Knitting Iris

A Day In The Yard Backpack Tote

A lazy, hot, summer afternoon.  A rare day alone at home with E, just the two of us.

A photo shoot of a bag.  E decides he's not going to let this interfere with our day, decides he's going to be a part of it, and then...   

...that little rascal runs off with the bag...

...takes it for a ride...

...and ditches it on the swing, moving on to the trampoline, leaving the bag for the photoshoot to continue. 

Actually, next there was a fair break for swinging, sliding, and jumping together.  So nice to have some time to ourselves.  When did our little boy grow up?

Back side and interior:

This is the Backpack Tote Pattern by Leisl of Disdressed, pattern available at Purl Patchwork (not on their site currently but apparently you can call them for it.)  This is an VERY well written and designed pattern with incredible attention to detail.  Leisl doesn't leave a single detail out, with plenty of sidenotes and suggestions to help along the way.  Every step is clearly described both in words and in illustrations.  I learned a lot by "constructing" this bag.   This is one STURDY bag.  Nearly every exterior piece is reinforced with both heavy sewn-in interfacing AND heavy canvas (I used one similar to the kind Carhartt workwear is made of, even in that same classic brown color, although you can't see it anywhere on the exterior of the bag.) 

The medium weight floral print is from a pair of thrifted curtains.  The solid brown is a linen/cotton blend.  The green lining is a thrifted linen tablecloth, and the striped cotton used for the interior pocket and the lining of the exterior pocket is thrifted vintage yardage.

Modifications:  The height of the exterior pocket is increased.  I skipped the interior, zippered pocket since I'd never use it but I'll use her instructions for one if I ever need to in the future. 

The one slightly (so tiny, really) unclear thing in the pattern, I felt, is that the rivets are described as just that, rivets.  Well, there are all kinds of rivets out there in the world for all different purposes.  I tried pop rivets from the hardware store but they didn't hold even when I tried using washers, and C has some other copper rivets in the shop that didn't work either.    Finally, it dawned on me that the rivets called for must be something like the kinds of rivets used in jeans?  I tried instead machine sewing through the tripled layers of the already sturdy straps and broke two needles.  For now, the straps are heavily sewn into place around the o-rings by hand until I get my hands on some rivets. 

I hadn't ordered the hardware kit, offered optionally alongside the pattern, mistakenly thinking I could find the magnetic closure, o-rings, and rivets locally. Ha!  Was I ever wrong.  I ended up ordering the o-rings and magnetic clasp online and of course ordered a other things too, you know, make the order "worthwhile."   I'd HIGHLY recommend ordering the hardware kit along with the pattern, and Purl, it turns out, will sell the hardware separately as well.  Live and learn.

All in all, a great project, worth the price of the pattern, and finally, a summer replacement for the heavy woolen bag I've been hauling around since winter.

Others in the Day in The Park Backpack Tote Flickr Group.

A Lotta Hat

First Lotta Hat, made maybe about a month ago from a cotton print and brown linen salvaged from a pair of overalls I sewed about 10-12 years ago that were always a little too baggy in some spots and too tight in others.  Alterations on this one were: cutting off one inch along the top edge of the brim and the bottom edge of the crown where the two meet, either on the pattern piece or on the actual piece before sewing together.  It's completely reversible if you sew the lining on with an invisible stitch.

I'm notorious (at least, with myself) for being hard on straw-type sunhats, sometime to the point where they become the perfect, lopsided, quirky shape, but other times to the point of destruction.  One time, when picking huckleberries in the woods, I set my hat down on an old stump and forgot it there.  Next day, when I went back for it, some small critter had eaten around the entire bottom edge.  This hat is perfect for me.  I can fold it up, put it in my bag, sit on it, soak it in a cold stream or lake on an unbearably hot day to keep my head cool, wear it while mowing the lawn on a sweaty hot day, wear it berry picking or at the beach, and in the end get it clean again by just throwing it in the wash leaving it crinkly and possibly even better than when newly made.

Lotta hat, take two:  I thought I'd try making this one according to the original pattern but, when comparing it with my first version, discovered that, the brim piece itself was almost as big as the first hat.  This version was cut the same as the first one, the only difference being a 3/8ths inch seam (rather than 1/2 inch) where the brim and crown meet, making it just a wee bit longer than the first one.

