straps were knit and finished off. I really like 3 needle bind off for shoulder straps so I think I would do that a bit differently.

edited to add: I forgot to mention that one of the shoulder straps in the front and the back has one extra row of knitting. I ended up modifying the pattern so that when you join the yarn and the neck edge on the purl side that I only purled across 3 stitches and then bound them off, so that way I ended up with the same rows on each shoulder edge. I don’t really know if this is an error, but honestly I pondered if it was meant to have the extra row or not and then decided to do it how I wanted to.

Overall though the pattern was fine and any experienced knitter and crocheter would be able to knit/crochet this in a few days. I was happy with how it turned out and so was the recipient, Madeleine.

The designer of this pattern is going to be having a book published in July, called “Casual Elegant Knits-Classy Designs for Men and Women.” I look forward to seeing what this designer has done.

Finally, I wanted to point out that I sometimes forget how many people randomly come to my blog. I don’t always have very much time to write a blog post and at times just write off the top of my head, without edit. I suppose what I might have considered an error in a pattern, may just be a difference of perception and style. I did not mean for this to be a negative review towards the designer or design.

The top worked up really fast and Madeleine wears it all the time, which is a winner in my book. I am appreciative of the work it takes to design knitwear and am also thankful for the free patterns that are out on the web.

I finally finished this top down baby pullover. It isn’t for any baby, just something I knit for the store to draw people into my knitting class. I added a few fancy details, such as the beading. It is super cute. I am happy with it. Now I can move onto other projects in progress I haven’t finished.

Yarn: Patons Tweed

Needles: Size 10

Closeup of Beads:

and Collar

Happy New Year, everyone!! This was my last project of 2007, a baby hat and pullover for a coworker.

Pattern: Caron Baby Caftan (without girly embroidery, added white stripes for boyish look.)

Needles: Size 7 & 8

Yarn: Caron Simply Soft - Country Blue and some misc white acrylic baby yarn doubled for contrast.

This was a fast, easy weekend project.

The hat is from this pattern: TLL Basic Knit Hat Pattern, though I increased the length of the hat a few extra rows.

Also, I started the decreases at Knit 4, Knit 2tog, because with a cast on of 54, 6 is easily divisible. The pattern starts it at Knit 3, Knit2tog…and well, 54 isn’t divided evenly by 5.

Also in December, I knit 2 pairs of wrist warmers (not shown) and in early December I crocheted the Sweet Pea Shawl from the Happy Hooker book.

I took the picture in the evening, right before I gave it to my friend for her birthday, so the picture/lighting isn’t the greatest.

I have also been working on a few other projects, but that is all that I finished.

In 2008, Tony and I have both decided to work on our health more, exercise more, eat better, get more organized, work harder on our finances so we can buy a house, be nicer to each other and the kids…you know, all of the usual things. Probably things everyone can hope to do better. Maybe I should add, be a better blogger in there…

Tony added, may we not have to visit the ER more then once in a month…and I added…may we not visit the ER at ALL this year.

My cousin will be having her baby in a few days…yep, a boy.  I thought a pile of hats would be nice.  I am not done with the blanket I was working on.

The top one is a ribbed hat, I just winged it.  I cast on 48 st on size 8 needles w/ cotton-ease.  It is really stretchy and light.

The one on the right, I also winged.  I cast on 92 st with Rowan Calmer on size 5 needles.  At the top, I did two decreases to get to  90 and then did your normal hat decreasing (K8, K2tog….k7, k2tog…k6, k2tog…etc.)

The one on the left is from this pattern, thought I casted on 8 stitches to get an 8 point star, instead of 7.  It is also with the Rowan Calmer, which I am thinking is a lot like cotton-ease, but a bit stretchier, softer, and slightly thinner.

I finished a sweater, but it wasn’t the one I was hoping to finished.  I haven’t had a chance to block my father’s sweater…hopefully I will do that soon.  In the meantime, last night I finished the sleeves of the baby cardigan I was knitting and then today sewed the buttons on.  There are two small errors on it, one is in the back on the bottom trim and the other is in the front next to the garter stitch trim…can you seem them?  Both of them are just one stitch mistakes…oops, sometimes I make them.

I was going to knit the baby sweater for my cousin.  She is due at the end of May.  She is having a boy.  I was given the TLC Baby blue yarn in the Magic Yarn swap, so I thought this would be perfect for the sweater for him.  However, after I got the main part of it finished, I realized the fancy stitching around the yoke looks too girlish.  I asked Tony what he thought and he agreed.  I even left off the decorative stitching on the sleeves and I still think it is too girlish.

I still am going to finish the baby blanket for him.  So I took the sweater to work so it will be a sample to help attract people to my classes.  It is definitely cute.   I wish I would have taken a picture of the yoked crocheted cardigan I made out of SWS a few weeks back.  It was so beautiful.

Today we worked out in the garden again.  My lavender came back.  We cut off all of the old dead branches and there is a nice new bush underneath.  I weeded around it and it is good to go, smells, awesome too.  I bought a $4 lavender from Target a week ago and am ready to plant that.  I think I should plant it by my front walkway all of my flowers from last summer have died.  It gets a lot of sun there.  Tony thinks we should plant sunflowers there, but I think they will fall in on us when they get heavy.

I am almost ready to plant my vegetable garden.  We filled up the whole lawn container with weeds and tree branches (the berry branches are gone!!!)  :)  Tony finally pruned them.  I need a little bit more work out in the backyard, including putting down some spider spray.  When I get Tony to help me we get a lot of work done.  Sometimes it is hard for me to get him to go outside since his allergies are so bad, but I think he enjoyed it.  It is a family project.

