3 Ties Down .... 6 to Go

I finished my 3rd tie to the Christmas Tree Skirt last night.

I have one more tie to make out of this hand spun yarn and then 5 more white ties. The goal is to finish it by August - well in advance of Christmas. In order to make sure I don't fall off the wagon, I have made myself a strict schedule. One tie must be completed each month; no excuses.

This schedule thing is working well right now. The best laid plans always do start out with a fine flourish. I just hope I can keep this going in the middle of summer when it's hot and the last thing I want to work with is wool.

Well, I'm going to try not to think about that now. It's still winter and hopes are high.

2 Pieces of 9, Sewn and Starred

More progress on my Christmas Tree Skirt (I hope nobody is sick of Christmas yet?!):


I think I need a bigger star to top my white tree, don't you? I was trying to cut corners. You know - make my life simple. So, I purchased a star button for my tree skirt. I bought the largest star I could find, but they just don't make buttons beyond a certain size.

Maybe I should knit a star. Yet, the thought of constructing a 5-pointed star makes my head swim.

I could sew one. That would be SO much easier.

Yet, to keep in the same medium, maybe a felted star would be better. I'm not talking about knitting a star and then felting it (the swimming would start again). No, I'd buy felted fabric or fabric that felts and cut a star motif out of it. That might work.

The 2nd Tie in the Christmas Tree Skirt

I finished knitting the 2nd tie a few days ago, but I didn't have a chance to block it and take pictures of it till last night.

It's a little difficult to see, since I took these pictures in our basement. I'll have better pictures by next week when I bring it upstairs after seaming it together with my 1st tie.

In addition to knitting this tie, I have been trying to knit at least 2 rows on my AWHF Beaded Shawl every day. After completing the 2 rows this morning, I decided to count how many beads I had left to weave on. 168. It might seem like a lot, but that means I only have 36 more rows to knit! I'd do a dance around the house, except that every row takes me approximately 30 minutes to knit. 18 more hours till completion. I'm not sure whether to dance or cry.

This Time, a Knitted Tree

I haven't decorated any other trees. So, instead, I thought I would show you where I am on the knitted Christmas Tree Skirt. Slowly, but surely, my knitted white tie is starting to feature a cabled tree.

In between cleaning the house and mixing up more cookie dough, I am knitting the Christmas Tree Skirt. OK, my progress is sad and pitiful, but it's Christmas time. All I want to do is bake (I made brownies yesterday) and watch Christmas movies. I just love The Christmas Carol. I think I could watch it a million times and never get bored of it.

New Chart for Christmas Tree Skirt

While knitting up the sample of the white ties in the Christmas tree skirt, I realized that my original chart was not going to work. I could not stretch the tree branches out as far as I wanted to and still decrease every 4th row as was needed in order to match the other ties knit in the Naturally Spun yarn. Thus, I spent the last two days reconfiguring the layout of the tree.

Behold, the new Christmas tree chart.

The tree branches will be made with K1F's (hold 1 stitch forward on cn, K1, K stitch from cn) and K1B's (hold 1 stitch back on cn, K1, K stitch from cn). The trunk consists of 3 stitches that are knit in stocking stich. All other stitches are knit in reverse stocking stitch. (cn = cable needle)

I hope to post a picture soon of the newly designed, white wool tie.

Pine Tree design on Christmas Tree Skirt

I have the laptop back! This guy moves so much faster than Hal! Yet in my excitement of having the laptop back, I forgot to snag the digital camera. And, what's a blog without pictures? So, I made you a picture.







What is it you ask? Why it's a pic of my design for the white ties in the Christmas Tree Skirt.

I've cast on for the 1st of the white ties. I'm pleased that my design/calculations allow for all the ties to start in the same manner. I don't mind doing the extra math, but I think it's easier on the knitter if s/he doesn't have to check the pattern constantly.

More pictures later:

• The Chili Pepper quilt is finished!
• Progress on my never-ending-beaded-shawl (It's getting bigger - I swear!)

Have a great weekend!

I'll be out on the roads doing some more Christmas shopping. Will I finish? Heck, no, but I'll have more done than undone. And that seems like an accomplishment.

Christmas Tree Skirt, the 1st tie

The 1st of 9 ties is downstairs being blocked.

I just love the way this tie came out. The colors are gorgeous and so little work was required by me to make the yarn shine. I must tip my hat again to Brenda for hand-dyeing and hand-spinning this fiber for me. My MIL has asked me why I don't try my hand at dyeing. My answer is because I could never have my yarn look like this. My time is better spent listening to the yarn and manipulating it into various shapes.

I will cast on for the white tie next week, which will feature a cabled pine tree in its center.

