Pulling Up Anchor

I have pulled up anchor and sailed my blog off to a new port.

New blog home: http://knittedgems.com

I hope you will visit me at my new home.

Thank you.

Easter Dinner

I hope you had a Happy Easter!

We had family and friends over yesterday. Both my SIL and BIL came over. My dear friends also brought their son Finn, our godson. We had a simple dinner followed by egg dyeing.

Have I mentioned how much I love my oven lately? It's the best oven in the world! While my ham was cooking in the big oven, I had my lemon poppy cake baking away in the mini oven at a different temperature. It saved me so much time.

I truly had a wonderful time cooking the dinner up. I was in my element, singing (poorly) along to my CD's. Dan checked in on me and shook his head in bewilderment.

Of course, the mess all my cooking made didn't leave me quite as joyful. All I could think of after everybody left was a quote from an unknown woman. "If a woman was to see all the dishes that she had to wash before she died piled up before her in one pile, she'd lie down and die right then and there."



I should mention that I had already washed and put away the preparation dishes. Plus, the dishwasher had been loaded and ran once.

Rather than face it right away, I hid in my sewing room. Certain I couldn't handle any large and detailed projects, I opted to hem Dan's work pants.



It did the trick. It pepped me up enough that I was able to face the mountain of dishes. Dan had thought I would tackle them Monday morning, but there is one thing I hate more than a dirty kitchen and that is being faced with a dirty kitchen first thing in the morning. I'd rather have a root canal.

Evie's Tag Blanket

I have named the tag blanket pattern after my friend's daughter Evie. It was her fascination with taggies (she has two tag blankets and one tag toy) that inspired me to alter my XandO cloth into a tag blanket.

After working for a whole week on the pattern, it is finally complete. The pattern contains two full pages of charts. The written directions take up another 8 pages.

Please don't let the length of the pattern scare you. The pattern itself is not difficult. It was my desire to present the pattern in the most user-friendly manner that caused it to grow out of proportions.

The pattern can be instantly downloaded through The Knitting Vault.

If you are on Ravelry, this link will escort you to my pattern store where you can read the full description and/or purchase the pattern. Upon purchase and payment, the pattern will automatically be added to your Ravelry library.

A word of caution: It is assumed that double knitting takes twice as long as plain knitting. I would assert that it takes three times as long. Double knitting requires a great deal of manipulation with the two strands of yarn being used. Typically, before and after each stitch, one of the strands of yarn must be maneuvered into place. Thus, this project should not be started the night before the day it is needed. Of course, if you do manage to complete it in one day, I'd love to know about it!

Katie's Doll Quilt and (of course) More Cards

I finished Katie's doll quilt last night!

Well, there are a few white lies in that announcement. The quilt isn't completely finished; I still have to tack down the corners. It's not a "real" quilt either; it's a "cheater" quilt.

The top of the quilt is just one piece of fabric. The batting is just a piece of flannel fabric. I'm still calling it a quilt, because I did quilt the layers together. They are loosely quilted, but quilted all the same. I just followed any straight lines I could find in the fabric top that went from side to side without meandering. (I don't trust my machine to meander. Often when I turn a corner on it, the needle gets jammed). Then, I stitched around the hearts that all the My Little Ponies were framed in.



The whole quilt was machine quilted, including the binding. I topstitched it down rather than hand tack it to the back. I imagine with the white fabric on the back side, this quilt is going to require a lot of machine washing.

I tried taking pictures last night, but without any sunlight to speak of, they came out a bit dark. I'll try again this weekend.

And for cards - I have 3 new ones to show you!

First, a personalized card inspired by my new Carol Duvall book.



Carol had included instructions on how to stamp directly over paper colored in chalk. I don't have chalk. Nor was I about to color a whole piece of paper in chalk anyway. I want instanst gratification!

But, if you look closely, you'll notice that the color underneath the bike is yellow. I colored a small section of the red cardstock with a yellow colored pencil to make the stamp pop out a bit more.

In case you're wondering who I personalized the card for, it's me. I ride a red bike to run errands and my last name starts with h.

Next up is an Easter card.



I just piled some cardstock up and slapped a bunny button on top. (The back of the button was cut off with an Xacto knife).

Lastly, I give you a Greenland card. Now, I've never been to Greenland. And for the record, I have no desire to go. I hear it's really cold there. I can barely suffer through the Pennsylvania winters without whining once a week.



This picture is from a 1956 encyclopedia that came with the purchase of this house. The son, for whom the collection was purchased for many years ago, thought he could live without the knowledge.

