Ignore the pocket, please

I'm still waiting on the felt to replace the pockets. I'm very anxious to see the new colour in place. These pockets bug me more and more.

As you can see, I have been working away on the Smiley Sweater. The left front is filling up fast. I've been working on other things, too. Here are some cat face cookies I've got underway. I wanted to add some dimension to them before I paint them. I'm also experimenting to find an icing that balances good taste (as in, it tastes good!) with stability (as in, firm, but not tooth cracking hard).

Those slight divots in the eye mounds are usually considered a defect (craters), but they sort of work here, don't they?

I was wrong

It`s been a busy time around here with lots of cookie-ing. However, I haven`t forgotten my Smiley Sweater entirely. It`s just been slow-going.

Remember when I said there was no wrong way to go about it? Well. I was wrong. When I went to add the patch pockets, I didn't have the exact colour of felt that I wanted, so I thought I'd just go way out on a limb and use 2 drastically different colours. Sometimes that works. If you're off, you might as well be WAY off. I thought because I planned to embroider on the pockets, that it would all work out. Well, nuh-uh to that!

Ugly, right?

I have mailed a small swatch off to the Felt on the Fly lady, and she will send me the exact colour of felt I need. She's nice that way.

The rain has stopped

And that means I was able to move out onto the deck and take some better photos. Here's the Smiley Sweater with the happy worm. You can see (I think) some of the lyrics from the song. Any guesses as to which song it is exactly?

And here's something I've been resisting for some time. Yes, it's come to this. I'm dyeing my own wool to get the colours I want. This is because it's nice to embroider with laceweight wool, and that wool comes in very few colours, in VERY big hanks. I thought it would be hard. I thought it would be messy and.....dangerous, because I thought I'd have to buy special toxic dyes. Imagine how excited I was to realize I could dye wool with vinegar and regular food dyes??!!!

The example on the left is wool/nylon sock yarn in fingering weight. The bit that I dyed didn't have any red in it. I think the red might not have over-dyed so well. On the right, is some pale pink Alpaca which cooperated amazingly well. More experiments must follow!

A smiley cat and a cheery song

And some song lyrics for the armhole/shoulder. Just started on that, so you'll have to wait a bit to see which song it is unless you have really good eyesight.

I've decided why this is so much fun. It's because there's no wrong way to do it.

Progress

Work continues (or should I say 'play'?) on the Smiley Sweater.

In this one, you can see where I intend to place pockets, because in my humble opinion, pockets are non-negotiable. And, for once, the pockets are going to be in the right place!

Play-Doh for adults

Sometimes I am slow on the up-take. I admit that freely. The subject of today's post is one of those times. I just discovered fondant which is really just Adult Play-Doh.  More than that, I just discovered that you can make your own marshmallow fondant that is pretty darned tasty. And furthermore, if you discover that your Play-Doh modeling skills are a little rusty, you can just melt those marshmallow fondant sculptures in a nice hot cup of cocoa.

Never mind that it's HOT here in the Kingdom today, with very high humidity. Not really hot cocoa weather, but I tried to ignore the heat by sitting in the breeze from the fan and playing with the fondant, with no one to scold me if I blended the colours.

Cats!! I left the teaspoon in the photo, so you could get an idea of the scale. These cats are intended for the tops of cupcakes. I was going to bake some, but that would involve more heat in the kitchen, and I don't really need the calories anyway.

In the end, I decided anybody who reads this blog probably has a pretty good imagination. Just imagine these on a cupcake. Except maybe for the extra big one. He was the first one, and he got a little out of hand. Imagine him on a cake. His very own cake.

As for the Smiley Sweater..... I've added beads to the 'Say, "Cheese!" ' text and I'm continuing with the mouse. Hot and humid is not really a great combination for a wool sweater, but it's hard to put down.

Watercolour cookies and a smiley sweater update

I spent a few minutes this afternoon painting cookies. I've never taken to watercolour painting. It just doesn't come naturally to me. However, the idea of painting on cookies is one that won't let me go, so every so often, I get out my food dyes and my special food-only brushes, and have a go at it. Maybe I'll get better at it, but even if I don't, it's still fun, and the cookies taste just as good.

On the Smiley Sweater front, here's where we are:

It occurs to me that this is much the same process as getting a tattoo might be....especially those full sleeve tattoos. I'm adding bits and pieces of images and text that appeal to me, in a sort of collage. A wearable collage. The only difference, I suppose, is that I can remove my 'tattoo' any time I want.

First up on the Smiley Sweater

Here's to fresh starts

News flash! From the desk of our intrepid reporter, I give you ... the new project!!

Remember all last winter when I was knitting mittens? I was trying to find some flat space to embellish with wool embroidery and wool appliqué.....and it had to be practical, ie, useful, because I'm a practical girl. Mittens seemed like a good choice. More recently, the baby blanket served the same purpose. Somewhere along the line, I began to think that knitting the mittens (or the baby blanket squares) was kinda the price to pay for having something to embellish. After the first pair, knitting mittens over and over again is not the funnest thing to do. That's when I got my fabulous new idea. If I could find something already knitted and waiting, I could eliminate the not-so-fun part. So, I made a quick trip to the Goodwill store. What I wanted was pretty specific, so I wasn't sure I'd find it on the first outing. I got lucky! I found a beautiful 100% wool sweater, plain as all get out (good thing). 100% wool is fairly common at Goodwill, mostly I think because people buy those sweaters and then realize they can't be machine washed and it's expensive to have them dry-cleaned. Of course, some of the sweaters at the Goodwill HAVE been machine washed (unfortunately), and they're shrunken and fulled as proof. This particular sweater had not been fulled. It has a full length zipper down the front which would have buckled if the sweater had been fulled. It's still perfect. 

