Ogee, I'm Makin' Curtains!

I have (cheap) green bamboo shades that cover my two bedroom windows. They are perfectly sufficient for filtering out light from outside while I sleep, and I've somehow convinced myself that Boogey People can't bother me if I can't see them. The fact remains, though, that anyone standing in my back yard after dark when I've turned on the lights in the bedroom will get an eye full. Of Miss Me. According to my teenage son who was innocently chipping golf balls in the back yard and may now need therapy.

Soooooo... I thought I would add another layer of fabric over the shades. Granted, lace does not offer the same blackout qualities as the sheets of plywood suggested by my traumatized Smiley, but it's a gesture and it's more fun to knit lace than run to Lowe's for plywood. Besides, aren't golfers supposed to keep their heads down and their eyes on the ball?

I immediately remembered a lace pattern I had seen last summer in Interweave Knits. Gryphon Perkins had a pattern for the Ogee Lace Skirt. A gorgeous undulating leaves pattern that I really like a lot. I hatched a plan.

Two skeins of Peaches & Creme Naturals in "Natural" got wound out, tied off, soaked, and dyed. Two days later, I had this, dyed, dried, and all wound up:

(To be more precise, I had two of those, but the other one looks like lace now, remember?) I swatched a little, chose my needles, and cast on as if I were knitting the largest size of the skirt. (That number happened to coincide with the width I needed for each window.) Just keep repeating the top half of the chart, forgetting the tapered part. I figure I'll need to do six full repeats of the chart to achieve the length I need. I'm now into the third chart repeat and I really like how things are looking. The panels will take a while to make, but I don't mind. Smiley can chip balls in the front yard 'til then.

Here's a closeup of the lace pattern. Pretty, huh?

New patterns available on Ravelry

Morning! I plan to take a bunch of pictures today and post a good bit about what I've been doing in the past few weeks, but I wanted to let ya'll know that I've made a few patterns available through Ravelry this week. So far, though, Ravelry is only allowing downloads of patterns that are offered for free, so those are working but the paid patterns are not yet downloadable. For those (such as The Graduate or one of the Miss Me Knits Bags patterns), please just send your PayPal payment with a note in the NOTE section as to which pattern you want and which format (PDF or Word) you prefer. I'll send it right along!



Back later with pics...

Snow Bobbles Crocheted Bathmat Pattern

As promised on Ravelry, I am going to share my pattern for the Snow Bobbles Crocheted Bathmat I made. This is what it looks like:

I will take better pictures tomorrow, including close-ups of the stitch pattern. I really like it, though. It makes a great, thick bathmat.

I first saw this crochet stitch (Sedge Stitch) at the Lion Brand website (http://www.lionbrand.com/). It is included in the free pattern for "Bark Sedge Stitch Washcloth." I used the stitch to make several dishcloths and thought I would try it for a blanket. It was beautiful in snow white, but I could tell it would be way too heavy for an adult-sized blanket, so serendipity turned it into a bathmat. Don't you just LOVE serendipity?

Anyway, here are the particulars:

Snow Bobbles Crocheted Bathmat Pattern

Size G crochet hook. 1 cone (785 yards, give or take) "Peaches & Creme" regular worsted in White.

Chain 123.

Row 1: skip two chains, work 2 dc in next chain, *skip 2 chains, work (sc, 2 dc), repeat from * to last three sts, skip two chains, sc. Turn.

Row 2: Chain 1, 2 dc in first sc, *skip 2 dc spaces, (sc 2 dc) in next sc space, repeat from *, sc in turning chain.

Continue to repeat Row 2 until the bathmat is the size you want or, like me, you almost run out of yarn. Save enough to do the finishing row:

Chain 1. Sc in the top the first two dc, chain 1. Continue to sc in the tops of the dcs, chaining one after each set of two. End.

Bathe. Drip. Enjoy.

Well, I'm back. Kind of. A little.

Hey, everybody! I've missed you. As you may have noticed (if there's still anyone out there!), I have not posted in nearly a year. As soon as I felt that posting had become an obligation, I stopped immediately. It just didn't suit me at that time to have something else that HAD to be done. I have, however, missed posting about fiber stuff quite a lot, so I will start slowly. I'm posting today. Then, we'll see...

I'm going to show you the most fun project I've done lately. Here:

It's a Cupcake Baby Cap for a friend's granddaughter. Unfortunately, I didn't have a baby right at hand to model, hence the cap is stuffed with a ball of yarn. I imagine it looks MUCH cuter on an actual baby, though! I will be on the lookout for my model...

Also wanted to let everyone know that I have patterns available for the mosaic bags now. If you would like one, just zip me a PayPal (my ID is maydaymwATcomporium.net -- replace AT with @) for $5 and I will send you a Word file complete with color photos and a tutorial on mosaic knitting as soon as I receive the payment notification. Don't forget to note in the NOTES field which pattern you want:

SHIRLEY...

JULIA...

or JODIE...

I can also send your pattern by US Mail for $7. It will be full color and packaged in a plastic sleeve for your knitting notebook. Also included in both patterns is a full tutorial on Mosaic Knitting.

Glad to be back! I hope it won't be too long before the next post. See you on Ravelry! (Oh, yeah, my Ravelry ID is MissMe. Look me up...)