Tag Vote

My XandO design started out in life as a not-a-blanket. It then morphed into a dishcloth, but was found to be too heavy. Then, it tried to be a washcloth, but it was too big. Now, it is auditioning for a tag blanket title.

I asked Dan what he thought of its new purpose, but he didn't quite understand why one would put tags on the outside of a blanket. It didn't make any sense. Tags are supposed to be sewn on the inside of clothing. So, clearly, he isn't any help.

So, I need your help.

With tags?

Or without tags?

The idea for turning my XandO into a knitted tag blanket came from my friend's daughter. We attended her christening on Sunday.

For her gift, I had purchased a tag blanket from BabyLoveBlankies, since I didn't have time to make her anything. She started playing with the tags on it right away. Her mother told me that she has a taggie toy that she plays with when she's laying down in her crib. And here I had just bought it because I liked the fabrics.

The christening card in the pic above is made from my button stash. I just used Zots dots to glue them in place.

To perhaps encourage my card fetish, my MIL sent me down a present with Dan's early b-day present. (Thanks, Mom!)

It's full of great ideas! I can't wait to try the weaving and frame techniques. Since I have enough birthday cards made for everyone's birthday this year and a few even for next year, I think I'll start on mini holiday cards, like Halloween and Thanksgiving.

XandO question mark

Thank you to everyone who wished me good health! I managed to escape the worst of it. It took me a few days to get rid of the sore throat and the weak feeling, but I am grateful that it wasn't any worse.


During my time away from Blogland, I got a bunch accomplished. The XandO thingamabob is finished. I have almost completed a doll quilt, cheater style. And I cooked ... a lot. I am a firm believer that good, hearty food always cures what ails ya. So, I made a beef stew, pork with sauerkraut, danish rolls for breakfast, and butter cookies for snacking. Sorry, but I have no pictures of the quilt (since it's not finished) or the food. I never remember to take pictures of the food. By the time I am ready to serve it up, I've spent hours in the kitchen and all I want to do is go sit down and enjoy my hard work.


So, I'll just show off my XandO thingy.


I'm not sure what to call it anymore. It's too big to be a dishcloth or a washcloth. It's too small to be a blanket. It might be perfect as a burp cloth or a baby stroller lovey. Despite my naming problems, I am still working to type up the pattern. By the end of it, I had gotten into a rhythm. I actually enjoyed knitting the last 8 rows, so long as I didn't have to knit another one until the next blue moon came around.

50 Cent Placemat

I found this placemat being sold "As Is" for 50 cents. You can't see it real well, but there are black smear marks on the back side.

I brought it home and cut the top corner two cupcakes out using a box cutter. I then smoothed out the edges with an X-acto knife.

I raided my card drawer for two blank cards and Zots dots (adhesive dots).

Voila, I present you with two birthday cards!

I'm clam-happy (happy as a clam) with how they came out!

On a personal note, Dan has been battling the flu for the past week. He came down with the flu on Wednesday. He stayed home from work on Thursday and Friday. By Saturday, he was starting to feel better. On Sunday, we met up with friends for brunch and Lost Abbey beer (It's Beer Week in Philadelphia. Normally, we don't start drinking before Noon. Honest.). Monday he went to work, but stayed drugged on Sudafed. Yesterday, he came home early with a high fever again. Today, he is back at work. But, today I woke up with a sore throat. So, if I'm MIA from Blogland for the next few days, you'll know why. More importantly, you'll know that it's All Dan's Fault.

A X and O Washcloth

I was rooting through my WIP basket last week and found a half-finished washcloth. It was more than a quarter of the way completed. I had enough yarn to finish it. I could think of no reason to leave it sulking in UFO land.

Then, I started to knit on it and remembered quite clearly why it had ended up in the UFO basket in the first place.

Remind me to never double knit anything ever again. Ever.

Well, maybe not ever.

I might double knit again as long as the following rules were enacted: one yarn only (no switching between colors) and one side knit at a time (slip stitch technique rather than knit two sides at once technique).

I do love the way double knitting looks.



This is the back side of the washcloth. It has been knit in all reverse stocking stitch and plain stocking stitch. As you can see, there is no curling. It lays perfectly flat.

So, the dirty secret behind this washcloth is that is wasn't supposed to be a washcloth at all. It was simply going to be my swatch for a X and O baby blanket. Unless the blanket knits itself, it will never be. I'm exhausted just trying to complete the "washcloth".

Here's a pic of the front side and the reason it's titled X and O.

