Making: Birthday Present...

So, I said that I was going to make a Kindle cover for my sister for her birthday.  It sounded simple enough to design: two rectangles, sewn together, with some sort of flap.  No problem.  But... then there were problems.  I was trying to use up some stash yarn that had been discontinued at the local yarn store: it was 50% merino wool and 50% acrylic.  Well, no problem.  I'd find something with a similar gauge and feel.  But here are the lessons I've learned:

1) Use the same material throughout a project, with the same fiber content.  I used a 100% merino yarn for the cover front (in white) and it just didn't have the same feel.  It was a bit floppier than the grey backing.

2) BLOCK gauge swatches!!!  Especially if you have to have both rectangle shapes line up exactly to be sewn!  I can't emphasize this enough.  I just wasn't thinking, knit my swatches, measured, calculated, and then went on to knit two fine rectangles.  Then I wet blocked them.  Lo and behold, the white merino grew waaay to much.  I had to force it a bit back down to size.

3) Learn a proper seaming technique rather than just fudging it with crochet.  Although, I think the crochet trim isn't too bad in this project, it could be better.  And it sort of exacerbated the fact that the two rectangles weren't perfectly aligned in size.

You can really tell the difference in size between the white and the grey sides by looking at the frills formed by the crochet stitches on the bottom edging.  I did manage to block that back down a bit - phew!  Still, it's not perfect and that irks me.

Still, I like my overall design - especially the stitches I contrived for the two sides: seed (or moss) stitch for the grey side, to form a kind of egg-carton cushioning, and contrasting white garter stitch, which is also very cushy.  And I like my colors and button.

Kindle Cover Pattern:
Kindle DX Dimensions: 10.4" x 7.2" x 0.38"
Yarn: 1 skein Millefine, Lana Grossa, 50g, 100m, 50% Merino 50% Acrylic – back and flap; 1.5 skeins Siena Big, Wolle Rödel, 50g, 80m, 100% Merino – front, with button
Needle: 3.0mm / 3 US
Gauge (blocked!) : 4.5 stitches / inch in seed stitch (Millefine); 5.25 stitches / inch in garter stitch (Siena Big)

Back of Cover and Flap:
Cast on 34 stitches of back and flap color yarn. 
Work in seed stitch until 10.7 inches long.
Purl an entire row.
Knit the entire next row.  This will form a stockinette stitch ridge which will form the fold for the envelope flap.
Work in seed stitch for next 10 rows.
Begin decrease to form triangle of the envelope flap:
ssk first two stitches, seed stitch (knit every purl stitch, purl every knit sticht), k2tog last two stitches until only 12 stitches left.
Bind off in pattern loosely.

Work on Cover Front:
Cast on 40 stitches in cover front color and work in garter stitch until 10.7" long, bind off loosely.

Wash and block both pieces to size.
Crochet sides closed using single crochet stitch and an alternate color of yarn (if desired).  Crochet envelope flap edging also using single crotchet stitches.
Sew on button.
Crochet button loop on envelope flap.

Making: Designing!

These are my Pilot Choose 0.7mm gel ink pens, which I purchased through Jet Pens, a fabulous online store stocking all sorts of wonderful writing, drawing, and drafting instruments.  I was given a gift certificate last fall and these gel ink pens, along with a very chic fountain pen, were my happy little purchase.

The reason I pulled these out this last weekend is because I'm designing a little knit project - very simple, actually - that needs a bit of embroidery to give it that final flourish.  If you're my sister: STOP READING NOW.  If you're not, the gift is a Kindle cover, two very simple rectangles knit together, with a buttoned envelope flap.  But I need something small in a corner to make it sweet.  I couldn't settle on anything for the longest time.  Should it be floral?  A little bird?  Birds are such the rage now: I see them on everything from tote bags to jewelry.  An owl would be fitting with the book theme.  What about a pattern from tiles I've seen in Istanbul?  Or is a simple heart too twee?

There's also the question of color.  The cover is a charcoal gray on the back and the flap and a creamy off-white on the front - where I'm imagining the embroidery to be.  Red stood out to me at once as the color of choice for a little embellishment.  So, a parade of red-colored possibilities began presenting themselves to me: a little apple?  Too simple - and reminiscent of the brand.  A strawberry?  To difficult to capture with yarn embroidery, especially the little seeds.  Okay, how about flowers?  I wanted something streamlined, not too folksy or granny, not too mod.  Simple.  Pretty.  Ugh.  Let's play with the  roving in that little paper bag instead!

Oooh!  I didn't know there was that much roving in there!  Come to think of it, I don't think I had taken the wool out of that bag since I bought it last fall at the Heidelberger Herbst festival.  Hmmmm.  Maybe I could felt something instead of embroider.  But I've never felted.  And I don't have any felting needles.  Probably a bad idea to try something for the first time when a gift is involved.

But the roving presents such lovely color combinations.  Whoever packed that little bag has a gift.  Let's look at it again!

It looks like sorbet colors! How about something food related, then, for the embroidery?  A cupcake?  Soooo overdone.  Cute but inelegant.  Lollipops?  Cute...but how to group them?  How many? 

