Vintage Yarntini Mousie

Hi Knitters,
I was recently reading through Lucinda Guy's wonderful book Handknits for Kids and ran across this adorable mouse pattern. I started thinking about all of that left over sock yarn I have. I don't like a super long cuff on my socks, usually about 5-6 inches, so I end up with a lot of yarn left at the end.
The Yarntini along with this sweet pattern make a perfect union. Here is the result of that combination. I quickly knit this up yesterday morning and it took no time at all. Really any sock yarn would work because your gauge doesn't have to be perfect when you are knitting toys because no one has to wear anything at the end.
I used the fabulous Vintage Yarntini self-striping sock yarn to create the pattern called Mousie Mousie (loving the pattern name).

I used US size 3 dpns and changed the pattern slightly to work in the round. It seems that a lot of English designers knit the pieces to toys flat and then seam the pieces together. This works just fine and I know that a lot of knitters don't enjoy dpns but I am not one of them!

I'll say it again, I love my dpns and will use them as much as possible. I would much rather knit in the round and get that smooth seamless finish for a toy wherever it can possibly apply.

You can see my decreases running smoothly up the back of the mousie. The ears are knit flat in four separate pieces and then sewn together.

The fun thing is that I let the striping yarn do all of the work. I just let it flow any which way except for the inner ears, I purposely made those from the pink stripe in the yarn. Even the tail turned out great by chance with that rosie red tip.

I knit the bottom piece as is from the pattern. Then I picked up the required number of stitches around the bottom edge onto 3 dpns, using the fourth to knit onto, and knitted the rest in the round. You could easily do this too.

Lucinda Guy's Handknits for Kids is a terrific book filled with children's patterns. These are some of the best toy and children's wear designs I have ever seen. You should give this book a look if you haven't as of yet.

Mousie, Mousie is just one of the many creatively fresh ideas in this book. The sweaters, scarves, socks, toys, blankets are beautifully crafted. Her attention to detail is what draws me the most. She does lots of embellishing which I adore. Also, if you are looking for great boy sweaters and accessories this is your place to go! Her boy designs are clever and wearable.

I, of course, own all of her books. The first book, Handknits for Kids, is my personal favorite so I would recommend it if you can only get one book. And So to Bed... is fun as well, but there is just something about that first book. I would knit every pattern in Handknits for Kids. I rarely say that. Her partner, Francoise Hall, does all of the illustrations which are intertwined with the knits throughout the book. The illustrations are delightful and add a new and pleasant dimension to this knitting collection. I read an article about these two in a recent Rowan Magazine which was interesting. She uses all Rowan yarns for her designs. The books are published by Trafalgar Square Publishing.

Fairies are all of the rage over here this summer. I snapped this while I was out shooting Mousie this morning. This is my daughter's enchanted fairy garden which she painted and planted from a kit a couple of weeks ago. So sweet.

Now go and knit some Mousies!

best,

susie

Needle-Felting Dots

Hi Knitters,
I am having a good time with this project. This is the felted sweater that I am using for a wrist-let handbag that I mentioned in the last post. It was a plain white sweater that I felted so I decided to add some interest by needle-felting dots onto the fabric.

It is turning out great so I thought I would share a how-to on this fun and easy technique.

While you are creating your dotted pattern don't worry about imperfections. That's what makes it look so interesting and unique. My favorite dots are the ones that are oblong with uneven edges. Just go for it!

Here is what I used:

Needle-Felting Brush

Needle-Felting multi-needle tool

Roving

Felted Sweater (cut to bag measurements)

The needle felting tools and roving I purchased here.

Begin by placing the brush under the spot you will be working on.

Break off a small piece of the roving for the center of the dot. (Nice bruise!)

Shape the small piece of roving into a circle.

Place the circle on the felt and hold it in place with your fingertips. This is where you need to be extra careful not to stick your fingers with the needles. I only hold the roving for one or two pokes then I remove my fingers completely.

Now just poke the needles in and out of the circle until it is attached to the fabric.

I keep going until the roving is flattened out pretty well.

Next I select my outline color. This time form the roving into a longer, thinner piece.

I measure by placing it around the circle. None of this is scientific at all. If it doesn't go all of the way around I simply add some more. If it is too long I break a bit off. That's the kind of project I like!

Repeat attaching the same way you did the center.

Do the final ring the same way. Some of the dots I did three colors, some only two colors and then I added tiny dots around the larger dots.