I still think the crown part is a little short in proportion to the brim but, if you need to see better in front of you or are feeling like making goofy faces for the camera, you can always flip the brim up.

A few other modifications that I think would help the pattern to make more sense with the pictures, and to make the assembly go more smoothly: 

Step 2, B: I'd add "Fold and mark off quarters." after the other wording.

Step 2, E: same thing, "Fold and mark off quarters." after the other wording.

Step 2, F: I'd add something like this: "Fold crown in half and mark edges at folds.  Open and fold so that first marks meet, and again mark edges at folds." before the other wording 

Step 2, H: I'd change this to read, "Repeat steps E and G to make the lining."

Let me know if you find any of these modifications incorrect.

Above is a picture of where I'd make the notches (not exactly accurate but you get the idea, I hope.)  You may need to click on the image to see my markings.  Remember to mark the brim and crown pieces AFTER sewing the ends together.  Basically, what you're doing here is dividing the edges into quarter sections that can then be matched up when pinning and sewing the pieces together.  All this could be avoided if these notchings would have been marked on the actual pattern pieces.

One more thing, which may seem obvious but I'll share it anyhow.  Start the first row of topstitching at the back seam.  After the first row of topstitching, when you come around to the back seam, stop, turn 45  90 degrees, stitch for a quarter inch, turn back another 45 90 degrees, topstitch 1/4 inch away from the first row of topstitching around to the back seam again, and repeat (duh!  Thank you Bekki for the correction. ;)  Late night blogging, you know.)  You'll avoid having a whole bunch of straggely thread ends to cut when you're done.  Again, click on the picture for a closer look:

All in all, this is yet another quirky hat which, if you've read this blog for even a little while, you'd know I'm not in any way immune to them.  My hair is fair and pretty thin on the top so I HAVE to wear a hat in the sun to keep from burning my scalp.  I can see myself making and wearing hats like this until I'm an old woman when I'll probably have more facial hair than hair on the top of my head!  More than you wanted to know?  Oh well.  Just being honest here.

I love this hat.  My one real issue is that it blows off in the wind.

I forgot to add that there was a first version of this that I completely botched and never finished.  I think for that one I took a whole 2 inches each off the brim and crown pieces and it barely sat on the top of my head it was so tiny!

Weaving and Fiberfest Update

Wow!  Thank you for all the great responses to the last post.  I'm still working my way through them all.  So much good info.  There's no way I can respond to even most of them, so please accept my thanks here.  I'll try to get back to a few of you.

Saturday's PVC loom class at the local fiber festival was, well, interesting.  Of course, most of the class was spent just warping it with only enough time to get to about an inch or so of actual weaving.  We were all pretty worn out by the end of the day from the heat, as well.  I ended up spending another $25 on top of the VERY small class and supply fees and it would apparently make the weaving go much more quickly if I'm willing to spend another $50 on a magic heddle.  Still, a pretty cheap way of getting into weaving.  The instructer designed and constructed the looms.  She has health issues that only allow her to sit for any length of time in a half-reclined position and this loom, either hung from a ceiling or in her lap with the top edge of the loom leaning on something allows her to still be able to weave.  She says it's a mix between a Norwegian tapestry loom and a Navajo loom, not really either one, though, and warped with the back loop method.    I still don't exactly know what all that means but at least it will be easy to store away when my interest wanes.  What I have done so far is pretty wonky but still, it'll be something to play around and practice on.  You can't very well learn all that much about weaving in a one day class. 

It's been about 15 years since I took another weaving class on a table loom at Weaving Works in Seattle.  I wasn't all that interested in it then and I can't say that I'm all that enthused about it still.  The real reason for taking the class this time around was to use up some of my stash of naturally dyed worsted weight yarns and also just to participate in and support our still relatively tiny fiber fest itself. 

The 4-day Navajo weaving class was excellient and taught by members of  Dine be’ iina from Arizona out of my budget and my time constraints.  There was also a natural dye class taught.  The pictures of the yarn above were from that class.  They used madder root, osage orange, logwood, and indigo.   

Questions, yarn and homeschooling related.

1.  Let's just say, if a person was considering finding herself flying into NYC on the evening of October the 19th, what might be the best/cheapest/easiest way to get herself to Rhinebeck by the following morning? Just trying to work out the possibility of it all here.

