The placemats are finished and residing in their new home. Alas, I have no pictures to show for my work as I sent them along without photographing them. Hopefully, a picture or two will be taken while under a plate or cup and I will be able to show them. They were not perfect by any stretch, the binding was much better, in some respects, as I neared completion of the project. Now to begin work for this Christmas.

10 yards nylon netting by cutting it in to 30 strips 2 inches wide with the help of kitties? If you are unsure of what the fabric looks like picture the white tulle that a bride has as a part of her veil or the pink tutu of a ballerina, only a bit more coarse. Tulle as I think of it is fine, soft-ish and elegant. Netting is rougher, the holes in the fabric are larger. I’ve seen crocheted scrubbies made from nylon netting, usually availabe for purchase at craft shows but I’m one of those people. You know the type, the craft vendors dread me, but I keep the thoughts to myself. I see a crafted item and think to myself, I can make that, I can make that for less than the selling price. I used to say it to myself more often, but time had taught me that some things I do not wish to invest time in and purchasing it is better for me. The scrubbies were over priced in my opinion. That is until I attempted to cut my 2 inch strips. I searched online and found several patterns and a few videos on how to make the simple round scribbies. I’ve meant to learn to crochet for a while now and this seemed like the project. After all, it’s going to scrub dishes until it wears out and then it will be no more, so if it’s not very pretty, so what.

The patterns suggested approximately 10 yards for each part, then crochet two parts together and commence scrubbing. I decided to purchase 10 yards then cut it into 2 inch strips. I figured that I could fold it in a fan style or some such and then cut through several layers at a time, making short work of it. After attempting to cut strips and basically wasting 10 yards over a 6 inch wide section, a few choice words were uttered and something was mentioned about just paying for someone else to deal with it. I sent the boys outside and tried again. Using a freshly swept floor and two kitties, I managed to cut enough to make 3 complete scrubbies.

I loaded a video that corresponded to a written pattern and went to town. They were addictive little suckers. It was easy and quick to crochet these little gems. I decided to tackle the rest of the fabric, in my estimation I had about 40 inches by 10 yards or 20 strips left to cut. I arrived at the place mentally where it wasn’t important if the strips were exactly 2 inches wide. I managed to cut the rest of the fabric and put the short pieces in a bag of leftovers to be used in rhe event I need more. I’ve cut enough strips from my 10 yards to make the craft show prices trick me into thinking I’ve made out like a bandit.

I did some math on 1 yard of netting 60 inches wide cut in a 2 in spiral vs. 10 yards 60 inches wide cut in 2 inch strips. One yard will yield 29.333… yards 2 inches wide in one strip while 10 yards will yield 300 yards 2 inches wide in 30 strips 10 yards each. I lose .666667 per yard or 6.7 yards over 300, which won’t make a whole scrubbie by itself. I will be wrangling 1 yard pieces from now on, it preserves my sanity, mostly.

The diapers are officially finished. Here and some of them in his drawer and some hanging on the line in the basement. Hopefully we’ll be able to hang them outside this summer. I still have bunches of fabric left, but I think I will save that in case we wear through any of them. I’ve had to do a quick repair or two, quality control was more interested in napping on the fabric than in inspecting the workmanship.

I had a busy week on the crafting home-front. I finished up cloth diapers for Boo. He now has 25 homemade ones and 6 purchased ones. I’m using the purchased ones for overnight as they seem a bit more absorbent. I may make more, I need to get the too-small diapers out of rotation and have two or three days at home to evaluate the quantity. I have plenty of fabric to make conservatively 15-20 more. I can’t see needing anywhere near that many. I’d like to save the fabric to make smaller or larger sizes in the event we need other sizes. The ones I made have hook and loop closures so that it grows with Boo, hopefully to as big as he needs.

I won a contest from The Counting Sheep Farm. I get a surprise box along with some superwash fiber I ordered. I’ve been participating in a stash down contest. Please don’t ask why I am buying more fiber while I am stashing down, I just am. I wanted some sock yarn and I don’t want to spin wool that I have to hand wash, so I saw she had some superwash on sale. The only contest is to challenge ourselves to knit/spin from the stash. We earn points that we can redeem in the store for a percentage of one item or several depending on the number of points we redeem. I added points this week by wrestling with my works in progress. Along the way Rachel, of Counting Sheep, offers mini-contests where we can earn coolie prizes. Stay tuned for pictures of what’s in my goodie box. To participate in the stash down for points and win any contests you must be a member of Ravelry and join the group for Counting Sheep Farm.