This could go on forever.  I think I've settled on a group of very simple star-shaped flowers in red.  But maybe on the gray side of the cover, with a red blanket stitch around the perimeter of the cover to pull it all together.  Or not?  If you have any ideas, send them my way!

Wandering: Old Farmsteads in Bavaria

Right on the southwest border of Germany, in Bavaria, there's an open-air museum or Freilichtmuseum that exhibits several old Bavarian farmsteads, some dating back as far as the 16th century.  At the time I was visiting I had already spent two rain-drenched days with my friends touring around Salzburg and other sites nearby: we were cold, miserable, and water-logged.  An "open air" museum was about the last thing I wanted to see in the misty drizzle.  Thank goodness, then, that we were given free rein to explore inside all the quaint farmhouses and workshops.

We all squealed when we saw these feather beds upstairs in one old house.  How sweet!  How simple life was!  How Little-House-on-the-Prairie and Anne-of-Green-Gables!  But then one catches a glimpse of a chamber pot in the bedroom corner.  Oh.  Hmm.

I can't imagine working with this stove.  I just don't have the strength to stoke 

the fire and manage those heavy iron pots, day after day after day.

This seems a bit more manageable.

But the work is never done: these rags must be ripped into strips, sewn together, and wound.

Then they're woven on this enormous loom to become floor mats.

 Wool must be carded and combed, then spun and knit!

Then there are plants to sow, weed, water, and harvest...

Fruit to be canned and pickled, wines to be fermented and stored.

I say I would love to do all these things... but only as hobbies.  I don't think I could bear the physical weariness I would feel if I had to do them, day in, day out.  And without central heating!  No, I suppose I prefer the life I lead, in which I only dabble in these things, then return to my books and writing.  But who know what may happen someday?  Maybe I'll turn farmwife...

Making: Mazapán in Toledo

June has come and gone - an altogether crazy month for me.  I managed to take (and pass!) my qualifying exam and stop over in five different countries in four weeks . . . something I probably won't do again.  I'm not complaining - I know I've been thoroughly spoiled in having the opportunity to see and experience so many different places.  The last two weeks of my travels I spent with my sister, wandering through Spain, one tiny, meandering, hot, and colorful street at a time.  Don't you just love the hydrangeas and colored tiles of that balcony above?  We found that on a little random street in Toledo.  But I said this post was going to be about mazapán, and so it shall.

Mazapán is the Spanish version of marzipan, made of sugar and finely ground almonds.  I'm holding a couple Toledan mazapán confections baked either plain (left) or with fruit perserves (right).  Toledo's mazapán is famous, and it can be bought at virtually any street corner in that beautiful little city-on-a-hill. 

Nuns are often the artisans behind the little confections, as this little diorama in a storefront shows.  Actually, nun-made-sweets were a theme on our trip through Andalusia: there were many convents that offered sweets for sale.

This is a sign we found on the walls outside a Franciscan convent.

And there's the door you'd knock on to purchase some sweets!  We found this to be the case also in Madrid, Granada, Córdoba, and Sevilla.  Sometimes you had to ring a buzzer and give the password, dulces, to be let in for a purchase.  Other times you could just buy nun-made-sweets pre-packaged at a confection shop.

 This, my friends, is a detail on a mini-cathedral made entirely of mazapán.  The cathedral was on display at a Santo Tomé shop - one of a couple in Toledo.  If you're ever in Toledo, I'd recommend buying a box from Santo Tomé.  Their mazapán is excellent and always beautifully boxed for travel.

A dragon crafted of mazapán in a handy tin in a Santo Tomé shop.  Of course I packed a few sweets to take home myself!

Making: Forest Canopy Shawl for Mother's Day

I've been waiting to blog about this one - I finished this weeks ago, but since it was for my mother, and she reads this blog, I had to wait.  I must say, this has been the most challenging and gratifying project I've knitted.  Being new to lace knitting, I had no idea what to expect.  But the pattern for the Forest Canopy Shawl is perfect for first time lace knitters.  Here the link for the pattern.

This is what it looked like while still on the needles... pretty darn unimpressive.  And all those red threads?  Those are life lines that I kept putting in to hold my place in case I had to rip back due to some horrible mistake.  And, believe me, I had to rip back.  Luckily, I got better as I went along, and ripped back less and less.  In the beginning I was so discouraged, and knitting seemed like it had become an exercise in futility and frustration.  I almost decided that I was simply not a lace knitter.  Sweaters and mittens I could do.  Lace?  Why do something that makes you curse and throw things?

But something magical happened when I finally slipped it off the needles, washed, and then blocked it (on a hideous old mattress, I must say).  The lace opened up.  The pattern came out.  And I thought: I made that?  As an academician, these moments are hard to come by.  Rarely do I write something or argue something and think: There, that's settled.  That's correct.  In fact, the whole enterprise of research and theory requires that we keep questioning our work.  It can be rewarding, no doubt, but there's a certain oomph of finality that's lacking.  This is why I gravitate towards knitting and baking: these are crafts where the question (can I do this?) gets firmly answered (yes! no!) at least to a more certain degree.  Of course, I'm sure the deeper I go into either of these crafts the more I will find that is theoretical and debatable, especially as craft moves towards art.  But, for the time being, it is very, very satisfying to say: I made this! 