My plan is to complete the pattern with just 2 of the 9 ties being knitted. If we wait for me to complete knitting all 9 ties, there won't be enough days left for any knitter to purchase the pattern and complete the skirt before Christmas is here. Additionally, I will offer the pattern at a discount, since it will take a small leap of faith from the knitter to believe that the 2 knitted ties make up a 50-inch diameter tree skirt.

Accomplishing Nothing

I was hoping by my next post I would have something ... anything! ... to show you, but I come to you empty-handed.

The mohair stole is still not finished. I measured it on Friday and it was at 59 inches. I measured it last night and it was only at 60 inches. I thought for sure I knit more than an inch. I think it hates me. However, I do have wonderful news about the mohair. It seems that if you don't try to fight with it, it self-patterns very nicely. Amazing, isn't it?

The Christmas Tree Skirt has been frogged and recast on. My gauge was only off .25 of an inch from my swatch, but, oh, what a difference it can make.

Progress on my Alpaca Beaded Shawl is at a snail's pace now. Each row keeps getting longer and longer as I near the top of the shawl. Plus, every 4th row requires the weaving in of 14 beads. I used to get excited for the bead rows (every 4th row) back when I only had to weave in 4 beads. Now, I get excited every time I finish a beaded row. And when faced with too many beaded rows, I pick up another project.

Let's not even talk about my Mystery Project and the (lack of) progress on it. I've had two people stop by on Ravelry and let me know they're excited to see what I create. Even my MIL asked me how the project was coming, since I had her running around Maine searching down the missing yarn for it. I am plagued with guilt and still I can't bring myself to pick the needles back up. I HAVE to finish the stole, shawl, and xmas skirt first. Should I mention that I have wicked thoughts about knitting a scarf for my SIL? Somebody talk some sense into me, would ya?!

The Chili Pepper quilt is still missing its binding. The binding tape is laying on top of the quilt right now, but for some reason it won't attach itself. Ungrateful thing that it is.


Baby Flick's quilt still requires more machine quilting before I can stitch the binding on. Of course, I should mention that I haven't even started to cut out the binding strips. Let's not even talk about who is going to hand-stitch the binding to the back of the quilt. I'm on a hunt for that little green elf!


The Dining Room Roman Shades are still sitting in the sidelines waiting patiently for me to finish Baby Flick's quilt.

And to prove it, here is a pic of my sewing room.

What have I accomplished?

I raked all the leaves up.

I stuffed a Pumpkin Man.


I put away our summer clothes and drug out the winter sweaters.


I took Jake to the vet. Poor guy has a double ear infection.


I did knit on the stole, shawl, and tree skirt, but they are mocking me now.

Casting on for Christmas

Christmas has begun in my home!

I have already crossed 9 people off my Christmas list. Only 15 more left to shop/make for. Which doesn't sound like a lot until you start accounting for all the birthdays that occur in November and December. Most of the people on my list have to bought for twice.

I have garnered permission from Dan (my husband) and encouragement from my neighbor to put up two Christmas trees this year. The plan is to trim the artificial Christmas tree before Thanksgiving. We'll get a real one after Thanksgiving Day. Plus, I already won the argument last year about The Wise Men Day (January 6th). The tree has always had to stay up till Jan. 6th because I won't let him take it down beforehand, but last year was the first year we actually swapped one small present on the day. I lobbied that we make it a tradition ... and Dan agreed. So, I get almost a full 2 months of Christmas! I'm soooo giddy. I can't wait for Halloween to come and go.

But enough about my crazy Christmas habits, the main reason I wrote up this post was to show you that I have finally cast on for the Christmas Tree Skirt.

My love of cables has kept the tie point from curling.

And after fighting with my mohair stole over the hand painted yarn getting stuck in a rut, I am relieved to be working with yarn that nicely flows from one color to the other.

Thank you, Brenda!

Borrowing my Husband's Tie

My husband came home from work yesterday and gave me the funniest look. I don't know why. Don't all women wear their husbands ties in the house when they're not home?

No? Well, they ought to. Ties are great for inspiration. The one I wore yesterday helped me design the schematics for the Christmas Tree skirt. Here's the proof.

What else did I do when I was supposed to be watching the Phillies playoff games? I was knitting more of the mohair stole, because watching the Phillies play the way they are is depressing. We can't pitch to save our lives and our hitters are lost in la-la-land. Ung. But enough about that, I was telling you about my mohair stole. It is 40% completed!

Well, I am off to make a pot of chili. It's still hot as heck here in Pennsylvania, but I'm doing my part to encourage the weather to get cooler. Stew = cold weather. Truly, it feels like we have been living in San Francisco these past 3 days. Every morning, we get a foggy, misty drizzle (I wouldn't even call it rain) followed by 80+ degree F day. I guess it is better than no rain at all and if the heat would just go away - I'd be happy as a lark or a Jake. =)

Swatching for the Christmas Tree Skirt

My white Wool from the Andes arrived on Friday from Knit Picks. It will be paired with the Christmas yarn to create a Christmas Tree Skirt.