2.  What are the chances that the above yarn, dyed with acid dyes just this past weekend, will be knit up into a completed pair of Marigold socks for my sock pal by the send off date of (YIKES!) August 2nd?  Mistakenly thinking we had until the middle or end of next month, I discovered my oops at the end of last week.  Now, if there are no posts during the next week or so, you'll know why.

3.  I know, I know.  Everybody's doing it: dyeing and selling sock yarn these days, but what kind of market do you think there would be for naturally dyed sock yarns, available online?  Don't worry.  It wouldn't be a big, sloppy pile of yarn like the one above.  Those are just some small sample pieces from playing around with different dyestuffs.  It just might be a way to combine two things that I enjoy: sock yarn and natural dyes.  I like to experiment with new plants but I can certainly dye more yarn than I'll ever have time to knit, so selling some would be a justification for my experimentation and a bit of income to help fund the yarn/fabric habit AND a way of sharing the love of natural dyes for those who won't ever get around to it themselves.  I've been toying around with this idea since springtime and am just now getting around to some of the logistics of setting up a site.  Actually, I spent many, many hours dyeing a fair bit of yarn a couple of months ago now and then balked about some of the details surrounding setting up an etsy.com site.  You see, I don't have a credit card and a don't really want one but, of course, you need one in order to sell on the site.  I know.  Virtually everyone has one.  It's no big deal, right?  I've just been being silly and stubborn about not having one.  It looks like that's going to have to change, though, as there's yet another good-sized pile awaiting dyeing that, again, I can't justify keeping all to myself.  It might not all come together until things settle out a little more in the fall.

4.  If one were looking at digital scales for weighing skeins of yarn wound off of cones, where might one look for a professional, accurate, and still well-priced one?  See those recently thrifted Finnish Aarikka napkin rings?  NOT that I actually use napkin rings.  They were too cool to pass up.  It doesn't look like they sell ewes anymore, just rams.  Any suggestions for alternate uses?

5.  Changing the subject, if you homeschool, do you follow a curriculum?  If so, what have you used?  What did you like or dislike about the ones that you've used?  If not, do you just wing it or do you make up your own curriculum?  Where do you find inspiration?   Where do you source your ideas?

I know, a lot of random questions for one post, but I'm feeling the need for some input.  Any ideas or help with any of the above would be very much appreciated.  Feel free to comment OR e-mail.  Thank you in advance. 

I'll be knitting away on those socks in my spare moments and checking back in here.  Oh, and taking an all-day PVC loom weaving class tomorrow!  We're actually going to be here for the local fiberfest this year after two years away.  I don't really know what to expect but maybe it will be something like this?  I'll be sure to let you know. 

   

Canada and the 7 Cs

View from the parking lot of the dentist's office where a good friend went for some of that less than pleasant kind of dental work. She asked me to be her driver, as she wasn't sure she should drive herself home afterwards.  She also knew that it might be a little break for me, for she and I to spend some time together, even if only on the hour-long ride to and from the dentist across the border.

With all the focus about the current state of healthcare in the US and Canada, it somehow seems a bit ironic that the wait to see a dentist in my own hometown can be months, while it can often be only a day or a few just across the border.  The exchange rate also used to be incentive to cross the border into Canada for dental care but, with the current rate of 96%, that isn't the case right now.  Doesn't socialized healthcare have a reputation for long waits?  Not here, anyways.

While she was at her appointment, I had time...to go out for a chai and a bowl of curry.  It was so strange to eat out alone.  They seated me at such a tiny, little table.  There was time to read from a book while waiting.  There was no stuffing of food down without really tasting it, in anticipation of some potential meltdown or other situation seemingly always on the verge of arising.  When getting up to leave, there was the habitual check under the table for anything "we" might have left behind.  I never would have thought I'd say this, but it felt.... lonely.... eating out alone, not to mention the twangs of guilt for enjoying a good meal while my friend was a few blocks away in the dentist's chair.

Then, it was off to pick up some favorites:  a box of Red River cereal, bulk-sized boxes of Red Oval Stoned Wheat Crackers/Craquelins de Blé Concassé (Since when are they owned by Kraft?), a 6 pack of Okanagan Cider, and chocolate-dipped toffee.

Red River, Red Oval, Red Curry. 

