Patchwork Girl's Rambling Warps

Swatching Rogue and Rug Progress

I did some swatching for Rogue (which looks like is going to be a LOT of fun to do) and also pulled out enough yarn to make the pocket so that I won't have to cut the yarn when I reach the pocket: the yarn I'm using is on a cone and I want to be able to work on the body of the sweater without having to cut the yarn. Hopefully there won't be any knots. I did a few rows of the pocket (to check my back and forth gauge) and then took the piece off the needle and pulled out what I THINK will be more than enough yarn for the pocket and set that aside.

I then swatched a part of the sleeve cable up to the closing of the ring with a different color yarn... for some reason, it comes out MUCH lighter in a photo, but in reality this purple is much darker than this photo:

I couldn't get a decent photo of the oatmeal yarn (and part of me is thinking of using the purple, though I wish the purple was as light as the photo, but it would be rather hard to work cables with this color because it's a dark yarn and I don't feel ready for that)... maybe once I get started on the sweater, I'll be able to get a good shot of the oatmeal.

Here is a photo of my rug in progress:

It's called "Family Hands". I did a bit more work on it since this photo was taken earlier today. I'm still not 100% sure about the background, I may use a purple variegated yarn for it, or may save that for another variation of this theme...

More next time!

rug hooking and knitting projects

Punch needle rug hooking

I've been playing punch needle rug hooking lately...I picked up some monk's cloth from walmart, found a bunch of painters stretcher bars out in the barn, put together a small frame, stretched the monk's cloth on the frame and played with my hook a little bit. I think it is a Craftman's hook...

I got it about 10 years ago from Gloria Crouse...back then, I couldn't figure out how to use it, so I gave up. A few days ago, I read some instructions in a book I have and now I have the hang of it... I also got a couple of vintage hooks, but haven't done anything with them. The points on them seem kind of big.

After I practiced with the hook a bit, I decided that since this is cheap-0 flimsy Walmart monk's cloth, I'd just use it for a practice piece and would use some cheap-O acrilyuck yarn for this project... and call it a practice project...
For a design, I was going to do different shapes and then got to looking at some of my old sketchbooks and one of the design concepts just JUMPED right out at me and I decided to go with that. I see potential for different designs with it... it's a family concept & I drew it out on this monk's cloth...I started it a couple of days ago. I'm using everyone's favorite colors for their section... as soon as I get a bit hooked or a painting done (IF I find my paints!) I'll take some pictures, meanwhile, it needs to be a mystery!

When I first started on this piece,the boys were all watching with interest at the bottom to watch the loops form... I wasn't sure what loop height I wanted to use and I pulled the yarn out 2 or 3 times so far. I didn't hook a lot of loops, won't do that until i think I'm happy with the loop height! I'm thinking that because this fabric is s flimsy, I should use slightly longer loops so it'll be less likely to pull out... but the longest loops on the hook are too long, look sloppy.. we'll see.

I did get some good quality monk's cloth in the mail today... will try that next!

New email group about punch needle rug hooking

There's a new yahoo group for punch needle rug hooking..it's at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PunchNeedleRugHooking/ or you can join from your email program by sending a blank message to: PunchNeedleRugHooking-subscribe@yahoogroups.com... the focus of this group may be punch needle rug hooking, but I'm hoping it'll veer more toward creativity...

Knitting

I wasn't really happy with the Aran swatch, so I decided that I'd like to consider doing Rogue (http://girlfromauntie.com/patterns/shop/rogue/detail.asp), and I think the worsted weight Donegal Tweed yarn (I THINK it's Tahki, I got it from a sale that Fleece Artist had about a year ago) will be good for this... I've been having some problems with the computer (the fan isn't working right) and I haven't been able to get all 19 pages of the Rogue pattern printed out, only have the first 8... for some reason I can do email, reading blogs, etc., and this, but printing out from Acrobat isn't working very well right now.. Monday we'll pick up another fan and that should solve the problem... (this has happened before with another motherboard, so it's not new)...

I went and misplaced my hat (it's the Aran Cable hat from one of Annabel Fox's books) in the barn the other day... I know it'll turn up, but now I need to make another since we're still going to have cool weather. I think this one will be from some old Unger Twilight yarn (which is a blend of lambswool and angora)... thinking along the lines of a cap, maybe lace...I started it 2 or 3 times so far and keep frogging it because I'm not happy with the needle size...I think 8 US would be good... I only have 7 and 9 or 10....actually I do have some 8s in swallow casein, but can't find all of them...

I'll add the new yahoogroup list and Rogue button to my sidebar in a day or two...

stuff

Stomach bugs in our house

Everyone in the house has come down with this thing except me, Evan had it last weekend & Gary had it earlier in the week and then had a relapse...Micah had a relapse, too... Reuven was sick 1 day as was Harrison... it's probably too much to hope that I don't get it, so I await my fate and hope it'll probably be over quickly, although it's over a week since Evan started... can I relax yet?

Enough of that...ick.