I crocheted this months ago, thinking it would make a nice baby gift for my friend.  However, when I finished it, I realized the homespun was too thick for this California weather.  It almost seemed carpet like.  So, I left it on the shelf without trim.

My work has been giving me a bad time about not having cute things to attract people to my classes.  I think they were suggesting baby items.  So I trimmed the baby sweater with some pink homespun someone gave me and added some buttons (from Walmart.)  After I put it all together, I realized that I seemed it inside out and the long part of the front should have been on the other side.  Oh well, I decided it didn’t matter (especially since no one will ever wear it) and it still looks cute.

I didn’t straighten the buttons before I took the picture.

Pattern: Baby It’s Cold Outside

I am behind in knitting up a project for a book submission.  The deadline for that is the 23rd and I am not close to being done knitting it.  Being sick last week just did not help me.

The first one is Knitty’s Anouk. It is done in Cotton-ease. You have seen the pics before, just finally found the perfect buttons for it, at Walmart of all places. I have realized there are not a lot of places in my area that sales buttons.

There are some imperfections, but overall I am happy with it. As much as I love cotton-ease (and am excited about its come-back,) I have realized it isn’t very forgiving. It splits easily and when you mess with it it doesn’t spring back.
This next finished project is one you didn’t even know I started, because I am shameful and pretty much broke my September challenge rule. Yes, I lied to you all, but not intentionally. I was crocheting this scarf thinking it would make for a fun beginner’s project for my classes. The first row wasn’t too bad, but the second row took me a couple of nights of crocheting…so it isn’t a 2 hour project to say the least. It was fun, though and makes for a very pretty scarf. It is Patons Curly Q Scarf. It took almost 4 balls of Patons SWS with a size K hook. The pattern calls for an L hook, which I don’t have, so I figured K is next best and would use less yarn.

This next project is one that will be in my beginner’s crochet class. It is a credit card/cash wallet. It is made with Patons Classic Merino with a size H hook. It is very easy. I still wonder if this is pushing it for a 2 hour class, but if I can get them past the button hole then I think it won’t be too bad.
Oh, and too my friend Amy, mentioned I am doing well. I am.! I have lost 10 pounds since I started my vegetarian diet. That isn’t a lot, but it is better than nothing. Tony has lost a lot more than me. My back has been killing me, but I noticed it goes in waves and is because I do things like carry Madeleine on my back and wrestle with the kids.

Dropping that class has made my stress go from a 10 to a 2. Seriously, I didn’t even realized I was that frazzled until in retrospect looking back. I think everyone around me knew it though.

Sierra is doing well, too. She has a “boyfriend” at school and kissed him on the cheek. I told her not to, but she told me she wasn’t in school, so it was okay (we were walking to the truck.) Sigh… He was nice and told me, “it is okay, I like it.” In school she is doing better. Her homework is coming back just fine. She isn’t crying after school and I think overall the teacher and her are communicating better. Either that or she is preoccupied with her “boyfriend” and so isn’t getting upset over the other stuff, I don’t know.

Madeleine has been “rough and tumble” lately. She is skinned up on her knees, on her chin, and has a bruise on her head. She is a little daredevil and is also sometimes clumsy. She is very much a comedian, always looking for a laugh.

She is talking more, full sentences. Though really only Sierra and I understand her. Tony doesn’t. She leaves the ends of words off, still and I am trying to work with her on it. Sometimes she says something to me and I don’t know what she is saying and it is frusterating to both of us. Also, I guess and she acts like I guessed right, but I wonder if she is just faking that and just being happy that I am giving her something.

Here is the ball after felting. It is true that polyfill won’t felt. Michael’s doesn’t sell wool filling, that I know of so I am just going with what they have.

This isn’t a beginner’s crochet class.  It was suggested to me that I start off with beginner’s classes for the month of October.  Then in November to add a more advanced class so that people who took the beginning class would want to take another class of mine and learn more skills.  Maybe it will end up that people will only want to take beginning classes or maybe they will want to take more intermediate ones, I don’t know.  Teaching is so new to me and I am just treating it like a journey.

I would appreciate any advice out there about teaching knitting and crochet and if you have any short/small easy projects you can share with me, that would be great too!

Here is my Anouk, without buttons. I still didn’t buy any today.

Tony’s woodworking project is a “box.” It is a box that a piece of equipment at his work will sit on and it is going to have a drawer to keep small tools in. All of those torture-like things are clamps that are holding the pieces together while he is glueing.

I might drop my Anatomy class this weekend. Class starts on Monday and I can’t afford the book or the parking pass. I might just have to take this semester off and go next spring. I was hoping that we would be able to scrape some money up, but now we have to fix the brakes in the truck. I am kind of mad about that because about 6 months ago I mentioned to Tony the brakes felt funny. I swore to him they were going out. He drove my truck and said they were fine. He then took it to the next step and ridiculed me and made me feel like I was being paranoid.

Well, now they don’t just need new pads, but they need the roters turned, also. This needs to be done now. He has done absolutely nothing today to get the parts we need or to set up time and a place to do this. My patience is growing thin on some stuff.

I finished some hats to go with the mary jane booties. The pinks match perfect, but the purples don’t match that much. I was too tired last night to realize there was that much of a difference. They are still cute though.

This is my husband’s new hobby. And you thought dpn’s were scary….He is still learning, so please don’t critique his method. For some reason I had to laugh at what he was doing and figured it would make for interesting blog content.

I finished some Mary Jane booties.

Pattern: is by Jessica at http://www.jcrochet.com/
Hook: Size B

Yarn: Size 3 Crochet Thread (can’t remember name/brand)

I decided on doing the picot trim. I don’t think I will put flowers on them, just leave them simple. I might make some matching hats. This pattern is super easy and works up really fast!