Road Trip Sunday

Yesterday we set out for the Amador Flower Farm in Plymouth to see the daylilies in bloom. We stopped in Placerville first so that M could visit the Lofty Lou's yarn shop. The shop is lovely, located in a little Victorian house on the main street. That's my daughter, A, sitting in front of the shop reading her novel. I got two skeins of Sockotta in colors I had never seen before, a pink and a purple, and M got some sock yarn too. From there we drove to the flower farm. It was still a little smoky in the Gold Country though our atmosphere in the Bay Area has improved a lot.

It was wonderful to see the thousands and thousands of blooming daylilies in their beds. It was better than looking at the pictures in the catalog because the real colors were much brighter. We picked out about 6 different varieties. All the varieties are numbered as well as named (love the names!) and were so well organized that everything was easy to find. With names like 'Aztec Chalice' and 'Hawaiian Party Dress' how could the flowers not be gorgeous?

The flower farm has lovely vistas and walks and picnic areas, too, so is a great destination for a weekend drive. We found out about it when we picked up one of those circulars at a historic site we visited with the inlaws.

Now the spouse has to dig up the poor messy front flower bed so we can plant the new daylilies.

Red Kufi Cap

It only takes a day or two to make one of these caps. I like the pillbox shape. I am not a fan of the current mode for cloche hats that fit close to the head because they are hairdo killers. The best shape I have found for hairdo maintenance is the beret.

As usual, the cap is crocheted in tapestry crochet with a ribbed band picked up from the crochet and knit for 16 rows, then turned under and stitched down.

I am surprised how little yarn these caps really take. On one hand I am not using up the stash of leftovers very fast, but on the other hand, more people will be warmer this winter.

Retro Knit Friday! (On Friday!!)

Here are the last few designs in the Reynolds Vol. 28 from the early 60's. The jacket is the first Fair Isle in mohair that I have seen. The sleeves are bracelet length (slightly longer than 3/4), and there are no fastenings on the front band. It is knit at 5 st/inch on size 7 needles.

Another Tyrolean cardigan, this one also with no fastenings down the front. I have never seen so many cardigans with no buttons before. There are embroidery motifs in the diamond spaces of the cable design and tucked into the smaller cables.

At last, some buttons! This sweater, knit at 6 sts/inch, is called 'Classic Shetland Cardigan'.

The Diamond Pattern Jerkin has buttons on a crocheted band, 3/4 sleeves, and a short length. The diamonds are knit with the use of argyle bobbins. The gauge is 5 1/2 sts/inch on size 5 needles. I have to say that a pose like this should make you nervous - what are they hiding about the sweater?

The lapped neckline on this classic raglan pullover with ribbed sleeves is a little different, but it works well with the wide cable band down the front.

We are still suffering through very smoky conditions from the wildfires in the state. Things are so bad that the public is advised to stay inside if possible, and when I have to go out I wear my face mask. While staying inside so much, I have been working on the hats and have another one completed and yet another one started. M has let us borrow the first season of Burn Notice on DVD, so there will be watching and crocheting and knitting this weekend.

Even More Kufi Caps

Still crocheting and knitting the hats for the mission. I like the tapestry crochet, and it is interesting the way it will distort a graphed pattern, slanting it to the side a little and adding spikes here and there. You end up with something that looks completely different from the chart you are using, but still interesting and tribal looking. The pattern on the white cap was from a section on Chinese designs in an old book of mine.




The next hat was supposed to have an aboriginal leaf pattern but I put in the two yellow lines for the fun of it. The tapestry crochet makes the sides firm so they stand up well. The hats look large on the little papier mache head, but look better on a real human head.




I hope I am making a dent in the leftover yarn stash. My sisters reminded me of a pattern I got at stitches this year for an Aran knit pillbox hat, so I should take a break from the crochet and try that out with all the white yarn my MIL gave me for the rescue mission project.


