Plain Jane Knits Up A Storm

A few musings about my needlecraft hobbies - knitting, crocheting, quilting, & cross-stitch along with my other love, genealogy. While growing up, I used to HATE the term "Plain Jane", but when it comes to knitting & crocheting, I've realized that I really *am* a Plain Jane in that I don't use fancy yarns.

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Location: Northern Detroit Metro area, Michigan, United States

Monday, September 29, 2008

Playing Catch-up

I'm playing catch-up because I had a batch of photos in the camera but kept forgetting that I needed to download them and post.. I know, bad blogger {g}

First up are three of my knitting students:


Rada is on the left & Frances on the right, both busy with their crocheting. Rada doesn't need much in the way of help and Frances is working her way through a 60 block afghan book turning the patterns into lap robes and scarves.


This is Jean who is working on a sock. She's learned to both knit and crochet over the past year. I should have taken the camera along to get a few more photos today as there are several other ladies in the class.


Marina, another of my students, made this lap robe as her first crochet project. The center flowers came in a bag of garage sale yarn and she added the green "leaves" and the white edging and put the whole thing together!!


Rada made two lap robes out of yarn provided by Beaumont Hospital - this first one is double crochet in three colors.


The second uses the left over yarn for a large granny square.



This was my project for the day. Several of my students want to make this hat pattern and I'd never tried working enterlac, so - with the motto of "fools rush in where angels fear to tread", I cast on today in class and finished it tonight during Boston Legal.



This photo gives a better idea of the texture of the hat. The pattern started at the top of the hat and worked down. Now that I know what I'm doing (sort of), I think I'd start at the bottom and work up. I'm pairing this with a scarf crocheted in the box stitch which looks very similar with a diagonal texture.


This is a rather plain hat & scarf set worked in WoolEase Bulky that I finished last week. Not real fancy, but it's going to be warm and should go with anything.


Another lap robe for Beaumont that I worked in box stitch. I like the way that variegated yarn works up using this stitch.


The garter stitch center knit section of this lap-robe was found in a bag of garage sale yarn. I think it may have been meant for a sweater back as a section about half as wide was in the same bag. I unraveled the smaller section and used the yarn to add a granny stitch border.

I've often mentioned how we've been finding yarn at garage sales - here is the bounty from a couple weeks ago. This entire pile was around $6 total.



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Saturday, September 20, 2008

When There's Nothing To Say, Take A Quiz

- at least it lets people know that you're still alive {g}.. I found this one on Caution Blind Driver




You Are Olive Green



You are the most real of all the green shades. You're always true to yourself.

For you, authenticity and honesty are very important... both in others and yourself.

You are grounded and secure. It takes a lot to shake you.

People see you as dependable, probably the most dependable person they know.

Monday, September 15, 2008

A New MeMe

Sallee tagged me for a meme late last week and I'm just getting around to it.

What are the last 3 things you purchased?
Groceries
Groceries
Groceries
(I don't do a lot of non-grocery shopping)

What are the last three songs you downloaded?
I don't download, but on You-Tube I've been listening to:
Heavy Horses (Jethro Tull)
Tangled Up In Blue (Jerry Garcia Band)
Ripple (Grateful Dead)

What are the three best places you visited?
The farm where I grew up
Crestline, CA, where my daughter lived until recently
The Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.

What are your three favorite movies?
The Lion In Winter
The Wind & The Lion
Rocky Horror Picture Show

What three things can you not live without?
My sweet husband
My cats
Knitting, crocheting & quilting

What would be your three wishes?
An honest government in Washington that is not purchased by the corporations
Reasonably priced health care & universal coverage without big insurance companies
Honest elections with verifiable paper trails & auditing when exit polls & results don't match.

What are three things you haven't done yet?
Hang-glided
Bungee jumped
Rock climbed
(now ask me if I want to do any of those. NOT!!)

What three Celebrities do you want to hang out with the most?
I'm not really into celebrities but if possible:
Katherine Hepburn
James Michener
Jerry Garcia
(all of whom you will note have passed away - they aren't making celebrities the way that they used to..)

Name three things that freak you out
*SPIDERS*
Heavy traffic if I'm driving
Icy roads

What are your three favorite dishes?
Chicken with homemade noodles
Fish chowder
King crab & steak (surf & turf)

Name Three Things you are good at.
Knitting
Crocheting
Quilting

What are three things you are currently coveting?
Another, larger, Nana Sadie Rose bag (I have the largest of the current models)
A complete set of KnitPicks Harmony needles
A large encyclopedia of crochet stitches

Now, I'm supposed to tag people but I'd rather let anyone reading this who feels in the mood to do so do the meme. Have fun!!

Friday, September 05, 2008

A Rough Day

One year ago today, I lost Mom to leukemia. This whole week has been rough as I remembered what she was going thorough 12 months earlier, but on Wednesday I was given a reason to smile. My dear friend Kim sent me roses in remembrance.


I put the vase on top of the entertainment center next to a photo of Mom & Dad. They're both gone now and I can't express how much I miss them.


This photo captures the full beauty of the roses.. Thank you, Kim - for the roses and for being such a good friend! It really means a lot to know that you have my back..

On more cheerful issues, I took four big bags of yarn from garage sales into the Sr. Center yesterday for our K4 group. I took a photo of them before leaving but - memo to self: make sure that the flash card is in the camera, not the computer, when you take pictures. They're still on the camera, but I have to find the instruction manual to see if there's a way of transferring them to the card and then to the computer as this new computer doesn't have a port that allows directly hooking into the camera. I had a cute one of Boomer taken earlier today, all curled up on the pillows I use to cushion the antique mission oak desk chair that I'm using. He looked so comfy.. Of course, that meant that I couldn't sit down for a while - our cats have very accommodating "staff"..

I finished a hat to go with a scarf that was originally the start of a crocheted afghan that was in one garage sale bags. Fortunately, there was a partial skein of the same aqua color in the bag and I had white & royal blue in the stash that were close enough to make the hat match. The hospital that we've been making lap robes for sent more yarn and it was grabbed up by the K4 members that were there yesterday. I think I'll do another afghan in the "brain-dead", "box" or "crazy" stitch like the recent ones as they're almost as easy as straight double crochet and have a lot more texture.

Monday, September 01, 2008

More Charity Knitting And A Slow Moving Sock

Most of my knitting this last week or so has been hats.


The one on the right will go with a crocheted scarf that was made by Frances from my knitting & crochet class. Frances tries a new stitch pattern with every scarf she makes and is working her way through a book with 30 different patterns. The hat on the left will, hopefully, be sold to increase our kitty for yarn purchases. It combines a strand of apricot worsted weight with a multi-colored fun fur.


These two were knit to go with crocheted scarves someone crocheted and dropped off at the Sr. Center without leaving their name. The scarves are double crochet with fringe so I added some simple patterning to the hats.


This set is all mine - the scarf is garter stitch on size 15 needles, the hat is the standard pattern with a bit of patterning to again add some interest to the set.


Here is my slow moving sock - I don't think I'll get this pair done in time for SOS08, but they will get finished. I'm using my customized toe-up sock pattern and adding in the lace design from Wendy's Seaweed sock pattern. The original design for the large size sock was a 9 stitch repeat, so I added an extra purl stitch between the lace cables so I had 6 repeats of a 10 stitch pattern for 60 stitches that I'll have around the leg.


I really like the way that the lace also forms cables. Thanks, Wendy!


And finally, this is what passes for a diner salad these days - lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, green pepper, & onion topped with lots of home grown tomatoes!! MMMMMMMMMM...

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