Kara Hobbs Portfolio

Ram's Horn Belt

2012-01-28T11:39:00.005-05:00

Sorry for the absence from the blog these past few months. Since having a second baby back in August I've been struggling to find the right balance between keeping house well, serving others, and selling my fiber arts, all the while loving my husband and daughters. It's a difficult balance and this blog is low on my list of priorities. That said, I'm pretty excited to have a couple new things to post here! I've been very busy with special orders, but in between those I managed to weave a pretty cool new belt for my husband.

There is a traditional Turkish pattern that is very popular in card weaving called "Ram's Horn." It is really cool, because it features two colors spiraling around each other, which is a kind of tricky thing to pull off. It requires weaving with two packs of cards, sometimes turning them in the same direction and sometimes in opposite directions. My first attempt at weaving this pattern didn't go so well:

Frustrated, I set the loom aside and asked for help on a Ravelry forum. One lady very kindly gave me the contact information of a friend who is a tablet weaving instructor. Through an e-mail correspondence, the instructor helped me figure out what I was doing wrong. It took several tries and many hours, but I finally got the pattern to turn out right. I tiredly raised my fists and cheered. Quietly. Because it was nap time.

Now it is all finished, except for some end reinforcement and the metal tip that I still need to buy to help it slide through the buckle properly. That hasn't stopped Collin from wearing it the last three days though. He likes it, and I like it, and that makes me very happy.

I am ordering some new belt buckles and tips, so soon I should be able to offer these for custom order. This belt is made with linen yarn, which makes it extremely strong but a little fuzzy. For a smoother look, I could make it in cotton yarn. Suggested Retail: $20.

Gumball Machine!

2011-10-27T13:51:00.009-04:00

I've been very busy for many weeks now getting ready for the Bloomington Handmade Market. This will be my second year at the BHM, which is one of the best local craft shows of the year. Besides being furiously busy making stock to sell, I've been putting a lot of thought into how to display my things in an attractive way.

Last week, I decided that I had to have a gumball machine. I was looking at the brightly colored felted bouncy balls I'd just finished, and thinking how much they looked like gumballs in the1-gallon glass jar I stored them in. I started looking into getting a gumball machine, searching Craigslist and sending out a request on Freecycle. It turns out that they're not that uncommon, and that you can buy one for around $25-80.

I also had this vague notion that I'd seen a gumball machine in my grandparents' basement. I debated for a while whether or not I ought to call and ask, since it sounded crazy and I didn't want to confuse my grandmother with such an oddball request. I mean, how would that conversation go? "Hi Mom-Mom! I was wondering if you happen to have a gumball machine sitting around your house?" Finally I decided on sending an e-mail, and to my surprise, they did find a gumball machine in their basement!

They didn't know where it came from and they didn't have a key to open it up, but they said I was welcome to have it and any change inside. This morning I took it to a locksmith, and within a couple hours the lock had been picked and I had a new key to open it up.

Inside was a card from the Lions Club, a 10 cent sticker, one lonely leftover chiclet...

And 352 dimes! Enough to cover the cost of the locksmith and leave $11.99 profit! The shiniest of the dimes were from 1988, so I'm guessing it's been in my grandparents basement for 20 or more years.

Of course, the best part is that now I have a really fun way to display my bouncy balls at the Handmade Market in just over two weeks! The balls come in three sizes, and are $2 for the small balls, $4 for the medium, and $6 for the large. They make awesome stocking stuffers for both kids and pets.

By the way, when the Handmade Market is over, I'm going to make another batch of felted bouncy balls and use the gumball machine to decorate Annie and Laurel's room. Gumballs make everyone smile.

Fall Preview

2011-09-01T08:27:00.000-04:00

My in-laws are coming tomorrow to visit us and to meet the baby (hooray!), so I might not be posting much for the next couple weeks. I wanted to leave you with a preview of finished projects to look forward to in the upcoming weeks as I prepare for the Christmas season. Think of these photos as "teasers" of what's to come.

More T-Yarn

You've already seen the t-yarn market bags and bag caddy, but I'll have some other new completed projects and project kits available soon. Look for T-yarn hair accessories, bracelets, and of course woven potholders! They're just like the ones you used to make with nylon loopies, except these don't melt when exposed to heat AND come from recycled materials. Win-win!

I'll also be offering make-your-own market bag kits from the t-yarn pictured above. They'll have approximately five balls of t-yarn in coordinating colors, and knitting instructions and tips for how to work with the t-yarn. Since each t-shirt only offers a small amount of yardage, selling kits makes more sense than offering individual balls of yarn.

Pop Tabs
Several friends have been saving pop tabs for me, and I've got some really cool projects lined up for them. Combined with plarn and/or t-yarn they're going to turn into cute flowered hair clips, get worked into those t-yarn bracelets, and hopefully many of them will end up as part of a plarn tote. This one by Cindy from MyRecycledBags has inspired me to try designing my own.

Spool Knitters
As a fiber artist, I'm always making new tools and gadgets for myself. I know lots of other crafty-type people also like nice handmade tools, so this year I'll be offering some really cool spool knitters. These are still in progress, but nearing completion. I can't wait to do a full post on them soon!

More Woven Straps
I'll be showcasing more items woven on my inkle loom, including this guitar strap made with tie-dyed cotton yarn and cassette tape. Look for card-woven pet collars soon too!

Hand-painted wool yarn
I have lots of recycled wool yarn already dyed and ready to be knit or sold as yarn, but I still have a basket full of undyed wool sweaters. Some of them will end up in the warm earthy tones of kool-aid dyes (like the yarn in the center of this photo), and others will be brighter colors from commercial dyes like the yarn I used for the polka-dotted alien hat.

Returning Favorites
Of course, I'll be bringing back many of the most popular items that I made last year, including felted bouncy balls made with my hand-dyed recycled wool yarns. All the balls pictured above are going to turn beautiful squishy colors and still keep their bounciness. Woohoo!

Handwoven Purse
This black purse is a collaboration between me and my sister. She wove the body of the bag on her treadle loom, and I will be weaving the other pieces on my inkle loom. It's going to be really gorgeous.

Tie-dyed Cotton Market Bags
Thanks to a tie-dying party my sister hosted this summer, I was able to dye five sweaters-worth of cotton yarn in brilliant self-striping colors. These yarns have worked their way into several projects, including these beautiful market bags.

So there you go. Lots of projects to look forward to, whether you are looking for inspiration for your own projects, looking to buy a great Christmas present, or just like looking at all the pictures. I know I'm looking forward to finishing and sharing these projects with you!

Poco Rojo ("Little Red")

2011-08-29T16:17:00.010-04:00

"Once there was a dear little girl whom everyone loved. Her grandmother loved her most of all and didn't know what to give the child next. Once she gave her a little red velvet cap, which was so becoming to her that she never wanted to wear anything else, and that was why everyone called her Little Red Cap."
-Grimm's Fairy Tales

Last year it took me until after Thanksgiving to finish knitting Annie a winter hat. This year I wanted to get it done early so my own daughter wouldn't have cold ears while I spent my time making hats for other people's children. A knitting design contest hosted by the yarn company Manos del Uruguay gave me the perfect opportunity to design and knit Annie a hat well before the first frost.

I designed Annie's hat to be reminiscent of the cap worn by Little Red Riding Hood from Grimm's Fairy Tales. However, since it was designed around yarn from Uruguay I named it "Poco Rojo" - Little Red in Spanish. It is both whimsical and practical - perfect for a little girl!

Annie hates to have hats constrict her ears, so I chose the vintage "pixie" style for this design. It is looser than most stocking caps, but still fits well around the head and has a chin strap to hold it on securely. Plus, it has an adorable curl in back!

The hat itself is a simple rectangle, grafted together at the back and with a neck band attached to the bottom. The red Manos Del Uruguay yarn was perfect for this project. The semi-solid coloring really highlights the cables, and they seem to shine even when there isn't any direct light on the hat. And the deep red really brings out the blue in Annie's eyes!

If the hat wins in the contest, the pattern will be available through Manos Del Uruguay. Otherwise, I might publish it as a free pattern here on my portfolio.

Suggested Retail: $25.

The Plarn Collection: Poppy Hat

2011-08-26T11:06:00.007-04:00

How's this for something different? "The Poppy" is a cloche-style hat made out of plarn from white shopping bags, red newspaper bags, and VHS tape! It was inspired by the crocheted pattern by Teresa Wooley, and makes for a really unique and fun fashion statement.

This hat will be one-of-a-kind, because to be honest, I hated working with VHS tape. It hurt my fingers and squeaked SO LOUDLY that you could hear me knitting from across a really big room. But I'm glad I soldiered through! VHS tape offers unrivaled sparkle, plus there's just a certain cool factor of wearing something made from so unlikely a material.

I really love the flower on the hat. I made it on a little flower loom, which I'm especially proud of because I made it all by myself. The loom itself is hideously ugly - it was a plastic jewelry case which looked nice until it got all ripped up when I drilled dozens of holes in it. I'll probably only put up pictures if Collin decides to build me a nice one and then I can show you how ugly the one I made for myself was. But it works, and I really like the resulting flower! It totally completes the look of this hat.

It is an adult-sized hat and doesn't fit Annie at all, but she was so adorable when she tried it on that I had to include pictures. Besides being a fun around-town hat for a woman, it would make a great dress-up hat for a girl!