And the colour!!! SO perfect! 

Of course, there's always a fly in every jar of ointment, right? See those sleeves? Does any human own arms that long? I think not. Maybe it was a fashion statement to have turned back cuffs, but for this project, the sweater fits me well, and I don't want another sweater with clumsy cuffs. The solution? Well, it's not for the faint of heart, but I've done it before. I removed the sleeves from the body of the sweater, and took out 3-1/4 inches in length from each sleeve, and then re-set them into the armhole openings. Again, this was only possible because the sweater was well-constructed. The seams were not overcast, and came apart quite easily. Replacing the sleeves allowed me to remove a little of the shoulder cap as well, which was poofing in a sort of out-dated way, and you know Grandma Coco is all about being fashionable. :) From the excess sleeve cap that I removed, I was able to unravel a good-sized ball of yarn which will probably come in handy somewhere in the project. Bonus!

Unlike the baby blanket, this project is going to start out with a moniker. The Smiley Sweater. The name will explain itself fairly soon, but for now, I just had to settle on a colour palette. This is what I came up with.

New beginnings are so exciting! There's so much promise and I haven't messed anything up yet. 

I am a dope

And here is the proof.

After knitting 3 (THREE) joining strips, I flipped the work over only to find that the back of the joining strips looks really nice. I mean REALLY nice. That's when it hit me. I like the back side best, don't you?

The original strip is on the left. The upside-down strip is on the right. No contest, right?  (Ignore the faint turquoise line on each side of the joining strip. That's just my lifeline that I'm leaving in place for the moment.)

In my defense, there are a lot of variations possible in this process. If you slip the stitches that need slipping in a purl-wise fashion, the result will be different from what you get if you slip them knit-wise. If you join with a slip one, knit one, pass slipped stitch over manoeuver, it will look different from joining by purling 2 stitches through the back loop (from the back). There's a lot of trial and error and a lot of just doing it the way you like best. There's no absolutely right way to do any of this.

For those who are still wondering about it, this insertion is a little like adding an edging to a knit shawl. There is no grafting involved, nor is there any sewing. I don't have anything against grafting or sewing, but I find this process very intuitive and pleasant and versatile.

Once you figure out which side you're on.

Joining the squares

I had done some rough calculations based on a bit of swatching. I had a 'sorta' plan. However, I really wouldn't know if the plan would work until I actually did it. I like that kind of spontaneity, and I like it best when it all works out.

You'll remember that each block is worked in the round. It's a squared circle. That means that the stitches at the edge of each square are live. My plan is to pick up the live stitches and join them with a strip of knitting in between. Specifically, I thought a band of garter stitch would make for an interesting textural detail.

First I tried a strip of 12 stitches, but it was too wide, I think. This strip is 6 stitches wide, and, just like Baby Bear, I think it's just about right. I started the strip provisionally, and I left the ending stitches on a length of waste yarn. That gives me live stitches on each end for joining the rows together.

I think it may just work. :)

Fasten your seat belt

Lots to show today. Hold on! It's going to be a bumpy ride!

#10 is a raccoon

#11 is a blue elephant

#12 is a fishy

and a re-do on the chickie/ducky because, in the end, it was the only one done with a felt appliqué. I like the embroidered wing much better anyway.

So, here they all are. Twelve 8-inch squares all laid out ready for assembly.

I am so excited to start putting them all together. 

I sure hope they go together as well as I think they ought to.

A butterfly

For Kate's mother, who thought babies and butterflies just go together. I think I have to agree.

This makes 9...only 3 more to go, and I can start putting them together.

A bear, of course

Some things just stay with you, I guess. I knew I wanted a bear for the baby quilt. When I starting sketching, this is the bear who showed up. He's very Yogi Bear and BooBoo, don't you think?  For better or for worse, we are the sum of our experiences.

And a lamb

Square #7, I think. A very pink lamb kickin' up his heels.

Cassie says we need a cat

You can't see it in the photo, but the copper variegated wool has a strand of glitter that is really cool. The wool is intended for socks. It's a superwash wool with a little nylon. Loops & Threads Pizzazz. I don't think I'd like socks made from it, because it's a little scratchy, but it's very nice for embroidery.

This is the 6th square for the baby blanket. Only 6 left to go. And I have 6 more sketches made. That means each of the 12 squares will have a different design. Since I'm learning as I go, and the piece is evolving because of that, this square uses a new (for me) stitch.... a chain stitch. It distorts the knitted ground less than the satin stitch. A nice addition to my repertoire.

What's buzzin' in your world?

Square #5 is a bee, and Cassie quite likes it.

Or, at least, she finds it a good place to nap.

A reluctant mouse

Square #4 of the baby blanket features a little mouse. The first time I stitched him, he was a little ... lumpy? The fabric was pretty stiff. :(

Stitching him in the worsted weight Cascade 220 Superwash didn't work so well. I really needed a lighter weight yarn. I split the 4 plies and tried stitching with just 2.

Much better.

Slurpy Dog

Square #3.

Inspired by Duke. He may be long gone, but he still pops up from time to time. Never to be forgotten.

More of the same

I can't get enough of that dusky pink/coral and green combination. Also, if you look closely, you'll see the 2nd square for the baby blanket is finished.

A chick. I'm lovin' how the squared circle is making frames on each square. Uhhh....now that I see it on the monitor, I think it may need just one more leaf...