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...)