Suggested retail: $30

Guitar Straps

2011-08-23T15:21:00.005-04:00

The first time I saw guitar straps woven on an inkle loom I was inspired. Guitar straps are both useful and a perfect place to showcase your unique style. They also are a fairly simple shape that allows for a lot of variety in pattern and material. I wove the following four guitar straps to try out a few different techniques and yarns, and I love them all! Check them out!

This fiery strap is woven from recycled, hand-painted cotton yarn from an old sweater. I dyed it in stripes while it was still knit up in the sweater pieces, then unraveled it and wove this guitar strap. It is lightweight, flexible and smooth, yet still with the strength that comes from a warp-faced weave that you get on an inkle loom.

A more bulky version is this guitar strap woven from t-yarn. That's right, this one is made from recycled t-shirts! Unlike the other straps, I didn't have to dye the yarn to get these vibrant colors - each color came from a different t-shirt.

This close-up lets you see the texture of the woven t-yarn. It's very sturdy, and has a small amount of stretch that makes it comfortable to wear. Like all the other guitar straps, the end tabs are made from a recycled black leather jacket. Only the hardware is new!

This extra-long strap has two very neat features. It was card-woven, so it is a little thicker than the other cotton straps and features in intricate pattern unique to card-weaving. It also has a variegated yarn that was dyed in a rainbow, which makes the pattern shift from red to orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple as your eye travels down the length of the strap. It is made from recycled wool yarns, and is perfect for taller guitarists who need a longer strap.

Finally, my favorite one is woven from hand-dyed recycled purple and green cotton/acrylic blend yarn along with cassette tape. The cassette tape gives the strap a really fun retro feel, as well as an amazing sparkle. I love the effect and am looking forward to using it again in another guitar strap with a different color combination.

(By the way, when I say this one is my favorite, I mean that I couldn't bear to take it off my guitar after we were done taking photos this morning. It's still hiding in my guitar case, and I'm seriously considering weaving another one to sell, just so I can keep this one. It's so cool.)

All the guitar straps are 2 inches wide, and all except the rainbow-patterned one are the standard size of 30-60 inches. The extra-large size gives you another 6 inches, adjusting from 36-66 inches.

Suggested Retail: $30

Polka-dotted Alien Hat

2011-08-20T21:59:00.004-04:00

Sometimes I dye yarn for a specific project, and sometimes I just come up with a fun color combination and the yarn tells me what it wants to be. This alien hat was the latter. I was trying out some new dyes, and the yarn came out brighter and darker than I'd expected. It was a really fun kid-themed colorway that screamed, "Make me into a polka-dotted alien hat!"

The hat is knit out of recycled, hand-painted wool warn. There are short pieces of a bamboo chopstick completely enclosed in knit tubes to stiffen the eyeballs. The eyeballs are ping-pong balls, securely glued into the wool eye sockets.

This hat will fit a toddler or a young child, with a head circumference of approximately 18-19.5 inches. My glass model has an adult head circumference of 22 inches and the hat is too small for it, I just had trouble getting Annie to model a wool hat for more than a minute in the summer heat. But come winter, this hat will make some toddler a very cool (yet very warm) winter hat!

Suggested Retail: $20

My New Inkle Loom

2011-08-18T21:34:00.007-04:00

I am so excited to finally be able to share these pictures with you! This summer my husband Collin built me a really gorgeous inkle loom so that I can weave straps and bands. Like I mentioned a couple posts ago, straps are one of knitting's weakest points and inkle/card weaving is a perfect complement to knitting. The straps are all tightly woven, strong, and beautiul.

Collin based the design of this loom on one built by British woodworker Michael Williams. If you were going to buy a loom like this you'd need about $300, and since that wasn't really in our budget (and because Collin likes a challenge and something he can build with his hands), Collin agreed to make me one himself.

Collin used some beautiful hardwood scraps from my Granddad's wood shop: cherry for the main crescent shape, and walnut for the base and the inkle shuttles (not pictured here). The dowels are oak and the tensioner and support pieces are hickory. He used walnut wedges to firmly secure the dowels, since they can be under significant strain during weaving.

I'm using this loom for two different but related weaving techniques: inkle weaving (the traditional use for a loom like this) and card weaving, an even older technique which can be done without a loom but works a lot better on one. Both techniques produce very strong warp-faced bands, which means that the only strings that show are the long vertical ones. Card weaving uses a set of square cards to separate the strings, and can produce a huge array of thick, intricately patterned bands.

Inkle weaving, on the other hand, uses string "heddles" to separate the strings, and results in a slightly lighter-weight woven fabric. This is very important when you're weaving with a heavier thread, like t-yarn, or something more delicate like the cassette tape in the guitar strap above.

The shuttle in all these pictures is an old one Collin made for my frame loom. He made me some new inkle shuttles from walnut that have a sharpened edge for beating the strings open, but I haven't been able to get pictures of them yet. Before he finished the inkle shuttle I had to borrow Annie's toy chef knife to do the same job!

In a couple days I hope to be able to show you some finished guitar straps that I've woven on my loom. I also recently bought the hardware to make some dog and cat collars, so watch for some very neat pet collars to show up soon. I can't wait to work more on my new loom and show ya'll the results!

Meet Laurel Catherine!

2011-08-18T15:38:00.005-04:00

Meet Laurel Catherine, our baby girl! She was born last week, August 11th, at 9:24 in the morning, weighing 6 lb 14 oz and 19 in. long. We are praising God for her safe and uncomplicated arrival!

Almost-two-year-old Annie loves her baby sister Laurel! It's so sweet to see them together.

Laurel is named after her grandmother Catherine, and after the beautiful mountain laurel flowers that grow in the Smoky Mountains. My husband and I have loved the name ever since we honeymooned in the Smokies, and decided we'd name our second daughter Laurel when we were vacationing in Tennessee again this spring. After she had a name, I wanted to make her a hat inspired by a laurel flower.

To save you the trouble of Googling to find out what a laurel flower looks like, here is the one on which I based my design. I also made Laurel a matching set of booties that should fit this winter (look for pictures of those later), and I am planning on making a pacifier clip in the same color scheme. The pacifier clip was one of the things still on my to-do list when Laurel showed up a week early. Since baby snuggles are sweeter than having everything checked off my list, I'm not complaining.

Suggested retail: $15 for a newborn-sized hat like this one. I could make it to resemble a variety of cup or bell-shaped flowers. You'll have to supply your own baby, though, because I'm keeping this one!

Uzbek Napramach Bag

2011-08-10T13:24:00.000-04:00

I had a lot of fun making this bag! I had a whole pile of brightly dyed recycled yarns and I wanted to find a project that would allow me to show them off to their best advantage. I adapted this from a design by Vicki Square, published in the very inspiring book Folk Bags. She called it "Napramach" which is an Uzbek word for a type of bag used to store household supplies. I shortened her design a bit to make it work better as a purse, lined it with a deep purple silky fabric, and added a very neat woven strap.

The lining is stiffened with interfacing to give structure to the bag. This makes for a really lovely combination of textures: The tightly-knit wool/silk yarns on the outside, the stiff interior, and the silky lining.

Handles and straps are one of the weakest points of knitting. Frequently knitted handles stretch way out, are too skinny for comfort or else have a less-than-ideal texture. In my quest to overcome these weaknesses, I've been exploring the technique of card-weaving on an inkle loom. My amazing husband just built me a gorgeous inkle loom for this purpose, and this bag handle was my first card-woven strap.

Card weaving allows for beautifully intricate patterns and produces a very sturdy product in the end.

One other note about this bag: It's made entirely from recycled yarns, and four of the colors (blue, green, yellow and pink - the four in the strap) are a wool/silk blend that I dyed with Easter egg dyes! The red and purple are wool yarns dyed with black cherry and grape Kool Aid respectively. All of them are really great semi-solids that worked beautifully into the colorwork patterns of this bag.

Suggested Retail: $40

The T-yarn Collection: Market Bags

2011-08-09T13:55:00.000-04:00

T-shirt yarn makes really excellent heavy-duty market bags. They don't collapse down as small as a cotton yarn or plarn bag, but they're even better suited to hauling around a watermelon or a small pile of pumpkins. The stretch of the t-yarn and the structure of the net bag expand to fit a huge variety of shapes, and the handles feel good in your hands or on your shoulder.

The sturdy construction of these bags starts with a square base, comes up with netting on the sides, and finish with thick rolled handles.

Many of the t-shirts that went into these bags came from my closet, ones that were too old even for Goodwill but were either too-well loved to just throw away or simply had a bit of life left in them. It's a lot like the patchwork quilts of previous generations: making sure to get the last bit of use left from a nearly worn-out piece of fabric.

Currently I have two of these t-yarn market bags available: one in gradient shades from navy to sky blue, and one in greens, grays, and dark purple.

Suggested Retail: $20

The T-yarn collection: Seussian Bag Caddy

2011-08-08T13:32:00.000-04:00

No matter how good our intentions are about always using re-usable shopping bags, collecting plastic shopping bags is inevitable. I'm generally pretty good about remembering my re-usable bags on regular shopping outings, but there are always spontaneous trips when I find myself without my bags. And that's ok! Plastic shopping bags are useful for so many things, not the least of which are trash can liners and packing my husband's lunch. But you need an attractive way to store all those bags so they don't get all over the place and so they'll be handy when you need them. Presenting: The t-yarn Seussian bag caddy!