I finished a dishcloth that had been on the needles because I ran out of yarn. I finally found the yarn and reunited it with the dishcloth. I’ve made a bunch of these garterlac dishcloths. Feel free to search the archives for more. It’s a neat looking dishcloth that let’s one practice enterlac easily without fear of messing up “good” yarn.

I also finished my first handspun project, a hedgehog. I spin the brown belly and creamy paws. There is actually one strand of homespun brown knit with one strand of fun fur, but it’s difficult to see in the pictures. There are no eyes or nose because Boo is too small to have those pieces on his toys. He seems to like to grab at the fun fur, much the same as he grabs at the furbabies in the house. At least with the hedgehog he’s not hurting anyone.

by Padgett Powell
Here is where I usually link to a reading/discussion guide or two, I’m not really sure one needs a guide. The book, itself, is a guide to discussion.

a summary
A book of questions, sometimes the questions relate to those before and after sometimes not.

a review
I couldn’t read very much of the book at a time, it overwhelmed my brain to the point of pain. The the more I read, the less nonsensical the paragraphs seem so I am able to read more at a time. I have found that skipping forward and back to be the best way for me to enjoy the book. I wish there was an index so I could find exact questions again. If you have someone in your life you’d like to know better, grab a copy and have a go at it. I think I would rate this book for adults, some of the questions I wouldn’t want to explain to my 5 year old even though I don’ have a five year old. I may add this to my library if I happen upon a copy for a reasonable amount of money.

A few of my favorite questions, copyright of course belongs to the author, quoted here only to entice others to read it.

• Would a catastrophic global war be required to restore us to simple living? p17
• Have you any skills in the area of weaving or knitting? p35
• Do you miss Tab and do you fully understand its disappearance? p43
• Can you knit? p61
• Would it be reasonable to ask someone if he or she has a favorite musical note? p66
• Why is a banana yellow and not banana? p67

I started a list of movies I wanted to watch in August of 2007 and when I remember to find them at the local rental place, I watch them. The list was growing because the movie place doesn’t get all the movies that come out during the year. We started a Netflix trial subscription this week and my first movie arrived. Now my list is online and the movies are delivered to my door, two out at a time. We’ve tentatively split them one for me and one for husband. Wool 100% is the first movie I requested.

I saw something mentioned on a forum I frequent about Wool 100% and put it on the list. I knew next to nothing about it except it featured knitting. I’m glad it’s a Netflix movie, I’d feel horrible borrowing it for $3 at the local place. It was quite entertaining, but definitely out there. It’s a Japanese movie subtitled in English. The movie opens with children singing a song to two elderly sisters about a sheep eating an apple and the wool turning red as a result. These two elderly sisters collect things that others discard but rarely does anyone see them. They have been collecting for sometime. Their house is covered inside and out with the treasures they find. The treasures are gently wiped clean and drawings of the them are systematically cataloged special books.¹ One of the treasures they collect is a bunch of red yarn. The yarn leads a young girl to their house. When she finds the red yarn she spends a bit of time knitting the yarn into a garment of some sort, tries it on and screams, “Damn! I have to knit it all over again.” This one of the odd parts of the film, she seems to have supernatural powers at this point because her screams are deafening as well as haunting. Over the course of the movie she rips out her knitting and knits the sweater/dress/garmentagain many times.² The ladies call her “Knit Again” because she doesn’t say anything other than variations on having to knit the garment again. She won’t stop to knit, so they feed her, she won’t wash so they wipe down her legs, arms and face several times. While she knits the red yarn, the two sisters go on a walk down memory lane remembering their childhood and early adulthood. If you can put reality aside and watch a movie for the beautiful art work and creative story line, go for this one. If you need a bit of reality, steer clear.

