homemade heating pad

The thing I like best about sewing is that the results are so immediate and functional. Take this project: a heating pad and cover in a simple, natural, cotton muslin.


I've been dealing with a hurt muscle that needs some heat to unknot it. I sketched out an idea for a heating pad. Swung by the fabric store for some unbleached cotton muslin and the natural foods store for some bulk brown rice. Ironed, measured, sewed, filled, and stencilled.


And in an evening, I crafted myself the perfect heating pad. I can heat it up in the microwave in just a minute or two. It's just the size I wanted. It has an earthy, nutty smell when I've heated it up. It soothes my sore muscles and makes me happy.


And it happens to perfectly match the vase of mint that I've had on the windowsill. I love it when small things fit.

issues

This little shawlette is really pissing me off.


I don't know if I even feel like writing about it, it grates me so just to look at it! But here's the short version: it was meant to be a simple experiment in shaping, with slightly more than a half-circle shape, and an edging of bobbles like raindrops hovering on the edge of a leaf.

The fabric flowed off my needles. The shaping is fine enough for an experimental piece. But the edging has been hanging me up for days.


I decided I didn't like the bobbles that I'd swatched. I tried bobbles in five different sizes, with different spacings and techniques. I tried to do a knitted-on lace edging. Three ways. I tried several different types of crocheted edgings. Thought I'd gotten it right, then came up 5 yards of yarn short. I unravelled the edging yet again, made some adjustments to save on yarn, didn't like it, and ran out of yarn anyways.

So that's where I am. Frustrated with all the hours wasted. Not liking the garment. Considering frogging it so that it doesn't mock me from the knitting basket.


Leila came over to investigate while I was taking photos. She walked across it and was not impressed.

weekend knitting

Classic weekend view ....


Knitting between climbs in the great outdoors. Sun glinting off my needles. Peace and quiet.

And, yes, that is a ball of Noro Cash Iroha sitting in the dirt. It'll all come out in the blocking.


Between the driving and down-time knitting yesterday, I nearly finished the small shawlette I'd started that morning. If all goes well (by which I mean that this improvised shawlette miraculously came out the way I'd hoped) it'll be finished and blocked this evening.

blue contemplation

How good it felt to sew the ends in on this little project!


The yarn is naturally dyed wool that I bought from Earth Arts when I visited her New Mexico studio/home last summer. I started knitting it into a Contemplation Pouch last autumn. I don't know why it took me so long to knit on the strap ...

But I'm happy in the end! The yarn is a little sturdier than the other wools that I used in the pattern, and it's a little bigger, too. It's the perfect wee bag to carry my iPod, phone, and leash on my morning walks.


(I tried to get a photo of myself wearing it for scale. At least you get a peek at the cat in the background!)

In other news, we finally put up a laundry line! We've been air drying our clothes on a wooden rack ever since we moved to Arizona, but never got around to installing a line. We finally did it last week, and it's great!


Again, I don't know why it took us so long; once I decided it was time, it only took half an hour to pick it up at the hardware store and install it (or rather, tell Mountain Man to do it, ha ha!).

branching out

Rock towers and desert in the first morning sun, seen through the screen of our tent. A beautiful scene to wake up to on a Sunday morning ...


As for the crafting, well, I sincerely thought that I'd be finished with the white cardigan by this weekend, but I've gotten all fumbled up trying to modify the sleeve caps. I find it so aggravating that I may very well never finish it.

I sorted through my many unfinished projects to find something more finishable to bring along, and I found this little gem: a Contemplation bag in naturally-dyed wool. It was knitted and embroidered when I was in Taos last fall and has been waiting for a strap ever since.


I half finished knitting the strap in between climbs on Saturday and completely finished it on the drive home. Now it just needs to have the ends sewn in, and I'll give it a proper showing.

While pulling out this project on Friday afternoon, I remembered how much I loved its delicate branch motif. It was inspired by a wind-blown branch in an old Buddhist painting. I wanted to explore other ways of incorporating it into my crafting, so on Friday evening I cut out a stencil of it and painted it onto a few pieces of chocolate-brown cotton jersey.


For my first experience with fabric stenciling, it was surprisingly smooth and satisfying.

My grand plan was to make the "Reverse-Applique Bandana" from the amazing Alabama Stitch Book. It's made out of two layers of cotton jersey. You stencil the top fabric, stitch the two fabrics together around the stenciled shapes, and then careful snip out most of the stenciled fabric. In the finished project, you get glimpses of the bottom fabric, framed by a hint of the paint and hand-stitching.