T-yarn is yarn made from strips of cut-up t-shirts. Just like plarn, you can find lots of tutorials on how to make it. Basically, you cut a seamless t-shirt in a big spiral, pull on it so that the edges roll in on themselves and prevent any raveling, and then knit it like any other bulky yarn. It's super-strong, and can come in as many bright fun colors as the ubiquitous American t-shirt does. I used several colors of t-yarn to knit the bold stripes of this bag saver, and the end result reminds me of a Dr. Seuss top hat, hence the name "Seussian bag caddy."

This bag caddy can easily hold 30 regular-sized plastic bags. It probably can hold more, but I only had 28 to try it out. Just stuff the bags in the top. . .

. . . and pull them out the dispenser at the bottom. Hang the bag caddy in your utility room or in any handy location, and you'll always have bags ready for whatever new purpose you've got for them!

Suggested Retail: $20

The Plarn Collection Blue Rainbow Chullo Purse

2011-08-07T12:37:00.000-04:00

A chullo hat is the traditional Peruvian earflap hat worn up in the Andes mountains. This bag was originally designed by Mary Jane Mucklestone, who looked at a chullo earflap and thought, "That would look great blown way up and turned into a purse!" I loved the idea, and adapted it into this colorful plarn purse.

Five colors of plastic bags went into this purse, four of them from newspaper sleeves, with the green from the large-size Goodwill bags. Thanks go to a neighbor and a friend for saving bags for me and helping me collect a full rainbow of color!

The purse closes with a loop and vintage-button closure.

It is fully lined with an upcycled woven cotton shirt, complete with the shirt pocket for storing your wallet or cell phone.

More than almost anything I've knit recently, people have asked me about this bag. Whether I was working on it at the park or at the doctor's waiting room, people have stopped to take a look and then brought their friends over to see what I was working on. It's a real conversation starter when you think about the new uses you can put to seemingly useless materials!

Suggested Retail: $35

The Plarn Collection: Farmer's Market Bag

2011-08-06T12:30:00.007-04:00

I love string market bags. They expand to hold large quantities of oddly-shaped purchases, yet collapse down into something you can easily stuff into your purse. They're deceptively strong, and very pretty with their eyelet lace structure. And, of course, re-using your own bag is better stewardship of our resources than using disposable plastic bags. Here's a new take on a traditional string market bag: one made entirely from recycled plastic grocery bags.

This plarn bag appears small before you fill it, but can actually hold a watermelon (our Saturday farmer's market prize from today) or about a dozen ears of corn. Try doing that with a regular flimsy plastic bag and you'll end up with a torn bag and corn on the ground!

The bow is decorative and entirely removable if you want to give this market bag to a man.

Suggested Retail $20

The Plarn Collection: Blue Geranium Sunhat

2011-08-05T21:50:00.009-04:00

This portfolio has been in need of a good update for a while now. So much has happened since last fall, the most important being that my husband and I are anticipating the birth of our second daughter almost any day now. That makes it kind of a crazy time to try and get my portfolio up-to-date and ready for the fall preview, but I'm going to seize these last few days and try to do just that.

I had a bad case of creative block all winter (too much morning sickness, too little sunshine), and have spent the spring and summer catching up and getting back into creating mode. Fortunately, my inventory is filling up with lots of fun and exciting items, and I can't wait to share some of them with you!

Recently I've been experimenting with new recycled materials, including "plarn" which is yarn made from recycled plastic bags. There are lots of tutorials on how to make plarn, and I found the one from Cindy on MyRecycledBags.com to be most helpful. Most people who are experimenting with plarn are crocheters, so I've been exploring how the medium can be used in knitting. First up: A plarn sunhat.

This hat was made with a large variety of white shopping bags, including bags from Walmart to JoAnn fabrics to those generic red-printed "Thank You" bags you get everywhere from the Asian grocery to the Salvation Army. Combining all these bags makes a cool effect, because although the predominant color is still white, little colored flecks show the origin of the bags which make up the hat. It's fun to hold the hat and think about all the variety of things the bags held in their previous lives.

The flowers and hat band were made with newspaper bags given to me by a kind neighbor. Actually, he gave me a whole laundry basket full of colored newspaper bags, and it took me over a week to sort and turn them all into plarn! You'll be seeing more from those bags later, I promise.

The texture is surprisingly elastic and bendable. As a matter of fact, this sunhat fits both my toddler Annie and me fairly well. We both have very large heads for our respective ages, and although it's a little snug on me it would fit most children to adults very well. A thin wire is threaded through the outside of the brim, stabilizing it and allowing you to shape it to frame your face best.

Suggested retail: $30

FREE Pattern: String Quartet Baby Hat

2011-02-22T21:58:00.008-05:00

Here’s a unique hat I designed a while back for a cellist friend (Stephanie) to knit for a mutual violist friend who was having a baby. Since I'd already made a pair of viola booties for this baby, Stephanie wanted to try knitting a viola scroll onto a hat. I knit up this sample hat so I could write a pattern for Stephanie to make, and had a lot of fun both designing and photographing it. I waited to post this until Stephanie finished and sent off the project so that I wouldn't spoil the surprise, which is why Annie is almost a year younger in these pictures. (OK, I could've posted this before Christmas. Life has been a little crazy these last few months.)

Size: 3-6 months (Stretches well, and can be changed easily by going up or down in needle size)

Materials: 3-5 colors of worsted yarn, one in a nice wood shade of brown like a violin, one in a contrasting shade for strings.

Tools: 16 inch circular needle, size 8; set of 4 double pointed needles (dpn), size 8; yarn needle; scissors

Hat

Cast on 60 stitches. Join, and work in k2p2 ribbing for four rows to form the brim. Change to stockinette stitch (k every row), working stripe sequence as desired. Work 4 inches from brim/4.5 inches from cast on edge.

Begin decrease sequence

Row 1: k8, k2tog (54 sts)

Row 2 and all even rows: k all sts

Row 3: k7, k2tog (48 sts)

Row 5: k6, k2tog (42 sts)

Row 7: k5, k2tog (36 sts)

Row 8: k all sts, CHANGE TO DPNs

Row 9: k4, k2tog (30 sts)

Row 11: k3, k2 tog (24 sts)

Row 13: k2, k2tog (18 sts)

Scroll pattern

Arrange all stitches on 2 dpns (9 sts on each needle) with seam in back (5 sts on first needle, 9 on next, 4 on third needle, then knit first 5 onto needle with the 4; 9 on each needle) and work to form a flat tube.

All measurements are from start of scroll pattern. Each increase or decrease row is repeated on both needles, stitch count is for both needles.

Row 1-10: k even (1 in), 18 sts.

Row 11: k2, k2tog, k1, k2tog, k2. 14 sts.

Row 12-15: k even (2.25 in).

Row 16: k1, k2tog, k1, k2tog, k1. 10 sts.

Row 17-29: k even (4.25 in).

Row 30: k2, m1, k1, m1, k2. 14 sts.

Row 31-34: k even (5 in)

Row 35: k3, m1, k1, m1, k3. 18 sts.

Row 36-39: k even (5.75 in)

Row 40: k4, m1, k1, m1, k4. 22 sts.

Row 41-59: k even (8.5 in)

Row 60: k5, m1, k1, m1, k5. 26 sts.

Row 61-64: k even (9.25 in)

Row 65: k6, m1, k1, m1, k6. 30 sts.

Row 66-69: k even (10.5 in)

Row 70: k7, m1, k1, m1, k7. 34 sts.

Row 71-74: k even (11.25 in)

Row 75: k8, m1, k1, m1, k8. 38 sts.

Row 76-86: k even

Entire scroll piece measures 13 inches.

Cut yarn, graft front and back needles together with kitchener stitch. Tie off and hide tail end inside tube.

With contrasting color, embroider with the chain stitch up the center back of the scroll to highlight the ridge.

Roll toward the front so that scroll makes three full circles, consult photo as needed. Sew bottom front edge of scroll to hat with main color.

Pegs

Fold hat in half, front to back. On left edge just below crown decrease, pick up and knit two stitches with one needle. Repeat with second needle: 4 sts.

Row 2-3 knit in the round to form i-cord

Row 4: co 2 sts, k2, co 2. Repeat on second needle. 12 sts.

Row 5-7: k even.

Row 8: k2tog, k2, k2 tog. Repeat on second needle. 8 sts.

Cut yarn and graft stitches together with kitchener stitck.

Repeat for four more pegs, referring to photo for placement.

Strings

Secure strand of yarn to peg, pulling tail through and hiding inside peg. Wind string around peg twice, then bring over the peg and down to the middle front of hat. Yarn goes in at top of the brim, then circles around brim, back inside and secured. Repeat with four other pegs, referring to picture for help.

Finishing

Secure any loose threads, making especially certain that strings are tied tightly.

Enjoy! Let me know if you find any errors in this pattern. If you make a string quartet hat, I'd love to see any of your versions of this pattern on Ravelry!

A Chameleon and Egg

2010-11-04T17:24:00.000-04:00

Lizards come from eggs too! This Chameleon is the newest reversible toy in my collection, and is made out of more hand-dyed recycled yarns.

He has the amazing ability of camouflaging himself to the ball of yarn he was knit from!

