Designs by KN blog

From one extreme to another. On Sunday we were at the Colorado Rockies game at Coors Field, sitting in the sun in the upper right-field deck all afternoon, with the temperature climbing. We sweltered and sweated and drank copious amounts of water because, besides sunscreen, I was covered from head to toe in a long-sleeve shirt, long pants, socks, hat, and sunglasses for sun protection.  Now the pendulum is swinging outside, as a cold front is passing through with darkening gray skies promising some much-needed rain. Cooler temps will be welcome but it is a definite swing downward this first week of the fall season.

No matter whether it’s hot or cold outside, I’ve been swinging my knitting needles and crochet hooks left and right, up and down, stitching like crazy over the past few days.  Number one accomplishment was to finish the Basketweave afghan from the Berroco book “Comfort Knitting and Crochet: Afghans” designed by Margery Winter:

Jasmine helped by testing it out shortly after it was gently blocked out to a size of approximately 46″ x 54″.  I used 5 skeins of the bargain yarn discovered at Goodwill by my mom (Yarns Brunswick “Germantown” 100% virgin wool [discontinued]) so even though I stopped knitting at a size of approximately 40″ x 45″ the thing really grew after being prewashed.  I was glad of it, as it was time to move on to a new project after working on this one off-and-on for about a week.

It will certainly be appreciated as a warm lapghan or car blanket when the temperatures swing even lower this winter.

Swinging from a relatively time-consuming knit project to a quick & easy crochet project was a treat.  I just completed this simple scarf and hat set for the 2012 Crochet & Knit-a-Thon Snug Hugs for Kids charity drive:

Simple Crocheted Scarf

Crochet Hat

On our way to Sunday’s Rockies game, I grabbed some Bernat “DenimStyle” from stash and started crocheting in the car. I love easy-rhythm projects to work on when traveling and this one was perfect.

Swinging yet again from working on warm winter woolies to a lacy openwork project, I discovered 7 balls of Cleckheaton “Tencel Wool” [discontinued] in stash.  I thought it would work perfectly for my recent design Diaphanous Shawl from Issue 252 of the Classic Elite Yarns Web-letter.  It’s a project that’s speeding along:

Is that thunder?  Wow, we haven’t heard that in quite awhile. Guess I’d better make a quick swing through the house to make sure the windows are closed.  Looks like the new roof is about to be tested by a rainstorm!

Until next time, keep in touch on the Designs by KN Facebook page or on Ravelry.  “See” you there!

In college in the ’70s the phrase “basketweaving classes” was often heard, usually accompanied by snickers, sneers and laughter.  Interest in knitting and crocheting seemed to share a similar perception at the time (how things have changed!)  Never mind that handcrafts are sometimes viewed in the same manner as “basketweaving classes” … those of us who enjoy creating with our hands know the benefits, so we merrily stitch on.

Basketweave patterns seem to be perennially popular in both knit and crochet versions. My recent design (#16 Basketweave Pocket Scarf) appeared in the book “60 More Quick Knits” and was well received:

Photos by Jack Deutsch, copyright Sixth & Spring Books/Soho Publishing

I’ve made a couple more since then:

On the charity front, one of my favorite projects to work is the basketweave-patterned  Mariners Scarf for Christmas-at-Sea. There are free patterns available for both knit and crochet versions.  Here are a few crocheted scarves donated to this worthy cause:

There’s just something about the easily memorized rhythm of a basketweave piece. Block by block, row by row, the item grows into a textural fabric that provides visual interest as well as practical, warmth-trapping comfort.

If you’ve seen my last few posts you know that I have completed some of the designs from the Berroco book “Comfort Knitting & Crochet: Afghans.”  In between designing my own creations and writing up patterns, I enjoy downtime and not having to think too much by working on something else.  In this case, I seem to be drawn to the interesting but do-able designs in this book:

Spiral (designed by Norah Gaughan)

Meditate (designed by Donna Yacino)

Swirl (designed by Norah Gaughan)

My mom stopped into a Goodwill store last week when they had just set out several barrels full of yarn at a discount price. She called me to describe it over the phone: 100% wool, 200+ yard skeins, various labels, in a variety of colors. I asked if she could pick up some for me, in a pretty blue.  At a family gathering this past weekend Mom handed me the bag of yarn she ended up with:  14 skeins of 100% virgin wool Yarns Brunswick “Germantown.”  (On a humorous side note:  what goes around comes around.  Thirty years ago I worked in a needlework shop, long before the knitting yarn craze of today.  One of the limited ranges of yarn the shop carried was Yarns Brunswick.  I laughed when I saw the bag of bargain yarn and wondered if it was also thirty years old!)

A few days ago, as I was leafing through the Berroco afghan book again, my eye landed on the page for Basketweave, designed by Margery Winter.  With 14 skeins of blue wool on hand, I thought it might work well in this easy yet textural design, so I started knitting.  It’s one of those pick-it-up/put-it-down as-you-have-time projects that is also a good travel project:  I actually worked on it while waiting with DH at a doctor’s appointment this week:

We’ll see how far I get. I think there will be plenty of extra yarn left to make hats and scarves for charity as well.