Showing off my Completed Sewing Projects

I've taken a mini break from my knitting time to sew.

Part of the blame for this diversion rests on my sister's shoulders. She called me last month to say she found this fun Transformer fabric at Walmart. Why she was in the fabric section of the store is not clear. She doesn't sew and she has no desire to learn.

It was decided that we (and by we, I mean I) would make each of the children pillowcases for Easter. The kids would love it; Transformers is their new favorite movie.

Well, I have one done.

As mentioned in a previous post, I decided to make the pillowcase reversible. This isn't the first pillowcase request I've received. Every year it's a different character. This year, I decided I would be tricksy. To make sure this pillowcase can be used until the children are grown and out of the house (and to hopefully reduce the number of pillowcases requested), I lined it with plain red fabric. When they no longer like the Transformers, it can be turned inside out.

Not happy with just blaming my sister (she's too easy of a target), I'll blame Jo too. Her recent projects of embroidery, dressmaking, and button rings have inspired me to keep the sewing machine on top of the desk rather than on the floor underneath it.

My latest project - just hung up this morning - is ... well, can you guess?

How about now?

It's a fan cover. The old fan cover (a white plastic dome with magnets to adhere it to the metal fan) was thrown out by somebody who didn't understand what the point of a fan cover was. That person has since learned the chief role behind a fan cover: to keep the *%$#! cold air outside where it ought to be. Yeah, so it was me. Who knew?

To make yourself a fan cover like mine: First, go to Panama and purchase a traditional appliqued piece of fabric. Or do what I do. Have your dear friend bring you back an appliqued fabric from Panama during her trip to visit family. Trim the edges to remove any fraying. Cut out a piece of flannel fabric the exact same size as your appliqued fabric. Put right sides together. Stitch a 1/4 inch seam all the way around, leaving an opening large enough for your hand to fit through. Turn the fabrics right side out. Press. Hand stitch opening closed using a slip stitch. Set aside.

Root through your fabric stash until you find a complementary fabric to your appliqued fabric block. Measure your fan. Cut out a square from your complementary fabric, adding on one inch for seams (my square measured 14 inches). Then cut out another piece of flannel the exact same size as your complementary fabric. Put right sides together. Stitch a 1/2 inch seam all the way around, leaving an opening large enough for your hand to fit through. Turn the fabrics right side out. Press. Hand stitch opening closed using a slip stitch.

Lay the appliqued block on top of the complementary fabric block. (The wrong side of the appliqued block should lay against the right side of the complementary block). Move the appliqued block around until it is centered. Baste the two blocks together. Use a slip stitch to secure the two blocks together. Remove the basting stitch.

Cut four one-inch sections from both the sewing tape and the adhesive tape of Velcro Brand Fasteners. Machine stitch the sewing tape sections to the the wrong side of the complementary block in each of the four corners. Mount the adhesive sections on the wall next to each of the corners of the fan. Hang your fan cover with the Velcro strips.

Four layers of fabric should be enough to keep the cold out outside. Gosh, I hope.

A Contest and 2 Tags

I love contests, especially when they involve yarn!

Anne is giving away Malabrigo yarn. Have you heard of this yarn? (Please tell me I'm not the only one who didn't know about it until last week!) It's 100% wool from Uruguay. Up until a week ago (when I started hearing the Malabrigo drum), the country name Uruguay immediately made me think of Manos del Uruguay. Manos is lovely wool. I was super excited to receive it for a bday present last year from my MIL.

According to Karyn at Knotty Stuff, Malabrigo is better than Manos. Much better. "It knits like butter".

What better way to get your hands on some than to win it - free! All you have to do is leave a comment on Ann's Contest post naming an unpublished designer. Easy. You do know an unpublished designer, don't you? Of course, you do. Well, to remind you, there's me (though I hope to change that later this year), Tracie (though she will be published later this year), Sharon (who just got word that she will be published in Interweave Knits - yay!), and Katinka. So, now you have no excuse.

Onto the tagging.

Vicki of Knitting Dragonflies tagged me with a meme on Feb 7th. (Boy, am I a slacker!) Thank you!

I'm to share 7 random/weird facts.