We took these on the Philosophenweg, in the forest, in honor of its name.  I call my individual shawl, however, the Sea Canopy, given its wonderful shades of blue.

Raveled here.

Making: Newly Arrived Luscious Yarn

Last spring, my friends E and D came down to New Haven and we all went to NYC together to go yarn and fabric shopping.  It was a fateful day.  Ever since then I have not stopped knitting, and the lust for yarn - soft, fuzzy, sleek, rough, hand-dyed, hand spun, tweed, all natural, what have you - has become a bit of a problem!

This is Madelinetosh tosh sock yarn in Black Currant.  Just look at all the colors!  But instead of making for ghastly and dizzying combination, the colors chosen give off exactly the shades one sees in nature: variegated but complementing each other just so.

So, I have four skeins from the Loopy Ewe (an incredible shop with incredibly snobby yarns) freshly delivered to me here in Heidelberg.  I have big plans for it, so stay tuned!

________
Third picture down is The Black Currants Are Ripening by LongInt57 at flickr; some rights reserved.

Making: Monsters!

This picture is from Danger Crafts' shop at Etsy, where you can buy patterns for these monsters so you can knit and stuff them yourself.  Aren't they menacingly adorable? 

I thought of making something for my godson, since I've been so immersed in knitting and yarn of late.  Rebecca Danger, who runs this Etsy shop, has a blog that offers a free monster pattern.  I thought I'd give it a go.

Here he is!  A little awkward and shy (and lumpy) looking, but a bonafide Monster Chunk.  He'll go in the post tomorrow (shhh, don't tell, Marian, in case you're reading this!).  Not only is he fun to make, but he's also very, very helpful at getting rid of this:

Bits and pieces of yarn leftover from other projects.  The possibilities for toys is endless. And I bought my stuffing at a department store of all places!  Apparently, they stock all sorts of sewing notions and yarn.  If only it were so in the States!  Raveled here.

Making: The Francis Revisited Sweater

This is what you end up with when you're trying to get a shot in the sunlight of your knitted thingy... and you're all by yourself at home.  Yes, that is the shower curtain behind me.  At least it gives you an idea of the stitches up close: mostly stockinette, with a hem of seed stitching on the cowl, sleeves, and bottom hem.

This was the first garment I ever knitted - finished about a month ago.  It's based on the original Francis Revisited (Ravelry link) created by Beth Silverstein and blogged about here.  It really is a simple, lovely pattern: top down, raglan, knit in the round with no seaming - yay!  I couldn't have asked for a better first sweater pattern.

I knit this with a bulkier yarn than called for - more of an aran weight.  It made for a bulkier and stiffer fabric, but I like that it keeps me quite warm.  Of course, the short sleeves are at cross-purposes with warmth . . . but I like the way it looks with a white long-sleeved tee underneath.  Raveled here.

I'm off to buy more yarn.  I'm thinking: how about this in a dark blue merino, this time with long, slightly flared sleeves?

Making: Opal Hundertwasser Socks

I never really understood the urge to knit socks.  Socks seem to be rather ho-hum articles of clothing, mostly obscured by shoes and pant legs.  Why devote so much time to knitting one?  Even as I knit one right now, I don't plan on becoming an avid sock knitter.  BUT one thing I will say: sock yarns can be fantastic flights of colorful fancy.  And I would only dream of wearing such crazy fabric on my feet!

This sock I'm working on (oh, I guess I'll do a pair, but do I have to?) is made out of Opal sock yarn, from their Hundertwasser series.  Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928-2000) was an Austrian painter and architect, all about color and drawing outside the lines.  The painting my sock yarn is based on (yes, crazy notion) is Winterbild:

I think Opal has done a heck of a job getting color combinations in the sock yarn to echo the painting.  What Hundertwasser would think about these colors being worn on people's feet is another matter.

I just love the colors in this particular row of stitches - looks like candy, doesn't it?  But, egads, can you imagine wearing this as a sweater?  But they will do as socks.  I will post when done!

Making: Stella Slouchy Beret

Winter's over, but spring is chilly.  I don't want to look like too bundled up or ready to ski, so I knit Madelinetosh's Stella Hat, a slouchy beret.  It's a free pattern, knits up quickly, and very, very pleasing!

I did, however, use bigger needles than recommended (I used an 8 and 9 instead of a 6 and 8) to get gauge and because I have a big head.  I did 3 repeats but ended up with an enormous slouchy hat.  Like this:

 'Ey mon, give me some kibble!

I was either going to become Rastafarian or rip the thing back.  I finally did the hard thing and ripped it back to 2 repeats, finished it again, and was quite happy with it!

An easy pattern, keeps me warm, and stylish!  Raveled here.