Now that the presents are opened...

Both of my parents have birthdays the same week as Christmas, so December tends to be a busy month. I always get each of them an individual birthday present, and often a joint Christmas present for both of them. Now I can finally show the things I've made recently.

First, my dad's birthday present:

Yeah, another selfie, but again it was the best way to photograph the hat. I used this pattern, which was my first project with cables. I'm really quite proud of how it came out. It's pretty big on me, obviously, but that's because I made the men's size. It fits my dad just right.

For my mom's birthday present, I made the Jeweled Waterfall pendant in her favorite colors, purple and pink.

The threads are Lizbeth size 40 in colors 177 Elderberry Jam and 619 Baby Pink. The pink beads are from a necklace I bought at a yard sale a couple of years ago and dismantled; the color turned out to be a perfect match for the pink thread. There are also purple delica seed beads that go well with the purple thread, some round silver seed beads, and of course the purple teardrop. And then it turned out I also had some pink ribbon in my stash that was just the right shade as well. Actually, every single component of this necklace came from my stash. Never let it be said that I don't use what I have (even though I do keep buying more).

Finally, although I did get them a larger Christmas present as well, I decided to tat something using one of the brass rings left over from the creamer bag project.

This is Jane Eborall's "Snowflake 1 on Ring", although I know Jane would be the first to say it's a star, not a snowflake. Well, you know, a rose by any other name and all that. (And Jane does come from the same town as the guy who wrote that, too. And I worked last night and haven't been to bed yet today, so I am rambling.) Anyway, whatever you call it, it's a lovely pattern, and very quick and easy to work. For a new tatter, it would make an excellent first project with beads. I used delicas in gold and white, and I simply ran the hanging thread through the bead at the very top. The thread is DMC size 20 in white. I really like the elegant simplicity of the white and gold.

I was going to tat my sister something, too, but I ran out of time so I bought her some New Mexican food instead-- a couple of jars of red and green chile and a box of biscochitos (New Mexican sugar cookies flavored with cinnamon and anise). She lived here for several years, too. Once you've lived in NM, no matter where else you go, the chile addiction never quite goes away, and you can't get New Mexican style chile-- especially green-- anywhere else. I'll do the tatting project for her birthday instead.

Having successfully completed one knitting project with cables, I have now embarked on a cable and rib sweater for myself. I've made a pretty decent start on the back of it, but I'm too tired to photograph it just now. It's looking good, though, and I'll show it to you in the next post.

Creamer Bag Revised

My coffee creamer friend didn't work Sunday night, which gave me time to make some minor adjustments to the bag. I felt that the solution I came up with on Sunday, while functional, wasn't quite as elegant as I had been hoping for. What it boiled down to was that once I had learned that the pointed flap coming over the front wasn't going to work as a locking mechanism, any other mechanism I came up with wasn't going to look right with that point.

So I unraveled that whole section and bound it off straight. There's still a flap that comes up from the back of the bag over the top, but it now stops flush with the top of the front. I added a few more brass rings all around the opening and adjusted the length of the chain.

That's a bit better, I think. It's easier to see the difference in real life where you can view it from all angles. I kind of like how you can see exactly what's in there, but you can't get to it without the key. There's something in me that enjoys taunting would-be thieves.

Finally, since anything in the fridge at work is supposed to have some sort of identification of the owner (not that this stops people from taking things, obviously), I added a set of tatted initials.

The thread is Lizbeth 622 Medium Pink, size 40. The patterns for the letters are from The Tatter's Paradise by Gillian Buchanan.

If you look at the scan of the letters alone, and look at the pattern, you can see from the thread ends (left long for sewing on the bag) that I started the S in a different place than the pattern calls for. By starting in the middle instead of at one end, I was able to avoid split rings and cutting and tying, and make the whole thing in one go using just a ball and shuttle. The trick is, when I got to the chain opposite the ring that I started with, I put a piece of scrap thread across the core thread to make a downward-facing joining picot. That one little trick allowed me to simply ring-and-chain my way around the whole letter without stopping. The V, of course, was perfectly straightforward.