1. My bicycle is my main form of transportation during the work week, since we are now a 1-car family. Dan takes the car to work. I run any errands with my trusty red bike. Yesterday, I piled two big boxes on the bike rack and pedaled down to the post office.
2. My favorite gardening task is pruning. Jake's favorite gardening task is breaking up the pruned sticks into kindling for our fireplace. He's extremely quick and efficient.
3. There are only 3 candles in our entire house and they are kept behind glass doors. Since I quit smoking 6 years ago, candles, perfume, smoke, and other strong smells give me an instant headache. I avoid them like the plague. Around the holidays, I carry Ibuprofen with me and drink a lot.
4. My favorite fruit is apples. I wait all year for the fall harvest. Then, I go batty. Apples are cooked into everything for a solid 2 months. By the end of it, I am sick of apples and won't touch them again until next year's harvest.
5. I fell in love with cooking when I was 9 years old. I would wake up early in the morning and cook my sister breakfast. Breakfast is still my favorite meal of the day. I eat two breakfasts; one before I take Jake on his walk and one after while he is eating his only breakfast.
6. There is lotion and chapstick in almost every room of our house. Dan doesn't touch the stuff. It's all for me.
7. I am not a big fan of fresh cut flowers. I would prefer them to be planted outside in my garden. It would never occur to Dan to bring home a vase of flowers. Instead, he keeps my chocolate supply well stocked and drives me to the garden center for seeds and starter plants. He's a good husband.

Jo of Blissed Out tagged me with a You Make My Day award. I'm so glad to know that she doesn't view me as a stalker.

Now I am to tag 7 people for the meme and 10 people for the YMMD award. That's 17 blogs and/or websites. I'm not sure I have the stamina. We'll see how far I get.

Amby - Fantastic sewer and knitter. I love seeing her new creations. She's a bit crazy about her cats, but I try not to hold it against her.

Creative Apples - Perhaps my favorite card seller on Etsy. I started out with her cupcake photo cards. Now, when I want a new pack of bday cards, I go straight to her Flickr album and pick out the photos I want her to print.

Letterary Press - My next favorite card seller on Etsy. I gave this card to Dan on our anniversary.

The Dip Lady Knits - The Dip Lady has undergone surgery on both her hands for tendinitis and still she knits. She was actually chomping at the bit the day after her surgery. I'm not sure I would jump back into it quite as fast.

The Knitsy Bitsy Spider - Though it's supposed to be two friends blogging, it's really just Marti. It started out as a knit blog but has morphed into a needle felting, dog loving, and travel bopping blog. Oh, and Marti is hysterical.

Sew Spun - A new blog I just found. She's a spinner and a sewer. If my MIL is reading, this is for you ... Sew Spun posted a tutorial on how to get great corners on your quilts.

Kitty Grrlz - Long have I read her blog. Well, truth be told, I'm not sure how much I read it as I just scroll down and drool over all the beautiful yarn she spins up. I'm an avid fan of her Navajo plied yarns. Exquisite.

Glorious Hats - I love hats. There are no hat shops around me. The last one I went to was 9 years ago. So, it's wonderful to see and read Jane's blog. Not only does she make hats, but she's quite the sewer too. I suppose the two do go hand in hand. I feel like I should stress that Jane's hats are amazing. We're not talking bucket hats. We're talking fancy hats.

OK. I'm sorry. I ran out of steam. I made it halfway. That's good, right?

If you are still looking for blogs to read, check out my Blog I Read list. It's updated (well, it was two weeks ago).

Thanks again to Vicki & Jo. I truly appreciate it even though I'm slow as molasses in January.

Mailing the Afghan Today

I talked to Dan about just keeping it. And kept it I did for a week, nicely folded, in our guest bedroom. It sat there all week long. It was never used. I never even touched it, except to occasionally pet it.

I thought of all the people I could give it to. It would make a great baby blanket until I realized that it would have to be hand washed and air dried. The chances of either my sister or my SIL hand washing a 36-inch afghan are not good. If I were a betting woman, I'd put a good thousand on it becoming a felted afghan.

I thought about keeping it myself. I wouldn't use it; that's for sure. I would want to display it, but we have no room for such displays.

Since I can't think of a good home for it, I am sticking to my original plan. It will be shipped off to Syracuse, NY where it will join 800 other panels on an abandoned gas station. It can serve a purpose rather than sit in my cedar closet for months.

A final picture of it:

At the last moment, I crocheted a border around the outside. It was my neighbor's idea. She recommended that I single crochet a border on all the edges. I inquired about doing a double crochet, but she was hesitant to agree. Not because she didn't think it would look good, but because she is a one-crochet-stitch-kind-of-a-woman.

It appears I am too. I could only remember how to do a single crochet stitch. So, that's what the afghan got. I should know better. I was taught how to crochet by both my MIL and my Aunt. It's just different from riding your bike. You do forget if you don't use it.