I bought 11 skeins because I've learned that one can never have too much yarn. Just in the past year, I've run out of yarn twice. In the hopes that I never face that challenge again, I swung the pendulum to the opposite side and bought 300 more yards that I need. True, it's a bit extreme, but the last yarn shortage is still fresh (and painful) in my mind.

Of course, the first thing I did with the yarn was knit up a swatch of plain stocking stitch. Sitting next to the Christmas yarn, it is perfect. It is plain and ordinary, letting the hand-dyed yarn take the spotlight.

Because I refuse to knit an entire garment in stocking stitch (I simply must sneak in some cables or yarn overs), I have been tinkering over the past few days with a pine tree cable. What do you think?

I took the pics at night, so they're not the best.

Now starts the fun part: drawing the schematics and calculating the stitches. My goal is to cast on later this month.

Christmas is here!

Not the actual day (and a good thing too because I have too much knitting to do between now and then), but the yarn - it's here!

As you may recall this yarn was hand-dyed and hand-spun by Naturally Spun. And when I say hand-spun, I mean hand-spun on a drop spindle, all 730 yards of it. I've only ever managed to get about 10 yards off of a drop spindle. Now you know why I leave the spinning of fiber to other people.

First things first, I wound all 10 skeins into yarn cakes.

Then, I whipped up a swatch of just plain, old stocking stitch.

After lining up all my skeins of wool next to the swatch, I decided that I had to go buy more yarn. I wanted the Christmas yarn to be in the spotlight and not have to fight with other colors for attention. I suppose the natural-white wool would work well enough, but it contrasts with the stark-white roving used to ply the red and greens together. Plus, buying yarn is fun.

I plan to iron out the cable design today. If all goes well, the cable panel will look like a pine tree.

Little to Show For

I've been knitting several hours every day. Yet, I feel like I am not making any progress on my Big Dipper Scarf. I am convinced that after I knit several rows someone comes behind me and rips out the very same rows. It's downright wicked behavior. If I catch who's doing it, I'm going to draw and quarter them!


So, I need some quilting advice.

I was so proud of myself for attaching the binding fabric.

OK, I'll admit it: I cheated. I went to Wal-mart and bought the pre-made quilting binding strips. It matched my quilt fabric perfectly and it saved me from having to make binding strips. I was sold! I attached it the same way I would have it the strips were home-made. I left the binding folded in half, lined up the open ends with the quilt edge and stitched with a 1/4 seam.

What is the problem you ask? Well, as you can see there is not enough fabric to wrap over the 1/4 seam and attach to the back. I don't know what to do. Do I rip it all out? What is the proper way to attach it?

Onto the good news of the day:

• I sold my 1st pattern on The Knitting Vault.


• I am now listed as a designer on Ravelry. I have only added information on my Lucky Drawstring Purse and my Vase Cozy. I hope to add more patterns next week.


• My entire weekend is going to be spent watching baseball. I am attending the Phillies games on both Saturday and Sunday.


• Naturally Spun sent me a picture of the Christmas Yarn. You see it here laid out to dry. The dye has set and it will be ready to spin soon. The amazing part of the spinning process is that she will be doing all of it on a drop spindle! I told her that she had the patience of a saint.

Pretty Yarn Pictures

Tracie had wished me lots of yarn for my birthday. Her dedication of then calling my MIL to have her send the wished yarn is really touching. How else do you explain the box I yarn I opened yesterday from my MIL?


Can you tell what yarn it is?

I think a closer pic is in order.

5 skeins of Manos del Uruguay! Woo!

Included with the yarn were 2 books from Jil Eaton. After a year of Hubby insisting that I could NOT under any circumstances dress Jake in clothes, he's starting to cave. He saw the pic of the Cabled Sweater design in Jil's Top Dog Knits and thought it would be a fun way to showcase one of my cable designs. I can't wait to complete the 4 projects that are on the needles now so I can start on Jake's 1st sweater. 1st of many, if I get my way! And about that 4th project, I can't wait to tell you about it.


To recap:
Project #1: Mystery Project
Project #2: Big Dipper Scarf
Project #3: AWHF Shawl


So, what is Project #4? ........................................ A Christmas Tree Skirt!


3 types of yarn will be used in the skirt:

• 100% wool in plain white
• SinFlex by London Yarns in Partita (sparkly green)
• Hand-dyed & Hand-spun natural fibers from Naturally Spun

Here is a pic of the recently dyed yarn. Isn't it lovely?

For more pictures and an explanation of the dyeing procedure, please visit Naturally Spun's Blog.

I'll post more pictures of Naturally Spun's yarn once she starts spinning it.