Even the egg can camouflage itself! (On very select backgrounds anyway).

Suggested Retail: $16.00. Come see it in person at the Bloomington Handmade Market this weekend!

Needle Books

2010-11-04T17:20:00.000-04:00

In addition to all the things I've been knitting from recycled yarns, I also have been sewing some neat projects from felted sweaters. Most of the sweaters that Ive collected have turned into oven mitts, but I made some sewing needle books from a few of the leftover pieces. I love both the way the books and the photos of them turned out, so I'm going to give you lots of looks at these cool little sewing accessories.

Needle books are a good companion to a pincushion because they don't let the needles sink in and get lost the way they would if you kept your needles in your pincushion. But they're not only great for keeping your regular straight needles - they can accommodate skinny beading needles, curved upholstery needles - even safety pins!

The needle books come in a variety of sizes and keep the coolest features of the sweater they came from (texture, embroidery, pattern, etc.). They all close securely with a snap.

I'll have these six needle books for sale at the Bloomington Handmade Market this weekend, but I have a lot more felted sweaters to work with so the varieties are limitless!

Suggested Retail: $10.00

Tropical Fish Egg Toy

2010-11-03T14:08:00.004-04:00

Here's a new reversible egg toy! This tropical fish showcases a couple of my hand-dyed recycled yarns, and was a lot of fun to design.

Since fish eggs are transparent, I thought about knitting the egg with fishing line. Deciding that would be difficult and likely to be wonky-shaped, I ended up using a white cotton (recycled) yarn which gives a nice transparent effect. It also keeps the nice soft kid-friendliness of this toy intact.

Swish!

Fish kisses!

Suggested retail: $16.00

Knitting Needle Organizers

2010-11-02T21:22:00.003-04:00

Until a few months ago, I kept most of my knitting tools in a plastic shoe box. This was a little awkward, because the long needles didn't fit inside, and the whole box had a habit of tipping over and spilling everywhere. This summer, I inherited a tool bag and knitting needle roll from my husband's grandmother. The roll was not nearly big enough for all my needles, but gave me the answer to my organizational quandary. Thus, I designed the large needle organizer roll pictured above to suit my needs.

From left to right: An orgainizer roll made from a basmati rice sack, one made from my favorite pair of embroidered blue jeans, and my own roll (not for sale).

All of these knitting needle organizers are made from upcycled fabrics. The label of the linen striped hippie shirt that went into two of the rolls made me smile.

Because these are rather a specialty item and take quite a bit of time to create, I only made two of them to sell. But I do love both of these rolls! The first is made from a basmati rice burlap sack, and lined with linen fabric from a pair of men's pants and the red striped hippie shirt.

This organizer roll closes with a loop from the bag's handle, around a button from a cast-off leather coat.

A close-up of the embroidery on the organizer made from my favorite blue jeans. This roll is slightly longer and heavier-duty than the burlap and linen organizer, and is lined with a pair of my husband's pants. It closes in a similar fashion to the roll above, with a loop made from jeans belt loops and a vintage button.

Both rolls have a lot of pockets, sewn in sizes from 1/2 in. to 4 in. This allows you to tuck away everything from the smallest knitting needles to more awkwardly shaped tools, like small circular needles, stitch holders , or leather thimbles. Basically, anything which is small enough to get lost in a tool bag has a home in this organizer roll. Plus, they both have a small burlap patch into which you can safely place your tapestry needles. I love this feature on mine!

Each knitting needle organizer comes with a free felted stitch marker.

Suggested Retail: $35.00

Felted Pincushions

2010-11-02T21:17:00.000-04:00

In the same style as the felted bouncy balls, I knit this bright tomato pincushion from some of my recycled hand-dyed yarns. It's an unique twist on that indispensable accessory of seamstresses: the tomato pincushion.

I also made a slightly larger version from a couple of felted sweaters. This one has more dimension than the smaller tomato, and is tied with the same hand-dyed recycled yarn that I used to knit the top pincushion. Both pincushions are secured with a vintage button also rescued from a thrift store sweater. I love both styles and love to imagine them in the hands of a fellow crafter, holding the tools to make something handmade and beautiful.

Suggested Retail: $8 for the small knit pincushion, $10 for the large pincushion.

Leather Thimbles

2010-11-02T20:57:00.001-04:00

When I go on a prolonged knitting spree, usually around Christmas time, sometimes I'll wear my fingers raw. I have an old leather thimble that I use on these occasions, and every time I pull it out I'm so thankful to the person who invented them. Leather thimbles are flexible enough to move supplely with your finger, but stiff enough to keep the pokes of knitting and sewing needles from irritating your fingers.

It wasn't until a few days ago that I realized I had the supplies to make some pretty cool upcycled leather thimbles right in my sewing room. These leather thimbles are made from old leather jackets (and the elbow patches of a cast-off sweater), with the ribbing from felted sweaters for elastic. They're extremely comfortable and flexible. Come check out my booth at the Bloomington Handmade Market on Saturday and you can try them out for yourself!

Suggested Retail: $5.00

Felt Beads: Stitch Markers and Earrings

2010-11-02T20:05:00.002-04:00

Here's a really cool item for my fellow knitters: felted bead stitch markers! And for you fun-loving non-knitters, you can also get them as earrings!

These bright marbled balls are solid felt, made from the hand-dyed recycled yarn I've reclaimed from sweaters. To turn them into felt balls I had to tease the spun yarn apart, card it back into a wool roving, and then hand-roll and felt them with soapy water in the sink. I love the contrast of the soft wool beads with the smooth wooden beads.

My husband Collin built me a beautiful stand to display the stitch markers and earrings on. He didn't have a power saw available, so he made all of those mitered cuts by hand. God has given me a very good husband.

The earrings have silver-plated brass hooks. They make for a really fun fashion statement!

Suggested Retail: A set of four stitch markers (suitable for knitting needle sizes 0-7) for $5.00, or a pair of earrings for $5.00. If you'd like stitch markers in a larger size, I can change out the rings for an extra dollar.

Seasonal Arts at the Paper Crane

2010-11-01T20:11:00.000-04:00

Seasonal Arts knitted goods are for sale in a local brick & mortar location! The Paper Crane is a new art gallery, printmaking co-op, and local art store in downtown Bloomington. It's not much to look at from the outside, since it's in the back of a warehouse-like building, but it's shaping into a very cool place inside.

The Paper Crane is entirely volunteer-run, so it has limited hours. You can stop by Wednesday-Sunday, just check their website for hours before planning a trip. Also, you can follow their events on their facebook page. Besides art shows and their very cool gift shop, they'll be offering workshops on topics including sketchbook making (coming up on November 13th) and craft fairs, like the Last Minute Gift Fair (on December 11th). It's definitely worth your while stopping by and keeping an eye on this emerging venue!

Annie shows off her artist angst in honor of the Paper Crane's opening.

A Platypus

2010-10-30T23:08:00.001-04:00

Platypodes are amazing animals. They have bills like ducks, webbed feet, beaver tails, lay leathery reptilian eggs, lactate, and can shoot venom from their feet! There are so many weird facts about platypodes that you'll just have to look them up yourself. I've always been fascinated by the crazy creatures, and couldn't wait to knit one for my reversible egg toy collection.

My biologist husband and I had a lot of reading platypodes while I was working on knitting this toy. The weirdest fact we read is that, although they do produce milk, they lack teats with which to dispense milk to their infants. Instead, the mother platypus secrets milk from glands in her skin. That milk pools up and the babies lap up the milk from the mother's skin. Isn't that wild?

Apparently, when European scientists discovered platypodes a British researcher named W.H. Caldwell sent a wire back to Britain reading simply "Monotremes oviparous, ovum meroblastic" In other words, Platypodes lay eggs and those eggs are reptilian in nature. That incredibly nerdy telegram really amused Collin and me. My knitted egg isn't very leathery or reptilian, but it is nice and yellow like platypus eggs!

In case you're curious, the brown and yellow yarns are recycled yarns, unraveled from a lovely rayon-cashmere-wool blend sweater. The black feet and face are knit with handspun naturally black wool.

... And there you have it. One of the strangest creatures God ever created. And it can be yours for just $16.00! Come check it out at the Bloomington Handmade Market on November 6th.

A Phoenix Hen

2010-10-30T22:53:00.000-04:00

While taking a break from the species specific birds I've been knitting, I thought I'd knit a fun imaginary bird from the recycled verigated yarns that I've dyed. Therefore, I present to you: A Phoenix Hen. Now, I realize that this doesn't look much like a crazy firey bird, nor like the breed of chicken. Nevertheless, I thought the overall effect looked kind of like what might be the result of a phoenix marrying a chicken. Very cute, if a little odd.

This Phoenix-Hen comes from a robin-blue colored egg.

In this case, the cool blue tones are deceptive. Crack open the egg, and you'll find a firey-red bird!

"Well, my father was a phoenix, and my mother was a hen. But I'm ok with that now."

Suggested Retail: $16.00. This bird will be for sale at the Bloomington Handmade Market on November 6th, come check it out!

Felted Bouncy Balls

2010-10-30T01:13:00.000-04:00

For over two months I've been working like crazy to get ready for my first big show - the Bloomington Handmade Market. I've got a ton of cool stuff finished and sitting in my work room, waiting to be photographed and labeled. Since the show is just a week away, I've forced myself to stop creating and get some of that logistical work done. First up: Felted bouncy balls!