If you, like me,  enjoy knitting, crocheting and “basketweaving,” you might like to give one of these patterns a try!

With a new coat of paint and a new roof (see previous post), our house is now “snug as a bug in a rug,” as the saying goes.  DH just announced “The weather report this morning said it’s going to be a brutally harsh winter.”  Oh goodie.

This is the time of year to work on warm things for braving the elements when the weather turns cold.  If you have been following my blog for any length of time, you know that after umpteen years of knitting and crocheting I have acquired a sizable stash which I like to  turn around into useful items to donate to charitable causes:

For the past several years, friends and coworkers have contributed warm hats and other items to the Crochet & Knit-a-Thon Snug Hugs for Kids annual charity clothing drive.  This event takes place in Illinois to benefit Chicago-area children, and yet knitters and crocheters from around the country can participate.  In the past, I have collected the knit and crochet items, tagged them with the Snug Hugs for Kids tags provided, packed and shipped them off in November each year.

The shipments are always gratefully received and acknowledged with gracious thank-you notes.

During the noisy pounding and banging of the roofers working overhead this week, I decided to work on some “calming” projects. Yesterday’s project was to work my way through a stash of leftover sock yarn, to make hats to donate to Snug Hugs for Kids.  Using my eternally-popular Crochet Hat pattern as a template, a size H hook and an assortment of sock yarn, I worked to 72 sts for each hat.  Finished hat sizes varied depending on the thickness of the variety of sock yarns used.  By dinnertime, the roofers were done with their task and I was done with this stack of hats:

There are all kinds of yarn in these:  Pagewood Farm “Yukon”, Plymouth Yarn “Happy Feet”, Cascade Yarns “Sassy Stripes”, Brown Sheep “Wildfoote”, Red Heart “Heart & Sole”, as well as “Opal” and “Special Blauband”:

It was great fun to create these for such a worthy cause. They will be added to other hats made throughout the year which I will tag and ship off for this year’s CKAT collection:

I encourage you to check out the Crochet & Knit-a-Thon Snug Hugs for Kids project, to see if you’d like to provide a “snug hug” for a child this winter.

… it’s knitting and crocheting weather today!  Rain — lovely, gentle, precious rain — arrived in our area overnight. While some parts of the country receive too much, parched Colorado is welcoming the drink of water after this long, hot, fire-scorched summer.

It’s knitting & crocheting weather today, but not roofing weather. Our local area was hit hard by a hailstorm on June 6 and since then, one-by-one, hail-damaged roofs have been replaced in our neighborhood. We finally got ours yesterday. Thanks to the crew for spending almost 12 hours working as fast as they could to get the old wood shakes pulled off and new impact-resistant shingles put on before the rain arrived.

Since we had been looking forward to a new roof for a long time it was just fine with me to spend the day indoors knitting and baking, while being serenaded overhead with the “pound, pound, pound, bang, bang, bang” of roofers at work. The cats were a bit confused: one hid in the basement all day, one fell asleep behind a curtain in the living room, one sat in my lap and the fourth is deaf so didn’t care how much ruckus was going on!

After baking a fresh batch of lemon-blueberry muffins, my easy-knitting, calming project for the day was a pair of My Grandmother’s Slippers. I have a plastic shoebox full of leftover sock yarn, so I thought to combine several strands together to equal a DK or worsted weight which would work for a new pair of slippers.  Success!  With three strands of compatible cotton sock yarn (Fortissima Cotton Colori in black & white and Plymouth Sockotta in a multi blue/green/brown/white mix) I completed this pair in just a few hours.  After adding the button trim and trying them on, I decided to call them my Eyeball Slippers. I guess you can see why:

As I posted on the Designs by KN Facebook page, these are the “classic” slippers that everyone remembers. For a long time I resisted writing a pattern for how my grandmother made them (because it seems everyone’s grandma/aunt/mother made them way back when) but had so many requests eventually I did. It became “My Grandmother’s Slippers,” one of the most popular patterns in the DBKN line.

In the former post Swirling I recorded progress on the Swirl afghan, designed by Norah Gaughan for the Berroco book “Comfort Knitting & Crochet: Afghans.”  In that post you can read my comments about how each motif progressed. Even though at first I thought it was crazy that anyone would make this afghan, surprise! … I ended up completing a version of it, ending with a total of 19 motifs for a finished size of approximately 38″ diameter.  This was definitely a skill-building “puzzle” project but a great stash buster.  It’s a nice size for a lap throw or chair-back cover, cat cuddler or even a baby or toddler’s playtime blanket:

As a side note, I posted a photo of the completed project in the  Ravelry group for this book and was delighted to receive a nice comment from Norah Gaughan herself.  That made the effort to figure out how to knit this design all the more worthwhile.  After completing both of Norah’s designs (Spiral and Swirl) I am even more in awe of her designing genius!

Time to get started enjoying this gray, rainy day with a colorful new project, either knit or crochet. I’m thinking it will be something for a charitable cause and something to do with stash busting the rest of those sock-yarn scraps!

C.O.O.S.