This part for me did not go as smoothly. Fortunately, I'd also stenciled onto scrap fabric to practice first. Here it is, with my reverse applique experimentation ....


It was rather slow-going and uneven, since I'm a rusty hand-sewer. But the real issue was that the reverse applique was a bit too textured for me, at least in these colors (high contrast) and with this stencil (smaller than with the sample stencil that comes with the book).

I much preferred the simple lines of the printed fabric. So, in the end, that's what I decided to go with. For the rest of the weekend, I simply used the stenciled triangle of fabric as my bandana.


Ha ha, sort of a silly look, I know. But I do wear a bandana a fair bit when we're out camping and climbing (as evidenced here, here, and here) so this will become a staple in my outdoors kit!

Isolation Canyon

Weekend in Isolation Canyon, camping and climbing. Here's what it looks like from the rim of the canyon (with me, crouching at the top of a climb)

I feel like my eyes have been dulled by the yards of white wool and natural linen passing through my fingers. What a refreshing shock it was to be on the quartzite walls, my face literally pressed into the rock's warm hues.


It was a real sensory pleasure to be out there. Enjoying the chatter of the birds, the rushing of water, the silence of night. The aromas of woodsmoke and morning coffee and sunbaked pine needles.


And all the beautiful textures ... to have hands gripping rock, grasping for sturdy branches, plunging into cold water, digging through rich earth, ruffling through happy dog fur.


Those hands were knitting, too. My clean hands project was the sleeves of my white wool cardigan. My dirty hands project was my mystery shawl in gray wool. Neither is much to show now, but hopefully the cardigan will be finished by our camping trip next week!

linen & leather

I've started sewing. It's rather free-form ... I don't really know what I'm doing, but I'm having a ball playing around with fabrics and simple garment construction.

My initial pieces are in a linen-blend fabric. I cut out an A-line shape that's just big enough to fit over my hips. Sewed up the side seams, hemmed the bottom, threaded elastic into the top hem, and voila!


My sister teased that I looked like I was wearing a gunny sack, but I was undeterred. I love this skirt. LOVE it. Love it so much that I turned the remaining fabric into a dress.

I had just enough fabric to cut out another version, with the same skirt but then continuing straight upward into a tube top. I hemmed the bottom and top. Threaded 1/8" elastic into the top. Stiched on some simple straps made from scrap fabric. And sewed a wide belt out of linen fabric and a remnant of leather.


The first straps I'd sewn on were of leather, too. Two inches wide. But when Mountain Man started to tease me about how I'd need to carry a wooden club as an accessory, I decided to back off the cavewoman look and just keep leather at the belt.

I'm exceedingly proud of the belt. I built it around an asymmetrical scrap of soft, olive-colored suede that I'd found at a fabric store. I cut two piece of linen that were about an inch bigger around than the piece of leather, and which then tapered to narrow ties, about five feet long in all. I sewed the right sides of the linen pieces together, turned it inside out, top-stitched the linen, and then laboriously hand-sewed the leather on top with buttonhole thread.


The hand-stitching through the leather took a painful 2 hours, even though it was just a simple basting stitch. All I can say is that it was damn good that the one sewing book I've bought so far is the amazing Alabama Stitch Book. It emphasizes the artisanal art of hand-sewing and applique. And it taught me to "love" my thread before I start stitching (I thought this was silly when I first read it, but it started to make sense when I was in the depths of frustration with the stitching).

Anyways, these are simple pieces, but I'm happy. Here's one more shot for the full "cro-magnon couture" effect, along with my cave bear ...

desert afternoon

By nature, I am not a person of the desert. But this landscape is slowly seeping into my being.


Mountain Man and I drove out to the McDowell Mountains today for an afternoon of rock climbing. It was breathtakingly beautiful, with springtime wildflowers and the honeyed sunshine of late afternoon. Deep blue lupines, radiant golden poppies, and luxuriant green grasses carpeted the hillslopes. Here and there, a Parry's Penstemon stood up like a fuschia sparkler.


The most exhilarating part of the day was our encounter with a Red-Tailed Hawk. While we were up on the cliff, the hawk kept soaring back and forth below us. It was magnificent, and I felt my heart skip a beat every time I saw it fly past or heard its call.


We reckoned that the hawk's nest was on the same granite crag that we were climbing, but we had no idea how close we'd come to it until we were rappelling down at the very end of the day. The crack that we'd just climbed took us within 20 feet of that beautiful bird's nest.