These balls were a great way to showcase some of my beautiful hand-painted recycled yarns. They feel a lot like tennis balls, are lovely to hold yet still bounce excellently. My 14-month-old baby loves to play with them!

A whole gallon of bouncing fun!

These bouncy balls are a really amazing deal, and are perfect for stocking stuffers!

Large: $6.00 Medium: $4.00 Small: $2.00

Felted Angora Rabbits

2010-10-29T21:47:00.000-04:00

My garden is being overrun with rabbits!

Many years ago, I knit a toy rabbit for one of my younger siblings. It was really cute, but a lot of work to knit on fine gauge needles. Then I saw a version of this stuffed bunny in a book, based on that same pattern, but sewn from a felted angora sweater. Perfect! I found a white angora/wool sweater which had already been shrunk at Goodwill, took it apart, dyed some of it with tea and some with pink lemonade, and created this herd of rabbits.

Each rabbit is stitched with love, and stuffed with lusciously soft mohair roving.

This white rabbit is the only one with a detailed face. I thought I'd see what colored eyes and a nose looked like. I liked them, but not any more than the plain version. That, and the fact that I broke my felting needle on this rabbit made my decision to leave the other bunnies unadorned an easy one.

You really have to feel these bunnies to appreciate how soft they are.

Suggested Retail: $8.00 each.

My home is starting to look like a LYS

2010-09-29T11:08:00.000-04:00

As I prepare for the Bloomington Handmade Market (coming up on November 6th, mark your calendars now!) I've been building up my supply of gorgeous recycled yarns. Many of the yarns are already in use as I am knitting into items to sell at my BHM booth, but many others will be available to knitters still in yarn form. The pile is growing so large that my home is starting to look like a LYS, or local yarn shop.

There so many delightful varieties of yarns and colors to pick from! Most are wool or wool blends, but there are also some cotton blends available. The yarns are dyed in all colors of the rainbow, and in every colorway from solids to hand-painted variegated (the majority) to large self-striping patterns. I've used drink mixes, tie-dye, and all natural dyestuffs to achieve the colors. Basically, I've got a huge array of yarn in so many types and it is all very exciting!

Euro-style Moccasins

2010-09-16T23:37:00.000-04:00

Although these are some of my favorite booties from the fall collection, I had a difficult time naming them. They are moccasin-style slippers, another pattern variant of my own, but there's something both modern and European about them.

The yarn is a very soft and squishy bulky acrylic that I've had in my stash for a while. I designed the moccasins around the yarn, and was very pleased by the result. I am out of the yarn that I used, but there is a possibility that I might be able to find more of this colorway if you want a close match to these. This specific pair of booties is made in size 6-12 months.

The ties lace up the cuff and then tie around behind to hold the booties securely on the baby's feet. The ties are hidden neatly by the cuff fold, and all together create a very neat look.

Suggested Retail: $24.00. These booties will be available at the Paper Crane in Bloomington on and after October 15th.

Boaz's Cowboy Boots

2010-09-16T23:09:00.001-04:00

Recently I was commissioned to make some cowboy booties for a much-anticipated unborn baby boy named Boaz. When I started sketching out my ideas, I was surprised to discover that there wasn't already a good cowboy boot pattern available. It took me a couple tries to come up with a pattern that I was happy with, but I finally did. Here is the result! I have notes for a 0-3 month set (pictured here), but I want to make it in another size or two before I publish the pattern.

These booties are knit with superwash wool (the dark brown) and hand-spun mohair for the embroidery. The mohair is from my goats, and it was dyed with tea to achieve that pretty tan color. Mohair has a slight sheen to it, so it was a nice contrast with the soft brown of the boot.

On the tops of the boots I embroidered barley shafts to reference Boaz's namesake. I like to imagine the Biblical Boaz in cowboy boots, bringing in the barley harvest.

Suggested Retail: $20.00

P.S. I have more of both of these yarns, and would be open to making some more in sizes other than 0-3 months so that I can iron out the kinks in my pattern. Leather soles will be a little extra, but would be great to turn these into toddler booties!

Flower Child Moccasins

2010-09-16T22:48:00.000-04:00

I knit these beautiful booties a while back, but was saving them until fall to post. To me, these are the perfect combination of delicate and earthy, and look great both with dresses and pants.

These booties are knit with some really lovely yarns, a variegated super soft wool blend on top and a cushy superwash wool for the sole. They will fit a baby from approximately 3-9 months.

The pattern for these moccasins is my own, although it is based off several other booties and traditional moccasins that I looked at for inspiration. I love the flowering vine on the cuff, and how it brings out the muted colors of the yarn.

Soon I'll be learning how to sew leather onto the soles of shoes so I can make toddler booties too, since these are a little slippery for a baby learning how to walk.

Suggested Retail: $24.00. Again, these will be available at The Paper Crane in Bloomington on and after October 15th. I can make more booties in this style, but these specific booties are knit from a yarn that I can't get anymore. If you want these booties, you'd better hurry in to the Paper Crane to buy them!

Turtle Cousins

2010-09-16T22:33:00.000-04:00

Finally, a reversible egg that isn't a bird! Here are my first two turtles reversibles. Aren't they fun?

When I come back to making animals in a few weeks I'm sure I'll be making some more, as well as some other reptiles and amphibians. Plus, I still want to make a platypus.

Suggested Retail: $16.00. The turtle with the brown shell pattern will be available at the Paper Crane in Bloomington on and after October 15th.

American Bluebird

2010-09-16T22:08:00.001-04:00

The latest in my series of species-specific bird/egg toys is this beautiful American Bluebird. I think he might be my favorite bird so far. He's got a red breast and a little white underbelly which you can barely see in these pictures.

I really need to take a break from knitting birds, partly because I'm running out of creative ideas for photographing them. (Also because I have so many other cool ideas for other projects that I can't wait to put up here as soon as I get through all my bird orders!)

This egg is in a pastel teal that coordinates beautifully with his outer coat.

Suggested Retail: $16.00. This bluebird will be available for sale in Bloomington at the Paper Crane on and after October 15.

Little Yellow Chick

2010-09-16T21:45:00.000-04:00

I just dropped of a batch of new items at a local art store that will be opening up in Mid-October. That's right, The Paper Crane at 401 W 6th St will be selling some of my items! Not only is it local, it's just down the street from me! I hope you'll all check them out on or after their Grand Opening on October 15th.

Anyway, one of the items I dropped off was this baby chicken. Although in the picture above, he's still hiding in his brown egg. But clearly, there is something different about that egg...

Whoa! I guess that egg hid in the nest a little too long.

Ahhh. It feels good to be out of my shell.

Time to take off and flyyyyyyy!

*Crash* Oops. Ouch. That kinda hurt.

I'm ok, I'm ok! Time to take off and see the world. This chick is on the lam!

(Actually, this chick in in a box at the Paper Crane awaiting the grand opening. But you can go visit him in his new home. Or I can make you a new chick by special order.)

Suggested Retail: $16.00

My beautiful new yarn swift

2010-09-09T09:05:00.001-04:00

For my birthday last week, my amazing husband built me a gorgeous yarn swift. Basically, the purpose of this very cool tool is to wind a big skein of yarn, either hand-spun or recovered from a sweater, so that it will be large and loose and ready for dye. Then, after the skein is dyed, I can put it back on the swift and wind it into a ball without ending up with a massive tangle. Want to see it in action? Check it out!

Annie's Birthday Dress

2010-09-09T08:59:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was my daughter Annie's first birthday. (Happy Birthday Annie!) Just in time, I finished the dress I'd been knitting for her all summer.

The dress is from SoKnitPicky's "Flora Dress" pattern. I added straps and buttons and embroidery, but it's very much the same dress. I am so thankful for how many knitters share their patterns for free! (Speaking of which, I have a couple more patterns I'm hoping to publish in the next couple months, so keep an eye out for those.)

I added embroidered flowers on every other panel. The variegated yarn I used for the top worked so well for this!

The bodice is slightly smocked with threaded elastic and the straps are adjustable with two buttonholes, so I'm hoping Annie will get at least two years out of this dress. If she has a growth spurt it will look extremely cute over blue jeans, and when she outgrows it entirely I'm planning on hanging it on the nursery wall. Annie's room is decorated in lots of rich rainbow tones, and this dress will look perfect on the wall!

Suggested Retail: I wanted to put this up on my portfolio just because Annie is so cute and the dress turned out so well. But since it took me a couple months to knit this dress, selling dresses like Annie's isn't really an option. It would need to be about $125 to come close to compensating for the vast amount of time it takes.

Fall Preview

2010-08-20T10:28:00.001-04:00

...From the desk of Seasonal Arts...

I have a lot of projects in the works for the fall collection, so I just thought I'd give you a preview. I'm trying to focus on using upcycled materials (like the re-used yarn in the post below) and have been scouring thrift stores for clothing that needs a makeover. After a long summer, sweaters are back in thrift stores and at garage sales, and I'm stockpiling beautiful feltable sweaters for making oven mitts and other projects.

Here are my latest finds, all felted and ready to go. Well, all felted except the sweater on top. My husband likes that one so much he's trying to convince me to give it to him to wear.

Are you having trouble picturing what oven mitts made out of old sweaters would look like? Let me show you a couple sets that I made for bridal shower gifts this spring.

