Bookmarks at Lunch

I have a thing about bookmarks.  I know that many people are turning to reading in digital formats and I do some of that, too.  I have a Nook, which is full of free stuff from Project Gutenberg, and the University of Chicago Press, which has a free e-book download each month.  I also have a few e-books that were gifts from a friend.  But mostly I get my books from the library or used at a thrift shop or the annual library book sale. These still require bookmarks and I have a collection.  One thing I like about them is that I can try out a new stitch combination or an idea I have without making a commitment to a large piece or trying it out on something I am just going to rip out afterwards.  As collections go, bookmarks are small and portable.  I have some hung up and when I am not using them I can just enjoy looking at them.  They are great for small amounts of thread.  And I like to give them as little gifts.

A couple of years ago, I made several and placed them in library books so the person checking out that book would get a little surprise.  I included a card that said it was a gift so they wouldn't feel the need to place it in the lost and found basket!  Over the course of a few days last summer I gave out bookmarks to my co-workers at Mid Coast Hunger Prevention program.  I have made birthday and other cards by attaching a bookmark to cardstock in such a way that it was easy for the recipient to detach it and use it.  And today, when I went to lunch with a couple of women who also write food blogs here in Maine, I brought bookmarks for both of them.

I needle tatted these using a black/white variegated size 8 perle cotton.

I don't anticipate ever reading exclusively on my digital device.  I think I will always have some print books, if for no other reason than I cannot resist walking over to a shelf of used books for sale and seeing what's there.  When you do that often enough, you're bound to find something!  So I will keep my bookmark collection and if I don't need them all for books, I can always just hang them as little bits of art and admire them!

Hats: Part 752

Yes, it's true.  I am back to the hats again.  The hat voice has returned and hats are on the needles and crochet hooks, along with hat/cowl combos just to expand a bit into different territory.  This is, as I have said before, all Karen's fault!  This is an ongoing situation over which I apparently have no control.  Last night I started a knit hat with an odd ball from the box I got the other day and a skein that a friend had given me a couple of years ago--pretty sure they're both Wool-Ease and I think I will be able to get two hats from this yarn combo that will be mirror images of one another.  For the past week and a half, I've worked on some hats and a cowl/hat using yarn I got a few months ago from my friend in Minnesota. 

The purple hat and the cowl are knit--the hat is simply a roll brim that I did on size 7 needles with worsted weight yarn on 90 stitches.  The cowl is a 2x2 rib on size 8 needles over 100 stitches--I worked until I was just about out of yarn.  The other two hats are crocheted over 60 stitches using worsted weight yarn and a J hook.  Instructions for the blue one are here. 

And here are some examples of what happens when the hat bug bites!  And still more...

I have decided it is best to simply give in and make hats.  I am saving them all in one place so I can give them away when the weather cools down.  It helps that they are small, portable, and mostly mindless. 

Anyone need a hat?

One Less Odd Ball

I have started using my new odd balls.  There was one ball in particular that I knew I was going to make into something for me.  Here is a piece left after I wove in ends:

You can barely see it at the far end, but in addition to the pink and yellow, there are also sections of blue and aqua.  Last night I removed it from the box and placed it on the table next to my bed so I could get some idea of what I should make with it--Bill was listening to a Red Sox game and I was finishing up another project, so it was the perfect time to let my mind wander.  The idea of doing a sort of narrow circular scarf thing popped into my head and settled into place--I had my answer.  So this afternoon, I decided that 150 might be about the right number of stitches to cast on with my size 13 circular needles.  I knit around for a round or two and then did the bind off.  As I was preparing to weave in the ends, I thought of these largish glass beads I have, so I got one of them.  I used the tails to sew the bead in place and then hid and trimmed the ends.

It was long enough to wrap 3 times.  Then I had a little piece of the yarn left, so I grabbed a crochet hook and made a chain as long as I could and then slip stitched the ends together, weaving in the ends.  That ended up being long enough to twist around my wrist twice.

So now I have one less odd ball.  As I was putting away the other odd balls, I noticed that some of the ribbon and eyelash yarns sort of fell into 3 colorways--pink/purple, blues, and fall colors.  I am thinking I might make more of these long narrow circular scarf things--I have some bulkier ones that I wear in winter and they are quite comfortable.  I might cast on some more stitches in future--maybe 200--and go from there.  Some of the feathery and chenille style yarns will work perfectly with some smooth yarn I have for a fringy shawl. 

I am also using the non-novelty yarns that were in the box. There was a ball of olive green yarn that I am pretty sure is at least partly cotton which I have already started to incorporate into a tatted piece I am making.  A couple of the other odd balls are destined to become hat cuffs.  Yes, the yarn plans are shaping up quite nicely!

Odd Balls in the Mail!

I was sitting with my feet up after a morning of soup kitchen cooking.  I was tired as I usually am on Thursday afternoons.  And then the mail came and I perked right up because he left me a box of yarn that my cousin sent me.  I opened the box and took out odd skeins and balls of fun and funky yarn.  Some of the funky stuff started talking to me right out of the box.  That yarn will meet some of the odd balls I already have and will get acquainted as they are knit into a shawl.  Some of the other yarn will need to live with me for a while before it tells me what it wants to be.  One skein of Cascade 220 is a kind of a turquoise color and it pairs very nicely with a hank of the same yarn in a darker teal that I had gotten from a friend in a birthday box, so they will probably work together in something.  And there was a scrap ball of a long color changing yarn in colors that Bill loves and oddly enough, we were talking about hats last night--I was flipping through a knitting book that Heather had brought home from the library for me and there was a hat with a ribbed fold-up brim and then the rest of the hat was also ribbed, but in a different color.  He decided he would like the ribbed fold-up brim, and the rest of the hat in a different color, but he only wants the brim in ribbing  So this odd ball of yarn will be perfect for the fold-up brim combined with some fisherman's wool in stockinette for the rest of the hat.  I am glad that yarn and I can communicate so well.  I am already having a very lovely afternoon in conversation with my new yarn--being an odd ball myself, I know the lingo!

Scrappy Shawl for Mother's Day

I made this shawl last week for a friend who is celebrating her first Mother's Day today.  Hopefully it will be useful when the summer is over and the happy seasons of fall and winter return!

To make it, I gathered some bulky and worsted weight yarns and cast on 123 stitches on size 15 knitting needles.  I knit every row, cutting the yarn at the end of each row and attaching new yarn to begin the next, leaving the tails for fringe. 
 

Lace Chemo Cap

I decided to make a simple lace chemo cap out of a cotton/elastic yarn.  This was a skein that was in the batch of odd balls that I got from my friend, Nancy, at the food bank.

Hat of Chains

A few weeks ago, the hat bug bit again, so I grabbed a size G wooden hook and a ball of leftover bamboo/wool sock yarn that was in the bunch I got from Nancy last fall at the food bank.  I grabbed my Beyond the Square motif dictionary, found the page I wanted and started crocheting.  I adapted the motif a little and then, since it was only 6 or 7 rounds, figured out how I wanted to expand it into a hat.

I quite like it!