My zinnias are blooming, finally. The colors of zinnias seem to be very intense, bright oranges and reds and pinks. The blooms last a long time, too. The vegetable garden is lush and producing. I am having a success with the zucchini and summer squash for the first time ever.

Retro Knit Friday (On Sunday Morning)!

We have been having very hot weather so I have been concentrating on survival the past few days. When it is 112 degrees in the shade your priorities change. Luckily it is very dry with almost no humidity, so that makes it more bearable. The garden is loving it though.

Today I am showing more designs from the Reynolds booklet dating from the early 60's. The first is a mohair turtleneck pullover knit at 5 sts/inch. It has pockets at the bottom hemline but other than that design feature it is classic in design.

This next sweater strikes a cord of memory. It reminds me of another striped mohair cardigan I helped a customer with in my knitting instructor days since the colors are very similar. Though the model is wearing the sweater like a blouse, there are no buttons or any other fastening on the fronts


Here is mohair in a ribbed pattern stitch and a shawl collar.

Do people really wear sweaters when they are boating or is it just a good photo op? I have never been on a sailboat so I don't know. This sweater has color-blocked sections and a boat neck.


Classic cardigan with texture pattern, cables, and 3/4 sleeves.

Now I am going to go sit in front of the fan and work on the hats. I finished two more hats for the mission which I will show tomorrow, heat permitting.

Another Kufi Cap Finished

I enjoyed the tapestry crochet, but I have a tendency to make it too tightly which I will have to work on. After I finished the hat I gave it a good stretch and it now fits great. I got the fishbone pattern from an article in a machine knitting magazine on African motifs. The yellow yarn was a small ball of yarn leftover from the cornmeal cardigan, and I had just enough to finish the pattern with barely a foot left. I have some patterns somewhere for some animal prints, and that would look great on this hat too, so I will have to hunt for those.

We had the inlaws over for Sunday lunch and my MIL brought me a whole bag of lovely yarn leftover from her baby afghans, so I will have to get busy and knit up some kid hats for the mission, too.

Kufi Cap Experiment

In my quest to make some hats for the rescue mission, I wanted to find some patterns for some hipper hats. M told me about this great book which I found at the bookstore shortly afterwards. It is just full of great hats with a more urban slant. I am finding that it is faster to crochet the hats than to knit them by hand, though I am going to use a combination of the two. I can't wait to try some of these patterns.

I also wanted a pattern for the straight sided kufi cap like that seen in this old pattern from my stash. It is Simplicity 8895, and it was printed in 1996. I thought it would be a good canvas to try out tapestry crochet on the straight sides. I measured the pieces from the pattern, taking off the seam allowance measurements, and came up with a diameter of 7 1/4 inches for the top, and a side depth of about 3 1/4 inches. I crocheted a flat disk in double crochet following this pattern

http://members.aol.com/JSchlossma/bskc.html

but putting in extra increase rows until the disk measured 7 1/4 inches or close enough. For me this was 7 rows total from the start with knitting worsted and a Size H hook. Then I followed the directions for making the sides except that I made mine plain double crochet. I wanted the cap to really hug the head, so after crocheting 7 rows on the sides, I picked up a stitch in every stitch around and knit 16 rows of K1, P1 rib with size 6 DP needles. I folded the rib to the wrong side and stitched it down with a neat but not tight overcast stitch.

Now I am trying a new one with a design on the sides. I have just started the sides, and for this one I am doing the sides in single crochet so that I have more rows for the design.

So far I have 3 1/2 hats for the mission. My goal is a dozen but I didn't give myself a time limit.

Here's the new cap in progress:

Retro Knit Saturday!

I have actually started seaming the green cardigan and am knitting the neckband. I may also have worked on the rescue mission hat a little.