September has rolled around again, the leaves are beginning to change, the nighttime temps are starting to drop lower, and it’s time to start thinking about fall activities (knitting & crocheting!) and fall eats (apples!)  It’s also time to run a reprise of a former post, the famous one about my grand fall … in the Grand Tetons:

“This might be an opportune time to share one of my own travel adventures, which often end up rather disastrously, adding to a long list of humorous family stories told over and over again. This one took place in 2002:

MY GRAND FALL IN THE GRAND TETONS

Ah, fall.  The season of splendor, color, and change in the crisp, clean air.  The Grand Tetons must be a beautiful place in the fall — a riot of color and contrast, with sharp, jagged mountain peaks towering majestically above amber-colored valleys below.

At least, that’s how I imagine it.  I’ve never actually seen fall in the Grand Tetons, but it must be spectacular.  No, the fall to which I refer was a different kind, but it was spectacular, too….

For years, my husband and I had wanted to visit Grand Teton National Park, so when an opportunity finally came we headed north to Wyoming from Colorado for a vacation.  We looked forward to discovering new adventures in places we had never traveled before and were not disappointed.  Staying at the Grand Teton National Park facilities was comfortable and relaxing.  We enjoyed fine dining experiences in the Mural Room at Jackson Lake Lodge, followed by evening strolls outside on the observation deck.

Moose grazed peacefully in the wetlands below.  Since we had never seen them in the wild before, they captivated us.  On one special evening a mother and calf appeared at dusk to feed beneath our vantage point.  The peace and serenity of those evenings held no foreboding of events to come.

On the final day of vacation, we decided to take in one last memory of the area by hiking up to Hidden Falls above Jenny Lake.  It was a perfect day, so we ate a quick lunch at the trailhead store and set off.  We hiked along the lakeshore at a steady clip while absorbing the scenic wonders all around.

A group of hikers was strolling at a more leisurely pace in front of us, so we passed them and continued on our way.  I was so engrossed in the sights and sounds of nature that I didn’t notice the rock in my path.  Suddenly, I flew through the air and performed a stunning full-layout body slam onto the ground.  My camera followed suit, and I heard the sickening sound of something cracking.  Fortunately, it was only the camera that was broken and not my bones.   When my husband heard a strange muffled groan behind him, he turned around to see me lying face down on the trail where just a moment before I had been walking upright.  When I recovered enough to sit up, we surveyed the damage.  The back of my hand was scraped and bleeding, my chin was cut, my shirt was torn,  I was covered in dirt from head-to-toe, and I felt faint.  Just at that moment, the four hikers we passed caught up with us.  Angels that they were, they stopped to administer first-aid.  After the emergency clean-up, we considered what to do next.  Should we retrace our steps back the way we came or go on ahead to the boat dock?

Jenny Lake cruise boats arrived periodically to drop off sightseers and pick up hikers for a trip back across the lake to the starting point.  We opted for the second choice.  The sooner I got back to civilization for medicinal supplies, the better.  When a boat finally arrived, we were lucky to get the last two places on board.  As I collapsed into my seat, I noticed the passengers beside me, dressed in sparkling clean resort clothes, out for a pleasant boat cruise.  I wanted to crawl below deck and hide.  They were spotless, but I felt like Charlie Brown’s friend Pigpen wallowing in a cloud of dust, wearing a ragged shirt and holding a wet cloth over my scraped hand.  On the first day of our stay  in the Grand Tetons, my husband had suggested taking a boat cruise.  Well,  we took one, but not in the way we planned.   It was a relief to get back to our room, where hot water, antibiotic ointment, and bandaids were the most welcome sights of all.

That ended our stay in the Grand Tetons.  After saying farewell to one last moose who strolled through the parking lot as we were leaving, we drove straight home.  Enduring a ten-hour drive in a cramped car, with my aching body complaining all the way, was an experience I do not wish to repeat.  Home never looked so good.

Some day we plan return to the Grand Tetons to witness the fall season there.  But next time, I hope to enjoy it without taking a grand fall!

Postscript:  Alas, it was not to be. In 2010 we visited the Grand Tetons again, enjoying several days of natural beauty and non-injury.  That is, until the very last minute of the last morning. As we were packing the car to leave, I tripped and did a face-plant on a stone walkway. Although the scrapes and injuries seemed pretty bad at first, fortunately there was no lasting damage. This is how I spent much of that trip home:

According to my family, I am not allowed to visit the state of Wyoming again!”

Coming soon: a rather unique FO completed this week, and future designs from DBKN!

Swirling water …

Swirling clouds …

Swirling flowers …

and swirling knitting designs.  This is my current work-in-progress, Swirl, designed by the amazing Norah Gaughan for the Berroco book “Comfort Knitting & Crochet: Afghans“:

I’ve already accomplished two other pieces from this interesting afghan collection. The first, Spiral (a real challenge!), was also designed by Norah Gaughan:

The second is Meditate (much easier!), designed by Donna Yacino:

And now I’m attempting the challenge of Swirl, which is perfect for odd balls of yarn in stash.  Here are my notes on the experience so far, as recorded on my Ravelry project page: