DD's FIRST Ever Completed knitting project and sewing project together!

DD is so proud, and with every right to be! She knitted her first square, with very little help from me. It is about 5"x 5" and has become a small pot holder (she can't wait to add it to the linen drawer). She even chose and sewed on the fabric by hand with very little help. I am so proud of her.  She is also the photographer of her project, and we have posted it as a finished project on Ravelry Olympics. Way to go! She is already talking about making it's matched mate.

 Pattern:
In case you are interested in making one too, it was made with worsted weight yarn and 6 mm needles.
Cast on 18 stitches. Knit all rows until  square. (aprox 20 rows) Bind off. Iron out on low heat to block

Fabric back:
Then we sewed on a square of fabric. The fabric was cut the same size as the finished square. We ironed the edges under on the fabric and did a blind stitch to sew it onto the knitting. DD also added a "flower" to the center. with two pieces of yarn sewn through all layers and tied into a knot. We cut the ends short and frayed them.

Hooded Wrapped Poncho "recipe" Part 2

Embellish it!

There are so many ways you could decorate this wrap. The dollar store here has quite a variety of iron on or sew on sequins and embellishments and glass beads. But I raided my Grandma T's craft stash which I inherited and pulled out a skein of mauve wool yarn and a tatted dragonfly pin she had made and some vintage glass crystal buttons

 

Crochet Edging

Blanket stitch around the entire poncho, (every raw edge) with your yarn and darning needle. As you add new yarn and gain tails, leave the tails to tie in as you crochet later. I also blanket stitched around the neck to sew the raw edges of the hood and poncho together.  If I find my missing yarn, I would use this blanket stitch to attach the collar to.

Crochet Directions: with a size J hook

Starting at the point of the wrap, Single crochet along the curve of the wrap and around the entire bottom of the poncho. As you come to the place where the fronts and backs meet at the arm pit/elbow, single crochet decrease right in the corner.As you come to tails from your blanket stitch, work them into the single crochet stitch.

Row 2: ch 4 and skip first single crochet. *Double crochet in next single crochet st, ch 1, skip next single crochet* repeat from * all the way around, doing a double crochet decrease at the armpit/elbow. Finish to the point of the wrap end, ch3 and join to last single crochet.

DON'T TIE OFF if you want to use crochet as an embellishment such as mine.

ch 100 or more stitches, until you have a string long enough for you to play with and design on your wrap end. Tie off.

Lay the chains (ribbon or braid if you would rather) flat on your wrap end and design a pattern. Pin it into place as you go. Decide where you might add buttons or sequins or other embellishments as you pin. Sew the chain into place as you would ribbon and sew on your embellishments.

Pin your brooch at the front on your shoulder. Sew ribbon ties to the hood if you wish. And you're done! 

If there is ever a part 3 to this, it will be for the collar...(now to find that silly yarn!)

Hooded Wrapped Poncho "recipe" Part 1

Some people love ponchos' for some it is traditional wear, for others it's the warmth, but for me I always look like I paid a visit to Omar the tent maker and asked him to sew me a sweater, I just don't look good in them.  But I LOVE their warmth and I hate how I am always dropping a wrap or shawl...you cant work in them.But I had a vision of draping beauty. I was originally going to try to knit the entire creation, but I get distracted easily and large projects get left on my needles for extended periods of time. So I found a fleece blanket at the thrift store for a couple of  dollars and pulled some wool yarn and crystal buttons out of my stash. What do you think?!  The shawl that never falls off!

Here are my basic drawings I used to design the pattern (Click on the drawings to see them in full page)

I never got to making the collar, I wanted to knit or crochet it, but one of my balls of yarn has mysteriously rolled away into a hidden bliss.

To make this it helps if you know how to.....
Sew a straight stitch and zigzag on a sewing machine
sew on buttons


Materials
One personal  size fleece throw or 1.5 m of polar fleece
Matching Thread
One favorite bulky sweater to trace for pattern.
1 Shawl pin/brooch
Embellishments of your favorite kind, buttons, braid , sequins, ribbon etc
1 average size skein of worsted weight or double knit yarn
Darning needle 


Directions 

Fold your fleece in half the longest way possible. At the far left side, lay your favorite comfy sweater on to the fabric, with the neck line at the fold of the fabric. Fold the sweater arms in onto the sweater, from 2 inches below the armpit.

 

Sewing Instructions

 

Turn right side out and try it on!  Place a pin at your shoulder that the wrap end covers to hold the wrap in place.

To sew on the hood, mark the center back of the hood and the center back of the neck and match. Pin into place all the way around and sew

Now you are ready to embellish your wrap on the tail. Part 2 will be the crochet edge instructions.

Hello, Again

wow, it's been a long time since posts. My life did a dipsy do and a flip upside down. I will spare you all the details, but I will be returning to the workforce and am deciding shortly what to do about the childrens schooling next September.
In the mean time, I will leave you with this link to a cool craft I plan to do with the children as soon as spring gets here. I love spring, the smell of the wet ground and the bright colors of the plants. This is a terrarium project, I think we will make a fairy garden for ourselves!
Terrarium 
I think we should make this chipmunk to go with it!