I love these purple and cream mitts with their bright flowers! The felt from sweaters is so deliciously thick it works excellently at blocking heat. Wool is also somewhat water-resistant, which makes it more suitable for handling hot objects than water-absorbent cotton.

Sometimes I like to embroider plain felts like the ones above, but other times I let the sweater patterns speak more for themselves. I really like the simple heart embroidered near the cuff of the striped mitt on the left.

One reason I want to make more oven mitts to sell is that I really want to make a pair for my own kitchen. Actually, most things I make start that way. I figure that if I have a use for some beautiful object, other people will too.

Here is one of my best recent thrift store finds! I've been looking for a good source of suede to use for toddler bootie and adult slipper soles, but almost everything I found was far too expensive. But then last week I found this huge genuine leather coat at the Salvation Army for $4.99! It has a small rip in the left arm, which makes it unsuitable to wear as a dress coat, but will upcycle wonderfully.

Finally, this summer I was given a bag full of my husband's grandmother's and great-grandmother's knitting tools. Many of their knitting needles were kept in a cloth needle roll, which would be very useful except that it was too short to accommodate long needles. See the flap on the top? That is supposed to fold over the top of the needles to protect them, but it doesn't come close to covering them. Also, when I combined grandma's needles with my own needles, the roll was much too small to hold everything I needed it to.

A solution quickly presented itself. I could easily sew myself a knitting needle organizer/roll, and it would be even more interesting if I made it from upcycled fabrics. Searching through a box of old clothes saved for just such a purpose, I selected these three combinations. I plan on keeping an eye on the 25 cent clearance rack at the Salvation Army for more fabric choices, and offering the needle cases for sale to other knitters this fall.

There you have a few of the projects in my immediate queue, but I've got a lot more lined up! I hope you'll keep checking back to see all the fabulous new projects coming out.

Re-purposed, upcycled yarn!

2010-08-18T19:18:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago I was came close to despairing at the cost of nice yarn. Like any knitter, I love knitting with quality, animal-fiber yarns but our slim budget doesn't really allow for buying specialty yarns. Then I remembered how, back in January, I had some beautiful results with reused, hand-dyed yarn from a thrift store sweater. Finally, I decided to try to stock my yarn cupboard this fall with more gorgeous upcycled yarn.

First I needed to find the right sweater to unravel. I found this 100% lambswool sweater at the Salvation Army for $2.99. It was perfect for what I needed - unfelted, large and with simple seaming. After picking apart the seams carefully, I unraveled each piece and wound them into long skeins.

The yarn skeins looked a lot like ramen noodles - way crinkley!

Next, I soaked the wool skeins in the sink for half an hour while I mixed up the dyes. For this batch, I just used Kool-Aid (and knock-off store brand powdered drink mixes). They make bright, beautiful color-fast dyes. Kind of scary when you think that kids are drinking that stuff!

Then I poured the dye over the wool skeins in stripes, pressing the dye in by hand to make sure it penetrated all layers. My hands ended up as brightly colored as the yarn!

With one of the skeins I tried an experiment that I saw somewhere else online. I poured blue dye into one half of a casserole dish, and green in the other half. Then I placed the skein in the dish, folded up, and let it soak up the dye without moving it around. This worked fairly well, but it did leave some areas un-dyed. Fortunately the small amounts of white worked well with the sea-colors of the finished yarn. I'm hoping to make some sea-monster items out of this yarn!

After the yarn was thoroughly dyed, I took it out to the back yard to cook in the warmth, sun-tea style. Heat helps the yarn absorb the dye and make it colorfast.

After a couple hours in the sun I brought the yarn indoors, rinsed it thoroughly (although the yarn had absorbed the dye so well that not much rinsed out), and hung it to dry. Do you like my improvised drying rack which doubles as a floor lamp?

To measure the yarn my husband screwed a couple bolts into a board 18" apart. This was a rather tedious way of finding out approximately how many yards were in a ball of yarn, and hopefully I'll be able to come up with a better way later on. Nevertheless, I discovered that with this particular yarn 250 yards = 2.3 oz = 65 grams.

The yarn sure makes a beautiful skein.

Most of the yarn I wound up on my new Lacis Ball-winder - my favorite new tool! It really sped up the process of winding from skeins, plus the balls are very attractive. Although the balls vary in size somewhat (such must be the case when using recycled yarn) I made sure that each ball had at least 250 yards.

And there you have it, an old sweater turned into a beautiful, bright pile of yarn! The only question remaining is - how does it knit? And what about felting?

Well, here is a pair of t-strap booties that I knit with large needles in order to felt them. Kind of misshapen at first...

...but so sophisticated after felting!

These Mary Janes were knitted on small needles, so they are close in size to the felted booties. Another style, same yarn.

The Mary Janes are newborn sized, and the T-strap booties are just a bit bigger at 0-3 months.

Suggested retail: $7/250 yard ball of yarn, and $15 each for a pair of simple booties like these.

Stay tuned for more dye lots and projects with upcycled sweaters. I've got a lot more in the works that I'll be posting as the weather cools down and our thoughts turn to stylish warm accessories!

The Ugly Duckling

2010-08-18T15:00:00.000-04:00

"He is not handsome, but he is a thoroughly good creature, and he swims as beautifully as any of the others. I think I might venture even to add that I think he will improve as he goes on, or perhaps that he may grow smaller. He was too long in the egg, and so he has not come out with a very good figure."

-Mother Duck, The Ugly Duckling, Hans Christian Anderson

A friend of mine asked if I could make an "Ugly Duckling" because it is her son's favorite story and they would enjoy being able to act it out with a toy cygnet. A "cygnet" is, of course, a baby swan. In this case, however, I think the description "Ugly Duckling" works pretty well. He's very ungainly, but still kind of cute in his ugliness. The egg (above and below) is made from a green-gray-brown heather yarn which looks very much like a swan egg.

The egg blends in with the rocks on the shore line.

Poor lonely little bird.

The Ugly Duckling hid in a clump of grass so that the ducks wouldn't peck him and the hunters wouldn't shoot him.

Then, one day, the ugly duckling saw some birds he'd never seen before. Oh, if only he could look more like them instead of being such an ugly creature.

...Someday...

Finally, he grew into a graceful adult swan. "He thought of how he had been pursued and scorned, and now he heard them all say that he was the most beautiful of all beautiful birds... saying with exultation in his heart, 'I never dreamt of so much happiness when I was the Ugly Duckling!'"

-H.C.A.

Suggested Retail: $16.00

A Baby Cardinal

2010-07-05T14:54:00.001-04:00

Check out my third bird-egg toy (again, from Susan B. Anderson's fantastic design), my second more realistic species version. Photographing this baby cardinal was very fun, since my garden is in full bloom and I was able to catch him pecking at my sunflowers.

Here he is again, eyeing the plants from the front porch railing.

Cardinals have brown and white speckled eggs, so I chose this tan flecked yarn for the egg. I like having a variety of colors and textures so that the eggs don't all look like they came from a chicken.

There's a crack in the egg. And look - a beak is poking out!

Streeeeeeeetch!

He's a very tame bird. He'll eat sunflower seeds right out of your hand.

He also loves to perch high up on a garden trellis and survey his domain below.

Suggested retail: $16.00

Rainbow Trout Booties

2010-06-26T00:00:00.000-04:00

This is a post I've been looking forward to posting for quite a while now. My friend Ali and her husband Luke are in the last few weeks of waiting for their first child, a long-awaited and much-prayed-for little girl. Since Ali's baby shower was tonight, I can finally post pictures of the booties I finished several months ago. Before I show you the pictures, it helps to know that Ali and Luke and baby all share the last name of "Trout." So, allow me to present:

Rainbow Trout Booties! Aren't they great?

The yarn totally made these. It's a sock yarn that I got at Yellow Dog Knitting in Eau Claire (that Christmas present has spread so far!). The pattern is basically Blue Steps with added fins, embroidered mouths and eyes.

Little girls make good fishermen too.

So there you have them. Wearable fish. Anyone else want a pair? Or have another concept in need of a special design? I love a challenge!

Suggested Retail: $22.00

A hatching baby robin

2010-06-04T21:09:00.000-04:00

This is my second egg-to-bird toy from Susan B. Anderson's book, Itty-Bitty Toys, and my first species-specific model. I so wanted to make a robin, since I've loved hosting quite a number of robins in our earthworm-filled garden.

As always, the charm of this little toy is that you can turn it inside out and let it hatch out of the egg!

Here we go... starting with a little blue robin egg.

Oh! There's a little head poking through.

You can do it, little bird!

Getting ready to take flight...

He did it! Fly away and get thee a wife, Mr. Robin! Then we can start over with the egg!

Suggested retail: $16.00

She's a GIRL Headbands

2010-06-02T16:52:00.000-04:00

If you have a baby girl, you probably know how annoying it is when people come up to you and exclaim, "Oh, he's so cute! How ya doing, little guy?" Annie and I get this all the time, even if she's wearing a pink shirt or a skirt. When we went places in the winter I'd put a pink hat on her, but that's not an option when it's 90 degrees outside. So here's my summertime solution: flower (and bow) headbands! These are all based on Amy Anderson's "Spring" Baby Headband Pattern, with Susan B. Anderson's flower from her pacifier clip pattern.