I gave the bag to my co-worker last night, and she gave me a huge hug.

Coffee Creamer Security

Most people who work nights develop a very special relationship with caffeine. This is particularly true of one of my co-workers who prefers her coffee with a flavored creamer. She brings in her bottle of creamer and stores it in the fridge at work-- and when she comes back the next night, she invariably finds that the people on day shift have used up half her bottle. This is despite the fact the she writes "Please do not use" all over it. This is particularly irksome because people on day shift don't need caffeine in the same way that night workers do, and they have access to the on-site coffee shop which is not open at night. The people who use it never bring in their own creamer, either. My friend is frequently quite enraged about the whole thing.

I decided there had to be a way to make a lockable bag to put the creamer in. It had to have a flat bottom so the bottle could stand up in the fridge. So I knitted two identical squares, stacked them on top of each other, rotated so that the grains of the two pieces ran at 90 degree angles to each other, then sandwiched a piece of felt in between them, and finally whip-stitched around the edges, going through all three layers. Sadly, I forgot to take pictures of this in progress, but it made a stable, non-stretchy, flat bottom for the bag. Then I picked up the whip-stitches along each side and knitted four sides for the bag.

The bottom pieces are in garter stitch. The front and back sides are in this eyelet pattern, because I wanted to try something new. The other two sides are in plain stockinette to make it go faster. The back is longer than the other sides so that it folds over the top. Finally, I blocked it...

...sewed up the sides to make a bag...

...and added two brass rings to which a padlock can be attached.

Now there's just one problem, which is that it doesn't actually work. A thief can simply do this:

But I still think my friend will get a kick out of it, and it does reinforce the message that she really doesn't want people taking her creamer. There is a way I can easily cinch up the sides to make it really secure, but that would require three separate locks, which does seem a bit excessive for coffee creamer. I really doubt my friend wants to unlock three locks just to get a cup of coffee. But if the problem continues and she wants me to do it, I will; it would be easy enough.

What it really needs is a zipper all around the opening, with the zipper being locked like a suitcase. However, the idea of me successfully installing a zipper is laughable, so this is what I've got.

The yarn is a cotton-acrylic blend that can just be tossed in the wash if creamer gets spilled on it. And now I have a whole packet of little brass rings to attach tatting to!

UPDATE: Problem solved, thanks to the very first comment I received! "Chain," says Caseymini. "Why, I've got chain in my stash!" says I. Well, duh, when you want to secure something, you chain it up, right? So a few more brass rings and a short length of chain later...

 
...and I give you the Fort Knox of coffee creamer.

I simply sewed brass rings to each top corner of the bag, and the front corners of the flap, and ran a length of chain through them. At one end, the chain is attached to the brass ring by a split ring jewelry finding. I put another split ring at the other end of the chain but left that end free to be pulled in and out; the padlock goes through this split ring and the brass ring a the back corner of the bag. The key was to keep the chain very short so the mouth of the bag get pulled up smaller than the bottle.

Thank you, Caseymini!

3/4 Done

The knitting is about 3/4 done-- actually a bit more, because I've done a little more work since taking this picture. Then a bit of blocking and finishing, and you'll be able to see where I'm going with this. And the next project will be tatting, I promise.

Just Checking In

Just a quickie post to let you know that I am actually working on stuff.

More on what it is and what it's for after I finish it. I'm still hoping it will work the way I'm planning for it to...

And I have actually completed a couple of other things that I can't post yet, including some tatting.

Hat Finished-- With Tatting!

There's nothing classier than taking a picture of yourself in the mirror and posting it online, right? It was the best way I could come up with to show off the hat, though; putting it over a kitchen canister just wasn't going to work.