How many miles (of yarn) per gallon (of dye)???

First things first. Here is a picture of the wool I dyed with the leftover dye from the previous day.
The Vivid Turquoise came out a pretty pastel mint blue, but the dye was not taken up consistently, so that one will be overdyed or hand painted with others blues/greens I think. The Olive came out sort of pale yellow straw-colored ( a little deeper in color that the above picture seems to reflect); I think it is acceptable as is. The Terracotta came out sherbet orange and I like it very much. The brown I have actually dyed a second time in the same brown due to the fact that it came out of the experimental dye bath the exact pinky-brown color of a baby mouse and I was freaking me out. While it was still wet from the original dye bath, I mixed up another batch of brown and left it overnight. Then I again put the dye pot outside in the direct sun and covered it with a trashbag to several hours. The dye was exhausted and the yarn was greatly improved, so now you are allowed to see it.

Not that I'm not a trusting person because, believe me, I am. It's just that darned What If gene; I can't stand to have someone tell me I CAN'T reuse dye or I CAN'T felt things in a front loading washer on the first trip through. BS. BS. BS. Can, too...

Matter of fact, I have a bag and strap in the front-loader right this very minute. I really should have taken a picture pre-fulling, but I got excited and forgot. Sorry! I will post pictures of the finished bag tomorrow.

COMING SOON: Links to all kinds of good stuff. Free patterns. Lots of good tips and techniques. Don't blink! Stay tuned! Tell your friends to subscribe!

Mostly, knit like you mean it...

All wound up with no place to go...

Yesterday's dyeing is done! Here are the finished skeins, all wound up...

Well, actually, all wound up except for the one that went maverick on me and needs to be untangled. I'm amazed that only one went awry; I put the loosely tied wet skeins in mesh bags and put them in my dryer. Oh, yes, I did! Two colors per bag, even, since I only have two mesh bags! I'm telling you, folks, I have a Risk-Taking nature! Maybe you could best describe my operating style as "what if" mixed with a dash of "whatever happens, it will work out okay." Those of you who know me are nodding knowingly and wishing fervently that I could confine that behavior to working with yarn...

In the interest if "what if," I've elected to experiment further with the leftover dye from yesterday. It was not exhausted (my back was, though), so I wound four 200-yard hanks of worsted weight wool, soaked them thoroughly, and left them in the dye pots overnight. Then I had Tall put them in the sunny flower bed for me and I covered them with trashbags and left them all day. They're still there. I will check on them after dinner. Once they're rinsed, I will know if I should put them in new dye baths or allow them to stay as they are. I suspect the dye bath was no longer strong enough to give me good, strong color, but I'll bet I have a good base color for painting over or overdyeing! Oh, Serendipity, you've been so kind to me at times; are you with me now?

I sent the pattern for Shirley off to Knitty. Could you please cross your fingers and toes with me until I say you can stop? Okay.. toes only. It's hard to knit with your fingers crossed. (I have knit with my eyes crossed, however. Story for another day...)

That's it for now, but I am sticking in this picture because I love looking at it. It tickles me! I would give credit for it, but it came from some random site on the web a long time ago and I no longer know the source. If you took it, thanks! It makes me smile. By the way, they're baby hedgehogs...

Wow! Knitters sure are helpful people!

I put out a call for pattern testers to my online knitting group and got a TREMENDOUS response! In fact, I sent the pattern out to many more than I had originally intended to, but I really wanted good feedback on this one and I know some people are probably not going to follow through on actually knitting the bag once. You know how it is -- other projects take precedence, the yarn for the bag is not in the budget right now, whatever... We all have plenty to do without knitting becoming another chore, so I hope no one stresses over knitting the bag. I'm happy for them to have the pattern, whether they knit it right now or next year.


In fact, I have about decided to submit this pattern to Knitty, which would make it free to everyone in the world anyway (provided, of course, it gets selected for publication). I may be fooling myself, but I think I have as good a chance as anyone else of having a pattern published! After all, the chances are 0% if I never submit it, right? So, from that perspective, the odds of my becoming a published designer will go up immediately when I press SEND on the submission email! I'm not too worried about being rejected -- I made it through far worse things and I'm still alive, happy, and living a blessed life. Therefore, nothing ventured...

Bet you want some kind of fiber content, huh? Don't blame you. Give me a few minutes and I will take pictures of the dye pots stewing in the sun. Just wait right here...back in a flash...


Okay, here they are:













I wound 15 100-yard hanks of Plymouth Stone Cotton (cotton/acrylic blend) yarn. The dye is Dylon and I chose to do 4 hanks of Terracotta, 3 hanks of Vivid Turquoise, 4 hanks of Chocolate Brown, and 4 hanks of Olive. I covered the pots with a black trashbag and left them in the direct sun (85 degrees F today) all afternoon. When I'm finished posting, I will go and rinse the yarn in vinegar and hang it to dry.


"What," you ask, "are you planning to do with this yarn?"


" Why," I reply, "I don't have the faintest idea."

Check back in a day or so to see if the yarn has Revealed Its Purpose...


That's it for today. This is Miss Me reminding you to... Knit Like You Mean It!