This first one is Annie's headband, so it's not currently for sale. However, I do have more of the yarn I used to make it, so I'd be happy to make a similar one to order!

Depending on the weight of the yarn, the flowers can be made in different sizes. Annie's headband is knit with sock-weight yarn with sport-weight petals, resulting in a medium-sized flower. I could custom-make this headband for you for $12.00.

This one I made for fun to see how a knitted bow would look on a headband. I like its simplicity.

Because it is simpler than a full flower headband, I am offering this bow headband for $10.00. As always, you could order a custom headband in your choice of colors for the same price. However, please note that if I don't have the colors you require in stock the price might go up some to cover materials.

This was the first of the headbands I made, and it has already been sold. The flower is larger than the others, although since the photos are older Annie's head is a smaller comparison size.

This flower has two leaves attached under the flower, and stamens embroidered in the center. Those are two more options available for custom orders. If you like this one, I could make this headband for you for $12.00.

And finally, we have this beautiful little green and pink headband. This one is sized nb-9 months, so Annie's head is on the large size for modeling it. The yarn is pretty light-weight, so the flower is the smallest in this collection.

Along with the bow headband, this flower headband is currently unclaimed and up for sale. $12.00 buys you this perfect little girly headband!

*Update: This headband will be for sale locally in Bloomington at the Paper Crane in starting mid-October*

...And just to get your imagination working, I'd love to try custom-making headbands with butterflies or ladybugs or something else entirely. I also have a headband in stock just for boys that I'll be showcasing in the fall, so stay tuned for that!

Junebug Pacifier Clip

2010-06-02T16:06:00.000-04:00

One of my dear friends recently asked me if I could knit a pacifier clip for one of her friends who is is pregnant with a son affectionately known as "June Bug." This was my favorite kind of challenge. Using the same basic style as my ladybug clip and consulting my Audubon Insect Field Guide, I came up with a bright and colorful pacifier clip.

Green June Beetle, Cotinus nitida

Ten-lined June Beetle, Polyphylla decimlineata

"June bug" is a common name for several different genera from the scarab beetle family. They all have a similar shape, but there's a lot of variation in coloring. The point of that entemological geeky digression was simply to say that after a more accurate attempt, I simply invented this June bug. It's got the scarab shape with an emerald green body and ten shining white pinstripes. I embroidered three colors of stripes before I settled on these, and I like the finished look.

Another aspect which took me a long time to settle on was the color of the vine that the June bug sits on. A green vine would be more accurate, but also cause the beetle to blend in. Just like I chose white stripes to accentuate the emerald color, I went with a bright red for the vine. It's like the ladybug but in reverse!

This June beetle is attacking my pea vines!

View from the back.

Suggested retail: $10.00.

Camouflage Bomber Hat

2010-04-30T08:55:00.000-04:00

Today Annie and I would like to present to you a new original design: Liam's Camouflage Bomber Hat! When I saw the variegated "Toasted Almond" Heart & Sole sock yarn I knew it would be just right for making something for baby Liam. He's the firstborn (well, yet-to-be-born) son of our friends Julia and Will, and with a dad who has spent years in the army and a nursery decorated in a backwoods theme, I knew that a camouflaged bomber hat would be perfect.

The sock yarn made a really nice lightweight fall hat, although I lined the earflaps with mohair so they'd be thick and fuzzy like fur.

On the left earflap I embroidered Liam's name. Personalization is one of my favorite little details to add, since it not only makes the item clearly one-of-a-kind, but it also makes it easy to identify if it ever gets lost.

Like a true bomber hat, the earflaps can either be worn down or can button up and back behind the head. This can extend the wearing size and add layers of warmth if needed.

Suggested retail: $30.

Baby Bluebird

2010-04-28T21:51:00.000-04:00

Here's a really fun knitted toy that I made from one of Susan B. Anderson's patterns. It's a little egg that turns inside out and "hatches" a baby bluebird!

Top of the egg

Bottom of the egg with the reversible edge

... Which flips around and turns into a bluebird!

Generally I'm not a big fan of knitted toys, as ever kid I know has lots of stuffed animals. This toy is way cooler than average, though, because it actually does something. Plus, it's a wonderful size for baby and toddler hands to hold.

Now that I've made a prototype bird according to Mrs. Anderson's pattern, I'd love to make a whole set of birds. I can envision cardinals, robins, gold finches, even parrots! The eggs could be white, speckled, natural colors or even Easter eggs! And while we're at it, the animals that hatch wouldn't necessarily have to be birds - I saw someone online who made a platypus (!) and I could easily make a turtle, lizard or fish.

Suggested Retail: Because this bird is simple and not species-specific, the price is lower than the more complex birds at $14.00.

FREE Pattern: Ladybug Pacifier Clip

2010-03-31T15:31:00.000-04:00

What is more fun than an enormous, creepy-crawly-cute ladybug? This pacifier clip is perfect for either baby girls or boys, and knits up in only a few hours. Although the skills involved are pretty basic, it does take a good eye to put this fuzzy insect together, so keep in mind this is an intermediate-level project.

Because this is a yarn stash-busting project, you can use any of those small balls of leftover yarn to make it. You could even make a purple ladybug on an orange stem.

This pattern is free for personal use, but I do request that you not make these to sell. Please let me know if you have any questions or find any errors in this pattern. I really look forward to seeing some feedback!

Size: 6.5 inch pacifier clip. If you want it longer, knit the I-cord on the stem longer. Gauge is not very important in this project.

Materials:

Small amounts of yarn in red, green, black and cream. Red should be sock or dk weight, green, black and cream work better with worsted weight yarn.
One suspender clip, ¾ in. size. These are available from http://www.etsy.com/shop/PacifierClipSupplies
1 small (1 cm. – ¼ in.) green button

Tools:

Set of three double-pointed needles, US Size 3
Yarn needle
Scissors

Make Stem:

Cast on 4 stitches with green.

Row 1-2: knit

Row 3: k3, pass 2nd stitch over 3rd, k1, pass 2nd stitch over 4th. 2 stitches remain with a hole of two stitches.

Row 4: k1, m2, k1. You have just formed the button hole!

Knit even until piece measures 2 inches.

Next row: k1, k2tog, k1. 3 stitches remain. Do not turn. Work across these three stitches to form I-cord.

Knit I-cord for 9 inches.

Increase to attach pacifier clip: k1, (m1, k1) 2 times. 5 stitches.

If yarn is very lightweight, work one more row k1, m1, k3, m1, k1. 7 stitches.

Cut yarn, leaving tail of 6 inches. Thread tail through yarn needle and securely sew live stitches to the clip using a figure-eight motion. Tie off in back of clip, and pull remaining yarn up through the stem to hide the tail.

Make Ladybug:

Cast on 6 stitches in red, divide onto two needles. Join to work in the round.

Row 1: On each needle, k1, (m1, k1)x2. 10 stitches total.

Row 2 and all even rows: knit

Row 3: On each needle, k1, (m1, k1)x4. 18 stitches total.

Row 5: On each needle, k2, m1, k3, m1, k2, m1, k2. 24 stitches total

Rows 6-12: knit

Row 13: On each needle (k2, k2 tog)x3

Row 14: knit

Row 15: On each needle (k1, k2tog)x3. Cut red yarn

Loosely wind spare yarn (red or black) around two fingers approx 15 times to create stuffing for ladybug. Cut yarn and stuff body.

Row 16: With black, knit all 12 stitches.

Row 17: On each needle, k1, ssk, k2tog, k1

Row 18: knit

Row 19: On each needle, ssk, k2tog

Cut yarn with ~36 in long tail and graft stitches together with kitchener stitch.

Embroidery:

Prod ladybug body into rounded shell on top with flatter ventral (under) side.

Draw long tail from grafting stitches into the ladybug head, come out in middle back of bug. Form a straight line down to the end of the shell.

Spots: Embroider spots with French knots, following pattern of ladybugs. I made a 13-spotted ladybug in the sequence of 2:4:4:3, but you can make any pattern you’d like.

Antennae: Draw yarn out to left front of head and back around 1 stitch to create a loop. Hand-chain 5 stitches tightly to create antennae, loop yarn three times through last loop and pull tightly. With needle, thread tail down through chained stitches and back into head. Repeat on the right front side of head.

Legs: Make six legs in the same manner as antennae. Front legs are placed right at the join between red and black, chaining 7 stitches long. Middle legs are 9 stitches long. Back legs are 12 stitches long, and point to the back instead of front.

Face: With white, embroider pattern on thorax (black part of body), following photos.

Finishing:

With the stem, form a loop and position ladybug on loop. Sew tips of legs to the stem, the two front right legs to the loop, the back left leg to the bottom of the stem, and the top left leg to the top of the stem if needed. The key with positioning the ladybug is to make sure you don’t twist the stem. Hold the pacifier clip up to check that the clip hangs straight. Sew the stem down to the middle of the body of the ladybug.

Attach button to the back side of the garter-stitch portion of the clip. Button clip around pacifier, and you’re finished! Clip to your favorite baby and let them go!

The Childbirth Expo and What's Next

2010-03-29T14:59:00.000-04:00

This Saturday was my first show, at the Indiana Christian Childbirth Expo, conveniently located at our church. It was a good first show, small enough to keep the pressure low, but big enough that I got a good idea of what it would take to set up a booth at a larger arts fair.

