Wednesday, March 19, 2014

#WIPWednesday : The Event Horizon Pi Shawl

I love this shawl, and learned a lot from knitting her. I'm finally in the home stretch,  and ready to bind off. I cast on New Year's day, and was supposed to finish on Pi Day, 3/14, but that obviously didn't happen.
The Event Horizon Pi Shawl , by Donna Druchunas, was featured in her book, Stories in Stitches 2, and is only one of many projects, along with accompanying stories, that can be found in this lovely little book.
More information on designer and author Donna Druchunas,  can be found on her website,
Sheep to Shawl

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Free Pattern: The Brainless Cowl

Inspiration Mondays
I'm happy to say, the Brainless Cowl is just that, brainless.  I was looking for a way to use up some of my many skeins of handspun yarn, and sometimes I could knit on autopilot while I read a book.  Hence, the Brainless Cowl, a giftable project you can complete in an evening while sitting in front of  movie or reading a book.
This cowl is simplicity itself. For the cowl pictured,  I cast on 80 stitches on a set of US 10, 16 in circular needles, and I knit for 5 rounds, purled for 5 rounds, alternating as I  went, ending on a knit set, and bound off loosely when I ran out of my skein of worsted weight handspun yarn.
This pattern is very easy to adapt to any weight yarn. If you are using fingering weight, go down to a US size 6 needle, and increase your stitch count to 120.  If you want a longer cowl, kust add more stitches.
I hope you enjoy this fast, stress free knit.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

I Think I Will Take Up Sewing

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I think I'm going to take up sewing.  This has been something that has nagged T me for years,  which is a bit absurd.  After all, I own three sewing machines.  Yes, three. They keep coming into my life and my home,  and amazingly enough,  no matter what I do, I can't seem to make those suckers work.  They always end up with a tangled mess around the bobbin,  or the whole thing just sort of seizes up. At first,  I thought it was the machi2 that were at fault.  After all, I'm a pretty crafty girl. I'm a more than competent knitter. I make my own yarn. Really,  what could be so difficult about running a sewing machine.  Even kids do it all the time.

In an effort to get these machines working,  I had some sewing friends of mine take them for a test drive.  I was completely disgusted to hear that the machines were just fine, and actually worked very well.  Hmm.

Further proof that I'm supposed to be sewing something lies in the fact that I have multiple totes of beautiful fabric,  and by multiple,  I mean no less than five. If the universe didn't want me to do this, I can't imagine that so much sewing paraphernaliaon would have been dumped in my lap to steal space in my house.

So, in the face of all of this evidence,  I think it's time to put some of these lovely fabrics to work decorating my home. If I can ever figure out how to make those stupid sewing machines work!