Chocolate, Chai, Curry, Crackers, Cereal, Cider.  And a 7th thing brought home across the border,  Corn skewers.  The 7 Cs + Canada, makes 8.

It was a nice, quick, few hour, mini-trip away.  C and I have plans to see HP5 together tomorrow night, another little getaway. 

My head is a little clearer now so maybe blogging will resume.  Heaven knows, there's plenty to post about and many pictures taken.   It's just been impossible to sit myself down at the screen to download them and put together a post.  Summer, and too many irons in the fire, you know.   

Makeshift campsite.

Camping last weekend

was

so

much

fun

that, after returning home, we tried to set up camp for the week at the campground only about a mile or so down the road.  We could fish in the river, barbecue on the pit, camp in the tent, and C could still get up and drive home to work each morning.  The boys and I could get up later in the morning and either stay at the campground or head back home.  I had this idea (or rather, ideal) in my head that then going home would be something akin to being at day camp.   

Following 95-100 degree days, Tuesday and Wednesday nights both brought stormy skies filled with thunder and lightning, so we wimped out and slept at home leaving the tent set up at the campground as an experiment to see how it would fair through a good downpour.  It faired, well, fair.  Only a corner of the bedding was damp. 

Wednesday evening threatened to repeat the night before so I gave up and went to dismantle the campsite and bring everything back home while C settled the boys into their beds in the still-too-hot-from-the-day-house.  C and I then settled ourselves in to watch a movie together but kept getting distracted by the storm brewing outside.  After only a few minutes, we turned off the T.V., went to sit outside, and then decided, what the heck, let's just unload the car and set up camp right here in the woodshed and all sleep out here where it's so much cooler and we can really watch the storm come through:

   

We've been thinking about making a new shed for wood storage and making this into a nicer outdoor living space for the spring through fall seasons.  Right now the "floor" is covered in bark and woodchips from splitting wood but we're thinking of a flagstone or concrete floor and stone facings around the bottoms of the posts.  We already use this place for shade and lying in the hammock on the hotter days but it could be a nicer, more comfortable space with possibly a small outdoor kitchen and nicer sleeping area as well.  For now, we'll sleep on a tarp amongst the lawn mowers, weedwhacker, recycling bins, bikes, and my mordanted and dyed yarns hanging out on the line to dry.  This outdoor space is one of my inspirations.  I wouldn't even mind installing an outlet or two for lights and setting up a sewing machine and ironing board since summertime seems to be when the inclination to sew sets in, just when I'd really rather be outside, too.  Just toying with all kinds of ideas for now.

It was just too scattered and chaotic trying to be in too many places: at the campground by the river at night, at the lake to cool off in the afternoons, in town running errands, and visiting with friends or at home during the days.  And really, I think this might be the perfect camping situation for everyday/weekdays anyways.  Everyone can get off to sleep and then I can still go inside and putter around at projects or clean up or get online or whatever.  C can get up, have breakfast, and walk to the shop as usual.  This is going to be WAY more chill, and it still feels like being away at summer camp, only just a handful of steps away from the front door.

Besides, all were dry and cozy in bed in the shed when, just after midnite on Tuesday night, HALF INCH HAIL came pelting down out of the sky coating the ground!  Actually, I was still awake and in the house then and came to the doorway and busted out laughing at the craziness of it: 70 degrees and hailing.  At least we weren't in the tent!      

Bowman Lake, Glacier National Park, July 14, 2007

Too many pictures?

I forgot to bring insect repellent.  Between the mosquitos, small biting flies, and huge deer flies, we couldn't spend much time in the campground aside from an hour or so in the morning, not even at night around a fire.  It didn't matter much since it too hot for a fire and I also forgot two of the three key ingredients in s'mores, the chocolate and the marshmallows.  Duh.  Oh, and I forgot the mayo, ketchup, and mustard for burgers too so, instead, we downed bowls of cereal and cold fried chicken and, to avoid being eaten alive, went back out onto the water until dusk, just in time to crawl into a relatively bug free tent and collapse. 

Note to selves: don't camp here again in mid-July. 

The Road Back Home

The long, hot, bumpy, dusty road back home isn't so bad when the views are like this.  The road between Glacier National Park and our house includes this remote pass over the mountains and it drops us right at our driveway down on the other side.  The first time we took this route we ended up with not one, but TWO flat tires.  C wears a dust mask almost the entire way due to the dust kicked up from the road and what it does for his allergies.  You don't see too many people from out of state driving back here.