This week we are going to look inside the Reynolds booklet that I found at the booksale. There doesn't seem to be a date on it, but it looks like it dates from the early 60's. The designs are still mostly classic without a sign of the later 'mod' influence. The cover shows two sweaters knit at 4 1/2 sts/inch. The pink sweater has set-in sleeves and a fringed collar with a YO, cable pattern stitch. The green sweater, though similar, has raglan sleeves and the pattern stitch is the same one used in the Blueberry Waffle Socks.

This must have been during the time that mohair sweaters were popular (early sixties) since the booklet has patterns for several. This blue cardigan is knit at 5 1/2 sts/inch in a cable pattern with a high V neckline.

This blue mohair cardigan must have been a fast knit at 3 1/2 sts/inch with sleeves that are cast on to the body. The pattern seems to be the same pattern as the first mohair sweater.

This attractive sweater blouse is knit at 6 sts/inch and has a front placket and raglan sleeves. I like the way the use of larger collars brings the focus to the face.

Here are two overblouses for casual wear, both in fuzzy yarns. The green sweater is mohair and has a drawstring belt through a row of eyelet holes at the waist. The yellow blouse has 3/4 sleeves and a back placket opening at the neck. Those pants that appear in lots of the photos must be stirrup pants which were also popular around that time.

This, another blue mohair cardigan, is knit at 5 sts/inch with a glitter mohair yarn. It says that the yarn contains Lurex, a metallic or sparkle fiber, and the glitter is increased by the use of rhinestone buttons down the front.

Tomorrow is Father's Day and we have a nice lunch planned for the resident father and the visiting grandfather that will include Swedish meatballs, cream gravy and ligonberry jelly. I have cleverly made the meatballs ahead of time so I won't have to work too hard on the day.

A Good Day At The Booksale

I went to the library booksale and here is what I found:









A Vogue Knitting Book from 1939!! It was a very lucky day.

Total bill for knitting books: $2.25

Retro Friday!

Something a little different today, a trip back to 1954 to see what ladies were making for their kitchens with cotton thread and their crochet hooks. The cover shows unusual placemats in a bright red and yellow that match the glass cozies and seat covers. Also included are patterns for the cafe curtains and for the fruit basket (sans fruit).

My grandmother was always crocheting something. Sometimes it was a tablecloth or bedspread, sometimes smaller items. She trimmed a handkerchief for my sister, and also made doll clothes for our favorite dolls without a pattern to follow. I don't know what happened to all those bedspreads and tablecloths, perhaps they were given as gifts or were sent to my aunt because, now that I think of it, I only saw the production and never the completed object. However, I still have the doll clothes packed away somewhere.

The next page shows dishtowels with crocheted edgings and potholders made to match the towels. I like the way ladies crocheted around a bone ring and attached it to the pot holder to make a handy hanger.

Back in the day when people drank a lot of 'pop', the bottle caps must have accumulated and here is something you could do with them! This must have made a very sturdy hot plate mat when made with the metal bottle caps of the time. The brown and white mats use two sizes of bottle caps. What were the bigger ones from, milk? No, wait, reading the materials list I find that the bigger ones are from jars of baby food.

These mats, though similar looking, are made with crochet over bone rings. I wonder what those rings were made of in 1954, since the description says that the mats are heat-resistant. Real bone, some kind of resin, plastic, celluloid?

This page shows little crochet items for shades, lamps, and curtains. I like the larger floral disks that were made to have crochet around them. They are called 'floral plastic shade pull' and 'floral plastic tie-back pins'.

The back cover shows a kitchen rug, pot handle covers, an oven mitt, another crocheted basket, and various cute potholders.

I see that the doves have come back to their abandoned nest to raise yet another family. At least I assume it is the same pair, but they do all look the same to me. In addition to watching the birds, I am now having a war with a band of marauding squirrels who have decided to knock all of my apples off the tree. They live next door in the huge redwood trees but like our yard for food and fun. When I see them up in the apple tree I run out there and shake the rake at them or squirt water near them to scare them away. They obviously don't take me seriously.