This is a fun and easy project with fantastic results. You should give it a try.

Here is the finished dot.

The backside has fuzzy remnants of the right side design. Pull your felt gently from the brush.

This is the wrongside. Next I will needle-felt dots on the handle loops. I think I will make a flower out of needle-felted fabric and cut out a layered flower. More to come on that. Then onto the sewing.

Until then...

best,

susie

Baggedy Bag

Hi Knitters,
I am becoming bag obsessed right now. I said that I picked up a bunch of sewing books last week. Here is one of them, Sew Easy Bags by Linda Lee. This is great collection of all sorts of bags. It opens like a book but inside are two pockets stuffed with pattern cards and a small instruction booklet. It is a clever layout and the patterns are wonderful, practical and do-able.

The rosette wrist bag is the first bag I am going to try. I am using a recycled sweater that I felted for the fabric. I plan on doing some needle-felted dots to embellish the fabric before I sew. I am taking the inspiration from some dotted Kaffe Fassett fabric which I will use for the lining. I'll bring you along on that journey when I start. I love the small loop through big loop handles, the zipper top and the flower. I think I will be doing a felted flower of some sort to put at the top.

So far I have measured and cut out the fabric for the bag. It all seems easy and clear.

This blank canvas should provide some good felty weekend fun.

best, susie

Watermelon Fix

Hi Knitters,
The first watermelon sock is finished. The yarn is a dk weight. I casted on 48 stitches and knit on US size four dpns. I am not used to the heavier weight yarn and after I finished the toe I realized the foot was too short. I had to take the toe back out, add an extra half-inch to the foot length and re-do the toe. Now it is perfect. I had originally finished the length to the fingering weight measurement I always use. It didn't work due to the smaller number of stitches I was working with. Oh well, all is good now. The new sock blocker was purchased here.

The yarn was purchased here and it is called Sereknity in the watermelon color way. I used a seed stitch rib which you can work as follows:

Round 1: (knit 3, purl 1) repeat to end

Round 2: (purl 1, knit 3) repeat to end

This pattern adds a little interest but is so simple you could do it in your sleep!

What a beautiful day, crisp and breezy and sunny. I'm off for my morning run. I am listening to the Knitpicks podcast with Kelly. It is fantastic for several reasons but the main reason is that the content is strictly knitting and only knitting. That's what I want to hear! It is all knitting business. She interviews people in her company, talks about yarn, current knitting trends, book reviews, projects, future knitting projects and trends, etc. I am enjoying it very much. I just downloaded the first 6 episodes. I am listening backwards as I already listened to episodes 7-11. Load it up!

best, susie

p.s. Renee, you are in my thoughts. I am so sorry, sweet friend.

Just Looking Around

Hi Knitters,
It's one of those mornings where I am looking around my house and I'm seeing all of the work that needs to be done. I need to spend a lot of time cleaning and touching up paint. Ugh! We are hard on things around here. There is much wear and tear. One thing I didn't think about before having four kids is how much work I would be doing just to maintain daily life. Of course that wouldn't have changed my mind a bit but it can be daunting at times. I did find some fun things to share, too. It's not all bad over here.

The blue background is knit in Rowan Polar, which I think has been sadly discontinued. Luckily I have ten skeins of chocolate Polar in my stash just waiting to become a sweater of some sort. The flowers are knit in mohair and I think it is La Gran, maybe?

Here is the full shot. This is an old organ bench that was snagged from St. Vincent DePaul's. It was filled with old music that I saved for a future decoupage project. I painted it with left over paint from my kitchen, it is the Summer Pear color I mentioned earlier. This sweet little bench used to sit in my old yarn shop haunt, Alphabet Soup. It is so simple to take retired furniture and completely turn it into something new and fresh. We had such fun creating "new" furniture for that shop and I loved adding the knitted element to the pieces we picked. You should try it sometime!

As I was working in my studio early this morning I grabbed my camera. This is some of the chaos I look at daily. The pattern for those chenille carrots are in itty bitty nursery. I think I used a darker shade of orange for the carrots in the book. The ballerina has been following me around forever. I would feel lost without her. Someday soon I am going to properly photograph that mosaic mirror with the knitting needles for you. That is one of my favorite creations ever and it is a great combo of knitting and mosaic. That used to hang in Alphabet Soup, too.

Note my deluxe filing system to the right. Impressive, no? Do you have a favorite coffee mug? I do and there it sits. I am always trying to make sure it is clean and ready for my morning coffee.