School projects

I've just been informed that all of the 3rd grade has to do models of the solar system for this 6 week period... I talked to the boys and we may do one needle felted and one painted styrofoam balls, not 100% sure yet, but paper mache is a possibility and maybe doing something with wood.. I wouldn't be surprised if other 3rd graders come up with papier mache, but I don't think anyone else's will be needle felted! :) We may even use kool aid for some of the colors, but I already have perfect blues and greens for the earth colors...

How do we deal with a kindergartner who wants to do everything his 3rd grade brothers do? ARGH!! I guess we'll have to just give him stuff to do...

Twins

Yesterday, my twins turned 9... and you couldn't have chosen two more un-similar people to be twins! They truly are different from one another... except they've always been the same size within 2 or 3 pounds in weight and 2 inches in height all their lives... but for the most part, it stops there: one of the boys has long legs and the other has average legs... departing from the physical we have one child who does his homework without being told, doesn't fuss about doing his chores very often, loves to read fiction, (suggestions for any LONG fiction books that are suiitable for a 9 year old with a 6th or 7th grade reading level?), doesn't need very much sleep compared to the rest of the kids in the family, while his brother will go to sleep without a fuss, sometimes without even saying good night (we've been working on this!) and sometimes it takes a bit of reminding for him to get his homework done and he doesn't like to do his chores... he prefers reading about things over fiction and one summer spent a lot of time reading from his children's encyclopedia (summer between 1st and 2nd grade) and a science book his teacher gave him and today can occasionally be seen reading the children's dictionary... I think that if we were to get him the Guiness book of records, he'd LOVE it... while his brother would love to be able to read several other series similar to the Harry Potter series: lots of pages and several continuing books... he has all of his accelerated reading points and his brother is still struggling to get all of his. I say struggling...if we left him along about it, he might only end up with about a third of what he needs by the end of the year... luckily it won't keep him from going into 4th grade... both boys are straight A students...

I must say that they're turning into wonderful people...both are sensitive human beings in their own way. I think you can get a good feeling for what kids will be like as babies... I knew who would be the more sensitive of the twins, and knew who would be the more intellectual of the two and to this day I can't go 2 feet without having SOMETHING analyzed by this child... could be a food label or something like that...

This entry needs to be cut short because I just now got a note from the school nurse saying that Micah threw up in the gym... Evan had it over the weekend, we thought Micah had a one shot thing on Sunday night and then was fine yesterday...

Which reminds me about throwing up personalities: everyone reacts differently! Micah and Gary are more matter of fact about it, and Harrison is also a little... Evan & I get pretty upset about it... I feel like the world is about to end and then usually feeling better after throwing up... Evan cries...

Gotta go get Micah now!

A White Valentine's Day

We woke up to a snowstorm this morning...

a few hours later:

Yes, they have mittens but they aren't wearing them for the photo...
And it's STILL coming down...and it's supposed to be near 60 tomorrow!

I finished Gary's eagle hat, but he wouldn't pose for it, so the couch had to do it:

this is 2 repeats of the smaller eagle motif on the sides of the hat:

this is the larger eagle motif on the front of the hat:

I got the eagle motifs from Gibson-Roberts' book "Salish Indian Sweaters". The yarn is Brown Sheep Lamb's pride... I think the green is discontinued and the off white yarn is the "aran" color...

I tried working on the swatch for my Aran sweater, which may be a combo of SpinCraft's Aran with Saddle Shoulder, with the braids from the Must Have cardigan and a cable from St Brigid...only got 4 rows done and wasn't super happy about it...will do a bit more work on it before I decide whether to do something else with this yarn...the first small swatch of a cable came out nice, so I may need to try smaller needles, but I THOUGHT I was using the same ones... I'll give it a few more rows before I decide.

Photos!

Harrison's socks are still in progress and since we have maybe 1 or 2 more months of cooler weather, I can't decide if I should go ahead and finish his socks but make them a bit longer, like I did with his Eskimo socks or wait until Fall to finish them... he'd probaby be thrilled if I finish them now... I'll probably make Longhorn toes: the big toe and little toe... he seems to want that... here they are:

A few days ago, I needle felted this bowl:

I've got another in progress using brighter colors: blues, greens & purples..

I also have 2 little bears that need to be assembled and one of the bears still needs arms...

I finished the Aran square and sent it off.. here it is:

I've been working on a hat for Gary and want to use an Eagle motif from a chart in Gibson-Roberts book "Salish Indian Sweaters"... I need to see if I can find my information on how to do intarsia in the round so that I can do this motif on the hat easily enough...I'm planning to do a jacket with White Buffalo yarn (6 ply, very fragile until it's knitted) and probably will do an eagle on it also.. will use beige heather, turquoise and light turquoise for this one...
Bernat has discontinued their White Buffalo yarn, so I've bought some for a jacket for me and hope to get enough money together to buy some to make one for Gary as well... no sense making WB jackets for the boys since winters are so mild here and I've NO idea what size they'll be when they grow up... it seems like some of the good yarns are going away like Patons (Spinrite?) Country Garden DK, Patons Anna, and now Bernat is discontinuing the White Buffalo and they also discontinued a couple of other yarns (a superwash wool in aran weight and chunky)... if I want a Salish type yarn, I'll have to learn to make my own...

Weight loss update: 38 pounds since the last Monday in April 2003... about 18 pounds to go and then I'll re-evaluate!