It was a spectacular feat of engineering, carefully constructed some 100 feet up the face of the cliff. Inside the nest, nestled among soft grasses and leaves and feathers, were three perfect eggs. Magical.


Back down at the ground, we watched the mama bird swoop back in to her nest and hunker down. She must have been relieved to see us off the cliff, and we, in turn, were relieved to see her return.

There was some knitting today, but it seems prosaic after all this natural splendor, so I think I'll leave that to talk about another day.

darn

Mending day. A quiet Saturday where I felt like tackling the little tasks that I've been putting off, like darning holes in handknit socks. Have a look at the heels, and you can see my handiwork.


There are two main techniques for patching holes in handknits: weaving and duplicate stitch. I went with duplicate stitch in the original yarn because I thought it would be least conspicuous. But I suspect the weaving technique would be faster ... I don't know, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

It turns out there was a good reason to put this task off for so long. It's dreadfully time-consuming and annoying! I don't think I would've started it today if I'd known how long it would take. But grumpiness aside, I was so pleased to have the socks patched up that I kept full steam ahead and mended some clothing.


I mended a tear in a linen shirt, re-sewed a zipper in a pair of slacks, and patched holes in two pair of pants. These are the kind of tasks that are very satisfying in a quiet way.

Saturday was climbing day for Mountain Man and me. We had a lovely drive out past the Superstitions, past the old mining town of Superior, up into Lower Devil's Canyon. After all the rain a few weeks ago, the low desert has sprouted a luxuriant green carpet -- grasses, wildflowers, mosses -- and it's spectacular to drive through.


I brought no fewer than three knitting projects to work on, each tailored to a different set of conditions for knitting (sort of akin to the way that Incan farmers had potato varieties exquisitely adapted to each microclimate of altitude, sun, terrain, etc.).

For the drive there, I brought the sleeves of my cardigan. Tedious, but I needed to keep up momentum on this project, and its boringness let me enjoy the scenery and even knit on the dirt roads.


For breaks between climbs, I brought a new shawlette experiment in a springy gray-brown sportweight wool. It was a lightweight project to carry in my climbing pack. And most importantly, since my hands get dirty with metallic dust from the ropes, I needed a darker yarn for this knitting microclimate.


For the nighttime drive home, I need to be able to knit by feel, so my third project was stockinette in the round. I can't show it to you, though, since I was knitting in the dark!

On another note: here's sending out a big thank you to Acorn to Oak, who nominated me for a Kreative Blogger award. What I'm supposed to do now is post the award logo and nominate 7 more blogs and reveal 7 interesting things you wouldn't know about me ... BUT one thing you do know about me is that I don't like following patterns or rules, so I'm going to do it my way.

I'll cut right to the chase and share a handful of blogs that have been making me happy lately: twoandsix, cocoknits, knittyvana, lolly knitting around, The Times We Are Living In, Ecologicalartist, naturally nina, Colette Patterns

sweetness

I had a birthday this week. It was a beautiful day, blue skied, sunshiny, with a sweetness on the breeze. It was the day that the first grapefruit blossoms burst open ...


I made myself grapefruit cupcakes with hints of coconut and honey, which were delicious, if I do say so myself. I decorated them with sugar orchids from the specialty cake shop ...


But to tell you the truth, it really wasn't a good day. That pretty cupcake you see? Moments after I took that snapshot, I knocked it onto the ground, smashing the orchid and smearing the frosting with dirt and grass (Isis did appreciate it, though). There were bigger things, too. My sister, who was visiting, fell horribly ill, so that much of the day was spent worried in doctor's offices. And I felt grumpy about my age; turning 30 felt good, as the symbolic passing of my angsty 20s, but 31 not so much.

Anyways, the sun kept shining, and the earth had little birthday gifts for me. It saved not only the first grapefruit blossoms for my day, but also the first jasmine flowers, which burst into fragrant tumbles of blooms on the back porch ...


Definitely a day to focus on try to focus on the sweetness.

the vest step

I bound off the collar last night, prematurely, to get a sense of how it was laying. The cardigan still needs sleeves, obviously, but here's what it looks like with the shoulders grafted, the bottom border re-knit, and half the collar:


Mountain Man commented that I could just stop here and wear it as a vest. I'm tempted to follow the suggestion, as I'm getting tired of the project and am dreading the process of adjusting the sleeve caps to fit my armscye modifications. Also, it's pushing 80 degrees, and a wool/mohair cardigan seem rather unseasonable.

BUT. sigh. I don't like the flare of the button band.