This was a very good experience. It pushed me to create nicer business cards, write special order forms and receipts, design a new line of pacifier clips, and come up with creative display ideas. Do you like the hats stuffed with skeins of yarn perched atop curvy drinking glasses?

Plus, doing the ladybug giveaway was way fun. The clip was won by Michelle, a mom of two beautiful baby girls who survived TTTTS last spring. Right now I'm working on making a second so the twins can match :-).

So what's coming up next? In the next few days I'll be publishing a free pattern so you can make that ladybug clip yourself! I'm going to start publishing patterns from time to time on Ravelry, so if you're a knitter there's something to look forward to. By the way, if you are on Ravelry, you should friend me (MrsCollinHobbs) because I currently have no friends and it makes me look kind of lonely.

Also, I'm hoping to get the Scarborough Fair Collection (colorful, hand-painted window herb garden kits) finished soon because my little herb seedlings are going to be ready for potting soon. If you live in the Bloomington area and are interested in growing herbs, let me know. These will be very reasonably priced because I really love to share fresh food with people. You can't get fresher than clipping parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme and throwing them into your supper! (Not to mention cilantro, dill and basil.)

So much to look forward to. Hope you'll stay tuned!

Ladybug Pacifier Clip Giveaway

2010-03-25T13:36:00.001-04:00

Because Saturday will be my first show, I wanted to do something fun to encourage people to come check out my stuff. So I knit this ladybug pacifier clip (an entirely original design) and will be holding a drawing to give it away. Stop by my booth at the Chrsitian Childbirth Expo at Church of the Good Shepherd anytime from 1 pm to 5 pm on Saturday, March 27th and I'll enter your name in the drawing!

The ladybug I knit was based off the one in this picture. Do you think it's a good likeness?

I wanted to design a pacifier clip that would work well for either boys or girls, and I think this one combines the cute and creepy-crawly factor just enough to be great for both.

I love how it looks like Annie has a giant bug crawling up her shirt!

Suggested retail: $10.00, but if you stop by the Christian Childbirth Expo this Saturday you might be able to win it for free!

Persian Slipper Set

2010-03-24T14:42:00.000-04:00

This Saturday I'll be having a booth at the Christian Childbirth Expo with some of my baby items for sale and on display. Along with the Sunshine and Salsa collection, I've made a number of fun pacifier clips and other small things for sale.

These Persian slippers are knit from Susan B. Anderson's book, Itty-Bitty Nursery. I've got to say, I really love Mrs. Anderson's style, and if I ever publish my own book of knitting designs (still a distant dream at this point) she will have been one of my first inspirations.

Even though I knit the booties slightly larger than the pattern stated, they still are a bit too small for Annie. I think they would be ideal for a 0-3 month baby. They're so soft and warm that even Collin and I wanted a pair. Unfortunately, it was a very time-intensive pattern even for the baby size, so I don't think we're going to get any adult slippers anytime soon.

I really love the butterfly pacifier clip, and I'm sure I'll make more butterflies in other yarns and color combinations. This lovely wool/acrylic yarn was a gift that some of our good friends picked out in Michigan, and the booties used almost all of it up. They're that deliciously thick! I can't describe how nice these feel, you'll just have to come to the expo and touch them yourself.

Suggested retail: $24.00 for the booties, $10.00 for the pacifier clip.

Elvish Shoes

2010-03-20T21:06:00.000-04:00

Our good friends, Gandalf (yes that's his real name) and Anna are expecting their first baby in early June. We're very excited to meet their little girl, and I loved designing some booties for them.

I chose the two-strap Mary Jane style of Saartje's Booties for these delicate shoes, and knit it with a grey mohair blend. The white yarn on top was yarn I spun from the fleece of my goats, Euodia and Syntyche.

There they are, on my parent's farm, right after their spring haircut a few years ago. That's Tyche on the left, and Dia on the right - a true shepherd can tell one goat from another. Most people don't get to know the names of the animals their clothes came from!

When I was designing booties for Gandalf and Anna's baby I wanted to include both Anna's quiet beauty (she grew up Mennonite) and also allude to the Lord of The Rings because Gandalf's name was too fun to pass up. Green vines wind freely around the booties, with purple flowers both embroidered and sewn on as buttons.

On the sole of the booties I embroidered Gandalf's signature rune - the one the original Grey Wizard used to mark Bilbo's door so all the dwarves would show up for that unexpected party that started all the adventures. I don't expect that this baby will get tangled up with any dragons, but I do know that her birth is going to mean lots of new adventures in the Farnam family!

Suggested Retail: $20.00

Little Rainbow Hat

2010-03-08T11:32:00.000-05:00

This is another project I made with the lovely yarns I got for Christmas from Yellow Dog Knitting in Eau Claire, WI. I actually finished it back in January, but we only took pictures yesterday because we finally had a sunny day to take pictures.

I totally fell in love with this yarn, Noro Silk Garden Lite, and spent several hours looking for a pattern which could do justice to the beauty of the yarn. I decided on Little Red Cap, a gorgeous and romantic pattern in the original red and which worked nicely in the rainbow-colored Noro yarn too.

I have a pretty large head (23") so I was afraid that this hat would be too small for me. I tried knitting it on bigger needles right off the bat, and discovered after completing the brim that my enlargement was too big. I started over and knit according to the pattern, and the hat fit perfectly. The only modification I made to the pattern was to knit the inside of the brim with a slightly softer yarn in a matching color. This not only made the hat more comfortable to wear, but it also made the hat start with the nice dark red instead of the weaker yellow.

I was very concerned with whether or not there would be enough yarn to complete the hat, and I even counted up every stitch in the pattern and unraveled a swatch to get a very good estimate of the yardage required. The pattern said that it would take about 173 m. of yarn, my calculations said it would take about 115 m., and it ended up only taking more like 105 m. I was holding my breath the whole time I knit it, and ended up with a very small ball of leftover yarn.

This is my favorite winter hat. It's bright enough to defy the depression brought on by grey skies, but muted enough to be grown-up. The cables and lace are feminine and look complicated in an eye-pleasing way. If I were to make it again, I might consider a different (but still simple) lace motif in the middle of the diamond instead of the eyelet climbing vine, but I think this is pretty sweet the way it is.

I've gotten plenty of compliments from strangers on this hat. My favorite was from a slightly aggressive short young woman in the library who asked, while I was standing in the checkout line,

"Where did you get that hat?"
I replied, "I made it."
She continued: "Where did you get the yarn?"
"From a local shop in Wisconsin, but it's a national brand so I can give you the name of the yarn."
She pulled out a notepad and pencil and said,"Ok, go"
"It's Noro (that's N-O-R-O) Silk Garden Lite"
She made a disappointed face and said, "Oh. I know that yarn. I don't know what I'd do with another hat though. I have like 16."
I suggested, "You could give them to your friends or try selling them on Etsy. You do know Etsy, don't you?"
She started walking away and threw back over her shoulder, "I wouldn't want to do that. If you post your stuff online people steal your ideas!"

What an attitude. Just for the record, dear readers, you are welcome to use my ideas for your own projects. While I'd rather you not make exact copies of my projects to sell on Etsy, one of the main things Etsy customers are paying for is the time and skill of the craftsman, not simply the creative idea.

Suggested retail for this hat: Noro yarn is quite expensive ($11 for a small ball) so this hat would have to cost at least $22 to account for the hours it would take me to knit it.

Viola Booties

2010-02-27T14:53:00.000-05:00

Currently there are 17 women (that I know of) pregnant or adopting at my church. The next baby due is my friend Kaitlyn's (and her husband Andrew's), expected in early April. Andrew and Kaitlyn are both violists, and Andrew is also an instrument maker, so I asked myself one question when designing booties for their baby:

What would it look like if a converse high top had a baby with a viola?

Well, I think it would look kind of like this. It would be knit out of thin double-stranded red and orange wool, to imitate the woodgrain of a brightly colored viola. It would have a fingerboard/tailpiece in place of a shoe tongue, with golden strings lacing up the top. It would have f-holes on the sides, and for baby Henry it would have the Henry Basses logo embroidered on the top.

Check out HenryBasses.com to see more of Andrew's work, or read the story behind his business here.

The one thing I was disappointed about with these booties is that the French knots which made up the end of the strings disappeared into the tailpiece on the left boot. I also tried adding a bridge under the strings, but it looked out of place so I took it out.

The strings/laces themselves worked really well. After battling with some more authentic-looking (but boring) grey yarn for a while, I decided these violas would have golden strings. Using double-stranded gold metallic crochet thread, I laced up the four strings and sealed the ends with clear fingernail polish.

Suggested retail: $24.00

Produce Aisle Booties

2010-02-23T16:48:00.000-05:00

My former boss (the head chef at Bloomingfoods West) and his wife (the former head chef at Bloomingfoods East) live just around the corner from us, and are expecting their first baby in about a month. I wanted to make something special for their baby, and my first thought was, of course, food.

I thought briefly about doing something with bacon, which was a shared obsession with most of the cooks in our kitchen, but quickly ruled that out because Christie is a vegetarian. So instead I took inspiration from the variety of color you see in a produce aisle, and knit these booties with mini fruits and veggies on the laces.

Suggested Retail: $24.00

Stay tuned for the really cool little gift I made for my friend Kaitlyn's baby. I'll put up pictures after her shower on Friday.