This is a new book project I am working on. It doesn't look too exciting right now but I have big things in store for this knitted fabric. I'll cross my fingers that it will work. See those wooden things sticking out? I did order some sock blockers from here. They make your socks look so good.

Darn you, Stacey! Now I have already placed and received an order from Cider Moon because of you. Oh my goodness, I'll be back there soon. Those are the samples they sent along with my order. That Blue Sky Alpaca white cotton is waiting to be knit into a new toy I am working on. Can't wait to get that going, it is next in line.

When I was in Holland, Michigan last fall for the itty bitty book tour a lovely woman, who owns a yarn shop called Lizzie Ann's Wool Company, brought me these beautiful tulip needles as a gift. She was so sweet and that street in Holland is even sweeter. I was at Tree House Books and I had the best time at that tour stop. What a fun and lively group. Apparently Holland has a tulip festival every year, and thus the tulip needles were given. I love them and it is a great memento of that fun time.

You know how some people are so organized and their studios look like they should be in a magazine, well that's just not me. I need a little chaos mixed in and that's exactly what I have. I remember looking at a Kaffe Fassett book and seeing his chaos of color and texture in his home and I couldn't take my eyes off of that page for a long time. I fell in love with that smorgasbord. Just to soak that all in is too much to take. I like that at my house, it makes me feel good like there is creative work going on. Some may say messy, I say oh yeah!

Now for some fun links I was looking at this morning. These are the sweetest little booties and you could make these with left over sock yarn. I found them here. Really, if you aren't looking at this blog you are missing out. Jared is amazing. I am going to make these booties right away, for what baby I don't know but I'll find one. I have another project for left over sock yarn I will share as soon as I get it knitted up.

For a beautiful look at some fabric from Purl, crocheted flower squares, fun movie recommendations and some toes, yes toes, look here. Finally, for some fun sock viewing look here.

Are you on ravelry yet? Being the slow mover that I am sometimes I didn't sign up until very recently. I am still waiting for my invite. It looks really slick and I can't wait to explore. I'll let you know when I get in. I hear there are thousands and thousands on the list for an invite so it could be awhile.

One final note, I had some comments that I published recently and they didn't show up on the blog. I am sorry about that if it was you. Please write again and don't think I didn't try to get your comments posted. I have been having some weird glitches lately with my blog. Again, sorry about that.

This post was all over the place but that's how it is some days!

best, susie

Confection

Hi Knitters,
Well, here it is one last time. I finished the seams and lining yesterday. Vogue On the Go series, Bags Two is a great little book, but this bag is by far my favorite. The designer is Sima Brason Ferraro and she does an excellent job.

The lining took me most of the day working off and on. I have a sewing machine but it is not at my house right now. It is a long story. Needless to say I sewed everything by hand which I like to do anyway but it is time consuming.

You cover a heavy piece of cardboard for a bottom insert. I like this feature because it helps give the bag structure.

I chose the dotted fabric because I thought it carried the bobble theme right on to the inside of the bag. The instructions for the lining are crystal clear, very precise.

It really reminds me of candy, light, fluffy, whipped sugar. Yum!

Lovin' the magnetic snap, too. I ordered this from here awhile ago, not with this bag in mind though. It is fun when you just have things on hand when you need them.

The handle is the best part. I can't stand a knitted handle that stretches out as you use the bag. Sima has the perfect solution. You cover a piece of plastic needlepoint mesh with fabric. Then whipstitch it onto the underside of the handle.

Then you have the knitted handle but it has strength and will keep its intended shape.

This will be the perfect little knitting bag for socks or hats or mittens or toys. It is so fun to have a new knitted bag, right? I may just have to throw out a "wa-la" on this one. It is just that good.

I can't wait to put this sweet little bag to use. You should try this pattern out. You won't be disappointed, guaranteed!

I hope everyone is having a nice summer so far. It is going fast. My sister lives in a beautiful, huge old house on Lake Monona in Madison. It is a summer retreat and we spend every 4th of July over there for a cookout with my family. The kids have an absolute blast together. Then my brother-in-law takes us out on the lake in the boat for fireworks viewing. We can see 3 different shows at the same time from the lake.

Their trampoline is always more fun with water balloons thrown in the mix.

I passed off the candle lighting duties this time. Here is my 4th of July baby, well 5th of July actually. She turned 11 yesterday.

She glows like a ripe peach. She's a good squeeze, too, and we love her so.

best, susie