The pattern is the Barrymore Slouch Hat by Lisa Shroyer. The yarn is Mirasol Sulka in colors 211 Black Pepper and 242 Blackberry, and it feels fabulous!

One thing I really like about the pattern is it has hidden internal ear flaps. These are a bit challenging for a beginner to make, but who hasn't wished for an extra layer over the ears on a windy day? I did deviate from the pattern this time around by not making the button band, but that was only because I didn't have enough of the black yarn left.

And of course, instead of a decorative button, I made a tatted flower.

It looks a little bit messy here because I didn't trim the stamens till after I had it sewn onto the hat. The pattern is Jane Eborall's Lotus on a Button. This was a fun pattern to make, but I'd say definitely for experienced tatters. The tatting itself is easy, just rings and chains, but the way it joins to the button is kind of tricky.

I made the flower using a silk thread from the local yarn store. This thread is intended for needlepoint, and is in fact not that nice for tatting. It's more like a raw silk, not the nice shiny smooth stuff; it's a very loosely twisted, slightly fuzzy 2-ply, similar to a perle cotton. But of course I could see all that before I bought it, and actually I wanted that slightly looser, coarser look for this particular piece, to go better with the yarn. The brand is called Vineyard Silk; the colors are C-101 Chalk Violet (inner petals), C-001 Petal (outer petals), T-811 Landscape (leaves), and S-535 Tinsel (stamens).

The button I used was a purply-gray mother-of-pearl button that happens to go nicely with the colors of the hat and the flower; I used it because it was what I had in my stash that was the right size and shape for the pattern, but really a plastic button would have done just as well since you can't see it by the time all the tatting is attached.

Because the thread is so coarse, ordinary seed beads as per the pattern didn't work. Instead, I used 3mm beads pre-strung on the thread and 2mm beads on the joining picots. Since I had to use larger beads, I also used fewer of them than the pattern called for.

Here it is up close on the hat. I love the way it turned out!

Much to Squijum's delight, I recently invested in a swift and ball winder. I haven't had a chance to try the ball winder yet, but I used the swift to wind the skeins of silk thread onto floss bobbins. It is way easier than looping the thread over the back of a chair, once you get the cat out of the room! Yes, I do have the audacity to think this is a tool for me instead of a toy for His Lordship. I don't know where such thoughts come from.

And I don't need to hear about the dust on my bookshelves, or my unmade bed, thank you.

Besides, this is what His Lordship does when I try to make the bed.

Appropriate Use of Time

So, Christmas is coming in just a few weeks. I have things I need to tat for presents. I have things I need to knit for presents. I also need to finish the Kirsten butterfly (even though there's no deadline on that one). So what do I do? I start a hat for myself.

A few weeks ago, I made this hat for a friend. I said at the time that I enjoyed the pattern so much I wanted to make another for myself. I guess I just couldn't wait.

I decided to splurge on the yarn this time, too. It's a merino/ alpaca/ silk blend, and is quite possibly the softest thing I've ever felt in my life.

You may notice I'm using double point needles here. I prefer a circular needle for knitting in the round; I find it far more efficient and easier to control my tension. I generally don't switch to double points until I've decreased to the point where I have no choice. (Yes, I know about the magic loop trick, and I've watched videos, but it frankly boggles my mind.) So anyway, I had started this hat on a circular needle like I always do. Then the other day, my sweet, adorable little boy...

...pulled it out of my knitting bag and was playing with it. I was in a hurry to get to work and didn't look too closely; at the time I thought all he had managed to do was pull a little yarn off the ball. I just stuffed it back in the bag and left.

When I got home from work this morning and got it out to work on, I found that he had actually been far more interested in the needle.

Strong jaws he's got. Hence the double points even though I haven't started decreasing yet.

Apologies to all my tatting friends who don't knit; I know your eyes must be glazing over. I promise a tatting post soon. Although I can't post everything I tat right now either, since I will also soon be using my time more appropriately to make presents.