The extra volume of the garter stitch makes sense around the neck, as it's supposed to be able to fold over into a shawl collar. But, down at the bottom, it ends up making waist-coat points, which are really not my thing.

This aspect didn't seem so noticeable in all the other versions I saw on Ravelry; maybe once you've got the full width of the collar, with more overlap of the sides, the points aren't so pronounced. Or maybe .... gulp .... I've got to re-knit the collar with fewer stitches picked up at the bottom! Stay tuned ...

sunny afternoon

Just another sunny spring afternoon in Arcadia. Sitting in the backyard, watching the grass grow ...


and the hummingbirds come and go, come and go ...


and the dog, panting in the easy sunshine ...


and the never-ending collar of my cardigan, taking shape stitch by slow stitch


Ah, the comfort of slowness. But, oh, how I wish it would go faster sometimes!!

unraveling

Late this afternoon, after a marvelously strenuous day of yard work, I sat down to deal with the edge of the sweater. I started off by running a long circular needle through one row of stitches ...


Next, I cut the yarn in the row above the needle, starting about an inch or two in from the edge so that it'd leave a tail. I unraveled it towards one edge ...


And then started the painstaking process of picking out the stitches all the way down the sweater. It was terribly time-consuming because of the twisted stitches, which have extra friction and don't pull out as smoothly. But it was easy work. And by the time the sun went down, I was left with a nice, clean row of stitches on my needle ...



It turned out to be a simple process. My heart skipped a beat when I made that 'snip,' but overall it was not so difficult. Now I'm ready to re-knit the bottom border!

two steps forward ....

I've got progress on my Katarina cardigan to show off! Although, things are slightly awry.

Good news first: I've finished knitting the front and back. Naturally, I had to tinker with the pattern, so I knit this portion of the sweater seamlessly and adjusted the armscye and waist shaping for my own body.


Bad news: My stitch substitution for the bottom edge just does not work. I didn't like the original rolled edge, so I swatched and convinced myself that twisted ribbing would work instead. I'm in love with the texture of twisted ribbing. But in the final garment, I have to admit that it doesn't pull in enough, such that the bottom edge flares or could even flip up.


So, instead of casting on for the sleeves at my knitting night tonight, I'm afraid it'll be time for sweater surgery. My plan is to cut off this bottom section, pick up the live stockinette edge stitches, and knit downwards in garter stitch on smaller needles. UGH.

Knit Green

I've been awash in a sea of expansive white stockinette, between the cardigan and a secret blanket project. It makes for boring knitting and boring blogging, so it was with immense pleasure that I whipped out a clever little project:


Still white stockinette, but oh-so-much more fun. The pattern is the Knick Knack Paddy Whack dog toy from Joanne Seiff's brilliant book, Knit Green. The original pattern gives several variations on the pattern in organic wool.

I substituted an organic cotton yarn, Henry's Attic Inca Cotton, because that's what I had. I knit it tightly on Size 3 needles. Sent it through a hot wash. Stuffed it with an old t-shirt (recycling!). Sealed up the ends with a 3 needle bind-off. It's fabulous. I almost want to chew on it myself.


But this bone belongs to Isis. She LOVES it. It's perfect for tug-of-war, because she can really get a good bite on the flared end of the bone, while my hands are kept at a safe distance. Ha ha! She gets a low growl in her throat and absolutely refuses to let go!


Quite aside from my own knitting pleasure and Isis's chomping pleasure, I was glad to knit this up because it gave me an opportunity to talk about Joanne's book.

I can't lavish enough praise on Knit Green. It is the single most intelligent piece of writing that I have seen on knitting and sustainability. She takes her reader on an exploration of environmental and social responsibility in all its nuanced dimensions -- agricultural sustainability, biodiversity, veganism, fair trade, buying local, etc. -- and writes thoughtfully about the trade-offs between these values. It's in a similar philosophical vein of what I did with my Green Knitter website, only taken to a far greater depth.

There are a few qualities that put this book in a class above everything else I've read about eco-friendly knitting. First, it is exceedingly well researched. I consider myself to be very knowledgeable about these issues already, but I learned a ton from this book.

Second, it communicates the salience and complexity of these issues without veering into self-righteousness. She makes you feel inspired and empowered, not guilty or frustrated by unattainable purity.

Finally, it's just an all-around well-constructed book that in every way hits the sweet spot of being sophisticated but accessible. The writing is clear but engaging. The patterns are simple but with clever twists. The photographs are artsy and interesting but still show off the knitting perfectly. All in all, highly recommended!