It's nearly impossible, in the middle of winter, to remember just how sweet summer really is.  It's seems almost a dream, even now while in the midst of it.  Seriously, sometimes I forget that I live in other people's vacationland.  I still find myself amazed that all of this is, essentially, right outside the door.   

I know it doesn't look it, but it was 95+ degrees fahrenheit so we took many, many stops along the way to swim in the river, in Polebridge for a sit in the shade with a cold drink and the famously good and intensely sweet pastries, to pick a handful of wild raspberries, the first of the season's huckleberries, and wildflowers, and to just plain soak in the views,

R missed out on most of the views, instead keeping his nose buried in his book in his attempt to read through book 6 before HP and the Deathly Hallows comes out.  I don't know how he manages to not get carsick but he did indeed finish, with several days to spare.  He's officially bypassed me by three books over the past couple of months.  We pretty well sleep, eat, drink, and breath Harry Potter these days, getting play-by-play versions of nearly every detail throughout the day. 

The alternate weekend plan that we opted out of were free tickets offered to us by one of C's clients for the first showing of the 5th movie in Calgary, smack in the middle of the Stampede.  It would have been so much fun in an entirely different kind of way, but, no thanks, I wouldn't trade the weekend we had for anything.  Likely, I would have ended up sitting in the lobby of the movie theater with a frightened out of his mind four year old.

 

Gone Camping. Closed for the weekend.

This blog is closed for the weekend, while the second hand store around the corner will be open.  That's their new sign down the road from here, gnomes on guard and a tiny moose antler above the front door.  Makes me smile everytime we go by.  E insists that the gnomes move around at night and come back to their spots by day.  We're headed, the long, slow way, up over the mountains behind their over to Glacier Nat'l Park for the weekend.

Goodies that arrived from Purl last week.  I was actually just ordering Leisl's Day In The Park Backpack Tote pattern and threw in a few small cuts of fabric, the first I've ever ordered online.  I still like it, but the polka dot fabric is much pinker in tone than expected.  The orangey bandana-like print is better than I'd hoped, so much so that I've ordered more in that color and in the brown colorway.  Typical online ordering experience.  The tote is in progress, not in these fabrics, and is just waiting now on a few pieces of hardware to finish it off.

There's another bag in progress using some of those fabrics, and will be packed along for some embellishment over the weekend.  A pair of stripey knee highs, at E's request, are coming along too but...I can't believe I'm saying this...it's too hot to touch wool right now.  I'm trying so hard to embrace rather than complain about the heat this year.  It's so short lived that I'm trying to enjoy it....or head to the hills or water to avoid it.

See you Monday or so.  Enjoy your weekend. 

Quilt Retrospective. Last One. Baby Quilts.

I almost forgot about these.  They've been packed away under the bed for a few years now.  They needed an airing out and cleaning anyways. 

The plaid triangles quilt is R's baby quilt.  I think the triangles are the shape they are to make the most of quarter-yards of fabric.  It was intended to be a bigger quilt but somewhere along the way I lost steam and it was set by the wayside.  As my first pregnancy progressed, I realized I wouldn't didn't have the time or energy to make a baby quilt so the unfinished one was just folded in half, quilted and edged.  Voila.  Nearly instant baby quilt, reversible, with the same but different triangle patterning on the other side as well.  It's hand pieced and quilted.

The star and moon one is E's baby quilt.  The strips were added around the outside to make it bigger.  It's backed with a yellow patterned flannel.  The star pattern is a small section of a quilt in some magazine and the moon was improvised.

The leaf quilt?  I don't know.  I think I started it before E was born but didn't finish it until later.  I'm not sure when, although I'd guess it was when we were still considering having or adopting another child.  It's based loosely on a pattern from the same magazine, I think, as the star pattern in E's quilt.  Maybe I intended this for a girl if we had one?  I don't really know.  I had forgotten about it but now that I think about it, E used this one a little bit, too.  It's hand appliqued and machine quilted.  This one could probably be

None of these have much wear and tear because both the boys slept with us and never had a crib, moving straight into a bed on the floor next to our bed.  In the winter they wore fleece snow suits so I think we really only used these to lay them on when they were too little to crawl.

That's it.  The end of the quilts.  So many more I'd like to make.