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¹ which caused me to wonder why hebrew, japanese, chinese and alike are read right to left and we English speakers go left to right I wasn’t interested in an answer, just a question
² makes me wish I had counted how many times she ripped it out, I’ve been known to rip out what appears to be perfectly good knitting many times

I haven’t been focused on crafty things as much as I would like to lately, Boo (understandably) takes up more time than I seem to have in a day. With one week left in February, I’m not sure if I have finished much but I’ve had fun thinking about crafts.

After Christmas, I needed a quick break from long projects so I knitted a bunch of quick things:

• Spinning Wheel bag
• Lunch bag for Jason
• Two reusable mop covers (which desperately need to be tested)
• coolie ear warmer

I took lots of knitting with me out east when we visited my family for a week. I started knitting a bear for Boo before he was born and am stuck on the head. I keep ripping it out and trying again which slows the progress. I also brought my Christmas cross stitch project, an advent calendar. I purchased it as a kit a number of years ago, 2006 I believe, and work on it when I can. Now that Boo is here, I need to finish it. Next on the needles will be mittens and a hedgehog from my homespun yarn that I finished just before our trip. Already on the needles to finish: aforementioned bear and a few other plushie toys.

On the spinning front, I just ordered larger bobbins, more smaller bobbins and some attachments for the wheel so that I can ply longer sections at a time. My prototype ball winder is great as long as I keep the right amount of tension on the yarn. I attached another clamp so that I can keep one hand on the yarn at all times. Next up I need a swift, I think that may take care of some of the tension issues.

I need to finish Julie’s placemats, 11 more to go I think. I’ve started thinking about my Christmas 2010 project, I’ve got an idea, but it needs some work.

Boo’s borrowed cloth diapers are getting small, so I’ve been cutting out new ones like crazy. Seven cut, two more sewn but needed modifications and zero in currently circulation.

by Edwin A Abbott
reading guide 1
reading guide 2
Flatland text from Project Gutenberg
Annotated Version of Flatland
Wiki background

a review/summary

I first started listening to this on Craftlit and found my attention span waning. I decided to stop listening to this book for a few episodes then checked out a hardcopy from the library. I started with the text on Project Gutenberg, linked above, and wanted to hold it in my hand and flip chapters. I found that I enjoyed understood it better to read first then listen.

While I don’t fancy myself anything special when it comes to reading deeper into what an author means, this author made it quite easy to see his points. The author used satire to convey his thoughts on social classes as well as gender inequality using personified flat two-dimensional shapes. I feel as though I can’t say too much more without revealing what can be discovered while reading. I found myself pulling for the poor square after a while. Please use the links above to read more about the book or the book itself as it is in public domain.

I’ve had a busy weekend spinning, knitting, and cutting fabric for Boo’s diapers. The spinning is brown Shetland wool I bought in November with my spinning wheel. I’ve certainly improved my spinning since then. I made a 3ply yarn this weekend and I think the best bobbin was the last one I prepared and the worst was the middle. It appears as if I spun with my attention on something else during that second one. I had huge deviations in thickness over the bobbin. I have about 354 yards so far, with a bit more on the wheel still to ply. I’m going to n-ply or Navajo ply because I don’t have an even amount left, the middle bobbin ran out much quicker because I measured the bobbins by weight and some of the fiber was used up in thick areas rather then length. N-plying will allow me to ply each single against itself so I can’t run out. I think I’ll make mittens, scarf, maybe a hat of some sort.

I finished some this weekend: a reusable washable mop cover and a Calorimetry for keeping my ears warm. I followed a free pattern from a big box craft store sponsored by a big yarn maker for the mop cover or it’s online. I didn’t so much like the pattern and won’t make it again. I didn’t make pieces and sew it together, instead I picked up stitches and made the rest up as I went. The Calorimetry is from Knitty. The light brown thing is the bottom of a lunch bag for my Sweet-ums. It’s almost finished now, I’m working on the last few rows, then I have to make the draw string and handles.

Here are my first finished objects of 2010. I’ve been busy trying to finish knitting projects. My Cozy shawl from Knitty is finally finished after repeated ripping out and reknitting. The last time I ripped it out was the weekend Boo was born. To use up the scraps I knit a Tribble dishcloth. They look more neat with variegated yarn, but it used up the small ball I had left at the end.