Mandolin Strap

Look what I made!! I love  this pattern ,a free Ravelry download ( or from her web site ), but it is too wide for my taste, so I used the first 4 rows of it and then improvised with my own directions:

CROCHET MANDOLIN STRAP
Adapted

Materials
1 skein Paton's Grace cotton
  (I  recently tried this pattern with Patons Classic Wool Marino with great results!)
1 sizeF crochet hook


 Directions:

First 4 rows are from a free pattern by Sarah Cooper (rav. name sarasaki) Rock A Bye Guitar Strap

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Begin 

Ch8, join with a slst to form a ring. (Check to see if it will fit over the knob to hang it later. If not, add

1 or rip 1 chain so it fits.)  Ch1, 14sc in the ring, join with a slst to the first sc. (14sc)

Row 1: Ch3, (counts as dc now and through out. Will refer to ch3 at the end of each row as a dc) dc in

the same sp as joining, ch2, 2dc in same sp as last dc. Ch3, turn. (2dc, ch2, 2dc made)

Row 2: 3dc, ch2, 3dc (Large Shell) in ch2 sp of prev. row, dc in last dc. Ch3 turn. (dc, Large Shell, dc

made) 

Row 3: 2dc, ch2, 5dc, ch2, 2dc all in the ch2 sp of the prev. row, dc in last dc. Ch3 turn. (2 ch2 sps, 2

groups of 2dc, and 1 group 5dc)

Row 4: 2dc, ch2, 2dc (shell) in the first ch2 sp, shell in the 3rd dc of the next 5dc group, shell in the last

ch2 sp, dc in the last dc. Ch3, turn. (3 shells made)

(Then start my adaption)
Ch1 more, dc first ch2 space. ch1, sc in between the two shells. ch1, slst to middle ch2 space. Ch1, sc in between the two shells, ch1 and dc in the next ch2 space. Triple crochet in last dc ch2

Next row: dc in all chains across for a total of 11 dc, ch2

* repeat dc for every row until desired length, (I made 36 dc rows before adding fillet cross, but I think I would go longer by about 4-5 more rows if/when I try again).

feel free to add a charted pattern 1/3 of the way from the end of the strap such as an initial or picture (see my example charts for ideas)

I made the cross pattern:

2 more rows of  dc right across (11dc)

Next Row: ch1, hdc, dc, 5tr crochet, dc, hdc, ch1
Next Row: ch1, slst 2st loosely. ch1, 4sc, ch1 turn work

* make 4 more rows of sc (5 in each row)

ch40 and attach chain string to the first sc of the last row.  End off and tie in ends

Finishing:

I ironed the strap to lay flat and straight, and then sprayed one side of the strap with a spray on clear coat lacquer. This let the strap keep it's shape, lessened the amount of stretch when attached to the instrument and left the other side still soft to the touch and the entire strap pliable.

Another option is to line the back with fabric.

Attach to your instrument by sliding the chain loop around the neck of the instrument, under the strings and then thread the entire strap through the loop.  Button the beginning circle onto your post at the bottom of the instrument and  you're ready to play!

IDEAS FOR MAKING IT ADJUSTABLE IN LENGTH....
You could continue on making a longer strap from rows of 5 sc and end off.  Loop a chain of 40 through two D rings or an adjustable 3 prong snap (You know...from fanny packs) and then thread you 5sc strap through the loops.

This is a good idea if you are making the strap for a friend, and you don't know what length to make it.

The advantage of the three prog strap, it that you can open the snap to take your guitar off, avoiding the arm raising acrobaticks it normally takes! (which means for lady players, you won't muss your hair!)

Pick Pockets!!

We are always loosing picks in this house, little plastic triangles that float around the house when they should be with husband's guitar or my mandolin.  So for Christmas I crocheted up two thimble holders from this pattern, and they look great...but not "MANLY"  So I designed two more out of jean to suit DH's tastes and one for a friend. Easy to throw in your case, hang from a belt loop, carry in a pocket or clip to a guitar strap!

Hymn Books = Musical training= Worship

I made an interesting observation the other day in church...For every parent who has ever complained about the lack of funding in schools for the arts, including music,there are other places we have forgotten to look!

Just to clarify my post…. in my area, the majority of churches no longer use hymn or song books, but read the words to songs off of a screen at the front, typed on a computer and projected. The music all comes out different, because a lot of the “worship leaders” also can’t read music, and write the guitar chords over top of the printed words that they figure out by listening to the song on a CD or Youtube. They play by chording on the piano or by ear or with guitars only. But with no Lead notes or time signatures to go by, the rhythm changes, and sometimes even what notes the words are placed with. Our church uses the screen mostly, but all the worship leaders read music, and so far they aren’t into modern choruses. But when we do use the books now, the congregation too often gets lost trying to follow the lines in the hymn book.
If people want to complain about no music class in school, they should be upset with churches that remove the use of hymn books as well!
When you take the hymn books out of church, you remove a sound teaching resource from your childrens grasp. I know, I know, we don't stand up at the front and give theory lessons with it, BUT you learned to read music as a graph, even if you didn't know the names of the notes, and you learned to look for D.S and FINE  and Coda and knew to go back to a place on the page and where to finish, even if you didn't know the Latin terms.

We sang a song on Sunday from our hymn book, and only those trained in music knew how to read the song, as it had all these symbols in it, yet when I was a youngster, most people knew how to follow that same music.
My God is a God of order and clear direction. Printed words with no musical direction can be chaotic. It hinders us from feeling unified, because a chorus sung in one church is sang differently in another, which makes people more self conscious when they sing at a church they are visiting. I've even heard different worship leaders within the SAME church sing the same song differently.

I was talking to a local church leader who was proud that they talked their church out of the hymn books. "Get their noses off the ground (out of the books) and looking up for worship.   Where does it say to look UP for worship? We are to look up for our help and strength.  We are to lift our hands, but I was always taught we should bow in worship, and Hymn books had us pointing in that general direction.

( KJV  references to bowing in worship- Gen 24:26,48,52  Ex 4:31, 12:27, 34:8  2 Kings 5:18  1Chor 29:20  2 Chor 7:3, 20:18, 29:28-30  Neh 8:6  Job 1:20 PS 22:29,  95:6  Dan 2:46  Matt 2:11, 28:9,  1 Cor 14:25,  Rev 4:10, 7:11)